"Here should be safe. No one will find us."
In a dark corner of the city, Ishtar held her little sister close and scanned the surroundings with caution. Only after confirming there was absolutely no surveillance did she finally relax.
With her Divinity, the goddess loathed slinking around like this. But Rin Tohsaka's humanity didn't want her abnormalities exposed too soon—because her family was still here.
"So what's going on with you right now, Ishta?"
Standing off to the side, Ophis tilted her head and asked.
"Who knows? I came to my senses and I'd already run from the Age of Gods back to the modern era. And my body's even shrunk down like this."
A faint, weary frustration flickered across Ishtar's face.
"The modern era suppresses gods way too hard. I can barely use the most basic Authority, but if I fight at full power, I'd be better off not using it at all. And originally I was more like thirty percent vessel, seventy percent goddess—now it's split fifty-fifty. I can't say it's better or worse, but it just feels… irritating."
Ishtar had grown used to running wild in the Age of Gods. Now she was back here, and with her humanity weighing in, she could only act timidly. Of course the divine part of her wasn't going to be happy.
But her suppressed Divinity could no longer overpower her humanity.
"More importantly—can you treat Sakura?"
Ishtar pushed the purple-haired little girl who'd been hiding behind her forward.
"Her body's been modified… My Authority isn't strong enough right now, and I'm not good at delicate work. Do you have a way?"
"…"
Back then, Ophis had been one of the worst at fine control. She really was less precise than even Ishtar, who usually did everything the simplest, most brute-force way possible.
But the current Ophis wasn't the same as she used to be. She had the girl—this "Sakura"—lean against the wall, then knelt halfway in front of her and placed a hand over her chest to sense what was inside.
The entire time, the little girl stared blankly into space, utterly unresponsive to Ophis's touch.
After several dozen seconds, Ophis frowned.
"Crude. No finesse."
Implanting a familiar carrying a special magecraft formula into someone's body and forcibly reshaping the recipient's Magic Circuits… Setting aside how inefficient it was and how badly it scarred the victim psychologically, even if the alteration succeeded, the recipient's originally excellent circuit performance would drop sharply.
"Don't use the Age of Gods as your benchmark. In this era, that kind of modification isn't exactly low-grade."
Ishtar clicked her tongue.
"Though honestly, with things the way they are now, I almost wish that disgusting worm's technique was better… at least it would've made Sakura suffer less."
As the thought crossed her mind, a trace of regret rose up.
If she'd known, she would've tormented that old worm more instead of killing him so cleanly.
But Ishtar quickly let out a small sigh.
With that kind, human side of hers present, she really wasn't the type who could do something like that.
"So? Can you do it?"
"Reverse the modification. Rewind time. Tear it apart and rebuild it. Or optimize what was done and improve it. Which one do you want, Ishta?"
She could simply treat Sakura so her current state stabilized—but that would basically ruin those once-brilliant Magic Circuits. Ishtar probably wouldn't accept that.
"It sounds like something dangerous got mixed in…"
Hearing Ophis calmly list her options, Ishtar's mouth twitched.
"Wait—can you really do all that? I was just hoping you'd pull out some treasure or something… an herb that cures all illness, or a rejuvenation herb…"
"Rejuvenation…"
Ophis glanced at the purple-haired girl in front of her, who looked five or six at most.
Was she trying to roll her all the way back to the ROOT?
Golden light flared as Ophis drew a dagger set with an hourglass from the treasury.
Unless she activated Sha Naqba Imuru and selected a specific target, Ophis couldn't learn the True Name of most Noble Phantasms—but the treasury itself could search for Noble Phantasms with specific abilities.
"That is…?"
"It reads the target's original state, then rewinds their personal time back to that point… It's similar to Medea's Noble Phantasm, though not exactly the same. But it doesn't have that kind of explosive output."
As Ophis answered, a flicker of remembrance passed through her eyes.
Back then, Medea had burned through all her power to drive her Noble Phantasm, successfully suppressing the Lahmu's endless spawning until Tiamat fell into the Underworld.
To restrain the Authority of a god of creation with a human body—an achievement beyond miracle.
Medea's Noble Phantasm overlaid an intact state directly, while Ophis's rewound time itself. The result looked similar, but the substance was different.
"I see."
Clearly, Ishtar had also thought of the princess of Colchis. The grimness that had been sitting on her face since she saw Sakura's condition softened a little.
"So it's time rewind. Hmph. Still relying on a Noble Phantasm."
"Yes. It's the simplest method."
Ophis nodded.
"Reversing the modification and tearing it down to rebuild it is just making time rewind more complicated and more manual. But if I do them, I can raise her talent beyond what it was before she was altered—so those two yield far more than a simple rewind. Optimization means strengthening the altered circuits until they match the level of her original Magic Circuits… in other words, completing the modification perfectly. So—what do you choose, Ishta?"
"…Can't we rewind first and then strengthen her?"
"We can. But in terms of steps, it's no different from the first two—just with one extra stab of the dagger. You could also choose to start with a bloodline modification… Also, the familiar that was originally supporting her Magic Circuits has already been destroyed—probably very roughly—by someone on your side. So if you want this girl to live, you should decide quickly."
At Ophis's words, a flash of awkwardness crossed Ishtar's face. She recovered almost immediately, letting out a light sigh.
"Time rewind is the safest, obviously. I'd like to say we'll just pick that… but this isn't something I get to decide."
Ishtar knelt as well, leaning lightly toward Ophis. Ophis shifted to make space for her.
"Sakura. You heard everything we just said, right? Do you understand?"
Ishtar showed a gentle smile—one that would never have appeared on the face of the goddess Ishtar—and asked the girl softly.
A little life returned to the girl's hollow violet eyes. She nodded faintly.
She couldn't grasp the details, but just from the words themselves, she could probably tell what each method meant in broad strokes.
"Then, Sakura—what do you want to choose? Don't worry. No matter what it is, Onee-chan will make it happen for you… Even if you want what she said—bloodline modification, becoming a demigod—Onee-chan will find a way. So answer honestly. Tell me what you want."
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