Magician in Type-Moon

Page 575

The gold coin, when turned upside down, further solidified the spell due to its material.

The two are positioned in a mutually supporting manner, one attacking and the other defending, intertwined like snakes biting their own tails.

Matouchi reminded me of a certain passage in an ancient Chinese book:

The Zuo Zhuan (Commentary of Zuo) states in the fourteenth year of Duke Xiang: "It is like hunting a deer. The Jin people pluck the horn, while the Rong tribes attack it, and the Jin people also attack it."

They restrain each other, surrounded on all sides—

This technique is the "deer" that is surrounded by many enemies, and it is also the hunting ground itself that traps the hunter.

At this moment, Matouchi wants to "reverse" the strategy in this arrangement, which is equivalent to making the hunt take effect in reverse—making the deer bite the hunter instead.

He can see its structure clearly and understand its intentions and composition.

—But that doesn’t mean he can change its course, even if Matou Ike has the Mystic Eyes of Deconstruction.

With the help of the vast amount of data deconstructed by Orange, and his own analytical abilities through his Mystic Eyes, Matou Ike is now able to replicate the spell created by Heartless almost exactly.

not only that--

Given enough time and preparation, even starting from scratch, he is confident that he can construct a counter-technique that is completely opposite in structure and logic and fundamentally "offsets" the original technique.

That's his skill as a magician.

His specialty has never been to brutally destroy existing techniques, but rather to use the logic of the techniques themselves to rewrite, induce, and reverse them.

However—that's not the problem.

Even if he could "reconstruct" that technique, and even elegantly reverse-engineer its logic,

That was not the spell engraved on the Stud coin in his palm.

This is the essential difference.

Techniques do not exist in some abstract "code cloud," nor are they a mental model that can operate freely without a medium.

Hartres's spells are constructed using the special physical medium of "Start's Coins".

—From material to age, from symbolism to structure, each layer is inlaid with the "logic of existence" of the gold coin itself.

this means:

Even if he could replicate the "technique itself", he could not replicate the "bond between the technique and the medium".

Just as you can draw an identical holy emblem, but cannot imbue it with the blessings of saints.

You can carve the same key, but that key may not open the same door as before.

Magic is not pure science.

The historicity and symbolism of media are themselves part of the art.

And this is precisely where the Hartress technique truly lies—

The technique is the lock, the gold coin is the door, and the symbol is the authority.

"...It's not a matter of talent."

He spoke in a low voice, as if reminding himself.

Even if he has the ability, even if Orange provides enough data.

—The very nature of the technique dictates that it cannot be “easily reversed”.

Matouchi was somewhat agitated.

He leaned against the wall, his fingertips tracing the heavy gold coin, his mind churning.

Various theories of magic swept in like a tidal wave—

Spirit summoning, curses, alchemy... astrology, divination, theories of realms...

Some of it came from Medea's teachings, some from discussions with Aozaki Touko, and some from the knowledge he "stole" by deconstructing other people's spells and the Mystic Eyes.

In just a few minutes, he went through almost all the theoretical materials he had ever come across, running at high speed and scorching hot like a cooling tower.

...but it had no effect.

This knowledge is like a series of keys, but no matter how he tries, they can't open the door.

He muttered a curse under his breath in frustration, tossed the gold coin up again, and let it fall.

He had mastered the structure of the technique; what he needed to break the deadlock was not skill, but a way of thinking and a perspective.

“Angle…” he murmured.

At that moment, he suddenly remembered the time when he formally received his magic training—

It wasn't a family tradition or systematic training, but rather the moment when he truly immersed himself in "thinking" and "skills".

That was the first time he had found a loophole in the seemingly obvious construction of a technique that was enough to shake the entire logic.

At that moment, a sentence that Zouken Matou had once said to him came to mind—

"The essence of magic is deception."

My heart jolted.

"Yes... fraud."

Chapter 613 Corrupting Gold (4k)

The essence of magic is deception.

The spell inscribed on the Start gold coin is a miracle created by Hartles himself.

It wasn't a crude, practical magic trick, but rather an artistic creation akin to a religious ritual.

The vast structure of the technique complements the eternal properties of gold, interlocking and reinforcing each other to form a closed and perfect cyclical system.

If you approach it from the front, it's almost invincible.

...but it is not without flaws.

Hartres chose "gold" as a medium to construct a "form of faith" that was extremely pure in form.

Using this form as a vessel, he directed the spell towards a single target—that heroic spirit, the imposter.

It was that being who was fabricated as Iskandar's stand-in.

Based on Hartres's behavior so far, we can deduce the ultimate goal of his technique—

Through the dual guidance of Ascension and faith, that heroic spirit is elevated to a deity.

This is Hartres's "god-making plan".

...and the real weakness lies hidden within this grand goal.

That heroic spirit has yet to become a god.

The technique is still in progress. Deification remains an unfinished future endeavor.

The future king will only exist in the future.

Even though the gold coin itself is called "Iskandar's Gold Coin".

Even if it did historically carry the significance of connecting the East and West, and facilitating the flow of faith and power—

Even if it is inherently inclined to the symbolic call of "Iskandar".

But—that's just a tendency, not a destiny.

Although the arrow of the technique has been aimed at the target, the bowstring has not yet been loosened.

This is the loophole in the fraud.

Hartles made the gold coins "believe" in the imposter.

Then Matouchi would have to do the opposite, deceiving the gold coins—making them "believe" that they are the incarnation of a god.

It's not about destroying the spell, nor is it about seizing control.

Rather, it is the "divine coordinates" that the disguise technique points to.

Let the gold coins rewrite the goals themselves, let faith shift on its own.

This allows the pure "faith" to become distorted, thereby causing the entire procedure to collapse due to a misperception.

It's like a believer mistaking a deity for a statue—

If you pray in the wrong direction, the gods will no longer respond.

The sublimity of the technique will silently crumble, becoming a soulless shell.

And this is what Matou Ike is going to do:

Deception techniques, deception of the medium, deception of faith itself.

Before the ritual was even complete, they preemptively derailed the faith from its intended course—

It's not destruction, but inducement.

It's not a direct confrontation, but rather the ambiguity arising from the symbols themselves.

The deceptive nature of magic is never the lie, but rather the inducement of "reality to prove itself false".

Now that the angle for breaking the deadlock has been established,

The next step is to verify the feasibility of this fraud.

The first step is to ascertain the current situation of the imposter.

With the aid of the Heartreus spell, the opponent's current state should be "demigod".

Of course, this is not the kind of mixed-race divine descendant with divine blood and some divine qualities in the traditional sense.

Rather, it is—literally, "half a god".

A being that has not yet been recognized by destiny, but has already completed half of its self-sublimation through ritual.

The final step before reaching the threshold of the gods,

The blurred boundary between mortals and gods.

It can be inferred that the other party has already acquired a power.