[182] London

"Not Death Thirteen, but... Atum?"

Kazuya looked in surprise at the Stand he had obtained.

Atum—this was the Stand ability possessed by Terence T. D'Arby!

It had two abilities.

One, the power to extract a person's soul! Afterward, it could be stored, and Terence T. D'Arby's preference was to place them in dolls. His brother, on the other hand, turned the souls into coins.

This could be considered a shared ability between the two.

However, this ability had conditions—it would only activate during activities such as gambling or games. And—the opponent had to wager their soul. If they failed in the subsequent game, experiencing defeat and frustration, that's when he would snatch their soul.

Conversely, if the person possessing this Stand ability felt a sense of failure, the soul would directly return to the owner's body.

But without engaging in such rituals, it could still activate to some extent. Of course, the prerequisite was to make the person feel a sense of failure, and the chance to weaken the energy of the soul was possible. Gambling and games were the quickest ways.

Additionally, Terence T. D'Arby's Stand had another ability, one that intrigued Kazuya even more—mind reading!

Of course, not reading everything. It could only detect "YES" or "NO," revealing a significant amount of information by simply answering with "yes" or "no" to certain questions.

"How fortunate!"

Kazuya stood up with excitement, "To think I got such abilities before heading to London..."

Inside the Mystic Eye Collection Train, he wasn't surprised by anything he discovered.

But—getting the ability to read minds and extract souls before actually arriving there made things even more convenient for him.

Not only that, but it would be the same in his daily life afterward.

With more ways to utilize these abilities, getting them was truly fantastic!

In a sense, this was a more practical ability than Death Thirteen.

However, a problem arose...

This meant that what his heroic self obtained would not necessarily be what he would receive.

The choices made in the parallel world—his choices in the parallel world were different. Even the items obtained through the lottery draw might differ.

The abilities his heroic self possessed might not be present in reality.

Whether this was good or bad news, he couldn't be sure...

...

England—

London.

An old station in the outskirts.

Kazuya arrived at this location.

"On June 6th... the numbers of a double six, is there any significance?"

Looking at the surrounding buildings, Kazuya thought to himself. According to his investigation, this station ceased operation in 1950, and there was a "No Entry" sign in front, with the entrance blocked.

But... yes, this was the location he had investigated.

He took a magical needle from the inner pocket of his coat, a Tohsaka Rin model. This item wasn't expensive; it could be bought for a few tens of thousands of yen. Since he couldn't use magecraft, he experimented by sensing his own small source, attempting to refine magecraft.

But unfortunately...

His own ripples were too strong.

Combined with his poor magecraft aptitude, even the meager amount of small source energy he managed to refine was absorbed by the ripple's small source energy.

Among those he knew who used ripples, he was the only one with this situation.

Others like Emiya Kiritsugu didn't have it, but their ripples were weak. Even if their small source energy was good, their ripples were weak, resulting in a considerable increase in the amount of magecraft.

According to Emiya Kiritsugu's feelings...

Ripple could slowly increase small source effectiveness when combined with both ripples. Magecraftand ripples were essentially two sides of the same coin in this world, with minimal differences in expression.

Therefore, a person with strong ripples would have weak magecraft. A person with strong magecraft would have weak ripples.

So... practicing both ripples and magecraft at the same time was the most effective.

Representative examples were Emiya Shirou, no... Emiya Mumei.

And Illyasviel.

Although Illyasviel had a high magecraft aptitude, she had not refined magecraft for a long time because it was not advantageous for her small source. If...

Emiya Kiritsugu and others had not taken her out, she would have taken the difficult path of the Holy Grail War, and at that time, even if she didn't want to, she would have had to refine magecraft.

Now...

Ripples could extend her lifespan.

Like Emiya Mumei, her ripple and magecraft strengths were equivalent.

And she could convert all ripples into magecraft, or rather, temporarily manifest all small source in a certain form.

But... Kazuya's Gluttonous Beelzebub had caused his small source, that is, his lifespan energy, to increase too much.

His ripples were too powerful, and he didn't even have the capital to transform into magecraft.

However...

This time might be different.

The magic circuits of the mystic eye were independent... at that time, he might be able to let his small source manifest in another form.

For now... he could buy a little more that didn't require magecraft or items that could be charged using someone else's magecraft.

Such items existed, but they weren't cheap.

"Ah, I see, so it's like this... it seems this place has already been set up with a barrier."

Watching the chaotic magical needle in his hand, Kazuya nodded and put it away.

This type of barrier had no effect on him. While his small source energy couldn't be expressed in the form of magecraft, the powerful small source energy had already rendered some magecraft ineffective against him.

Comparing it to the status panel, he estimated that he should have a level of E-D in terms of resistance to magecraft.

This kind of barrier was useless against him.

"It seems there's no one... still two days." Kazuya remembered today's date.

He came early, just getting off the plane, opening a room at the hotel to leave his luggage, and then rushing over.

After confirming the location, he walked towards the exit.

"To the hotel."

"Oh, my God, that's fantastic." The driver sighed and said, "I've been stuck here, and I bet you are too, right?"

"Ah, yes... it's indeed not a pleasant place."

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