"Caster" I shouted as I waltzed right on through, into his workshop. "Caster, we need to talk!"

"Child, you're mistaken if you think I need to do anything" Caster sighed, continuing to hammer away at the forge.

"…Ok, fair" I grinned. "Caster, we should talk."

"If this is about last night child-"

"What? No! No, no, no, no, no" I laughed. "All that… sure, I have questions about that, but that's not why I'm here. All that's whatever, in the grand scheme of things."

"Then what could we possibly need to discuss? In case you've forgotten, child, which wouldn't surprise me, I agreed to help you with… whatever it was you did, and in exchange you were to leave me alone."

"But this is important, Caster" I insisted. "It's about Rider. Or I should say, we need to figure out how to deal with Rider."

"Child, I know exactly how I'm going to deal with Rider, and it's no different to how I'll deal with each and every other servant" the annoyance in Caster's voice clear as day. "This is a pointless discussion."

"Rider has an army, Caster."

That, at least, got Caster to stop hammering away at whatever it was he was working on at the moment, and look at me.

"…Ok, well…" I hesitated slightly under Caster's harsh glare. "Maybe I should actually say Rider probably has an army. At least, I know it's possible for him to have an army, as Berserker had an army, and it would only make sense if Rider also could call upon an army, like Berserker did, considering who Rider is."

"Your point, child?"

"My point is we need to figure out a way to deal with said army!"

"The labyrinth will deal with that, child" Caster grumbled, returning to his hammering. "Anything else you'd like to waste my time with?"

"But what if it doesn't prevent Rider from reaching… well, here? The labyrinth is amazing, yes, but it's not perfect."

"Are you quest-"

"As such," I rushed to continue, "it's imperative that we have some kind of backup plan. Sure, it might not end up being needed, but better safe than sorry, you know? Considering there's the grail on the line and all."

"…Let me guess, you have a suggestion as to what this backup plan should be" Caster sighed.

"Well, when it comes to dealing with an army, there's really only two choices. We can either overwhelm it with superior firepower, or…"

"…Or what, child? Spit it out! I don't have all day!"

"Or we have an army of our own…"

Once again, the hammering stopped, and Caster looked up to glare at me.

"And there it is… Listen and listen well, child. It's. Not. Happening! I have told you this countless times already!"

"But Caster-"

"No buts, child! Drop it!"

"I think I can get them to work!"

I already had my eyes squeezed shut as I rapid fired the words out, fully expecting some kind of retaliation for continuing to push the subject. Instead, the workshop just grew eerily silent. A moment passed. Then another. Come the third moment passing, I slowly opened my eyes.

Caster was just… staring right at me. Completely devoid of expression. Then… he started to laugh. Laugh a laugh I was all too familiar with. The laughter of mockery.

"Really now, child! You… You think you can get my Noble Phantasm working? You?! Of all people?! Perhaps Athena has finally met her match in arrogance!"

"Look, I know it's not going to be pretty, but I think the issue is that we're looking at this all wrong."

"Speak for yourself, child."

"You said before they follow the first command just fine, and considering everything else, I looked at it as a magic problem, and I was stumped. After all, it's not like I know magecraft."

"Where are you going with this, child" Caster sighed.

"Look at how we solved the issue with the workshop though. Ok, sure, maybe it was still technically a magecraft problem, but we solved it by looking at it like a science problem: transferring energy through a system, specifically a circuit akin to one in a computer."

"Your point?"

"It was something one of the kids said, way back near the start of this war. Something, something, equivalent exchange. Those two words stuck with me, and for the longest time, I couldn't quite figure out why it didn't sit well with me" I explained, beginning to pace around the workshop. "Then there's how we solved the workshop problem, and I later found out mages literally have magical energy flow through them by using magical circuits, and about a couple of days ago now, it hit me!"

"And what was this oh so brilliant discovery of yours, child" Caster simply rolled his eyes.

"Magecraft is just shitty science, and mages are just shitty scientists!"

…I genuinely think that exclamation took Caster by surprise, for he opened his mouth as if to speak, but swiftly stopped himself and… just stared at me for a moment, before again opening his mouth to speak.

"…What?"

"Really think about it Caster" I grinned. "You've seen modern technology, and you've seen magecraft. In terms of destructive power, well, nothing from what I've seen of it could ever hope to match the power of a nuclear warhead. Now, sure, if you were to compare illusion magecraft to VR and AR technology, and maybe some kind of teleportation spell to modern mass transit methods, modern technology falls a bit short on scope, but on scale technology still have magecraft beat. But in all other cases, technology beats out magecraft in both scope and scale."

"…"

"I didn't even realize this until I really started to try and work out why the words equivalent exchange stuck with me, and then I remembered… equivalent exchange was a basis of alchemy. Now, alchemy has long been dismissed from being a legitimate scientific field, but it did use to be treated as such-"

"How is any of this relevant, child?"

"I was getting to that! It's because, Caster, because… if mages today are using principles of alchemy as a basis for their magecraft, then even if it's no longer considered a legitimate science, as it is likely a form or a part of modern magecraft, then magecraft, as a whole, must bear some connections to science, or at the very least share some principles of science. On its own, I get that may be a crazy leap, but after seeing magecraft work as circuits, I'm convinced there must be some core principles that overlap, and that magecraft can, effectively, be classified like alchemy in that it's an outdated and dying science, so to speak. Makes sense to me since a lot of these mages want to reach this root thing to 'restore' magecraft as well, so there's another factor in favor of my current working theory."

"…"

"Now, working off the theory that magecraft bears similarities to science, to the point aspects of magecraft have been falsely considered to be science, then it stands to reason that principles would carry over, or overlap between the two. Key principles here being the principles that surround energy."

"…"

"Energy can't be created or destroyed, but it can be… changed. Transformed. At least, that's how it is in science, but that should hold true for magecraft as well, I think! Meaning-"

"Meaning magical energy can be transformed into other forms of energy? What good does-"

"Meaning other energy can be transformed into magical energy!"

"…"

"They listen to one command, we know that. You're not a mage and you don't know magecraft, we also know that. But if we could pulse magical energy through the statues, could we not then get them to change the command their following?"

"…"

"…"

"…Perhaps…"

"Then, if we were able to repeatedly, consistently pulse magical energy through them, could we not get them to change commands many times, effectively making them work, as you would put it?"

"…"

"…"

"…Assuming the first case hold true, I don't see why not, but-"

"Then don't you see, Caster? We can do this! We got eve-"

"Yes, yes, that all sounds lovely, child" Caster shouted, cutting me off. "But we have no means to get magical energy into the statues! As you oh so clearly pointed out, I'm not a mage!"

"But we do, Caster! We have an opening!"

"No, child, we-"

"The brand, Caster!"

Silence rushed into the workshop so quickly I'd swear I'd gone deaf. It sat and lingered, suffocating me. But, after a moment to prepare myself, I continued.

"I don't know much, Caster. My old man used to tell me repeatedly 'it doesn't matter what you think: you're wrong', and perhaps time will prove him right. But I know this, Caster: everything, at the end of the day, is a game. While all games are different, they all share one universal aspect: those who play the game the best are those approach it unconventionally."

"…"

"Conventionally, the brand is Athena's curse upon you. But that's only if you treat it as such. Approach the game unconventionally, flip it on its head, and the brand is no longer a curse, but a blessing."

"…"

"That brand appears on every object you create, even your statues for your Noble Phantasm. But who cares if people see it, Caster? Who cares what others think when they see the truth?! So what when they call you a monster?! Don't reject it, Caster; embrace it! Revel in it! Yes, you're a monster! We're all monsters! To be man is to be monster! Strip away every negative that curse, that brand, is meant to inflict on you, and what are you left with?!"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…A… A reservoir of magical energy… on every object I create as a Heroic Spirit… from Athena herself…"

"Thus, we have our opening" I grinned with a bow, tiling my head up to watch the gears in Caster's head working on overdrive as it all began to dawn on him. "In theory, we have our army, but even if it all amounts to nothing, I say it's still worth experimenting. After all, can you think of a better way to stick it to a goddess than by converting her curse... into your own blessing?"


A/N

So short, yet so hard to put this shit to words... I actually needed the entire week just to get these less than 2K words right. Honestly, was nearly as bad as the 'dream' sequence bit.

That said, to anyone who didn't see this coming, and can't see where this is going... bless you, is all I'm saying, because I'm not even trying to be subtle about it at this point xD

Also, yes, I said it! Magecraft in the Nasuverse is just shitty, outdated science in effect, and magi are just shitty scientists (and also usually just shitty people in general, so...). I will die on this hill, so don't even try to fight me on it!

As always, see all you in the next post o7