Bab 35: Chapter 34: Crest
The engine roars of 2 motorcycles echoed in the collapsing crypt. Kiritsugu and shirou closely followed by Melvin and Waver rushed out of the ritual`s range with the exit through which tucks of dugout soil left the site.
As the instigators left the site the ritual circle began glowing with mana, the addition to the magic circle that Melvin made under Waver`s orders began glowing in a violet hue reversing the ritual. The evil spirits made from the malice of uncountable dead people were pulled out from the leyline and maniacally attacked the remaining workers.
The workers were dropping like flies after the once sealed ghosts pulled out their lifeforce, the worker's dead bodies looked like mummies and with the explosion of the ritual the ceiling collapsed burying the burial spot of the king, sealing it under toons of rubles and infestation of evil spirits bound to a leyline.
The older emiya guided them back to the city of Najaf and they erased their trail inside the city with profuse use of hypnosis magecraft. They reached a good hotel and booked 3 adjacent rooms for which Melvin ended up paying after saying.
"I should at least do this much as you people have shown me such a spectacle from a VIP seat."
They all again meet in Waver`s room after taking a rest and eating food. Breaking the silence waver asked with interest in his gaze.
"So what service do you want from me? To track me across these hostile territories it must be something interesting."
Kiritsugu didn't say anything and gestured for the tuner to follow him to another room and then once they were inside he put a bounded field on the room. Feeling the bounded field being established shirou and Waver sat across each other and awkwardly looked at each other.
To break the weird mood waver hesitantly stated
"It's common practise to let your talk with a tuner be kept isolated. They must also be signing a geas so. So how old are you?"
Looking at the ex-master, shirou remembered his behaviour during the war and considered him a good person hence he replied
"8 years old."
Realising that he really was a child waver`s guard was relatively lowered and he asked while attempting to smile.
"So while your father and Melvin are talking you can ask me general questions to pass the time."
"What did you do at the crypt? What was the part you added to the ritual." asked shirou after deliberation.
Hearing the question waver organised his thoughts to make them understandable for children. He asked some questions to know how much shirou knew about the basics of magecraft and then started explaining.
"As you said the leylines are like veins of the planet but unlike real veins the metaphysical nature of leylines allows more room for changes hence they can move and branch as well as be destroyed or dry up."
"Leylines vary from place to place as they also carry some specific concepts in their raw mana based on the place they are located in. This is the reason why mage families chose different ley lines, they choose the one most suitable for their magecraft."
"Similarly the ley lines in the crypt of Iskandar were saturated with grudges and malice due to mass burial of people. The grudges and negative energy then shaped a form of ghosts classified as evil spirits."
"The ritual Barzan employed was used to suppress the evil spirits from breaking out as he dug underground and reached closer to the leyline. The problem was the magic circle he used, he just copied down the standard magic circle shown in public articles at the clock tower."
"So using public knowledge magecraft is wrong?" asked shirou curiously
"It's not wrong per se but it makes you vulnerable to other magus against you. So using public knowledge as a base to make a personalised ritual is a good move even then those more knowledgeable can easily find flaws in your spell."
"Like I did with Barzan, I added a part to the magic circle that reversed the ritual effect hence releasing the overwhelming number of evil spirits and the crypt had an earthquake due to instability in the leylines due to leaking spirits."
"What better could he have done?" asked shirou
"Well, realistically speaking nothing much but if he had set up alarms in the ritual then he could have known that I was not alone and someone was damaging the ritual hence making him a lot harder to kill."
This discussion continued for some time and shirou learnt about leylines and the synchronisation of attributes between leylines and the magus. While listening to the uses of mana drawn from a leyline he matched it with the scene of waver leading Iskandar to replenish aman from leylines during the holy grail war.
After the small discussion waver was lost in thoughts and shirou meditated with his mystic code. About an hour later kiritsugu and Melvin walked out of the room, with the magus killer looking relieved and Melvin wiping his mouth with a blood-stained handkerchief.
The father and son pair took their leave and the pair of classmates had a heart-to-heart talk, melvin claimed that Waver should be his best friend after the man asked for another loan to buy his dead teacher`s classroom.
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The next day the pairs separated as the two students went back to Clocktower and the father and son pair went to Stratford. Boarding the plane kiritsugu finally revealed some anxiousness and asked shirou again
"Shirou are you really ready to accept the magic crest of the emiya family even after knowing its risks and what it represents?"
Seriously nodding his head shirou said
"Yes, Father I am ready for the consequences of failing to accept the crest. So please let me inherit it."
Seeing the conviction in his son`s eyes one part of the man was proud and satisfied but the other major part felt crushing powerlessness and self-loathing. Now drained and tired kiritsugu suppressed these emotions and nodded as he patted the child who slowly fell asleep.
After reaching the city the father and son pair booked a hotel room and waited for 3 days before Melvin contacted them and called them to a secluded property under his mother`s name.
Looking at the mansion in a secluded area with gates covered in police tapes and a sign reading "no trespassers allowed! Property under historical conservation.". Passing through the bounded field surrounding the stone mansion they walked across an overgrown lawn.
At the front gate of the house, they were greeted by Melvin wearing a gentleman`s suit. The suit was black and white producing a refined image and giving the illusion that he was a different person until he began vomiting blood.
Helping the tuner clean the blood stains they went inside. While shirou expected some kind of laboratory like the Miller family his expectation was broken when Melvin led them to a well-furnished living room with dim lighting and a smouldering fireplace.
The room invoked a sense of peace and calm like it was the venue of a serene feast, the only lacking element was smooth instrumental music to complete the atmosphere. As shirou looked around the room he spotted a luxurious bed covered in white that was conspicuously put beside a set of 3 sofas.
Between the sofa, there was a tea table occupied by various containers as well as a violin casket and some other musical instruments. Looking at the strange assortment of tools shirou felt they have not come to a mage but a musician.
Melvin guided them to the set of sofas and gestured them to sit down. As the 3 of them sat down the tuner poured 3 cups of hot tea from a flask that was clearly a mystic code. Gesturing for the pair to drink the served tea he said
"Before saying anything I would like to examine your circuits Mr emiya. Then I would like to examine your son before planning anything for the procedure."
Gulping down his tea kiritsugu stood up from the sofa and began opening the coat of his suit. Steadily he undressed his upper boy revealing minor scars but the most important thing noticed by the younger emiya was the visible signs of muscle loss on his father.
As he contemplated the sudden decline in his father`s health, Melvin stood up and opened some containers releasing a thick smell of medicine. Shirou`s sense of smell was assaulted worse because he smelled the intense smell as well as the Synesthesia of perceiving mana with smell made him feel dizzy.
Unaware of his plight the tuner skillfully drew various symbols on Kiritsugu`s back. After changing medicinal pastes multiple times and using them as ink, Melvin drew a magic circle on the man`s back. Checking his magic circle another time he picked up his tuning fork and struck it against the guitar case making a sharp "ting" echo across the room.
(A/N: so we are here at the crest transfer part. So tell me did the lesson on magecraft by Waver feel awkward within the chapter.)
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone