Starting in Type-Moon, but a Magician from A Certain Magical Index

"Because it used the planet's spiritual power to call upon the power of the planet's guardian and make that power its own. Much of what it used belonged to Planetary Magic. Incidentally, Planetary Magic also contained quite a bit concerning evocation."

As Mephistopheles spoke, he moved behind Rin Tohsaka and took hold of her left hand holding the gem. Rin could not help blushing, but then his unhurried voice sounded from behind her.

"Don't be nervous. Follow my movements."

Guiding her hand, Mephistopheles brought it to her lower abdomen.

"This is close to your stomach, and also close to your uterus, intestines, and so on..."

Hearing that, Rin blushed even harder.

Noticing the girl's reaction, Mephistopheles said softly, "Sorry, but this is magical knowledge. You must remember it. The moon represents your sense of taste, the left side of your body including your left arm, as well as your abdomen, intestines, stomach, and uterus."

"Th-That's obviously not a problem! I'm a mage of the Tohsaka family!" Rin declared loudly, as though she were trying her best to drive away all her embarrassment.

"Then let's continue." Mephistopheles smiled. After placing Rin's hand in the proper position, he released it. "First, gather your mana and resonate with the mana inside the gem. Then I'll say a number. Just repeat it after me."

Feeling the person behind her pull away, Rin could not help letting out a breath of relief. She immediately focused.

She sensed the mana inside the gem. With that special posture, it really was easier than usual, and she could sense an even greater torrent of mana within it!

If I could use all of this mana, then even without a Servant, I might be able to win the Holy Grail War!

Rin even found herself thinking that.

At that moment, Mephistopheles spoke the number.

"9."

"Just one number?" Rin had thought she might need to recite every number in the magic square, but she had not expected him to give her only one. Still, no matter what, the girl immediately followed Mephistopheles and recited it.

"9!"

The next instant, the girl felt an immense force. It was incomparably vast mana. In just a moment, mana beyond anything she had dared imagine descended around her, filling the room!

Though the entire study appeared unchanged, Rin could sense that the total mana within it was like a vast ocean, while her own mana was merely a drop of water within it—utterly insignificant!

This immense mana could even compare to the mana inside the gem. Rin could not tell whether the mana in the gem was greater, or whether the mana in the room was greater!

She could not help taking a deep breath and cautiously looking around the room. The moment she did, she saw a phantom appear behind her.

The phantom was extremely faint. If one did not look carefully, one might even think one was hallucinating.

That faint phantom seemed to have wings behind it. It floated there without any reaction.

The instant she saw it, Rin was startled. The flow of mana within her immediately stalled, and the phantom vanished. The only thing she could still sense was the mana that continued to fill the room.

It was a very special kind of mana, seemingly carrying the traits of water!

As the phantom disappeared, Rin relaxed slightly. But when she saw Mephistopheles smiling as though he were watching a show, she blushed again. Turning her face slightly away, she asked, "Th-That was Gabriel?"

Seeing the girl stiffly change the subject in an attempt to shift attention away from her earlier panic, Mephistopheles cooperatively nodded. "That's right. That was Gabriel's power. You only drew out a portion of it—a very, very small portion."

"That much power was still little?!" Rin was dissatisfied with Mephistopheles's statement. "That total amount of mana is practically terrifying, okay?!"

Mephistopheles sensed the power and gave his assessment. "Not much. If it were all used at once, it could probably destroy half of Fuyuki City."

"The mana to destroy half of Fuyuki City, and you're saying that isn't much?"

"By your standards, it is indeed a lot."

That answer left Rin feeling deeply defeated. She had worked so hard, and her talent should not have been bad either, yet in the eyes of this guy named Mephistopheles, she was just a poor student!

But Rin quickly became happy again. Such immense mana was too useful to her. Ordinarily, mages mainly refined mana using their own life force. The advantage of Jewelry Magecraft was that gems could store that mana and release it all at once when necessary.

Now that she had learned this new magecraft, she could rely on this special Theurgy to obtain enormous amounts of mana and make use of it.

"This is basically like drawing mana directly from the Great Source and using it, without needing any complicated process..."

"The Great Source?" Mephistopheles looked at Rin and began correcting her mistake. "Don't get it wrong. This mana does not come from the Great Source. It comes from Gabriel."

"This mana comes from Gabriel?!" Rin made sure she had not misheard him, but that only made it harder for her to understand.

"Mephistopheles, if I learned correctly, mages now convert their own life force into mana. That is called the Lesser Source. The life force of the external planet, the life force in the air—those are called the Great Source. It is difficult for mages to use that directly. Usually, they can only rely on their own mana.

"And what you taught me clearly isn't a method of drawing life force from the outside and converting it into mana? It uses the planet as a foundation to form Magic Circuits, then refines mana."

Perhaps because her understanding had been challenged, the girl's tone became somewhat hurried.

After hearing her out, Mephistopheles merely asked calmly, "Then think about it. Among all the steps just now, apart from using Magic Circuits to refine the mana in your own body, which other step involved refining mana through Magic Circuits?"

Rin was still somewhat unconvinced, but after calming down and carefully recalling every step she had taken, she discovered in surprise that aside from refining mana at the very beginning, she truly had not used Magic Circuits to refine mana at any point afterward!

"This..."

"I told you, this is Theurgy. It summoned Gabriel's power into this world and allowed you to use it. So this mana was neither converted from the life force around you, nor extracted from the Root. It was provided directly by the being known as Gabriel.

"The mana in the gem was merely a catalyst. It lowered the difficulty of the summoning and simplified the process. In the end, the mana you use to fight enemies and cast magic is the water-element power belonging to Gabriel that you just summoned."

Having said that, Mephistopheles told Rin, "Also, if you want to further improve your proficiency with this technique, you will need to start from the beginning and study Planetary Magic, study Kabbalah, and as for mathematics, your current level is enough for the time being.

"Incidentally, although refining mana directly through Magic Circuits is feasible and convenient for you, I recommend that you later learn the basics of refining mana through meditation and similar methods, without relying on Magic Circuits.

"As a magician, you should not waste your life force by converting it into mana. You should be like you were just now: use your own mana to draw forth greater mana, then restore your mana to the state of life force."

At that moment, Rin finally began taking Mephistopheles's term "magic" seriously. It was not magecraft, but magic. It was not magic reliant on the Great Source, but an even stranger kind of magic.

And that finally made Rin notice another issue.

"Kabbalah? Gabriel? Mephistopheles... Are you really from the Age of Gods? Or have you actually survived from the Age of Gods until now, living for a very, very long time..."

Mephistopheles smiled. "Who told you I was from the Age of Gods?"

"Huh?! But you participated in the Gigantomachy!"

"Is it possible that, since I can travel between worlds from another timeline to your world, I might also be able to travel through time and go from the future into the past?"

Rin's mouth fell open. She had never expected to hear such an explanation.

But once she heard it, everything immediately connected in her mind.

"Wait, so Mephistopheles almost became a student at the Clock Tower, but because of some special circumstances, he traveled through time to the ancient era—during the Age of Gods—and participated in the Gigantomachy, where he met the Greek gods!

"Then, because of other events, after going through all sorts of things, he became a Heroic Spirit and was summoned by me?!"

"Enough talking. Get some rest. If you really can't sleep, practice this meditation method."

As Mephistopheles spoke, he took out a small booklet and handed it to her. "This is an introductory meditation method for modern magic. It's simple and easy to learn. With so much mana in the study, it can also help deepen your connection with Gabriel.

"Also, keep the Moonstone on you at all times. Don't take it off even when you sleep. Besides serving as a medium, it is also an amulet."

Rin silently committed that to memory, then accepted the booklet Mephistopheles gave her. Just as he was about to leave, she suddenly asked, "Then why use this kind of gemstone as a medium? Don't tell me it's simply because gems are suitable for storing mana!"

"I suspected that because of Jewelry Magecraft, you would simply assume it was because it stored mana well and not bother asking." Mephistopheles gave the girl an approving look before answering, "Because of symbolism. If I wanted to make an amulet of Mercury, I would choose agate."

Watching Mephistopheles leave, Rin pondered his words.

"So gypsum represents the moon, while agate represents Mercury?"

Thinking that, she scratched her hair in frustration. "Ah, should I find a way to get some Department of Astrology textbooks...?"

But the thought had barely surfaced before she rejected it herself.

"No, much of the knowledge Mephistopheles mentioned is something I have never heard of. If I really want to learn the magic he just taught me—magic, right?—then I first need to master the subjects of the Department of Spiritual Evocation, the Department of Astrology, and the Department of Mineralogy at the same time...

"His magic is like a special kind of magecraft created by blending together the magecraft of those departments...

"And this magecraft—no, magic—the mana summoned by this magic is enormous. Although I cannot use it all at once, I can use it to replenish my own mana and launch uninterrupted magical bullet attacks!

"If my usual magical bullet attacks are like a pistol with an extremely limited number of bullets, then with the support of this special Planetary Magic, I can turn my attacks into a machine gun with ample ammunition reserves. Even firing continuously for an entire day and night would not be a problem!"

Thinking of that, the girl became dissatisfied again.

"But Mephistopheles really is good at making people angry. It was my first time! I summoned so much mana on my first try, yet not only did he not praise me, he even mocked me!

"What did he mean by saying it was a lot by my standards? Isn't the mana to destroy half of Fuyuki City a lot?!

"Most importantly, that was only one casual summoning. I can keep summoning it, over and over again!

"Hmm... I should be able to keep summoning it, right...?"

Rin thought about it and suddenly became uncertain herself.

In the end, she fell silent for a moment. By the light in the room, she raised her hand and carefully looked at the Moonstone hanging from her wrist. She sighed deeply, then revealed a faint smile.

"Father, Rin has finally begun to grasp the secret of what you left behind..."

Outside the door, Mephistopheles heard those words, stretched, and headed toward the living room.

"Since I've come to this place, I'll first do my best to resolve these tragedies. Then I'll find a way to return to my original world."

A Showdown with the Blue Lancer

Time always passed quickly when studying magic. Several days went by, and during school hours as usual, Mephistopheles continued following Rin Tohsaka. Relying on the spirit form ability granted by the Holy Grail, he enjoyed his days slacking off during class.

But soon, Mephistopheles sensed an obvious mana fluctuation that had not been concealed at all.

That was a Servant!

"Mephistopheles!" Rin called out in her heart.

"I'm here," Mephistopheles replied, putting the girl at ease.

After hearing his voice, Rin indeed relaxed somewhat. She asked him inwardly, "That's a Servant, right?"

Mephistopheles answered, "That's right, a Servant. It looks like he deliberately exposed himself, intending to see whether there are any participants in this school."

Mephistopheles could even guess that the mysterious Servant currently in the school was either Medea or Cú Chulainn, and most likely Cú Chulainn.

"What do you plan to do?"

"You don't object if I choose to deal with this Servant here?" Rin asked in surprise. "You said this would cause something to happen to that child."

"I told you, we still need to wait a while. In fact, I've been making some preparations recently. Only after those preparations are complete will I be able to present that proof to you."

Rin suddenly recalled that lately, apart from teaching her magic, Mephistopheles would go out whenever he had free time. He was always acting mysteriously, and she had no idea what he was doing.

Coupled with his Independent Action EX rank, her commands imposed almost no restraint on Mephistopheles. Rin could only tacitly permit his freedom.

Time slowly passed into the afternoon. School ended, and the students joined their extracurricular activities, such as various clubs. As it grew later and later, until almost no one remained in the school, the main character finally appeared.

"Oh? Hiding would clearly have been best, yet you stayed here instead of leaving. Do you think you have a great advantage?" The man in tight blue armor, who looked like he had some strange tastes, curled his lips slightly as he spoke to Rin.

"I am indeed confident." Rin smiled at the blue-clad man before her and softly called out, "Mephistopheles."

Then Mephistopheles, wearing a trench coat, appeared beside Rin.

"Calling out the name directly? It really is an ordinary name. Even hearing it, I can't figure out what era or what person you're from." As the blue Servant spoke, he flicked his hand, and a bizarre spiraling crimson spear appeared in it.

Just as Rin thought Mephistopheles would take out his bow, he extended his right hand, and a sword appeared in it.

It was a short sword of some unknown material, though it was certainly metal. It was around three feet long and clearly a one-handed sword.

The blade was not particularly broad and was somewhat thin, making the sword look rather long overall, like a smaller version of a two-handed sword.

Seeing the sword, Rin first froze, then suddenly remembered what he had said.

As a magician, Mephistopheles was proficient in close combat techniques!

So was he planning to fight using his close combat skills?!

But the opponent was Lancer, and judging by the mana around him, as well as the small amount of enemy information Rin could see as the Master, this guy's parameters absolutely crushed Mephistopheles's!

If they were really going to fight, the best course should be to make use of Archer's strengths and attack from afar!

But Rin soon sensed something different.

The mana around Mephistopheles was far denser than usual today!

When did he activate his magic? This definitely isn't merely drawing on the mana in his body. He said his own magic causes changes within his body through internal mana, then brings about external changes. In other words, he really has activated magic now, rather than simply using mana to strengthen his muscles and so on.

Just as Rin was wondering about this, the blue Lancer moved!

In an instant, his speed accelerated to a level the human eye could hardly keep up with. At close range, that kind of high-speed movement would be difficult to react to even without reaching the speed of sound!

What was more, in that instant, his spear had already thrust forward. The tip of the spear moved even faster than sound!

A smile spread across the blue warrior's face, as though he were about to see someone die before him. But in the very next moment, he felt his attack being blocked!

"You bastard, are you Saber?" the blue Lancer shouted as he launched another attack. His assaults were like a raging storm, sweeping toward Mephistopheles.

Mephistopheles merely smiled, raised the weapon in his hand, and effortlessly blocked every attack from his opponent. He even had the leisure to answer the question.

"Perhaps I'm a magician?"

"Caster? Are you kidding me?!" The blue Lancer froze for a moment, then burst out laughing and accelerated his attacks again. "If you're Caster, I might as well smash my head into a block of tofu and die!"