Yuuya stopped in his tracks and turned around, his eyes half-closed.
A tall figure emerged from the deep shadows of a large street tree. He was dressed in a sweeping black monk's robe and looked to be well over twenty years old, though his face was surprisingly youthful.
His shoulder-length hair was dyed a vibrant sunset-red, and all ten of his fingers were adorned with heavy, glittering silver rings. A row of silver earrings pierced his ears, and a lit cigarette dangled casually from his lips. A barcode-like tattoo marked the skin beneath his right eye.
"It took me ages to track you down, Esper! You made me travel all the way from Tokyo to this godforsaken, sterile place they call Academy City."
Stiyl Magnus flicked the cigarette in his mouth. He raised his palm, and a flickering flame instantly materialized over his fingers. His eyes were filled with malice, looking exactly like a mad dog ready to bite.
When Index saw Stiyl, she froze. Her green eyes filled with absolute panic and deep-seated fear. She quickly retreated, instinctively pressing herself against Yuuya's back for protection.
"It's you...!" Index gasped.
"Who is this guy?" Yuuya asked casually, keeping one hand in his coat pocket as he looked at Stiyl with half-closed eyes.
'Wow, that was incredibly fast!' Yuuya thought to himself. 'It's only been a few hours and they found us already? Looks like Aleister gave them the green light to cross the border.'
"They are the evil Magicians who have been hunting me down! Quick, run away, Yuuya!" Index grabbed his sleeve, her voice trembling in a panic.
They had been hunting her relentlessly for an entire year. If it weren't for the absolute magical defense of the Walking Church, she would have been critically injured or killed by their ruthless attacks long ago.
"I see. So these are the evil Magicians, huh? I was actually planning to go looking for them later, but they ended up delivering themselves right to my doorstep," Yuuya patted Index's head reassuringly, then looked at Stiyl with a mocking smirk. "Run away? Of course not."
"Heh. Judging from your arrogant tone, you clearly don't take me seriously. I suppose that makes sense; you are a Level 5 in Academy City, aren't you?"
Stiyl bared his teeth, his anger rising as he analyzed Yuuya's utterly relaxed attitude.
"There are two of them! The other one isn't here right now; she's definitely hiding somewhere nearby! Be careful, Yuuya!" Index hurriedly warned, glancing around the empty street in a panic.
"Tsk!" Stiyl clicked his tongue, annoyed that she had immediately exposed Kanzaki's presence.
"Let's get this straight, Esper. I didn't originally intend to cause trouble inside this city. If you hand over that thing standing behind you, I can leave peacefully. Otherwise... a fierce, bloody battle is inevitable."
"Do you understand what I am saying to you, Esper?" Stiyl warned, his tone dark.
As a Puritan who specialized in hunting down dangerous heretics, Stiyl wouldn't do something as foolish as underestimating a high-level enemy. He had already secretly plastered his laminated Rune Cards in every hidden corner of the street. Although he really wanted to teach this smug Esper a lesson, his primary mission was simply to take Index back.
"Ha! How arrogant of you to spout such demands at me," Yuuya laughed aloud upon hearing Stiyl's ultimatum, his eyes filled with disdain. "Since you dare to say that... then come and try it. Let's see if you can actually take Index from my hands."
'If Kanzaki had stepped out and said this to me, it would have been fine, since she's a Saint and rightfully confident in her monstrous speed,' Yuuya mused internally. 'But for a mere Rune Magician to say this to my face? He must be fatally overconfident.'
"In that case, there's nothing else to say," Stiyl said with a grim expression. He took the cigarette out of his mouth and exhaled a thick ring of smoke. "As is customary in our world, I will state my name first. I am Stiyl Magnus. My magical name is Fortis931."
"Be careful! If a Magician declares their magical name, it means they are prepared to fight you to the absolute death!" Index cried out quickly.
"Index, stand back," Yuuya ordered, stepping forward and completely disregarding Stiyl's intimidation tactics.
Index nervously retreated two meters behind Yuuya, watching his back with deep concern.
"You're facing me in a death match, and you still have the mind to casually protect that thing?"
Stiyl's face darkened. He had originally planned to engage and distract this Level 5 while Kanzaki took the opportunity to snatch Index away from the shadows. But it didn't matter right now; Index was protected by the Walking Church, so the collateral damage from his flames couldn't hurt her at all.
He flicked his glowing cigarette butt directly toward Yuuya's face.
"Go to hell."
An intense, orange flame instantly erupted, following the exact trajectory of the flicked ash.
FWOOSH—!
A blinding flash of light ignited like a detonating bomb. The tiny ember instantly burst into a massive, roaring pillar of fire as wide as three men and burning as high as a two-story building.
Yuuya didn't even flinch at the blinding firelight. He simply closed his eyes and activated Vector Manipulation.
Instantly, an infinite web of vector lines appeared in his consciousness—he was viewing the world through the mathematical perspective of the Number One.
'Magical flames also possess vectors,' Yuuya calculated in a microsecond. 'The angles and physical parameters of these supernatural vectors are incredibly strange compared to normal combustion... but they possess magnitude and direction. Therefore, they can be manipulated.'
"Thurisaz Nautiz Gebo (The gift of pain to the giants)!" Stiyl roared.
The massive pillar of fire instantly condensed, unleashing a long, roaring sword of pure flame that lunged toward Yuuya like a striking dragon.
The speed of the magical strike was so fast that an ordinary person wouldn't even have the time to blink, let alone react.
Yuuya simply reached his hand out in front of him. His palm lightly tapped the very tip of the incoming flaming sword.
CRACK.
The flaming sword instantly lost its structural form. The redirected thermal and kinetic vectors violently rebounded, and everything around Yuuya exploded outward like an erupting volcano.
A massive heatwave, blinding flashes of light, shockwaves, and billowing black smoke tore through the street.
The automated danger alarms of Academy City triggered instantly.
Since they were incredibly close to a major hospital—an area with heavy security protocols—the response was immediate. A dozen barrel-shaped cleaning and security robots rushed out from a nearby corner, their sirens blaring.
"Fire discovered! Fire discovered! Extinguish the fire immediately! Extinguish the fire immediately!"
Large amounts of white, chemical fire-extinguishing foam were sprayed rapidly from the nozzles on top of the robots' heads, suppressing the collateral flames.
"Is this really all there is to a Level 5?" Stiyl muttered to himself, watching the smoke clear from the center of the explosion.
The pavement was charred completely black by his flames, and the decorative green trees nearby were scorched and burning from the lingering embers. It looked like a direct hit.
"Is that all? Do you have some kind of fatal misunderstanding about how high-level Espers work?"
A mocking voice echoed from the center of the black smoke.
WHOOSH—!
The lingering flames and smoke suddenly began to spin violently. They formed a localized fire tornado, swirling as if a massive vacuum had suddenly opened up in the center of the street.
Stiyl gritted his teeth, his eyes widening in shock as he watched the impossible scene unfold. 'He's controlling my Runic flames?! Can an Esper actually do something like this?!'
As the smoke cleared, Yuuya stood perfectly unharmed in the exact same spot. Hovering inches above his outstretched palm was a basketball-sized, hyper-condensed sphere of bright white fire. He had used Vector Manipulation to compress all of Stiyl's scattered magical flames into a single point.
"Magician," Yuuya said sarcastically, his eyes glowing with calculation. "If that is the absolute limit of what you're capable of... you might as well just get blown to bits."
He casually flicked his wrist, violently slamming the condensed, white-hot fireball right back at Stiyl at supersonic speeds.
"This is bad...!" Stiyl's expression changed drastically.
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