They traveled through time at the same time, but the villainous scientist

Chapter 224 Mind Magic
How can it be?

The ruler of the Clock Tower, the head of the prestigious El-Melloi family of magicians, has actually used Eastern-style magic?

Kiritsugu Emiya froze completely in that instant, and for the first time, a look of utter horror appeared on his perpetually icy face.

Even the brain was momentarily blank due to this completely illogical scene before it.

The magical foundation of that continent was completely different from that of the West. Its closed and exclusive system meant that even with his intelligence network as a "magician killer," he had only glimpsed the tip of the iceberg.

Western magic is rooted in the magic circuits passed down through generations.

The East, on the other hand, relies on a "key" called the "Thought Key Pattern" to link to the vast system that is said to have been jointly created by ancient immortals and resembles the origin—the "Thought Disc."

[Thought Keyprint] is not an innate talent, but rather a privilege and qualification granted through a strict master-disciple inheritance system, passed down from generation to generation.

It represents recognition and belonging.

Without inheriting the legacy, you will forever remain a "stranger" outside that vast magical foundation.

In other words, even if Kenneth El-Melloi Archibald is a once-in-a-millennium genius, without the formal recognition and inheritance of a certain Eastern school, he would have no way of mobilizing the power of the [Thought Plate] to perform such orthodox Qimen Dunjia techniques!
But why? How can this unbelievable scene be explained?

Thoughts flashed through his mind in a split second, but Kiritsugu Emiya didn't have time to delve into them.

Kenneth's terrifying abilities, which exceeded the limits of his intelligence and cognition, have completely declared the bankruptcy of all his pre-planned tactics.

escape!
That was the only thought in his mind.

Without hesitation, Kiritsugu Emiya turned around, preparing to use the complex terrain of the forest to slip into his next pre-planned retreat point.

However, the moment he exerted his strength, a sharp, agonizing pain shot through his heart, as if an invisible hand were gripping his heart muscle tightly.

This is the heavy price of continuously using [Time Control]. The fatigue and burden on his body have accumulated exponentially, exceeding the limits that his magically enhanced heart and lungs can withstand.

His movements were thus slowed down by a fraction.

And it was this fatal slight delay that allowed the silver domain, spreading across the ground like a living thing, to silently reach his feet.

not good!

An unprecedented sense of crisis instantly gripped Kiritsugu Emiya's entire mind. He endured the excruciating pain that felt like his heart was about to stop beating, a resolute glint flashing in his eyes, and once again forcefully activated the Emiya family's magical crest.

[Time Control - Triple Speed]!
This is the limit he can reach.

【Inherent Time Control】only accelerates one's own time flow, but the resulting fatigue is real and accumulates on the body.

The continuous and incremental acceleration has pushed the body to an alarming level.

But now, he can't care about all that anymore.

The next moment, in Kiritsugu Emiya's perception, everything around him turned into a frozen slideshow.

His speed instantly surpassed human limits, even exceeding that of the top Olympic champions, turning into a blurry afterimage as he desperately tried to escape the barrier formed by the silver mercury.

However, the seemingly within-reach edge of the barrier now appears to be an insurmountable chasm.

With each step he took forward, he felt as if he were sinking into a bottomless swamp, the surrounding air becoming thick and sticky, an invisible force pulling and binding his every movement.

He tried his best, but could only watch helplessly as the distance between him and that safe zone remained unchanged.

Within this realm distorted by Qimen Dunjia, the concept of distance itself has lost its meaning.

……

Meanwhile, on the distant eastern continent, in China, atop the Kunlun Mountains.

The sea of ​​clouds surged and swirled, shrouded in ethereal mist.

A young man dressed in an ancient Taoist robe was meditating with his eyes closed on a blue stone at the edge of a sheer cliff. He seemed to be one with the world, his breath long and deep, without a trace of worldly desire.

After an unknown amount of time, the young man's long, raven-feather-like eyelashes trembled slightly, and he slowly opened his eyes.

Those were eyes that seemed to contain the entire starry sky, calm and still, as if nothing in the world could leave a ripple in them.

But at this moment, a rare ripple appeared in this "starry sky".

As an immortal who has survived since the end of the Age of Gods, he can't remember how many years it has been since he felt a similar sense of "surprise".

Just now, in that instant, he clearly felt that the power of the [Thought Plate], which was integrated into the foundation of the entire world, was stirred by an unfamiliar will.

Although that slight influence was extremely faint, like a drop of water falling into the ocean, it was as clear as a light in the darkness for him, one of the managers of the [Thought Disk]. In the distant past, gods were the primates of this planet.

In order to accommodate their existence, the boundaries between rules and reality became blurred, and mystery was everywhere.

However, later, due to some special reasons, the Age of Gods ended, and the gods began to fade away, retreating to the inner world of the planet, a place called the "Inner Sea of ​​the Stars".

With the departure of the gods, the rules of the world changed, and "mystery" began to decline rapidly.

Western magic, in essence, imitates the great works of God, through rituals and chants, and is activated by the magic base and magic circuit.

Therefore, as the world environment changes, their magic inevitably declines.

The practitioners in the East, however, embarked on a different path.

The immortals united and, with their supreme power, jointly created a vast system resembling the "root"—the [Thought Plate]—and completely integrated it into the world.

If we were to use modern terminology, the entire world would be a giant computer, and the original gods would be users granted the highest "administrator privileges" by the world itself.

The god of thunder can unleash storms, and the god of fire can burn everything; these are powers that the world has bestowed upon them from birth.

The "Thought Compass" is essentially a massive "virtual machine" developed and run by these immortals on the basis of this computer.

It is a world unto itself, with its own independent operating rules, and is naturally not affected by changes in the external "macro-environment".

This is the fundamental reason why, even in the mysteriously declining modern era, they can still exert power close to that of the Age of Gods.

However, precisely because the [Thought Disk] is a man-made object, the permissions that can be accessed within it are naturally also artificially defined.

The more a school of thought was created, the more "share" it would receive.

The system that determines how much access each cultivator can have is the [Thought Key Pattern] passed down through generations.

Of course, there are always exceptions.

Man-made systems are bound to have vulnerabilities.

In theory, it is not necessary to possess the [Thought Key unken] to connect to the [Thought Disk].

However, the prerequisite is that the user must have a very deep understanding of the underlying logic and structure of the system.

The problem is... if someone truly understands the [Thought Plate] to such an extent, how could they not have the corresponding [Thought Key Pattern]?

This is a paradox in itself.

Thinking of this, a strong interest actually arose in the young immortal's eternally unchanging mind.

He made a hand seal with one hand, directly invoking one of his supreme privileges.

【The Thirty-Six Methods of the Heavenly Gang: Seeing Through Walls】

Once this method was used, the immortal's vision instantly pierced through the barriers of space and transcended physical distance.

In his eyes, there were no secrets about heaven and earth, or about the universe.

Whether they are ghosts and gods of the netherworld or people of the mortal world, their size, shape, and location are all clearly discernible and vividly reflected in his consciousness.

This is a supreme immortal technique comparable to the highest level of "clairvoyance" in Western mythology and "divine vision" in Buddhism. It is a power to observe the world that only true immortals like them can wield.

His gaze easily locked onto the source of the power that activated the [Thought Disc].

However, the moment he saw his target clearly, even his calm expression became quite strange.

Because what he saw... was actually a blond, blue-eyed... foreigner?!

The young immortal watched this scene with even greater interest.

He changed his hand seals again, and without hesitation used another, more profound divine power.

[Retracing the effect and the cause].

Following the thread of cause and effect, we go against the current to explore its roots and essence.

A moment later, when the result appeared in his mind, the expression on his face became more bizarre than ever before, even carrying a hint of being both amused and exasperated.

Because the blond man currently performing orthodox Qimen Dunjia techniques is actually... one of the twelve monarchs of the Clock Tower, the magicians' stronghold far away in the West?!

(End of this chapter)