Kamijou Touma was definitely not some whiz kid.
Because he was more or less used to fighting in the night, he roughly knew his ability. He definitely knew that he could win if it was a one on one fight; it would be dangerous if it was one on two, and he should run away without hesitation if it was one on three. This wasn't because he was exceptionally weak, but rather, in a fight without rules, numbers were more important than skills.
If he fought seriously, it would take about 5 seconds for him to be defeated.
But.
That was just for a human vs human fight.
"WOOOOHHH—!?"
Kamijou's fist ripped the air.
If the enemy was a human, both sides would probably fight until one lost consciousness. But if it was an enemy that would disappear on being touched, Kamijou still had a chance.
The numerous golems continued to squeeze into the narrow path. Kamijou's right hand was almost swinging about and hitting the incoming enemies. He didn't care how strong the fist was — no matter how light it was, as long as it could touch the enemies, it was good.
The golems moved like their gears were dropping.
Before Kamijou could confirm it, the golems from behind were using their spears and hammers to smash the ice that had become an obstacle in order to move forward.
"WHAT!!"
Kamijou frantically moved back. Even if the golems stopped moving, the ice remained there. If he was to stay there and fight, he would be buried alive under the ice.
But,
"A DEAD END!?"
Kamijou, who continued to back away, finally realized that his back was against the wall while confirming his rear path.
He turned to look back.
The golems looked like humans packed together as they continued to fill the entire corridor and close in.
This was unpreventable.
Though he could defend a hit, the pursuers would not let up.
"WOOOHHH!!"
Kamijou suddenly jumped sideways. The aisle was extremely narrow, and there was only a wall formed by ice.
He extended his right hand out.
There was a pit in the wall.
Like Index and Orsola had guessed, the walls of the flagship were different from the escort ships.
Kamijou leapt inside, and at the same time, the numerous golems crashed into the dead end. With their huge momentum, the golems that crashed into the wall broke into pieces that scattered all over the place.
The little bits of ice danced about like smoke.
However, Kamijou had no time to confirm that.
He looked around the room and tried to grasp the landscape, only to stop midway.
This place was like the second level seats of a theater. In contrast to the glowing translucent seats that extended several meters, the depth was only about several centimeters. Near the carefully crafted pillar, one could see the bottom. It looked like a grand ornate Opera house, but far below, there was not a stage or an auditorium, but a fan-shaped array of many tables and chairs. It was like a Parliament meeting that one sees on television.
This obviously didn't fit a navy ship; these kinds of things weren't needed for a command relay system. Maybe the situation with the magic side was different, or maybe this was just a symbolic magic symbol, and they didn't use it as a meeting place. Either way, Kamijou couldn't tell which it was.
And he had no time to check it out.
With a loud bang, the ice golems rushed into the hole that Kamijou had opened.
"…!!"
If this kept up, he wouldn't be able to escape. After realizing that his back was against a pillar, he clenched his fist before leaping towards the ice golems.
The ice golems swung their ice swords horizontally.
Kamijou discovered that a block of ice more than 3m tall was hacking towards his abdomen from the right.
"WOOOHHHH!!"
In order to counter, just as Kamijou was about to use his right hand to knock the broadsword away—
The ice golem's legs crumbled on their own.
From its thighs, the golem started to tilt backwards greatly.
The trajectory of the swinging broadsword changed.
The broadsword, which had been aimed at his abdomen, tilted as it swung up, aiming at Kamijou's neck.
As if it was about to avoid the right hand that was protecting the abdomen.
(Damn…!!)
The wind pressure caused by the broadsword caused cold sweat to emerge from Kamijou's face.
"WOOOHHHH!!"
Kamijou tried his best to dodge. Maybe his hair touched the broadsword, but it didn't get cut without any resistance. He felt a sharp pain from his hair being ripped off, and could even hear a terrifying cracking sound.
However, he still managed to dodge it.
Kamijou endured the pain as he maintained his ducking position, as if he wanted to stay down before swinging his right fist again. After that, before the ice golem could land backwards, he slammed a punch into the chest. The golem, which had stopped moving and had its legs broken, crumbled as it lands.
"…It's…over?"
Kamijou alertly assessed the situation and tried his best to adjust his breathing. Seemed like this was the last one, but considering the possibility of an ambush, he carefully moved toward the exit, but he didn't really need to.
Kamijou entered the hole that he had opened and ended up back in the aisle.
(Damn it, is Index's group alright? I feel that breaking the walls and floors will be a lot quicker if I want to meet up with them.)
On the other hand, this kind of destruction might reach the enemy. The ice golems appeared because of this feeling. According to Index and Orsola, this ship's regenerating ability was extremely slow, and because of the ship control and ritual facilities, they couldn't fire cannons or send the nuns over to stop them. But that was only the current situation. If the flagship was really about to sink, they would have to send people over no matter the risks.
Kamijou considered the situation.
(No matter what, the main thing is…if I can get near Agnese, the leader of the enemy will deal with me as the priority, and this would be a matter of time. There's no reason to hesitate about using my right hand!!)
He quickly made this resolution, and just as Kamijou was about to smash the wall with his right fist, an electronic noise could be heard from his pants pocket. It was his cell phone ringing.
(…My handphone?)
Kamijou surveyed the surroundings, confirming that no one was around before taking his cell phone out. He was somewhat astonished that he could use his cell phone out at sea. How far away was this place from land?
As he looked at the screen, what surprised him even more was that the call was from Index.
He pressed the button and placed the phone near his ear. As he had to defend himself with his right hand, he could only use his left hand. Though the cell phone had ordinary functions, his fingers felt unfamiliar with the phone.
After that.
"Ah, it's connected."
"…Is that Orsola? Why are you using Index's phone?"
"I thought the fastest way to contact you would be to use this. Where are you?"
"Even if you ask that, I don't know…"
He turned around to look, but there didn't seem to be anything that he could use as a landmark. It was more like there were some extravagant art pieces all around, and there was even the possibility that he was buried by them.
"I was fighting off 20–30 ice golems, now I'm not sure where exactly I'm at."
"…You can still say such scary words so casually. I'm…escaping with Index. There seems to be more of those ice guardians at the other places…"
"—"
Index and Orsola didn't have Kamijou's power, the Imagine Breaker. Also, they didn't excel in magic combat. If they were to take the ice golems head on, it would be tough for them.
"Orsola. I'm…at the road where I broke off from you. Which direction did you two go?"
"Direction?"
"Yeah. Just a rough one will do. Tell me."
"About that…I suppose, north."
"Got it."
Kamijou replied.
"I'll head over."
He held the phone with his left hand and swung his right hand about at the walls. With the sound of things breaking, a square-shaped hole appeared on the wall and the decorations inside. Kamijou passed through the wall that he destroyed, and continued to destroy the walls inside, ignoring the sight of paths or walls.
"Hold up, Index has something to say to you…"
"Gimme gimme! Touma, can you hear me?"
That familiar voice could be heard from the phone.
"Touma, I just heard from Orsola that the 'Queen of the Adriatic Sea' requires some other spell called the 'Appointed Time of the Rosary', is that true?"
"That's supposed to be it…wait, didn't I mention it during the strategic meeting?"
"Maybe I didn't hear it. Do you suspect my memory?"
Hearing the other party say this, Kamijou was speechless. This was the girl who managed to memorize 103,000 grimoires flawlessly, so she shouldn't be mistaken.
Kamijou again destroyed the ice walls as he got onto another path.
"This…I didn't ask. I heard that Lucia and Angelene weren't certain of it as well."
After saying this, Index's voice could be heard.
"I heard they said that to activate this 'Appointed Time of the Rosary' is to crush Agnese's mind."
At this moment, Index, who was on the other side of the phone, let out a frustrated voice.
It was rare for her to let out such a voice because of magic.
"…Touma, the activation of the 'Queen of the Adriatic Sea' doesn't need such an additional spell."
"What?"
Kamijou inadvertently stopped.
He cautiously looked around while still focusing on the phone call.
"The 'Queen of the Adriatic Sea' is an ancient level spell, and I explained before that it's originally a large-scale spell that can suppress an enemy and was created in case the seaside country Venezia decided to revolt."
"And after that?"
"Just think carefully. In other words, they can't spend some time just to activate it. To select a suitable person and preparations would take quite a lot of time. Would they be able to defend against Venezia's attacks if they waited like this?"
Kamijou couldn't help but let out a surprised 'Ah'.
Now that she mentioned it, it really seemed so. He had been tricked by the size of the fleet, and basically, this was a counterspell. It would be useless if it couldn't react to the enemy's attacks, unable fire immediately.
"The 'Queen of the Adriatic Sea' can already fire on its own. If so, does that 'Appointed Time of the Rosary' really exist? At least according to the 103,000 grimoires, not one mentions the need for it. Basically, I can't think of any reason why the Roman Catholic Church would attack Venezia now."
Index paused for a while, then continued.
"From the time it was completed, the 'Queen of the Adriatic Sea' was said to be a large-scale spell that was too powerful. As it affected Venezia heavily while Venezia was the world's trading landmark, they could have caused a huge commotion within. But in the beginning, when it was needed the most, it's really hard to think of who would do such a thing."
"But Lucia and Angelene didn't look like they were lying."
That's right.
Right now, the Roman Catholic Church was planning to use Agnese as the crux of its plan. If the 'Queen of the Adriatic Sea' could be used anytime, the reason why they would be delaying was because the 'Appointed Time of the Rosary' wasn't ready.
The 'Appointed Time of the Rosary'.
Though Lucia and Angelene said that this was the key activating it, even they weren't too sure about the 'Queen of the Adriatic Sea'.
"What do you think they're trying to do by using that with the 'Queen of the Adriatic Sea', Index? Do you know what kind of spell the 'Appointed Time of the Rosary' is?"
"Mm…instead of saying that it's the official name of the spell, it's more like the name of a plan that's limited to the inner group of the Roman Catholic Church. It may be hard to understand with just that, but 'Appointed Time' and 'Rosary' are just basically timing."
Kamijou stepped on the small fragments of ice and used his right hand to destroy another wall.
"The Cross, you're talking about the Cross that nuns wear on their necks, right?"
"Actually, besides the Cross, the necklace is also important. There are 59 beads on the rope chain, and this is something of old Catholicism. People who travel to all kinds of Holy places would use these beads and count how many times they have prayed."
"…In other words, regarding this 'Appointed Time of the Rosary', isn't it like a countdown? Or something like that?"
It was unknown whether Kamijou's muttering reached Index and Orsola's ears.
The reason was,
BOOM!!
With a sharp sound, the ceiling collapsed.
"Eh!?"
Kamijou instantly backed off.
But just this alone was unable to let him escape from the falling ice. The area around the center of impact was also affected, and the surrounding ceiling became a huge weapon that was like an inverted pyramid.
"DAMN IT!!"
Kamijou moved his right hand up from the side of his abdomen.
Seeing the ceiling that was carved out in a square shape and about to crush him, Kamijou tilted his body slightly to avoid it. The ceiling slammed hard onto the floor, the impact affecting his ears and the tiny fragments hit his back. The force was a bit unexpected, and the cell phone in Kamijou's left hand let out a weird sound.
Right now, he didn't have time to even press a button.
Kamijou violently folded the phone back into his pocket and took 2–3 steps back.
The tiny frost-like pieces of ice replaced the smoke as they swayed about in front of his eyes.
At the center, there was a man standing there. He just swung a sledgehammer down at where Kamijou was standing.
It was a forty-plus year-old Caucasian man who was wearing a luxurious Holy robe.
Though his clothes were luxurious, they didn't have the cleanliness that Index's clothes had. All the clothing gave off an upstart presence. The four necklaces on his neck were overlapping each other like age rings, and there were ten Crosses on each of them. The Crosses were shining really brightly and were likely made of highly polished gold or silver. The shine of these Crosses was really persistent, like thick fat that seeps into meat.
Like a psychotic move, the man stroked a Cross that was hanging on his neck.
Though he was staring at Kamijou, his black pupils were moving about.
"…That right hand."
Unexpectedly, he spoke in Japanese.
"Ha, are you envious?"
Hearing Kamijou's reckless response, the man frowned. He silently showed some slight disgust and anxiousness.
"You're not convinced? If rejecting God's grace is your nature, then using that as a weapon is even more of a sin. If you have heard of God's teachings, you should immediately cut off that hand and immediately beg for God's grace."
Such chilling words.
What was scary wasn't the content of the words, but the concentrated amount of emotion, that was like crushed yellow fat, in those words.
"Besides, Pagan monkeys can't understand human words. I specially spoke in your language, and yet this is the answer I get? Then let me, Biagio Busoni, open your eyes, you enemy of God. I really can't stand monkeys acting like humans."
"You're Biagio? Then, you should know where Agnese is, right?"
"I know, but that doesn't mean I'll tell you."
The man called Biagio folded his arms.
A little metal sound could be heard.
Each of his hands was holding a Cross that had been hanging on his neck.
He tossed the Cross in front of Kamijou's abdomen.
"The Cross reveals the rejection to evil."
BOOM!! The two Crosses expanded.
The rate they were expanding was like a cannon firing. They instantly became 3m long and 40cm thick as they attacked. It was like a storm of metal muscles attacking.
"WOOHH!!"
Kamijou used his right fist to knock aside the Crosses that had become a wall, but he only managed to destroy one side. Meanwhile, the sharp end of the other Cross on the other side, that was like granite, sent him flying back.
The blunt sound caused by this intense impact could be heard.
Kamijou was knocked to the ground, and rolled back about 2–3m. Just as he was about to use his hand to lift himself off the floor, the ice wall reacted to Kamijou's right hand. With a cracking sound, the floor was carved up in a square shape, and Kamijou fell onto the path on the floor below.
As he was inside a ship that was made completely of ice, there was nothing to cushion the impact. Kamijou gritted his teeth as he endured the pain, carefully using his left hand to support himself.
From the large hole above his head, Biagio's voice could be heard.
"When St. Margaret was swallowed by the evil dragon, she expanded the Cross to stab the evil dragon's stomach from the inside. The Cross that the Church erects can also be used to eliminate enemies and create a safety zone—just like this."
From the hole in the ceiling, 2–3 Crosses were tossed down like grenades.
The Crosses immediately expanded in the air.
Instead of saying that these were Crosses, they were more like laser weapons flying all around. Kamijou immediately got onto the floor and rolled, as the Crosses that were like metallic muscles scraped past the tip of his nose, the four sides of the Crosses stabbed into the floor and walls. As the arrangement was really messy; it was hard to tell which direction the attack was coming from. Just like that the straight path was sealed off.
(Damn it…got to find an exit before my movements are sealed—!!)
Just as Kamijou was about to swing his right hand, another sound could be heard from above.
"On the other hand, the Cross has the ability to correct people's prideful nature, no matter the weight of it. The Virgin St. Lucia was pulled with ropes by 1,000 men and 2 bulls yet didn't move. And the young St. Christopher who was famous for his strange powers, yet fell under the weight of the Son of God—that'll be like…this."
CRACK!! The ceiling split apart.
What were falling down from the broken ceiling were several Crosses that were only several centimeters long. However, they were as fast as a cannon shot…not only that, they were rather heavy, as if gravity had increased by several thousand times.
Kamijou used his body to slam into the giant Cross and extended his right hand out. Before confirming whether there were any obstacles breaking, he rolled to the front, and the huge weight of the Cross narrowly grazed past Kamijou's shoulder. Just like that, his joint felt painful, as if it nearly popped out, and the pain immediately spread around.
"…! GYAAAHHH!!"
Even so, he continued to use his right hand to destroy the walls, jumping from the aisle into a cabin. He intended to take action and try to avoid Biagio's aiming.
"Don't destroy it too much. It'll take quite some time to repair it."
The ceiling broke again, as numerous Crosses fell down from above Kamijou. The unexpectedly heavy Crosses turned into metal stakes as they destroyed the Cabin. Kamijou didn't really jump aside, but rather managed to avoid them by pressing his back against the wall.
Biagio leapt down the hole in the ceiling.
Small pieces of ice flew like frost when he stepped onto the cracked floor.
Kamijou kept his back onto the wall.
"Preaching about 'don't destroy', yet aren't you the one destroying it recklessly?"
"I know which parts need to be destroyed, and which shouldn't. Your method is too messy. Oh yeah, it's like letting an amateur without knowledge take care of some antiques. I know you're working hard, but you have to learn."
Biagio's proper and speckles expression was starting to show some signs of anxiety.
Index said before that this flagship controlled the other ships. Once the ice decorations continued to change shape, the escort ships would move with the signal given…if so, Kamijou's right hand had more or less done some damage to the controls of the ship.
"Humph. Looks like this broken ship repairs itself a lot slower than the other ships. Worked so hard to get into this main ship, yet this place is weaker than the other ships. So disappointing."
"The 'Queen of the Adriatic Sea's original defense is a good 200 times stronger than the other escort ships. But because the power was separated to the other ships, it affected the completion rate there."
"The 'there' you're talking about is?"
"The 'Appointed Time of the Rosary'. It's too soon already, stop acting dumb."
"…"
The 'Appointed Time of the Rosary' again.
Index said before that this additional spell was unrelated to the 'Queen of the Adriatic Sea' spell meant to suppress Venezia. Though Biagio's words may not be completely true, to continue to try and do such a disadvantageous thing, was there any important significance behind it?
"No matter what, as long as I beat you and save Agnese, it'll be all over. I'm not thinking too much, so let me settle this simply."
"Those words show that you're going against God's will; this is quite heretical."
Biagio pulled off 7 Crosses from his neck,
And tossed them into the air like he was saying farewell.
"—Then, my Cross will reject this evil."