Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:AgneseSS Chapter7 (section)

===Part 1===

His heart had literally stopped.

“Kah, agh!?”

“Keep quiet, please.”

Something was wrong with his vision.

Stiyl Magnus could tell he was lying on his back somewhere, yet his body was swaying even more unsteadily than in a hammock.

The tall priest tried to get up, but he found he could not even move his fingertips.

Magicians wielded miracles by refining magic power out of their own lifeforce, so failing to understand the state of his own body was a critical failure for one.

Someone was peering down at him.

It was the silver-haired brown-skinned necromancer named Isabella Theism.

“What?”

“Don’t try to move for a bit. For now, just breathe in and out. I apologize for the corpsy smell, but you should really just rest your head in my lap until your breathing rhythm is back to normal. Think of it as a special service from me☆”

“What happened, Isabella?”

The young woman sighed.

Her breath carried a forbidden scent that was sweet as could be but mixed with a faint odor of death.

“Your heart stopped for about 180 seconds.” Her blunt words tore into him. “Or to be more accurate, I had to stop it with the lime poison. If I hadn’t made you seem dead, you never would have escaped the real death sent out by Tu – by Albert Dying.”

“…”

“Don’t bother asking any stupid questions about how I’m fine after being hit by ''that''. I’ve gathered all techniques related to death and the Greek and Roman mythologies are no exception. I was already madly in love with death that smells of pomegranate, so there was no need for me to convert. Of course, I love death that smells of lime, corn, and grapes just as much. My body carries far too much desire to remain faithful to just the one.”

The Sickle of Saturn.

Stab that spiritual item into the ground and it would establish a powerful field that claimed that land and physically eliminated the souls of any who disobeyed.

“There were a total of 7 museum thefts,” whispered Isabella. “We were focused on the point where they temporarily stopped, but maybe we should have paid more attention to the fact that they had ''ended for good'' with the 7th one. Because Tu had achieved his goal and no longer had to steal anything.”

“''You mean he used it''?”

“Yes.”

“''How far did it spread? How much of the world did Albert cut away with that one strike''!?”

“Have you already forgotten where you were just before this happened?”

Isabella reached her arms around her unmoving colleague and gently lifted him into a sitting position.

They were inside a neon colored rubber boat.

Something was shining across the deep, dark sea. The light came from the horizon, but it was far from dawn and that was not the east anyway.

The entire horizon was glowing for some other reason.

So what was in that direction?

“The peninsula.”

Stiyl Magnus was so stunned he forgot all about his cigarettes.

Yes.

He finally remembered.

He had not returned to England. He had instead gone to Italy to search its plentiful ruins and art for any old documents, sculptures, or other material related to the Guild that Agnese’s group had discovered.

He had been caught in the attack there.

That meant the Sickle of Saturn’s effective range had spread well past a single city or region.

What exactly was happening?

He knew the answer now.

“The entire Italian Peninsula.”

“It appears to include the island of Sicily as well, so I think it must be all of Italy, including its more remote islands. We were lucky it didn’t include the ocean in between, to be honest. For now, anyway.”

The magician who had viewed more death than anyone was the same as ever even now.

“It seems the massive field only triggers its ‘deadly rejection’ if you give a clear ‘no’ when asked to convert to Roman mythology, so you’re allowed to put off answering or say you’re still thinking about it. So unless the Vatican’s VIPs decide to be unnecessarily defiant, we shouldn’t have a mass slaughter on our hands. But again…for now.”

“…”

“The bible is a well-defined book, but one look at history shows the current interpretation of it has changed several times at the ecumenical councils. And always in a way that benefits the contemporary royalty and nobility, curiously enough. The Vatican is the headquarters of a massive religion, but they do know how to make political compromises.”

Twice now, she had said “for now”.

That meant the situation could still be worse.

How much did you have to give up on to reach that point?

“The next step is to move back in time. When the Sickle is stabbed into Rome, the extent of its control differs depending on the era. If Tu alters the settings to redefine his territory as that of the Roman Empire at its peak, he will control all of Northern Africa and Eastern European nations like Romania.”

Stiyl realized what it meant for Albert Dying to control what Rome had at its peak, but he let the death expert say it.

“And if you look to the west, Tu’s territory of ruin and subjugation will reach France, Germany, and of course England.”