Starting in Fate, but as an A Certain Magical Index Mage

"Mm, don't worry. I'm the moon goddess, after all. I won't run into any trouble." After saying that, Artemis did not linger and instead headed over to Mephistopheles and the others.

After bidding farewell to the Greek gods, Mephistopheles and the others quickly left Mount Olympus with Artemis's help and flew toward Thebes.

Heracles glanced at Medea, who was nestled against Mephistopheles's side. As someone who had already had intimate relations with many women, he immediately noticed the change in their relationship, and a faint smile appeared on his face.

But then he looked at Artemis, frowned, and sighed.

Being noticed by a god is going to be troublesome... Heracles thought silently, but said nothing.

One side was his good friend, while the other was his sister. Heracles felt that taking either side would be problematic. Besides, if those two ended up together, it did not seem like a bad thing for him.

So in the end, he decided not to interfere and let nature take its course.

After returning to Thebes, Mephistopheles was in no hurry to leave. First, he needed to stay a few more days to make sure Heracles's madness had truly been cured. Second, he had some matters of his own to handle.

To that end, he built another small house near Heracles's home. With magic, constructing it was naturally incredibly easy. Since Mephistopheles had designed it according to his own memories, it looked quite exquisite.

The first floor held a living room, while the second had three small bedrooms, a balcony, and a small room connected to the balcony that served as a study.

Even though the books in the study were all formed from something akin to illusions, it did not change the fact that anyone entering the room would see shelves full of books.

Mephistopheles had always felt that reading in a study was very comfortable. Most importantly, there was the atmosphere of being surrounded by books.

And now, he was comfortably settled in the little study on the second floor, humming a tune as he continued writing words in the book spread open before him. They were still in Latin.

Artemis quietly entered, then carefully approached Mephistopheles from behind. She looked at what he was writing and blinked in confusion.

She could not understand what was written there. It was not any language or script she knew.

However, that did not stump her. Through her interactions with the Root, she had begun to grasp some relatively basic things, such as writing.

Thus, before long, the beautiful girl was able to understand the content Mephistopheles was writing.

But that only left Artemis with even more questions.

"Is this about the Greek gods?"

It was indeed about the Greek gods. Yet precisely because it was about the Greek gods, Artemis found herself completely unable to understand what exactly she was reading.

For example, Mephistopheles was currently writing about the Gigantomachy. Yet in his account, the Gigantes had not arisen from Sephar's corpse. Instead, they belonged to the same pantheon as the Olympian gods and possessed the same bloodline.

Moreover, unlike the humanoid giants she knew, the giants described here had human upper bodies but serpent-like lower halves. Most bizarre of all, these giants actually had two snake tails!

These beings were born clad in armor and armed with weapons. One look was enough to tell that they were gods born purely for battle!

As she continued reading, this myth also claimed that these giants possessed immortal bodies, impervious to blades and spears, leaving the gods unable to deal with them!

In response to Artemis's question, Mephistopheles merely nodded lightly. He was extremely focused right now. Though he was humming, his mind was completely concentrated, unwilling to be distracted too much.

This original magical tome had already recorded some of the magic Mephistopheles knew, and had gained magical power itself. But it had originally been a divine weapon forged by the god of fire, and Mephistopheles had now helped transform it into a spiritual item, making it exceptionally special.

For example, its pages would never run out, yet from the outside, its thickness remained fixed. This gave it an excellent foundation: it could be expanded endlessly.

At this moment, Mephistopheles was doing something else. Since this book had been born from the work of Greece's god of fire, he would use it to record Greek mythology.

Though the god of fire here was not the true god of fire Mephistopheles knew, from the world's perspective, he did indeed possess the identity of "Greek" "god of fire" for this region. By using that correspondence, he could make the book better align with Greek mythology.

Although this was merely an experiment Mephistopheles was conducting and he could not yet confirm whether it would truly succeed, he had nothing else to do right now. He still had to wait for the story of the Argo to begin, and there was plenty of time to spare in between, so he started this experiment.

After all, it cost nothing. He might as well give it a try.

As for why he had chosen the Greek myths he knew, that was naturally because he was more familiar with them and had studied them more thoroughly. More importantly, once completed, that mythology would be able to display more magical effects.

"You're so serious that you're barely paying attention to me..." Artemis muttered. Then she smiled slightly and walked out. "I'm going to play with Medea. Remember to tell me tonight which Greece you're writing about!"

She knew that Mephistopheles came from another world, so she did not say much about it. In Artemis's estimation, perhaps Greek mythology in Mephistopheles's world was simply like this?

"Sure. I can tell you some of the mythological stories I know." Mephistopheles nodded and continued his work. He had a feeling—or rather, a warning from his intuition.

He had to complete this original magical tome. In the future, this book would definitely be of enormous help to him!

"Medea!" Artemis happily came over to Medea's side. Medea was holding a wand and constructing the territory needed for her magecraft around herself.

"Artemis." Medea looked at the cheerful moon goddess. The girl who was diligently training asked, "What is it?"

Artemis called out, "Let's play together!"

"Play?" Medea was slightly stunned and asked in confusion, "How?"

Now that Medea knew the other woman was Artemis and Artemis's identity had been revealed, Medea naturally called her by the name Artemis. Since the two were familiar with one another, there was no longer much formality between them. They were more like friends.

"Aren't you learning how to construct magical territory? How about this? I'll attack, and you build territory to defend. Keep increasing the territory's strength, and I'll keep breaking through it. We'll see where your limit is. What do you think?"

Medea was slightly stunned as she looked at the smiling moon goddess.

"This is playing? Isn't this just special training for me?"

"It's pretty much play for me too. But since we're playing, we should make it interesting. How about this? If I break through every time, you have to answer some questions for me! Of course, if there's even one time I can't break through, then I lose!"

Hearing Artemis say that, Medea thought for a moment before nodding. "Sure. It's a deal!"

"Then let's begin!"

Artemis took out her bow and arrows, while Medea began constructing her territory. She started controlling and transforming this entire area—or rather, everything around her—into a temple.

Very quickly, Medea finished constructing the temple. But immediately afterward, Artemis broke through it with a single arrow!

That was the power of a god. Even though Artemis had restrained herself greatly, she could still see through weaknesses in an instant and strike at them precisely.

Artemis was doing it on purpose!

But this intentional pressure was exactly what Medea needed!

With the first failure, Medea quickly discovered the weaknesses in the territory she had just constructed. She began specifically reinforcing them and started building a second territory.

Then it was broken through again!

She constructed a brand-new territory again!

And it was directly broken through again!

This process was like Artemis constantly searching for flaws while Medea continuously repaired each flaw she found. After continuing like this for more than a dozen rounds, Medea finally reached her limit.

The territory she had now constructed was far stronger than her original one. Not only had she fixed a great number of flaws, she had even increased its overall strength by more than half!

To raise its strength by so much without improving her own magical power or anything else was already an extremely impressive feat!

Yet even so, Artemis still shattered it with one arrow.

"I win!" Artemis said with a giggle before walking over.

Medea was panting heavily, drenched in sweat. Her clothes clung tightly to her skin, making her look exceptionally alluring. Even Artemis was stunned for a moment by the sight.

If Mephistopheles were here, he definitely wouldn't be able to resist, Artemis muttered quietly. Then she smiled at Medea. "Go take a bath!"

"Sure!"

The two girls walked into the house—or rather, into the courtyard that had been built. There was a specially dug swimming pool here, which Mephistopheles had naturally created.

In this era, people often chose places like icy mountain springs to bathe. After all, neither Medea nor Artemis lacked skill or courage. But Mephistopheles naturally considered more than that.

Besides, for the sake of enjoying life, he much preferred having somewhere to swim in his own courtyard.

And so, this swimming pool came to be.

The two girls first washed the sweat from their bodies in the washroom inside the house, then ran to the pool to play. After they had played for a while, they leaned against the side of the pool to rest and drink chilled fruit juice. Then Artemis suddenly asked, "By the way, when you and Mephistopheles were... doing that, what did it feel like?"

Medea froze instantly, then her face flushed bright red. She opened her mouth, but only made incoherent "ah, ah, ah" sounds.

Medea had never expected Artemis to ask such a question. But they had agreed at the start that the loser would answer the winner's questions, leaving her in an awkward position.

Seeing Medea so embarrassed, Artemis said with a giggle, "It's fine, don't rush. You can think about it first, then tell me slowly."

Medea stammered for a long while before finally saying, "It... it felt really good, really happy. It was like my whole body and mind suddenly relaxed, as if... as if I had suddenly risen somewhere..."

Artemis blinked. Though Medea's voice was as soft as a mosquito's buzz, she heard every word clearly.

Even so, Artemis felt that hearing it was almost the same as hearing nothing, because the description was too vague and lacked any real detail.

Looking at Medea, who was practically about to dive beneath the water, Artemis knew she would not get anything more by asking. Instead, the moon goddess found herself even more confused.

So what exactly does it feel like? It must feel really good, or Zeus wouldn't go around looking for people to do it with...

Who knew whether Zeus, far away in the divine realm, had sneezed because of Artemis's thoughts? At the very least, Mephistopheles upstairs had heard every word perfectly clearly.

"They really are close. They're practically best sisters now..." Mephistopheles muttered as he wrote the final word in the book before him.

At this point, he had finally added the hymns belonging to Zeus as well. The book had now recorded all the Greek myths he knew, and under the operation of magical power, those myths began to stabilize and stir.

Holding the magical tome, Mephistopheles sensed the power within and smiled faintly.

"No problem. It really can be used, and it's much more convenient than casting it myself. As expected, divine weapons can be used this way!"

The Magic Ritual of Love

A wonderful life was spending day after day accompanied by research he liked, girls he liked, and games he liked.

Mephistopheles felt that he was almost becoming decadent. Fortunately, even while engaging in the encouragement of love, he could still practice magic, allowing him to keep working hard.

Hard work was very important.

However, Medea, one of the main participants, still had some doubts about it.

At this moment, the girl's entire body was flushed, fragrant sweat covering her skin. Extreme pleasure had left her in a state of near exhaustion.

"Mephistopheles, is this true? This advanced magic you mentioned?"

Mephistopheles gently kissed the girl's cheek, then smiled. "Of course it's true. Since ancient times, the most effective and fastest-working ritual has been this kind of magic!"

Medea could sense strange energy flowing around them before slowly dissipating. During their pleasure just now, something had indeed descended, but she had no way of knowing what it was. The only thing she could be certain of was that it was something akin to the gods—or perhaps something even higher than the gods.

Mephistopheles had naturally not lied. After their pleasure just now, the magic had indeed activated normally. And the target of this magic was actually the legendary Whore of Babylon.

Not that Saber-faced person from the Fate world, but Babalon, the apex of feminine power within the corresponding Tree of Life. She was the supreme embodiment of feminine power, an existence at the 8=3 understanding of Binah!

She represented the Mother of All, and through this particular method, it was even possible to draw down her true body!

But that was not only extremely difficult, it was also extremely dangerous. Though she loved all things as the Mother of All, her authority could cause everything to return and become a thing without self.

If one could cross over it, one could even cross the Abyss directly. But if one could not, then congratulations—back to the initial state.

In a sense, there was not much incongruity in comparing this being directly to a certain Black Goat Mother.

As a transmigrator, Mephistopheles naturally knew a little about the Thelemic magical system studied by Aleister, the founder of Academy City.

This magical ritual that summoned Babalon's power belonged to the Thelemic system. It could be considered part of the same school as Academy City's espers.

However, Mephistopheles was not trying to summon Babalon. He merely wanted to draw out a portion of Babalon's power. Even if he failed, it did not matter. But if he succeeded, that power would bless the woman in the ritual.

Not the man, but the woman, because Babalon was the Mother of All!

She was the highest existence of feminine power!

Using this magical ritual to turn the human body into part of the ritual and solidify it—if successful, Medea would receive an enormous improvement.

This improvement might be subtle, but over time, its power would gradually reveal itself.

Now, aside from being Hecate's priestess, Medea had naturally gained the identity of "Babalon's priestess" as well!

That was Mephistopheles's true purpose!

"This feels a little strange..." After recovering some of her strength, the girl slowly raised her hand. Drops of blood actually flowed from her palm. Under her control, the blood danced through the air before returning directly into her body!

Her charm also became stronger at that moment. Nothing had visibly changed, yet she somehow seemed even more captivating. She took a deep breath, then felt certain information slowly emerge in her mind. "Is this a kind of magic that controls blood, even flesh?"

"For now, it only controls flesh and blood. If you can reach the extreme, it won't just be flesh. It will be all tangible things, and you may even give form to things without form." Mephistopheles smiled. "See? I was right. This magic succeeded!"

"So do I have to worship this... this being in the future?"

Seeing Medea's hesitation and conflict, Mephistopheles shook his head. "You're merely exploring the path of magic. Just follow your own heart. As far as I know, there are even magicians who beat up the gods they worship, magicians who curse gods and demand that gods do things for them. There are quite a few of them, in fact."

Medea was shocked. She could not help asking, "What kind of world was your original world?!"

Mephistopheles thought carefully for a moment, then smiled. "A peaceful, friendly world where everyone was full of ideals and love!"

Medea's face plainly said, "Don't lie to me."

"Really!"

It was just that because their ideals differed, they often had to fight. But that was no longer important. Mephistopheles thought silently.

At that moment, Mephistopheles suddenly froze. He felt as though he had suddenly caught onto something, like a flash of inspiration.

"Wait..."