Chapter 4: Stop Sign. Beast_Body,_Human_Heart.[Part 4]

The calico cat tried its best to run away, and Index tried her best to pursue.

Running into the dark corner of the back alley behind the convenience store, the cat was scared into scampering all around on seeing Index chase after it. Ducking underneath the cars that were parked on the roads, jumping past metal fences, running from one alley to another. Finally, the cat ran into an abandoned pile of debris.

"Got you!"

At that moment, Index grabbed the calico cat's neck.

Maybe it was because it was facing a girl that was panting yet growling, or maybe it was animal instincts that the cat continued to struggle in her arms as it again tried to get away. Actually, if it hadn't been for Index shouting as she chased after it, the cat probably wouldn't have ran so far.

The calico cat continued to meow loudly in Index's arms, as if saying 'it's so hot, please don't hold me so tightly'. Index however continued to hug the cat tightly as she looked around.

It was truly a wasteland.

In terms of location, it should be similar to the insides of an alley. There were many rather short buildings that were used for business, but these buildings seemed to be fated for demolition, the signboards were taken down, the glass windows were all gone, and even the doors were gone, leaving behind a huge gaping hole. Looking inside the hole, all the decorations were all stripped bare, leaving behind the bare pillars.

Seemed like the owner of the land here intended to remove all the buildings and build some major facility here.

Not intending to give up, the calico cat continued to swing its short, plump legs about as it tried to escape into the debris. Index puffed her cheeks angrily and said,

"Humph, if you're not going to be obedient, I'm going to make you suffer a bit!"

Index blew some air into the calico cat's ear, and the cat seemed like it hated this feeling as it shrieked and trembled. In an instant, it even reached its claws out in reflex, but maybe it was feeling a bit merciful as the calico cat retracted its claws.

"Come on, let's go find that short-haired girl, shall we?"

Index said, and the calico cat purred in an unwilling manner.

At that moment,

The calico cat suddenly lifted its head and then again started to struggle, trying to get away from Index's wrists. And this time, it struggled with a lot more force. Index panicked, wondering if she had used too much force, but after using several methods, the calico cat still didn't calm down at all.

Suddenly, Index felt something land on her head.

"!?"

Lifting her hands up and touching her head, it was actually powdered concrete. Looking up, the powder came from the eroded walls of the abandoned buildings.

Afterward, the manhole covers started to tremble, letting out a rattling sound.

"...The floor seems to be shaking, no?"

Index felt extremely suspicious, but she suddenly remembered that that London-style magic may be hidden underground, in other words, beside her feet.

Like a living thing, the ground instantly rumbled.

"!?"

Index frantically jumped back, and at that moment, the place where she had been standing exploded. A gigantic monster's arm reached up from the epicenter of the explosion. The height alone was about 2m, and it looked like a dinosaur with a really long neck, blocking Index.

A large amount of debris scattered from the ground.

A block of asphalt that was larger than Index's head fizzed past her head. She frantically ducked, hugging the cat at her abdomen. Numerous pieces of debris zipped past her, like a swarm of bees flying by, and barely missed hitting her head.

Pa pa pa pa pa! The debris splattered onto the building behind her like a torrent of rain, making a terrifying sound.

Index did not look back, but straight forward. In front of her, a huge stone golem slowly climbed out of the ground, like an undead climbing out from a grave. She couldn't see the caster, so most likely, it was being controlled from afar.

Index silently narrowed her eyes.

The vast amount of knowledge of the magical Index of the 0th Parish of the Anglican Church, Necessarius, subconsciously appeared in her mind. After a little tidying up of information, she already understood the identity of the enemy in front of her.

(The basis is of Kabbalah. The main use is to defend and remove any enemy presence. The birth year was from the 16th Century, according to Gershom Scholem's explanation, the nature is of tangibility and formlessness) (Gershom Scholem, formerly known as Gerhard Scholem, 1897-1982, a Palestinian thinker who was born in Germany, and later converted to Israeli in 1948, He is widely regarded as the founder of the modern, academic study of Kabbalah, becoming the first Professor of Jewish Mysticism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.)

Speaking of stone golems, many people would imagine them as being made of stone or dirt, stupid and slow monsters. But in truth, that was not the case.

In the ideology of the Kabbalah, humans were created by God through dirt. And the poor copies that humans made with their own hands were stone golems. In other words, stone golems were 'clones that weren't created properly', so their nature was similar to those wooden puppets in fairy tales.

(The original spell was improved by combining with Anglican spells; Linguistic system changed from Hebrew to English, and all the body parts are made to react to the Cross. It's more like cloning an angel than a human.)

However, this stone golem didn't have the structure of an ordinary human.

Seemed like the caster wanted to create something of an even higher existence than a human, that was an angel that looked like a human from the outside. The head, right arm, left arm, legs were all created in the image of a Cross, each side assigned with the power of the four archangels, or maybe the caster wanted to create an even stronger dirt angel.

The only good thing was that there was a limit to human abilities, so even with human hands, it was impossible to create a perfect angel. It was like trying to create a perfect Angel of Water, it was impossible for humans to accomplish this.

But even an incomplete angel was still a dangerous thing.

BOOM! The footsteps of the stone golem rumbled the ground.

Index hugged the calico cat tightly and took a step back.

There was no chance of winning if one was to fight straight from the front. Normally speaking, this kind of stone golem would have a 'secret code' as a safety feature. By stroking it a bit with a finger, the stone golem functions would cease, preventing the stone golem from going rampant. But the enemy was no amateur, this weakness would definitely not be located at a place where others could touch. Most likely, the 'secret code' should be within the body, surrounded by the exoskeleton of the stone golem.

Index was unable to use magic, and didn't have any superpowers. She didn't have any inexplicable powers at all, her arms were weaker than ordinary humans. Facing this girl who only had a vast amount of 'knowledge' in her mind, the stone golem raised its arm without mercy.

BOOM! Forget about the air, the fist that could crush even space swung over. The girl took a slight breath.

"T T T L—turn to the left."

She then said this.

Immediately, the fist of the stone golem that was swinging down suddenly curled left like a snake. The stone golem's fist swept past an empty space. Index glanced from the corner of her eyes and took a step forward, standing beside the stone golem.

The stone golem quickly turned, its fist was swung horizontally.

"C F A—Turn upwards."

But the strike changed trajectory as well, passing above Index's head.

Just as the stone golem wanted to swing its fist again,

"P I O B T L L—Turn the left foot to the left."

The stone golem's leg suddenly ignored its balance and stepped backwards, and due to the fist that was raised high, the stone golem lost balance and slammed hard backwards.

Index took another 2, 3 light steps back.

The language she was speaking in was a quick Kabbalah reading method, it was a unique pronunciation method of only using the first letter, with the aim of turning it into a code and making it quicker to read.

Though Index had a vast amount of knowledge, she didn't have any ability to create magic, so she couldn't use magic. But to anyone who was seeing this right now, it was likely that they wouldn't view her as any different from other real magicians.

The stone golem stood up and ran over to close the distance to Index, its fist swinging over like a cannonball. The girl muttered, and just like that, the stone golem's fist again changed trajectory, sweeping in a completely different direction.

It was as if the orders Index was giving were interfering with the stone golem's actions. In other words, it was interfering with the orders the caster's giving, a forced enchanting.

Spell Intercept.

The logic behind it was simple, the caster would think of a magic command code, so by letting the caster's mind become confused, the caster's control of magic would be obstructed. It was like a person counting down in his mind, if someone spouted some random numbers, he would be affected.

Index couldn't use magic.

But she could try to let the opposing magician self-destruct.

Though the caster of the spell wasn't around, according to Index's analysis of the spell structure, she felt that the stone golem was not automated, but controlled from a distance. In other words, the caster was using the five senses of the stone golem to observe every single action Index made. If so, there was a chance.

"C R B B F T T N A T W I T O D—Alter to the right, cross both legs, turn neck and hip in opposite directions."

The stone golem continued to swing its fist, and Index shouted commands even more quickly. Like a drunkard that was blindfolded, the stone golem's fist continued to say hello to unrelated areas.

(Just evading alone…isn't going to be enough!)

Index took off all the safety pins on the skirt of her nun's habit. The nun's habit became a high-cut cheongsam, her entire thigh was revealed, but there was no time to care about that.

She was holding onto a safety pin, staring intently at the stone golem.

It was a bit plain to use such a weapon against a huge stone golem.

(Reverse-engineering self-regeneration formula, time period is approximately 3 seconds. If I want to make use of it…there!)

Index tossed the safety pin at the stone golem without any hesitation. The safety pin was rather slow, and forget about a stone armor, it couldn't even prick a human's skin. The safety pin arced and bounced onto the stone golem's leg. After that, it was sucked into the stone golem's body like a magnetic attraction.

In an instant.

Like a wedge that was hammered into a joint, the right ankle of the giant stone golem was somewhat stifled.

It was somewhat similar to the Spell Intercept. The stone golem had the ability to use anything around it to assimilate into itself and repair any wounds. On the other hand, if things that were unnecessary or even harmful to the structure were thrown to it, the self-repair system would have an error. An example would be leaving a fractured wrist alone and not doing anything to it, leaving it in a weird shape.

103,000 magical grimoires lay in slumber within Index.

But just knowledge alone was meaningless, the most important thing was to apply it and find the most suitable solution within the shortest time.

Maybe I can win, Index thought as she started to back away. Her Spell Intercept wasn't one universal solution, it was completely useless against completely unknown spells like an alchemist's Ars Magna or equipment like Yamisaka Ouma's bow of Azusa that could replace spell enchantments. However, there was no such problem with this golem. The Spell Intercept could definitely interfere with the stone golem's actions, and by skillfully using the safety pins, they could damage the stone golem. Index thought that as long as she continued to interfere, maybe there was a chance to destroy the entire structure and cause the stone golem to crumble.

"YAHH…!"

The sudden shock caused Index to tumble onto the ground. She unintentionally let her jaw drop. Even if she could interfere with the enemy's actions, she couldn't avoid such an attack that shook the entire ground.

The stone golem dragged its stone leg and slowly walked towards Index, who was sprawled onto the ground.

"C R—right…!"

Index shouted halfway through, but the stone golem raised its two fists and let them clash against each other.

BAM! The huge impact rattled Index's ears. Her words were cut off midway through, and the calico cat in her arms purred in agony due to the deafening pain.

The stone golem again raised its fist.

Index hugged the calico cat and rolled onto the floor, trying to pull her distance away and shouted,

"M B F P A D C O G—Let both legs be positioned in parallel and lose balance!"

The stone golem heard Index's voice, and only shook its head slightly. After that, it looked like it just switched off, ignoring Index's commands.

(No…! Long distance manipulation has been switched to automated mode…!)

If there was no caster, Index's Spell Intercept wouldn't work. Her orders could only work on humans, it couldn't work on inorganic matter that didn't have any thought process.

The stone golem's giant fist sliced the air as it cut through.

Index was already unable to stop its attack.

The blunt sound of flesh being slammed hard onto the concrete floor could be heard.