The trick revealed

[ASG2: Tabura Rasa]

Touma charged forwards, his fist ready to punch out Oriana. The latter went to grab at her shorthands but hesitated long enough for Touma to get close to her. She dodged the first punch with Imagine Breaker but missed the punch with his other arm.

That one sent her stumbling back but now she went for the flipbook.

"Are you sure?" Touma asked suddently "Do you know what will happen if you use any of them?"

That did stop her for a moment but she smirked "Oh well, even if I can't flip to a random page I can still read."

Flipping it open to a random spell she read it before ripping it out. A laser shot forth before being blocked by Touma's arm. Wait, how did she read that? Joule saw that the pages were blank before she ripped it out. No, it wasn't that they were blank, it's that they "Couldn't be seen", Oriana could see them though somehow.

Oriana smirked "So what if I can't remember the exact order? That just slows me down and forces me to use less optimal spells. I can still beat you!" As she spoke, she bought time as she flipped through to look for specific spells.

Joule was annoyed but she couldn't stop working or Oriana would be able to do it properly again. She needed a way to stop her properly.

Memory loss would stop most spellcasters as far as she was aware, Oriana was just annoying and using the same trick over and over to throw out attacks Touma wasn't ready for.

A punch then an energy blast from close range, Touma coughed and blood splattered the ground.

...No, it was easier than that. Joule realised it suddenly. Oriana's power came from being impossible to predict and being able to throw a counter at any problem. The latter was impossible if she didn't know which spell was which instantly and the former was slowing her down.

Well, Joule had one option left. Something that would make her truely unable to use her spells any more.

She moved over to something else. Whenever she read one of her spells, she would need to remember that spell. Joule pushed down on that too. Oriana's memory of the things that she read.

Oriana froze again and Touma got a punch in. Oriana spun and spat blood too before kicking him and putting her spells in her pocket.

Joule honestly hadn't known there was a pocket in that outfit.

"Even if my memories of magic are suppressed, I'm still far more experienced that you are." She struck with a punch that Touma blocked before using that arm to grab his shoulder. Touma struggled away only to let a kick through that made his leg buckle. As he stubled she kicked high and hit him in the upper chest, knocking the wind out of him.

"I'm a professional." She noted "And while I'd love to continue our intimate contact, you'd probably be wise to run home now..." she stopped as she saw a flash of red.

Stiyl was up and casting.

She was without her magic.

Oriana screamed as the fire burned her and she fell to the ground just as Stiyl forced himself up. Joule sighed and began to focus on other things.

Stiyl walked over to Oriana who was groaning, her skin red from the flash fire that had overtaken her.

"Where's the cross of peter?" He asked her. When she didn't respond he placed his foot on her arm and stepped.

Joule winced as she heard a crack from the force. Was Stiyl heavier than he looked or was that just something people could do? Stiyl stepped back and asked the question again.

"Honestly, there's no need for that." A woman's voice could be heard from somewhere nearby.

With Oriana now safely defeated... probably. Anyway, with that Joule's song came to an end.

[ACMI: Magic Society]

"Who are you? What did you mean?" Touma asked into the air.

The woman seemed to have a smile in her voice but it sounded peaceful "I'm sorry but I'll have to answer the second question first. What I meant is that all of this unpleasantness is nearly over."

"Unpleasantness," Stiyl repeated "what a nice way to refer to the attempt to brainwash thousands of people, don't you think? Lidvia Lorenzetti?"

The woman didn't react to Stiyl's use of her name but continued "Before much longer, the Croce di Pietro will begin to do it's holy work. And then all of academy city will be converted to roman orthodoxy."

The voice was coming from Oriana's chest so that was where Touma directed his question "And what about those of us that get in the way? Are you saying that we're all going to be purged?"

Joule pulled into herself, she still sat in the side room as she listened and saw what Lumen did.

"No my child." Lidvia spoke as if to a naughty child "I am saying that we will care for your injuries and watch over you while you heal. Of course, by that point, you will have seen the error of your ways and converted."

"You're insane." Touma declared, Joule agreed entirely with his thoughts.

Stiyl grunted "This is pointless, you'll be around here somewhere and you're trying to distract us. When we find you, we can stop you."

"In the interest of full disclosure, I feel I should tell you;" Lidvia noted "despite your assumptions, the cross is not currently in Academy City."

Joule gasped and her eyes went wide. They had missed it.

Lidvia explained that the state created by the cross had been far wider than just rome. The cross could be used to bring that much land under control so she had no need to bring it to the city itself. She could use it just fine from near it's borders.

"Oriana was a decoy then?" Stiyl asked, his face going pale. He glanced at Touma and mimed for him to put his hand to his head for some reason, that meant that Lumen couldn't connect to him but she could still see and hear from her perspective.

"It was a shame that she was defeated, but some sacrifices are necessary on the path to righteousness. All will turn out as it should in the end, all that truely matters right now is that, at long last, science will be forced to bow to religion! By denying science's power and demonstrating our own, we can restore the authority of the lord to this wanton land!"

Stiyl cursed "We need to find her, Joule, can you trace the spell somehow?"

"I'll try." She messaged him before turning her focus on Lumen "Can you?"

The Muse hummed as she studied the spell "Maybe? It'd take a few tries though and we don't have much time."

She passed the info on to Stiyl who cursed as Touma pulled out his phone and asked "What the hell are we supposed to do?"

Lidvia spoke again and Lumen began tracking the spell "It's not as if our mission is the destruction of Academy City. Once you've renounced science and it's heresies, we'll gladly offer help."

"Got her." Lumen responded "She's quite far away though. I don't know if we can reach her in time."

When she passed the location to Stiyl he cursed "That would take thirty minutes to get to. That puts us too close to 7."

"You don't even have that long." Lidvia noted "The cross will activate and begin the conversion of the world in two hundred and thirty six seconds. thirty five, thirty four. Checkmate gentlemen"

End of chapter.

If you know the story, you already know how the good guys will turn it around. Next chapter is just going to be Joule trying to find a way out in the three minutes and fifty seconds until the deadline.