In an aged coliseum, obviously worn with age a scarlet haired warrior, inspected these aged ruins. She had a mission and was sent to investigate this place. She walked about the old floor, faint traces of blood still etched in the soil. Suddenly however something glinted from one of the balconies, she looked just in time to react to the arrow that flew towards her, her eyes widened a little in surprise and she moved her head out of the way, a portion of her hair was cut by the arrow and fell to the ground, the arrow impacted, blasting sand everywhere, Erza looked back to see a man with silver hair and a red mantle over his shoulders, she could swear that she heard him scoff before he jumped down from the balcony. He landed gracefully on the ground, in his hand he wielded a very large bow, about as tall as he was, and it was finely crafted to be sure. He did a formal bow, extending the arm which he held the bow out to the side and spoke.
"My deepest apologies, both for missing, and for attacking in such a manner." He held a somewhat sarcastic tone as he rose back to full height, Erza had brought her sword to hand and had it readied.
"Tell me would be assassin, why did you attack me in such a manner." Erza demanded.
The man chuckled "I am the one that called you out here, you see, I was called here to fix a problem, namely, you."
"Excuse me?!" Erza exclaimed.
"Understand that I harbor no ill will, but it is my mission to take you down, but seeing as we are in a coliseum, I suppose it may be fitting to have a proper battle befitting warriors. Because to be honest, I have been aching to have a proper battle." the man said as his bow vanished. "Now, to rectify my previous transgression, I suppose I should introduce myself, you can call me Emiya."
Erza was stunned at his attitude, she was just assaulted but could still feel this man was somehow sincere despite his sarcastic personality. "Very well then Emiya, I am Erza Scarlet of the Fairy Tail guild. And you will soon learn how grave this mistake of yours truly is."
Emiya smirked and flexed both of his hands as he chanted "I am the bone of my sword" as he recited those words twin blades formed in his hands, one a cloudy white, Kanshou, and the other being a hexagonal patterned black, Bakuya, both blades rather short all things considered.
"You seem to be an archer yet you choose to face me with blades? Very well then Emiya!" Erza says as she charges forward with her blade in hand.
Once in range Emiya quickly reacts, spinning Kanshou into a reverse grip he swings the blade forward, intercepting Erza's strike, the blades glance off one another and Emiya quickly follows up by slashing with Bakuya, Erza quickly brought a second blade to her hand out of thin air and blocked the counter, both performed a few more strikes before they disengaged. Emiya chuckled.
"So, you have similar powers as mine Erza, most amusing." Emiya says, chuckling to himself, Erza smirks, confident in her abilities.
"You haven't seen anything yet Emiya, now Requip!" Erza's armor began to glow brightly, once the light was gone, her old suit was gone and what was in its place was a black suit of armor with leathery wings attached to the back of it, her sword grew in size to a two handed sword, the blade growing thicker and the crossguard all but vanishing. Emiya grinned at seeing the weapon and armor, adding it to his collection.
"Well, this will truly be quite the interesting battle indeed."
Emiya readied his blades before both he and Erza charged forward, the ground cracked beneath their footsteps. Their blades met quickly and the true fight was on, Erza took a strong offensive, constantly attacking forcing Emiya on the defensive. Emiya relied more on his ability to dodge and circumventing his opponent in an attempt to undercut Erza's assault, but he was repeatedly met with a stonewall. Erza continued to use the advantage of her longer blade to try and keep Emiya at length. Stab, slash, parry, riposte, the flurry of blades became a graceful dance between the two until, coming to an end when Erza exploited a slight opening. Emiya was pushed back and she stabbed forward. Despite this Emiya reacted by leaning back and her stab missed him, instead it cut through the line that held his mantle over his shoulders. Emiya reached back and stabbed his blades into the ground for support as he lifted his legs and brought them close to his chest before kicking with all his strength. Erza felt the wind get knocked out of her as she was knocked back. The kick had far more strength than she expected it to have. Her greaves ended up dragging a line in the ground as she tried to stay upright and eventually she stopped sliding. She looked up to see Emiya back up on his feet.
"You're good Erza, but you should be careful of the openings you leave." Emiya chastises causing Erza to grit her teeth in frustration.
"That was a dirty trick Emiya, where is your warrior's pride." She responds bluntly just to receive a chuckle from Emiya.
"Pride? I cast that off long ago, in truth I am no more than a weapon sent to kill. I could ask you the same, after all, you never stick to a suit of armor nor weapon."
Erza glares at Emiya "my pride is in my guild, my family and my magic. I have taken to master all of these weapons at my disposal not for my sake, but for my friends as they need me. My strength comes from them!"
Emiya chortles before letting out a hearty laugh lasting a few moments before regaining his composure and he looks Erza directly in her eyes. "That isn't strength, that is a weakness, and that is the very weakness that will carry you to your grave."
Erza becomes furious at hearing that from him and she begins to glow once more. "I refuse to be talked down to like this by a man who has no honor, drive or pride!" She charged forward and her armor has changed to a much thicker obsidian black armor covering her more than her other suit, the blade was a heaping mass of iron with black spikes running down the edge of it, this was her purgatory armor.
Emiya quickly threw his blades at her, their arcs curved but Erza was quicker than even he expected. She ducked and the blades missed their target and flew past her. Emiya quickly brought to hand his bow and just as she arrived to his position, she slammed down with her blade. Emiya leaped into the air, propelled by the earth shattering strike Erza had performed, he turned in the air and once he was upside down and once more facing Erza he let loose a volley of arrows, Erza blocked most of them with her blade but two of them landed true, shattering the armor on her left arm and the shoulder guard on her right. Emiya landed and dismissed his bow, quickly charging towards Erza once more, this time without any weapons. She hefted her blade to the side and swung hard, Emiya however dropped to his knees and slid on the ground his blades from behind both sides of Erza and he grabbed them both before slashing upward. Erza cried out as she felt her armor shatter and the sting of the twin blades cut into her flesh.
She stumbled backwards and stabbed her blade into the ground, using it as a support as she panted, trying to catch her breath. She tightened her grip on her blade as she stood up shakily, she raised her head and stared at Emiya. She realized that in this fight if she keeps up going in a basic offense she is going to get pummeled down again and again. While she may outclass him in strength, he is slightly faster but his reactions are fast, the only way she could hope to win this was if she randomized her attack she deeply inhales then exhales, trying to regain her focus, her broken armor begins to glow and she stands up taller, this time it is a lighter armor, white with gold accents and not as bulky as her previous sets. In her hand she held a long spear and the blade had a obvious division allowing it to split.
She twirls the spear once before blasting forward, quite a bit faster than she was before, Emiya, albeit surprised, side steps as Erza thrusts the spear forward. Erza quickly follows it up by swinging the spear to the side, Emiya blocks it and Erza uses that moment to adjust her position so she is directly facing him. They push against one another, competing for the upperhand until Erza has an idea, She tightens her grip on the spear and the blade splits apart, in between the two half blades a mass of electricity formed, the electricity cackled violently Emiya's eyes widened slightly in surprise as he gave one final push before jumping back, Erza uses that moment to release the lightning in an arc directly for Emiya. The moment Emiya's feet touched the ground he quickly leaped back up high into the air just as the lightning struck the ground, leaving a rather sizable smoking hole, Erza's armor glowed once more and changed into a more form fitting red armor with amber accented metal trims, her spear changed into a broadsword with a blade that glowed red, she slashed in Emiya's direction and a swath of fire matching her swords arc launched at Emiya, Emiya threw his swords and they cut through the fire that would have reached him, the leftover embers scattered to the side. He brought his bow to hand immediately following the throwing of his swords and fired off 5 arrows, Erza quickly changed her armor to a very bulky full body armor, on either arm were large spiked half shields. She brought them together and a magic circle formed over the shields, the arrows struck but didn't make a scratch, Emiya lets out a "tsk" as he lands on a balcony.
She holds the shield as Emiya brings to hand a large drill like weapon, "well I suppose if I regular arrows can't do the trick, maybe this will." He notches the weapon on his bow and pulls back, small arcs of red energy began to surge around him "Caladbolg!" he shouts as he lets the projectile fly.
Caladbolg glows slightly blue as it flys through the air, twisting the space around it, Erza expects her shield to hold but is surprised as she feels the magic circle begin to warp and shatter, and her shield quickly follows suit, she takes a step back but Caladbolg stabs into her leg, her armor and the shield helped lessen the impact but it was enough to stab into her thigh. The broken remnants of the shield vanish as she falls back to the ground, shouting out in pain. She grips the hilt of the weapon and pulls it out of her though, she lets out another cry of pain as she tosses it to the side.
Emiya jumps down from the balcony bringing to hand his swords once more and approaches Erza as she struggles to stand once more.
"Well now, I'm surprised you can stand, or even still be conscious for that matter. I suppose all that defense would lessen the impact, but even then that is still a rather deep wound. What say you just surrender and make this easier for the both of us."
Erza grits her teeth, a few tears forming around her eyes because of the pain "I would never surrender to you! I will fight you to my last breath!" She glows once more, this time foregoing armor completely, wearing nothing more than read pants with a fire pattern on the bottom and in her hand she wielded an worn black bladed katana, she readied herself once more. Despite the excruciating pain she refused to go down and stay down. Emiya noticed that there was a new found strength resonating from her, something much stronger than what she was exuding before.
"Tell me Erza, how is it you can continue to fight. This is a strength you did not possess before, and despite the fact that you have continued to be battered down you continue to rise even stronger than before." Emiya asked
"I refuse to die to you, my guild still needs me, and I won't let them down. After all I've dealt with I refuse to fall to a man who dares to mock having something to fight for! A warrior without purpose is nothing!" She shouts as she leaps at Emiya.
Once again, her speed had increased along with her strength, Emiya was impressed, her will power was amazing. Her drive to win is something that he had seen long before, back in his previous life as Shirou, he had witnessed a great hero fall protecting his master, even to the point that he surpassed his own legend and came back from the dead to attempt to strike down the one who had killed his master. Her drive to continue to protect her friends was what gave her this power. He gritted his teeth as he quickly crossed his blades to block her strike.
Her katana struck his blades, but rather than bouncing back or locking, his blades cracked and chipped under a single solid strike from her blade. Even though his weapons weren't the strongest, the thought that a weapon not on the level of a noble phantasm could even chip his weapons was unthinkable, yet her blade had done just that and more. He gritted his teeth and quickly swung his blades in a cross cut, Erza flipped the edge of her blade around and swung to the right countering Emiya's attack and his blades shattered. Emiya let the weapons fade and quickly brought to hand two more. There they began to trade blows one after the other, no longer worrying about blocking. Every blade that Emiya lost he quickly brought another one to hand, one after the other and Erza kept up her assault. While Emiya continued to try and counter, both landed small cuts and nicks on one another but none could land a decisive blow on the other.
After a few minutes they finally disengage from one another as Erza changes her armor once more. This time she took on a pink set of armor with a rather large sword in hand, it had a wing like crossguard while the blade was black in the center save for the edge which was silver. Green energy surged around her and her sword began to glow brightly, Emiya could easily tell what was happening and could sense what this power was capable of and he quickly let his blades vanish and he raised his hand and let magic flow through him as he conjured up his best defense.
"Rho Aias!" he spoke and from his hand sprouted a large ethereal 7 petaled pink flower afterwards seven barriers all with a similar color appeared infront of it, Erza charged forward and stabbed forward right into the barrier, the field resisted as the energy from Erza's blade expanded, the first layer began to crack and continued to before it shattered and Erza inched ever closer, the same happened to the second barrier, then the third, then the fourth, but as it hit the fifth the energy Erza had channeled began to disappear, it cracked slightly but Erza was blasted back from the barrier.
"That was very impressive Erza, very few can even break a single petal, let alone four. I am impressed, however, it is time to end this as this charade has became dull. You question why I fight, why I do this, and why I have no ties, no pride. I will show you exactly what my pride and ideals left me with." Energy began to radiate around him, not red like before, instead this was blue. "I am the Bone of my Sword Steel is my Body and Fire is my Blood. I have created over a Thousand Blades, Unknown to Death, Nor known to Life. Have withstood Pain to create many Weapons Yet those Hands will never hold Anything. So, as I Pray Unlimited Blade Works" all around Emiya the energy spread quickly, consuming both him and Erza.
Once the energy had dissipated Erza was stunned at what she saw. Both her and Emiya now stood in a giant wasteland, in the distance she saw what looked to be a large foundry, the gears continuously spinning methodically, and all around her were thousands of blades as far as the eye could see, all stabbed within the ground.
"What… Even is all of this, this… Wasteland." Erza asked, despite her anger towards Emiya, her hatred of what he stood for, looking upon this wasteland. She began to realize why he was the way he was.
"As I said, I would show you were my ideals and pride got me. I had a hope to save humanity, I would become a hero of justice and stop all evil, but instead of peace I spend my existence killing, and killing, and killing. I have lost everything in life for nothing, I fought in hope to end conflict and evil, yet despite everything I've done, the lives I've taken, nothing changes." Erza stood there, bewildered by all of that as she soaked up what she had just been told. "Erza Scarlet, you claim you wish to protect your guild, you refuse to die believing if you do you would no longer be capable of defending them, yet at the same time you would throw your life on the line for them every time they are in danger. And it is that hypocrisy that will inevitably lead to your death."
Erza shook her head "no, I would always give life and limb to save my friends!"
"Then why is it now that their lives aren't on the line you still fight for their sake, you call out their names, saying they rely on you, yet instead of preserving your life you continued this battle! You adamantly try to throw your life away crying out their names even though your friends lives nor your guild is at stake here! That emblem you wear is not a mark of pride, it is a mark of death!"
Erza opened her mouth to retort but found herself incapable of doing so as in truth, she couldn't say he was wrong, because the more she thought about it he was right. She had fought many times in her life, and put her life on the line just as much, and even if lives weren't at stake beyond hers she had always fought for her friends. Yet despite this something came to her, reigniting her willpower. "That is where you are wrong, I may put my life on the line or them, and it isn't just because their lives are at stake but it is because they rely on me. This mark reminds me of what I fight for, even if they are not under threat, I cannot afford to lose as they need me." She glares at Emiya "I will not lose to you, I can promise you that!"
Her armor changed into a silver colored armor with the metal shaped into feather like accents, the breastplate covered little more than her breasts and the lower piece was similar to that of a dress rather than greaves, behind her were two sets of wing ornaments, they were obviously not capable of movement but they were quite large, and around her was a ring of swords as she wielded two swords. She jumped into the air and the ring of swords began to spin around her, glowing before the ring stopped orbiting her and began speeding towards Emiya. Emiya didn't even move, as the swords surrounding him responded to his thoughts, they pulled themselves out of the ground and quickly flew towards the wheel, 12 total each one striking one of the blades in the ring, and each of the blades were destroyed. Erza realized that the blades here were much more than decoration, that they could be used and respond to Emiya's commands without him even uttering a word.
She brought another ring of swords around her and flew at Emiya. Emiya this time reacted, he ran towards Erza and threw his twin swords, Erza used her swords in hand to counter block both blades and knock them to the side at the cost of both of her own swords. She landed infront of Emiya and grabbed one of the swords orbiting her as Emiya grabbed one of the swords from the ground and as Erza slashed Emiya responded in kind, as the blades collided Emiya grabbed another sword in the ground with his free hand as Erza's sword shattered, he then followed up using his newer sword, Erza used one of the orbiting swords to block, both blades shattered on impact with one another. This sequence of blade switching and attacks continued, the strength between one another kept destroying each others weapons. Erza pulled back once her ring was destroyed, instead of bringing about another one she instead summoned a rather large arsenal of swords behind her, most of them being from different sets of armor, Emiya smiled and traced the swords, recreating the same arsenal.
"This is the true power of Unlimited Blade Works, any weapon I see a copy is instantly created here for me to use!" Emiya says somewhat enthusiastically.
Erza fires off her weapons and Emiya does the same, the weapons collided with one another, each one destroying their copy and vanishing, once the chaos was over Emiya had a smirk on his face "do you not see the futility of your actions Erza? This will be the place where you will meet your end!"
"I told you before Emiya, I won't lose to you!" Erza shouts her armor began to glow once more and changed into an ornate blue and gold armor with hanging robes around her, in her hand she wielded an oddly shaped polearm, it had the body of a spear but near the top, below the blade there was a golden circle. The power radiating from this armor was stronger than the others she had pulled out before. Emiya traced her weapon and instead of bringing into the air, he instead brings a copy of it to hand, however upon contact he felt his magic circuits tested, as much mana as he had this weapon had such a huge draining effect on him he questioned how Erza could even manage to wear the armor. But he knew as costly as it was he could use it, and after how much magic Erza had used, she couldn't afford another costly attack such as this one, and all he needed to do was counter. But he knew what the weapon could do, he knew that if the attack was unleashed appropriately that it could quite possibly rupture his reality marble, and he has to prevent that at all costs.
"Nakagami Starlight!" Erza shouted as she let and she launched a blast of magical energy of more potency than any other she had released prior, Emiya did the same and the attacks struck each other, the energy began to spiral around one another as before simply cancelling out, Erza fell to her knees, using the spear to support herself as she panted heavily, Emiya himself was quite drained as well and tossed the spear away, he slumped over breathing heavily. Using the weapon for just that one attack sapped him of a majority of his leftover mana, and despite wanting to counter the attack he could no longer support his reality marble. The surroundings began to flicker and dissipate back to the coliseum where they were prior. They were both thoroughly exhausted and they stayed as they were for a few minutes before Erza rose to her feet again, shakily as she forced her armor to change once more, exhausting almost all of her power. This suit was different than the others, across her back there were wings composed of large black blades and she with a wave of her hand they detached and began to float around her independently. Emiya sighed and rose to posture once more scanning the floating blades, Erza charges Emiya and brings to hand his twin swords once more. Erza moves her hands and the blades around her speed forward towards Emiya, before they closed the distance however Emiya had leaped into the air once more, over the large black blades and he throws his own at Erza, Erza uses two of the black blades to intercept them and Emiya smirks.
"Trace on" he says, forming near perfect copies of Erza's blades around his body he rushes Erza with the new blades as she pulls her blades back, Emiya uses his copies to block hers and keep them back as he rapidly approaches Erza, he extends his hands to either side of him and both Kanshou and Bakuya returned to his hands, he forces the last bit of magic power into his blades forcing them to grow in size once more, the flat of the blades began to grow spikes as the blades themselves grew in length, Erza realized that it was too late, he had purposely baited her into extending herself, she had hoped to beat him in range but she had no hope with her blades so far away. Her face slowly contorts into a face of terror as Emiya gets in range. He swings with a cross cut, both blades cutting through Erza in the shape of an x, he stops after he gets past her and stands up straight again as Erza falls to her knees before falling to the ground. Blood pooled around her body as her breathing became ever more faint as the seconds went by until they stopped. This time, she didn't get back up, she had finally been killed, and Emiya had completed his mission.