The next day, midday.
Notre Dame Cathedral, the main hall of the church.
Walking slowly among the pillars, Naoki looked around at the decorations while saying with admiration: "It's indeed worthy of being called a cathedral with more than eight hundred years of history, the decorations are truly full of the nuances of the era, you can feel the time accumulated here very strongly."
In the mystery side, time and power can be equated, the older an object, the stronger the power contained within it. Even if it doesn't possess any Mana, just something very ordinary, if it has hundreds of years of history, it can become an excellent catalyst.
Especially Notre Dame Cathedral, which was built in the 12th century.
Hearing Naoki's words, Ciel, who was always by his side, frowned slightly: "The first time entering this place, not to admire the art here, but to admire the meaning of its mysteries, even though you have said many times that you are not a Magus, but your words and way of thinking are truly like a Magus."
[I am not a Magus] - This sentence was indeed often said by Naoki to Ciel. He, like other Magus, did not aim to reach the Root, nor would he abandon anything for his own research, and had no intention of becoming a monster who lost his humanity.
By the standards of a Magus, Naoki hardly met any, so in that sense, he was indeed not a Magus.
With a wry smile and raising his hands, Naoki said seriously: "Say whatever you want. Has Aleister been found?"
"Not yet." Ciel said firmly, "There were traces, but before I arrived, Aleister had already killed the investigators and fled, several times like that."
"Looks like he's become a master of evasion."
"He's been in suspended animation for forty years, and at the same time avoiding the surveillance of the church and the Clock Tower, this time we finally learned of his existence through revelation, we initially thought we could resolve it, but he still got away."
The content of the revelation was [Great evil will appear in Paris], if it was Aleister Crowley known as [The wickedest man in the world], [The Beast of Revelation], then the content of the prophecy was correct.
Thinking of this, Ciel sighed slightly: "Going back later, I'll definitely be scolded by the office head, it's really unbearable. By the way, did you come here to ask about this?"
"Almost, the other reason is because there's nothing else to do, after all, I really don't want to accompany women shopping."
Although Gray was still a child, even if it was just Riddel alone, Naoki felt he would be tortured to death. Shopping with women, for men, was no different from plunging into hell.
"Are you a scumbag?"
"Why do you say that?"
"Leaving a woman you have a good relationship with, and going to look for another woman, isn't that being a scumbag? That's what it says in books."
"..."
Naoki wanted to refute, but after thinking about it, it seemed that what Ciel said wasn't wrong?
"However, the standard for judging a scumbag is whether he plays with women's feelings? I don't even play with women's feelings, besides Gray, I hardly ever touch women."
"Pedophile?"
"No."
Naoki sighed helplessly: "Well, then I wanted to visit this place. We're leaving Paris soon, if we don't visit the famous Notre Dame Cathedral, wouldn't it be a waste?"
"Leaving Paris?"
"Eight o'clock flight tonight, back to London."
"Oh." Ciel nodded, "By the way, this is really strange, the two of us. The Clock Tower and the Holy Church, a peaceful situation like us walking and chatting, shouldn't happen much anywhere, right?"
The Clock Tower and the church, due to differences in ideology and organizational rules, had been hostile to each other since their establishment, although they hadn't reached the stage of attacking each other on sight, they also wouldn't give face to the other side, a situation like Naoki and Ciel temporarily cooperating due to the Dead Apostle issue was very rare.
Naoki smiled: "It is rare, but not non-existent, to my knowledge, there are also cases of Magus accepting church members as disciples."
For example, the Tohsaka family and the Kotomine family. But that was a special situation, the two families were indeed old friends, even if one side became a Magus, and the other joined the church, their friendship over the years wouldn't make the two families hostile.
"Would you like me to show you around this place?" Ciel asked, "Although I'm not an official tour guide, I'm quite familiar with this place."
"Sure. But is it alright? I'm someone from the Clock Tower."
"These past few days, almost all the church members in Paris know you, after all, a Magus like you who isn't hostile to the church and is even willing to help is very rare, how does it go? Doing good will surely bring good. Although I can't take you to secret places, just to look around, it's no problem at all."
".... "
Silent for a moment, Naoki suddenly smiled: "The church is surprisingly open-minded. Then I ask for your help, Miss Ciel."
"Just call me Ciel. By the way, what's your name?"
"Natsukawa Naoki. By the way, we've known each other for three or four days, you still don't know my name?"
"You never said it either!"
◆━⊰✧⊱━◆
At the same time, in a house in Paris.
Leaning against the wall and hiding in the shadows, Aleister leaned against the wall, reaching out to move his body slightly: "Hmm, can move freely, it seems my injuries have fully recovered."
Over the past two days, Aleister had been tracked down by the church several times, although he managed to kill them all, he wasn't unscathed either, his body had sustained some injuries, and due to the special nature of his wounds, even the healing power of a Dead Apostle took more than half a day to recover.
Clutching his staff, he stood up, patted the dust off his body, and Aleister looked at the time.
"There are still four hours until night... Alright, time to prepare a new summon. Those annoying church and Clock Tower Magus, not only took my blood, but also put me in this state, don't expect them to get away with it so easily."
After summoning the new summon, it would be their time to die.
However, just as Aleister thought so, suddenly the scent of flowers filled the room.
"In your current state, you won't be able to defeat that child."
A woman's voice echoed in the room, Aleister immediately turned towards the voice, but all that appeared in his eyes was a pink mist, only a vague figure could be seen within it.
"Who?"
"Who I am is not important, what's important is, if you continue to hold such thoughts, you will soon be purified."
"What?" Aleister frowned with dissatisfaction, "You mean I will be purified? By ordinary humans?"
The figure nodded, then took out a flower petal with her hand: "Tonight at eight o'clock, Paris airport, a flight to London. That is your last chance. The key point is how to eliminate the magic, understand?"
"Yes..."
Looking at the flower petal floating in front of his eyes, Aleister's originally gleaming eyes dimmed instantly, as if an empty and dazed doll, he replied vaguely.