With a confident smile, Tohsaka Tokiomi threw a gem toward the place where Emiya Kiritsugu was hiding without hesitation.
"Oh no!"
Although Emiya Kiritsugu usually uses modern firearms to fight, this does not mean that his magecraft proficiency is low; on the contrary, Kiritsugu's skill is quite high. Therefore, with the help of modern weaponry, he was able to earn the title of "Magus Killer."
"Time Alter: Double Accel!"
At the moment of the incantation, Emiya Kiritsugu's body quickly moved away from the place where the gem had been thrown at an incredible speed. The stone that was thrown was like a cannonball fired by a tank, and it exploded with a bang the moment it came into contact with the wall.
Bang————!
Large areas of the wall were annihilated in the explosion, scattered into powder. Emiya Kiritsugu, who sensed the danger in advance and launched a spell to dodge, couldn't help but shrink his pupils after seeing the huge hole, feeling the trickiness of his opponent's strength.
He had only thought about how unfathomable Kotomine Kirei and Fujimaru Shirou were, but he forgot that the fifth-generation head of the Tohsaka family was also a powerful magus.
Tohsaka Tokiomi, who was already walking gracefully up the stairs, couldn't help but squint his eyes slightly after seeing Emiya Kiritsugu move from his original position at such a fast speed.
"Oh, have you mastered a little bit of magecraft?"
Although Tohsaka Tokiomi showed a soft smile on the surface, his eyes were already full of murderous intent. Elegant, calm, and firm due to his aristocratic birth and upbringing, Tokiomi has a proud personality and is extremely confident; he is a man with both arrogance and nobility.
Tohsaka Tokiomi spent half of his life in difficulty, and the bitterness along the way was silently swallowed by himself, all turned into self-esteem. As a magus, Tokiomi has a strong sense of pride, believing that he needs to be reserved and strict with himself because he is not bound by the mundane world.
It is also for this reason that Tohsaka Tokiomi thinks Emiya Kiritsugu is an unforgivable person who lacks the pride of a magus. Seeing Kiritsugu cower in the face of a battle between magi, relying on shoddy bombs, Tokiomi had already decided to wipe this despicable man from the magical world.
"Go ahead, if you think that would be useful."
Tohsaka Tokiomi squinted slightly and said. At the same time, he raised the staff in his hand, and the huge ruby inlaid on it began to bloom with magical light.
"Turn into fire, follow my enemy!"
The flames rushed up the stairs to the second floor like a dragon and snake.
...
Kiritsugu, shuttling through the corridor, was devoured by the side effects of using magecraft. The technique he used to dodge Tokiomi's attack just now was not a rudimentary spell that simply strengthened his body. Rather, it is a high-level magecraft that has a wider range of applications and, of course, very strong side effects.
Being able to cut off time in a specific space from the flow of time of the outside world can be regarded as a kind of Reality Marble in a sense. Although it is classified within the scope of High-Thaumaturgy, it definitely does not belong to the category of True Magic that cannot be reproduced. Compared to time modification that reverses cause and effect and changes the past, it is just a time adjustment spell that stagnates past time and accelerates future time, so it is not an impossible technology to achieve.
All that needs to be considered is the size of the bounded field and the time frame that needs to be adjusted. The Emiya family, the source of Kiritsugu's lineage, has been exploring the study of time manipulation magecraft for generations. The Magic Crest on Kiritsugu's back has inherited generations of research.
However, the amount of mana required to perform this kind of magecraft and the rituals prepared can be regarded as the level of High-Thaumaturgy. Therefore, it can usually only be used as a strategic preparation; for Kiritsugu, who needs tactical flexibility to survive on the battlefield, this was originally just a legacy that was not very useful.
However, in order to make the most of the time manipulation ability he inherited, Kiritsugu created a set of application methods that can flexibly use this magecraft on a very small scale. In order to make it easier to erect the bounded field, there is a means to control the scope of the field only within the practitioner's body. Although it is not possible to completely isolate the body from the outside world, it can minimize the influence of the outside world on the body.
In this smallest bounded field, the adjustment of just a few seconds is Emiya Kiritsugu's original magecraft—Time Alter. For example, when Tohsaka Tokiomi threw a gem just now, Kiritsugu doubled the speed of blood flow, hemoglobin burning, and muscle tissue movement in his body. After simply judging the attack trajectory of the jewel magecraft, all that remained was to use his quick reaction speed to dodge. When Kiritsugu speeds up the time in his body, he is able to perform physical feats impossible for ordinary people.
And the biggest problem with this magecraft is that it puts a considerable burden on the body. The art of time adjustment will inevitably cause errors in time inside and outside the barrier, and after the barrier is lifted, this deviation will be corrected by the forces of nature—that is, the adjustment of the World itself. Of course, this adjustment can only be made in the part where the error occurs, which is Kiritsugu's body, adjusting it to match the normal time stream.
Compared to Tohsaka Tokiomi, Emiya Kiritsugu's magecraft is neither flashy nor overtly powerful. However, this does not mean that Kiritsugu has no chance of winning. Tohsaka Tokiomi, who has always maintained the etiquette of a magus acting gracefully, has revealed his magecraft in the few attacks just now, giving Kiritsugu a chance to analyze.
Next, it's time for the Magus Killer's hunt.
"Release alter!"
The brightness of vision and the sensitivity of hearing returned to normal in an instant. Kiritsugu's heart began to beat extremely rapidly, and the blood vessels all over his body felt like they were about to burst. The blood flow in his body was adjusting from a rate of three times normal. Actually, there must have been bruises somewhere on his body caused by internal bleeding from ruptured capillaries.
But before he could let his body recover, Kiritsugu had already jumped out from behind the pillar. With one hand, he threw a grenade at the flame that was tracking him, while with the other hand, he held the machine gun and pulled the trigger in Tokiomi's direction.
When Tohsaka Tokiomi, who had just walked into the corridor, reacted, dozens of bullets had already been fired at him.