Chapter 7: Root Magic
Page (1/3)
My name is Alaya.
I am practicing magecraft.
69950:44:02
I summoned a Heroic Spirit who seemed likely to be an SSR, and before I could even get a proper look at her, she answered the summons.
Before delivering my famous line, I had already prepared countermeasures for all the reactions Ryunosuke Uryu might have.
But I never imagined he would simply faint on the spot.
[Unable to accept a mystery that transcends common sense?] Gaia the brat guessed.
“How could that be? He can communicate with Bluebeard without the slightest difficulty.”
[Notice: Having come into contact with “Patient Zero,” Ryunosuke Uryu has contracted “PAX-201” and automatically acquired all evolved symptoms.]
[Notice: The pain caused by the “expansion of his Magic Circuits” and the “alteration of his Magic Attribute” has caused Ryunosuke Uryu to enter a protective coma.]
Oh, right. In the original story, after accidentally summoning Marshal C, he displayed none of the qualities of a Master. For most of the story, he simply stood behind the lines shouting encouragement. At one point, he even tried to seize little Rin, only for Kariya Matou to teach him a lesson.
“So what do we do now?” I glanced at the orange-haired young man leaning against the wall with an eerie smile. “You’re not suggesting I take care of him, are you?”
[How about making some noise to draw his family here?]
[Notice: Ryunosuke Uryu’s elder sister is moving toward the basement due to some sort of intuition.]
“Huh? Then hurry up and make me invisible.”
[All right… Ah? What? It failed?]
“Useless idiot of a system,” I retorted without hesitation.
[Waaah… I’m not an idiot.]
[Notice: The Root’s attempt to interfere with the phenomenal world has been blocked.]
…It was obvious who was really in charge.
[Notice: Direct interference in the phenomenal world by the Root is equivalent to removing one card from a card tower, scribbling on it, and putting it back.]
I understood. Taking a card from the top or from some unimportant section would be fine, but if one removed a crucial support, the entire tower would collapse before the card could be replaced. Thus, even in a world of one’s own creation, one could not recklessly disregard the rules established in advance. I would not be harmed, but the entire world might be destroyed beyond recovery—and we had no spare worlds to waste.
[Notice: Using “Doomsday Elements” to influence the phenomenal world will have no adverse effects.]
“I know that already. The problem is how to avoid being discovered by his sister.” Even without the system’s warning, I could hear a girl approaching while calling Ryunosuke’s name.
[Um… spiritual form?]
Oh… Of course. I had delivered the famous line, but I was not that foolish Saber King who could not become incorporeal. For once, the idiot system had managed not to be an idiot.
Just as human beings have no need to learn how to breathe, the ability of a Heroic Spirit to assume spiritual form was innate. I tried it briefly and successfully vanished several minutes before the basement door opened.
“Ryunosuke, are you in there?” On the surveillance screen, a petite, adorable girl with long black hair falling to her shoulders pushed open the basement door and cautiously peered inside.
Hmm? A surveillance screen?
I withdrew my gaze from the luminous display projected above the globe and looked around. Sure enough, I had already returned to the Root’s space, a place formed from icy-blue lines. I was sitting once more in the rocking chair I had occupied before descending, while the red cube that housed the idiot system floated beside me.
“Hey, what state is my original body in after I become a Heroic Spirit?” I poked the cube.
[It seems to be asleep. And it’s talking in its sleep.]
Page (1/3)
Page (2/3)
“Talking in its sleep?”
[Yes… Its last sentence was, “I’m not that foolish Saber King.”]
What the hell? Did this come with telepathy too?
[Notice: After Alaya descended into the phenomenal world as a Heroic Spirit, her original body entered a deep sleep. Whenever contact with the Root is required, she need only direct her thoughts toward it, and her original body will speak those words aloud.]
That sounded humiliating. Well, never mind. There was no one else here, anyway.
“Ryunosuke—Ryunosuke! How are you, Ryunosuke? Don’t scare your sister like that!”
The girl on the screen discovered Ryunosuke Uryu collapsed in a corner and immediately cried out as she rushed toward him.
Ding.
[Notice: Taiga Uryu has contracted “PAX-201” and acquired the symptom “self-generated magical energy.”]
“Wait. Doesn’t that mean our mana dragon will soon infect all of Fuyuki? Having a huge number of ordinary people collapse at once would be rather conspicuous, wouldn’t it?”
[I know this one,] the system brat interjected proudly. [Only the original specimen can infect ordinary people. The “PAX-201” that you, Alaya, personally spread as Patient Zero can infect only those with the aptitude for magecraft.]
I see…
“But wasn’t it you who lost the original mana dragon? What are you so proud of? Idiot system.”
[Waaah… I’m not an idiot…]
“Waaah… Ryunosuke… Ryunosuke…”
The synchronization was oddly perfect.
On the surveillance screen, Ryunosuke’s sister successfully woke him by grabbing him and shaking him vigorously, then pounding frantically on his chest.
“Urgh—cough, cough. Stop hitting me, Tiger Sis… I’m fine.”
“Th-That’s wonderful! It was all my fault. I swear I’ll never play around with those rituals again!”
She wrapped both arms around her brother’s neck and refused to let go, while Ryunosuke shifted his gaze around the basement, searching for something.
Did he think I would still be there? How naive.
69948:17:55
“So, who is this Heroic Spirit who looks like a cross between a womanizer’s hand puppet and a man-eating monster?”
Only after the Uryu siblings had helped each other out of the basement did I turn my attention to the translucent figure floating beside the miniature Earth.
She looked like a girl of sixteen or seventeen, dressed in a pure-white nun’s habit, with long silver hair and tightly closed eyes. A strange crown rested upon her head.
She looked exactly like someone who might fall from the sky onto another person’s balcony and end up hanging there.
[It’s you.]
“Shut up, idiot system.”
[Notice: Illyasviel von Einzbern.]
Wait, what?!
[Notice: Class—Grand Caster.]
That title was not something one could acquire casually!
Page (2/3)
Page (3/3)
“The amount of information is a little overwhelming… Give me a moment…” I pressed my fingers to my temples and tried to make sense of the situation. “Is she from that magical-girl world?”
[Notice: The final king from the eve of humanity’s extinction, bearer of the title “King of the End.”]
“I really can’t make sense of this… Go on…” I rubbed my forehead.
[Notice: Because humanity became extinct due to the scarcity of beings possessing mysterious powers, her wish was to save every outstanding magus who had died throughout history in meaningless internal struggles. This wish could not be fulfilled by making a wish upon the Holy Grail. She had no choice but to act personally.]
Ahhh—so that was it.
[Alaya, you always forget that you are Alaya,] the red cube spun beside me. [You said that not a single Master should die in this Holy Grail War, and that wish has already become the will of the world itself~]
“Don’t ‘~’ me!” I raised my hand and swatted the smug system brat away. “Then why didn’t she come herself? I really would like to meet this version of Illya.”
[Notice: Because the wish was too broad, there were too many magi and parallel worlds in need of saving. Most rescue operations were carried out by merging power with a suitable individual to create a pseudo-Servant, but this sort of fusion is ineffective on Alaya.]
“So that girl merely sent over an avatar? Without any magical energy or experience in using magecraft?” I twitched the corner of my mouth.
Well, technically, she did have some abilities—such as becoming incorporeal and corporeal.
[So, Alaya, you’ll have to start learning magecraft~]
The red cube spun back toward me.
What exactly were you so pleased about?
69741:22:35
The world of the Type-Moon setting was a low-magic world.
The vast majority of people were unaware that magecraft existed. Magical artifacts were scarce, and ordinary people found it difficult to learn magecraft. If the upper limit of magical power had not raised the average, the world might not even have compared favorably with Harry Potter’s.
What people called magic was, for the most part, known as magecraft in the Type-Moon world. If the effect of a spell could be reproduced through technology, it ceased to be magic and became magecraft instead.
Because this was a low-magic world, using magecraft required complicated procedures. One could not simply raise a hand and casually cast a fireball.
To produce the fireball mentioned above, one first had to make contact, through mental power, with the “magecraft foundation” inscribed upon the world. Then, by chanting an incantation, one issued an order and supplied magical energy, activating the magecraft formula capable of producing the effect “launch a fireball.” The longer the chant, the greater the fireball’s power—and the greater the amount of magical energy consumed.
These incantations were a form of self-suggestion created by magi in order to “change the common sense of the world” or realize “their own truth.” Even when using the same magecraft, every magus’s incantation differed to some degree because of the differences in their personalities.
One advantage of residing in the Root was that every magecraft formula on every magecraft foundation in the world could be used without any weakening. I could also use magecraft freely without worrying about exhausting my magical energy.
Although I had previously known nothing about magecraft, I was Alaya and possessed Illya’s avatar. It did not take me long to master a vast range of magecraft techniques. Even at the Clock Tower, I would have stood head and shoulders above the rest.
“I’m going up against Heroic Spirits—actual Heroic Spirits. Everyone except Assassin and Berserker possesses the Class Skill ‘Magic Resistance.’ Even if I rank among the outstanding magi, I’ll still be forced to kneel the moment I face any one of them. What good would it do to fill the sky with barrages if they can resist, dodge, or nullify them one after another?”
[How about I create a few powerful Noble Phantasms?]
“Forget it…”
Although the idiot system called Gaia could no longer interfere with the world at will after its creation, it remained almost omnipotent within the Root. However, whenever one of its creations appeared in the phenomenal world, it carried an unmistakable aura of the Root. That was how the first mana dragon had been discovered by the old worm.
The wish was for Tokiomi Tohsaka to be the only person to reach the Root, but even magi who could not bear to abandon everything in the phenomenal world would still move to seize anything carrying the aura of the Root. I had no intention of becoming the target of everyone’s hostility from the very beginning, so I would have to work hard until I was capable of using Illya’s Noble Phantasms.
But reaching the Root? Tokiomi Tohsaka’s wish was to come here?
I practiced magecraft while considering how to decorate this place with a little more grandeur. At the very least, I could not let Tokiomi see the evils of this world running wild when the time came.