Chapter 3 Midnight Skirmish: On the Defensive

As darkness settled, an uncomfortable tension started to build as three different parties occupied the same area. It wasn't so much the fact that there was two people unrelated to magic sitting on the sidelines or the fact that there were two Christian denominations within a stone's throw of each other.

The tension was likely caused by the difference in goals between all three sides, and the vast difference in numbers. With only 2 magicians from the Anglican church, 2 Espers, one magician with no affliation and over 200 Roman Catholic nuns I couldn't help but feel small as Agnese barked orders in rapid Italian to her subordinates while writing in a notebook.

"She's not taking notes. She's issuing instructions to the nuns who are out of range and can't hear her. It's basically a master copy that alters all of the other linked copies allowing for messages to be transmitted rapidly over great distances." Akiha said, explaining the answer before I could even ask the question.

"Still, isn't 200 people a bit overkill for one book? No matter how desperate you are there's no need to send this many people down. I can only imagine the scene at the airport." I replied, shaking my head.

"That's where you're naive. If I had assets and numbers like them I'd mobilise them all and more. That's the nature of the threat we're dealing with. It is said that when the Book of Law is read, the age of Christianity will end. The fact that it's author is Edward Alexander, the man who brought more magical advances in decades than it took for millenia should be a testament to how dangerous this book is."

"Never heard of him."

Sighing as she snapped her grimoire shut while rubbing her head, Akiha looked at me with her deep blue eyes and smirked, "Of course you've never heard of him. You're from the science side. He is the greatest magician of this century and with both sides being extremely isolated from each other there's no surprise you wouldn't know about him."

"Are you finished with that book?" I asked, nodding at the grimoire in Akiha's lap and trying to change the subject.

"No, I've got a bit of a headache so I'm taking a break before I start again." Akiha replied, our talk on grimoires and their harmful effects coming to the forefront of my mind again.

"Is it from..." I asked, receiving a nod from Akiha in reply.

"Then why are you...?"

"Someone has to stop Grimoire Haze. I'm not sure about the capability of these nuns and those folks from the Anglican church," Akiha said nodding at both sides, "But if Grimoire Haze sends a full assault force the casualties would be extreme and all on my hands."

"Your hands? How would it be on your hands?"

"Simple. I founded Grimoire Haze." Akiha replied, her tone calm as if she was merely forecasting the weather.

"How can you be so calm about that?!" I yelled at first, quickly dropping my voice to a whisper as several nuns looked in my direction.

"It was my mistake... Long ago. I originally founded the cabal to safeguard grimoires and seal them to prevent their misuse. But power corrupts and the cabal started to do the opposite of what they were originally intended on doing, using grimoires to accumulate power."

"And you couldn't stop them?"

"Not without revealing myself for what I truly am."

Giving a curt nod as we both sat there in silence once again, Agnese's orders being translated into Japanese whenever she came close enough for me to hear her I swiped my right hand to the side to close the translation window, not particularly interested in reading order after order.

As the tapping of platform shoes neared for what could be the twentieth time this evening, Agnese beckoned towards us with her left hand and pointed to where Touma, Stiyl and Index were probably asking us to sit with them.

Nodding as Akiha and I got the message, we both walked over to the other outcast group in the Gloaming House grounds before Agnese spoke in not Italian or English as I was expecting but in Japanese, "Ah... erm... I want to start explaining the situation. May I ask if you are all prepared?"

Make that extremely weird Japanese.

No matter which culture you come from, the kind of Japanese she's using is like a the kind someone would speak like if they were taught by someone who wanted them to sound as silly as possible. As Touma gave Agnese a weird look, Agnese started to get even more nervous as her face flushed and her legs started shaking.

"It... It makes me nervous to show my lousy Japanese in front of a... Japanese person... Do you speak any other languages? Preferably something far away like Albanian or Berber..."

"I cahn speek Eenglish..." I slowly replied in extremely fragmented English as I tried to pronounce the words flashed by the translator software.

As Touma's weird look was transferred from Agnese to me, Index's jaw dropped slightly and Stiyl slapped his face with his hand probably to hide either laughter or despair.

"N-nevermind, we should get back to the matter at hand and discuss the situation and actions we're going to take later-AHHHHHHHHHH!"

Her legs finally shaking too much for her to balance on her extremely tall platform shoes, Agnese started to fall and she started to flail, grabbing onto the closest stable point near her.

In this case, it was Kamijou's arm.

As both of them were sent crashing to the ground, Kamijou's face was buried deep into Agnese's skirt resulting in the kind of accidental ero ero scenario considered common in most teenage romance comedies.

As Index screamed and Stiyl facepalmed once again, I quickly performed a hand gesture that brought up the camera function and snapped a few quick photos to show Touma later as he experienced his several seconds of paradise.

As Agnese stood back up somehow on her long platform shoes, both Kamijou and Agnese apologised profusely to each other as Agnese helped Kamijou back up.

Straightening her nun robes, Agnese coughed before starting to speak again, less nervous than before, "Alright, now I'll start on the Book of Law, Orsola Aquinas, The Amakusa Church and our future course of action."

Although she wasn't shaking anymore, Agnese's hand slowly reached out to grab onto something to hold onto, with Kamijou being her closest candidate. However it seemed she was uncomfortable with the thought of holding a boy so she settled on Index's robes instead.

"We have confirmed that Orsola has fallen into the hands of the Amakusa Catholics. However we have set up a perimeter so if they try to leave we will find them." Agnese said, her fingers holding on tight to Index.

"How big's the perimeter?" Kamijou asked.

Stiyl rolling his eyes as if Kamijou asked a stupid question, Agnese turned to him and answered anyway, "About ten kilometers in radius including 132 roads and 43 sewers. Something like this is easy with the numbers we have."

"[I don't envy the nuns in the sewers.]" I giggled through telepathy to Akiha, Akiha only smirking in response.

"However, if they're trying to interrogate Orsola without leaving the perimeter that would make our job significantly more difficult." Agnese said.

"That wouldn't be a problem. Forcing the method out of her, writing manuals on how to decode the Book of Law, all these cannot be done in a day. Not to mention if they stay around without trying to escape their risk of getting caught rises dramatically. Also, in order to interrogate Orsola I'm sure she would be able to resist most mind reading spells so the only alternative is sleep depriving her. And that would take at least 5 days to a week." Stiyl said nonchalently as he breathed out a long puff of white smoke.

As Agnese started to open her mouth to speak, Akiha quickly grabbed my shoulder before looking out over the fence, "[I've got movement outside the fence.]"

"[Catholic nuns?]" I replied, phasing myself out of the ongoing conversation on account of the urgency in Akiha's voice.

"[Impossible. I've already factored in the nuns who are on patrol or conducting their regular business. Also, I might be wrong on this but I don't think the nuns are well versed in concealing magic. With their numbers concealment would be nearly impossible. And even if they were well versed in such magic, why would they be using it so close to they're own base? I think it's an intruder.]" Akiha said, her eyes slowly turning blood red.

"[How many?]"

"[I don't know...]" Akiha replied before her eyes widened.

"EVERYONE GET DOWN!" Akiha screamed, tackling me to the floor.

Moments later, the sound of explosion after explosion rocked the area along with several screams of shock as my vision went white and my sense of hearing left me only to be replaced by a soft ringing in my ears.

"[Stunning magic. Get up Ryu! We're under attack!]" Akiha said, using telepathy because of the loss in our sense of hearing.

As my vision started to clear, the area seemed to have sustained no damage in the sudden blitz but we weren't the only ones affected by the "flashbang" magic as the other nuns looked dazed and disoriented, Stiyl using his body as a shield, placing himself between Index and the chaos.

"Damage to visual and auditory senses detected, initiating combat mode." a voice said as the background programs started to close without me having to initiate combat mode myself.

That's a handy new feature.

Starting up abilities Energy Manipulation, Telekinesis and Electromaster.

Slowly standing to my feet as a pair of figures walked through the solid fence, a man and woman in their 20s surveying the scene.

"I'll have to thank him for the spell, it seems to work extremely well." the man said, brushing some dust off his dark grey t-shirt before flipping open a small notebook.

"So these are the lot after the Book of Law? Not much of a fight in them is there? There were barely any defensive spells around. Are you sure this is their main base?" the girl said.

"It should be, there seems to be traces of magic here from those Catholic nuns."

"Takahara Jin! Minomi Saya! What the hell are you two doing?!" Akiha yelled, her voice quivering with rage.

"Ah, so you're here too Makushou-san. Here to stop us I take it?" Jin said as he fired a single bolt of lightning at Akiha.

Easily absorbing the attack, Akiha countered with a storm of lightning bolts from both her hands as Jin easily stepped in between the forked lightning.

The sounds of cards flying through the air from behind me causing me to turn towards its source, it seems Stiyl was joining the fight as well as he threw several cards onto the ground before invoking his signature spell, "Innocentius!"

The four thousand degree flame monster roaring to life in the middle of the camp ground, Stiyl pointed straight at the two intruders, Innocentius surging forward to attack Saya.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Jin said snidely as Saya opened a small notebook of her own, her lips moving to cast what was probably an incantation as she singlehandedly stopped Innocentius from attacking her, holding it back with her free hand.

"What...?!" Stiyl said through gritted teeth, chewing on his cigarette as Innocentius roared and repeatedly trying to attack Saya to no avail.

"She can mimic magic she's attacked with and imbue herself with the same magic!" Akiha yelled, as she fired spell after spell at Jin as he proceeded to dodge and counter each either via dodging or his own magic.

As the nuns started preparing spells of their own and hurling them at the pair, Jin clicked his tongue in annoyance, "What a bother."

Raising a flame wall to block all the attacks, Jin sent the firewall outwards forcing the nearby nuns to flee or be burnt, Akiha swiftly bringing her hands down, negating the firewall before it reached us.

"So magic is useless on the girl? What about the boy?" Stiyl yelled to Akiha.

"As long as he has that notebook on him magic is useless on both of them." Akiha said, staring at the two with a glare that could kill.

"That's right up my alley then." I said with a smile as I conjured a bolt of lightning in both hands before shooting both at Saya.

"Didn't you hear Akiha-chan? Magic won't work on me...Ah?!"

As Saya held out her free hand to intercept the attack, instead of negating it like she had thought she could, the bolts struck her hand and proceeded to course through her arm before being directed to her heart and leaving her body through her feet.

Although the voltage wasn't lethal it had its desired effect, causing her heart to have an arrhythmia and develop bradycardia as her heart rate dropped to less than 50 beats per minute causing her to fall to her knees.

"Saya?!" Jin yelled, hoisting Saya to her feet only to have her fall again.

"Go! They don't have it here. Go find it I'll be fine." Saya managed to choke out before crumping to the floor unconscious.

"Dammit... I'll get you all for this!" Jin yelled as he let loose another spell that caused the same flash of light and bang we heard earlier, escaping by the time we could see again.

-End of Chapter 3-