Terra of the Left

Terra of the Left (左方のテッラ) is a character introduced in Toaru Majutsu no Index. A member of the secretive God's Right Seat, Terra of the Left displays an abhorrent and vile personality that equals only his actions. He is the third member of the God's Right to be introduced, and the first one to be ever killed.

He is the main antagonist of the Document of Constantine Arc.

Etymology
Terra's assumed name is the Latin and Italian word for "earth".

Appearance
Terra of the Left is described as an old man who is short as his height is about the same as Kamijou Touma. He wears ceremonial clothes of green that represents his alignment with his Archangel, Raphael. This extends to his hair which is unruly in appearance. He has an impish look on his face, and his teeth are often portrayed as sharklike.

The man is quite skinny and is twice Touma's age, but sunken cheeks gave him an odd sense of vitality.

Personality
Terra strongly believes that God's Right Seat is more important and has a bigger role in the Roman Catholic Church than the Pope. He openly states that he desires to save absolutely every soul so that they can reach the Holy Kingdom when the time of the Final Judgment comes, and is investigating if humanity will still have its current conflicts in the Holy Kingdom, as he deems humans at their current state unworthy to be in the presence of God. However, he sees everyone outside the Roman Catholic doctrine as "not being human" and "not worthy of being saved" not even seeing them as human. Despite this, Terra of the Left deems himself as righteous enough for the Kingdom of God, and initially did not fear death after being torn asunder by Acqua of the Back, believing he will go to Heaven.

He is fond of long term strategies and complicated plans. He stopped Acqua of the Back from taking out Touma himself, as he deems it to be too inappropriate a time for them to attack. That and the fact that he wishes for them to use Kazakiri Hyouka. He has no qualms in the destruction or loss of spiritual items if it has no use for him, does not care for injured or dead members of the Church as they can be easily replaced by new talents, and has no qualms whatsoever in involving innocents in his schemes as they are simply pieces for him to use, and being used by him will only set them in the path to Heaven whether they live or die in the process. Of course, only if they are not Catholic according to his standards. This wanton attitude towards his use of innocence eventually led to his demise at the hands of Acqua.

Other than his beliefs, Terra of the Left has a casual way of speaking to the point of rudeness, not caring for Acqua of the Back and the Pope's concerns when he is out drinking cheap wine in the middle of St. Peter's Square with the excuse of using it to replenish his strength as he is aligned with Archangel Raphael, giving him an abrasive and callous personality. Furthermore, he is shown to have a great share of knowledge in several aspects, pinpointing that Touma was lost his memories somehow as he did not know about the Imagine Breaker completely, as being well versed in several magical subjects; even to the extent of knowing about the Imagine Breaker's true prowess, as even Ollerus believes that Terra of the Left was probably the person who came the closest to knowing the identity of Imagine Breaker through researching the contradiction needed for the Son of God to be killed by human hands.

Background
Not much is known about Terra of the Left, other than the fact that he researched the contradiction in power relations needed for the Son of God to be killed by human hands and managed to put together the spell Execution of Light all on his own. Moreover, it seems he had acquired his spell only recently as he was still adjusting his spell as of early October and has yet to fix the idiosyncrasy of it working only between two things at a time, using non-Catholic tourists outside of Rome to adjust it.

His subordinates apparently send him people for his use in his alignment adjustments, and has a habit of sending him Roman Catholic criminals, much to his chagrin.

Academy City Invasion Arc
Terra of the Left apparently gains orders from Fiamma of the Right to have Acqua of the Back retrieve Vento of the Front as quickly as possible. He contacts him as he leaves Academy City and asks him of his whereabouts. Acqua of the Back reports to him, to which Terra of the Left congratulates him, not eveing reprimanding them for their failure. Acqua of the Back notes this, but Terra of the Left states that there we be no good to come out of him holding any ill will to them, especially Vento of the Front for her failures, and states that he doesn't care for her destroyed spiritual item as he cannot use it. He reports to Acqua of the Back the complete destruction of their expeditionary forces waiting outside Academy City as well as the likelihood that the other forces spread out away from the City has been intercepted by Academy City forces. Here, he shows his callous regard for them, stating that it would be better to get fresh talents to replace them. Acqua then says that he will recover those that had been defeated, alive or dead, surprising Terra of the Left. Acqua of the Back then suggests that he can take out Touma himself, to which Terra of the Left says that it to be too inappropriate a time for them to attack, and has espoused interest on the fallen angel, Kazakiri Hyouka, for them to use. Acqua of the Back however, does not condone Terra of the Left's actions, to which the latter says that he expected such words from a knight, though Acqua of the Back tries to correct him that he is merely a mercenary. Apparently having enough of the conversation, he tells Acqua of the Back to hurriedly come back with Vento of the Front, as those are the orders of Fiamma of the Right, and ends his call.

Document of Constantine Arc
He is first seen drinking cheap wine in the middle of St. Peter's Square seemingly before the riots against Academy City, trying to replenish his strength. As he is aligned with the Archangel Raphael, who represents earth, partaking in the earth's harvests and blessings allow him to replenish his strength easily. After a little banter between him, Acqua of the Back, and the Pope regarding his brusque nature in drinking alcohol in the middle of the square, Terra of the Left leaves, intending to use the Document of Constantine to cause mayhem among the constituents of the Church against Academy City in order to draw the Russian Orthodox Church to their side. Acqua of the Back objects to the use of civilians, but Terra of the Left states that it would be unnatural not to use the Church's vast human resources, much to Acqua of the Back's chagrin. Terra of the Left later leaves, and the Anti-Academy City October riots begin.

For much of the arc, Terra of the Left spends his time in Palais des Papes in Avignon with the regular Roman Catholic Church magicians using the Document of Constantine during the Avignon riots. He sets up a probing to spell to detect intruders near the Vatican–Avignon Ley line. He later has the magicians start another riot after detecting that Academy City forces (Kamijou Touma and Tsuchimikado Motoharu) has infiltrated Avignon, in order to intercept them. After detecting intruders (Touma and Itsuwa) try to modify part of Vatican–Avignon Ley line in order to disable the connection of Document of Constantine with the Vatican, Terra of the Left decides to pursue the matter himself. He goes to the museum where Itsuwa and Touma are and attacks using flour guillotine, destroying a wall in the process. The attack leaves Itsuwa's Friulian spear broken, which she immediately replaces. Terra of the Left appears before them and attacks Touma, and is surprised on how he manages to negate his flour guillotine. As Itsuwa and Touma become wary of him, Touma asks for Terra of the Left's identity, to which he easily says as he gathers his flour back into a form of a blade. The fight moves to the outside, and here Terra of the Left shows the wanton destruction his blade has upon the streets. Touma intended to draw Terra's attack and Itsuwa would get in range to attack him. Here, Terra realizes that he is dealing with the Imagine Breaker, the one that defeated Vento of the Front. He swings the blade towards Touma who lets out his hand, but Itsuwa intercepts the blows of the blade herself. She tries to strike Terra of the Left down but he is fast enough to swing his blade towards her and buy him enough time to attack again. Suddenly, he notices steel wires surrounding him, and Itsuwa uses her Seven Blades of the Seven Teachings technique to cut him down. There however, Terra of the Left uses his "Precedence", his Execution of Light spell for the first time in front of them, making him immune to the wires. Initially shocked, Itsuwa nonetheless tries to stab Terra of the Left again, but uses his "Precedence" spell to disappear in to phase through the wall behind him, making her miss. Using Precedence again, he destroys the wall with his guillotine, forcing Itsuwa to dodge. Seeing this, he tries to attack her in her vulnerable position, but Touma intervenes, and his blade is once again destroyed. Using his spell again, he gathered the blade back, and used it to strike down the wall on them, forcing Touma to take Itsuwa to avoid the falling debris.

Terra of the Left states his disappointment on Touma's Imagine Breaker, concluding that Touma only won against Vento of the Front after Touma destroyed her Divine Punishment, summoned the "fallen angel", and brought out a strange realm to pressure on her. Here, Touma realizes that a member of God's Right Seat who is on the same level as Vento would not attack with just a blade, and became disturbed by him. Seeing this, Terra of the Left mocks him, and states to him that he should at least allow him to enjoy their little situation a bit more even if what he is facing is the best Touma has. Then, Touma and Itsuwa attacked simultaneously. Using his spell, Terra stopped the movements of Itsuwa's spear, stopping it in midair. Touma attacks but Terra is faster, and the blade hits Touma's body but it does not cut him as he expected though he is still hurt by it. Touma then punched the guillotine that hit him and it is once again destroyed, causing Touma to think more about the implications of Terra's spell. As he regathers his flour, Itsuwa states that Terra's power is Precedence, to which Terra explains to her the symbolism used for his blade, the mythology associated with Christ's death, and it, being the reason why he has the Precedence spell. It is based on the secret ceremonies required to complete the story of the Son of God is the alteration of the order of precedence, the Execution of Light, and flour he shapes into a blade as medium is a by-product. After his explanation, he is confident that them despite knowing of how his abilities origins and mechanics, he can still defeat, and he was right. He then gives them time to make a up a plan for his entertainment.

Suddenly, Tsuchimikado Motoharu arrives and shoots a magical origami figure at him, though Terra simply uses his Precedence spell to make it bounce off him, landing the thing near Itsuwa. Motoharu declares that he has cornered Terra of the Left now. He takes the handgun he took from Oyafune Monako a while back, and as he shot Terra, he quickly predicts what Terra was going to say for his spell. Motoharu, confident that he can beat Terra, boasts that he can beat him and takes out a black origami figure, and Terra can only watch in silence. As Itsuwa relates to Touma that Motoharu wants them to go to the Palais des Papis at the same time Terra and Motoharu starts making their move, explosions ring out, the invasion of Avignon has begun.

Academy City invasion of Avignon
Although annoyed that his battle with Motoharu was interrupted, as he wanted more battlefield data for his precedence spell, Terra of the Left quickly escapes them during the attack by Academy City's HsPS-15 Powered Suits. Terra of the Left retrieves the Document of Constantine after the attacks got rid of the ordinary magicians that used it. Moreover, since he came from the outside of Palais des Papes, he most likely found that the normal magicians that used the document outside of the building, most likely to retreat, though they were probably defeated due to the attacks.

He comes upon a Powered Suit and throws it towards Palais des Papes, destroying a wall. There, he comes upon Touma and Itsuwa again, dismayed at the attacks stopping the spell, and says that are retreat would be the best option. Touma and Itsuwa obviously doesn't want him to leave, but mocks at their powerlessness, challenging them to stop him.

Their battle begins as HsB-02s use their Earth Blades to melt the ground around Avignon. They ignore the attacks going on outside and do battle. Touma and Itsuwa move first but Terra quickly uses his spell that forces Itsuwa to help Touma dodge Terra's attack, which tears apart the palace. Itsuwa then manages to strike Terra but he used his spell to make blades not work on his skin. The force of the attack knocks Itsuwa down taking Touma with her. She is hurt by the debris and Terra takes advantage of that fact, he makes flour have a higher precedence to human skin, swinging down his blade towards her. However, manages to destroy it before it reaches her. He tries again and Itsuwa just pushes Touma aside, making Terra miss. Terra mocks her for getting in Touma's way. Itsuwa agrees, but says to Terra on how he has revealed his fatal weakness. Terra uses his Precedence again to make the ceiling collapse with his flour, forcing Itsuwa to hurriedly wedge her spear between the ceiling and floor. Without her weapon Terra attacks her, hitting her body and knocking her out. The ceiling then returns to normal and Terra gloats over his victory. Seeing an angered Touma, Terra says that he is disappointed with him. He says that he thought aking on the Imagine Breaker would make for a difficult battle, but never expected it would be this incomplete. Terra references that if Imagine Breaker hand its original functionality Touma would've been able to protect Itsuwa from the attack. But Touma does not understand what Terra is referring to, intriguing him, and asks Touma if he does not remember things Touma should know. Touma reacts accordingly, showing that Terra is right. Terra asks Touma the reason why he is hiding and if he has told anyone, but is given a furious silence by Touma. Terra replies that Touma can tell him as he is going to die in the palace anyway.

Terra is the first one to attack as Touma is too busy mulling over Terra's weakness. Touma avoids the blade and instead throws a stone at Terra, forcing him to use Precedence to protect himself. Matching the timing with which the stone hit, Touma takes his wallet and throws it towards Terra, whom believes that the object Touma threw was something dangerous and used his blade to ripped it apart. There, Touma asks why he didn't use his Precedence on his wallet, and there, reveals to Terra that his Precedence isn't adaptable as it cannot be used on multiple targets at the same time. Terra laughs on Touma's discovery, and mocks it, saying that it isn't something to worry about. The fight restarts, resulting in Terra destroying the floor and having debris thrown at Touma. An angry Touma asks why Terra has to go so far and involve the people of Avignon. Terra of the Left explains his motivations of the salvation of humanity according to his standards to Touma as the fight continues to draw on. After hearing it, Touma declares that it is not the Roman Catholic Church who is at fault, otherwise people like Orsola Aquinas and Agnese Sanctis would be as twisted as well, to which he concludes that Terra of the Left doesn't know what "salvation" even means. Touma says that his God would not spread salvation through conflicts, and declares that if that is Terra of the Left's definition of salvation, then he will destroy that illusion of his.

Touma charges once more, he kicked the Friulian Spear Itsuwa drop, prompting Terra to destroy it with his flour blade. Seeing this, Touma proves his hypothesis, and concludes that Terra of the Left isn’t all that strong as he keeps to the safety zone instead of going to the battlefield like him and Itsuwa. Terra mutters his spell and attacks again, but Touma is just too fast, hitting Terra of the Left in the face. However, Terra of the Left remains standing despite losing balance. Enraged, he sets his spell to have his blade cut completely through a human body. In a vulnerable situation, Touma is forced to use the heavy shotgun used by the Powered Suit that Terra threw from before as a shield. The blade strikes at Touma, and though the force is strong enough to injure him and draw blood, the shotgun did its part. Terra of the Left is surprised and assumed that Touma has gained more power. However, Touma points out he is wrong, to which Terra asks him, but is answered with a fist to the face, knocking him out.

After a short while however, and after Touma destroys the Document of Constantine, Terra of the Left comes to, though unable to muster the strength to stand up. Terra asks Touma if he wants to know more about the Imagine Breaker. The topic piques Touma's interest, to which Terra laughs at him since he had to ask, which would indicate that Touma truly did lose his memories. Terra tells Touma that he needs to think about why Imagine Breaker has a connection to his right hand as there is a great answer hidden in it as well as the fact that it can negate all magic. With a smile, Terra tries to tell Touma the true identity of the Imagine Breaker, but before he could the a bright orange flash came down through the ceiling right above Terra, obliterating the room they were in and tore up its floors. It was the HsB-02 and its Earth Blade, melting the ground into molten rock. Terra survives however, quickly leaving the Palais des Papes as Touma shouts his name in anguish.

Aftermath
Terra of the Left returns to the Vatican and meets up with Acqua of the Back in St. Peter's Basilica. Even though the Document of Constantine was destroyed, Terra is satisfied with the results at the Russian Orthodox have been forced by the recent events that have transpired to ally themselves with the Roman Catholic Church. With the sides finally drawn for the War, Terra says that they should discuss how to move their troops from here on with Fiamma of the Right, and states that he wants to observe Academy City's response as well as the Imagine Breaker. Before he leaves, Acqua of the Back asks him if the information he has received that he used children and tourists on the outskirts of Rome to make some alignment adjustments for his Execution of Light spell. Terra of the Left responds callously and bluntly, and says that he did. He asks Acqua if such a thing is worth bringing up, to which he responds if wasn't supposed to act in order to save of humanity without discrimination. Terra says that is doing so, but states that pagans are not even human, and states that he made sure that the targets for his alignment adjustments were not believers in the Roman Catholic Church. Terra is annoyed about the subject Acqua is bringing up as he is too busy with trying to improve his spell.

Suddenly, Acqua of the Back takes a pillar from the basilica and smashes Terra of the Left in half. Terra is still alive and tried to use his spell to close his wounds but is unable to. Despite slowly dying, Terra's expression remained calm, believing that him even if he died, in the end he would be chosen by God in the Final Judgment and led to the Holy Kingdom. Seeing Terra's expression, Acqua tells Terra that there is no way he would be chosen by God, and mocks him for still being deluded, stating that the only place he'll be going to will be Hell.

Terra is able to comprehend Acqua's words, turning his once calm expression to that of scorn. There, Terra of the Left dies.

Acqua of the Back Arc
Acqua of the Back later wraps up Terra of the Left's corpse in a luxurious box. He sends letters of challenge to both Academy City and the Anglican Church, telling them that he will crush Touma himself and dares them to use all of their power if they intend to stop him. The box is later sent to the Anglican Church to convince them that the letters are legitimate, and Itsuwa is then called to confirm Terra of the Left's identity, having fought him in Avignon.

World War III Arc
Fiamma of the Right references on how the distortion of the Laws of the World how changed the alignment of the angels, and that Terra of the Left aligned Archangel, Raphael, should bear the attributes of the wind instead of earth.

Ichihanaran Festival Arc
Despite his death, Terra of the Left's can still be felt. Ollerus tells Touma in their talk about the Imagine Breaker, that Terra of the Left was probably the person who came the closest to knowing the identity of Imagine Breaker through researching the contradiction needed for the Son of God to be killed by human hands.

Magic God Othinus Arc
In the final recreation of the world by Othinus created specifically to break Touma's spirit, known as the Version_Omega world in-text, where several characters from the original world have been "saved" or have not experienced great tragedy, members of the Gods' Right Seat are all alive and well. Touma sees them in the park where Othinus put Touma in after recreating the world. Vento of the Front walked hand in hand with her younger brother, Terra of the Left is alive and is drinking iced coffee under the same parasol as Fiamma of the Right and Acqua of the Back.

Abilities
He is blessed with the nature of "God's Medicine," as he is aligned to the Archangel Raphael after purifying his body from the Original Sin, as such he lost the capability to cast human magic but gained the capability to cast angelic magic.

As a result of his alignment with Raphael, who represents earth, Terra's attire is green. Moreover, as Raphael represents the earth, if Terra of the Left partakes of earth's harvests and blessings he replenishes his strength quickly and easily. An example of this is drinking bottles of wine regardless of quality.

Execution of Light
Execution of Light (光の処刑) is the only known spell that Terra of the Left is shown to use. The spell allows him to change the "hierarchy," of things since something of a higher hierarch cannot be harmed by a lower hierarchy, changing their "Precedence" in a manner of speaking.

The symbolism here, according to Idol Theory, is that during mass, which itself is modeled after the execution of the Son of God on the cross, wine is treated as the Blood of God while bread is treated as the Flesh of God. The flour that Terra of the Left as a blade represents the Flesh of God. Since a normal human wouldn't be able to normally kill the Son of God, His death at the cross shouldn't make sense. However, to get around this, the "order of precedence" is changed. As such, in order for the Son of God to take on all of humanity's Original Sin, the natural precedence had been change in order for him to be killable by normal humans. One of the secret ceremonies required to complete the story of the Son of God is the alteration of the order of precedence, and that is the very Terra uses. The spell is basically a mass that tries to mimic the Son of God's changing of the Precedences in order for him to be killed on the Cross. The weak point of this ability is that Terra needs to verbally state which object has its hierarchy changed, and he can only change the attributes of "one object" at the time, the nature of his ability works in the vein of a comparison. For example, he can have the flour blade of his be able to cut human skin after lowering the hierarch of the skin and upping that of his flour, and though it will work, the flour's hierarchy relative to other objects remain. Range of the spell is unknown, and can be assumed that it only affects what Terra of the Left can see.

A by-product of this spell is that he can alter the shape of the flour, which is used as the medium, into an edged tool shape. The flour can easily be regathered and reformed if destroyed. Apparently, when the blade is thrown by Terra, accuracy drops the farther Terra is from the target.

Design evolution
As with Vento of the Front, Haimura designed Terra of the Left to seem completely out of place in the world of Toaru Majutsu no Index, and designed him as one of the most extreme examples. Haimura designed Terra of the Left to somewhat resemble a certain baron, it is not certain who.

Initially, Terra of the Left's designed resembled that of a skinny old man, but was later modified, adding his now well-known impish look and spiky hair. Terra was later redesigned to his current form, losing his cape and adding feathers to his collar.

Since Terra of the Left appears in only one volume, his appearance remains static throughout the arc.

Trivia

 * Despite Terra's appearance in the Toaru Majutsu no Index II anime teaser, he doesn't actually appear in any of the episodes.

Quotes

 * (To Acqua of the Back, from Volume 14): "We, God's Right Seat, are imperfect, but through this mystique we lead the people... And with that, let us lead the frightened lambs as we please. I am the shepherd...they will be like the children who disappeared while enthralled by the flute."
 * (To Touma, ibid) "I am, but I would prefer it if you said I am from God's Right Seat."
 * (To Touma after defeating Itsuwa, ibid) "Well, this was to be expected. A normal magician can’t hope to stand up to a member of God’s Right Seat. Although, I suppose it will be difficult to convince you if I don't do anything. Challenge me to your heart’s content and then give up to your heart’s content. I find it much more enjoyable that way."
 * (To Touma after previously asking why he kept his memory loss a secret, ibid) "You can tell me you're going to die here anyway, so you don’t have to worry about anything. I don't know what has you so upset, but I’ll resolve it for you."
 * (To Touma, ibid) "I wish for salvation. And I wish to bring salvation to others. Even if God’s plan is perfect, we humans can ruin it all if we do not live up to His expectations! That is why I must know whether humanity will still have its current conflicts in the Holy Kingdom!! And if it will, I just have to guide everyone in the right direction before the Final Judgment!!"
 * (To Touma, ibid) "You damn pagan ape!!"