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Chapter 40: Chapter 39

"I wanted to test myself." I looked down at Mirage still in my hands. "If I am going to do something, I\'m not going to half-ass it. I needed to see where I stood relative to someone who reached the peak.... unfortunately, he was so far away I couldn\'t even do that properly. It just went to show how much I have to learn."

Just because I was disappointed in my showing, didn\'t mean I was going to get depressed. If anything, I had a bit more drive now to improve myself. Failure is a part of life, I just got to not let it effect me for too long and keep carrying on.

[Interesting, I\'ve never had a wielder become a master with the blade before. I can see the truth in the samurai\'s words, you don\'t have any experience, you were mostly relying on your memories to know \'how\' to attack and such.]

"Yeah, he treated me like a child flailing around a pointy stick. I\'ve just been forcing my way through every issue either through superior magical prowess or just pure throughput power." I wasn\'t one to shy away from my own faults or failures.

[Magic and Sword, each one takes a lifetime to truly master, yet you are intent of using them both?]

"Well, I have a long life ahead of me." It was a strange thought to the \'18-year old\' me, the fact that I was \'at least\' going to live 10,000 years if nothing happened.

What\'s that saying.....a journey of a thousands miles begins with one step?

May as well start now, I have nothing but time on my side.

[So where are you going from here?]

"The Servant gave me an idea to pursue, while Grandfather can\'t train me, he can help me find someone who can, its just going to be a bit tricky even for us." My lips curled upward. "Tell, me, have you ever heard of the Immortal Witch of Dun Scaith?"

[Well, you don\'t aim small. This is good though, my wielder should have this much courage.]

Yeah, one doesn\'t posses the title of \'God Slayer\' without good reason.

Thoughts for later, though, for now I found myself the \'guest room\' in the old man\'s building and collapsed onto the bed.

****

You know, I generally do enjoy cooking, it\'s a bit calming. Don\'t get me wrong, I\'m not what someone would call an expert chief nor am I someone content to cook his every meal, but the times I do pick up the spatula, I do enjoy it.

The sound of eggs sizzling was refreshing, and the smells were wafting throughout the \'house\'. I\'ll need to get some other supplies at some point to keep with me, maybe some mobile cooking equipment? And rice, I haven\'t had a good Japanese breakfast in a long while. In general, I need to stock up on modern-day amenities.

"You made breakfast?" I noticed Rin walk out of her little area, flanked by Saber.

"Yeah, figured it would be a decent apology for disappearing so long last night." I did feel a little bad about getting caught up in my own things.

"Who cares about your smelly apology, I want my Noble Phantasms!" Rin huffed, sitting down.

"Rin is cranky in the morning." Artoria said lightly, sitting down next to her.

"Well, if someone didn\'t wake me up at this ungodly hour, I wouldn\'t be cranky."

"It is past eight, my knights would have been up and training hours ago."

Rin just grumbled something ineligible and began digging in to the food I set on the table. "This is good, thank you."

It was amusing how she can be both cranky, yet polite.

"I did pick up a couple Noble Phantasms last night." I commented Idly, finishing up everything and joining them at the table. I\'m sure she was waiting for this anyways.

"show me!" Rin sprang up, clearly awake now.

"Fine, fine." I waved my hand letting the spear set on the table.

She stood up, grabbing hold of it, bringing it up for inspection. Even Artoria eyed it with obvious interest.

"It even has a presence to it." The King of Knights marveled. "I would have thought it might have dimmed after being lost in the human world for so long without an owner, but the power still radiates."

That would be a fair assumption, an ownerless Noble Phantasm isn\'t exactly something one can determine due to the absolute scarcity. Who knows if the Noble Phantasm would even exist in a few more years? Their nature makes them rather finicky and its impossible to actually test such a thing.

Rin reluctantly handed it over to Artoria for further inspection. "Good spear." She balanced and weighed it before setting it back down gently.

"And this one is mine." Rin looked over to me expectantly.

"Yup, all yours."

She made a small noise of approval, practically hugging the thing. "What about yours?" She looked back to me once the immediate love of her new weapon wore off.

I pulled out my new sword, showing it around the table.

Artoria unconsciously reeled back. "Dangerous." She said quietly.

Similar reaction to Ddraig, amusing. But yeah even I could feel the effects and I wasn\'t as \'dragony\' as they were.

"Ascalon." I said with a bit of pride in my voice. "Wielded by Saint George to slay a dragon, it has impressive Anti-Dragon properties."

"No fair." Rin pouted.

"Well, you could have none right now." I just shrugged. If it weren\'t for our relationship I would have said nothing and just excavated them by myself. I don\'t wield a spear regularly, but it\'s not like I would pass up a Noble Phantasm.

"It is a good sword, I was taken back by its first appearance. I would be reluctant to face its wielder in battle." Artoria gave her honest appraisal.

"Impressive." A new voice joined the discussion as Zelretch walked in. "And I see you made breakfast for everyone, thank you." He calm voice was quite a bit different than our first meeting. There was no looming \'pressure\' it was gentle as if he was trying not to break anything around him.

"It does bring up a question though." The Old Man said, pulling up his own seat and getting himself a plate. "Does it not feel uncomfortable with that dragon in your soul?"

I sucked in a cold breath while Rin and Artoria snapped their heads towards me. "A dragon in my soul, what nonsense are you talking about?" I replied without a second thought, my expression betraying nothing.

[No point, you\'re busted.]

I chose to ignore Ddraig and pretend I had no idea what Zelretch was talking about. There was speaking of my secrets to confidants, and then there was just revealing all my trump cards, which I would have to show a thing or two eventually, but I would keep some things close to my chest.

Nice try, old man.

"Hoho, deny it all you want, I know the truth." He smiled widely. "I had some time to take a peek at world you were born in, it was quite interesting." He rubbed his beard. "It has given me quite a few ideas and I have a clue as to how we accomplished such a daring experiment."

"Did you simulate it fully?" I changed the subject away from Ddraig.

"No, there were some variables that started to appear a few years down the time-line that you would be born to that made some things \'foggy\'. More research would be required."

Well, I did have a pretty good idea of what would happen, so it means that he would succeed at some point.

"Whats this about a dragon in your soul?" Rin wasn\'t one to mince words when she didn\'t have to.

[Let me talk to them.]

No way.

"A dragon in my soul? I have no idea." I replied nonchalantly. "By the way, Old Man, I have an idea about something and I need your help."

"Oh? What could you need my help with?" Zelretch looked a me, a small smile on his face. "Does it have anything to do with the dragon in your soul?"

I could feel my eye twitching, and I held back the urge to respond with something sarcastic. He clearly wanted to poke at it.

"I want to go to the Land of Shadows." I didn\'t mince words, better to just get straight to the point.

There was a small clinging sound as Zelretch set his silverware down. "I don\'t think I need to remind you of what that entails?"

"I\'m aware of the difficulties." I nodded.

"Isn\'t that where the teacher of Cu Chulainn lives?" Rin chimed in.

"Yup, the teacher of the Lancer you fought in the war. She is a master at Spearmanship and Runecraft. She is perhaps the best teacher I could ask for considering my circumstances." No doubt she is proficient in all forms of combat, even if she hasn\'t mastered a Sword she can teach me to use a weapon well enough. Same for other forms of Magecraft, she could probably teach me how to battle with what I already know. "The only issue is getting there."

"The Land of Shadows, does such a place still exist with the advent of Humanities era?" Artoria asked.

"Yes." Zelretch answered simply. "It is one of the few places that is technically still attached to the world that Mystery still holds dominance."

"Then why do you need help getting there, shouldn\'t you be able to use the Kaleidoscope?" Rin turned to me and asked.

"Yes and no....its a bit hard to explain." I tapped my finger against my chin for a moment. "The Land of Shadows no longer exists on the Time Axis and holds just the smallest connection to what we consider the \'world\' still. There are no physical entrances remaining, but it still exists without having been forced to the Reverse Side."

"Think of it like a fly, buzzing around everywhere. While we can technically \'catch\' it via the Kaleidoscope, it is infinitely harder than merely stepping over to another world that can be calculated precisely." Zelretch added. "The materials to construct the required \'gateway\' to connect to the Land of shadows aren\'t going to be the easiest to obtain I have some with me but....."

"I have quite a few materials I gained from that world I visited; it should fill in several holes your missing." I cut him off, mentally going over the metals and other stuff I still had in my ring.

Rin actually took out a paper and pen and was writing a few notes. I didn\'t begrudge her, if I were still learning the Kaleidoscope from scratch, I would hoard every scrap of knowledge that came up. "I see." She looked up with some understanding. "Time and space no longer hold sway there, the gate isn\'t merely connecting two points in space, it crosses over the time axis as well, otherwise the return time wouldn\'t be close to the when you initially left. Like a tether, if the Realm was still bouncing around it would at least be stuck within a certain margin that allows for some means of calculations. Because the \'position\' of the realm is erratic, using this \'gateway\' you can isolate it unto something resembling coherence, we can plot certain points and determine that the realm exists within \'here\'. It won\'t be perfect, but it will be enough to find your way there and back without too much deviance. Otherwise, you\'re basically blind jumping, which would not end well."

I was about to explain it, but Rin apparently beat me to it. I shot a look over at Zelretch who just nodded with a small hint of pride on his face. I don\'t think I could have said it better myself.

"Well done, continue." Zelretch ushered

Rin looked a little unsure of herself but kept talking "The most important piece would be something to sustain that kind of powerful connection." She seemed a little pensive, like she was deep in thought. "I\'m sure the old man could do it, or even use his sword as a \'battery\', but I doubt he would want to stand there for so long. Otherwise....something is needed that can not only sustain that kind of power being transferred and maintained, but would also not break down under the constraints that a realm operating with Mystery would present. I don\'t know how the \'world\' will react to such a large influx of Mystery, but I doubt it would be pleasant."

"Wonderful, absolutely wonderful." Zelretch gave a small clap. "You have made marvelous progress on your studies so far." I think I saw Rin blush ever so slightly. "It is almost exactly as you said, we require a powerful item to maintain the connection taking into account all those variables. Well, there is also the option of using disposable materials, but the amount of resources we would have to throw at that...." He rubbed his chin in thought.

"Well..." I scratched my head, wincing and pulling out one of my other trump cards. "I do have this." I presented the Staff of Magnus.

The power that swept over the room was impossible to ignore, all eyes fell on the staff I set on the table

I didn\'t want to reveal this, but it appears as though I don\'t have much of a choice. I need this badly, more so than keeping one more card hidden.

"That would do it." Zelretch responded, not missing a beat, completely ignoring the sudden torrent of power that washed over everyone.