As the positions of the "Baptism Chapel" and the "Marriage Chapel" were relatively tilted to each other, there was a triangular atrium between them. Tatemiya Saiji continued to swing his large sword in this atrium.
Tatemiya was the last Amakusa member to retreat from the "Marriage Chapel". Just like the other Amakusa members who were fighting to create enough time for Orsola to escape, Tatemiya had been trying to create enough time for the Amakusa members to escape. Currently, the Amakusa members had escaped and were now fighting the Roman Catholics.
On the smooth marble floor, there was no length of grass, and there were stands for placing sculptures everywhere. When the Church was finished, there would probably be sculptures of angels or the religious greats known as saints. Right now, however, there were no sculptures, and they were rather empty. All the religious art pieces had been blown to dust, as if the Church had been invaded by non-believers.
Tatemiya Saiji wasn't using the tactic of "think while I fight" like Kamijou Touma did.
Because he was able to skillfully break down the enemy's attack rhythm. He wouldn't attack fully or defend fully; he would keep a balance between attack and defense.
When the nuns intended to charge in, Tatemiya would step forward.
When the nuns intended to step back and readjust their attacks, Tatemiya would step back.
Tatemiya's actions surprised the nuns greatly. The moment the nuns misjudged what the enemy was going to do, they would naturally panic, and in this situation, Tatemiya normally would attack them. Even if the nuns were to carry out defensive maneuvers, they'd be blown away if they tried to block an attack from that giant sword.
But Tatemiya wouldn't attack back. After attacking once, he would step back. He was not attacking all-out or defending fully, but instead maintaining a balance between them. Using this "stalemate" that wasn't supposed to happen, he built up an invisible wall.
This is terrible; I can't continue to play with them like this…
Tatemiya, though, saw his comrades waving their swords at the enemy and jumping about from the corner of his eye.
Although Tatemiya was looking rather confident and smiling, he was very nervous deep inside. The nuns were rational enough to analyze the attacks as they fought; this was why Tatemiya's tactic could work. When the nuns got impatient enough and decided to pull out all the stops, not caring about their comrades' safety, Tatemiya's tactic would fail.
Whether it was attacking or defending, as long as there was an imbalance, the psychological wall would dissolve in that instant, and Tatemiya would be swallowed by the crowd charging forward.
It was like fishing, Tatemiya thought. If he pulled the rod hard, the fish would struggle and end up breaking the fishing line and escaping. To catch a fish easily, one had to give it enough freedom- which was to allow the enemy to attack and let them think that they had a chance.
Suddenly, Tatemiya could hear loud footsteps nearby.
"A new enemy?"
Tatemiya panicked, but upon listening carefully, he noticed that the footsteps were headed towards him.
Tatemiya was standing in the atrium between the "Marriage Chapel" and the "Baptism Chapel". At that moment, he saw the Anglican nun in white robes standing at the apex of the triangle, which was the small gap closest to the two chapels.
She was being chased by the Roman Catholic nuns, only to meet up with another group of them, and was finally surrounded, unable to move. The number of people surrounding her was twice that of the enemies in front of Tatemiya.
Damn it! Don't do something like this in front of me!
Tatemiya frantically tried to save the white-robed nun, but the nuns who were surrounding Tatemiya were working together flawlessly, creating a human wall like a great creature. To them, once they took down one, there would be more comrades who could assist them in taking him down. Since they couldn't beat Tatemiya, they were wishing that their comrades would quickly take down the other enemies.
Tatemiya and the nuns glared at each other.
In the other corner, Index was swallowed by a large crowd, her body gradually sinking among them.
"Let me show you…"
Tatemiya adjusted his breathing and slowly raised his sword, preparing to use a killing blow.
Suddenly, a man's voice could be heard from above.
"Stop! Don't get near that child!"
Tatemiya looked up, and in an instant, the second-level window of the "Baptism Chapel" exploded, as a firestorm erupted from inside. Next, a Roman Catholic nun was shot out like a cannonball. When she landed, she barely tried to let the joints in her legs withstand the impact, but it seemed that she couldn't withstand it anymore, as she collapsed again and lost consciousness.
Wielding a flame sword, Stiyl Magnus was standing at the window…
He said,
"In some situations, that child is much stronger when she fights on her own. We'll weaken her fighting capabilities if we go near her. You probably don't want to become like those people, huh?"
"What?"
Tatemiya was intrigued. At that moment…
BOOM! There was an explosion around Index.
Index reappeared, having been surrounded by tens, maybe more than a hundred nuns all around; in other words, a section of the perimeter was blown away. In that thick perimeter, a corner had been blown off by some unknown force, causing the perimeter to form a "C" shape. About ten nuns had experienced the impact directly, and one of them even landed at Tatemiya's feet, several meters away. Seeing their comrade flying over their heads, the nuns fighting against Tatemiya turned to look at Index.
BOOM! Another huge invisible explosion, and several nuns were sent into the air.
"…What's going on?"
Tatemiya looked at the nun at his feet. Her face was full of despair, and her body curled up like a baby, her arms holding her head. Although she had lost consciousness, she seemed to be having a nightmare, as she was still trembling. Not only that, the muscles on the nun's legs were torn. That phenomenon hadn't actually been an explosion, but the nun had jumped back. As if her survival and defensive instincts had gone haywire, she had even done the extreme by doing something that far exceeded her physical capabilities in order to get away from Index.
Stiyl jumped down from the second level, and landed beside Tatemiya.
"You're also a Christian, and you should know that there are weaknesses or conflicting concepts in several Christian teachings. Many different Christian sects exist in order to patch up these weaknesses and conflicting concepts, but they create their own in the process; this is a so-called religious characteristic."
"…So what?"
Tatemiya gently swung his longsword, restricting the nuns' movements.
"That child has the knowledge of the entire world. With the knowledge of 103,000 grimoires, she can make sharp criticism in the 'conflicts' that Christianity has- the Sheol Fear. To Christians, Christianity is like a function, and the paradoxes in its teachings are like holes in a cover, so the Sheol Fear is their enemy. Upon hearing this, their personalities will completely dissolve within a short time."
Of course, this spell was useless against enemies other than Christians. As for magical authors like Aureolus, they had set up a special magical barrier to prevent their minds from being destroyed by their own original grimoires, so this spell was useless to them as well. However, there were very few people in the world who could "write an Original grimoire and not get their minds broken" like Aureolus.
"The grimoires aren't just to only use spells. Although she has no magical power, she can use the knowledge of the grimoires to attack with Spell Intercept and Sheol Fear. There's likely no one better to be the magical library than her."
While the nuns were still panicking, Stiyl and Tatemiya unleashed a flurry of attacks. Stiyl let the flame blade explode, blowing the nuns away with a flame storm, followed up by Tatemiya knocking them out swiftly and cleanly. Index continued to send the numerous nuns around her flying with her "muttering".
Tatemiya was impressed and stunned. He said,
"Come to think of it, since she's capable of such an impressive spell, why didn't she use it in the beginning? Even if it was me, I'd be devastated if I was hit by that technique."
"That spell is rather unstable and troublesome. I believe you know that it's easier to do a religious brainwashing to a group than to an individual. From the science side point of view, the Sheol Fear uses group psychology to break through their own psychological defence."
Stiyl again let the flame sword explode, suppressing the nuns. The nuns were trying to find a chance to charge forward, but their faces had been burned by the flames, so they hurried back.
"The 'purity' of the group's psychology affects the effectiveness of the Sheol Fear. It's easier to use when 'the group's thinking of the same thing', and much more difficult when it's 'a complicated group with many different thoughts' since that causes the 'purity' to drop, which makes it completely useless… In other words, when I was fighting with you, because both Kamijou Touma and I had been present, the group's 'purity' dropped, so she couldn't use the Sheol Fear. I was assigned to be her guard because of this possible scenario."
Stiyl plainly stated,
"In other words, if you rush in now, the Sheol Fear will be ineffective."
After saying this, the conversation stopped.
There were more footsteps now.
Looking up at the roofs of the chapels beside the atrium, they saw several nuns standing above them.