Toaru Majutsu no Index: New Testament

Volume 10, 11: V.S. “The Nuns Wavering in God’s Majesty” Round_03.

Volume 10, Chapter 11: V.S. “The Nuns Wavering in God's Majesty” Round_03.

Part 1

“Hnn!!”

Magic God Othinus’s grunt was followed by an explosion of dull yet intense pain in Kamijou’s right shoulder.

She had fixed the dislocation.

“Abah! Abababababababah!!”

“Be more careful. Dislocate it too many times and it’ll become a habit.”

“D-do you really think anyone does it for fun?”

They had safely escaped the city of Aalborg, but they had not had time to procure cold weather clothing. The snowy road had little traffic and no opportunity for hitchhiking had presented itself, so they were travelling through the extreme environment on foot once more.

“I thought we could look for coats and a car in the next city, but that was too naïve. We’re gonna die out here. We really are in the middle of nowhere!!”

“We’ll reach the next city after travelling about ten kilometers south. Our pursuers will definitely be waiting for us along the way, though.”

“Ten kilometers on a snowy road in below freezing weather? How is that any different from being stranded?”

“During war, armies often march one hundred kilometers a day in the snow.”

Despite what she said, they gave up partway through.

They were forced to hide in an old car abandoned on the side of the road at around the five kilometer mark.

“Argh! This is hopeless. This has got to be more than ten kilometers!!”

“The cold has become our greatest enemy.”

“This feels like one of those games where you’re caught in a disaster! We won’t have to burn our remaining money to stay warm, will we!?”

The experience was similar to lightly freezing a tangerine, warming it with a kotatsu, freezing it again, and repeating the process.

The abandoned car’s heater would not start and the rusty chassis let in the cold, but it still felt like heaven to Kamijou. They were cut off from the outside air and their body heat gradually warmed the inside of the car.

A while after they settled down in the backseat, a change came over Othinus.

Her witch’s hat began gently swaying back and forth.

“Othinus?”

“Nh.”

The hat stopped moving once he called out to her, but it soon started up again.

“Othinus.”

“Yeah, I’ll admit it. I’ve been feeling really tired for a while now.” She rubbed the eye not covered by an eyepatch. “But we should assume we won’t have a chance to get a good night’s sleep from here on out. The number of pursuers here in Denmark will likely increase as time goes on and their information on our location will grow more accurate too. We should get short bits of rest when we can, even if it’s only five or ten minutes.”

“Just to be sure, you are okay, aren’t you?”

“I’m not about to die or anything. In fact, not getting any rest would only make things worse.”

As long as she did not say the fairy spell had caused severe damage to her body, Kamijou had no objections.

A few minutes after he stopped asking questions and started looking outside the grimy window, the intervals of her breathing grew more regular.

She had fallen asleep.

Seeing the glass gradually fog up told him the car was slowly warming, so he breathed a sigh of relief. He then heard something fall to his lap.

He looked down and found Othinus’s hat.

He looked over and – if one ignored the fairly imposing eyepatch – found a lovely girl there. Her blonde hair and white skin may have strengthened the impression, but he felt she would look perfectly at home hugging a giant stuffed animal.

This may have been the true essence of a human.

Birthplace, personal history, achievements, crimes, official position, etc. People were bound by many things, but when all that was stripped away, everyone looked fairly similar. Not even a magic god was an exception.

(...)

Kamijou was glad he was able to stand by her side.

He was glad he had not given into cheap anger or passion and joined those who would cast her aside.

With a faint smile, he toyed with the witch’s hat in his lap.

But then he slowly looked up.

Through the filthy windshield and past the falling snow, he saw something that did not belong. Two points of red seemed to reject the pure white of that silver world. His expression silently changed when he realized he was seeing special nun’s habits.

He said nothing to Othinus.

He merely placed the hat on her blonde head and opened the abandoned car’s door.

He would stand by her side and it was once more time for him to prove it with his actions.

Part 2

Kamijou walked across the white snow.

His opponent this time was a group of two. He had only noticed them four or five hundred meters from the car because of their red nun’s habits. He recognized that red outfit, but he technically did not know these people. As he approached, he recalled that strange interpersonal diagram.

“Sasha, you sure have strange tastes. It’s seven below zero, so why are you wearing that formfitting restraint outfit? Are you the type that wears shorts year round?”

“My answer: I would be wearing a normal coat if it were not for unnecessary instructions from you. An additional explanation: I would also avoid wasting so much magic power on life support.”

“Fwa hah hah!! A coat over that restraint outfit? You might think that reduces the exhibition angle, but it actually takes it to a whole new level!! But I wouldn’t expect any less from my Sash- dwefh!?”

The pair was speaking in a foreign language as they approached him, but he was not about to mistake his position here. Their cheerful and casual behavior was certainly not directed toward him.

One of the pair was Sasha Kreutzev.

Kamijou had met her in the past, but that had only been Archangel Gabriel using her outer appearance. They were technically not acquainted and he could not rely on that meeting to determine what magic she used.

The other was a complete unknown. He could guess she belonged to the Russian Orthodox Church due to wearing a habit the same color as Sasha’s, but that was all.

The Russian Orthodox Church was one of the three great Christian denominations alongside the Anglican Church and the Roman Catholic Church.

The Roman Catholics had shown kindness, but that would not happen here. After all, he was not acquainted with them. And as one of those three great denominations, they could easily use some secret spell on the same level as the one used in Aalborg.

As Kamijou trudged through the snow, he called out to them.

“Do you understand Japanese?”

“I don’t have any real reason to answer you, but yes.” The older woman laughed and pointed first at herself and then at the girl. “I’m Vasilisa and this is Sasha. Not that you need to know that.”

She smiled and the pair came to a stop.

They already knew what they had to do. No cheap persuasion was needed. The words the woman spoke and the smile on her face were given under the assumption of a fight.

...Is this the world you wanted to see?

During that infinite hell, Othinus had asked him that question time and again.

The question had been meant to pressure him, but it had also pressured her.

(I already know this isn’t a perfect world. I’ve seen perfect with my own eyes, so I know that all too well.)

Kamijou Touma gave his answer in his heart.

(But even if it’s imperfect and incomplete, I still want to be glad I was born into this world. I want to be proud of that fact!!)

He stopped once he reached a set distance from the pair.

“Is there any way to avoid a fight here?”

“Trying to persuade us with some sob story won’t work, so don’t bother. You can do that in some dark basement, so this really isn’t the place for it anyway.”

“How do you view me?”

“My answer: in your past interactions with Gremlin and your direct meeting with Othinus on Sargasso, she may have made some form of contact. Whether your interests happened to align or she used some sort of suggestion spell is still under investigation.”

“I see.”

That answer seemed to puzzle the two nuns.

The puzzlement likely came from his lack of argument, but Kamijou’s understanding came from something else.

“I was just thinking how tough it is to be a hero of justice,” he continued. “Seeing it from the outside gave me a renewed appreciation of that fact. After all, it clearly doesn’t make sense. You have to have had doubts about Magic God Othinus’s and my actions and that answer can’t have been enough. What happened with Sargasso? What about the production of the lance? You can’t explain why she threw all that away and fled to Denmark. Not only that, but she left all her trustworthy Gremlin members behind and brought a single pawn whose aligned interests or suggestion could be undone at any time.”

“There’s no real reason for us to understand it.”

“That’s the answer you wanted. That’s all there is to it.” He spoke as if challenging her. “You wanted to think your opponent was absolute evil with no room for argument. That way you could stand on the side of justice as you crushed her with unquestioned violence. Anything else would’ve been a problem.”

He silently yet tightly clenched his fist.

“Even the slightest shred of goodness in Othinus would be a problem for the ‘heroes of justice’ who hurt her, wouldn’t it?”

He spoke not to Vasilisa and Sasha. He was declaring war on the much larger gears of the world that stood behind them.

“Pathetic. I’m not about to condone what Othinus did, but what you’re doing isn’t much different.”

A dull sound exploded through the silver world.

Kamijou Touma and Sasha Kreutzev took action at the same moment. They ran full speed along the shortest path, Sasha swung down her L-shaped crowbar, and Kamijou forcibly grabbed the grip of the tool.

Hot pain burst through his entire palm and blood dripped from between his thumb and forefinger.

However, the metal crowbar broke like it was made of packed sand. It may have had some sort of magical effect.

Kamijou had no need to focus on that one tool.

What mattered was using the instant that his enemy’s trusty attack had been negated to bring his fist in range.

He clenched his fist with such force that he could have sworn it produced a creaking noise.

To prevent her from reading the timing, he even stopped his breathing as he threw the punch.

“...!!”

Just before impact, his pivot leg slid to the side. Sasha had determined she could not evade, so she had swept his leg out from under him. But by the time he realized that, he had already tumbled spectacularly into the snow.

“Here.”

Vasilisa casually tossed something the size of a drink can toward Kamijou as he lay on his side.

(What? Is that a grenade!?)

It was a wild assumption, but it was not an impossibility given the situation. At any rate, he rolled to the side to move as far away as possible.

But it was not a grenade.

It was an extremely professional-looking radio that likely belonged to the Russian military.

“Ksshh... Can you hear me, Kamijou Touma?”

(...?)

The voice from the radio spoke Japanese and the speaker was likely younger than Kamijou. He was unsure whether the high-pitched soprano voice belonged to a boy or a girl.

Naturally, he did not have time to leisurely listen to the voice. Sasha pulled an unrefined saw and pair of pliers from the belt at her waist and charged in, so he kicked up some snow to blind her.

“We have constructed a unique spell to use against the magic god,” continued the voice. “It is not meant for use against humans, but it should be plenty effective against you. Will you still challenge us even after hearing that?”

“Like hell that’d stop me!! I never thought one of the three great denominations would only send two people! That’s far too kind for this world!!”

He had no time to check to see if Sasha had flinched back, so he hurriedly stood up while jumping back.

“Old cannibal woman of the one-legged house.”

A female voice with a bewitching ring to it oozed into his ears. He did not know what it was saying as it was speaking Russian, but the tone was enough to make his spine tremble in eerie discomfort.

Vasilisa had secretly kept a safe distance behind Sasha’s fierce attacks.

“Please give me the skull lamp. Please give me the skull lamp to burn my cruel stepmother and sister to death.”

A ring of roaring flames spiraled around Vasilisa.

“Shit!!”

He removed his jacket and wrapped it around his left arm.

A moment later, Vasilisa’s crimson flames expanded. The explosive flames quickly approached while instantly melting the snow on the ground. There was nowhere to evade to, so negating it with his right hand was the only option.

As he twisted his body and raised his right hand, Sasha approached from a different angle to slice him. She swung her saw horizontally to tear through his chest from the side.

But Kamijou had not removed his jacket in order to deal with Vasilisa’s flames.

If he used his right hand to deal with those, he had known he would have to handle the next attack without his right hand.

“!!”

The serrated saw blade tore into the jacket wrapped around his arm, but it did not reach his skin.

(My right hand destroyed that crowbar, so the same should work here!!)

He swung his left arm as hard as he could and threw aside the jacket, but the jacket did not even fall to the ground. Several long narrow scraps came apart and blew in the wind.

“...”

The eyes hidden behind blonde bangs viewed their target at close range.

Kamijou had now negated Vasilisa’s flames, so he was free to use his right arm.

“I see. You overcame many dangers, brought World War Three to an end, and even stood in the center during the conflict with Gremlin. You thought someone like that would have a chance to accomplish what others could not.”

The radio began speaking from the snow once more, but Kamijou ignored it.

His right fist struck the large pliers and Imagine Breaker destroyed the spiritual item.

(I can do this.)

He tightly clenched his fist once more.

(I need to start with one. If I concentrate on one of them and take them out, the threat of attacks on multiple fronts is gone. This opponent can “only” use magic. I just have to force my way forward until my fist is in range! I can defeat this enemy!!)

It happened a moment later.

“But that means a special individual such as yourself is trampling on the wishes of the whole. Isn’t that a bit prideful?”

Kamijou’s legs suddenly collapsed out from under him.

Part 3

No intense pressure had appeared from above. Nor had invisible hands dragged him to the ground.

It was the opposite of that.

The strength inside him had vanished. Unlike a poison or numbness, it felt like the upper limit of his strength had been lowered.

His inner ear was shaken and he fell to one knee as if he were anemic.

“What...? Is this a...long-range attack?”

“It is one part of our anti-magic god process. I did warn you it would affect you.”

(Is this a type of psychological attack or memory manipulation?)

If supernatural power took the form of a sword or bullet, dealing with it was easy. He merely had to destroy it with his right hand as it approached. But the type that peered into his heart or stimulated his emotions was different.

An attack with no medium could not be negated beforehand even with his right hand. He could not deal with something invisible or untouchable.

(But I just have to touch the affected part of my body. It’s not a 100% guarantee, but it’ll fix some things!!)

While crouching down on the snow, he hurriedly touched his legs and upper body. As soon as his palm reached the point directly over his heart, he felt like a thick rubber band had snapped and his body was freed.

But...

“This could be called the Russian Orthodox Church’s secret spell and it required funding and preparations on a national level. Isn’t it prideful to think you can overcome it so easily just because you have a special right hand?”

As Kamijou tried to stand, his strength left once more.

No matter how much strength he gathered, his muscles would not tighten. It was incredibly frustrating for his body to not do what he asked.

“Christianity and plenty of other religions have made their own compromises between differing traditions and legends. For example, Shinto took in Buddhism and the Hindu gods to create what is known as the Shinbutsu-Shugo. Christian editors have altered documents and caused Celtic, Norse, and other religions to lose their original form. In Christianity, we view the gods of other religions as demons, accept the heroes of other religions as our patron saints, and do plenty of other things as well.”

Kamijou was reminded of the concept behind the fairy spell, but there was no need to mention that here. If he gave this opponent a hint that led to the development of an even nastier spell, it would be Othinus who suffered.

“But we changed that method of compromise a bit,” said the cold voice. “This spell brings other gods into our system and then reevaluates them by judging them according to our rules. Lust, pride, sloth, gluttony, envy, greed, and wrath. Let’s start with the simple Seven Deadly Sins. Power obtained in an improper manner is not permitted and each sin will eliminate 1/7 of that power. Once all seven are gathered, you will lose even the strength needed to move the muscles of your heart, so be careful.”

Two figures approached through the snow.

If Kamijou was defeated here, they would target Othinus with this power.

As they had announced, they would not listen to what he had to say and they would simply tear the girl apart based on the reasoning of the victor. They were not even trying to see who she truly was and they would celebrate with a fancy parade afterwards.

Kamijou’s fist creaked, but the radio continued speaking.

“As long as it accomplishes your goal, you have no problem punching girls in the face? Such horrible wrath.”

More strength left his body.

If the speaker had been telling the truth, he had 5/7 of his normal strength.

“Don’t be...ridiculous. When lives are on the line, who wouldn’t get angry!?”

“And so you shouldn’t even try? How slothful.”

He felt dizzy.

He was kneeling on the snow and he could not stand back up. He was gathering every last ounce of strength, yet he was having difficulty supporting himself at all.

And his opponents did not hold back.

Sasha Kreutzev swung a hammer horizontally as if swinging it in a circle. The blow would hit his face and crush his cheekbone. He did not have it in him to focus on everything at once, so he simply used his arm to protect his face.

After a dull sound and intense pain, he was knocked sideways to the snow.

“Why are you going this far to help Magic God Othinus?” continued the voice.

Kamijou wished he had started by crushing that radio underfoot, but it was too late now.

“Was it greed for the magic god that was such a threat to the world? Or were you simply moved by lust for her appearance? Either way, you are filled with base desires.”

2/7.

Even rising enough to crawl was difficult and he felt something oozing out of his mouth. It took several seconds before he realized that it was drool and that he had almost no strength left in his jaw.

If his right hand touched his heart, he would be temporarily freed from these bonds, but his hazy mind made even that simple task difficult.

The distance from his fingertips to his heart was much too great.

“That leaves gluttony and envy.”

The nuns trudged toward him through the snow once more.

“But I’m sure you understand already. You yearned to be on the side of justice. That is the role for large religions such as us, but you wanted to believe you could accomplish it on your own. You envied us. That is a definite sin.”

He could not breathe properly.

Feeling gradually left his fingertips.

If he could only use his right hand, he had a chance to eliminate an invisible attack such as a psychological one after the fact. (There were of course exceptions.)

But if it brought immediate death before he could use his right hand, it was all over.

He was at 1/7.

One more and it was checkmate. His muscles would lose all strength and he would be unable to keep his heart beating.

“Only gluttony remains.”

But something seemed off in Kamijou’s hazy consciousness.

He examined each of the sins the voice on the radio had charged him with.

“Gluttony is normally used to mean eating more than necessary, but it technically has a wider interpretation. The sin of gluttony forbids any excessive eating, drinking, or drunkenness.”

The diaphragm moving his lungs was not moving properly and the lack of oxygen was preventing his brain from functioning properly.

His consciousness faded in and out as the voice continued.

“And couldn’t we sum up your current state as ‘intoxicated’? Once again, that is quite a sin.”

Part 4

All seven had been gathered and the boy’s last strength had been taken from him.

Sasha Kreutzev stepped up to Kamijou Touma and poked at his head with her finger, but he did not react. The falling snow was trying to blot out his skin with a thin layer of white.

“Sasha, what are you doing with that corpse?”

“My answer: it would be a problem if he is feigning death and I have received reports of the head Norse god using corpses. We cannot let our guard down just because he is dead.”

“Then are you going to take him home with you? I think they might complain at customs.”

“An additional explanation: I wish to eliminate the possibility of the corpse beginning to move after it is transported to Russia. So...”

Sasha adjusted her grip on the saw and held it to the boy’s neck.

“I will thoroughly destroy the body so it cannot be reused. This ends now.”

She did not hesitate. That was how much of a threat she saw in Kamijou Touma...no, in Magic God Othinus.

But the saw was stopped as she swung it down.

To repeat, Sasha and Vasilisa had no reason to show kindness here.

“No...”

Thus there was another reason for this.

“This isn’t over yet.”

With that said, Kamijou’s right fist smashed Sasha’s saw.

He slowly tried to stand up like a broken clockwork doll and he would clearly be no threat in a purely physical battle.

He should have been wrung dry by the Seven Deadly Sins and his heart should have stopped beating after his strength reached zero.

It was unclear how he had escaped that situation, so Sasha quickly tried to finish him off.

But Vasilisa stopped her with an outstretched hand and Kamijou shouted out.

“Is silencing people with violence and not hearing them out how your god does things!? If so, that’s an incredible level of pride!!”

“Not good!!”

Vasilisa’s cry was not in response to Kamijou’s words.

It was in response to where those words were directed.

(Cutting off his words with violence is prideful. If our boy views it that way, our intervention will work against him!! We can’t interfere any further!!)

“That was a mistake. You messed up, Russian VIP. Instead of trying to force that last deadly sin, you should have had these two finish the job with six out of seven complete. That was your mistake.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Trying to pin gluttony on me was a little too forced. Even if it applies to drinking and drunkenness too, that’s a sin related to alcohol. Trying to say someone who’s only had vegetable scrap soup is gluttonous because he’s ‘drunk on himself’ is as ridiculous as trying to tie up the tiger in a folding screen,” said Kamijou. “And because not even you were confident in that sin, the last one didn’t work. Gluttony never activated and that’s when it all came to me.”

Slowly but surely, strength gathered in his legs and he stood up on the snow once more.

“These Seven Deadly Sins you prepared aren’t a spell that automatically activates to punish any sins on the battlefield.”

He recalled each of the sins in turn.

Wrath? Perhaps. As the possibility of solving the problem with talking was swept aside and he had to use strength instead, he may have felt some anger.

Pride? Perhaps. He felt he could save Othinus and he felt he alone stood by her side. If he changed his viewpoint somewhat, that might look like he was reveling in his sense of superiority over others.

Sloth? Perhaps. He had declared he would save Othinus, but he could not think of any concrete method of doing so and had been saved by her own ideas. It was not surprising that some would view that as lazy.

Envy? Perhaps. As he watched people pursue a single girl using enough power to move nations and the entire world, could he really say he had no dark feelings of what he could do differently if he had that much power?

Lust? Perhaps. He said he simply wanted to save this girl who had nowhere else to turn, but could he truly say for certain that there was not the slightest bit of ulterior motive mixed in below that desire?

He had faced his shameful regrets and desires in that infinite hell and he would no longer deny the ugly feelings and desires lurking at the bottom of his heart.

But...

Gluttony? Could that really be applied to him?

And most of all...

Greed? What?

His motive was making Othinus’s great power his own?

Even though she was a delicate and weak existence that would soon stop breathing if left alone?

“Your spell works based on the judgment made by you as you watch on from outside the battlefield. You find fault in other religions and strip them of their power. It doesn’t matter if you’re right or not! That spell takes your one-sided complaints and transforms them into real attacks!! That’s truly horrible, but once I know how it works, I can use it to my advantage!!”

“Use it to your advantage? Are you saying your individual desires can outdo the efforts of a large organization? Do you prioritize your own morals that much higher than those of others!? That is an astonishing amount of pride!!”

“Perhaps.”

Kamijou readily admitted it, but that did not mean he had given up resisting.

“I’m not a perfect saint or anything. As long as Othinus can be properly judged, spend a long time making up for her crimes, and smile with me again once it’s all over, that’s good enough for me. This has nothing to do with good or evil. It’s all about my personal desires. ...But you were wrong about something.”

Strength gradually returned to his knees and he understood why.

“Being a normal boy doesn’t mean I have to give up on challenging the world!! There are things I won’t agree to, things I won’t accept, and things I won’t give up on. If you think you can suppress all of that with the power of a group, you’re a hell of a lot more prideful than me, Russia!!”

That was the first point of his counterattack.

“And do you not care how much chaos you spread around the world for those things?” asked the voice. “Protecting Magic God Othinus and running away with her is enough of a sin in and of itself!!”

“Which of the seven does that correspond to? No, it doesn’t matter. You want to talk about spreading chaos? I’ll throw that one right back at you, Russia.”

“What?”

“Think about it. Magic God Othinus has truly been made out to be a villain. She is at the center of the world’s chaos. But if she’s killed here, the truth of Gremlin will never reach anyone. Why did this happen? How could it happen? What made it happen? If you kill her without getting a detailed explanation for that, how do you expect people to accept it!?”

“Even so, the vast majority of people would view killing her as safer than letting her escape!! When faced with definite victory and definite peace, the state of people’s hearts can be ignored!!”

“You’re wrong, Russia. You said it yourself: spreading chaos is a sin! Othinus may be the final boss, but will it really bring peace to kill her?”

“Of course it will!!”

“It won’t. Oh, and was that wrath?”

A mocking tone filled Kamijou’s voice as he pointed out the second sin.

“Who would believe you if you said Othinus was dead? The remnants of Gremlin would definitely claim she still lived and what would the rest of the world think? If you suddenly said someone so dangerous was dead but refused to give any details, do you really think they would just accept it!? Even if she dies, people’s fear of her would remain!! People would speculate that she’s hiding out somewhere or someone is her reincarnation and all sorts of false accusations would be made. If you don’t go through the proper process, no one will be able to accept the truth. Doing that would bring a century of chaos, Russia!!”

“Are you trying to say she would become a sort of legend?”

“Nonsense, isn’t it? But that’s probably what would happen. Her threat has spread throughout the world, but most people don’t even know if she’s male or female. I doubt it would feel real when people hear a vague existence like that has been eliminated. Even if you display pictures of the corpse or even the corpse itself in a museum, people will whisper that you framed an innocent person or that it was a body double. The reality of the situation would be destroyed in an instant and the unseen fear would return.”

“We could eliminate that fear by continually providing accurate information in that coming age. That is no reason to forgive what she has done!!”

“Perhaps not, but how many people would die in the process? How many people would die who would have survived had you let Othinus surrender? Can you really call that a ‘trivial’ sacrifice? If you aren’t willing to put in the effort to do the best job possible, isn’t that called sloth?”

That was the third sin.

“...!!”

“And another thing. Why is the Russian Orthodox Church so desperate to kill her? Is it because you want the honor of defeating her for yourself? Isn’t it wrong to want honor so much you’re willing to sacrifice people you’ve never even met? Some might call it greed.”

Kamijou brought the radio to his mouth as he indicated the fourth sin.

“Or is it jealousy? There was nothing good about World War Three for Russia and America has been demonstrating its power since Gremlin rose to the forefront. That gives you another reason to want this victory for yourselves. Can you really say that there is not a hint of that feeling behind this?”

The fifth sin.

“Oh, right. Where are you now? A Russian palace? Or the UN headquarters building? Either way, you must be relaxing in a warm room with a roof over your head. Enjoying some tea or coffee while people are risking their lives in battle might qualify as gluttony, you know?”

The sixth.

“Why?” The voice that could belong to a girl or a boy spoke probingly. “Why are you going this far to stand by the magic god’s side? You should have no reason to behave like this.”

“Perhaps not. At the very least, I didn’t until I set foot on Sargasso. I innocently believed everything would return to normal if Othinus was defeated and I was willing to take the first shot against her.”

“Then why would you-...!?”

“I have a reason.” Kamijou cut in before the voice finished. “I do have a reason. You wouldn’t believe me if I explained it, but I’m not doing this without a good reason. However, it was you who suddenly attacked me without listening. You became obsessed with the idea that it would be easier to just kill and you lost your humanity.”

He spat out the words of his judgment.

“You’ve never actually met Othinus and you’ve never spoken with her, so this isn’t something you would understand. You cast aside that option and decided it would be too troublesome to face her in the very, very end, so you thought it was easier to just kill rather than patiently talking it out. That would be the root sin behind all of your other sins.”

Part 5

The radio fell silent.

All strength had returned to Kamijou Touma’s muscles, so it seemed the “battle” was over.

“Come to think of it, I couldn’t force lust onto you. I guess it stops at six.”

He tossed the radio into the snow, but it was not over yet.

Sasha Kreutzev and Vasilisa, the two-man combat team, were still there.

“Well? Will you continue this without any support?”

“It’s something worth considering, but I think we’ll call it quits this time,” answered Vasilisa. “We could forcibly kill you now, but that would probably lead that boy to trap himself in the Seven Deadly Sins. Damn. Maybe we should’ve taken a lesson from the Roman Catholics and prepared a breaker on the scene.”

She cheerfully raised her hands and waved them, but Kamijou was certain the smile on her face would not budge even as she killed someone. That made it more frightening than eerie.

“Oh, right. We can’t touch you because that spell is still active, but I’ll give you a piece of advice.”

“?”

“It’s about the scope of the spell. First, it includes any Russian Orthodox believer within a certain range. Second, it includes anyone the Patriarch has deemed an enemy. To do that, he needs a name, a photo, and some way of sensing the individual with one of his five senses. Any such individual falls under the overall scope of the Seven Deadly Sins spell.”

“What are you talking about?”

“A blind spot.”

Vasilisa’s smile remained as she spoke.

“In other words, if an assassin that is not a Russian Orthodox believer kills you, it will not feed back to our boy.”

By the time he caught on, it was too late.

After a dull sound on the side of his head, Kamijou Touma’s consciousness was instantly taken from him.