Magician in Type-Moon

Page 3

I saw his image in the picture. His hair had turned completely white, and his body was covered with tangled, raised scars. His skin without scars had lost all color and turned into a deathly ashen gray, like a ghost from the underworld.

The magic flowed through his veins like poison, causing them to swell up like tiny, bluish-black cracks, and his body even began to crumble.

This version of Kariya is unfamiliar to many, but it's not hard to imagine how he became like this.

Only by forcibly expanding his magic circuits with Crest Worms, being ravaged by them for a whole year, and being forcibly transformed into a usable mage, could he transform into that ghost-like appearance. All of this was actually his own will.

Why did he become like this? Why would he pay such a price to participate in the Holy Grail War?

What about me? Why wasn't I involved in this Holy Grail War? Was it because I died prematurely?

I have a feeling the answer lies in the next séance.

On November 11, 1992, I prepared for the 11th high-level spirit summoning ceremony. No, it should be called an extra-high-level spirit summoning ceremony. This ceremony will take place tomorrow, when my magic power is at its peak.

The magic gems were selected from the finest items purchased by the Edfeldt family, and the highest-grade magic candles were made from whale oil, which is extracted from the blubber of whales that are naturally imbued with magic. These candles even have the property of burning forever.

An extraordinary ceremony inevitably comes with extremely high risks. I might lose my life here tomorrow, but since things have come to this, I believe I can continue to live!

On November 12, 1992, during the twenty-eighth high-level spirit summoning ceremony, I used a solution made of mercury, pure water, and magic gemstones to trace the ritual pattern of the "previous life" spirit summoning on the ground step by step.

Furthermore, based on what I had learned, I designed three auxiliary magic circles to stabilize the flow of magic power and protect my spirit.

After completing the main and auxiliary magic circles, seven magical whale oil candles were placed in the seven corresponding chakras. Then, the person lay in the middle of the magic circle, placed an amethyst on their forehead, a red tourmaline on their chest, and a blue chalcedony in their mouth, waiting for the candles to burn spontaneously.

Thud~ Thud~ Thud~ Thud~ Thud~ Thud~

Seven candles are lit in sequence, starting from the root chakra, then the sacral chakra, the solar plexus chakra, the heart chakra, the throat chakra, the third eye chakra, and finally the crown chakra.

The pale blue candlelight flickered incessantly above the candle, while colorless mist rose from the magic circle beneath them, whose main material was mercury.

The amethyst on my forehead emitted a dazzling purple light from its center, enveloping the room. The red tourmaline on my chest transformed into something resembling blood vessels, wrapping around my body. The blue chalcedony in my mouth, however, remained much more subdued.

Many jumbled memories suddenly appeared in my mind, intertwined with my original memories, and even partially squeezed out the position of the memories of Matouchi as Yuchi.

When my magic is still sufficient, I can remove the portion of the memory that remains. But not now, because I still need to read and filter out the useful parts of the memory.

Yu Chi's memories are very strange, like those of someone with Alzheimer's disease. They are disordered, as if a person's life has been edited and pieced together using a montage technique.

Watching his memories is more like watching a movie, a first-person perspective movie. But my magic is limited, and I don't have time to appreciate content unrelated to the demonic path.

"First time owning a pet" (skipped), "First time falling in love" (skipped), "Arguing with my stepfather" (skipped), "Birthday" (skipped), "New Year" (skipped), "Pet died" (skipped), "Grandpa passed away" (skipped)...skipped...skipped...skipped...skipped! Skipped!!!

Found it. "The Holy Grail, as a special item, allows Heroic Spirits to break through their level cap and reach higher levels."

"The visual novel Fate/Zero, written by Gen Urobuchi, is now available online."

"The second part of the game [Fate/Grand Order] will be released..."

"King Arthur smashing the Holy Grail was so cool!"

"Doctor, doctor! I can't live without you!"

"Type-Moon World", "Lord El-Melloi II Case Files"...

A movie is made up of countless different shots. In just two hours, a person's magnificent life can be pieced together.

The same is true now; fragments of memory and information can be pieced together to form a bloody reality—perhaps this world is fake, or perhaps Matouchi's life is fake too.

But so what? The suffering we endured was real, and so was our determination to achieve a happy life. We even survived the insect hive, so what else is there to fear?

So, that's great, I think I understand everything now...

Chapter 2 "Matou Residence"

One year ago,

Fuyuki City, Miyama Town, Matou family residence.

In the pitch-black room, a figure was groping his way to his feet, seemingly struggling.

Like a clown performing in a circus, he strains with all his might to find a point of balance, but always misses it. Yet, the clown in the performance never gives up; he gathers his strength, his muscles tense, ready to unleash his power in one fell swoop...

Sizzle~~Bang!

The door, which had been tightly closed, was suddenly flung open with a bang. The metal door frame scraped against the wooden floor, making a hissing sound. The hanging lamps in the hallway illuminated the room, which had been pitch black.

The sudden appearance of light and the noise of the door scraping against the floor were like adding insult to injury for our clown.

*Thud!*

Before the figure could coordinate its limbs and stand up properly, it plopped down on the floor again.

"Chi, I think I've already told you to temporarily stop that spirit-summoning ritual, right?"

Standing at the intersection of the room and the corridor, coldly uttering these words with an expression of disgust, was a short, elderly man. He was none other than Zouken Matou, the patriarch of the Matou family.

Although his hairless bald head and limbs had aged and shriveled like a mummy, his eyes, hidden deep in his sunken eye sockets, still shone brightly. He was a monster whose appearance and aura were different from ordinary people.

Because of the old man's unusual position, the light source and he himself created a strong backlighting effect, casting a terrifying shadow over him.

"Didn't anyone teach you to knock before entering the house, Grandpa?"

However, the figure inside the room paid no attention to the old man's questioning. He simply rubbed his eyes, gave a casual reply, and then got up from the ground, preparing to walk past the old man and leave the room.

The moment he stepped into the corridor, the old man slammed his cane into the floor. A piercing insect chirp rang out, and the figure called Chi fell heavily to the ground as if electrocuted.

The old man who did all this then transformed into countless insects and disappeared into the corridor.

"Damn that old bug, is he really that petty?" Matou Ike, who had gotten up from the ground once again, staggered through the corridor toward the washroom. He was going to clean off the residue left on his body after the séance he had performed the night before.

Upon opening the bathroom door, one is greeted by a marble floor with ornate patterns. Above this is a set of carved wooden dressing table and sink with gold and silver filigree work, and above that is a wall-mounted mirror with a metal openwork frame.

The image reflected in the mirror was of a young man with dark blue curly hair, pale skin, and a slightly gloomy expression, who looked to be only sixteen or seventeen years old.

On his forehead were some purple crystalline particles, and his body was covered with dark red threads that resembled blood vessels, spreading from his chest to his entire body.

Matouchi glanced at the mirror twice, then spat out a piece of blue chalcedony that had faded more than halfway, turned on the copper faucet, washed it clean, and put it in the left pocket of his jacket.

Then he bent down, scooped up a handful of water, and splashed it on his face repeatedly to thoroughly wash away the crystal particles on his forehead.

He reached out and unbuttoned his shirt, rummaging inside.

Suddenly, the movement stopped, as if it had found a certain spot.

He used a few fingers to curl and pry out a dark red crystalline solid, but the dark red threads connecting the solid were still firmly wrapped around Matouchi's body.

These seemingly delicate threads are actually quite tough; they cannot be broken with normal force.

【Starkung!】

A spell representing reinforcement was spat out from Matou Ike's mouth. Magic circuits appeared on her right hand and forearm, which were still gripping the red solid. She exerted a little force in her right arm and then pulled hard.

Stab it!

The remaining roots of the red tourmaline were ripped off one by one, but because they were wrapped too tightly, they left bloody marks on Matou Ike's body, and blood slowly dripped from the wounds.

At the wound, countless tiny, translucent white worms had appeared, slowly wriggling around.

They secreted an unknown liquid, repairing the wounds. Before long, Matouchi was as if she had never been injured at all.

Even the blood that dripped onto the ground and onto clothing disappeared completely after these worms wriggled around.

After finishing their work, the worms burrowed into Matouchi's clothes and quickly disappeared from sight.

After finishing all this, Matou Ike looked at himself in the mirror, scratched his messy hair, turned around and threw the ruined red tourmaline into the toilet.

He then left the washroom, preparing to head to the Matou family's magic workshop, also known as the insect room, which was despised by everyone.

Not long after, Matou Pond arrived at the insect house that had been developed below the Matou family residence.

As a bug user, Matouchi carefully selected and cultivated three types of bugs as her main familiars.

The first was the white, translucent worm that had just repaired Matouchi's wounds, which he called "Demon Spirit".

These worms were cultivated by Matou Ike using his own flesh, blood, magic, and spirit body, based on the "water" attribute possessed by generations of magicians in his family and the magical properties exerted by the water attribute.

"Demon Spirits" have two forms. One is a "worm," which is used for healing, absorbing and storing magic power, and is equivalent to a mobile health pack or mana pack. Each Demon Spirit worm can transfer magic power to each other within a certain distance. Some mutated individuals can even be used to purify curses.

Another type is the "fly," whose function is reconnaissance and parasitism. Each individual of the fly is also equipped with sonic magic, which is emitted by vibrating its wings, and it has a high degree of mobility.

Secondly, there was the "Winged Blade Insect" given to him by Zouken Matou. It was a giant beetle with a shiny black shell and feather-like wings. It was a ferocious carnivorous insect, and its sharp fangs could crush even the bones of a giant crocodile. However, it could not escape the fact that large insects are naturally weak against fire.

Thirdly, the "Fireball Ant" is cultivated from bullet ants, red fire ants, and fire-type magical materials. It has dual attack characteristics of explosion and splash, and is also characterized by high temperature resistance and high defense.

Among the three types of insect familiars, some mutated individuals sometimes appear. Matou Ike keeps a few of these mutated individuals as gene sets for cultivating insect swarms, while the rest are all used to create special enchanted bullets.

In the insect house, each of the three insect groups occupies an insect nest, and Matouchi's purpose in coming here is to replenish the insects he has consumed and to check for the appearance of any mutated species.

The nests of the Demon Spirit Insects are soaked in a special magical solution, and the nests are filled with countless insect corpses, which provide them with nutrients.

After inspecting the Demon Spirit Insect nest, Matouchi discovered seven mutated individuals.

They were immediately collected, with the intention of crafting four of them into enchanted bullets.

The Suppression Bullet can absorb the enemy's magic power upon hitting them. When the enemy is using magic, you can actively increase the absorption power to interfere with their spellcasting.

It can even actively shoot at friendly units to replenish their mana and remove mana-related interference such as curses.

After replenishing the consumed magic insects, Matou Ike walked towards the nest of the winged blade insects.

The normal form of the winged beetle is a wriggling insect the size of a fat rat. When fighting, it sheds a layer of its skin to reveal a shiny black carapace and wings. The winged beetle that sheds its skin will die within 12 hours.

This is the tragedy of insect familiars. Although they have a short breeding cycle and reproduce quickly, their lifespan has always been a problem that they cannot overcome.

The difficulty in recovering combat strength in time after a major battle is a serious problem that all Insect Masters must face, so they try their best to avoid one battle after another.

However, for magicians who possess certain special queen insects, they can use local resources to rapidly multiply and reproduce queen insects after a battle or even during a battle, thereby achieving the effect of mass production to replenish their immediate combat power. The Demon Spirit Insect and the Fireball Ant have such special queen insects.

(There are two types of magicians: one is a magician, who studies and uses magic; the other is a magic user, who simply uses magic as a tool. The insect user mentioned earlier mostly refers to a magic user.)

However, insects spawned in this way have shorter lifespans. Furthermore, if the mother insect, as a valuable asset of the insect user, is damaged in the ever-changing battle, even if the opponent is defeated and some of the magic crests are taken away, the loss may still be greater for one's own side.

As Matouchi approached the nest of the winged blade insects, preparing to check for any mutated individuals, several winged blade insects molted and emerged from below the swarm, rushing towards Matouchi at high speed from different directions.

【Starkung!】

As the incantation representing enhancement was uttered, Matou Ike's legs were quickly covered with magical runes. He then bent his knees and jumped backward, creating distance between himself and the attacking winged blade insects.

After reaching a safe distance, more than a dozen fireball ants flew out from Matou Ike's body and crashed directly into the attacking winged blade insects. Before the two even made contact, Matou Ike gave the fireball ants the command to self-destruct.

The synergistic explosion caused by the self-destruction of more than a dozen fire ants pulverized the three leading winged beetles, while the formic acid splashed out by the fire ants melted away the winged beetles that followed.

Upon seeing this, Matou Ike immediately activated his perception of the insect hive and discovered that his connection with the hive's interior had not been severed, so he breathed a sigh of relief.

He then looked at the winged blade insect, now reduced to ashes, and sensed no fluctuations of his own magic power on it. This meant that the attacker must have...