18 Chapter 16 Dragon? Divine? Overpowered?

"Ding! [System] recommends exchanging the Lottery Ticket before the User does anything else. The User is at what you would call a crossroad".

Takemi frowned before asking, "How so?".

"Ding! It is because the User can take several different paths depending on what he would like to grow to become. A Magus dedicated to reaching the ROOT. An Enforcer whose Magecraft is dedicated to combat. A Demi-Servant whose physical abilities transcend humanity. A Divine Spirit who discards their humanity in exchange for power and lifespan. A Phantasmal Beast whose strength and longevity is as legendary as the tales spoken about them. A God who is border lying on the ROOT but is never able to touch it.

The User would call this a crossroad, would he not?".

Takemi was shocked. He may have been a Type-Moon fan, but he never considered reaching anything but the ROOT. He thought he was a Magus, someone who dedicated their life to reaching the ROOT but there were so many options for him.

He took a deep breath and said, "Tell me the items up for rate up".

"Ding! The [System] Lottery has on rate up today, Lancer Servant Karna, Assassin Servant King Hassan, Noble Phantasm Enkidu: the Chains of Heaven, Skill [Battle Continuation B-], Complete Emiya Family Crest, Heart of a Dragon, Random number of Primordial Runes.

Does the User wish to exchange?".

Takemi gulped. Each one of those was an amazing item, each giving their own advantages and disadvantages. The Servants could teach him their skills and experiences. The Noble Phantasm would allow him to restrain any existence in this world. The Skill would help his combat prowess. The Emiya Crest would allow him to alter time to a certain extent. The Dragon Heart could alter him and make him something more than human. And the Primordial Runes, could make him stronger than Musashi depending on the quantity and quality he receives.

If he doesn't get one, he'll have to wait and decide for himself.

"I guess I'll leave it up to Fate...", Takemi smirked and continued, "[System], exchange Lottery Ticket".

There was a moment of silence before...

"Ding! User has exchanged the Lottery Ticket... User has received.... Heart of a Dragon! The Heart was randomly selected from the ones in the [Store]. Congratulations!".

Takemi sighed in relief after hearing that he received something from the rate up. If it was anything like the Fate/Grand Order Gacha, he'll have to save up over three hundred Lottery Tickets just to get one good Servant... that wasn't even on rate up.

"[System], what are the details of the Heart of a Dragon? Is it similar to the one Sigurd absorbed or Siegfried bathed in?".

Both the Heroic Spirit Sigurd and Siegfried were Saber Classes that had mirroring legends as they both involved slaying the dragon Fafnir. The former ingesting its heart and modifying his body to something more than human but less than dragon, while also obtaining the Crystallized Wisdom that is contained within Dragons; their Mystery.

The latter however only bathed in the blood of Fafnir, granting Siegfried an dragon's body with invulnerability that made all weapons ineffective against him. Having also swallowed the blood as well, it circulates throughout his body and affects his organs strengthening them and increasing the amount of od in his body.

'I wonder what dragon I got...'.

"Ding! User has received the Heart of Ao Shun. Chinese Dragon God of the North and Essence of Winter. If the User compares Fafnir to Ao Shun, the latter should be considered an existence higher than the former. It is not just a member of the Dragon Phantasmal Species, it is also above all else a God and possesses Divinity. Does they User wish to integrate the heart?".

Takemi's mouth dropped. Dragon? Divinity? Isn't that a little bit overpowered?

"[System]? Isn't that a little overpowered? I mean it's an organ belonging to one of the strongest existences in the world and on top of that it is a god? This isn't a step up in power, it's several leagues above Musashi's let alone my own. What-".

"[System] has already informed the User that everything from [Type-Moon] can be purchased. And for future reference Ao Shun is weaker than Sorcerers and True Ancestors. He is weaker than most Gods on the level of Indra, Zeus, Amaterasu and Lugh. He would be in the lower-tier Gods if anything".

Takemi nodded albeit a bit hesitantly.

"[System] in a fight, at their peaks, could Servants like Karna or Heracles defeat Ao Shun?".

"Ding! Yes! The probability of this is very high. Even Servants like Scathach and Oda Nobunaga could defeat him. Musashi, under the right circumstances could defeat him".

That caused Takemi's excited face to falter a little bit. He loved Musashi and loved her strength, however she admitted to him that most other Saber Servants could beat her in a battle of strength, endurance and agility and mainly closed the gap with her peak swordsmanship and battle instinct.

In terms of Noble Phantasm's however she could tough it out with the best of them. Summoning an avatar of the God of Destruction and raining down long distant waves of magical power that temporarily exceeded her Mana stat of E.

But if Ao Shun could be beat by Musashi it lessened his opinion on the Dragon God by more than a little. If this heart wasn't going to be as good as Fafnir then what was the point?

"Ding! User has misinterpreted the power of a Servant and Ao Shun. User must remember that Saber Servant Miyamoto Musashi is a top tier Saber Servant and that Ao Shun is a Lesser God. Some top tier Servants have killed Gods or Divine Beings before. The biggest fault of a Servant, is that they were mortal when alive and Gods survive on the power of Faith. The two are intrinsically linked and is the reason why a Servant like Scathach became a pseudo Divine Spirit. Trapped between realms of mortality".

"So Gods living on Faith is a kind of mortality as well?", asked Takemi.

"Ding! User is correct. The only true immortality is the Third True Magic Heavens Feel. Gods, humans, Phantasmal Beasts, Gaia, all possess mortality. Just some beings lifespans are tiny and others close to infinite".

Takemi sat down on his bed and leaned on the wall it was put up against. He had a bit of a headache talking about qualities of Divinity and immortality with the [System]. He felt as though their was more to the [System] than he originally believed.

"[System]? Who made you?".

"Ding! User does not have the authority to have the answer to this question".

"[System]? What are you?".

"Ding! User does not have the authority to have the answer to this question".

"How old are you?".

"Ding!.... User does not have the authority to have the answer to this question".

He slammed his head against the wall.

'This damn this is messing with me!'. Takemi shook his head and sighed. The [System] was a mysterious thing and he wondered how and why Zelretch would give it to him.

He threw the worries to the back of his mind and took a deep breath and a took something out of the [System]. The moment he felt it enter his hands he dropped it under the sheer weight of the small object.

"Holy crap it's heavy! It must weight over a hundred kilograms!".

Reinforcing his arms, Takemi brought up the pulsating object up to his eye and examined it.

"So this is the Heart of a Dragon. Seems smaller than I thought it would be".

"Ding! [System] has shrunk the Heart so that it can fit in the size of the User's room. Ao Shun was a Dragon God over a kilometer long when he was alive".

The young man blinked a couple times and then felt the mana in the room increase in quality and quantity. If felt easier to breath and if he practiced his [Basic Breathing and Walking Technique] Takemi believed he would have an easier time refining his physical body.

"Can you tell me the effects it'll give when ingested?".

"Ding! The Heart will grant the User a dragonkind mana reactor core that acts as one giant Magic Circuit. It will change your current Magic Circuits to EX Rank and every Magic Circuit you purchase after this. You will gain a physical body stronger, faster, more durable. A level equivalent to Sigurd's at the very least.

You will gain knowledge on Magecraft from the Age of the Gods, however will take you some time to acclimate to the new knowledge you have obtained. Several months to a year is the estimated time. And finally, your Element and Origin may change depending on the comparability you possess with the heart. The [System] cannot calculate this information".

Takemi nodded and suddenly the Dragon Heart in his hands felt a whole lot heavier. This was a chance to become closer to Musashi and Angelina in terms of strength. He might be the weakest Magician at First High, not including his swordsmanship, but after this he won't be.

"Any chance of backlash?".

"ding. There is. The probability of backlash is approximately 3%. It is small and unlikely however the User must know their is a risk involved".

The [System's] sounded quieter or sadder. Takemi ignored it and focused on the Heart in front of him.

He took one last deep breath and opened his mouth. The exact moment his teeth bit into the heart an uncontrollable desire overtook him and her devoured the heart in a single gulp. Takemi didn't chew but ingested the heart in it's entirety.

"Huh. That wasn't so-".

A burning sensation started to appear in Takemi's stomach before slowly moving throughout his body. The feeling of fire was so strong that his clothes started to burn and his skin and hair started to burn off along with it.

He could feel his bones creaking and breaking with every passing moment and saw that several blood vessels had popped which caused his skin to turn the same color as blood.

'Am I going to die!'.

He lost his sense of touch before any of the other five, however the pain emanating from his stomach was the only thing that was keeping him awake and in a constant agony.

Takemi's felt his blood been boiled and he lost count of the number of times he threw up. He felt his vision change. Heat. X-Ray. Night Vision before he lost his sight and his ability to speak. His tongue had thickened so much that it inhibited his breathing and he slowly started to fall unconscious

The last thing he remembered before passing out, was black scales growing on his arms and the feeling of a fire surrounding his entire body...