Aureolus Izzard

Aureolus Izzard (アウレオルス＝イザード) is a character from Toaru Majutsu no Index series and is the main antagonist of the second arc of the storyline (anime and light novels). He is a powerful magician and alchemist; he perfected his alchemy to the state where his thoughts are turned into reality which is called Ars Magna.

Appearance
His face is stern looking and very distinguished, which is complemented by the way he dresses, wearing a white suit over a blue dress shirt and wearing a light-pinkish tie, but his most striking feature is his green hair that is neatly combed. His hair was stated to be dyed green to better control the power green symbolises - the Earth element and alchemy that's classed under the Earth element. This is the same logic why Terra of the Left is wearing a green robe. His needles are stored inside the pocket over his right buttock.

Personality
He has serious air surrounding him, being as his Ars Magna requires concentration for it to properly work, this is justified. Despite this, he has been known to toy with the lives of his opponents if he finds them "amusing" enough. He is also smug enough to gloat lightly and underestimate his opponents, once again because he has the power of Ars Magna. He has a caring side to him, which he shows only to Index. Himegami Aisa later revealed that Aurelous explained to her certain magical concepts (such as the basic premise behind his Ars Magna) while that relationship is not enough to consider Aisa and Aurelous Student and Master, it shows that he not always looked at her with the contempt that he showed after he was unable to save Index.

He has also casual disregard for the well-being and lives of other people around him, as he brainwashed the student body of Misawa Cram School to be able to use magic even though it is harmful to them. The worst example of this nature is that he blew up Stiyl Magnus from the inside out, to the point where Touma describes it as seeing a Human anatomy exhibit in a museum where one walks inside the human body, since the blood and muscles were scatter all over the ceiling, all connected to the heart and still pumping blood throughout the veins.

Background
He is a descendant of Paracelsus, who is a famous alchemist. Aureolus' name maybe derived from Paracelsus', the second name of his full name, which is Phillippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim. Aureolus somehow decided to follow his ancestor's footsteps and become an alchemist, and studied in a Zurich school for alchemy. Aureolus eventually succeeded in perfecting his alchemy, creating his great work, Ars Magna.

He was a member of the Roman Catholic Church and was the partner of Index three years prior to the start of the Toaru Majutsu no Index timeline. However, he soon discovered that his partner needed her memories to be erased in order for her to survive (which is a complete fabrication). Because of this all the memories Index had with Aureolus have been erased, it is unknown as to what relationship Aureolus had with Index before her memory erasure, although it is quite apparent that he truly cared for Index as is the main reason for why he was the antagonist of the second arc of the series.

At some point in time he defected from the Roman Catholic Church, and became their enemy and was hunted down by the elite Thirteen Knights of the Roman Catholic Church, as he possessed great powers that church saw as a threat.

He later meets Himegami Aisa, being aware of her ability, Deep Blood, and her suffering because of it, offers her a proposition for him to use her and her ability to lure vampires as to help Index. It was apparent to Aisa that he was being sincere in his proposition. He takes over Misawa Cram School that abducted Aisa, and used it as a staging point for his plan and brainwashes the student body to abide by his whims and made them able to use limited magic, using a replica of Gregorio's Chant.

Deep Blood Arc

 * Main article:Deep Blood Arc

He appears in the second story arc of the anime and light novels, here he has gained control of Misawa Cram School and Himegami Aisa where he uses it as a staging point for his plans. He is attacked by the Thirteen Knights of the Roman Catholic Church which he defeats handily.

However he is confronted by both Stiyl Magnus of Necessarius and Kamijou Touma, wanting to retrieve Himegami Aisa and stop his control over the school. With the power of his Ars Magna, he made them both lose their memories as to what transpired within the school, however this is foiled by Touma and his Imagine Breaker. In a strange twist of fate, Index appears before Aureolus having wandered out to look for Touma, when they meet Index is unaware of who he is, their reunion is cut-short by the remaining Thirteen Knights of the Roman Catholic Church using the true Grigorio's Chant to raze the school, however it is also stopped and actually reversed by Aureolus.

Touma and Stiyl confronts Aureolus about his plans, he states that he is using Aisa to attract vampires so he can either make them tell on how to make her immortal or turn her to a vampire, the reason being as so she need not have her memories erased and her life threatened. His plans come to a halt when Stiyl points out to him that Touma has already achieved in saving Index, which infuriates Aureolus. He attacks and kills Aisa as she has become useless to him but is saved by Touma using his Imagine Breaker.

Touma does battle with Aureolus, in which he succeeds in countering everything Aureolus throws at him. In the midst of battle Stiyl comments on how his Ars Magna can distort reality and can do anything, he proceeds to ask him why he went to the tedious process in obtaining a vampire using Deep Blood, if he can simply wish for one, this angers Aureolus which makes him turn Stiyl inside-out, and still manages to keep Stiyl alive despite that. He continues his battle with Touma and cuts off his right arm to disable his Imagine Breaker, however this backfires as Touma is seen walking and shrugging off the pain of losing an arm, explained in the light novel as Stiyl still being capable of casting spells in his condition, and made mirages to make it appear as if the attacks had missed Touma, planting the seeds of doubt for Aureolus' downfall. Aureolus continues retaliating but Touma negates every attack he uses. Eventually Aureolus cowers in fear of him, because Ars Magna makes one's thoughts into reality, he makes Stiyl come alive and imagines Touma as a monster, this comes true and Touma attacks him and thus Aureolus is defeated because of his own powers.

However, there is a chance the dragon head that came out of Touma is not entirely Aureolus' imagination, as in the last chapter of Volume 2, Touma wondered if Aureolus would really have such a wild imagination that specifically imagines "an ethereal dragon head coming out of his severed arm." Touma then thought the chances were slim, but there may still be a chance that this dragon may not be entirely be Ars Magna's creation.

Aftermath
Stiyl Magnus allowed him to live, however he changed Aureolus' appearance after losing his magic and memories before releasing him as to keep the Roman Catholic Church from pursuing him, his current whereabouts and form are unknown. It is unknown whether Stiyl did this under orders or of his own will, as in the light novel, Stiyl only told Touma he "killed" Aureolus, that by erasing his memories and changing his appearances the person known as Aureolus is practically dead.

Due to him defeating the Thirteen Knights of the Roman Catholic Church and Gregorio's Chant spell, the Roman Catholic Church has been severely weakened in terms of power.

Abilities
His sorcery name is Honos628, "My honor is for the world" (我が名誉は世界のために).

Ars Magna
He has powerful form of alchemy known as Ars Magna (黄金練成), which allows him to think of anything and make it into reality, however he requires great concentration for it to properly work or else it may cause considerable unwanted effects (and can even be used against him, as Touma proved), because of this he uses needles to stab himself with in the neck to allow him to concentrate. After attaining sufficient concentration, Izzard then has to verbally express a command to initiate the effects that he desired; the commands can be of simple to complex phrases depending of the effect in question that he wishes to manifest. It has been stated in the light novels the needles he uses are acupuncture needles. Of course, while Ars Magna allows him to materialize his very thoughts into reality, it does not actually enable him to alter (or undo in any way) reality itself.

The main concept behind that Ars Magna is 'To purify the murky, lead-like soul of a human into a pure golden soul of an angel' (『鉛のようにくすんだ人の魂を、黄金のごとき天使の魂へ昇華させる』), and it is said that 'Ars Magna is such that allows one to gain power and wisdom akin to God' (「アルス＝マグナを得た者は超人となり神に等しい智恵と力を持つ」).

List of known Ars Magna commands

 * "I will come to you now" - Allows Aureolus to move instantly towards a person. It is akin to teleportation in a way.
 * "You cannot touch me" - Makes a person unable to touch Aureolus. In the anime, it is shown that the distance between Touma and Aureolus would increase whenever Touma tried to come close to him.
 * "Forget everything" - Allows Aureolus to erase one's memory. Can be dispelled by the Imagine Breaker. Touma unintentionally achieved this after using the fingers of his right hand to run his hair.
 * "Slam to the ground" - Makes the target(s) slam towards the ground. Additionally, one cannot move from the ground after the command is executed. Can be dispelled by the Imagine Breaker.
 * "Die" - This command allows Aureolus to kill a target, though details on how the target can die is unknown. Can be dispelled by the Imagine Breaker.
 * "Sleep" - caused Index to instantly fall into a deep sleep.
 * "Suffocate" - Suffocates a target, though further details are unknown, it seems to affect the neck of the target. Can be dispelled by the Imagine Breaker.
 * "Be electrocuted" - A command that summons electrical attacks from nowhere. Can be dispelled by the Imagine Breaker.
 * "Be crushed" - A command that allows Aureolus to crush an opponent. In the anime, he summons a car to do this, though it is blocked by Touma.
 * "Bring (object) to my hand" - A command that summons an object that can be held in the hand, exact details and purpose of the obejct are required for the command to work. Demonstrated by Aureolus Izzard by summoning a pistol in his hand, and can be changed whenever he wills it.
 * "Fly to the sky" - Allows Aureolus to make a target float above ground at a certain height.
 * "Be Torn to Pieces"  - Shown in the anime as being able to rip off a person's clothes and skin.

Other abilities
Apart from Ars Magna, he may be also capable of using alchemy-related abilites.

One of such abilities is his creation of a clone of himself, although it is far from a perfect imitation of its person. The clone is a sort of degenerative copy of Aureolus, having his entire left arm replaced by a large hook and his entire left leg replaced with a peg, and has flaws such as being too overtaken by pride as a alchemist and his skills. The clone has the official name of Aurelous Dummy (アウレオルス＝ダミー) and cannot use Ars Magna but can turn anything into gold instantly with an ability called Limen Magna (瞬間錬金 （リメン＝マグナ）). Aurelous refers to the clone as Defense Device (警備装置).

The clone was made to be a guard of sorts and thought that he was the real Aureolus, he later runs into Stiyl who destroyed this misconception, and defeated him both mentally and physically. It later ran into Touma, who used his Imagine Breaker on him, resulting in cutting-off his mana source. He runs away, dying, and once again runs into Stiyl who pitied him and gave him mercy by burning him into nothing. In his dying moments, the clone found the answer to the question he had always been seeking; "Just what are the limits to what a human can achieve while still retaining a human's form?" He found that this is Touma after being defeated by him; since even with the Imagine Breaker, a power beyond human comprehension, Touma still has emotions like any other human being. Stiyl decided to kill it since being a scholar the clone would manage to find something else to think about in the 10 minutes of life it has left, and die regretting not being able to solve it - whereas if the clone dies right then it would be in a state of fulfillment for solving something it has be seeking for all its lifetime.

He could also replicate the use of the Roman Catholic Church's Gregorio's Chant by using the thousands of students of Misawa Cram School, as a substitute for the 3,333 monks needed for the spell - though the number of students is only around 1,000 instead of the 3,333 needed. He is also capable of creating a seal on an entire building that separates people from interacting with objects and the people inside the building, and vice-versa.

He uses acupuncture to soothe himself before using Ars Magna if he happens to be excited, which hints that he has at least some knowledge in this field.

He was also said to be a magic author, capable of writing orginal grimoires. His job is to input 'vaccines' to make the grimoire destroy themselves, when he worked with the Roman Catholic Church. .

Trivia

 * Aureolus Izzard has an unusual way of speaking which can not be easily translated, where he will always start his monologues with a word that ends with the kanjiZen (然), such as Hitsuzen (必然) or Touzen (当然)
 * Index describes Ars Magna as something that can only turn iron into gold during Volume 1 of the Light Novels.