Chapter 44: Chapter 44: Preparation for Another Battle
[Congratulations, Player completed a Hidden Quest. Rewards had been distributed. Please inspect the Player's status screen.]
[Player had exceeded the current software limit.]
[System has reached the requirements.]
[System will undergo a software upgrade for 8 hours starting from now.]
[07:59:43]
[07:58:59]
Ray immediately got bombarded with notification after resurrecting Saber into a living body.
He tried to open his status screen as instructed but it said 'System offline, undergoing update'. Since he cannot check his gain, he proceeded to inspect himself in real life.
After getting the Third Magic, he honestly felt no difference. No sudden explosive growth or anything. It's just an enlightenment of knowledge. He finally understood how this particular Law that governs souls in this world gives him the knowledge on how to manipulate souls. However, that's it. Not a haxx cheat or heaven defying ability. Just the knowledge of how to reach what he wanted and it still needs to depend on his effort to do so.
So, to make it short. What makes up a being is nothing more than information. The soul is the memory chip that stores the information and exists in a separate plane called the Astral plane. The human body is the hardware or the device that can accept the memory chip and utilizes it. Thus, a living being has three components. The mind(information), the soul(memory chip) and body(hardware).
The Third Magic is to manipulate the Soul which carries the Mind. They can create, replace and alter the soul. So, Ray in theory can turn a powerless human into god just by altering the information within the soul as the soul is the blueprint of a being. What is stated in the soul will be replicated by the body. Of course, it's not possible. Theory is just theory, not reality.
Obviously there are various limitations that prevent him from mass producing god-like mobs to trample his enemies and conquer the world. The main limitations come from the user of the Third Magic itself. After all, substance cannot be created from nothingness. Ray must understand the process and steps to create something he wants.
For example, he wanted to be an expert swordsman. He needs training and combat experience to become one. So, he just needed to alter his soul and took memories and experience of an expert swordsman and put it into his soul.
But, this also carries the risk of mixing the memories of the donor with him and causing a personality disorder. But this is a topic for another time.
Basically, Ray can become anything he wants. Anything within his confine of comprehension. Alas, True Magic is a strong but not almighty omnipotent ability. He still needs effort to properly utilize it and grow into a proper Magician.
Ray even copied Saber's swordsmanship and asked her for a sword fight to test it out.
The way they wield and swing the sword is exactly the same. As if looking at a mirror. Neither can win in purely swordsmanship since they both have similar style and techniques. Saber won partly because of her superior combat experience that Ray didn't dare to put into his mind in fear of personality disorder appearing.
But, the test is a success regardless and he is eager to test the limit of his new ability and its uses.
———
"Still no trace of them?" Ray asks when he is interrupted by Charlotte's return.
"Yes, master. I searched over the entire city twice and left literally no stone unturned. Yet, I failed to find even a single hair of Berserker and his master."
Ray patted her head when she went into a panic, thinking Ray might get upset. When has he been like this? Ray never gets upset or angry if the situation is reasonable.
"I do not blame you, Charlotte. This is not your fault. You carried out my order as I asked."
"However, if they can't be found anywhere else. Then there is only one place they could be hiding in and it's worrying if it's true." Ray has a look of great concern before he asks Charlotte to help assemble everyone.
While Charlotte is away for a while, he is completing his preparation. He already took Saber's swordsmanship. Now he took Kiritsugu's marksmanship and his other techniques that can be useful such as creating weapons that focused on firearms.
He is tempted to also take Kiritsugu's fighting experience as the undoubtedly strongest nemesis of magus until he is dubbed Magus Killer. But, experience and techniques differ and can be explained as experience is the entire software while technique is lines of codes in the software. There is too much unnecessary information in experience that if merged with Ray can cause his personality and Kiritsugu's to overlap or worse, clash. Their ideal, motivation and goal is two polar opposite which have a high chance to cause split personality if attempted.
Well, enough with that.
Ray already got the necessary knowledge he needed and finally created a mystic code suite for his combat style.
From Kiritsugu's knowledge of firearms, there is one he found to be suitable. A beast of a gun, a literal cannon on hand. Pfeifer Zeliska which is a handgun that can shoot an elephant hunting rounds .600 Nitro Express. A gun that can break bones with the pull of a trigger which expels energy almost twice of the 7.62x51mm bullet.
(German engineering is the world's best.)
Ray couldn't even imagine what monster he could create with all the knowledge in his hand.
Creating the gun is an easy matter as the blueprint and schematic is in his head. Material though… Oh yeah, he still has that meteorite stone from Charlotte buying sprees in the pavilions from Cultivation World.
To ordinary people, meteorite stones are just stones with a special composition of elements from the Periodic Table. But for supernatural people like himself, meteorite stone is a special material that is soaked and tempered with energy from outer space. That made the meteorite stone to contain special attributes which made them superior to its counterpart on Earth or basically what is explained as 'Mystery' for denizens of the Moonlit World.
The meteorite stone isn't really big. Only measured around a quarter of a cubic meter. For ordinary craftsmen, this is barely enough to manufacture the gun but all Ray needs to do is use Alteration on the stone and shape it according to the blueprint in his mind. No unnecessary waste is produced.
The monstrosity of a pistol is created. As easy as that. But normally this kind of forging method is not reliable as the necessary tampering, treating, etc is skipped but Ray can fabricate them literally by altering its history, similar to the process of Tracing which replicates even the creation process.
The gun is finished but he is still not done because at this point, it's no different than the normal ones. He still needs to do enchantment on it to turn the slightly strong mortal weapon into Mystic Code.
This is the tricky part of it because there is too much he can enchant but he didn't know if they are suitable. He must test through trial to find suitable enchantment. But for now, he just does the basics which is to increase its durability especially on the barrel. Then reinforce its structure so it won't break easily. Finally, an enhancement that increases the explosive power of the propellant so the bullet can travel faster, farther and hit harder.
If he is to make a rough estimation, this monster of a gun has turned into a beast that won't lose against an anti-material rifle that shoots .50 BMG rounds. This is almost four times stronger than its original.
As for the bullets, he can Trace them thanks to the blueprints he got from Kiritsugu. He can add various effects he needs on the go. Such as explosive bullets, piercing, freezing explosions, etc and limited only by his imagination and capability to produce the effects.
———
"Sorry, I got unexpected delay." Ray apologized when he came late although he is the one asked for everyone to assemble.
"Anyway, I won't waste time and tell everyone directly. Charlotte couldn't find Berserker and his master no matter how hard they searched the city." Charlotte's head flopped when her failure was reminded.
But Ray reassured her with a smile after lifting her head.
"I told you this isn't your fault." Ray said and gave her a head rub which was effective in lifting her spirits while noting she starting to show signs of mental disability again.
Perhaps another treatment session is required…
"By your words, you mean the two had been discovered?" Tanya asked and didn't notice the intimate interaction between Ray and Charlotte as she is focused more on the issue of the two master and Servant pair going out of detection.
"I don't, but I confirmed it with Future Calculation." Ray corrected Tanya before continuing. "The chance of them being in the cavern with the Greater Grail is high. But unfortunately that was my last attempt and I fear the worst is they came in contact with the evil that corrupted the Grail."
"Angra Mainyu…" Irisviel instantly gets a strand of information into her head.
"Yes, the servant Einzbern summoned from the third Grail War and was what corrupted the Holy Grail into a device that will bring doom to the world using the wish of the winner." Ray explained while focusing on Kiritsugu because he knew Kiritsugu was still holding on to the hope of winning the Grail.
Kiritsugu won't take Ray's word as truth. But, Irisviel. He will trust her more and she just confirmed she knew the grail was indeed corrupted and not working as intended anymore.
"Yes, that's the gist of it. Angra Mainyu, a god from Persian mythology who had cursed the holy grail. It will attempt to use the Grail to revive itself and our task is to prevent it unless you accept the world's end." Ray ended with his eyes focused on Kiritsugu.
For Ray and his companions, they didn't care much about the world's state because they have no attachment to it and can travel to another if this world is to end.
For Kiritsugu and Irisveil, they have a daughter here and a family for Irisviel. Besides that, Kiritsugu also will go to any length to save humanity as that is his goal knowing there is such a threat to the people, willing or not, he will fight to protect humanity.
"So, how is it? Are you going to join forces with me or continue to resist weakly like this?" Ray asked Kiritsugu.
He can see the distrust ever present inside Kiritsugu's gaze when he looks at Ray. After all, Kiritsugu is first and foremost an mercenary and assassin. Trust isn't something that can be cultivated that easily.
Irisviel on Kiritsugu's side was torn between supporting her husband or obeying the order deeply embedded in her genetic as an Homunculus to follow the order of the Einzbern family and Ray is recognised by her as the true Einzbern family head the moment he obtained Third Magic.
In the end, she is still able to resist and choose to side with her husband. She declared to support whatever his decisions were.
"Look. I don't really require your help at all for the upcoming battle. But having you would be a tremendous help." Ray spoke out once his patience ran thin.
"If you are really unwilling then all I ask for is to show me one of your Origin bullets and I will heal you and we can part ways immediately.
"You're going to use my bullet for what?" Kiritsugu's interest sparked once he heard that Ray required his Origin bullet.
"To end this war, of course. To end it before the disaster could happen." Ray stated boldly as if the victory was assured.
Seeing that the word 'disaster' sparked Kiritsugu's interest, he continued.
"I wouldn't tell you how I know this information. But, if what I assumed is correct and isn't stopped. No need to say Japan, the entire humanity will be in crisis." Ray remembers a timeline where the Grail isn't destroyed and allows Angra Mainyu to create the Black Grail Irisviel, even Alaya is intervening to stop the crisis which means this is a potential extinction disaster.
Kiritsugu is obviously the protagonist of Fate Zero, why should Ray risk himself if he can rely on Kiritsugu's protagonist aura to steamroll it.
Seeing Kiritsugu is still stubbornly indecisive, he gives the last push.
"If you fear I would back stab you then you can use Gea's contract to assure our temporary cooperation." Ray shrugged while taking a seat after being tired of standing and gave up to further convince the mule.
"After I seized the Einzbern family, I can just rob you off your wife and your daughter and there's nothing you can do."
"I am telling you right here and right now. I am being sincere with you and you just wouldn't accept it." Ray sighed while improving Tanya and Charlotte using Third Magic.
Ray is ignoring Kiritsugu to give him time to consider until he is done with Tanya and Charlotte.
For Tanya, Ray didn't give any ability for her since her kit is already good enough for now. Giving more would make her have too much on her plate. Thus, Ray gives her the best magic circuit he could give and increases her mana pool which is what restricts her right now without Being X giving her power to use. He also upgraded her physical stats to the maximum limit.
For Charlotte, he first turned her into a full Wraith instead of hybrid but still retained her body since her soul now had been ascended to the state where her own soul entered the Physical plane. This also means she is immortal as long as she has mana to regenerate her injured soul. That isn't an issue with Ray supplying it.
While upgrading Charlotte, Ray managed to reach a new understanding with his Wraith's which made him realize just how much potential and number of souls he wasted to produce Wraiths using a very crude method he used from start till today.
Wraith is the soul dyed with negative energy. His method of creating one Wraith needs three hundred souls because he gathers a small amount of negative energy and pieces it back together into a Wraith's.
To find a soul naturally filled with negative energy is difficult and the only one available is a ghost with resentment strong enough to roam the world instead of going to the afterlife. It's usually one in a million occurrences.
Previously, he couldn't produce negative energy artificially and use it to fill a soul to turn them into Wraith's. But now, with Third Magic. It is very much possible. This method of Wraith's creation allows the Wraith to retain more intelligence and most importantly, self upgrade and improvements instead of needing Ray manually force them to fight and devour to create a stronger Wraith.
"Such a massive loss… Well, what is done is done." Ray felt depressed before he remembered he was still waiting for Kiritsugu's answer.
"So, what is your decision?" Ray turns to Kiritsugu and Irisveil.
"Will you really agree to a Gea's contract?" Kiritsugu asked with a determined expression and wanted to really see if Ray was truly sincere.
"If that is what it takes to gain your cooperation then yes." Ray replied with honesty.
Kiritsugu closed his eyes and nodded after seeing what he wanted. He is going to trust his guts on this one. After all, what Ray said is true. His wife and daughter's fate is in Ray's hands and the last thing Kiritsugu wants to do is offend him.
"No need for the Gea's contract." Kiritsugu knew that even without the contract, he couldn't possibly win against Ray without lengthy preparation that is not possible in such a short time frame.
With or without the contract, there is no difference. Besides, Ray obviously values Kiritsugu's skills and abilities in combat to try and kill him.
Kiritsugu took out an Origin bullet and tossed it to Ray.
Ray caught it and immediately analyzed the bullet.
The bullet is made from Kiritsugu's rib bones through a certain craft to preserve his Origin of Severance and Binding that is contained in his soul. This means, to Trace the bullets, Ray needs to also be able to reproduce the trace of soul in the bullet.
If previously attaining Third Magic, this feat is not possible. But now, he could.
Ray returned the bullet once he finished analyzing it. He tried Tracing the bullet and was able to do it successfully.
Now, he can confidently fight against most magus or enemies that use magecraft in general because he can cripple them. Kiritsugu really does have an OP ability but it is limited to only harming the magic circuits.
Ray then restored Kiritsugu's body to the peak and his Magic Crest.
"Now, let's prepare ourselves. We will depart in another hour. The faster we deal with this, the better." Ray said while scanning everyone, seeing if they have anything more to add or ask.
Seeing there was none, he nodded and dismissed everyone to do their preparations.
*Ding*
[System update completed]
Ray suddenly sucked away from his location and none noticed.
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