"Young man, you are right. I deeply apologize for our recklessness and our blind faith," Kanzaki Kaori said, lowering her head and biting her lip in shame.
"So, what do you plan to do now, Saint? If you're still going to blindly hand Index over to the Church after knowing the truth, I might just have to beat you up right here and now," Yuuya said with a cold, challenging smile.
The matter was crystal clear. Even Kanzaki had no moral ground left to justify taking Index back to her abusers.
"..." Kanzaki remained completely silent, unsure of how to answer.
Bringing Index back was her mission for Necessarius, but the Church was actively, maliciously persecuting the girl she swore to protect. What should she do?
'My Magical Name is Salvare000—to grant salvation to those who cannot be saved,' Kanzaki thought bitterly. 'My oath and my own wishes absolutely do not allow me to bring Index back to be tortured.'
Index had listened quietly, finally understanding the full, horrifying truth about her own condition from Yuuya and Kanzaki's conversation. Yet, she still managed a fragile smile, bravely accepting the cruel reality she was facing.
"Ah, Kanzaki... it's okay. After all, my head contains 103,000 forbidden Grimoires. It is my responsibility to protect this dangerous knowledge. I cannot let it fall into the hands of bad people, no matter what it costs me. Even if the Church has to erase my memories every year to keep me under control, it doesn't matter..."
In the end, Index seemed incredibly downcast, though she was clearly trying her hardest not to show it, masking her despair with a forced smile.
Although Index was usually mild-mannered and leisurely—lacking the austere, disciplined demeanor expected of a proper nun, and sometimes even using God as a convenient excuse to get her way—there was no doubt that she was a deeply devout believer. She refused to harbor negative emotions or resentment towards her own Church, choosing to accept her cruel fate with a tragic smile.
To sacrifice one's own memories and identity to protect the Grimoires from destroying the world was an incredibly noble act to others, but it was incredibly cruel and foolish for the individual paying the price.
"Heh. What kind of nonsense are you spouting, Index?" Yuuya chuckled, shaking his head as he watched Index try to accept this foolish fate. "Actually, removing that magical Collar from your throat is just a piece of cake for me. Hell, even extracting the Grimoires from your mind would be a piece of cake if I wanted to."
"Young man, wait!" Kanzaki's head snapped up, looking at the boy who had just made such an impossible statement. "You say you can simply remove the Collar on Index's body, but you don't understand what that spell is! The Spell Intercept acts as a conceptual lock. Only the person who created the lock can open it. In other words, it must be opened by Archbishop Laura Stuart herself. Otherwise, it cannot be safely dispelled by anyone, no matter how powerful!"
"Who exactly do you think I am?" Yuuya raised his head, looking down at Kanzaki with an arrogant smirk as he slowly extended his right hand.
"Do you know what this right hand of mine represents? Magic? Magicians? None of them are a match for me. If I truly wanted to, I could effortlessly erase all the Magicians in the world from existence."
Kanzaki was stunned, completely bewildered by the sheer, boastful scale of the young man's words.
"This hand holds a power called World Rejecter," Yuuya declared, his eyes half-closed. "It can completely erase anyone in the world who harbors conflicting desires. Memories, physical traces, time, even the very conceptual meaning of their existence—all of it is permanently wiped from this world and banished to a new phase. I'm sure you Magicians are deeply familiar with this underlying concept... you've probably heard the term the 'Right Hand of God', correct?"
Yuuya continued smoothly, "The Holy Right. It is the divine anomaly described in the Book of the Law, an exception that exists entirely outside the Sephiroth tree of Kabbalah."
In biblical lore, the right side represents equality with God. In the Old Testament, the one seated at the right hand is described as the King, the archangel who takes God's place and enforces His rule over all creation when God is not present. In the New Testament, the King is described as the Trinity of God. The right side represents the absolute position of power beside the Father.
Because the right hand represents ultimate holiness and execution in the Bible, this conceptual power is also known as the Holy Right.
As a high-ranking follower of the Cross, Kanzaki definitely knew what this represented. The Roman Catholic Church had an entire shadow faction—the Right Seat of God—dedicated to this exact concept.
"The Right Hand of God...!" Kanzaki's eyes widened in absolute shock.
Of course she knew what this was! No high-level Christian Magician would be ignorant of it; it represented a miraculous power second only to God Himself.
'So far, manifestations of the Divine Right have rarely appeared in this world,' Kanzaki's mind raced. 'In the 18th century, an invisible demon capable of shattering miracles appeared. In recent history, the Right Seat of God emerged to forcefully alter Christian magic. And now, in the 21st century, there were rumors of a boy in the East acting as the host for the ultimate negation, Imagine Breaker.'
'Could this boy be the rumored Imagine Breaker?! No... Imagine Breaker is the absolute negation that eliminates all supernatural forces. He explicitly called this power World Rejecter. Is this... the Third Right Hand in the world?!'
This was a catastrophic geopolitical problem. If news of this anomaly got out, and this young man intended to involve himself with both the Science and Magic sides, it could completely upend the entire global order.
Kanzaki stared in absolute horror and awe at Yuuya's outstretched right hand.
"The Holy Right?! Ah, your right hand actually holds the power of the Holy Right?!" Index tilted her head, blinking her eyes incredulously. "But Yuuya is a Gemstone! You are a natural-born Esper with inherent scientific talent! It's impossible for Espers to receive divine magical favor! Could it be that Yuuya is just so incredibly outstanding that the Divine Right actively chose you?!"
"Let's not get bogged down talking about the origins of my hand," Yuuya said with an amused smirk. "The point is, I have already mastered its conceptual power, and I can precisely erase the Collar's magical formula from Index's throat without harming her. The only reason I didn't remove it the very first night we met was simply to show you the truth."
Yuuya lowered his hand, his expression shifting into a knowing smile. "Actually, from the very beginning, I didn't sense any genuine killing intent or malice from you two. On the contrary, I could tell you were deeply worried about Index. I hypothesized that you weren't actually evil Magicians, but rather tragic guardians secretly protecting her."
"So, the only reason I intentionally kept Index's Collar intact was to bait you into coming after us, so I could force you to reveal your true purpose."
"You... you knew from the very beginning that we weren't the ones actively hunting Index?!" Kanzaki frowned, her emotions a chaotic mess. She then subconsciously blurted out, "Then why on earth did you fight us so ruthlessly?! You severely injured Stiyl and almost killed him!"
Yuuya looked at Kanzaki with a deeply mocking expression and spoke without a shred of politeness.
"Saint, you can't possibly be that stupid, can you? You guys were the ones who attacked me first! I was just defending myself and my home from an unprovoked magical assault. It was already incredibly merciful of me not to use this right hand to permanently erase that fire-spewing idiot from the timeline."
Kanzaki was immediately embarrassed, realizing she had completely spoken out of turn. She blushed deeply and bowed her head. "I... I am so sorry. You are completely right."
It was indeed Stiyl who had aggressively provoked the high schooler, and it was Stiyl who had cast the first spell. Even if Stiyl had been killed in the ensuing crossfire, he would have only been paying the ultimate price for his own reckless mistake. But seeing Stiyl nearly die had still made her deeply upset.
"Now, stand back. I need to erase the Collar from Index's throat. Something very bad might happen if its automated defenses trigger," Yuuya warned, his tone turning serious as he thought about the John's Pen counterattack system supposedly wired into her brain.
As he spoke, he reached his right hand out toward Index. The shadow of his hand cast across her face, his fingers gently touching her neck where the runes were anchored deep within her throat.
Vvvvmm—!
A low, resonant hum began to vibrate through the air as the power of World Rejecter prepared to banish the Archbishop's spell.
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Give me powerstones.
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