A Dimensional Journey Begins with the Dragon Clan

Chapter 1251 1244. Control

“————I’m so tired.”

Emiya Shirou took a deep breath.

After training with Saber, he went to do his daily homework - "strengthening" training, which was very exhausting both physically and mentally.

I think Fuji-nee and Saber are sleeping in a Japanese-style room not far from here, but I don’t have time to worry about that now.

All in all, I'm so tired.

Go to sleep now and prepare for tomorrow————

...Am I dreaming?

The consciousness is still drowsy.

The body was still asleep, unable to move even a finger.

Well, if it is like this, then I am dreaming.

Dark night.

Weird tinnitus.

Even though his feet were asleep, he was able to walk down the slope as usual.

So cold.

The biting cold wind blew in my face, and my body, which was wearing pajamas and going out, had already started to feel cold.

...This kind of coldness is not what Fuyuki City should have.

If this was a dream, the chill would have woken me up long ago.

Walking on a street without any pedestrians.

The piercing sound never stopped.

My feet kept moving forward towards a certain place, not caring even though my body was shivering with cold.

"----ah."

I wanted to scream, but found that my throat seemed to be frozen.

This is not a dream.

This shouldn't be a dream.

Yet consciousness remains dormant.

Her hands and feet did not obey Emiya Shirou's words and she walked as if she was being manipulated.

"what----"

Is this the end?

I quickened my pace and began to climb the stairs————

————The tinnitus turned into a clear sound.

"Ugh——"

No, that's not the case.

Those were the words that had been repeated from the beginning.

---come over.

A magical female voice that penetrates deep into the mind.

I saw the mountain gate.

What's in there?

----besides.

If I enter that door, I will never be able to come back alive.

"Ugh——"

Although he didn't understand why, his sleepy consciousness kept telling him to escape now.

Go back quickly.

Go back quickly.

Go back quickly.

Go back quickly.

  Stop now. It's not too late. Go back now. Wake up now and you can still go back, wake up, wake up, wake up,

Enough, I can’t listen to that voice anymore…………!!!

“Oooooh…Ahhhhhh!”

Only consciousness regained consciousness.

My sleepy mind became clear and I finally regained my will.

But it's too late.

His hands and feet still did not obey his commands and entered the mountain gate.

———The only thing that can be controlled is the mind.

Shirou Emiya's body had nothing to do with his will, and he obeyed the Master's voice and walked into the courtyard of Ryudo Temple.

————The yard was immersed in darkness.

At its center, stands a "thing" that possesses inhuman magical powers.

The shadow swayed as if being refracted by the hot air near the ground.

The shadow that reminds people of the god of death gradually peels away the darkness————

It was like the figure of a magician in an ancient fairy tale.

"——Stop right there, little boy. If you get any closer you'll be killed, okay?"

Contains a sarcastic smile.

…His body seemed to be at the guy’s mercy.

My feet that wanted to stop but couldn't, suddenly stopped because of the words just said.

"————————"

Consciousness rattles.

My hands and feet cannot move, and there is an unidentified "enemy" in front of me.

...Yes, that's the enemy.

There is no need to doubt and there will be no mistake.

That is a Servant - the Heroic Spirit who is most skilled in magic among the seven Servants -

"…The caster…among the servants…!"

He tried desperately to move his frozen throat and glared at the enemy in front of him.

"Yes, that's right little boy. Welcome to my temple. Welcome, Saber's Master."

A chilling voice was mocking him.

"Well----!"

Emiya Shirou concentrated his strength on his feet, but his body was still completely unable to move.

  ———Damn it, what’s wrong with me…!

I was easily lured here, and I am completely unable to move...!

"Ah—uh, wow—!"

Focus your attention on your hands and feet with all your strength.

Although I don't know what happened to him, it is certain that it was caster's magic that took away his physical freedom.

  Well, if I just expel the magic power that has invaded my body...!

"You can be free this way, is that what you think? Hehe, what a cute child. You are so naive to think of using this method to break my curse."

"What's going on, ah?"

Mobilize the only free will and explore within the body.

Caster's magic.

The enemy's magic power that had infiltrated from outside was eroding his body in order to take away the freedom of my hands and feet.

…Open your eyes and look at your body.

It's okay, it's not that difficult if you just calm down.

Controlling the flow of magic in the circuit is what he does every night.

Now all he had to do was repeat it and find the magic power of Caster within his body.

Even if it can’t be expelled from the body, if it is concentrated in one place, three of the four limbs should be able to move.

“————Huh?”

what happened.

There was no other person's magic power mixed into Emiya Shirou's body.

There is only one toxin-like thing, a small dot on the chest.

It was just like that, but it caused abnormalities in the whole body.

"————————"

There was nothing unusual about the blood flow.

It wasn't the blood, but the blood vessels themselves that were abnormal. If I were to use an analogy, it was like the heart was fixed.

Is the red dot on the chest Caster's magic power?

This body was completely deprived of its power to command simply by a curse.

"How is it possible..."

In other words, I was cursed by Caster while I was sleeping.

Even though he was asleep, it was impossible for him to be controlled by magic cast from such a long distance.

A magician has the power to resist magic.

It can reverse hypnosis, spells, coercion, and other "magic" used to suppress the actions of the person being cast.

As long as one is a magician, it is impossible for him to be easily manipulated by other magicians.

———This is basic knowledge.

A magician is someone with magic circuits.

The circuits running through the body can not only generate magic power, but also have the ability to rebound magic power from the outside.

Therefore, it is very difficult to interfere with the body or mind of a person whose magic circuits are working, and it is difficult to control the opponent even if the opponent is a magus much worse than oneself.

Since the magic circuit automatically bounces back the magic power that enters from the outside, the magic will be interrupted before it is completed.

Therefore, indirect interference magic such as hypnosis and restraint has a low success rate.

Even if the opponent is not a magician, as long as he has a magic circuit, he can bounce back the magic power unconsciously.

In this regard, magic that relies solely on direct interference with pure magic power - like Tōsaka, with weapons created in the outside world as the main cause and harming the target as the result - is much more useful.

Physical shock is common to all things.

Regardless of whether or not there are magic circuits in the body, humans will bleed if they are cut by the knife.

"————————"

That is why this situation is very abnormal.

...If you want to perform magic that is so close that it is almost a close connection, there must be some price to pay.

If you have met Caster somewhere before and were cursed with "compulsion", you can still be controlled even if you are far away.

However, Shirou Emiya neither remembers encountering the caster nor being cursed.

...Which means this is our first meeting.

Caster must not leave this place, cast a curse on the Emiya family far away from here, and control Emiya Shirou's body.

Manipulation of the body, which is absolutely impossible between magi, was accomplished at a distance of several kilometers.

Even if Caster stays here, can he manipulate the people in the city at will?

“————————Woo.”

...The momentum was suddenly dampened.

Now that the magic has been done, there is no way to break the curse with his words.

  If Caster doesn't untie himself and I can't get help from outside, there's nothing he can do.

———!

"Do you understand? What's binding you is not my magic power but the magic itself. The completed magic cannot be washed away by the flow of magic power. It's just like liquid and solid. Even if you pour water on something that has already been formed, it won't break it, right?"

...The shadow is approaching.

The purple clothes melted into the darkness, and a sneer appeared on his face.

“————————Woo.”

"But there are exceptions. For example, the magic you perform is just like a mud castle to me. As long as there is enough and strong water flow, it can be easily washed away even if it is formed. Do you understand? The difference between you and me is at the level of another dimension."

"Really? So you called me to a place like this on purpose?"

"Yes. Although the so-called Masters are just small fry, you are particularly weak among them. Because your resistance to magic is almost the same as that of ordinary people. Now that I have discovered such a Master, how can I not want to talk to you like this?"

She burst out laughing.

The laughter only contained the sense of superiority that the prey was already in front of him.

“Woo————————”

...I feel cold all over.

It's more than just a chat.

  This guy was deliberately trying to kill him——!

"Oh, I misunderstood again. Don't worry, if I kill you I won't be able to absorb your magic power. All the people in this city belong to me. I won't kill them and let them live on until I drain them dry."

The sneer echoed in Shirou Emiya's ears.

"What?"

It feels like my train of thought has been suddenly interrupted.

Did this guy just say that he was absorbing magic power from the people in the city?

“Caster…! You actually attacked someone you didn’t even know about…!”

"Why, you didn't know? Because you teamed up with that little girl, and I thought you would know - don't you? You don't know yet."

Caster seemed to smile even more happily.

It's like thinking about how to cook the captured prey.

"Then I'll tell you. I, the Caster among the servants, have the right to create a 'battlefield'. Magicians all have their own workshops, right? It's the same principle. I built a temple here to protect myself from you. Fortunately, this land is like a ghost gate to the servants. It is also excellent as a battlefield, and it can also be used to collect magic power."

"At first, I couldn't control your magic power properly because it was too little. Now I can collect it properly. Look, you see it too, right? There are hundreds of people's worth of magic power scattered all over this land, fragments of various people."

"Then——the incident that happened in the city, was it you who did it?"

"Hmm. Didn't I say this is my temple? Then isn't it the duty of the stupid humans in the lower world to make offerings to me?"

“Woo——!”

Unexplained coma incidents occurred in the city.

Although it doesn't seem like that much, this guy has already sucked hundreds of people.

———And, if you look closely.

The vortex of magical power that filled the courtyard seemed to be composed of the radiance of the souls of hundreds and thousands of people.

“Caster…………!!!!!”

Focus your strength on your hands and feet.

Still nothing changed, all he saw was Caster, who was laughing at him.

"Okay, let's stop here. You'll get bored if you keep doing this, right?"

There was a whisper in my ear.

At the same time, the enemy’s figure, which I had not been able to see clearly until now, blocked my vision.

"Master Saber. I am going to take the Command Seals from you... It would be a shame if Saber, the Servant, disappeared. I still need her to defeat that annoying Berserker."

"————————"

Caster raised his hand.

That finger was firmly aimed at Emiya Shirou's hand――

“To take the Command Seal away——”

Can such a thing be done?

Toosaka said that in order to remove the Command Seals, the nerves in the entire wrist must be removed.

"That's right. I'll cut off your hand first, and then transplant the Command Seals onto my Master. But the Command Seals are integrated with the holder's magic circuits, right? To remove the Command Seals, I'll have to pull out your nerves (magic circuits) as well."

Such an understatement.

Caster stated as if nothing would happen.

"Varied----"

Pull out a nerve?

Not only will they take away a hand, but they will also take away the nerves distributed in the body.

If he did that, he would——

"Well, you'll become a cripple. But don't worry, I won't kill you."

“——Ahhhhhh!”

It didn't matter if my limbs were broken. I tried my best to concentrate my strength on my limbs, but there was still no change.

With his hands and feet unable to move, Emiya Shirou was like a prisoner on the execution platform—with a seductive sneer.

Fingers with an ominous glow slowly stretched out to his left hand like a crawling spider.

  ···········

How much time had passed when I noticed this abnormality?

While sleeping, Saber suddenly felt a sense of disharmony like spider silk and woke up, and she walked into the corridor.

"...Shirou?"

At first, she thought it was coming from her Master.

Because the abnormality was coming from Shirou Emiya's room.

(End of this chapter)