Behind-the-scenes video of the beginning of Honkai.

Now is the time to test her as a magician; failure could cost her her life. Despite the tension in her heart, Himeko felt no fear whatsoever.

With her passion for power and relentless pursuit of her goals, Himeko Velvet is undoubtedly an excellent magician, judging solely from her personality.

"Respond to the call of the Holy Grail; if you are willing to follow its will and its principles, then respond!"

The feeling of Honkai energy coursing through one's entire body is something that, as long as one remains a magician, one will likely never be able to escape the chills and pain caused by the writhing of magic circuits within one's body.

Himeko gritted her teeth and endured, continuing to recite.

“I hereby swear that I will accomplish all good deeds in the world, and I will eradicate all evil deeds in the world. I will be the one who holds their chains.”

Siegfried's vision began to darken, and the magic crest etched on his back, passed down through generations of the Emiya clan, began to be chanted independently to support Siegfried's spell.

Siegfried's heart began to beat rapidly, as if it had been detached from his personal will and driven by some mysterious force.

The body, ravaged by the Honkai energy gathered from the atmosphere, has now lost its human functions and become a component for some kind of mystery, a circuit for communicating between spirits and matter.

Siegfried ignored the groans of pain under the weight and focused his mind on the incantation. Cecilia, who was so nervous beside him that she forgot to swallow her saliva, was not even in his consciousness.

Bronya added the forbidden phrases mixed into the summoning incantation, the two-part prayer that stripped the summoned heroic spirit of its rationality and reduced it to a berserk profession, to the appropriate place: "Make your eyes clouded, your mind raging. Prisoner bound by the bars of madness. I am the master who wields these chains."

Because she summoned a berserker, Bronya suffered far more pain than other mages endured.

Nevertheless, Bronya had to concentrate; she couldn't run away now in order to save Seele.

"You are the Seven Heavens, bound by the three great incantations, the guardian of the Wheel of Restraint and the Scales!"

As he was about to finish reciting the prayer, Ryoma continued to accelerate the flow of magic within him.

The tornado was accompanied by lightning, and the wind pressure forced Yang and the others watching from the side to open their eyes, but the summoning patterns still shone brightly.

Finally, the magic circle connected to a place that was not of this world. In the ever-flowing light, a figure appeared: a person wearing a white robe, adorned with many gorgeous decorations, and with an ancient ring on each of the ten fingers of both hands.

However, it's unclear whether the video was intentional or not, because the upper body wasn't shown, so the people in the space didn't know who Ryoma Tohsaka was summoning.

Father Joyce was also immediately captivated by his imposing presence, and couldn't help but exclaim, "...If we defeat Yang, we've definitely won this war..."

And so the prayer reached their ears, and from the afterlife to this world, the legendary phantom descended amidst whirlwinds and light.

People who were once human but transcended the human realm, gaining superhuman power and ascending to the realm of gods.

From the place where these extraordinary people gathered, the throne of the power of restraint and the heroic spirits who carried people's dreams descended upon the earth together at this moment.

At the same time that Ryoma Tohsaka was successfully summoned, in a forest at night, a surge of Honkai energy erupted, arcs of Honkai energy flashed in the surrounding air, and a tall figure rose from the magic circle.

From within the dark stone walls, a majestic voice resounded: "Are you my Master? Is it you who summoned me here?"

The summoning was successfully completed, and Himeko looked forward to ending the day in a state of utter triumph.

Unlike last night's arduous and annoying struggle, tonight I should be lying contentedly in bed, basking in the pleasant exhaustion of accomplishing something great.

Why did it turn out like this?

In the cold wind blowing through the Xindu Citizens' Park, Himeko sat alone on a bench, shivering from the cold. She still couldn't understand where things had gone wrong and caused her plans to be completely overturned.

She was extremely excited that she had successfully summoned the Servant. At the same time, the situation of the summoned Servant also flowed into Himeko's consciousness.

Her class is Rider. Although she is outside the three major Knight classes, her basic stats are well above average, making her an undeniably powerful Servant.

However, things started to go strange the moment the huge outline slowly emerged from the summoning circle emitting white smoke.

Himeko's understanding of the concept of familiars is that they are at best puppets of the summoner, beings that barely manage to remain in this world thanks to the magic power supplied by the magician.

A puppet-like figure that exists solely because of its caster, capable of being driven to perform various activities. That's what familiars are supposed to be. In that case, one can probably imagine that Servants, as an extension of it, are something similar.

However, what appeared from the summoning circle was beyond her expectations.

"Theresa El-Melloi Archibald! How come the person I summoned is you!?"

Himeko saw a beautiful white-haired, blue-eyed girl behind the white smoke. She held a Zhuge feather fan and wore a royal robe.

She was just a little petite, like a primary school student, but even so, one could see an imperial aura in her youthful face that was beyond her years... perhaps?

The appearance of the petite figure stunned Himeko, for the person before her was none other than her good friend Theresa, the granddaughter of Otto El-Melloi Archibald. However, compared to her appearance at the Clock Tower, she now possessed a more imposing presence.

"Um, who are you?"

Chapter Ninety-Seven: The Sage King

"You are... Himeko? I remember you!"

Theresa seemed to remember something and said to Himeko with surprise, explaining that the Holy Grail had just transmitted modern knowledge into her mind, which was why she was only now coming to her senses.

"It's been a long time, Himeko!"

Theresa looked at Himeko with a sense of nostalgia, after all, the person who summoned her was someone she knew well.

"You know me? Are you really Theresa?!"

At this moment, Himeko's longing for 'Theresa' was not a pleasant surprise, but a shock; she now even doubted whether she had taken the wrong relic.

He had originally planned to summon Iskandar, the King of Conquerors, to wreak havoc in the Holy Grail War, but instead he summoned Theresa instead.

She didn't know what Theresa's strength was like. If she asked Theresa to fight in the Holy Grail War with her, Theresa would probably just be sending her to her death. She was already prepared to run away.

"You mean Theresa? Then the original owner of this body was indeed named that. My existence is a pseudo-Servant obtained by possessing the body of Theresa through the Servant Spirit Origin of Iskandar, the Conqueror King of this world. I am the Sage King Shuoye Guanxing of another world. The original owner of this body is currently asleep, so please don't worry!"

The stargazing also answered Himeko's doubts, which put Himeko at ease.

"Then let me formally introduce myself again. I am Sakuya Kansei, a Servant with the class of Rider! May I ask, are you my Master?"

Guan Xing pressed his hand to his feather fan, his gaze falling on Himeko.

“That’s right, I am your Master, Himeko Velvet! I am your Master!”

"Well, the contract is complete. I'll be relying on you from now on, Himeko!"

"This Theresa is completely different!"

Himeko was shocked when she saw that the woman in the video had summoned Theresa. She was afraid that she couldn't win now that Theresa had actually been summoned.

However, she later realized that although the two looked nine-tenths similar, this Theresa had something that the Theresa on the other side didn't: a sense of authority!

"See that? This is my grand entrance, isn't it impressive!"

Theresa was somewhat surprised to see herself in a parallel world being summoned by Himeko, but she was then drawn to her appearance in the video. The headmistress still maintained a great deal of authority.

"Auntie, that person doesn't seem to be you!"

Kiana then retorted, after all, she had seen the Stargazer in person, and the one in the video was more like a counterpart of the Stargazer than Theresa.

"Why not! It's just a different name, what's the big deal? Look at Himeko and the others, their surnames have all changed, haven't they?"

"But I really did see Shuo Ye Guan Xing in real life, and she really does look a lot like you, Auntie!"

"What? My dear niece, explain yourself! How come someone who looks just like me is involved?"

Theresa realized something was wrong at this point. Kiana had actually seen someone who looked just like her. How could that be!

Unless... that person was Grandpa's doing, after all, she knew about Grandpa's cloning experiments, after all, she... anyway, it's all Grandpa's fault.

When Kiana saw Theresa asking this question, she recounted how she met Stargazer and Hare, though she kept some things to herself, such as the Spark Lens.

While Kiana and the others were discussing stargazing, the video continued to play.

[After Himeko summoned the Stargazer, the last Einzbern castle, which was sealed off by ice, was also sealed off here.]

An ancient city, nestled deep in the desolate mountains, was secretly preserved by ancient magicians. On that day, it was finally freed from the long-awaited snowstorm.

Although the sky wasn't completely clear, the pristine white sky was much brighter than on a snowy day. On the winter earth, where there were neither soaring birds nor green grass, only abundant light.

On such days, no matter how busy or tired her father was, Kiana von Einzbern and her guard Siegfried would go for a walk in the forest outside the city.

That was one of their unwritten agreements in Einzbern.

"Very good, I will definitely not lose today!"

With this spirited declaration, Kiana walked ahead of her father, heading excitedly into the forest.

While laboriously trudging through the thick snow with her tiny boots, she calmly surveyed the surrounding trees, leaving no spot unchecked and revealing no gaps.

The girl is currently in a serious competition with her father, during which she discovers that he is cheating. However, after her father sincerely apologizes, she forgives him. In the end, the father, who lost the competition, transforms into a horse and starts running through the woods with his daughter. With the stimulation of her father's vibrations, the daughter lets out screams of "Ah, ah!"

A pair of crimson eyes watched from the castle window as the father and daughter frolicked at the entrance to the forest. The girl, standing by the window, appeared frail and ethereal, as if far removed from the world.

"What are you looking at, Saber?"

Saber, the girl by the window, turned around when Cecilia called out from behind her.

“Your daughter and Siegfried are playing in the forest outside.”

The girl seemed somewhat surprised and confused, after all, Siegfried had always been cold to her, but now he was showing different emotions.

Cecilia stood beside her, looking out the window, while Siegfried, with Kiana riding on her shoulders, ran into the depths of the forest.

"That side of Siegfried surprised you, didn't it?"

Looking at Cecilia's smile, Saber nodded obediently. From her position, she couldn't see the girl's face, but the loud laughter she heard as she disappeared from her sight was indeed full of joy.

This alone is enough to fully appreciate the harmonious relationship between the playful father and daughter.

"To be honest, I have a much colder impression of my Master."

"Yes, there's nothing we can do about it!"

Since being summoned, Siegfried, as the Master, has never spoken to Saber, treating the Servant as nothing more than a servant or tool of the Master.

Saber was somewhat dissatisfied with Qigefei's nonchalant attitude, even though she didn't show it directly.

"If I said that was Siegfried's true nature, then I seem to have displeased Master quite a bit."

Cecilia smiled as she saw the girl, who appeared to be around fifteen years old. Siegfried and Cecilia, who were performing the ritual, had been dumbfounded when the girl appeared from the shining summoning circle earlier.

After all, who in later generations would have imagined that the owner of the golden scabbard unearthed in Cornwall, King Arthur, the only wielder of the holy sword Excalibur, was actually a young girl in her prime?

Chapter Ninety-Eight: Kevin Arrives

"Lowling, doesn't that person in the video look like you?"

Mei was surprised to see that King Arthur in the video had a face that looked exactly like Rowling's.

"Yes! I never imagined that I, in a parallel universe, would be King Arthur!"

Rowling feigned great surprise, seemingly finding it hard to believe that she was King Arthur.