The struggle with the Special Grade Cursed Spirit a few months ago was the first battle Eichi had won by risking his life, and he even lost his companion for the first time in that fight.
Although the White Divine Dog was later re-summoned through the external Technique, Holy Grail, Eichi did not want to experience that heart-wrenching feeling a second time.
Since then, he had been working hard to become stronger.
From the innate Ten Shadows Technique to the external Technique, Holy Grail, Eichi reexamined all his abilities over the past few months, continually exploring ways to improve.
First was the Holy Grail. After several months, the broadcast of Fate/stay night was already halfway through, with discs, novels, and games on sale.
After the Fate/stay night game launched, the game department did not rest. They were developing Fate/Extra.
Under a series of promotions, the imaginative power related to Heroic Spirits was continuously absorbed by the Holy Grail.
However, the speed was still too slow because information dissemination in this era was limited.
If it were the internet era of later generations, Eichi might even have been able to start summoning within a few months.
But this era would not do. The main channels for spreading information were still traditional media like newspapers and television.
Sometimes, even if someone was captivated by a glimpse, they could not find the anime and had to wait a week for the next episode.
Should he endure for more than a decade?
Impossible, absolutely impossible.
Although a complete summoning of a Heroic Spirit would still take at least a year, Eichi had indeed researched some things.
Spiritual Base Shadow.
A more advanced, incomplete manifestation of a Heroic Spirit than a Shadow Servant. Although the duration was short and the strength incomplete, it was still a Heroic Spirit.
A brief introduction to Heroic Spirits:
Heroic Spirit: Elevated from beings such as humans and demigod heroes who achieved great feats. Their true bodies are recorded on the Throne of Heroes.
Servant: A clone of a Heroic Spirit summoned from the Throne of Heroes using the Heroic Spirit summoning system, a weakened version of a Heroic Spirit, comparable to a shadow clone relative to the original.
Spiritual Base Shadow: A method used by Chaldea to incompletely manifest Heroic Spirits by collecting and recording information about Heroic Spirits who fought alongside Chaldea.
Servants are clones of Heroic Spirits. Spiritual Base Shadow is an incomplete Servant, summoned by Chaldea through imitation.
For example, if the information volume of a Heroic Spirit on the Throne of Heroes is 100 GB, and the host of the summoning system can only accommodate 10 GB, then a Servant weaker than the Heroic Spirit is summoned. If Chaldea's host can only accommodate 1 GB, then what is summoned through Spiritual Base Shadow is an even weaker entity that can only appear for a short time.
However, there is no Throne of Heroes in this world, and the Holy Grail currently held by Eichi temporarily serves that function.
Although the specifications of the two differ greatly, this is not a world where apocalyptic powers appear at every turn, so it is sufficient.
After realizing he could not gain significant power from the Holy Grail in the short term, Eichi turned his attention to the Ten Shadows Technique.
There was a simple reason. The system gave detailed information about the Holy Grail, so he had a place to start, but it did not provide information about the Ten Shadows Technique.
Therefore, it was natural that he researched the Holy Grail first.
Fortunately, there was a research direction for the Ten Shadows Technique.
Chimera.
In the original plot, the Chimera Agito, which Sukuna fused from the power of five Shikigami, was qualified to participate in the battle with Satoru.
According to Satoru, Agito was a fusion of Nue that inherited the powers of Orochi, Tiger Funeral, and Round Deer, and Divine Dog: Totality.
Being able to participate in the battle between Satoru and Sukuna was enough to show how strong Agito was.
With a goal in mind, Eichi began to practice with Toad.
Toad is a winged frog synthesized from a Toad and a Nue.
Its function is similar to Toad, capable of restricting enemy movement.
However, because it has wings, it is more agile.
When Toad was successfully fused, Eichi discovered a new characteristic of the Ten Shadows Technique.
Partial Fusion and Complete Fusion.
Partial Fusion refers to taking a part of a Shikigami and fusing it to create a smaller Shikigami with more comprehensive functions.
As long as the main body of the Shikigami used for fusion still exists, then even if the fused Shikigami is destroyed, there is nothing to fear. You can simply fuse more.
Relatively, Shikigami fused in this way are weaker and have less intelligence, requiring complete manual control.
It was also after fusing Toad that Eichi realized why Megumi Fushiguro could summon so many Toads back then.
At that time, Eichi had wondered, was there not only one Nue? Where did all those wings come from for those small frogs? Was it a new Shikigami?
This characteristic of the Ten Shadows Technique made Eichi understand that although the Shadow Technique is called by this name, the ultimate number of Shikigami is definitely not just ten kinds. Perhaps he could expand it to a Hundred Shadows Technique in the future.
He relaxed during subsequent Chimera experiments because he could first explore through fusion experiments without worrying about accidentally fusing a Shikigami into a useless state and then having to spend a great deal of effort to separate it.
Eichi first extracted a portion of Cursed Energy from nine Shikigami, then fused them two by two, and three by three.
Through repeated attempts, he obtained his first Chimera, Qiongqi.
It was also his first Special Grade Shikigami.
By the way, the Black Divine Dog, which inherited the power of the White Divine Dog, is semi–Special Grade. The Black Divine Dog possesses claws and fangs that can easily injure Special Grade Cursed Spirits, but its body is relatively fragile, a typical high-attack assassin.
Qiongqi, which fused three Shikigami, reached Special Grade in both Cursed Energy and physical strength.
Tiger Funeral's body was already strong, and after fusing Piercing Ox, its physical quality improved further. Its explosive muscles made people tremble.
To move this massive body, during the Chimera process, Eichi focused on strengthening Nue's flying ability, and with Tiger Funeral's wind-riding, Qiongqi's flying speed became very fast.
The current Qiongqi can be described as an all-rounder Shikigami. For close combat, it has a strong body, tiger fangs, sharp claws, and horns.
For one-on-one, it has precise lightning strikes. Even if they do not kill, the paralysis can make the enemy temporarily lose resistance, and Tiger Funeral can move in to deliver a blow.
For area attacks, it has a storm that tears everything apart, capable of crushing and ripping through everything within several hundred meters.
It also retains the characteristics obtained from Piercing Ox as its ultimate move.
Looking at his new Shikigami, Eichi was very satisfied. After hearing that Suguru planned to capture a Special Grade Cursed Spirit, he decided to bring it out for a test.
After several kilometers of acceleration, the sharp horn on Qiongqi's head pierced deeply into the Rainbow Dragon's body, and purple lightning erupted within it. The Rainbow Dragon, which had just broken free from the Yuki-onna's freezing, had no time to resist before the internal lightning made it shudder violently.
Qiongqi continued to fly in a straight line, pushing the Rainbow Dragon with immense force all the way to the seaside.
Boom.
Qiongqi drove the Rainbow Dragon into the beach.
As the dust settled, a crater with a diameter of a hundred meters appeared before the three.
The scene in the middle of the giant pit gradually came into view.
The Rainbow Dragon, split in half at the midsection, and Qiongqi nearby, shaking its head and looking a bit unsteady.
"Hey, Eichi, why does this winged tiger look a bit stupid?"
Satoru pointed to Qiongqi, who was seeing stars in the middle of the field.
"That is Qiongqi."
Eichi rolled his eyes, silently drawing some Cursed Energy from the Holy Grail to replenish himself.
Qiongqi's strike just now spanned several kilometers. The immense power not only made Qiongqi itself dizzy but also almost drained Eichi's Cursed Energy.
However, the result was very satisfying. That was the Rainbow Dragon, whose defense ranked high among Special Grades, yet it was split in half. Good, very good.
Moreover, knowing the Cursed Energy cost and power at different distances this time, this move would be easier to use later.
Suguru, however, felt a bit pained. What a handsome and cool Rainbow Dragon, and now it was in two pieces.
Fortunately, it was split horizontally at the middle, not vertically as in the original work by Toji. Otherwise, the Rainbow Dragon might have been completely gone.
Silently subduing and absorbing the Rainbow Dragon, Suguru's confidence, which had swelled from obtaining a Special Grade Cursed Spirit, subsided considerably.
At the same time, Satoru and Suguru were both calculating Qiongqi's combat power in their minds.
Do not find it strange. Even good brothers will have a sense of competition with each other.
Anyone who has lived in a university dorm knows this feeling. Almost everyone wants to be the "dad" of the entire dorm.
(To be continued.)