Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 22/Epilogue

Synopsis
After the disappearance of Gabriel, Stiyl immediately realizes what Touma has done, refusing to believe that a true archangel would have been crushed by simple pressure. Concluding that Imagine Breaker was used to banish the rogue angel back to Heaven, everybody within the cathedral continues filing reports despite the gloomy mood. Just then, Index arrives, asking where Touma was. Nobody had the heart to answer her.

Meanwhile, Hamazura is still trying to find anything that can be used as a bargaining chip to secure their freedom back to Academy City, digging into the snow alongside Mugino and Takitsubo. They briefly discuss the possibility of salvaging the Equ.DarkMatter masks to negotiate with, or by using Mugino's DNA map as an insurance. Unfortunately, they run out of time as the rest of the assassination unit arrives and completely surrounds them, knowing full well of their exhaustion. The ITEM Liaison steps forward and explains how things will go from here on out: Mugino and Takitsubo will be retrieved with the latter being experimented on, but Shiage has little value needed to be kept, unless in the rare case he was to be used as a hostage for Takitsubo.

Noticing a discrepancy in her explanation, Hamazura suddenly questions why it was Takitsubo being experimented, and not Mugino. The Liaison reveals Takitsubo's true potential: she possesses the ability to interfere and modify Personal Realities, if only on a theoretical level, securing her position as one of the possible Level 5 Candidates. The Liaison mentions how Takitsubo had tried to use this aspect of her powers against Kakine during the underground conflicts, and succeeded in using a fragment of it when forcibly correcting Mugino's aim during their earlier fight with the assassins. Hamazura realizes exactly how valuable Takitsubo's powers could be at full capacity, as she could single-handedly take over Academy City's entire function.

He then corrects himself, saying that she could function even better than Academy City, being able to swap out Esper abilities between people, increasing or decreasing their levels, and even allow Dual-Skill to be possible. But he focuses his attention on one section of the Liaison's explanation: she had mentioned Academy City had known her hidden potential from the very beginning. Mugino adds that she had found this to be odd too, remembering how the 3rd ranked had been tricked into providing her DNA map as a child, but at that time period she had not yet become a Level 5 yet. The ITEM Liaison drops the final bombshell: the existence of the Parameter List.

The Parameter List details the potential powers and levels of every Esper within the Power Curriculum Program, while allocating resources to the most useful Espers in order to maximize efficiency. Mugino becomes enraged at how people like Hamazura were cheated out of their actual powers development, believing that he would have able to live a normal life and stay out of the city's darkness had he been given the chance to grow. However, Hamazura himself is fine with this development, in fact he's relieved that he's managed to stumble upon a bargaining chip at the last minute.

The Liaison scoffs at his reply, reminding him that they have them surrounded and there was no chance that students like Hamazura would ever get their hands on such an important list. As they raise their guns and prepare to execute Hamazura, they are ambushed by Glickin and the rest of the people from Digurv's Village, who had sneaked behind them while Hamazura had been stalling for time. Hamazura mocks the Liaison for not realizing that outside of Academy City, an independent unit like hers was far from invincible as she believed them to be. He then shoots her in the right elbow and knee, drags her by the collar into a nearby cave, and prepares to torture her into surrendering the information regarding the Parameter List before reinforcements can arrive on time.

Collapsed atop a hill after intercepting the flow of Telesma, Accelerator is being recovered by a transport team to bring him back into Academy City. After being strapped into a helicopter, he asks where Last Order and Misaka Worst are, to which he is replied that they have been recovered by a different unit. At this point, Accelerator issues an ultimatum: immediately freeze the Third Season Project and shut down all Dark Side activities, otherwise he would take action against them. Although nobody on the helicopter initially takes his demands seriously, Accelerator tricks one of the researchers into activating his choker to full power by lunging his head towards their finger when they try to check if it was on out of concern. Now with his ability back on his side, he blows the straps off of himself, tears one of the walls off, and heads out to save Last Order and Worst.

Fiamma has just crawled out of his escape pod, questioning what exactly Touma saw within him for him to save his life, as well as wondering what he should do now that he was an internationally wanted criminal. Although he has not clear answer, he decided to take Touma's advice and find his own path in the world. Yet, he had not taken more than a single step when he is ambushed by Aleister Crowley, who slices off his right arm from behind. Fiamma is shocked that he was completely unable to detect the activation of whatever spell was used to attack him, as well as shocked by the identity of his attacker. He questions how Aleister could be standing before him in Russia, while simultaneously being back in the Windowless Building. Crowley's reply is simple: he has achieved a state of existence high enough so that he can be in multiple locations at once. He elaborates that this is not a clone or some kind of copy, but the genuine Crowley, comparing his situation to that of the rumored Anna Sprengel.

Fiamma asks why he could not achieve his goal of world salvation despite having enough power to rival the Son of God, but Aleister informs him that it was not a matter of power, but rather the type of format being used. Had Fiamma completed his plan using the principles found within the Aeon of Horus, and not the Christian principles found in the Aeon of Osiris like he did originally, he would have become a being similar to that of Aleister himself. Aleister then reveals the reason for his appearance: he is here to eliminate Fiamma to prevent his own plan from being discovered out of the aftermath of Project Bethlehem, since his plan and Fiamma's was very similar in design. Both of them used a temple filled with strange energy to draw out the power of a special right hand in order to manipulate the Phases with the assistance of an angel.

Fiamma then tries to stop Aleister to protect the world that Touma had worked so hard to defend, but is utterly defeated and left for dead under the snow. Back in London, Aleister's appearance has been detected by the Angelican Church, causing Laura Stuart to formulate plans in taking him down so they can absorb Academy City and the rest of the Science Side, since the assets seized during a witch hunt belonged to the church in charge of it. Back in Academy City, Aiwass converses with Kazakiri Hyouka in the remaining time he has left on the surface world, before he is forced back into a deeper plane of existence due to the virus in Last Order's brain being cured. Finally, Misaka Mikoto has reached the area where the Star of Bethlehem crashed into the ocean, but is at a loss of what to do now that she is there. Absentmindedly, she stirs a stick into the water, and picks up a small plastic object. It turns out to be the Gekota strap that Touma received alongside her during September 30th. And thus ends the Old Testament.

Adapted To

 * Anime: Toaru Majutsu no Index III Episode 26
 * Manga: N/A

Characters
By order of appearance:
 * Stiyl Magnus
 * Index Librorum Prohibitorum
 * Hamazura Shiage
 * Takitsubo Rikou
 * Mugino Shizuri
 * ITEM liaison
 * Digurv
 * Glickin
 * Accelerator
 * Last Order
 * Misaka Worst
 * Fiamma of the Right
 * Aleister Crowley
 * Laura Stuart
 * Aiwass
 * Kazakiri Hyouka
 * Misaka Mikoto
 * Misaka 10777

Abilities

 * Accelerator (ability) - Accelerator
 * Holy Right - Fiamma

New Abilities

 * Spiritual Tripping - Aleister Crowley
 * Blasting Rod - Aleister Crowley
 * State of Existence - Aleister Crowley

Locations

 * St. George's Cathedral
 * London
 * Russia

Referbacks

 * Mugino is referring to the Misaka Network when she recalls the military clones made from the #3's DNA Map.

Cultural References

 * The concept of the Aeon is derived from from Aleister Crowley's school of thought, Thelema.

Unanswered Questions

 * How will Accelerator's demands of shutting down the Dark Side of Academy City be received?