33

As I sat sipping tea, I hummed and let my thoughts wander to the upcoming fights. I had Lancelot, which meant I had the advantage because he could go toe to toe with most of the other Servants.

I needed to take out Gilgamesh as he was the most significant threat; following that was Artoria, as no matter how much she got her ass beat in Fate, she was still one of the most powerful Servants.

Iskander was easy compared to the others, he had a low Magic Resistance, and so long as I prevented him from getting his Reality Marble up, I could kill him.

Assistance was easy as long as I was on guard, their strength was in numbers, but I could teleport, which removed their most significant threat of mobbing me.

Caster wasn't a factor as I had taken out Ryuunosuke and stolen his command seals. As I was thinking, a thought crossed my mind.

Kirei's father had at least a dozen of them and was a relatively normal human. I could go in and steal them, netting me enough command seals to command Lancelot freely.

I would wait until Sola-Ui finished the operation to head over to the church. As I waited, I finished out my adventuring card and saw I had leveled up. It seemed like Tokoimi was good for something, after all.

Instead of immediately putting it towards Health, I decided to see what other stuff Wizard could get. The vast majority of it was various medium-level spells, things like fireball and lightning bolt, as I had not specialized yet.

Looking away from the spells, I started looking at the other sections. However, Adentruing Card was from a medium power world where a fireball was decently powerful, so not much was helpful at my level.

Pressing on the Health section, I leveled it up again, suppressing the rush of joy and optimism as I grew more sturdy. It was a side effect of being a Monster and having my mental state and HoPe directly connected.

Leaning back, I closed my eyes and took in the aroma of the tea while slowly sipping from the glass. As I was relaxing, I heard the sound of a door slamming open and small feet running.

Opening my eyes, I whirled around to see Shinji standing over the sink as the sound of throw-up splattering into the drain hit me.

Walking over slowly, I waited until he had finished before laying a hand on his shoulder. He turned around with tears in his eyes before looking up at me.

"W-Why would he do that?" He asked, his voice trembling as I rubbed circles into his back. I wasn't the best with children, but I would do my best.

"He wants to win and will do anything to reach that goal, even if it's evil and horrible. Most Magi have a mindset where human rights and common decency come second to accomplishing their goals."

As the tears trailed off, he gave me a quick hug while speaking under his breath. "Thank you for being so nice."

I froze for a moment as my brain stuttered; I wasn't nice. I had used this kid to get Lancelot on my side, not even mentioning what I had done on Earth Bet.

I wasn't a good person no matter what he thought, and I couldn't be a good person either, not when I had to save this world. Perhaps once I left the Nasuverse and helped Earth Bet, I could relax for a bit.

As Shinji started to calm down, the surgery room opened, and Kayria limped out. He was clearly still hurt, but he winced less, and his face was not contorted into a rictus of pain as he struggled to support Lancelot.

Limping over, he waited for Shinji to release me before wrapping him in a hug. It was clear from how he was moving that the worms had been removed. As he let go of Shinji, he looked over at me and politely bowed.

"Thak you, sincerely." He rasped out, and while he wouldn't suffer further damage, his body was already fucked over in many ways.

Reaching into the book, I pulled out a Health Potion and offered it to him. "Here, take this; it should help you."

Looking the small vial over, he thought for a moment before downing it and shuddering. I saw him twice as his body was healed.

A full heal was beyond even the potions aid, but he looked much better now. His eye had cleared up, and his limp was gone. I suspected that the only remaining injuries would be aches and pains.

Coughing slightly, he moved around while testing his full range of motion. Looking at me, he bowed once again while thanking me profusely.

Rubbing the back of my neck, I decided to approach our next steps now. "What's your plan now, I can drop you off somewhere nearby, but I recommend that you either get out of town or stay here."

Still moving, he brought a hand to his chin and started rubbing it while thinking. A few minutes later, he nodded and turned to me.

"I would like to leave town, I can contact Aoi after the war, but I need Sakura and Shinji to be safe." He said with a firm tone.

Nodding, I shifted the Path towards the outskirts of Fuyuki while I spoke. "I'm shifting the Path, so all you have to do is leave; I wish you luck and hope we can see each other again."

Nodding, he took Shinji and Sakura's hands and started to walk out. As Sakura passed me, her eyes flickered up to me, whispering. "Thank you." before counting on with Kariya.

Sticking my hands in the pockets of my hoodie, I let a small smile flicker across my face. The Nasuverse was dangerous, but I hoped they could get a good ending.

As I walked back inside, the Grimoire grew, and I stumbled as knowledge hit me like a brick—all this information related to the moon and strange devices I could build.

Sitting down, I started to parse through what I had gotten. In addition, I pulled out my Grimoire to help me understand.

The newest power was Understand Lunarian Science, and seemed to be how to build reality-defying machines that were related to the moon and assumed that one was building on the moon.

I didn't know what Lunarians were, but from what I could understand, they had built a post-scarcity society on the moon, and I now had the knowledge of how to emulate them.

A vast majority of their machinery would be almost worthless on Earth as they required moonlight and Purity to work. Moonlight was reasonably straightforward to get as I would build the devices outdoors.

It would, however, hamper the machines by causing them to work only at night, and it would need to be a full moon to work at full capacity. The bigger issue was that I didn't know what Purity was, as the knowledge assumed that it was everywhere.

Rubbing my head, I pushed my new power to the back of my mind. I would deal with it later; now, I needed to head to the church to nick the command seals.

Standing up, I stretched my back and strolled back out. I didn't know precisely where the church was, so I shifted the Path to the outside portion of the city and started exploring.

I knew it was on the outskirts of town and reasonably far away from other buildings, but I had no clue about the specifics. Luckily it was a relatively large church, and I found it after only an hour of searching.

As I looked around, I could sense fairly strong defenses; however, unlike the methodically brick-layered defenses of the Toshaka's or the imperial majesty of Gilgamesh's, this was much more reactive and seemed to ebb and flow in accordance to some song I couldn't hear.

I didn't want to walk up to the church and kick down the door, the defenses were built to defend against spirits, and I was not one. It would still be a slog that I would rather avoid.

Knocking politely on the door, I ensured that my illusion was up as I waited for the door to be answered. The door was opened, and I saw the old visage of Risei Kotomine, and behind him was Kirei.

We both froze as I looked at Kirei; I had command seals now, which meant he knew I was a Master, and while theoretically, I could be claiming sanctuary, they were on Tokomi's side, which meant they were not neutral.

A blade dug into my ribs as I twisted myself away from the attack; the ribs on that side vanished as I winced. Pulling on the fire from Arcana of Renewal, the ribs regrew as the fire forged new ones.

I was forced to clench my teeth as it felt like somebody was burning me alive to grow the bones. Raising a hand, I sent out a flurry of white magic towards the Hassan fragment.

Darting back,k more Hassan's stepped out of concealment and charged me. Casting my gaze past them, I saw that both Kieri and Risei had gotten into fighting positions.

Conjuring half a dozen swords, I sent the spiraling towards the Hassan's as I teleported next to Risei and brushed a hand on his head. Pulling on the several dozen sparks, they felt as impossible to move as a mountain. Changing my strategy, I wished a german chant in his ear.

"Sleep, go to sleep, dear elder."

He swayed but did not collapse as the invisible song blazed inside of him, and he took a swing toward me. Taking a step back, I teleported moments again before a Hassan could stab me.

This was rapidly going south; more Hassans were joining the fight, and I couldn't steal Risei's command seals for some reason. I also couldn't leave because I would have a hunt called down on me.

He was also resistant to hypnotism and knew how to fight. He wasn't on Kieri's level, but I didn't know how skillful he was. I would just have to hit him harder.

Conjuring dozens of blades, I sent them flying at the Hassan's and teleported again. As I reappeared, I called up a Gaster Blaster and sent the blast flying towards Kieri. As he threw himself out of the way, I pushed out blue, freezing time within fifteen feet of me.

I couldn't hold it for long, so I looked into Risei's eyes and hit him with another stronger pulse of hypnotism; a moment after, I hit him again and again.

When the time stop faded, he collapsed, and I grabbed him. Twirling out of the way of another hit by Kieri, I teleported back. Only a few of the Hassans had been hurt, and even fewer had been killed.

I had my goal so it was time to leave. Teleporting away, I chained teleports back towards the beach, where I opened the Path and walked inside.

I had Riesi. I now needed to figure out a way to steal the command seals. The best way would be to use Brainwashing on him. I could then either keep him as a battery or dump him back at the church.

Dropping him on the ground, I shouted over to 5.0. "I need another circle ASAP, and no slacking!" Grumbling, he got to work.

As the Grimoire grew and faded back, I leaned over Riesi and started the ritual. It would be fairly simple; I only needed for him to give me the command seals, nothing complex.

Powers Gained

Understand Lunarian Science

You have a comprehensive knowledge of Lunarian science, the same scientific technology that built a post-scarcity immortal utopia on the moon. You can integrate this technology into things you build, such as making something that can run without any need for a power source, somehow drawing power from the moon itself.