Third Magic

The Third Magic (第3魔法, daisan mahou^?), also referred as Heaven's Feel (天の杯, ten no sakazuki^?), is one of the five remaining true magic in modern Nasuverse.

History

The Third Magic was originally achieved by the Einzbern family, but its secret was lost one thousand years ago. In relation to the other Five Magics, it is said the Third "showed the future", and that it would have been best if its discovery had been the last. For the next eight centuries, the Einzberns sought to recover it until finally coming up with the concept of Holy Grail War. There is no information on the original practitioners of the Third Magic. If it can be considered to have any user in modern times, it would be Justeaze Lizrich von Einzbern, who is the core of the Great Grail. Illyasviel von Einzbern also makes use of it in one of the routes of Fate/stay night, although it is an incomplete usage.

Effects

The soul contains the memories, mind, and magic circuits of a person, and it uses the person's body as an anchor to the world to keep from being dispersed and returning to Akasha. Once the brain and body are destroyed, it is impossible to restore a person's dispersed soul, and even the magical ability of the Holy Grail can't restore a destroyed body. Even if a magus manages to place their soul into a new body, it will either be an inferior copy compared to the original, as in the case of Michael Roa Valdamjong, or the soul itself will eventually begin to rot, as with Zouken Matou.

Heaven's Feel is a magic that allows for the materialization of the soul (魂の物質化^?), which stops the inevitable dispersion of the soul once it no longer has an anchor to the world, and essentially makes it transcend to a higher form of existence. It is a magic that realizes true immortality by making the soul into a high-dimensional planar being capable of interacting with the material world as a mental body without having to return to Akasha. The practitioner will acquire an unlimited source of magical energy due to the soul becoming analogous to a perpetual motion machine^WP.

The Great Grail uses several parts of Heaven's Feel in an attempt to recreate it in its entirety. Using an incomplete version, it takes a raw soul, raw energy made from spiritual particles, and copies information of Heroic Spirits in order to generate Servants. Rather than being actual resurrection, it is the temporary formation of a soul that doesn't require a real body, meaning that they are not truly brought back to life. Gaia, considering that they should be dead in the present, considers servants to be a contradiction that must be removed, so they need a constant connection to their masters' prana to keep from being erased. After a Servant is killed, the Holy Grail temporarily stores their souls before they are returned to Akasha. In the case of receiving an actual body from the corrupted Grail, they are able to exist for a longer period of time, but they are still considered as not alive and require prana to remain in the present world.

During Heaven's Feel, Illya uses an incomplete version of the Third Magic in order to keep Shirou's soul from dispersing after his body is destroyed. While it manages to save his soul, the new container, which she calls "cheap", cannot be fully reproduced from Illya's body. It is small enough to be "plucked" out of a river by Rider, so they have to take the time to find a suitable puppet body for him instead. In such a case where the soul gains a new anchor to the world, anything with similar properties to a human, such as a puppet body or anything else with a brain, the soul will reshape the body according to its memories. This means that the person is now alive, and that the body will bleed, get sick, age, and eventually die. While the person is completely anchored to the body, the soul is actually controlling the body by "remote control."

The existence of Angra Mainyu as the root of all evil, his soul having been turned into an "eternal generator", is an example of what the Third Magic is capable of accomplishing, though that was a result of the wish granting aspect of the Grail rather than Third Magic. Existences like Lugh Beowulf are similar to what the Third can accomplish, but he is a naturally occurring being.

Dress of Heaven

Illya wearing the Dress of Heaven.

The Mystic Code of the Einzbern family, the Dress of Heaven, is the heart that controls the Great Grail that is capable of materializing the soul for several seconds. This allows for the transferal of a soul into another container, such as when Illya places Shirou's soul into a doll in a bad ending.

It has the appearance of a pure white dress that is made from gold, and is fitted with seven rings that are said to have control over creation and the souls of others. The seven holes on the dress are the transformed rings and with each Servant soul absorbed, one hole is lit. As a person will be turned to gold if in contact with it, its operation must be conducted by elementals, dwarves or homunculi.

The Dress of Heaven is transmuted from the ether that forms Illya's personal maid Leysritt. Leysritt was previously a candidate for the Lesser Grail, but was deemed a failure. Despite being a failure, the Einzberns capitalized on Leysritt's lingering innate power as a Grail and converted her to a potential Mystic Code that can augment Illya. The moment that the Dress of Heaven materializes, Leysritt ceases to exist.