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| “ | Uho hoi☆ | „ |
| ~ The High Priest's laugh |
| “ | I see. So I did not need the position of a Buddha to save the people. This thought just never occurred to me. Then I will take on that role. I will be the pathetic, sinful priest who could not abandon his desires and died without reaching perfection. I would not be given a place or a role as a Buddha, so I will become one of the immensely powerful wanderers. I will become exactly what you wanted me to be. I will become a simple High Priest, a mere wandering Buddha. | „ |
| ~ The High Priest |
The High Priest is a major antagonist of A Certain Magical Index: New Testament, serving as the titular main antagonist of the Magic God Invasion Arc and the overarching antagonist of both the World Rejecter Arc and Salome Arc.
He is a Magic God of Japanese Buddism and a member of the True Gremlin, who dwells in a territory beyond a certain layer of the world. Prior to becoming a Magic God, he was a regular Buddhist priest who tried to become a Buddha via self-mummification in order to save all humans.
He is voiced by Masane Tsukayama, who also voices Zouken Matou from the Fate franchise.
Appearance[]
The High Priest appears as a skinny and decrepit old man with a bald head and grey, wrinkled skin similar to the dried branches of an ancient tree. This is a result of his Sokushinbutsu or "self-mummification". He has green eyes with black sclera. He's normally seen wearing a purple Buddhist priest's robe with a gold rakusu over it and carries a gold sword which he uses as a walking staff.
Personality[]
The High Priest is an eccentric and arrogant individual who looks down on others and pretends to be kind when judging them. He has a habit of rapidly changing his opinions mid-sentence without noticing it. He invites Touma Kamijou to have a talk and negotiate with him by sending him what looks like a love letter calling him to the school roof. Once Touma gets there, the High Priest decides to briefly mess with him by telling him how one of his classmates is someone called "the Observer" that can read minds and is watching over and collecting information about him and how about the world is nothing but a story from her point of view.
Moreover, the High Priest is shown to be extremely sadistic, as he enjoys tormenting the weak, though he hides it pretty well. He is also quite manipulative, as shown when he tries to tempt Touma into becoming Gremlin's scorer. In addition to this, the High Priest is very unrelenting and ruthless, as when Touma refuses his offer, he tries to destroy Academy City. When Mikoto shows up to help Touma, he mocks her and says she's so weak compared to a Magic God that her presence will not change anything.
Biography[]
The High Priest's full background isn't known, what is known is that prior to becoming a Magic God and a member of Gremlin, he was a dedicated follower of the Japanese variety of Buddhism who decided to perform self-mummification by starving himself and become a Buddha in a single lifetime to save all humanity. However, an unknown faction opposed to him becoming a Buddha sabotaged his attempt and twisted as a result, he became a Magic God instead. At some point, he was somehow involved in the death of Aleister Crowley's daughter.
Powers and Abilities[]
Powers[]
Omni-Magic: As a Magic God, the High Priest has near-unlimited magical power, being powerful enough to risk destroying the world with his mere presence alone unless precautionary measures are taken. All possibilities are open to him, to the point that even omnipotence paradoxes can apply to him.
- Phase Manipulation: The High Priest is able to manipulate the phases of reality, granting him near total control over existence. With this, he can change natural laws, distort reality on a cosmic scale, perform incredible miracles, and instantly destroy and recreate the universe at will. He is also able to manipulate causality, and control dimensions, space, time, matter, energy and all other contents of the world as he desires. As he can control the world in these way, the High Priest should be able to wrestle around the control of the things he cannot manipulate.
- Dirt Manipulation: The High Priest has developed a connection to dirt due to his self-mummification. This connection is linked to the Shinto aspect of dirt being unclean and connected to the underworld being mixed into the Japanese variety of Buddhism that the High Priest followed. The High Priest can use this connection with dirt to manipulate it in several ways, such as creating giants hands of mud, sensing and tracking people if they are in contact with the ground, removing dirt from underground to cause city-wide collapses, and even seize control of objects such as the Arrowhead Comet by manipulating the dirt mixed into them.
