"Gh…"
Kamijou held his stomach that was throbbing with pain, gathered strength in his staggering legs, and just barely managed to stay standing.
His gut hadn't been sliced where the guillotine had hit, but a dark bruise was still forming.
(It looks like…I made it.)
He looked at the anti-barrier shotgun that had been bent by the shock and Itsuwa's spear and finally breathed a sigh of relief.
When Terra had fired his guillotine for the last time, he was aiming at Kamijou, so he used his magic to give the guillotine precedence over Kamijou's body. If it had directly hit Kamijou, it would have sliced right through him.
He was still alive thanks to the powered suit's anti-barrier shotgun that he had kicked up right before he was hit.
Terra's "precedence" was indeed powerful, but it could only change one precedence at a time. To change from one to another, the previous setting had to be reset each time.
In other words, when the guillotine had precedence over Kamijou's body, it did not have precedence over other objects. So the guillotine could be stopped by putting some other object between him and the guillotine. Already soft things like the air or a wallet wouldn't work, but the shotgun was metal.
The guillotine's intrinsic power was not enough to crush internal organs. If something strong enough was used as a shield, it wasn't hard to defend against the attack.
One problem was what exactly counted as "Kamijou's body". His clothes and things he was carrying were a bit of a gray area, but something that wasn't even his like the shotgun wouldn't be counted as part of his body.
Itsuwa's spear that Kamijou had kicked just before was an object belonging to someone else just like the shotgun. That was why Terra had been unable to slice Kamijou in half along with the spear. If the spear had been something that Kamijou normally carried around, he probably would have been able to.
Kamijou had realized Terra's weakness because of that spear. Without it, he would probably be in two pieces right now.
"…"
Kamijou looked over at Terra who was lying on the floor.
The large amount of flour hadn't kept its blade form and was now scattered about him.
(It looks like it's over… Is Itsuwa okay? Tsuchimikado is…Well, he might still be fighting the powered suits…)
Kamijou looked at the flour that had lost its magical effect and was being blown away by the wind.
He was in pain, but he still breathed a sigh of relief.
He looked at Terra's face again.
Something cylindrical had fallen out of Terra's pocket. The rolled up old piece of parchment was the powerful spiritual item known as the Document of Constantine or the C-Document for short.
Kamijou bent down and grabbed it with his right hand.
Actually, it crumbled before he could grab it.
As soon as his fingertips touched the C-Document, the parchment fell to pieces like the end of a cigarette being tapped on an ash tray. It lost its form becoming dust and was gently blown away by the wind.
It happened much too quickly.
It made all the uproar seem almost pointless.
Kamijou turned his attention from the destroyed C-Document and thought about the enemy he had been fighting.
(…Terra.)
He looked down at the unconscious man.
This was not Academy City. Now that the battle was over, he couldn't just leave it all to Anti-Skill. He couldn't relax until he had restrained Terra and taken him to the proper place.
(Come to think of it, is Tsuchimikado all right? I guess I should contact him and discuss with the Anglican Church what to do. I have the feeling Academy City's influence here is pretty weak…)
The powered suits that had attacked Avignon were from Academy City, but oddly enough Kamijou never thought of consulting them on this. Perhaps his first impression of them was too horrible.
Kamijou looked around the area.
Itsuwa was lying a bit away.
He approached her, grabbed her slender shoulders, and shook her, but she showed no sign of waking. There was only the regular sound of breathing coming from her lips as her chest slightly rose and fell.
"Oh, right. Her spear…"
Kamijou went to go get the spear he had kicked and went back to Itsuwa.
He placed the dangerous weapon next to her.
"Thanks, Itsuwa. If you hadn't been here, I probably wouldn't have won." Kamijou softly said while looking at the girl's closed eyes.
Since she had been knocked out, she wouldn't have heard the discussion between Kamijou and Terra about Kamijou's lost memories. But he couldn't exactly say he was "glad" about that. After all, Itsuwa had fought alongside him without knowing about it.
"…"
There was nothing but bitter things in his heart.
But he shook them aside and thought.
(I need to talk with Tsuchimikado…)
He was going to call Tsuchimikado on his phone, but it wasn't in his pocket. He looked around and found what looked like it on the ground a bit away.
But when he picked it up, the LCD screen was broken so he couldn't see and some part was catching so it wouldn't close.
"Damn it," he swore and then he heard a noise from behind him.
"!!"
He hurriedly turned around, but Terra was still lying on the floor as before. Only the position of his arm was slightly changed. He must have tried to get up but couldn't muster the strength.
"Ha ha. I see. The Imagine Breaker is indeed difficult for us to deal with. It negates every little thing and it even feels like it negates our efforts as well."
Terra's trembling lips moved slowly as he lay on the floor glaring in annoyance at Kamijou.
"…Are you not going to ask?"
"About what?"
"About Imagine Breaker."
Kamijou stopped moving when he heard that unexpected answer.
Imagine Breaker.
He just used that power as if it were normal and never really questioned it. And it seemed Terra knew something about it. That meant it must be something from the magic side and not the science side. But Index didn't seem to know anything about it despite having 103,000 grimoires memorized.
Kamijou thought for a short time.
"Do you know what it is?"
"Heh heh." Terra of the Left laughed cruelly at Kamijou's words. "If you have to ask, I suppose you truly have lost your memories."
"…"
"Heh heh. You need to think about why Imagine Breaker has a connection to your 'right hand'. There is a great answer hidden there. There is also meaning behind the fact that it can negate all magic…"
Terra smiled in enjoyment as he watched Kamijou.
"It's quite simple," he said.
The light sound of Terra breathing sounded greatly amplified in Kamijou's ears.
Terra slowly moved his lips.
"The true identity of Imagine Breaker is-…"
Kamijou was not able to hear the rest of the sentence.
This was because there was a tremendous noise and Terra of the Left's body suddenly exploded.
No, technically Kamijou did not see the instant Terra was blown away.
An orange flash came down through the ceiling right above Terra. The pillar of light was about 3 meters across and, the second it hit the floor, a terrible blast roared through that room of the Palace of the Popes. Kamijou's feet were torn from the ground in an instant and he flew several meters back like a puff of dust. Itsuwa and the powered suit were caught up by the blast too and flew back with him.
"Gwaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!?" Kamijou screamed when he hit the floor.
It wasn't so much a sharp pain as it was a weak scorching pain in his arm. It felt like a day old sunburn. When he looked at it, his skin was slightly red. He had been burned.
(Wh-what just…?)
He shook his hazy head and looked at the area that had exploded.
When he did, his body stiffened.
The area Terra had been lying in had become a swirl of lava. A few meters of the stone floor had been turned to a glowing orange pond and what looked like the same stuff was dripping from the huge hole in the ceiling. He heard the sound of evaporating water. When he tried to approach, an invisible wall of heat hit his skin.
He could see something out the window.
Those objects that looked like they were created from dark stains that were circling in the blue sky were…bombers.
Where they would normally have bay doors to drop bombs, they had a jet black metal blade.
He didn't know what had happened, but it was clear it was some type of attack.
"Terra…"
As he could not approach due to the heat, Kamijou called the name of his enemy.
The steel wings flying in the air were coming back his way.
The bombers had created enough distance for their approach and were accelerating to a tremendous speed.
"Terraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!"
His yell was erased.
Multiple pillars of light tore through the ceiling and hit the exact point Terra had been in. With that kind of accuracy, it was more sniping than it was bombing. The orange light took away Kamijou's vision. His body was thrown against the floor again and again from some kind of after-effect.
He passed out.
But even if he hadn't passed out, he wouldn't have been able to find Terra.
The ceiling and walls disappeared in an area in front of Kamijou as it all turned into a sea of lava. A third of the Palace of the Popes disappeared in the same way.
And Terra was gone without having left a corpse.