Long ago, before man's time had come to pass, the world that many beings know as Hyrule today, was nothing like the world they had come to live in. There was no land, none in which any being could walk on, and in the first place, there were no scientific concepts or magical constructs for anything to even be able to exist upon this world. Stuck in a place of eternity and infinity, the only thing this world could be called was a swirling mass of chaos.
It's unknown for how long the world remained in this state, and it remains unknown as to how something so close to absolute nothingness could come to be in the first place. Because time is nothing more than a relative construct, and no such thing existed back on that world, perhaps there was no beginning, and no progressing for such a world. However, from a distant nebula would come Three Golden Goddesses that would descend upon this world and infuse it with their powers.
Din, the Goddess of Power, with her strong, flaming arms, cultivated the land and created the red earth, from which life would use to make structures and shelters of their desire to call their own. This land is what is destined in any and all parallel timelines to be called Hyrule.
Nayru, the Goddess of Wisdom poured her wisdom onto the earth and gave the spirit of the law to the world, thus creating order and law within a land of chaos. These laws, would one day come to be known to humans as the concepts of science and magic that rule over Hyrule and the entire universe.
Farore, the Goddess of Courage, would create all lifeforms that would uphold Nayru's laws. One could call her Mother Nature, the creator of beings who fly in the sky, swim in the waters, walk on land, and all life as we know it.
With the land that would one day become Hyrule finished, the Three Golden Goddesses departed for the heavens from a parallel dimension connected to the world, a realm of midday golden skies and a place where the spirits could roam free.
A temple dedicated to the element of light was set at the heart of this Golden Land and the Goddesses departed from the point atop the pyramidal temple, leaving behind a symbol of their power at the point atop the temple. This symbol, a golden triangle composed of three smaller triangles united to form one, came to be known as the Triforce, a relic of omnipotent and omniscient power.
This sacred relic grants the heart's desire of its wielder. When wielded by the hands of the pure, the world would be good. When wielded by the hands of the wicked, the world would be drowned in evil.
And unfortunately, there was one such demon who sought the Triforce for his own evil desires. A being known as Demise.
Demise had led a campaign to obtain the Triforce, destroying anything and everything that would stand in his way. Species suffered great loss from Demise and his forces of darkness, threatening them almost to extinction.
The Goddess Hylia, in order to prevent Demise from obtaining the Sacred Triforce, gathered the surviving Hylians on a piece of land, entrusting them with the Triforce, and sent them into the sky, creating a barrier of clouds to further ensure their protection, separating them from the rest of the world.
In the original timeline, Goddess Hylia would then begin to gather the remaining species dwelling within the land and fight a great war along with her chosen hero. A hero who would become the seed to sprout into many of the Legends and stories of the Incarnations of the Chosen Hero of Hylia.
However, in a certain parallel universe, there existed no such Chosen Hero.
The gathered forces of Hylia are powerful in their own right, each species having something to offer onto the table combat wise or support wise. However, with no chosen hero, there's a severely lacking offensive hole in Hylia's forces that is sure to end in their loss.
So with no one in the world skilled enough to fight Demise, Hylia decided, she would bring forth to this world someone who was.
The glow of a magic circle erupted into the sky, illuminating the Temple of Hylia and scaring the creatures of the forest outside into fleeing.
From within the Temple, the Goddess Hylia herself stood in front of a magic circle with her eyes closed in concentration and an arm raised in front of her, her long. gleaming blonde hair flowing down to her lower back. Sweat dripped from her brow as she focused on the summoning. This magic circle was her last hope, the whole world's last hope in stopping Demise.
She needed someone of great strength who would be willing to fight alongside her to defeat Demise. It wouldn't be enough to summon someone powerful. She needed someone with a sense of justice and conviction like no other. Not someone without fear, but someone willing to fight despite any fears or doubts that may lay in their hearts. She needed someone who upheld such ideals. One with a will of steel.
The circle grew brighter and brighter as the power of Hylia's Authority over the world connected it to the Throne of Heroes. It is only her status as a Goddess that allowed her to connect a magic circle to such a plane of existence. Her status as a Goddess and one so highly worshipped at that grants her the special ability of Authority over the world. Authority is a special skill given to Goddesses and Gods and works by 'Simply by making things happen because one has that right.' It's how these Divine Spirits can perform what people call miracles.
What Hylia had done, was overlap her power of Authority with a Magic Circle, something that falls under the category of Magecraft, or simply Magic in this world. Magecraft, unlike Authority, follows a system. It 'Accomplishes a certain task by following a corresponding principle.'
However, with the whole system of summoning being disregarded due to Hylia's power, all that was left to work with was the summoners own will, and with the summoners willpower desiring for 'One who follows the concept of being a Hero of Justice' and 'One with a will of steel', what better hero could fit the description other than one whose body was made of blades?
The circle flashed, and the entire temple was filled with a blinding light.
Hylia shut her eyes as the light filled her vision, falling back onto the ground as her concentration finally shattered. The summoning was a success. Hylia shook off her fatigue at having expended large amounts of magical energy summoning a being that would be her chosen hero. What being she had summoned she did not know, she merely hoped it would be enough to combat Demise.
She opened her eyes, and much to her surprise, on the ground standing before her with his eyes closed, was a human.
He was a dark-skinned man with snow white hair. He wore a red mantle over black body armor, which consisted of a black tight and sleeveless shirt with silver accents which outlined his muscles and a metal plate on his collar, and black pants that had two black straps on his thighs, and another two strapped around his shins separate from each other.
He wore black metal plated shoes, which appear to be attached to his trousers. His red mantle seemed to actually be two separate sleeves connected by a metal plate at the back which covered his arms and was cut off showing his upper torso and midriff, and had a separate red open skirt which ended above his shins with the top fashioned and tied with an agemaki knot, covered by a silver metal plate.
Crossing his arms, the man opened an eye to look at her. "Servant, Archer. Am I to take it that you are my master?"
Hylia felt the back of her hand experience a burning sensation, and when she lifted it up to see for herself, she saw 3 crimson triangles put together to shape the Triforce. "Yes. It would seem that I am."
He stood tall as he stared down at her; hardened steel gray eyes of experience meeting deep ocean blue eyes of wisdom.
"Are you dissatisfied with this arrangement?" She asked with a raised eyebrow when he wouldn't say anything.
Eventually, Archer's shoulders sagged in resignation. "No, I just couldn't help but be surprised at the fact that I was summoned by a Divine Spirit." He sighed, not sounding genuine in the least.
"I suppose you could just chalk it up to one of the perks of having E-Ranked Luck." He sassed with a dry tone.
Hylia frowned at his obvious displeasure. It was obvious that he was a Heroic Spirit, but from which era, she could not discern. "I am sorry to hear that you have been summoned against your will, however, I am in need of your power."
Archer raised an eyebrow at her, his lips curling up into an irritating smirk. "Oh? You need my power you say? And for what?" He asked challengingly.
"To seal away the Demon King Demise." She stated curtly.
Archer's lips pursed in thought at the name. It was not one he had ever heard of before, not in history or in folklore.
"And why should I fight with you?" He asked coldly, his eyes piercing into hers as if analyzing her. Perhaps an eternity ago he would've had a simple answer ready at the back of his mind, an answer of unyielding spirit made out of the burning desire to give aid to anyone and everyone who needed to be saved.
Perhaps an eternity ago, he would've never even expressed any doubt towards the plea of someone who merely wished for help.
And perhaps if an eternity ago he wasn't so foolish as to adopt a mindset that was so willing to commit to such actions, he wouldn't be the lowly guardian that he was today.
"Indeed I am your Servant, but I am only your Servant in form alone. Furthermore, I have no reason to obey unless you decide to force me to through your Command Seals, given the fact that by some miracle you are able to maintain me without a Holy Grail." He mused.
"Therefore, this summoning is to me, nothing but a chance to roam around the world in which I have been brought to. Running around willy nilly with some Divine Spirit on a quest to right the wrongs of one world over another is far beyond what is required of me. So forgive me, Master, when I say that the problems of one as Godly as yourself, has nothing to do with one as lowly as I." He snorted mockingly.
As it stood, he had nothing to gain by agreeing to assist her. Saving humanity was nothing more than a hollow dream to him now. A bitter reminder of the shallowness of his own younger and foolish self. He had long since gone past the point where he mourned over the people he turned his back on, and even further to the point where he didn't even care about anyone at all.
Hylia stood silent at his more than stellar behavior. She knew he was right. He didn't have to agree to her plea. Yet, at this point, he was the only hope she had. When Hylia poured her Authority into the magic circle, along with it were her hopes and desire to protect her people. A desire for one who could and would bear the burden she would unjustly bestow upon them, to save everyone in this world from Demise.
And from that circle, came this cynical and snarky Heroic Spirit whose name she was not even aware of yet.
She wished for someone that could only be a Hero of Justice, and lo and behold this was who came forth.
Through her wisdom and compassion, she could sense it within him. She could sense what was beneath all that rusty bitterness and eroding regret.
The spirit of one who could and would only ever strive to be, a Hero of Justice, no matter what sense of the word he chose to follow.
A heart of glass, and blood of iron.
The Goddess finally nodded her head in understanding. "You are right. You are a Servant in form alone, and you have nothing to gain from aiding me. And I refuse to abuse the power of these Command Seals to force you to do my bidding, otherwise, the idea of my people seeing you as the Hero they could all place their hopes and burdens on wouldn't be possible. Admittedly, I myself am not sure how effective these Command Seals are."
There was simply too much to consider if she were so brash as to waste a Command Seal on an order that would take far too long to accomplish. She would have to consider the wording of the command so there would be no loopholes, how effective the command would be and how long it would last as they certainly wouldn't be defeating Demise overnight, and so much more.
Therefore, instead of reaching out with an order, she would do so with her heart.
"But for the people of this land and all life, as we know it, you came forth from the circle which was to give me a Hero, you came forth from the circle which I poured all my Magical Energy and hopes into, and I know that somewhere deep in your scarred soul, is someone who in life, could only bear the spirit of one who deeply believed more than anyone else, in the justice and benevolence of heroism."
Of all things Archer could've ever been expecting to see from a Divine Spirit, what came next was at the very bottom of his expectations.
Hylia bowed her head low, and her shoulders sagged, showing fatigue she had allowed to build up inside of her during the war. She had made countless sacrifices in the hopes that she could save more than she had to sacrifice, leading armies and making orders that she knew would end in loss of life.
Though she sent her people to the skies, she had the 5 tribes stay on the ground to help her fight off Demise, and the guilt ate up at her every day. This guilt would not go away, not because she as an individual was too kind, but because she was a Divine Spirit. She had only one way of thinking, one unchanging personality because they are beings born into the world and formed by humanity's thoughts and idealism. They are those thoughts made into being.
Hylia was able to reach a compromise with herself, knowing what has to be done. Her only goal was to protect her people, she was a figure of divine wisdom and benevolence.
With this divine wisdom, she knew it was necessary to sacrifice sometimes if she wanted to save as many as she can, lest she fails to save anyone. She knew to save everyone was a miracle, not even divinity could bring about. Yet her benevolence deemed that anything less was unacceptable, and this contradiction hurt her on a deep level.
As a Divine Spirit, she could only reach one conclusion, and she could only have one mindset. Her conclusion is to save everyone. This is her compassion. Her way of thinking, however, knows that this is impossible. This is her wisdom.
This is why, as she bowed to what would be her only hope, her people's only hope for survival, her shoulder's shook in fear of the worst.
"Please, save my people." She begged. Her voice held strong, but Archer could see how she clenched her fists.
His lips grew dry at her request. Only one phrase echoed in his mind that made him absolutely livid.
'Please save my people.'
His own hands clenched into fists and shook as his mind ran a thousand miles per second, but he could only register the utter hatred and bitterness held for that one sentence alone.
She was asking him to be a hero. She was asking him to pick up the shallow ideal he had so foolishly clung to in life.
Did he want to have anything to do with such a dream again? Of course not. He had been shown time and time again that spending a lifetime chasing after such a miracle is nothing more than a lie. A fairy tale strung up in the minds of those who couldn't accept the reality that was laid out in front of them.
He would be lying if he said he no longer longed for such a dream to come true, but then, he'd also be lying if he said he believed in such a thing in the first place.
"And if I were to refuse? If I were to tell you right now what you're placing your hopes on is nothing more than a sham of what you truly need?" He asked her, narrowing his eyes at her trembling form.
"Then all will be lost, and the world will be bathed in darkness." She responded swiftly.
Archer's own lips turned to a frown. Even as she trembled and bowed to him, her resolve remained firm. She, a Divine Spirit was bowing to a Counter Guardian of all things, begging for the latter to save people. How utterly ironic. It was almost laughable if he wasn't placed in such a situation at this very moment.
Though as irritating to admit it, she was right. Beneath all this cynicality and regret was still that same foolish boy, desperately chasing after the light of a dream that was not his own. As long as his history was that of Emiya Shirou, deep down he would always be stuck as the boy who stared up in admiration at the raw, pure joy found in the face of Kiritsugu at having found someone alive in a burning inferno.
In reality, he was one who had become a Hero of Justice, albeit in a twisted sense. But deep down, he was still someone who was seeking out to become one, as a result of taking the wrong path. One who could truly fulfill the duty of saving all.
Would he take that chance? Would he fall back on foolish idealism once again?
...No. He should know better by now. He would always first and foremost, be someone chasing after what he believed was right, possible or impossible. Regrets or no regrets.
So, he answered not as a Counter Guardian of Alaya, not as a Heroic Spirit, and not even as a Hero of Justice.
He answered as the distorted individual known as Emiya Shirou.
"...Good grief, if you're going to such lengths than I suppose that refusing would be rude, even for someone like me." He sighed with closed eyes, shrugging helplessly as he resigned himself to the shackles that were his own heart of glass.
Hylia looked up towards him, eyes slightly wide as a smile started to bloom on her face. "Then...?"
Archer bowed his head low and put a fist to his heart. "My apologies Master. It seems I have been acting nothing short of childish from the moment of my summoning. As unworthy as I am, I wouldn't mind following your own noble desires." He smiled a bit bitterly.
"In light of my own foolishness, I ask of you..." He started, his expression once more shifting into a smirk, but this one seemed amused and almost nostalgic.
He moved his head up to meet her eyes, and in them was an unyielding spirit.
A will of steel.
"...Are you my master?"