This was more than a war. It was the ultimate test of everything she'd learned over ten years, the best possible tribute to her father, Tokiomi Tohsaka.
She had to win, and win beautifully.
"Calm down, Rin Tohsaka." She drew a deep breath. "Stay composed at all times and win with elegance. That's the Tohsaka way."
She checked every detail of the magic circle, confirming there wasn't a single flaw.
Then she glanced at the gemstone set aside as her catalyst, the relic her father had left behind, said to have a faint connection to an ancient hero of Sumer.
It wasn't a top-tier Holy Relic, but with her own excellent talent and vast reserves of magecraft, she was confident she could summon a powerful Servant.
Just as she steadied her breathing and prepared to begin the incantation, a knock came at the door of the Workshop.
"Knock, knock, knock."
The knocking was unhurried and polite. But at this crucial moment, any interruption was enough to set her on edge.
"Miss Tohsaka, it's me, Seiji Fujiwara."
That gentle, humble voice came from beyond the door.
"Fujiwara?" Rin frowned, a hint of displeasure in her tone. "What is it? I'm busy right now."
"I'm terribly sorry to disturb you." Seiji's voice carried just the right measure of apology, enough to seem sincere without seeming servile. "It's only that my teacher… asked me to deliver something to you. He said it might help with your summoning ritual. He worried that this was a critical moment in your preparations, so he sent me here."
"Teacher gave this to me?" Rin was a little surprised.
Waver Velvet was the Overseer, but his position made him an outsider all the same.
She hadn't expected him to go to such trouble.
After a moment's hesitation, Rin dispelled the defensive barrier on the Workshop and opened the door.
Outside, Seiji stood there respectfully, cradling a palm-sized box wrapped in black velvet. His head was slightly bowed, his posture humble, leaving no room for suspicion.
"What is this?"
"Teacher said it's a small token of his regard." Seiji smiled and held out the box. "He said the Tohsaka family had surely prepared a flawless catalyst, but the Holy Grail War is full of variables. An extra safeguard never hurts."
Half-doubting, Rin took the box. It felt cool to the touch, with a curious ripple of magic about it.
She opened it, and her pupils contracted in an instant. Her breath stalled for half a second.
Inside the box lay a fragment glinting with a golden luster.
That holy, noble aura seemed like nothing of this world, and even she, a magus long accustomed to the finest gemstones, felt her heart skip. Merely looking at it, she felt her Magic Circuits being purified.
"This… this is…" She cried out before she could stop herself. "The legendary… Avalon?! A fragment of the Everdistant Island?!"
"Teacher didn't say so outright." Seiji's answer was airtight. "He only said this Holy Relic has a deep connection to the legendary King of Knights, and might help you summon the strongest Saber."
The strongest Saber… the King of Knights…
Rin's heart pounded wildly again.
The Saber Class was generally considered the strongest in overall capability.
And the King of Knights, Artoria Pendragon, was without question one of the very pinnacles of the Saber Class. Her renown and power far outstripped that Sumerian hero Rin had prepared.
The catalyst she'd intended to use was a gemstone her father had left behind, tied to some ancient hero. Precious as it was, set beside this fragment of Avalon it was the difference between a glass bead and a diamond.
"This… it's far too valuable!" Rin, at a loss, instinctively moved to hand the box back. "I can't accept this. It's too…"
"Please, you must take it."
Seiji's smile was utterly sincere, impossible to refuse. "Teacher said you're the daughter of Mr. Tokiomi Tohsaka, and in a sense his student as well. The daughter of an old friend is about to step onto a cruel battlefield, and as an elder he can't simply stand by. And as the Overseer of this Holy Grail War, he hopes to see the strongest, fairest Servant born to keep the ritual in balance."
"Besides…" He shifted, his tone turning half-joking. "If you can summon the strongest Saber, doesn't that make us support staff a little safer too? When it comes down to it, we're investing in you."
His words were reasonable, leaving Rin no grounds to refuse.
In the end, she accepted this generous gift.
"…Please thank Teacher for me." She spoke gravely, the hand holding the box trembling faintly with excitement.
"I will." Seiji smiled and bowed deeply. "Then I won't keep you any longer. I wish you… every success."
With that, he turned and left.
Watching his retreating figure, Rin gripped the box, her heart full of gratitude and fighting spirit.
Teacher Waver… Fujiwara…
Once I've won the Holy Grail War, I, Rin Tohsaka, will repay this kindness twice over!
She didn't see it.
In the instant he turned away, a cold, cruel curve touched the corner of Seiji's gentle, harmless face.
"Repay it twice over?"
He sneered inwardly.
"You will, Rin Tohsaka."
"And when that time comes, you'll repay me with your very soul."
He had placed a polluted destiny into the girl's hands with his own.
And the girl had taken it for the most precious of gifts.
There was no drama more ironic than this.
…
…
Night fell.
A full moon hung high over Fuyuki City, scattering its silver radiance across the land.
The density of magic in the air reached its peak in this moment.
Ordinary people might only feel that tonight's moonlight was unusually bright, their spirits unusually refreshed, but to a magus this was nothing short of a feast of mana.
In every corner of Fuyuki City, rituals that would decide destiny were unfolding all at once.
Seiji stood on the roof of Tohsaka Manor, the night wind tugging at the hem of his clothes.
He was like a statue fused with the darkness, gazing down at the whole city. He released no magic, yet seemed to merge with the city's Spiritual Veins, feeling every pulse of energy.
In his vision, a vast, semi-transparent map of the Spiritual Veins overlaid the scene before him.
On the map, several points of light flickered with unprecedented brilliance, like lightning before the storm.
"It's beginning…"
He murmured softly.
[System Notice: Multiple high-energy magic responses detected. Summoning rituals have commenced.]
[Target Location One: Underground Workshop, Tohsaka Manor. Spiritual Vein connection stable, magic output increasing geometrically.]
[Target Location Two: Underground Worm Pit, Matou Manor. Spiritual Veins forcibly twisted, saturated with filth and resentment; an unconventional summoning is underway.]
[Target Location Three: Einzbern Castle. Located in the outlying forest, the magic response is the most enormous; some sacrificial ritual appears to be underway to amplify the summoning.]
[Target Location Four: Shinto, Fuyuki City, Emiya Residence… faint magic fluctuations detected, but the connection to the Spiritual Veins is extremely unstable, like… an accident.]
The points of light lit up one after another on his map, like fireworks about to bloom in the night sky.
Seiji's gaze fixed first on the ground beneath his own feet, on Tohsaka Manor.
He could "see" it clearly: the Spiritual Veins below were surging madly toward Rin's Workshop, as if drawn up by a colossal pump.
Inside the Workshop, Rin stood before the magic circle, chanting the ancient incantation.
"…I hereby declare…"
"Let your body rest under my dominion, and let my fate rest upon your sword…"
Her voice was crisp and resolute, brimming with magic, echoing through the sealed Workshop.
"In answer to the Grail's call, if you would heed this will and this reason, then respond…"
As her incantation progressed, the magic circle began to give off a blinding glow. Light poured out from the silver lines, illuminating the entire Workshop bright as day.
And the fragment of Avalon set at the heart of the circle blazed in turn, a holy and majestic aura spreading outward, as if answering some great existence beyond distant time and space.
The corner of Seiji's mouth curled into a cold smile.
"Then… it's my turn."
[System Command: Activate the logic backdoor within the Avalon fragment.]
[Command confirmed. Initiating micro-conceptual interference…]
An invisible force, one only Seiji could feel, surged along his mental link with the fragment and poured in an instant into the rapidly spinning summoning circle.
The force was exceedingly faint, no more than a drop of ink in the sea against the Grail's vast torrent of magic.
But in its essence, it stood above the rules of this world.
He wasn't trying to change the result of the summoning. What he wanted was still that strongest Saber.
It was only that… as Saber's Saint Graph data was copied into the present world by the Grail system, he slipped in a trifling bit of his own private cargo.
It was like planting a deeply hidden backdoor program, known only to the developer, into the most precise piece of software just before it shipped.
[Conceptual interference complete.]
[Target: Saber (Artoria Pendragon)]
[Status: An imperceptible spiritual sigil has been implanted into the Saint Graph.]
[Effect: When the target's mind undergoes severe upheaval, the host may exert spiritual interference upon them at the highest priority.]
With it all done, Seiji withdrew the force, his face a little pale.
Even an operation this small had drained a great deal of his spiritual strength.
And in that very moment.
In the underground Workshop of Tohsaka Manor, the light reached its peak.
"BOOM!"
With a thunderous roar, a vast, peerless surge of magic erupted from the magic circle and filled the entire Workshop.
The force of the impact even cracked the Workshop's walls.
The dust settled.
A maiden knight in a blue dress, with long golden hair, clad in silver armor and gripping an invisible sword, stood quietly at the center of the magic circle.
Her emerald eyes, like the purest gemstones, looked straight at Rin before her.
"…Servant, Saber. I have come in answer to your summons."
"I ask you. Are you my Master?"
…
At the same time.
On the other side of the city.
In a warehouse filled with all manner of mechanical parts and magecraft tools.
A boy with short red hair and resolute eyes stared in shock at the three red Command Spells surfacing on his arm, and at the blue-haired lancer lying in a pool of blood, no longer breathing.
And before him.
Was that same golden-haired maiden knight, scanning her surroundings warily.
"…What's going on?"
On the rooftop, Seiji looked at the two golden points of light on the Spiritual Vein map, both representing "Saber," both lit at once, and his expression turned to surprise.
"One Saber… summoned to two places at the same time?"
No, that wasn't it.
[System Analysis: Anomalous fluctuation in the timeline detected.]
[Conclusion: The conceptual backdoor implanted by the host caused a microsecond-level judgment delay in the Grail system during Rin Tohsaka's summoning ritual, destabilizing the summoned Servant's Saint Graph and thereby summoning an Archer from a parallel world who likewise shares a causal connection to the surname EMIYA. The true Saber, owing to the Grail system's error-correction mechanism, was successfully summoned by Shirou Emiya, who was accidentally drawn into the battle, through the Avalon proper within his body.]
"I see… so because of my interference, Rin's summoning went awry, and instead it worked out perfectly for Shirou Emiya?"
"An Archer-Class… EMIYA?"
A smile spread across Seiji's face, even more intrigued than before.
"Interesting… too interesting."
"The board… is livelier than I imagined."
He looked at the two points of light that had just descended upon the world, representing "legend," like an artist admiring his own masterpiece.
The first stage of the arrangement was complete.
Now it was time to let the players… begin cutting each other down.
…
…
In the courtyard of the Emiya Residence.
The moonlight was veiled by thin clouds, leaving everything around dim and uncertain.
The golden-haired maiden knight, Saber, studied the unremarkable red-haired boy before her with a scrutinizing gaze.
She couldn't understand it. Why would her Master be such an ordinary person, one with feeble magic who couldn't even be called a magus?
The magic pathway, the Pass, between them was thin as gossamer, as though it might snap at any moment.
And Shirou was utterly lost in confusion and shock.
He looked at the three tattoo-like Command Spells on his arm, their searing heat reminding him this was no dream. Then he looked at this girl before him who called herself a "Servant," as if she'd crossed over from the Middle Ages, and his mind went blank.
Lancer's death, the girl's appearance, the Command Spells on his arm, all of it was beyond his comprehension.
"Um… excuse me… what exactly is going on?"
"Quiet!"
Saber cut him off coldly. "This is no time for idle talk. The enemy Servant is nearby. That Lancer just now was only a scout. As the Master, your first task is to secure your own safety."
There was an authority in her tone that brooked no argument, a habit of kingship engraved into her very soul.
The words had barely left her.
Atop the courtyard wall, a man in a red coat, with short white hair and dark skin, appeared without a sound. He stood there so naturally, as if he'd been one with the night from the very start.
In his hands he held two oddly shaped short swords, one black and one white.
His eyes were sharp as a hawk's, locked tight onto Saber.
"Oh? I didn't expect tonight's entertainment to be so rich."
The man spoke, a note of devil-may-care mockery in his voice. "I just dealt with an ungrateful Lancer, and now a Saber shows up?"