In a concealed basement, Kariya Matou finished drawing the magic circle and motioned for the purple-haired girl beside him to stay back.
Seeing the worry on the girl's face, Kariya could not help but smile. "If Sakutsuki came back and saw you like this, he might be scared half to death."
"Is now really the time to be saying that, Uncle Kariya?" Sakura reminded him. "You have to be serious if you want to restrain a berserk Servant."
"Mm, you're right." Kariya Matou patted his cheeks and focused himself again. "Come. Let me see who will answer my call."
In a corner of Miyama Town, deep within a mixed woodland, dripping blood formed an incredibly precise ritual circle. At first glance, it looked like the scene of some cult ritual, but the chicken corpse tossed aside revealed where the blood had come from.
"Good, that finishes it." The young man who had come from the Clock Tower in a foreign land wiped the sweat from his face. With his passion for magecraft and his determination to charge toward his goal, he began chanting an arcane incantation.
The boy named "Waver Velvet" would prove to his lecturer, and to that decaying Clock Tower, that even without noble blood, he could still achieve something truly magnificent!
"—I declare!"
With all the youthful vigor and recklessness of a boy, Waver began his chant.
"Thy body shall heed my orders, and my fate shall rest upon thy sword!"
"If thou wouldst submit to the Holy Grail, follow this will and obey this reason, then answer!"
The sensation of mana surrounding his body—the chill and pain caused by the Magic Circuits within him cycling and writhing—was something no magus could escape.
Yet to Kiritsugu Emiya, such pain was merely a necessary means to achieve his goal.
Come, speak his true thoughts!
"Here I swear that I shall accomplish all good in this world, and suppress all evil in this world!"
Gritting his teeth, Kariya Matou's low roar echoed through the basement:
"Yet thou shalt blind thine eyes with chaos and serve me!"
Compared to the others, Kariya's chant contained two additional verses, and the pain he endured multiplied accordingly—but this time, it was a choice Kariya Matou had made himself.
To defeat that man, he was willing.
Under Sakura's worried gaze, the black-haired, black-eyed man clenched his teeth and spoke with boundless resolve:
"Thou art one imprisoned within a cage of madness; I am the one who holds the chains!"
Come, Berserker, who can trample that bastard beneath your feet!
Detached from reality and divorced from common sense, the allure of thaumaturgy captivated Sakutsuki. Amid the surging chant, he did not notice the excited smile curling at his lips:
"Thou who art wrapped in the Seven Heavens of the Three Great Command Spells, come forth from the Wheel of Suppression—the guardian of the scales!"
Amid chants so coincidental they could only be called miraculous, different figures descended into the world amid dazzling light.
Some gleamed with golden radiance, some were clear and imposing, some were burly and bold, while some were wreathed in black mist.
And the one standing before the golden-eyed young man was like Shining Upon the Starry Heavens, Earthly Sakutsuki—
Pure, beautiful, and incomparably familiar.
And then—
At that moment, a cold question resounded through the nighttime forest, the shadowy basement, the deep ceremonial hall, and the Great Hollow.
"Answer me. Are you my Master, the one who summoned me?"
Come, guess whose girl this is? (Though it's already obvious.)
Thanks to reader Huailiu for the sixteen recommendation votes. What a generous boss!
"Answer me. Are you my Master, the one who summoned me?"
Before Sakutsuki stood a girl dressed in strange blue-violet clothes, holding a wand as she asked in a cool voice.
The summoning ritual had succeeded perfectly. At this moment, Sakutsuki should have displayed the bearing of a Master, calmly stated his identity and wish, formed a preliminary contract with the heroes of Proper Human History, and fought alongside them.
Yet before this unexpected figure, Sakutsuki's pupils trembled. The double shock from Shirou Emiya and the transmigrator threw his heart into chaos.
"You are..."
"What is it, Master?" The girl tilted her head in confusion.
The next moment, she saw the young man step forward, spread his arms, and gently yet firmly pull her into an embrace.
The girl's eyes widened.
There was no doubt this was a reckless act. The one descending from the magic circle was not a "familiar" to be freely ordered about, but a hero who had left her mark upon history. Their personalities were far stronger than those of ordinary people.
Faced with Sakutsuki's presumptuous physical contact, a more hot-tempered female Heroic Spirit would likely have considered it an insult without hesitation, killed her Master, and returned to the Throne of Heroes.
Yet this girl did not do so. It was not because she did not mind such things; quite the opposite, she too hated sudden contact from the opposite sex. Rational as she was, she had even begun preparing an attack.
But...
"Miyu..." The young man's joyous, longing murmur made the girl freeze, and the mana cannon she had finished charging dissipated as well.
This person knows my name?
After her embarrassment and anger faded, the girl whose true name was "Miyu Edelfelt" sensed that incomparably familiar, cherished presence.
It was as though she had nothing to worry about, as though she could rely on him under any circumstances—perhaps she had once spent a precious and beautiful period of time with this young man.
But...
"Who are you?" Miyu blinked and asked softly.
The girl's earnest tone made the young man's body tremble. Then Sakutsuki raised his head, looked at her immature yet beautiful face, and revealed a complicated smile.
"I was once called Shirou Emiya. But now, just call me Sakutsuki."
Shirou Emiya. Sakutsuki.
Two unfamiliar terms entered Miyu's mind, carrying a familiar presence as they battered against the doors of her memories, attempting to open the memories sealed away within her.
Even though the Holy Grail's seal was deeply rooted, Miyu still vaguely realized that this young man was the most important existence in her life.
Moved by that strange sense of closeness, Miyu returned Sakutsuki's embrace and hesitantly spoke that form of address:
"Big... brother..."
Setting aside Shirou's memories, even Sakutsuki himself could not stop a doting smile from appearing at those words. "Mm, I'm here, Miyu."
This summoning had been worth it!
After a brief moment of warmth, Sakutsuki finally returned to normal and began examining Miyu's status.
Strangely, his ability to inspect her as her Master appeared in the Fates Codex.
010: Miyu Edelfelt (Caster) Parameters Strength: E Endurance: D Agility: C Mana: A Luck: C Noble Phantasm: A Class Skills Magic Resistance: B Infinite Mana Supply: B Personal Skills Cheerful Mystic Code (Little Sister): A Install: A Noble Phantasm: Shining Upon the Starry Heavens, Earthly Sakutsuki: EX Hidden Information: Little sister. Record Condition: None
Looking at Miyu's status panel, Sakutsuki frowned slightly.
The Parameters section clearly matched Miyu's Caster class, but the issue lay in her Personal Skills. The Caster class skills "Item Construction" and "Territory Creation" had vanished, replaced by "Magic Resistance" and "Infinite Mana Supply."
Magic Resistance: B
Negates spells of three verses or below, and grants a certain degree of resistance against High Thaumaturgy and ritual magecraft.
Infinite Mana Supply: B
Just as the name suggests, infinite mana supplied by the Kaleidoscope Wand. However, output is limited by the performance of the user's own Magic Circuits.
Without question, such Personal Skills could never appear in an ordinary Holy Grail War. Instead, Sakutsuki remembered similar descriptions from some pay-to-win game in his previous life.
Was this an abnormality in this Holy Grail War, or... was the problem with me?
"Big brother?" Miyu looked at Sakutsuki, who had sunk into thought, with some concern. "Is something wrong?"
Sakutsuki came back to himself and smiled as he rubbed her head. "No, I was just a little surprised."
"Mm-hm." Miyu nodded obediently, narrowing her eyes like a cat.
Feeling the soft texture beneath his palm, Sakutsuki's smile deepened. "Come, Miyu. Though I still want to have a proper talk with you, the curtain on the Holy Grail War has already risen. We need to hurry as well."
At that, the girl opened her eyes. Although reluctant to leave the warm embrace, she obediently let go. "Okay, big brother."
The two figures left the cave one after the other and began moving.
Mixed Woodland of Miyama Town
When Waver saw a tall, imposing figure slowly rise from the summoning circle shrouded in white smoke, he was so excited he nearly wet himself.
As the summoning concluded, the summoned Servant's abilities flowed into Waver's consciousness. The Heroic Spirit's class was Rider. Though not one of the Three Knight Classes, his basic parameters were all above average. There was no doubt he was a powerful Servant.
The giant standing before Waver possessed a shocking sense of presence. Waver could even smell the wild aura radiating from that powerful body, its muscles bulging everywhere.
Waver already knew that the Heroic Spirits summoned by the Holy Grail did not descend as mere spiritual bodies; they could also obtain physical flesh. But when such a muscular body stood before him like a wall, it still gave Waver an unimaginable sense of oppression.
"I asked you, you are my Master, correct?"
"Huh?"
This was the giant's second question. His heavy voice made even Gaia tremble. Waver had not heard him the first time because he had been utterly intimidated by the man's presence and had not noticed what he asked.
"Y-Yes! I-I-I-I am... no, I am indeed your... no, your Master, Waver Velvet. I'm your Master!"
Though he had already lost all momentum in many ways, Waver still tried his best to put on a brave front.
"Mm, then the contract is established. Boy, take me to the library at once."
"Huh?"
"I mean books!"
The giant Servant repeated himself impatiently, extending an arm as thick as the roots of a pine tree toward Waver, as though his entire body were about to crush down on him.
Just as Waver thought his life was over, he suddenly felt his body grow light. The giant grabbed his collar and effortlessly lifted him into the air.
"If you are a magus too, you should at least have one or two libraries. Lead the way. We need to prepare for battle."
"B-Battle?"
"Is there not an Eastern saying? 'Know yourself and know your enemy, and you shall win every battle.' If I do not even understand this era, then even I cannot freely sing the praises of conquest."
"I-I see." Waver replied dryly, but before he could point the way, the giant's aura suddenly changed.
"Hmph. It seems the trip to the library will have to wait. Honestly, anything can happen in war, but for someone to grow impatient so quickly... that truly is unexpected."
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