Stiyl Magnus

Stiyl Magnus (ステイル＝マグヌス) is a magician affiliated with the Church of Necessary Evil (Necessarius), and was Index's partner two-years prior to the start of Toaru Majutsu no Index. He is a formidable magician who uses fire magic and runes and is partnered with the Saint, Kanzaki Kaori. He is the first magician Kamijou Touma confronts in the series; he introduces himself as an enemy of Index.

He is currently assisting Archbishop Laura Stuart, knowing full well that she was the one who lied to him and Kaori about the true condition of Index's memories.

Appearance
His hair is red which hangs on his shoulders. He wears a black robe, has a silver ring on each of his fingers, a tattoo which looks like a code number bar under his right eye and wears earrings on both ears. Despite being 14, Stiyl is a tall man with a strong perfume smell, and is often seen having a cigarette in his mouth, as he is an extremely heavy smoker. He claims a world without nicotine would be hell.

Because of this and along with his personality, Stiyl seems more mature than Touma despite being younger than him.

He is physically very weak as shown when he was beaten by Touma with a single punch. Though this is explained as casting Innocentius needing vast amounts of energy, leaving his body weakened compared to others

Personality
He has a short temper but is actually kind, as he cares about Index, and is hinted to have affections for her, and also promising to protect her at all cost.

His failure to save her life without losing her memories was his greatest regret. When he learns the Church lied to him and Kaori about Index's condition, he decides to disobey orders to capture Index and allow her to live her life. He doesn't like Touma much and often likes causing him discomfort when they around, but respects his abilites and that Index was happy with her current partner. Stiyl has to deal with the antics of his superior, Laura Stuart when she's not performing her duties, and is shown to punish her without a thought, even though she is his superior.

Background
He is a magician of Necessarius and specialized in rune magic, and was the partner of Index two years before the start of the Toaru Majutsu no Index timeline.

Before Index's memories were erased; he, Index and Kaori were close friends, as indicated by their interactions when they are altogether. Stiyl travelled around the world next to Index's side, to copy the original grimoires in her mind, he also accompanied Index to the Vatican as so another book can be implanted into her mind.

However, both Stiyl and Kaori received terrible news, that Index will die if her memories are not erased once a year. The church explains that since most of Index's mind was already used to contain the 103,000 grimoires and as such there wasn't enough space left in the brain for it to contain new memories, and since Index had photographic memory she wouldn't forget any unneccessary memory at all. This will kill her since she would use the remaining part of her brain for necessary functions, according to the church.

Even then, both Stiyl and Kaori asked if there was any other alternative, though obvoiusly they were told there wasn't. Both of them witnessed the deterioration of Index's body and was forced to erase her memories, weeping by her side.

After her memories were erased, both of them tried to make new memories with Index and become her friends, though, the burden of doing the process annually, and then forcibly erasing her memories again was too much for them to handle, and they had given up. Because of this, it created a misunderstanding with Index, where she concluded that Stiyl and Kaori were after her and the grimoires inside her head and were enemies. Though they disliked the thought that she believed of them as her enemies, they allowed it to occur as it would detach Index from them, and giving her no reason to worry about losing the memories of her friends.

Index eventually fled into Japan and into Academy City, with Stiyl and Kaori on her trail.

Stiyl promised that he will always protect Index whatever it takes, though it is unknown at which point in time he made this promise. Stiyl also received his trademark barcode tattoo, ear piercing and rings after Index had her memories erased.

Index Arc

 * Main article:Index Arc

He's sent from England along with Kaori to retrieve Index and reset her memory. He's the first magician Touma fights in the series. He encounters Touma as he stood before an injured Index. He attempts to kill him but his spells at first seemed ineffective due to Touma's Imagine Breaker. He summons Innocentius who proves to be a tough fight for Touma. But he later finds a way to defeat his fire monster and punches him out cold.

He is later seen with Kaori observing Index and Touma's current condition, here he takes note on how happy Index is, and tells his dismay to Kaori on how they always take it away from her. Later, it is revealed that he has upgraded the runes he used on Touma, and now uses runic cards instead of printing paper with rune written on it with ink. Kaori utilizes his runic cards to trap Touma, and persuade him to hand over Index - even though she could have easily killed him and take her. Touma is defeated by Kaori, but not before he states their cowardice on giving up on Index, to make themselves look like enemies to her instead explaining to her of her situation and to be always by her side when her memories are erased, and encourage her that their will always be happy memories that would await Index. Stiyl later shows up after his defeat and dispels the barrier that he set-up for Kaori's usage.

He appears three days later with Kaori to take away Index, but is convinced to take her away later in midnight. He and Kaori show-up in the Tsukuyomi Residence, to prepare for the ritual, where he chastizes Touma for even considering in allowing Academy City to tamper with her body in order to cure her of her illness. However, Kaori later insists to give Touma more time with Index as so he can say his farewells to her. Stiyl reluctantly agrees and goes outside to await the appointed for the ritual on the removal of Index's memories.

He later returns to Komoe's apartment, after he and Kaori hears an explosion. There, he and Kaori realizes that Index can use magic. Touma explains to both Stiyl and Kaori that the church was lying to them all along, and that Index will never die regardless of how much information she intakes in her brain, and that the church has implanted a spell on her that would assure that Index's body will deteriorate if her memories are not erased once a year.

Though at first he was disbelieving, her nevertheless was the first to assist Touma against Index who using Dragon's Breath on him. He later summons Innocentius as so it would be Index's target of attack instead of Touma. Stiyl was successful long enough to hold Index off for Touma to turn Index back to normal. He and Kaori discovers that Touma gets hit by the feathers of Dragon's Breath, and his eventual collapse.

They later take Touma to a certain hospital. Here, Stiyl writes a letter for Touma and tells a certain frog-faced doctor on how Touma ended up in his situation in detail. Shortly after that they decided to leave him and Index alone for the time being seeing as Index was happy for a change.

Deep Blood Arc

 * Main article:Deep Blood Arc

During the 2nd Light Novel Volume, he meets Aleister Crowley – though he calls him General Superintendent Aleister – in the Windowless Building, concerning the recent abduction of Himegami Aisa, a girl whose blood can attract and kill a certain organism (vampire) by Aureolus Izzard. Aleister states that the science side will not intervene with the businesses of the magic side, but allows Stiyl to 'borrow' Touma for him to use, stating that he is shown as a level 0, a person that is essentially having no powers and cannot leak any information from Academy City. Aleister also states that Touma cannot replicate the technology of the magic side.

Stiyl meets with Touma again – though unaware of his memory lost – after distracting Index. He threatens Touma that Index will be taken away if he doesn't cooperate.

They later meet-up outside of Kamijou Residence, where he discovers is applying runes around the perimeter to summon Innocentius as so Index can be safe from other magicians when they are away. Because of this, Touma suspects that Stiyl likes Index, though he drops the subject after seeing Stiyl's embarassed expression.

After going into Misawa Cram School, they see a corpse from one the Thirteen Knights of the Roman Catholic Church – which has apparently been defeated by Aureolus, which gave Stiyl another reason to fight. Later, Stiyl abandons Touma to an attack by a Gregorian Chant Replica and is seen later to be the one to destroy the building's core. However, he meets Aureolus himself and gets his memory erased and is sent to a playground.

He is later cured of his memory loss by Touma, using his Imagine Breaker to punch him as revenge for using him as bait. They later reenter the building after seeing the remaining Knights of the Roman Catholic Church attack the building with the original Gregorian Chant, only for Aureolus to reverse and rebuild the building. They proceed in rescuing Index who was now captured by Aureolus as well as Aisa. While fighting him he tries to mentally break down his concentration of Ars Magna but has his skin torn away from his body by Aureolus's power. After Touma scares Aureolus into thinking he is a monster, Stiyl returns to normal and saves Index before being defeated by Touma who has now gained a dragon arm due to Ars Magna's effect.

Stiyl later visits Touma in the hospital after his arm reattachment surgery (due to Aureolus cutting it off), and states that he had left Aureolus live but changed his appearance after he lost his memories, though essentially killing the man that was known as Aureolus Izzard. Stiyl later leaves when Index and Aisa enters the room Touma is in.

Angel Fall Arc

 * Main article:Angel Fall Arc

He does not personally appear during the arc, though several persons including Kaori has taken his form due to the affects of Angel Fall switching appearances.

Orsola Aquinas Rescue Arc

 * Main article:Orsola Aquinas Rescue Arc

In England Stiyl walks next to the Archbishop of Necessarius, Laura Stuart, who informs hims about the rumor about he stole Book of Law which seems to indicate that the Amakusa Catholic Church is the culprit, who happens to be the former group of the Saint Kanzaki Kaori who used to be their leader.

He heads to Japan and 'kidnaps' Index so that she could help out in the investigation with the Agnese Forces leader, Agnese Sanctis. Touma eventually leads Orsola Aquinas to them but is quickly abducted by the Amakusa Catholics. Later that day they plan on what to do next as the Amakusa Catholics could only teleport away at a certain time in a certain location while being caught up in 'Touma's misfortune'.

That night they set out to stop the Amakusas. Stiyl fights Saiji, the acting head of the Amakusa Catholics, who easily deflects his spells. But with Touma's help, together, tackle him and knock him out. Stiyl binds him with his runes.

Upon learning that the Roman Catholics were trying to kill Orsola Aquinas and that the Amakusa Catholics were trying to help her both Index and he try to solve the matter while Touma goes off to find where she was going to be killed by Agnese and her team. He appears along with Index and the Amakusa Catholics and fight the nuns for attacking one of their own, Orsola, who had the cross of the Church of England that Touma had given her.

Daihasei Festival Arc

 * Main article:Daihasei Festival Arc

Later he appears in volume 9-10, helping to hunt down Oriana Thompson in the 'Stab Sword' incident, later found to be the 'Croce di Pietro'. By the end of the volume he was badly injured to the point he was sent to a hospital and needed surgery, but recovered shown in later volumes.

Terra of the Left and the Document of Constantine
After that, he appears in volume 14 along with Agnese interrogating Ridovia and Biagio for information on God's Right Seat.

The Sword of Mercy, Curtana Original
In volume 17, he shows up at the last minute to help Touma defeat the terrorists, saying Touma should be more mindful of his duties as Index's guardian.

He was mentioned briefly in volume 18, saying he's stuck fighting the Knights at a major port in UK before showing up in the Epilogue angry that Laura and the Elizard have controllers to Index.

World War III
During the epilogue of the vol.20 Styil is seen arguing with Laura Stuart who activates the remnants of her own controller to use Index to fight back Fiamma's. At the end Sityl has no option but to restrain Index.

He spends the next two volumes attempting to restrain her, along with others but they were defeated. By using the traps inside the church and his own spells, he lasted long enough for Touma to stop Fiamma. After that he directed Touma on how to stop the flying fortress but also informed him of Gabriel's return. Index, now free of Fiamma's control, ask him where's Touma in the Epilogue.

Abilities
He's a magician who specializes in Fire Magic and Runes. His sorcery name is Fortis931, "I prove why my name is the strongest here" (我が名が最強である理由をここに証明する).


 * Runes: He uses runes placed on cards to activate various this such as create a field that no one can enter or summoning Innocentius. It's said this rune is one newly created by him after studying the pre-existing runes. The runes he uses in episode 2 however when translated stand for 'torch' and 'Aesir' which could roughly be translated as 'torch god.'


 * Fire Magic: He uses Fire Magic based on runes primarily and is very skilled in it, able to manipulate fire and heal burns. He is also capable of burning the face off people and recreate it to a new face, shown when he changed to physical appearance of Auroleus to prevent Auroleus being captured.

Spells

 * Vampire Killing Cross: Creates an flaming cross
 * Flaming Sword: Creates an 2000 degree flame sword
 * Innocentius (魔女狩りの王): A 3000-degree-Celsius fire monster summoned with a lengthy incantation and rune cards. It is a Snapshot20101026203758.jpg-level spell which can't be destroyed unless the runes are removed or Stiyl becomes unconscious . Due to this spell taking up a lot of energy Stiyl has a physically weak body.
 * Empty Area: Using the ᛟ (Opila) rune to create an area that no one enters outside intended targets.

Dengeki Gakuen RPG: Cross of Venus
The antagonist of the game will make a fake Stiyl for the player to fight. Later, Stiyl can be summoned to use his Innocentius when one uses Index.

Toaru Majutsu no Index: Stiyl SS

 * Main article:Toaru Majutsu no Index: Stiyl SS

Stiyl is tasked to go to Academy City to stop the plans of the Dawn-colored Sunlight Magic Cabal, there he meets Patricia Bardway, the sister of it's leader, a powerful magician known only as Bardway.

Trivia

 * A figure similar to that of Stiyl's, appears in a scene with Uiharu Kazari from chapter 8 of the Toaru Kagaku no Railgun manga.
 * Stiyl can apparently eat food with a cigarette in his mouth.

Quotes

 * (To Index in the Volume 1) "You can go ahead and sleep soundly. Even if you were to forget everything, I will never forget a single thing. I will live for you, and die for you."
 * (To Touma in Volume 7 on the topic of Index) "For that child, I can burn the living to death and the dead to ashes, no matter whether it is done in front of her or behind her back. If you no longer have meaning for her I can burn you to nothingness."