Deep in the night, all was silent. All living beings had fallen into slumber. But in the depths of the dense forest on Mount Enzō in Fuyuki, a loud shout broke the tranquility.
"Haya!"
"Boom!"
Rin, her entire body enveloped in Mana like rippling lake water, stomped forward and threw a right punch. A highly compressed ball of Mana shot out from her fist, instantly landing thirty paces away. The concentrated Mana exploded, blasting a crater ten meters in diameter and three meters deep into the ground.
The Mana was withdrawn, re-guided back into her Magic Circuits. The fluctuating blue Mana dissipated, and Rin let out a long breath, looking at her fist.
She could basically handle the current burden of Mana Burst. Without using Mana Externalization and Mana Solidification, the loss was 0.12% per minute. Combined with Reinforcement Magecraft and various buffing Magecraft, it should be enough to contend with a fourth-tier Magician.
But I lack real combat experience, and Magicians are always known for the unknown. Without understanding my opponent, I fear I don't even have a three-layer chance of winning.
(Magician Tiers: First-tier, Second-tier, Third-tier, Fourth-tier, Keter, Grand Magus.)
At this time, Rin was already five years old. Long-term Mana Tempering had made her physique far superior to her peers. At five, her height was 126 centimeters, making her stand out among her age group. Her fair arms and limbs were still slender and delicate, but if she tensed her muscles slightly, Rin's entire body would become as hard as jade.
Mana Externalization and Mana Solidification are extended applications of Mana Burst. Mana Externalization is when, under Mana Burst, Mana is compressed and released externally for attack, guided by the body's cells. Mana Solidification is like the original story's Saber, where Mana is condensed into weapons and armor for personal use.
Both of these techniques require 100% adaptability of the body to Mana, making the body completely like a Magic Crest before they can be used. Rin had only just completed this three months ago.
I finally understand. Those Western fantasy novels are all lies. It turns out that so-called 'battle qi' is fundamentally the same as Mana. It just depends on whether it's used to train the body or to cast fireballs. Training the body makes you a warrior, casting fireballs makes you a mage. Mana Externalization is Battle Qi Externalization, Mana Solidification is Battle Qi forming a sword, Magic Circuits are meridians, many Magic Circuits mean extraordinary bones, and burning out Magic Circuits is like qi deviation… Rin was completely speechless, tormented by this blatant sense of déjà vu, only able to mutter to herself, feeling the deep malice of the world… Father is a top-tier Fourth-tier Magician, but I am not aiming to fight him. My current strength is enough for self-preservation. It's time to leave… Yes, leaving, leaving the Tohsaka Family, is the best method Rin ultimately thought of to protect Sakura.
As long as she leaves, Sakura will become the sole heir of the Tohsaka Family, making it impossible for her to be adopted out again. As the sole heir, Sakura will naturally inherit the Tohsaka magical lineage and the Magic Crest of the Tohsaka Family, solving all problems.
Rin has learned from Aoi that Tokiomi will return from abroad in three days. The reason is that the head of the Matou Family has requested his presence for an urgent matter concerning the family's survival.
Rin knew that the moment was truly imminent.
As for the 'magic calamity' caused by not having a Magic Crest, Rin never cared about it. A magic calamity is, at most, a magical paranormal event, similar to a tribulation. If a Magician without Magic Circuits was destined to die, how did the first Magician of a family survive?
There's also a living example: Aozaki Touko. As a descendant of a Magician family, she was exposed to magic from a young age and trained as an heir. In the end, her grandfather, for some unknown reason, gave the Magic Crest and the Fifth Magic to her sister, Aoko, and Touko then killed him with a knife to the back.
However, Touko, who didn't receive the family's Magic Crest, is still doing well in her 'Gallery of the Void' workshop, smoking, drinking coffee, and tinkering with puppets. She's in her late twenties, unmarried, and comfortably living as a 'leftover fighter.'
Therefore, a truly powerful Magician has nothing to fear from such things as magic calamities. Rin never worried about the problem of magic calamities; she had that much confidence.
Besides, no matter how strong a magic calamity is, is it stronger than the Holy Grail War? If Rin survived the Fourth Holy Grail War, would she still need to care about a magic calamity?
If she died in the Holy Grail War, then whether it's a magic calamity or not would be meaningless.
I'll prepare tonight and leave first thing tomorrow, but before that, I still need to go to the Matou Family to retrieve something... Yes, to the Matou Family to retrieve something. What? Of course, command spells!
After much deliberation, Rin concluded that the Three Great Families of the Holy Grail absolutely have a way to obtain command spells in advance and store them in an item to be given to any person designated by the Three Founding Families.
Looking back at the original story, the Masters of the Three Founding Families always appeared with command spells from the start, or suddenly pulled out command spells when summoning a Heroic Spirit. There was never a scene like an outsider where command spells suddenly emerged from the back of their hand.
To explain more directly, Kiritsugu Emiya married into the Einzbern Family nine years before the Holy Grail War began. Being far away in Germany, it was impossible for him to be chosen by the Holy Grail in Fuyuki, Japan. He was also not a member of the Einzbern Family, so it was impossible for him to be fixed as a Master chosen from the Three Founding Families. The only plausible explanation is that the Einzbern Family could give a command spell to any person they designated!
This was even more evident in the Fifth Holy Grail War. Without command spells, how could they have summoned Heracles ten years in advance! If they could summon Heroic Spirits without command spells, then would they even need to hold the Holy Grail War?
The same goes for the command spells in Matou Kariya's hand during the Fourth Holy Grail War. Matou Kariya himself was an ordinary person who had never been exposed to magic. He was forcibly transformed into a Master one year before the Holy Grail War. He was severely unqualified as both a Magician and a Master, and he had no desire for the Holy Grail itself, participating only to save Sakura. If the choice of Master was the will of the Holy Grail, then Matou Kariya would absolutely not have been chosen.
So why was he so sure that he could become a Master, exchanging the Holy Grail for Sakura's freedom? The only plausible explanation is that the command spells were in the Matou Family!
Rin learned that Matou Zouken was not at the Matou Family at this time, but was inspecting the spiritual lands managed by the family in another region. The spiritual lands managed by the Matou Family were scattered throughout Japan. Since the descendants no longer had magical aptitude, the Matou Family could only rely on Matou Zouken to personally manage them, which is why he arranged to meet Tokiomi in three days.
And what Rin wanted was this command spell from the Matou Family!