Book 1: Records of Magus Killer – Chapter 19 - Operation (Patreon)

The January of the Year 2072, Yotsuba Village, the Main House. One and half a year has passed since Maya's and Kiritsugu's wedding in 2070.

The January of the Year 2072, Yotsuba Village, the Main House.

One and half a year has passed since Maya's and Kiritsugu's wedding in 2070.

After Kiritisugu had a deep discussion with Kudou Retsu and he agreed to the conditions of Project Exodus, it was progressing smoothly, with the last of the most influential Clans supporting their effort.

Of course, the Kudou Clan, on the outside, kept their neutrality, as they didn't want to attract any attention by showing their closeness to the Yotsuba Clan.

It was already bad that the rest of the Master Clans were wary of the Yotsuba Clan as their strength continued to grow with each passing year, and they were eclipsing other members of the Ten Master Clans.

Together, they secretly revived the Magician Augmentation Project, as they entered a huge problem when Kiritsugu tried to follow the steps to become Ranker.

Basically, his Time Collapse Magic has evolved and been upgraded enough to be considered as Forbidden Magic used by Rankers, but there was a huge problem. His body was not strong enough to withstand it, and his body didn't have a large enough Psion Capacity to initiate the process of casting Forbidden Magic.

"You are still working on those wretched things?"

Questioned Maya as she came to see her husband, who was coped up for entire weeks in his lab, and usually exchanged places with her uncle Eisaku and his son.

"The broken continuation of Magic Legacy is showing how severe the problem is. Even Ancient Clans had lost their Psion Cores due to the continual decline in Psion and Pushion Density in the air. We need to find a way how to condense the Psion Core in the magician's body before one can attempt the Psionization of Body and Soul. Suppose we can't create a Core at first, which would, over time, slowly adjust the physical body. In that case, one cannot undergo Psionization successfully without killing himself."

Kiritsugu asnwered as they were having serious problems, as the natural path was cut for now, and it would be only generations later this problem would be solved naturally, or they could solve it artificially.

Natural solving of the problem was basically from generation to generation; Magicians collective strength would be increased, their bodies would contain more and more Psions, and slowly, they would form Psion Cores in their bodies, through that would require at least four or five generation magicians inbreeding with each other in Psion rich environment.

"So, how is it going?"

Yotsuba Maya asked a bit worriedly, that her husband was overworking himself.

"The progress is there, maybe a bit slow for my tastes, but we are on the right track. Unfortunately, in ancient times, everyone was born with Psion Cores, so our archives, library, and other things we obtained were basically useless. The most precious things in this research were lost, and we only got some bits. So we are working with what we have, and I uncle Eisaku presented an interesting method. Simply put, diamond formation occurs when carbon deposits deep within the earth are subject to high temperatures and pressure. Some stones take shape in a matter of days or months, while others take millions of years to materialize. Uncle Eisaku proposed using Magical Technology and Ritual Magic to do the same time, by compressing a huge amount of Psions in our body, to create a Psion Core, as basically Psion Cores are just crystalized psions. This method has the best chances for now."

Indeed, the condensation of the Psion Core was the first step in becoming a Star Order Magician, or rather, it was just reclaiming the past glory that Magicians once had on Earth during the peak of the Lemurian Civilization.

Maya just sat on the couch, contemplating her husband's words, who was right now reading some notes from the last experiments with the Psion Core.

"You are going to try it on yourself, not?"

She questioned after a short time of science.

"Yes, I am very close to that level. My Time Collapse Magic has already reached the level of Forbidden Magic due to my extensive comprehension of the Innate Time, and my Processing Power and Reading Ability of Eidos have significantly increased over the years. If I successfully became Ranker, I would probably be the only living human on the entire planet who reached 4th Order in the last 500 years at the very least."

He answered, very well aware of what his wife was thinking about, but alas, he had no choice. He wanted to reach the 4th Order Magician as soon as possible because he wanted to go hunt down the 4th Order Dead Apostle.

That Dead Apostle was priceless for Kiritsugu, not only a research material for the entire Yottsuba Clan, but also he was information throwe about the wider world.

Maya didn't say anything, as she knew that her husband was stubborn like her when he decided to do something. She just stood up and went to him and hugged him tightly from behind as she kissed him on his forehead.

"Please, just do everything with maximum caution and be safe, okey?"

She muttered as Kiritsugu nodded and kissed Maya on her lips as she sat on his lap.

"Don't worry; everything would be fine... I am not that stupid to make my young, powerful, nice, hot wife a widow."

He joked as Maya giggled a bit.

"Of course, of course."

Maya said as she was aware that her husband had a weird, morbid sense of humor.

"And what about the second thing we talked about?"

His wife asked, this time with more concern visible in her voice.

"Tested and working perfectly."

***

One Month Later, at the borders of the USNA.

Sneaking into the United States of North America was not an easy task. Still, for Kiritsugu and his group, it was an easy task, as they were selected explicitly from all magicians of the Clans and Imperial Army to carry out this task.

Five people were participating in this mission. One of them was Kiritsugu; the others were Kudou Makoto, who was chosen for his Clan Magic Parade.

The Parade was Family Secret Magic developed by Kudou Retsu after a man named "Matoi" to him in the 9th Magical Research Institute. While the original illusion magic Kudou Retsu learned, "Matoi", focused on creating a body clone, his magic, Parade, focuses on changing the image of the user. It writes coordinates into a false body that is a superficial duplicate that can't be differentiated with the caster.

This magic is helpful in fights since all of the opponents' attacks cannot target the real body. Thus, in order to break through 'Parade', it's necessary to either locate the body between the time when the old illusion breaks down, and a new illusion is created or disregard the five senses to find the coordinates of the body directly in the dimension of information.

It was one of the best Illusion-type magic currently existing in the world.

Kiritusgu and had applied Parade on them to look like ordinary average citizens of the USNA, more precisely of the format state USA.

Another member aside from them was Tsuchimikado Yasazumi, who was chosen for his shadow shinigami and other useful, powerful summons.

Then two soldiers from the Imperial Army acted as support, mainly for technical matters and other similar things, as the main mission was to kill Edward Clark, obtain his research, and destroy what the USNA currently had, fallen onto three of them.

'Everyone already?'

Asked Kiritsugu through a telepathic channel, they established through magic before they entered the territory of the USNA.

'M alright and ready.'

'T alright and ready.'

'D alright and ready.'

'P already and ready.'

'K passed. Next. Point. AN.'

They talked through only codes even if they were talking telepathically; who knows what magic the USNA had at their disposal, so it was better to be safe than sorry.

Kiritsugu had already passed several border checks, as others were now entering the territory of the former United States and were heading to the state of Texas, to its capital Austin.

It was the city where Edward Clark had his main research facility and where all the research in regard to the Echelon III was carried out.

All five of them entered from different directions and different points, as their entire mission would take several weeks fastest; as they were extra careful and took care of being as stealthy as possible because the Echelon III was currently the top priority of the USNA.

So security around the entire USNA was rather strict, and every person entering the state of Texas was extensively checked, and even more security checks were done at Austin. This entire emergency state would last until the Echelon III was successfully finished and launched.