Chapter Three: "Archangel" and "Celestial Scribe" / Chapter Four: Angelic Art, "Angel Fall"

It was like playing a game. If Aiwass was a max-level character breaking through her level cap by encountering more unknowns and gaining more knowledge, then Roy was currently a level-one character. What he needed to do now was find a way to reach max level, not explore the world beyond it.

"It's just that my gaming life is a little different. The protagonists of RPGs usually level up little by little before facing the final boss, but I saw the final boss right at the start and even got killed by it... The creator of this game is simply worse than Hidetaka Miyazaki."

Roy gave a self-mocking smile. He closed his eyes and began recalling how exactly he had crossed over.

He had lived in the A Certain Magical Index World for more than ten years. Before that, as an ordinary person, he had not possessed the ability of "absolute memory," so recalling what had happened more than a decade ago was extremely difficult.

"I remember that on the night I crossed over, I seemed to see a strange incantation. I was curious, so I memorized it, and then I went to bed... After that, when I woke up, I had crossed into another world... No, I think I had a dream that night. In the dream, I accidentally recited the incantation."

The moment Roy remembered that incantation, its contents instantly appeared in his soul. It had been written in simple Chinese, but strangely, Roy could not understand it at all. He recognized every individual character, yet once they were connected, they became something incomprehensible.

He opened his mouth and silently recited it. Aiwass, beside him, noticed that something was wrong and stared at him intently. When Roy uttered the final word, her expression finally changed dramatically. She gave a soft "Huh?" and her body, composed of radiance, disappeared from the bedroom together with Roy.

Roy only felt his vision go dark for a moment. In the next instant, he arrived in an unknown world.

It was like an endless wilderness. Roy stood at its very center, and not far ahead was a staircase leading up into the sky. The sky overhead was very low, only about a hundred meters above him.

The sky was filled with chaotic currents like white mist, seemingly containing endless mysteries. Beneath Roy's feet, however, there seemed to be a huge pane of transparent glass. Beneath the "glass" was actually a starry universe!

That starry universe was like a colorful oil painting, dyed with countless hues. When Roy looked at it, he immediately knew that it was the "A Certain Magical Index World" he had previously inhabited. If he wished, he could return to that starry universe at any time.

"I remember now. I came to this world in a dream before. At that time, this place was still covered in white mist. I thought I was having a lucid dream, so I tried to imagine going to a two-dimensional world, and then I was reborn in the A Certain Magical Index World..."

Many people had probably experienced something similar: sometimes, while dreaming, they suddenly became conscious and realized they were dreaming. At such times, relying on imagination allowed them to control their dreams to some extent. That was exactly what Roy had done back then.

But he had never expected his "dream" to become reality.

"Aiwass, do you know anything about this place?"

Roy turned around and looked at the "Holy Guardian Angel" behind him. At this moment, Aiwass seemed dazed, merely staring at this wondrous place in shock.

After a long while, she finally came to her senses. "...I'm sorry, Roy. Everything here lies beyond the scope of the knowledge I possess. I was only able to appear here because of your presence, which allowed me to manifest this form."

"Since even you don't understand this place, I won't investigate it too deeply for now... I can feel that I can return to the A Certain Magical Index World at any time. But if I go back now, I'll be alone and unable to change anything. I might as well explore this wondrous place first."

Roy lowered his head and took a long look at the starry universe beneath his feet, which resembled an oil painting. Then he began walking forward. "...I clearly remember that this staircase was sealed in my dream. Now there's actually a door at the top."

Intrigued, he stepped onto the staircase and slowly climbed toward its summit, a hundred meters above. Aiwass floated behind him, following close at his heels.

"Aiwass, I just thought of something. Since this place really can lead to different worlds, what do you think would happen if I returned to the Real World and forced the authors to change the contents of their works?"

Roy spoke to Aiwass on a sudden whim.

"It would be meaningless. A world is a complex whole composed of infinite variables, and it follows the most basic logic. A world with excessive logical contradictions would instead place you in danger... Besides, do worlds within 'books' truly exist? It would be better not to reverse this cause-and-effect relationship. My existence is the strongest proof. I can appear in the so-called 'Real World' you mentioned, which proves that I truly exist and am not merely a passage of text in a book."

"...In other words, the world exists first, and its information is then transmitted here through some method we can't understand, becoming a story in a book. That isn't anything inconceivable. A Demon God can accomplish this. They can seal a story inside a book, and you can't deny that the world in that book is false. This mysterious space we're in might be built by an existence even more powerful than a Demon God."

Aiwass explained it to Roy almost like a teacher. Just as the "Holy Guardian Angel" had said, she no longer intended merely to observe Roy. She was willing to help him.

"I understand."

Roy nodded. He did not let Aiwass's words go in one ear and out the other, but committed them firmly to memory.

"You can treat the contents recorded in those books as 'prophecies,' but don't believe them too much. The human world has a theory called the 'butterfly effect,' and it applies equally well to fate. The more you know, the more tightly fate binds you. Only the unknown can create more possibilities."

By then, Roy and Aiwass had reached the final step of the staircase. One more step would carry them through the white-mist-like sky and to the other side of the door.

Roy stopped. He turned to Aiwass and said thoughtfully, "...What I need to know is only the necessary part of 'necessary knowledge.' In other words, I only need to know the outline of a story and its important characters. But I absolutely must not actively seek out more. Is that what you mean?"

Roy understood Aiwass's meaning. In the A Certain Magical Index World, he knew that it was the A Certain Magical Index World and knew some of the major characters, but his memory of the actual story was extremely vague. Since he had not finished reading the books, he knew nothing at all about how things would develop in the future.

Aiwass was warning him not to actively read ahead in the story. If he could see through the future, he might instead become unable to change his fate.

"That is exactly what I mean."

"I see. Aiwass, you too are bound by fate, which is why you seek the unknown to tear apart fate's Spider Web."

Roy chuckled softly.

He knew that Aiwass definitely had her own reasons for helping him. But whatever those reasons were, as long as they did not threaten his life, Roy did not care. Just as this time, when he faced Aleister, if not for Aiwass's help, he would probably have been accidentally killed by Aleister long ago.

Roy's life across two lifetimes, totaling more than thirty years, could only be described as ordinary. Compared with Aiwass's knowledge and life experience, he was completely a novice. Having such an existence help him could only benefit him.

Without hesitation, Roy crossed the final step and arrived at the second level of this mysterious space. Just as he had seen in his dream, the second level was also completely shrouded in white mist. Far ahead, another flight of stairs led upward, though the sky above it was temporarily blocked.

"There's actually another level above this one. How many levels does this world have?"

Roy looked around at the chaotic white world and remarked casually.

Aiwass did not answer, because she understood nothing about this place either.

Roy had not expected an answer from her. After thinking for a moment, he said, "...I wonder how many levels these stairs have, or where they lead. To give them a name, let's call them the God Ascension Stairway."

The last time Roy had come to this world, he had been in a hazy dream. This time, he had arrived consciously. The moment he stepped into the second level of this mysterious space, he understood how to use it.

It was like a wish-granting machine, except it would not directly fulfill a wish. It would only provide an opportunity to achieve one.

Roy pondered for a moment, then slowly said, "...Take me to a world where I can become stronger quickly!"

The moment he finished speaking, the faint white chaotic mist drifting through the space like clouds suddenly contracted as if struck by a hurricane.

Roy's figure vanished into the pure white...

Chapter Three: "Archangel" and "Celestial Scribe"

"It worked!"

When Roy's consciousness shifted again, carrying him from that mysterious space to a new world, he could not contain his joy. He clenched his fist and gave it a forceful wave.

The joy came and went quickly. Roy rapidly calmed himself and began examining his surroundings, making sure that he was safe.

Although Aiwass had agreed to help Roy, her greatest assistance could only be in the realm of knowledge. When it came to pure destruction and power, there was actually very little she could do for Roy.

Aiwass was essentially a "spirit" located on a higher phase. As she herself had said, she was an observer, an existence resembling an extraterrestrial life-form. In her state as a "spirit," Aiwass had little influence over the Material World. For her to truly display all her power, she needed a body—in other words, she needed to incarnate.

However, as an Angel of the Creative Realm, and possibly even of the higher Archetypal Realm, it was impossible to find Aiwass a suitable body. She could temporarily bestow power by possessing someone, but that would affect the host's "spirit" and "soul." Therefore, unless it was absolutely unavoidable, as in the fatal situation with Aleister, Roy would never allow Aiwass to possess him.

The "Holy Guardian Angel" Aiwass possessed many powerful Angelic Arts. Borrowing Aiwass's power through a human body to perform an Angelic Art was no different from attempting suicide.

That was why Aleister wanted to use Academy City's AIM Diffusion Field to create a suitable body for Aiwass. Without a body, Aiwass could not unleash all her power. That power stood on the same level as a Demon God—a supreme existence that merely differed in its mode of expression.

The air around them was somewhat hot and dry. As far as the eye could see was a dreary yellow desert, with not a trace of human activity.

"First, I need to determine whether I'm still on Earth, which world I've reached, and whether this is a place I know... If I'm still on Earth, I'll also need to determine which part of Earth I'm in."

Looking only at the dry desert and the blazing sun overhead, Roy had no way to determine where he was.

"Be careful, Roy... There's a powerful magical reaction to your front right."

Aiwass suddenly warned him.

"Front right? Magic?"

Roy turned to his front right in confusion. In the next instant, his expression changed dramatically. Less than two kilometers away in the direction he was looking, a terrifying wave of sand surged into the sky and transformed into pitch darkness. Even the sun overhead was obscured by the hundred-meter-high sand wave.

"A sandstorm? No, what is that thing—Angels?!"

Within the sand wave, Roy vaguely saw two Angels with wings on their backs fighting.

One Angel's wings resembled the light of heaven, or perhaps flames forging divine majesty. She battled within the sandstorm that blotted out the sky.

The other Angel's wings also resembled burning flames. Unlike the first Angel, however, this Angel bore countless wings upon his back. At a glance, Roy counted more than thirty pairs.

"Thirty-six pairs of wings that resemble flames, appearing as an Angel of fire... Could this Angel be the Celestial Scribe recorded in The Book of Enoch, the Angel who guards the divine throne—Metatron? No, he should be called Enoch!"

"...The other Angel wields a red cross-shaped sword, and his wings resemble both radiance and flames. According to The Bible, he should be Archangel Michael. What world have I come to? How did I encounter the highest-ranking Angels recorded by Judaism and Christianity the moment I arrived? And why are they fighting? I see—could these two Angels be competing for the title of 'the Angel most favored before the divine throne'?"

Although Roy was an insignificant mage, he possessed a certain amount of knowledge in the occult. Apart from the "necessary part of necessary knowledge" taught by Aiwass, the rest of his knowledge came from Aleister Crowley.

Aleister had been born into a Christian family, yet he had held Christianity in contempt. At the same time, he had conducted extremely profound research into Christian occultism. Otherwise, he could never have written that rebellious The Book of 777.

Having read nearly all of Aleister's works, as well as the canonical and apocryphal texts of Christianity, Roy could naturally recognize these two distinctive Angels at a glance.

"The Book of Enoch records that Enoch walked with God for three hundred years before ascending to heaven and becoming the strongest Angel, 'the Little Jehovah,' and Metatron, the 'agent of God.' But this scripture was long ago proven to have been written by someone falsely borrowing Enoch's name. Christianity condemned it as apocrypha, and within the Christian system, the Angel 'Metatron' does not exist at all."

"...Yet in Judaism, Metatron holds an extremely high position, even surpassing Christ. In certain mystical sects of Judaism, he is placed at the very top of the Kabbalah Tree of Life."

"In The Old Testament of The Bible, only two Angels are actually mentioned by name: Michael and Gabriel. Michael is even called 'the one who resembles God' and sits at God's right hand. He is undoubtedly the strongest Angel before the divine throne."

"...Michael and Metatron also overlap greatly in their authorities. Their positions in the two religions are almost identical. This battle is practically a battle between Christian canon and apocrypha—a battle between Judaism and Christianity!"

"...What kind of utterly chaotic world is this?!"

While Roy was made dizzy by the battle between the two Angels before him, the raging sand wave was already rapidly approaching. The shock waves from the Angels' collisions reduced hill after hill to nothingness.

"Damn it!"

Roy cursed under his breath and turned to run. He did not care how these two Angels had appeared or why they were fighting here. He knew only one thing: as an insignificant mage, he would be crushed by the mere aftershock of a battle between two archangels who were practically divine beings.

Roy had no desire to die inexplicably a second time. He might never wake up again.

But how could Roy's running speed compare with the sandstorm? In the blink of an eye, the sandstorm threw him to the ground. He rolled several times through the sand, filling his mouth with salty, bitter grit.

Soon, Roy's vision grew dimmer and dimmer. After entering the sandstorm, he gradually lost his ability to sense light. He knew that if he did not find a way out, he would be buried alive by the sand before those two Angels even needed to attack.

"Huh? There's a cave beneath the sand?"

In his panic, Roy spotted a cavern beneath the sand and immediately crawled inside.

The sandstorm continued chasing him from behind. He quickly ran forward through the cave. It bore obvious traces of artificial construction and clearly was not natural, but at that moment Roy did not have time to consider whether anyone was inside or whether danger awaited him.

No matter who was in the cave, and no matter how dangerous it was, nothing could possibly be more dangerous than the battle between those two archangels outside!

After turning several corners, Roy reached a chamber resembling a secret room. Its walls were built entirely from piled sand, covered in magical symbols. They had clearly been reinforced with magic and were as solid as rock. When Roy saw the arrangements inside the cavern, his pupils contracted, and then delight appeared in his eyes...

Chapter Four: Angelic Art, "Angel Fall"

The objects placed inside the cavern were extremely disorganized. There were strange clay figurines, broken amulets, and some ancient-looking parchment scrolls. Someone unfamiliar with the subject might have thought they had entered a flea market where someone was selling worthless odds and ends.

But Roy, who possessed magical knowledge, knew that although these strange trinkets might not contain much magical power, they all held important symbolic significance in occultism.

"Judging from the style of these objects, the original owner of this cave was not a Christian believer, but a Jewish one. More specifically, he should have belonged to some secret sect of Judaism."

Roy did not casually touch anything. This secret cavern beneath the sand was like a mage's workshop and was an extremely dangerous place. Any inconspicuous trinket inside could be a trap capable of making a person wish they were dead.

"Aiwass, is there any danger here?"

Roy did not act rashly. Instead, he asked Aiwass.

As the "Holy Guardian Angel" who imparted knowledge to others, there were few people who could surpass Aiwass in the field of occultism.

"The magical symbolism here has disappeared."

Although this was no longer the A Certain Magical Index World, nor the Real World where Roy had lived, under some inconceivable influence, occult knowledge was connected across many worlds. The famous theory of the Kabbalah Tree of Life, for example, was applicable in many different worlds.

Aiwass took one look and gave Roy her answer. Then the Angel once again began examining this world with curiosity.

For an existence like Aiwass, what she cared about had never been so-called power. What mattered was the unknown information and knowledge of the world's rules that she gained upon arriving in a new world. Those were what Aiwass desired most.

"True. If this mage's workshop still had defensive functions, I should have been attacked while running inside."

With Aiwass's assurance, Roy relaxed and began examining the various occult objects around him.

"Judging from this paper, is this the original version of The Book of Enoch?"

Roy picked up a worn piece of parchment and glanced over its contents.

"Hmm, what's this...?"

Beside the parchment was a strip of linen dyed with red marks resembling dried blood. "...Jesus's burial shroud? This is the Shroud of Turin!"

After discovering these extremely precious objects in both Judaism and Christianity, Roy quickly began searching through the books nearby.

Soon, Roy confirmed which world he was in—

"This is the Campione world!"

"...The owner of this workshop was a Jewish mage. No, in this world he should be called a magician. Using many precious magical artifacts and Divine Artifacts, this fellow performed a large-scale magical ritual to summon a Disobedient God!"

"Judging from these artifacts, this magician was extremely bold. He actually wanted to summon two Disobedient Gods at once. One of them should have been Metatron, while the other was probably Christ the Son of God!"

Based on his occult knowledge and Aiwass's guidance, Roy quickly figured out what had happened.

The magical artifacts and Divine Artifacts in this cave were all extremely precious. It would have been impossible to collect so many without at least a hundred years. Moreover, the ritual for summoning a Disobedient God was far too grand and would have required decades of preparation. Everything displayed in this cavern represented the results of centuries of effort by multiple generations of a Jewish mystical sect.

As for why this Jewish magician wanted to summon Metatron and Christ the Son of God, Roy could understand that as well. It was the fundamental contradiction between the two religions. Although both believed in God, Judaism did not acknowledge Christ's status, nor did it recognize Christ as the Savior or the Messiah. It regarded him only as a righteous holy man.

Christianity, meanwhile, did not acknowledge Metatron's existence. Therefore, this magician had probably wanted to summon Judaism's supreme Angel and use him to kill Christianity's Son of God, thereby blaspheming Christianity.

"They succeeded, but they also failed. They did summon a Disobedient God, but the one these magicians summoned was not Christ the Son of God at all. It was Archangel Michael. In Christian mythology, Michael was the strongest warrior before God's throne!"

"...Some passages in The Bible's descriptions of Michael hardly sound as though they are describing an Angel. They sound more like descriptions of the Son of God. Christianity does not permit such blasphemy, yet The Bible describes him that way anyway. Therefore, some scholars believe that Christ the Son of God and Michael are actually the same person, which is why The Bible used words describing the Son of God to describe Michael!"