Richard Brave

Richard Brave (リチャード＝ブレイブ) is an antagonist in the Toaru Majutsu no Index series. He is a magician who belongs to Necessarius.

Appearance
He wears a black coat and looks about twenty. He has about the same height and skin color as Stiyl Magnus.

Personality
Richard Brave is a selfish person who had completely focused on his work and dedicated his life to the weapon he had created, Lævateinn, to the point that when it was deemed illegal he couldn't handle it, causing him to hate the Anglican Church. He was also willing to involve and hurt innocent people to further his goals, like when he tried to trick Patricia Birdway into touching the Rune Epitaph.

Background
When he was a member of the Anglican Church, his primary area of activity was North America, where he specialized in defensive ocean battles. His achievements laid in setting up a defensive line along the Atlantic Ocean in order to prevent American magic cabals from invading England. Some time ago, his signature spell, Lævateinn, was classified by Necessarius as illegal, as its nature was not considered completely magical. As it was his greatest weapon that he had created after researching countless things, repeating countless experiments, working for countless hours, and fine-tuning it countless times, it had become the symbol of his life. He also deemed it worthy to dedicate his life to, as the weapon that prevented many tragedies. To him, he had nothing else. In this incident everything about Richard Brave became twisted, his hatred for the Anglican Church had grown within him and sparked his desire to annihilate the Anglican church.

Toaru Majutsu no Index SS: Kanzaki
During Kanzaki Kaori and the Jeans Shop Owner's talk about the fate of the defeated Brunhild Eiktobel and the boy she had tried to save, the Jeans Shop Owner informs Kanzaki there's a group in Necessarius headed by Richard Brave that wants to retrieve Ceillier and use him to to ‘negotiate’ with Brunhild Eiktobel to make her tell them about Gungnir, the Final Rune, the method of interfering with the core of the earth, and the nature of a Valkyrie. The Jeans Shop Owner then asks Kanzaki if she wants to go stop them.

Toaru Majutsu no Index SS: Stiyl
Richard Brave manipulated Necessarius to start a chase after Patricia Birdway because of the Rune Epitaph her older sister had given her. However, the two magicians that were sent after her, Theodosia Electra and Stiyl Magnus, realized something was wrong since Patricia was clearly ignorant of magic and completely innocent, leading the two to decide to protect her. Richard Brave arrived soon after using a spell to interfere with Patricia's mind, slowing down the group.

In their first confrontation, Stiyl and Theodosia realized that Richard's Lævateinn was capable of burning anything, even Stiyl's own flames. Tricking Richard with an illusion, the two of them and Patricia escaped. After some deliberation, they decided to split up the things Richard was after. Theodosia left carrying the Rune Epitaph, while Stiyl went away with Patricia. Some time later Stiyl met Richard again, who claimed to have caught and killed Theodosia, presenting the Rune Epitaph as proof. In the subsequent fight, Stiyl managed to discover the secret behind Lævateinn's power, allowing him to fight Richard Brave. Eventually, Stiyl beat the traitorous magician, and the reinforcements Richard had prepared were defeated by the arrival of Theodosia and the forces of the Dawn-Colored Sunlight, leaded by Leivinia Birdway.

Lævateinn
Lævateinn (破滅の枝): A Western sword with the runes sowulo, gebo, kenaz, ansuz, laguz, and uruz carved onto the blade. Reading down only the first letters spells "sgkalu", which means something along the lines of “the torch that acquired the sun using magic”. The actual Lævateinn is the twig of the greatest flames that is said to set fire to the trunk of the World Tree and burn everything away. According to Theodosia Electra, the Lævateinn is on the same level as the Gungnir.

Lævateinn creates a tsunami of deep red flames that can seemingly burn anything, even other flames. It can also be used to create a massive whirl of sparks that are blown by wind towards the enemy, creating something similar to a random carpet bombing. The sparks opens up in holes the ground like in a sponge, and the flames spreads from those holes.

However, it's great power is a deception, as according to Stiyl Magnus, normal Runes carved on a sword cannot achieve this effect. In fact, the sword itself is not the main part of the spell. What Richard really does is use a water gun or spray bottle hidden in his sleeve to spread Vitamin B2 as an invisible ink in the shape of runes in the same motion as swinging his arm. According to Stiyl, it is probably a combination of the runes eihwaz, berkana, and wunjo that Richard fires as some kind of premade ‘stamp’ like a bullet, since they are able to affect Stiyl's flame sword and Theodosia's flame explosion. The end result is that those runes modify objects to become highly flammable. Then, Richard uses the meaning of sgkalu as "the torch that acquired the sun using magic" in order to create an effect similar to UV rays. As Vitamin B2 reflects yellow light when exposed to strong UV rays, the runes become visible and their meaning is activated. Thus it can be said that Richard's Lævateinn has two modes: the first simply produces flames and is used to set fire to his surroundings, the second amplifies UV rays to make only the needed runes visible, turning the objects they were on into a highly flammable substance.

Because it uses such a scientific method, the Anglican Church deemed the spell as against the treaty between magic and science.

Other magic
Richard is capable of using a spell to cause mental interference on his enemies. First, the enemy will glimpse a black figure at the edge of their vision. Then they'll hear an unnatural voice calling out to them, coming from a constant but undetermined distance even if they are running as fast as they can. If they try to turn around to focus on the figure all strength will leave their body and they will collapse, with a sound similar to glass shattering coming from their chest. The spell works by forcibly holding in place a portion of the enemy's mind which prevents the whole thing from moving. If you think of the human mind as being made up of many gears, the spell forces a wedge between two of the gears to stop them all from moving. Removing that "wedge" with magic will allow the victim of the spell to regain consciousness and move again. The black figure is likely not the true source of the spell, and is a distraction intended to give time to Richard to get close enough to cast the spell.