Ye Sizhen brushed the dust from her skirt and spoke with a tense expression.
"I wasn't completely unharmed either. You killed that child..."
"...Ah."
Rin Tohsaka noticed that the doll Ye Sizhen had been carefully holding in her arms had disappeared.
Had it acted as a substitute for her in that last attack?
That method was practically the craft of a witch from the Mythological Era, surpassing the modern equivalent of magecraft...
"It was a 'Privilege,'" Ye Sizhen explained coldly.
"Privilege... the 'Thought Crest'!?"
Thought Magic was the most widespread form of magecraft on the continent across the sea. It was constructed from the pseudo-Artificial Root known as the "Thought Plate."
It was a dress that the sages of the East had created and fused with the planet in pursuit of the "Root," the ultimate goal of every magus.
A colossal dress fused with Earth—that was the "Thought Plate."
Deep within the "Thought Plate" was an extremely secret space known as the "Privilege Domain."
If the "Thought Plate" were compared to a grand library open to all citizens, then the "Privilege Domain" would be a VIP section reserved for academicians.
At the instant she endured the Jewel Magic, Ye Sizhen interfered with and manipulated the Privilege Domain within the artificial Root fused with Earth—the Thought Plate.
Modern magecraft had to deceive the world to produce supernatural phenomena. Before this, it was utterly insignificant.
This was the Thought Magic of the Age of Gods, now permitted only to the Immortals of the Mountain Court.
Why could Ye Sizhen, who was merely a student of the Spiral Pavilion, use Immortal Art?
Rin Tohsaka no longer had any way of knowing the answer.
"You really know how to cause trouble, Miss Tohsaka."
Ye Sizhen's slender finger pressed against Rin's forehead, and Rin's pupils