Plans never change as fast as they should.
Shinji was supposed to be home before eight o'clock, but when he got home it was almost half past eight, which made Kariya very unhappy.
Night is the best cover for mystery. The arrival of night means that Servants and Masters will become active from dormancy. Although Kariya knew that with Shinji's strength and experience, it was basically impossible for anything to go wrong, he still couldn't help but worry. This was the nature of being a parent and it could not be changed.
When entering the siblings' house, Kariya wanted to scold them, but when he saw Sakura's happy expression, Kariya couldn't say anything.
The words came to my lips, and finally became: "It's late, take a shower and go to bed early."
"Ah, it's already this time."
Sakura glanced at the clock on the entrance, stuck out her tongue sheepishly, said "good night" hurriedly to Shinji and Kariya, and trotted back to her room.
"You seem a little different from usual, more lively." Kariya listened to the sound of slippers hitting the floor and looked at Shinji in confusion.
Shinji spread his hands and said, "I was playing with a group of kids my age in the park. I went a little crazy and forgot about the ladylike manners Auntie Aoi taught me. Well, there's nothing wrong with that."
"Indeed, there's nothing wrong with that." Kariya agreed, "As long as Sakura is happy, that's enough."
"Sounds like a stupid dad." Shinji muttered.
"I heard it." Kariya glared at his nephew unhappily, "Tell me, why did you come back so late?"
Although Yanye was not married, he knew that there would be no parent who would not pick up their children after the sun went down.
"Don't blame Sakura. We found something on the way and wasted some time." Shinji said and pointed down, indicating that the two should go to the basement workshop to talk.
... ...
A few minutes later, the underground workshop that isolated Rune was opened.
Kariya’s face was gloomy and his brows were furrowed.
"You mean you found Caster's summoned monster in the nearby sewers?"
Shinji's expression was no better than Kariya's: "Yes, I would not mistake that kind of aquatic monster that looks like a sea anemone. I asked Sakura to use detection magic to do a rough scan, and there are at least fifty of these monsters underground in the residential area."
"Fifty! This is trouble."
Upon hearing this number, Kariya's expression became even worse.
"Indeed. The combat power of this kind of monster is not very good. A single monster does not pose much threat to a magician. The problem is ordinary people. They don't have the ability to deal with summoned monsters, and there are so many of them - huh?"
Shinji's expression suddenly changed. The blood color on his face faded at a speed visible to the naked eye. Veins on his forehead bulged, making him look extremely scary.
"-What did you say?"
The inexplicable roar startled Kariya, and he quickly asked, "What's going on?"
Shinji took a few deep breaths and tried to keep himself calm. "The latest news from the master is that traces of magic power have been detected in the underground waterways of half of Fuyuki City west of the Mion River. The total number of monsters exceeds four digits."
Kariya's first reaction was that it was impossible. "Summoning magic consumes a lot of mana. Even Lord El-Melloi or Tōsaka Tokiomi don't have that much mana to waste on a Servant, let alone an irregular Master. The police didn't receive any news of anyone being murdered today. How on earth did Caster do it?"
"That is not Caster's magic power, but the power of Caster's Noble Phantasm. After two encounters, the master has seen that Caster does not use his own magic power to summon monsters, but relies on his Noble Phantasm. That human skin book is a magic core that can ignore the magic power of the caster and automatically perform the highest level of all magic, the Grand Mage, the Ritual Spell level."
Caster's only treasure is called "Rayan Castle Textbook", which is level A. It records the forbidden knowledge of the ancient evil gods before the emergence of humans. Because of its automatic and continuous large-scale summoning, it is rated as an "A-level treasure". Give Caster enough time, let alone a thousand monsters, even ten thousand monsters are not impossible.
Moreover, because it is an aquatic monster, summoned in the water and hidden underground, it is difficult to detect due to numerous obstacles. Even Scathach and other servants active on the ground did not notice the changes under their feet.
This guy is really pushed into a corner - Shinji sighed with a heavy heart. He will not regret his actions against Caster's group, because it did save some lives that might have been lost, but Caster's actions were ultimately caused by him, and he needs to take some responsibility for it.
"There is no time to lose. We cannot allow Caster to continue summoning. I will immediately go clean up the garbage in the underground waterway."
Shinji said as he pulled out a brand new map from the bookshelf next to him. This was a map of the structure of the Fuyuki City underground waterway that Tsuruno had obtained through his connections in the police. It was originally just an accessory to the police map, but he didn't expect it to be really useful now.
"I'll go too. With Berserker here, it will be quicker to clean up."
Kariya stretched out his hand and drew a large circle with the Matou family as the center, covering one-third of Fuyuki City. "Leave this to me. If the monsters are as vulnerable as you say, my magic power is enough to support them until dawn."
Shinji hesitated for a while, and finally nodded: "Please uncle, I will take care of the rest. It's really unpleasant to be led by Caster even though I know it's Caster's way of diverting attention."
"Let them be proud for a while. When the master finds them, we will get back what we paid for with interest." Kariya patted his nephew's shoulder and consoled him. "By the way, should we notify the church? They are the ones who changed the rules. We can't just do anything and they will just watch."
"Then just give them a symbolic notice, although I don't think they will do anything."
There are only two people from the Holy Church stationed in Fuyuki City, Kotomine Risei and Kotomine Kirei.
Kotomine Li is a warrior, not a magician, and has a very bad relationship with monsters summoned by magic - purely mysterious creations can only be dealt with mysteriously, and physical means are unlikely to be effective.
Kotomine Kirei is suitable for this kind of job, but he doesn't care about the life and death of ordinary people. Now his attention is on Emiya Kiritsugu. It is better to expect Tōsaka Tokiomi to put aside his aristocratic elegance and reserve and drill into the underground sewer than to expect him to contribute.
After dividing the area they were responsible for and each making a copy of the underground waterway topographic map, the uncle and nephew acted separately.
Kariya has a Berserker with the highest panel attributes by his side. With his A-level strength, Berserker does not need to use any Noble Phantasms, or even any other skills, and can tear monsters apart with brute force.
Kariya's approach was as simple and crude as the servants' tactics. He used the detection runes that had been set up in advance to follow the fluctuations of magic power to find the target - Berserker materialized, tore the monster apart with his bare hands, and then transformed into a spirit body - the whole process took no more than three seconds, and the consumption of magic power was reduced to a minimum, so Kariya said that he could hold on until dawn.
Shinji couldn't be as cool and carefree as Kariya. Even with magic to strengthen his strength, it was barely at E level, roughly on par with cannon fodder monsters. But he had Perseus' "Snake Hunting Scythe", a sickle blade of a higher level than the "Destroying Yellow Rose", and it was far beyond the reach of monsters.
The special effect of "Snake Hunting Scythe" that "wounds will not heal" also effectively restrains the self-healing ability of monsters. It is precisely because of this trump card that Shinji did not recall Scathach, but chose to act alone.