Toaru Majutsu no Index-Volume 20, Chapter 2: The Beginning of the Invasion and the Counterattack. Angel_Stalker.

Part 1

Lessar was assembling small metal parts while walking through the white snow.

“...Nnn. The spare parts just aren’t enough to make another Lessar Special Custom. I guess I have to go back to the old steel glove type. Damn, I should have at least documented the values for the theory behind the custom. I just happened to put the parts together right while messing around, so I’m not sure how to get the balance right again...” Lessar was staring down into the snow as she muttered. “Oh, there it is. Found it.”

Kamijou didn’t know what she was doing, but when he got down in the same pose as her, he figured out what she was looking at.

He had thought the snow was piled up to about 30 cm, but in the place Lessar was looking in, a cave of over 3 meters clearly opened up. It was like a tunnel made of snow.

“It was originally constructed in a V-shape. With the snow piled on top, it looked flat from above.”

“But trucks transporting things to the base have driven along here...”

“If the snow was normally piled on top, the snow would match the V-shape. The way the snow accumulated and its strength were magically altered. I doubt this snow would budge even if a passenger plane landed on it.”

Kamijou looked down at his right hand.

“...It isn’t going to bury us alive the instant I touch it, is it?”

“I dunno, but you should probably avoid touching the walls just in case,” Lessar responded off hand as she slid herself down into the opening.

Just as Kamijou was about to follow, she suddenly stopped moving.

“Oh, crap... If I had made myself slip in the snow, I could have naturally grabbed onto you and shown you my panties opening up all sorts of new paths.”

“Yes, I get it. Today, you’re the king. So just get going.”

Two train tracks ran side by side into the depths of the cave. A freight train was stopped there. It had about 5 cars. Kamijou couldn’t see any kind of power cables, so it may have used a diesel engine.

“So he’s using this to secretly bring in materials.”

“I’m surprised,” said Lessar looking on in puzzlement. “Fiamma of the Right blew away both the Roman Pope and Second Princess Carissa in one strike each. I didn’t think he was the type to get creative like this in secret. I had envisioned him as the kind of person that would just destroy anything he didn’t like.”

“He used the authority of God’s Right Seat to control the Roman Catholic Church in order to have events proceed the way he wanted without actually doing anything himself. I’d say this is quite normal for him. The fact that he’s doing things himself is proof that his usual method won’t cut it anymore.”

Kamijou felt they were quite lucky to have found that freight train. After all, they were still 30 or 40 km from the base. Even if they had found a way to sneak in, they would still have had to walk through the snow if they had no means of transportation. If they had to do that, they would run out of stamina before even reaching Fiamma.

“Of course, I’m sure they’ll notice if we just use the freight train.”

“That’s why we wait until they move it. Over here. We need to hide in a random container.”

As he spoke, Kamijou headed for the container linked to the front car. The door looked like it could be opened from the side. The metal door slid open similarly to the door to the back seats of a van and Kamijou and Lessar hid inside.

Lessar was staring at the general area of Kamijou’s pocket.

“I’ve wanted to ask you this for a bit now, but what’s with that frog strap?”

“It’s Gekota. I don’t really know much about it though.”

“...A fancy mascot that you don’t know anything about? Sounds like a girl to me. I may need to change my strategy. I need to hurry up and wipe all the others away...”

As Lessar muttered to herself, she glanced around the inside of the container and her expression turned grim.

“Hmm. From the symbols I can see, these are mostly Christian spiritual items. I can’t tell what they’re used for though,” said Lessar whose eyes must have adjusted to the darkness fairly quickly. “And you seem rather used to this kind of thing.”

“During the coup d’etat, I snuck onto a freight train full of knights in order to get to Folkestone.”

“Oh, that’s right. Floris told me about that. She said she was ‘definitely going to kick that Japanese guy’s ass’ the next time she saw you.”

“I see. By the way, why was she caught by the knights?”

As they spoke, they heard a number of footsteps and voices from outside. The two of them fell silent and focused on what they could hear.

The voices seemed to be speaking in Russian, so Kamijou couldn’t understand them, but the people seemed to be opening various containers and loading boxes on them. He and Lessar hid behind the pile of spiritual items in case their container was opened, but it never happened. They heard the train’s engine start from the front and the freight train lurched forward a bit as it started to move.

“...Were they Russian soldiers? Or were they magicians?”

“I’m not certain, but probably the latter. Odds are good they were with the Russian Orthodox Church. I heard them complaining about all the spiritual items.”

As the two of them hid within the container, the train headed closer and closer to the center of the mysterious fortress.

And then...

“...Ahh. It’s so hot in here. I guess our body heat just raises the temperature in a sealed area like this.”

“No fanning yourself with your skirt in here.”

“I won’t. That only has an effect when you get in a surprise attack with the perfect timi—”

Lessar trailed off and suddenly stopped moving.

Kamijou realized why an instant later.

She had realized that her sweat had made her sports shirt slightly transparent. And visible below it was her small bra that didn’t even look like it covered enough space to hide the tiny chips a female spy might have.

However, Lessar did not blush and try to cover her breasts with her hands.

“Dammit!! I was saving this secret weapon for a special occasion and now it’s been wasted!!”

“Why the hell did you come to Russia!? I thought something seemed odd when you were fanning with your skirt before, but...huh? You don’t mean...you’re kidding right!?”

Kamijou started trembling, but then the train reached its destination.

The train had taken about 20 to 30 minutes to reach the center of the base.

As it stopped, they heard the Russian voices again.

“We need to leave now,” said Lessar.

“Eh? Wouldn’t it be better to wait until they’ve left?”

“Your sense fails you at the weirdest times. They brought the train here to transport this stuff. They’re going to unload everything in the containers now. They’ll definitely find us here, so we need to leave before that can happen.”

Kamijou realized she was right, but it took courage to jump out in an area where people were clearly moving around.

Kamijou slightly opened the container’s sliding door and looked outside. Miraculously, no one was nearby. A mountain of wooden boxes was piled up on the snow and it looked like they could get through without being seen by hiding behind it as they went.

(...Chickening out will get me nowhere.)

“Let’s go,” Kamijou said as he slid the door open a little wider.

He then slipped his body through and out. He jumped down to the ground from a height of about a meter and then moved over to hide behind the pile of wooden boxes. Lessar followed suit, but her movements were suppler like those of a carnivore.

On the other side of the boxes, the men were unloading items from the train, so it felt like they were surrounded by footsteps and voices. With each noise, Kamijou’s body started sweating even more.

“Think about it in a positive light,” said Lessar with a calm expression. “The noisier they are, the less likely they are to notice the noises we make.”

The exit to the hastily made platform was about 10 meters away from the pile of boxes. He could see stairs heading up. The train station was below the snow, so the stairs most likely headed to the surface.

Kamijou and Lessar were now going to head towards the center of Fiamma’s fortress.

The number of guards and the amount of danger there would surely make the train station area seem like nothing.

He couldn’t let the current situation trip him up.

Kamijou focused on his surroundings and was about to head in the direction of the exit.

But then he ran across a Russian Orthodox magician.

The magician was a young man a bit older than Kamijou. He must have been one of the personnel unloading the train because he was holding a wooden box in his arms. The magician clearly hadn’t expected to run across anyone because he looked utterly shocked.

The fact that the man’s hands were full was a tiny piece of good luck for Kamijou.

The magician’s reaction was an instant slow.

In that time, Lessar moved.

“!!”

Her action was incredibly cool-headed. Lessar moved up to the magician silently and struck his defenseless throat with her arm. Unlike a strike from a fist, the pointed strike caused the magician’s body to go limp and collapse. Lessar reached out and grabbed the box he had been holding.

The man’s body fell to the ground making the bare minimum of noise and the other workers continued on not having noticed anything.

Kamijou felt an unpleasant feeling running through his fingertips.

“Please be careful,” said Lessar as she lowered the box to the ground gently.

She bound the young man’s ankles with a wire-like object, rearranged the pile of boxes to make an opening, and hid the man’s body in it.

“...H-he isn’t dead, is he?”

“That certainly would have been easier. Then I wouldn’t have had to use a valuable binding spiritual item like Dromi.”

It seemed the wire around the magician’s ankles prevented him from moving his body at all. The way Lessar explained that so smoothly, Kamijou realized again that she simply lived in a different world from him.

Meanwhile, she moved her tail causing the edge of her miniskirt to sway.

(It isn’t like me, but gaining some points in a more honest way may be more effective in the end. No, no, I’m sexy. I know I am!!)

The two of them headed up the stairs and made it to the surface within the grounds of the base. A few hundred meters ahead, they could see an iron fence barricade.

And the middle 7 kilometers of the 10 kilometer base bulged up greatly. There was about a 20 meter difference. The covering of snow made it look like there was some great form lying there.

“Aren’t bases usually kept in completely flat areas?”

“That alone tells us this place isn’t normal.”

A large entrance was sitting open in the “wall” portion of the large difference in height most likely for bringing in the items from the freight train. Kamijou and Lessar snuck in through there.

The inside was like a Western castle. However, it was not decorated with dazzling treasures of silver and gold. The area was made of stone and was damp. It looked like the area criminals would be imprisoned in.

Candles were set on the wall at even intervals and the two of them continued on relying on that flickering light.

Fortunately, they did not run into any guards or anyone else.

It was possible Fiamma had forbidden anyone else from entering the area.

“!!”

Lessar was about to head on further, but Kamijou grabbed her shoulder.

There was a door in front of him.

Opening it slightly and peering in, Kamijou saw a vast space on the other side. He didn’t know what purpose the space had, but he heard a voice coming from it. It was a familiar voice.

“(...That’s Fiamma. I never expected to run into him so quickly.)”

Even someone like Lessar stiffened when Kamijou whispered that to her.

The area looked like a church being repaired because it was made of old-looking stone and had a modern metal framework stretching across it in places. Fiamma was standing atop that metal framework. He was sitting in a chair next to a table. Both of the pieces of furniture looked out of place due to how high class they were. A thick book lay open on the table and a dim light was seeping from it.

No one else was there.

Only Fiamma’s voice could be heard.

Was the book some kind of communications spiritual item?

“It is necessary. This is a ‘space’. Both its coordinates and its volume are important.”

Kamijou’s heart gave a stir at hearing that voice.

“I have no interest in any Russian palaces. If all I wanted to do was sit on a throne, do you really think I would have gone out of the way to blow away St. Peter’s Basilica? To me, this place is more important than Moscow. The slight lag in learning how things are going is a problem, but in order for the plan to move forward, I still can’t leave this place. You need to look at this from the point of view of Project Bethlehem.”

(...)

Kamijou focused and remained completely silent. If he didn’t force himself to remain there, he was likely to just run in there yelling.

“I know, I know. You never really liked the idea of this fight. No, not World War III. I’m talking about the antagonism between Academy City and the Roman Catholic Church.”

Perhaps because there was no one else with Fiamma, his voice reached Kamijou’s ears despite the distance between the two of them. However, that also meant there was a danger of his own words reaching Fiamma. Kamijou grew even more nervous.

Who was Fiamma talking with?

“If Academy City wins, the age of the science side will come. If the Roman Catholic Church wins, the age of the magic side will come. However, neither scenario had much profit for the Russian Orthodox Church. Even if the age of the magic side came, the Roman Catholic Church would be in charge and the Russian Orthodox Church would lose any ground to stand on.”

Kamijou thought as Lessar translated the Russian.

But then his thoughts were cut off.

He had spotted another spiritual item on the table.

“That was why you quickly took measures against that. By joining with the force that would most benefit you, you hoped to gain the most when this large conflict was over. So hand over the results of the investigation already. Hand over the reports from the Russian soldiers you sent out to investigate.”

It was a small cylindrical tool.

It had a number of ring-shaped metal pieces on it making it look like a dial padlock.

It was Index’s remote control spiritual item.

It was the object that was making her suffer and robbing her of her consciousness.

If he...

If he could only destroy that...

“Yes, yes. Good boy. ...The Elizalina Alliance, huh? So that explains why we couldn’t find Sasha Kreutzev even after searching all across Russia.”

Kamijou started to lean further forward.

But then someone covered his mouth from behind.

It was Lessar.

She then used her other hand to jab him sharply in the side. He was about to start coughing out of pain, but he couldn’t because of how tightly Lessar was pressing on his mouth.

Strength left his body.

“No, she may be imperfect, but she’s still a magician. Normal soldiers can’t handle her. And it would be a problem if she were to be shot. The Russian Orthodox Church? No, Annihilatus is useless here. I don’t know if they went easy on her because she used to be their comrade or if their basic specs are just that low, but they have yet to capture her. ...It’s a pain, but it looks like I’ll have to do it myself. If it adds certainty to the plan, then it’s for the best.”

With his body held back, Kamijou glared at Fiamma through the cracked door.

Fiamma hadn’t noticed them.

“And let me tell you one thing. I’m sure you don’t intend to just remain a bishop. The highest position in the Russian Orthodox Church is the Patriarch, right? With your rate of growth, you aren’t going to make it to that position before your life comes to an end. If you want to use me to that end, you first have to do work that makes me want to use you. And if you’re going to hold back and try to negotiate with me, then I won’t hesitate to rid myself of you and find someone else. Understand?”

Fiamma closed the thick book as if bringing the conversation to a close and then grabbed Index’s remote control spiritual item.

Kamijou hadn’t realized it until that point, but there was something like a steel window right next to Fiamma. Fiamma opened it and light poured into the dark room. He then took a light step outside the window.

He took another step and the remote control spiritual item was gone.

Lessar removed her hand from Kamijou’s mouth and spun him around forcefully.

Kamijou was about ready to grab her by the collar.

“(...What the hell were you doing!? I was so close!!)”

“(...No, what the hell were you doing!? There are over 200 magicians in that room!)”

Hearing that, Kamijou’s expression turned to one of shock.

He hadn’t noticed that at all.

But when he looked back into the room, he saw a great number of what seemed to be glowing eyes in the depths of the darkness around the large space. They may have been doing some kind of work or they may have been on standby as Fiamma’s guards.

“(...If you had just charged in here, you wouldn’t have reach Fiamma. If Fiamma is the kind of person you said he is, he would have just run away while his subordinates dealt with us.)” Lessar spoke slowly in an attempt to calm down Kamijou. “(He mentioned the Elizalina Alliance and Sasha Kreutzev. He ordered the Russian soldiers to fall back, so he may be planning on making contact with Sasha himself. If you want to take that spiritual item from him, you have no choice but to try to cut him off. If we can find Sasha Kreutzev before him, we can prepare a surprise attack.)”

“(...Dammit.)”

Fiamma of the Right was a person who had controlled a large number of people to cause the chaos that was in the world. Kamijou had known that it wouldn’t be so easy to reach him, but still...

“(...I guess we need to find Sasha then. If Fiamma wants her, it can’t be for a good reason. And most importantly, I need to settle this whole thing regarding Index.)”

Part 2

Hamazura Shiage drove along in the stolen car.

For the time being, he had acquired food, war funds, and gas for the car.

It was finally time to take action towards “fighting” Academy City. He had to find something in Russia he could use to negotiate with and guarantee his and Takitsubo’s safety.

“...But I have no idea what exactly I’m supposed to be looking for.”

“Well, it’s a small piece of fortune that Academy City forces and weapons are wandering throughout Russia due to the war. Hamazura, maybe we should start our attack there.”

“You’re saying we capture a cutting edge military weapon and use the technology to negotiate?”

“We could also monitor the Russian military movements and pass useful information on to Academy City.”

Hamazura couldn’t get a good grasp of the situation.

But that was to be expected. He may have experienced quite a bit, but he was still essentially a delinquent. Armies and military weapons just didn’t seem real to him. He didn’t even know how any kind of “negotiation” with a giant force like Academy City would actually happen.

On the other hand, the girl who had seen the depths of the city’s darkness gave him advice.

“Hamazura, we need to think about what Academy City is after in this war.”

“Eh? They’re defending themselves against Russia’s attack, right?”

“If that were true, there would be no reason to invade Russia. They would only need to set up a thorough defensive line in the ocean around Japan. Normally, a large group of bombers and ballistic missiles can’t be completely defended against, but Academy City can pull it off. While buying time like that, they could slowly manipulate the world economy to put Russia in such economic trouble that they can’t continue the war.”

“...So Academy City has some other goal?”

“We need to figure out what that is and head to the center of whatever it is. Imagine a balanced scale. Hamazura, you are a small weight, but you just need to get in a position where you can affect which way it tilts by which plate you stand on. If you can do that, you can demand whatever you want from Academy City.”

“...”

That meant he had to head into a place where Academy City and the Russian army were battling fiercely. He would have to charge in and get that information. That kind of strategy could literally cost him his life, but he would be letting go of one of his only opportunities if he did so.

“They’ve been going at it pretty harshly around here. The Elizalina Alliance is it called? I think we’re somewhere near there. Maybe we should go look around there.”

“...Yeah, let’s do that, Hamazura...”

“? Takitsubo?”

Hamazura had a very bad feeling when he heard Takitsubo’s frail response.

He glanced over at the passenger seat and then slammed on the brakes.

Something was wrong with Takitsubo.

She was sweating profusely all over her body.

“Hey, what’s wrong? Takitsubo, are you okay!?”

“I’m...fine. Don’t worry...Just keep going, Hamazura...”

It was no joke.

Anyone would be able to tell something wasn’t right. The Body Crystal must really have had a bad effect on Takitsubo. That fact was thrust before Hamazura’s eyes once more, but there was nothing he could do about it. He knew it wouldn’t help, but he still considered taking her to a hospital. However, a doctor from outside Academy City would not know how to heal her. And even if a doctor did, he would still be worried about her safety. Due to the war, Academy City and Russia weren’t exactly getting along. And Hamazura and Takitsubo had entered the country illegally without passports.

But he couldn’t just not do anything. He didn’t want to leave her as she was. For sentimental reasons, not logical ones, Hamazura wanted to put as little stress on Takitsubo’s body as possible. So what could he do? Searching for the means of negotiating with Academy City would require charging straight into a war-torn area.

As he tried to figure out what to do, he heard two small noises.

Someone had lightly knocked on the driver side window.

Looking out, he saw a large white man. He was probably Russian. Hamazura instinctually pulled out his handgun next to the door so the man couldn’t see it. As stated before, Academy City and Russia were not getting along. It was possible someone would attack him solely for being from Academy City.

Hamazura cautiously opened the window with the handgun still hidden.

The large white man spoke.

“I have acted as a Japanese-speaking guide for tourists before. Can you understand me?”

“What do you want?”

“It looks like you need a doctor.”

The man pointed with his chin towards Takitsubo in the passenger seat.

Hamazura was taken aback by that unexpected response and the man continued speaking.

“Let’s make a deal. My village is out of fuel for power generation. If we don't manage to get more, we will all freeze to death. This is a diesel car, right? If you hand over the fuel you have inside this worn-out car, I will lead you to a doctor in my village for the little lady there. What do you say?”

Part 3

Had the comfort of riding in a tank really improved all that much?

The engine was loud and the space stank of a mix of oil, exhaust, sweat, and filth. And a small space packed with 5 middle aged men would probably never be exactly comfortable.

Antseka S. Kfark sighed in the commander’s seat.

He was in central Russia.

There was no manual for how to deploy troops to defend that area from an external enemy. Defense was supposed to occur closer to the border and most plans had the troops deployed there or possibly cutting into the enemy nation’s border.

No one had thought about enemies getting that deep into the country.

And yet Academy City had ground troops there.

In a completely unexpected turn of events, they were working from the center and moving out.

“...Dammit. They’re sending more down,” muttered Antseka in annoyance as he stared up into the sky through the hatch. “Fuck, how can they call this bringing in the bare minimum of defensive weapons needed to maintain peace? I’m not even sure a unit could take out a single one of those cutting edge tanks and they’re dropping them down like confetti. With those specs, they’re clearly for an invasion and occupation.”

“Eighty percent of their 2.3 million residents are students and yet they’re still fighting on the same level as us. It just doesn’t add up. Did you hear that some of those tanks can move around on their own without anyone aboard?” said one of the other soldiers aboard sounding a bit creeped out.

Antseka frowned even more.

“That’s gotta just be some ridiculous rumor, but it really does seem like they can just do anything.”

An Academy City supersonic bomber flew by overhead and a line of parachutes started falling down. Instead of more airborne tanks, the parachutes likely contained supplies for constructing simple bases.

Their bases had a few different stages.

They ranged from the log houses made of numerous steel plates to the shelters made of quick drying reinforced cement. Armored weapons—powered suits they were called?—constructed the bases at an astounding speed and they had been created all over Russia like roach nests.

It seemed Academy City hated to have their technology leaked outside.

As such, those fortresses likely had methods to blow them up or to recover them installed in them. Unlike the Russians who had their hands completely full with the fighting, Academy City was giving thought to after the war ended.

“There’s just no end to them,” spat out one of the other soldiers. “In the time we spent putting together a strategy to attack the base that appeared in front, another one was made in the back. While we were panicking over that, another one appeared cutting off our supply line. They’re just too fast. Not even a merchant skipping town works that quickly.”

At first, they had tried to shoot down the parachutes, but it hadn’t had any effect. Even when their anti-aircraft guns and machine guns blew holes in the fabric, they grew wings like a glider or other parachutes appeared. There just didn’t seem to be any limit.

Antseka and the others just felt that they couldn’t get to the stage they excelled at.

They weren’t idiots. They surely had more real battle experience than the people from Academy City who just persistently used technology. They were confident that they could at least fight with 50/50 results if it came down to a proper firefight. That meant it would end up a stalemate and Academy City would be unable to invade any further.

However, it never even made it to that kind of battle they knew so well.

The fight never came to those veteran tank men.

Normally, Academy City’s unusual strategy would have been absolutely impossible. Given the materials, personnel, and time needed to construct the bases and the materials and energy needed to maintain the bases, building them one after another in the middle of enemy territory and connecting supply lines between them just didn’t sound realistic. Any soldier or even journalist would be able to immediately see multiple issues with that strategy.

And yet Academy City made up for those weak points with overwhelming technology.

The supersonic bombers could supply large amounts of materiel and fuel at unthinkable speeds. The powered suits could accurately assemble the materials at extremely high speed. It almost seemed like some kind of joke. The soldiers felt like they needed to rewrite the texts they had read in their training days to even begin to keep up with it.

“What do we do?” asked one of the soldiers who was clearly middle aged but was still one of the younger ones in the tank. “We’re almost out of fuel and shells and that base has sealed off our escape and supply routes. I hope someone can come up with some kind of ground-breaking strategy for a counterattack, but...”

“At this rate, we’ll be out of commission without having even run into another tank,” said another soldier sounding as if he’d had enough of the situation.

When the large number of parachutes had first started to fall from the supersonic bombers, their unit had put stopping the construction of the base at top priority. However, shooting down the parachutes had no effect and the powered suits on the ground had evaded the shells with astounding movements. The powered suits had then accurately returned fire with huge shotguns that had perhaps been supplied to help dig up the area for the shelter.

As the suits had toyed with them using their strange movements, more and more supplies and airborne tanks had been dropped down. Before Antseka and the others knew it, their movements were being obstructed by a huge difference in firepower.

He realized they had been wasting their ammunition.

If they had known the strategy Academy City was using, they may have been able to react more calmly and preserve some of their shells, but nothing could be done about it anymore.

As Antseka recalled their situation, one of his fellow soldiers looked over at him.

“I know we need to surrender, but I can’t stand having this end without having done a damn thing. Let’s take out at least one of them. I know it’s only a drop in the bucket, but this country truly is done for if we can’t reduce their forces by even a little.”

Antseka looked up at the white sky through the hatch.

Even then, a few bombers were flying through the sky at over 7000 kph and dropping a large number of parachutes.

“Hey. If those had been large bunker-destroying bombs instead of supplies, what do you think we could’ve done?”

“...”

An unpleasant silence spread throughout the tank. 𝘧𝓇𝒆𝗲𝓌𝙚𝙗𝓷o𝘷𝒆𝘭.𝐜𝚘𝒎

That was what the true role of the supersonic bombers was supposed to be and it was probably the simplest way of silencing Antseka and the others.

Why had Academy City gone out of their way to carry out such a roundabout strategy?

Antseka looked up into the sky out of annoyance and spat out a few words.

“So this is their humane way of using their weapons? They’re mocking us.”

Part 4

Kamijou and Lessar had entered the Elizalina Alliance of Independent Nations. Kamijou had thought its border would be heavily guarded because of the war, but they were able to more or less head right through.

“Unlike island nations like Japan or the UK, the land borders between countries are fairly easy to get through.”

“Yeah, but that was still too easy. Given the circumstances, it wouldn’t have surprised me if someone had tried to shoot us.”

“They don’t have the spare resources to do something like that. And you passed over quite a few borders to get into Russia in the first place, right?”

“Well, I made it here by hitchhiking with various people, so I don’t really know the exact route I took.”

“...Hmm. You may not have realized it because you didn’t understand the language, but you might have had quite the adventure,” Lessar muttered.

They were in some sort of plaza and a number of people were walking about. It looked more like there were people of multiple races there rather than just one specific race. Kamijou wasn’t sure about the specifics, but it sounded like different people were speaking different languages.

“The Elizalina Alliance is made from small areas splitting off from Russia because they disagreed with how Russia was doing things, right?”

“Technically, it’s a collection of countries that did that,” said Lessar correcting him. “This is a landlocked area, so any one country that splits off will then be surrounded by Russian land in every direction, so they would need permission from the Russian government to gain personnel and goods. To free themselves from that indirect control, it seems the Elizalina Alliance gathered together a few smaller countries to create a route heading outside of Russia that connects to Eastern Europe. Thanks to that, Russia has alienated the Elizalina Alliance the most of all the other independent nations.”

Because of that, the Elizalina Alliance was quite narrow and stretched from east to west. It was about 300 km long. The odds of just running into the person you were searching for were quite low.

“Anyway, we need to find Sasha before Fiamma does,” Kamijou said urging himself on. “But how do we go about searching for her?”

“First, we need to rent a room at an inn to use as a base.”

“Yeah, we might not find her in one day with such a wide area to search in.”

“Of course, we’ll only be renting one room because we need to preserve what money we have. If you want to add any kind of indecent meaning into it, feel free.”

“Is that just what your basic thought patterns are set to or something!?”

“You don’t like the inn idea? So you’re suggesting outside!? B-but that could be a problem. I have no issues with the basic idea of doing it outdoors, but it’s just so cold here.”

“...Okay, I get it. We need to have a serious discussion.”

Kamijou grabbed Lessar, dragged her into an alley, and gave her a serious 15 minute lecture. Lessar was mentally exhausted when she returned to the plaza with the boy.

“So how are we going to search for her? Sasha is a magician, so we might be able to find her if we look for traces of anything mystical.”

“I-I think I know a simpler way.”

“?”

Kamijou looked confused at Lessar’s response, but he noticed something odd soon thereafter.

Four or five men were hiding amid the crowd of people walking by and they were watching Kamijou and Lessar closely. They were wearing dark green military uniforms, but the uniforms made them show up even more in the white snow.

“They’re the border guards,” said Lessar simply. “As you just said: it was too easy. They aren’t idiots. They aren’t in a situation where they are even able to get camouflage that matches the environment, but they are still trying to defend their country.”

“Wh-what do we do?”

“That’s simple enough. We ask them.”

Kamijou looked confused, but Lessar explained further.

“Fiamma used the Russian army to search for Sasha Kreutzev’s whereabouts, right? That means some of them must have headed along the border to search. Even if they didn’t find the Sasha, the Russian army’s actions must have been noticed by the Elizalina forces, right? And now the leader of the entire war is going to be sneaking into the Elizalina Alliance. That’s information we can use to negotiate with them.”

Part 5

Two forces glared at each other on the battlefield that was the Strait of Dover between England and France.

An unknown semitransparent substance covered the ocean surface and tens, hundreds, and even thousands of swords crossed above it. It had gone beyond the scale of a mere battle. It had reached a point where it was clearly a war.

France had more when it came down to pure numbers, but England was the one pushing forward.

Kanzaki Kaori’s presence was quite valuable.

Her power as one of the world’s fewer than 20 Saints allowed her to knock back a large number of magicians with a single strike. The Amakusa Church members around her would at times support her and at times use her as a decoy to accurately strike from a different direction. This made them much more successful than their mere numbers would suggest.

“Hoo...!!”

The scabbard of Kanzaki’s sword destroyed a large portion of the semitransparent land at their feet. Girls wearing black nun’s habits jumped up on the smashed pieces that were flying up and attacked the French magicians from above.

They were the nuns of the former Agnese Forces.

That force with Agnese Sanctis at its center was battling in a similar fashion to the Amakusas. They also were able to work more effectively because of their intimate knowledge of how those from the Roman Catholic Church fought.

But even all that was not enough to repel the French forces.

They had no magician in an extremely special position like a Saint. Instead their strength was augmented by a large number of weapons and spiritual items they gained from the Roman Catholic Church that had over 2 billion followers. While some were the stereotypical types used by a single person like staffs or cups, quite a few odd tank-like spiritual items could be seen. Those had giant swords instead of gun barrels and armor that looked like parts off of a suit of armor.

Seeing that, Second Princess Carissa spoke sounding bored.

“This is still a test run. I’d say they’re trying to scout out how much power we have.”

She was still not holding any kind of weapon.

Carissa was guarded by a large number of knights and she had an elegant and solid feel to her.

She turned to Knight Leader who was at her side.

“Now then. I wonder where France’s main force lies. I’m pretty sure I’m seeing knight related magic mixed in with the Roman Catholic based magicians. But that knight related magic is still at a level where it can be explained within the category of the Christian Church, so...”

“Christian-style French knights would probably be Charlemagnic, don’t you think?”

“Or maybe that mastermind of a holy woman who’s doing nothing but yawning in Versailles went crying to the remnants of the Orleans Knights despite how it would make her look.”

“...I’d rather you did not underestimate me like that,” said a voice suddenly from an unknown source.

Carissa’s eyebrows moved ever so slightly.

“My pride is not so cheap that I would leave them behind simply for self defense. In fact, I’m rather resentful that all that was resolved by a British mercenary,” said the voice.

“Oh? You seem to be a little drowsy still, so why don’t you go wash your face? You may never leave Versailles, but that was all caused by your slow reaction. Just like this time.”

“You cannot do anything either,” said the “brains” of Versailles quietly. “We know that Curtana Original was destroyed and that the Second is with Queen Elizard. In other words, you have no real power right now. And as long as you are outside the borders of the United Kingdom, the knights surrounding you do not have all that much power either. I am aware that you love war, but are you aware that you are merely in the way?”

“You fool,” Carissa muttered.

Immediately afterwards, the knights around the second princess received a large amount of power from Curtana.

They received the power from Curtana Second. Elizard must have sent out some sort of order. However, that was not enough to explain it. Curtana’s effects were supposed to only work within the borders of the United Kingdom.

“Surely you know that I was planning to head out to Europe in order to destroy all opposing forces if I had succeeded in my coup d’etat using Curtana Original.”

“You don’t mean...?”

“How do you think I intended to do that? Did you think I was just going to complain about my inability to use Curtana’s power outside of the UK?”

A loud noise resounded from about 10 kilometers behind Carissa.

Something was floating up there. It was a ridiculously huge construction. The mysterious structure could perhaps be referred to as a “square bubble” created from a random assortment of dozens of cubes made of heavy stone. The object did not seem to use any sort of normal construction technology. It looked both like an artificial castle and like a giant piece of quarried stone that was now floating in midair.

“That is the Mobile Fortress Glastonbury,” said Carissa. “The surroundings of the fortress are forcibly designated as within the United Kingdom, so it allows Curtana’s usable area to be rapidly expanded. Don’t you think this large scale spiritual item is just perfect for making an invasion regardless of what your opponent thinks?”

The situation turned around.

Having gained power, the knights drew their swords to protect Carissa.

“This is not a war of attrition for the sake of defense.”

A slow change occurred across the knights spread out to defend Carissa.

They went from passive to active.

The princess of military matters announced what that meant.

“This is a clean-up battle for the sake of making an attack.”

Part 6

Kamijou and Lessar walked along the plaza while surrounded by numerous large men. Kamijou did not like being taken somewhere by military looking men who he didn’t speak the same language as. As he nervously walked along, Lessar spoke to him sounding bored.

“It’s okay. The Elizalina Alliance should want any information on Fiamma they can get. They want that information badly, so I’m sure they won’t throw us into a detention facility or anything. In fact, this Alliance doesn’t even have any dangerous facilities like that.”

“...Really? Having expectations like that completely overturned is the usual pattern of Kamijou-san’s misfortune, you know? What do we do if they’re leading us to some room with chairs that have restraints on them?”

“Fine, fine. If that happens, I’ll apologize by putting on a babydoll, crawling on all fours, and waving my ass. ...Hm, that actually sounds pretty nice. How I about I do it now?”

“It looks like you need more lecturing, Lessar-kun. It might bother others here, so how about we head over to that alley?”

The instant Kamijou grabbed the girl and started to leave the circle of people, shouts in Russian erupted around him. A few of the large men reached for their holstered pistols.

“Wah!! Okay, okay. Damn, this just doesn’t feel like a warm welcome!”

“I was joking. I don’t intend to give that kind of service to the other people around here. I doubt that would benefit the UK any. I’ll be a good girl for now, but when we get to our hotel room, I’ll put on the babydoll and we can go from there.”

As they argued back and forth, one of the men escorting them muttered something sounding exceedingly displeased. It was in Russian so Kamijou couldn’t understand him, but Lessar translated it for him.

“He asked if we saved a mother and her daughters who were being transported in a truck in Russia. It seems one daughter is a 2 year old baby and the other is a 10 year old girl.”

“...? We did help with that convoy of trucks and armored carriages, but...how many people were on those things? I don’t specifically remember anyone like that.”

The large man spat out a few more words in response to Kamijou’s puzzled expression.

Lessar frowned and then shrugged before looking in Kamijou’s direction.

“He says they were his sister and her daughters.”

For the man to know about that, the people in the trucks must have made it safely to a nearby town and made contact by phone or something.

It was possible the man felt indebted to them and that was the sole reason he wasn’t pointing his handgun at them.

Kamijou and Lessar were brought to a rectangular building made of stone that was located near the plaza. It was probably originally a building on the grounds of a church, but it was now being used as a military facility.

The paper documents were far too cluttered for it to be called an office and the steel desks were not in uniform locations. A map of the area was stuck on a whiteboard on the wall. Magnets of different colors indicated the locations of Elizalina Alliance and Russian tanks and other troops. One of the colors vastly outnumbered the other.

A blonde woman was waiting there.

She was very thin. In fact, she was so thin that you would be worried for her health more than aroused if she were wearing a swimsuit. Her slightly sunken eyes turned in their direction and she smiled thinly.

She spoke in Japanese.

“So you say Fiamma of the Right is headed here?”

Lessar gave a whistle.

Kamijou thought the woman must be an acquaintance of Lessar’s, but it seemed that wasn’t so.

“That’s the woman the Elizalina Alliance is named after. She’s the holy woman who had the different countries break away and join together,” Lessar said.

“So you say Fiamma of the Right is headed here?” Elizalina repeated.

To meet with people who had illegally entered the country, the name “Fiamma of the Right” must have been ominous indeed to the Elizalina Alliance.

That wasn’t too surprising though because he was the man who had pulled the trigger causing World War III.

If it hadn’t been for that, it was unlikely the Russian army would have started invading them.

“We heard him say it himself in the Russian army base near the border, so I’m pretty sure he is.”

After explaining that, Kamijou realized something.

“...Wait a second. Elizalina-san, do you know exactly who Fiamma of the Right is?”

Essentially, he was asking her if she knew about the magic side and of the depths of the Roman Catholic Church.

Elizalina responded while barely moving her lips.

“I may not be very skilled, but I am a magician.”

“Even if she wasn’t, she was still able to respond so quickly just from the partial reports from her subordinates. She determined how valuable we were and immediately had us brought to her, the center of the country. Just from that, it was clear she knew of magic,” added Lessar.

It seemed she knew of the legends of Elizalina’s achievements.

“On the surface, she lay down the foundation for the various countries to be independent both politically and economically, but she also secretly pushed back the Russian Orthodox magicians who were attempting to damage the Alliance by occult means. If we got into a serious fight, even I may get my ass kicked.”

“Oh, it was nothing that amazing. I merely made a few suggestions and helped a bit. It was nothing at all compared to my sister in France.”

Elizalina brushed Lessar’s words aside. It seemed she did not like having others speak highly of her.

She quickly moved back to the real matter at hand.

“Fiamma of the Right is an important figure when it comes to this war...no, to the invasion of this country. If we can use this opportunity to defeat him, the threat to the people’s lives will lessen by quite a bit.”

Kamijou agreed with that much, but the rest was different.

“On the other hand, I do not think that I can defeat Fiamma of the Right. It is an issue of his ability as a magician. Even if we gathered up everyone in this country, we would not be able to defeat him.”

Elizalina looked troubled as she said that.

Even she did not want to just overlook that opportunity.

With Fiamma seeming to be within their grasp, they wanted to take action to escape from their crisis as quickly as possible.

She was probably only able to prevent herself from doing that because she was a skilled politician.

It may look like an opportunity at first glance, but it could actually bring on even more danger.

“The most important thing for us is the lives of the country’s people. If it would only cause those lives to be lost in vain, we must avoid a fight with Fiamma.”

“So you’re just going to let him do whatever he wants?” asked Lessar.

Elizalina shook her head.

“No,” she immediately responded. “My subordinates have informed me of the situation. The target of the Russian’s - and therefore Fiamma’s—search is Sasha Kreutzev. We know where she is. She is very close by. In fact, I could summon her here at any time. Now that you know that, can you figure out how I plan to defeat Fiamma while protecting the lives of the people?”

“...You’re going to take us and Sasha outside of the Alliance and into Russia where we’ll carry out some kind of anti-Fiamma strategy?”

“Correct,” Elizalina nodded. “You can think of me as a cold person if you like, but that is just how delicate a situation this is. A single careless decision could end up killing a great number of unrelated people.”

“No,” Kamijou smiled. “We were actually planning to use you all to find Sasha. I’m just glad you aren’t locking us up.”

“The scale may be different, but it seems you too have people you must protect.”

“Everyone does,” Kamijou responded calmly. “Because it took me so long to realize it, I’m in danger of losing her, but I may still be able to make it in time.”

In any case, they had to meet up with Sasha Kreutzev, lure Fiamma to them after leaving the Elizalina Alliance, and then defeat him. They still had the chance of creating a situation where they had more of an advantage than Fiamma, but as time went by, that chance was slipping away.

And as that slipped away, so did the odds of rescuing Index.

Having worked out the situation in his own mind, Kamijou asked Elizalina a question.

“What exactly are we going to do?”

“Come here. ...I cannot guarantee our victory because of the suddenness of the situation, though.”

As she spoke, Elizalina headed toward the whiteboard in the corner of the room.

And then...

“That’s true. You’re much too late if you’re still strategizing at this stage,” said a sudden male voice.

Kamijou recognized the voice. It was a voice he would never forget.

It was Fiamma of the Right’s voice.

The voice was coming from the window. Kamijou hurriedly turned around at the same time as Lessar and Elizalina moved. Lessar stuck a bar magnet on the end of a retractable baton and Elizalina took a piece of semitransparent blue cellophane that was likely a sweets wrapper and stuck it on the side of a glass full of water.

It only took a few seconds.

They were likely quickly creating spiritual items.

Immediately afterwards, fire and water shot forth.

With the roar of the air being split, the two forms of attacks rushed towards the window like an avalanche. The glass shattered, but the voice did not stop.

“This is just a greeting,” said Fiamma’s voice.

A small doll made of kneaded flour was floating outside the window.

“Things have yet to truly begin.”

Immediately afterwards, a vibration passed through Kamijou Touma’s brain.

His vision shook for an instant and he thought his face had been punched by something heavy. When he finally realized he had fallen to the ground at some point, he also realized what it was that had hit him in the face.

It was a piece of rubble even smaller than a baseball.

About half of the ceiling had collapsed bringing down rubble.

In the opening, he saw something like a wall of orange light.

Kamijou was one of the closest ones to the scene, but he did not know that a giant sword 30 or 40 kilometers long had been swung down. After all, the base of the sword, was so far away it was almost disappearing off the horizon. A sizzling sound could be heard coming from the sword. It wiggled back and forth and then slowly lifted up much like an axe being pulled out of a large tree.

“With something this big, aiming can be a pain,” Fiamma said cheerfully.

Kamijou trembled as the giant sword that could split a mountain range in two was once more casually lifted up.

It lifted up almost completely vertically.

And then Fiamma’s sword swung down all at once.

The air shook.

It was almost directly above them.

He had corrected his aim and dropped the giant sword down from directly above. The Elizalina Alliance city was sliced in a straight line and the stone building Kamijou and the others were in took the brunt of the blow causing it to be almost completely smashed to smithereens.

A cloud formed.

The difference in air pressure created by the slicing of the atmosphere created something similar to a contrail.

That strike had affected the weather.

And then...

“Oooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

Kamijou Touma yelled out and stuck his right palm straight up.

He could hear an unpleasant creaking noise coming from within his bones.

But that boy’s seemingly ordinary arm managed to receive that strike that could slice the map in two.

(Did I...stop it?)

As it was her first time seeing Imagine Breaker, Elizalina looked shocked and Lessar seemed to find it hard to accept despite having seen the power before. However, he didn’t have time to explain every little thing. Kamijou wasn’t even sure none of his bones had been broken.

Then...

“Oh, and I thought you might have learned something during British Halloween,” said a voice from very nearby.

It was Fiamma of the Right.

Kamijou immediately recognized the red figure that jumped in right in front of him.

There was a disconnect between the person who activated the magic and the place the magic had been activated in.

It was similar to Second Princess Carissa when she used both Curtana Original and the bunker clusters.

It seemed he was drawing their focus with the large scale attack so he could send his true attack at their unguarded side.

“...!?”

Kamijou immediately held up his right hand, but he had only just destroyed the giant orange sword. A numb throbbing pain was still running through his arm which slowed his reaction speed. With a calm expression, Fiamma used that short time to stretch his own hand out towards Kamijou.

Kamijou had no idea what effects that mysterious hand held.

“Kh!!”

Elizalina cut in between them.

The front of her body was glowing slightly. She must have activated some kind of magic. She was a magician who had been continually using her power below the surface while allowing multiple countries to split off from the larger country of Russia. Kamijou assumed those experiences allowed her to freely use some amazing spells.

But Fiamma ignored her.

Kamijou and Elizalina were mercilessly blown away a few meters.

His breathing briefly stopped.

Fiamma started to add in another mysterious attack, but then his movements stopped. The reason was his right arm. What looked like a mysterious third arm appeared from his shoulder.

Kamijou had been saved by Elizalina’s skill.

If it hadn’t been for her, his body would have been split in two horizontally.

“I see,” Fiamma said as if he were impressed as he tapped at his shoulder with his left hand. “That is a rather tough wall to break through easily.”

At that point, the two large men who had been staying at Elizalina’s side jumped forward.

“Bellagi!! Longhe!! Stay back!!” Elizalina yelled out while still collapsed on the ground, but they did not stop. And Fiamma did not hold back.

“However, it is not so tough I cannot break through it. Don’t underestimate me.”

All sound disappeared.

Immediately after Fiamma swung his third arm, Bellagi and Longhe were blown away to the side. The distance between them did not matter. Bellagi may have been in range of the third arm, but Longhe had clearly not been. And yet he was knocked away just the same. They were knocked away through the hole of rubble that the initial strike had created in the building.

Kamijou forced his injured body to stand.

“Fiamma!!”

“You’re the main dish. I need to make some preparations before eating you.”

The attacker’s gaze turned in the direction of Elizalina.

Once again a mysterious pale light began to be emitted from the surface of her body.

However, the previous exchange had made it clear just how much of a difference there was between their powers. Her defensive spell had been breached. If Fiamma went all out, it was possible Elizalina would be killed.

(I have my right hand...)

Kamijou gritted his teeth while focusing on his arm that still had some pain remaining in it.

(But can I really block every single attack!? Can I really rescue Index while doing nothing but defending and receiving attacks!?)

Fiamma paid no heed to Kamijou and the others’ surprise and hesitation.

He made another careless action.

“!!”

But Fiamma’s right arm did not manage to grab and rip out Elizalina’s throat.

It was thanks to Lessar.

The small girl cut in between them while holding something like a spear. It was the steel glove, a magical weapon that had four finger-like blades on it. Lessar forcefully swung it down like a guillotine.

“You’re in the way.”

The action was less like a backhand blow and more like the action of someone brushing away a spider web.

Even so, the steel glove was smashed to pieces. Lessar’s small frame shot away like a bullet. Just before she struck the wall, Bellagi stretched out his arms having just reentered the building. He just barely managed to catch Lessar.

In that instant Lessar had risked her life for, Elizalina stood up to a crouched position while making complex motions with her fingers. A glow that flickered irregularly appeared at the tips of her fingers.

When Fiamma saw it, he laughed.

“You’re trying to construct a spell using the ‘right arm’ against me?”

Immediately afterwards a beam of light shot forth from Fiamma’s right arm.

Fiamma’s action was not even in the same dimension as showing off his ability. It was more like he was crushing an annoying insect flying in front of his face. Whatever Elizalina did would only destroy her body further.

Earlier she had said that the full force of the Elizalina Alliance could not defeat Fiamma of the Right. That was why she wanted to carry out an interception outside of the Alliance in order to defeat him.

So by the very fact that Fiamma was standing there, Elizalina’s fate may have been sealed.

But that was not what happened.

The loud sound of competing powers rang out.

It was the sound of Fiamma’s beam striking Kamijou’s right hand.

Kamijou had jumped in front of Elizalina and blocked Fiamma’s attack, but the beam scattered in every direction as if it were escaping Kamijou’s hand instead of disappearing instantly. That was nothing more than an after effect different from what Fiamma had wanted.

However, a loud noise drowned out all other noises.

The after effects of the beam that were sent to the sides blew the remains of the room’s walls away and continued on into the plaza. They travelled diagonally upwards, so they did not hit any of the people in the plaza, but the stone buildings there had their roofs blown off.

Kamijou Touma and Fiamma of the Right, two people who had special right arms, glared at each other.

“Let’s do this. You know why I’m fighting.”

“What?” Fiamma said while looking slightly confused.

He looked over at Kamijou’s right shoulder.

“I told you that you were the main dish. Are you going to force me to do this first?”

“!!”

Lessar had been blown away to the edge of the wall, but she took action. She picked up the pieces of iron that remained of her steel glove and threw them like bullets.

She was not aiming for Fiamma.

She knew that wouldn’t work from the strike before.

The objects Lessar threw hit Kamijou in the side. His stiffened body bent in as he was knocked to the side. Immediately afterwards, Fiamma’s right arm fell down like a guillotine. The floor melted. It was clear what would happen to a human body that received that attack.

“...G-ghah...!?”

Kamijou rolled along, broke through the remnants of a wall, and out into the plaza. Fiamma slowly walked over while Kamijou writhed atop the snow. He did not even look over at Elizalina who seemed to have been his first target. She must have been more of an annoying insect he needed to crush than an important target for his strategy.

Fiamma of the Right had two important targets.

The first was Kamijou Touma’s right arm.

The second was Sasha Kreutzev.

(...Not good. He’s just doing whatever he wants with no real resistance. We can’t fight him while protecting Sasha with things like this.)

The one bit of luck in the situation was the fact that Fiamma had not found Sasha yet. According to Elizalina, she was very close by, but they had more options as long as Fiamma had not found her yet.

As Kamijou was thinking, Fiamma suddenly started to speak.

“Did you know that modern magician that was established at the end of the 19th century fundamentally hates working in groups? Even a genius group starting with “Golden” had an internal split caused by personality issues. The Roman Catholic Church worked at the goal of creating group fighting techniques with its doctrine at the core, but...well, you know how things are, right? Magicians value the individual. That is why the subjective targets known as magic names are still valued highly today and why the secret organization known as God’s Right Seat was born.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“In other words...”

Fiamma lifted his right hand up so it was horizontal.

He was standing in the middle of the plaza, but he paid the people in the area no heed. Those people were so trapped by their fear that they could not even run away, but he made no attempt to conceal the idea of magic while speaking to Kamijou.

“Let’s say there is someone about to be killed before your eyes. And then hundreds if not thousands of innocent people will be killed in an invasion. If you were a powerful magician, do you think you would continue to hide and do nothing just because you were important to the enemy’s plan?”

“!?”

Kamijou’s body stiffened.

He had seen an angel in the crowd of people.

It was actually a figure wearing red. The figure’s body was bound by black belts and was wearing red innerwear and a cloak. It was possible some magic was at work in order to prevent that figure from standing out in the plaza.

The figure was Sasha Kreutzev.

Upon seeing her, Kamijou forgot the situation they were in and felt erroneous relief. She was the archangel who had held a Saint like Kanzaki Kaori in check while also constructing the Sweep spell that would kill 6 billion people. The thought of receiving help from someone that powerful was certainly reassuring.

But then he realized something.

The person he was seeing was not the archangel Misha Kreutzev that Kamijou Touma knew.

She was nothing more than the Russian Orthodox magician Sasha Kreutzev.

She tried to do something.

She was a professional Russian Orthodox magician, so her skills were most likely top notch.

However...

“Today is my lucky day.”

Fiamma flicked something with his finger.

Whatever it was weaved between the people in the crowd towards Sasha at the speed of an arrow and knocked her backwards at the same speed.

“I thought this would be a little harder. I never expected to get both of you so easily.”

Fiamma must have been confident that his strike had completely sealed Sasha’s movements because he did not head after her. He looked back over to Kamijou instead.

“...”

Kamijou stared back silently.

He didn’t know very much about magical battles. However, he knew that the only thing that had a chance against Fiamma’s right arm was his own Imagine Breaker. It was no time to debate whether he should do it or not. If he didn’t charge in there, Fiamma would just kill a large number of people before his eyes.

It was one on one.

There was no one else and nothing else he could rely on.

And then Fiamma of the Right made an odd movement.

He unconcernedly swung his head to the side.

Immediately afterwards, something like a scratch appeared across his cheek. A strange crack ran across the wall of the building behind him.

It seemed the people in the plaza had no idea what had just happened.

The unreal scene before their eyes had paralyzed their ability to determine what was going on.

“...”

However, Kamijou gulped slightly because of his limited knowledge of magic.

Fiamma had evaded an attack.

Kamijou was surprised by the sudden attack itself, but he was even more surprised by how Fiamma had reacted to it.

“What a nostalgic face,” Fiamma of the Right said.

Kamijou turned around.

He saw the color yellow.

Standing there was a woman with piercings all over her face and heavy makeup around her eyes. Her appearance was intentionally made to bring disgust out from others. Her clothes seemed to be based on something a woman from the middle ages would wear, but it did not give an old fashioned impression due to its showy yellows. It looked more like some kind of showy punk fashion.

Kamijou Touma knew who she was.

On September 30th, she had used a spell that used divine punishment to almost completely cease all functionality within Academy City. As a member of God’s Right Seat, she had showed Kamijou a conflict that crossed a certain line.

He heard a jangling noise.

She had a piercing on her tongue with a thin chain connected to it. The chain extended down to about her waist where a transparent cross that seemed to be made of ice was connected to the end. The cross alone was different from what Kamijou remembered.

She was Vento of the Front.

The first person to make Fiamma of the Right evade was a magician who was supposed to be from the same organization as him.

“I have no duty to support that kid or that Russian Orthodox nun, but I’ve had enough of seeing you mess around with the Roman Catholic Church.”

“I heard you can no longer use your special Divine Punishment.”

“Do you really think that’s enough to stop me?”

With a roar, something invisible swirled up.

Two members of God’s Right Seat, two magicians of a different dimension altogether who stood at the top of a church with 2 billion followers, clashed.

Part 7

Accelerator leaned on his modern cane and looked around the area.

The darker side of Academy City had placed the recovery of the pieces of parchment he had found on the freight train at the same level as pursuing him, so it was possible they were not just superstitious scribbles.

Accelerator did not believe in the occult, but they may have had something written on them about scientific technology that would be valuable even in modern times.

(...Although, I suppose that’s just me trying to make sense of this logically.)

Accelerator breathed in deeply.

Due to an exceedingly subjective feeling, he found the parchments to be odd.

That feeling was one of pressure in the center of his chest.

It was similar to what he felt when Unabara Mitsuki was nearby. Accelerator recalled that boy’s powers being referred to as if they were not simply esper powers (of course that could very well just be a bluff to keep what his esper power as a secret), so he wondered if there was any connection.

He was interested in where the pieces of parchment were supposed to have been delivered.

Accelerator couldn’t tell what kind of information was written on the parchments, so he concluded it would be fastest to get that information out of the person who was meant to receive them. Of course, the destination might have just been a relay point meaning the person receiving them there wouldn’t know what their ultimate objective was, but then he would just have to go relay point by relay point until he made it to a person who knew how the parchments were to be used.

He needed to find out if they held a clue to saving Last Order who not even the cutting edge technology of Academy City could save.

Accelerator was prepared to even directly attack a military base if it came to it, but then...

“Tch. They were already attacked.”

A burnt smell permeated the area.

The area had likely originally been a Russian Air Force base. The white plain had been cut off by asphalt for kilometers and fence barricades surrounded the area. Inside were numerous runways and large bunker-like buildings made of special concrete.

Accelerator could not see anyone there.

The fence had been torn away, the thick concrete walls had been blown away, and fighters with flames spewing from them were scattered along the runways like toys. Ammunition must still have been detonating from the fires because explosions occasionally resounded like fireworks from the ruins of the buildings despite no voices being heard.

Accelerator had no way of knowing if someone who knew how the parchments were to be used had been there or if it had just been a relay point so they could be transported by air.

(...Academy City.)

However, it had not been the normal Academy City forces that were taking on the Russian army publicly. The means made it clear that an underground organization from the world of evil had snuck into Russia for the attack.

He couldn’t find a single empty cartridge.

There were cracks running through the walls, but the shells that had broken through the walls had all been recovered.

Academy City liked to avoid having its technology leak out, but that was on a whole new level.

If they just wanted to take control of the base, they would not have needed the underground organization. The regular forces could have easily invaded the base.

That meant they had most likely been after the pieces of parchment that were in Accelerator’s pocket.

Forces had been sent to recover the parchments themselves while a different force had been sent to the air force base they were headed for. Accelerator might be able to find a survivor if he carefully searched through the base, but he was sure everyone related to the parchments had either been killed or captured.

There was no hint there.

His last vague lifeline had been cut, but Accelerator’s head was full of questions instead of impatience.

(...Are these parchments really that valuable?)

If so, what were they used for?

Were they really something Academy City wanted to get their hands on no matter what?

And could they be of any help in healing Last Order?

(That motherfucker Aiwass told me to go to Russia. Was that related to this? Aiwass did say there was a key in a ‘different set of laws’ than Academy City...)

He thought about it, but couldn’t come up with an answer.

He ended that train of thought and moved to thinking about what he should do next.

(The trail leading to what these pieces of parchment are via Russian means was cut off here, so I guess my next route will have to be with Academy City’s underground organization. If they’re interfering, they must understand how valuable they are.)

As he did not know exactly who had the necessary information, there was a danger of extended fighting. With the limited battery power for his electrode, that was not a good thing for Accelerator, but he didn’t really care. He would continue crushing his targets even if he had to crawl across the snow to do it.

His thoughts were exceedingly hostile.

He then recalled the weight of Last Order’s unconscious form and gave a bitter smile.

“Shit...”

He had been trying to hide it up until then.

No matter how bloody a world he lived in, he had wanted to keep her from seeing it.

(...I can’t keep myself in check anymore.)

Had he not spoken that last line out loud because he had not wanted Last Order to hear it? Or had it been because of the bit of unease that had passed through him?

At any rate, he could not stop there.

Academy City had many large supersonic airplanes. They could fly through the air at over 7000 kph, so they could reach the other side of the globe in only 2 hours. If the people who attacked that base used one of them, he would no longer be able to pursue them. If he was going to get a surprise attack in, he would have to hurry up and find them.

He had no time to hesitate.

But Accelerator stopped moving when he was about to turn around.

There were a number of figures standing there.

The air force base was a wide and flat area primarily made up of runways. There wasn’t much space for people to hide, but about 10 figures had appeared surrounding Accelerator at some point. No, it wasn’t just 10.

There were around 20 men and women who were all wearing identical clothing.

Accelerator frowned at the fact that they seemed to be wearing some kind of old religious habits as opposed to military uniforms that were collections of cutting edge technology. He felt the same pressure as from Unabara or the parchments.

One of them spoke in Russian.

“Are you with Academy City?”

“What about you? Are you the ones who attacked this base?”

“So you don’t deny it.”

The man lowered his center of gravity.

Accelerator took it as a sign that he was preparing for a fight to the death.

“I don’t have time,” Accelerator said while reaching up for the switch at his neck and putting away his retractable cane. “I’ll be keeping this short, okay?”

Part 8

Fiamma of the Right.

Vento of the Front.

The confrontation between those two monsters did not involve them suddenly jumping up to the roof of a tall building and having a high speed battle that normal eyes could not keep track of.

As they glared at each other, they silently moved horizontally. They did so slowly and smoothly. While maintaining the same distance between them, they seemed to move side by side as they moved to the center of the snowy plaza.

There were no easy-to-understand explosions or beams of light.

Even so, the people were frozen in fear due to Fiamma’s previous attack. The mass of people naturally distanced itself from around Vento and Fiamma like water overflowing from a bathtub as a giant sank down into it.

Kamijou could not move.

It would be better if he helped.

Between Elizalina, Lessar, and Sasha Kreutzev, he knew who he should rescue.

However, he could not move.

His mental state was similar to someone trying to rescue someone next to a bomb that could go off at any time. His focus was naturally stolen by the “bomb”.

He heard a slight noise.

He thought a gust of wind had blown and next thing he knew Vento was holding something like a hammer wrapped in barbed wire in her right hand. The hammer was about a meter long and its end struck the ground.

Fiamma’s eyebrows moved slightly.

“How very odd.”

“What is?”

“God’s Right Seat cannot use normal magic. We can only use spells that have been extremely regulated for our use. You hold the Divine Punishment spell that paralyzed Academy City, but the spiritual item that supports its activation was shattered on September 30th. And yet...”

“Is it really that surprising that I can create mystical phenomena like this?” said Vento as she rested the heavy hammer on her shoulder.

That’s right. It may be easy to forget given the ridiculous feats they could perform, but Fiamma and Vento were human. They could not perform supernatural phenomena that ignored the laws of physics without using something. There had to be laws behind Vento pulling the hammer out of nothingness.

In other words...

(Vento just used magic...?)

Kamijou’s face paled as he recalled the magic she had used to knock almost every resident of Academy City unconscious.

However, Fiamma did not seem too surprised.

“Well, that still means you haven’t succeeded in restoring your Divine Punishment. And even if you had, you cannot defeat me using that methodology.”

“I never thought of using that against someone like you who was completely warped even in your way of thinking about malice and hostility.”

“Then what do you think you can do?”

“Currently, you cannot wield the perfected version of your power as Michael.”

“True. That’s what I want Sasha Kreutzev and Imagine Breaker for.”

“That right arm has to have limits on its use,” said Vento interrupting his casual speech.

“...”

Fiamma stopped speaking, but Vento’s voice continued.

“Because you played around with those small fries, it has already begun to disintegrate into the air. There is a theory behind the superhuman powers magicians use and members of God’s Right Seat cannot just use spells other than the special ones that have been adjusted for our use. Once your stock runs out, you are nothing more than a regular human.”

A smile leaked out.

However, it was not on Vento’s face.

Fiamma’s lips curved up slightly.

“Don’t tell me...”

An eerie pressure was emitted into the air around him.

He spoke as he slowly moved the fingers on his right arm.

“...you thought you could make up for the difference between us with just that.”

“No.”

The handle of the hammer resting on Vento’s shoulder floated up slightly.

It was only a few centimeters.

“We’re only just now getting to the truly interesting stuff,” she announced along with that slight movement.

Immediately afterwards, Fiamma of the Right was knocked straight back.

Kamijou was a few dozen meters away, but not even he could grasp what had happened.

The event had not been unusual due to its speed. It was the scale.

All of a sudden, a giant structure had split through the snowy earth in the center of the plaza. The object that came up diagonally was a sailing vessel made of transparent ice. It was about 40 meters long, but not all of the ship could be seen. That 40 meter figure only applied to the part visible at that time.

A cannon made of ice on the side of the ship aimed towards Fiamma.

Instead of the flames of gunpowder, ice powder shot out along with an explosive noise.

That attack of ice was the antithesis of the flames that the name Fiamma referred to and it was not merely a cannonball that was fired. It was a transparent anchor. The 2 or 3 meter mass struck Fiamma’s body and knocked him a few kilometers away.

After a few moments, the noise of the impact belatedly resounded throughout the plaza.

Ignoring the uproar occurring around her, Vento spoke.

“Did you know that Biagio Busoni commanded the Queen of the Adriatic and the Queen’s Fleet that protected it at Chioggia?”

Kamijou wasn’t sure if there was a reason behind it or if she just liked doing it, but Vento was spinning the giant hammer around in one hand as she spoke. Her voice was almost at a whisper, but it was likely being sent to Fiamma’s ears via magical means.

“That was one of the Ten Holy Spirit Spells and I was the one that readjusted it to the point that it could be used. I can’t control the entirety of the Queen of the Adriatic, but I have the affinity to control one portion of that great fleet.”

Kamijou heard a jangling noise.

It was coming from Vento’s tongue.

“Oh, and one more thing.”

A thin chain like one that would be used for a necklace stretched down from her tongue.

On its end hung a cross.

It was transparent as if it were made of ice.

The decorative cross looked somehow similar to an anchor.

“There are quite a few stories in the Christian Church of storms in the sea being calmed to protect a ship. For example, there was the one with the Son of God and the one with Saint Nicholas. The element I rule is the wind or the air, but storms on the sea are a mix of the wind and the water. Using those stories, I am able to partially interfere with the water. ...Unlike the exclusivity of your fire, I can create complex and great effects like that.”

There was an explosive noise.

It was the sound of the giant ice anchor exploding a few kilometers away while it was caught on Fiamma.

It was not just an explosion caused by gunpowder.

Hundreds of meter-long ice stakes were created in the explosion. The tips of the ice stakes were sharper than a steel spear and thousands upon thousands of them continued to explode outwards in every direction. The ground was gouged out and a large amount of snow and black soil was blown into the air. It was fortunate that the surrounding area was wilderness. With those numbers and that destructive force, even an underground shelter would have been turned to Swiss cheese.

The people in the plaza did not understand what was going on. However, it seemed they were easily susceptible to the hostility and killing intent packed into the mountain of ice blades that had suddenly appeared. Some of them even folded their hands and desperately prayed.

It was impossible to tell what had become of Fiamma from there.

Even if they headed closer and investigated, it might be hard to tell.

That was how much destructive force had been sent his way.

Vento of the Front indeed possessed the extraordinary power of God’s Right Seat.

“If you had put together a strategy focusing solely on killing me, the result may have been a bit different, but you could not have defended against that strike with that right arm of yours disintegrating into the air like that,” she said with her tongue sticking out as if she were ridiculing him. “You wasted too much ammo, you fool. ...Although, I suppose I’m wasting my breath here.”

“Oh, really? I’d say I’m much more careful with my possession than you give me credit for,” said a voice of unknown origin cutting Vento off.

Immediately afterwards, the loud sound of the distant mountain of ice blades being blown to pieces from within was heard. It went beyond the level of an eruption. The overwhelming force did not even allow the remnants to rain back down to the ground. The shattered pieces were swept away in the wind.

The shattered ice flew in every direction in clumps a few meters long. One of those directions was towards the plaza Kamijou and the others were in. It was like a bombardment of shells. Multiple buildings were crushed and the people in the plaza lay on the ground covering their heads with their hands. Screams and shouts could be heard in response to the unreasonable disaster.

As Vento looked at the area a few kilometers away, her eyebrows twisted in confusion.

A beam of light shot out.

It came from such a distance that Kamijou and the others couldn’t see the details, but Kamijou knew that it had come from an arm. It had come from the third arm that had newly appeared from Fiamma’s shoulder.

“It seems I cannot avoid having it disintegrate into the air, but I have succeeded in fixing it in that state.”

Something flashed.

It was a reflection from the light of the beam his third arm had fired.

The reflection could be seen on something in Fiamma’s right hand.

Its details could not be seen from that distance either, but Kamijou could guess that it was Index’s remote control spiritual item.

That device allowed Fiamma to freely pull out any information he wanted from the knowledge of the 103,000 grimoires.

“To put it bluntly, I no longer have any limits.”

Vento did not stay silent.

Explosive noises sounded from the cannons on the nearby ship. A second and third anchor cut through the air heading for Fiamma.

That ridiculous barrage had been what had sent Fiamma flying a few kilometers away just a bit earlier.

However, Fiamma did not even attempt to evade.

He merely swung his right arm lightly.

“I do not need destructive force.”

That was all.

The sound of one of the anchors shattering split through the air. The one anchor was destroyed in midair and the other impaled into the ground in a spot it should not have hit. This caused an explosion a few dozen meters across to occur. The scene looked like some kind of joke. Pieces of the scenery like mountains and rivers were blown away.

“If I touch my enemy, it’s over, so I don’t need to put any effort into destroying them.”

“Tch!!”

Vento hurriedly held up her hammer and muttered something under her breath. She may have had some other trump card. Kamijou did not know very much about magic, but it felt like she was moving as if making a figure out of a string in her hands at high speed.

But...

“I do not need speed.”

A cold voice cut her off.

Forcefully.

Exceedingly overwhelming.

“If I swing, I hit my enemy, so I don’t need to put any effort into hitting them.”

Kamijou did not know what happened.

The next thing he knew, Fiamma, who was supposed to be a few kilometers away, was situated right under Vento’s chin and her body was blown away an instant later.

Fiamma’s movements did not end there.

The chain attached to Vento’s tongue trailed behind her as she flew backwards. Fiamma casually grabbed it in midair. The action was as carefree as someone grabbing a scrap of paper being blown in the wind.

Vento’s body was still flying backwards.

Of course, the thin chain could not support Vento’s weight. With a tearing noise, the piercing holding the chain in was torn from Vento’s tongue.

She did not even have time to let out a scream.

The woman wearing all yellow continued flying back a few dozen meters. She struck the center of the ice ship that had appeared in the center of the plaza. The giant piece of art that symbolized a bombardment was broken in half horizontally from her impact.

Finally, Vento let out a scream.

“Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?”

“Quit exaggerating. It’s not like your whole tongue was ripped out. It was just a little tear. And the ice ship’s defensive spell only started to disappear when you hit it, so you just barely managed to receive the benefit of that.”

As Fiamma boredly watched Vento lying on the ground a few dozen meters away screaming, he lightly tossed up the chain he had ripped out. He swung the third arm sticking out from his right shoulder and the clear cross shattered.

The remnants of the broken ice ship collapsed into the plaza and the surrounding villagers frantically moved out of the way. Of course, Fiamma did not look over in that direction at all.

Vento tried to stand up as red stains dripped down onto the white snow below her.

“Gbh!? What...!?”

“It’s quite simple. What I possess is not the right arm itself but the power that should reside in the right arm. The right is used in most Christian rituals. Archangel Michael cut down the leader of the fallen angels with his right hand, the Son of God healed the sick with his right hand, the Bible was written with the right hand, and, well, there are many others. In other words, I can freely use a great number of Christian supernatural phenomena. You can figure out the rest. You’re not so incompetent you can’t do that.”

“Ridiculous... That right arm is....”

“That’s right. It’s incomplete. Normally, I wouldn’t be showing it off like this. However, that isn’t something you should be excited about. God’s Right Seat is...no, the entire world is in an ambiguous state like that.”

“...?”

“During Angel Fall, it seems the angel that appeared in an imperfect form named itself Misha.”

That alone, Fiamma said in a melancholic way.

“Mikhail is another name for Michael. It is not a name fitting for Gabriel. And yet that archangel gave its name, the name that states its role created by God, as Misha. Do you understand how important that fact is?”

Fiamma continued on.

“Vento of the Front bears wind, yellow, and Uriel while Terra of the Left bears earth, green, and Raphael, but that is slightly off. Normally, wind goes with Raphael and earth goes with Uriel.”

Vento’s face held an expression that looked like her heart had stopped.

Her expression seemed to be saying that the mental damage of having the pillar of her heart toppled was greater than the physical damage to her tongue.

“No one realizes it.” Fiamma’s words alone resounded through the area. “No one realizes it and yet the world continues on. Magic is activated. Did you know that all four of the major elements have begun to distort slightly? This world is in much more of a crisis than you realize. Someone has to do something about it.”

“You...don’t mean...”Vento shook her head as she spoke what she had no proof of. “Angel Fall left that much of an after effect?”

“Quite the opposite. It was because that distortion to the great laws existed that an opening existed that allowed such a ridiculous spell to be activated in the first place. ...Do you understand now? That’s enough then, right?”

With a smile on his face, Fiamma swung his third arm.

It was an exceedingly primitive motion.

There was a space of a few dozen meters between them, but that meant nothing to his ridiculous power.

But Kamijou charged in from the side towards Fiamma before he could finish the action.

“I do not need to...”

Fiamma’s response was actually quite simple.

“...turn around.”

He changed the trajectory of his arm.

As if it were fulfilling its natural role, Kamijou’s body was knocked away. It was a primitive strike like swinging a wooden rod, but that was why there could be no doubts about it. Pain ran through Kamijou’s organs and even his backbone. But it was odd. That strike had shattered that giant anchor and destroyed the ship itself in a single strike, so it should have smashed a human body to pieces.

Perhaps its given role had been automatically selected to emit the perfect amount of power to knock away Kamijou Touma.

Fiamma was not like a Saint that pushed through with power and speed.

Using a battle in an RPG as an example...

What if there was a ridiculous command of “defeat” among the usual commands of “fight”, “defend”, “magic”, and “item”.

Most likely, Fiamma would respond in the same way to Kanzaki or Acqua and he would defeat them just the same. It didn’t matter if his speed or strength were inferior. His exceedingly overwhelming “power” ignored any actions taken by his opponent and simply crushed them. It was like pushing a giant wall along to flatten a sand hill made by a child.

He could not win in a direct fight.

But then, he could not fall back either.

If Kamijou did not do anything, Fiamma would finish off Vento. He might not let Lessar and Elizalina live either. He would take Sasha Kreutzev and leave.

And most importantly, Fiamma held Index’s remote control spiritual item.

“...”

Kamijou’s lip must have split because he could taste blood.

Ignoring that, he stood up once more.

He tightly clenched his fist.

“You’re a wonderful person,” Fiamma said glancing over to Kamijou while clearly keeping Vento in range. “How many people have you stood up for so far? How many incidents have you resolved by swinging that fist of yours? You truly are a wonderful person. But the most wonderful thing of all is how you have been provoked by others into heading into peril yourself and, in the end, you have accumulated all of the fruits and rewards of your actions for yourself.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“Are you sure that your actions are truly right?”

Fiamma slowly moved his arm.

His third arm.

It was an exceedingly irregular object that could not be described with just magic or with just science.

“There is no fundamental difference between my actions that you are so angry about and the actions you yourself have taken. I am wielding my right arm to resolve my own problem while you wield your right arm to resolve the problems that occur around you. We both do it by shattering something that someone worked desperately to obtain. There is no difference in our methods. And I am sure. ...I know that my actions will bring about absolute good.”

“...Are you just telling me to ignore the fact that Index is suffering for that?” Kamijou responded without hesitation. “Fuck that. You’re saying that using the people of the Roman Catholic Church for your own convenience and backing the coup d’etat in England with pressure from France is for absolute good? Is there something wrong with your head?”

“So you’re saying you would be doing good by stopping me?”

“This isn’t an issue of ‘good’.”

“...”

“Index is suffering. How many people do you think are crying because of this fucking war you started? Is it so strange to want to stand up against that? Is it so wrong to want to fight for a girl who can’t even open her eyes? At the very least, I’m not going to listen to the complaints of some bastard who delights in the suffering of others.”

But...

“Truly wonderful.”

Fiamma held his right hand out towards Kamijou while smiling.

A small tube-shaped device lay within that hand.

It was Index’s remote control spiritual item.

Kamijou’s expression changed and Fiamma grinned widely as he spoke.

“Is that really something you can say before a nun you have been continually lying to?”

Kamijou’s shoulders gave a slight twitch.

(It couldn’t be...)

“At times, I am connected to her consciousness through this remote control spiritual item. The information I see and hear is passed on to her at those times.”

(He...)

“Now then. Can you say the same thing in this situation? There is no problem with being wrong. But if you truly believe what you said, then why did you continue to put on that shameless act before her?”

(He’s realized it...?)

A chill ran down his back.

It was not a feeling regarding the danger he himself was in.

It was the feeling of the invisible pillar supporting a certain girl slowly crumbling away.

Meanwhile, Fiamma lightly touched his temple with one of his normal fingers and smiled.

“You are the only one that can fully understand what you are hiding. She is the only one that can judge how she feels about those things. You seem to have been protecting her from it for your own satisfaction, but I look forward to seeing whether she judges that to have been a good thing or not.”

He swung his third arm.

Kamijou was frozen in place due to Fiamma’s words, so he could not react.

However, he was not aiming for Kamijou.

Fiamma’s strike hit Sasha Kreutzev who was still collapsed in the plaza.

“One for now.”

The next thing Kamijou knew, Fiamma’s third arm was holding the small girl.

He had completely ignored the distance between them.

The arm had shot out like a whip and wrapped back up like a chameleon’s tongue.

“!? Fiamma!!” Kamijou yelled having come back to his senses.

“I’d like to get the second now too, but there is a problem of compatibility,” Fiamma responded in such a carefree way that it sounded like he was about to start whistling. “I want to completely seal the angel medium to transport it, but your right hand’s special effect would get in the way of that. It would be difficult to transport both of you at the same time.”

Fiamma turned his back on Kamijou while holding Sasha like a bag entangled in a branch.

“Don’t let yourself die too easily.”

Kamijou ignored Fiamma’s words and charged for him.

But Fiamma did not even turn around.

“I need that right hand of yours, after all.”

There was an explosive wind and Fiamma was gone by the time Kamijou could negate it with his right hand.

With the danger gone, commotion returned to the plaza.

Kamijou alone stayed motionless amid the scenery that had once more begun to move.

Fiamma’s words echoed within his head.

“I look forward to seeing whether she judges that to have been a good thing or not.”

Part 9

Hamazura Shiage wandered around on the snow.

He had originally been in a building, but he hadn’t been able to stay still. He wasn’t headed anywhere in particular. He merely headed back and forth on the snow trying to do something about the pressure that had built up in his gut.

He was in a small village.

The village only had about 50 log houses. People who did not live there weren’t able to distinguish between the private houses and the stores. In fact, all the buildings seemed to be both.

“It seems they’re at the limit of what they can do for that girl,” said a tall man speaking to Hamazura.

He was the man who had brought Hamazura and Takitsubo to the village in exchange for the fuel inside the stolen car.

His name seemed to be Digurv.

“These are the effects of a drug from Academy City where technology is 20 or 30 years removed from here. There’s no way a small clinic like this is going to know how to treat her and it seems there is a good chance doing the wrong thing would make her condition even worse.”

“I know,” Hamazura said shaking his head with an anxious expression. “Even so, she hadn’t had a chance to sleep on a proper bed until now. Please. You just need to stabilize her a bit. I don’t want to see her suffering.”

“We can do that, but what are you planning to do in the long run?”

Hamazura remained silent to Digurv’s question.

Takitsubo had said there may be some secret reason behind Academy City’s invasion of Russia and that if he could grasp whatever that was and get in a position where he could influence the outcome of the war, he may be able to negotiate on an even standing with the large organization of Academy City.

He had no choice but to search for it.

He had to head alone for the center of the world war before Takitsubo Rikou was absolutely done for.

That huge wall of a task before him was making him feel depressed, so Hamazura changed the subject.

He looked around the area.

“Everyone seems to be in a hurry.”

“Yes, they do. It seems a nearby village was attacked by the Russian army, but they were apparently saved by an Asian boy while en route to the concentration camp. More people fled here than normally live here.”

That may have been why they were so low on supplies.

“...Is your generator doing okay?”

“For now. We were supposed to get periodic shipments of supplies and fuel, but the route has been cut off by the Russian troops stationed on the roads. To be honest, if you hadn’t come by there, we would have been in a really bad situation.”

That was a problem that would not have existed if the war between Academy City and Russia had not occurred.

“Sorry... This is our fault.”

For an instant a ridiculous delusion passed through the back of Hamazura’s mind.

What if that large scale war had started because he and Takitsubo had fled to Russia? He knew quite well that the two of them were nowhere near that valuable, but he couldn’t remove that last little thorn of doubt.

But Digurv shook his head.

“No, it isn’t. I apologize if I made you feel uncomfortable. I understand.”

“?”

“This village was being targeted by the Russian army since before World War III began. We are quite near the border with the Elizalina Alliance. This is an excellent location to build a base for invading, so we have been faced with the threat of losing this land many times. And it isn’t just on the level of land speculation. They have even scattered landmines from transport planes on the pretext of preventing an invasion from the Alliance. Russia may have equipment to locate the landmines and collect them, but we do not.”

Hamazura had difficulty imagining such a thing happening.

After all, it would be unthinkable for the government to do something like that in Japan. 𝐟r𝒆ℯ𝘄𝑒𝒃𝚗𝒐𝘃e𝗹.c𝘰𝐦

“Don’t worry about it. We treat them like point stickers. Mines are sort of similar. We can recover them and hand them over to an NGO in exchange for food and supplies. It may be safer to detonate them there, but it seems they want more obvious results from helping bring peace.”

Digurv pointed towards a small building on the edge of the village. That was where the landmines were put after they had been dug up from the ground and their fuse pins had been fixed.

“...Does Russia really want to invade the Elizalina Alliance that badly? What exactly are they after there?”

“Who knows. It may not be a definite threat and the Russian government is just afraid of the country being split apart even further. At the very least, I don’t think the Alliance is any military threat to Russia. I just don’t think they have enough military force to go to war.”

Even though he lived so nearby, he didn’t know everything about that country. And Digurv seemed to be speaking as if he had been told this by someone else. He was a civilian. It wasn’t easy for him to get any more information than what was shown on the news.

That was when Hamazura heard the sound of someone walking on the snow.

Digurv turned in the direction of the noise and then immediately shoved Hamazura down onto the snow. Hamazura didn’t even have time to cry out in protest. Digurv pulled on Hamazura’s clothes and frantically jumped behind a building.

“What? Did something happen?”

“It’s a Russian soldier,” Digurv responded in a purposefully quiet voice as he held his index finger up to his lips. With an expression of shock, Hamazura slowly peeked out from behind the wall. Sure enough, he saw a man in his 20’s who was wearing a military uniform and standing on the snow.

Digurv’s expression turned even more serious.

“We do have anti-intruder sensors set up around the village. Did one of them fail?”

“...Hey. You said the Russian army is after this village’s land, right?”

However, something odd happened before Hamazura got an answer to his question.

The Russian soldier who had been walking along sluggishly suddenly collapsed onto the snow.

Hamazura and Digurv exchanged glances, but the Russian soldier showed no sign of moving. After watching him for a full 30 seconds, they slowly headed out from behind the building.

Even after they made it right up next to the soldier, he did not attack.

When they flipped the face-down soldier onto his back, they noticed his face had turned blue and purple in places.

“He has frostbite,” said Digurv.

The soldier looked up at Hamazura and Digurv with his almost closed eyes and muttered something in Russian. Hearing that, Digurv looked over at Hamazura.

“He asked us to help him. He said he was carrying ‘something’ to a nearby air force base, but the base was attacked by Academy City before he got there. It seems the cold was too much for him without his outdoor gear. ...We certainly have gotten a lot of visitors today.”

Hamazura’s face seemed to twitch when he heard the term Academy City, but he couldn’t stay focused solely on that.

“...What do we do? Do we save him? He’s a bit like an uninvited guest.”

“Don’t ask that question with that look in your eyes. It’s clear he’s asking for help,” Digurv said as he helped the frostbitten soldier up and let him lean on his shoulder.

Hamazura helped support the man as well and was shocked at how cold his skin was.

“Hey, Digurv. Is this really okay for you all?”

“As much as I’d like to be coldhearted, abandoning him wouldn’t change anything.”

They were headed for the small clinic where Takitsubo was resting.

Hamazura didn’t know exactly how frostbite was treated, but he guessed that taking him before a heater or a fireplace would do him a lot of good.

(...He was carrying something, hm?)

If Academy City had attacked for a reason other than the official reason for the war... In other words, if they had attacked because they were targeting whatever it was that was being brought to the air force base, that something might work as a means of negotiating with Academy City.

And an Academy City force had attacked the air force base that something was supposed to be headed for.

Didn’t that mean it was possible it hadn’t made it to the unit’s hands yet?

Hamazura glanced over at the side of the Russian soldier’s face.

He doubted an amateur high school student like himself would be able to get any information from a professional soldier who regularly trained and who had experience in real battle. However, he may have a chance with the man in such a weakened state.

After calculating that much out, Hamazura spoke.

“...God dammit. I wouldn’t be able to look Takitsubo in the eye if I did that.”

“?”

Digurv looked puzzled, but Hamazura said nothing more.

There was more than one way.

There had to be some other opportunity he could use to negotiate with Academy City that did not involve using the misfortune of others.

(For now, I just have to get him somewhere warm.)

However, something rushed out of the clinic just as they were about to open the door.

It was a girl of about 10. She must have been one of the people who had been rescued from the trucks instead of one of the residents of the village. Hamazura was usually able to distinguish them based on the style of their clothes. She spoke for quite a bit upon seeing Digurv. She seemed to be passing on some kind of message and Digurv frowned. Her words might not have been getting across to him very well because she was so worked up about something.

However, Digurv’s expression finally changed once he seemed to figure out what she was saying. He left the frostbitten soldier to Hamazura and rushed into the clinic.

Hamazura had no idea what was going on, but he entered the clinic with the soldier.

He was nervous.

After all, the girl had come rushing out of the clinic Takitsubo Rikou was resting in.

Something may have happened.

He had a bad feeling.

However, his expectations were wrong.

The reality was much worse.

“What’s going on!? Did something happen!?” Hamazura yelled out in Japanese as he lowered the Russian soldier to the floor next to the electric heater near the entrance.

Digurv had been speaking quickly, but he finally turned around towards Hamazura. He was moving around like someone preparing to skip town.

“...Privateers.”

“What?”

“It’s the term for a military system from the middle ages. Governments would authorize pirates to attack ships from enemy nations in order to both cause financial problems for the other country as well as benefit from the valuables brought back to their own country. Meanwhile, the pirates would be protected by that government. It seems some pirates were even given the title of a knight.”

“What about it?”

“The Russian army is still using privateers to this day,” Digurv said with bloodshot eyes and with tension and sweat on his face. “There are blank units within the army. They have no official members. The privateers are often paid to attack enemy forces. There has always been a need for missions to cut off enemy supply lines and indirectly lessen the enemy’s military forces, but the attack missions targeting lightly equipped people were not popular and it started spreading needless dissatisfaction. From what I have heard, this led to a dedicated unit being formed. It seems they are used for the more dirty missions. I don’t really know how much of this is true though.”

Digurv continued speaking.

“They are a group of people who want to act violently and who have military experience centered around Western Europe. I’ve heard that they recruit over the internet. Apparently, it’s pretty popular because they can make quite a bit of money in a short period of time and they are not bound by military regulations. On top of that, they are given Russia’s best equipment and sent out on some of the dirtier missions. If it comes down to it, the unit can be immediately done away with even in the paperwork. Any ‘soldiers that caused some problems’ will be recorded as having been thrown into a detention facility and the actual soldiers will have gone back to their own countries. That way, missions that would bring criticism from the international community can be carried out smoothly.”

“You’re kidding... Are you saying that thugs like that are headed here?”

Hamazura looked over at the Russian soldier in front of the electric heater.

“W-wait. We have a member of the Russian army here. They wouldn’t just destroy the entire village, right? They’d at least check the place out first, right?”

“These are privateers. They don’t care about any of that,” Digurv said shaking his head.

Even the Russian soldier gave what sounded like a moan at hearing the term “privateer”.

“We’ve already had a few attacks from privateers,” Digurv said in almost a whisper.

He had already said that the Russian army was after the land the village was on in order to create a base from which to invade the Elizalina Alliance of Independent Nations. And he had said that they had scattered landmines from transport planes.

“However, we have always managed to detect their approach and run away before they can actually attack. They destroy all the buildings and steal everything of value, but we managed to divide things up to leave decoys. That left us with enough left over to rebuild with.”

“Th-then, we just have to...”

“...The situation is different now. Because of World War III, the Russian army has given the privateers new equipment. We can’t get away this time. We can’t escape on foot from the armored vehicles they are using and we do not have the firepower needed to resist them.”

“You’ve gotta be kidding...”

Digurv had said they didn’t have the fuel needed to run the generator. It was possible that also meant they could not use any vehicles to escape on.

They couldn’t use their usual pattern.

What would happen then?

“A distance out from here, we have steel towers that can detect someone’s approach using magnetism. One has been blown away. It was most likely the privateers. They’ve gotten close, so we don’t have time. They don’t care about war treaties, so they won’t capture or restrain us when they break in. They’ll just kill us.”

Hamazura looked over at the wall of the clinic.

There was an assault rifle leaning up against the wall. It had wooden pieces on it. He wasn’t sure of the technical name, but he thought it was an AK-something-or-other. He had been surprised to see it when he had first brought Takitsubo into the clinic, but it seemed they were more ubiquitous in that area than fire extinguishers.

But he couldn’t.

He couldn’t defeat the privateers by running around holding that thing. They knew of the situation, so they would be taking preparations to slaughter everyone in the village.

There was no way he could fight.

He had used handguns a fair bit in the back alleys in Japan, but he had never even touched a gun that big. They were probably used in a completely different way.

“What do we do...? Is there anywhere we can flee to!?”

“That’s what we’re trying to figure out now.”

Part 10

Accelerator thought quietly while at the remains of the Russian air force base that had been attacked by an underground organization from Academy City.

He looked at the dozen or so men and women who were surrounding him.

They were an odd bunch.

He didn’t think they were just Russian soldiers. They were wearing dark religious habits and they held special decorative swords, spears, staffs, axes, and other similar objects. Normally, he wouldn’t have thought those were very logical weapons to choose. They seemed to be an era or two behind, but they blended into the Russian battlefield that was the remains of the base that was spewing flames and smoke. He felt the same pressure from them that he did from Unabara.

There was something about them.

But that wasn’t his top priority.

He held a girl known as Last Order.

She was unconscious and lying limply in his arm.

Because he was holding her in one arm, he might damage Last Order if he used his reflection over his entire body. He had to focus on how he used his power.

He walked on his own two legs.

To make sure he did not hurt Last Order, he intentionally lowered his defenses.

“...”

Accelerator thought for a second and frowned.

Then he took action.

He focused his vector transformation power in his right hand for the purpose of attacking.

With a tremendous noise, he altered the vectors for his leg strength to shoot forward like a thrown spear. He headed for the man closest to him.

He stuck his right hand forward.

He just barely brushed the man, but the man flew over 10 meters before landing.

The man yelled out a word as he flew backwards.

“Vodyanoy!!”

It was most likely a codename.

The group faltered at the sight of the sudden damage to their companion, but they started moving shortly thereafter. The woman standing diagonally back in Accelerator’s blind spot—probably the Vodyanoy the man had mentioned—made an odd motion with her fingers.

Immediately afterwards, the snow around her melted and turned into a spear of water that flew towards Accelerator.

The mysterious attack was not from a bullet or a bomb.

A normal person would have been too surprised to react and simply been skewered. However, Accelerator was not bothered by it. He himself was a mass of the mysterious.

He held up his right hand, the sole area his reflection was activated on.

The water spear was smashed to pieces.

The water turned to a rainbow of light that flowed diagonally back from his right hand. It acted as a wall of pressure that knocked away 4 of 5 of Vodyanoy’s comrades.

Accelerator had blocked the attack, but he frowned.

He couldn’t figure it out.

If his reflection had succeeded, the water spear should have head straight back at Vodyanoy and pierced her arm. Instead, it had gone astray and had disintegrated into a rainbow of light. It had been an odd phenomenon. It hadn’t been something like steam created from water or ice. Accelerator had caused the reflection but he didn’t understand the process by which it had turned to light.

(...What...?)

It felt like having something you had grabbed with the tips of your fingers slipping away.

When he reflected teleportation powers, a strange phenomenon occurred in the 3 dimensional world, but this had felt entirely different.

However, he did not have time to think about it.

Vodyanoy seemed confused, too. As if to check what had happened, she created the exact same water spear once more. She watched him carefully as the attack hit as if looking for a way through his defenses.

This was convenient for Accelerator.

He held his palm forward and the water spear turned to rainbow-colored light once more.

However, something was different from the previous time.

One portion of the rainbow-colored light almost scratched Last Order’s cheek.

“...You need to be careful.”

A tremendous noise rang out.

It was the sound of Accelerator lightly stepping on the ground and causing a huge tsunami of snow to rise up. It swallowed up Vodyanoy and the others. Unlike a normal tsunami, it had overwhelming speed. It was faster than Vodyanoy and the others and the wall of snow knocked the attackers unconscious.

“Yeah, the right hand just doesn’t suit me.”

Checking that he had taken care of all the enemies, Accelerator flipped the electrode’s switch and thought for a bit.

What had that water spear been?

The grasp of its vectors had been completely different from the scientific powers developed in Academy City.

Different vectors.

Different laws.

Accelerator was reminded of the pieces of parchment he had found in the freight train.

They had asked him if he had attacked the base and if he was with Academy City. That meant they were likely with Russia and not Academy City’s underworld.

They may know something about the parchment.

They might even know what the pieces of parchment were used for.

There was a chance that would lead to a means of saving Last Order from the critical situation she was in.

(What a pain in the ass...)

It seemed he had to speak with the attackers he had knocked unconscious.

He had to make sure he didn’t inadvertently kill them.

Suddenly, Accelerator stopped moving and looked up.

One of Academy City’s supersonic bombers was flying through the sky. That alone was fairly common due to the war. However, the bomber dropped something above the ruins of the base. It wasn’t a parachute. It was something equipped with glider wings that looked like a complex hang glider.

He could see a human figure.

He didn’t think any further than that.

It was an enemy.

He clicked his tongue once as he came to that conclusion.

Immediately afterwards, Accelerator hit the switch on his electrode and kicked some pebbles at his feet.

With an explosive noise, the glider was shot down.

However, the figure did not fall down and strike the ground.

He saw some purple electricity sparking.

The figure’s speed lowered in stages as it fell and finally landed softly on the ground.

(...The person detonated the air?)

Accelerator gave that guess as to what the figure had done, but it didn’t surprise him.

After all, he himself had once jumped out of a bomber over the French city of Avignon without a parachute.

What he was interested in was the power the figure had used.

Electricity.

And it was a power Accelerator was quite familiar with.

“Who are you?”

The figure was dressed in white battle clothing that matched the snowy plain. The figure had special goggles that covered its entire face like a mask. He couldn’t tell where the figure’s eyes or nose were. The flat mask had nothing on it but 8 small lenses placed in a circle like the face of an analog clock. The figure’s clothing had no gaps in it and could have hidden all sorts of things within. As such, he couldn’t be sure at first glance, but the figure appeared to be a girl of about high school age.

An odd nervousness ran through Accelerator.

The white skin of her ear that could be seen sticking out from the mask and the swaying of the brown shoulder-length hair gave Accelerator a very bad feeling.

That’s right. He had a feeling that she looked a lot like the small girl he held in his arms.

“Who are you!?”

The white figure did not remove her mask.

He could not see her expression.

The lenses arranged like a clock face moved slightly and she responded.

“Would it be enough to tell you Misaka is from the Third Season?”

Accelerator thought his breathing had completely stopped.

However, the girl who had referred to herself as “Misaka” continued.

“Hi there. Misaka has come to kill you, #1. Misaka doesn’t really care about what happens with this war. No orders like that were input into her. Misaka’s goal is nothing more than killing the #1. That is the reason—the sole reason—Misaka was taken from the cultivation device.”

Between the lines 2

She tried to look into it, but it wasn’t really something she could just look into.

(...Well, I suppose that should be obvious.)

Misaka Mikoto looked away from the PDA and sighed.

She had been trying to take classified information from the Bank, but the situation was different from usual. The security had been tightened quite a bit. The fact that they were at war was cropping up in places she hadn’t expected at all.

That was just how valuable the information she was trying to get at was.

If the details of a mission were leaked out, a lot of people’s lives would be at risk.

But she had managed to get some information.

She had been able to get a few things that weren’t related to the war.

During the large-scale sports festival known as the Daihaseisai, Misaka Mikoto had watched Kamijou Touma’s school compete. In other words, she knew the name of his school. She had checked the attendance records for the school and he hadn’t been there since the day he had called her “from London”.

When she checked the records further, she found out he had missed quite a few days even before that. He was definitely going to have to take supplementary lessons. It seemed very odd to her. Normally, there would have been some signs of him struggling in an attempt to prevent that from happening. It was just too weird that he hadn’t been there a single time since that day.

That boy might really not be in Academy City.

If what he had said on the phone was true, he might not even be in Japan.

England was a good distance from Russia where the heart of the war was, but that was no proof that he wouldn’t get caught up in the war. After all, the war was on a worldwide scale. Safe places were the exception. Academy City may have seemed peaceful, but that was because the ballistic missiles were being intercepted. Trying to find a “safe place” may have been hopeless.

(...What do I do? Do I try to go deeper for information because I know he’s in a certain level of danger?)

Mikoto seriously started thinking about that, but then she gave a deep breath. She could tell her blood was rushing to her head. Even if she was going to attempt to hack in, she would certainly fail in that mental state. She decided to take a break and rest her head before trying again.

Mikoto switched the PDA over to the 1seg television.

Most of what was airing was news about the war. A lot of normal programming had been interrupted. Some variety programs were airing, but there was something awkward about them. They were avoiding the use of words that were related to war or would remind people of war.

Nothing showing would help her rest.

Mikoto started thinking it would be better to switch over to the browser and watch an internet show, but then her index finger operating the touchscreen froze.

The announcer on the news program was explaining the situation in the snowy Russia. There was no text saying it was a live broadcast, so the footage must have been taken a bit ago.

Someone could just barely be seen at the edge of the screen.

Who was that spiky haired boy who had a Gekota strap hanging out of his pants pocket?