Kazuya, familiarizing himself with his abilities...
Because now, whether it was his Stand ability or the system's abilities, they all required a dream. He discovered that only by closing all dream options on the system could he use Death Thirteen's ability.
And, this ability could be said to be the most useful one in his normal state so far.
As for his second Noble Phantasm, "Phantasmagoria of a Perfect Night"... it could only be activated using Command Spells... and it could only be used up to three times!
And the final Noble Phantasm... he didn't believe that this battle would reach the level of "world destruction" this time, which meant he wouldn't be able to use it...
This was an ability he couldn't use at all.
But... apart from this ability, there were other abilities he could familiarize himself with, aside from his second Noble Phantasm "Phantasmagoria of a Perfect Night," which would be most effective in battle.
Alchemy at B+ level, Ultimate Life Form at C- level, stronger Ripple, and...
Stand - Death Thirteen!
This Noble Phantasm didn't consume anything.
All it needed was to pull someone into a dream, and when that person woke up, they would forget everything about the dream.
It wasn't just people; animals could also be pulled in, like dogs...
He could give it a try to see what the results would be when this ability was used in reality. Of course, killing was out of the question.
Just observe the effects of pulling someone in, maybe causing a minor injury at most, and see if it could heal completely by the next day.
He was curious about the effects on magus and Heroic Spirits, though...
For Heroic Spirits... he could see which was the weakest Heroic Spirit in this Holy Grail War and experiment with them, magus, too.
Lastly...
"Don't reveal your true identity." Kazuya looked at the face in the mirror, and his muscles, bones, and even cells began to change.
For Ultimate Life Form, even creating life was something that could be done. However, with his current C- level as Ultimate Life Form, he couldn't do that. According to his judgment, he was slightly stronger than the Pillar Men and wasn't afraid of the sun, but it was only to this extent for now.
Soon, Kazuya's body changed.
First, he became slightly shorter, around 1.8 meters tall... His bones became larger, eye sockets deeper, nose slightly lower, mouth a bit bigger than usual, his skin appeared slightly rougher, but it had turned Caucasian in color, and even his irises changed to blue from the previous gray-black.
Lastly, his hair, which had been rapidly growing, turned into a golden color.
The person in the mirror no longer resembled his original appearance.
"Hmm... Hmm hmm, this is good. With this, no one can recognize my true identity," Kazuya said with satisfaction.
He didn't have any wishes to be fulfilled by the Holy Grail. If he accidentally obtained the Holy Grail in the end, he would probably wish for a large amount of money or perhaps advanced animation production equipment from beyond this era.
The latter possibility was better because he wasn't short of money.
With an A-ranked Golden Rule, how could he be short of money?
His purpose in participating in this Holy Grail War was simple: to observe these people, their current development, and see if they could provide him with new inspiration, nothing more!
Unlike his dreams, this time, Caster was summoned by him.
Who were the remaining six Heroic Spirits?
This time, there would definitely be changes, right?
...
"It's about time..."
The basement of the Tohsaka family.
Tohsaka Tokiomi placed the relic aside and prepared to start chanting the incantation.
This time, both Kotomine Kirei and Kotomine Risei were absent. They hadn't come in a long time, and Tohsaka Tokiomi's judgment was correct. Indeed, there were Masters from both the Mage's Association and the Church who had set up familiars here.
Correspondingly, he also played along with a little act.
Furthermore, as per the plan, once he summoned the Heroic Spirit, the first thing he would do was "kill" Kotomine Kirei.
After all, he had done such a thing in that manga. According to the information obtained from the Clock Tower, it was likely that this future could actually happen. It was just in another parallel world.
However, what he was doubtful about was why Wizard Marshall would specifically mention it?
Kurokawa Kazuya was just a pawn; even if a magus from the past killed him, it shouldn't matter.
Or is it...
Not just this time...
Was Wizard Marshall planning to use Kurokawa Kazuya for something else?
If that were the case, killing him wouldn't be of any use, even if he did. After all, there were many famous mangakas. If one died, they could just find another one. What interested Wizard Marshall was probably just his drawing speed... Compared to other mangaka, a slightly slower pace wouldn't make much of a difference.
Indeed, in the eyes of most magus, Kurokawa Kazuya had become another person whom Wizard Marshall had deceived...
As for why it was said that it happened again...
Because so far, the only one who had walked away unscathed in Wizard Marshall's hands was the ancestor of the Tohsaka family.
He had many disciples, but most of them were crushed by Wizard Marshall himself.
So, it wasn't necessarily the stronger you were, the better a teacher you'd be. Someone like El-Melloi II, whose own strength wasn't much to speak of, but possessed an astonishing amount of theoretical knowledge and an eye for identifying talents, was the best kind of teacher.
"Fill, fill, fill, fill, fill, repeat every five times!"
With the incantation for the summoning of Heroic Spirits resounding...
The summoning circle in front emitted a burst of light.
With a dazzling but harmless flame, the Heroic Spirit was successfully summoned—
"Servant, Lancer. My true name is Karna. Nice to meet you."
"Success!" Tohsaka Tokiomi clenched his fist. "With Lancer and Kirei's Assassin, victory is assured!"
"So, you're my Master, right?"
"Exactly, and you must be the great hero from Indian mythology, the son of the Sun God, Karna, correct?" Tohsaka Tokiomi smiled.
"...That's right," Karna replied expressionlessly. "But if you can, please refrain from calling me 'Son of the Sun God,' Master."
Tohsaka Tokiomi was slightly taken aback, then, as if thinking of something elegant, he bowed slightly. "Understood. So, may I address you as 'Lancer'? How does that sound?"
"That's fine."
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