The technique used is similar to the Artificial Magic Calculation Area implanted in Tatsuya during the Artificial Magician Experiment. However, its magical abilities are not at the disposal of the patient. [Babel] operates as programmed by its Magic Sequence.

  It is due to this virus-like process that the infected can infect others. [Babel]'s Magic Sequence interferes with the patient's subconscious to reproduce itself, which then at random parasitizes the brains of nearby individuals. [Babel] is contagious in the literal sense of the word. The number of secondary infections are not necessarily limited to one patient per case.

  However, the furthest this magic can spread is through a secondary infection. The Magic Sequence is reproduced by the patient who has only its original function, which is to impair their language comprehension. Patients who have been infected through a secondary infection can't infect others, meaning that it can't be spread any further. The magical reproduction and infection functions are two separate processes from the function that impairs language comprehension, and only the processes involved in the impairment of a patient's language comprehension are reproduced.

  What neither Dean, Laura, nor anyone at this stage knows is that this is a mechanism that [Babel] regulates to ensure the secondary infection, by avoiding an overload of the patient's mind.

  To reproduce the Magic Sequence and then infect someone else with it is tantamount to forcing the person to use magic. And the more complex the magic, the greater the strain on the mind.

  If the reproduction of the Magic Sequence were to incorporate the magical infection function, then there would be a higher probability that the patient's subconscious would reach its breaking point. Just as when a magician operates magic beyond their limits, their Magic Calculation Area would overheat and, in the worst scenario, they would lose their life.

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  If the patient dies before they are able to spread the infection, then there wouldn't be as widespread chaos caused by [Babel] as there otherwise could be through secondary infections. Knowing this, the creators of this magic, whose true identities remain unknown, purposely limited the infection to the secondary degree in order to ensure social chaos by impairing the language comprehension of others.

  "—It seems that the scope of the auto-diffusion is limited to around five or six people."

  Dean's voice, directed at Helen, was laced with a slight note of dissatisfaction.

  "In the beginning, the best I could get it to spread was to two other people. As I get more familiar with the magic, I believe I will be able to expand the scope."

  Unbeknownst to Dean and Helen herself as yet, degradation occurs when the Magic Sequence is reproduced within the patient's unconscious realm. This degradation is inversely proportional to how fidelity with which the original caster was able to activate [Babel].

  The reproduction also stalls as a result of the patient's mind being drained by the enforced task. This depends on how accurately the mechanism that is built into [Babel]

  can force the patient's mind to reproduce this function.

  These are the two main factors that limit the number of infected people. Thus, the upper limit of the number of infected people ultimately hinges on the capacity of the caster who activated the original [Babel] to accurately construct the Magic Sequence and to overcome the target's informational resistance for the Magic Sequence to take root, in other words, their magical power.

  Fortunately, with Helen's magical power, even if she were to become proficient in using it, her limit is likely to be around ten people. Nevertheless, using [Babel] on a hundred people can cause a thousand people to be deprived of their words, thus causing even more chaos.

  However, if [Babel] were to be used by someone with a magical power on the level of Miyuki or Lina, for example, it could render an entire metropolis dysfunctional. In this sense, [Babel] can be said to have the potential to be as vicious as Strategic-Class Magic.

  "—I see. Continue to practice and become more proficient, then."

  Dean, who is heedless of the nature of [Babel], seemed to be content with Helen's excuse. At these words, Helen felt she could breathe a sigh of relief.

  But it was too early to feel relieved.

  "My Lord. There is one more thing I would like to bring to your attention regarding the proliferation of [Babel]."

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  Laura, who had remained silent until that now, interjected.

  Dean turned to the side to look at Laura, and with a glance and a hand gesture, he urged her to continue.

  "Since yesterday, the patient's at various hospitals have been recovering one after another."

  "Did the doctors find a way to successfully treat them?"

  Dean asked back with a tone of surprise.

  Laura, at first glance, appeared to be disappointed as she shook her head.

  "Medical treatment remains elusive. In all the cases of recovery that we have secretly investigated, the Magic Sequence has been destroyed."

  "That's absurd!"

  Helen exclaimed. Next she hurriedly took up an apologetic stance.

  Dean did not reproach her.

  "A Counter Magic that destroys Magic Sequences? Was there ever a magician in the Stars that could do that?"

  He asked further questions, disregarding Helen's cries as if they had never occurred.

  "There is one such case where a patient had recovered around the time when First Lieutenant Ariana Lee Shaula of Stars was visiting. However, we have no information that First Lieutenant Shaula is capable of Counter Magic of this caliber."

  "In short, you have no idea who is interfering?"

  "It's as you say, my lord."

  Beside Laura, who bowed reverently, Dean was deep in thought.

  Left out and ignored, Helen kept her face down, biting her lip.

  She had been picked apart in front of Dean, of all people, and by none other than Laura.

  This was the most frustrating thing for Helen to experience.

  ◇ ◇ ◇

  Over the course of three days, Tatsuya treated all of the seventy-five patients confirmed so far — twelve additional cases since his arrival in Oakland. But the damage had spread beyond the city of Oakland, and those areas have yet to be dealt with.

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  "Mister, you really saved the day."

  Once he had eliminated the Magic Sequence from the last patient in Oakland, Stuart commended Tatsuya in the hallway of the hospital.

  Incidentally, not only Stuart and Shaula, but also Miyuki, were at Tatsuya's side. And yet, they attracted little to no attention. Even though it is not unusual for the general public to not recognize Tatsuya's face, there are very few people, male or female, who would not be mesmerized by Miyuki's beauty.

  This is due to the effect of the new magic that Tatsuya had perfected based on Yuuka's research prior to his visit to America.

  The name he decided on after consulting with Yuuka was [Aidoneus]. It's named after

  "Aidoneus" (the unseen one), which is an alias for "Hades," the King of the Underworld in Greek mythology.

  Derived from the research of Kimon Tonkou, the effect of this magic is "to use the gaze directed towards the user, to interfere with the minds of the others. It induces a sort of prosopagnosia, making others lose interest in the user." "Prosopagnosia," also known as "face blindness," is a type of neurological disorder in which a person is unable to recognize the faces of other people.

  The Magister using [Aidoneus] will be perceived as "unremarkable" to others. Since they are neither invisible, nor has their presence been completely erased, their presence is recognized by the security guards who are on the lookout for suspicious people.

  However, they just can't recognize who they are.

  Furthermore, the effect of prosopagnosia applies only to the caster themselves, and there is virtually no chance that anyone under the influence of the magic will take notice of their presence.

  Its weakness is that, while it works through surveillance cameras, it has no effect on video recordings or photographs. But at the very least, the magic makes it possible for anyone to blend in with a crowd, making it useful enough for undercover work.

  Tatsuya inputted the Magic Sequence of [Aidoneus] into an Artificial Relic "Magistore"

  and made it into a magical tool that can continuously activate this magic without needing to be aware of it.

  Thanks to this, Tatsuya and Miyuki were able to move about freely on the American West Coast without attracting attention.

  ◇ ◇ ◇

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  Since yesterday, Helen Schneider of FAIR has been on the hunt for the magician responsible for nullifying the effects of [Babel] on those whom she used it after having heard about it the day before last.

  Helen was using [Babel] for experimental purposes. In order to confirm its effects, FAIR

  used its connections to track down the hospital where some of the patients had been admitted. By keeping watch on the hospital, she was confident that the magician she was looking for would appear.

  Thinking this, Helen asked other members to help her watch the hospital, but as if to ridicule her, the magician went and treated the patient's without anyone from FAIR

  having ever spotted them.

  Although a Counter Magic is believed to have been used to destroy the Magic Sequence, none of the members stationed at the hospital were able to detect the activation of any magic. As Helen and her colleagues pondered this discrepancy, at last there was only one patient remaining, located in Alameda, a neighboring city to the west of Oakland.

  Helen rushed to the hospital where the patient was admitted.

  The magician meddling with her would no doubt come here. With that in mind, she took the utmost possible cautions in watching for anyone coming in or out of the hospital.

  (That's… Ariana Lee Shaula of Stars?)

  As a person to be wary of who might be involved in this matter, Helen and her colleagues were given a picture of Shaula.

  Shaula was accompanied by three people as she entered the hospital. One man and two women. She recognized one of the women from a photo she had seen, to be a government staff member who had been working on countermeasures against [Babel].

  But the other two, the man and the other woman, have no memory of them at all.

  Helen surreptitiously spied on them from behind to see where they were going. And sure enough, the four of them headed for the ward where the last patient's private room is located.

  While pretending to be a visitor in the waiting room, Helen's senses were primed. But no matter how long she waited, she couldn't sense any sign of magic.

  Not long after, Shaula and her companions emerged from the hospital ward. Whether the last patient had been treated or not, it was impossible to tell. There was no sign of a Counter Magic having been activated, but she already knew that was not necessarily akin to failure.

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  One of the four in Shaula's group was the one who destroyed [Babel]'s Magic Sequence.

  —Helen focused her attention on them based on this suspicion.

  Helen casually followed the four as they walked out of the hospital.

  Just after they passed through the entrance of the hospital, she heard,

  "Mister, you really saved the day."

  She was a little bit behind them, so it was hard to tell who said it.

  But the words were clear to whom they were addressed. There is only one man among the four.

  (It must be him!)

  Helen exclaimed in her mind.

  The caster who has been destroying [Babel]'s Magic Sequence left and right.

  The magician who is meddling with her.

  It was that man, Helen was sure of it.

  Impulsively, she unleashed [Babel] at the man. She had mastered [Babel] at the cost of being unable to use any other magic.

  ◇ ◇ ◇

  Suddenly, behind them, there was a sign of magic being activated.

  Tatsuya's response was swift. Just as soon as the magic was unleashed at him, he activated the Counter Magic, [Gram Dispersion], that can destroy Magic Sequences, without even employing a CAD.

  This magic isn't one of Tatsuya's inherent magics. The theory behind it has been understood for some time, and there are records where activation of it has been observed on an experimental level.

  [Gram Dispersion] is a magic that recognizes the structure of a Psion Information Body and breaks it down into disjointed pieces. Recognizing the structure of the target Magic Sequence is the first step. Before Tatsuya, it was regarded as useless in practice (live-combat) given how time consuming this single step is, as the magic could not be nullified in time. To this day, he is the only person who has mastered [Gram Dispersion].

  The first time Tatsuya had ever seen this magic was the day before yesterday, and there are still countless elements to it that he doesn't understand yet. Despite this, Tatsuya 164

  was able to respond in an instant because of all the experience he has accumulated over the past three days in decomposing this very same Magic Sequence dozens of times.

  Turning around, they saw a young woman aghast. It was evident that this woman is the Magister who had just attacked Tatsuya. And that she is also the one who is responsible for using the magic that had been spreading the aphasia.

  Tatsuya moved to neutralize the woman.

  But he was too late.

  Before Tatsuya could cast his magic

  Miyuki had already cast hers.

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  166

  A blizzard of extreme cold blew towards the woman.

  An illusion of ice and snow imposed on the world.

  The illusion vanished in the next instant beneath the sun that was shining on the city in midsummer.

  "Know your place, you insolent person. How dare you try to harm Tatsuya-sama…"

  Miyuki softly muttered this in Japanese.

  The woman had collapsed.

  Shaula rushed over to the fallen woman with an expression of surprise.

  The woman was not injured, except for a few scratches and bruises that might've been from her fall.

  There was no sign that she had hit her head hard either.

  Yet, no matter how much she called out, there was no sign of the woman regaining consciousness.

  The magic that Miyuki unleashed is the Mental-Interference Type Magic, [Icy Thorn]. It's a derivation of Miyuki's true trump card, the mind freezing magic [Cocytus], which was downgraded in power for easier use. In contrast to [Cocytus], that freezes the mind and brings about a slumber not unlike death, [Icy Thorn] induces a sleep similar to the fabled curse of thorns, where the subject is unable to wake up on their own.

  Those who are struck by [Icy Thorn] will never awaken from this magic unless they are exposed to Psion waves tuned to a specific Non-Systematic Magic, dedicated to awakening them.

  Miyuki watched the woman being carried into the hospital in front of her with a gaze of absolute zero.

  It is clear that she had no intention of awakening the woman.

  But that is not an option in this case.

  Even though it was only for a short period of about two weeks, this matter may not have become widely known to the media, thus this woman who has wreaked havoc on the authorities and medical personnel, and caused grief among the victims, their families, and acquaintances, must be thoroughly questioned.

  And there was another thing, something Tatsuya "saw" that bothered him.

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  An unidentified Information Body came out of the woman's body immediately after she collapsed.

  (Could that be the "familiar" Minoru was talking about…?) A very old and sturdy Information Body emerged from the ashes of the FAIR member that Minoru had incinerated when he was attacked during his infiltration of San Francisco.

  When Tatsuya "saw" the "thing" that came out of the woman's body, he immediately remembered that conversation.

  This "familiar"-like Information Body disappeared from Tatsuya's sight after less than a second.

  Rather than flying out of sight, it simply vanished. It gave the impression that it did not disappear, but rather shifted its coordinates in the information dimension.

  Tatsuya could not track where it went.

  He had to ask the woman about the "familiar" as well.

  Fortunately, Tatsuya can also use the Non-Systematic Magic needed to release [Icy Thorn] in order to awaken a subject from their sleep.

  Tatsuya let out a small sigh and turned on his heels back to the hospital to wake up the woman who had attacked him.

  Also, thanks in part to the intercession of Shaula and Stuart, Miyuki was not charged for the unauthorized use of magic.

  ◇ ◇ ◇

  It was nearly sunset when Laura Simon had noticed what happened. When she went to examine the used "Guru's Stone Tablet," she noticed that it had reverted to its former, unused state.

  Laura continued to do research on the artifact even after Helen had used the stone tablet. Through touching the actual object, even if it was an empty husk, she could learn how the "Guru's Stone Tablet" functions.

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  The stone tablet contains a "daemon"23 within it. When a magician pours power into the stone tablet, the daemon awakens and possesses the person who offered it their power.

  The "daemon" then bestows its host with a special magic.

  In modern magical terms, it works via the principles of Engravement Magic, in this case recorded on the pigment at the molecular scale, whereby, upon the activation by infusion of psions, the Psion Information Body that is the daemon — a process that operates in the Magic Calculation Area independently of the will of the person — is constructed and sent to the deepest recesses of the unconscious of the person who poured Psions into it.

  The daemon functions as a sub-system that builds a specific magic in the Magic Calculation Area, granting the person the magic that had been stored in the stone tablet.