That's right. Unlike in the previous Fate/Zero mission, this time, Zuke could clearly feel the energy when the Heroic Spirit's soul returned to the Lesser Grail.
This energy was abnormally familiar, and it was energy he couldn't sense during the Fate/Zero mission...
"Is it planetary energy?"
Zuke opened his eyes and instantly recalled where this familiar feeling of energy came from.
After learning Moro's magic techniques, he had used magic to extract quite a bit of planetary energy and devour it.
And just now, after Hassan-i-Sabbah's death, the energy received by the Lesser Grail was almost the same as the planetary energy Zuke had devoured before.
Heroic Spirits—whose formal name is "Heroic Spirit of the Throne"—in the Type-Moon world's setting, originally had an inseparable relationship with the planet's Counter Force.
Special cases like Heroic Spirit EMIYA were even Guardians selected by the Counter Force itself.
Since they had such a connection with the planet's Counter Force, their own energy being almost identical to planetary energy seemed quite reasonable?
"So the Lesser Grail collecting Heroic Spirit souls is essentially collecting enough planetary energy..."
Zuke looked at the "Lesser Grail" placed on the coffee table—that is, the cigar emanating golden radiance—showing a trace of interest.
If his speculation was correct... couldn't Zuke fill this Lesser Grail with the energy it needed at any time?
Don't forget, Zuke's body accumulated a large amount of planetary energy—he had devoured quite a bit of planetary energy from uninhabited planets in the Dragon Ball world to enhance himself.
Even just now in the Dragon Ball world, the energy he gave to Garou contained quite a bit of planetary energy. He could completely use the same method to inject this energy into the "Lesser Grail."
If so, even without killing other Heroic Spirits, Zuke could forcibly give the "Lesser Grail" enough energy to manifest and make the Lesser Grail appear ahead of time.
Just as Zuke was thinking about whether to inject planetary energy to make the Lesser Grail manifest early, a series of urgent knocking sounds came from outside.
"Hmm? Who's here?"
Hearing the knocking, Waver paused, then stood up and walked over to prepare to open the door.
He certainly didn't think the visitor was Reines and Sakura Matou, since Reines had a key and didn't need to knock.
He thought it might be some kind of worker—in Japan, there were quite a few workers who would come uninvited, knock on the door and say they needed to collect some kind of fee, which was quite suspicious.
When Waver had just arrived in Fuyuki City, he had also encountered such workers, but he had used magic to hypnotize and send them away, so he was already somewhat familiar with such things.
He opened the house's door, looked at the person outside, then his pupils contracted and he unconsciously took a step back, his posture instantly becoming vigilant.
Who could make him so vigilant?
"Who the hell are you?"
Mordred at the door swaggered in—she wasn't wearing her battle armor, but rather a quite modern set of casual clothes.
The reason Waver retreated was of course that he noticed Mordred was a Heroic Spirit—as a magus, he couldn't possibly beat a Heroic Spirit, so naturally he was extremely vigilant.
However, Mordred didn't seem to have come to fight this time. After the door was opened, she walked straight in, then immediately saw Zuke standing in the center of the hall.
Her eyes lit up, and she quickly ran to Zuke, looking at him with somewhat excited eyes.
"...How come it's you?"
Seeing that it was actually Mordred who rushed in, Zuke was also somewhat surprised. He looked at Mordred standing in front of him and asked.
"What? Are you ready now and want to fight me right away?"
"No, I'm not ready yet! This time I came to find you for something else!"
Hearing this, Mordred shook her head—just kidding, she hadn't figured out Zuke's weaknesses yet. If they fought now, she'd definitely lose miserably.
"This time I came to ask you on a date!"
"Pfft—"
Waver, who was still somewhat vigilant nearby, heard Mordred's words and couldn't help but spit out.
He looked at Mordred with somewhat horrified eyes, then looked at Zuke, obviously somewhat unable to figure out Mordred's thought process.
"...Who taught you these things?"
Zuke helplessly scratched his head. He was quite clear about Mordred's personality. This guy probably had no understanding of what the word "date" meant.
"Eh? Isn't that how you say it?"
Sure enough, Mordred paused, then muttered somewhat puzzled.
"I saw in a book that this is how you're supposed to invite a man out..."
Obviously, in order to lure Zuke out to be alone with her, Mordred had specifically read through some modern books and learned this invitation word from them.
It's just that she probably didn't realize that this kind of date invitation wasn't just an invitation between acquaintances, but also contained that layer of meaning between men and women.
Although Mordred's performance was a bit comical, Zuke also seemed to realize what Mordred wanted to do.
She probably wanted to figure out his weaknesses by being alone with him, then exploit them more during battle.
For Mordred, as long as she achieved victory in battle, she absolutely wouldn't mind launching fierce attacks on the opponent's weaknesses—therefore, figuring out Zuke's weaknesses was very important.
Direct confrontation had no chance of winning, so the only option was to find weaknesses to get a glimmer of hope.
However, just as Mordred thought her invitation seemed to have gone wrong and was feeling somewhat annoyed, Zuke spoke:
"Sure, I don't mind."
Zuke really didn't mind—he could understand Mordred's thoughts, but Zuke had enough confidence that Mordred's actions this time would only end in futility.
When the power gap was large enough, finding weaknesses didn't mean much.
Unless Zuke was like Kakarot in the Dragon Ball original work, not even forming the habit of using "ki" to protect himself and still getting his chest pierced by a laser gun.
But the current Zuke had already formed the habit of wrapping "ki" around his body. He wouldn't capsize in the gutter like Kakarot.
Even if he stood here and let Mordred strike, Mordred might not be able to leave a mark on him.
"Mr. Zuke..."
Waver was still a bit worried. Although he knew Zuke was very strong, he obviously didn't have sufficient understanding yet.
After all, Zuke really hadn't displayed planet-destroying level power in front of Waver. Waver probably found it hard to imagine a Heroic Spirit's strength could reach that level.
"Don't worry, it's fine."
Zuke nodded at Waver, then grinned.
"Just consider it taking the opportunity to discipline a bratty kid."
To Zuke, Mordred really was like a disobedient and unreasonable bratty kid.
To be continued…