A Certain Magical Index: The Primal Spirit Descends to My Side

The song began.

No, it wasn't like singing; rather, it was the process of some ancient "sound" directly constructing a technique on a real level.

Index floated in the air, her silver hair moving without wind, and deep within her emerald pupils, a crimson magic circle spun as if alive. Suddenly, the two enormous magic circles overlapping in front of her emitted a blinding white light.

boom--!

An indescribable shockwave exploded.

The tatami mats shattered into powder as if tossed about by an invisible giant wave. The low table, bookshelves, television—all the furniture turned to dust the instant it came into contact with the white light. The walls caved inward, cracks spreading like a spiderweb, and the entire old apartment building trembled.

Touma Kamijou only had time to pull the gray-haired girl behind him, his right arm instinctively raised to shield his face. Then he was sent flying.

It felt like being hit head-on by a moving wall; his internal organs seemed to shift. His back slammed against the wall, the sensation of shattering bricks seeping through his shirt, the excruciating pain making his vision blur. The gray-haired girl he was protecting in his arms was also thrown into the air, the two tumbling together and landing in the rubble in the corner of the room.

"Cough...!" Kamijou coughed up a mouthful of blood and struggled to lift his head.

Index remained suspended in place, surrounded by a blue-white halo. She tilted her head slightly, her empty gaze sweeping over them before turning to the other side of the room.

The next moment, the door was violently kicked open, and the entire door panel, along with the door frame, collapsed inward.

Amidst the smoke and dust, Kanzaki Kaori and Stiyl Magnus rushed in. Kanzaki's "Seven Days, Seven Blades" was already a foot unsheathed, gleaming coldly. Stiyl held a stack of rune slips in his hand, his long red hair dancing wildly in the surging magical energy.

When the two of them saw what was inside the room, they both froze.

"This is…" Stiyl's pupils contracted, "'Automatic Scripture'…?!"

"What's going on?" Kanzaki's voice was taut, and his hand holding the knife unconsciously lowered.

Index slowly turned her head to face the two newly appeared. The magic circle in her eyes shone even brighter.

"Warning! New hostile unit detected. Threat level reassessed... Target remains unchanged, prioritize eliminating Touma Kamijou."

The moment she finished speaking, the magic circle in front of her lit up again.

"Get out of the way!" Kanzaki shouted, his figure blurring as he dodged to the side. At the same time, Stiyl scattered the rune paper in his hand into the air, where the paper fluttered and stuck to the surrounding walls.

The white light reappears.

But this time, the attack did not occur.

The gray-haired girl stood up from the ruins, brushed the dust off her clothes, her movements calm as if nothing had happened. Then, she spread her hands.

"Ain Soph..."

The sound was very soft, yet it reached everyone's ears clearly.

With her at the center, a certain "change" occurred.

The space itself began to reorganize; the cracks in the walls healed as if flowing backward, and the shattered furniture fragments floated up, piecing themselves back together to their original shapes. The entire room, along with the five people inside, was enveloped in a layer of gray-black light.

Inside the light membrane, the ground transformed into a black and white checkerboard pattern, stretching to the horizon. The ceiling vanished, replaced by a deep, slowly rotating phantom of a starry sky. A gigantic tree with gray-white branches emerged behind the gray-haired girl, its roots embedded in the checkerboard and its canopy disappearing into the starry sky.

The light from the magic circle in Index's eyes flickered, as if analyzing this newly appeared "anomaly." She attempted to launch an attack again, and the white light from the magic circle in front of her converged.

However, the light beams that should have been unleashed "froze" less than half a meter from the magic circle. It wasn't that they were blocked, but rather that the "distance" itself was distorted. Within this domain, all spatial dimensions were redefined by the caster.

"The distance has been shortened... Touma..." the gray-haired girl stated calmly, "You can go now, be careful and stay safe."

Touma Kamijou was stunned for a moment, then realized what was happening. He gritted his teeth, propped himself up, clenched his right fist, and charged towards Index.

Three steps.

Two steps.

step.

The magic circle in Index's eyes suddenly began to spin faster.

"Warning! Spatial interference confirmed. Attack mode adjusted. 'Saint George Sanctuary' output power increased, range expanded."

The magic circle in Index's eyes suddenly broke free from the magic circle in the air, and at the same time, a circle appeared in front of her, with magic power spreading from the center to the edges. A beam of pure white light, only ten centimeters in diameter and so solid it was blinding, converged. That beam of light seemed to ignore the distorted concept of distance, shooting straight at Touma's chest.

too fast!

Touma had no time to dodge and could only instinctively raise his right hand to block. The beam of light struck Touma's right hand.

"Ugh—!"

The imagined "elimination" did not happen immediately. The energy level contained in the pillar of light was terrifyingly high, as if countless spells were compressed into the same attack, each one frantically pushing the elimination limit of "Imagine Breaker".

A sharp pain shot through his right palm from the constant pressure, and his knuckles creaked under the strain. He felt that if this continued, he would surely lose his balance.

"No... I can't counteract it...!" Veins bulged on Kamijou's forehead, and his right arm muscles spasmed. The beam of light continued to advance, and the fingers of his right hand began to twist and deform, about to break through his right hand's defense.

He suddenly turned his head and looked at the two people behind him.

Kanzaki Kaori stared in shock at the three magic circles. Stiyl, who was prepared for battle, was still stunned to witness Index using magic.

"The 'Sanctuary of St. George' is ineffective against intruders. Switch to other magic and continue the mission of destroying the intruders and protecting the 'Collar'."

"Hey! Magician! Index's inability to use magic is definitely a lie the Church is telling you!" Touma Kamijou desperately defended against the attack. "The fact that Index's memories are erased every year is also a huge lie! It's just because her brain is under the Church's magical control!"

"Once this curse is lifted, we won't need to erase Index's memories every year anymore! Think about it calmly! How could a little kid like this possibly tell you the truth by being given that rubbish book that will corrupt him just by reading it!"

Stiyl Magnus gritted his teeth and stepped forward, his face contorted with rage. "Fortis931 (The reason I am the strongest)!" Stiyl roared, pulling two large handfuls of rune-covered paper from inside his monastic robes and hurling them into the air with all his might.

"One of the five elements that constitute the world, (MTWOTFFTO) the great primordial flame (IIGOIIOF)! It is the light of grace that nurtures life, the light of punishment that sanctions evil (IIBOLAIIAOE). It brings peace and happiness, and also destroys the misfortune of cold darkness (IIMHAIIBOD). Its name is Flame, its function is Sword (IINFIIMS). Manifest! Devour my body, transform into power (ICRMMBGP)!"

"Innocentius, the Witch Hunter!"

Paper scraps rained down, covering all visible boundaries within the "Paradise of Reincarnation" realm. Runes glowed crimson, and flames surged from each scrap, converging and rising to form a three-meter-tall fiery behemoth. The intense heat distorted the air, and the behemoth spread its arms, forming a cross in front of Touma Kamijou, shielding him from the pillar of light.

"I don't need any ambiguity! As long as her memory is erased, at least her life can be guaranteed. For this, I can kill anyone and destroy anything! I swore this a long time ago!" Stiyl placed his hand on Touma Kamijou's back to steady him.

Flames and white light clashed violently, unleashing a deafening roar. The body of the Witch-hunter King was constantly vaporizing under the beam of light, only to regenerate from the surrounding runes, but the rate of regeneration was significantly slower than the rate of destruction. Stiyl's face turned pale; his magic was being rapidly depleted.

Index stared indifferently at the Fire Giant.

"Warning, Chapter Twenty-Two, Section One. The magic formula for fire magic has been successfully reverse-calculated. It has been confirmed as a distorted Christian doctrine recorded in the runes. Preparing to activate the magic used by Christians... First form, second form, third form..."

The magic circle swirled in her eyes, and the pillar of light in front of her suddenly changed color, from pure white to dark red.

"Naming, 'God, why have you forsaken me (Eli, Eli, lamasabachthani)', twelve seconds remaining until full activation..."

The crimson beam of light surged in power, and the regeneration of the Witch King could not keep up with the destruction. The Flame Giant let out a silent wail as its body was torn apart and turned into sparks. The surrounding rune paper pieces also spontaneously combusted into ashes.

Stiyl groaned, a trickle of blood spilling from the corner of his mouth, and knelt on one knee.

"Stiyl!" Kanzaki Kaori's eyes sharpened, and her figure vanished abruptly.

"Salvare000 (The Redeeming Hand of the Abandoned)!"

Her movement technique, combining "Shrinking Earth" and "Instant Step," made her incredibly fast within the shrunken spatial scale of "The Paradise of Reincarnation." Almost at the same moment Stiyl fell, she appeared above and to the side of Index, forcefully drawing her longsword partially, but then sheathing it again upon seeing Index. With a flick of her wrist, she aimed the scabbard at Index's leg and struck.

boom--!

The heavy blunt force struck, sending Index's suspended body tumbling upwards. The beam of light that had been aimed at Touma was deflected by the injury to her body, grazing Touma's shoulder as it shot towards the ceiling and disappeared into the starry phantom at the top of the "Paradise of Reincarnation" domain.

Index has regained her footing and slowly turned her head toward Touma Kamijou, while glowing feathers drift down from the sky.

"That's... 'Dragon Breath'?"

Kanzaki Kaori's incredulous voice rang out as she stared at Index, her voice trembling. "A magic with the same power as the legendary attack of the Dragon Saint George! Even a single feather touching it would be extremely serious!"

At the same time, two ribbons floated past Touma Kamijou. One ribbon blocked Index's attack, while the other ribbon quickly cleared away the feathers in the air.

Index seemed to finally turn her main attention to the anomalous unit that had been disrupting the area. The magic circle in her eyes locked onto the gray-haired girl, and she began to analyze it at high speed.

"Warning! Chapter 6, Section 13: A new enemy has been detected. Based on the information from the 103,000 books in the 'Library,' the magic formula for breaking through the defense barrier has been reverse-calculated... Failed. No magic matching the conditions was found."

Index's scan suddenly stopped.

"Spatial spell identification complete. Confirmed as a Kabbalah spell, rank...unable to determine. Reverse calculation to crack the formula...failed. No corresponding record in the database."

For the first time, she paused. The magic circle in her eyes continued to tremble wildly, trying to find a way to deal with this unknown spell from the 103,000 grimoires, but to no avail. She knew Kabbalah, of course, but what the girl before her was casting was far beyond the scope of conventional Kabbalah magic, something closer to the "fundamental rules."

"Opportunity!" Kamijou Touma seized the moment of hesitation, enduring the pain in his right hand, and suddenly rushed out from the gray-haired girl's side!

Index reacted immediately, changing the direction of the beam cannon again. But the gray-haired girl clasped her hands together, freezing Index's movement in place.

"How is this possible...?!" Stiyl's eyes widened in disbelief. It could even block the "Dragon King's Sigh"?

The magic circle in Index's eyes flickered more rapidly; she seemed to be forcibly increasing her output, attempting to violently break through this unknown spell with even greater energy. The light cannon's color changed from dark red to fiery gold, its power increasing further.

But this brief stalemate gave Touma Kamijou one last chance; he had already rushed in front of Index.

The silver-haired nun hovered half a foot above the ground, her eyes vacant, the crimson magic circle reflecting Kamijou's approaching figure. She seemed to want to move, to dodge, but the suppression of the "Paradise of Reincarnation" domain and the restraint of the gray-haired girl made it impossible for her to move even a finger.

A moment is enough.

Kamijou Touma stretched out his scarred right hand, fingers spread, and with all his might pressed down on the spinning magic circles on Index's forehead.

Snap!

A crisp sound, like the sound of shattering glass.

The crimson magic circle shattered instantly, dissipating into countless specks of light. The strange aura surrounding Index vanished in an instant, and her suspended body, losing its support, gently plummeted downwards.

Kamijou Touma quickly reached out and caught her.

The girl in his arms was incredibly light, her long silver hair cascading down her back, her eyes closed, her long eyelashes trembling slightly. The unnatural flush on her face was rapidly fading, and her breathing was becoming steady.

A few seconds later, Index slowly opened her eyes. Her emerald green pupils regained their usual clear temperature, carrying a dazed look as if she had just woken up.

She blinked, looking at Touma Kamijou's face so close to hers, then at the mess around her. Although the room was maintained in its basic form by "Rin-en-Ren" (Paradise of Reincarnation), it was still clear that it had been severely damaged, and not far away, Kanzaki Kaori and Stiyl Magnus had complex expressions.

"Touma?" she whispered, her voice a little hoarse. "Have I 'awakened' again?"

Looking into her eyes, now normal, Touma's tense nerves finally relaxed. He let out a long, long breath, a tired yet relieved smile on his face.

"Ah... welcome back, Index."