Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume7 Chapter4 (section)

===Part 4===

The best Kamijou could describe the feeling was having the film of his memories forcibly linked together. And he only knew one person capable of something so absurd. She was so convenient she could eliminate the very tragedy of death, but she would utterly destroy your world the instant you started to ''assume you would receive her help''. This monster – this Transcendent – had complete control over an artificial miracle.

“Good…” he groaned.

His right shoulder felt funny. Had she severed that arm again?

He couldn’t even get up, so he held his throat and looked up at the woman in a large hat and a maternity dress who stood next to him like shimmering heat or a ghost.

“Good, Old Mary?”

“Do not worry.”

Good, Old Mary did not assume she would give her help either.

And she knew what that puny boy most wanted to hear.

She remained entirely motionless even in the biting wind.

“Aradia is safe. Since you managed to distract H. T.? Z. I.? ABC? Random Letters Trismegistus, mama could complete the process in peace.”

That was all it took.

Kamijou Touma felt so much relief he nearly let go of the consciousness he had reclaimed.

But he couldn’t do that.

Z. I. Trismegistus – that monster who was not Zeus and did not wield a lightning bolt – was still out there. Leaving him be would give him a chance to use his cane sword against Aradia again.

So Kamijou had to do something.

Even if nothing he had done had worked so far!!

“Mama said not to worry.”

Kamijou’s anxiety motivated him to try and force himself up on the tower roof, but Good, Old Mary bluntly interrupted.

“You have met mama’s conditions for salvation. By managing that, you and Aradia’s gamble paid off. So stay here and accept your victory prize. Mama will defeat him. You are not needed.”

“Really? First Aradia and now Kamijou Touma? You would give your miracles out to just anyone, wouldn’t you? I can’t let Alice see this.”

On a different roof, the young butler gently returned the sword to its scabbard and tapped his finger against the hilt like he was timing something.

The air between the two Transcendents seemed to electrify.

“Good, Old Mary. Your conditions are too broad and lax. Do not forget that we are the Transcendents who accompany Alice. Did you think you could avoid the ‘monster’ label if you played at being a doctor?”

“Have you gone so senile you cannot tell the difference between a proud doctor who pours all of their efforts into helping any suffering people they come across and mama who blurs the line between life and death for her own purposes?”

Her sigh sounded exasperated.

Z. I. Trismegistus’s fingers toyed with his cane sword.

“''Common sense says not everyone deserves these grand miracles.''”

“''Who says miracles only belong to a chosen privileged class, you fuck.''”

[[Image:GT_Index_v07_BW5.png|thumb]]


These were their starting points.

The very cores of these Transcendents clashed head on.

A moment later, something shining exploded from the distant young butler’s cane sword, but it was clearly thrown off course. That wasn’t lightning or light. It was pressurized water. The deadly water jet targeted Kamijou’s neck while he was unable to get up, but its path changed when it hit something else and sliced diagonally through a different tower.

A huge explosion of orange sparks occurred a moment later.

The leaves floating in the air were all sliced through when the splashing droplets hit them.

If Kamijou had tried to block that with Imagine Breaker, the main water jet would have exploded, drenching him. And if each drop could slice through solid objects, his entire body would have been shredded.

Kamijou couldn’t tell what Good, Old Mary had done.

He only saw her slender fingers occasionally toy with the camping kitchen tools hanging from her belt ''which looked vaguely weaponlike'': the tea kettle, the gas burner, the multitool, the sandwich toaster, etc.

“Random Letters.”

“Please state my identity accurately. Alice is going to start calling me that.”

“That name is too long. But you have nothing to worry about. Mama will resurrect you even if you die. However, mama must punish you, so you will be resurrected into a state with all your bones removed and your organs crushed. It is time you crawled this earth like a worm in a state of constant, undying pain, Transcendent. Maybe then you will understand what it feels like for those who can only look up from below.”

“…”

“Do you understand the consequences if you lose? Then do take this seriously. Life is such a wonderful thing, so make sure to thank mama, Random Letters.”

“I don’t even care if you get it wrong, at least try to say my name right!!”

Good, Old Mary was still toying with the kitchen tools in her hands.

She did not actually use any of them or try to hit him with any of them.

Yet far below, a massive fissure formed in the ground and orange lava erupted sharply upwards. It looked like a disturbing glowing serpent. The young butler jumped up to avoid it, but then a mass larger than a dump track crashed into him from the side. The massive blunt object might as well have been one of the wrecking balls used by cranes to demolish buildings, but it was actually a hunk of ice weighing more than 30 tons.

A deadly attack split the ice into three pieces.

Trismegistus didn’t even wait to reach the ground. He landed on one piece of ice and continued slicing through the bed and desk that crashed through a window and the storm of pebbles torn from the white wall, ''before solidifying it all.'' What even was that? Clear crystals jutted from where he sliced through the objects, linking together Good, Old Mary’s projectiles, and pinning them in place in midair.

Based on what Kamijou had seen, those sword strikes came in more than one variety.

Lightning.

Light.

Water.

Crystal.

How did it have so much variety? The young butler himself had said ''it wasn’t Zeus'', but even knowing that, Kamijou couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

Aradia and the Bologna Succubus’s spells were supposedly powerful enough to fight the entire magic side on their own. Same for Good, Old Mary’s resurrection.

Was Trismegistus the same?

He could infuse his sharp blade into any phenomenon, so if he wasn’t afraid of cutting himself, could he fill this entire universe with ''miniscule'' death and destruction?

“Do not worry. Mama has a scorching hotplate double slap with that gloomy butler’s name on it.”

“I’m thankful that you’re helping me, but how am I even supposed to respond to something like that!?”

Kamijou trembled and shouted back at her, but the Transcendent didn’t seem to care.

As if this wasn’t enough to surprise Good, Old Mary.

“Trismegistus. Who is currently in your right hand? And who do you have serving within your left hand? Did you attack Aradia before your top priority target because she uses a similar spell and you were afraid she would see through it?”

''Flash.

''Boooooooooom!!!

This time, it wasn’t a long range slash. Was it lightning? With cane sword in hand, Trismegistus himself dropped sharply down like a flash of light. But he was forcibly stopped right in front of Good, Old Mary who stood atop the tower with her large hat swaying.

There was an invisible wall there.

The one Transcendent revealed the other’s secrets from such close range.

“Mama knows your trick. You are not borrowing a portion of a god’s power and you are not making yourself identical to a god to wield their power. You place one god in your right hand and another in your left. Including you, that creates a large triangle that implants the world with ''a false definition'' saying you yourself are a god too. That is your method of leaving human territory. So instead of borrowing an existing god’s name, you create a brand new god and make yourself that god. You use the correspondences of the Liber 777 to accomplish this. Thus, you are not Zeus or Indra and you were not Hermes or Thoth. In the end, you never could love anyone other than yourself.”

“Tch!! “My right hand contains Odin. My left hand contains-”

“Mercury? Or maybe Anubis or Loki?”

“!?”

“Weren’t you listening? Mama knows your trick. Anyone who understands Crowley’s correspondence table can predict your next move. And that means your sword is no longer a threat. You cannot freely transform your blade into whatever you want. It operates on a predictable pattern.”

Aradia had mentioned the triple goddess in Shibuya.

Kamijou still didn’t know what that meant, but Trismegistus was another Transcendent whose power was based on the number 3.

“I too am a Transcendent who serves Alice. I know you do not have as much an advantage as you claim to.”

The young butler’s trick had been revealed, but he still smiled and pressed his sword against the invisible barrier.

“Your surefire plan has already failed from the moment I got this close. Not too surprising really since you are no more than the kitchen manager. Food is meant to be carried out to the guests; you do not want them entering your territory.”

A slight cut ran down Good, Old Mary’s cheek visible below the brim of her hat. A few red drops formed and dripped down to color her face.

The young butler could apparently ''infuse'' his sword strikes into a variety of ordinary phenomena like light and water. So could he apply a cutting edge to the an electric ''field'' and not just to a lightning strike?

“Good-”

Kamijou gasped just before an explosion burst out.

Trismegistus was sent spinning away. He forcibly applied the brakes by stabbing his cane sword into the flower garden on the roof of a midair passageway connecting the sharp tower to the large mansion. A storage case similar to a tackle box spilled from his cloak and he couldn’t return it to its pocket. He tilted to the side with his right half covered in blood, but he was definitely smiling.

He was focused on Good, Old Mary’s right hand back on the tower.

She held an ordinary sandwich toaster like it was weapon.

“Ha ha ha!! I’ve peeled back another layer, Good, Old Mary! How many more until I break through that calm façade? You might be the kitchen master who can create a microcosm contained to a glass container, but not even the greatest chef can cook without her tools. I will keep peeling back those layers. And with each tool I take from you, the more powerless you will be!!!”

The previous rules no longer applied.

Good, Old Mary took a step forward.

“''Steam.''”

The word came after the fact.

Her tall body suddenly disappeared.

It wasn’t a simple issue of speed. Unlike with Saints such as Kanzaki or Acqua, there was no roar or blast of wind as she tore through the air. Maybe this was the light physically bending and maybe she had constructed some kind of trick that placed her in a preexisting blind spot found in human vision, but she must have surrounded herself in something that prevented anyone else from seeing her.

(You’re kidding, right?)

Kamijou recalled how Good, Old Mary had appeared out of nowhere when called back Shibuya on the 31st. What if she hadn’t teleported from afar and had already been standing in that scramble crossing?

By the time the powerless boy realized a blade had been against his throat at the end of the previous year, Good, Old Mary had approached Trismegistus.

She was already making her next move.

“!?”

Transcendent clashed with Transcendent.

They reduced the distance between them to zero, several explosions erupted, and each time, a tea kettle or gas burner dropped to the ground far below.

It looked a lot like Good, Old Mary was overwhelming her opponent while appearing from and vanishing into the background. With each explosion, Trismegistus took a powerful blow and the rusty scent in the air grew stronger. The flurry of attacks was too great to block with a cane sword alone.

But who was really making progress here? Hadn’t Trismegistus said his goal was to take away all of her tools?

Kamijou Touma was concerned, but his imagination proved insufficient.

“Mama is going to allow herself a risk of 4. Releasing the singular seal – leaving human territory,” said Good, Old Mary. “Show yourself, Tribikos – the tool mama used to contain a complete universe.”

Kamijou felt some shaking.

He thought it was an earthquake, but apparently not.

“…”

He looked up toward the sky without thinking, but in this case, the foolish pointy-haired boy hadn’t been hopelessly left behind.

Trismegistus did it too.

He reacted just like Kamijou even as he sneered despite his battered body. He silently looked overhead. Yes, even though ''they were at the top of a tower or in a rooftop flower garden.''

Three distorted legs – each one taller than the average transmission tower – supported a squashed sphere resembling a domed baseball stadium. Was it supposed to resemble chemistry equipment like beakers and flasks? Or was it supposed to resemble a living, breathing creature? Kamijou wasn’t sure, but the very core of his body was ruled by a dreadful shaking. Even at the top of a tower, the sky overhead was entirely blotted out.

It was as hard as thick porcelain.

But it was also clearly pulsating from the inside.

What did it contain? A collection of energy as massive as the sun or even the big bang? An all-consuming black hole? Good, Old Mary had called it a universe. Was that a metaphor, or was it literally true? Looking up at it, Kamijou could no longer tell what was a joke and what wasn’t.

“The red stone, a panacea that provides immortality, pure control over the five elements, rearranging the universe.”

Good, Old Mary accepted what she had summoned like it was nothing. She did not even glance up at it.

That Transcendent calmly viewed her enemy from below the brim of her hat.

Calmly but strongly.

“But a creator must do more than complete their research. They cannot make any progress without first inventing the necessary tools. Mama is Good, Old Mary. The Bain-marie insulated pot, the Kerotakis reflux device, and the Tribikos distiller are all the basic tools needed to create a universe, so do not underestimate the one who rules ''the very foundation'' of those tools, long-named one.”

The giant mass did not attack.

She was going to use the brand new death and destruction contained within.

How far did it go? This was something from a brand new category than all the types of magic and elements Kamijou had seen before. What if it pushed even a bit past the limits of what the 103,001 grimoires covered? Wouldn’t this be magic that ''not even Grimoire Library Index could defend against''?

Did this simply make Good, Old Mary frightening, or was the real threat Trismegistus for requiring something so powerful to deliver the finishing blow?

“Ha…ha ha ha. Good, Old Mary, you are rebelling against Alice at this point.”

“You are a Transcendent, making you more powerful than the average person, but mama heard what you childishly said to this high school boy, knowing he is forced to walk a path of greater-than-average misfortune because he lives in this city and is unfairly shunned by god’s miracles. You said common sense says you have no reason to hold back and, if an enemy is being a nuisance, you should kill them right away.”

“There, that’s the final layer. Once I survive this, you are done forrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!”

“Mama sends those words right back at you. Since you wield your own miracles to trample on the less fortunate, you do not meet mama’s conditions. Thus, she will not hold back. So bring it on, you depressing butler. Mama will kill you quickly like the worm you are.”

There was a sharp clash of metal. Trismegistus had remade himself into a brand new being by swapping out the names of the gods wielded by his hands and he rushed toward Good, Old Mary, slicing through even the wind with his cane sword. Whatever he planned on infusing his sword strike into, he pushed the sword up from its scabbard with his thumb and tons of rusty sewing needles spilled from the blade.

Good, Old Mary had told him to come to her, so she was unfazed. A massive piece of lab equipment covered the sky overhead and she only needed to release what it contained. All she did was pull back her index finger while standing in the flower garden.

This time, they both attacked in a straight line.

The two Transcendents clashed after tearing through the seals which kept them human.

And…