Chapter 799: Necessarius, Saint Kanzaki Kaori, and Magician Stiyl Magnus
Index looked at Ren. He wasn't joking.
"Why do you say my memory has been erased?" she asked, her voice tight.
Ren didn't give her a straight answer. Instead, he leaned back and posed a simple question. "Do you remember how you grew up to be who you are now?"
"Of course I do!" Index blurted out instinctively.
But as she opened her mouth to recount a specific, cherished childhood memory, the words died in her throat. Her emerald eyes widened. A creeping panic washed over her face. She dug her fingers into her silver habit. No matter how hard she searched her mind, she couldn't recall a single face, a single voice, or a single meaningful event from her upbringing. It was all a blank void.
"How... how is this possible?" Index whispered, clutching her head in mounting distress.
"What's going on?" Misaka Mikoto asked, her brow furrowing as she watched the young nun's breakdown.
"Think about it," Ren said, his tone casual but carrying a sharp edge. "Her head contains one hundred and three thousand magical grimoires. Even if she isn't a walking nuclear warhead, she is an unimaginably valuable treasure. To prevent such a priceless asset from being stolen by rival factions or betraying them, what would you do?"
The implication hung heavy in the air. The realization struck the girls like a physical blow.
Shokuhou Misaki's starry eyes narrowed in disgust. "So that English Puritan Church controls her by wiping her memory clean every year?"
"It seems the so-called holy church isn't anything good either," Mugino Shizuri sneered, crossing her arms.
"Heh. It's all about profit and control," Ren replied, his gaze shifting back to Index, who was currently trembling, completely unwilling or unable to accept such a cruel truth.
He pressed on with a new question. "Are you being hunted right now?"
Index flinched, then gave a slow, hesitant nod. "I... I ran here because I was being chased..."
"Actually, the people hunting you were sent by your own church. And they aren't trying to kill you. They're just here to perform your regular memory wipe." Ren stood up, stretching his arms lazily. "Coincidentally, those two 'killers' have already arrived in Academy City. Come on. I'll take you to meet them."
Ren's gaze flickered toward the distant skyline, piercing through the sprawling urban jungle of Academy City.
High above the neon-lit streets, atop the desolate roof of a towering skyscraper.
A biting, freezing wind howled across the concrete, whipping at the edges of the building. A thin wisp of green smoke drifted into the night sky, instantly snatched away by the gale.
A man dressed in pitch-black robes leaned casually against the guardrail, exhaling a thick cloud of nicotine.
He was a walking contradiction. His shoulder-length golden hair had been dyed a vibrant, aggressive crimson. Thick, heavy silver rings adorned every single finger of his hands, clinking faintly against the metal railing. A row of silver piercings lined his ears, and a stark, barcode-like tattoo was stamped directly beneath his right eye.
Outwardly, his attire resembled the robes of a priest, but the execution was so exaggerated and punk-rock that it bordered on blasphemy. A heavy, suffocating scent of cheap cologne mixed with harsh tobacco smoke clung to his clothes.
"Academy City. The absolute heart of the science side," the man muttered, flicking an ash over the edge. "To think Index actually managed to escape all the way here."
He referred to this place as the science side because he belonged entirely to the opposing world—the magic side.
Stiyl Magnus.
A rune magician affiliated with Necessarius, the Church of Necessary Evil, a highly classified covert operations unit within the English Puritan Church. He was a bona fide prodigy, a genius who had completely analyzed the existing twenty-four runic characters and even engineered six entirely new runes with devastatingly unique properties. His mastery over fire magic was virtually unmatched.
He was only fourteen years old.
Yet, he stood an imposing two meters tall, casting a long, intimidating shadow across the rooftop. His crimson hair and that barcode tattoo made him impossible to mistake for anyone else.
And standing just a few paces away was his partner.
A woman whose fashion sense was just as eccentric, if not more so.
She was a breathtakingly tall, fair-skinned beauty. Her long, silken black hair was tied back into a high ponytail that cascaded all the way down to her waist. She wore a simple white T-shirt tied tightly at the midriff, exposing a perfectly toned stomach and navel. Over this, she wore a denim jacket, paired with faded, worn-out jeans.
However, the outfit was heavily customized. The entire right sleeve of her jacket, shoulder included, had been cleanly severed. Conversely, the left leg of her jeans was cut off completely at the thigh, exposing the entirety of her long, flawless, and highly alluring leg to the freezing night air.
Kanzaki Kaori.
Like Stiyl, she was an operative of the Church. Despite her asymmetrical, modern punk attire, and the massive, two-meter-long nodachi resting at her hip, she was a magician of the highest caliber.
She belonged to the Zero Temple District of Necessarius and stood as one of the top ten magicians in all of London. Even more terrifying, she was ranked among the top nine of the Saints—a miraculous existence of which there were fewer than twenty in the entire world.
Because her physical characteristics matched those of the Son of God, she could draw upon a fraction of that divine power, granting her superhuman physical abilities and combat prowess that completely shattered the boundaries of mortal limits.
But she wasn't just a physical powerhouse. She possessed an incredibly delicate and precise mastery over magical analysis and spell operation.
Beyond her status in Necessarius, she was also the Supreme Pontiff of the Amakusa-Style Remix of Church. Deep down, she harbored a deeply benevolent spirit, carrying the conviction of extending salvation to the abandoned. She refused to take a life, and she absolutely could not tolerate anyone being killed in front of her.
Her magic name was Salvare000—Latin for Save.
It was a title that carried a heavy oath: to extend a helping hand to those who could not be saved.
Tonight, these two elite magicians had crossed into enemy territory with only one objective.
To find Index and erase her memories.
"You two, standing up so high where the wind is this strong, and wearing so little... aren't you cold?"
A casual, lazy voice drifted across the rooftop.
Stiyl and Kanzaki whipped around instantly. Their expressions hardened into masks of extreme gravity. Neither of them—a genius rune master and a literal Saint—had sensed the young man who had just materialized behind them.
"Who are you?" Stiyl demanded. With a flick of his wrist, a laminated runic paper card slipped between his silver-ringed fingers.
Kanzaki Kaori remained silent, but her thumb shifted, resting subtly against the tsuba of her massive nodachi, ready to draw.
Ren remained completely unfazed by their lethal vigilance. He shoved his hands into his pockets and offered a light, amused chuckle.
"Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Ren, the current Board Chairman of Academy City."
Stiyl's eyes narrowed into dangerous slits. He immediately called out the blatant lie.
"Nice try. As far as I know, the Board Chairman of Academy City is Aleister Crowley, not some snot-nosed kid."
Ren glanced at the towering, chain-smoking giant and let out a dry snort. "How does a fourteen-year-old kid have the nerve to call anyone else a kid?"
A thick vein instantly bulged on Stiyl's forehead.
"You're asking for death!"
Furious at having his true age mocked, the rune magician prepared to ignite his flames. But Kanzaki Kaori's sharp voice cut through the wind.
"Stiyl! Stand down! Remember the purpose of our arrival!"
Stiyl clicked his tongue, forcing himself to sober up. She was right. This was the heart of the science side; it wasn't a place where he could just casually throw around high-tier fire magic. If they sparked a full-blown war between the science side and the magic side, the consequences would be apocalyptic.
Kanzaki Kaori stepped forward, her expression perfectly calm and measured.
"Mr. Ren, your identity is indeed highly questionable."
"It doesn't really matter," Ren replied, shrugging his shoulders dismissively. "I can only tell you that Aleister has already been slain by me. As of right now, Academy City belongs to me. Whether you two believe it or not is entirely irrelevant to me."
Stiyl and Kanzaki exchanged a quick, loaded glance.
Aleister was killed? The legendary, untouchable leader of the science side?
That claim was even harder to swallow than his first. Stiyl had already mentally written Ren off as a boastful, suicidal madman. He shot Kanzaki a questioning look, silently asking if they should just eliminate the nuisance and move on.
However, Ren's next sentence caused the blood to freeze in both of their veins.
"You're looking for... the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, aren't you?"
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