Chapter 252: Kabbalah Ritual
"I'm not Misaka Mikoto. I'm her older brother, Misaka George."
George pulled his arm out from Shirai Kuroko's embrace and joked casually.
"Misaka-nii, so Onee-sama, you actually enjoy this kind of play? Then let me check first whether you really have what a big brother is supposed to have!"
A sly glint flashed in Shirai Kuroko's eyes. One of her hands shot like lightning toward George's lower body. However, before it even reached halfway, an electric shock burst from George's body and knocked her to the ground.
"You really are something else."
George twitched his lips and waved at Index and Kazakiri Hyouka:
"Alright, I've got things to do, so I'll be off!"
There wasn't much point in staying here, so he might as well find a place to experiment with the magic of this world that he had just learned.
Not long after George left, Kamijou Touma and Misaka Mikoto arrived.
Seeing the mess all around them, with Sherry unconscious and Shirai Kuroko only just waking up and still dazed, they looked at Index and Kazakiri Hyouka in confusion and asked:
"What happened here?"
Index looked strangely at Misaka Mikoto and pointed at the still-unconscious Sherry:
"She just attacked us, but thankfully your brother, Misaka George, passed by and saved us. You two siblings really look alike. If it weren't for the difference in your clothing, it would be impossible to tell you apart."
Beside her, Kazakiri Hyouka nodded quickly, expressing agreement with Index's words.
But Misaka Mikoto looked utterly baffled:
"My brother, Misaka George? Since when do I have a brother?"
"Onee-sama, how could you have a brother and not tell me? You made me embarrass myself!"
Blushing, Shirai Kuroko tidied her frizzy hair that had been shocked by electricity.
Thinking about how she had just tried to attack Misaka Mikoto's "brother" in that area down below... it was utterly socially suicidal.
"I don't have a brother. Wearing men's clothes... I see now, it's her!"
Misaka Mikoto immediately denied it, then stiffened as realization struck her.
After the clone incident ended, due to the limited facilities in Academy City, most of the Misaka Sisters had been sent to research institutes around the world for treatment.
Only a dozen or so Misaka Sisters remained in Academy City's hospitals.
But their clothing was almost identical to hers. The only difference was the military night-vision goggles they wore on their heads.
And among them, the one who liked to dress in men's clothing and was strong enough to defeat a female magician—could only be that mutated No. 9981.
"Onee-sama, so he's not your brother?"
Shirai Kuroko asked curiously.
The others also crowded around in interest.
"She's indeed genetically related to me, but she's not my brother. Strictly speaking, she's my sister—she just prefers dressing as a boy."
Misaka Mikoto explained, looking at the curious crowd with a headache.
Because of the Misaka Sister incident and the need to deal with the upper echelons of Academy City, she had been worried about dragging her friends like Shirai Kuroko into trouble. That's why she hadn't told them anything.
Now that they'd encountered one of the Sisters, this was the only way she could explain it.
"Onee-sama, you actually have a sister? Which school in Academy City does she go to? Why hasn't she come to Tokiwadai Middle School? She—"
Hearing that Misaka Mikoto had a sister who looked exactly like her, Shirai Kuroko instantly became excited. If she transferred into their school, wouldn't that mean double the joy?
Misaka Mikoto quickly changed the topic:
"Kuroko, now's not the time to talk about this. Dealing with this intruder should be our top priority right now."
Elsewhere, after George left, he first used invisibility to make sure there were no micro-robots from Aleister nearby. Then he used Apparition to vanish from the spot and reappear in an uninhabited suburb outside of Academy City.
Academy City was full of those surveillance micro-robots, so even while invisible, it was inconvenient to do many things.
That's why he found a place outside the city where he could study and practice magic. Only when he needed to conduct experiments to enhance his abilities would he return inside the city.
"The Kabbalah ritual—creating a humanoid image from clay."
Standing on the grassy field, George controlled his mana and slowly drew a magic circle for the Kabbalah ritual on the ground.
Casting this spell didn't require wax crayons to draw the circle. It was perfectly fine to draw it directly with mana.
Sherry used wax crayons because hers weren't ordinary ones. They were made from holy salt and sacred oil, which enhanced the power of the golem once formed.
As the magic circle was completed, the soil on the ground began to tremble and gradually took the shape of a stone figure. However, before it fully formed, the stone figure crumbled apart.
"Looks like it's not that easy. I'll need more practice."
George wasn't concerned by the failure of the golem. In fact, he smiled.
Because it proved that his mana could be used to perform this world's magic and wouldn't be affected by differences in magical energy.
Magic in this world was quite unique. Take this Kabbalah ritual that created a stone giant—it was a spell based on the mythical idea of gods creating humans from clay.
But humans aren't gods. They can't create real life, only stone golems with limited, low-level intelligence.
And that's how most of the world's magic worked—replications or imitations of mythical stories.
Even many powerful magical artifacts were modeled after legendary divine items, thus granting them great power.
In this world, there were originally no magicians or espers—only the Gemstones, individuals born with supernatural powers.
Magicians were those who lacked such innate abilities. In order to obtain extraordinary power, they imitated myths with a willpower, luck, and understanding far beyond ordinary people, ultimately becoming magicians.
Most magicians had undergone great personal hardship in their lives.
For example, being unable to save someone dear from a deadly illness, facing starvation that led to cannibalism among comrades, or enduring humiliation and hardship to avenge murdered family members.
Only under such extreme circumstances could someone surpass ordinary humans and become a magician, creating their own magical grimoire.
As a result, magical inheritance was extremely difficult. Since it didn't rely on innate talent, it placed immense demands on a person's mental fortitude. Consequently, magicians were extremely rare.
Most of them also appeared within religious contexts, where fanatics and mythologies were abundant.
Later, two exceptionally powerful magicians, Mathers and Westcott, joined forces to establish the Golden Dawn magic cabal.
They, along with a large number of powerful magicians, integrated various magical systems from different religions, forming the prototype of modern Western magic. This greatly simplified the process of learning magic.
However, the mighty Golden Dawn magic cabal soon fell apart due to unknown internal conflicts. Its founders and most of its members all perished.
(End of Chapter)