Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 20/Chapter 2

Synopsis
As Lessar tries to piece back the gloves destroyed during Touma's plan earlier, she discovers a hidden freight train line in a magically-reinforced tunnel buried underneath thick snow. Surprised by Fiamma's subtlely in his plans, she and Touma decide to hide inside one of the containers near the train line. True enough, they stumbled upon a shipment of spiritual items which are delivered by diesel train into the Russian encampment. Despite Touma's fears of fighting against Russian soldiers, he and Lessar leap out of the container, bringing them to a loading area with many Russian magicians working to move the cargo.

After sneaking past the toiling magicians, the two find themselves in a fortress made of stone, and they find a room where none other than Fiamma of the Right is discussing with an unknown person through magical means about a certain "Project Bethlehem" and the current position of the Russian Orthodox Church in the war between the Roman Catholic Church and Academy City. Touma then sees the remote control that's controlling Index near Fiamma, and it forced Lessar to restrain him before he could dive into a room where there are over 200 magicians hidden from plain sight. Lessar also tells Touma that they should locate Sasha Kreutzev first in order to get a better chance of stealing the remote control from Fiamma.

With enough rations and funding to survive the Russian cold, Shiage continues driving with Rikou as they discuss about their plans. Rikou mostly advises Shiage in what to do, especially in stealing Academy City technology as a bargaining chip as well as monitoring the movements of Russian forces. Shiage then decides that heading to the Elizalina Alliance of Independent Nations would be the best option to make. However, Rikou's condition worsens once again, bringing him to another desperate moment. Then, outside, a man who had been a guide for Japanese tourists, knocks on Shiage's car, offering a deal involving taking the fuel in his car in exchange for bringing Rikou to a doctor in the nearby town.

A Russian tank operator named Antseka S. Kfark is looking at Academy City’s forces dropping down materials to make temporary bases, and complaining that they can’t do a thing about it. They’re unsatisfied that even though their opponents are a city filled mostly with students, Russia is getting annihilated with Academy City’s AI technology. They’re thinking that if Academy City were to bomb them they won’t stand a chance, then they realised the Academy City bases have cut off their supply lines and Academy City is taking them down humanely by forcing them to surrender when they run out of supplies. The Russians at that base sighed and said they lost to humane methods, which is ridiculous in a war. Touma and Lessar finally reach the Elizalina Alliance of Independent Nations, and the reality of finding Sasha in a small country that is surrounded by Russian soil eventually dawns on the two. As the idea of finding a base of operations enters Touma's mind, Lessar finds another opportunity to act indecent towards Touma. Touma is forced to deal with Lessar's issue, and she eventually returns to the plan. There, she decides to use the information about Fiamma sneaking into the country by negotiating with the Elizalina border guards using that information.

With the help of the Saint Kanzaki Kaori and her combined efforts with the Amakusa-Style Remix of Church and the Agnese Forces, the English front manages to push back the French advance. However, Carissa sees the skirmish as merely testing the might of the English forces and begins taunting the supposed leader of the French forces, the Maiden of Versailles. The Maiden responds to this by reminding her about the loss of the Curtana Original and the limitations of the Curtana to English territory. However, as Elizard uses Curtana Second to boost further the English front, Carissa unveils her answer to the Maiden of Versailles' challenge: the mobile fortress Glastonbury, which further extends the effective area of the territory of England into the battlefield. Carissa then declares an offensive against the French forces.

In the Elizalina Alliance of Independent Nations, Touma and Lessar manage to escape a strict interrogation when one of the border guards was related to a woman and child whom he rescued earlier. Instead, they are allowed to meet the leader of the country, Elizalina. The two soon find out that Elizalina knows about Fiamma of the Right, but she also knows that Fiamma cannot be defeated even with the forces of her nation, and she prioritizes the well-being of the country's people. For this reason, she decides to bring Sasha to them and smuggle them back to Russia. However, Fiamma's presence is suddenly felt in the stone building where they stood, and although the presence is merely a dummy, another attack, which came in the form of a flaming sword 30-40 kilometers long, comes crashing down on Touma, Lessar and Elizalina. Fiamma himself eventually appears to assert his dominance over Touma and Elizalina, shrugging every attack they made and forcing them to a defensive. Eventually, the fight leaks into the nearby plaza, and as Fiamma finds Sasha Kreutzev near the battlefield, he quickly neutralizes his target before receiving another attack, this time coming from a former member of God's Right Seat, Vento of the Front.

Accelerator feels something different from the lambskin papers he got off magicians earlier, and plans to find out what it is to see if he can use this as leverage to bargain for Last Order’s safety. He heads to a Russian air base to find out more, but found the base was already completely destroyed by Academy City’s dark side, as he found no trace of conventional weaponry, such as bullets, used there. There is no trace left of anyone that could possible know about the importance of the lambskins. Accelerator then thought the lambskins must be really important for Academy City to send in the dark side instead of normal forces. Then he is ambushed by Russian mages there, asking whether Accelerator was the one attacked the base. Accelerator sees that he is not going to get out of this without a fight and plans to finish the fight quickly.

Vento and Fiamma begin their encounter, and Fiamma notices how Vento is able to resort to normal magic despite being a member of God's Right Seat. On the other hand, Vento comments on Fiamma not being at full strength, something that he does not deny, pointing out the need to retrieve Touma and Sasha for that reason. Soon, Vento decides to take the fight seriously, using her newly acquired control over the Queen of the Adriatic Sea spell used by Biagio Busoni to attack Fiamma. Even still, Fiamma used the symbolism of the right hand in Christianity to crush Vento's attacks and eventually disposes of the control device Vento had attached on a chain to her tongue.

Fiamma soon explains that the world is suffering from a little-known side effect of the Angel Fall phenomenon, namely the distortion that causes changes in elemental alignments in magic. Afterwards, he prepares to finish off Vento, something that Touma is unable to do because of Fiamma's ability to "defeat" an enemy flawlessly. Fiamma commends Touma for his resolve to stop him, but he reminds Touma that his selfish actions would be put to the test now that Fiamma has exposed that the remote control also links his consciousness with Index's. Soon, Fiamma takes the unconscious Sasha with him, but not until reminding Touma to not die until he has taken his right hand.

Shiage and Rikou head to a small village made of about 50 log houses. The man he entered a deal with earlier, named Digurv, realizes that Rikou won't receive help from knowledge outside Academy City's level of technology, but Shiage understands this and focuses more on giving Rikou a proper place to sleep. Shiage soon finds himself apologizing for the chaos ensued by Academy City, but Digurv clarifies that the town has been under siege even before the outbreak of World War III due to the ongoing conflict between the Elizalina Alliance of Independent Nations and Russia. Despite this, as a Russian soldier collapses in the middle of the town due to frostbite, Digurv goes to help him. Soon, however, Digurv discovers dreadful news involving privateers who have been attacking the town recently. With concern over Rikou and the townspeople, Shiage is confronted with the dilemma of fighting off the privateers who have been properly equipped due to the events of the war.

Accelerator confronts several Russian magicians, including a woman who is called Vodyanoy by her comrades. As he prioritizes the well-being of Last Order in his arms, he compresses his ability into his right hand and blocks off the magic thrown by his enemies, causing an unusual effect from the interaction between esper powers and magic spells. He eventually ends the fight as soon as Last Order gets scratched by the ensuing attacks by covering the enemy magicians in snow, but he eventually regrets this as he wanted to know more about the lambskin parchments in the train from earlier. Then, a supersonic bomber from Academy City drops something near Accelerator. This person, dressed in a white suit, introduces herself as a "Misaka from the Third Season".

Between the Lines
As Mikoto looks for information regarding the war, she notices the stricter security by the system. Regardless, she manages to extract data involving Touma's absence and many things that are unrelated to the ongoing war. The possibility that Touma is somewhere in the middle of war worries Mikoto, and the footage shown by the Internet and television is of no help to calm her thoughts. To make things worse, a news report shows a teenager with black spiky hair, and a Gekota mascot/charm hanging out of his pocket.

Characters
By order of appearance
 * Lessar
 * Kamijou Touma
 * Fiamma of the Right
 * Hamazura Shiage
 * Takitsubo Rikou
 * Kanzaki Kaori
 * Agnese Sanctis
 * Carissa
 * Knight Leader
 * Sasha Kreutzev
 * Vento of the Front
 * Accelerator
 * Last Order
 * Misaka Mikoto

New Characters

 * Digurv
 * Antseka S. Kfark
 * Maiden of Versailles (voice-only)
 * Elizalina
 * Bellagi
 * Longhe
 * Vodyanoy
 * Glickin
 * Misaka Worst

Locations

 * Russia
 * Elizalina Alliance of Independent Nations
 * Academy City

Abilities

 * Communication magic - Fiamma of the Right
 * Surface fortification spell - Carissa
 * Curtana Second - Elizard
 * La Regina del Mare Adriatico - Vento of the Front
 * Steel Glove - Lessar
 * Electromaster - Misaka Worst
 * Accelerator (ability) - Accelerator

New Abilities

 * Flaming Sword - Fiamma of the Right
 * Impromptu magical item creation (unnamed) - Elizalina, Lessar
 * Water magic (unnamed) - Vodyanoy

Referbacks

 * Lessar commented on how Touma is good at sneaking around magicians, and Touma replied he's done this before during the British Civil War in the events of Volume 18.
 * Referring back to Volume 16, where a flashback told how the largest Magic Cabal of France, the Orleans Knights, was wiped out by William Orwell practically single-handedly back in the days when he was still a mercenary and before he joined God’s Right Seat, all to save a boy he just met. The boy along with a girl were test subjects in a magical experiment, and the boy have just barely escaped from the Orleans Knights but the girl sacrificed herself and got captured again, having faith the boy will come back and rescue her. William decided to help the boy, and also told the boy the girl is waiting for him so he should stand up and fight as well. Later in Volume 16 it's stated Orleans Knights were defeated soundly.
 * Fiamma replied Touma have improved his skills during the British Civil War in Volume 18.
 * The Queen of the Adriatic Sea used back in Volume 11 is reconstructed by Vento and was used against Fiamma.
 * Accelerator referred back to Volume 14 when he got sent to retrieve something Academy City wanted in Avignon, badly enough they sent a large amount of Anti-skills in HsPS-15 suits and destroyed a large portion of the city and burned down half of the Palais des Papes. He didn't know Academy City was after the Document of Constantine.

Quotes

 * Fiamma: "You’re the main dish. I need to make some preparations before eating you."
 * Digurv: "As much as I’d like to be coldhearted, abandoning him wouldn’t change anything."
 * Accelerator: "Yeah, the right hand just doesn’t suit me."