Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:AgneseSS Chapter7 (section)

===Part 5===

Every step they took decorated their dark, damp surrounded with unnerving sounds. The still and stagnant air was the polar opposite of soaring through the sky on the tiltrotor.

Angelene was even more tearful than usual.

She was more than just stooped at the moment. Even as short as she was, she had to bend over to avoid hitting her head on the wet ''ceiling''.

“U-ughh. A-are we really going to travel through here?”

“Tu’s barrier only covers the land for now, remember? That’s why we could ''approach by sea'' without issue.”

Agnese was using two flashlights, one with an old incandescent bulb and one with new LEDs.

Invisible toxic gas could sometimes appear as a haze when using lights of different wavelengths.

“He’s using a map of ancient Rome’s territory to determine where the field goes, so he isn’t interested in the modern geography. ''Such as underground.'' Rome is an old city with apartments and temples from centuries ago, or even more than a millennium ago, but modern plumbing and a subway system have been built by weaving in between the ancient structures. Tu is only looking at the old maps of the surface, so there are plenty of secret labyrinths he isn’t aware of.”

They had approached as far as they could get by sea and had used a drain to enter an underground route leading to the Vatican.

The plan had worked so far since they had been spared any punishment.

The threat of the field meant nothing in locations not found on old maps of ancient Rome.

“Oh, the air seems a lot fresher over there.”

“Do you want to die, Sister Angelene? That collapsed wall leads to a traditional waterway from the ancient Roman era!!”

Of course, they could not let their guard down just because they were underground.

The age of the tunnel changed between levels. This one was made of modern concrete. They removed their equipment from their large bags, set it down on the damp floor, and assembled it.

They prepared a small cart that looked like a toy.

They had no intention of running a late-night marathon all the way to Rome from the coast.

“A resistance force using underground routes is really more of a French and Eastern European thing.”

They had intentionally brought an old model to avoid violating the treaty between science and magic.

After climbing onboard, Agnese fixed her flashlights in place, checked on the steering wheel and pedals, and slowly drove the electric vehicle forward.

“But during the war, Italy was a fascist state that rejected freedom and diversity. There are legends of many Christians crossing the border through a complex array of tunnels in order to reach the Vatican and receive their valuable opinion on matters without the Italian authorities knowing. So in a way, this is a historical and traditional plan.”

“True,” agreed Lucia. “But there is one key difference, Sister Agnese. Unlike the believers back then, the Vatican has not invited us. We are uninvited guests who left the Catholics and sought out the Anglicans instead. Tu might not be our only enemy here.”

“I’m aware of that.”

They had been pursuing Tu all this time and they had just barely missed capturing him, but how would the Roman Catholic Church interpret that? They might suspect the nuns were working with Tu or had intentionally held back to allow more damage to the Catholics.

Or maybe they were using the chaos to sneak into the Vatican to take the heads of the Catholic leaders who had abandoned them.

The truth was, they could probably do exactly that if they wanted to.

“…”

Agnese Sanctis focused on her silver staff, the Lotus Wand.

She had trusted that weapon with her life and her faith, but it was a spiritual item for using magic that could take lives.