Starting in Type-Moon, but a Magician from A Certain Magical Index

Facing Artemis's questioning, Mephistopheles blinked. "Why does it feel like you're a wife keeping her husband in line?"

"I'm not!" Artemis raised her voice slightly and pouted. "I just feel like you were thinking about some other woman. My intuition is very accurate!"

"Because of a woman's sixth sense?" Mephistopheles said. Just as he was about to answer her, a vortex suddenly appeared below them!

The vortex appeared without warning. The instant Mephistopheles saw it, his expression changed drastically. He thrust out his right hand and shoved Artemis away!

Time and space were completely distorted. An incomparably powerful force had created this warped region, as though it intended to devour everything here!

"Get out of here! Don't worry about me!" Mephistopheles pushed Artemis away with all his strength, but the recoil sent him falling downward, where the vortex caught him.

Medea, who had just floated in to see what was happening, witnessed the scene as well. She couldn't help shouting, "Mephistopheles!"

After being pushed away by Mephistopheles, how could Artemis, a goddess, possibly allow a mortal to save her? Seeing Mephistopheles fall, her heart tightened, and she immediately chased after him!

Almost at the same time, she shouted to Medea, who had just entered the volcanic cave above, "Don't come down! Go find Apollo!"

As her words fell, the girl's figure was swallowed by the vortex and vanished!

The vortex disappeared as well. Even the lava at the bottom of the volcano had been swallowed, leaving only silence and not a trace of life.

"Mephistopheles! Artemis!"

No matter how Medea called out, there was no response. After trying for several minutes, she could only give up and rush toward Apollo's Temple.

For mortals, going to Mount Olympus was nearly impossible, but inside a Temple, it was possible to contact the gods directly!

In the dim space, time and space were completely sealed off. The ground that had been swallowed in gave Mephistopheles somewhere to stand, while the peculiar spatial structure gave this place the concepts of up and down.

"The space is large enough, and the air... there should be enough to keep moving around for several months." Mephistopheles briefly examined the area before looking at the sexy girl beside him. "So why did you come down, dear Moon Goddess?"

Artemis tilted her head slightly and stubbornly said, "What business is it of yours? I just came down to see whether anything fun was happening!"

Watching the girl stubbornly deny it, Mephistopheles smiled and shook his head without exposing her. He simply sat down on the ground, looking utterly relaxed.

"That was a miscalculation. I never expected Typhon to have hidden something like this underground, continuously refining Zeus's lightning. If it really rose again, it probably intended to smash lightning equivalent to more than a dozen of Zeus's full-power attacks straight onto Zeus's head."

The power of lightning that could affect time and space was indeed formidable. It had shattered space itself and even formed this peculiar region.

Perhaps Typhon had failed to react to Mephistopheles's strength, preventing it from using the power it had prepared for so many years. Still, at the very least, it activated that power at the moment of its death.

Perhaps realizing that it could not kill Mephistopheles directly, that power transformed into an attack on space, creating this special temporal prison that completely trapped him.

Such treatment made Mephistopheles let out a long sigh.

"Do you know, Artemis?"

"Know what?" Artemis sat beside him and asked. The space here was extraordinarily solid; even she found it difficult to break through.

Since they could not break it, resting for a while was not a bad choice.

"In stories, when good and evil fight, the righteous side can't defeat the evil side, so after a desperate final strike fails, they activate a trap and seal the evil side away. From then on, evil is sealed, and the world becomes peaceful.

"So does that mean Typhon is the righteous side in this story, and I'm the evil side?"

"Why do you care about that?"

"I don't care. I just think it's interesting. I never thought I'd get the treatment of being sealed away too, and this is already the second time I've been locked up..."

That made Artemis laugh. "Then it seems you've offended quite a lot of people, enough that so many are wary of you."

"No way! The first one was clearly someone I had just met for the first time. They were all smiles when we met, then turned around and locked me up!" Mephistopheles immediately protested. "I'm obviously so cute and easy to get along with!"

Artemis looked at Mephistopheles and nodded along with him. "Mm, very easy to get along with. Someone who blows people up the moment he arrives is incredibly easy to get along with!"

Mephistopheles turned his face away. "...Wasn't that for world peace?"

Seeing Mephistopheles's embarrassed expression, Artemis laughed happily. She leaned her whole body against him, wanting to turn his face back, grabbing his cheeks as she shouted, "Let me see your expression right now!"

"No!"

"Let me see!"

"No!"

The two wrestled for a while. Artemis eventually gave up on that idea, while Mephistopheles's expression had long since returned to normal. After lying there together for a while, Artemis said, "This place is so empty. It's kind of boring..."

"Yeah..."

That made the girl narrow her eyes as she asked with a smile, "Do you want this place to look prettier?"

"I do!"

Artemis became even happier.

"Then call me the great Moon Goddess Artemis!"

Mephistopheles looked at the girl and shook his head. "No."

Thus, the Moon Goddess began making a fuss again.

"Say it! Hurry up and say it!"

Apollo's Efforts

Medea rushed to Apollo's Temple at her fastest speed. She did not dare delay in the slightest. Forgetting even to smooth the wrinkles in her clothes, she walked straight into the Temple, utterly unable to care whether such behavior was disrespectful toward a god.

Then, she began to pray in the most devout posture.

"I pray to you, great Apollo. Please save Mephistopheles and your sister Artemis!"

She was desperately anxious as she waited for Apollo's response, and Apollo's response did indeed come.

Amid gentle light, a handsome man with golden curls appeared within the radiance. He first comforted the extremely nervous girl. "Do not worry, daughter of Aeetes. Your lover will not be in danger. His strength is so great that he will not face a crisis over something like that.

"You need only wait for a while and let them escape on their own."

As the god of prophecy, Apollo could see certain things in the future. This finally calmed Medea's anxious heart. She trusted Apollo. After all, Artemis had been dragged into that mysterious vortex alongside Mephistopheles. Even if Apollo wanted to harm Mephistopheles, he would not harm Artemis as well.

Moreover, Apollo and Mephistopheles seemed to have a rather good relationship. The two had spoken on Mount Olympus before, and they had clearly chatted and laughed together.

Still, Medea could not understand what that vortex actually was.

"That was a trap Typhon planted. Ever since Zeus defeated it, Typhon had remained unconvinced. It believed it had lost because the gods resorted to schemes, and the most important part of that was the One-Day Fruit. Because it swallowed a One-Day Fruit, Typhon lost its power and became weak.

"So, even after losing its power and while sleeping, Typhon constantly desired revenge. To that end, it had continuously accumulated strength. It spent a hundred years accumulating the first bolt of lightning carrying the power of Zeus, king of the gods. Then, relying on that power, it condensed a second bolt at a faster pace, repeating the process over and over, growing quicker and quicker, until it created that trap..."

Apollo spoke as though telling a story.

"Did you know that the One-Day Fruit actually possesses its own consciousness?"

"Its own consciousness?"

"Yes. Though it has no physical form, the One-Day Fruit truly possesses its own consciousness. When the Fates made Typhon eat the One-Day Fruit, they were actually making the One-Day Fruit sacrifice itself. To the One-Day Fruit, it was probably as though the gods had abandoned it."

Apollo sighed after saying that.

"I've often wondered whether it resents the gods..."

Then he shook his head again. "It truly should resent them. Only resentment could ease the pain of being sealed away together..."

"But... the power Typhon displayed this time didn't seem weakened. Even without approaching it, I could feel from outside that the might it displayed was no different from the power the king of the gods showed when he fought the Gigantes that day!"

Medea's words made Apollo smile.

"That was because of the One-Day Fruit's choice. Once it discovered there was a possibility of escaping, no matter how slim that chance was, it would certainly try. Thus, the One-Day Fruit reversed its own power, instantly restoring Typhon, who had been in a state of depleted strength, to its perfect state."

Then Apollo corrected himself. "Its perfect Primordial Dragon state. Even by reversing the One-Day Fruit's power, it could not give it something it never possessed, which was why Typhon could not return to its Machine Gods state."

Medea finally understood why that battle had seemed so horrifying. Though she had not seen much of it, when the Temple collapsed and everything was revealed at the end, she understood why she had felt a terrifying power as though Zeus himself had descended.

It was not just Mephistopheles's power that was so immense. Typhon's power had been the same!

But the One-Day Fruit, having made such a choice...

"You need not worry about it. It will make its own choices. For it, whether it remains silent in this era, hides away, travels, or chooses to wait forever for an era that makes it willing to emerge, those are all its choices. Its mission is over, and the gods will not interfere with its will."

"No, I just want to smack it! It suddenly did something so dangerous!" Medea said in dissatisfaction. "It suddenly released all of Typhon's power. If Mephistopheles weren't strong, wouldn't that have been the end of it?"

That could be understood as, "If Mephistopheles weren't strong, the world would be in danger," or as, "If Mephistopheles weren't strong, Mephistopheles would be in danger." Though the former was the more appropriate interpretation, through his own understanding, his observation of Medea's expression, and especially his power of prophecy, Apollo was certain that Medea meant the latter.

Compared to a crisis threatening the world, the safety of her man was the most important thing to Medea.

Watching the development of the future, the Medea who had fallen under control because of the Golden Fleece, ultimately killed her own family, and was later betrayed by the person she had helped even at the cost of killing them, Apollo suddenly smiled. "I have to say, meeting Mephistopheles truly was the best fortune of your life."

Those words made Medea blush, while Apollo began wondering why both the Medea in his prophecy and the Medea before him were so obviously love-struck, yet the future Medea had become so hysterical.

In that future that would no longer continue developing, had she truly suffered some kind of trauma?

Was it because she had killed her own family with her own hands, leaving her constantly burdened by pressure in her heart?

"Human emotions—no, changes in one's mental state—really do need more attention. But the goddess of love... she should be very familiar with such things, yet she pays no attention to them at all. Using any means necessary to achieve her goal is one of her traits, I suppose."

As Apollo thought this, he looked again at Medea, who was clearly still worried about Mephistopheles, and a trace of guilt flashed through his heart.

Even though he could pull them out now, he could not do so, because this concerned his sister's happiness. Therefore, he had to let those two spend some time alone together.

Thus, Apollo asked, "You have been studying magic under Hecate, correct?"

"Yes, great Apollo."

"You fought the Gigantes last time and battled the dragon beast this time, accumulating considerable experience. Your power is also undergoing a qualitative transformation. These are all changes brought about by your experiences.

"However, you also have your own weakness. Although constructing a Temple can prevent others from engaging you in close combat to a certain extent, you are ultimately still passive. If you can strengthen your own attacks, even merely your ranged attacks, you can be safer."

Medea nodded gently. "I understand everything you have said, but learning close combat is difficult. It is hard to master quickly."

"If you can learn everything in this book, I can grant you a blessing. Whenever you stand where light shines, your strength will surpass that of mortals, and your eyes will be able to observe all things!"

As Apollo spoke, a book appeared in his hand. Medea looked toward it and found that it glittered with golden light, making it impossible to see what was written on the cover.

"This is a trial. Only after you pass it will I grant you a new blessing," Apollo, who had already bestowed a blessing upon Medea once, said.

Yet inwardly, he was helpless over his own actions.

"Only this method can make her temporarily forget about what is happening over there. The blessing can count as compensation. Sister, your younger brother has sacrificed quite a lot for you..."

The Proactive Moon Goddess

Artemis was like a cheerful girl who had forgotten all her troubles, grabbing Mephistopheles and fussing with him. Her energy was so abundant that more than ten minutes had already passed, yet she had not stopped.

Finally, left with no choice, Mephistopheles could only surrender.

"Great Goddess Artemis, please make this place less boring and empty!"

"Seeing how devout you are, I, the goddess Artemis, shall grant your request!" Artemis said with both hands on her hips, looking like an underage girl showing off how impressive she was.

As her words fell, the world began to change. In the once-empty sky, where there had only been void, a bright moon appeared. Moonlight spilled down onto the ground, and then a tiny sprout emerged from the earth.

The sprout grew rapidly, transforming into a towering tree!

It was an oak tree, a lush and flourishing oak tree!

The appearance of the moon and oak tree brought the breath of nature into this lifeless world!

Legend had it that Rome's Moon Goddess Diana, Artemis's identity during the Roman era, also bore the title of Goddess of Oaks.

Mephistopheles sensed the changes. Looking at Artemis, whose face clearly said, "Praise me already," he summoned a staff in his hand, followed by an astrolabe, a dagger, and a holy grail around him.

The power of the four elements began to gather and continuously evolve in this place. At that moment, he drew upon a force so powerful that Mephistopheles found it difficult to control.

Yet that power was also extremely ordinary. It was a power that existed everywhere in the world!

Behind Mephistopheles, the phantom of the Tree of Life appeared.

"The power descending from the Crown, passing through Wisdom, Understanding, Mercy, Strength, Beauty, Victory, Splendor, Foundation, and finally falling into the Kingdom! That is the supreme and pure Monad, endlessly extending, manifesting in the material world!"

It was an incomparably powerful force. Even revealing only a tiny trace of it allowed Mephistopheles to display power greater than when he summoned the four great angels.

Yet that power could not be controlled. If used as an offensive method, it might even collapse him along with everything else!

However, Mephistopheles was not using it to destroy anything. He was merely creating something.

A vast amount of green appeared across the ground—the emerald green of grass. The grass rapidly spread over the earth. As it appeared, part of the ground sank, and water welled up within it, filling the hollow and forming a small pond.

Flowers bloomed among the grass, releasing a faint fragrance and making this moonlit place even more dreamlike and beautiful.

This area was only about the size of two or three ordinary classrooms. That was already Mephistopheles's current limit. In some respects, making use of the power known as Creation Lightning truly exceeded his present level.

Artemis watched the scene with dreamy eyes. She had thought she would give him a surprise, but she had not expected him to give her an even greater one.

It was simply too beautiful, beautiful enough to intoxicate her and make her unwilling to wake from it.