Disclaimer: Fate Stay Night and Campione! are not my own.
Author Note: This crossover follows the route of Unlimited Blade Works from Fate Stay Night. I guess this would make this the third Fate Stay Night x Campione crossover following that route, after The Campione of Heroes and Knights of Honor.
Prologue: King's End
It was a desolate world, a barren desert bathed with twilight from the infinite horizon. Yet it was not featureless for it was filled with swords. Swords of unimaginable number. Swords of different shapes and sizes. There were even those that could not be considered swords such as spears and halberds yet they stood along with the weapons embedded in the ground.
Unlike the calm and silence that covered the rest of the world, its very center was filled with chaos. In it, weapons were summoned everywhere, clashing against each other with such force that they all end up into shards of metal. It is a battle that could only be compared to those seen in the past, in the times when heroes and gods still walked the earth.
It was a battle that Shirou thought he would never see nor experience but tiny fragmented memories from Archer had shown him the future experiences of his other self, ones that could be compared-no, ones that even surpassed what he was experiencing right now. It was a future where he protected the people against the wrongdoers, exchanging his freedom in return. But despite all his sacrifices, all the blood he had spilled to save others, his future only ended up with the betrayal of his ideals.
But unlike Archer, Shirou stood firm. He would follow his ideals up to the end no matter what. It was his vow to Archer when they fought. And now, he was going to prove his resolve for the second time in a heroic fight to end the Holy Grail War.
"Do you have enough swords, King of Heroes?!"
Mustering his will, Shirou crossed swords with his enemy once more in a brilliant shower of sparks and steel. It was a true battle between heroes that one could not even hope to see in the Age of Humanity. Within it, both heroes attacked each other with whatever they had in their possessions.
As they clashed in the ground with weapons at hand, what fought around them was the representation of their own self. It was a battle between the embodiment of the King of Heroes pride, the Gate of Babylon, and Shirou's' ideology, Unlimited Blade Works.
With one attack after another, sparks flew as steel clashed with steel. Relentless and unforgiving, both combatants had continued on assaulting each other for the past minute. Despite the powerful weapons Gilgamesh wielded in his hands, Shirou's own degraded fakes were able to match its own counter parts with pure skill.
As they further traded blows, it was becoming obvious that Gilgamesh was being pushed back. Seeing an opportunity, Shirou pours all his strength in a single overhead vertical slash, meeting Gilgamesh's own sword and breaking both weapons into many pieces. It was a plan to disrupt Gilgamesh's focus and it worked.
Shirou immediately projects a Chinese styled longsword obtained from the King of Heroes numerous treasures and goes into the offensive. Gilgamesh himself summons a large European sword, intent on fighting Shirou head on. This time, Shirou gave the King of Heroes no time to counter attack as he continuously increased the power and speed of his attacks. Each attack kept on forcing Gilgamesh to step back every time he blocks a strike, preventing him from recovering and gaining the advantage. With one more strike, the King of Heroes weapon was broken into two, forcing him to jump back as he brought out his next weapon.
However, the King of Heroes did not bring out a mere weapon this time. Instead, from within the Gate of Babylon, what he pulled out and now held in his right hand was his greatest treasure, one passed down unto him by the Gods and one that only he, the King, can wield. Ea. The Sword of Rapture.
Shirou's senses ceased upon catching sight of the weapon. To him, the weapon in Gilgamesh's hand was clearly a Noble Phantasm of sorts yet its power was so great that it made all other Noble Phantasms look like third-rate weapons. With his mind unable to comprehend it, his body stood still for a single second.
"Die, you faker!" Pointing Ea towards Shirou at near point blank range, a crimson whirlwind gushes out from within it, howling towards the red-head like a tornado intent on destroying everything on its path. Shirou's senses returned to reality at the exact same moment yet he knew that his mistake which lasted only for a single second would now cost him his life.
Being only a few feet away, he didn't even think about dodging or trying to block the attack as he had no means to do so. What only ran through his mind was his imminent death. The last of what he saw was a world filled with crimson light before involuntarily closing his eyes.
As the roar of the crimson winds die down. Shirou opened his eyes as everything became silent. He was still alive somehow.
'Eh?' One moment he was facing certain death and yet right now, he realized that he was still alive. He had some injuries around his body, no doubt inflicted by that ridiculously powerful attack yet it wasn't life threatening. The landscape itself around him was almost destroyed but the point where he stood was barely intact, as if something blocked the attack in front of him.
"Somehow..." Looking in front of him, he could see the King of Heroes who was clearly stunned. It looks like Gilgamesh himself didn't expect him to survive based on the shocked expression he had on his face.
"You… How are you still alive?!" Shirou didn't think about that mystery anymore as he grasped the opportunity laying in front of him. From that point, he had decided to abandon all forms of defense, now rushing recklessly forward to his enemy with his weapon at hand. As Shirou closes in the small distance between tem, Gilgamesh decides to retaliate by swinging his oddly-shaped weapon horizontally but Shirou avoids it by ducking underneath the strike.
'Now!' With a single vertical slash, he severs Gilgamesh's right arm cleanly, causing it and his weapon to drop to the ground. Despite the shock and injury, Gilgamesh still manages to take a single step back but Shirou knew that he had already won. Just as Shirou was about to perform the finishing strike, something sinister manifested itself. Within the King's body, near the stump where his right arm used to be, a mass of grotesque flesh and darkness had begun to form, creating a vortex that began to suck everything unnatural around it.
Neither had time to react as whatever that thing was expanded so quickly that it managed to suck in Gilgamesh completely in the span of two seconds. Even the manifestation of Unlimited Blade Works was being sucked in by it but Shirou himself was fine despite his proximity towards the phenomenon. As quickly as the lump of darkness appeared, it quickly disappeared, taking the manifestation of Unlimited Blade Works along with it.
Shirou stood still, unable to understand what happened just now. However, as soon as he recovered his senses, he knew that it was over. With that thought racing in his mind, the strain in his body finally caught up with him which caused him to fall down on his knees dead tired. Whatever that darkness was just now felt very evil yet familiar to him at the same time but that didn't matter anymore. Thanks to that, Gilgamesh was finally gone.
"He's gone… *gasp*… finally... *gasp* I need to look for Tohsaka…" Just as Shirou was about to stand up, a chain shot out from nowhere and wrapped itself around Shirou's right arm. 'What?! He's still alive?!'
Tilting his head to the right, he could see something unbelievable. The once gone dark malevolent vortex is now being forced open by Gilgamesh who in turn is barely clinging on to reality with the chain he had anchored to Shirou.
"That damn grail. Doesn't it know that it can't use Servants as a vessel?" Even though Gilgamesh had lost half of his body and his right arm, he still sounded as calm as he used to be.
With a thug, Shirou is pulled closer to the vortex whilst the opposite happened to Gilgamesh. He was managing to force himself out, something that Shirou thought was ridiculous considering Gilgamesh's current state.
'Shit! I need to escape somehow!' Even so, Shirou didn't have any options left. He barely had enough mana and whatever he had left wasn't enough to project even a small dagger. With no options open to him, the situation simply continued on for a few seconds.
'At this rate, he would truly escape!' With no other choice, Shirou's mind raced as he tried to think of a way to stop him. In the end, he had thought of only way to stop Gilgamesh. It was a hard choice but it was the only thing he could do to stop him. It might make Rin, Saber, and those close to him sad but if he didn't do anything then all of their efforts would be for naught.
'I'm sorry, Saber, Tohsaka… But, I can't let this guy escape!'
"If I'm going to die no matter what, then I shall take you along with me, King of Heroes!" He stopped pulling. Ceasing all forms of resistance, Gilgamesh form quickly got sucked in towards the vortex with his chain following behind him.
"You damn mongrel!" It was Gilgamesh's last words that echoed through the surroundings before the vortex fully swallowed him. Soon after, the chain yanked Shirou's left arm which caused his body to fly in the air towards the vortex. As soon as his form got swallowed in, the mass of darkness began to shrink until it collapsed upon itself, leaving nothing behind.
What was left was only silence...
As soon as his world turned to black, it remained so for a few seconds. However, that nothingness did not last long as he could suddenly hear the sound of blowing winds. It got louder and louder each second.
Suddenly, he could feel the wind blowing against him. Winds so powerful that he felt like his own mind was forced apart. He wasn't sure what was happening but he could feel it, pain, suffering, betrayal and many other indescribable things that no humans could ever hope to bear.
As he clutched his head in pain, his vision was filled with white light. In the center of it all, a man in red stood still. He stood there, ignoring the winds as if it was a part of him.
'Do you feel it? This is the pain that which I have harbored throughout my life.'
Even though the sound of the winds was deafening, he could her the man's voice echoing slightly.
'The pain of having my ideals betrayed. What do you think? Can you stand up to it? Can you fight against it? Will you still follow those foolish ideals even if you experience all of this?'
That question had struck something within him. He could feel it, anger yet it was also mixed with sadness. But it also gave him something else. Strength. As if the winds began to weaken, he started to walk against it. With each step taken, the pace increased more and more.
"Isn't it obvious? It doesn't matter how much suffering I will have to go through. I will walk this path that which I have chosen. Something like this won't make me surrender!"
Mustering all his strength, he began to run against the howling winds, passing through the red man as he kept on going forward. He didn't see it as he kept running forward but the red man had a smile on his face. As the winds began to weaken, he was blinded with white light.
Opening his eyes, he could see a star filled sky with a full moon barely within his field of vision. Shirou soon realized that he was lying on the ground.
"Wha… What happened?" He could remember being pulled into the vortex after he stopped resisting the pull of the King's chain but he didn't know what happened after that. He could barely remember something about Archer but the memory was rather hazy in his mind. As he starts to compose himself, Shirou stood up and began to survey his surroundings.
He was currently in a small hill overlooking an open barren desert. There were some mountains around a few kilometers away from him though its barely visible amongst the dark skies.
"!" Sensing immediate danger nearby, Shirou unconsciously rolled to his left just as a spear flew past the point where his body was at a second ago.
"Stand still you faker!" It was the voice of the King of Heroes. Looking behind him, Shirou could see Gilgamesh a few meters away, standing at a slightly higher part of the hill they were currently in. His body was somehow back in one piece though he was still missing his right arm. However, Shirou didn't have much time to comprehend the situation as more weapons flew towards him. As he dodged each projectile, some hit the ground with enough force to cause a small explosion, kicking up some dust. Using it as a smoke screen, Shirou closed his eyes for a bit.
"I am the bone of my sword." As soon as Shirou stated that, he stopped standing still and began running towards Gilgamesh after chanting the first line of his aria. He didn't know but upon waking him, he could feel himself having a bit more mana than what he used to before ending up here though the amount was still too small. However, he wasn't trying to manifest Unlimited Blade Works though as he didn't have enough mana for it. It was simply to strengthen his last two projections.
"Trace On!" Two swords formed in his hand. The twin swords Kanshou and Bakuya. It was the favored weapons of Archer and now, Shirou. With both swords in his hands, he placed all his focus on Gilgamesh. Two more steps and he was still a few meters away.
"You damn mongrel!" Gilgamesh was intent on preventing Shirou from reaching him so he increased the speed of his attacks, opening the Gate of Babylon even further. Soon, more than a dozen weapons were now flying towards Shirou in the span of five seconds. As soon as Shirou dodged one of the projectiles, another was already right at his couldn't truly block it as doing so would simply break his only weapons so he instead swung his weapon to hit the projectile at the side, thereby deflecting its trajectory. Using the momentum, Shirou spun around, using the momentum to deflect the next projectile with his other weapon before he was forced to dodge to the side though another set of weapons were already pointed at him, ready to be launched at any second.
Despite the pressure, Shirou was now closer to the King of Heroes than a few seconds ago but he knew that he was still too far. He took two more steps, putting their distance at around three meters based on his estimates.
There was still a big gap between them but Shirou couldn't get any more closer as the gate began to open and launch even more projectiles at him. 'I need to distract him somehow!' Shirou then decided to do something that most warriors wouldn't do. He threw one of his swords, Kanshou, towards Gilgamesh. It span at the air, heading towards its target at a fast speed though it was slower than the projectile launched by the Gate. However, it was enough to force Gilgamesh to dodge to the side, thereby stopping his assault temporarily.
Shirou quickly seized the moment and closed in towards him. Even though he had no mana left, he forced his circuits to reinforce his leg in an attempt to cover the remaining distance between him and the King of Heroes. With one more step, he had closed in the distance to almost zero. The King was too late to notice that Shirou was now in front of him.
"HAAAAAAA!" With all his might, Shirou puts all his life in a single strike, thrusting Bakuya in front of him towards his enemy. Everything became silent as the sword drew blood, piercing through the King's upper body before coming out of his back.
"You-!" Gilgamesh's words were cut off as his body spontaneously turned into golden light similar to how Berserker disappeared after he was defeated by the King. The golden ripples visible above the once proud King had now disappeared as well. With that, the victor has been decided.
Unlike before, this time, it was now truly over. Assuring himself, Shirou had finally finished his mission. Right now, he barely had any strength left and so he fell to the ground on his back. Gasping for air, the pain of his tired body had assaulted his mind once more. His circuits burned like hell and he might have accidentally damaged a few after he forcibly activated it when he had almost no mana left. Heck, he didn't have any stamina left in him but with everything now truly over, he could relax himself. As he did, slowly but surely, his tired body had forced his eyes to close.
Prologue: King's End
Hope you enjoyed it. Leave a review if you want to.
For this part, I've decided to start off with the battle between Gilgamesh and Shirou within Unlimited Blade Works. I've combined the VN and the movie's own versions of the fight together, that is Archer using Rho Aias to protect Shirou from Ea whilst cutting the scene of Shirou pulling out said shield from a hill. The only problem was that it has been a year since I've played Unlimited Blade Works so I couldn't remember much details about the battle so I had to do some research. Same goes to the movie which I last watched the week after its subs came out years ago.
Nasuverse Mechanics
This part is a little tricky. Comparing the Nasuverse with Campione verse, the biggest difference that I could discern is that the Age of the Gods had never ended in the latter which means magic there is a lot stronger than in the former. The biggest example would be that in that in the Campione verse, most of the magic I have seen that are used in the Light Novel require spell words which the Nasuverse doesn't even use anymore as the system simply won't work due to magic being weak. The incantations used by Rin or Sakura may sound like spell words though as stated by some materials, they're more off a form of self-hypnosis.
As for Divine Words, they don't even exist anymore in the Nasuverse due to Age of the Gods having ended, unlike in the Campione verse where Divine Words are always used by Heretic Gods and Campione to invoke their authorities. The best example would be Godou's Warrior Authority which uses such words to increase the strength of said power. That is of course assuming that Divine Words are simply a variant of Spell Words used to invoke Divine Authorities.
Of course, Shirou's magecraft would be stronger in the Campione verse, primarily his projection and reinforcement though I'm not sure to what extent. As for the small side effect of Unlimited Blade Works on the physical body, I'm not sure how to utilize it yet in the story but it might be used at some point.
Anyways, thanks for reading and please wait warmly for the next chapter, which may be in a few days as I try to reread Campione again, starting after the battle between Godou and Voban. As for Shirou's authorities, I'll list it in the next chapter as well.