Summoning a Heroic Spirit—this was the deepest Mystery in the entire Type-Moon World.
It meant pulling a legendary figure from the Throne of Heroes, dragging them into the present age, and commanding them to fight.
Each Heroic Spirit wielded terrifying power, and thanks to the peculiar rule of the Type-Moon World—"the lesser Mystery cannot harm the greater"—they utterly crushed modern weapons and modern magi alike.
That was why the Holy Grail War had become the most iconic ritual of the Type-Moon World. And for any magus, the summoning circle for a Servant was a lesson that could never be taken lightly.
Unlike the *Fate/Zero* worldline, where the Grail War was limited to Fuyuki City, in this *Fate/Apocrypha* parallel world, every magus was familiar with Heroic Spirits. The Clock Tower had even added an entirely new department to its Twelve Courses: the Department of Summoning.
Rhodes had acquired his Catalyst from the head of that very department, Rocco Belfeban. It wasn't exactly cheap, but not wanting to cross Rhodes, Rocco had offered a fairly "reasonable" price.
Even so, the purchase had drained half a year's profits from *Rhodes's Arcane Garden*.
In this world where "subspecies Grail Wars" ran rampant, Catalysts were inflated to prices beyond imagination—more outrageous than housing markets in the biggest cities of America. The ones hit hardest by this speculation were the Yggdmillennia Clan; thanks to such price-gouging, their draws had landed them with a bunch of trash-tier Heroic Spirits—Astolfo excluded, of course. That one, at least, was lickable.
The clan's Masters had already decided: while Command Spells could be reassigned through certain methods, Rhodes didn't need such things.
His plan was to *capture* a Heroic Spirit.
And "capture" didn't mean summoning one and chucking a Master Ball at it. It demanded careful, meticulous planning and a deep understanding of the Spirit in question.
The material for this capture lay before him now: a nude Automaton girl.
It was a work of exquisite craftsmanship—among all the Automaton maids Rhodes had created, this one was in a class of her own.
Her pale skin was as smooth as mutton-fat jade. Her sleeping face, though delicate, carried a playful wildness, and her figure was all sharp curves and lush fullness. Fifteen or sixteen years old in appearance, with a body already mature beyond belief—enough that even a seasoned womanizer like Rhodes had to admit, *that's one hell of a piece of hardware.*
But most striking of all were the animal ears peeking through her soft pink hair—likely fox or dog—and the fluffy golden tail radiating an aura of divinity.
Though she bore the fragile beauty of a young maiden, no one would mistake her for human. Not because of the ears or tail, but because of the sheer pressure she exuded—not the base ferocity of a beast, but the dignity of a god.
Yes. A god. The blood of the sun flowed within that body. Even dormant, the Automaton radiated a crushing, divine majesty.
To build this vessel alone had cost Rhodes eight years of accumulated resources. Only with the aid of noble patrons at the Clock Tower had he completed this near-perfect masterpiece.
"She" was the key to capturing a Heroic Spirit—both the vessel to house them and the prison to bind them.
"With the Catalyst I have, I can only summon one of the nine tails, huh... But I've no idea which 'Tamamo' I'll get. If it's the virtuous wife or the innocent maiden, that's fine. But if it's one of the others—or worse, that ill-tempered golden nine-tails..."
Rhodes muttered bitterly under his breath.
Indeed, among all Heroic Spirits, Tamamo-no-Mae was an excellent choice. Not for raw power, but for the knowledge she carried.
A true being of the Age of Gods, she possessed divine-era wisdom. And with her other eight tails still in existence, Rhodes could use her as a medium to summon additional versions of Tamamo-no-Mae.
Like catching rabbits—you grab the fox, you get the whole litter.
The only condition was *not* getting drained dry by the fox in the process. Everything else, Rhodes could handle. But matters below the waist... he knew damn well he didn't have that kind of self-control.
That old saying about "desire leading to disaster, cut it off to be safe"? A joke. For Rhodes, solving the problem of release came first.
"So... more restrictions are necessary. The control incantations for Tamamo need to be airtight. On top of the basic spells, I'll have to embed lethal countermeasures directly into this body."
His voice grew colder as he spoke. As the strongest arcanist of Netheril, Rhodes had once inscribed the spell *Permanency: Mechanized Mind* directly into his soul. Whenever he researched Arcane Magic, he could switch to a purely mechanical state of thought, stripping away all emotion and allowing flawless judgment.
One by one, runes flared. He embedded the newly acquired fragment of the Lesser Grail into the Automaton's abdomen. The shard of the Third Magic—Materialization of the Soul—would serve as its power core.
The Type-Moon World couldn't contain a mythallar, so Rhodes had to rely on this "classical" method to supply mana to a Heroic Spirit.
—Of course, timely "mana transfer" through field exercises wasn't a bad option either.
"Then... let's begin the summoning."
His tone was flat, emotionless. In battle or ritual, his mechanized mind would override his humanity, ensuring perfection and eliminating every possibility of error.
He raised his arm. Long verses poured from his lips, echoing through the sunlit workshop.
"I declare—"
"Hear me, and answer my call! Your fate rests within my grasp!"
His voice dropped low, twisting the summoning chant with his own mastery of Magecraft and Arcane Magic.
"I am the beginning of every triumph, the source of every grudge that taints this world."
"Encircled by spells unending, descend beneath my command!"
"From the wheel of restraint, from the balance of scales—come forth!"
In that instant, his Magic Circuits were drained dry. The Heroic Spirit taking form devoured every shred of mana like a starving girl at a feast.
Blinding white light filled the chamber. Rhodes collapsed slowly to the ground, his reckless summoning wracking his body. Just before his eyes shut, he glimpsed her—
The pink-haired, fox-eared girl rising unsteadily, panic flashing across her delicate face, rushing toward him in a hurry.
*—Is she... cursing me already?*
That was his last thought, before Rhodes sank into the endless sea of unconsciousness.