The old man of the jewels.
The master of the second true magic.
The 4th Dead Apostle Ancestor.
The Wizard Marshal.
Kischur Zelretch Swienorg, the man who encompassed all these titles and brought a healthy amount of respect and fear wherever he went. The man who defeated a being that gods would give a wide birth to. The man who repelled the moon itself….was bored.
Any being of sufficient mental facilities would run at the utterance of the words.
You did not want to be near the unfathomable vampire when he was bored, which made his boredom even more irksome.
The gathering place of magi, the central hub for the magical community of the world, the Clocktower, was empty for this reason.
He sat alone in the lounge, simulating many different realities haphazardly. Being the wielder of the second true magic, he had the ability to manipulate parallel worlds. He could draw a neigh infinite amount of power from his parallel counterparts and from the parallel worlds themselves. He could also travel to any world across the multiverse.
To watch different realities from the comfort of his own home was but child's play to the magician.
"Oh, that looks fun. Lets see, Juane Arc you are an interesting person…now lets see what can I do to make this even better….."
"Ah ha! Class cards."
As the words left his mouth, a portal opened up and several card-like objects were suddenly sucked it before it abruptly shut.
"Check back with him in about a month or so. But I'm still bored…..I wonder if theres an Emiya somewhere I can throw into a random world."
"Oh, whats this? A world still in the age of gods and with a modern setting, that's interesting."
He began to look over the world's history, to see what should happen if no interference was had.
"Bleh, another 'hero saves the day'. Too boring, maybe a parallel that's far off the beaten path?"
He swiped to the right as the images began to change, different variations of the world he was watching previously.
The old magician began to stroke his beard as the corners of his lips tugged upward. "Now this is interesting. The protagonist of the story was betrayed by everything he held dear…..sounds a little like my dear Emiya."
He watched the scene unfold, a boy tied up in chains made of a celestial metal, surrounded by gods and demi-gods alike.
"Of the numerous crimes you have been accused, how do you plead?" The booming voice like thunder echoed out. The visages of gods towered before the boy as they sat upon their ivory thrones.
"Does it matter, regardless of my innocence you seem determined to punish me." The boy replied.
"Your arrogance has not been lost it seems, I will take pleasure in this. I declare you a traitor to Olympus, but in recognition of the deeds you preformed we will not kill you. But your gifts will be stripped away and you shall be banished."
As the words left the mouth of the sky god, another of the deities stepped forward.
The towering man holding a trident and smelling of the sea.
"By my authority, I strip you of your power and declare you cut off from your ancestry."
The boy began to scream out in pain as his body was tearing apart in several places. An ichor like substance began to seep through his pores as it became collected by the towering god.
Zelretch winced a bit at the punishment. It was one thing to take away a blessing or a power from a normal person, but a demi-god was a whole different matter.
Their power was tied to them on such a level that his soul would now start to fall apart. The sea was quite literally apart of him and the god just ripped that right out.
It was only through sheer willpower than his mind did not collapse under the pain. He looked around the room at the people he considered family and friends. The gods in their infinite stupidity had believed him to be a traitor for such flimsy a reason. His friends were quick to abandon him when it looked like they could be pulled down with him. None of the demigods' present would dare to meet him in the eyes.
The gods all looked at him with contempt and disdain, all except for one.
One goddess that stood in the back, she had to be physically restrained as she threatened to kill all of them before he had been 'sentenced'.
She was probably the only god he actually cared for or considered family.
Hestia, goddess of the hearth.
Never had the gods seen her exude such bloodlust. She looked at him in sadness and pity. The look of failure as she knew she couldn't save him.
He didn't blame her, he couldn't. When everyone else turned away, she dared to stand up for him. He would always love his aunt Hestia.
With a crack of lightning he was now gone from the throne room of the gods.
Without any care, he had been flung into a desert. Where exactly? He did not know, nor did he have the free time to contemplate such thoughts.
His body writhed in pain, just existing at this point was something he could barely do and to make matters worse, he was teleported right into a pack of monsters.
Probably one last 'fuck you' from old thunder crotch.
They recognize him as he did them. Not merely the cannon fodder, but named monsters that made their names through the atrocious deeds they committed.
He only had the residual smell of a demigod, but they recognized him regardless. They would tear him apart, slowly for all the suffering they had endured from his hand.
The boy did not cry, nor shout in anger.
He reached for his pocket, looking for a special pen that could turn into a sword, yet it was no longer there. It only took a moment to recall that it had been taken from him before that farce of a trial.
That did not stop him, he stood up and took a stance, if he would die it would be as he had lived, a warrior.
"Excuse me gentlemen, if you would be so kind to move away from the boy, I have business with him." A voice echoed out as a multi-colored portal opened up a little ways away.
The creatures all looked at the newcomer, he smelled like nothing they had ever seen before. Something predatory, something powerful, something…..dangerous.
They did not move, they did not dare to for something much higher on the food chain had triggered their instincts in a way they could not understand.
"I asked nicely, now begone."
All he did was flare his power and the creatures had been eviscerated in an instant.
"Now then…are you hungry?" The red eyed man asked with sincerity.
"…what?" the boy could only question in confusion before his body finally gave out.
The boy awoke to a strange smell, he was sitting at a dining room table in a house he did not recognize. His first instinct was to reach for any kind of weapon, yet his body would barely respond to him.
The pain had either gone away or his body was too far gone to care anymore.
"Ah, I see you are awake." The voice called out.
He looked up to see the intimidating man, or creature, wearing a pink apron and setting a few plates of food on the table.
"Well, I spent a lot of effort cooking it, dig in." The strange man said as he joined the boy at the table and began to eat without a care.
He tried to move his arms, by even twitching his fingers was difficult.
"Hmm…..while I would have been offended that you decided not to partake in my painstaking effort to cook you a meal, I supposed I should forgive you this once since your soul is collapsing."
He had the urge to shout out something sarcastic, yet he couldn't even find the energy for one of his witty comebacks.
"Now, it would be a shame if my effort went to waste…lets see…" The man said as he reached out into space and another multi-colored portal appeared.
His arm went deep inside until a 'ah ha' was heard and he pulled something out.
The boy's eye's widened at the object that was now in his hands, it was hard to describe the beauty in it. A blue and gold sheath that exuded such a holy aura that it put the weapons of the gods to shame.
The man reached across the table and pushed the sheath into his chest, the boy tried his best to look down at the confusing scene only to see the sheath seemingly phase into him.
He felt a warmth overcome his body as he began to regain some functions. Unfortunately, the pain seemed to return as his body was move alive at this point.
"There we go, while Avalon is quite the noble phantasm, it can't do much for the soul but it should be a decent stopgap measure for a few days."
"…..thanks, I guess." The former Demigod said.
"Meh, that's probably the politest you can get, so I'll take it. Anyways you must be starving so eat up."
His usual demeanor made him want to act out in his current situation, but both his body and mind just felt too exhausted. He was still processing everything that only happened, at most, hours ago. Being almost completely abandoned. He was sure that someone was probably telling his mother some lies about himself.
Though a small smile rose when he pictured someone trying to tell her that he committed some horrible deeds. His mother was always in his corner, she knew what kind of persons she raised, and she would never abandon him.
He just pushed everything away for the moment and began to eat the foreign meal. Some kind of Asian cuisine, he only had passing knowledge based on the Asian take-out places in new York.
It was surprisingly good, he was sure that Demeter would approve with all the rice that was involved, not that he cared about her any longer. Part of him wanted to throw the rice on the floor just to spite her, but he was rather hungry.
"so….why am I here?" He finally asked.
"Short or long version?"
"Short version I guess."
"I was bored and found you interesting."
"…okay I take it back, whats the long version?"
"I'm an unimaginably old vampire who travels through time and space and likes to visit other realities to stem my boredom. I was watching your particular incident by chance and thought it would provide me with some entertainment."
"Neat."
"Huh, that's not a reaction I've encountered before. Just that had made this trip worth it." He said with a fangy smile.
"I have to deal with temper tantrums from Zeus on an almost daily basis, this is about par for the course since my life became a shit-hole." As he finished, he winced slightly as he realized he spoke the gods name without thinking. No doubt Zeus may strike him down out of anger.
Names hold power, someone with his backround would draw the attention of a powerful being if he spoke their name aloud.
"….um wheres the lightning that's supposed to smite me for my 'insolence'?" He asked in confusion.
The old vampire just snorted. "like any of those gods could penetrate my bounded fields even if they somehow detected you. Don't worry, they have no idea where you are even if they attempted to find you."
"Since when do vampires trump gods?" The boy asked in disbelief. He had pretty much had it ingrained in him that the gods were at the top of the food chain and that his only option was to bow his head and hope for the best.
"Please, even the gods in my home dimension would give me a wide birth if they were still around and they were much more powerful than the gods here."
"So, what do I do now. That magic sheath you put inside of my is only going to stop me from 'dieing' for a few days you said."
"Avalon, show some respect to the object."
"Okay sorry, Avalon…..why does that name sound familiar?"
"Oh, its just the scabbard to Excalibur that made King Arthur immortal."
He took a deep breath and tried to massage his temples. "I feel like I'm too young to have an existential crisis"
"King Arthur was also a woman." He said with a wide grin.
"Neat." He said again as his head fell to the table with a loud smack. "Can we please move on before my world view shatters even more?"
"Alright, heres where you currently stand. For all my power, I don't have an authority like gods do I can't bend the world to my will. I have an option for you to 'heal' but it comes at a heavy cost." A small lie, technically he could find a way to heal the boy, it would just take some effort he didn't fee like expending, and this was going to be much more fun to watch.
"And it will entertain you immensely, I presume."
"Oh yes"
"Alright, lay it on me."
"Its called a class card….."
"So let me recap, you want me to fuse with the spirit of a long dead hero who ascended to a higher plane of existence that makes him basically a pseudo god?"
"Yup."
"And this specific 'heroic spirit' is someone you knew personally and someone who you constantly wrap up in your shenanigans?"
"Yup."
"How exactly does this solve my 'soul problem' as you put it?"
"His soul was…..special."
"Will this have any effect on me, like will I still even be myself once this is over?" He asked with a worried look.
The old vampires expression softened a small bit. Contrary to how he acted and what people thought of him, he did have a moral compass, it just happened to be heavily skewed. He liked to mess with people, but he never did something truly horrendous unless the person in question deserved it. To change this boy on such a fundamental level…he would be honest and tell him everything he needed to know.
"That depends entirely on you. The both of you are similar in a way but he…..was broken. You will inherit aspects of his personality and they will try to clash with the being that you define yourself with. His 'soul' will consume what is left of yours. Since yours is almost completely shattered, your soul will probably have almost no resistance. You will have to fight tooth and nail to retain 'yourself'. "
"Before you were a child of the sea, unable to be contained. This will reforge you though fire and steel, you will become a sword that will never bend or break."
"…..a sword….i could live with that." He said with a small smile.
"Don't be so happy just yet. Emiya was a sword, that's all he thought himself as. To be an Emiya is to suffer. I can count on one hand the number of his parallels that had a happy ending. Almost every single one died, alone, atop of a hill of blades."
"I'll stay away from hills that are covered in blades then." He replied.
"Its not that simple, but I digress. I have laid out the cons of going through with this, the choice is up to you."
"I have nothing left to lose…..what kind of life was left for me even if my soul wasn't breaking down?"
"Very well, I'll give you time to mentally prepare yourself, on the count of three I'll begin the process."
Just as the boy was about to start counting, the old vampire had suddenly pushed a card-like object into his person like he did previously with the sheath.
"Install, Heroic Spirit Emiya" The old vampire said with a mischievous grin.
The boy fell to the floor as his body started to convulse.
"Ah, that looks painful…now what to do in the meantime."
He was more excited than he normally was. This wasn't a normal class card, nor one of those knockoffs that-that stupid magus family made in a certain dimension. No, this was one that he created after painstaking effort and energy. This wouldn't turn the individual into a pseudo-servant, it would turn them into a pseudo-heroic spirit.
"Now…..how to make this even better, hmmm." The old vampire began to stroke his beard as the watched the boy roll around on the floor and shout out in pain.
"Ooooh, every Emiya needs a saber" He said with a toothy smile.
A moment later, a multicolored portal open up and swallowed the former demi-god, only the vampire knowing the destination.
"Please entertain me as much as possible, Perseus Jackson."