Emptiness.
Silence.
These words are perfectly describing the lobby of the building of Misawa Cram School. Both persons, the esper and magician, entered in the lobby through automatic glass door. Electric lights weren't working, but the light from the moon through glass panes illuminated the lobby. Though, it illuminated so weakly, it didn't fade the darkness completely, but only made it barely visible.
About thirty meters ahead of them were four elevators, which could lead to any storey of the building.
After they both examined the lobby, the silence was broken by the voice of the spiky-haired boy.
「"So where we are going?"」
Kamijou Touma asked the red-haired as he turned his gaze at him with his fake smile.
Styil Magnus glanced back at Kamijou Touma and replied.
"According to my tracking device, Index is somewhere on high floors of this building."
After replying, the magician turned his gaze back and took his steps ahead at slow pace, Kamijou followed him.
「"So while searching Index we will stumble on this Izzard guy sooner or later? So what this guy is capable of?"」
"As I know, he possesses a highest form of alchemy known as Ars Magna. With such ability he can-"
As he tried to explain, the magician suddenly stopped in midsentence, he and the boy paused in walking.
A certain electronic sound interrupted him making the red-haired man instinctively silence himself and taking the battle stance while Kamijou glancing at him, just made a confused expression. He and then the boy looked at the source of the sound.
Both have heard "ding" sound.
It was the sound of elevator.
An elevator at the far left.
Suddenly there was another sound.
It was a mechanical sound.
The sound of an opening elevator door.
The opened elevator revealed the green-haired man in a white Italian suit with an antique firearm from the period of 16-17 century in his right hand.
The atmosphere suddenly became tense for the red-haired magician, but the spiky-haired boy with his fatuous smile took the present occurring situation not seriously and observed it like it was some sort of play.
The man in a suit stepped out of the elevator and nonchalantly made his way between the left and the right elevator. It looked like he didn't pay attention to him at all. He didn't intend come closer to the duo but intended to be straight before their gazes.
The green-haired man glanced at the duo, as he made his way to the end.
The distance between the green-haired and duo was 18 meters.
The man in a suit wore a slightly odd expression. It bore neither fear nor solemnity.
His gaze was full of arrogance.
His smile was full of confidence.
His red-haired enemy wore a different expression. Fear, despair, frustration, confusion were written on his face.
Gritting his teeth from these negative emotions, Styil Magnus spoke in his mind.
'Crap, crap CRAP! Events go not like I expected and planned! Why did this guy must appear right now?! I am not sure if this Urchin can defeat him! Besides, he looks very odd! It feels like he is a completely different person! Looks like I must begin to act!'
As the priest finished his thoughts, the boy without any seriousness made a comment.
「"Jeez. And I thought I would meet some cute poltergeist girl first."」 Kamijou said with visible frustration in his tone of voice.
Such response instantly triggered anger in Styil Magnus. The red-haired quickly turned his gaze at the boy and shouted.
"Can you take this situation seriously?! It is the matter of life and death right now!"
The green-haired man, Aureolus Izzard, the alchemist finally spoke.
"Greetings, my old acquaintance!" the alchemist stretched out his arms as to welcome the magician, "How are you? Don't be so much tense in the new place of mine! What brings you to mine domain?"
Welcoming by the green-haired magician was obviously not genuine.
He acted and spoke like the King in his own Kingdom.
The red-haired man replied to the alchemist.
"You perfectly know why I came here, Aureolus! Will you give Index back? I don't want have any fights."
"Sorry, but no. It will be a lie to say that I didn't expect you to come here," Aureolus turned his gaze from the stern-looking magician to the boy with silly smile left to him "though, I didn't expect some lowly clown to come here."
The boy reacted on that comment on him.
「"Oh man, such arrogance! Do you also causally call others 'mongrels' and possess a portal that shoots weapons? Also, it will be really cool to see if you actually have a last one!"」
The chuckle let out from the mouth of Aureolus Izzard as he turned his gaze back to the magician.
"Huh? Who is this idiot, Styil? Where is that Saint? You both aren't partners anymore?"
"Unfortunately, my partner can't do anything right now. She was defeated by that boy whom you mocked, so be careful what are you saying."
The magician didn't want to let out such information to his enemy, but Styil Magnus used it as a psychological weapon to trigger fear and doubt to do something in Aureolus.
Though, his reaction was entirely different than what Styil Magnus wanted.
"Bwhahahahahahahahahaha!"
Aureolus laugh was full of mockery as he put his left palm on his face.
Styil gritted his teeth and furrowed his eyebrows from such reaction.
The alchemist stopped laughing, but his smile was still on his face. He continued to speak as he took his palm from his face.
"Oh wow! I didn't expect this woman to be such a weakling!" the alchemist turned his gaze again to the boy while ignoring Styil's anger. "Tell me, boy. Are you a Saint or a simple magician?"
As the alchemist asked a question, Styil Magnus closed his eyes in anguish, expecting another mockery from Izzard after that boy will answer his question.
「"I am neither of them, Aureolus-kun! I'm just a weak LvL 0 esper!"」 the boy said in such tone of voice like he wasn't ashamed of that at all.
"Esper, huh? Tell me, Styil." The alchemist again returned his gaze back to the magician "Don't you feel-?"
The shout from the magician suddenly interrupted the alchemist.
"I had enough of this!" after the magician shouted, he turned his gaze to the boy "Listen here, Urchin! This guy has the ability to turn-"
"Stop talking." said the man in a commanding tone as he interrupted the magician.
The red-haired man couldn't say anything.
He couldn't utter any word.
He couldn't utter even a sound.
Despite of his incapability to speak, Styil Magnus was still able to think. He could've think up about his next actions.
But.
The alchemist spoke to him casually.
"So you know about my ability? Do others know? Anyway, does this boy know also? If no, it will be great! I don't want a fun to be ruined. Soo…"
The alchemist said simple, but malicious word.
He said like it was a command.
"Die."
In the next instant.
The heart of Styil Magnus stopped beating immediately.
And.
With a thud sound his body fell down on the floor.
The life of Styil Magnus simply stopped.
There was a silence.
But it lasted shortly as the boy broke it.
「"Oh no! My best and only potential banter buddy died! Why did you do that?! Whom I will banter now?!"」
Kamijou Touma gripped his hair as to mourn him. Of course, it was obviously an act of pretending rather than something genuine.
Aureolus Izzard turned his gaze from the corpse of Styil to the spiky-haired boy.
"So you actually defeated that Saint? If it's true then amuse me, boy."
As Aureolus Izzard said that, he put a sadistic smile on his face.
Kamijou Touma replied to him.
「"Amuse you? Well, I can certainly to do that!"」
As the boy said that, he instantly changed his goofy smile to a small, twisted smirk.
Oversized screws instantly appeared in his hands. Their sizes were similar to handgun.
He gripped his weapons as he pointed the direction of the tip of each screw towards Aureolus.
While the boy prepared dash to him, the man simply said the word like a command.
"You shall not come close to me."
And then the boy dashed at him, ignoring what this man said.
He continued running until he noticed.
He wasn't coming close to him at all. Not even by a single centimeter.
Confusion appeared on the face of Kamijou.
From his vision there was some sort of illusion. The space on the side of Aureolus seemed to be instantly sliding away from Kamijou.
Then Kamijou decided to use a superhuman speed, but even using such speed he still couldn't come closer.
No matter how much fast he was, he couldn't come any closer to the alchemist.
That conclusion has reached Kamijou's mind.
After that conclusion, Kamijou eventually stopped.
"It is what you've got?" with his eyes being closed, the alchemist asked this question with the mix of mockingness and disappointment. "I thought you would pull out something interesting, but it seems you-"
And when Aureolus tried his best to insult him.
Something flew towards the unsuspecting alchemist.
It moved at such speed that even a human eye could barely perceive.
"-are a fail-GHAAAAA!"
It hit Aureolus as he screamed from the pain.
In the instant he opened his eyes from such terrible pain. His eyes were widened from such shock. He gritted his teeth to endure tremendous pain. After opening his eyes, he glanced to the location of such terrible sensation. The pain was located in his left shoulder. Not only that, but he saw the object stabbed in this place.
That object was an oversized screw.
He knew who was culprit, so with raging look he turned his gaze towards the boy.
He saw that boy's stance was that of someone who thrown a dart, and he had a smile of someone who throw it successfully. His right hand was empty, but in his left hand there was still an oversized screw.
"Y-Y-YOOUUU!"
While alchemist was glancing at him with furiousity, the boy spoke to him without uneasiness.
「"You made one mistake, Aureolus-kun. You see, you made some sort of command that I won't come close to you, but it didn't mean that the object from me can't come close you, right? It was such a simple-minded command from you! Well, did I amuse you?"」
And when he said that last sentence, he stretched out his toothy smile.
From such response, the mind of Aureolus Izzard was drawn into chaos.
'THAT BASTARD! THAT BASTARD! THAT BASTARD! THHHAAATTTTT BBBBAAASSSSTTAAARRRDDD! HOW DARE HE DO THAT?! HOW DARE HE HURT ME! HOW DARE HE MOCK ME! I WILL KILL HIM! I WILL MAKE HIM SUFFER GREEEEAAATTTTLLLYYYY! THAT BASTARD! THAT BASTARD! THAT BASTARD!'
As he was internally shouting, the alchemist took from the pocket of his jacket a golden needle. And with that needle, he immediately stabbed it into his back of the neck.
From such action, Kamijou made a confused expression.
If normal person did that, he would've suffered from terrible pain and bleeding, if not outright die. But, Aureolus Izzard acted differently.
"Sigh."
He let out a relaxing breath. He sighed like an average salaryman who came home and sat on his couch after such a long and hard day of work.
After couple of seconds, glancing at the boy with no visible animosity and rage on his face, he pointed his antique gun and let out several words.
"Be beaten to a pulp."
In the next instant.
「"BBWWAAAAGGGHHH!"」
Kamijou let out a groan full of agonizing pain and coughed some blood.
He felt a certain invisible force pummelling his body.
He felt his face being beaten.
He felt his chest being beaten.
He felt his stomach being beaten.
He felt his legs being beaten.
Invisible strikes were powerful enough to send him flying several meters back.
It continued to strike him until he landed on the floor.
Battered Kamijou was lying on the floor. The blood was running from his forehead, nose and mouth. On his head, including other visible parts of body, were many bruises. His white T-shirt was soaked with blood.
He continued lying several seconds until something strange started happening to him.
His limbs started moving on their own, especially his legs. His body was rising itself, like Dracula from his coffin in horror movies.
From such scene, fear began to crawl in Aureolus, but the alchemist quickly overcame it with determination.
All damage on Kamjou's body was fading away one by one, but Aureolus either didn't care or didn't notice that.
As Kamijou began to stand, Aureolus spoke to him.
"Hey, brat. I don't want any trouble from both Magic and Science Side, so. "
He aimed his gun at confused Kamijou, as he spoke next words as an order.
"Forget everything about that."
In the next instant.
Consciousness of Kamijou Touma shut down itself.
His body fell down on the floor.
And this battle.
Misfortunate Kamijou Touma lost.
Hello, everyone!
So how did you like this battle? Was it good or bad?
Anyway, it wasn't last Touma vs Aureolus fight in this chapter, so wait for the next chapter. But, I warn you, the next chapter wouldn't be soon.
See you later!