CRACK—!
Yuuya felt as if he had heard the physical sound of glass shattering. For a fraction of a second, the very fabric of the world seemed to break apart, violently expelling a foreign concept as the power of World Rejecter banished the Archbishop's spell.
The sensation was exactly like opening the massive sluice gates of a reservoir and letting the pressurized water violently explode outward.
Index froze instantly. Her vibrant green eyes completely glazed over, losing all signs of life and emotion, and her limp body began to fall backward.
Kanzaki's expression changed drastically. She rushed forward to catch Index, but before she could even touch the girl, she was instantly knocked back by an immense, explosive wall of raw magical power.
BOOM—!
A deafening roar erupted inside the apartment, as if the air itself had suddenly detonated. In that instant, Kanzaki was thrown backward, her ears ringing from the concussive force. Out in the hallway, a secondary surge of violent mana blasted the unsuspecting Stiyl away from the doorframe, sending him flying over the walkway railing and plummeting down the stairs.
"Damn it! What the hell is going on in there?!" Stiyl cursed as he tumbled down the concrete steps.
Inside the room, the dust settled to reveal a horrifying sight.
Index did not hit the floor. Completely ignoring the fundamental laws of gravity, her body slowly floated up into the air. At the same time, dense, blood-red runes materialized in the void, projecting a massive, complex magic circle that instantly divided the room into two distinct spatial domains.
The crimson light emanating from the runes resembled roaring red flames, making the small apartment look like a descent into hell.
"How... how is this possible?! What is going on?! Magic! And terrifyingly powerful magic at that!" Kanzaki stared wide-eyed in absolute disbelief. "This child's constitution shouldn't allow her to use magic! She can't refine mana!"
Index's body had been specifically altered so that it was impossible for her to refine life force into mana or construct magic circuits. If she even attempted to cast a spell, her blood vessels would rupture. So what on earth was going on here?
"Obviously, your precious Church lied to you about that too," Yuuya said calmly, his hands tucked into his pockets as he glanced up at the floating girl. "That automated defense system activating right now must be the Automatic Secretary... the John's Pen mode."
This mode was an artificial system designed to govern the 103,000 Grimoires locked inside Index's brain. It was ostensibly set up to prevent the Index Librorum Prohibitorum from being hijacked by rogue Magicians through hypnosis, mental magic, or other invasive means. When triggered, it bypassed her inability to refine mana by forcibly extracting magic power directly from her raw life force, using it to brutally attack the Magician invading her brain.
On paper, it sounded like a drastic but necessary security measure.
However, the truth was not like that at all. The real, underlying function of the Automatic Secretary was to hijack Index's body when necessary. Using specialized remote control artifacts, the Church could override Index's consciousness and force her to draw upon the apocalyptic Grimoires in her head to attack the Church's enemies.
It was a system designed entirely to use an innocent girl as a weapon of mass destruction.
No one in this world had ever been able to break the Automatic Secretary, because the core matrix was intertwined directly with Index's brain. Even the fabled Imagine Breaker couldn't permanently destroy the system unless he somehow opened Index's skull to touch her brain directly—or managed to completely shatter the external magic circle sustaining it.
The other trick was to destroy all the remote control artifacts in the world. However, there were only two such artifacts in existence: one held securely by the English Royal Family, and the other in the hands of the Archbishop of the Puritan Church. One could only imagine how impossible it would be to destroy them.
'So, let's just get rid of the core matrix itself,' Yuuya thought to himself, his eyes half-closed as he analyzed the red runes.
The original creator of the Automatic Secretary was Archbishop Laura Stuart. Or rather, the Great Demon Coronzon currently possessing her. In the present world, probably only Aleister Crowley or the Magic God candidate Ollerus possessed the raw esoteric knowledge to safely deactivate the system from the outside.
But Yuuya didn't need esoteric knowledge. He had World Rejecter, which could simply banish the entire automated concept from this phase of reality.
Index turned her head mechanically to look down at Yuuya. Her red, glowing eyes locked onto him, and the massive red magic circle flared with blinding intensity.
"[Warning. Chapter 1, Verse 1. The Collar has been fatally damaged. The Automatic Secretary's retaliatory mechanism has been activated. Based on the Library's threat assessment, the individual posing the greatest threat to the Index Librorum Prohibitorum has been automatically identified as the primary elimination target.]"
A cold, emotionless, synthesized voice rang out from Index's lips. Her glowing red eyes showed absolutely no emotion, resembling a cold, calculating machine.
"How could this happen...?" Kanzaki gritted her teeth. Her hands clenched tightly around the hilt of her Nodachi. Her usually calm, stoic face turned icy, and a terrifying, murderous intent appeared in her eyes as an unprecedented rage ignited in her heart.
She could forgive being deceived about the memory wipes. She could even pragmatically understand putting a Collar on Index, knowing how terrified the Church's high-ranking officials were of the Grimoires falling into the wrong hands. But this... this was completely different.
They had wired her brain to treat her as an expendable, automated puppet weapon that could be deployed at any time.
Index was not just someone Kanzaki was assigned to protect; she was the girl Kanzaki desperately wanted to save. She was her dearest friend, the most precious person in the world to her. And the Church was using her most precious person as a living bomb.
"Damn it all," Kanzaki gritted her teeth as she looked up at Index. The magical power radiating from the girl was becoming increasingly terrifying, yet Kanzaki's eyes were filled only with deep worry and heartache for her friend.
"Hey, don't look so surprised. This is just a geopolitical game of power and interests. Index probably came to Academy City under the subtle guidance of this Automatic Secretary system to begin with," Yuuya said lazily, watching the mana gather.
"Saint, you should never think too simply of those in power. Every decision they make has a profound, manipulative meaning."
Index's reasons for coming to Academy City were incredibly complicated. In addition to the Puritans seeking political cooperation with Aleister, there were many other underlying reasons related to the Magic Side's cold war. No other religious sect wanted to see the Puritans monopolize the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, and it was highly likely that the Puritans couldn't withstand the mounting international pressure to share the knowledge. Sending Index to the heavily fortified, anti-magic stronghold of Academy City was the perfect excuse to hide her away.
Therefore, her presence here was the direct result of a ruthless compromise after a power struggle among multiple religious factions.
"Hey, hey, hey! What the hell are you talking about?! What is going on in here?!"
Stiyl stormed angrily through the ruined doorway, rubbing his bruised back. When he saw Index floating in the air, surrounded by a demonic red magic circle, he froze. His eyes widened in absolute horror as he stared at the apocalyptic scene.
"This is the 'security work' done on Index's body by the Archbishop. Takahashi was right. Index didn't need her memories erased at all. She was fitted with a Collar and rigged to be a puppet weapon. So..." Kanzaki explained, her voice trembling with suppressed fury.
"What?! What is she doing now?!" Stiyl exclaimed in terror.
Index was supposed to be completely incapable of refining mana, so what was with this exaggerated, overwhelming magical power?! He had never felt such dense, oppressive mana from any other Magician in his entire life. The sheer pressure in the room felt inferior only to the mythological dragons.
"I don't know the exact spell, but it's definitely not Index who is in control right now," Kanzaki said, drawing her blade.
"[Retrieving memories... Extracting magic... Locking onto the Grimoire of Lemegeton.]"
The emotionless, mechanical voice echoed from Index's mouth, accompanied by a blinding red glow emanating from her body. A cold and terrifying incantation began to spill from her lips.
"Damn it, we've been completely tricked! They're using Index as a battery!" Stiyl's expression changed drastically.
This was completely different from what that old hag, the Archbishop, had told them! This was clearly a malicious lie! To hell with 'protection'! Just how far did that old woman intend to exploit an innocent child?
Index raised her arms, her voice echoing with the weight of a hundred thousand Grimoires.
"I am Solomon, King of Israel. I have been crowned by God and have revealed the true nature of the world. All the angels in heaven have fallen; they are the seventy-two demons of the abyss."
The fabric of reality behind Index warped violently. A pair of enormous, blindingly white hands formed of pure, condensed light slowly emerged from the void behind her.
"Telesma! Angel-class magic!" Kanzaki and Stiyl screamed in unison, their faces draining of all color.
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Give me powerstones.
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