The rain of magic bullets, bearing the name Lunar Eclipse, first rampaged wildly in the sky. Then, with unstoppable force, it fell to the ground, relentlessly ravaging the earth.
When the energy of the magic bullets was finally exhausted, and the magical mist dissipated harmlessly, a part of Mount Enzou had been permanently lost.
Despite unleashing such a terrifying attack, Aoko Aozaki didn't seem satisfied at all. She casually brushed her red hair and spoke to the ground below.
"Where is everyone? Did they all hide? Don't tell me they're already dead?"
Before her words even finished, a ripple of colorless waves spread across the empty ground, and an old man with white hair, white eyebrows, and a white beard stepped out from it.
"Hehe, I'm getting old. My movements are naturally slower. I can't keep up with you young folks."
"Even though you say that, you dodged a lot faster than I, a young person, during that last attack."
A flicker of white light revealed the form of Shinji, standing quite close to the old man.
The old and the young looked no different from before they were surrounded by the Lunar Eclipse, completely unharmed.
In mid-air, Aoko snorted softly, descending slowly while narrowing her eyes to size up the two opponents.
"I knew an attack of this level wouldn't work on you two. But I can guess the old man's trick—spatial manipulation. As for you, how exactly did you avoid it? I'm certain the magic bullets hit you. Did you use the Third Magic to mislead my perception?"
"No."
Shinji shook his head.
"With such a large-scale attack, spirit misdirection wouldn't be very effective. Besides, do you think I would leave such an obvious flaw—letting you believe you hit me while I appear completely unscathed?"
"Then what happened?"
"I don't mind telling you, but in exchange, I'd like to know how you generated such a large number of magic bullets. Even if someone had modified their entire body into a magic circuit, this scale of magical output would be impossible. Was it time acceleration?"
Indeed, Aoko's magic generation and release speed were absurdly fast, but no matter how fast, it couldn't change the fact that Aoko had a limited amount of magic power. This set a ceiling for her abilities, and the Lunar Eclipse had surpassed that ceiling. Shinji was curious about the secret behind it.
"Strictly speaking, it's not related to time manipulation. It's more about event manipulation."
The one who answered wasn't Aoko, but Zelretch, the true expert in matters of time and space.
"Reproducing the process of generating magic bullets multiple times at the same point in time."
"Copy and paste. I see," Shinji quickly understood.
Aoko, however, was not pleased.
"Hey, old man, who asked you to explain?"
"Don't be mad. You won't lose out on this."
Shinji chuckled.
"Since the old man has seen through Aoko's method, why not try guessing how I avoided your attack? Whether you're right or wrong, I'll reveal the answer. How about that?"
"You didn't dodge at all."
Zelretch's sharp gaze pierced through the trap Shinji had set.
"All of the magic bullets did indeed hit your body."
"Huh? Then why doesn't he look hurt at all?"
This time, Aoko was genuinely surprised. She knew her magic bullets well enough. A direct hit would've been enough to flatten the mountain beneath them. There was no way a mere human like Shinji could be unscathed.
"Because he healed himself with magic. The core of the Third Magic—the materialization of the soul. Am I wrong?"
"No, you're exactly right."
Shinji shook his head.
The truth was as Zelretch had said. The Third Magic is related to the soul, and it doesn't have convenient abilities like time travel or spatial transfer, making it difficult to dodge such a powerful, wide-range, and fast attack.
On the other hand, the Third Magic has a unique advantage over other Magic: the ability to create things from nothing. As long as there's information on the soul, it can materialize objects, creating physical entities indistinguishable from the real thing.
So, when faced with Aoko's Lunar Eclipse, Shinji didn't dodge at all. He simply activated his defenses and took the attack head-on. If his arm was shattered, he materialized a new one. If his heart was blown away, he created another. Even if his entire body had been reduced to dust, he could've just made a new one. Now, Shinji's existence was no longer based on his physical body, but on his spirit—his soul.
This was the reason why the Third Magic was unparalleled in life extension.
Hearing Shinji's explanation, Arcueid scratched her head. "It sounds a lot like my Marble Phantasm."
"The form is similar, but the principles are different. Marble Phantasm is based on your perception, while Soul Materialization is based on the information recorded by the soul. Some things are easy for you but difficult for me, such as restoring this environment. And some things are hard for you but simple for me, like this."
As Shinji spoke, he extended a finger, and Aoko suddenly felt a chill behind her. She quickly ducked low to avoid it.
Looking up, she saw that a new figure had appeared behind her, wielding a large sword and clad in armor. The figure looked exactly like Shinji, right down to the smallest detail.
Not only did one appear beside Aoko, but another appeared beside Zelretch, clad in leather armor and wielding a spear. Their movements were so fast that one could barely keep up.
Of course, this level of attack was no threat to two magi who understood time manipulation. A quick time acceleration caused the two Shinji copies to misjudge, and they were swiftly knocked to the ground.
"Another avatar?"
"Or a Servant's avatar?"
Despite not being Masters, Aoko and Zelretch could still see the difference. The newly emerged Shinji avatars were Servants—one was a Saber, the other a Lancer. It was clear that Shinji had applied the Holy Grail system to himself.
"It's not over yet."
By now, Shinji had extended not just two fingers, but nine.
The Shinji group appearing around them was no longer just two but nine.
In addition to the Saber and Lancer lying on the ground, there was an Archer with a bow, a Rider on a Pegasus, a Caster wielding a rune staff, a Berserker roaring wildly, a Ruler with a solemn expression, and an Avenger brimming with murderous intent!
All the classes that had ever appeared in the Holy Grail War were now present, and all of them were Shinji.
"Now, I alone can fight an entire Holy Grail War!"
"So what?"
Aoko showed no fear.
Fighting an entire Holy Grail War single-handedly was indeed impressive. You could even say it was cheating. But they were all magician—if one could cheat, why couldn't the others?
"StarMine, StarBow!"
Aoko unleashed her signature technique, manipulating the flow and fluctuation of magic power, combined with the replication effects derived from event interference. She overwhelmed the surrounding Shinji Servants with sheer numbers, far beyond what they could handle.
Zelretch looked even more relaxed, using his classic Multiple Dimensional Refraction, but this time, instead of refracting his attacks, he refracted himself, taking on one Shinji Servant at a time and defeating them in direct confrontations.
The old man was truly worthy of his title as the oldest living magus, a terrifying existence who had stood at the pinnacle of the world of mystery for over a thousand years, exerting his dominance across all parallel worlds.
Shinji still didn't panic. He flicked his wrist, and a half-mask shaped like a butterfly appeared on his face.
"As expected, the Holy Grail War scale is enough for others, but it's just a warm-up for you two. Now, let's move on to this—Persona!"