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 and antagonist that Kamijou Touma confronts in the series, introducing 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.

Etymology
Stiyl surname Magnus, which means "Great" in Latin. The name has been of common use throughout antiquity such as Albertus Magnus, famous 13th century theologian who advocated the peaceful coexistence of science and religion, and is thought to have been a magician and alchemist.

Appearance
His blond hair is dyed red and hangs on his shoulders. He wears a black priest robe and has a silver ring on each of his ten fingers, earrings on both ears, and a barcode tattoo under his right eye. Despite being fourteen, 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 and that he dislikes Academy City since it's hard to get cigarettes as a minor.

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 Innocentius needing vast amounts of energy, rendering Stiyl's body weaker than most others').

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

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 the orders to capture Index and allow her to live her life. He doesn't like Touma very much and often enjoys causing him discomfort when they are together, but still respects his abilities and the fact that Index can be happy with her current partner. Stiyl has to deal with the antics of Laura Stuart, even though she is his superior, when she is not performing her duties and is shown to punish her without a thought when she gets out of hand.

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 traveled 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 unnecessary 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 obviously they were told there wasn't. Both of them witnessed the deterioration of Index's body and were 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 discover 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

Some events in the anime adaptation and the original light novel differ, but is relatively the same.

Stiyl is sent as a representative of the Anglican Church to Academy City to confront the problem of Aureolus Izzard, who has taken over Misawa Cram School. 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 essentially has no powers and cannot leak any information from Academy City. Aleister also states that Touma cannot replicate the technology and techniques 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 and recruits him to the mission. 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 embarrassed 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 for the Gregorian Chant Replica.

In the original novel, Stiyl confronts the Aureolus Dummy, and brutally destroys his identity by showing him that he is not the true Aureolus Izzard. He later cuts of the dummy's limbs and in its madness rans away, and then accidentally confronts Touma, who later angers him to the point of nearly suffocating him. Stiyl later appears after the dummy is closed to death, and asks if he has any last words, the dummy tells him his magic name. After declining a final prayer, Stiyl burns him. He is later confronted by the true Aureolus Izzard and loses his memory, and for the later part of his stay in Misawa Cram School, was totally unaware of its destruction by the remaining Thirteen Knights of the Roman Catholic Church and reconstruction by Aureolus Izzard via Ars Magna.

In the anime adaptation, 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 to rescue Index, who was 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' power. After Touma scares Aureolus into thinking that Ars Magna can't bypass the Imagine Breaker, Stiyl returns to normal and saves Index before Touma defeats the Alchemist. He noticed how Touma used 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 & magical ability, essentially killing the man that was known as "Aureolus Izzard". Stiyl later leaves when Index and Aisa enters the room Touma is in.

Orsola Aquinas Rescue Arc

 * Main article:Orsola Aquinas Rescue Arc

In England Stiyl walks next to the Archbishop of Necessarius, Laura Stuart, who informs him about the rumor about the theft of the Book of Law which seems to indicate that the Amakusa Catholic Church is the culprit, The Amakusa Catholics happen to be the group that was formerly under the lead of the Saint Kanzaki Kaori and is warned that Kanzaki's actions and stand on the matter make it so that her allegiance can not be insured for this mission.

He heads to Japan and 'kidnaps' Index so that she could help out in the investigation, on which he teams up 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 resting Stiyl disclosed more of his stand about protecting Index to Touma.

That night they set out to stop the Amakusas, then Stiyl gives Touma a British Puritan cross, that was originally meant from Laura to Orsola and stated that "this will protect you". Stiyl fights Tatemiya Saiji, the acting head of the Amakusa Catholics, who easily deflects his spells since he was more focused on keeping Index safe from the fight than anything else. When Touma jumps in to the fry, they together tackle Saiji and knock him out. Stiyl binds him with his runes and hands him over to the Roman Catholics.

Upon learning that the Roman Catholics were trying to kill Orsola Aquinas Styil hears that Touma gave the Puritan Cross to Orsola and decides to send Touma home while using excuses that his involvement was already done with. He then proceeded to trace Orsola's location and sneak into the weak point of the barrier that the Agnese forces had set up; however before he could sneak in Touma rushes in and breaks the barrier, stating his intention of saving Orsola even if he has to face the 250 nuns; Stiyl then appears along with Index and the Amakusa Catholics and fight the nuns for attacking one of their own, Orsola, stated that now that Touma gave her a Puritan Cross, she was part of the Anglican Church.

Daihasei Festival Arc

 * Main article:Daihasei Festival Arc

In the the arc, Stiyl along with Tsuchimikado Motoharu, as members of Necessarius, and one of the few members of the church with friendly relations with Academy City, are sent out to deal with Oriana Thomson making a deal with the Stab Sword, and is forced to rely on a mission without Kanzaki Kaori. Touma later appears, and gives aid to the both of them, and here, Stiyl and Motoharu briefs Touma about the Stab Sword that is to be exchanged in Academy City, on how Kaori cannot be mobilized, and on Index to be kept away from the incident. Touma is the first one to make contact with Oriana, and contacts Stiyl and Motoharu. They later give chase to her, but end up in an abandoned automatic bus terminal, which ends with Stiyl forcing Touma to be useful as a bait by using his hand. After, Motoharu tells Stiyl to apply his runes on the buses, Motoharu and Touma plows towards Oriana's traps, but she gets away, though leaves one of her flashcards.

Motoharu creates a magic array so they can determine Oriana's location with a 3 kilometer radius, with Stiyl performing the spell in his place. Immediately after, Stiyl is affected by a counterspell, causing him great pain. After a brief rest, he restates his determination to protect the world Index is in, and at any cause. Here, he uses the searching spell again, and though he is affected by the counterspell, the spell is able to determine Oriana's location. After, Touma and Motoharu fails to save Fukiyose Seiri from Oriana's bait, Stiyl is once again contacted by Motoharu to use the searching spell, telling Touma and Motoharu of Oriana's whearebouts. They later corner her after Motoharu contacts Stiyl to activate one of the rune cards that he set up on the buses a while back. After the battle with Oriana, Touma, Motoharu, and Stiyl meet again, with new information from Anglican Church. Regarding Oriana carrying a distraction for them, and the fact that the exchange is not actually about the Stab Sword, but of the Croce di Pietro, a powerful magical artifact that turns the territory it is established towards the ownership of the Roman Catholic Church.

Stiyl later takes a quick break after contacting Sherry Cromwell and Orsola Aquinas, and later meets Tsukuyomi Komoe, who berates him for being a underaged smoker. Touma and Stiyl is later contacted by Motoharu, who saw Oriana and is now tracking her. While, Touma and Stiyl follow Motoharu's instructions, Oriana changes direction towards Motoharu, and Stiyl and Touma are unable to do anything about it. Motoharu's later reestablishes contact with them, after his battle with her, sending out instructions. Following them, Stiyl later comments that he senses blood, and later discovers that Himegami Aisa has been attacked by Oriana Thomson, mistaking her for a member of the Anglican Church due to her Walking Church. He later forces Touma to go forward and find Oriana, as Stiyl stays back and help Komoe, who was with Aisa, perform a healing spell she rememberd back in the Index Arc. The spell was a success, and Aisa survives, though is in need of immediate medical attention, much to the relief of Komoe, who thanks Stiyl. He later contacts Touma to say that he needs to talk to Motoharu, telling him that he may have found a clue.

Stiyl later regroups with Touma and Motoharu after escaping Komoe, indicating her as similar to Index. With Motoharu's special position in Academy City, they travel to 23rd School District, where Oriana would be and where Ridovia, the mastermind of the plot, would set the Croce di Pietro. Here, Stiyl tells them that it would be a bloodbath, to which Touma acknowledges. Sneaking around one of the airbases, they come upon, Oriana waiting on them for battle. After Motoharu is taken out of commission, Stiyl and Touma engage Oriana, but the former is quickly taken down, leaving Touma to duel with Oriana alone. After Stiyl comes to, he summons Innocentius, uncaring if hits Touma, and due to their queer combination and propensity to fight while fighting Oriana, she becomes confused and allows them to counterattack. This however, is shortlived as Oriana attacks Stiyl, putting him out of commission.

For the most part between Touma and Oriana's battle, Stiyl is unconscious. However, he later awakens to advise Touma to contact Motoharu, as Ridovia has planned a ruse all along with them. Stiyl is also awake when he witnesses Oriana's miscalculation, as the Night Parade covers the sky, preventing the Croce di Pietro to activate. Stiyl is later taken into intensive care afterwards for his injuries.

Academy City Invasion Arc

 * Main article:Academy City Invasion Arc

Before the invasion, Stiyl is London doing some documents and notices one of which had Laura Stuart write something controversial, angered by this Stiyl barges into the Laura's private bath and demands some answers from her, but is continually teased by her even when he attacks her with his magic.

Document of Constantine Arc

 * Main article:Document of Constantine Arc

He appears in volume 14 along with Agnese interrogating Ridovia Lorenzetti and Biagio Busoni, trying to acquire 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. He later arrives on a transport plane after Elizard casts Union Jack and summons Innocentius from the plane by dropping rune cards. Stiyl then appears in the Epilogue, angry that Laura Stuart and the Elizard have controllers to activate Index's John's Pen Mode.

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 at Fiamma's. At the end Sityl has no option but to try to restrain Index by force.

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 Archangel Gabriel's return. After the disaster is adverted Index, now free of Fiamma's control, ask him where's Touma in the Epilogue; question for which he could not provide answer.

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. He states that he has completely analyzed the current twenty-four character runes and created a new power using six character runes. It's said that he has created a rune 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, this is linked to his ability to heal burns . Kanzaki pointed out that Stiyl also has the ability of detecting someone who is hiding thanks to the person's body heat.

Spells

 * Vampire Killing Cross (吸血殺しの紅十字): Creates an flaming cross.
 * Flaming Sword (炎剣): Creates an 3000 degree C° flame sword
 * Innocentius (魔女狩りの王 (イノケンティウス) ): 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, there is also extreme cases when Innocentius self regenerated abilities are overwhelmed and thus is destroyed by the damage . Due to this spell taking up a lot of energy Stiyl body weakens tremendously from it's use. It should be noted that Innocentius active range matches the area where the runes are located, it can not move outside that area. Innocentius has the ability to create a large red cross of fire that is used to smash objects.
 * Empty Area: Using the ᛟ (Opila) rune to create an area that no one enters outside intended targets.

Flame Sword
Styil has used 2 enchantations when summoning a flame sword, one is for wielding it and the other is to throw it, the actual differences in the characteristics of the swords haven't been detailed. First shown in volume 1. In the anime this was changed so that the first chant doesn't match a fire sword but a fire whip.

When wielding : ''
 * Original Languague : “Kenaz —”“—Purisaz Naupiz Gebo!”
 * English : "(oh flames) (Grant the gift of the giant’s suffering!)"
 * Kanji : ''炎よ 巨人に苦痛の贈り物を

When throwing it.
 * English :　(AshToAsh) (DustToDust) (SqueamishBloody Rood)
 * Kanji :　「灰は灰に―――　　―――塵は塵に―――　　―――吸血殺しの紅十字！！」

Innocentius
First shown in volume 1


 * Original Languague : "(MTWOTFFTOIIGOIIOF) (IIBOLAIIAOE) (IIMHAIIBOD) (IINFIIMS) (ICRMMBGP)"
 * English : "(One of the five elements that build the Earth), (o great creator of flames), (The light of salvation that gives birth to life), ( the light of judgment that punishes evildoers)… (While bringing peace and stability at the same time), (it also destroys the cold and dark misfortune)… (Fire is the name), (sword is the title)!...( Show yourself), (Swallow Myself’, turn me into power)—!”
 * Kanji : (世界を構築する五大元素の一つ、偉大なる始まりの炎よ) (それは生命を育む恵みの光にして、邪悪を罰する裁きの光なり) (それは穏やかな幸福を満たすと同時、冷たき闇を滅する凍える不幸なり) (その名は炎、その役は剣) (顕現せよ、我が身を喰らいて力と為せ)

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 Birdway, the sister of it's leader, a powerful magician known only as Birdway; in order to complete his task he needs to protect Patricia Birdway while fighting off another powerful fire magician.

Toaru Majutsu no Index-tan
In the first episode of the Index-tan specials, Stiyl parodies Wilhelmina Carmel's role in the Shana-tan as the affectionate stalker of the main character, while having a reserved post for him to stalk from. Stiyl first appears in the sketch where Kaori beats up some unknown person (presumably Touma as the scene was taken from Touma's fight with Kaori) while asking her questions regarding her seiyu. He reappears in the scene where Touma destroys Index's collar, wherein Touma accidentally encourages Stiyl and Kaori to become the main characters, changing the end credits. Stiyl is the last character seen in the final sketch, stalking Index-tan who is with Touma.

Stiyl reappers in the third episode where he is scolded for using Innocentius in the confined space of the Church of Orsola.

Toaru Majutsu no Index (PSP game)

 * Main article:Toaru Majutsu no Index (PSP game)

Stiyl is one of the playable characters in the Toaru Majutsu no Index video game.

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.

Lunatia
While Styil is not present in the game, his Rune card is an equipable item for the player.

Design evolution
Stuyl's design has changed little since the first preliminary design of his character, with little additions such as skull strap for his cellphone to match his design. A common theme that Haimura went for Stiyl and Kaori is that ever since their introduction in Volume 1, the gap between age and appearance in the magic side characters has been much greater than in the science side characters. When he read the first draft of Volume 1, he came with the impression that it was the story of children rebelling against the reasoning of adults. Stating that:"...I thought Kamijou would have seen Stiyl and Kanzaki as adults that used reasonings and principles that a child would refuse to accept." Haimura believed that the Index novels would go on for so long, as such he went with the designs that did not match their age, and by volume 7 Haimura began regretting his decision.

As for Innocentius, its design has been settled since its inception, however, Haimura comments on how he would've loved to draw a pagespread for it.

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.
 * During the Angel Fall incident, Stiyl was the one in the most complicated situation. His body was switched with someone else like all others, but his appearance has also been switched onto Kanzaki. If someone like Touma, who was unaffected by the Angel Fall spell saw the real Stiyl, he would not have been in his real body or have his appearance.

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 2) "《Don't smile with everything》《Are you ready to die?》」" (said in English).
 * (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."