Illusion / Hiding in Air

As if to erase Stiyl’s scornful voice, Aureolus fired the Limen Magna from his right suit
sleeve. His roar in itself could have supplied the force at which he fired it. It turned into
a golden laser and left a stream of afterimages because its launch-rewind speed was just
too fast. He may have been a magician, but Stiyl still had a human body. He could never
follow the storm of bullets. It was reaching ten shots per second. As a result, six shots
out of ten penetrated through him all over, from his face to his ankles, like a sewing
machine.
The rune cards he was holding scattered and blew through the air.
However...
“And what is this? Don’t you realize that you’re just one of the magical items yourself?”
Despite his upper body being littered with holes, despite the arm-width hole straight
through his face, he kept on speaking like he was bored.
“What... is this!?”
Aureolus, stunned, fired yet another Limen Magna. His bladed bullets, firing at ten per
second, aggressively carved up not only Stiyl’s already-shredded upper body but also his
lower body, which was holding it up.
However...
“Yes, using Telesma to create a Celtic cross for a focus is indeed an obscure model.
Certainly fitting for a former Roman Catholic priest. But the one I’m looking for is
Aureolus Izzard. I’m sorry, Aureolus Dummy, but could you please stand down?”
Stiyl flickered. His body was now transparent enough that it seemed like it would
disappear at any moment, but nevertheless, he was still standing.

- Toaru Majutsu no Index Volume 2, Page 105

Aureolus Dummy intended to use his full power to crush the enemy in front of him, and
raised his blade.
“And besides, you actually understand, don’t you? You know that the alchemist Aureolus
Izzard isn’t weak enough to lose this easily.”
He heard the voice from behind him.
At a moment, Aureolus Dummy felt warm air, like that of a heater, stroke his cheek.
Suddenly, Stiyl Magnus appeared out of nowhere.
(A mirage...!?)
Aureolus Dummy immediately tried to back away.
A mirage is a phenomenon in which air is heated and expands, changing its refractive
index. It’s possible to hide yourself like melting into the air, and vice versa, to appear
where there is nothing, like an image coming up on a screen.
The one at the mercy of Limen Magna the whole time was a fake. The real one had
melted into the air to hide himself and had moved in behind Aureolus Dummy.
Aureolus Dummy seemed to see through Stiyl’s tactic thoroughly in an instant.
If he had spaced himself properly, he would have been able to avoid the attack.
However...
The fake illusion he impaled with the Limen Magna. Feeling empathy for that being,
even for just a moment, not even a second, was his mistake.

Blank spaces in a person’s thought processes leave fatal openings.
By the time Aureolus Dummy finally snapped out of it, Stiyl had already created a flame
sword in his right hand. Not only that, he had also brought it straight down on him,
cutting off his left arm and left leg altogether.
The smooth motion cut into his flesh like a knife slicing through butter.
Roasted by a three-thousand-degree-Celsius flame, the surface of his skin carbonized. It
couldn’t even bleed.

- Toaru Majutsu no Index Volume 2, Chapter 2 Part 6