"Looks like they don't need our help after all. The Roman Catholic Church has kicked an iron plate this time."
Watching Arisa swagger away, several young men in knightly robes poked their heads out from around the corner of an alley not far from the arcade street, where the aftermath of the plasma cannon had collapsed several buildings.
The knight leading them rubbed his eyes.
What had he just witnessed? Terra of the Left had lost?!
That was a member of God's Right Seat. Even if Terra of the Left's reputation throughout the magical world was far inferior to Acqua of the Back, who possessed the constitution of a Saint and remained active on battlefields across the world, much less Fiamma of the Right, leader of God's Right Seat and bearer of the name "Michael," he was still a member of God's Right Seat!
The original status of God's Right Seat could no longer be verified. Rumor held that it had initially been established by successive Popes as an organization occupying the position of "advisers," silently offering counsel to the Pope and possessing knowledge and power that even the Pope sometimes had to rely upon. It was a special existence separate from the hierarchy of ordinary clergy.
But by the present day, no one knew exactly when it had happened, yet God's Right Seat had gradually surpassed the Pope himself and become the true center of the Roman Catholic Church.
Ordinary people knew none of this. But as the Knight Faction was effectively a state instrument of violence directly connecting the British royal family with both the magic side and the science side, its members were all the more shocked.
"Your Highness, the mission is complete. The attack has ended..." The leading knight pressed the switch on his earpiece with an incredulous expression, struggling to calm the storm in his heart as he reported.
There was no rule saying that the magic side had to use only magic-side methods of communication. The Knight Faction, being effectively a state security institution, was far more pragmatic than most magical cabals.
If something worked, they used it. Magic and science could both be learned. Britain, meaning the Anglican Church and Necessarius, had a fairly decent relationship with Academy City anyway and had signed a whole series of agreements with them. Technology improved people's lives, so why not use it?
Academy City even contained an Anglican church. Apart from the Anglican Church, no other Christian denomination had any church within Academy City.
"It's already over? What exactly do you mean by that?"
On the other end of the communication, Carissa, the Second Princess, was currently leading another squad of knights in playing a game of hiding in plain sight right under Kihara Amata's nose. Her voice abruptly rose several pitches.
"What exactly happened?"
"The target is unharmed, and the attacker's identity has been confirmed. It matches our intelligence. He was Terra of the Left, one of God's Right Seat, the darkest division of the Roman Catholic Church..." As he spoke, the knight solemnly surveyed his surroundings.
The aftermath of Arisa's plasma cannon and lightning strikes, along with Terra of the Left's Execution of Light spell, had reduced not only the arcade and its neighboring shops to ruins, but had also left the surrounding streets in complete chaos from the shockwaves and tremors.
Blackened patches of ground scorched by lightning were everywhere. Shops had collapsed, roads had cracked and caved in, vehicles had been knocked askew, streetlights and trees had snapped, sewage was spreading upward from the city drains torn open by enormous fissures, and ruptured water pipes were spraying high-pressure columns of water. Drops pattered into the accumulating pools, where sparks of electricity still occasionally flickered.
"Terra of the Left... As long as the protection mission was completed, that's enough. What's with the hesitation in your voice? How many casualties?"
"None."
"Hah?!"
Carissa, who was currently observing Necessarius members Stiyl Magnus and Tsuchimikado Motoharu pursuing Oriana Thomson from a concealed corner, was left completely baffled by her subordinate's answer. Annoyance entered her voice. "Stop hemming and hawing like some delicate maiden! Spit it out!"
The knight didn't argue. Fierce, forceful, and decisive was precisely Carissa's style, and that was exactly what the Knight Faction sought. From their own perspective, if the Third Princess were to lead them with her so-called "benevolence," that would be the true disaster for the kingdom.
He swallowed, tore his gaze away from the street that looked as though it had been pulverized by a giant's fists, and hurriedly continued his report.
"Your Highness, we never had a chance to intervene. Ferdinand's guard handled it herself. She even suppressed Terra of the Left throughout the battle. After being driven underground, Terra of the Left's presence disappeared completely. Because we were too far away, we currently can't determine whether he died or escaped."
Over the communication, the knight added, "The guard accompanying the target appears to possess the constitution of a Saint and has powerful electrical manipulation abilities."
"Electrical abilities? Was it Academy City's fourth-ranked Level 5 esper, Railgun?"
"Gray hair and blue eyes. That doesn't match the fourth-ranked esper's shoulder-length chestnut hair and brown eyes." The knight recalled the description in their handbook as he compared them.
"...Return and regroup. Looks like I was worrying unnecessarily. It's only natural that Selene would have made preparations."
After a long pause, Carissa ended the communication and tightened her fist. "A subordinate who appears to possess the constitution of a Saint, almost as though she appeared out of nowhere. Looks like I still underestimated her. She has more hidden strength that hasn't been exposed yet."
"I suppose it's time to meet her..."
Just as Carissa was wondering how to find another approach now that her attempt to offer timely aid had failed, the urgent voice of the knight guarding her rang out from nearby. "Your Highness, something's happening!"
"The people we sent to pursue Lidvia Lorenzetti ran into trouble. The Roman Catholic Church sent..." Seeing Carissa's brows knit as her gaze swept toward him, the knight didn't bother explaining further. Instead, he swiped across his tactical terminal and brought up a recording.
"...Terra of the Left wasn't the only one."
"Aaah—" Bzzzt!
Boom, boom, boom!
The instant Carissa saw the middle-aged man in the footage slaughtering Academy City's defensive forces as though strolling through an empty field, her expression changed. She immediately abandoned every other consideration. "Withdraw!"
"Yes!"
No matter how arrogant Carissa might be, she had absolutely no intention of fighting that man. The royal spiritual item Curtana Original wasn't currently in her hands, and more importantly, this wasn't British soil!
Facing Terra of the Left and facing that man were two completely different matters!
...
Bzzzt—
At that very moment, in a ruined district of abandoned buildings not far from Carissa's position, the ground was covered with gleaming brass shell casings. Wreckage from armed robots lay scattered everywhere, while Hound Dog agents sprawled across the ground in small groups, groaning in pain.
"Tch. Even the British have come to join the excitement."
"No need to go reinforce him. Terra of the Left is dead."
"Useless bastard. Acting on his own and alerting the enemy was bad enough, but he couldn't even capture a single child. What a worthless piece of trash. Better off dead."
A woman wearing a vivid pure-yellow long coat with a large yellow cross across the chest, her entire outfit carrying an aggressively delinquent punk style, brought down an executioner's hammer more than a meter long and wrapped in barbed wire, smashing the square head of an armed robot beneath her feet. She clicked her tongue in displeasure.
Completely mismatched with her petite, delicate figure, she wore exaggerated eye makeup. Whenever she opened her mouth, a piercing through her tongue could be seen, attached to a chain ending in a small cross. Even her ears, lips, nose, and eyelids were covered with metal rings, leaving her features symmetrically distorted like a performer in some heavy-metal band.
If makeup was supposed to embellish beauty and add the finishing touch, then on this woman, at least by ordinary standards, it had long since crossed into the territory of gilding something that was already hideous and ruining what remained.
"What? Terra of the Left... is dead."
Before the burly man standing beside the woman could speak, Lidvia Lorenzetti, who had narrowly escaped with her life, struggled to rise.
She looked even more miserable now. Lidvia had never been skilled in combat to begin with, and after being hunted by Hound Dog, sections of her once-smooth golden hair had been burned dry and black by explosions. Her pure-white nun's habit was riddled with holes, exposing skin covered in dark bruises from blunt impacts. Some injuries had even gouged away flesh, leaving bloody cavities and mangled wounds.
If not for the reinforcement and defensive spells engraved into her habit, which could activate without chanting, and if reinforcements hadn't arrived quickly enough, she would already have been shot full of holes.
"Yeah, dead. Terra of the Left's Raphael angelic spell has disappeared."
The woman glanced at the "heretical" Christian believer before her, someone rather famous even within the Vatican.
Lidvia opened her mouth, then fell silent. She herself occupied a high position within the Roman Catholic Church. She knew perfectly well what the disappearance of an angelic spell meant.
God's Right Seat was fundamentally a group created to overcome Original Sin. Through special spells developed by the Roman Catholic Church, their Original Sin had been weakened to a certain degree, bringing each member's constitution closer to that of an angel and allowing them to use angelic spells.
But there was a price for using angelic spells through what amounted to a form of "cheating" while still possessing a human body. They became unable to use ordinary human magic, with Acqua of the Back, who possessed both the constitution of a Saint and that of the Holy Mother, being the exception. In a sense, their angelic spells were bound directly to their lives.
"What? Scared? Academy City is a dragon's lair and tiger's den, and the moment you arrive, one member of God's Right Seat is already dead."
The woman pulled her lips apart in what was meant to be an intimidating grin. "If you're scared, go back. Stop obsessing over that ridiculous plan of yours. If the Croce di Pietro were really that easy to activate, those bastards in the Vatican would've done it long ago. Be careful you don't end up leaving your corpse here."
She genuinely meant the second half. It would be rather unfortunate for a Roman Catholic believer whose missionary work specifically targeted social outcasts rejected by society to die in Academy City. Unfortunately, with all the rings and piercings covering her nonconformist face, even an ordinary smile looked rather frightening.
"That's enough, Vento of the Front. Prepare to withdraw."
Seeing that his colleague Vento of the Front's behavior was starting to resemble kicking someone while they were already down, the man dressed in simple casual clothes and standing like a silent marble statue finally spoke.
"Oh? Acqua of the Back, aren't you planning to avenge Terra of the Left? Sure, that bastard was irritating, but he was still our colleague. One of God's Right Seat gets taken out this easily and we're not going to make a statement? Shouldn't we offer Academy City and science our congratulations?"
At that, the corner of Vento of the Front's mouth curled upward. She rested the barbed hammer over her shoulder and lightly tapped her left palm with it again and again.
"The Daihasei Festival has brought too many outside tourists into Academy City. There are large numbers of innocent Christians among the civilian population, and the population density is too high. Large-scale operations would risk excessive collateral damage. Terra of the Left acting ahead of schedule was already a serious violation."
Acqua of the Back's expression remained unchanged. His voice was deep, and his tone was remarkably flat, almost cold.
"Furthermore, Fiamma of the Right still hasn't sent word. The Vatican needs more time to prepare for total war with Academy City. Yet he entered Academy City on his own anyway. Impulsive, heedless of the larger situation. He brought this on himself."
Apart from Fiamma of the Right, the remaining three members of God's Right Seat held no hierarchical advantage over one another. From this alone, it was obvious that neither Acqua of the Back nor Vento of the Front had much affection for Terra of the Left. Whatever sense of camaraderie they shared was nearly nonexistent.
All of them were devout Christians, but compared with Terra of the Left's piety twisted into extremism, Acqua of the Back's beliefs were far broader.
In Terra's eyes, believers of other denominations and nonbelievers weren't even considered "human." Insincerity itself was a sin. Acqua of the Back, on the other hand, would extend a hand to those who needed help. Even while using violence to carry out missions, he would bring blessings to the local people, and he certainly wouldn't indiscriminately slaughter innocents.
If Terra of the Left were still alive, he would probably have launched a massacre without hesitation.
Academy City's Daihasei Festival has drawn millions of tourists from across the world? Heretics attending a science side festival, traitors whose faith is impure... Perfect. Wipe them all out at once and purify the world for the Lord.
That lunatic would probably have thought exactly that.
"Fine." Resting the barbed hammer on her shoulder, Vento of the Front nodded, accepting Acqua of the Back's judgment.
Although she was arrogant and looked like a beautiful madwoman, to the point that she didn't even place the Pope in her eyes, she still wouldn't kill people indiscriminately. She wasn't as extreme as Terra of the Left. Academy City, symbol of science, wasn't going anywhere.
Besides, Acqua of the Back's way of laying out his reasoning and letting others judge for themselves, rather than giving orders, was exactly the kind of conversation style she was willing to listen to.
"You're still determined to continue with your plan?" Acqua of the Back turned his head and asked in the same calm tone as always.
"Yes..."
"Very well." Acqua of the Back nodded. Lidvia was still hesitating, so he stepped forward and lifted the severely injured woman into his arms like a princess. "I'll take you somewhere safe. After that, what you do is up to you."
"Wait, Oriana..."
"Oriana Thomson, that freelance mercenary? There's no chance."
Acqua of the Back shook his head. "Suppression forces, Necessarius, and espers have already surrounded her completely. Saving her would require a direct confrontation, but Academy City has already reacted. It isn't time for all-out conflict yet."
Thanks to his Saint constitution, every aspect of his physical ability far exceeded that of ordinary humans even in his normal state. He could sense more and more enemies converging around Oriana.
"..."
In silence, Acqua of the Back carried Lidvia toward Academy City's outer wall at high speed. For someone of his strength, there was naturally no need to leave through a proper gate.
Suddenly, "Ooooooooh—!"
"Let's hear it for Tokiwadai Middle School! Another victory!! Nagatenjouki Academy is right behind them too. Truly worthy of being their longtime rival!"
"Even without using any supernatural abilities, Selene remains unstoppable in Balloon Hunter! Let's give all the participating athletes our warmest congratulations..."
In mid-leap, Acqua of the Back stopped.
Rarely, genuine emotion appeared across his stern face.
"That is..."
His gaze locked tightly onto the enormous glass curtain wall of a nearby building, where a broadcast camera was following a white-haired, red-eyed beauty who had just finished her match.
But it was the beautiful figure stepping forward to hand her bottled water and a towel that made Acqua of the Back's pupils tremble violently.
"Villian!"