Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume16 Epilogue

==Epilogue: Deepest Depths – Lady_Number_03.==

Dawn was still a long way off.

London sat below the purple sky.

Some would picture a stone city built upon a foundation of history…but those were the happy outsiders who were looking at tourist websites as they planned a vacation.

Those who actually lived there knew London was actually a mixture of old and new. The historical stone churches and palaces existed right alongside cutting-edge high-tech skyscrapers. London had public wireless LAN antennae, graffiti on the walls, and filthy abandoned building surrounded by handmade barricades that had been effectively occupied by gangs. Needless to say, the capital of the United Kingdom was flooded with metal, plastic, semiconductors, and so many other ordinary things. The winding River Thames was no exception. During the day, the HMS Belfast gathered tourist attention. At night, the dark water’s surface shined bright in the electric lights of a Ferris wheel.

So it wasn’t hard to find a skyscraper providing a view of the Tower of London from above.

One of those was located across the Thames from the tower.

“I see, I see.”

One of The Girls was monitoring the situation from the roof of that building.

Her dark wine-red nun’s habit would have drawn the eye regardless, but it was also quite revealing in places. The skirt had bold slits in the sides, much like a China dress.

The pale-skinned girl’s long blonde hair blew in the night breeze.

She looked to be around ten, but apparent age probably wasn’t a reliable indicator here. Not when she had been thoroughly modified by a great demon.

Of course.

Most of what was happening was in the vast underground space unknown to the public, so this view from above wouldn’t normally reveal anything.

“29% of my talismanic Agathions have been lost. No, the damage just grew to 31%. 19% of those are trembling from loss of motivation and the rest are wandering in the wrong location entirely. But this is about what I expected. The focus on stealth meant reducing each one’s power. Still, they are going down easy just from exposure to the side effects.”

She wasn’t just gathering up the final images sent by the ''things'' crawling around underground. By investigating the distribution of the location and the timing of their destruction, she could reach a general understanding of what was happening in that closed underground space.

(I had expected Narthex to get self-destructive from the pressure, but this I didn’t foresee. Hamazura, was it? Ordinarily, a silly esper would have his body’s blood vessels and nerves shredded by the side effects of straight up using magic like that. It would just mean instant death. Besides, it’s a devastatingly bad idea to try and use magic to solve a problem related to Narthex and the Anglicans who specialize in anti-magician combat.)

But.

It still caught her interest.

Hamazura Shiage shouldn’t have known anything about magic, yet he had suddenly shouted a magic name and awoken. That meant he already had the magic knowledge. It all went back to Great Demon Coronzon planting unnecessary information in the science side boy’s head. From a wider view, this was the supposedly dead Coronzon’s influence returning to the playing field.

She was not a fan of that.

Even as one of The Girls, she was very much not a fan.

“I had planned to just watch Narthex self-destruct, but I suppose I should intervene. I need to ensure every last shard of Coronzon’s lingering influence is eliminated.”

It didn’t matter that the building was dozens of stories tall.

The girl leaned over the edge of the roof and shifted her body weight in preparation to drop.



“Reflex Gesang Klingen.”



She stopped.

A string of words sounding like an incantation froze this one of The Girls in her tracks.

She turned just her head to view the rooftop like a bird of prey perched in a tree.

That had been a name.

This was no mistake or coincidence. Very few people in the world could speak that series of words as ''a name''.

“Reflex Gesang Klingen.”

It came from a shadow.

The voice emerged from a shadow that kept the speaker just out of view from Reflex’s position – which meant the speaker had emulated her field of view before choosing that spot.

“Index was Latin, Narthex was English, and now we have German. How many more of The Girls are there?”

“Oh, are you actually angry for once? But didn’t you slaughter so many magicians from your own cabal at the Battle of Blythe Road and rob children of their future through so many conspiracies in Academy City, Aleister Crowley?”

The dark shadow did not respond.

That magician had temporarily extended his life by borrowing Great Demon Coronzon’s body.

He was supposed to have died along with Coronzon in Academy City…but clearly it wasn’t going to be that easy.

“I can’t imagine why you would care. It’s not like you knew Narthex.”

“Maybe not, but if this disaster is left unchecked, it will spread from this one point in England to engulf the entire world. And then ''he'' will be dragged into it.”

“Oh?”

“I told him to kill her along with me. It is my fault his hand has been stained with blood. The sin of death is not his, so he deserves to enjoy the peace he protected. I will not let him suffer any longer.”

At that point, the shadow grew sharp. It carried obvious hostility.

“Besides, this is not a pleasant thing to see. Whether I know her or not.”

(Is this also Coronzon’s influence in a sense? She is supposed to obstruct people’s evolution. Honestly, even after death she’s finding new ways to get in our way.)

She felt some irritation deep in her mind, but letting it show wouldn’t help.

She stepped away from the edge of the roof. And walked. Reflex had a grin on her lips as she spoke into the shadow.

“Given the life you lived, I knew for a fact you wouldn’t be going to heaven after you died with Coronzon. But here you are. How did that happen? Don’t tell me. Did even hell label you persona non grata, forcing you to wander the world of the living forever? Ah ha ha! Sounds about right for a dead Englishman!!”

Just hearing this girl’s young voice was enough to tell one thing.

This girl was not Narthex.

She would not cause trouble for the reason Narthex had.

“So the third has chosen to reject Great Demon Coronzon.”

“Of course I have! She’s absolute evil! No, thank you!! Just thinking about the fact she raised me makes me loathe my own flesh and blood. But here I am, so I have to live my life. So I’ll reject everything about my own parent. I can’t build a life for myself otherwise.”

The shadow sighed softly.

Genius magicians generally had their origins in tragic and unfair circumstances like that.

After all, magicians were a collection of the talentless, unblessed, and incapable.

Even a legendary magician like Aleister could be seen as the end result of a child raised under the restrictions placed on him in the name of good by a hysterical mother.

So he understood.

“Rebelliousness is the foundation of mind control.”

“?”

“It is an emotion easily produced in anyone by forcing them to perform an action that violates their principles. And if you already know they will rebel, you can predict where they will go when they run away from home. More than that, unlike resentment and hatred, rebelliousness is guaranteed to resolve itself from the moment it appears. A runaway child will eventually return home on her own, take the bath drawn by her parents, and resentfully put on her pajamas, right?”

“That was Narthex’s controller. But that idiot couldn’t even bring herself to rebel and ended up calling Coronzon her mother.”

Yes, if they couldn’t rebel properly, maybe there were cases where it resolved into a mother complex.

But then what had been expected of Reflex and how had it failed?

That failure had already happened. Because Index had the top spot.

Also…

“Who are you siding with now?”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m just curious why Coronzon rushed the activation of Adikalika. Surely she wasn’t trying to eliminate you along with the rest of the world because you were ''too dangerous a failure''.”

Grimoire Library Index Librorum Prohibitorum was a good example.

Index had memorized 103,001 grimoires, making her a highly irregular part of the magic side. It was even said she could become a Magic God if she could actually use all that knowledge.

But that was a hard thing to imagine.



Index could not conquer the world on her own.

She had incredible power, but she wasn’t untouchable or invincible.



That was why Index had stayed on the run when magicians were pursuing her and why she had in fact been captured by magicians a few times even after meeting Kamijou Touma.

So in the same way, no matter how extraordinary Narthex Coded Cathedral was, it was highly ''unnatural'' that she could attack Academy City all on her own.

If that hadn’t happened naturally, then someone else must have unnaturally set it up. Someone had used her outside her proper specifications, or even intentionally driven her to self-destruction.

Reflex.

In that same way, it seemed unlikely the girl here ''would be acting on her own.

Just like Grimoire Library Index Librorum Prohibitorum was designed to perform best when under the Anglican Church’s protection, Reflex needed the backing of something large.

“Kingsford told me to live.”

“And you felt some kind of meaning in that?”

“No. She would say the same to anyone and I know she wouldn’t have sat idly by as the coming threat arrives. She was telling me to live and save everyone from vices like you.”

Hostility stabbed from the shadow like an invisible spear.

Reflex snorted in laughter.

She had a definite reason to do so.

“I am one of The Girls – one of the anti-magician trump cards prepared by Coronzon. Sure, I was rejected, but that doesn’t mean my skill is in any way inferior to the grimoire library. I can’t believe ''a mere magician'' would actually try to challenge me! Hee hee hee. Sounds like suicide to me!”

“Oh, it’s very possible. For a grimoire library specialized for anti-magic combat. Or for a right hand that negates all illusions. …Still, there’s no guarantee you would face them using ''over-the-top magic''. So when you’re up against a wicked magician, it’s best to let another corrupt magician handle it.”

“''Oh? An interesting idea.''”

He was broken.

Yes. There were times when the thought in your head was correct but saying it out loud would get you shunned from the classroom.

He easily stepped over that life-or-death line.

Aleister Crowley had never been able to hold his tongue in those moments.

No matter how hard it was for the rest of the world to understand him.

So…

“Aufeinander legen.”

A young voice spoke.

This was supposedly an open building rooftop.

Yet the girls’ voice echoed over and over again, like a shout in a chilly cave, growing into a great mass of sound.

This was one of the reasons people have always feared the mountains as a dwelling place of gods or monsters until they began viewing the mountains themselves as holy. Her voice became a mass of air and sound.

“Identifizieren, Beginn. …All numbers are infinite, so it cannot be proven that the number derived by one plus one will always equal the same number known as two. Water cannot be boiled twice and no experiment is reproducible. One plus one produces a different box known as two depending on the time, place, and circumstances at the moment of calculation. No problem can be proven with nothing more than hackneyed mathematics. Thus numbers hold no meaning. Accept my voice as it is, world. I command thee. Numerical limitations have no meaning to a duplicated voice, so the incantation soon to be produced by an individual has no upper limits!!”

This was Reflex’s inborn power.

Her throat.

The magic side ''gave power to the broken struggles of the untalented'', so proving her great worth based on inborn talent made her a truly bizarre monster.

She was not like Index who could store the world’s knowledge using her perfect memory or Narthex who unilaterally determined who could and couldn’t view the world’s knowledge by applying complex, high-level encryption.

She was the third member of The Girls.

Only Reflex possessed this unique talent-dependent skill.

“Ancient deity – that is, the world’s guide wielding lightning as a weapon of divine punishment. Thou art heavenly father and creator of all who also fears his own wife. I contact a portion of thy power through the protection of Jupiter. Temporary Telesma, draw out the ripples and reveal the form I wish.”

Light shined.

From below Reflex’s feet.

Like a giant lifting its head from the water’s surface, a bizarre 10m shadow rose up. Its silhouette resembled a storybook dragon. Except it was colored pitch black.

The third girl spread her arms and roared.

Her loud voice echoed over and over again despite being in the open outdoors.

All numbers were infinite.

Thus, it didn’t matter if she was up against a magic cabal or a global religious sect. Any group that relied on its numbers could be crushed by Reflex’s power to echo and duplicate an individual.

Ordinarily, gathering up ultra-high density Telesma and summoning a great demon required a truly extraordinary magic ceremony. A group of tens of thousands would spend decades before finally earning the right to make the attempt. And even then they had no guarantee of success. And yet.

This one girl had set foot in that great world here and now.

Number had no meaning.

She only needed a tiny fragment of knowledge.

From there, she could hone those words into a deadly weapon and explosively amplify them.



“Ha ha HA HA HA HA!! Pay us a visit, ''False Jupiter Optimus Maximus''! Thou art the wicked deceiving dragon that claimed the name of the ancient deity in the fourth experiment and lured mankind toward blood and violence. Thy actions need no longer be bound. Here I grant thee true freedom, so wield thy fangs and claws to thy heart’s content tonight!!!”



A dragon was the ruins of a corrupted angel.

This was a different approach from Narthex’s attempt to revive and eternally summon the malicious angel that was Great Demon Coronzon.

Thus this power must not be underestimated.

This demon used the ancient deity’s name despite having no connection to Roman mythology. To challenge False Jupiter Optimus Maximus was to battle a demon lord. That meant to regather all of the power that had come together to defeat Great Demon Coronzon. And if you couldn’t manage that, then your death was guaranteed. 100% guaranteed.

“What will you do now?”

The multiplied girl’s voice carried a sneer.

The countless voices surrounded the human and insulted him like the masses influenced by the third-rate newspapers had once tormented him.

“I’m asking what you’ll do now, Aleister!? Ah ha ha HA HA!! You had great power, but that very talent kept you from getting along with anyone, leading to all your world-class organizations crumbling. ''You are not Kamijou Touma. No reassuring companions will be gathering around you''! Now, how will you struggle against False Jupiter Optimus Maximus all on your lonesome!!?”

“…”

There was no response.

There was only one answer.



''Zwoosh!!!

A hole opened in the 10m giant towering up behind Reflex.



A meter wide hole.

And it didn’t end there. The roar of death continued unabated. The giant was filled with holes until it couldn’t maintain its form and fell apart. That which had been False Jupiter Optimus Maximus vanished as if fading into the air. Not even a shred remained.

This was more than a temporary miracle. It happened in an instant. Using an individual’s power, without gathering any companions.

It had only taken a single raised hand in the shadow. From a distance.

“Wha-?”

The echo had vanished from Reflex’s voice.

Her magic had been interrupted. The logic behind it had left her mind.

She turned around, saw not a fragment remained, and stared in a daze.

Even though her enemy wasn’t behind her.

He was out ahead.

“What…was that? What happened?”

“…”

But Aleister hadn’t done anything special while standing in the darkness.

He had only taken a single step out of the shadow.

And that was all it took.



“You…no. ''That body''!?”



For the first time, Reflex was truly at a loss for words.

The figure that stepped out from the shadow was a woman with long, long silver hair.

But anyone who knew even a piece of that legend would see the truth at a glance.

This was…



“''Anna Kingsford''? Of all things, you’re borrowing that preserved corpse, Aleister!?”



In that instant, the “center point” clearly shifted.

Something more abnormal than the third of The Girls had appeared from the shadow.

Everything in the world had accepted that.

“Kingsford has not been resurrected in the present day. It is more accurate to say her dead body has been installed with precise machinery to reanimate it.”

These words were spoken by a magician who looked exactly like her.

Thanks to a technological trick.

“All the necessary signals to animate Kingsford’s body can be monitored by my mobile device. Now, this was quickly begun in secret after her apparent death during the fight against CRC. It didn’t last long, but we did spend time together. So I have gathered sufficient data on an expert magician’s breathing, pulse, muscle movements, nerve impulses, brainwaves, and brain chemicals while using her magic. In precise detail. So by feeding that data back into myself…I too can achieve a portion of her expert magic.

“But only in part,” added the human with a thin smile.

This was highly unusual for that ever-arrogant human who never feared being misunderstood.

…He didn’t understand how Anna Kingsford achieved her expert feats, but he only had to achieve a partial understanding.

''She could even retrieve and save souls that had died and gone to hell.'' That was the sort of power Aleister had obtained.

The various machines installed in her body provided thorough data. Analyzed it. Formulated it. Fed it back into himself to overwrite the numerical values inside himself.

In ways a standard magician could never even consider.

“Thanks to this, I can now use a limited portion of expert magic. All of us in the Golden cabal sought after this but could never achieve it. If even one of us had achieved this kind magic, the tragedy known as the Battle of Blythe Road may never have happened.”

This magic came from the legendary expert who Westcott and Mathers, two of the Golden cabal’s three founders, had looked up to as their teacher.

Thus…

“But kindness toward one can appear as hardship to another. …I do hear that Westcott and Mathers were often brought to tears as her students. Even those selfish geniuses were helpless before Kingsford’s corporal punishment. A mere demon lord battle is nothing for the woman who trekked across hell and faced its many monsters to return a single boy to the world of the living.”

“…”

“So prepare yourself, Reflex.”

The silver-haired expert’s words weren’t even a declaration of war.

They were a death sentence.



“''It is all to serve others.'' I will teach you the culmination of the many struggles of the weak and untalented who kept their eyes on heaven and never gave up – that is, magic. …No longer will I be trapped by the foolish idea that malice and ruin are cool.”

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