Welcome to Hell on Earth

The cloaked figure walked with a slow, steady pace through the dancing flames. He looked around him and saw the dead and dying. He had expected people to die, but not this many.

'Humans.' he thought, 'Always escalating things. I wonder if the whole city will burn down to the ground.'

"Help… me…"

The cloaked figure looked down at the ground. A human woman was there; arms reaching out towards him, and it appeared that she buried was buried under burning rubble from the waist down. He took a closer look, seeing the truth of the matter; she was missing everything from the waist down.

"As you wish." He replied. Without another word the man unhooked a one handed scythe from his belt and quickly used it to sever the woman's head from her shoulders.

"Your wish is granted." He said, placing his scythe back on his belt before continuing his walk through the flames. A raven landed on his shoulder, a human ear hanging out of it's mouth.

"Dust, would you please swallow that disgusting thing?" the cloaked man asked. The bird heeded his request, swallowing the ear whole.

"Thank you." He responded, before coming to a stop. He scanned his gaze over the burning cityscape. What had once been a thriving modern Japanese city bared more resemblance to the Second Kingdom.

"Death rides tonight I see."

The cloaked man turned his head towards the voice, seeing its owner out of the corner of his left eye. The newcomer was an old man, with grey hair and blood red eyes, revealing his true nature. He was dressed in a black suit, which looked like it was the bastard child of Victorian and eighteenth century fashion styles. He walked with a cane, but he probably didn't need it.

"Your presence here brings up several questions Horseman." The man continued speaking, taking up a position to the left of the cloaked man, "Does the Pale Rider come here alone tonight or are your brothers and sister here as well? Did the Council send you, or is this visit unsanctioned?"

"Curious tonight are we?" Death replied with a chuckle, "I'm here alone, of my own choosing. I come to Fuyuki City every time those magus fools think the Grail will appear. It amuses me when they discover that their efforts are for naught, especially since those white haired fools summoned Angra Mainyu the last time.

"However, your presence brings to mind a question as well," Death said, "Why would the Wizard Marshal Zelretch care what a Horseman does in his spare time? Why he would seek me out? You had a hand in the Heaven's Feel; have you come to see the result? Or is it because this city burns? Did the flames of Angra Mainyu draw your curiosity?

Death turned his whole body to face Zelretch, "Or have you simply grown tired of living? Could it be that you have come to me to meet your end at my scythes?"

Zelretch let loose a throaty laugh, "No, I haven't finished living yet Reaper. I still have more to see before I expire."

For the next few hours the two exchanged words as they took in the devastation around them. They saw people dying around them, but made no move to help. It was not Death's concern if even a hundred thousand humans died in the flames. Zelretch was a completely different matter. He was master of the Kaleidoscope, the operation of parallel worlds. It did not matter if he saved a person, for in another world that person was already dead. He was one who had seen all outcomes, and believed that there was no point in interfering.

While they took in the devastation around them, they stopped to whenever they saw things of interest. One such sight was of the King of Heroes pulling the false priest Kotomine Kirei from the blasted landscape.

"They saw that the Golden King is two-thirds divine, making him greater than most demigods." Zelretch said as he sat down on a piece of rubble.

"What say you of the first king Horseman?" he asked Death, who held out a hand of dried meat for Dust.

"I say that the figure before us is nothing more than an overpowered ghost who has overstayed his welcome in the Third Kingdom. I won't be surprised if the Council orders me to terminate that specter."

Zelretch chuckled, "I think you may have trouble with that one Pale Rider. He posses more weapons than any other individual in all of creation. Also, let us not forget the mighty Ea is also in his treasury. It can destroy even you."

Now it was Death's turn to laugh, "If that ghost is anything at all like the original, than his ego would get in the way of using every tool to his advantage. No, if we were to fight then I would kill the spirit."

"Now whose ego gets in the way?" Zelretch asked, bemused.

Death was about to respond when black smoke filled the air in front of him. The smoke formed into a tall, black, lanky figure, with vestigial wings and sharp talons. It glared at him with nine eyes, moving all over his black face, appearing and disappearing from time to time.

"Horseman!" it exclaimed, though it had no visible mouth, "The Charred Council summons you to appear before it. You must answer the call!"

Death sighed, "Very well then Panoptos. I am ever a loyal servant of the Council." Death turned his head towards the Wizard Marshal, "I'm afraid I must cut this short. It appears someone or something needs to die."

Zelretch merely nodded, "I must leave as well. I must complete a very important task, though I doubt I must kill anyone to do it."

And so, Death, the most feared of the Four Horsemen, departed from the burning Fuyuki city, accompanied by the Sprite known as Panoptos. Zelretch tapped into the Kalediscope to transport himself away from the flames as well.

If the Nephilim and the ancient Magician had stayed a little longer, then they would have witnessed the birth of a new life, as the Magus Killer Kiritsugu Emiya found his own personal salvation by pulling a young boy from the fire.

Little did either of them know that the flames of Fuyuki would be but a prelude to the future cataclysms that would shake all of creation.