“Her magic is the nemesis of all pure mages like myself,” replied Edward. “And she’s attacking the students in your school.”

“What? What do you mean by that?” asked Tohsaka as she stood up from her sitting position.

“She plans to feed off the life energy of the students in the school to strengthen herself. One of your teachers — Souichirou Kizuki — is helping her.”

“Mr. Souichirou? No, we have to stop them,” she said as she remembered something and rushed out of the room. Edward’s lips twitched as he glanced at her, departing back strangely.

On top of a roof, Tohsaka stopped as she sensed a powerful mana fluctuation. Such a clash was definitely the result of two Servants battling it out.

“Wait, that direction— that’s near Shirou’s house.” Her magic circuit appeared in her legs, and she rushed forward.

“Little girl, you need to raise your standard of man,” suddenly said Edward, causing Tohsaka to fall midway through her jump.

“What…what… what are you saying?”

“I’m saying you could do way better than someone like Shirou Emiya,” replied Edward. “Especially now that you will probably be one of the greatest modern mages that has ever lived.”

“Don’t talk nonsense,” yelled Tohsaka before continuing rushing forward, and Edward followed. A few seconds later, the tsundere girl asked, “What do you have against Shirou?”

“I have immense disdain for him,” replied Edward casually.

“Why? You don’t even know him.”

“I saw enough of his future and past to form an opinion.”

“And what did he do that was so egregious?” asked Tohsaka.

“He didn’t do anything— it’s his personality,” explained Edward. “The child failed to save one person and developed an extreme version of being a hero.”

“There is nothing with wanting to be a hero.”

“A little defensive, aren’t we?” Tohsaka’s face almost burned with embarrassment, but she decided to ignore that comment.

“Heroism is fine at its core, but not his version. His desire to save everyone comes at all costs to his life, whether it is his safety, sanity, bodily arm, or even the people he loves or cares for. It’s to the point you wonder whether this man is into masochism because of the length he is willing to save people. And the worst part is he refuses to change even if he knows the consequences of this path he is walking toward.”

Tohsaka thought briefly before replying, “You’re overexaggerating thing.”

“Am I? I’m sure you’ve already noticed it in school. People will ask him for a ‘favor’ but just use this as an excuse to get him to do their work for them for free. And even if Shirou knows, even if he heard them admit it, he would help them no matter the task or how long it must take — because that’s what a hero should do.”

Edward sneered in disdain, “He’s the kind of hero who, if confronted with an absolute choice between the world and the love of his life, will try to save both just to lose everything in the process. But even such a thing won’t deter him in his heroic journey. I guess I should praise his conviction.”

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Tohsaka did not know what to say. She had seen how some people treated Shirou in school; if not for her, things might have been worse. However, she had always loved his kindness and had never seen it from this perspective. While trying to think of a response, they soon reached their destination.

“Is that Saber and Lancer?” asked Tohsaka. “Where are their masters?”

“Look at the back of your boyfriend’s hand.”

“He’s not my…Wait, Shirou is a Master?”

“Tohsaka?” yelled Shirou, finally noticing their arrival. Saber stopped her battle and jumped before Shirou.

“Master, this is Servant, and their master is very powerful: be careful.” She had never met a modern mage with so much mana, and the Servant also exuded a mana capacity above her.

“Tohsaka, do you know what’s going on?” asked Shirou as he began to walk toward her.

“Master, they are the enemy,” Saber stopped him.

“She’s not an enemy, she’s my friend.”

“He looks confused. Doesn’t he know what’s going on?” asked Tohsaka.

“That’s obvious. This novice doesn’t even know he has to use a trigger to activate his Magic Circuit. He’s been using his magic by forcing mana through his actual veins; the fact he’s alive is truly a testament to how lucky he is.”

“Who is this?” asked Shirou with a frown, but Edward had already shifted his focus to Lancer.

“I’ve been looking forward to fighting you.”

“Do you know me?” asked Lancer.

“In a matter of speaking,” replied Edward before immediately attacking. Hundreds of small blue orbs materialized before his staff and flew toward Lancer with breakneck speed. Lancer responded by waving his red spear in a circular motion to block the orbs before stopping and manually evading because of how fast and frequently they were coming.

Clink! Clink! Clink!

Lancer blocked every orb while simultaneously evading. Unfortunately, the orbs were too fast and seemed endless. So, without any more hesitation, he activated his A rank skill: Protection From Arrows. With this skill, he was immune to most projectile weapons. So, he rushed toward Edward with his spear, blazing a path forward.

“Interesting skill,” muttered Edward before tapping his staff on the ground and changing tactics.

Boom!

A powerful explosion forced Lancer backward. Although his battle instinct allowed him to block with the spear, he was still injured. He looked around and saw nothing, but his danger senses were on overdrive. With caution, he moved forward, and as expected, another explosion.

“What a quick and brilliant tactic,” he praised. His enemy knew projectiles were useless to him, so they placed immobile but invisible versions all around him, forming a net.

“Ansuz,” said Lancer, using a Primordial Rune, and with a wave of his spear, a mighty flame busted out and activated the invisible bombs Edward placed around. Lancer then took this opportunity to rush forward, but he underestimated the speed at which these things regenerated.

“Damn it,” he cursed as he was further pushed back. “Ehwaz.” With this Primordial Rune, he boosted his defense and magic resistance. “Berkanan.” This tracking rune allowed him to see the invincible bombs.

“Now, let’s see how you can hide,” commented Lancer as he moved toward his destination.

“Not bad, but you’re underestimating me,” commented Edward. Under this command, the thousands of orbs began to bounce off each other, making their movement so irregular that the tracking spell became almost useless.

So Lancer found himself in a minefield with invisible exploding orbs that moved fast and were as erratic as a drunkard. Oddly, though, he had a smile on the corner of his mouth as he navigated this spell, which used a basic Mana Missile Spell.

“Haha, I haven’t had this much fun in a fight in a while,” he said. “In that case, let me show you what I’m truly capable of.”

As he prepared to use another tactic, he suddenly stopped, which caused him a terrible explosion that almost got him. Luckily, he activated a shield and protected him.

“It’s a shame our battle must come to an end, but I cannot disobey my master,” he said toward Edward before disappearing. Edward did not stop him as he had already got what he wanted: the 18 Primordial Runes inside the latter’s mind. He only failed to find his master’s whereabouts, but he doubted Lancer actually knew.

However, despite his success, he was not happy. Firstly, the Primordial Runes in this world are the same as the Ancient Runes in Harry Potter, but he already knew this. He thought the runes manifested in another form in this universe.

‘If I remember correctly, Odin created Primordial Runes in some lore versions of this universe instead of discovering them. Maybe the true Primordial Runes are even ancient and more powerful than his version.’

Edward decided to check this out as what he learned paled compared to the Primordial Runes in his universe. And considering the level of this universe is not in any way lower than his, they should not be like this.