Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume15 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 12===

It sounded like bursting carbonation.

Except this was more brutal.

The thousands or tens of thousands of crows that looked like a pitch black wall went limp and fell to the airport floor. Blodeuwedd the Bouquet frowned and, for the first time, focused on a single individual within the enemy group.

“That was gas.”

Good, Old Mary.

The beautiful lips below the wide-brimmed hat parted to speak. One of her hands toyed with a multi-tool knife.

“Elementary, isn’t it? If killing them adds to your sins and seals your movements, I only need to stop them non-lethally. Mama mixes potions in the kitchen. I am the Transcendent who uses equipment based in ordinary reality to mix up potions that can produce any phenomenon, including the mysteries of life. If I lack something, I need only create it. A simple solution.”

“Ohh? So you’re taking that side?”

“Is that wrong?”

“No, not really. I just don’t get risking your life to protect some giant faceless power structure. Seems like an ultra-boring salvation condition to me.”

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet was answered by a tremor shaking the entire international airport.

Some kind of fine dust fell from the ceiling.

No, it went beyond that.

Were insults to her salvation targets that big a deal to Good, Old Mary?

“Risk 4: Releasing the single seal – leaving human territory.”

The change couldn’t have been more obvious.

At more than 200m tall, the colossal thing would have towered over a domed stadium, but here it was visible outside thanks to the international airport’s outer wall and a portion of its ceiling collapsing.

The three-legged still was a piece of lab equipment that used to seal the secret arts of life.

The emaciated girl put a hand on her hip and looked up at it.

“The Tribikos, huh?”

But her reaction was not what Good, Old Mary had expected.

Even now, Blodeuwedd the Bouquet was smiling.

Grinning even.

“A big lab that lets you mix anything on the front line is a threat to be sure…but do you actually know how to use it? I feel like you’ve just started slamming it into stuff to show off how destructive a heavy object can be.”

Good, Old Mary ignored that and gave a command to the Tribikos.

It lifted one of its three legs. Tearing through the airport building as it did so.

The world itself shook.

''But…

“?”

“''Don’t tell me this is enough to surprise you.''”

It had stopped.

The end of the Tribikos’s leg had stopped less than 100cm above Blodeuwedd the Bouquet’s head. A straining sound reached Good, Old Mary’s ears, as if something unseen were blocking its way.

This wasn’t right.

From a purely physical perspective, the Tribikos was as large as a domed stadium. How many tens of thousands of tons was that? And that weight was all being concentrated on a single point like with a high heel. How could one of its three legs be stopped this way? Who in the world could pull off something like that!?

“I am the Transcendent who loves all the hated.”

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet was sneering.

This smile held a very different meaning from the one she directed Hamazura’s way.

“The word ''all'' is key. …We already saw Telesma kneaded and molded to artificially summon Underworld God Osiris. You didn’t think my salvation was only for pests that can be physically explained in this world, did you?”

A dull bubbling sound followed.

From the floor at the emaciated girl’s feet. The airport’s clean floor grew discolored and peeled back. Almost like a rotten stew giving off a noxious gas as it boiled.

What emerged was not of this world.

These were clearly otherworldly beings who had crossed over from another phase.

“Sathariel, Penemue, Satanael, Armaros, Kokabiel, Tamiel, Baraqiel, Azazel, and Demon Lord Shemhaza!! Grigori fallen angels who were judged an absolute evil for no more than falling in love with humans, marrying them, revealing this secret to your families, and bearing children with them! Though you are derided as the reason heaven inflicted Noah’s flood upon the earth, I grant you love for your decision to seek a modicum of happiness even if no one else would understand. Lend my your bygone strength!!!”

The red and black feathers scattering through the air were far more sinister than the crows’. ''Something'' of indeterminate number and form covered up the Tribikos all at once. The colossal object resembled a domed stadium with three legs, but it was swallowed whole.

Spells that made use of Telesma weren’t unusual, but using so many varied powers at once and releasing it without first sealing it in an object was highly abnormal even for the magic side.

Were she alone, Good, Old Mary may have been able to fall back to a safe distance and resume the fight there. The Tribikos was not her only lab equipment. She could have sacrificed that one to buy her enough time to summon another.

But she had chosen to save the Anglicans.

For a Transcendent, that carried more weight than her own life.

“Kh!! I see! You used Sathariel to ''seal'' mama’s Tribikos and hold it in place, didn’t you? Blodeu-!!”

“Hah hahh hahh!! Good, Old Mary, you really are no more than a boring healer. Sure, you have some weird exceptions like swinging around a heavy mace and some insta-death attacks, but you’re biggest selling point is your ''limited resurrection'', right? Looks like you don’t have what it takes to defeat a true fighter and summoner like me who excels at providing a single powerful damage source!!!”