Fate: Alternative (Highschool DxD/Fate): Chapter 40

I concentrated on the ground below me, feeling the flow of power that traveled through the metaphysical veins of the planet, simply known as the leylines.

With the Formalcraft circle isolating me from the world, allowing me to feel my recently gained mana, I connected myself with the leylines, drawing power from it just like my servant counterpart was able to do with his independent action ability.

However, unlike Archer, I am not a Heroic Spirit, a being made of pure Ether, but a being of flesh and blood, which made the process a bit difficult.

Thankfully, enough of me has been turned into a heroic spirit on a conceptual level that such differences are only minor stumbling blocks and not completely blocked off roads like they were before.

Mana surged through the circle, entering my spiritual core and bolstering my reserves beyond what I already had.

Yet, I did not stop there since this experiment was not about simply bolstering my reserves.

Focusing deeper, I thought about the process that Zelretch outlined in his books and modified them slightly to suit my current situation.

And the result was instant.

Power. Pure, life-giving force, flooded into my very being as I absorbed the world’s very life force, or the world’s ‘natural energy’ as it is called by the supernatural side.

If I were to refine this energy with my ‘Ki’, which is just another word for Od, which in turn is the lesser source or the very life force of a person, as the magi call it, it would become a power known as Senjutsu. A power that is both feared and respected in this world in equal amounts.

However, since I no longer have magic circuits and have a spiritual core instead, I don’t need to use such a long-winded method and instead mimic nature spirits or other such beings to use this power.

Instead of refining this natural energy into my Ki, I focused on letting this natural energy flow through me unimpeded, naturally merging with my mana on a fundamental level and enhancing my body on a fundamental level.

A dangerous act for any human being, but a great boon for a Heroic Spirit, Nature Spirits, Fae, and many such beings.

This was one of the reasons why Caster, in many timelines, made Ryuudou temple into her base of operations. Not only does this place serve as the best place for a witch like her to create her workshop, thanks to the leylines, she also uses a different method to achieve similar results to Senjutsu.

By connecting herself to the Leylines, she can exist indefinitely and does not need to rely on her master to provide her with magical energy to remain in the world.

As I let myself go in the flow of the aura of the world, sensing every plant, animal, insect, and lifeform in my vicinity despite the Formalcraft circle’s existence, I also felt the ‘taint’ that Zelretch talked about in the book he gave me.

Natural Energy, by itself, is a purely life-giving force. It is the planet’s very lifeblood. However, just like with anything that can be harnessed by living beings, it hardly remains in its original form for long before people find a way to corrupt it.

In this case, this ‘taint’ was instead caused by centuries of negative emotions and other dark thoughts from various supernatural races, and to a lesser extent, humanity’s own darkness.

From what I understand, it seems that the conceptual weight of the Supernatural species made it so that every time these beings, such as the yokai or the spiritual beasts of China, and other such beings used Senjutsu to enhance themselves, they leave behind a sort of imprint of their emotional state in the world’s natural energy.

Sometimes, these imprints are good intentions and emotions. However, most of the time, they only use Senjutsu when they are fighting someone, which means that more often than not, these imprints contain a lot of negative emotions and intentions behind in the world’s natural energy.

This is why it is recommended that a novice who is just starting out on this path should always hold a positive or neutral mindset, ready to shield themselves from these imprints. Because if they are unprepared, they might end up being overwhelmed and go berserk.

Of course, this is only an issue for a true novice. Once someone manages to get a handle on manipulating their Ki, they don’t need to worry about such corruptions since their sense of self would solidify by then to keep them from being influenced.

Given that even a third-rate Magus like me was able to master this on the first try should speak volumes about how easy it would be for someone to reach that level of initial mastery.

Of course, the difficulty would escalate exponentially if someone is suffering from some kind of trauma, but that is a discussion that is not relevant right now.

Done with the experiment, I let go of my connection and felt the natural energy retreat from my body. For a split second, I felt extremely vulnerable and blinded, as if one of my senses was robbed from me.

No wonder people who practice Senjutsu end up addicted to it.

With a deep breath, I re-centered myself and opened my eyes, ending the experiment.

These days, it has become rare for me to find the opportunity to train all by myself. What with taking in Issei as my student, teaching Asia Japanese and helping her improve her Sacred Gear through her own training regimen, and keeping an eye on Rin and Luvia to make sure they don’t take away Illya and Miyu for their hunts without telling me, which they most definitely will do based on their personalities and their tendency to shoulder everything by themselves most of the time despite knowing that they can ask me for help.

‘Its not that I don’t trust them to handle it, especially with those cheats in the form of Kaleidosticks. But I can’t help but worry about them. No matter what, they are still my friends and family. So there is no way I will not worry about them.’

With a sigh, I took out my own Class Cards and stared at them with various thoughts in my mind,

Lancer, Vritra. Caster, Irisviel von Einzbern. Assassin, Kiritsugu Emiya. And the Archer card, which has already been destroyed, housed my Counter Guardian version, which set me on this path in the first place.

No matter how I look at it, every single one of these servants shared a deep connection with either me or my servant counterpart.

Caster and Assassin are a version of my parents, so the connection is very obvious there.

As for Vritra, her connection ran deep with Counter Guardian Emiya.

One version of Archer was summoned into Chaldea, where he grew very close to her, along with the last master of humanity, Fujimaru Ritsuka, that fiery girl. In fact, i will go so far as to say that Archer grew to care for Ritsuka as a little sister, or maybe even a daughter, while he came to see Vritra in the same way he saw Rin in the Fuyuki Holy Grail War.

He loved her. And maybe, just maybe, that feeling was mutual.

Which made the following betrayal all the more devastating for both of them.

After Arjuna summoned another version of Archer and stripped him of all his emotions after merging him with Viswakarma yet making sure that he would remember all of his memories from his time in Chaldea, Archer was forced to exploit this knowledge and deep bond to attack the Chaldean team in the most effective way possible, killing Vritra and then nearly killing Ritsuka, who only managed to survive thanks to Ganesha’s intervention.

Again, a clear bond between ‘me’ and Vritra.

That’s three for three now. And with only three more cards left to retrieve, I have no doubt that Angra Mainyu made sure they have some kind of bond with either me or a version of me.

All of these points to one chilling conclusion.

He is doing this on purpose, and his purpose couldn’t be clearer.

He wants to break me. Mentally destroy me by making me either relive my darkest memories or trying to make me feel as bad as possible through these fights.

But to what end? That is the mystery. And while I do have a theory, it is far too dangerous to consider right now, especially without any proof to back it up, so all I can do now is prepare myself for what is to come in the future.

After all, the fake evil god is not lacking in material to emotionally torment me, since many versions of me have led such dark lives and have been summoned into such hopeless situations that it is not even funny.

And, if worst comes to worst, I might even have to-

“Shishou! We are here with the goods!!!”

I could not help but sigh as Issei barreled through the door with two large bags full of fast food, ramen, and an assortment of stuff, which also included a gaming console from the looks of it.

“Issei. I thought you said you wanted my help with studying, but I don’t see any of your notes or textbooks. Don’t tell me, that was just a ploy to laze around?”

Issei grinned at my words as he plopped down in front of me.

“Yeah! You already drive me into the ground in the name of training, and I am now forced to study more than usual since Asia-chan will cry if she scores more than me on a test, so I thought we should take this chance to relax since this is the weekend anyway.”

“....You do know you could have asked me to do that from the beginning, right? I would agreed with your suggestion if that is what you wanted.”

“...Really?”

That dubious look on his face really makes me want to hit him with the Tora-Shinai.

“What have you got?”

“Oh! I got a lot of good stuff! Takoyaki, Tamago, Ramen, Dango, take your pick! I even got a discount on the Sushi from the convenience store! And check this out!!”

He took out the gaming console and showed it off as if it were the Holy Grail itself.

“Behold! PlayStation 3!! It was hell on earth trying to convince my parents to get it for me.”

His smug look turned to one of confusion.

“But weirdly enough, they agreed immediately when I said I was going to use it to spend time with you. Why do you think that is?”

I could not help but shrug my shoulders in response to his question.

Gorou and Miki Hyoudou are very kind and welcoming people from the little interaction I’ve had with them, but I can tell that they are just as quirky as their son, so who knows what’s going on in their minds?

Issei shook his head and excitedly plugged the console into the outlet and the portable monitor he got from his home, and took out a brand new game disk.

“God of War 3?”

“Yeah! I heard really good things about it, so I thought we would play it and see what it's all about.”

“....Issei, that is a single-player game.”

“....Oops?”

Once again, I could not help but shake my head in exasperation.

“We’ll go at it in turns. Every time you die, I take over and so on.”

“Good Idea! Let’s go!!”

That night, I lost a lot of brain cells trying to understand the convoluted plot that was vaguely based on Greek myths.

But Issei really had a blast, so that counts for something, right?

All in all, I can say that this impromptu boys' night out turned out really well.