Chapter 228: The Devalued Third Magic
"...?!"
Acht, who had originally only wanted to quickly fulfill Shirou Emiya's demands so he could drive them away, suddenly froze upon hearing this statement.
Even the movements he was making—negotiating with Shirou and his party while simultaneously commanding the other homunculi in the mage workshop to quickly move their research data and results—were immediately halted by Shirou's words.
"Stop! Wait, wait before you move these things away!"
Someone in the Clock Tower has reproduced the Third Magic?
How could this sound like a joke or false information?
However, Zelretch, who holds the Second Magic, is at the Clock Tower.
It was not impossible that, with the Second Magic's ability to observe parallel worlds, he saw and understood the "magic black box"—the finished product of the Third Magic, the Maiden of Winter—and then, in a coincidence, inadvertently revealed it to a certain Clock Tower mage, who then reproduced it.
Even if the probability was so low that even Acht himself could hardly believe it.
Rather, as a bona fide family dedicated to the transmission of the Third Magic, Acht did not believe that anyone other than the original Third Magician could understand the Third Magic better than they did.
But Acht, whose life goal was the realization of the Third Magic, could not pass up any news that might be related to its reproduction.
This was also the reason why, back when Zouken Matou (that is, Makiri Zolgen) had approached him, Acht had agreed to Zouken's Holy Grail War plan and offered up the Maiden of Winter.
Especially since Shirou Emiya continued: "My information is not referring to the Third Magic Greater Grail manufactured using the Maiden of Winter as a vessel during the Holy Grail War held in Romania.
...Oh, right, you probably don't know yet.
Perhaps you might think that the Holy Grail War ritual in Romania is not the Holy Grail War you pursue, not only because the leylines of Romania were not assimilated with the Maiden of Winter's magic circuits as they were in Fuyuki City.
Moreover, Yggdmillennia changed the setting regarding the need for a Lesser Grail in the Holy Grail War, making it impossible for you to replicate the Third Magic by manufacturing homunculi to serve as Lesser Grails."
The events happening in Romania were known even to the Clock Tower headquarters, which was far away in England.
How could the Einzbern family, located in Germany—separated from Romania by only two countries and, given the land area of those European nations, perhaps with a depth not even as large as a single province of a certain Eastern major power—not know about the Holy Grail War taking place in Romania?
Yet they turned a blind eye to it, and did not send personnel to participate?
This was clearly unreasonable.
This was not the Einzbern family from the Fate/stay night world line, who, after manufacturing their greatest masterpiece, Illya, and discovering that even Illya had not succeeded, fell into complete despair and disinterest in worldly affairs.
The Einzbern family at this moment still harbored hope and was single-mindedly focused on reproducing the Third Magic.
Having learned that the Holy Grail War held in Romania utilized the Greater Grail from Fuyuki City, it was impossible for them to be indifferent to it.
Even more so, they would not have remained indifferent after the Greater Grail determined that the Yggdmillennia clan had cheated, and immediately issued new participation slots for seven Masters.
The only explanation was that the Holy Grail War happening in Romania was not what the Einzbern family wanted.
They wanted to realize the Third Magic.
By linking the Lesser Grail to the Greater Grail, the homunculus made into the Lesser Grail could copy the magic circuits of the Maiden of Winter (who was made into the Greater Grail), thereby realizing the Third Magic: Heaven's Feel.
Because the Greater Grail in Romania had been separated from Fuyuki City, without those magic circuits of the Maiden of Winter that were originally assimilated with the Fuyuki leylines, this ritual would become incomplete for the Einzbern family.
"However, one of the Masters participating in the Romanian Holy Grail War has a somewhat special ability; he can actively link to the Greater Grail, replacing the function of the Lesser Grail."
Shirou did not reveal the true situation of Amakusa Shirou Tokisada.
Nor did he say that Amakusa Shirou Tokisada's wish was to realize the Third Magic for all of humanity—words that would be enough to make the Einzbern family go insane, or even go "all-in" to support him.
After all, whether it was Marisbury Animusphere, whom Shirou felt he must defeat after sorting through his previous life's memories, or the Einzbern family to which Acht belonged, in his eyes, they were all the same: inhumane mages.
At most, in terms of being a "scumbag," Marisbury, the Lord of the Clock Tower, was far ahead.
What Shirou Emiya wanted to do was to make these groups of mages fight like dogs, not to let the Einzbern family join the Holy Grail War.
Therefore, Shirou withheld the information that Amakusa Shirou Tokisada was himself a creation of the Third Magic—a Servant who had been summoned by the Greater Grail and had attained incarnation due to contact with the Greater Grail during the Third Holy Grail War.
Instead, he concisely hinted: "In other words, as long as there is a finished product of the Third Magic, that person can realize all the assumptions the Einzberns had when constructing the Greater Grail."
Although Shirou Emiya omitted a lot of information, the few points he mentioned were enough to cause Acht, who previously wore an expression of dismissing a beggar, to immediately change his attitude. No longer communicating through a familiar, he appeared before Shirou Emiya in his true form and asked anxiously: "Respected guest, I wonder who exactly is the mage in the Clock Tower that you mentioned who has completed the Third Magic?"
This was the most important point for Acht.
It was even more important than the information about Amakusa Shirou Tokisada, about whom Shirou had hidden many details.
Because Acht knew more than Shirou Emiya about how far the mage ritual of the Holy Grail War could go.
He knew that within the "big pie" Shirou Emiya had drawn, the Third Magic was the most important part.
In fact, with the Third Magic, Acht and his kin could construct a new Holy Grail War themselves, without needing to go through the trouble Shirou described.
"Someone you are probably very familiar with—Marisbury Animusphere, the Lord of the Astronomical Faculty at the Clock Tower."
To this, Shirou Emiya did not hide anything and said: "His daughter, Olga Marie Animusphere, is a creation of the Third Magic."
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