The thirty-second floor of the Hyatt Hotel, Kayneth El-Melloi's suite.
A crystal ball floated about fifteen centimeters above the desk, slowly rotating as it replayed the battle footage recorded by his familiar.
The images inside the sphere expanded into a holographic projection, covering a small area above the desk.
Kayneth sat in a high-backed chair, watching for the third time.
The first time, he had watched the sword strike Saber used to cleave through the Matou Family's defensive bounded field.
That strike had involved no True Name Release, only Mana Burst and the holy sword's own properties.
Golden-white light swept across, and the insect-based bounded field the Matou Family had maintained for centuries dispersed without offering even a moment's resistance.
The second time, he had watched the Arondight strike Berserker unleashed after regaining his sanity.
Indigo magical energy had been compressed into a single point, focused into an Anti-Unit-level explosion, with an anti-dragon effect layered on top.
Its total output had already exceeded A+ rank.
If that blow had struck the outer defensive bounded field of the Clock Tower headquarters, even that field might not have held.
The third time, he watched Avalon.
When the golden barrier unfolded, Saber and her Master were separated from the material world.
Arondight struck it at full power, but the barrier did not waver, and the energy rebounded onto Berserker.
Kayneth's brow furrowed deeper as he watched.
He paused the crystal ball on the image of Avalon unfolding.
A golden curtain of light covered the center of the image, fairy script flowing across its surface.
Kayneth stared at those inscriptions for a long time.
That was no ordinary Magic Crest.
The complexity of its patterns and the amount of information they contained had already exceeded what contemporary magecraft systems could process.
What exactly was this Holy Grail War?
Kayneth pushed the crystal ball aside.
Before coming to Fuyuki, his assessment of the Holy Grail War had been simple.
A small-scale ritual devised by three second-rate mage families in the Far East.
Using Fuyuki's ley lines as a foundation, they employed a special summoning formula to replicate aspects of Heroic Spirits and send them into battle as familiars.
The winner received a high-grade Mystic Code, or some similar prize.
The scale was small.
The participants' abilities were limited, too.
But the ability to summon aspects of Heroic Spirits had research value, which was why Kayneth had come in person.
Now, that assessment looked utterly foolish.
The previous night at the harbor, when the Tohsaka Family's Caster called down crimson-gold lightning, his Albion-material reactor core had faltered for 0.2 seconds.
Kayneth had encountered this only twice in his life.
To cause such a reaction, the level of Mystery had to at least approach that of the Age of Gods.
The combat power Saber displayed tonight was even more troublesome.
She used Mana Burst for ordinary attacks, each swing of her sword approaching the destructive power of an Anti-Army Noble Phantasm's True Name Release.
Avalon's dimensional isolation could stop even an attack above A+ rank with an anti-dragon effect layered onto it.
These Heroic Spirits were not mere aspects.
They were legendary Heroic Spirits summoned into the present world with complete Spirit Origins.
Kayneth stood and walked over to the floor-to-ceiling window.
Fuyuki City's nightscape stretched out thirty-two floors below, dotted everywhere with orange lights.
Kayneth's reflection appeared in the glass.
His pale flaxen-blond hair was somewhat disheveled, one button at the collar of his white shirt was undone, and his sleeves were rolled up to his elbows.
After returning from the harbor last night, Kayneth had contacted the family's London headquarters through its emergency communications channel and instructed its intelligence department to investigate two things.
Detailed records of the previous Holy Grail Wars.
And the backgrounds of the Three Founding Families of Fuyuki's Holy Grail.
The report had arrived ten minutes ago.
A black carrier-pigeon familiar had flown onto the suite's balcony with a sealed leather scroll in its beak.
The scroll had three layers of encrypted unsealing formulas on its exterior, which only Kayneth's own magical energy signature could unlock.
After unsealing it, Kayneth had unrolled the parchment document.
It was the family intelligence department's official investigation report, written in the Clock Tower's standard academic format.
Six full pages of densely packed small print.
Kayneth brought the report back to the desk and sat down to read.
The first page, the Tohsaka Family.
"The Tohsaka Family's first head, Nagato Tohsaka, originally named Nagato Tohsaka, possessed the composite magecraft attributes of fire and earth. The inheritance of its Magic Crest has continued to the present for-"
Kayneth glanced over this basic information and skipped it.
He turned straight to the paragraph marked in red for emphasis.
"-Nagato Tohsaka's magecraft teacher was Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg. His status as a registered disciple has been confirmed through cross-verification with the Clock Tower archives."
Kayneth's hand stopped on that line.
Zelretch.
The Second Magician.
Observation of parallel worlds.
Along with the ability to draw magical energy from parallel worlds.
One of the few genuine Magicians still living in the present age, a figure at the pinnacle of human magecraft history.
The Tohsaka Family's first head had been this man's disciple.
Kayneth swallowed dryly and continued reading.
The second page, the Einzbern Family.
"The Einzberns are a homunculus family founded by practitioners of the Third True Magic, materialization of the soul. The family itself is a byproduct of research into the Third True Magic-"
Kayneth turned to the next passage marked in red.
"The first Saint of Winter, Justeaze Lizrich von Einzbern, was the only individual in the family's history confirmed to have successfully inherited the Third True Magic."
"The Third True Magic: materialization of the soul, also known as turning the soul into a perpetual motion machine, can achieve near-perfect agelessness and immortality."
"Justeaze disappeared during an incident approximately two hundred years ago, after which the Einzberns' inheritance of the Third True Magic was broken."
The Third True Magic.
Soul Materialization.
The Einzbern Family was certainly no ordinary homunculus family.
They were a family created by the disciples of a genuine Magician, with the purpose of restoring the Third True Magic.
Kayneth began turning the pages a little faster.
The third page, the Matou Family.
"The Matou Family's original surname was Makiri. Its first head was Makiri Zolgen, a great mage active in Eastern Europe during the Middle Ages."
The fourth page covered the establishment of the Holy Grail War ritual itself.
"The first Fuyuki Holy Grail War ritual was established approximately two hundred years ago. Its designers were the first heads of the three aforementioned families."
"The witness present at the ritual's establishment was-Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg."
Kayneth put down the report.
He leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling for ten or so seconds.
Zelretch had personally witnessed the establishment of this ritual.
A Magician capable of observing countless parallel worlds had stood on Fuyuki's soil himself, watching these three families build the system.
Just how far into the future had that Second Magician seen when he was there?
Had he seen the Fourth Holy Grail War?
Had he seen Kayneth El-Melloi, sitting in the Hyatt Hotel now, beginning to regret coming to Fuyuki?
The Second Magician's disciple had helped design it, a family connected to the Third True Magic had pushed it forward with all its strength, a great mage who had lived for centuries had provided technical support, and Zelretch himself had been there to witness it.
How could something like this possibly be just a small local magecraft ritual?
Kayneth closed his eyes briefly, then opened them again.
The true purpose of the Fuyuki Holy Grail War was most likely to bring some form of True Magic back into existence.
The Third True Magic.
The Einzbern Family had already lost its inheritance of the Third True Magic.
They had participated in the Holy Grail War for two hundred years, and their goal had never been anything like the purported omnipotent wish-granting machine.
What they wanted was the Third True Magic itself.
This Holy Grail War was the Einzberns' means of reaching the domain of True Magic once more.