Chapter 145 - You Definitely Haven't Played Enough Yu-Gi-Oh!
The Gojo family's Limitless Cursed Technique, the Zen'in family's Ten Shadows Technique, and the Kamo family's Blood Manipulation... As the Big Three Sorcerer Families, who have inherited their traditions for nearly a thousand years, they each possess several Cursed Techniques that can be passed down relatively stably, but these three are the most representative.
Among them, the Limitless Cursed Technique must be paired with the unique talent of the Six Eyes, making it a powerful exception that occurs once every few hundred years.
Blood Manipulation is a comprehensive Cursed Technique with several different directions that the sorcerer can develop on their own: support, destructive power, defense—it's quite well-rounded in various aspects.
In reality, if the final Shikigami of the Ten Shadows Technique is only regarded as a last-resort self-destruct measure, it is still an excellent Cursed Technique. The subjugation of the first nine Shikigami is not difficult. Even with the weakness that Shadow Shikigami cannot be destroyed, their abilities are much stronger than ordinary Shikigami.
This means a Shadow Technique user can completely raise themselves to a considerably strong level within the Grade 1 sorcerers in just a few years.
This was certainly sufficient for the Zen'in family in the past, but if Fushiguro Megumi is to keep up with the growth rate of Itadori Yuji in the coming time, and even become a future pillar of strength, this shortcoming must be overcome. The method of Emiya forging powerful Noble Phantasms to help Fushiguro Megumi subjugate the final Shikigami might be feasible, but it is just a possibility, and Emiya always felt there should be a better solution.
"Among your Shikigami... do you have a type with extremely strong destructive power?" Emiya tried to ask.
"If you're talking about a purely offensive Shikigami, there should only be the Gama (piercing ox)."
"Its ability is to use a clumsy straight-line attack to ram the enemy, but the advantage is that the further the preparation distance for the ramming, the greater the power will be.
This is a simple Binding Vow and Cursed Technique effect. Unless it actively stops, the Gama can only perform a straight-line attack. But stopping breaks the accumulated momentum, and while the power is sufficient, its usage environment is restricted."
From the perspective of a single Shikigami, its base is not bad.
It can fully utilize its greatest advantage in narrow spaces like corridors or tunnels. If it had the assistance of a technique like Ice Manipulation Cursed Technique, the effect would naturally be even better.
The only drawback is that the power only increases with longer accumulation time, and it is difficult to find an environment suitable for running in a real battle, making it hard to maximize the Shikigami's power.
Otherwise, what else can be done? Should Fushiguro Megumi carry a treadmill for the ox in his shadow space and then directly turn the treadmill towards the enemy when the power is at its maximum?
Hmm... that might actually work?
"Perhaps combining the power of a certain Shikigami with the Gama could change this limitation, but there doesn't seem to be any room for trial and error... And even the complete fusion of the first nine Shikigami wouldn't be a match for the tenth Shikigami, right?"
It seems that compared to the Cursed Techniques of ordinary sorcerers, the various inherited techniques of the Big Three are not the type that can be used and mastered casually.
But what Emiya finds a bit incomprehensible is, since the Zen'in family has studied the Ten Shadows Technique for so many years, didn't they leave behind something like a Shikigami Illustrated Guide? After studying it for so many years, to only have basic information seems too careless.
The magi next door are unwilling to waste even a remnant of knowledge.
"No, Emiya-sensei, there is one more thing that's very important..." Fushiguro Megumi suddenly raised his hand weakly and indicated: "The Cursed Energy consumption for summoning different Shikigami is also different. I can only summon the latter ones individually, and can barely summon two of the earlier ones simultaneously.
Moreover, after the Shikigami are fused, the Cursed Energy consumption also increases... that is to say, even if I completely fuse all nine Shikigami, I wouldn't be able to successfully summon them..."
A sorcerer's Cursed Energy reserves largely depend on talent.
Although it can be increased through effort later on, your finish line might barely touch someone else's starting point. Unlike Emiya, who has never felt Cursed Energy depletion, Fushiguro Megumi probably won't have the opportunity to experience that in this lifetime.
"The only time I can summon all Shikigami simultaneously is after the Domain is successfully expanded, but the side effect is that all the weight within the Domain is borne by me, just like the shadow space.
Perhaps I could try to fuse all Shikigami at that time, but then only the Domain could be used..."
The fusion process is completely irreversible; this is actually the biggest constraint limiting the Ten Shadows Technique. This means that after the Domain is maintained for approximately a few minutes, not only would the Cursed Technique be unusable, but
Fushiguro Megumi would also be almost completely exhausted, thoroughly losing combat capability.
"Is that so? Then it was quite correct for Maki and the others to hand over all their weapons to you to carry." The setup of this shadow space and Domain is quite reasonable, isn't it? It even helps train Fushiguro Megumi's stamina and endurance at all times.
"Hey, Sensei?!" Fushiguro Megumi understood, but who would willingly take on such a labor-intensive role!
Emiya didn't respond to his poor student's lamentation, because he suddenly thought of a great possibility—
"Wait... I suddenly realized that since the Cursed Techniques used by successive Shadow Technique users are the same, it means that the true Shadow Shikigami are actually reproducible, but there are restrictions placed on the individual sorcerer.
In that case, is it possible to exchange the Shikigami's reproducibility using a different kind of Binding Vow... for example, establishing a Binding Vow to limit the Shikigami's strength, and then allowing them to recover after a certain period of time when they are destroyed?
It seems like it weakens the Shikigami's power, but your Cursed Energy reserves don't originally support summoning multiple Shadow Shikigami simultaneously. By weakening them, you can increase the number you can summon at once, and perhaps the power of the Shikigami during the recovery period could also affect other Shikigami, right?"
After all, Emiya's own Tracing is like this; he can project multiple copies of a single weapon simultaneously, and he is only limited by his Magic Circuits. He also only recently discovered that the characteristics of one Noble Phantasm can be completely added to another through the modification of Projection Magecraft... Although this is very difficult, it is completely possible.
"Exchanging the ability to regenerate for a Binding Vow that reduces the Shadow Shikigami's power... is something like this really possible?!" To be honest, Fushiguro Megumi had truly never considered such a thing.
Sorcerers do frequently use the power of Binding Vows, but they are often used only to make themselves stronger; no one would intentionally restrict their own strength. In other words, their thinking is too narrow.
"Why not? The power of the Binding Vow is so miraculous after all. And the Shikigami of the Ten Shadows Technique inherently have reproducibility, so there must be a way to extract it.
Although the Shikigami of every Shadow Technique user are completely identical, there has never been a time when more than one Shadow Technique user appeared in the same era, right? Then it is very likely that the essence of all Shadow Technique users' Shikigami is actually the same; it's just that they need time to recover after being destroyed, which is why new Shadow Technique users appear.
By the way, didn't you also say that the subjugation ritual cannot be effective if an outsider participates? But the Shadow Shikigami has truly been eliminated once; there is just a cooldown time. That is its recovery cycle."
Imagination, imagination, the most important thing should be imagination!
Fortunately, Emiya, who has received many memories from various 'Shirou Emiyas,' possesses knowledge of many magical things and does not lack the imagination to apply to Projection Magecraft.
As for how strong the power of the Binding Vow can be? Just imagine the effect of Kokichi Muta's Heavenly Restriction; his Cursed Technique's range can even encompass the entire Japan, with a radius of at least a thousand kilometers.
He has even managed to escape the negative effects of the Binding Vow using Idle Transfiguration, so who is to say that things that seem impossible cannot be achieved?
"I-is that so?!
According to Emiya-sensei, it seems this might not be impossible. Sensei, do you want me to try and establish such a Binding Vow... I can try!"
Fushiguro Megumi clearly knows that everything comes with a price, and wanting to become stronger in a short time is no exception. This Binding Vow could possibly fail, but there is also a good probability it could succeed—knowing this is enough.
Is he really going to rely on some guaranteed successful, perfect ending being laid out before him? If a single Binding Vow can transform his Ten Shadows Technique to a new level, why not try it?
"Oh, right, right. If this succeeds, it means that an even further step in Binding Vows is completely possible.
For example, like this... temporarily exchanging the temporary demise of multiple Shikigami to gain command over the final Shikigami. But this method must be combined with new restrictions to be successful, such as eliminating all offensive capabilities of the Eight-Handed Sword Divergent Sila Divine General Mahoraga, and only utilizing its recovery and adaptability.
You don't need to feel bad about your Shadow Shikigami being weakened, because only the power that can be controlled by you belongs to you. Strength that can only be watched from afar is completely useless."
Emiya would absolutely not admit that he suddenly received a very strange dream last night from a certain 'Shirou Emiya.' In that dream, 'Shirou Emiya' had not encountered the Holy Grail War and did not even know of the existence of magi, but after growing up, he became hopelessly addicted to a card collection game called Yu-Gi-Oh!.
The memory of playing cards offered him no real guidance, but the various restrictions used to limit the cards' strength seemed applicable to the sorcery world's 'Binding Vows,' and they were surprisingly compatible with the Ten Shadows Technique. Although that card game doesn't exist in this world, if Fushiguro Megumi really manages to establish the 'Binding Vow,' Emiya could try to teach him a bit more.
"That sounds very possible... but Emiya-sensei, can this kind of virtual, temporary restriction really be used as a Binding Vow?" If the Shadow Shikigami can really be resummoned, sacrificing one Shikigami would only waste a few days' time. Would the Binding Vow acknowledge something like that?
"Why not? I've already tried it once."
"Trace on"
Saying this, Emiya projected a blade that Fushiguro Megumi should be very familiar with and placed it in front of him.
"..."
"Huh????????????"
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