Shinji Matou At Your Service

Chapter 328: Mother

Sagara Hyouma, the last of the seven prospective Masters of the Yggdmillennia clan to manifest "Stigmata," was the heir of the Sagara family, known for their proficiency in traditional Japanese sorcery.

Unlike magus like Roche and Celenike, who, despite joining the Yggdmillennia clan, continued to delve into their family's magecraft using the clan's resources, Sagara Hyouma integrated Western sorcery from the Icecolle family, to which Celenike belonged, into his traditional Japanese sorcery. In this sense, he was the magus who most embodied the founding principles of the Yggdmillennia clan.

Clan leader Darnic also had high expectations for him, evidenced by his approval for Ryouma to travel to Japan and summon a Servant on his own.

Sorcery, by definition, is a magecraft that achieves effects through sacrifices. Sagara Hyouma's sorcery involved ensuring the safety of buildings or protecting people at the cost of human lives.

He applied this type of sorcery to the summoning ritual, using Reika's life as a sacrifice; and her disembowelment as the catalyst to summon the desired Servant.

The summoning ritual proceeded smoothly from preparation to execution. Sagara Hyouma even felt the presence of the incoming Heroic Spirit. However, just before he could recite the final incantation, an unexpected event occurred.

An Assassin, whose origin was unknown, intervened in the summoning ritual, emerged from the magic circle he had set up, and took his life without much dialogue.

Sagara Hyouma, who died without understanding what had happened, would never know that two souls from another world had set their sights on the Holy Grail and had been secretly manipulating events.

He would also never know that a certain time traveler, with the advantage of foreknowledge, had targeted his identity as a Master and prioritized his elimination due to the nature of his magecraft, which constantly claimed the lives of ordinary people.

Casually sketching two flame runes, the Assassin incinerated Sagara Hyouma's body along with his stigmata-marked left hand. The Assassin then discarded the cloak, checked their body, and confirmed their status panel.

"Hmm, no issues with spiritual particle reconstruction, body condition is good, teleportation successful."

Though teleportation across vast distances falls under the domain of the Second Magic, Justeaze's Holy Grail system, constructed using the Third Magic, could also achieve similar miracles.

The difference lies in the Second Magic directly interfering with space, overlapping two spatial nodes to achieve teleportation. Justeaze's method involved reverting the Servant's body to spiritual particles unaffected by physical laws, using the connection between the summoning ritual and the Holy Grail for long-distance transfer. This method is akin to a Master using a Command Spell to forcefully summon a Servant to their side.

Although Shinji had preliminarily mastered the method of spiritual particle transformation during his time hiding within the Holy Grail system, both he and Justeaze lacked experience in this area, making them somewhat anxious.

Upon hearing Shinji's declaration of "teleportation successful," Justeaze, far away in Romania, could finally relax and proceed with the next step.

"Shinji, summon Lancer as soon as possible while the connection between the summoning ritual and the Holy Grail is still active."

"Understood!"

Summoning a Servant was the true purpose behind Justeaze sending Shinji to Japan. Eliminating Sagara Hyouma and destroying his stigmata was to clear out a prospective Master who had already established a connection with the Holy Grail, freeing up the slot for a rapid takeover.

Normally, a Servant cannot become a Master. However, this restriction does not stem from the rules of the Holy Grail War but from the unique nature of Servants. Servants exist in the present world by forming a bond with a Master and thus cannot be the bond themselves. Therefore, solving the issue of this bond would make it possible for a Servant to summon another Servant.

This concept was confirmed in the record of the Fifth Holy Grail War, "Fate/stay night," where Caster, whose true name was Medea, used the gate of Ryuudou Temple as a bond and successfully summoned the pseudo-Assassin Sasaki Kojirou.

At this moment, Shinji was also going to use this method to summon his Servant. The chosen vessel for his Servant was none other than the fallen Reika Rikudou.

This, of course, was premeditated. Reika Rikudou was an ordinary person with no resistance to magic; she became a sacrifice for the summoning ritual due to the influence of suggestion magecraft. Not to mention, she was currently unconscious, putting her entirely at Shinji's mercy.

Shinji moved Reika Rikudou away from the blood pool that served as the altar and placed her in the spot where Sagara Hyouma's ashes had previously stood. Following Justeaze's design, Shinji made minor adjustments to the magic circle, separating the supply of magical energy from the vessel.

After completing these preparations, Shinji continued reciting the summoning incantation from where Sagara Hyouma had left off.

"——I hereby swear. I am the one who will become all the good in the world, I am the one who will defeat all the evil in the world."

"Entangle thee with the three great words of power, from the wheel of suppression, O Guardian of the Scales!"

In Shinji's expectations, the following scene would unfold as it had in the three summonings he had witnessed: howling winds, thunder, and lightning. Only such a grand spectacle could befit those with extraordinary power, elevated to the realm of spirits.

However, to his surprise, after finishing the incantation, nothing happened within the magic circle.

No surge of magical energy, no thunder and lightning, and certainly no anticipated Servant.

"What the hell is going on?"

Perplexed, Shinji once again poured magical energy into the magic circle and repeated the incantation that he had long since memorized—this time, from start to finish, in its entirety.

Yet, again, nothing happened.

"What is going on?"

At this moment, Shinji finally understood how Sagara Hyouma felt before his death.

Fortunately, he wasn't alone; he had a partner connected through both the Grail system and the spiritual descent contract.

"Don't panic; the connection between the ritual and the Grail still exists. Check the magic circle to see if there's an issue."

"Alright."

Shinji took a deep breath, cleared his mind of chaotic thoughts, and bent down to carefully inspect the structure of the magic circle.

Just as he finished checking the outer circle and stepped into the inner circle, the long-anticipated surge of magical energy erupted. Although it did not create wind pressure or lightning as before, the otherworldly aura unmistakably signaled the activation of the summoning ritual.

Instinctively, Shinji tried to step out of the magic circle, but he was stunned to find that a mysterious force seemed to be holding his Servant's body in place. He could neither advance nor retreat and could only stand there, dumbfounded.

Fortunately, Shinji's presence did not interfere with the summoning ritual, nor did the surge of magical energy harm his body.

A few seconds later, a small figure appeared at the center of the magic circle and, with a naive and innocent voice, called out to Shinji:

"Mother."

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