Kiritsugu was frustrated.
It was in his nature to be calm and logical because he had trained himself that way. He couldn't be emotional, sentimental, or irrational when faced with death. All problems had to be solved in the most efficient and least damaging way possible.
For his daughter to call him out claiming that she was the Master of Berserker?
It was either a trap or a precautionary measure by the Einzberns.
It could be a trap because if Illyasviel was truly the Master of Berserker, she would want to win as well. If he came out, alone, as she requested, then he will die.
It could also not be a trap because even if she was another Master, she just wanted to meet him. Oh, how he wanted this to be true.
It could also be a precautionary measure by the Einzberns because there was no way the Einzberns were going to just unleash Illya into the Holy Grail War without taking up precautions on their own side, just like how they had done in the previous war.
Like hiring another assassin to take care of him.
Einzberns had a lot of issues with him, from attempting to destroy the Grail to breaking the contract. If they were unhappy enough with him, they would hire an assassin. It would not be hard for such assassin to kill him from far away with sniper rifle when he was out in the park alone with his daughter.
Hell, he might even drop his guard because of Illya.
...
And because of this, he was frustrated.
He wanted to go meet his daughter who he could not rescue from the damnable clutches of the Einzbern's Black Castle. At the same time, he could not just let himself go out without taking precautions. But without knowing what kind of traps or enemies he might be facing -should the situation prove to be hostile- he couldn't exactly prepare properly.
Information was power, and he had very little of it.
Illya was frustrated.
She wanted to meet her father but he didn't respond to her yet.
What was he doing, just sitting on the invitation?!
... Maybe he was guilty of just abandoning her as her grandpa had said. Why else would he not accept the invitation.
Oh wait, she knew exactly why.
Because she was an Einzbern.
She knew that her maternal family was not exactly ... nice. In fact, calling them monsters would be an understatement.
If Kiritsugu was not brain dead, he would be brainstorming on how to avoid any traps that Einzbern might place.
But of course, no one of the Einzberns knew that she was going to talk with her father. She had even made sure that she appeared as hostile to the idea of Kiritsugu as possible before she left the Black Castle.
However, this still didn't excuse him from not accepting the invitation!
She sighed.
She had half a mind to go to her father instead of letting him come to her. Unfortunately, her father was -please excuse the language- paranoid as fuck. If she showed up with Berserker behind her, it would be close to calling a declaration of war. But to appear without her Servant was asking to be killed, whether or not her father was the Master she wanted to meet.
Ugh, she hated this.
In Shirou's opinion, there was no other choice but to accept the invitation.
A potential enemy Master or not, Illyasviel was family, and in Shirou's ideal world, family would at least talk to each other before they went for the others' throat.
"Dad, why not meet her?"
Kiritsugu turned to look at his eldest son.
Shirou shrugged. "I'm sure that our Servants could easily keep an eye on her from afar. She also didn't say anything about bringing a tool for escape, right? She only asked you to come alone."
Kiritsugu blinked. His son was right. He had been so caught up in his "Magus Killer" mentality that escape was far from his mind. He had been only thinking about countering any form of hostility that the Einzberns -and maybe his daughter- may pose to him.
Escape?
Now that was a good idea if things took a downturn.
So Kiritsugu, equipped with a portkey -as the British wizards call the mystic code- went to meet his daughter.
Harry, on the other hand, was enjoying his tome once more in his room. Perusing through its content, he arrived at a rather peculiar chapter.
"Creation for the Dummies"
He frowned at the title. He was no dummy. Why did the book stop the page here?
Without resistance, he began to read that chapter.
If you are reading this, you are reading the product of my final research. My name is (it's smeared) della Rovere. I ... was a cardinal of the Holy See. When I first became a cardinal, I was a regular mage-priest, an Executor. I was elected into the position by being the head of the Executor division of the Holy See. But as time passed by, I had a growing concern.
The Holy See, His Grace the Pope, my fellow cardinals, and the regular priests were content. We, who are supposed to learn about God and his will upon this earth, were content.
I decided to champion the cause of seeking the Christian mage's path to God. Not to Akasha, as the heretics commit their heresies for, but for God our father. But in my later years, my fellow cardinals and priests discovered my research. They labeled me as a heretic and had me excommunicated.
It's their fault that my research into Creation took so long to finish. I had all the materials needed, the artifacts of God and the Kingdom of Heaven, right where I could access them.
The Art of Creation is not a True Magic nor is it powerful. It is a tool that is limited by the mage's power and imagination.
The basic components to the Art of Creation is as follows: fuel(prana), blueprint(imagination and knowledge), and will(sentience).
Fuel is self-explanatory. It requires prana. Unlike ritual magic which requires little from the ritualist and more from the environment to fuel the magical process, the Art of Creation is different in that it requires nothing from the environment and all from its mage.
Blueprint is slightly more difficult. First, one must have imagination, which means the caster of the Art of Creation must be capable of complex thoughts. No dog or cat could use the Art no matter how much prana the beasts have! The other part of the blueprint is knowledge. One must understand the laws of physics, living bodies, and the interaction between the two as much as possible. If the caster does not know the laws, then the creation will be subjected to a crumbling decay that cannot be stopped, for the laws of the world deny its existence.
Harry stopped right there.
He was a smart boy; everyone said so. That's why he kept on reading and learning. His family praised him for it.
But he didn't know anything about what this chapter of the tome was going on about.
He understood prana and rituals. He understood about where the "fuels" came from, either from mana in the environment or prana/od inside the magus' magic circuits. He understood a need for blueprints, but he did not understand why magic could not keep allow a creation to operate on its own if it broke the laws of physics.
After all, wasn't magic what broke the laws of physics in the first place? Why should it matter if its creation broke the laws too?
Harry buckled down and read through the chapter thoroughly to gain an understanding, hoping that there was something inside the chapter that could explain.
(continued from where Harry left off)
The last requirement for the Art of Creation is Will, or sentience. This is different from saptience, or complex thoughts, because a Mystic Code given enough examples and guidelines can think up complex thoughts. In essence, the caster for the Art of Creation must be a living caster. Yes, this means that no Dead Apostle or their kind can use this magic. Thank the Lord for His mercies.
Once you have gathered the necessary materials and requirements, you only have one thing to do: cast.
Casting the Art of Creation is difficult. Generally, this is because the caster sets up a "blueprint" that is too big, complicated, or powerful. Sometimes, it's all three.
It must be noted that casters of the Art of Creation is limited by how much prana they possess.
Why?
Because, from my own research, to "create" something with the size and complexity of an ant requires 12,000 units of prana. Creating a dog -or anything similar to it- takes a whooping 1,000,000 units of prana! I was only able to gain that much prana by connecting external magic circuits to myself while also converting mana to prana within my own body. I nearly died from that experiment. At least, I now have a pet that no one else does.
All in all, it is ridiculously prana-inefficient. Only those possessing the Einzbern's third True Magic could even hope to regularly use the Art of Creation.
However, by researching this lost art(what else could it be?), I have recognized the Lord's strength as well.
If creating an ant takes enough energy to leave magi and wizards of ancient lineage or monstrous reserve hospitalized, how powerful must the Lord be to create our world? To create the sun? To mold and give life to this universe?
To also be able to learn the Art that the Holy Father had used himself to give rise to the world?
Well, my fellow priests would definitely call me heretic with that phrase alone.
Regardless, the Art of Creation is not a True Magic to be taken lightly. But ... I do not believe that I will circulate this research. While it may help the world with its problems and bring about further glory for the Lord, I do not believe that the world is ready. Just days ago from when I finished this research, counts and dukes of the Holy Roman Empire had declared war upon each other; the heathens in the East have completed their control over the Balkans; the heathen Cossacks have overrun our Orthodox brothers and their principalities.
If this research lands in the hands of those untrustworthy, I believe that the world may as well end, for warlords will sacrifice people to create demons of war, and the mad will surely use this holy Art to spread plague of the unimaginable.
But at the same time, I hope that my research will be found when the world is at peace. I hope to see this holy Art be spread so that all may know the power and the mercy of the Lord Our God.