Unabara Mitsuki couldn't believe his eyes.
In the juvenile hall's exercise area, Xochitl's right arm crumbled. This wasn't biological decay.
It was similar to seeing an invisible man having the bandages covering him removed.
The outside skin seemed extremely human-like, but the removal of the bandages left nothing but a hollow cavity. The change had started at her fingertips and had already eroded up to her elbow.
"Xochitl…? What is this!?"
"My body has reached the limit."
The ends of the brown girl's arms and legs were "coming apart", but she smiled thinly as she spoke.
"Here's a lesson for you. If you make up for your lack of power with a grimoire, this is the fate that awaits you."
"You don't mean…you read one!"
"No, I did more than that. You're an Aztec magician, so you should understand. In our rituals, human flesh is eaten in order to deliver it to heaven. In other words, there is a magical line connecting me and the severed flesh."
Those words shocked Unabara. He had realized the "meaning" behind the spell that let her control others' weapons causing them to commit suicide. She had dried her own flesh into a powdered form and spread it around. That powder magically qualified as "a part of her body", so she could control it like her own arms and legs just by thinking. The same went for objects it was closely packed around.
Xochitl made other people's weapons a part of her physical body. That was the true form of her spell.
But…
"A spell that removes a part of your body like that will always fail before long! That goes well past the level where you can use a spiritual item to aid you! You should have known that much, Xochitl!!"
"I don't mind. I wished to punish the one who betrayed the organization and that was my answer. As long as I managed to kill you before it had fully consumed me, I could accomplish the organization's goal."
"Damn it!! The organization I knew did horrible things, but not this horrible! What the hell happened while I was gone!?"
Unabara yelled his question, but oddly enough Xochitl's only response was a small smile.
The brown girl's body was going to have come completely apart before long. To Unabara, it looked like only a third of her body remained. Even if it stopped now, there was obviously no way of saving her life. He could only let that mass of flesh and guts disappear into the air.
(…I don't think just a spell or a spiritual item could cause something this out of the ordinary.)
As the destruction progressed from her arms and legs into her abdomen, Unabara frantically observed the situation.
(The only secret that could be behind this other than those things that I can think of is an "original"!!)
An original of a grimoire was completely autonomously activated and could not be destroyed by anyone. Xochitl had acquired her power by uniting with one of those originals – or more accurately, becoming a part of it. If that was so, it all made sense. Causing everyone with a weapon to commit suicide sounded exactly like the kind of defensive feature a grimoire original would have. And the Aztecs had books known as "codices" that were written on animal skins.
(Animal skins…It couldn't be!!)
Unabara stared blankly at the skin of the brown girl who had now come almost entirely apart.
And written on the inside was…
"Ghhaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!"
Unabara Mitsuki looked in carelessly and screamed.
It had only been a few characters. He hadn't looked directly at them; they had only barely entered his field of vision. And yet his brain felt like it was going to split in two. This wasn't like a watered-down copy altered and interpreted for general use. It was a true original.
Unabara held his pounding temples and continued his thoughts while staggering.
(Kh…That was a derivative of the calendar stone written there.)
The calendar stone was an Aztec calendar arranged in a circle. However, the Aztecs used two different forms of calendars at once and believed in the death and rebirth of the sun, so it was an incredibly complex thing to make. What was described on the inside of Xochitl's skin took only the times that dealt with life and death from that calendar and then expanded on it with a religious dissertation.
He couldn't deal with that. It was wrong to even think of opposing it. It was said that not even the Index Librorum Prohibitorum could destroy that book of evil, so there was no way a mere magician could do anything.
But…
Even so…
(I won't let her die…)
Why had a non-combatant like Xochitl infiltrated this far? What was going on in the organization? There were tons of things he wanted to ask. So he couldn't let her die here.
He couldn't destroy the grimoire original.
And even if he could, Xochitl wouldn't last because she depended on the original.
It was impossible for Unabara Mitsuki to win in this situation with his power alone.
So…
(If it's impossible to accomplish with human power, I'll borrow the power of this original!!)
The original could defend against any type of attack and no one could even scratch it, but there was one exception. An original would disclose its information to one who desired that information. If it truly prevented "all kinds of interference", no one would be able to open its pages and the grimoire would lose all reason to exist. He didn't know how it worked, but originals could identify whether someone was a "reader" or "not a reader" and they had a tendency to cooperate with those who would propagate their information.
That was why Unabara decided to…
(I will take this grimoire for myself.)
If he could obtain ownership of the original, its automatic interception spell would stop. Once he "took it for himself", he would naturally be able to tear the original from Xochitl's body. The reason the original was cooperating with her was not because of who she was. It just had to be someone who would act as an evangelist for its knowledge.
Also…
(I'll trick its decision-making ability. I'll make it think that it can't pass itself on if Xochitl dies! Then the original itself will save her life!!)
Unabara Mitsuki could not save Xochitl. That meant he just had to make the original with all its power do it for him. Of course, there was no precedent of this happening. If he failed to deceive the ridiculously powerful original his reward would be death.
But Unabara Mitsuki did not hesitate.
He accepted it all in order to save that brown girl.