"Who has the Stiletto Lance right now?" Rowan Mercer asked quietly, hovering invisibly above the city.
He didn't need to intercept everyone involved. As long as the person carrying the weapon never left Academy City, the mission would be a success. If something went wrong, all he had to do was take it by force. Ownership was irrelevant. Location was everything.
"It's with Oriana Thomson," came Edward Alexander's reply. "But something's off. Lidovia Lorenzetti entered the city, wandered briefly, and then left almost immediately. If this were a straightforward transaction, they wouldn't be acting like this."
Edward had already caught the scent of something deeper. If the plan were truly to trade the Stiletto Lance, speed and discretion would matter. Instead, one party lingered while the other withdrew. It didn't add up.
"Want me to end it now?" Rowan asked. He preferred to cut problems off before they grew teeth.
"No," Edward said after a pause. "A magician dying inside Academy City creates complications. Let's observe first. I want to know what they're really after."
"Fine," Rowan replied. "Makes no difference to me."
This was Edward's game. Rowan was simply honoring a deal. Still, he had the sense that Edward's hesitation wasn't only about politics. It had something to do with Kamijou Touma. Edward's attention kept circling back to that boy, and Rowan trusted his instincts. A power that erased both magic and abilities outright was too dangerous to ignore.
"Found her," Rowan said not long after.
Oriana Thomson moved through the streets below with no apparent urgency. She looked to be in her early thirties, confident and striking, with voluminous blonde curls and sharp blue eyes. Her outfit was deliberately provocative, more suited to a nightclub than a delivery job, and she wore it with casual indifference.
Strapped across her back was a long, cloth-wrapped object.
"So that's supposed to be the Stiletto Lance?" Rowan murmured. "No magical signature at all."
He didn't dwell on it. A weapon capable of killing a Saint would be expected to conceal its presence. Suppression spells, sealed resonance, or even passive containment were all plausible.
What struck him as strange was her behavior.
"She's not acting like someone on a deadline," Rowan noted.
From above, he watched her wander aimlessly, familiarizing herself with the city as if sightseeing. It looked more like reconnaissance than preparation for an exchange.
An hour later, things grew clearer.
Oriana deliberately approached Kamijou Touma, greeting him under the pretense of a casual handshake. Rowan felt the spell activate instantly.
And then vanish.
Touma's right hand erased it completely.
Oriana withdrew at once, clearly startled, and attempted to disengage. Touma, now alert, contacted his teammates and followed her at a distance.
He didn't last long.
Oriana was an expert at counter-surveillance. She noticed him almost immediately. Without breaking stride, she pulled a card from a ring holding dozens, clenched it between her teeth, and activated it. The card shimmered, transforming into a compact communication spell.
Rowan listened carefully. From the fragments of conversation, he identified the recipient as Lidovia Lorenzetti.
"Interesting," Rowan muttered. "A single-card long-distance communication spell."
He filed the technique away. He didn't have anything quite like that yet. His own methods were slower or required preparation. This was efficient.
"If you've come this far," Rowan thought, eyes narrowing, "then your magic is mine."
Outside the city, he would have been cautious. Here, he could wait until the end and extract everything he needed from her memories, just as he had before.
Oriana fled into a warehouse district, slipping inside a massive storage facility. Once there, she rapidly deployed multiple cards, layering elemental traps throughout the interior.
Touma arrived with his allies shortly afterward. The resulting fight was chaotic and brutal. Thanks to her preparation, Oriana managed to break contact and escape, though not without cost.
Rowan followed her silently.
The pursuit dragged on through the afternoon. Tracking and counter-tracking spells clashed repeatedly until Touma finally caught up. In close combat, Imagine Breaker proved decisive. Oriana went down, and Touma seized the item from her back.
When he opened it, confusion crossed his face.
Inside wasn't a weapon at all. Just a mundane shop sign.
"A decoy," Rowan said flatly.
He continued shadowing the fleeing Oriana until she reached a deserted underground stairwell. Only then did he contact Edward.
"The item's fake. What now?"
The response came quickly.
"Act. The Anglican Archbishop has confirmed it. The Stiletto Lance never existed. What they brought into the city is something else entirely. A highest-grade relic the Roman Church officially denies even exists."
Edward's voice sharpened.
"The Apostle's Cross."
Rowan stilled midair.
"So it's real after all," he murmured.
He had seen references to it once, buried deep in secondhand memories. A relic the Roman Church dismissed as slander, claiming it was nothing more than propaganda spread by rival factions.
Apparently, that denial had been a lie.
...
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