Flow

"Interesting."

Feeling the vibrations of his soul, Matou Shinji chuckled with pleasure.

He considered himself far from an ordinary person, at least not now.

Having experienced baptism across several worlds, facing countless life-and-death crises, he had long cultivated a spirit of indifference to life and death, embracing a daring attitude that said, "If you're not satisfied, come at me."

"I'd like to see what this so-called Origin, the direction set by the Root for life, really is."

He closed his eyes and calmly accepted the chaotic impulse deep within his soul.

On the grand stone door, all the characters and drawings formed a massive circle, radiating a dazzling blue light.

"Zzzt, zzzt, zzzt~"

Thunderous blue energy overflowed, severing the black tendrils reaching out from the Gate of Truth behind him...

The eyes behind the Gate of Truth suddenly opened, their surface covered in layer upon layer of glass cracks.

This scene represented the imminent collapse of the Gate of Truth, where he held his knowledge of alchemy, as it was swallowed up by the magnificent stone gate that symbolized the source in front of him.

His hands remained on the stone door in front of him, maintaining the alchemical array. A faint and yet maniacal smile appeared at the corner of his mouth as he watched.

The Origin is the direction bestowed upon life by the Root. In other words, it is also possible to touch the foundation of the world by tracing back to the Root.

The Gate of Truth filtering process was complete, but he was far from being satisfied.

He wanted to use the awakening of his Origin to peer into the Root.

This was an incredibly insane and daring idea, and even a slight misstep would lead to unimaginable consequences for Matou Shinji.

"It can be done!"

He spoke firmly, and his engraved alchemical array on the mountain's stone gate went into a rampage as a deep blue lightning consumed his right leg.

There was no blood flowing from the wound, as if it were disintegrating, gradually spreading throughout his entire body.

Matou Shinji glanced at his right leg, feeling the intense pain as if it were being burned by high temperatures.

This sensation was something he had experienced when performing human transmutation, where every muscle and cell in his body broke down.

Symbolizing alchemy, the Gate of Truth collapsed and crumbled, causing the world behind the door to collapse as well.

"Damn it!"

Standing in front of the stone gate, Shinji Matou's eyes flashed with madness, half of his face had been melted by the thunder, and he growled unwillingly, "If this world also follows the law of equivalent exchange, take it! My hand, my leg, or even my soul! Give it to me!"

"Open it for me!"

However, it seemed that the Root of this world was not as accommodating as the Truth.

The alchemical array on the door shattered, and the backlash from the failed transmutation directly hit his soul. In an instant, his body disintegrated into dust.

"Is this not enough?"

"You stubborn fool!"

The obsession deeply rooted in his consciousness continued to roar, trying to push open the stone door.

Just as his soul was about to fade away, a tremendous force erupted from deep within him, instantly restoring his body and stabilizing the world behind the door.

Matou Shinji stood in front of the door again, his face expressionless and lost in thought.

[Flow]

The origin awakened, and the power of eternal unity saved his soul that was on the verge of collapse.

Naturally, this was within his control.

"As expected, I shouldn't be too greedy." Matou Shinji sighed and shook his head as he looked up at the grand stone door in front of him.

The soul engineering process was complete, and he had gained the additional benefit of Origin Awakening.

This outcome was much better than what he had originally anticipated.

His's Origin attribute was [Flow], and his magical attribute was water.

"The attributes are okay. They're quite compatible with alchemy... No, I should say they're more in line with alchemy." he muttered to himself.

In the world of "Fullmetal Alchemist," alchemy formed a unique faction through the influence of Von Hohenheim.

The basics of alchemy involved understanding the flow attribute present in all things in the world, known as Dragon's Vein.

"It's time to go back."

Inside the room, the still child-like Matou Shinji slowly opened his eyes as a cyan-colored glint passed through his pupils.

"It feels completely different from before." He squeezed his right hand, feeling that his body and the world he saw with his eyes were entirely different.

The awakening of his Origin attribute, [Flow], granted him the power of unity with the ages, acting on his soul and reverberating through his body.

At this moment, he saw a completely different landscape with his eyes..

He saw the "Dragon's Vein" in the air, in objects, and even in the bug outside the window that was watching him.

It was the magical power that constructed this world.

"Similar to the abilities of Mystic Eyes. Perhaps Mystic Eyes were born from the concept of Origin Awakening." He reached out to touch his own eyes.

The awakening of his Origin brought extraordinary abilities to him, but at the same time, a strong impulse overflowed from his consciousness like rolling waves, driving him repeatedly to do something.

His instincts wanted to act, but his consciousness remained at a loss.

What did he instinctively want to do?

The conflicting agitation brought about a sense of restlessness that furrowed his brow.

The chaotic impulse, the price of Origin Awakening.

__________

In the following weeks, Matou Shinji fell into even more crazy research on magic.

For him, the awakening of his Origin was ultimately more beneficial than detrimental.

His soul had undergone countless reincarnations in this world, and with each cycle, his power had stacked upon the awakened Origin.

He tried to convert this surplus soul energy into a pseudo-circuit through alchemy, aiming to enhance his control over mana.

Based on the concept of [Flow] as the foundation and incorporating the water magical attribute, with alchemy as the groundwork, the experiment to create a pseudo-circuit went unexpectedly smoothly.

The so-called magical circuits were fundamentally a self-preservation measure that magi resorted to after the decline of the Great Source.

It involved using their own life force as a small source to manipulate the Great Source.

However, magicians in the Age of Gods did not need such low-level items as magic circuits at all.

There were various alternatives to magical circuits.

For instance, Artoria Pendragon possessed the bloodline of dragons, which allowed her to recover and generate an immeasurable amount of mana simply by breathing. Such an existence was in an entirely different league from magical circuits.

Matou Shinji wanted to create something similar to a [Magic Furnace].

"Knock, knock, knock~"

Matou Shinji, who was constructing the formation in the room, heard a knock on the door.

The blue light emitted by the formation formation under his feet quickly faded.

From the frequency of knocking on the door, he already knew who was coming.

His nominal father, Byakuya Matou, was also the apparent head of the Matou family, an ordinary good man.

After erasing the formation, Shinji Matou opened the door and looked at the man calmly: "Father, is there something you need?"

Matou Byakuya reached out and touched Matou Shinji's head, and said in a complicated tone: "Still studying magic?"

"Yes."

Hearing this, the man crouched down, filled with guilt, and said,

"I'm sorry, it's because I am so worthless as a father that the burden of the Matou family falls on your shoulders."

"No need to apologize, I personally also like studying magic."

The man smiled with relief. "Ah, that's good. I've seen you so busy these days, so I didn't want to disturb you. However, today is the day the Tohsaka family's second daughter will be adopted into the Matou family. I think it would be best for you to make an appearance and greet the second daughter of the Tohsaka family, who is soon to become your sister."

"Okay, I'll clean up the room and go there." Matou Shinji nodded, but in fact, he was far from as calm as he seemed on the surface.

Matou Sakura···