Chapter 11: Rin: My Turn, Draw!
Dust swirled into the air as the original magic circle gradually faded. Shirou's magical energy pierced through the barriers of time, traveling toward the distant past.
—The Hill of Camlann.
It was as if this place were forever frozen in the moment of dusk. The golden afterglow of the orange sunset, like ears of wheat, spilled across the girl's face.
Corpses were piled into mountains, and blood flowed in rivers. A thick scent of gore permeated the battlefield, reflecting against the crimson banners.
As the girl stood there waiting in silence, the clouds in the sky suddenly accelerated their flow.
"That is..."
A void appeared in the clouds above, and golden light surged forth, enveloping the King of Knights within it.
.
.
.
"I am absolutely going to win this Holy Grail War!" Rin stood on the second floor of her mansion, looking at the Command Spells on the back of her right hand with utmost seriousness.
"A battle for the one and only Holy Grail where people kill each other—the Holy Grail ritual passed down from hundreds of years ago, huh..."
A struggle centered around the "Holy Grail," which can realize the holder's wish, is what constitutes a Holy Grail War in the broad sense.
Originally, the "Advent of the Soul*Heroic Spirit Summoning" was a decisive battle-grade magecraft used to save the world of primates. Seven Heroic Spirits standing at the pinnacle of seven attributes—Grand Servants—would appear to purge the Great Disasters obstructing the development of the primate world.
The Holy Grail War is a summoning system downgraded from that magecraft by humans for their own convenience.
The magi participating in the Holy Grail War are called Masters. To participate, one must summon a Servant and forge a contract with them. No matter how excellent a magus is, if their ability is not recognized by the Servant, they will not be acknowledged as a Master.
There is a fundamental difference between a Servant and the familiars commonly used by magi. The methods of summoning and commanding them are entirely different from ordinary familiars. To put it more clearly: compared to a Servant, a familiar is just a common basic tool,
whereas a Servant is a weapon with destructive power exceeding an atomic bomb, and one that possesses self-awareness.
This is undoubtedly a power capable of affecting the world.
Generally, magi intending to participate in the Holy Grail War prepare a "Catalyst" (Saint Relic) for summoning a Servant for this very day.
"But I don't have a single one..."
Rin paced back and forth in her room, feeling a headache coming on. There was a natural reason why she hadn't prepared a catalyst despite having so much time.
Because Rin wanted to summon the one recorded in past data as the strongest—the Saber. By Rin's standards, she naturally wanted to choose a hero renowned in history.
However, this put her in an embarrassing predicament. Although she had some assets as the successor of the Tohsaka family, she wasn't at the point where she could easily purchase a high-tier catalyst. So, the situation ultimately became one where she couldn't afford the good catalysts, and as for the inferior ones, they weren't worth her attention at all.
Nevertheless, even without a catalyst, Rin had no thoughts of fear or regret. Fleeing was meaningless and simply wasn't in her character.
Despite thinking this, it is impossible to summon a Servant without a catalyst. There are indeed records of summons performed without using one, but if she were to proceed that way, the most likely outcome would be a situation where no Heroic Spirit responds to her due to the lack of an attraction.
"Even so, I still have a final trump card."
Rin took off the pocket watch she always wore around her neck.
"Servants are attracted by symbolic items. To summon a powerful Saber, an object closely related to that Servant is indispensable."
One can see from historical legends that those heroes or demigods all had symbolic weapons or items. These serve as bridges to establish communication—the function of a catalyst.
The pocket watch currently in Rin's hand carried a significant weight; not only that, the gem embedded in the watch had a very high purity of magical energy.
"Thinking about other things now is meaningless. Whatever! There are ways even without a catalyst. Besides me, there couldn't possibly be a Master capable of handling Saber anyway—not even that guy!"
There was a reason for Rin's confidence. Her magical affinity was the Five Great Elements (Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, Ether), making her an exceptionally rare "Average One." She had an aptitude for almost all types of magecraft and, conversely, could interfere with most existing spells.
The main part of Rin's Magic Circuits numbered forty, with thirty auxiliary circuits each. The mental image used to open her circuits was the vision of a knife piercing her heart. She usually maintained a magical energy level around five hundred; with a supply, she could potentially break a thousand.
"Let's begin..."
At this moment, Rin intended to summon her Servant in her most perfect state and forcibly obtain Saber!
Time ticked by. As the hands of the wall clock approached 2:00 AM, Rin immediately headed to the basement to begin laying out the magic circle. This was the best time window for Rin.
The "Magic" reaches its peak exactly at 2:00 AM. Within the limits, this was her first and last chance; she couldn't afford even a minor mistake.
"—Recede in the vanishing, engrave the circle of recession to surround the summoning circle. Good, complete."
Rin engraved the magic circle on the basement floor. In truth, summoning a Servant does not require such cumbersome steps or specific magical materials. The most important point is to connect to the Throne of Heroes and have the Heroic Spirits respond to the summons.
At that point, one only needs to provide the actual magical energy; the summoning is effectively performed by the Heroic Spirit's side. The Master doesn't need to do anything extra. Preparing these summoning magic circles was, more than anything, a matter of "ritualistic feeling."
But Rin didn't care about that. These materials didn't cost much anyway, and if they could provide even a tiny bit of help for her upcoming summons, it was worth it.
"Silver and iron. The Archduke of the contract with the cornerstone. The ancestor is my great teacher. Close the gates of the four cardinal directions. Emerge from the Crown, and follow the forked road to the Kingdom."
A vivid red magic circle had been drawn by Rin on the wooden floor of the living room. However, this crimson liquid was not blood, but a substance created by Rin dissolving red gemstones. Even if the Tohsaka family had declined somewhat, the assets Rin possessed were still very generous.
"Shut. Shut. Shut. Shut. Shut. Repeat five times. But, when filled, destroy!"
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