"Hah... hah..." I pant, staring down at the back of my right hand. "With my Command Spell, refill my magical energy."
One of the crimson marks on my skin disappears without a trace. Instantly, my body glows with a bright red light as my magic circuits take in the sudden surge of Od, refilling my reserves back to full.
"This is..." Saber murmurs, looking around at the endless sea of blooming flowers. Her eyes widen in genuine disbelief. She probably never expected to see this place after so long.
The last time she experienced this scenery was when she was being taught by Merlin during her childhood, but that was clearly just a dreamscape created by his magecraft.
"Avalon? How can this be? This feeling, the scent... this is the real Avalon," Saber says softly. She raises her left hand, and I can clearly feel the shift in the air. Her weakened body suddenly surges with immense, terrifying power.
Avalon does not exist in the normal physical world. It is located in the Inner Sea of the Planet, right on the Reverse Side of the World where the Age of Gods never ended.
Because of that, the atmosphere inside this bounded field is entirely filled with True Ether. I know this is going to massively benefit Saber.
Even without her Master contract, her Dragon Core naturally breathes in the True Ether, instantly restoring her power to the exact peak she had when she was alive.
It is a massive risk, but unfortunately, I have no other choice. To use my ace card, I have to call Avalon into reality.
If I don't, there is simply no way I can use the thin, weak mana of the modern world to jumpstart my plan.
"What are you thinking, Rikka?! You know what happens to me with all this True Ether in this place!" Saber yells at me, her eyes wide with disbelief.
"My weakened body is going to return to normal. No, it is not even just normal—it is even stronger than my normal Servant vessel! It is going to be exactly like when I was still alive!"
I really don't know why she is yelling at me like that, though. Shouldn't this be a massive advantage for her to beat me?
"Well... because it's not fair if I fight you weakened like that, right? Hehe..." I say to her, sticking out my tongue and lightly tapping my head to do a cute 'Ehe~' pose.
Somehow, right after saying that, I can feel the atmosphere instantly drop for some reason. Saber just stares at me in stunned silence. Is my face not cute enough to pull that off or something?
"Pfftt... Hahahahahaha!"
Thank god someone actually laughs. I turn to the side and see Gilgamesh laughing her head off.
"I cannot believe there is someone as stupid as you are, little Guardian! To power up your own enemy just to be equal in a fight that you did not even have a chance to win before!" Gilgamesh laughs madly like a crazy person, clutching her sides as she tries to catch her breath.
"And Avalon? You really decided to pull this out into the real world? I do not know what you are thinking, but I am starting to feel glad my Sha Naqba Imuru does not work on you. I can enjoy this entertainment to the fullest!"
"And then True Ether in this era? You are really full of surprises," Gilgamesh says, her laughter finally dying down.
She suddenly raises her hand just like Saber did, clenching her fist a few times to test the atmosphere.
"You are really saving me time, little Guardian."
Suddenly, a massive burst of golden Ether erupts from Gilgamesh. Her magical energy is so thick and dense that it becomes completely visible to my naked eyes, swirling around her golden armor like a shining storm.
Because she is two-thirds god, her body can process the Age of Gods mana just as easily as Saber's Dragon Core can.
I watch in awe as a faint, glowing red pathway the invisible tether chain connecting a Servant to their Master's Command Spells briefly materializes right over her chest.
Gilgamesh simply smirks. Using the overwhelming amount of True Ether she just absorbed from the garden, she forcefully pulses her own magic circuits.
Snap.
I can actually see the lines of the contract shattering like fragile glass. Using the environment's infinite mana, she just forcefully severed her connection to Tokiomi Tohsaka without batting an eye.
With this True Ether sustaining her and her own Independent Action skill, she does not even need a Master anchoring her to the world right now. She is completely free.
Oh, wow. Alright, for the record, I never knew Gilgamesh or anyone else could use True Ether to just break their own Master-Servant contract without me having to cut the connection with my eyes.
Lady Ava did say that True Ether is basically like steroids for Servants, but breaking their own contract casually like that? I never saw that coming at all.
I shake my head, forcing myself to refocus because this is not the time to get distracted by Gilgamesh showing off. I need to continue my plan.
"Sorry, Saber. I kind of got distracted there. Can we continue?" I call out to her across the distance.
"Are you sure?" Saber asks, her face filled with a mix of caution and genuine confusion. "You know my body is entirely different from before, right? If we fight now, you are basically going to fight me at my true peak. We can fight after you are done and this place disappears, if you want?"
"No, that is fine, Saber," I reply with a reassuring smile. "Also, if this place disappears, my plan is completely ruined anyway, so I really need to do this right here."
"I see. Then you can go for it. I will be waiting," she nods slowly, lowering her stance just a bit to show she is giving me time. "But like I said before, even with this True Ether restoring my strength, I am still going to fight you with just my sword and nothing else."
"Well, that is really appreciated," I say, letting out a small sigh of relief. If she started spamming her dark Excalibur blasts with infinite mana, that would be a total nightmare to deal with.
Then, I close my eyes and focus on the thick, True Ether swirling around this place.
I know that inhaling True Ether is toxic to a normal modern magus. Their circuits are built for the thin mana of our era, so trying to process this dense, wild energy would just overload and tear them apart from the inside.
But fortunately for me, I am not normal at all. My Origin is 'Nothingness'.
I take a deep, steadying breath, letting the shimmering mana of the Age of Gods fill my lungs and flood my magic circuits.
Because my Origin is fundamentally a void, I do not have a modern elemental alignment trying to fight or resist the ancient energy. My magic circuits act like a completely empty vessel. The True Ether just flows right through me without any friction or resistance, channeling directly into my connection to the Root.
Instead of tearing my body apart, my empty Origin simply accepts the immense power. Using this dense True Ether as a bridge, I reach deep into my mind, pushing past the boundaries of modern magecraft and aiming straight for the Root.
***
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Inside my mind, everything goes completely dead quiet.
The rustling sound of the wind and the sweet scent of blooming flowers fade away entirely.
They are replaced by a familiar, boundless expanse of darkness. It is the exact same void I first saw when I was five years old, on the day my Mystic Eyes first awakened in the middle of that orphanage kitchen.
I look around the empty space, searching for the specific sight I remember from back then.
And there it is. In the distance, a giant, glowing blue line shines beautifully through the dark.
It is the Root. Just like back then, I can feel its gentle, motherly warmth calling out to me from across the void.
The last time I saw this magnificent light, Lady Ava appeared right behind me, covered my eyes with her hands, and pulled me away to Avalon before I could walk into it.
But this time, I do not run away. I slowly walk toward that radiant place.
The closer I get, the more I can see the intricate details of the light. Countless soft, glowing blue wisps of energy drift out from the giant line, slowly swirling through the dark.
Normally, this is the ultimate taboo. If a normal magus even gets too close to the Root, they are instantly consumed. Their ego simply melts away into the swirl, erasing their existence from the world entirely.
But as I step closer, the energy does not try to consume or destroy me. It does not treat me like an intruder trying to steal its secrets. Instead, it feels as though it has been waiting for me.
The glowing blue wisps drift toward me, stretching out through the darkness and gently wrapping around my small body like a warm, welcoming hug.
As I continue walking closer, the gentle energy surrounding me feels warmer and even more comforting.
Instead of feeling scared, this quiet darkness just feels incredibly safe until I am finally standing straight right in front of it.
I take a deep breath and reach my hand forward, intending to push my arm inside the glowing blue light to jumpstart my plan.
But before my fingers can even touch the surface, the giant line of light suddenly glows much brighter.
It smoothly opens up right in front of me, expanding like a clear window and creating a vivid, moving vision that I can see perfectly.
It shows a city that i quickly realize it is Fuyuki City, but it looks entirely different from the Fuyuki I know.
There are many more tall buildings, and the streets are filled with a lot more cars and motorcycles driving past each other compared to my era. It is clearly a vision of the future.
Before I can process the changes to the streets, the scene shifts multiple times in the blink of an eye. The vision suddenly arrives at a pretty big, traditional-looking house or mansion.
I catch a quick glimpse of the backyard, where two women with beautiful, long white hair are happily playing together in a pool. I only get a passing glance at their appearance before the scenery immediately moves again.
The view shifts right inside the house, finally stopping to show the full view of a single person. Standing there is a tall, graceful woman with long black hair, wearing a pristine white kimono.
Resting casually at her side is a long, polished katana. Staring at her through the glowing light of the Root, I know right away that this is the exact future version of myself I need to borrow for this fight.
I stare through the glowing window of the Root at the older version of myself. I know exactly what I need to do to make this work.
Similar to the mechanics of the Fifth Magic, I need to isolate and extract a very specific segment of my own personal timeline.
I am reaching roughly fifteen years into my future to borrow the adult experience, the physical maturity, and the overwhelming magical capacity that I will eventually possess as a fully realized magus.
I raise my hand, preparing to push my fingers through the glowing barrier to pull that future into the present. But before I can even do it, the woman inside the vision suddenly pauses.
My older self turns around, and for a second, my brain just completely short-circuits.
Wow. I am gorgeous.
I just stand there staring, completely mesmerized by my own future body. The way the pristine white kimono hugs her graceful figure, the long, silky black hair swaying beautifully, and just how tall and mature she looks...
I cannot help but shamelessly admire it. Is it weird to simp for myself? Because I am definitely simping right now. I look so beautiful.
My older self looks straight through the window, catching me staring, and makes direct eye contact with me.
A warm, familiar smile spreads across her face. She casually brings a hand up, putting a finger playfully against her cheek as if she is trying to recall an old memory, totally amused by my reaction.
"Ah, is this the time for that?" she says, her voice echoing clearly across the empty space.
"I almost forgot about it." She looks straight at me with complete understanding, showing no surprise at all.
"Here you go, from me to myself," she says with a gentle laugh.
Instead of me pulling her forward, my beautiful adult self reaches her hand outward, directly toward me.
The moment her fingers cross the boundary and touch mine, the entire vision of the future shatters like glass.
The peaceful scenery of the mansion scatters into countless glowing fragments, and my entire vision is instantly enveloped by a blinding, brilliant white light.