Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume11 Chapter4 (section)

===Part 3===

The lord of demons remained in the shadows.

Kingsford and Rosencreutz’s clash began before he could slowly start to move. Something exploded. Kingsford fought evenly with Rosencreutz while sometimes sending her fingertips racing through empty air and sometimes using a single hand to grab and swing around a large tree or castle wall pouring down from above.

Kamijou could only watch.

“Hee hee! You’ll need more than that!!”

CRC took a few steps back to put some distance between them.

She had not managed a clean hit so far, but Kingsford did not look concerned as her opponent escaped beyond her range.

She wasn’t fixated on a quick resolution.

She had prioritized keeping Rosencreutz away from the lord of demons.

“As if that could control this old man.”

“I did ❌ 💭 that would be enough.”

“This old man won’t let you forget who created this hell.”

All of a sudden, a thick shadow bared its fangs and engulfed Kingsford from the head down. That was not the veil of kind shadow protecting Kamijou by obscuring his view.

That was Nyx.

More than just inanimate objects were rolling down from the higher levels of the mortar-shaped hell.

“Adonai Melekh Ne’eman.”

Anna Kingsford crossed herself.

That was all.

Some self-styled specialists might scoff and say that wasn’t even a spell. In Christian regions, people even prayed before meals, so crossing oneself was a mystical act known even to elementary school children.

But a true expert did not neglect the fundamentals.

By mastering them to the extreme, they could elevate every spell they knew to deadly levels.

The amorphous silhouette of reddish white and sludgy black was blown straight back up just before contacting her. Afterwards, it slithered away as if to avoid Kingsford. Almost like a slug that had finally realized it had leapt at a pile of purifying salt.

“Hell and the 👿 world seem like similar concepts, but they are ❌,” said the benevolent expert.

Kingsford had not lost her shine even in the depths of such darkness.

“Hell is not where the 👿s gather their strength while waiting for a chance to rebel. It is a righteous device created by god to eternally torment the sinners he has damned there. The 👑 of the 👿s resides in Judecca at the very bottom of hell, but there he only gnaws on the greatest sinners in the 🌍. …That makes him a part of god’s plan, so the glory of god can be found even in the very depths of hell.”

The color red twinkled overhead.

In countless places.

That fiery snow would burn away the body if it came in contact, but it oddly never seemed to reach Kingsford. She wasn’t actually doing anything. The fiery snow avoided the benevolent expert.

“Like I 💬d, hell is a part of god’s plan. Past the forest of suicide is the wasteland of scorching sand. That hell of 🔥y ❄️ is used to punish the sinners who violated the providence of god or the laws of nature. So if you have ❌ stained your ✋s with heretical acts, you need ❌ fear punishment.”

Kamijou’s ignorance prevented him from even thinking of heretical spells, so he too had made it through unharmed.

Which meant…

“CRC.”

“Kh.”

The tides were changing.

Past the fiery snow was Rosencreutz who had supposedly set this in motion.

(Can he not control it?)

Kamijou groaned.

A benevolent expert and a deadly expert.

It was like a massive device. Had they begun fighting over control of hell below the surface?

“This is ❌ the real hell. It is undoubtedly a phase you forcibly inserted. But even if you are its creator, you still need to be careful. Haven’t you already had a bad experience with your own creation turning against you?”

“You would mock this old man!? You, the false expert whose blind belief has led to nothing but stagnation!!?” roared the silver-haired young man in red.

Something responded.

Kingsford was not fazed. When the minotaur swung its massive axe in from the side, she stopped it with two fingers, swung it around herself, and tossed the minotaur away such that the three-headed cerberus was taken out as well.

She had an overwhelming advantage.

But the situation was still in motion.

The thick ice below their feet cracked.

“Kh!!”

Kamijou tried to stay in place, but after noticing something, Rosencreutz held his palm out this way.

A few explosions followed.

If the orbs of light were flying toward him, Kamijou could have negated them with his right hand, but that wasn’t enough for this.

This attack struck the thick ice.

Had Rosencreutz not meant to hit Kamijou?

Then what? Was sending a stray shot down into the thick ice of the frozen lake supposed to accomplish something?

(Oh, no.)

“Kh!!”

Kamijou braced his legs the best he could.

The ice below him slanted.

He couldn’t afford to stop running, so he kept jumping from foothold to foothold as giant fissures ran through the ice. Unlike Kingsford, who he had a feeling could fly through the sky if she wanted, he had to keep his feet on the ground, meaning this was a matter of life or death.

More and more of the thick ice shattered, some pieces sinking down and others jutting up.

If he carelessly contacted any of that, his leg could get caught and broken.

He was afraid that one of the fissures would end up too wide, but a cliff like height difference would be just as bad. Choosing the wrong place to stand would leave him stranded with nowhere to move and then Rosencreutz could concentrate his fire on him.

This was Judecca, the very bottom of hell.

That frozen lake wasn’t just ordinary ice. It was a negative holy ground created to eternally torment the three greatest sinners in the world.

This footing was only temporary.

Kamijou couldn’t imagine what would happen to him if he fell from the edge of this thick ice. He could guess it would be worse than being chewed by the great maw formed by two giant pieces of ice.

Not knowing was a form of fear.

He would have been less concerned fighting over a pool of lava.

And…

(Damn, where’d Kingsford go? We got separated in the darkness!!)

He was panicking, but the situation wasn’t going to wait for him to catch up.

The enemy was directly in front of him.

He was afraid that even moving his gaze around his surroundings would give CRC extra information.

And in that instant of hesitation…

“!!”

Something grazed the side of his head as it flew past.

He felt scorching heat from it.

He had to change his focus. If Kingsford wasn’t here, he had to do this on his own.

He was willing to give up an ear.

He probably wouldn’t die in hell even if his heart was gouged out or his head was blown off. This territory was thoroughly unkind to humans, so it wouldn’t provide an easy way out like the comfort of death.

So Kamijou had only one thing to focus on.

If his body was smashed to a pulp, the wrong person would climb the spiral stairs back to the realm of the living. He would only be able to watch as it happened. Come to think of it, what had happened to CRC’s body after Alice killed him? Or would Rosencreutz’s soul enter Kamijou Touma’s body to be revived? Either way, the threat of Christian Rosencreutz would appear within Academy City once more. Academy City had yet to recover after the first time, so it probably couldn’t stop a second attack.

Index was there.

So was Misaka Mikoto, Aogami Pierce, Komoe-sensei, Aradia, Aleister, and Accelerator.

How could he let that happen?

No one else needed to die and experience this.

So even if it meant the destruction of his body or soul, he would stop Rosencreutz here.

No matter what.

If Kamijou Touma climbed the spiral staircase even one step ahead of him, CRC’s resurrection could be stopped!!

“Hee hee. It would seem this old man cannot end this so easily with direct attacks, boy.”

“Kh.”

“But what about less direct methods? That right hand lacks the power to destroy illusions without touching them first!!”

CRC directed his palm overhead.

That hand held an eternal lamp that’s light would never be extinguished.

The bright light shined into the emptiness. However, no fiery rain poured down like a cloudburst and no massive explosion consumed all the oxygen in the vicinity.

This was much worse.

Did you forget?

Kamijou had only managed to maintain his sanity here in the depths of hell because of the thick veil of darkness so kindly protecting him. The lord of demons, the lord of hell, Satan, Beelzebub, Lucifer. He went by many names, but Kamijou had been spared from seeing that being without a known identity or settled name.

What if a powerless signal flare had just been launched here? But was that really so harmless? Even if it was nothing more than a bright and gentle light, what would happen when the thick shadows at the bottom of hell were thoughtlessly swept away, revealing that which was hidden behind them!?

“Take this, uncultured boy!! You need not even touch it. Simply observing or speaking of this blot upon the world is considered a sin. Knowing his wicked nature is enough to corrode your very being!!!”