I started slowly walking towards my ruined house. Something was off; a niggling sense in the back of my head was trying to shout at me. Pushing that aside I entered the ruins and sighed.
I had tried not to think about what had happened since I had left. My escape from the Nevernever was rushed, and I didn't remember most of it except for the fae who helped me escape; however, I did remember that my house was brought along.
Sitting on a piece of rubble, I held out my hand ad focused on the churning pool of energy I now had. I had found a strange Grimoire that granted me magical power and allowed me to see the wider world.
On the other hand, I also had gotten the attention of He Who Walks Behind and the Outsiders. He had also called me his Foe with a capital F. I didn't know what that meant, but I would have to face him someday.
Allowing my magic to bubble up, I sent out words of white magic. Blinking, I noticed that they seemed strangely ephemeral and morphed themself into spikes of rubble covered in ice.
Standing up, I looked around and allowed that strange feeling to resurface. Something was off about this place. Recalling back to how I got here, it made no sense.
Prelati had used what I presumed to be his Noble Phantasm, and I had arrived here. However, that wouldn't work; teleporting me back home would require the Second Magic, and only Zeltrich had that.
As I ran through the memories, they seemed to slip between my fingers until a mental barrier finally snapped up, followed by another, as my layered defense slowly established itself.
He had used his Noble Phantasm; I presumed it was called Grand Illusion, and it trapped me here. Flicking my hand up, I opened a Path and started to walk down it ignoring the pang of longing coming from the illusion.
Striding down the Path, I heard a rustle behind me and whirled around, spotting Caster Prelati. He was irritated and had a look of anger on his face. His mouth moved, but no words came out.
Raising a hand, I recalled my staff into my hands and chanted while I palmed the Mini-Hakkero. "I'm really pissed off; your gonna make me scoff. I understand you think this is a lark but piss off, or you'll have a taste of my Master Spark!"
As I finished the chant, I raised the Mini-Hakkero and sent out a Master Spark empowered by my slapdash chant as it was. Scowling at me, he stood still, allowing the blast to take him head-on.
As the mountain-destroying beam faded away, I saw no signs of him. Frowning, I reopened the path to Zouken's larder as I thought about why he might have sacrificed his Servant for no gain.
I then froze. To Zouken's knowledge, the only Servant left was Lancelot, which meant the grail was filled with six souls. That meant he could wish himself immortality.
Tearing opening a Path, I flew towards my house. Zouken did not know that Gilgamesh's soul was worth three, which meant the grail had seven souls. Seven souls could punch a hole in the Root and allow Angra Mainyu to be resurrected.
I redirected the path toward the temple when I arrived at the house. I had not been to it. However, I knew that was where the grail was most likely to manifest.
Flying out, I couldn't see anything, but I knew that the Greater Grail was in a cave, so that meant little. Breathing in, I cast out my Magesight and recoiled as it penetrated the mountain.
Inside the mountain was a source of overwhelming power and Evil. This was not the simple run-of-the-mill evil either. This felt black and seemed to twitch as I looked it over.
Flying over to the entrance, I floated down until I was bare inches above the ground and moved in. I held my staff up and allowed my boosted eyesight to scan the cave.
As I emerged, I could see the massive pillar that formed the Greater Grail spasm and start to ooze slightly. The more concerning issue was that Zouken was standing in front of the Grail, leaning on his cane.
Raising my staff, I focused and sent out a streak of white-hot lightning. Zouken was distracted by seeing his lifelong wish about to come true and was hit full in the back by the bolt. I could see the sparks arching throughout his form, made up of millions of tiny worms.
As his body fell apart, I counted the surrounding area in Celestial Fire to ensure he could not escape. Setting down on the ground, I frowned as I looked at the Greater Grail and the corruption spilling from it.
It had power equal to seven souls, so it would only be a matter of time until Angra Mainyu was born. I knew that while the servant version was somewhat chill, that was only after he found love.
While he was an innocent boy forced into the role of All The World's Evils, using the grail, he could become Angra Mainyu, the Zoroastrianism god of evil, which was somebody I was incapable of facing.
As I peered at the malevolent energy, I saw the point where he had stuck first in the grail. It appeared much darker and was where all the other power came from.
A wish would not work at this stage, and I lacked the pure power to destroy the grail; however, if I mixed those ideas and pulled Angra Mainyu out of the grail, that might work.
Raising my hands, I waved my staff and conjured white magic words to surround the grail and its slowly encroaching tide of mud. The next step was to summon a simulacrum. This one was braindead, as its job was to act as a vessel.
I made it look as similar as I could remember to Angra Mainyu's body. As I worked, I felt the Grimoire bubble up and felt my staff grow and change.
Whereas before, it was a simple wooden stick with a purple-blue gem on the tip. It was now ornate and inlaid with strange shimmering metal and had a groove like my hand had rested on it for eons.
In conjunction, I felt what basic magic I was able to pull from the staff warp. I had used the staff as a jailbroken Staff of the Magi, which allowed it to have a few new spells but not much else.
Now, however, I had access to almost the full breadth of Liam's powers. That meant I was the equivalent of a powerful warlock. I could make deals that exchanged anything so long as both sides agreed on it sans magical compulsions.
I also gained a lot of new spells, and while most of them were helpful, the one that I focused on the most was Dream of the Blue Veil. It allowed one to travel the multiverse so long as they had something from the universe so the spell could lock on.
Shaking my head, I got back to work. I would use my Arcanum to separate Angra Mainyu from pure magical energy then his soul would flow out according to his wish to be born.
He then should hopefully follow the path of least resistance into his body where I could kill him. However, if worst came to worst, I would have cast Disintegrate the grail.
Focusing, I twisted the pure magical energy away from that one black spot on the side of the grail. As the magical power shifted away from Angra Mainyu, the mud slowed and stopped without the fuel to expand.
Shaping the energy, I created a small tube for Angra Mainyu to follow into the simulacrum. I then hollowed out the inside of the simulacrum to make it a void of soul and magic.
At the same time, I felt the magic churning and rapidly depleting as a wish was made. However, as I had provided an easier job, the grail followed the path of least resistance and shoved Angra Mainyu down the tube and into the body I had made.
The body promptly collapsed as a controlling consciousness. I then raised a hand and summoned half a dozen swords. Peering up at me, Angra Mainyu only managed to open his mouth before he was impaled all over his body.
Pointing my staff at his body, I focused on the soul escaping it and cast Soul Cage. The soul was then pulled into my waiting hand, where it was stuck for the next six hours.
I would need to stick it in a circle before I did anything else. The last step was to make sure the grail was dormant. Opening my mage sight, I looked inside and saw an empty cup.
That meant the grail would recover in sixty years, and given the lack of Angra Mainyu, it would also grant wishes properly. Spinning on my heel, I wondered how this world would change based on what I did.
The Matou's would likely grow up as a somewhat normal family away from the Moonlit World. Rin would be a brilliant magus but would not complete the Jeweled Sword and, in all honesty, be folded back in the Edefelt line, given the lack of anybody to speak of for her.
Shirou would grow up with his birth family and live normally, given he would not gain the mindset or knowledge for Unlimted Blade Works. Waver would follow his original path, as I hadn't made any significant changes between him and Iskander.
Tearing open a Path, I strolled back towards my house. I needed to get a new simulacrum up, but until then, I needed to get Angra Mainyu into a containment circle.
I needed a way to ensure he stayed asleep, but until then, I could have a simulacrum keep an eye on him. Walking over to where I kept my batteries, I carved the standard circle into the ground.
I followed it up with an additional two circles to ensure that even if the first one broke, the simulacrum would have time to fix it. The only different part was forcing the soul out of Soul Cage and into the circle.
While Angra Mainyu was able to form, a whispy and indistinct body attaching the batteries to the circle caused it to destabilize and become a free-floating soul.
As the energy flowed into my system, I gasped. The weakest servant had tripled the amount of energy I had available. This was major as my biggest issue after my HoPe was magical energy.
The only thing I needed to improve was my soul gem's capacity which I had a few ideas about now that I had access to Liam's ability to trade HoPe to enhance aspects of myself. I would only get half of the HoPe I spent to improve that aspect, but I had plenty to spare due to my focus on my adventuring card.
It would reduce my survivability if I was hit but being a Monster made sure that taking multiple hits was not an option. My new power also made my magical girl form one of my most powerful tools as I gained access to his pact features and pact spells. I did not gain access to his personal spells or acquired powers.
Walking back inside, I flipped open the Grimoire and started to read over my new skills. Humming as I looked over my new powers, a slight grin circled on my face.
I counted as a level fifteen dealmaker warlock. I also gained Liam's invocations at that level; I didn't know how gaining proficiency in deception would work in real life. However, the other skills gained were quite noticeable.
I could make deals that could trade anything, even concepts. The person who failed to hold up their end of the deal would take one hundred and fifty points of nonlethal psychic damage.
Once again, I had no clue how this would manifest in real life, which was an issue with the more gamey side of this new power. The last power I got was a few new spells, mainly ones that revolved around forcing somebody to do something or strange illusion-type ones.
The two outliers were Polymorph and Revivify, I didn't know why I got them, but a method to bring people back to life would help a ton, even if it needed three hundred gold of diamonds which was another thing I didn't know how it translated.
As I closed the Grimoire and leaned back, I felt its energy expand. As the energy tapered off, I felt a strange new garment envelop my form. Looking down, I saw that I was wearing a brilliant red robe that went down to my ankles. However, it was much fancier than a normal rove and could look like a dress if one looked at it sideways.
I also appeared not to be wearing anything else. Opening the robes proved that I didn't have anything on—no underwear, socks, or shoes.
I didn't show much as I was a skeleton, but it was a bit strange. Dismissing my staff caused my everyday clothes to come back, which proved that it was linked to my magical girl powers.
Shaking my head, I decided to get started on returning to Earth Bet. Dream of the Blue Veil would allow me to get back fairly easily without the need for strange rituals.
Powers Gained
Absolute Configuration
I take back any comments I made about you lacking experience - that's clearly not the case here. Magical Girls have a limited, singular arsenal that's determined by the nature of their wish and their soul. No 'power ups' are really to be found here. You've found a way to compensate - do one thing and do it well. You are now an undeniable master of using a single weapon of your choosing (likely your magical weapon) - muskets? You're a sharpshooter that would put even experts to shame and never suffer from jamming. A sword? You may as well be a painter who only uses red when you're wielding that steel. This even applies to using said weapon unconventionally, like using a gun as a blunt weapon or throwing swords en masse.
But wait, there's more. You're an incredibly quick thinker and tactician, enough so that you could fight someone with time stop powers on even ground if you got the drop on them - figuring out the abilities and limitations of your opponent is something you can do in mere minutes, and you can plan ahead far enough in a combat situation to know how your opponent plans to take advantage of a weakness of yours without skipping a beat. Can they keep up with you?
Raiment
The raiment of a magical girl is usually frilly, will probably have ribbons or a bow, and almost always has a skirt. (I suggest you follow my lead and at least wear shorts or something underneath. See?)
While those might sound impractical to some Jumpers, especially those with more combat experience, don't worry: your raiment will never get caught in something, trip you up, or interfere with your movements. It'll even make sure your hair never does that either.
In addition, the raiment is technically a form of armor, so you can import existing armors into and import the transformation trinket into other armors later.