allendalepharm Chapter 174 The Goal: The Holy Grail War!
Chapter 174 The Goal: The Holy Grail War!
Chapter 175 The Goal: The Holy Grail War!
Although Kotomine Shirou was clearly in a losing position on the board, he didn't care at all.
After all, the game of chess and such are just minor matters.
What truly matters are the words Merlin spoke.
His suggestion.
These are the things that Shirou Kotomine cares about.
"Merlin, could you explain this so-called more stable enhancement plan in detail?"
Kotomine Shirou asked earnestly.
After careful consideration, Shirou Kotomine was completely convinced by Merlin's suggestion.
Merlin's advice was correct.
The most critical issue is the uncertainty of the other world.
Shirou Kotomine's ability to travel to other worlds was given to him by an unknown system within him.
The system was incredibly dilapidated and had no other functions.
Therefore, Shirou Kotomine was also unable to determine the direction he was traveling in at this time.
It was undoubtedly lucky that we were able to make such great progress in the first two attempts.
But how long can this good fortune last?
Moreover, Shirou Kotomine has no intention of gambling his hopes and future on luck; that's something only someone driven to the brink would do.
Kotomine Shirou asked himself if he had ever been forced to such a point.
Therefore, he doesn't intend to rely on luck.
In that case, he took seriously the more stable way of improving strength that Merlin had mentioned.
"Of course," Merlin said with a slight smile. "Then let me explain it to you one by one."
"First of all, based on my understanding of your strength these past few days, I think that without any major opportunities, your current fighting system and style have already taken shape."
"With the spirits you can summon at any time as your helpers, and your own evolution as the core, you can fight by commanding different spirits. This gives you complete freedom in your fighting style."
"I think your style doesn't need any further changes. Adding other abilities would just be icing on the cake. So what you need to do now is integrate your strengths and perfect your combat system."
Merlin explained to Shirou Kotomine as he stood up and walked to the window.
The bright moonlight shone on him.
It also spilled on Kotomine Shirou.
"Integrate your own combat system?"
Kotomine Shirou muttered to himself as he seriously considered Merlin's suggestion.
Kotomine Shirou is extremely satisfied with his current fighting style, especially the style he displayed during his battle with Kingu.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have chosen this fighting style.
But is that enough?
Kotomine Shirou asked himself this question.
"That's enough!"
After thinking it over, Shirou Kotomine came up with his own answer in his mind.
Although Shirou Kotomine had planned a path for himself that was profound and extensive, after all, that was his advantage.
But Shirou Kotomine knew very well that he could not gamble for the sake of gambling.
As the saying goes, a jack of all trades, master of none.
Human energy is limited, and it is impossible to improve all the skills one has learned to the same level at the same time.
Unless every subject is terrible.
While Shirou Kotomine pursues knowledge from various worlds, it is also in order to strengthen his core abilities with the knowledge from these worlds.
It is about absorbing the best knowledge from all over the world and turning it into its own nourishment.
Of course, this doesn't mean that Shirou Kotomine's future path is set in stone.
Each isekai has its own unique characteristics, and perhaps one day in some isekai, Shirou Kotomine will easily obtain an ability far surpassing his strongest power.
In such cases, appropriate changes are necessary.
This is the major opportunity that Merlin mentioned.
"and then?"
After a period of silent contemplation, Shirou Kotomine asked again.
Seeing that Kotomine Shirou had accepted his suggestion, Merlin, who had also been silent to give Kotomine Shirou time to think, continued to speak.
"Once you've decided to improve your skills, you need to understand what you're lacking most right now, and then you need to fill that gap."
"Based on the ideas you shared with me before, I have also compiled a list of what you are currently lacking."
Merlin sat back down opposite Shirou Kotomine and tapped his finger on the table as he continued.
"First is the little azure dragon, who has been given a new identity by you. As your avatar, he has the strongest talent among all spirits. What he needs now is to realize his talent."
"What you need first is to base your magic system on our world's magic system, and then incorporate magic from other worlds into it."
This will allow you to develop the large-scale ritual magic you need.
"Although modern magicians may not be as powerful as you think, they still have their own strengths."
"What are the advantages?"
"I asked Kotomine Shirou."
Merlin chuckled and explained, "Of course, it's your most needed strength—that terrifyingly high ceiling!"
"Our world's magic system is not as weak as you think. It's just that in recent times, the planet's energy source has been nearly depleted, so magicians can only draw magic power from within their own bodies."
"And how much magic power can the body hold? Although those magicians with superb skills can also utilize the magic power of the Great Source, as I said, the Great Source in modern times is already close to being exhausted."
"Without enough energy, even the strongest power has no place to be used! You should understand this principle, right?"
"Of course, I understand!"
Kotomine Shirou nodded seriously.
Shirou Kotomine understood this a long time ago.
Even the most powerful abilities require sufficient strength to be fully utilized.
There's a saying that goes, "Talking about effects without discussing dosage is just being dishonest."
This statement also applies here.
Seeing that Shirou Kotomine nodded, Merlin smiled and continued, "It's good that you understand. But even though you understand, you probably still have a lot of doubts in your heart. After all, some things always seem too light to talk about, and they don't have that sense of reality."
"That's right!"
Kotomine Shirou nodded again.
"Then please look at this world!"
Merlin spread his arms and laughed loudly, "You should know Chaldea's purpose, right? Although I don't know what the culprit wants to do, didn't he use magic to do this?"
"ha!!!"
Kotomine Shirou's eyes widened in surprise.
At that moment, he suddenly realized the truth.
Perhaps influenced by watching anime in his previous life, Shirou Kotomine always felt that magicians were weak.
But he failed to notice the grand magic of the greatest magician, the Grand Magician.
Although it was not Solomon himself who initiated it.
As a transmigrator, Shirou Kotomine was fully aware of the Chaldea trial.
Their ultimate enemy is the consciousness that awakens within Solomon's body after he becomes human, like Kingu.
This consciousness is the magic formula created by Solomon, Goetia.
This burning of human reason is the process by which Goetia gains magical power by burning human reason.
Ultimately, Goetia will use these magical powers to travel back to the moment when Earth was born 4.6 billion years ago.
And then gather all the energy into itself, and create new celestial bodies.
To create a world without death.
And it's also magic.
Kotomine Shirou couldn't help but curse in his mind.
He hadn't thought of it before, but now that he thinks about it, it's truly terrifying.
You might not understand what I'm saying.
Merlin's voice rang out again.
"No, no, no, I understand perfectly, I understand it completely!"
Kotomine Shirou cried out in his heart.
But he didn't say it aloud, because he couldn't say it anyway.
"Let me give you another example!" Merlin continued, "I'll give you one you're familiar with, the Holy Grail War, right?"
"Know."
"Do you know how the Holy Grail, known as the 'omnipotent wish-granting machine,' grants wishes?"
"have no idea."
Kotomine Shirou shook his head.
Although he knew it, this knowledge did not come from this world, so he felt it was better for him not to know.
"It's actually very simple; it's just using the magic that has accumulated in the ley lines for sixty years."
"The Holy Grail's wish cannot be granted simply by saying it. You need to have a method to fulfill the wish, and then the Holy Grail will use its magic to help you skip this process and thus grant your wish."
"This might sound a bit abstract, so let me give you an example. If you want to grow taller through the Holy Grail, then when you make your wish, you should say that you want to grow taller by promoting the growth of your body again. That's the correct way to make a wish."
"I see."
Kotomine Shirou nodded slightly.
What Merlin said wasn't much different from what he knew.
"So, now that you mention it, does the Holy Grail seem less magical than you imagined?"
"That's true to some extent."
"But isn't that a miracle?" Merlin laughed. "The essence of the Holy Grail is to turn imagination into reality through its accumulated immense magical power. Although you need to provide the process yourself, doesn't that prove that this power obeys the laws?"
"The essence of the Holy Grail is a magical ritual, which proves that as long as there is enough magic power, magic can do almost anything."
"Once the little azure dragon masters this power, it will secretly conduct a large-scale ritual to accumulate power while you are fighting. At the crucial moment, its power can completely turn the tide of battle!"
"Oh, I see!"
After hearing Merlin's explanation, Shirou Kotomine's eyes lit up.
There was no way around it; Merlin's words were simply too tempting.
Merlin's words also made Shirou Kotomine realize that the magic in the Type-Moon world is actually not weak.
It's just that the environment for magicians in modern times is too bad.
"Now that you mention it, something suddenly came to mind. I remember seeing something online about the future of this world..."
A human magician seems to have covered the entire Lostbelt with his magical circuits.
"This guy must be one of those magicians with top-notch skills, but who's deeply entrenched in the modern world!"
Recalling Merlin's words, Shirou Kotomine suddenly thought of the plot of the second part of the FG0 world.
Because he had never played the game, he only heard about it from the internet.
This did not affect his associations.
"So magic in the Type-Moon world really works!"
Kotomine Shirou suddenly smiled with satisfaction.
Then Shirou Kotomine looked expectantly at Merlin.
"Then I'll leave this to you, Merlin."
"Alright!"
Merlin shook his head and accepted Kotomine Shirou's request.
He had actually realized this long before he even spoke of it.
After all, if he wants to do this well, Shirou Kotomine will always need a magic teacher.
Here, this position is undoubtedly his only choice.
"Thank you so much, Merlin!"
Upon seeing this, Shirou Kotomine immediately burst into laughter.
With Merlin's guidance, he felt much more at ease.
As a candidate for Grand Magician, Merlin's knowledge is in no way inferior to Solomon's.
Although Merlin is not as good as Solomon and Gilgamesh in terms of clairvoyance, he is second to none in magical theory. Solomon aside, as a born king, his knowledge is indeed top-notch.
However, when it comes to the skill of a magician, Gilgamesh is no match for Merlin.
Having lived for thousands of years and being able to observe everything in the world at any time, Merlin rarely fails to find any knowledge that interests him.
In terms of knowledge alone, asking Merlin for help is absolutely no problem.
"What about the others?"
After discussing matters related to magic, Shirou Kotomine looked expectantly at Merlin again, wanting to hear his advice.
He hadn't forgotten that Merlin had given him several directions to improve his strength.
"The others are naturally your physical body, your magic, and your spirit."
Merlin continued after hearing Shirou Kotomine's question.
"Let's talk about the cursed spirits first. This issue ultimately boils down to the number and strength of the cursed spirits."
"The potential of curse power is indeed very high. If you were to go to a modern world without curse spirits and enjoy the negative emotions of those big cities all by yourself, your curse spirits would probably grow up very quickly."
"Secondly, you have too few spirits. You need to replenish them with a large number of high-quality spirits."
"In addition, increasing your energy limit and strengthening your dragon-slaying magic are projects that require a great deal of effort."
"But in a parallel world, there is something that can solve all these problems."
Merlin said with a smile.
"What is that?!"
Kotomine Shirou grew increasingly excited.
Seeing this, Merlin's smile grew even wider.
He wagged his finger and laughed, "Of course it's the Holy Grail War!"
"The Holy Grail War!"
Kotomine Shirou's eyes lit up.
As Shirou Kotomine compared Merlin's earlier words with his impression of the Holy Grail War, he grew increasingly excited.
That's right, the Holy Grail War is exactly what he needs.
Firstly, both the Fourth and Fifth Holy Grail Wars took place around two thousand years ago. At that time, there were many large cities with populations of tens of millions around the world, which was enough time for him to cultivate cursed spirits.
As for replenishing the number of cursed spirits, where can you find a spirit of higher quality than a heroic spirit?
As for the issues of dragon-slaying magic and one's own magical power, these can actually be resolved with the Holy Grail.
That's right, get ready to use the Holy Grail to make a wish.
This is the function of the Holy Grail.
Although the Holy Grail in Fuyuki City was corrupted, there are many parallel universes in the Type-Moon universe that have an uncorrupted Holy Grail.
So he could have easily obtained the Holy Grail and made a wish.
"The more I think about it, the more it fits together!"
Kotomine Shirou thought to himself.
Therefore, Shirou Kotomine made a decision immediately.
"Then it's decided. Next stop: the Holy Grail War!"