Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:AgneseSS Chapter7 (section)

===Part 6===

Vatican City was the world’s smallest independent nation with a population of less than 1000, including visitors.

It was the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church, it was geographically located within the Italian capital of Rome, and it was the only ''entire country registered as a world heritage site.

It had fought over ownership of Rome after a military invasion by Italy, but it had become the current city state in 1929. It lacked a military of its own, but the Pope was traditionally protected by the Swiss Guard. But even if it lacked a military, any country that tried to invade it would be making an enemy of the other world powers.

As a country, you did need a passport to get in, but Agnese’s group ignored that rule.

“Pwah.”

Agnese stuck her head above ground after sliding a round manhole cover to the side.

The surface was dangerous.

She had not emerged in the wide-open St. Peter’s Square. This was a garden surrounded by tall walls. Needless to say, that open area out in front had strict magical security from the 140 saint statues overlooking the ground, so they had needed to avoid that area.

The nuns were not immediately killed upon arriving on the surface, so the Vatican really was a sunspot. It was the one exception to the Sickle of Saturn’s effects.

(We’re back.)

That was Agnese’s first thought, now that she had survived.

Of course, a low-level person like her had never actually been summoned to the Vatican during her Catholic days.

This was her first time here, but it still inspired these thoughts in her.

(We’re back. There’s something about this place that makes me feel that way.)

Lucia looked around.

“Where are we?”

Looking straight up showed an unnatural aurora-like light in the sky. That was the collection of protective barriers covering the entire Vatican. They were only so brightly visible because they were working to fight the Sickle of Saturn. Everything outside the tall walls was already a foreign world of gold.

“W-we’re between the Governor’s Palace and the Fount of the Eagle, so…we’re close to St. Peter’s Basilica!”

Angelene was right. Enshrouded in the shadows of the night, the large structure looked so different from the pure white church seen on the tours during the day.

It was covered in thick construction sheets and scaffolding due to the aftermath of Fiamma of the Right’s attack, but it was close to a miracle that the restoration was this far along already. That demonstrated the Roman Catholic Church’s great power. They could remake or add onto “history” as easily as someone pasting a new image in using photo editing software.

But the fear in Angelene’s voice was not just about returning to the home that had abandoned them.

Everything was quiet

Even when the population count was increased a lot by the tourists, Vatican City was not as busy a place as New York or Shanghai. And even less so at night once the ordinary visitors had all left. But even with less than 1000, there were a lot of church officials here and they were currently being attacked by Tu. The place should have been buzzing with activity, so this was strange.

(Did something happen?)

Agnese switched off her flashlights.

There were no lights on in St. Peter’s Basilica or the courthouse.

From now on, light would mean something very different. They were stepping into a world where the shadows kept you safe and switching on your light could get you killed.

The nuns were sneaking in, so they did not want to remain in this open space for long.

But they were afraid to move around blindly, so they crouched down and waited for their eyes to adjust. After ten minutes, they could make out each other’s hand signs without a light, so they took their first step. They walked across the carefully-maintained lawn to reach St. Peter’s Basilica’s wall.

No traps activated and no guards shouted at them.

It all went smoothly. Too smoothly. It felt like they were exploring a deserted ghost ship.

Lucia could not help but question it.

“What is going on?”

“Th-the Vatican is fighting back against the Sickle, aren’t they? Then they’re still holding on for now, right?”

Angelene’s opinion was more wishful thinking than objective fact.

Something was happening.

That much was certain.

The question was whether it was worse than their expectations, better than them, or beyond their wildest imagination. Those were the only three options.

“What should we do?” carefully asked Lucia. “St. Peter’s Basilica might not be what we’re looking for. Vatican City is less than a kilometer across. That’s about the size of an amusement park, so we could search through everything if we had to.”

“B-but this is ''the'' Vatican. It’s bound to have tons of secret passageways and vaults. I bet it has as many tricks and secrets as an ancient Egyptian pyramid.”

Angelene had a point.

They had entered the Vatican using a route not found on the official maps, so there were bound to be plenty of other secrets hidden around. The official maps and diagrams would not be enough for a thorough check.

But Agnese shook her head.

“This is indeed ''the'' Vatican, but that’s why we can’t take the easy way out and use magic. The multiple barriers might interfere with our magic and they might even be able to track us down using it. With as small a place as the Vatican, they can cover the entire place with high-level security.”

They had to thoroughly search every room while also not being spotted by anyone.

That would normally sound like conflicting priorities, but that was what they needed at the moment.

Since they could not find the priests and nuns who should have been here, even nervous and cowardly Angelene gradually grew bolder as she peered around corner after corner.

With a thorough search, it was best to deal with the more difficult areas up front when they still had strength to spare, so they first went to St. Peter’s Basilica below the wavering aurora in the night sky.

“D-did they all evacuate, maybe?”

“To where? One step outside the city and the deadly field there gets them.”

Agnese held a hand out to the side to stop Angelene and Lucia’s chatter.

A large door stood in front of them.

Agnese Sanctis had always wanted to visit St. Peter’s Basilica and the Vatican as a whole, so she knew more or less where everything was without having to check a tourist site.

There was a blank spot here.

Specifically, on the pathway connecting St. Peter’s Basilica with the Sistine Chapel. The arrangement of so many stone steps would be perfect for hiding a facility not found on the maps.

Like a monitor room that gathered footage from the security cameras around the city.

She pressed against the wall next to the double doors and focused on her ears.

Through the single thick piece of oak, she could her a quiet clicking sound. That was probably from a computer of some sort, which explained why she could not sense any human presences. Of course, she was still not about to crack open the door and peek inside.

This would be a gamble no matter how they did it.

“(Sister Lucia and Angelene. You two stand back while I go in first. Keep enough distance to avoid the blast if I screw this up.)”

“(What are you talking about? We’re going with you, Sister Agnese.)”

Angelene started to run off to take Agnese up on that offer, but Lucia grabbed her by the collar and refused to leave.

The oak door had small Latin text carved into it, so using magic would probably backfire on them. Christianity had a type of curse known as anathema. That was the power to cut off any rulebreakers from the community. Agnese stuck her silver staff into the crack between the double doors and used leverage to break the lock and kick the door inwards.

It made a lot of noise, but no one turned back their way.

The left and right walls were covered in monitors. Their light illuminated the place like an aquarium tank, revealing several men collapsed on the floor.

Agnese clicked her tongue.

“Not a good sign! Sister Angelene, how much medicine do you have on hand!?”

“Wh-why would I bring more than the three of us would need? We should just borrow the Vatican’s stuff! This is the Catholic headquarters!!”

Angelene snatched a first aid kit and AED bag from the wall by the door and tossed them both to Agnese.

“Ugh,” someone groaned.

When they spoke, it was in a unique dialect of German. Agnese belatedly realized he was a Swiss Guard, not a Vatican priest.

“Those habits…?”

“We aren’t what you want. We’re uninvited guests.”

“But you don’t seem to be with ''him''. And that’s all that matters right now.”

Still on the floor, the man in a suit pointed toward the many monitors.

''Him.

What had that Swiss Guard seen?

Lucia moved close to the indicated monitors to see what they showed, but that was not what the man meant.

After he whispered something to Agnese, she approached the wall, grabbed the steel rack the monitors were connected to, and pushed it open. Just like a door.

The rectangular opening it revealed contained a stone stairway leading down.

“A shelter?”

“The rest is in your hands.”

That was all the man got out before his trembling hand dropped to the floor.

Angelene crouched down next to him and then shook her head.

“The circulation of his lifeforce is weak to the point of vanishing. Normal treatment won’t save him.”

“And abnormal treatment?”

“We could use recovery magic, but that would probably give away our position.”

Agnese sighed.

They had come all this way despite the risk so they could stop Tu and the Sickle of Saturn. Their goal was to protect Christian society as a whole and save England from that “submit or die” field as a way of repaying them. They could not get distracted from that.

They had plenty of enemies here.

Tu of the Guild was the main one, but the Catholics of their old home would not welcome them with open arms. Even the Anglicans would be upset with them for disobeying orders. They could be interrupted at any time, so they needed to hide their presence here.

Giving into emotion and acting without thinking might mean failing to stop Tu.

Agnese understood that.

She accepted that fact. But…

“If we have a way to save him, then do it! We’ll accept the risks!!”

Lucia smiled and Angelene groaned with a hand on her forehead.

But once the decision was made, the rest was easy.

Christianity had no shortage of legends about the miraculous healing of injuries and sickness. One of the Twelve Apostles had even used a miracle to temporarily revive a dead body so it could walk around once more.

They brought the dying Swiss Guards back to stable condition.

This was a monitor room.

There was something like tape attached to the edges of the LCD screens, but it all turned red.

“They’ve noticed us,” said Lucia with the look of a mountain climber preparing for a treacherous climb.

“Yes, both the Vatican and Tu,” agreed Agnese.

But she looked refreshed. Now she could focus on just the one problem. If she had chosen to abandon the guards for her own safety, it would have stuck with her and tripped her up when it really mattered.

“It’s a race against time now. We have to take out Tu and destroy the Sickle of Saturn before doom can catch up with us.”