Chapter One: "Rebellion Against My Glorious Father" / Chapter Two: "God Ascension Stairway"

On December 1, 1947, in a rural village through which the Severn River flowed in England, Aleister lay on a pile of scattered straw inside a dilapidated thatched shed. His breathing was ragged, and his entire body was dyed red with blood, making him look like a broken doll.

Life was withering away inside him. It probably would not be long before he welcomed death.

"What an ugly ending. I failed in the end... This is the price I had to pay for killing my own child with my own hands."

Lying there spread-eagled, Aleister unconsciously recalled the thirty years of his life.

In 1919, Aleister had been hiding in Egypt and had begun laying the foundation of his plan. He had never expected to encounter a stranger one day in the Imaginary Phase. He guessed that the other party had found the Imaginary Phase where he was hiding because they had deciphered The Book of Law. Without hesitation, he had used his strongest Magic Formula, which, when the enemy was designated as a Demon God, could unleash power ten times greater than the Big Bang, and killed them.

Aleister had succeeded. He was the greatest magician of the twentieth century, capable of opposing Demon Gods with a mortal body. Aleister had also failed, because the person he killed was not some so-called "enemy," but a son who shared his blood and was considered his family.

The moment he saw the other party's true form, whether through genetic inheritance, the flow of blood, or the resonance of magic and soul, Aleister had been utterly certain that this was his child—a child born to him by one of his countless lovers.

At that moment, Aleister had gone completely mad. He abandoned his rationality as a human, gave up on the plan he had just begun, and left Egypt without hesitation. He returned to the land of England, which was extraordinarily dangerous to him, to fulfill his final duty as a father and search for traces of the child he had mistakenly killed.

He knew what he was about to face: the pursuit of every magician in the world. To these "greatest heretics," who sought to eliminate magic and possessed the ability to do so, no one who wielded magical power would ever let him go.

Among the magicians hunting him, the English Anglican Church was the most fanatical and reckless. Aleister was powerful, but he was ultimately still only human. From 1919 until 1947, he had fought magicians from across the world for twenty-eight full years. Just the day before, when he was already exhausted, the English Anglican Church's assassination squad had finally seized its opportunity and gravely wounded him in this English countryside.

"...This really is an ending worthy of me."

Aleister felt neither sorrow nor despair. All his despair had already been filled to the brim twenty-eight years ago, at the moment he killed his own child. He knew exactly what his life was like: eternally facing failure and setbacks. Yet failure and setbacks could never defeat Aleister.

Whether it was a Demon God capable of destroying and distorting everything, a path as difficult as ascending to the heavens, or any kind of desperate situation, none of them could defeat this terrifyingly powerful man. The only ones who could defeat Aleister were his family!

"Crack—"

The door of the rural thatched hut opened. Aleister listened to the approaching footsteps outside. He was incredibly calm before death and even joked flippantly. "...Which lucky person found me? The English Anglican Church? The Roman Orthodox Church? The Russian Orthodox Church? Or perhaps some Magic Society? I'd guess the English Anglican Church is the most likely."

"...Take my head and exchange it for the reward. I imagine my head is still worth quite a lot in this world."

The person who entered from outside said nothing, as though they wanted to use the oppressive atmosphere to make Aleister feel fear.

At last, Aleister saw the visitor—

"A frog?"

Aleister stared in astonishment at the elderly man with a frog's face who had appeared before him. The man wore black-rimmed glasses and had a somewhat plump build, but Aleister had definitely never seen him before. This old man did not seem to be one of the magicians who had been pursuing him.

"How can you call someone a frog the moment you meet them? That's terribly rude."

The old man muttered unhappily before walking over to Aleister and examining him with a solemn expression. "...Those injuries are severe. If I had arrived one moment later, you would have been dead."

"Who are you?"

Aleister was now as weak as a newborn baby. Facing this old man, who could take his life at any moment, he felt little need to be wary and simply asked calmly.

"Who am I?"

The old man murmured those words. He turned his head toward the Severn River not far outside the thatched hut, as though he could see the surging waterways of Jiangnan, as well as an old friend from Humen a hundred years ago—one who feared neither authority nor death, who had burned the opium that had broken the backbone of a nation while laughing heartily and reciting poetry.

He shook his head and smiled. "...I no longer use my old name. If you're willing, call me Soul of the Underworld!"

"Soul of the Underworld?"

What an arrogant name. Yet Aleister did not laugh.

"That's right. Time is short, so you'd better stop talking. I need to keep you alive."

With that, the old man called Soul of the Underworld crouched down and prepared to begin emergency treatment.

"There's no saving my body. No magic can heal me."

Aleister continued speaking calmly. He understood his injuries well.

"If magic won't work, then we'll use science!"

Soul of the Underworld rebutted him without concern.

"Science..."

Aleister looked at the old man he had encountered by chance. The dim light in his eyes brightened once more.

Of course he did not want to die. It was not that he feared death; he simply had yet to accomplish his purpose and fulfill that wish.

To Aleister, even death was merely one of his setbacks. It was absolutely not a reason for him to give up.

"Do you know who you're saving?"

"I don't care who you are. All I know is that you're a patient in urgent need of surgery. No matter what happens, I will never abandon my patient!"

Soul of the Underworld spoke with firm resolve.

"What an excessively gentle and strange fellow..."

Aleister paused, then continued, "...I have too many enemies in England. I can't stay here."

"Let me think... Then go to Japan. Japan has just lost the war. That land is starving and in desperate need of everything. Its environment should be able to accommodate you."

After a moment's thought, Soul of the Underworld pointed Aleister toward a path.

With Soul of the Underworld's assistance and treatment, Aleister survived and was transferred to Japan.

In the understanding of the magical world, the evil and terrifying magician Aleister Crowley died in the English countryside on December 1, 1947.

In 1950, Academy City was first established—

In the midst of darkness, Roy suddenly opened his eyes.

Chapter One: "Rebellion Against My Glorious Father"

(It will probably update slowly before it goes premium, but the speed will increase afterward.)

Roy really did not want to describe the ceiling before him as familiar yet strange, but he had no choice.

The place where Roy now found himself was the bedroom he had occupied before transmigrating. He was still wearing pajamas and lying on the bed, looking exactly like someone who had just woken from a deep dream.

"A dream?"

Roy supported himself and sat up on the bed, covering his head with one hand. His more than ten years of life in early-twentieth-century London had been far too clear. If it had been a dream, it had been far too long and real.

"No."

Roy quickly noticed that something was wrong. He first looked at his hand. The skin was excessively fair, completely different from before his transmigration. His pajamas also seemed much smaller, because the Roy before transmigrating had not been this tall.

He swiftly got out of bed and followed his memories to the mirror. The moment he saw his reflection, he knew that what had happened in London at the beginning of the twentieth century had not been a dream, but reality.

The person in the mirror was Roy Crowley, not the "Roy" represented by that Chinese name.

"Roy's" parents had died long ago. They had not died in an accident, but naturally, after reaching the end of their lives. He had been born to elderly parents. In the year he turned twenty-two, his old and ailing parents had passed away one after another. As their late-born son, "Roy" had been spoiled from childhood. Although he had been born in Jiangsu, his parents had worked in the capital, so he had lived there from a young age.

After his parents died, they had not left him much cash, but they had left him two apartments in the capital—one for him to live in and one to rent out. Even in a city with such exorbitant housing prices, he had managed to live comfortably on his own.

Since he had no worries about food or clothing, Roy's work was purely his hobby. After several years of effort, he had become a qualified photographer, shooting wedding ceremonies and taking paid cosplay photos for girls in the two-dimensional community. He charged several hundred to over a thousand yuan per session, and lived a carefree life.

Apart from not being handsome and having little romantic experience, "Roy" was excellent in every other respect.

"However, considering our blood and souls, my father should be Aleister Crowley."

"But what does this mean? I transmigrated, then transmigrated back?"

For a moment, Roy was genuinely bewildered by the situation.

Suddenly, he sensed that the atmosphere in the room was wrong. His muscles tensed as he turned around, and he saw the presence behind him, like a guardian spirit—Holy Guardian Angel Aiwass!

Aiwass's body looked rather strange now. It resembled an old black-and-white television unable to receive a signal, covered in various mosaic-like patterns and appearing faint, as though it might be blown away by the wind at any moment.

"Aiwass?"

Seeing Aiwass, this "familiar," Roy relaxed somewhat. After living in London at the beginning of the twentieth century for more than ten years, everything in this original world of his seemed strange instead. Even though this should actually have been his homeland.

"You finally noticed me, Roy... I thought you could no longer see me."

The Holy Guardian Angel's face, suffused with a faint radiance, displayed a humanlike expression of curiosity as she examined everything around her.

Roy knew she was not examining the room, but this "world."

"I remember being hit by Aleister's Magic Formula."

Roy recalled the scene before he had fallen into darkness, clearly remembering the desperate Aleister kneeling on the ground and the pain of his soul and thoughts being torn apart.

"Did you save me?"

he asked thoughtfully.

"When you were struck by Aleister's Formula, I possessed you and lodged my spirit inside your body, taking Aleister's attack in your place... Aleister's Formula is powerful, but it isn't without weaknesses. Its maximum output can reach the level of the Big Bang, but he cannot control its output himself. Its power varies from person to person."

"In other words, his Formula grows stronger against the strong and weaker against the weak?"

"Exactly."

Aiwass's explanation made Roy nod. At the time, Aleister had launched the Formula with Roy as its target, producing power nearly equivalent to an intercontinental missile. That level of power was enough to kill an insignificant magician like Roy, but destruction on the level of an intercontinental missile could never injure Aiwass. Thus, Aiwass had used possession to block the attack for Roy.

Unless Aleister had targeted Aiwass with the Formula, he could not possibly have harmed her in the slightest.

At that moment, Roy suddenly remembered something Aiwass had said when they first met and blurted out, "...You once said that I was the person you were searching for, someone who could let you find the place you had sought so desperately but could never reach. Could the place you meant be this world?"

Aiwass smiled at Roy. Roy could even feel the joy the Angel was doing her best to express. "...This is the place I was searching for. It isn't the whole of it, but it is already the most important part. I'm very glad that I was the first to discover that you possessed this trait. If the Demon Gods had found you first, they would certainly have imprisoned you and tried every possible method to obtain the key to 'this place.' Your body houses the 'ideals and hopes' pursued by the Demon Gods."

"Ha, that isn't funny at all. A trait that attracts the attention of Demon Gods can only bring danger."

Roy shrugged. He was not happy in the slightest about possessing this so-called "trait."

The Demon Gods Aiwass mentioned were more properly called the Gods of Magic.

Life must die, apples must fall downward, and one plus one must equal two. These were the immutable "laws" of the Material World. Beings capable of reversing all of this—making one plus one equal three, making apples fall upward, and making the dead return to life—were the so-called "Demon Gods."

They were magicians who possessed infinite power, could overturn every law, could shatter the world with a touch, and had reached the realm of the gods!

According to Aleister's system, Demon Gods were beings who had attained the rank of Secret Chief. The Aiwass before him was also a Secret Chief, but in Roy's view, she was at most equal to the Demon Gods in status. She did not possess the true Demon Gods' level of manifestation.

Being watched by a group of beings who could entirely be called "true gods" was not something Roy considered fun.

Roy raised his phone and checked the time. After thinking hard, he realized that his transmigration had taken very little time, as though he had merely slept.

He opened the refrigerator, took out some food, and devoured it. Because he had been too poor during those more than ten years in London, he had suffered considerably. Now that he had the chance, he naturally had to make up for what his taste buds and stomach had lost.

"Aiwass, what is this world I'm in?"

"Roy, do you know about Kabbalah's theory of the Fourfold World?"

"Kabbalah's theory divides the universe into four worlds: the Archetypal Realm, the Creative Realm, the Forming Realm, and the Material World. Is that what you're asking about?"

Roy answered almost without thinking. During his more than ten years in London, thanks to the various books Aleister had left behind, Roy had gained profound theoretical knowledge of mysticism and magic.

As he spoke, Roy looked toward Aiwass again. In this theory, the Archetypal Realm corresponded to God, the Creative Realm to archangels and wisdom, the Forming Realm to Angels and the primal wind behind matter, while the Material World was where humans lived.

Roy knew that Aiwass existed as a kind of "spirit." So was her essence in the Archetypal Realm or the Creative Realm?

As Roy pondered, Aiwass took over the explanation. "...This world may lie outside, or above, the Archetypal Realm. Even the Demon Gods can only cross infinite phases; they absolutely cannot transcend the Fourfold World."

"...You, who can travel between the Fourfold World and the world beyond it, are naturally an object of their coveting."

After pausing, Aiwass suddenly said, "...I've decided. In the past, I only wanted to observe you and had no intention of interfering. But you've given me so much information and so many surprises. Now I'm prepared to interfere in your life. Perhaps that will let me obtain even more."

"Roy, what do you desire now?"

"What do I desire now?"

Roy laughed. "...There's only one thing I want to do now: 'raise the sword of rebellion against my glorious father.' If he hadn't failed to fulfill his duty as a father, if he hadn't been indiscriminately involved with women without even knowing he had children, how could these tragedies have happened—to me or to Laura?"

"...But before that, I need to figure out exactly how I transmigrated and whether I can transmigrate back!"

Chapter Two: "God Ascension Stairway"

Kabbalah was the mystical philosophy of Judaism. According to this doctrine, the universe was divided into four parts. Aiwass had said that the world of A Certain Magical Index followed this theory, while the world Roy now occupied—the world he had lived in before transmigrating, known as the Real World—existed outside the theory.

Why did this Real World contain novels, anime, manga, and other works about the other worlds? Did those worlds truly exist? And why had he transmigrated? These questions nearly made Roy suffocate from overthinking.

He shook his head and looked at Aiwass. "...Forget it. These aren't questions I should be considering right now. Aiwass, can you still use your abilities in this world?"

Aiwass, who had been curiously observing this world, paused before speaking. "...My power has been severely restricted and weakened in this world."

Only then did Roy notice that Aiwass's voice was no longer muffled as though separated by a veil, as it had been in the world of A Certain Magical Index. Her voice had become clear and carried a more distinctly feminine quality. This made Roy suspect that the special nature of the Real World had greatly narrowed the gap between Aiwass's status and his own, allowing him to understand her words more easily.

Roy frowned. He took some paper and a pen and drew several magical diagrams and mystical symbols. Although he had been an insignificant magician in the world of A Certain Magical Index, he had at least understood some basic magic.

"Magic can still be used, but as you said, its power is heavily suppressed in this world. However, some basic suggestion magic is still fine. As long as this world has no other supernatural powers, I could stand at its summit through suggestion alone if I wanted to."

Roy shrugged, showing little excitement or enthusiasm. Compared with the magnificent and colorful "two-dimensional" world, the Real World was simply too boring.

Unlike Aiwass, a Secret Chief who was curious about an unknown world she could not understand, Roy did not yet have the qualifications to investigate the secrets of this Real World.