How to slay a saint

[ACMI: Entry to Darkness]

They'd all stopped a ways away from the hospital. The substitute had gotten a phone call (Which again was interesting with Misaka's phone just not connecting right now even though she'd been brought to Touma) but as he was listening, the rest of his church was preparing and sharpening weapons. It was strange actually, normally sanding something creates a static charge but GV wasn't feeling anything of the sort from the mages around him.

"Is there a level of sharpness you could reach that would actually effect Acqua?" GV asked without much to do.

One of the members of the church who looked about the same age as GV looked over "It's a spell, most of our spells just look like normal activities. In this case by sharpening our weapons we're making them more effective. It only works on our weapons of choice though."

GV shrugged "Then any idea how I can make sure my attacks work? I think my lightning could hurt him but I somehow doubt shooting him would work."

"You're right." The boy nodded "But in how to help you... sorry. I'm not really sure about your esper powers. Strong enough AIM can make mages sick but I don't know if that would work on a saint.

GV nodded and left the boy to get back to sharpening his knife.

As he leaned against the wall, he tried to figure out some part of magic. All the magic he'd seen in the past had some sort of rule to it. You couldn't just snap your fingers and make anything happen. So, sainthood.

He'd never been much for religion, it just wasn't that popular in the city he'd come from. Sumeragi had discredited it pretty heavily while kidnapping any Adepts they produced. Not Septimal adepts though. A majority of those kidnapped from churches were Tetrad Adepts, those who possessed access to the fourth stage of the lifewave. There were also the rare Senary Adepts, those who in days before Sumeragi might have been seen as Saints.

Or putting this another way, using the termanology that QUILL would use, GV was stronger than your average "Saint." That clearly wasn't the case in this world though.

Joule had once told him about how a saint was defined, she'd apparently heard it from Index back when the space elevator was causing problems.

"A Saint is a person who possess bodily characteristics that match those of the Son of God and allow them to draw on his power."

...Or something like that.

"Can those more educated in this handle a quick question." GV noted "If you're trying to kill a saint, would crucifixion help?"

"Normally, no." Another of the members of Amakusa explained "A saint bares some properties of the son of god but that doesn't mean they have that weakness. The crucifixion could be used against one using magic but it is not inherently a weakness."

"On that subject though..." Another began and glanced at Itsuwa who was sharpening her spear with a half-mad focus "We do actually have a spell like that. Itsuwa is the centerpoint of it and we will be trying it."

GV nodded and continued to think. How would you go about harming a saint?

...He really didn't know enough about religion to answer that question.

The substitute pontiff finished his call and looked up.

"Sounds like Acqua of the rear has been confronted by a squad of unmanned powered suits on the third level."

"Which don't stand a chance against him?" GV guessed easily.

Tatemiya nodded "No chance in hell."

The boy who'd explained the sharpening spell to GV looked up "So are we heading out?"

"Not yet." Tatemiya sat down "We'd just be charging in there blindly if we left now and I think we all know how that would turn out."

He drew out his strange wavy blade and held it up so it caught the light off the fake sky.

"We need to wait for the perfect time. Meanwhile we will continue to prepare ourselves and our weapons as best we can. And we must craft an optimal strategy."

"Please just wait another three hours." There was a hiss as Itsuwa ran the sandpaper across the tip of her spear "It takes a little more time to resharpen a blade and make it sharp enough to fight against a monster like that."

She was very focused on the task, it seems she was pouring a lot of anger into her work. Tatemiya might have managed to get her moving again but it seemed to have put her in a killing mood.

GV took a few steps away from her casually. He'd seen crazy before and didn't want to be right next to her when she went off.

After Itsuwa threatened some others into letting her focus, Tatemiya got another phone call. After a moment, he pulled the phone away from his ear and put it on speaker phone.

The voice on the other end was familiar, but GV struggled to place if he'd heard it before. Probably not?

"I have new information regarding Acqua of the rear's past." the calm voice said "His real name is William Orwell."

Everyone's attention was focused on the phone as the speaker continued.

"He was a magic mercenary born in England, though he doesn't have any affiliation nowdays. Of course, when he was born, he wasn't a Roman Catholic, and there are records indicating that he was baptized in an Anglican church when he was young. As a mercenary, he was a lone wolf, and it seems like he specializes in taking down enemy strongholds."

So something like GV's old job? That was interesting to know.

The woman on the other side of the line continued "As a magician, William had a magic name. It is Flere210."

Flere?

"…Flere, right?" Tatemiya mumbled out loud "Tears, huh? What are his accomplishments as a mercenary?"

The woman rattled off a few names to which Tatemiya responded "All battlefields which are comparable to nightmares."

"But William Orville isn't just someone who will settle any problem with just force." The woman explained "For instance, even in the medical facilities within the battle zones, he will impart knowledge of herbs to them to lower the mortality rate, taught poor and hungry villages how to cook. He's pretty active even outside the battlefield. In some places, they even call him a Sage."

GV would have doubted how effective herbs could be on the battlefield but this was magic they were talking about. Maybe herbs were more effective than the leaves he knew about when it came to cooking.

"We didn't find anything that can be classified as a weakness. As a mercenary, he continued to use this attribute of being a Saint to continue to carry out explosive battles."

He couldn't have no weaknesses. Though thinking like that was how GV had done it when he'd worked as an agent of QUILL on silencing missions. The fact remained that all humans were vulnerable at some point.

"So after he changed sects, he obtained the strength of a member of God's Right Seat?" Tatemiya asked.

The woman on the other side paused as she checked her notes. When she found what she was looking for, she answered.

"Originally, William was supposed to be a Knight of England, but he disappeared a week before he was appointed, so the heraldry that was halfway done was kept in the maker's house."

Tatemiya sighed.

"We can't expect any weaknesses from him. But at least we can find out Acqua's main fighting methods, right? Like the kinds of weapons he uses, what school of thought he came from?"

The woman said a few points which they'd already learned about the hard way but then she did bring up something interesting.

"Also…the way he moves in battle is rather unique, not by running, but it seems like he glides on the floor."

As everyone looked closely at the phone again, the woman went on.

"Seems like he uses a water movement spell. The reason why horse carriages can slide on ice is because of a thin layer of water between the carriage wheels and the ice, right?"

Water? That was how he was dodging? GV wasn't good at water for a number of reasons but it was a great medium. All he'd need to do was ensure Acqua was standing on a conductive surface.

He'd need to refine that plan though. It's fine. There was time while the others worked.

End of chapter.

You might notice this chapter outright copies from the LN. That's becaue the anime was skipping important lines and I needed to be sure they were included in this. There was even a complete mistranslation in the dub.