Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:AgneseSS Chapter8 (section)

===Part 1===

Tu.

Albert Dying.

Their final enemy awaited them at the center of the chapel shelter below St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City.

“Fine then.” The man grinned. “Then this shall be a duel. We are both disposable pawns bound to a particular mythology or religion. We shall wear down our lives for a temporary thrill and to the victor go the spoils. I have no problem with that.”

“Sisters Lucia and Angelene.”

Agnese did not even listen.

Anything coming from that dreamer’s mouth was nonsense.

“''Our top priority is the pope and the cardinals. Blow them away''!!”

A giant wooden wheel exploded on its own and coin bags larger than clenched fists gave a roar of motion.

The splinters and the blunt weapons rushed toward the unconscious old men, but that was the correct choice.

Those VIPs were guarded by largescale spiritual items they wore as clothing, so it would take a lot to kill them. It was best to let the momentum of an attack launch them toward the exit to get them off the battlefield as soon as possible.

Stray attacks from Tu were much more of a threat.

(We got all the cardinals. That just leaves…)

In this case, his defenses worked against him.

One old man remained on the floor where he had fallen.

(We just need to collect the pope!!)

“Oh, dear,” Tu belatedly whispered.

Agnese gave a flourish of her silver staff and the angel curled up at the head spread its wings. The Lotus Wand could control fire, water, wind, earth, and even ether and it was now ready to use.

To reiterate, their opponent was a dreamer.

Nothing he had to say was worth listening to.

“Sisters Lucia and Angelene, use staggered attacks to keep him in place. I will use that opening to get the pope out of-”

“Theory: Angerona I”

By the time the explosive roar slammed into Agnese’s left ear, her vision was already spinning fast. By the time she realized she had been blown away, her feet had left the floor and she could not control herself.

She had been interrupted.

She could not even begin to analyze his very first attack.

“Sister Agnese!?”

Tall Lucia frantically held out her arms to catch her while Angelene unleashed her four coin bags to hold back the man.

But…

“Theory: Faunus III”

They exploded.

No one had done anything, but the coin bags burst from within. Then all the scattered gold coins froze in midair before rushing toward Angelene like bullets.

The stooped and freckled girl could not even scream as they pummeled her.

From there, it was like dominoes.

Angelene slammed into Lucia, preventing her from catching Agnese. All three of them ended up crashing down to the hard stone floor.

The breath was knocked from them.

But Agnese kept her grip on the Lotus Wand. The pain in her back forced out all of her air, but she managed to gasp in just enough to get out her voice.

“What…just…”

“…”

“What just happened? Sister Lucia, answer me. I can’t defend against something I don’t understand!!”

Lucia could not hold her head steady or get her voice out, but she did manage to move her trembling lips.

''Space…opened up.

''Massive jaws…tried to crush you.

Albert Dying did not need to wait for them to finish there. He had not moved a step and he smiled down at them.

“Care to see that one again?”

“!?”

She saw it this time.

Agnese immediately slammed the bottom of her wand against the floor just as a vertical line split through empty space and a pitch black hole opened within. The impossible hole was longer vertically than horizontally and had to be around 2m tall.

The right and left sides snapped back shut like massive jaws.

The crack distorted and then vanished with a great snapping sound, but the pressurized air had nowhere to go and roared outwards. That was what had knocked Agnese from her feet before.

Her wrists hurt as she held the rattling wand.

She grimaced as she realized she could not resist this with brute force. It was even possible Tu would notice the balance of power and work to ''contaminate her from within using the vibrations''. She forced out her voice.

“Angerona…is…”

“Hm?”

“Angerona is the goddess of the returning sun from Roman mythology. She normally keeps her mouth shut and ‘seals’ it by pressing her finger against it, but once a year, she opens her mouth to unleash the power gathered within to overcome the winter solstice when the sun has weakened.”

“Oh, I see now. Agnese and Lucia have an Italian ring to them. Then again, the idea of giving power to the dying sun is hardly unique to Rome. You can find the motif in all sorts of cultures. I should have expected you to recognize something so well known.”

All of a sudden, Agnese noticed the man was holding a disc a bit larger than his palm. She thought it was a pocket watch at first, but it was not. It was a compass carved from an oily wood and with a glass cover placed on top.

(What is this sweet smell?)

Albert flicked open the glass cover with his thumb and the compass needle popped out. It would have been an extremely pointed diamond shape to begin with, but the twisted hunk of metal no longer showed any sign of that.

Directions were very important in the magical world, so had the needle destroyed itself by drawing an impossible power from an impossible direction?

''Two'' such needles had fallen to the floor.

The one from just now she understood. That would be the Faunus needle. But when had he discarded the Angerona needle that had twisted into something like a distorted spring? She dug through her memories yet could find nothing. Even though she had been watching him the entire time.

“But no one actually knows where Angerona came from. Why does she gather power in her mouth and why does her power grow the longer she remains silent? None of it matters to anyone now. No one cares about some ancient queen.”

“…”

All of a sudden, Albert Dying was holding a sickle in his other hand. That was the Sickle of Saturn. But if the compass was all he needed for his spells, he would not need that.

She could not let its shape distract her.

That sickle was not designed for offense using its sharp edge. It was meant to create a controlling field around the ground it stabbed into. If he was showing that off, then he must have created a field to his liking.

(Is his magic so powerful that he needs that field to protect himself?)

“And Faunus is a god of treasure. The horns on his head were enough to have him overwritten by the Greek myths of Pan and the Satyr, but that does not erase his logic that prophesied a victory for Rome in a great battle.”

Albert had called this a duel.

But despite what the term implied, the people who used it most often were always certain in their own victory. They would fire up the crowds with talk of ‘a one-on-one battle’, ‘don’t be late’, and ‘let’s fight fair and square’, but they really wanted to ensure the poor victim could not escape while they were tortured to death in public. When a less-than-honest person challenged someone to a duel, they might as well have been demanding a public execution.

Tu had called this a duel when he was outnumbered three-against-one.

That meant he was confident he could win and preserve the execution format with three opponents. If he had thought it at all possible he would be harmed, he would have called them cowards in order to reset the game until he had all the cards needed for his victory.

(Well…)

Agnese wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth.

Her nose picked up a sickly sweet aroma, like a raisin with the sourness removed. It was not unpleasant, but she found it disgusting once she realized it was the oily wood mixing with the sweat on the man’s hand.

(This might still be better than trying to beat the house at a casino.)

“Are you…trying to preserve the pure Roman mythology before it was washed away by Greek mythology? Is that what you’re…so desperate to protect?”

“''Not really.''”

He did not even give a strong denial.

He responded dismissively while holding the large compass and sickle.

“''Just so you know, I am not a Roman mythology believer.''”

“Kh.”

She had been wrong.

The hook dangled below the water had failed to catch in the fish’s mouth.

“During the Roman age, it was Roman mythology. During the Christian age, it was Christianity. I blend in with the victor of the current age to keep myself safe and protect myself. Just like someone dressing in all the latest fashions and throwing out piles of usable clothing each season. Not even I know the answer. All I can do is line up endless ‘theories’ that no one can prove correct or not.”

Analyzing your opponent was everything in the magic world.

If you did not secure what clues you could in the few chances you found, you did not stand a chance. Just like a mountain climber following all the easiest routes only to run across a cliff face with no handholds whatsoever.

Agnese heard a scraping of metal against metal. It came from the compass.

Once again, she had failed to see it, but he had definitely “loaded” the next one.

“Theory: Larvae II.”

This was a new one.

Agnese Sanctis only survived because someone shoved her aside.

She was saved by her fellow nun, Sister Angelene.

A change came over the girl’s freckled face. She covered it with her small hands, but it was still visible through the gaps. Something crucial – maybe water and maybe fat – was drained from her body. It looked like her skin was clinging directly to bone.

“Sister Angelene!?”

“The same applies to what I am using here.” The man spoke calmly while swinging his sickle just enough to keep the side effects from reaching him. He did not seem to care about the commotion around him. “This is not what we had initially hoped to pass down. As the many mythologies and religions mixed together, the original forms were entirely lost. But I will still win. I will survive. The Guild will always view the world from the side of the winners.”

That was all the Guild did.

They did not want any particular side to win. Nor did they hope to gain something through winning.

They only wanted to preserve their status of “winning”.

Everyone had their ups and downs. They would win some and lose some. But the Guild refused to let that happen, so they distorted themselves and others to force a result that defied that law.

With a solid clink, a twisted compass needle hit the floor, having used up whatever its effect was.

That was the empty cartridge.

But by then, Albert had already loaded the next round and snapped the glass cover shut with his thumb. He squeezed the compass made from an oily wood – probably palm.

And he spoke his words of power.

“Theory: Venus Genetrix I.”

“?”

Agnese briefly froze.

That divine name did not immediately bring a form of attack to mind like Mars or Jupiter would have.

The air was split open by something too strong to call a whip. It was probably some kind of tree branches intertwined in a complex but powerful way. It would tear through flesh and bone on contact.

And Agnese was slow to react.

She immediately backed out of its range, but then something burst from it. The solid fruits attached to the branches burst and created a wall of sharp shards, like a grenade blast.

She had very clearly been too late to react, so her survival was not the result of her own skill. The dense wall of sharp shards had been forcibly pried apart at the last second by the explosion of Lucia’s giant wooden wheel.
“Let’s ignore the Genetrix part for now.” The young man smiled thinly. “Everyone thinks of Venus as a goddess of beauty, but did you know she was originally an agricultural goddess of gardens? Also, a historical figure was absolutely fixated on her productive powers: an ancient Roman general by the name of Julius Caesar. Perhaps you’ve heard of him?”

“!?”

“Venus, Goddess of the Harvest, was known as the personal guardian deity of that strongest military man. Venus was a protector of Rome, but adding the Genetrix gives her name a special meaning. Caesar had thoroughly developed his abilities for harming and killing, so when he wanted to expand the Roman Empire, he may have been drawn to that productive power he lacked. He was hailed as the strongest when it came to military might, but that created a blind spot he hoped to fill with the divine mother of Aeneas. He wanted a solid protector who would gently support him. ''So that goddess will rush in toward any opening that presents itself.''”

“Sister Lucia!!”

The force of the shards was doubled.

The sharp shards from the many fruits closed back together to form a wall and rushed toward Lucia. This spell was a lot like a carnivorous plant without eyes or ears letting itself be bit to accurately locate its target.

It was a like a giant pair of jaws lined with sharp teeth and fangs.

Agnese’s warning was drowned out by a great boom as if from a drum taller than she was. Lucia had barely managed to avoid being fully caught between the closing jaws, but she had not escaped unscathed. She had been hit from the right.

The many shards that did hit her slammed her against the wall, where she slid down to the floor and stopped moving.

Agnese heard the clack of metal against metal.

She looked over without thinking, but with her life on the line, she subconsciously kept Tu in the corner of her vision.

Nevertheless, she did not have time to intervene.

He had clearly replaced the compass’s needle and he should have been defenseless while he did so. She knew she could take away his weapon if she intervened at that moment.

“Now, then,” he said. An oddly sweet aroma hung in the air as he gripped the loaded compass. “How are you enjoying this safety bought with your friends’ destruction? Unfortunately, you have no one else to take the next attack, sister.”

“!!”

She immediately leaped forward because Tu had stepped his foot on the pope’s stomach and raised his sickle.

The old man already had a sharp stake against his chest, but Tu did not hesitate.

As soon as she moved in the way, scorching heat assaulted her back.

This was not just a blade wound.

The Sickle of Saturn created a field of control over the land it was stabbed into.

(Is he trying to tear away my inner world!?)

“Ha ha ha. You help the pope after doing nothing for your friends?”

“Gahh!!”

A straining sound came from within her.

This was not just her physical body tearing apart. Her skeleton itself shook, her individual organs wriggled like slugs, and she feared she was transforming into another creature altogether. She could imagine her shoulder blades splitting as wings sprouted from her back, webs growing between her fingers, her canine teeth growing disconcertingly long, and her mind deteriorating too far for bipedal movement.

Was she only imagining all that?

It all may have been possible with the Sickle of Saturn.

Albert Dying smiled.

“You did the right thing. If I pry open the pope’s chest here, no one can stop the spread of the Sickle’s field. But that also proves that people are not equal under your system. Thank you. Your bravery has shown me that this era must be destroyed.”

“Shut up!!” she snapped back.

He kicked at her side, placed a foot on her small back, and pulled out the Sickle of Saturn like he was removing a nail. The sensation of the blade pulling from so deep inside her made her shudder far more than when it had stabbed into her.

“Now, a question: are people still equal?”

“…”

Stabbed and stepped on, Agnese still lay protectively over the unconscious old man.

The pope might have been killed if she had not acted.

Nothing might have changed for her own little world if a new era had begun.

They lived a life of oppression, suspicion, and odd jobs that underestimated their abilities. It wore at them more every day they continued to live as outsiders without a real home.

But she still wanted to avoid this.

She did not want everything to change.

She had learned to relax during the short breaks between jobs. The Anglicans gave her the absolute worst jobs, but the group from Italy had worked to come up with recipes they could cook in the women’s dorm. She still felt out of place in London’s mixture of old and new, but she had not disliked her days off when she could munch on biscuits and watch video makers perform with a phone in hand.

Yes, yes. She would admit it.

Maybe they were being tamed and maybe they were being used.

But Agnese Sanctis liked those bland days that were too forgettable to even write in a diary!!!!!!

(Yes.)

She thought about the Roman Catholic Church. They had abandoned her, but she could not have them collapse here. Just like she had her own world, this old man had his own world.

She could not let anyone trample that underfoot with a thin smile on their face.

They might live in very different places, but she was the only one who could stop it, so it was up to her to protect him!!

(This may be my arrogance talking, but I wonder if this is what it feels like to forgive someone.)

Albert Dying, the man who had nothing of his own, laughed.

“Then I’ll keep at it until they are equal.”