Chapter 328: Mother

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.

"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."