Aiwass Summoning

Kamijou had seen that magic battle.

And that was why he did not have to worry about being taken by surprise and killed.

The “human” named Aleister held his right hand forward. He extended his thumb and forefinger in a handgun gesture. He aimed the imaginary muzzle toward Kamijou’s belly.

And a few numbers scattered from his hand like sparks.

32, 30, 10.

“!?”

Several illusionary gunshots rang out in a row. It did not matter that the gun was flintlock. If these had been actual lead bullets, there would have been nothing Kamijou could do. But this was magic. That meant his surefire right hand would work against it. Having too perfect an image of something could be both a good thing and a bad thing.

He deflected the bullets and moved right up to Aleister.

Or he should have.

“Spray.”

“Wha-?”

Kamijou’s confused voice did not actually leave his mouth as sound.

Before it could, an unpleasant cracking sound stabbed into him from the side. He doubled over as an impact tore into his ribs. He had been running forward, but he was knocked sideways. Blood burst from his mouth as he breathed. Unable to cry out or scream, he rolled again and again across the invisible floor.

“Who are you looking at? The person standing here is the magician who has decided to live forever because he loathes the collisions between phases more than anyone else.”

“Gah…bah!? Are you saying you’ve constructed a way to gather together the unpredictable sparks and spray so you can target and fire it!?”

“Do not act so surprised by what is no more than a lightning rod. And it is limited to the magic that I launch myself. But if I had completed this spell 100 years earlier, I might have been able to show some kindness to an innocent baby.”

Kamijou could not just crawl around on the floor.

Aleister had already changed his stance. He held out his right and gently grasped the empty air. The spark-like numbers scattered: 13, 5, 32. It was like inviting fire by scraping a lighter’s flint. Kamijou had rarely ever seen the real thing, but for some reason the sharp point of a fencing sword appeared in the back of his mind.

Spiritual Tripping.

This magic forcibly drove the desired image into the viewer’s mind.

This spell gave the value of the real object to the pantomime.

(I’m going to be…stabbed!!)

Kamijou immediately tried to roll away.

But Aleister jabbed into empty air regardless.

No.

No!!

“The Blasting Rod.”

With that short warning, a pleasant sound stabbed into Kamijou’s right shoulder. A dark red hole as thick as his littler finger was opened there. An invisible blade had stabbed him. Even without an explanation, his instincts and the intense pain told him the answer.

“Ugwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?”

The range was clearly longer than the image in the back of his mind. Could it change this much just because it had no physical form? That was Kamijou’s guess, but something was not right.

He had seen that conflict.

Magic only appeared to have infinite possibilities to those who did not understand how it worked. He only had to recall the magicians from that Golden age. They had always followed some kind of rules to produce a limited power that they then used to decorate the world as they saw fit.

Say you wanted to extend the length because the attack could not reach.

To do so, there had to be rules or a theory that allowed it.

“The Blasting…Rod!! Is that what did it!?”

“It amplifies the magic’s power to 10 times what the target thinks it is. That is the surest and simplest symbol of power that my one absolute master, Allan Bennett, specialized in. Although to avoid jealousy from foolish Westcott or Mathers, he disguised it as a trick that sent the target’s refined magic power out of control to knock them unconscious without harming them.”

Kamijou did not have time to wonder if the initial attack that had hit him, Tsuchimikado, and the others had been amplified like that.

13, 5, 32. In other words, the sword again.

He dodged based on the assumption that the length of the rapier would be 10 times the image he saw in his head, but a dark red hole was opened in his side.

“Gbh!?”

“When you assume the length will be extended 10 times, the Blasting Rod uses that as the basis for the 10 times amplification. Thus, the blade is extended 100 times.”

At that length, the blade could slice across this entire space. He could not pull it out. To avoid being held in place by the imaginary blade skewering him, Kamijou grabbed it with his right hand. It shattered and vanished into the ether and he regained his freedom in exchange for losing the plug keeping the wound closed.

If Aleister had intended to eliminate all magic, he must have planned to fight the Magic Gods on his own. Had he had any realistic chance of that without an exception like Kamisato Kakeru’s World Rejecter? Kamijou had his doubts, but this seemed to be the trick.

If he could not do it as a human, he would draw out the destructive power from the Magic Gods themselves.

Drawing out the power of a god and defeating a god while remaining human was the way a summoner thought.

Instead of becoming a god, he would control them and rule them.

Nothing could have been more arrogant, but that just showed how much hatred he had in his heart.

However, that methodology actually showed some promise of working against full-power Othinus. How to mentally cut down a Magic God who had absolute confidence in their power was still a major question, but this still had far better odds than using any kind of human power against them.

And…

“Do not think this is all there is.”

Aleister Crowley pointed toward the empty heavens.

“Why did I drive you on with the chain assassins and mountain devilishness which reaches for human karma and pushed you onward? Why did I have you climb the alternate-dimensional mountain of the third tree? Why did I have you pursue my past? Why did I reveal the Spiritual Tripping and the Blasting Rod? All things have a reason. If you do not know what that reason is, then it means you have not studied enough.”

“…?”

“It is all a single ceremony,” he announced.

Then the spell user spoke a powerful name.

“Come forth, Aiwass. Use the chains that bind thoughts as guidance and complete my objective.”

Immediately afterwards, that temporary universe was filled with an explosion brighter than the sun.

To Aru Majutsu no Index NT Chapter 4 Part 2