A magic circle materialised beneath me, blinding light erupting from within. When it died down, Medea stood within the fading circle.
"Master, you called?" She questioned while taking in her surroundings. The traditional-style room, the sliding doors, and finally... Sakura Matou lying on a bed nearby.
Medea ignored all of it after a moment and walked forward, reaching me in but a few strides. She half-circled around my seated form, touching my shoulders and arms with focused scrutiny.
"Should I have finished her instead?" I asked, ignoring her antics.
"Hmph. You should've pierced her heart. I am all you need. As for that Saber and this Rider? Both will only hinder you from making optimal decisions. Just like with Heracles' Master." A slight pout was visible on her face.
"Your suggestion carries more personal input than anything else." My voice was calm as I brought a finger to her forehead and pushed her back.
"Mou~ Master... How can you do this to me?" Medea projected fake outrage, trying to have her way.
Unfortunately, she was interrupted at that moment by the sound of a door sliding open.
Rider walked inside with a medical kit in her hands, having spent a considerable time searching for it.
Medea snapped her head toward the sound.
Pink blindfold and blue eyes collided mid-air.
The Witch of Betrayal's gaze was drawn toward Medusa's assets, then at her own in obvious comparison. A moment later, she took a step back as though someone had punched her in the gut.
I looked at Medusa—or rather, the medical kit in her hands. Medea seemed to interpret my motion as looking at Rider.
She deliberately came to my side, blocking my view with her back.
Medusa did not acknowledge Medea. Instead, she walked forward and came to stand on the other side of the bed.
"The medical kit... you requested." She brought her hands up and held it out toward me.
I brought my hand up and took it from hers. Our hands brushed against one another in the motion.
Medea jumped, akin to a cat whose tail had been stepped on. Her hands clamped down on my shoulder with force.
I gave her a side glance as I pulled my hand back, medkit now in my grip.
Then, my eyes settled on Sakura Matou, the room's temperature seemed to plummet. Petty jealousies instantly evaporated.
"It is time to start our work." I said. Medea straightened, the pout vanishing from her face. She knew my blank tone well enough to know that playtime was over.
"How do you suggest we surgically remove every one of these worms—crest worms, rather?" I asked, my own mental faculties accelerating to a staggering pace.
Dissolving them with magic circles? The toxic residue left in her body would kill her.
Manually cutting her open to separate every crest worm from her biology? She wouldn't survive the procedure.
Creating a poisonous compound that would kill all crest worms inside her? Possible, but their rampage before death would undoubtedly destroy her internal organs.
"Master... It's going to be nearly impossible to separate them from her without any damage." Medea gave her verdict after countless magic circles flashed over Sakura, scanning every inch of her biology.
"The crest worms within her are entrenched too deep. Even keeping her alive while taking them out would be a herculean task." She shook her head, not seeing any perfect way forward.
I looked at Medusa. She still wore a flat expression, yet her shoulders had tensed microscopically.
Medea had said that saving Sakura without any aftereffects would not be possible.
But I was... the Ultimate Hope.
Someone who made the impossible possible.
I had done it before. I could do it again.
The chair beneath me groaned as I rose and walked over to stand at the foot of the bed.
Medusa and Medea's eyes followed my movement.
"Medea... can you keep her alive for twenty seconds when she is on the brink of death?" Medea's eyes widened at my words.
It took a moment for her to respond.
"Yes, Master. I can."
"Let's go then. Take her—along with the whole bed—to Shirou's open backyard." I turned on my heel, walking out of the room and toward the backyard.
"But, why Master?" Medea asked from behind.
"We'll need space for what I'm about to do." My voice reached her after a moment.
...
..
.
Emiya Residence.
Backyard.
I stood at the foot of the bed. Medea and Medusa stood on either side of me.
"I want you to do two things. First, create a magic circle that attracts souls."
"It wouldn't work, Master. As I said earlier, the crest worms are too entrenched in her body. A soul-attracting magic circle wouldn't work." Medea spoke, shaking her head.
"I know. Follow what I say." She complied at my words, her hand rising.
A complex magic circle rotated to life above Sakura, suspended in the sky.
"Now... I want you to use every life-preserving magic circle you know on her." Medea's other hand wordlessly flashed, and countless magic circles spiralled to life at Sakura's sides.
"Both of you, create some distance from me. I'll handle it from here." Medea and Medusa shared a look and stepped aside simultaneously. Medea still maintained her magic circles from afar.
I took a breath.
Intersecting lines of green and blue climbed around my body.
My magic circuits blazed.
My [Beast Will] spell activated.
My eyes became slits.
I then closed them.
A boundary field started to engulf me from head to toe.
Time warped, moving four times faster than my surroundings.
I did not stop.
[Wind Blade].
Deconstruct.
Strip away 'Defence'. Strip away 'Concealment'.
Isolate the core. Repurpose it for 'Severing.'
Reassemble.
I bypassed the need for a Thaumaturgical Foundation entirely. Through sheer analytical processing, I forged a standalone spell formula—a makeshift, unstable mystery that existed outside normal magecraft for only a fraction of a second.
My eyes snapped open. My mind fractured into countless thought streams and raced to unfathomable speeds.
"Dismantle."
Countless cuts opened across her body—precisely where the worms integrated with her flesh and organs.
They tried to thrash.
[Ultimate Despair] awoke.
A presence capable of evoking terror in the very manifestation of fear pressed down from above.
The worms went slack. Then, they floated up from her body, drawn into the soul-attracting magic circle. Below them, Medea's life-preserving circles rotated frantically, fighting to keep her alive.
Everything was stable—until a worm inside her heart stirred.
"Master... her vital signs are dropping! She's dying!" Medea screamed.
Six Dismantles overlapped over her chest simultaneously, tearing a gash all the way to her heart.
My hand went to my sternum.
"Master!"
Another Dismantle, and her heart was split open.
I plunged my free hand inside, wrenching the worm out from within.
My other hand had already reached into the metaphysical space within my sternum and seized the sheath there.
I pulled.
[Avalon] materialised from my chest. I pressed it against hers.
It dissolved and went into overdrive, trying to save her from dying.
Medea's magic circles pumped vitality into her without pause. [Avalon] healed her most severe heart injury.
After a tense three minutes, Sakura was finally stable. At least for now.
As for the worm in my hand? I crushed it into dust with a flash of black and crimson.
...
..
.
***
[200 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter]
[5 chapters ahead on P@tr3on = [email protected]/Not_Aaryan]
...
[Authors Thoughts]
Did you all feel the hype? Izuru broke the rules of magecraft with a straight face. Bro created a standalone spell that acted as a thaumaturgical foundation for a moment.
It was basically a mix of Shirou Emiya's Structural Analysis mixed with Barthomeloi Lorelei's Spell-Crafting. Especially her Almighty Wind attribute.
Any Fate critics can point out any mistake in this, after all its all so confusing. I might have made a mistake somewhere, somehow.
...
Anyway... Another chapter.
Take care. (*Waves bye)