The corpse of Aureolus Izzard was lying on the back on the floor; his dull green eyes gazed at the ceiling, and his mouth, no longer breathing, was hanged open. Dozens of hand-sized screws were pierced to his body.

Kamijou Touma stares down at his body with narrowed eyes, wearing an expression that doesn't show satisfaction for a victory. The edges of his lips were crooked down as if showing that he didn't win a fight. Despite being technically a winner, Kamijou felt that this victory was completely empty; his distance to the achievement of his goal, which he felt to be a little bit close earlier, was now extended for infinity back again. The sparks of hopes that he had to stop Othinus were put out. He closed his eyes as he sighed.

"It is a shame that your ability is weak. I really, really hoped that it will stop her."

All of commands of Ars Magna were negated automatically after the death of Aureolus Izzard; some erased memories were returned back to Kamijou, and Himegami Aisa was breathing again, though, she was still unconscious. Yet, despite the fact that the effects of this ability had been extinguished, a certain silver-haired girl was still in sleep.

As he turned his gaze from the lifeless magician to the sleeping nun, his lips were crooked up back into his permanent smile.

「"Index-chan surely looks cute when she is asleep!"｣

A moment later, a certain stentorian voice echoed in the air from the opposite side of the room.

"Stop thinking!"

In the next instant.

Kamijou Touma suddenly froze on the spot.

His blue eyes became dull and his mouth was now hanged open, making a drool stream down on the side of his lips. The boy didn't move any of his limbs; he didn't even turn his head. Thoughts were no longer being proceeded inside of his mind.

As if time was stopped.

Then, a firm voice echoed in the air again, speaking to the thoughtless boy.

"I should thank you, Kamijou Touma."

A firm voice was none other than Aureolus Izzard.

But, wasn't he dead, breathlessly lying on the floor near Kamijou Touma?

Or it was a fake lying dead?

"Thank you for getting rid of my clone. Not only he was despicable, unintelligible and shallow to my own shame and disgust, but he probably could've tried to get rid of me once I was over with all of this. I appreciate you for performing this task for me."

Real Aureolus Izzard leaned to the side of door with his arms crossed. There was no trembling or sternness in his tone of voice as if he was completely sure in safety. A small smirk that was spread across his face proved that fact. He continued to speak with him without any worry in the world.

"Judging from observation: your ability is to negate anything out of existence? If I am right, then your power is surely terrifying, though it lacks versatility."

Despite Kamijou's inability to speak, let alone process any thought, Aureolus was seemed to be enjoying such 'conversation'. The misfortunate boy could've negated a command put on him with his [All-fiction]; but, he needed to able, at least, form a single thought to erase it.

And due to his incapability to do that; the boy was now a living mannequin.

"I don't know if your ability could save Index from such terrible state she is in. Even if it could, that doesn't matter. Because I am destined to save her!" his tone of voice became stern at the last sentence. "I will save her with my plan! After that, any remnants of you in her memories would be erased by me."

Letting his arms down, Aureolus now stood still.

A silence was present for a bit until Aureolus spoke his next command.

"Sleep."

The second later, Kamijou's eyes shutdown itself before his body fell to the floor on his back with a 'thud' sound.

"So….how I should get rid of you? Death won't certainly work on you. So it seems that I should erase you out of existence."

As Aureolus prepared to spell another command, a certain gunshot resonated throughout air.

"AAGH!" shout out Aureolus as he felt a burning pain on his back.

After falling down to the floor, Aureolus coughed some blood out of his mouth. He felt a bullet pierced on his back. Trying to get up with his arms, the alchemist felt a pain burning more strongly. Unable to resist such pain, he gave up and just turned his head back to see the culprit behind this.

He saw two persons behind him: the one was a teenage-looking boy with blond spiky-hair who was holding a gun named Tsuchimikado Motoharu; it was obviously that he was the one to shoot him.

The second was…

Aureolus widened his eyes from shock.

Before his eyes, he saw a red-haired man wearing a black priest robe.

"S-styil Magnus?!"

Many questions immediately appeared and floated inside of his mind.

As if reading his mind, Styil Magnus crooked up his smile and answered at one of his questions with mocking tone.

"What is the the matter? You're wondering how am I alive? It is very simple, alchemist: with my magic I messed up your clone's visionary senses. Using my fire magic and some illusion spell, I refracted the light to blur his vision and create an illusion of me. After doing that, I simply hid behind a column in a moment before your fake killed the image of me, not actually me. This spiky-haired bastard knew it and played along. The best part of it was your doppelganger: if your clone wasn't a lazy and inattentive piece of crap and checked the column after he got rid of me and that boy, I would've been totally screwed up."

The priest slightly widened his smile at the last part.

Aureolus gritted his teeth at such mocking smile.

There were other question he had:

How he walked inside of building without being noticed by him or Himegami?

How did he appear with this blonde boy behind him without any sound.

But it didn't matter.

All he wanted is to kill them as soon as possible.

He started to spell a command.

"Both of you-"

But.

He was abruptly stopped

A certain gunshot resonated through air.

But it wasn't the sound itself that interrupted him.

The bullet that hit his forehead did.

Instantly, after having his head being pierced by a bullet, alchemist's head went thud down to the floor.

His green lifeless eyes now were motionlessly staring at the red carpet.

The abyss.

The omnipresent dark abyss was around her until the wave of light appeared and spread through it. A certain silver-haired girl tiresomely opened her eyes; the shining sun that almost blinded her was a first thing in her vision after waking up. Noticing that it was already a day.

After waking up, she felt that her chin was rested on someone's shoulder, and that her body was carried on someone's back. Lifting her chin and turning her gaze to the left, she widened her green eye as she saw that face.

The face of a red-haired magician who chased her.

Though, despite being shocked, she didn't panic in a slightest.

She knew that she will be caught sooner or later, not even he was able to protect her.

Narrowing her eyes and stretching down the edges of her lips, she simply asked that red-haired magician.

"….Is he fine? Is Touma okay?" asked she with melancholic voice.

"Yes. He is okay." firmly answered Styil Magnus without averting his gaze to her.

As he answered that, some easiness appeared inside of Index's heart and mind. She turned her gaze down from his face, staring fixedly at nothingness.

Both of them seemed to be wandering through empty streets of this city that could be soon full of people due to peak-hour. But this city wasn't Academy City; it lacked a trace of futurism, so it was most likely Tokyo or other Japanese megalopolis.

Behind Styil Magnus was a purple-haired woman with ponytail, Kanzaki Kaori. Holding firmly her nodana, she walked with him with her head down, shadow was covering her face. The red-haired magician had noticed that something is wrong with her, that something disturbs her, but decided to check her later after they get Index to London. He felt that she wasn't simply lugubrious, but as if she was traumatized by something; he assumed that it has to do something with those cursed ridiculously-sized screws.

The silence was present; only echoes of footsteps were breaking it slightly.

A minute later, Styil spoke.

"I really don't want to do that to you, Index."

As soon as he said that, Index returned from trance back to reality, turning her gaze to his face.

"I don't want to erase your memories. I don't want to make you suffer. But it has to be done for your sake. Me and Kanzaki don't want you to die and lose you." said Styil with his firm voice, but Index sensed his tone almost breaking at the last part.

"…Were we friends before?"

"Yes, we were. We are. Kanzaki and I won't leave you alone and die, and it is not because it's our job, but because we both love and care about you since you are our dearest friend."
As he spoke that, silence appeared between them again. Tears streamed down from girl's eyes as she tried to hold down her sobbing.

"T-t-then l-let be friends again! L-let's be friends again in the next life, o-okay?"

"Sure, Index."

The girl fell silent for several moments before speaking again.

"A-also can you make me a promise?" asked Index after she almost stopped sobbing.

"Can I meet him? Meet him in the next life?"

Styil knew about whom Index was talking about.

Though, he despised that bastard, he couldn't turn down her promise.

"Yes, you can. You will meet him."

A smile popped up on girl's face as she heard that.

"Thank you." she said before closing her eyes and resting her chin on his shoulder.

A certain spiky-haired boy opened his eyes as he woke up. The sun beamed through the window to his face.

It seems he was in his own apartment.

The first thing he saw was a cracked ceiling that needed to be repaired. Beneath him he felt a semi-soft mattress which was still somewhat comfortable. He stared stonily and fixedly at need-to-be-repaired ceiling until his mind registered some words.

Aureolus Izzard.

Index

"Index-chan!" he shouted as he lifted his upper body up from the mattress in a swift motion.

He wanted to get out of his apartment back to the Misawa Cram School, but stopped himself as he noticed some note on the right side of his bed. He took the note and read it:

Real Aureolus Izzard is dead. Index was sent back to her place in safety with me and my partner and would get her memories erased. Also, you will be sooner or later contacted by either me or some other representative of the Church of Necessarius. So expect the contact.

Styil Magnus.

He put down the note on the bed as a melancholic air appeared inside of this room. In a slow manner, he pulled his upper body down back to the bed and continued to stare at bad-looking ceiling; it seems he could've stared it for all eternity.

Instantly, the gray silence arrived from the melancholic air.

In a little while, the silence was broken for a moment by Kamijou's words.

"…It seems I've lost again."

He lost again.

He had lost many and many times.

So many times that he has been used to them.

Despite his desire to truly win, he had accepted his destiny of being a loser.

So why?

Why this 'loss' hit him harder than any of other losses?

Such question wondered him as his tears were streaming down his face.

Hello there!

So this was the last chapter of Izzard arc and the story in general.

So what is your opinion about the fight between Kumagawa-esque Touma and Aureolus? Did you like the ending of this arc? Feel free to say your opinion.

The next (last) chapter would be Author's notes.