26

This was bad with a capital B. If my guess was correct, this was Ryuunosuke Uryuu, serial killer and future master of Caster.

Looking him in the eyes, I pushed mana into them and put him to sleep. I could deal with him later.

Walking over to the child, I conjured a knife and cut him free. Speaking to him, I grabbed Ryuunosuke and tossed him over my shoulder.

"Head to the police station, do not tell them about me, understood."

Nodding frantically, the child scampered off as I pulled the path to my house open. As I started towards it, I grabbed the stuffed animal that Ryuunosuke had.

Walking down the path, I needed to get my thoughts in order. I was currently in the Nasuverse, which was not a nice place to be.

Even worse, I was in the 4th Holy Grail War, a clash of titans compared to the 5th, and while as characters, the people were interesting, I did not want to meet them face to face.

I didn't think I could stand against Gilgamesh and the like without help. The issue was that I didn't have command seals, and Ryuunosuke would summon Gilles de Rais if given a chance.

I couldn't kill him as if he died before the war. There was a good chance the seals would hop over to another poor shmuck and be a wild card.

My best choice was to keep Ryuunosuke in a circle, the war wouldn't have a Caster, but Gilgamesh counted as three souls anyway.

The bigger question would be whether I wanted to fight in the war. The wish would be nice, but it is also a massive monkey paw and would kill me if given a chance.

The issue was if Ryuunosuke was kept alive, I didn't know what would happen; canon would not be happening as I would not allow Caster to be summoned.

While I may not be the best person, I would not allow children to be slaughtered en masse for depraved enjoyment.

The other issue was that the Grail could birth a Beast if given a chance. Sighing, I reached my house; mind made up.

I was willing to do awful things but allowing the world to be destroyed when I knew how to stop it was too far.

With my mind made up, I gestured for 5.0 to come over as I released Komainu from Castle Brunestud.

"5.0, I need you to get his guy in a circle. Long story short, we are in the Nasuverse during the 4th Grail War."

5.0's eye sockets widened as he picked up Ryuunosuke and started drawing a circle. His magic circuits would help with mana as I needed to retool my circle to pull on the soul for the parahumans.

Shouting over to 5.0, I turned to face Komainu. "I also need you to retool the parahuman's circles to draw on the soul."

Nodding, I finally waited for Komainu to speak. "I'm upset with you." She growled out while looking downcast. "You always sideline me; I'm supposed to protect you."

Freezing, I encircled her in a hug. I hadn't thought about that. She was a literal guardian spirit, and I had kept sidelining her because she looked like a child(my sister).

"I'm going to be blunt with you, Komainu," I said, pulling back to look her in the eyes. "You won't be able to help much in this war."

Looking distraught, her mouth opened before I raised a hand to continue speaking. "We will face Heroic Spirits, and you are still in the human realm. The weakest one of them is ten times better than a human."

"In addition, they could have something that can bypass your phylactery. I need you to guard my house, I suspect they will figure out a method to gain access, and I need your help to defend it."

As I spoke, she slowly deflated before nodding slowly. I didn't want to sideline her, but while she could kill an Assassin or two against any of the other heavy hitters she would die.

Gilgamesh could also just pull something out that prevented her from returning to life, which I did not want to risk.

I didn't know the exact time frame as my memories of Fate/Zero were not the best, but I recalled I had around a day or two before the beach fight.

I needed to prepare. Unlimited Bladeswork along Castle Brunestud would be my heaviest hitters.

Arcanum would also help as Celestial Fire was pure conceptual harm in fire form. I didn't know if I could do something with mana, but that could also be a great help.

Tapping my forehead, a pang of hunger sounded off in my chest. Scowling, I needed to see what that new power was anyway. It wasn't mind-shattering or intuitive, which meant checking the Grimoire.

Summoning it to my side, I cracked it open and flipped to the latest page. Blood of Kings was its name, and as I read it, I started to cackle.

This new power allowed me to copy other people's magic and Rare Skills. I didn't know what Rare Skills were, but copying spells was something any Magi would give their firstborn for.

As I finished reading, I tucked the Grimore away. I needed a plan for dealing with the War. I couldn't hide away as people would wonder where Caster was and poke around.

It had been forever since I watched Fate/Zero, so I only remembered the big things. The beach fight, the castle talks, and Artoria vs. Gilgamesh under the Grail.

As I was twirling ideas around, the Grimoire's power bubbled up. It settled back down without much fanfare.

I supposed the best thing would be to get a few simulacrum going and set up some Dust filters. They would be my primary extra mana source as the parahuman's batteries were still retooling, and Ryuunosuke's circuits were poor.

Rubbing my fingers over the edge of the bear, I looked it over. It was Bear, the stuffed animal I was given a few months after birth and lost a year before I found the Grimoire.

It was identical to the tiny tears where Barkley, our first dog, gnawed on it and the distinct lack of rattles from where it stopped making noise one day.

This had nasty implications behind it. The fact that the wildcard of the 4th war had it on the same night of his summoning was not something I wanted to consider now.

Shaking off those thoughts, I raised my hands and started the process of creating a new simulacrum. I soon had another two and noticed a new problem.

I could feel a soft pull on my pool of mana. While I didn't have a single unified pool of mystical energy, most of it was interchangeable, so I didn't differentiate between them.

This time, however, I felt the pull from my pool of Gnosis, the energy I got from Gnosis, the source of all magic in the World of Darkness.

My simulacrum appeared to have an upkeep cost; it was minimal but was still there and prevented me from conjuring an army of simulacrum.

Speaking to my new simulacrum henceforth named 6.0 and 7.0, I said. "I need you to take some Dust and start setting up some filters around the city, be cautious, but if possible, get some in the ocean."

Nodding, they floated off as I turned back to my planning. The Masters were the weak points, and I should take them out first.

I wanted to save Gilgamesh until I had an alliance or a method of beating him that didn't involve copious amounts of prayer and luck.

That meant Tokiomi and Keri were out of the assassination game. Kirisatgu was out as well; Artoria was capable of going toe to toe with Gil for a time.

That left Waver and the Master of Lancer. It was the same deal with Waver; Iskander was much too powerful and capable of slowing Gil down, leaving the Master of Lancer.

I knew he had some deal with his wife where they split the mana cost. His name I was hazy on; I believed it was Kayneth, with his wife being Sola-Ui.

The best idea was to kill him and knock Lancer out of the war. The main issue was my memory was foggy, and I didn't know where the hotel he was staying in was.

I would have to wait until the beach fight and figure it out from there. I could probably use Arcanum-Prime to trace the mana back to him.

That still left around one to two days until the fight, and I couldn't just sit around doing nothing.

Standing up, I decided to head into Castle Brunestud and have a chat with the spirit. I couldn't have it eating people if I needed to drop them inside.

Dropping into Castle Brunestud, I froze. This was not the lonely moonlit home I had received. Instead, it was a castle, as if from a Disney movie towering and dappled in the moon's rays.

Walking towards the entrance, a figure grew out of the ground. I could tell it was the spirit, but here in this Castle Brunstud, it was more.

Still a mere shade, it now looked old, a man in his seventies with piercing red eyes and a demeanor that appeared like a kindly grandfather while hiding a monstrous identity beneath.

Grinning, I saw two fangs peeking out his mouth as he spoke. "Hello, their child; it has been so long since I reached even this modicum of thought."

Facing him, I was frozen. My marrow called out to him as Father, but that only served to unnerve me further. This was Crimson Moon Brunestud, the Ultimate One of the Moon and capable of wiping out all life on Earth.

"How is this possible?" I asked from a dry throat as horror rose in me. Grinning, he took my shoulder and steered me inside and up the massive stairs of the castle, speaking all the while.

"It's fairly simple; you got a shade of me from Castle Brunestud, somebody that could guide your newfound powers. I based myself off you; however, upon arriving here, I found new children and an already existing castle."

Pushing open a pair of doors, I laid eyes on another figure that terrified me. Arcueid Brunestud was chained to the throne, eyes closed as if dead; I knew better. She was just asleep and would someday wake up.

Speaking as if nothing happened, Brunestud continued. "You see, while I based myself on you when I found this castle, it held records of myself, and from there, it was child's play to grow even further."

Snapping my head to the side, I spoke my two questions. "Why is this not my home and this castle? In addition, what now?"

Giving a soft smile, Brunestud lounged back, an immaculate throne appearing behind him. "I can't do anything; I'm still a mere shade bound to you. This is a castle because this is the only Castle Brunestud."

Give a short jerking nod; I vanished from Castle Brunestud. That was a huge issue. My method of increasing my power almost sixfold was gone; I didn't want to risk waking Arcueid up as she would absolutely kill me.

As I placed my head in my hands, the Grimoire grew again. Something dropped out of thin air on my head.

Blinking, I caught a faint giggle as I looked at the new item. It was around the size of my hand and in the shape of an octagon.

It appeared to be made of wood and some kind of metal I didn't recognize. Brushing a finger over one of the corners caused it to blow a gust of cold air.

Flipping open my Grimoire, I looked at the newest page, which detailed the new item. Mini-Hakkero was its name, and it held three functions.

The first was to create enough heat to melt metal; the second was to generate cold air to cool somebody down. The last use caused my eyes to grow wide.

It could also amplify mana pushed into it. The primary use of it was to produce a Master Spark, a spell of pure mana that could reduce a mountain to ashes.

It wouldn't do much to Artoria due to her high Magic Resistance, but it would hurt a ton to everybody else.

Picking up the device, I grinned. I think I just found my main weapon for this war.

Powers Gained

Mini-Hakkero

You have a mystical, magical furnace shaped like an octagon and made of hihi'irokane. Each corner is emblazoned with a different trigram with different powers, such as generating a lot of heat, producing a cool breeze for hot days, and the ability to amplify magic through it to blast a Master Spark – enough to reduce a mountain to ashes. As such a potent magical item, it's very handy for magical research too.