Chapter 802: Collar and Automatic Writing! St. George's Sanctuary! Dragon King's Sigh
The collar.
It was far more than a simple magical ritual. It was a lethal failsafe designed to threaten Index's very life, forcing the erasure of her memories year after year. A cruel, invisible shackle forged by the Church to bind her and absolutely guarantee her loyalty. The spell itself anchored onto a grotesque, complex symbol carved deep into the back of Index's throat, shielded by multiple overlapping layers of defensive barriers.
If her memories were not purged by the time the annual deadline struck, the ritual would automatically activate, snuffing out her life without a shred of mercy.
Ren extended a finger, pressing it lightly against the invisible spell matrix hovering over the young girl's throat. He glanced back over his shoulder at the two stunned magicians behind him. A faint, knowing smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth.
"Once this collar is triggered, a secondary layer of the Church's insurance policy kicks in. They call it Automatic Writing."
He let the words hang in the air for a second.
"It's a system that can freely access and use the entire 103,000 grimoires stored inside her head. Its sole purpose is to protect the library's knowledge from usurpers. You could call it the ultimate automated defense mechanism."
Under normal circumstances, it lay dormant, sleeping beneath her consciousness. But the moment the Grimoire Index faced a lethal crisis, an external assault, an attempt to steal her knowledge, or—in this case—the destruction of her collar, the system hijacked her body. It would activate to neutralize the threat on her behalf.
True to its name, it was entirely automatic. It would mechanically analyze incoming magic, construct the perfect counter-spell, and execute it with ruthless precision. In this state, Index's self-awareness was completely suppressed, buried deep beneath a cold, calculating machine that analyzed and vocalized spells with an utterly dead expression.
In its combat mode, the physical changes were impossible to miss.
Just like what was happening right now.
Index's small body slowly lifted off the ground, floating eerily in mid-air. Her eyelids fluttered shut as if she had simply passed out. A heavy, suffocating pressure flooded the room.
Then, her eyes snapped open.
A piercing, unnatural crimson light bled from her pupils. It wasn't the natural color of her irises. Instead, complex, blood-red magic circles had manifested directly over her eyeballs, spinning with a sinister, mechanical rhythm.
"Magic..." Stiyl choked out the word, the cigarette nearly slipping from his lips.
Kaori Kanzaki froze, her hand instinctively hovering over the hilt of her nodachi. They stared at the floating girl in absolute shock. Index could not use magic—that was the absolute truth they had been fed, the very foundation of their mission. Yet, the overwhelming magical pressure radiating from the girl shattered that lie into a million pieces.
Everything Ren had told them was true. They had been played for absolute fools by the Archbishop.
Without warning, the magic circles in Index's eyes flared. A terrifying, dazzling beam of blood-red light erupted from her gaze, tearing through the air straight toward Ren's head.
"Tsk. Attacking right off the bat? A bit impatient, aren't we?" Ren scoffed.
He didn't even bother to shift his stance. He simply raised a hand and casually swatted the incoming beam of concentrated magical energy aside. The deadly light shattered into harmless red sparks that rained down against the floorboards.
Then, Index spoke.
"Warning. Chapter 3, Section 2. Grimoire Index's collar, first through third barriers confirmed destroyed."
Her voice lacked any trace of the cheerful, gluttonous girl they knew. It was utterly flat, devoid of emotion, dripping with a chilling, mechanical coldness.
"Regeneration preparation... failed. Collar cannot regenerate independently. Based on current threat assessment, protecting the 103,000 volumes of the library and repelling the intruder is the highest priority."
The girl hovering before them moved in a way that defied human anatomy. She shifted with a sickening, boneless fluidity, her limbs swaying like jelly trapped inside a plastic bag. Her glowing, runic eyes locked onto Ren. There was no humanity left in that gaze, none of the innocent warmth that belonged to the young nun.
"This is the Church's insurance..." Kaori murmured, her expression darkening into deep, solemn anger.
The puzzle pieces finally snapped together in her mind. The Church had rigged Index from the very beginning. If anyone ever discovered the truth about her perfect memory and attempted to dismantle the collar, the system would hijack her body. It would weaponize the 103,000 grimoires to unleash devastating magic, solely to slaughter anyone who learned the truth. Every single drop of Index's natural mana had been forcefully diverted to power this automatic interception system.
That was the real reason she couldn't cast spells in her daily life.
"According to the information within the 103,000 volumes of the library, reverse-calculating the magic formula to break through the intruder's barrier... failed," Index droned on, her head tilting slightly to the side like a marionette with tangled strings. "No matching magic found. Initiating preparation to execute specific counter-magic against the intruder... Magic formula obtained. Successfully prepared the most effective spell for neutralizing a single target."
The air in the room grew heavy, thick with the scent of ozone and burning mana.
"Executing specific magic: St. George's Sanctuary. The intruder will be destroyed."
A deafening shockwave rattled the building. The two crimson magic circles hovering over Index's eyes violently expanded. Within a fraction of a second, they swelled to over two meters in diameter, overlapping in the air right in front of her face, perfectly synchronized with her gaze.
As she gently swayed her head, the massive, glowing arrays tracked her movements flawlessly.
Then, Index began to sing.
It was a haunting, multi-layered chant that scraped against the eardrums—a bizarre, alien melody constructed from a language that the human mind simply could not process.
In a blinding flash, the twin magic circles erupted. Jagged streaks of black lightning, laced with crackling blue-white sparks, tore through the room. A concentrated beam of pure white light particles—so dense it literally fractured the space around it—blasted toward the three of them.
"So," Ren asked casually, his hands tucked comfortably into his pockets. "Are you two going to save your friend yourselves, or should I handle it?"
The devastating beam of spatial light slammed directly into Ren's chest—and phased right through him. The lethal energy passed through his body as if hitting empty air, rippling harmlessly against the wall behind him.
"Of course we'll do it!" Stiyl roared, taking one last, desperate drag from his cigarette before flicking it away. Flames roared to life around him. "Innocentius! Block it—ugh!"
He didn't even get to finish his dramatic command.
The towering flame giant of his spell was instantly obliterated by the sheer kinetic force of Index's attack. The resulting shockwave slammed into Stiyl's chest like a freight train, launching the tall magician backward. His head cracked violently against the concrete wall. His eyes rolled back, and he slumped to the floor, completely out cold.
Ren's mouth twitched. He stared at the unconscious magician in sheer disbelief.
'This guy got knocked out before he even finished his flashy intro,'Ren thought, fighting the urge to facepalm.'Well, I guess he is only fourteen. Kids that age do have excellent sleep quality. Out like a light.'
Beside him, Kaori Kanzaki fared far better. Her hand was a blur, drawing her nodachi with phantom-like speed. The blade danced through the air, slicing the incoming particles of light into harmless, dissipating fragments with absolute precision.
Ignoring the downed pyromancer and the swordswoman, Index's glowing, mechanical gaze remained locked entirely on Ren, who hadn't moved a single inch.
"St. George's Sanctuary has no effect on the primary intruder. Switching to alternative magic," the emotionless voice echoed. "Continuing the mission to annihilate the intruder and protect the Grimoire Index."
The moment the words left her lips, the atmosphere shifted. The ceiling above them seemed to vanish, replaced by a blinding radiance. Countless pure white, glowing feathers began to drift downward, each one carrying the dense, heavy pressure of a solid pillar of light.
Dozens, then hundreds of these radiant feathers descended upon the summer night, falling gracefully like a deadly, glowing winter snow.
"That's the Dragon King's Sigh," Ren stated calmly, watching the beautiful but lethal display. He glanced sideways at Kaori. "It's a high-tier spell that carries the exact same conceptual weight as the legendary breath attack of St. George's Dragon. No matter how physically powerful you are, it's virtually impossible for a mortal body of flesh and blood to withstand a direct hit."
He turned his attention fully to the tense swordswoman. "So, given the current situation... are you still planning to save her yourself?"
Kaori's violet eyes were dark with solemnity. Her grip on her nodachi tightened until her knuckles turned white. She knew the terrifying legends behind the Dragon King's Sigh, but she had never expected Index to be capable of wielding such apocalyptic magic. This was the true, unchained power of the 103,000 grimoires.
It wasn't that she was helpless. If she fully unleashed the power of her Stigma as a Saint, she could undoubtedly counter the incoming attack. But doing so in such close quarters would cause a massive magical backlash. It would almost certainly catch Index in the crossfire, heavily injuring or even killing the very girl she was trying to protect.
Weighing the dire circumstances, Kaori didn't hesitate for another second. She swallowed her pride, her eyes burning with desperate resolve as she looked at the laid-back young man beside her.
"Mr. Ren," she pleaded, her voice thick with emotion. "I am willing to pay absolutely any price. Please... you have to save Index!"
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