The night wind in Miyama Town swept in from Mount Enzou, battering the roof of the Tohsaka Residence.
The Western-style mansion stood dark.
Even the floor lamp in the entrance hall, which stayed lit year-round, had been switched off by Tokiomi Tohsaka himself.
His reason was that all extraneous light sources had to be eliminated before the ritual to prevent interference with the ley line resonance.
For this summoning ritual, Tokiomi Tohsaka had poured in the gemstone reserves the Tohsaka Family had accumulated over three generations.
He wanted no more mishaps.
In the magecraft workshop beneath the mansion, passed down through generations of the Tohsaka Family, seven white wax ritual candles burned in recesses in the stone walls.
Standard-issue Holy Church incense sent threads of blue-gray smoke rising from a bronze censer.
The smell fell somewhere between a cathedral Mass and cheap roadside mosquito coils.
Tokiomi Tohsaka said nothing.
His attention was entirely on the enormous summoning circle beneath his feet, which occupied the center of the workshop floor and measured over three meters across.
Ordinary mages drew summoning circles with blood or cinnabar, at most mixing in a little mercury for refinement.
Tokiomi Tohsaka used high-purity molten gemstones.
He had tossed magical energy gems into a crucible to melt, then traced the circle stroke by stroke with a specially made magecraft silver pen.
The three concentric rings along the circle's outer edge had consumed seventeen grade-A sapphires, nine carnelians, and an entire fist-sized moonstone.
When melting the twelfth sapphire, Tokiomi Tohsaka's right hand had trembled.
His expression betrayed no wavering, maintaining a smile that said everything was under control.
Tokiomi Tohsaka was even better at controlling his expression than he was at Jewel Magecraft.
Silver ingots and iron blocks embedded at the circle's four corners served as anchors for conducting magical energy.
They had soaked in the ley line's magical energy for forty-eight hours, and magecraft patterns had surfaced on them.
Three palm-sized stones inscribed with sealing inscriptions stood around the outer edge of the circle's center.
They bore the Tohsaka Family precepts, inscriptions invoking the authority of the Archduke of Contracts, and the name of the first generation's revered teacher, Schweinorg.
Tokiomi had spent three sleepless nights carving these stone tablets himself.
When he stood after finishing, his lower back had cracked; Kirei Kotomine had been standing at the workshop door and witnessed the entire thing.
Master and apprentice had stared at each other for two seconds.
Tokiomi Tohsaka had straightened his tie.
Kirei Kotomine had looked away.
Neither had brought it up again.
Two others stood in the workshop besides Tokiomi Tohsaka.
Near the stairs leading out, Risei Kotomine stood with his hands folded in front of him.
His black priest's robes stood out in the candlelight.
The old priest watched the circle with a serious expression.
From time to time, he pursed his lips, perhaps also wondering whether melting all those gems had been a waste.
Half a step behind Risei, Kirei Kotomine stood motionless.
His unreadable face was unnerving in the flickering candlelight.
He was a wax figure without an expression.
"Kirei Kotomine had completed his Servant summoning three days earlier-Assassin, Hassan of the Hundred Faces."
That summoning had been unremarkable: the circle had lit up, black mist had billowed out, and an assassin wearing a white skull mask had simply appeared.
The entire process had been quiet.
Tokiomi Tohsaka checked his preparations one last time.
The circle was complete, the anchors stable, the inscriptions correct, the ley line supply plentiful, and his Magic Crest running at full capacity.
He looked at the ebony presentation box directly in front of the circle.
Its lid stood open, and a pure white feather lay on its deep crimson velvet lining.
It was as long as an adult man's hand, its vane intact, every barb giving off a faint glow.
There was something sacred about that light.
Risei Kotomine had brought this feather.
The holy relic Tokiomi Tohsaka had originally prepared was a fossilized shed skin from the world's first snake.
It pointed to Gilgamesh, King of Uruk.
As a Heroic Spirit, Gilgamesh had tremendous combat power, practically at the ceiling.
Tokiomi had spent two years navigating underground auction markets in the Middle East to obtain that fossil.
A month earlier, during a private meeting over tea, Risei Kotomine had taken a sealed case from his sleeve.
"Tokiomi, I have something here that will probably interest you."
When the case opened, the magecraft defensive barrier on standby in the Tohsaka Family's workshop sounded an alarm.
It was an automatic response to detecting the presence of high-level Mystery.
The feather lay in the sealed case, causing the ley lines of the entire Tohsaka Residence to resonate.
Risei said the feather came from the underground holy relic vault at Holy Church headquarters.
The Vatican Sacrament Assembly had examined it and confirmed that it was a remnant connected to the angels of legend.
It came from a higher being that served before God's throne in Christian mythology.
The level of Mystery within it was extremely high, and Tokiomi Tohsaka swallowed dryly while avoiding Risei's gaze.
The dignity of the Tohsaka Family head did not allow him to lose his composure before outsiders.
"Using it as a holy relic could summon a Heroic Spirit connected to angels, or some aspect of an angel itself."
Risei continued in an even tone.
"However, I borrowed this from Holy Church headquarters in a personal capacity. Once the summoning ritual is complete, it must be returned to headquarters."
Tokiomi Tohsaka stared at the feather for a long time.
Angels were life-forms recorded in Christian doctrine.
The cherubim, the seraphim, the archangel Michael... if he could summon such a being as a Servant.
Tokiomi Tohsaka weighed the costs and benefits.
Angels had high combat power and a high level of Mystery, and most likely possessed resistance to magecraft and divinity.
But summoning one would be difficult, its magical energy consumption was unpredictable, and it would be troublesome if the summoned angel proved difficult to get along with.
The angels of the Old Testament were not all gentle, loving figures.
After thinking for a while, he put the fossilized snakeskin back in the safe.
"Risei, I will never forget this kindness."
Tokiomi Tohsaka's holy relic for this Holy Grail War became a feather left behind by an angel.
At the same time that Tokiomi Tohsaka made his decision.
In the ancient Einzbern castle deep in Germany's Black Forest, Kiritsugu Emiya, dressed in a black trench coat, was setting up a summoning circle.
His holy relic was Avalon, the sheath of the sacred sword from the legend of King Arthur, excavated from ancient ruins by the Einzbern Family.
His wife, Irisviel, stood beside him, helping secure the circle's anchors while watching him tenderly.
In the dark underground worm chamber beneath the Matou Family residence in Miyama Town, Fuyuki City, Kariya Matou knelt on one knee before a crude summoning circle.
Crest Worms had gnawed the left side of his face out of shape.
He dragged along a body that had begun to rot, three complete Command Spells on the back of his hand, with only one thought in his mind: Get Sakura out of hell.
On the outskirts of Fuyuki City.
Waver Velvet lay sprawled on a floor covered in magecraft books and instant noodle bowls, drawing a summoning circle with trembling hands.
He had secured his stolen holy relic, a scrap of Iskandar's cloak, in front of the circle with a book clip.
The Clock Tower's poor student was drenched in sweat, his heart racing.
Tokiomi Tohsaka paid none of this any mind.
All he knew was that his preparations were thorough.
He activated his Magic Circuits.
From his arms to his shoulder blades and then his spine, blue magecraft patterns lit up along the network of circuits beneath his skin.
The concentration of magical energy in the air rose, and the molten-gemstone lines around the circle's outer edge glowed an eerie blue, spreading inward layer by layer.
Tokiomi Tohsaka spread his arms and began to chant.
"-Let silver and iron be the essence."
His voice was steady.
"Let stone and the Archduke of Contracts be the foundation."
The silver ingots and iron blocks at the circle's four corners hummed, waves of resonance spreading from the anchors toward the center.
"My ancestor and revered teacher, Schweinorg."
The words on the sealing stones lit up, the name of the Tohsaka Family's first revered teacher activated within the magical energy.
"Raise walls against the descending wind, and close the gates on all four sides."
"Step forth from the crown, and travel the three-forked road to the kingdom of sovereignty."
The air in the workshop changed; something fundamental shifted.
"Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill."
A fivefold sealing chant.
With each repetition, the circle shone a degree brighter.
By the fifth "fill," blue-white light enveloped the entire workshop.
"Repeat the cycle five times. At the moment of fulfillment, break the shackles."
Risei Kotomine took half a step back.
He realized that the magical energy pouring from the circle exceeded the scale of a normal summoning ritual.
The pure white feather trembled in its presentation box, its radiance turning blinding. It was answering the summoning.
"-I declare."
Tokiomi Tohsaka's voice rose half a pitch.
"Your body shall serve under me, and my fate shall rest upon your blade."
"Heed the Holy Grail's charge, obey this will and this law, and answer me."
He stared at the center of the circle, light reflected in his blue eyes.
"Here I swear."
"I am he who shall accomplish all good in the world,"
"I am he who shall spread all evil in the world."
The space at the very center of the circle warped.
A force pried space open, and the Tohsaka Family's ley lines, Tokiomi's Magic Circuits, and the angel's feather worked together to carve a passage through the gates of the Throne of Heroes.
"Clad in the three great words of power for seven days."
Kirei Kotomine narrowed his eyes.
The light bursting from the circle filled his dark brown eyes.
As Tokiomi Tohsaka's chant neared its end, Kirei Kotomine clenched his right hand.
Every Magic Circuit in Tokiomi Tohsaka's body operated at its limit.
The Command Spells on the back of his right hand burned hot.
He recited the final line of the incantation.
"Descend from the Ring of Counter Force, guardian of the scales-"
The circle's magical energy burst its banks.
A blue-white pillar of light shot straight upward from the circle's center, piercing the defensive barrier on the workshop ceiling and punching through the Tohsaka Residence's foundations.
The pressure of the magical energy extinguished all seven candles.
The angel's feather in the ebony presentation box turned into a ribbon of pure white light and merged into the pillar.
The ley lines of the entire Tohsaka Residence resonated, feeding magical energy into the circle's center.
Tokiomi Tohsaka raised a hand to shield his eyes.
Risei Kotomine turned his head away and covered his eyes with his sleeve.
Kirei Kotomine watched through narrowed eyes.
The light was blinding.
Shadows were driven from the workshop, even the dark corners in the cracks of the stone walls illuminated clearly.
An air of something that did not belong to this age permeated the room.
The light continued to swell.
The spatial rift at the circle's center grew larger and larger, and an immense force from the other side was battering open the passage to the Throne of Heroes.
The Heroic Spirit descended.
Tokiomi Tohsaka squinted into the white light, trying to make out the silhouette taking shape at the center of the circle.
His heart raced, his Magic Circuits sounded warnings from the overload, and the Command Spells on the back of his right hand burned hot.
He did not retreat.
The head of the Tohsaka Family had to stand here and uphold the family's dignity.
The light reached its peak, swallowing the vision of all three men.