42 Chapter 42: Success and Encounter with Counter Guardian

Sakura Matou, a former Tohsaka, was sold by her father to the Matou family. She was originally a cheerful girl with a loving family until one day her father suddenly decided to send her to the Matou family because he didn't have the resources to raise two geniuses.

Coincidentally, the Matou family was in decline and finally unable to produce an heir. Tokiomi sends Sakura to Zouken in hope that Zouken can raise her into a proper heir but unexpected for Tokiomi, Zouken never intended to do so and instead used her body to breed and feed his worms.

Her womb used to incubate worms while her fluids became sustenance for the worms. Her body was thoroughly violated under the 'education' from Zouken. Uncle Kariya vowed to save her from Zouken but unexpectedly he never succeeded and suffered instead.

Sakura can tell just how much of Uncle Kariya's body is devoured just to sustain the Berserker. Even so, it isn't enough. He already signed for his death the moment he accepted those worms into his body which devoured him inside out. She is grateful that someone still cares and tries to save her but in the end, it isn't Uncle Kariya that saved her.

Her savior was probably even worse than Zouken in her opinion. Ghostly creatures that look very fiendish, tear apart Zouken's soul and devour it which render his revival worms useless. When Zouken died, the worm's inside her went berserk and caused her immense pain which was terrible at first but compared to continued suffering in this world. Death didn't look so bad which she willingly accepted and died.

Sakura knew what went down in the Matou mansion. She died but not long after, she woke up in an unfamiliar environment and greeted by a pretty? man. He looks feminine but is also handsome with masculine features once she looks closer.

The man asked those nightmarish monsters where Zouken's soul but all she heard was grunts and muffled roars. The man did understand what the monster said and knocked their head, reprimanded them for eating the soul that he wanted. Those monsters immediately hung their heads low like scolded dogs before leaving through the wall, phasing through them.

After that, the man introduces himself as Ray. She just stares at him blankly, doesn't know what to say but stares at him with mixed feelings. But, he didn't feel offended and brought her along to have a meal with his group. She is introduced to her savior, Charlotte. Then Tanya, who looks like the twin of the man but she looks way younger… a sibling perhaps?

Speaking of siblings, she felt anger just by remembering she suffered at the hand of an evil magus. Turned into a breeding nest for worms while Rin is showered with love from their parents.

She shook away those depressing thoughts and looked at the last member of the group. A servant just looks like the one Uncle Kariya has and her name is King Artoria. Both have dark armor but this one isn't as crazy as Berserker, she just likes to eat a lot.

The Einzbern castle where she currently lived is very boring. It's snowing all day even when there is no snow in other places. Not to mention the castle looks eerie with very few inhabitants. The maids were always able to evade her senses but appeared whenever she needed. Remind her of ninja that can do the same feat.

Here, her activity usually revolves around reading books and playing with Charlotte if she is in the castle. Occasionally, the owner of the castle will invite her to have snacks or try to accompany her. She can feel the motherly love from Irisviel but they only meet for less than two days. Sakura had yet to feel comfortable with anyone other than Charlotte.

Currently, she is leaving the library and heading towards the courtyard where sister Charlotte said she is practicing her sword.

"Sakura?"

She suddenly went stiff out of instinct and turned to her back to see Ray walking toward her.

"Where are you going?" Ray asked.

There is no hint of hostility in his voice or greed like Zouken. All she feels is curiosity from his voice as he looks at her confusedly because her body becomes oddly stiff like she is scared.

"Ah, sorry. You're still afraid." Ray nods understandingly because Sakura saw him leading Wraiths and thought he overlaps him with Zouken that also have terrifying creatures like those Crest Worms.

But the truth is she was afraid because she cannot sense him coming closer to her. Zouken was always able to sneak up behind her and called her name. Ray did something similar which made her react by her instinct.

Ray slaps his forehead for forgetting such an important thing before quickly walking over her and calling a hidden maid to assist Sakura. She is probably still traumatized by her experience and needs some time to adjust.

"Brother Ray, wait."

Ray is about to walk away when Sakura stops him.

"Yes?"

"I am not afraid… I was just surprised. No need to avoid me." Sakura clarified.

Ray is unsure what to reply. So, he just nodded and dismissed the maid.

"Uhm, I am looking for sister Charlotte."

"Oh, a coincidence. Me too." Ray replied and the conversation ended there, awkwardly.

He isn't much of a talker in the first place. But, he can't believe he flustered in front of a child.

"Uh … Wanna walk with me to the courtyard? Charlotte is there practicing her sword."

Sakura nodded and they both walked along the hallway of the castle. It was an awkward e minute journey of Sakura glancing at him while he pretended he didn't notice and just walked. He wonders what is interesting to look at him constantly.

Reaching their destination, Sakura can hear the sound of wind being sliced and felt a strong gust of wind fly past her.

"Master! Aren't you locking yourself to conduct experiments again? Why did you leave earlier than expected?" Charlotte stopped executing sword techniques and sheathed her sword before hurried over to Ray.

"I am progressing well but unexpectedly hit a roadblock which requires your help." Ray smiled as he rubbed her head that she lowered for Ray.

Charlotte enjoyed the affectionate gesture of her master and couldn't be happier than this. But, Sakura that appeared from behind Ray saw them and looked at them suspiciously as this is her first time seeing Ray and Charlotte being this affectionate to each other.

Ray saw Sakura's complexion and frown. He quickly retracted his hand and coughed.

"Anyway, I need your help to open a pathway to the Astral plane for me."

"Sure." Charlotte agreed easily and used her innate ability to open an invisible tear into reality.

The veiled eyes cannot see the tear in reality but Ray can see it and bid the two farewell before entering the tear.

"Anyway, why are you with Master?" Charlotte asked Sakura, who was bewildered when Ray disappeared all of a sudden.

"Eh? Ah, I met him when walking here from the library." Sakura replied immediately. "Also, he didn't look evil even when he was leading the ghosts like their boss."

"Ahaha. Of course, master isn't bad. He is benevolent to his close companions and willing to challenge even a god for Tanya. His enemies however, he wouldn't even bat an eye after exterminating them." Charlotte sings praises for Ray while recalling his feat along his journey.

"Oh, since you came here. You must be bored of reading books."

Sakura nods immediately as none of the books is interesting and all is about magecraft theories only.

"If so, do you want to hear the tales about the master throughout his journey?" Charlotte asks while caressing Sakura's hair. The feeling is very nostalgic and heart warming for her that she didn't even realize she agreed.

"Mhm. Better than reading boring books anyway." Sakura replied.

"Good answer. Let's find the maid first to prepare some snacks and tea while we talk." Charlotte lead Sakura into the castle as outside is really cold with the weather being always snowy.

———

Astral plane.

Once heard, one will imagine a world filled with souls as it is a plane that contains souls, separate from the Physical plane.

When Ray entered this place. It was no different than the Physical plane other than the darker coloration and the ever night sky. It was like having a psychedelic trip.

The astral projection of each human in the world is the same in the Astral plane, carrying out their activities.

Ray tried using his Spiritual Manipulation sub-ability under Spiritual Subjugation to feel the soul fragments wandering the Astral plane within his vicinity and gather them all before attempting soul reforming.

However, his result was failure as soul fragments from different people mixed and created an abomination of mismatched human shaped soul.

He isn't discouraged as this is merely an experiment and they rarely succeed at the first attempts. Instead, Ray tried to study his creation and find what went wrong with his attempt before trying to fix it.

The time soon became a blur and Ray found himself in a graveyard. Place where many dead end up at and where soul and soul fragments are in high concentration.

He used most Enhanced Mind sub-abilities to speed up his problem solving and even used up all Future Calculation attempts to narrow down the possible solutions.

Since souls contain the gene of a soul, or in other words, the DNA of a soul. That makes each soul unique to each person and can be distinguished. Ray tried this theory by using a soul fragment that contained the unique genetic sequence of this specific soul and summoned the remaining fragments to reform a complete soul and it worked. Or at least, closer to the answer he seeks than other theories he cooked up.

But, remember that the soul will eventually return to Akasha and be recycled? Guess what Akasha is?

Archives of information of all possibilities and events, past, present, and future, of the world. A place where all information is stored. Guess what happens when souls are recycled?

The information inside the soul is removed and returned into the cycle of reincarnation. The soul is like a memory chip. The information in the memory chip is important, the memory chip itself is replaceable. So, what if Ray can get the information from the Root and place it into a soul he created? The person will return to life! A revival.

Although there are several rules such as information that are unique which mean two separate pieces of information cannot exist at the same place and time. Two identical souls cannot exist at the same place and time. There are other rules but he didn't have time for them.

He must test his theory immediately to confirm it. If it's correct then the Third Magic is his own to claim! A power that compliments an Animancer like him very much.

Ray sends a thread of his consciousness, disguising as soul fragments to follow other fragments as they return to the Root. He had fallen into state of absolute concentration as his mind tried its best to comprehend the information he gathered.

"Kah!" A mouthful of blood burst out his mouth followed by his eyes, ears and nose.

There were too many! Too much information is trying to flood his mind that even his brain is struggling to cope. His heartbeat doubled to pump more blood into his overworked brain which normally will already cause cardiac arrest but he isn't a normal human anymore. His high vitality allows him to hold on.

"Concentrate… concentrate… take only what I need." Ray chants like a mantra as he tries to limit the information that enters his brain and gets only what he needs.

He had yet to realize his action had already alerted the Counter Force. Due to not concealing his attempt of breaching the Root, Alaya's agent is already on his way to eliminate the threat.

When Ray finally closed off his connection to the Root. He already gained what he needed and immediately created an empty artificial soul before transfering the memories of an entire person, from the day of his birth to death, into the empty soul.

There he realized, no wonder the Third Magic is said to reveal the future. This is because the Third Magic is the authority to access the information stored in the Root. The soul from past, present and future can be accessed and contain what the person saw in their lifetime. That's why servant summoning needs a catalyst which has a trace of the information to track its owner.

Ray finally obtained the ability to reform a soul or in other words, revive a soul. He is one step closer to success.

He looks at the soul of a random resident of Fuyuki city which he revived and releases it once he is done. That soul has no use to him anyway, other than experimenting.

"Yare yare, another Magus that reached where he shouldn't. Also, aren't you too young for this? I thought there would be another hundred years old magus trying to dip his toes into the Root."

Ray heard the familiar voice of a person and instantly jolted awake from his laxness to adopt a combat ready pose.

"How old are you anyway? 16? 18? Well, it doesn't matter. You're going to die anyway."

Ray saw the iconic red shroud as sleeve on top and black body armor and pants followed by gray eyes, tanned skin and white hair.

"Emiya!" Ray shouted once he saw the Counter Guardian nocked a spiral sword on his black bow while snickering at him. The arrow was released and flew at speed exceeding the speed of sound.

"Oh, you know me?" EMIYA wondered curiously when he had met this young Magus.

Ray formed a magic shield in front of him and poured as much mana into it to make it able to resist Caladbolg II. He also used a Flight spell to float so once the attack hit, he would be knocked back instead of having to resist the full attack.

The arrow exploded and he was throwed like a rag doll, a few hundred meters away and hit one obstacle after another, crashing through several trees and buildings.

"Fuck! Buy me time and distract him!" Ray growled and opened the storage of his Wraiths in his shadow.

All 4 thousand Elite Wraiths exit his shadow and swarm Emiya in a frenzy. Even he can get caught off guard as he was ganged. Emiya tried to switch to his dual blade but he was too late.

"Piss of, you piece of shit! Mark my words, I'll definitely pay you back later. But for now, die!"

Ray mustered all his Psychic might and unleashed it though Spiritual Subjugation ability to shred his spiritual vessel. Hundreds of thousands of tiny thin blades made of psychic power shred the vessel and dispersed his soul back to Akasha.

'Charlotte! Open the path back quickly!' Ray panted in exhaustion after draining himself off all his mental energy.

He cannot drag the battle which is why he went all out. Who knows what absurd things Emiya will pull out his ass if Ray gives him time to do it.

However, he did succeed. He will definitely be able to perform resurrection.

—————

How is it? The chapter. I hope it isn't bad.