“In that case, I don’t have a choice.”

A noise sounded as she shook her head. She did not even need to incant. That was why Faker and Heartless were caught off guard.

Suddenly, lines of text written with magecraft surrounded the two people. My eyes told me the runes shimmered exactly along the path Touko had taken to walk here.

Did that mean she carved out words with her feet!?

What monstrosity of a technique was this?

“I used a rune that creates runes, which I made a while ago. Since I’m back in London, I’ve decided to keep some on me.”

Rune Magecraft was a type of magecraft that had once been extinct.

It was impossible for mages to revive types of magecraft that went extinct along with their magecraft base. The families who believed that only a fragment of Rune Magecraft still existed gradually died out, still refusing to let go of said fragments.

The one who revived this extinct art was Touko Aozaki.

For that great accomplishment, the Clock Tower granted her the rank of Grand.

And now, the runes beneath her feet began to multiply. In the blink of an eye, it changed from hundreds to thousands, and a cloud of runes enveloped the Master-Servant pair.

“It is mass-produced, but I hope you don’t mind. Here, take the fire of Ansuz!”

Usually, the rune that represented fire was Kaunan. Ansuz was used in rituals to the Gods. Runes could sometimes be used as language. Other times, they represented the gods themselves, so the ones who cast them could channel everything that gods personified. Thinking of the thunder god invoked lightning. Thinking of the fire god invoked fire.

Fire in that scenario was more than just fire. It was a rune selected especially to burn the powerful mystery that this Servant held—!

“Faker!”

I thought I heard something in the cyclone of flame.

And then, something else.

“Aello.”

A gust of wind blew past us.

This mysterious wind extinguished the flames created by thousands of runes as soon as they made contact.

“Burning Heroic Spirits with the fire of the gods is a good idea. You’ve also created plenty of fire. But don’t you think directly invoking the fragments of gods works more in my favor than yours?”

Faker was different from modern mages, because she was a mage from the Age of the Gods who could directly utilize fragments of the power of the gods. Though all sorts of natural phenomena have lost their connection to divine power after the Age of the Gods, it was still possible to make use of their power. For example, if the person using it was a Servant from the Age of the Gods…!

She didn’t even leave a pause for Touko to use more magecraft. “Nereides!”

If the name from just then referred to a Harpy in Greek Mythology, this was the term that referred to the goddesses of water.

Immediately, the water in the air became solid and bound the arms and legs of the Grand-ranked mage.

“Haha, is this the high-speed incantation of the Age of the Gods?” Touko said, laughing. “All spells like that only require One Count regardless of how much Mystery they contain! It’s more like a bug than a cheat, even though they’re completely different.”

Lord El-Melloi II's Case Files: Grand Roll (Middle); Chapter 1, Part 3