Inside a workshop guarded by homunculi, Darnic surveyed his surroundings with a cold gaze.
Nutrient tanks filled the workshop, arrayed like pieces on a game board. Homunculi rested quietly inside them, serving as sources of magical energy.
This was one of the greatest gains he had made by founding Yggdmillennia. Although that family had fallen on hard times, its homunculus technology remained complete and highly advanced. With Darnic's funding, the technology had soon been reproduced, and it would become one of his greatest trump cards in this Holy Grail War.
With Darnic at the center and eleven homunculi assisting with the incantation, the radiance of immense magical energy began to shine throughout the workshop.
Provided he disregarded how many homunculi were consumed, the magical energy this place could supply in a short time was more than enough for a first-rate Heroic Spirit to unleash their full power in battle.
Drawing on the workshop's bounded field, Darnic struggled to control this tremendous magical energy. Yet any outsider who saw him at that moment would surely have been astonished.
For this Color Rank mage, renowned throughout the Western foundations of magecraft, was now forming the Far East's Rooster Seal with his hands, while the words he recited were fluent, impeccable Chinese.
"Open the door at once, open the door at once..."
Naturally, the vast magical energy did not respond at all to this incantation and foundation, which completely defied the principles of magecraft. Darnic's expression darkened. With no other choice, he proceeded to the next step, pouring the immense magical energy into the object at the center of the Magic Circle.
Only when the radiance of magical energy began to burst and dissipated completely did he let out a muffled groan, blood seeping from the corner of his mouth after he had wielded power far beyond his own limits.
Yet even then, the object at the center of the ritual showed no response. It looked like nothing more than an ordinary stone.
"Sixty years, and it's still the same... Yet it was so easy back then."
Darnic's expression grew increasingly grim. Sixty years earlier, during the Third Holy Grail War, he had accidentally discovered the existence of the Greater Grail through the power of his Heroic Spirit Finn's Noble Phantasm, and had conceived the desire to claim it for himself.
But just as treasures often had guardians, the old monster of the Matou Family had appeared when he tried to delve further. They had fought several fierce battles. In the last one, just as Darnic had almost secured victory, the Lesser Grail had shattered in the chaotic fighting outside.
No one had anticipated that sudden accident. The souls of the Heroic Spirits returned directly to the Greater Grail, triggering the tremendous magical energy accumulated in Fuyuki City over sixty years. Within that vortex of magical energy, an invisible connection formed between him, Zouken Matou, and the Greater Grail.
Then, as though possessed, both men suddenly found their minds filled with a mass of strange, jumbled knowledge, and began reciting that peculiar incantation in flawless Chinese.
After that, the Greater Grail's sixty years of magical energy were exhausted. Through the connection forged by the incantation, he and Zouken Matou each obtained a strange object.
They were octagonal-prism runestones, each engraved with a different animal. Darnic had never heard of anything like them at the time, but later, he discovered their wondrous uses.
Darnic kicked aside the surrounding homunculi, whose vitality was fading, and carefully picked up the runestone in the center.
After years of diligent study of Chinese culture, he now knew the name of this artifact.
"Sheep Talisman, why won't you show me your true power!"
He gripped the talisman in his palm and growled furiously.
Merely carrying this talisman could protect him from mental attacks and disturbances, as well as stabilize his soul.
It was precisely through the Sheep Talisman's power and the jumbled knowledge left in his mind all those years ago that Darnic had made constant, rapid advances in his research into souls, earning him recognition as someone with the potential to attain Grand rank.
But Darnic knew that the power within this artifact went far beyond that. What he had awakened was not even the tiniest fraction of it.
Over those sixty-odd years, Darnic had gradually discovered where the problem lay.
The talisman's power was extremely feeble. To use an analogy, it was like a seed that had only just sprouted. Awakening its power required a special and virtually inexhaustible supply of magical energy.
Alternatively, the talisman's original owner would have to supply it with magical energy to awaken and nourish the power within, much like those precious holy relics.
Yet even after he used all manner of methods to pour vast quantities of magical energy into it, the Sheep Talisman remained utterly unresponsive. After all, the Greater Grail's power could not be described simply as sixty years of energy accumulated from the ley lines. Those things were not its true core.
After repeated attempts, Darnic finally reached a conclusion. Finding the talisman's original owner was hardly possible; he had no idea what kind of miracle had created this object. That left him no choice but to seek the Greater Grail's aid.
To that end, he had to succeed at any cost.
Because he was running out of time. When he first ventured into the study of souls, his arrogance had led him to extend his life by devouring other people's souls, much as Heroic Spirits did, while his own personality was gradually worn away. If he did not obtain the Grail soon, then in another hundred years his personality would likely have been diluted completely, and he would truly become a mage bearing the name Yggdmillennia.
Yet fate seemed determined to oppose him. As a participant in the previous war, he was already bound to face considerable hostility. On top of that, while instructing his subordinates to carry out their tasks, he had inadvertently provoked Kayneth, someone of his own rank.
And even setting those Masters aside, there was another, far more troublesome man in Fuyuki City.
Zouken Matou, that extraordinarily gifted man who had devised a means of extending his life before Darnic had, and who was very likely the ancestor of the Matou Family himself.
"This is a disaster. Of all people, that man has a talisman too, and I don't even know what it does."
The thought alone gave Darnic a headache. Unlike him, Zouken Matou, who had already lived for five hundred years or longer, might not care about temporary gains or losses. He could abandon the Grail this time, focus solely on killing Darnic, and patiently await the next opportunity.
"But I have no way back now."
Darnic gritted his teeth, his eyes filled with an obsession born of fear.
"Get up, you defective things!"
He was not going to wait any longer. It was time to summon a Heroic Spirit. No matter what happened, he had to win this time!
With the workshop's power, Darnic easily drew the Magic Circle and took out his usual holy relic, preparing to make one final use of these homunculi before discarding them, their lives already drained dry. In an instant, overwhelming magical energy once again filled the workshop, proclaiming its master's resolve.
"Master, this is the latest intelligence from my father."
"Oh." Tokiomi Tohsaka studied the fax Kirei Kotomine handed him. "So the second to manifest is Lancer. I wonder which family summoned him. Though that hardly matters anyway."
Seeing the undisguised delight on Tokiomi Tohsaka's face, Kirei Kotomine seemed to think of something.
"Has that item arrived?"
"Indeed, Kirei. You are as perceptive as ever." With elegant strides, Tokiomi Tohsaka approached the table, then turned aside to show Kirei Kotomine his holy relic in its entirety.
It was a fossil that looked exceedingly ancient, twisted like a snake.
Despite his excitement, Tokiomi Tohsaka kept himself composed. He picked up the red wine beside him and offered the other glass to Kirei Kotomine.
"It may be a little early to celebrate, but the outcome is already certain. Kirei, victory in this Holy Grail War is ours!"
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