Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Volume SP Chapter1 (section)

===Part 3===
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At any rate, they could not stay there.

Stiyl carried Theodosia over his shoulders as she had not yet moved and then left the closed bank along with Patricia. If they stayed there, pursuers would come.

No matter how ridiculous the mission was, their opponents would come fully equipped as members of the Anglican Church’s Necessarius as long as they recognized it as an official mission. They were at the disadvantage both in numbers and in equipment. It was quite likely that Stiyl alone would be unable to deal with it. Whether he was going to fight the pursuers or get the mission repealed, he would have to come up with a plan. And it took time to think up a strategy.

He was a member of the Anglican Church.

Of course, the normal course of action would be to cooperate with the pursuers and hand Patricia over.

But…

(How the hell am I supposed to go along with a mission like this? This is no longer just Patricia’s problem. If I follow this rotten mission and screw up the next step, all of England could end up involved in the Dawn-Colored Sunlight’s issue.)

Stiyl bit into his cigarette’s filter.

(But what am I supposed to do against a nation? I’m just one magician!!)

He was conflicted, he was troubled, and he could not come up with an answer as he ran through the city at night along with Patricia.

“This will all be okay, right?” the girl asked with a worried voice.

Stiyl glanced over at her.

“Once we get Anti-Skill’s help, there will be nothing to worry about, right?”

(Shit!!)

Even breathing the smoke deep into his lungs did not calm him down. Stiyl tossed the useless cigarette ahead and stomped on it as he ran.

The embers flowed backwards from the sole of his shoe.

And then…

“Where do you think you’re going?”

Suddenly, Stiyl heard an unnatural voice. Even though he was running as quickly as he could, the voice was at a constant but undetermined distance. Patricia must have been able to hear it as well because her shoulder’s jumped.

Stiyl frowned.

At the very right edge of his vision, he glimpsed a black figure.

“Your destination does not lie in that direction.”

“Eh?”

With a puzzled look on her face, Patricia turned in the direction of the voice.

“''Don’t focus on it''!!” Stiyl yelled out, but it was already too late.

A sound similar to glass shattering came from Patricia’s chest.

All strength left her body, she lost her balance, and she collapsed forward without stopping her momentum from running.

“I was too slow!!”

Stiyl came to a quick stop and approached Patricia. She was completely unconscious and she did not respond even when he slapped her on the cheek. The black figure had disappeared from the edge of his vision. Stiyl’s expression turned bitter as he confirmed that it had been a type of spell.

With Theodosia already on one shoulder, he put Patricia’s small form on his other shoulder and tried to start running once more.

“Kh.”

But that was simply too much of a burden. It would be difficult to continue moving.

He needed to temporarily hide somewhere.

Stiyl peered inside a nearby alley and then headed inside it.

(Treating Patricia comes first.)

The alley surface was dirty, but it was not time to be picky.

Stiyl put down the two and then pulled a cigarette from the box using his mouth.

He lit the tip and then checked on Patricia’s condition.

Quite a bit of sweat had appeared on her face as she lay limply on the ground. Stiyl used a finger to lift up one of her eyelids and then ran his index finger across her forehead.

When Patricia did not move even slightly, Stiyl looked away and clicked his tongue.

(Mental interference. If ''her consciousness had been destroyed'' there would be nothing I could do, but this isn’t that serious. Only one portion of her mind is being forcibly held in place which is preventing the whole thing from moving.)

If you thought of the human mind as being made up of many gears, the magic user had forced a wedge between two of the gears to stop them all from moving. That failure in one spot was having an effect on the whole, so Patricia’s mind had been stopped.

In that case, what he had to do was simple.

Just by removing that one wedge, the gears would regain their normal motion.

(But removing this spell is a bit much for me alone. I’d like some backup for this.)

If the girl known as Index who had memorized 103,000 grimoires was there, things would have been perfect in more ways than one, but that was hoping for too much.

(In that case…)

Stiyl glanced to the side.

Theodosia was limply lying there.

“Hnn!!”

Stiyl stomped on the center of Theodosia’s stomach as she lay unconscious on the ground.

“Gbah!?”

Theodosia awoke with that ridiculous noise.

“Ubh!? Y-yes!? Good morning, Stiyl!!”

“…Now I’m not sure I can trust you to support me with this…”

“C’mon! Is that anything to say to someone who you just forced awake!?”

He forced a cigarette into Theodosia’s mouth to calm her down a bit.

They had to return Patricia to normal and get out of there before any pursuers arrived.

“Just to check. Did you know about all of this from the beginning, Theodosia?”

“Ha ha!! Being the person that knows everything makes me sound like an intellectual final boss, doesn’t it?”

Stiyl grabbed the cigarette and shook it slightly to drop some ashes down.

“Hot!? Hot!!?”

“Then tell me from the beginning!! Don’t keep it to yourself and act all pleased with yourself!!”

“Sorry! But…hot! I didn’t think it was right to get people involved in this kind of thing, so…hooottt!?”

“Shut up. First, we need to do something about Patricia. Just get up and help me already.”

Stiyl brushed up his long bangs that were getting in his face and then began the preparations.

First, he cast aside the old cigarette, pulled a new one out of the box, and lit it with one of Theodosia’s matches.

Next, he blew some of the cigarette smoke on a few rune cards before placing one on Patricia’s forehead, chest, and stomach.

“I see. In both Eastern and Western magic, the cigarette is used as a spiritual item that carries out changes of mental states, so you are using that as a base to investigate Patricia’s mind.”

“If I had some alcohol too, it would be perfect, but I don’t think we have time to get some.”

Magic could be carried out by materials gathered at a convenience store. Some legendary item hidden within ancient ruins was not necessarily needed. Of course, there were spells that needed items like that, but they were not using magic of that level.

“Let’s go.”

“Okay.”

Stiyl adjusted his grip on the cigarette and Theodosia lightly swung the match that had lit it.

By using the fire and the smoke as a common item, the three of them were bound magically.

“I A T W C P H I S K W O T D O T H. (This hand connects to a wavering heart and acts as the key to open that door.)”

When Stiyl closed his eyes and chanted that, the flames of the cigarette and the match ''became fixed in place''. The flames were clearly burning, but the match showed no sign of shortening. The same thing happened with the cigarette.

Stiyl slowly opened his eyes.

His eyes were already out of focus and there was no change to his expression.

“…This makes me want to draw things on your face,” said Theodosia, but Stiyl gave no response.

It seemed as if he would fall over from just a slight poke. It seemed like a miracle that the cigarette was still in the corner of this mouth.

“Ow…”

Theodosia frowned slightly and looked over her body.

On her arms and legs, she had a few light burns that would not leave scars from the battle in the bank, but the dull pain from her chest to her navel was much worse. She guessed it must have been from the shockwaves.

“…”

Theodosia ignored her various pains, waved the lit match, and continued focusing.

The spell Stiyl was carrying out was a delicate one. Not to mention that he was not well versed in healing methods for anything besides burns. Without Theodosia’s support, he would end up having his own mind broken along with Patricia’s.

However, Stiyl was not currently inside Patricia’s mind.

Only specialists could do something of that high level.

Rather than slicing open a patient’s stomach to look inside, he was only pricking into the stomach’s surface to find out what the disease was.

Basically, he was using the smoke to touch Patricia’s skin, analyzing the inside of her mind, and reproducing its condition within his own brain. To put it simply, it was an extreme game of make-believe. It might have been similar to an actor getting into character. By approaching the same state as Patricia, he could learn what part of her mind was affected.

It may have sounded like a rather unique method, but it was actually rather popular in the magic business. People such as Crowley could “get into character” at such a high level that they could manipulate the model person and make them trip. It could be called a reversal of Idolatry Theory.

“…”

An intense stabbing pain ran across Stiyl’s head.

It was on the left side of his head just above the ear.

“So it’s there…”

Stiyl ''once more opened his eyes''. With a bursting sound, the flames on the cigarette and the match both disappeared. Stiyl stabbed the now flameless cigarette into the side of Patricia’s head.

The soft cigarette was easily crushed.

Even so, a hard grinding sound came from Patricia’s head.

“It’s removed!! Theodosia, restrain her!!”

Her small form jumped up two or three times.

Theodosia forcibly restrained her and then Patricia’s eyes opened and her pupils widened to their limit. Stiyl helped grab the girl’s arms and legs as well and her eyes finally returned to normal.



Now that Patricia and Theodosia were both able to walk on their own, Stiyl’s burden had been lightened by quite a bit. For the moment, they continued down the dark alleyway.

The mental spell that had attacked Patricia had been a wide range but low power attack. Stiyl doubted the black figure he had seen was the true attack spell. It had likely only been used to slow them down so the magician could get closer.

In other words, their pursuer was not yet nearby.

“What are you planning to do from now on, Theodosia? If you went this far without any real chance of success, I really will roast you.”

“Eh heh heh. Patricia has no connection to magic, so there should be no problem with having Academy City shelter her as long as they don’t try to develop any psychic powers in her. It isn’t anything as definitive as having them take her in as a refugee, but handing her over should take top priority.”

“…So what are we going to do?”

“Hide until the heat dies down?”

Stiyl kicked Theodosia in the back. He then sighed while wishing he hadn’t gotten involved with something related to that woman.

“Patricia, why are you in Japan?”

“At first, I came here on a trip with my sister, but we got separated partway through. Then Theodosia appeared and we decided to go to Academy City so I could meet up with my sister.”

At that point, Theodosia would have had received her mission from the Anglican Church, but she must not have told Patricia about that part. She might have gotten separated from her older sister due to some kind of magical battle being carried out below the surface. Currently, the guards who should have been by Patricia’s side were not there.

“If only all this hadn’t happened,” Patricia muttered with a sad look on her face. “I had been interested in Japan’s Academy City for a while. In fact, I had wanted to study here if I could. But ''my sister and the others'' did not approve of that, so I had to rethink everything.”

Stiyl understood why they had not let her.

The Dawn-Colored Sunlight was one of the leading magic cabals in the United Kingdom. Patricia may have no direct connections with the cabal, but she would still end up taking part in the psychic powers development Curriculum if she were to become a student in Academy City. If she became a scientific esper, a political problem would appear between magic and science.

“I don’t know why, but my sister and the others seem to hate Academy City. I was thinking this trip could change their impression of it, but then all this happened…”

Patricia did not know of the complex details of the situation, so she was being saddened by something she was completely wrong about.

Stiyl blew out some cigarette smoke and changed the subject.

“The Dawn-Colored Sunlight, hm?”

“That’s the club or whatever that my sister is in. Is it really that famous?”

Patricia’s description made it clear she did not even know what a magic cabal was and Stiyl put a hand to his forehead.

“It’s very famous indeed.”

(…But what is the person who submitted this mission trying to do by having us interfere with such a major cabal? For generations, the bosses of the Dawn-Colored Sunlight have been known to be ruthless and wise and they have given us our fair share of bitter experiences. Is the church this desperate to find an opening through which to destroy the Dawn-Colored Sunlight?)

He just could not figure out what the person behind the mission was after.

And he could not exactly discuss it in front of Patricia.

(Or is the goal in the mission given to me a dummy and there is some other reason behind this? If Patricia herself really has that much value, then what is it that gives her that value?)

The cigarette at the edge of Stiyl’s mouth moved up and down as he turned in Patricia’s direction.

“Did you hear anything from your sister? Or were you given anything?”

“Eh?” 

Patricia looked puzzled at first, but…

“How did you know?”

(Bingo.)

Without showing it on his face, Stiyl increased his earnestness within.

Patricia stuck her hand in her pocket and fished around for something.

“Before I got separated from my sister, she told me to take this, but-…huh?”

“I have it here,” Theodosia said with a smile as she held out a small box.

“Eh!? Eh!?”

Stiyl ignored Patricia’s genuine surprise and used his ring-covered fist to punch his kleptomaniac colleague.

“But it was dangerous to just have Patricia keep i-…gyaaahhh!?” Theodosia explained as she fell to the ground.

During all that, the box had been tossed up into the air and Stiyl caught it with one hand.

It was about the size of two matchboxes. It was an iron treasure box with a keyhole in it. The box itself had elaborate decorations making it look a bit like a music box.

“Where’s the key?”

“O-over here…gbh.”

Stiyl took the key that Theodosia had weakly tossed his way, stuck it in the keyhole, and turned it. With a slight click, the box easily unlocked.

When it did, Patricia’s eyes opened wide.

“Hehh…So it really does open.”

“What?”

“Oh, um, I tried a bunch of times, but it would never open. I thought the inside of the keyhole had rusted or something. Pouring oil in didn’t help and I was thinking of looking inside with a fiberscope if I got the chance…Eh? You opened it too, Theodosia? Amazing.”

“…”

Stiyl looked puzzled as he looked at Patricia who was looking in Theodosia’s direction.

The box may have been set up so Patricia could not touch the contents.

(If so, why did the Dawn-Colored Sunlight give her the box? It also bothers me that Theodosia and I could open it so easily. From a security standpoint, the complete reverse would be normal.)

And if the Dawn-Colored Sunlight wanted to distance Patricia from the world of magic, they would not have given her the box to begin with.

Stiyl recalled that the mission description had said that Patricia had value to the entire organization of the Dawn-Colored Sunlight.

(No, the odds of Patricia being a magician are zero. It’s hard to believe she would have faked receiving that mental attack. There was no guarantee Theodosia or I would have the recovery spell needed, so there would be too much of a risk in faking it. Also, there would be no point in holding us up while we’re fleeing from the pursuers.)

In that case, why had they given that treasure box to a harmless girl?

And why was the church after her?

There were a lot of things he could not figure out on the church’s side and on the cabal’s side.

The clue to figuring that out lay in his hand.

“…”

Stiyl slowly opened the unlocked treasure box.

What he found inside was a small gray stone about 2 cm across.

Like a jewelry case for a ring, the inside was covered in soft red cloth.

There were runes on the surface. No, technically it was a portion of a string of runes. In other words, he could not tell what it was supposed to mean with just that.

Stiyl felt along the surface of the stone with a fingertip and then frowned.

“An epitaph?”

Even then, rune data like that was carelessly being erected in places like Sweden. Such things could be called the world’s most generally neglected grimoires. No matter how hard a normal person worked, they would never be able to reach a stone monument with an Original level epitaph that held great power. That was just how they were made.

Theodosia got up from the ground and said, “That was discovered in Alaska.”

“I thought rune slates were primarily from the plains of Scandinavia?”

“''Yes, and you know what that means''.”

“…I see. So it’s an undiscovered derived branch of runes.”

There was not just one type of runes.

Just like most languages, they changed day by day depending on the era or the location. The standard number of runes was 24, but some sets used 16 and some places used 33.

Of course, the effects of rune magic changed depending on the type of runes being used.

Few records mentioned runes being used in Alaska. If there was a distinctive deviation in the runes, previously unusable magic could be activated. It was essentially the same as having a completely new set of spells different from those of normal rune magic.

“So this is a portion of an epitaph explaining the Alaskan runes?”

“Indeed. Rune epitaphs are carelessly neglected out in the middle of plains, so they are daily worn away by the effects of things such as acid rain. However, with an Original…”

“A true grimoire will not disappear naturally.”

An Original had the power to not be destroyed no matter what method was used. And even if it was destroyed, it could restore itself as many times as necessary. If there truly was an epitaph of the Alaskan runes, then it was odd for the small stone to still be broken off like that. It was strange that it had not been restored.

The one holding the key to that was likely that fragment of the epitaph.

It had to have been magically affected so that its restoration speed was slowed or made the restoration function spin its wheels fruitlessly. Instead of being absolutely destroyed, it had been intentionally sealed.

“So basically this is the most important piece needed to put together an Original grimoire?”

That was a rune epitaph that indicated an unknown new set of runes.

The maintenance of the seal and the release of the seal were both reliant on that stone.

“This certainly is a major issue befitting of the Dawn-Colored Sunlight. I take it the church’s pursuers are trying to seize this fragment rather than destroy the cabal.”

“Yes,” Theodosia clapped her hands together. “But the fragmentary data needed to decode the Alaskan runes are already gathered within the Index Librorum Prohibitorum. They are working on it even now in London, but at the current rate, it seems it will take a few more years before they find even a single clue. It is not something that the entire country is going all out to acquire.”

“…I see. So a group in Necessarius wants this information without using Index.”

Stiyl smiled.

If the data on the Alaskan runes was truly needed for a national policy, they could just send out a formal notice and have the Index Librorum Prohibitorum join in. Since they had not done that, it seemed their pursuers were not connected to the nation as a whole.

“The Alaskan runes are incredibly valuable, but we will acquire them eventually without this. In that case, I doubt this is connected to danger to England as a whole. Someone must have set up this mission.”

(What was all that “traitor” crap?)

The girl before his eyes had indeed done nothing wrong.

He did not know what the Dawn-Colored Sunlight was planning or what the commander in Necessarius who had submitted the mission was trying to do, but at the very least, Patricia Birdway was not related to it.

It must have shown up on his face because Patricia looked puzzled and Theodosia’s expression softened.

“But that fragment of the epitaph is not enough to acquire the Alaskan Runes.”

“Yes, if it was, the Dawn-Colored Sunlight would have begun the ceremony right away.”

But Stiyl felt it would be best to try to contact the Anglican Church. There were a lot of unclear aspects to the relation between Necessarius and the Dawn-Colored Sunlight concerning the Alaskan runes. Stiyl thought of a few colleagues he felt were absolutely safe and decided to have them investigate it.

But then…

“You made me go to some trouble, but it seems you have finally captured the traitor for me,” said a sudden voice from behind them.

The three of them turned around. As they did, Stiyl placed a rune card on the narrow alley wall and Theodosia pulled a few matches out of her small matchbox.

The new figure was over 10 meters away.

He was a man wearing a black coat and looked about 20. He was about the same height as Stiyl and was white just like Stiyl. A Western sword was hanging casually down from his hand.

Stiyl blew out some cigarette smoke and frowned.

“I take it you don’t plan on naming yourself because I’m a colleague?”

“I’m not so sure you think of me as your colleague.”

With a single hand, Stiyl snapped shut the lid to the treasure box with the epitaph fragment inside.

The man clearly reacted to that.

“If you want it, you’ll have to kill me first.”

“Your ashes will scatter magnificently.”

With those words, the man’s sword became surrounded in roaring flames.

A few runes were shining on the surface of the blade.

Carved into the blade were sowulo, gebo, kenaz, ansuz, laguz, and uruz.

Reading down the first letters spelled sgkalu. It meant something along the lines of “the torch that acquired the sun using magic”.

“First Theodosia and now you. Norse weapons seem to be popular. Well, I suppose I have no right to complain…flames and swords are quite compatible.”

“Sorry, but this isn’t a sword. ''It’s a twig''.”

“A twig?”

“It isn’t anything too rare. It’s the most famous twig in Norse mythology. It is the twig of the greatest flames that is said to set fire to the trunk of the World Tree and burn everything away.”

“You don’t mean…”

“Yes, it is Lævateinn.”

The man casually swung his sword.

Flames spiraled up with a roar.

The crimson glow spread to the narrow alleyway in a flash. The asphalt ground, the concrete walls, and everything else were covered in flames in no time at all.

“Convenient, isn’t it? I would say it’s one of the easiest to use spiritual items in the United Kingdom.”

(Wha-…?)

Stiyl’s eyes opened wide.

His flame sword exceeded 3000 degrees Celsius. It was not difficult for him to destroy stone and rocks. However, the Lævateinn that man used was producing a phenomenon that could not be explained with mere firepower.

The asphalt and the concrete were burning.

The materials themselves were burning into ashes as if they were thin Japanese paper.

With a low noise, the flames travelled across the ground and the walls heading straight for Stiyl and the others.

“Tch. G A S T T H. T F I A S T R I C! (Bring the flames to my hand. Its form is the sword and its role is execution!)”

Stiyl frantically produced a flame sword and tried to make it explode in an attempt to hold back the other flames using the blast.

But before he could, his flame sword ''became wrapped in the new flames''.

''His sword should have been made of flames'', but it was burned away by flames.

In no time at all, it was burned down to the base…and approached Stiyl’s hand.

“Ohhh!!”

Stiyl frantically put out the flame sword and stepped back.

Then, Theodosia flew a lit match.

A large explosion occurred.

However, the blast was destroyed by the other flame as if it were being eaten into.

It was like a thin plastic film being scorched from the inside by fire.

That only gained them a few seconds.

“Hurry! Run!!” yelled Theodosia.

She used a spell that ruled over the protection and release of treasure. She surely would have had plenty of spells prepared with which she could protect Patricia, but she did not try to use any of them. She had likely instinctually realized that she could not protect against the flame of Lævateinn.

“And where do you think you can hide?” asked the man in a whisper from the other side of the Theodosia’s flames that were easily being eaten away.

(He’ll catch us if we just run away…!!)

Stiyl clicked his tongue and pulled a rune card out of his pocket.

The man gently shook his head.

“A smokescreen won’t do you any good.”

“Is that so? Let’s try it anyway.”

Stiyl put on a fake smile and detonated his flame sword in the direction of the man.



The man’s Lævateinn burned through their tiny bit of resistance.

Beyond the flames, he saw his targets’ fleeing backs.

But their movements were so standardized that it irritated the man.

“Hmm…”

He cautiously focused and spotted another presence in a different place. Their movements had just seemed too precise. When their life was in danger, people could not flee with such a calm rhythm.

Which meant…

“That’s a fake. What an honest man. He actually took me up on my challenge.”

(But…)

With an explosive noise, he fired some flames and blew away the figures fleeing in front of him.

The attack left no corpses and no ashes.

It had truly been an illusion. The figures had easily disappeared into thin air.

The man’s smile deepened and he recalled the design on the card Stiyl had pulled out just before. The man calculated out what the construction of Stiyl’s spell must have been given his actions and his spiritual item.

The man quickly figured out where they were.

“The magic power used to create that illusion is leaking out. How sweet of you to leave footsteps behind as you flee.”

The man then ran through the dark alley with Lævateinn hanging down.

His targets were not far away.



Stiyl Magnus heard the man’s words from close by.

On one side of the empty alleyway was a backdoor standing ever so slightly open.

The iron door creaked slightly. The three who had run off were standing within.

“…He’s gone.”

Stiyl had a spell that hid his own body by creating a magical mirage.

But he had been unsure if that would be enough to trick that man. There was a danger of the man determining his location by detecting the origin of the magic power.

That was why Stiyl had prepared three levels of dummies.

The first was the mirage illusion of them fleeing within the back alley.

The second was the artificial presence of someone who had not actually been there.

And the third was activating it all such that the origin magic power that activated the spell was disguised.

“Ugh….That was nerve-racking,” said Theodosia quietly while she trembled in an unnatural posture.

Patricia stuck her head out of the door and looked off in the direction the man had headed.

She looked puzzled and asked, “Um, what is going on…?”

That question brought a bitter expression to Stiyl’s face. He himself wanted to ask some questions about that Lævateinn and he did not have time to explain about spells from the very beginning.

However, it seemed Patricia did not notice what Stiyl was thinking.

“But that was amazing. That looked like normal concrete, but it was actually some easily burnable material. I guess that way they don’t have to put pressure on the disposal facilities when they destroy a building.”

“…That ''was'' normal concrete. Lævateinn is what was amazing,” Stiyl carelessly responded to Patricia’s misplaced admiration.

“Eh?” Patricia’s expression made it clearly she still did not understand what was going on. “By the way, where did that guy head off to looking so confident?”

Stiyl headed back out into the alleyway.

“I temporarily transferred some magic power to a rune and activated the spell using that. I put the card I used as a relay point on a mouse’s back.”

“Um…?”

“In other words, he’s chasing after a dummy.”

When Stiyl said that, Patricia’s expression brightened as if a light bulb had appeared next to her head.

“Is it something like going in through a foreign server in order to prevent being traced?”

“…Maybe. I don’t really understand examples from that side of things.”

Stiyl was impressed at how calm she was given the situation and he checked to make sure the man was truly gone from the area.

“He’ll figure it out soon. We need to get away from here”

The three of them nodded and ran off in the opposite direction of the man with Lævateinn.

As they ran, Theodosia said, “Wh-what do we do now? Even if we lost him for now, we still have not resolved the real issue here.”

“True. This kind of trick will not work a second time. There is no guarantee we will be able to get away the next time we’re found.”

Patricia’s expression turned fearful hearing that.

“I want an opportunity to turn this around, but what was with that spiritual item!? He said it was Lævateinn, but that’s one of the strongest weapons in Norse mythology! It’s on the same level as Gungnir!” said Theodosia.

“There are two theories about it. One says it’s the sword held by the fire giant Surtr and the other says it’s the sword kept with Surtr’s wife. It seems this is a mix of the two, but it can’t be the real thing. It’s the same as your matches and Skírnir’s staff. It’s just a spiritual item with the same name.”

That meant it really was just a magical spiritual item created by carving runes into a normal sword.

But that was not enough to explain it.

Stiyl was quite knowledgeable of rune magic. That was why he knew that just carving runes like kenaz was not enough to produce such a great effect.

If they knew how it worked, they could perhaps find a way of defeating it, but…

“!?”

Suddenly, a deep red light appeared behind Stiyl and the others.

It was the flame of Lævateinn.

“Fuck that was fast!!”

The man must have seen through the trick Stiyl had set up. He was still far away, but he would catch up before long. He was not an opponent they could escape on foot and a trick like before would not work again.

Stiyl and Theodosia’s gazes met after they saw Patricia’s pale face.

“Let’s split into two groups.” 

Stiyl grabbed Patricia’s hand and used his other hand to give Theodosia the treasure box with the rune stone in it. 

“For some reason, he did not just kill Patricia and take the fragment of the epitaph. She should be a much easier target than us, but he ignored her. And I doubt he’s just overflowing with chivalry.” Stiyl blew out cigarette smoke in annoyance. “Most likely, he needs Patricia alive in addition to the rune epitaph. That’s why we need to split up the things he sees as high priority.”

“I have some general information regarding that…but I’ll explain it all later! Check this! I have also added information on a rendezvous point to the end!!”

Theodosia tossed her matchbox to Stiyl and disappeared down one side of a fork in the alley.

(So there’s a report inside an illusion in the fire…)

Stiyl rolled the matchbox around in his hand and ran down the other side of the fork with Patricia.

The alleyway was short. They exited onto a large road before long.

As they ran, Stiyl lit a match to get Theodosia’s information.

The information shown in the flames was as follows.

…By using the fragment of the rune epitaph, the stone monument containing the undiscovered branch of runes can be completely restored.

…But the movements of a special heavenly body called Donati’s Comet are needed for the restoration spell.

…To check the rules of its motion, a horoscope from when the comet last arrived is needed.

…The sole existing horoscope is currently in Academy City. (See a different match for details.)

“It’s here…?” Stiyl muttered.

According to Theodosia’s information, Academy City had discovered and retrieved the horoscope purely as a scientific item. Currently, it was becoming a slight issue between the science side and the magic side.

And as for the reason Patricia was being targeted…

…A special magical seal has been put on the fragment of the rune epitaph.

…The Dawn-Colored Sunlight applied the seal.

…The seal can only be removed by the boss of the Dawn-Colored Sunlight or one of her blood relatives.

…Unless the seal is removed, the epitaph cannot be restored.

That seemed to be the situation.

Excluding special exceptions such as Saints, the use of magic had nothing to do with genetic characteristics. However, some magicians did create spells that used the information from blood as a key. This was one of those locks.

It all fit perfectly with what the Lævateinn man seemed to be after.

Stiyl still was not sure what the Dawn-Colored Sunlight was after by giving the fragment of the epitaph to Patricia, but he at least knew what the Lævateinn man was after.

“Wh-what do we do!? Do you know where the nearest Anti-Skill station is!?”

“How will going there help us!? They can’t stand up to that man!!”

Patricia appeared to be suffering as she ran along next to Stiyl. She was a girl of around 12 who had not received any kind of training. She would not be able to run for long.

“Then what are we going to do? Can we…can we really get away from that man!? Before, you said just running wasn’t enough…”

“I’ll deal with this somehow. I have no other choice!”

Stiyl gritted his teeth at the fact that he could not give a real answer.

Unless he could figure out how the Lævateinn spiritual item worked, he would just be burned away if he faced that man head on.

The man’s flames were likely greater than Stiyl’s.

It pained him to admit it, but he had no way of winning in a straight fight.

He would be killed if he could not think up with to deal with the man, but he did not have time to think. In order to buy some time, he could…

“…The horoscope.”

“Eh?”

“That’s the final part that man wants so badly. If we can get it before he can, we can use it to stop him! I have enough information that I can find a way to defeat that Lævateinn as long as I have time to think calmly about it!!”

That same theory could be used with Patricia as the means of getting in the man’s way rather than the horoscope, but…

(No…)

Stiyl quickly shook away that slight temptation.

(In the worst case, he can still use a different blood relative to gain the Alaskan rune epitaph even if Patricia dies. On the other hand, the horoscope is currently unique. It’s clear which one will be more effective as a shield!!)

He decided to go with that reasoning.

He knew he was being soft.

Most likely, if Stiyl Magnus yielded there, he would end up truly giving in.