CHAPTER 8

A Reason to Clench Your Right Fist
Light_of_a_Night_Sky.

1

“Touma’s missing?” Touya Kamijou asked as the sun was setting on the field.

The game was over, and the students were on their way out. The spectators were shuffling toward the exit as well, a chaos of murmuring filling the air. As several Anti-Skill officers waved their arms at regular intervals to guide the people on, Touya and his wife, Shiina, stood by themselves. Like a branch stuck in the flow of a river of people.

A teacher from Academy City stood in front of them.

She was only 135 centimeters tall, but unbelievably, she was Touma Kamijou’s homeroom teacher. They’d met her for a conference for his first semester, so Kamijou’s two guardians were not very surprised by the teacher wearing a light-green and white cheerleading outfit. She seemed to have changed once, and the smell of insect repellent wafted from the uniform.

But that wasn’t important right now.

“Oh my,” Shiina said, a bit worried. “What do you mean our son hasn’t been participating? He hasn’t withdrawn due to injury or sudden illness, has he?”

She’d been the first one to notice something odd. Earlier, she’d mentioned she didn’t see her son anywhere in the team events. The two of them had been depressed, though, thinking it was their fault for not being able to spot him and that they were terrible parents for it.

But after this event, they were sure of it. It was the Spoon Race, when players had to run one hundred meters holding a two-centimeter gumball in a spoon. It had been an extremely heartwarming sight, with students using telekinesis to keep the gumballs in place or pyrokinesis to blast their opponents’ gumballs away from them—but they didn’t see Touma Kamijou anywhere this time, either.

In team games, he might have been hidden among everyone. But this was a track-and-field event, so it was impossible to miss anything if they watched it all the way through. Now a little curious, Touya and Shiina had gone to their son’s homeroom teacher and asked about it.

Komoe Tsukuyomi, clad in her cheerleading uniform, was in a flurry, her face pale. She hurriedly waved around her pom-pom-covered hands. “Um, well, you see, I put in a request with Anti-Skill to look for him, but…”

Shiina frowned. “Anti-Skill? The…city’s police force, right? Did my son get involved in something bad, and now he can’t participate?”

“N-no, that’s not it. He was running around with a priest earlier, quite energetically. I don’t think he’s in any kind of dangerous situation, but…”

“??? You mean you’ve seen him in the city?” Shiina tilted her head in confusion—that didn’t have much to do with it.

Her motion was nonchalant, but Miss Komoe’s shoulders drooped. “…I’m sorry. You entrusted me with your precious child, and now I don’t know where he is or what he’s doing.”

“Well, no, that’s…” Touya and Shiina exchanged worried glances as Miss Komoe bowed to them and held the pose. The couple understood their son’s personality and predisposition (though they didn’t necessarily agree with either of them), so they hadn’t been blaming the teacher—just looking for an explanation of the situation.

“…(And now you’re making a woman worry without even being here, Touma? Yeah. That talent of yours is tried and true.)”

“Oh my. Touya, did you say something?”

“No, nothing.”

“I do think Touma got it from you, Touya.”

“Why are you giving me such a scary look while you say that, dear?” With the negativity pointed at him now, Touya took a quick step away from Shiina. Then he turned back to Miss Komoe, who was still locked in her bow, seeming like she was about to burst into tears. “Err, just one question. Please raise your head.”

“Oh, um, yes. What is it?”

“Touma is doing this of his own accord, right? Nobody’s dragging him around or anything?”

“Y-yes, that’s right.”

There was a moment’s hesitation in her reply.

She’d already mentioned she’d seen their son, so maybe she knew what was going on. Was the reluctance from being unable to tell Touya that whatever it was deeply involved their son or perhaps another student?

What a kind teacher. Touya nodded to himself, and didn’t pursue the point any further.

“Then…” Touya Kamijou looked up. As he gazed at the evening sky and at the first star that had just begun to shine, he said, “That means whatever it is, it’s more important to Touma than the events.”

His voice sounded just a bit like he’d thought of a bitter memory.

“If that’s the case, then I suppose I don’t see a reason to stop him.”

2

The sky was already showing deep-orange colors.

The asphalt ground seemed like someone had taken a blackboard eraser and erased all the nature originally there. There were no signs of plant life, nothing to block the wind, as a calm current of air brushed against her cheek. It smelled slightly of machine oil—one of the unique traits of this country’s cities.

Roar!! An explosive sound came from overhead.

She looked up to see the bulk of a passenger aircraft fluttering quite low in the air. Many airplanes were coming and going, most likely due to the Daihasei Festival.

There was nobody around.

The first reason was that this wasn’t the sort of place one would invite people to. And the second reason, perhaps, was that the Daihasei Festival, a world-scale sporting event, was currently going on. You could spend your day a hundred times more meaningfully by obediently going to a field or stadium instead of coming to a place like this.

So her shadow was the only one clinging to the asphalt.

It grew ever larger as the sun set in the west, taking the form of a woman bearing a large cross on her shoulders. The one creating the shadow slowly let the cross down from her shoulders, then placed a hand on the white cloth wrapping it.

The fabric came off with a tear.

The cloth looked like thick bandages. It came off like the ribbon on a present, offering no resistance as it left the cross. The cloth rustled as everything completely guarding the cross came away quickly and without resistance. Inside could be seen the true form of the cross.

The Croce di Pietro.

A pure-white marble cross, 150 centimeters tall, 70 wide, and 10 thick. The lower tip of the cross had been sharpened roughly like a shaved pencil.

Simply looking at it made one feel the weight of the heavy stone. In spite of the eighteen hundred years it had spent on this earth, it had retained the look and feel of a brand-new object just taken out of a mold. It was made of marble, but if many human hands had touched it over the centuries, that by itself should have begun shaving away the surface.

Its preservative qualities were not due to a Soul Arm’s defensive properties. It was a simpler reason: It had never been opened to the public ever before in history.

Like a noble daughter brought up with tender care, the cross was white and had no blemishes. She checked her grip on it. She slowly lifted the stark and smooth cross once. She felt the marble’s particular weight come up her arms and into her back, down to her waist, and then down to her feet.

All of these she ignored, as she quickly swung the cross back down.

Enormous mass, outstanding speed, and a sharpened tip.

The Croce di Pietro had all of these as it effortlessly pierced the asphalt and drove deep into the lands of Japan’s principal city.

“Please grant us the protection of the twelve holy apostles—so that the skies in the heavens will be changed to a roof over our heads and create a safe haven in this land!”

As she spoke the unchanging incantation to use the Croce di Pietro, her tone was very different from usual.

The cross sticking in the asphalt ground moved of its own accord. Slowly, like sinking into the mud, it began to change its angle.

She looked up at the sky.

It was not yet entirely night, but the first star of the evening was already there, twinkling.

“Well, all right then.”

Alone, a sorcerer spoke on the large experimental airport runway.

No one was allowed into this area, which looked like a flat plain made of asphalt. An endlessly flat and gray land, stretching beyond the horizon.

“I’m all set here. I guess the world’s going to change in a handful of minutes.”

3

School District 23 was a sight to behold even for someone from Academy City.

This is a lot to take in…, thought Kamijou as he left the terminal station with Stiyl and Tsuchimikado.

He could see the horizon, slightly round, like he might with pastureland in another country. The horizon wasn’t green, however, like on a farm. It was black and gray with asphalt and concrete. Runways and rocket launch sites took up the greater part of the plot of land. High fences slashing across its borders cordoned off the endlessly flat land.

The control towers and test facilities were quite large as well, all many times the size of gymnasiums in Academy City. But the runways nearby were so large, the buildings just looked like they were standing in the middle of nowhere, which made it hard to tell how big they were.

Tsuchimikado looked over at the bus stop at the front of the terminal station.

“…It might be one big military secret, but there are buses going to the civilian airport. And they need drivers, nya~. People to watch if an industry spy gets off in the middle of the route.”

An airplane’s engine roar drowned him out. Kamijou looked up on reflex. Three light aircraft were slowly banking through the air.

“The basis of the security here is in the sky. They’ve gotta watch a lot more than lookouts and guards can see, nya~.”

It did seem pretty hard for one person to get a look at everything, considering the area stretched over the horizon. Plus, the entire area was filled with smooth runways, meaning there were no shadows to hide in. No way to escape the eyes in the sky.

“But then she wouldn’t be able to get to the Tetsumi-whatever airport, would she?”

“But the fact is, she already did somehow,” added Stiyl. “Tsuchimikado, if there’s a way, tell us now. We don’t have much time.”

“Nya~. I’ve got something we can use,” Tsuchimikado said, pointing overhead.

There was a huge roar across the air right above them. This time it wasn’t a light aircraft but a huge passenger airplane with four engines. As it scattered its roaring noises behind it, it slowly descended to a runway in the civilian international airport.

“When another plane shows up, the surveillance machine patrol routes are programmed to change so they don’t run into one another in midair. And…” Tsuchimikado paused as another passenger plane, followed by smaller experimental planes, all tore through the air above them in sequence. “…The sky here is pretty crowded. If we watch the passenger planes and run in at the right time, we can make it past the overhead surveillance. The Tetsumi Aeronautical Technology Laboratory Testing Airport is real close to here, so I’m pretty sure we can get there on foot, nya~.”

With all that said and done, Kamijou and the others ran across the gray flatlands.

Tsuchimikado was in the lead, but sometimes he would tilt in a direction like he’d lost his balance. Kind of like when people start to doze off in the middle of class. But even in that state, he’d leave Kamijou behind if he wasn’t paying attention. That’s how high his physical abilities were.

With Tsuchimikado as the vanguard, they dashed straight underneath the countless planes flying around above them. Maybe they were avoiding the surveillance craft, but Kamijou thought it was thrilling in a few different ways, running over the horizon, across this place with no obstacles.

There was nowhere to hide, but Oriana was nowhere in sight. She’d probably already arrived at the point.

Kamijou took out his cell phone as he ran. The screen informed him that it was five forty PM. Time runs out in…anywhere from twenty minutes to eighty minutes, huh? That was how much time remained until the Croce di Pietro’s activation. After it was used, Academy City would be placed under undeniable control without so much as a peep. And even then, the story went that no matter how unfairly oppressed people were, it would affect their mental processes—they wouldn’t feel like anything was wrong.

He was impatient, but that wasn’t going to do anything to change the flow of time. Meanwhile, they had approached a fence going straight through the vast gray area. The Tetsumi Aeronautical Technology Laboratory Testing Airport where Oriana waited was probably on the other side.

They charged for the fence—a chain-link one about two meters high. Tsuchimikado jumped onto it with his hands and feet, but the instant he tried to fling himself up and over, something happened.

Something glinted in the corner of Kamijou’s eye. Something stuck between the wires of the fence. Something slightly wet with saliva. A flash card.

Normally Tsuchimikado was careful enough not to overlook these things. Was his pain affecting his mind?

“Tsu—” shouted Kamijou in spite of himself. Before he could get out the rest of his name…

Roar!!

…the entire fence in front of them turned orange with heat.

Tsuchimikado’s body, attached to the fence by his limbs, jumped as if electricity had shocked him. He frantically removed himself from the fence, then rolled onto the ground to gain distance. He’d let go of the thick Daihasei Festival pamphlet from the shock. No sooner did he see smoke billow from it than it burst into flames.

“Gahhhh!!”

A horrible shhhhhhhh noise came from Tsuchimikado’s hands and feet. An incense-like trail of thin smoke wafted from them. He squeezed his eyes shut behind his sunglasses and clenched his teeth as hard as he could.

Had the fence burned his hands and feet? Tsuchimikado mainly did hand-to-hand combat, so that was like breaking every weapon in his arsenal.

Teeth clenched, he tried to stand, but his wrists and ankles looked like they were locked up tight. He moved once as if struggling in a pit of mud, but despite his spirit, he couldn’t get up.

“Kammy, go…,” he said, holding his one ruined hand with his other. “…No point wasting time here. Destroy that page, and then take Stiyl in!”

“What are you going to do? Right, Stiyl! Can’t you heal him with your magic?!”

“Yes, if it’s just burns, I can, but…” Stiyl looked away from Tsuchimikado to what was past the fence. “…They’re not going to wait for us! Get your right hand ready, Touma Kamijou!”

“?!” Kamijou whipped around.

Past the fence. More than five hundred meters away. Leaning against the wall of a building facing a small runway—a woman with long blond hair.

Oriana Thomson, her metal ring–bound flash cards sitting in her hands.

She quietly brought them to her mouth as Stiyl shouted, “Touma Kamijou!”

“I got it!!”

Kamijou fired off a punch at the flash-card page stuck in the fence. The red heat shimmer instantly cooled to its original temperature and dimmed. They didn’t waste time making sure, though. They both latched onto the fence.

If Oriana gets a head start on us…Tsuchimikado’s arms and legs are shot! He won’t be able to avoid it! They pulled themselves up in one burst. That means we have to attack her first! No more victims. No more victims like Fukiyose and Himegami, damn it!!

They jumped over. At the same moment, Oriana, far in the distance, bit off a flash-card page and crushed it between her teeth.

Her spell activated. Oriana began to shine in a pale-blue light as she raised her arms and twirled in place like she was showing off clothes she’d just bought.

A moment later…

Thud!! An enormous sound came from Oriana, five hundred meters away. The air around her in a sphere had churned. A giant invisible hammer shot toward them in defiance of the distance. It rotated clockwise as it spun toward them, its force utterly destroying the building she’d been leaning against. It plunged toward Kamijou, turning over the asphalt as it went.

“!!”

Kamijou’s right hand shot up instantly.

With a skree, the high-pressure wall was blown away, still invisible. Five hundred meters away, the tiny Oriana, clearly irritated, brought her flash cards back up. However, the asphalt was still spraying. The wave of stone in the wake of the hammer closed in on him.

“AFIMH. (A flame in my hand.) ISITOAS. (Its shape is that of a sword.) AIRITC! (And its role is to convict!)”

Rune-engraved cards danced through the air.

At the same time, a red sword of flame burst forth from Stiyl’s right hand. He swung it horizontally at the incoming wave of stone. Ignoring Kamijou right next to him, for the most part.

“Agh!!” Kamijou quickly crouched, and a moment later, the tip of the flame sword collided with the stone fragments. Then, the flame lost its form and the whole thing exploded. The explosion had been directed away from them, so it spared Kamijou, who was directly under it. It wiped out the wall of asphalt stretching toward them, blowing it away.

Kamijou almost lost his balance, but he managed to not fall as he began to run forward again.

Stiyl muttered a new incantation under his breath and created a new flame sword in his right hand.

Oriana toyed with the ring of flash cards in her hand.

The three’s clash had begun.

The current time was five fifty PM. They would run out of time between ten and seventy minutes from now.

4

As Kamijou and Stiyl closed the distance to Oriana, she stood in an experimental airport. The projects there seemed to be on break for the duration of the Daihasei Festival—nobody was doing work on the runways, and no lights illuminated the buildings on the premises.

It wasn’t as large as an international airport. Instead, its small runways were likely used for personal light aircraft to take off and land. Three straight runways, each thirty meters wide and seven hundred long, were lined up next to one another.

In terms of buildings, there were towers on either side of the runways, plus semicylindrical hangars for vehicle maintenance. The place seemed more for runway-related research than aircraft studies; each of the three runways had giant fans, catapults, and other add-on units attached to or embedded in them.

However, with the attack Oriana had just unleashed, the control towers had been crushed from their foundations, the hangars blown away along with the experimental craft within, and the asphalt mangled like plowed earth.

The rubble was like a bombing site’s ground zero. Both Kamijou and Stiyl ran through it. They were about three hundred meters away now.

“Mm-hm.”

Despite the situation, Oriana Thomson gave a chuckle. Two hundred fifty meters between them now.

“And I was just starting to think going at it with another girl would be fun. I guess the saint isn’t coming after all.”

She began to bring the ring of flash cards in her hand up to her mouth. Two hundred meters now.

“No more Anti-Skill officers or backup sorcerers, either. Hee-hee. This would be more fun with a bigger audience.”

She smiled. No, smirked. A very thin, sideways smirk. One hundred fifty meters.

“Ah-ha-ha! I guess it’s just those three! Well, well! They just can’t get enough of me!!”

Shouting gleefully, she crushed a flash card in her teeth. One hundred meters exactly now.

“And one of them already retired! I thought he was the smart one…but maybe he put himself in the most dangerous spot so his friends wouldn’t get caught in my trap! Ah-ha-ha-ha!!”

Smash!! The sound of glass breaking spread out from Oriana in all directions. The sonic mass bounced back to her after a second like an echo.

A moment after that.

Everything fell silent.

Several passenger aircrafts were coming and going in the sky, but now they were silent, as though something had blocked the sounds. As though someone had just put a TV on mute.

Stiyl took out a rune card as he ran next to Kamijou. “A barrier! The kind that blocks all communication, physical or magical!”

“?!” Kamijou considered looking around to confirm it, but their enemy was right there. He didn’t ask Stiyl to repeat that, either. Side by side, they charged at Oriana. Without breaking her smile, she, with flash-card ring in hand, accelerated toward them to match.

The one hundred meters closed in an instant.

Kamijou and Stiyl moved to either side of Oriana to attack. Stiyl’s flame sword had a longer reach, so his attack would land first even if they started at the same time.

“Sshhhn!!” Exhaling sharply, he swung the flame sword straight down on her.

Oriana giggled. “Mm-hm!” Then she crushed another flash card in her mouth.

An orb of water the size of a basketball appeared in her right hand. She used it to catch Stiyl’s flame sword as it came down.

There was no explosion. Before it could happen, Oriana’s orb twisted and morphed, wrapping itself around the blade.

“!!” Stiyl didn’t have time to be surprised as the watery vines quickly crawled down the sword and punished his wrist for his hostility. Then it coiled up his arm to his shoulder and began to envelop his whole body from head to toe. Now covered in a three-centimeter-thick aquatic film, Stiyl fell to the ground, unable to keep his balance. His free hand clutched at his throat.

He’s going to suffocate like that!

“Stiyl!!” Kamijou turned away from Oriana and tried to reach out to help him.

“Oh! I’m not sensitive enough for a little side job to satisfy me!”

Her left roundhouse slammed into Kamijou’s side. His body screeched to a halt.

“Urgh!!”

When he tried to straighten, Oriana forcefully rammed her shoulder into Kamijou’s chest. He managed to hold up both hands, but the impact came from above his guard. Her tackle could have broken down a door, and it sent Kamijou flying right back where he’d come. Every time his body bounced on the jagged asphalt, intense pain shot through him.

Oriana watched him go down, then picked out another flash card with her lips.

Before she could crunch down on it, though…

“BTP!! (Break to pieces!!)”

With a shout, Stiyl, who’d been on the ground right next to Oriana, made his flame sword explode. The watery matter constricting him splashed away.

He created a new flame sword in his right hand, then stabbed upward at Oriana from below. As its tip went toward her chest, Oriana retreated with her left foot. The action made it look like she was turning to give someone room in a narrow passage. That was all she needed to do to dodge Stiyl’s thrust.

Instead, Oriana’s hand, still holding her ring of flash cards, shot toward Stiyl’s jaw. Her hand was only lightly clenched, a move that in another situation might have looked like she wanted to shake hands. Stiyl, however, was already going in that direction from his own attack, and he plunged into the fist with all his weight behind him.

Whack!! came the splitting noise.

Stiyl’s upper body careened backward before he slumped to the ground without resistance. The flame sword in his hand vanished as though the gas had been cut off. Oriana looked away from him, then gave Kamijou a comfortable smile. Despite the enemy no longer paying attention to him, Stiyl didn’t look about to pull a surprise attack on her. His black clothing and red hair just lay there, fluttering, as though the weak wind were mocking him.

“Shit!” Kamijou hurried to get up, but he staggered.

Oriana watched him and smiled thinly. “Quick to drop to your knees as always, I see. Don’t you think it’s a little soon for a child such as yourself to exchange blows with me?”

“Shut…up!”

Kamijou opened his hands, then clenched them into fists again. He could make fists. His feet could run. His body could still move.

“I’m stopping you right here. I won’t let you use the Croce di Pietro, either. If you’re gonna wreck Academy City and ruin the Daihasei Festival, then I’ll stop you no matter what.”

“Wreck it? How cruel. I think I have the best role here, in fact. I don’t know what the English Puritan Church wants you to believe, but the Croce di Pietro doesn’t do anything bad. All religions desire individual and world happiness. The Croce di Pietro will change everything so that it will go that religion’s way. It’ll tear down the walls between sorcery and science. It might lead to world peace and happiness, you know!”

As Oriana spoke, fingering the ring of flash cards in her hand, the corners of Kamijou’s mouth turned up. He looked over the destroyed runways, then smiled like a savage. “That’d be nice. Never seen a wall between sorcery and science myself, so I don’t get it, but it sure sounds nice, anyway…But listen to me.”

He stopped there, sparing a glance at the collapsed Stiyl. He tightened five fingers.

Then he clenched that fist even harder.

There were other things he could use his hand for. But right now it was just a weapon.

He spoke. “I never thought this whole balance between science and magic or the right to control the world was important in the first place. What bothers me is that you’re trying to use the Croce di Pietro here and now. Do you understand what that really means?”

She giggled. “Of course. What do you think I’ve been trying so hard for this whole time? I want to subjugate Academy City with the Croce di Pietro. But you don’t need to worry. I guess subjugate is a mean-sounding word, though. When everyone is happy, nobody will doubt why they’re happy. It’s such a convenient world waiting for us, a wonderful—”

“That’s not what I was asking you!” he shouted, anger rich in his voice. It quietly and surely fueled his fist with power. “That isn’t what I meant at all. I’m worried about you ruining the Daihasei Festival, you dimwit! Do you get it now?! Science and magic? Sorcerers? The Roman Orthodox Church? The Croce di Pietro? Legendary Soul Arms? They’re all bullshit decorations that don’t mean anything, so stop lying to me!! You think it’s okay to beat people up because your argument happens to make sense?! Anyway, your argument is totally illogical! It doesn’t make any goddamn sense!!”

He shouted, baring his canines at the enemy he saw before him.

“The stuff I think about might not mean much compared to those crazy dreams you like to spout. But even a total amateur like me has pride, and I’ve got a few things to say to you.” His words flew straight toward Oriana. “Tons of people have been working really hard for the Daihasei Festival. All to commemorate this one day! Tons of people came out to see it. All to enjoy this one day! Tons of people are taking part in it. All to give it everything they’ve got on this one day! Why do you two assholes have to destroy all that?!”

Every single one of his words served only to rally the boy further. Touma Kamijou had put all his energy into that question.

“Protect yourself with all the great and powerful religion you want! You think you can win against what I just said? You can’t! Because that’s all your values really are! You’re a worse student than I am for not being able to break such a simple, bland argument! You don’t have the fucking right to take away what other people really care about!!”

“…Thank you for your tiny little opinions.”

The gleeful light disappeared from Oriana’s eyes. Her face drained of amusement but retained its smile. A dry smile.

“But did you think such a petty, emotional argument would shake me? If my sense of purpose was weak enough that that would hurt it, I wouldn’t have done anything to begin with.” She rolled her flash cards around in her hand. “I won’t be stopped here. I won’t stop like you want me to. Understand?”

“…Is that all?”

“What?” Oriana knitted her eyebrows.

“I don’t know what you’re trying to tell me, and I don’t give a shit about what you’re trying to do to me, either. None of it’s important.”

He paused for a moment.

“But could you say the same thing to the people you hurt? To Fukiyose and Himegami?”

Oriana Thomson, for that one moment, was silent. Her cheeks stiffened just slightly—an expression other than a smile this time.

“That’s really all I wanted to say. If you promise not to do anything else, I’ll stop chasing you. Take your Croce di Pietro and go home.”

Kamijou brought up his right fist. And then he continued.

“But if you’re still gonna do something to this city…If you’re still gonna wave around your stupid magic at the people you hurt, people who can’t move anymore…”

There was a light in his eyes—the powerful glint of determination.

“…then I’ll take that naive illusion of yours and break it into a million pieces right here.”

5

The sky was dyed in red. The current time was six PM. Sometime during the next hour, the Croce di Pietro, wherever it was, would activate. It could be in five minutes, or it could be in exactly an hour.

As the orange in the sky steadily shifted to purple, the first star hung in it, alone. There was only one star out. It wasn’t enough to determine where the constellations, made of many lights, were positioned.

In this world, nobody knew when everything would come to an end.

And in this world, Touma Kamijou and Oriana Thomson clashed head-on.

“!!”

About three meters separated them. As Kamijou chased her around with a clenched fist, Oriana moved back to keep just enough distance between them, simultaneously crushing a flash card in her mouth.

A spell activated.

It created an unnatural blue wall of flame, which burst out of the ground between the two of them. But he stepped in anyway, thrusting his right fist at the wall of fire.

Fwooo.

The wall of fire bent inward as though retreating from his fist.

“?!”

Kamijou’s fist caught only air as the flaming wall bent around, then rushed out to either side, trying to envelop his body. His weight was already tilted ahead of him, and at this point, he couldn’t leap back. But his fist still wasn’t going to connect. He didn’t even have time to swing his fist to either side. Which meant one thing.

Keep going…

As the flaming barrier threatened to engulf his feet, he urged them on.

Keep going forward!!

Like an arrow, he plunged ahead, his fist shooting toward the deepest part of the wall’s corner.

Pop!! With the sound of a balloon popping, the flame wall shattered to pieces.

Oriana Thomson was on the other side. She bit off another flash card, aiming only at Kamijou, ignoring Stiyl, who had collapsed at her feet.

A moment before her spell activated, though, Kamijou made it in close. The blade of asphalt she’d planned to fire shot out of the ground in the wrong direction. It was like a large cannon trying to fire at an enemy outside its maximum angle of inclination.

This time, he tightened his right fist and threw it directly at Oriana’s face.

It didn’t connect.

Before it could, Oriana used one of her long legs to sweep one of Kamijou’s out from underneath him, from inside to out. His body lurched, losing its balance. His fist struck only air. Trying to at least avoid falling down, he dropped to one knee.

“Oh, what a good spot for your head to be. ”

Wham!! Oriana delivered a middle kick to the side of his head. Kamijou grunted as it connected and threw him off balance. The roundhouse sent him flying to the side.

It’s not…enough…

Kamijou used the force of his roll to spring back to his feet just as Oriana was biting off another flash card. A glass bullet the size of a softball appeared in her hand and fired at him. He grabbed a piece of the asphalt at his feet and hurled it at the incoming attack.

Ksshhhh!! The glass bullet burst apart. Its fragments all aimed inward, piercing through the asphalt he’d thrown, the entire assembly falling straight to the ground.

This…isn’t enough.

Kamijou used the opening to run at Oriana.

But with incredible speed, Oriana made it to him first.

“Wha…?!”

There was no time to dodge or defend himself.

She was so close she was practically touching him. She crushed another flash card in her mouth. Her hand gently stroked Kamijou from his gut up to his chest.

A moment later.

He felt a mad rushing of wind. Fssh!! With a sharp sound, his body doubled over, then rotated into the air around his solar plexus. A strong urge to vomit made it to his throat. Once his feet floated about forty centimeters off the ground, when he could no longer use his body to move himself…

“There! ”

With an idiotic shout, Oriana drove her clenched fist into the pit of his stomach.

“Ack…urgh…!!”

There were cracking noises. Her driving fist slammed his body three meters away.

This…still won’t reach her…!!

He rolled, then put a hand on the ground. His mouth tasted bitter, but he clenched his teeth anyway.

Oriana was skilled at both close combat using her body and long-range attacks using magic. Kamijou could swing around his arms and legs all he wanted in response, but she was always one move ahead. His fist always missed its mark at the last second, like there was some kind of thin, slippery film in the way.

His attacks wouldn’t land on Oriana like this.

No matter how fast he held to her, no matter how much he chased her, no matter how desperately he swung his fist at her.

“Mm-hm! It’s starting to get dark out, isn’t it?”

Oriana Thomson turned toward him. The action looked casual—but at the same time, it left no openings to exploit.

Shit…

It was a little late now, but he finally realized that had been her plan all along. She wouldn’t go for an instant kill with a big move right off the bat. She’d maintain the balance, and as soon as he made an overeager move, she’d come in with a fierce counter. The techniques were probably things she’d acquired because she naturally wanted to conserve her big moves—she couldn’t use a spell more than once, after all.

She wasn’t playing with him. This was the ideal setup for her.

“I think it’s time for kiddies to scurry on home, don’t you? Or were you looking to spend a more stimulating night with me?”

As she made her way toward him, Kamijou, still on the ground, sprang out of his low stance and rushed at her.

The two clashed once again.

Kamijou dodged, parried, but his fist was never able to hit her.

One more…

He clenched his teeth as an attack hammered into him from a blind spot, but he endured the pain.

If I had one more thing…If I had one last move to make…Something…!!

Desperately wishing for something, he swung his fist around.

He continued his attacks, none of them hitting. Like an invisible wall was preventing it.

6

Stiyl Magnus faded in and out of consciousness.

Urgh…He saw the world sideways. He felt a creeping pain in his jaw. He felt his balance wavering. It took three whole seconds for him to realize he’d been defeated.

Strength was beginning to return to his limbs, but he couldn’t move them with any significant speed.

Contrary to his large physique, he wasn’t blessed with the kind of stamina for close combat. Not because he hadn’t trained his body—it was a more fundamental reason.

Using his rune cards and casting encrypted spells used up a huge amount of mana. Mana didn’t just appear out of nowhere without the need to do anything. It was created only after several internal operations.

Even operations that didn’t cause normal sorcerers much difficulty were entirely different when it came to always using Papal-class techniques, such as Stiyl’s Innocentius. Simple activities always tired a person out if they did them over and over again. In the same way, the “operation” of refining mana put a considerable burden on him. That meant his stamina ran out quickly: Essentially, he was always doing two different things. One outside his body and one inside.

Stiyl Magnus wasn’t a blessed saint like Kaori Kanzaki.

He wasn’t a genius sorcerer who had completely mastered one thing, either, like Motoharu Tsuchimikado.

But he still had a reason he needed to fight.

It was for that reason he’d acquired these runic characters, worked them into Crossist culture, and gained the Papal-class spell Innocentius. Even though the price had been an abandonment of all close-combat possibilities and not being able to produce a single flame without a rune card.

Unfortunately, the backlash from that determination was now eating away at him.

Damn…

His consciousness wavered.

Still, he was able to hear the sound of swinging fists and crossing magic. The amateur was still fighting. He was being attacked, pummeled, crushed. And yet he stayed up, didn’t admit defeat, clenched his teeth. He just kept his hand tightened into a fist.

He would never be like that amateur.

No matter how many years of work he put in, he would never again be able to stand where he was.

However.

“OOTFECOTW, TGFOTB…(One of the five elemental components of the world, the great fire of the beginning…)”

He had taken hold of many a skill, all to protect a single girl.

Many spells of fire, for which he had suffered pain and blood to gain, all in order to fight those who would trample her smiling face. The result of having recklessly reached further and further, unaware of the faint emotions pushing him forward.

“…IIBOL, AIITAOE…(It is born of life, and it is the arbiter of evil…)”

Stiyl Magnus knew one thing.

This technique no longer held any value. That young girl had someone to walk with her just fine now. All the techniques he had gained were past their usefulness.

“…IIMH, AIITBOD…(It is mild happiness, and it is the bane of death…)”

But his spells could protect someone other than that girl.

Like the one who had been crying wide-eyed. The one bathed in bloody splatters. The small woman who had placed all her hopes into that entirely meaningless, clumsy spell.

Like the one who had been mistaken for a sorcerer because of the cross at her chest. The one girl who had been lying there in a pool of her own blood.

“…IINF, IIMS…(It is named fire, and it is my sword…)”

Doing so probably wouldn’t grant Stiyl any comfort. It was much like making a cake for someone he loved, and then a complete stranger eating it and complimenting him on how delicious it was. No matter how much they praised him, it wouldn’t fill the holes in his heart. Not ever.

“…ICTIR! (I call thee into reality!)”

But if saving them would keep the smile on that one girl’s face as a result…

If protecting Academy City would lead that one to happiness…

Stiyl Magnus would accept that.

He would wield all his power for someone completely different.

He would accept defeating this enemy now, with those faint emotions still within him.

“MMBFGP (Masticate my body for great power)—Innocentius!!”

Whooosh! A flurry of cards burst out of his habit. The massive runes flew like a blizzard of paper, whirling around his body, then sticking to the broken asphalt around him.

Flames exploded.

They shone in crimson light as they closed in on one another, becoming one. At its center was a human-shaped core, black like oil. And now a flaming titan three thousand degrees Celsius stood next to him.

“…Go, Innocentius…,” he said, slowly getting off the ground. He moved unsteadily, his hands and feet both on the ground. And yet his body and mind never broke.

He called into the sky.

His magic name.

Fortis931.

Innocentius, the Witch-Hunter King, created in desperation, branded with his very soul.

And he wanted one thing from it.

“…Prove why my name is the strongest!!”

7

The sky was colored deep purple.

Like ink bleeding onto the back of a page, little sparkles of light were beginning to appear. There were only two or three right now, but within ten minutes, the sky would probably be full with stars. Their light didn’t begin to shine during the night. More accurate would be to say that they were already shining, and they simply came into view as a result of the sunlight weakening. So, with the passing of certain intervals of time, those stars rated as first-magnitude, second-magnitude, and then third-magnitude would all make their appearances together.

And now, under that canopy, which looked like the night sky’s lights could all scatter at any moment.

Oriana Thomson saw the glint of a flame beginning to cover them, one that would mow down the dusk itself.

“Stiyl!”

Kamijou noticed the same change. Unlike Oriana, however, he grinned madly, shouting the sorcerer’s name but not turning around. As if to answer him, the hellfire brightened fantastically.

“!!”

Oriana was currently backing away from Kamijou, who was chasing her from the front. But now a giant human-shaped flame had gotten behind her. As it sucked in oxygen with a loud roar!! it swung its phantasmal orange arm over its head.

“Look…I’m not into wax play!!” She dodged Kamijou’s fist to the side, then used her momentum to wheel around to his right side—to use him as a shield against the flaming titan attacking from the other side.

“…” Stiyl, a few steps away, frowned. “Die, both of you.”

“Whoa!!” Kamijou frantically cowered. A moment later, Innocentius’s right arm came sweeping across. The strangely long arm singed the tip of the boy’s hair and continued barreling along toward Oriana’s upper body.

The boy was too close. If all that firepower exploded, he’d be caught up in it for sure.

“What…?!” Oriana, surprised at that, tried to take a step back.

“Fire’s dangerous, you idiot!!”

This time, Kamijou let loose an uppercut at the flaming titan’s arm passing overhead. The hellfires didn’t dissipate, but the act abruptly and unnaturally altered their trajectory.

That fire was three thousand degrees Celsius. It could melt flesh just by grazing it. It was truly hellfire.

Ugh!! She knew it wouldn’t hit her, but the unexpected change in movement made her freeze. During that moment, Kamijou lunged toward her and got in close.

Oh shi—

She crossed her arms in front of her right away. But a moment later, his right fist, with all its weight behind it, struck her guard. Thwack!! came a splitting noise. She had no time to escape the impact. Both her arms shook, tingling with pain.

“!!” I can’t stay still, thought Oriana. Her tactic was to maintain distance and counterattack both magically and physically. She didn’t want this to come down to just grappling and boxing. She hated sexual discrimination, but it seemed stupid to her to take on a man whose fighting style revolved around a single fist in a bout of stamina when she used her intelligence to fight.

Instead of moving back in a straight line, she tried to twist backward so Kamijou couldn’t gauge her movement.

“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Squeamish bloody rood!!”

Whoosh!! Another flame whipped up.

From behind Touma Kamijou came a red flame sword on his right and a blue one on his left as Stiyl rushed forward.

Not good…! Oriana tsked. She could take one or two hits from the boy and survive, but those flame swords probably weren’t as forgiving. Their explosive power was more dangerous than any severing they could do. If the flames and bursts from the explosions hit her directly, nothing of hers would be left but bones—or maybe completely incinerated.

I need to deal with the sorcerer first…, thought Oriana, shifting her attention from Kamijou in front of her to Stiyl behind.

But then.

“Urgh…?!”

Blop.

As he ran, Stiyl tripped over a piece of the broken asphalt.

“Just go home already, you klutz of a sorcerer!!” shouted Kamijou, launching his fist again at Oriana’s face.

Startled, Oriana looked back at him and flung her hands in front of her face.

“Quiet, you damn amateur!!”

Stiyl, who was falling behind Kamijou, struck the ground with both flame swords. With the sound of a vicious explosion, the air blast traveled forward like a wall. Kamijou lost his balance as it pushed him forward, and his fist missed its mark.

And went right through the opening in her guard.

A little below her face—to the middle of her chest.

Thud!! There was a noise like stomping on a floor plank.

“Guh…agh…!!”

The blast knocked the wind out of Oriana and sent her flying back. She wheezed, struggling to breathe, as she took the back roll and gained distance. Then she tried to bite off a flash card, but her lips were trembling and not moving how she wanted them to.

Then the attack hit.

The reason was simple. Kamijou couldn’t tell what Stiyl was going to do next.

If each of them was moving alone, Oriana would be able to predict them. She could juggle them and lure them into counterattacks. A flawless victory probably would have been simple. If they teamed up to come at her as a group, it would be just as easy. In fact, they would need to give each other nonverbal cues, which would be even easier for her to read.

Unfortunately…

“Innocentius!” barked Stiyl.

The towering god of flame plunged straight for her. Oriana rolled to the side to dodge just as Stiyl, behind it, muttered an incantation and leaped at her. “Kenaz! Purisaz Naupiz…”

Those were the words he needed to create his flame swords, his main method of attack. Stiyl moved to graze past Kamijou’s side, when…

“Out of the way, idiot!”

“How about you move?!”

With zero teamwork, they collided, each knocking the other forward at an angle. Their ridiculous movements, though, were still aimed at Oriana.

I can’t tell…?! She barely managed to rip off a flash card with her teeth to parry the flame sword with an ice sword of her own. But behind Stiyl, Kamijou was setting up for a tackle. No mercy for his ally. It was more like he was trying to attack Stiyl. The clashing swords made Oriana lean far back. Then, a moment later, Stiyl’s flame sword couldn’t handle what he was making it do, and it shattered, disappearing.

If they’d been in sync while they attacked, that would have been one thing. But they were getting in each other’s way at every turn. It was like she’d been dragged into a fight other people were having.

But that was exactly why they were so hard to read.

They couldn’t focus entirely on Oriana. They were stumbling around. That made the timing of their actual attacks incredibly difficult to see. It was like a bullet ricocheting around a small room.

“Haahhh…!!”

Amid the chaos, Oriana, now leaning far back, still managed to swing her icy sword in a horizontal swipe. She was aiming for Stiyl’s waist.

And this wasn’t her main attack. If Stiyl avoided the ice sword, she would manipulate the ice particles a moment later and change the form of the sword itself to be ready to launch a pursuit attack along his escape route. Though if she did, she ran the risk of breaking her wrist due to the sudden lurch in the sword’s center of gravity.

But I need to hit him! It’s time for me to bring you to your knees!!

The sword of ice reached a breakneck speed and whipped toward Stiyl’s waist from the side.

And a moment before it hit…

“!!”

Kamijou, who had gone around behind him, stopped the ice sword with his right hand. Boom!! Oriana’s weapon shattered on the spot.

You always argue with each other…But now you decide to help each other out?!

Before a look of surprise had time to cross Oriana’s face, Kamijou and Stiyl had already begun to make their next move.

Touma Kamijou crouched down, his right hand at the ready.

Stiyl Magnus, right behind him, clenched his fist as well.

Then, without any signals between them…

…with their almost magnetically repelling natures in combination…

…they launched their attack at the same time.

Their fists flew at her simultaneously.

Oriana immediately considered which to block, but she didn’t make it in time.

Whump!! came a roaring sound.

Struck in both the face and the gut, her body careened backward.

“Ergh…gah…!!”

She slammed into the ground and writhed, aware of how unsightly her dance of pain was. She couldn’t breathe. Her balance was wavering, and the strength had fled from her legs.

Her vision faded in and out, but she still saw it.

They were straight ahead, coming right for her.

She didn’t need to stop to think what was waiting for her if she lowered her guard against these “enemies.” But with all the damage she’d sustained, she couldn’t stand back up. Her head was swimming. She could urge her body to do something, but it didn’t have the energy to.

Will I…lose…?

She saw her flash cards, bound by their metal ring, sitting in front of her on the ground.

It should have been the symbol of her strength.

I…Am I going…to lose…?

The trivial fact caused her hands to weaken even further. She was barely conscious. The exhaustion came over her like a rippling wave, and she was about to surrender herself to it.

But…what about…my standard…?

Something was still nagging at her in the back of her mind as it slipped into the darkness.

A question. She’d lost count of how many times she’d asked it.

She remembered. She almost groaned out the question, but she swallowed it again.

Once again, she experienced the question’s bitterness.

I…I wanted…an absolute reference point…

Everyone would feel differently about a single action Oriana took. Some would thank her, and some would hate her and leave her. Worrying about what was best to do never gave her an answer. If there were as many opinions as there were people, if her actions could mean as many things as there were people, then no matter how firm her internal rules were, the results would always depend completely on the people her actions affected.

Nothing in this world was ever correct.

Not as long as everyone had different opinions.

I don’t care if it’s an emperor, a pope, a president, a head of state, or a prime minister. I’ll fight for anyone’s sake…

She didn’t want to know the answer.

There was no answer. Wasn’t that why she’d decided to create one herself?

The kind nobody would wonder about.

The kind everyone would be satisfied with.

That was why she’d been trying so hard. But what in the world was she doing now?

…So somebody, please, make clear-cut rules. Make everyone happy. Make it so nobody is affected by tragedies born from disagreements of opinions. Create the best world possible!!

The wish once again passed her lips.

And her eyes shot open.

Blood rushed to her head, and the recoil made her heart stamp out a single strong beat.

I’ll win…

Oriana reached to the ground with a shaky hand. Her legs wouldn’t move yet. She hadn’t recovered enough stamina for them to support her body. So she decided on a simpler, more efficient course of action.

I’ll win, and I’ll create my own answer! I am…My name is…

The flash cards, bound by a metal ring, lying on the ground.

Her weapon, once out of her hands—she grabbed it one more time.

“…Basis104!! (The one who carries the cornerstone!!)”

8

Kamijou heard a shout.

It wasn’t Japanese, nor was it simply English. He couldn’t tell what foreign language it was.

But Stiyl realized what the name meant before Kamijou did.

“Get down, you amateur!”

Stiyl rammed into Kamijou’s back. Without watching him stumble and fall to the ground, he called Innocentius, which was standing by. The flame titan moved in front of him to serve as a shield.

Grk.

Oriana Thomson, still on the ground, crushed a flash card in her mouth.

*   *   *

Thud!!

Fresh blood splattered.

Oriana had fired a big sphere of ice, about the size of a soccer ball. It slowly wafted out of her hand, and when it did, it exploded, sending out a rain of sharp fragments in a horizontal fan shape.

The torrent of blades grazed over Kamijou’s head as he was on the ground.

And pierced through Stiyl Magnus behind him.

The sound of the sharp blades stabbing flesh was strangely stiff and dull.

Maybe it was because it broke his bones, too.

Stiyl fell limp to his knees, then face-first on the ground. Blood began oozing out from him. Innocentius squirmed in anguish, then burst apart in all directions and vanished.

He didn’t speak.

He didn’t even groan.

“Sti…”

Kamijou looked up in disbelief.

“Stiiiiiiiyl!!”

“Where are you going?”

As Kamijou tried to run to Stiyl, a voice stopped him.

He turned around. There was Oriana, standing seven meters away. Tightly gripping a flash card in her hand.

“Your opponent…is right here, kid…”

“You…you…”

He didn’t do it consciously, but words still spilled from his mouth.

The purple in the sky was shifting to the deep blue of night. There wasn’t much time left before the constellations appeared. The amateur’s eyes couldn’t tell the exact time the sun would set, but the Croce di Pietro could be used in five minutes.

That was what he should have been most worried about now.

“Give it a fucking rest! How many people do you have to hurt, you bastard?!”

That was the first thing Touma Kamijou shouted. The words came out of his mouth before he could think about them. He couldn’t just leave Stiyl like that. But Oriana wouldn’t give him the time to do any first aid. That meant he needed to eliminate the obstacle.

Oriana smiled at him. “I’m not hurting people because I want to.” Her face was somehow unbound, now missing all the relaxation it had before. “That’s why I’m fighting. It probably seems ridiculous to you, though. But I still have my own goal in mind. Come on, kid. You’re the only playing piece left to defend Academy City. If I get rid of you, my role will be over. Then the Roman Orthodox Church’s Croce di Pietro will create the world I wish for…”

“Goal…? Give me a break…” Kamijou clenched the ten fingers of his hands. “You’re the one letting someone else decide your future for you. Don’t act so high and mighty. Fukiyose collapsed. Himegami almost died. Tsuchimikado’s arms and legs are shot. Stiyl was a shield for me! Are you saying none of that was your intent? That you were just doing what the Church said?! And you’re letting those shallow ideas take away other people’s happiness?!”

“Well, you see…,” Oriana said quietly, carefully getting the right distance. Not because she was relaxed, but to conserve what energy she had left. “…It doesn’t matter who it is. It doesn’t have to be the Roman Orthodox Church. It’s not important who I follow. It’s like picking a politician. Maybe that’s hard for a kid like you to understand. But you know how politicians are different from celebrities, right? You don’t pick a politician because you like them. If they were going to make me happy, I wouldn’t care where they’re from or how high a position they got.”

Her breathing was shallow and ragged as she spoke, like she would cough up blood. It wasn’t that Oriana Thomson had no personal goals—she just didn’t care who she had to follow to accomplish them.

“To be honest, I would have gladly taken Academy City’s side. But I have connections to the magic factions, so I just happened to be going along with them…because the Croce di Pietro will supposedly achieve my goals.”

As Oriana carefully gauged the distance, Kamijou recklessly took a step toward her. “Your goals? What, you gonna conquer the world and become a freaking empress or something?”

She smiled thinly at the difference in their stances. “That’s for those above me to decide. I won’t be unhappy no matter who I’m following. If they’ll protect my way of life, I don’t care who’s in control. Listen, kid. On this whole planet, how many principles, positions, faiths, ideals, rights, wrongs, likes, and dislikes do you think there are?”

“…”

“The answer is a lot. A whole lot. So many, you can’t even count all of them. Those frameworks for faiths, all based on Crossism…Everyone interprets their denomination in their own way even after that, which means every single person has their own fine-tuned set of values. It’s kind of like Oriana Thomson’s version of Roman Orthodoxy.”

Oriana squeezed her flash cards hard enough to crush them. Then, to match Kamijou, she also took a step forward.

“Kid, there are a lot of results you couldn’t even imagine out there. You could give your second-floor bus seat to an old lady, but there might be a spell planted by a terrorist underneath. You could take in a lost child and send her to church, only to realize she was a sorcerer on the run from the English Puritan Church and was dragged by her hair to the Tower of London, only to be told what happened after the fact. Even today. I got a balloon out of a tree branch for someone, but was that really connected to that person’s happiness? I can’t figure it out anymore.”

The words she spoke. She stepped in farther, as though urged on by their strength.

Six meters were between them.

“Can you imagine it, kid? How a person feels when, after everything is over, they learn that there are pitfalls like that in this world? How they feel when they have to take action anyway, and then once again see how people are still being hurt right in front of them? Whatever they do, it’s wrong. But if they don’t do anything, it’s wrong. What do you think I should be doing, then?”

Touma Kamijou listened to those words. And he took another step forward.

Five meters were between them.

“Don’t you think it’s strange? Those who love their neighbor, unable to even protect those standing right next to them. That’s why I’m looking for something—someone to stand above me. Someone ruling over somewhere on this planet, someone whose name and face I don’t even know.”

Oriana found herself clenching her teeth. She stepped forward again as if to discard the bitterness.

Four meters were between them.

“I don’t care who it is. What I want is for them to perfectly rule over all the scattered thoughts and values on the planet.”

That was Oriana Thomson’s goal—to never again be betrayed, after all her kindness had been deceived by a trivial coincidence. To no longer let such a betrayal hurt those standing next to her.

But that goal was too big, and Oriana couldn’t do it herself. That was why she tried to entrust everything to someone stronger, higher, and more skilled.

An absolute reference point. So that the misunderstandings, mistakes, and opposing viewpoints created by those coincidences would never again give birth to tragedy.

“I will protect them.” She stopped—as if to say she’d gone through all the factors she needed to touch upon. “That’s why we’ll use the Croce di Pietro to gain control of Academy City. That way, surely all the scattered, disparate feelings will come together as one.”

She was implying that there was no way he could advance any further. Her goal was correct, and if it would save a lot of people, then there was no way to argue against it. She stood there like a wall, that idea being conveyed without words.

But…

“Is that all your goal is?”

…Kamijou stepped in even farther.

Three meters were between them.

“Then I guess you really are cheap. You’re not a villain, but you’re too worthless to call righteous. You want me to give you everyone in Academy City for such a lame ‘goal’? That’s insane. There’s no way I’ll accept that.”

“What…did you…?” Oriana’s brow fell, as if something weighed down on it. The slight motion began to bring her carefully constructed expression to its knees. “Kid, you can say that only because you haven’t seen it. It’s not a grudge, or a shriek, or an angry yell, or even the voice of someone wanting to be saved…You’ve never seen an expression of pure frustration before! When a ten-year-old child has no hope! When a hundred-year-old man has no despair! They just stand there, able to only watch as things come crashing down around them! You’ve never seen it!!”

“Still.” Kamijou took another step in, cutting her off.

Two meters were between them.

“That doesn’t make it all right to attack Academy City however you want. You can’t use it as logic to exploit other people as stepping-stones for someone else’s sake. Ever.”

There was a young woman called Orsola Aquinas.

The nun Agnes Sanctis had said in the past that she was especially good at spreading the faith to uncivilized lands. That was probably because she tried hard to make even the slightest connection between everyone’s disparate beliefs, principles, faiths, and ideals, so that everyone could live together in peace.

There was a young man called Motoharu Tsuchimikado.

He probably knew that no matter how hard someone tried, they would never completely connect all of society. That’s why he worked in the shadows of Academy City and the English Puritan Church, spending his life to lessen even a little the friction caused by the two societies with different opinions clashing with each other.

Their methods may have been different. But they were all trying to protect the people who lived there.

Thoughts weren’t separated along ridiculous lines like religion or national borders. If your values and principles made you who you were, then everyone had them. Sure, they might cause trouble once in a while, but on the other hand, they were important enough to people to cause trouble over. Kamijou thought it was fine for everyone to have one or two things they weren’t willing to compromise on.

Orsola and Tsuchimikado didn’t try to interfere in the territory of others because they understood that. They could trespass on someone else’s territory, wreck the whole thing, then stomp it into a shape more convenient for them to make things equal. But that would mean compromising their wishes, so they faced the opinions and principles of others in their own ways.

So Kamijou spoke. Because those were his own values, his own principles, his own opinions, which he’d arrived at after being hurt.

“Those problems you have are things everyone feels. And everyone has their own way of dealing with them. Just because you have some big goal doesn’t mean everything you do is unconditionally okay.”

As he spoke, he clenched his fist and moved forward.

Only one meter was between them.

“I don’t know much about people’s principles and positions and values disagreeing with one another. It’s a little complicated for me to wrap my head around. But I don’t want Stiyl or Tsuchimikado to get hurt. I want to go to the night parade with Index and Himegami and everyone. I want to have a good time at the Daihasei Festival events with Blue Hair and Miss Komoe. If you’re gonna make all those feelings one, then I’ll protect them with everything I have.”

His fist was already within range.

“Not everything I do always goes the way I want it to, either. My own actions bit me in the ass that time with Agnes, after all. But why the hell would I just stop there?! If I fail, if I fall flat on my face, I can’t keep on going with things until I pick myself up off the ground!! So stand up and try protecting something again!! Even if you get a terrible result, even if your feelings bite you in the ass, you’re supposed to stand back up and drag everyone out of it!! All that matters is that everyone’s smiling and happy in the end, right?! So don’t throw other people’s lives out the fucking window halfway through!!”

And finally, Touma Kamijou said this:

“…Which will you choose, Oriana Thomson? To leave everything to someone else because you failed once? Or to keep reaching out to the people you failed anyway?!”

Oriana gave a short laugh.

It was a totally normal laugh, without the dangerous, crazed look to it from before.

Then she took a breath.

““!!””

In one motion, she ripped off a flash card with her teeth and crushed it.

A spell activated, but Kamijou swung his right fist before attempting to figure out what it was.

An explosion occurred between them, and the Imagine Breaker’s power caused it to disperse. The aftereffect caused pale-blue glints to shine, and Kamijou took a few steps back in spite of himself. Oriana jumped away as well.

The distance between them grew once again to three meters.

Oriana brought her flash cards to her mouth. But this time, she didn’t crush only one card. All the pages were now off the metal ring.

She’d unleashed dozens of pages at once. She swung her right hand, holding all the pages, to the side.

“Time to end this.”

There was a blizzard of paper.

Above the storm, unleashed like a sword in a straight horizontal line, there were letters.

They were written in black and read ALL OF SYMBOL.

“I command every ability within my body…”

As though answering her, the paper blizzard created a pure-white explosion. All the shining lights then began to be absorbed into Oriana’s right arm, like melted candy twisting out of shape. The lights of the explosion tried to stay, fighting against Oriana’s strong absorption, creating an effect that looked like a thick sheet of rubber being pulled in.

She swung her right hand behind her.

“…to release mind and body and destroy the enemy before me!!”

Then, with a big motion like she was going to throw something, she fired a fierce white explosion at Kamijou.

Oriana heard a huge roar!!

The white lights, stretched out, striating as they swung sideways, retaining their shape. As they went, they didn’t keep one clear form—it was constantly changing its outline to keep itself vague. To match that, the air nearby touched by the explosive lights began to rage with amazing speed. Either light or gravity was being distorted—the scenery behind it all, too, was being warped out of shape.

The white lights were actually a huge attractive force. Anything that touched the loop of light was pulled into it without question, then crushed by immense pressure. That was all it was. By compressing with such speed the objects being crushed, it would look like they were being eaten up.

The gases around it raged, as well as the air left behind in pockets of vacuum. Even the lights and gravity present at the beginning were being taken into it. It was a weapon that would surely kill anything.

All right. As she swung around her greatest spell, constructed after using up all her remaining pages, she gave a boisterous smile. The mass of lights was swinging in from the right, about to ram into Kamijou’s body from the side. She watched as the asphalt danced into the raging storm to be crushed in the lights. Now it’s over!!

The boy unflinchingly waved his right hand to the side to block it.

“Raaahhhhhhhhhhh!!”

He let loose a genuine roar. As soon as it hit his hand, the brilliant white light shattered with the sound of glass breaking.

Then, right after hearing a spray-like noise…

Thud.

Everything the white light had compressed erupted at the same time.

“?!”

The unexpected development overwhelmed Kamijou’s mind.

The air, for example. The gases, compressed to one single point, came bursting out in all directions like a hole in a balloon. They were trying to return to normal, and their force hit Kamijou with an explosive wave.

The asphalt, for example. The immense pressure had crushed down the clumps of stone to pea-size pellets, and now, like popcorn, they were inflating back to their original sizes. Having regained their mass so explosively, they became like bullets, riding the wave of heat.

The stones blew and raged in a tempest.

Bam, came a dull noise as a piece of asphalt the size of a fist bounced off Kamijou’s right hand. Before he felt the pain, he was then hit in the side, the chest, and the thigh by more of them. Then, when one struck him squarely in the side of the head, even his sense of pain momentarily failed him.

She…She knew Imagine Breaker would erase it…?!

“Gaaahhhhh!!”

Blood sprayed. He felt his skin tearing. He nearly fell over to the side. He could tell his vision was angling, but he was losing the ability to determine how to move his body to fix it. She was pounding away at his thoughts. Then Oriana, all her flash cards used up, jumped straight toward him—to deliver the finishing blow. To crush Kamijou’s bones not with magic but with a rock-hard fist.

The strength in his legs started to fall away from him.

Even standing up was becoming difficult.

In this state, he could neither block nor avoid Oriana’s attack.

If she completed the attack, it would break Kamijou’s body for sure.

God…damn it…

Seiri Fukiyose had said something.

Can’t you put just a little effort into making this competition a success?

Aisa Himegami had said something.

I want you to stop Miss Komoe and Stiyl from fighting.

Stiyl Magnus had said something.

Don’t expect much.

Motoharu Tsuchimikado had said something.

We’ll catch them there and put an end to all this.

They each wanted different things, and they had the smiles of those who, at heart, came to Academy City for the Daihasei Festival. Whatever the scope or degree of their feelings were, everyone was trying to protect this way of life.

Touma Kamijou himself had said something.

He’d told the collapsed, bloody Aisa Himegami that he’d go to the hospital before the night parade started. That was proof of his resolve. Settling things with this sorcerer wasn’t everything. He was fighting for someone waiting for him after that.

It was the will of all the people who had told them what they thought during this incident.

I won’t…

His consciousness wavering, Kamijou clenched his back teeth.

Firmly.

…I won’t let all that go to waste here, damn it!!

“Gah…aaahhhhh!!”

Finally, his legs moved. His vision, sinking to the side, was finally supported by the ground underneath him.

In front of him was Oriana Thomson. With her fist out to get him.

“Wait…What?!”

Her eyes widened in surprise. She probably hadn’t even considered the possibility that he’d counterattack. She was completely committed to her attack—which also left her badly defenseless.

His mind hazy, he put everything he had into clenching his right fist. Tightly and firmly enough that it would never open.

One moment later.

Their fists crossed.

Kamijou’s attack struck Oriana in the face.

The sorcerer’s body sprang away fiercely, then fell to the ground.

9

Oriana Thomson had fallen. She wasn’t moving a muscle.

Now that she had been defeated, Kamijou realized that the barrier she had put up had disappeared. The roars of passenger planes flying overhead came back to his ears like a memory. Around him, the experimental airport runways had been torn up like a plow had gone over them, and the control towers and hangars were in tatters as well. A small plane meant for security eventually turned back around hastily. Anti-Skill would probably be landing soon.

“Stiyl!!”

Kamijou forced his beat-up body to move and ran to the rune sorcerer lying on the ground a few meters away. He had taken a deluge of ice splinters, but they seemed to have all melted now. It looked like more blood was coming from his wounds now that they were gone, like a cork out of a bottle.

Stiyl didn’t get up.

But his eyes blinked slowly as they looked to the side.

“…I’m…fine. Do something…yourself,” he said, moving his bloody lips. “The Croce di Pietro…comes first. Make Oriana…tell us where…Our number one goal…is to stop that Soul Arm…from activating…”

“But!” Kamijou looked around for anything he could use as a bandage.

“I don’t believe there is any reason to worry. Everything will be over momentarily.”

He heard a voice. It was a woman’s. It sounded older than Oriana’s.

Kamijou looked around. He didn’t see anyone new. The voice was coming from right beside Oriana.

“…Because the barrier…blocking communication…is gone now…,” Stiyl managed to mutter.

Kamijou wondered if there were spells that acted like radios or cell phones. If there are, then that means this must be…

Lidvia Lorenzetti.

One of the people, along with Oriana Thomson, who was given the task of activating the Croce di Pietro inside Academy City, believing that by gaining control of the city, they would have the entire science side of the world in their grasp.

She spoke.

“The Croce di Pietro’s effects will activate in a moment. I believe that will alter Academy City into such a form that will be convenient for our Roman Orthodox Church. Hence, it matters not how wounded any of you are. Whatever the case may be, all of Academy City, including where you’re standing, will soon be twisted around.”

In addition…

The Croce di Pietro was not in Oriana’s hands but in Lidvia’s…

And at the same time…

“So you’re just gonna get rid of everyone who stands in your way?!” Kamijou shouted in spite of himself.

Lidvia was unruffled. “I believe you’re misunderstanding something. I simply said we will treat your wounds with kindness and mend them. As long as it is for the utmost benefit of the Roman Orthodox Church, of course.”

“What?” said Kamijou, frowning.

“…You don’t need to listen to her, Touma Kamijou,” warned Stiyl in a low voice, still on the ground. “She’s trying to use the Croce di Pietro, which means Lidvia and the Soul Arm have to be nearby. Your right hand can destroy any Soul Arm’s function. So get going. Lidvia is somewhere near these runways—”

“For clarity’s sake, I shall say this,” interrupted Lidvia.

“The Croce di Pietro is not currently in Academy City.”

“Wh…what?” Kamijou’s eyes went to Oriana, who was passed out on the ground.

He then heard Lidvia’s voice dispassionately explain the facts.

“You seem to have investigated the belvederes within Academy City, but that was all simply a result of our guidance. It would seem you haven’t gotten to check the belvederes outside Academy City.”

Outside it.

It took a few seconds for Kamijou and Stiyl to realize what she meant by that.

“The Croce di Pietro created the Roman Papal States, and at their height, they spanned 47,000 kilometers. I believe Academy City is approximately two hundred square kilometers. Naturally, even if it was activated outside the city limits, calculations would reveal that it could easily cover its entirety.”

“Shit,” muttered Stiyl. He was collapsed on the ground, unable to move his limbs much at all. “They…got us. Touma Kamijou…Call Tsuchimikado! Oriana was…a decoy to keep us focused inside the city…all along!!”

“Correct. Her role was to investigate the strength of those involved in this incident and to guide their attention to another place. If she wished, I’m sure she could have created a spell like Opila to hide herself. However, fish will not come without bait, so she purposely kept showing herself.”

The nun’s voice went on.

“It takes time to use the Croce di Pietro, and the points at which one can use it, the belvederes, are set in stone. The problem to be most wary of was that you would send people to intercept all the belvederes beforehand.” Lidvia Lorenzetti went on, simply declaring the facts. “For our part, we focused on how best to prevent such a thing from happening. We decided on a plan: to have Oriana purposely show her movements inside Academy City, thus keeping the attention of those interceptors, or you all, entirely within the city. I am the one who had the Croce di Pietro. I was waiting in a hotel outside the city until the appointed time arrived, and in reality, I stood the cross outside the city as well. I see that you didn’t realize any of that.”

Damn it, you…!! Kamijou clenched his teeth, but it wasn’t like any concrete countermeasures were coming to mind.

“I had Oriana move while using Opila or Presence Erasing as little as possible. However, the very first Silent Coin being broken happened during the preparatory phase before the actual operation began, and we were worried at the time. If Oriana was to be captured earlier than anticipated, we wouldn’t be able to accomplish our goal.”

And now that she was explaining to them the entire plan, they must have already been in checkmate.

Kamijou stood there in a daze, simply listening to Lidvia’s voice.

“It is unfortunate that she was defeated as a result, but I believe the Croce di Pietro will overwrite even that to be more convenient. In the end, her defeat is nothing but a trivial matter, one that can be repeated as many times as needed. Once the Croce di Pietro has placed all of Academy City under our control from the outside, our stances will be reversed, and everything will have gone according to plan.”

Lidvia was still speaking flatly. That made Kamijou feel like she was denying everything they’d done so far even more than she already was.

Kamijou grabbed his cell phone in his shorts pocket with a trembling hand. He tried to look up Tsuchimikado’s number in its memory.

“There is no use,” Lidvia said cheerlessly. Was she getting video in addition to their voices? “Even if you were to locate me now, I am much too far away for you to reach. Even if you had backup outside the city, I am confident I can end it before they arrive.”

“…(So that long-range bombardment Red Style…won’t work, either.)” Stiyl muttered to himself in such a low voice, Kamijou almost couldn’t hear it. “…(Searching and then attacking. Tsuchimikado can’t use two spells right now…His body wouldn’t hold out. He could give it everything he had and be lucky to even use one…)”

“Shit! What are we supposed to do, then?!” shouted Kamijou. That wasn’t going to make Stiyl come up with a decisive countermeasure, though.

Despair hung in the air as Lidvia Lorenzetti’s solitary voice echoed around them.

“In what way might you all be reacting to the changes in Academy City to be brought about by the Croce di Pietro?”

Stiyl’s lips moved at the voice. “…Like Sodom and Gomorrah…The only thing you’re not doing to it is destroying it. You’re doing…the same thing. Anywhere the Roman Orthodox Church doesn’t like…You drive them to paralysis, then use its power to show the authority of God…You did the same thing…to the dying Saint George…and to the temples in Rome.”

“That is your biggest misunderstanding,” Lidvia answered immediately. “What is important to us is that this rampant science yield to magic, and that’s all. I believe the current insolence of science is on the same level as Roman heretics of ages past. And in the same way we dealt with them, we will deny what you believe in, show you our strength, and regain authority for our Lord.”

Her tone of voice changed. She had been speaking in irregular chunks of words, but now they were all completely connected.

“Looking at something scientifically. Thinking about something scientifically. Having people offer scientific opinions…The ‘science’ here is no longer simply an academic subject but a form of paganism. It is exceedingly unfortunate—when a person is told something is scientifically correct, they tend to believe in everything unconditionally. No matter how absurd it may be, and without even seeing it with their own eyes.”

She was right. Sometimes people used the word science the wrong way like that. Just because they said something was scientifically correct, could they state with absolute certainty why it was scientifically correct? People should use the word science only after thinking it all the way through.

Common scientific knowledge—such a term changed on a daily basis with advancements in the field. Nobody had discovered Pluto until 1930. There was a time everybody had said blue light–emitting diodes couldn’t be made, too.

And even if something was scientifically correct, it could still mean that the paradigm of science itself was imperfect. If you couldn’t distinguish that, then saying something was scientifically correct was about as valuable as saying something had to be true because your teacher said it.

“We consider this to be the science side intervening with the religion side. As such, we cannot overlook it. The hands of man have tainted the Lord’s authority. Naturally we will sanctify it again with those same hands.”

Kamijou was ignoring Lidvia at this point. It was no longer a conversation. The time…How much time do we have left?! He took out his cell phone and checked what time it was. Then he looked up at the sky. It was completely purple now. Twinkling lights dotted the landscape like inkblots seeping through a page.

It was the worst possible situation. Their preparations were complete.

“Of course, we will welcome all of you as well. We will by no means destroy Academy City. Even this ridiculous festival you call Daihasei will simply be made into a wonderful demonstration of science bending to the Church. After we have made you give up your paganistic science, we will embrace you as beloved brothers and sisters.”

Stiyl managed to move his wrecked body enough to take a bloody rune card out of his inside pocket. Maybe he wanted to use it for a communication spell like Lidvia was now. “You…call Tsuchimikado,” he said, wringing the words from his throat. “…Divination Circle…I think it was. He had a spell…that traced Oriana’s…interception spell. We’ll use that on Lidvia’s communications…and figure out where she is. Then…I’ll use my own communication spell…and ask the forces outside to…”

“That will not work. There are one hundred twelve seconds remaining until the Croce di Pietro changes the world. No, now it is one hundred seven seconds. Allow me to say it clearly: This is checkmate.”

One hundred and seven seconds.

In that time, even if they found Lidvia, nobody could get to her. Just calling the wounded Tsuchimikado here would use up all that time.

Stiyl sucked in his breath.

Lidvia Lorenzetti probably smiled on the other end of the transmission.

Kamijou clenched his teeth, staring at the purple sky above as it became ever more populated by stars.

There has to be a way…

He couldn’t give up. That was the only thing keeping him thinking now.

…There’s gotta be a way to solve this! One last card up our sleeves!!

He was frantically grasping at straws. The Croce di Pietro—one of the Roman Orthodox Church’s most powerful Soul Arms. When used, it would place a 47,000-kilometer area under their total control. It was a spell that used the constellations. Not the actual positions of the stars. Only what could be seen in the night sky. A spell that used only the appearance of the constellations. They investigated the characteristics, features, and traits of the area to use it in. They chose the most effective of the eighty-eight constellations for it.

They would gather the light of the stars shining down to the ground.

“…!!”

Touma Kamijou grabbed his cell phone. He punched in one number: Motoharu Tsuchimikado’s.

“Tsuchimikado! Don’t say anything; just answer me. How many points are there outside Academy City that the Croce di Pietro could be used at and still get to it?!”

“What…? Kammy?” His voice was just as ragged as his body now. He probably didn’t understand.

But Kamijou didn’t have the time or willingness to explain. He shouted again. “Don’t sweat the details. What’s the farthest point away given what I just said?!”

“…In all, there are five points that could be used from the outside. Of them…the farthest one away is about seventeen hundred meters north of Academy City…Kammy, why did you need this—?”

“Sorry, Tsuchimikado, no time to explain!!” he apologized, ignoring his question and hanging up. Then he opened the application they’d used to communicate. It was like a digital version of the Daihasei Festival pamphlet. I know how far it is. And we’ve got…fifty-five seconds. Will this work?!

“I believe there is nothing you can do at this point. I will crush your hopes just to be sure, but I am not in any of those places you just explained.”

He ignored her mocking voice and desperately worked his cell phone. It displayed a map of Academy City on its screen.

That’s not it.

He closed the window and called up another one.

Not that one, or that one, or that one, either!

He closed another window and then opened another. This app was just a backup in case you lost the actual pamphlet, and it didn’t contain all the information the thick volume did. It was hard to use, too, and Kamijou was having trouble getting the information he wanted.

But he still tried, and kept trying, over and over.

Finally, he looked at the screen one more time and dropped the phone.

Clatter.

The light noise of plastic hitting the ground echoed across the runways in the setting sun. But that was all. Kamijou went to pick it up. But he couldn’t. His fingers were shaking too hard. He couldn’t move them to do this one simple thing satisfactorily.

Forty seconds until everything was over.

Lidvia wasted away even this final moment with her talking. “No matter what method you care to use, I believe it is impossible for you to reach me where I am now.” Her tone was polite, as though she was bowing to them as she spoke. “Allow me to say one last thing: It is over. I will re-create this world into a better one, and that includes all of you.”

“Heh.”

Kamijou laughed as though he’d just had an idea.

“You’re right. It’s all over.”

Twenty seconds left.

“Ah, damn it. So much for keeping that promise.”

He was looking at something—but not the stars in the sky shining down on them.

“Seriously. I was so confident when I promised Himegami, and now look how things turned out. I’m done for. Totally done for.”

He was just looking at his empty cell phone screen as it lay on the ground, shining.

“Don’t you agree, Lidvia?”

Five seconds left.

As he watched the screen, he said one last thing.

“Done for, even though I completely destroyed your stupid illusion.”

Before Lidvia could make a noise of confusion…

Bang!!

An intense light appeared from the ground, for a moment banishing all the night’s darkness.

It was every decorative light in Academy City—from lightbulbs to neon signs, laser art, spotlights, and everything else.

School District 23 didn’t have much to do with the Daihasei Festival, but even here, a row of decorative illumination began to shine like a Christmas tree around the civilian international airport. From somewhere far away, a bright, cheerful melody floated to them. It was a song filled with electronic tones, the sort that might play at a children’s theme park.

“It’s now exactly six thirty PM.”

Touma Kamijou picked up his cell phone and looked at the screen.

The simplified digital pamphlet showed a timetable of the festival’s nighttime entertainment.

“Didn’t you know the night parade was starting now?”

“Wha…?”

A whirlpool of light covered all of Academy City.

The next thing he knew, all those shining stars in the night sky were gone, blotted out by the lights from the ground. Just like how not many stars were visible in the middle of a big city. The utterly weak starlight melted into the stronger lights.

“Man…Before this started, I promised to go back to Himegami’s hospital room, but now that’s all up in smoke. Shit. I’m a failure.” He tsked, truly frustrated. “Oh, right. From what Tsuchimikado said, of all the points outside Academy City that still had the city within range, the farthest one away was seventeen hundred meters out. That’s not very far. All this ridiculous light coming from the city’s going to cover up the stars just fine.”

And then he continued.

“The farthest point away won’t be able to see the stars. It doesn’t matter where you are—that takes care of all the points, doesn’t it, Lidvia Lorenzetti?!”

“…”

The last five seconds had long since passed them by.

And the world still hadn’t changed.

“Now that I think about it, we all had some pretty terrible support roles here.”

One of the strongest spells that used the shining starlight, unchanging for thousands of years.

In this moment, it was forced to submit to the man-made lights around them.

“I’m not really in a position to talk big, since I couldn’t chase you down in the end, but you don’t have the right to take the Daihasei Festival lightly, either. You’ve just lost to the lights everyone here has created. The security setups and the balance between science and magic—none of that even mattered. Before all this started, you should have tried to figure out who the real main stars of the Daihasei Festival were.”

They weren’t Touma Kamijou, or Stiyl Magnus, or Motoharu Tsuchimikado, or Oriana Thomson, or Lidvia Lorenzetti.

Seiri Fukiyose—she gave it her all to make the festival succeed. Aisa Himegami—she fell into a sea of blood because of a simple coincidence. Komoe Tsukuyomi—she had tried to save her student, crying, covered in blood.

People like that had come together, and they had protected the Daihasei Festival.

They had used a great light to create fun memories for all involved. Their feelings shone through.

“…”

Kamijou got no reply.

What was Lidvia thinking as she stared at the starless night sky now?

“What will you do? Looks like the Daihasei Festival didn’t care one bit about your efforts. I don’t know much about the power balance between science and magic or whatever. If you break the Croce di Pietro, stay quiet, run away, and never bother Academy City again, that would be enough for me. But what about you?”

“…Surely you jest.”

A low tension made its way into Lidvia’s voice.

The kind that might explode if a finger so much as plucked it.

“I am one of the honored Roman Orthodox followers. We will not be rendered inferior to Academy City a second time. I believe there is not much in your request that deserves agreement.”

“Oh,” Kamijou said quietly. He glanced to the side. Tsuchimikado had climbed over the chain-link fence, and he was slowly walking toward him. The only man here who could detect mana from spells being used.

Even if Tsuchimikado pinpointed which point, or belvedere, for the Croce di Pietro Lidvia was at, Lidvia would be able to take the Croce di Pietro and make her escape before they could get there. Their pursuit had been extremely tight just staying within the city. If they went outside, it would take a lot more time and span a lot more distance.

But there were many sorcery factions, small and large, standing by outside the city because of this incident.

Whatever their opinions toward Academy City, they were probably all operating under the same great objective: catch Oriana and Lidvia. Not knowing where the recovered Croce di Pietro would end up was the one point of contention, but that could be solved by having only the groups supportive of the English Puritan Church assist in Lidvia’s capture.

And so…

If Stiyl could follow Lidvia’s transmission spell to locate the source of her mana using Tsuchimikado’s Four Ways to Truth, then they could inform a magic faction close to the English Puritan Church waiting outside the city to get a move on, and it would be over.

There was nothing more for Touma Kamijou to do here.

But he did grin and say one last thing.

“Well then, it looks like you’ll get to be a part of the festivities anyway. Up for a game of tag, Lidvia Lorenzetti?”