Deep in the night, all was silent. All living beings had fallen into slumber. But in the depths of the dense forest on Mount Enzō in Fuyuki, a loud shout broke the tranquility.
"Haya!"
"Boom!"
Rin, her entire body enveloped in Mana like rippling lake water, stomped forward and threw a right punch. A highly compressed ball of Mana shot out from her fist, instantly landing thirty paces away. The concentrated Mana exploded, blasting a crater ten meters in diameter and three meters deep into the ground.
The Mana was withdrawn, re-guided back into her Magic Circuits. The fluctuating blue Mana dissipated, and Rin let out a long breath, looking at her fist.
She could basically handle the current burden of Mana Burst. Without using Mana Externalization and Mana Solidification, the loss was 0.12% per minute. Combined with Reinforcement Magecraft and various buffing Magecraft, it should be enough to contend with a fourth-tier Magus.
But I lack real combat experience, and Maguss are always known for the unknown. Without understanding my opponent, I fear I don't even have a three-layer chance of winning.
(Magus Tiers: First-tier, Second-tier, Third-tier, Fourth-tier, Keter, Grand Magus.)
At this time, Rin was already five years old. Long-term Mana Tempering had made her physique far superior to her peers. At five, her height was 126 centimeters, making her stand out among her age group. Her fair arms and limbs were still slender and delicate, but if she tensed her muscles slightly, Rin's entire body would become as hard as jade.
Mana Externalization and Mana Solidification are extended applications of Mana Burst. Mana Externalization is when, under Mana Burst, Mana is compressed and released externally for attack, guided by the body's cells. Mana Solidification is like the original story's Saber, where Mana is condensed into weapons and armor for personal use.
Both of these techniques require 100% adaptability of the body to Mana, making the body completely like a Magic Crest before they can be used. Rin had only just completed this three months ago.
I finally understand. Those Western fantasy novels are all lies. It turns out that so-called 'battle qi' is fundamentally the same as Mana. It just depends on whether it's used to train the body or to cast fireballs. Training the body makes you a warrior, casting fireballs makes you a mage. Mana Externalization is Battle Qi Externalization, Mana Solidification is Battle Qi forming a sword, Magic Circuits are meridians, many Magic Circuits mean extraordinary bones, and burning out Magic Circuits is like qi deviation… Rin was completely speechless, tormented by this blatant sense of déjà vu, only able to mutter to herself, feeling the deep malice of the world… Father is a top-tier Fourth-tier Magus, but I am not aiming to fight him. My current strength is enough for self-preservation. It's time to leave… Yes, leaving, leaving the Tohsaka Family, is the best method Rin ultimately thought of to protect Sakura.
As long as she left, Sakura would become the sole heir of the Tohsaka Family, making it impossible for her to be adopted out again. As the sole heir, Sakura would naturally have to inherit the Tohsaka School of Sorcery and the Tohsaka Family's Magic Crest. This way, all problems would be solved.
Rin had learned from Aoi that Tokiomi would be returning from abroad in three days because the Matou Family Head had requested a consultation regarding a vital matter concerning the family's survival.
Rin knew that the moment had truly become imminent.
As for the "Magic Calamity" brought about by lacking a Magic Crest, Rin had never worried about it. The Magic Calamity was, at most, a supernatural magical event, similar to a tribulation. If a Magus without Magic Circuits was guaranteed to die, then how did the Founding Magicians of a family survive?
There was also a living example: Aozaki Touko, who was raised as an heir, having been exposed to magecraft since childhood as a descendant of a Magician family. In the end, her grandfather, having lost his mind, gave the Magic Crest and the Fifth Magic to her younger sister, Aoko. Touko then killed him with a knife to the back.
However, Touko, who didn't receive the family's Magic Crest, is still doing perfectly fine, smoking, drinking coffee, and tinkering with puppets in her "Garan no Dou" studio, unmarried at twenty-eight or twenty-nine, comfortably living as her own "Saint Fighter."
Therefore, what does a truly powerful Magus have to fear from something like the Magic Calamity? Rin had never worried about the problem of Magic Calamity; she had that much confidence.
Besides, no matter how strong the Magic Calamity is, is it stronger than the Holy Grail War? If Rin survived even the Fourth Holy Grail War, why would she need to worry about a Magic Calamity?
If she died in the Holy Grail War, then whether or not there was a Magic Calamity wouldn't matter anymore.
She would prepare tonight and leave early tomorrow morning. But before that, she still needed to go to the Matou Family residence to retrieve something... That's right, to the Matou Family to retrieve something—and what would that be? command spells, of course!
After repeated deliberation, Rin concluded that the Three Founding Families of the Holy Grail absolutely had some way to obtain command spells in advance, store them in an object, and hand them over to any person designated by the Three Founding Families.
Looking back at the original work, the masters from the Three Founding Families always appeared with command spells from the start, or suddenly produced them when summoning a Heroic Spirit, never having the scene where the command spells suddenly appeared on the back of their hand like an Outsider.
To explain more directly: Kiritsugu Emiya married into the Einzbern Family nine years before the start of the Holy Grail War. Being far away in Germany, it was impossible for him to be chosen by the Holy Grail in Fuyuki, Japan. Furthermore, he was not a member of the Einzbern Family, so it couldn't have been a fixed selection of a Master from the Three Founding Families. The only logical explanation is that the Einzbern could hand over a command spell to anyone they designated!
This was even more apparent in the Fifth Holy Grail War: Without command spells, how could they summon Heracles ten years in advance? If they could summon a Heroic Spirit without command spells, why would they even need to hold the Holy Grail War?
The same goes for the command spells held by Kariya Matou in the Fourth Holy Grail War. Kariya Matou himself was a completely ordinary person who had never been exposed to magecraft. He was forcefully converted into a Master a year before the Holy Grail War began. He was severely unqualified as both a Magus and a Master, and he had no desire for the Holy Grail itself; he participated solely to save Sakura. If the selection of a Master were solely the will of the Holy Grail, Kariya Matou absolutely would not have been chosen.
So why was he so sure he could become a Master and use the Holy Grail as leverage to win Sakura's freedom? The only explanation that makes sense is that the command spells were inside the Matou Family residence!
Rin learned that Matou Zouken was currently not at the Matou Family residence but was inspecting the family-managed Spiritual Lands elsewhere. Since the Spiritual Lands managed by the Matou Family were scattered across Japan, and the younger generations lacked the Aptitude for Magecraft, Matou Zouken had to manage them personally. This was why he agreed to meet Tokiomi three days later.
And what Rin wanted was this command spell belonging to the Matou Family!
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