Chapter 56: Need Mana? Bro, Let Me Play Holy Grail War With You
The connection forcibly constructed by the Rat Talisman shattered instantly.
"GASP—!!"
Eyes snapping open, Kazama gasped heavily, cold sweat instantly soaking his back.
Before him remained that familiar apartment.
The Sparklence in his hand still radiated gentle light, but those spread wings had closed.
Kazama ultimately hadn't transformed into Tiga.
"Failed?"
He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, looking at the object in his hand somewhat dazed.
What just happened was... a hallucination?
No... that's not right.
That sense of reality, that gaze from higher dimensions—absolutely not a hallucination. He'd genuinely glimpsed the realm of light.
It's just that perhaps he lacked qualifications, or the Rat Talisman's magic wasn't sufficient to control that level of existence, so he got kicked out.
Kazama leaned against the chair back somewhat drained, looking at the now-dormant Sparklence in his hand.
Before he could figure out what exactly this meant, the floor suddenly transmitted obvious vibrations.
Books fell from the shelves in succession, the chandelier began swaying violently.
Earthquake?
Kazama frowned.
In this earthquake-prone island nation, this normally wasn't anything unusual.
But this tremor came too coincidentally.
Right after he'd been glanced at by that giant of light.
Moreover, this vibration's frequency was strange—unlike plate movement's deep rumbling, more like something turning over in the depths underground.
The tremor lasted less than two minutes before stopping.
But that ominous premonition lingered in Kazama's mind.
He quickly pulled out his phone and opened Twitter and news apps.
The homepage trending topics had been dominated by a red news banner.
[Breaking News: Osaka region experiences sudden intensity 5-weak earthquake, extremely shallow epicenter, no major casualties currently, but multiple areas report beast-like roaring ground sounds.]
"This..."
Kazama looked at that news, then at the still-warm Sparklence in his hand.
Could it be this thing summoned something that shouldn't exist in this world?
Or coincidence?
No, there were never coincidences in this world.
At this moment, Kazama calmed down and began simple speculation about what had just occurred.
First, he could confirm there were no Ultraman or kaiju in this world.
Just now he'd used the Rat Talisman's power to activate the Sparklence as a medium connecting to that space of light, encountering Tiga.
After exiting that space, an earthquake conveniently occurred in reality—the two were definitely connected.
But where exactly was this connection?
Kazama couldn't figure it out. Even if Tiga noticed him, kaiju shouldn't appear in reality.
Could it be the balance between good and evil from Jackie Chan Adventures acting up again?
That didn't make sense either. He didn't stand on either side, and his actions hadn't harmed the world.
Currently righteousness's favorite daughter was Jade, and dark chi's favorite son was Shendu. Until those two died, there should be no place for him between them.
So it probably wasn't their doing.
Unable to figure it out, Kazama could only set this aside and review the failed Tiga transformation.
Undoubtedly, the inability to transform ultimately came down to the Rat Talisman having insufficient mana.
Kazama sighed, spinning the Sparklence in his hand.
The Rat Talisman truly was a bug-level cheat.
It could turn dead things living, turn plastic into divine artifacts.
Under this logic, it served as a perfect connector, successfully linking his soul with Tiga's consciousness.
But that was all.
A connector wasn't a generator.
Though the Rat Talisman itself contained Shendu's magic, that amount of energy was fine for driving a small toy or a few Clow Cards—but wanting to drive a 53-meter tall, 44,000-ton giant of light who could casually blow kaiju to pieces with light beams?
That was a pipe dream.
This was reality.
Without a cheat-level massive magic source, even obtaining divine equipment could only serve as decoration.
Like the initial Clow Cards—if Clow Reed hadn't legitimized them, Kazama didn't know what state he'd be in now.
To truly control a weapon's original power or even normalize it, Kazama had to solve that fundamental problem—
Magic power.
Lacking mana had become the current biggest bottleneck.
To solve this problem, the simplest and most brutal method was naturally obtaining the Dragon Talisman.
This talisman representing "explosion" and "infinity" was Shendu's main offensive method in the original series, possessing near-infinite magical reserves.
If he could get the Dragon Talisman and pair it with the Rat Talisman, the current predicament would likely be easily resolved.
But this meant Kazama would have to face Shendu directly.
Although Valmont had already become his mole, although that greedy gang leader would definitely try every means to send the talismans over—
But Kazama wasn't arrogant enough to think he could play with fire under that evil dragon's nose.
The Shendu in the original series always seemed to suffer, but that was premised on "protagonist halo" and "plot-induced stupidity."
In this real world, a demon sorcerer who'd lived thousands of years was absolutely not simple.
Moreover, what made Kazama most wary wasn't Shendu's combat ability itself.
But his tenacious vitality. As one of the eight demon sorcerers, Shendu couldn't die—even if his physical body was gone, he had an immortal soul.
Mid-series he could even leave hell to possess others, and gained one chance to use the Book of Ages.
That was practically Shendu's peak moment in the entire series—
All thanks to the Book of Ages.
That was even more heavyweight—a causality-law divine artifact capable of freely rewriting history and erasing existence.
If he jumped around too much now and got targeted by Shendu, once Shendu obtained the Book of Ages and wrote him to death, it'd be game over.
Though the plot had Jade saving the world, Kazama never entrusted his life and death to others.
So before having absolute certainty, Kazama absolutely wouldn't actively jump before Shendu to draw aggro.
A gentleman doesn't stand beneath a dangerous wall.
This was his survival philosophy across two lifetimes.
Let Valmont and Jackie Chan handle the front lines—he just needed to hide behind the scenes.
Since the Dragon Talisman couldn't be obtained temporarily, he needed to find another route.
Actually, Kazama had a second plan internally—he'd considered it when summoning Artoria.
Speaking of which, he had to mention Fate's Holy Grail War.
Actually, thinking carefully, the so-called Holy Grail War was essentially a large-scale magic collection ritual.
Seven Heroic Spirits fought each other, souls returned to the Lesser Grail, magic filled up, then opened the Root or granted wishes.
But what if Kazama slightly modified this process?
His idea was actually very simple—use the Rat Talisman to revive a Caster-class Heroic Spirit.
Then use Caster's abilities to modify Japan's ley lines into a magical foundation and manually craft a "pseudo-Grail."
Next, forcibly initiate the Holy Grail War, continuously summon Heroic Spirits, then make them fight each other.
The massive magic returned when Heroic Spirits died wouldn't flow to the Throne of Heroes, but would be intercepted by that counterfeit Grail.
The entire process would be: summon, kill, collect magic, summon again, kill again, collect magic again.
Like an automatic mob grinder in Minecraft.
Generate monsters in dark towers (summon Heroic Spirits), use water currents to push them to the center (Holy Grail War rules), kill them by fall damage or burning (Servant elimination), then place chests below to collect drops (harvest magic).
As long as this cycle wasn't interrupted, the magic accumulating in that chest would snowball larger and larger.
By then, whether charging the Sparklence or reviving higher-level existences would no longer be problematic.
This was a perfect infinite magic mob grinder.
"Heh..."
Thinking of this, Kazama couldn't help laughing.
Turning mythology into assembly lines, turning war into productivity.
Only a transmigrator like him without much integrity could conceive such things.
Though it sounded somewhat anti-human, Heroic Spirits wouldn't really die anyway. Plus didn't they love fighting Holy Grail Wars?
Then he'd satisfy them—maybe they'd thank him in the end.
However, this plan's core was that the Caster had to be strong enough, possess master-level expertise in territory construction, and preferably have a controllable personality (or be easily fooled)—couldn't be like Gilgamesh with that lordly attitude.
"So the question is—who to choose?"
Kazama seriously thought of Heroic Spirit names he remembered.
Merlin?
Pass.
That Flower Magician had Grand qualifications, but his personality was too terrible.
That chaos-lover absolutely wouldn't honestly work for him—might even sell him out for entertainment.
Morgan?
The witch-queen was indeed powerful, could mass-produce Servants.
But that woman's ambition was too great—she wanted to rule Britain.
Easy to invite gods, hard to send them away. Before obtaining magic, he might first turn Kamimizu City into her new Faerie Kingdom.
Finally, Kazama thought of one person.
Medea.
Princess of Colchis, the Witch of Betrayal.
Affectionately called "Caster Mom."
Though her reputation wasn't great, regarding "Territory Creation" and "Item Construction," she was absolutely T1-tier among all Casters.
In the original, she could even forcibly craft a formation at Ryuudou Temple that drained the entire city's residents' magic, nearly turning herself into the Lesser Grail.
This hands-on ability was practically custom-made for his magic mob grinder plan.
Moreover, compared to Morgan who only wanted to rule Britain, Medea's wish was actually simple—
Just give her a home, give her some love (or rather, recognition), and she'd be the world's most useful black glove.
Medea, once she recognized someone, would give everything for that person—even willing to dirty her own hands with twisted devotion.
For Kazama with maxed-out atmosphere-reading and promise-painting abilities, handling a love-starved witch was definitely easier than handling an evil dragon wanting to conquer the world.
Of course, these thoughts were currently just ideas.
To actually implement them—just Caster's catalyst, resolving ley line conflicts, and evading possibly existing Counter Force corrections would be a pile of headache-inducing troubles.
But at least this was a direction, a guideline.
In the future, Kazama could act toward this direction.
The current priority was still properly cultivating this one-third acre before him.