[Marvel's Magic Master] Chapter 250

Chapter 250: Misaka Onii-chan?

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Shirley Cromwell had once followed the orders of her superiors to teach the esper Alice from Academy City a magic spell.

However, after Alice attempted to cast the spell Shirley had taught her, she suffered severe internal injuries, bleeding from all seven orifices, and collapsed.

At that moment, the Knights faction—who harbored deep hatred for espers and opposed any exchange between magic and science—stormed in.

In order to help Shirley escape, Alice was struck down on the spot by a knight wielding a war hammer.

Because of this, Shirley developed an intense hatred for the Knights faction within the church. She believed that blindly bringing scientists and magicians together would only lead to more tragedies.

To prevent further conflicts between the scientific and magical factions, she concluded that the only solution was to establish clear boundaries and completely separate the two sides.

However, not long ago, the upper echelons of the Puritan Church unexpectedly reached some kind of agreement with Academy City's leadership, allowing an important Index Librorum Prohibitorum to reside within Academy City. This reminded Shirley of the tragedy from years ago.

Determined, she set off for Academy City alone, launching attacks on the key components of the city's Imaginary Number District, the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, and the Imagine Breaker—deliberately provoking conflict between the magical and scientific factions.

Her goal was to make both sides realize that continued cooperation would only lead to war, forcing them to draw a clear boundary once again.

So, in a way, Shirley wasn't truly a villain. Her ultimate goal was actually peace between the two factions.

"Magic and esper abilities can't be used together after all… Good thing I never used any obvious magic; otherwise, I might have caused a catastrophic upheaval between the two worlds."

George felt a sense of relief.

From Shirley's memories, he learned that in this world, magicians obtained magic power by refining their own life force. They then used incantations, magic circles, and enchanted tools to cast spells.

On the other hand, espers were individuals whose abilities imitated those of naturally occurring Gemstones. Their powers were derived from AIM fields generated by their brains, which shaped their personal reality, allowing them to influence the macro world in various ways.

The two systems operated under entirely different principles.

George speculated that the reason magicians and espers couldn't coexist was because once someone became an esper, their body underwent a fundamental change, making it impossible for them to refine life force into magic power.

If an esper forcibly attempted to refine life force, their body would experience internal conflict, resulting in severe backlash—vomiting blood, or even complete physical collapse.

George himself was unaffected because his magic power didn't come from refining life force.

His magical abilities stemmed from his wizard bloodline—he was born with an inherent reserve of magic power. Later, he also adopted meditation techniques, but those involved absorbing external energy and converting it into magic, rather than drawing from his life force.

Furthermore, his esper abilities weren't purely of this world either. His powers also incorporated mutant abilities, forming a unique hybrid system.

As long as he avoided refining life force to generate magic, he would never face the same conflict between magic and esper abilities.

This wasn't a problem for him at all.

He only needed to learn this world's magic system and then use his own magic power to cast spells—it would function just the same.

"Looks like acquiring those 103,000 grimoires won't be easy after all."

Glancing at Kazakiri Hyouka and Index, who had just approached him, George let out a sigh.

From Shirley's memories, he realized that using techniques like Legilimency, telepathy, or the Imperius Curse to extract the 103,000 grimoires from Index's mind was nearly impossible.

Index was a nun belonging to the English Puritan Church. Due to her perfect memory, she had been entrusted with the responsibility of memorizing nearly all the world's magical texts.

To prevent her from losing control or betraying the church, the organization erased her memories once a year, assigning her new companions and social relationships each time.

However, after meeting the exceptionally kind-hearted Kamijou Touma—who, along with her former partners, helped her—Index was finally freed from the cycle of memory erasure.

Yet, her body still contained an autonomous defense mechanism known as John's Pen.

Designed by the church's top magicians, John's Pen functioned as the ultimate safeguard. It could utilize the knowledge of all 103,000 grimoires to completely protect Index's mind from any would-be invaders.

If anyone attempted to forcibly extract information from Index, John's Pen would immediately activate.

Additionally, if Index's life were in danger—such as from excessive blood loss—John's Pen would also awaken.

So unless George could disable John's Pen, he had no way of directly accessing the grimoires within Index's mind.

And truthfully, he had no confidence in breaking John's Pen without damaging Index's brain.

After all, this world's magicians were far stronger than he had initially imagined.

It was said that those who mastered magic to its absolute pinnacle and comprehended its essence had a chance to ascend to godhood and become Magic Gods—beings so powerful they could destroy entire universes at will.

If breaking John's Pen wasn't feasible, then his only other option was to get Index to willingly teach him the knowledge stored in her mind.

But that wasn't realistic either.

As the guardian of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, Index's duty was to protect the 103,000 grimoires. Not to mention, she was under the protection of incredibly powerful Puritan magicians.

Rather than taking such a risky approach, infiltrating various churches and trying to steal the original magic texts seemed like a better plan.

"Forget it. No need to worry about this now. Today's haul was pretty good anyway."

Shaking his head, George decided to set these concerns aside. Before delving into this world's magic system, he needed to first advance his esper ability to Level 5—a process that would take about two months.

That was plenty of time for him to carefully formulate a solid plan.

The fact that he had gained so much intelligence on the magical world from Shirley's mind was already an unexpected windfall.

On top of that, he had also memorized information on Shirley's Kabbalah magic techniques, which he could later attempt to reconstruct using his own magic power.

"Misaka-nee, thank you for saving us!"

Index and Kazakiri Hyouka bowed deeply in gratitude toward George.

Hearing this, George simply waved his hand with a smile.

"Not Misaka-nee… It's Misaka-onii!"

Even if he couldn't obtain the 103,000 grimoires right now, establishing good relationships with them might open up opportunities in the future.

"Misaka-onii?"

Index blinked in confusion, staring at George, who was dressed in men's clothing.

"Just changing outfits suddenly turns Onee-sama into Onii-sama? How does that work?"

"Onee-sama, so this is where you've been!"

At that moment, a familiar figure appeared beside George and immediately latched onto his arm.

It was none other than Shirai Kuroko, who had just finished rescuing trapped civilians in the underground streets. Hearing the commotion, she had instantly teleported over.

"Onee-sama, you actually dressed up as a guy? You look so cool!"

Seeing George in male attire, Shirai Kuroko's expression gradually turned… unsettling.