Treating a dead horse as if it were alive, Tsukahara Meiji obediently followed Da Vinci's orders and stirred the scant remnants of searing power within his Magic Circuits.
As Tsukahara Meiji's mana flowed away, cyan-blue radiance raced across Carl's chest like a tangled electrical current. The patterns formed by blood served as tracks for the mana current, while the crystal fragments embedded in Carl's body answered mana's call. The shattered circuits barely functioned as points of diffusion, guiding the rushing mana into Carl's coagulated blood.
The healing spell had originally been meant to heal the body, but sealed within a tiny card, it had been forced to undergo reductions. For example, it was like a handgun—no one had ever seen a handgun draped in ammunition belts, because its firing rate could not consume that many bullets. Nor had anyone seen a Gatling gun use a handgun magazine. With so few bullets, it simply would not be enough.
By the same logic, with Tsukahara Meiji's abysmal qualities as a Magus, could anyone expect him to cast some powerful healing spell? The reason Carl had previously stopped Tsukahara Meiji from using this precious healing spell card was that he knew the mana behind Tsukahara Meiji's trump card was simply incapable of saving his body.
What he needed was a more powerful healing spell.
It was not that magecraft could not save Carl. It was that Tsukahara Meiji, a third-rate Magus, was completely useless.
Yet Da Vinci had done it.
Of course, he did not understand magecraft. As a scientist, he had never dabbled in anything occult.
The contradiction between Carl and the healing spell was simple: the healing spell was too weak to heal Carl.
And Tsukahara Meiji and Da Vinci's abysmal mastery of magecraft made it impossible for them to use any other healing spells.
Then why not simply improve this healing spell?
Using the human body's acupoints and merging them with the spell formations on the crystal fragments, he constructed the most efficient cycle of mana flow. On the outside, he continued building the spell formation with blood.
The crystal magecraft itself, the formation Da Vinci had constructed, and the human body's meridians—three layers of spell imprints stacked together to create a powerful healing formation whose effects were more than triple.
This was typical scientist thinking. If humans encountered a problem that tools could not solve, then all they needed to do was improve the tools until they could solve it.
But... this was simply too unbelievable.
No human could possibly accomplish it, especially not in such a short time—learning magecraft as a scientist.
There was a reason Da Vinci had been summoned as a Heroic Spirit.
He possessed neither outstanding martial fame nor legendary myths. He was merely an ordinary man, yet he had answered the Holy Grail's summons. Naturally, he had his own remarkable qualities.
His Personal Skill was Sage Seeker EX.
This was Da Vinci's sole power that could be called worthy of a Heroic Spirit.
To be fair, Da Vinci was undoubtedly a genius, but there were many geniuses in this world.
Even so, those capable of standing alongside Da Vinci could be counted on one hand. Einstein specialized in physics, Edison devoted himself to invention and creation, but Da Vinci alone was proficient in fields so numerous that he was practically omniscient and omnipotent.
It was not merely that he was extraordinarily gifted. More importantly, this genius constantly sought to explore the unknown world—painting, architecture, sculpture, invention... He achieved success in countless fields, pairing his genius with diligent study. What he ultimately gained was wisdom nearly on the level of a blessing. The phrase "mastery through analogy" had been made for Da Vinci.
This skill encapsulated the entire journey of knowledge Da Vinci had pursued throughout his life. It was power nearly on the level of a Noble Phantasm, obtained as the limit of human talent—no, as the limit of learning itself.
What he had done sounded simple. He had analyzed the circuits on Tsukahara Meiji's magecraft playing card. Certainly, he did not understand magecraft, but through principles of mechanics, he had forcibly interpreted magecraft as a structure similar to a circuit board using diagrams and text. In that brief instant, he had rapidly deciphered the new knowledge known as magecraft depicted on the card through scientific methods.
Learning ability—this was Da Vinci's greatest,
and only praiseworthy ability. In a single instant, he had learned magecraft!
Still, he lacked any grounding in magecraft, so making him activate the spell was impossible. Therefore, Tsukahara Meiji's mana had to be used to drive the circuits.
What he had drawn in blood was an amplification formation.
He summarized and analyzed the extensions of every node in the circuit, identified the pattern in a short time, and, despite spending his life pursuing science, forcibly used scientific methods to compose magecraft that ran contrary to science itself!
The shattered crystal fragments served as base points. Once mana was poured into them, they followed the bloodstains and constructed an enormous restoration formation over Carl's body! And added to that was the mana overflowing from the Leyline when the Heroic Spirit had just been summoned...
"Cough... cough cough!"
Carl coughed violently, expelling large clots of bloody filth from his mouth. What the powerful healing spell produced was a brutal method of healing, close to a miracle. It forcibly purified the toxins in his blood, then restored its circulation.
Tsukahara Meiji was both delighted and worried.
Naturally, he was delighted that Carl had moved again. The fact that he had begun coughing blood at least showed that he had regained the fundamental human function of feeling pain.
Yet naturally, he was worried whether this restorative magecraft could truly heal Carl.
Amid the silence, only the faint sound of rushing mana could be heard. The insects still chirped, but the barking of dogs had vanished.
It made sense. After such a massive battle had erupted here, the stray dogs had probably fled long ago.
"...I thought I'd drawn a worthless Heroic Spirit."
Carl's voice came about five minutes later.
By then, Tsukahara Meiji was suffering from the strange combination of soreness and burning pain throughout his body due to excessive mana consumption. His arm in particular was in terrible shape. Having taken an Assassin strike, the bones in his shoulder were nearly shattered. Excruciating pain spread from his shoulder through his entire body, and dark red blood had soaked through his clothes, sticking them to his skin. Incidentally, Da Vinci had not drawn blood from there earlier mainly because he had considered that Tsukahara Meiji would have been unable to endure the pain first.
Fractures already hurt that much. Having one's bones smashed was naturally even more agonizing.
The Magus lying in the dirt spoke mostly in mockery and self-deprecation. That sense of helplessness suited his current disheveled state especially well.
He was a proper Master, so he could naturally tell his Heroic Spirit's condition at a glance. Those were stats that absolutely could not be called excellent.
Yet this weak Heroic Spirit had saved his life—Tsukahara Meiji did not possess that ability. Seeing Tsukahara Meiji's condition, Carl reluctantly drew a little mana from his Magic Crest and used a healing spell on him. Only then did he lie weakly on the ground, staring up at the night sky.
The city's brilliant lights obscured the stars, leaving only a lonely expanse of blackish purple.
"No, you truly did draw a rather useless Heroic Spirit. Perhaps I could be a tutor, painter, sculptor, or scientist. If you wished to pursue academic matters with me, I would surely be your finest choice... Sadly, as a Caster, I know absolutely nothing of magecraft. That truly is lamentable."
Perhaps having keenly sensed Carl's emotions, Da Vinci's deep, aged voice gained a touch of cheerfulness. Before discussing heavy matters, talking about something unrelated could lighten the oppressive mood. He understood that very well.
"Anyway, thank you. Whether the hand is good or bad, we'll never know the result unless we play this round to the end, right?"
Carl's spirits seemed fine, but the increasingly deep furrows between his brows showed that he was only forcing a smile. Reason demanded that he stop thinking about things he could not obtain...
The current situation was far worse than he had anticipated. He had not summoned Saber, and Archer's Master was not him. Caster's strength also made cooperation with Archer difficult...
What a terrible hand...
Yet Carl did not know that, at that very moment, someone at another Leyline in Qianxi City was voicing the very same sentiment.
Before you continue