10Hello everyone! I'm back with a new story! For those who expected another chapter of "The Esper and the Magic god" I fear you will have to wait a little longer. This story has several elements AU, set in a darker version of WW3, most of the characters are the same with only a few differences including some OC.
Here is a new story inspired by the homonymous film full of action, adventure and tragedy.
Happy reading to everyone.
Disclaimer: the To aru majutsu no index series is owned by Kamachi Kazuma.
Prologue
The beginning of the end
It was the middle of October, just after the events of what would remain known as British Halloween, an event in which Princess Carissa led her knights in an attempt to make a coup in Britain. An attempt that was fortunately foiled thanks to the efforts of the Necessarius, the people of the kingdom, the queen and the owner of Imagine Breaker.
Everything apparently turned out for the best, but unbeknownst to most people, a Catholic church wizard had taken advantage of the riots in England to enter the Tower of London and steal the device that controlled the index of the prohibited books. So Itsuwa and the other members of the Amakusa church were sent on a mission to retrieve it by order of Archbishop Laura Stuart.
This was to be a mission where they could not fail, the device had been stolen and they had to recover it at any cost.
In the wrong hands it would have led to horrible consequences, and with the possible war that was upon them it would have been equally serious.
Itsuwa bit her lip as she thought about it.
They tracked down the target in France (which was Catholic territory), while the latter was intent on contacting his political allies. So they had rushed there to France to retrieve the object stolen by the leader of God's right-hand seat, but she and the remaining members of the Amakusa church had been completely overwhelmed.
Unbeknownst to them, their enemy was fully prepared for them, not only because of his enormous power, but he was also supported by numerous highly trained followers. They were captured and dragged to a warehouse, where they probably would be forced to give them information, but the reality was far more cruel.
A groan of pain brought Itsuwa back to reality.
She looked up and in horror saw a companion who fell to the ground with his throat cut, his eyes had become empty as a pool of blood filled the floor.
"Horrible, isn't it?" he said with a deep and dark voice. "Dealing with such cruelty is not beautiful. But don't think that I enjoy it in your suffering, in reality I understand you."
The man known as the Fiamma of the Right advanced among them while talking.
"I know what it's like to lose. To feel so desperately that you're right, yet to fail nonetheless. It's frightening, turns the legs to jelly. But I ask you to what end? Fear it. Run from it. Destiny arrives all the same. And now it's here. Or should I say, I am."
Itsuwa could see the man's appearance closely, had golden eyes, long red hair with a suit of the same color and a relaxed smile on his face. In his right hand there was a golden glove covered with runes and a magic circle with a pentagram on the back, it was the remote control for the remote control of the index of the forbidden books that Fiamma had stolen.
"My Lord." a blond-haired and green eyes woman approached him "We have captured all the members of the church of Amakusa and are doing what you ordered us to do, yet she still has not shown up."
"Have patience Agatha, she will surely come to save her companions."
"Are you sure?" she asked.
"Of course. I know she is in France too, and for every companion we kill she will come faster."
Each of Itsuwa's friends had actually been captured and tied, there were eight hooded wizards with the exception of Agatha showing her face, and they were all skilled wizards and combat experts who had supported the man in capturing them and now kept them prisoners.
Since then they had sent a message via cell phone to the priestess Kanzaki, ordering her to come or they would kill her companions one at a time every hour, sending each time a photo of the bodies to her. Four hours had passed and four of them had already been killed in cold blood.
"You are wasting time. She won't fall into your trap." said Tatemiya Saji looking at the man with hatred.
"This is not a trap, it is a simple invitation, I know that she is a smart woman, so we will face her with a direct confrontation." Fiamma said casually.
"Would killing our comrades be an invitation?!" another of Itsuwa's companions shouted.
"Certainly, after all I know how reluctant that woman would be to show herself."
"Do you think you can get away with what you did to our friends? The priestess is one of the twenty saints in the world, she will definitely defeat you and will punish you for what you have done!"
"Really admirable confidence that all of you store in her." he commented with a grin on his face.
The man was calm. Too calm. In Itsuwa's eyes it seemed that the man in front of her was only participating in a game rather than facing a possible enemy who could defeat him. If you could look them in the eye, you could see a monster of enormous power who had the whole world in his hands.
She had always remained strong in the presence of opponents, but this time she felt that strength gradually falter. It was the same with respect to the others, each of them could perceive the tension in the air and many feared for their lives wondering at the end of the next hour who would be the next. They could only pray for the priestess to arrive on time.
Long minutes passed in a silence of ice, until a loud rumble like an explosion from outside the building shook everyone present.
"Lord-"
"She has arrived." he concluded.
All the members of Amakusa looked with wide eyes and a smile on their faces as a wall at the back of the warehouse collapsed, leaving only rubble and soot. If anyone had looked more closely they might have noticed that the rubble that once made up the wall seemed to have been literally cut by a blade.
However, everyone's attention was focused solely on a single figure emerging from the darkness illuminated by the light of the moon.
A powerful and elegant figure whose mere presence seemed to instill hope and authority.
Saint Kanzaki Kaori.
"You finally arrived, we were waiting for you." the golden-eyed man said.
Kanzaki immediately met her gaze after seeing also his wounded comrades and some of their corpses on the ground, an unholy fury exploded from her ready to be released on him.
"Fiamma!" She roared charging towards the wizard with her drawn sword.
However, her path was abruptly interrupted by Agatha who pulled out a sword and (to the surprise of all members of the Amakusa church) managed to repel Kanzaki's attack easily.
She was a saint, possessed by nature a superhuman strength and yet this woman managed to repel her with little effort.
"Who are you? And how did you push me away?" Kanzaki asked after quickly recovering from the initial surprise and slightly repressing anger.
"I shouldn't divulge personal information but considering the circumstances we are in, I think it is legitimate for me to introduce myself anyway. My name is Agatha, captain of the Vatican's Iscariot division."
"A division of the Catholic church that bears the name of Judas Iscariot?!" such a name meant a lot from Kanzaki's point of view, like the Right Seat of God the actions and nature of this division clearly indicated that its members had tendencies that did not conform to the church to which they belonged. Similar to the Necessarius in England, apparently the two churches were not so different in the end as organizations.
"As for how I rejected you, you will also be a saint, but that does not mean that others are unable to become strong." the woman said looking at her with barely hidden disgust.
"What do you want to do to my friends?"
"We won't do anything to them anymore, now that you have arrived, just give us your relic and we will resolve things peacefully." Fiamma replied calmly.
Kanzaki narrowed her eyes with suspicion and irritation.
"I don't know how you know about our relic, but I won't give it to you. I will save my friends and stop all your plans!"
The various wizards including Agatha prepared for combat, but a gesture from their leader stopped them.
"Leave it to me. If that's what you want, I'll give it to you." Fiamma advanced putting forward his gloved right hand.
Silence fell as the two alpha predators prepared to fight. Itsuwa could only look in awe as the two individuals not far from her gradually released their powers.
"Salvare000!"
A great deal of power began to surround Kanzaki, the stigma, the special power possessed by every saint that makes them similar to the son of God. It was the ability to overcome human limits, and with that power he charged at full speed towards man with his drawn sword.
In response, Fiamma simply waved his right hand and a shield of light stopped the saint away. The eyes of the two met, one with a relaxed gaze and the other with a furious gaze. After a few seconds that seemed like an eternity the two resumed fighting in a clash of light and steel.
Each magician in the warehouse between the Iscariotes and the Amakusas saw the first exchange of blows between the two who had so far maintained a stalemate.
With each blow that Fiamma repelled Kanzaki immediately went at the counterattack with stronger shots than before.
"Nanasen!" a multiple cut of numerous ultra-thin threads was launched by the saint in the direction of man.
A wall of light appeared in front of Fiamma and easily blocked the attack, the saint tried again with another magical slash of her sword, but every move made regardless of strength and direction seemed to be in vain.
She began to feel exhausted, temporarily stopping to catch her breath as she reworked some new strategy. Meanwhile Fiamma of the Right who did not seem even a little fatigued smiled sadistically.
"Is this all you have? Now it's my turn." numerous spears of light appeared in the air and were thrown against Kanzaki like bullets.
The superhuman reflexes of the woman allowed her to intercept the numerous bullets destroy them with her katana.
She immediately thought of a way to move on to the attack, a blow that could definitively knock down her opponent, but just then Fiamma disappeared only to suddenly reappear beside her holding out his hand right forward. Sensing the danger, Kanzaki immediately went on the defensive, raising the katana and backing away.
"Too slow." a flash of light exploded throwing her against a wall.
"Priestess!" Itsuwa screamed in horror, while she and the others were forced to watch Kanzaki collapse on the ground spitting blood.
Fiamma glanced sharply at the saint before speaking.
"Pathetic, really pathetic. You, a powerful saint? Please. You are worth nothing compared to Acqua. The saints are rare existences and endowed with great powers and talents, but compared to other saints I have known, you are mediocre. Your innate talent made you complacent and you never really honed your skills."
Kanzaki got up from the ground irritated by his words, she wanted to hit him but she couldn't because her katana had been destroyed in the last explosion. She had underestimated her opponent, in a few minutes he had both disarmed and cornered her. Now she could only grit her teeth in anger as she tried to come up with something.
"I won't let you hurt my friends. I swear-" she could never finish the sentence that a sword of light pierced her chest.
She knelt in pain, spitting blood.
"Hm, do you know how many faced me saying discourses like yours before dying?" he said with a grin on his face.
"Now I will take the relic and there is nothing more you can do."
He approached her quietly peering closely.
"A concealment spell? You had a good idea in hiding the relic in this way, unfortunately for you a keen eye like mine can see beyond these spells." Fiamma snapped his fingers and a necklace with a cross appeared around Kanzaki's neck.
"The cross of the church of Amakusa, given to the leaders of your church from generation to generation is now mine." he said as he tore the cross from Kanzaki.
Suddenly the cross began to dissolve into silver dust which was absorbed by the golden glove. Fiamma's body temporarily lit up, emitting a strong emission of energy.
"Yes, I feel it. Now I feel the full power of the 103,000 grimoires. Now that I have acquired your relic, I can unite my holy right completely with the pagan magic of the grimoires. To acquire this type of power would normally be impossible, but the church of Amakusa has always tried to coincide Christianity with pagan faiths and that cross was its symbol."
Itsuwa bit her lip as she listened, religious syncretism was the foundation of the Amakusa church and was also one of the elements that she and her companions had always benefited from for their form of magic, a magic that they could only use them. Uniting Christian and pagan elements in magic is almost impossible, not without side effects and imperfections in spells. However the magic of their sect was different, thanks to the Amakusa Cross a relic created by the founder of their church managed for the first time to achieve the impossible by overcoming this obstacle and to harmonize multiple incompatible powers in a single body. Thus, the magic of the Amakusa style was born.
Fiamma used great power, but it was of Christian origin so it could never have used the full powers of grimoires. Until now...
"What are you planning? What is your goal?"
"I'm not stupid enough to reveal my plans entirely, but I think it is quite obvious that with absolute power I will be free to do anything I want." the man's smile could not have been more arrogant than it was now.
The saint's expression darkened.
"Absolute power? Does that mean that all the people you killed and hurt were to make you have power?!" she screamed in pure indignation.
"Yes." he said with a shrug as if it were something of little value.
"Damn it. I won't let you hurt other people!"
Kanzaki leapt forward to hit him.
But suddenly she felt stuck.
It didn't move, it was like something was blocking her body. No magic should easily take over her, except-
"You tried, but what you do is in vain." Fiamma said as he stretched out his hand and with some of his power he easily paralyzed the girl. The girl's magical resistance was now too weakened by the previous confrontation to resist his power.
He approached her grabbing her by the throat with his gloved hand and lifted her off the ground releasing the spell.
Kanzaki stirred trying to free herself from the grip, but Fiamma possessed a power superior to her and therefore independent of how much she fought, was all useless.
"I thank you for bringing me the relic, but now you no longer serve any purpose." Fiamma said as he began to tighten his grip around her throat.
"Ghaa!" the girl choked as she tried to free herself.
"It hurts me to have to kill you, but in the future you could be a problem for my plans so I will have to prevent any possible threat."
She tried to loosen the hold from her neck but failed, she slowly felt the forces abandon her and her breath failed.
She was about to die, did not expect to die like this and this awareness frightened her, but her willpower prevented him from showing it and giving up miserably. Even if it were her last moments of life, rather than worrying about herself, she thought about her companions and the fact that she would not be able to save them, she thought about the smile of her friend Index and the fact that she would never see it again.
I'm sorry Index, I won't be able to save you and free you from control of this monster.
Despite this, she still had faith that even if she died, someone else in the future would defeat Fiamma of the Right sooner or later and stop his plans. She cast a last look of hatred at the man.
"Fiamma, ... you ... you will never ... be a god."
Fiamma simply smiled.
"No, you're right, I won't be a god."
The fingers around his throat tightened ...
"I will be the person superior to god."
Crack.
With a dull sound Kanzaki's neck broke.
She stopped fighting.
She stopped moving.
She stopped breathing.
She stopped living.
Now Fiamma looked casually at the lifeless eyes of the girl once called Kanzaki Kaori.
Without any tact, he threw her body to the ground and looked at her.
"You know, 2000 years ago the son of god could have performed the miracle of the resurrection, but you saints are only imitations of his power." his tone went cold "So, no resurrection this time."
Silence reigned in the place until it was broken by a scream.
"Bastard!"
He turned to the people present, on one side were his subordinates, on the other there were the captured magicians. The latter had shocked expressions on their faces, most likely due to the death of their priestess, some however showed an angry expression, especially one of them.
Tatemiya Saji, the man who had just yelled at Fiamma.
"You hate me, isn't it? I understand you are absolutely right to hate me for what I did. But before you or any of you can crave some revenge, I warn you."
Ten spheres of light came out of his hand and each sphere struck one of the prisoners. A few seconds later they turned to dust in the air without even leaving ash. Of the 28 prisoners still alive, ten others were killed. Now there were 18 left.
Tatemya's eyes from anger turned to amazement and horror, as she gradually looked up at him.
"I can kill you all at any time so if you choose to fight me I won't have mercy." Fiamma stated.
Tatemiya could only swallow a lump in throat.
Agatha suddenly approached him and threw a knife on the ground.
"What?"
"You are free." Fiamma said in a serious tone. "Use that knife to free yourself and your companions. I am not going to completely destroy your church, you deserve to live so that the memory of those who died today does not disappear. Do not waste your life in vain revenge and stay out of this war. "
For a moment, the man who was killing his companions and laughing arrogantly showed signs of kindness and pity for them. This left him temporarily confused, but did not erase the hatred he felt.
Fiamma turned and motioned for his subordinates to follow him.
"Tatemiya Saji, remember that now that you are the official leader of the Amakusa and you will have your responsibilities as such."
Fiamma and her wizards started to activate a teleportation spell and their bodies shone. Just before the spell was fully activated Fiamma gave one last glance at Itsuwa.
The girl had been silent all the time since the clash with Kanzaki and since then she was too shocked to speak, only being able to look with fear at the man who had defeated the priestess, now the man was crossing her gaze with her.
Only she could see it, but on the face of the red-haired man the neutral expression turned into a sadistic grin.
A second later Fiamma and his men vanished into thin air leaving only the surviving members of the church of Amakusa in that narrow and silent place.
Half an hour later Tatemiya had managed to free himself and his companions from the ropes, he tried to keep a hard expression so as not to show signs of weakness in front of his companions despite all that had just happened, it was the duty of a leader after all.
...
Yes, a leader. He thought bitterly as his gaze turned to the lifeless body of their previous leader.
Kanzaki Kaori, their guide, their mentor, their light, was killed; she had given all of herself to save them and even if she did not succeed he could not help but admire his willpower that did not go out even in front of an unbeatable opponent.
Fiamma, that monster wiped them out almost mercilessly, killed the priestess and almost half of her companions in cold blood. He killed Kanzaki because he considered her a threat, but killed their companions because he wanted to send them a message, that of not daring to challenge him again, to instill in them despair and fear. And he had succeeded.
He could see the faces of all of them still shocked and terrified by the incident, some crying desperately others stuck in a dark silence, near the bodies of their killed companions or that of the priestess.
Approaching the lifeless body of the priestess where some of her companions such as Uragami, Ushibuka and Itsuwa were already present. Everyone had a pained expression except Itsuwa, who apparently seemed calm as he closed the lifeless eyes of the saint with one hand.
This calm was too unnatural for the girl, which Tatemiya immediately noticed as she watched her get up with an illegible expression.
"We must retreat." Tatemiya declared suddenly.
"We must report to the archbishop on what happened while we bring the bodies of our fallen comrades back to the base where we could bury them." He concluded in no uncertain terms.
"No." Itsuwa said.
He turned his gaze to her. "What do you mean?"
The girl's gaze seemed glacial as she spoke. "Tell me. If we all withdraw, what will we do next? The war will begin and certainly the Anglican church will get involved and pushed to fight. However, how will we fight? We will actively clash with the enemy on the front line or we will give simple support from the rear?"
"Where do you want to go?" Tatemiya asked narrowing his eyes.
"Where do I want to go? Simple, my point is that you are afraid, you and all the others. You are terrified of Fiamma and you have been influenced more than others by his words and this will push you to keep everyone in a secure location to avoid everyone have a direct confrontation." she spat it out regardless of how much poison her words possessed.
There was a moment of silence.
"Yes, it's true." he replied without feeling in the least insulted and confirming Itsuwa's statement.
"You are right, I want to make sure that all our companions can survive and have a future. However not for the simple fear of that man, but because in a direct confrontation with him it is clear that we would not win." he stated without any shame.
"Well. This is your decision as the new pontiff of the Amakusa and I will respect it. You and anyone who does not feel like fighting will return to England, I will go my way." she said firmly.
"What the hell are you going to do? Do you want to try to get yourself killed in a mad revenge attempt? Do you really think I'll let you do it?!" He screamed as she grabbed the girl by the collar.
He would not allow others to die, too many people had already died today.
"I must do it." she said.
"No, you don't have to."
She started to tremble. Not because she was afraid or intimidated. It was out of anger.
"How do you think I felt?" she whispered with a dark expression on her face.
"What?"
"Do you know how I felt while watching my friends die? Do you know how I felt while I was completely helpless while they were killed?! Of course you know, because you too have tried the same thing and yet you don't intend to do anything!" she screamed showing all the anger and the frustration that consumed her.
"We have gone through all kinds of adversities and we have already lost some companions in the past, but this time also the priestess was killed and we could not do anything! And that man ... that bastard was laughing. I saw him laughing! Laughing sadistically of their deaths and I can't forgive him!" she concluded by freeing herself from Tatemya's hold.
The man was shocked by her explosion, it was not at all words that would come out of Itsuwa's lips. Or at least the usual Istuwa. Evidently the situation had upset her on a deeper level than she imagined.
He hardly noticed that the girl was going alone outside the building.
"Itsuwa wait-"
"Don't try to stop me." the look she gave him looked like ice. "I have already made my decision."
Nobody could speak too shocked by her words, she went back to walking and before being out of their listening range she said one last thing without looking back.
"I'll find a way to kill Fiamma. At any cost."
And she left, with no one who found the strength to stop her.
And so it was that a spark had just ignited that night, a spark that would soon turn into a fire, a fire of pain and suffering that would wrapped the whole world and would change it forever.
A/N: Kanzaki's death was a little sad, but it served as a catalyst for introducing this type of story.
The shape of the device that controls Index is different, I did it to make it more in line with history. lol
Usually the stories start with the introduction of the protagonists, here instead it starts with the introduction of the antagonist and some secondary characters. What do you think of the character of Fiamma? He will be a more complex villain than the canon with slightly different ideals, and at the same time more brutal. Itsuwa will also be more than just a simple secondary character, her decision along with that of many other characters will influence the course of events in more ways than one.
All characters of science and magic will clash in any way possible, that the war begins.
Thanks for reading.