Disclaimer: I obviously don't own Fate/stay night or any Blizzard related merchandise. Now stop trying to be silly and sue me.
This story is Rated M for safety reasons. I might spontaneously add in mature content such as violent imagery ranging from bloody fights, torture, or physical/mental abuse as well as lemon or other contents not recommended for youth below certain ages. You have been warned.
Hello everyone, this is Minaly22. This is my first time to ever write an actual fanfiction. Most of my writing consist of random ideas floating through the air. Please bear with me, and I hope you enjoy the story.
2015/5/5 Update: Oh dear, I completely botched up several sections. Now we know that they are in Caer Darrow.
The Holy Grail War was finally over.
The past week was extremely hectic in Shirou's humble opinion. Hero's of ancient past coming to life? A war over an omnipotent wishing device? A future version of himself coming to the past to kill him? His supposed step sister of a Loli trying to kill him again and again? Rescuing his friend from her tyrannical and abusive foster family? Battling the embodiment of All the World's Evil?
'Phew,' Shirou thought to himself relieved and a touch bewildered. He couldn't believe he had actually managed to survive through this extremely tiring week. 'I certainly deserve a break from all of this...'
But even though all of the battle and hardship has ended, its still not completely over yet.
Shirou gazed upon the towering black monstrosity that was supposed to be the Holy Grail that Magus over several generations sought after; and didn't bother to curb his distaste before it bloomed on his face as a grimace. 'I would never understand why someone would want this thing...' Its probably another sign of how he was definitely unlike any average Magus, for an average Magus would be salivating from just the thought of standing before the Holy Grail, tainted or not.
"What are you spacing out for Shirou? Get on with it and destroy that thing already!" Rin exclaimed heatedly and snapped me out of my thoughts.
"Rin..." Shirou couldn't help but stare at Rin when he turned to face her.
She was wearing her usual red turtleneck, black skirt and long black socks with brown shoes. But even if she's wearing the same clothes when she first revealed herself to be a Magus, Shirou was having a hard time to recognize the young lady in front of him.
Rin has grown much more out-going and confident, her facial expression no longer schooled and restrained into an uncaring cold mask; now it is painted with fiery determination touched with hints of annoyance and exasperation. She was tested and became something new, something better as the war escalated. And finding out that she was not alone in this world after rescuing Sakura, has given way to even more changes to Rin as a person. The Rin he once knew would not have hesitated to make a wish right there and then, in front of the 'Holy' Grail, and probably wouldn't have cared if the world was destroyed as a result. Now, she understood that living was more about being a Magus, more than being someone that wanted to pick apart the very mysteries of the world, and intends to live her life to the fullest after this entire spectacle ends. All it would take would be for them to destroy the grail right now to fulfill that wish.
"She is right, Shirou. We have to destroy it quickly." Saber... No, Arturia's stoic tone floated through the air from his right side.
"Arturia..." This time, Shirou turned towards the ever stone faced Arturia.
During the beginning of the war, she was cold. Cold as steel would have described the King of Camelot perfectly, but she too has changed. The battle-hardened woman had constantly reminded Shirou the dangers of battle when he was still that naïve pacifist, not wanting to do anything in regards of the war. Arturia didn't have to do that even if it promotes her own chances of victory in this war, but she did it anyway because she cared for her master. She forewent things such as food or rest just to stand guard over him, and patiently trained with him so he could learn to protect himself. Arturia has also learned to smile again, and Shirou would always carve the first smile he saw into his very soul, for it was beautiful beyond description. Now, even when she is putting up a stoic front, Shirou could still see through the mask and discern her emotions through the little hints all around her. Strangely, he found peace in Arturia.
How Shirou managed to find peace when seeing the hands on her sword, Excalibur, lax when compared to a death grip during battle; still held it firmly in place, ready to engage any new threat to that may or may not exist. Or how Arturia's shoulders were sagging slightly out of exhaustion, and if Shirou hadn't known where to look, would have missed it completely, (But truthfully, he couldn't blame her. His legs were shaking from trying to stand straight) to be able to find peace is a complete mystery.
"You can do it Senpai, we all believe in you." And his thoughts were broken once again from hearing Sakura talking to him.
"Sakura..." Shirou had thought Sakura to be a happy person, free of the burdens of being a Magus or a participant of the Holy Grail War. Smiling and ever cheerful. Oh boy was he wrong...
Now he realized that the smiles he was given prior the War were not always genuine, but mostly out of habit from hiding her own pain from him. His heart felt a stab of guilt just then; to think that Sakura was suffering right in front of his eyes, and he was completely blind to it, drove the fact that he would never be able to save everyone very deep into his heart.
'Illya...' and he turned to look at his step-sister, older than him by decades, yet with the body of a child below the age of 10, lying peacefully in his arms.
Illya too, had suffered. And her suffering was caused by her own family; himself included.
'Never again!' Shirou vowed to himself. He managed to save Sakura and Illya from their terrible fates, but he knew that the future had many hardships in store for them. And the future wouldn't begin if he doesn't finish what he is doing now.
So he resolutely turned to face the black towering monstrosity that was the Holy Grail.
"Arturia, please fulfill your role." The last of the command seal on his left hand lit up, and slowly disappeared as a glitter of red. The red glitter then flowed into Arturia, and feeling empowered by the command seal, washing away the fatigue from the last battle, she raised Excalibur high into the air.
With an anti-climatic downward slash and flash of light, it cut the Holy Grail in half just as the dawn was rising. There was no war-cry when Arturia swung Excalibur, she emitted a sound that was more like a huff than anything. Nor was there there any sound of destruction and crumbling structure when the grail broke apart.
It simply vanished.
And as if stepping in on a cue, the glorious sun arise with the dawn pink sky. Seemingly to its own accord, Arturia's tight bun became undone, and the golden strands danced in the winds of morning air with a will of their own.
It was eerily quiet.
"We did it... We finally did it!" Rin's voice broke the silence after a while, and it was filled with relief and disbelief. She never thought that she would ever see the Holy Grail, not to mention be the person who helped destroying it. But she did not regret a single moment of it.
"Yeah... Its all over now..." my body was also swamped by the exhaustion and relief I felt from finally ending this particularly nasty chapter of my life with the help of my friends. I started to feel the bond binding between Arturia and I together to slowly fade out.
Arturia stepped forward and stood on the hill in front of him, facing towards the rising sun and away from Shirou.
"I defeated the enemy as your sword, and protected your life. I am glad that I was able to keep this promise." Arturia's gaze was fixed on the distant horizon. Shirou wondered what she was looking at. Was it something that can be perceived by physical eyes, such as the sky or the sun? Or is it more metaphysical, like a brighter future?
"Yes... You did well." Shirou whispered hoarsely.
"I must tell you... one last thing." Arturia sounded hesitant, and forlorn. She slowly turned around, her emerald green eyes locked onto Shirou's golden-brown ones.
"Shirou, I... love you." Arturia gave him a somewhat timid smile, and Shirou saw from her eyes and knew that she had so much more to tell him, but simply couldn't.
'The eyes are indeed windows to the soul...' Shirou thought to himself. And tried his best to open his soul to Arturia as well. He isn't sure if it worked, but he willed his eyes to communicate with her wordlessly, to show Arturia his own.
They simply looked into each other's eyes for a few moments, until the brilliant beams of light from the sun behind Arturia made it harder and harder for Shirou to look directly at her.
Shirou was tempted to look away when the sun blinded him completely, but chose not to and simply squinted his eyes. He saw parts of Arturia's body seemingly melt into the light...
"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" and Sakura's deafening scream was the last thing he knew...
...before absolute darkness took over.
Medivh wandered through the Twisting Nether, trying to find more clues regarding the whereabouts of the Burning Legion.
He could feel the formless and chaotic energy of the Twisting Nether, as he floated around aimlessly. Normally when he is here, he just has to find an anomaly that is related to the Burning Legion, since he can recognize their darkness. His mind had been corrupted before, and felt extremely ashamed with what he had done; thinking back on the time when he felt his mind being slow and muddled, as if wading through the wet lands of Zangarmarsh, while also constantly being pulled into dark thoughts, made him burn slightly in shame and anger. But in the Twisting Nether, he shouldn't be simpering on the negativity he brought to his world. Now knowing exactly how the influence of the Burning Legion feels like, he could easily find traces of their residue corruption in the Twisting Nether.
This time, there was something particularly strong, and deep within Medivh, something he hadn't felt for ages, 'something right' compelled him to try and hurry to wherever it is he is heading to. It had a darkness very similar to the Burning Legion.
Picking up his speed, Medivh floated quickly towards the direction his senses was telling him to go to. He wasn't sure how long it took (because in the Twisting Nether, time is very volatile) but eventually stumbled upon something very strange indeed.
Or rather, somebodies.
Right in front of his eyes, there was a floating body of a young boy and several girls wearing strange garments he has never seen before. The sight of a blonde armored woman helped Medivh to stop himself from giving a double-take or rub his eyes to make sure he wasn't making up anything regarding the appearance of the other young humans, but he still couldn't shake everything off so easily. Armor feels more familiar to him than those strange outfits the other three are wearing.
But figuring that these mysterious youth are connected to whatever he was looking for (or was actually the thing he was looking for), decided to get them out of the Twisting Nether as soon as possible. Normal humans would never be able to last long in the Twisting Nether without additional protection.
Opening a Portal to his tower in Karazhan, he floated the boy and the girls past the portal and into his domain. Medivh then steeled his will and took a customary deep breathe (how he did so still baffled him, as the Twisting Nether didn't exactly have air) before stepping through the portal.
Shirou felt pain being the first sensation that pierced through the darkness of his unconsciousness, and tried to open his eyes.
He later regretted that decision when his unaccustomed eyes were assaulted by bright sunlight, but that managed to give his body a kick start and all his other sensations began to slowly come to.
And his personal quirk of being able to smell magic went on over drive the moment the dizziness from the intense light subsided. Wooden furniture, and metallic door hinges, glass, and oddly enough fresh air that are normally impossible to have in a modern city. He never smelled anything this... 'fresh' before. Fuyuki was still a city, and in a city you simply can't prevent air pollution. Even the forests surrounding the Einzbern mansion or Ryuudouji Temple didn't make the air feel like this.
Shirou gave whatever place he was in another sniff, and deemed it to be safe enough to relax slightly. He let out a puff of air, and tried to think back on what happened.
He remembered Arturia destroying the Holy Grail, her proclamation of love, and then the ear splitting shriek from Sakura. After that... was absolutely nothing.
Frowning, Shirou tried to move his aching body to sit as he finally opened his eyes to the sight of wooden ceiling right above him. Gritting his teeth to power through the pains, he sat up and looked around, slowly twisting his aching neck to not cause any further pain.
He was sleeping on a simple wooden bed inside a long room that had even more beds on the sides around him as well as the side across him. It was like one of those old-time nurse infirmaries one would see on WWII movies. There were windows directly above him that admitted rays of sunshine into the room, and it unfortunately was shooting right into his eyes. Eyes still sensitive to light from closing for so long, it was quite painful for him so Shirou decided to just lay back down.
Shirou closed his eyes, feeling more tired than ever, and let out a long sigh.
'What happened?' He thought to himself.
Before he could think about his current state, Shirou was startled by a scream from outside from where ever he is right now. It was a high pitched scream of terror that could only be possible from a grown woman.
Now he was just plain confused. He would have frowned in frustration if he actually had the energy to do so, but now he was too tired. The scream just now however was really bothering him...
'Wait. Why am I thinking about some unknown female screaming in broad day light, when I am just stuck here, not being able to do anything?' Shirou was a bit annoyed with himself. Here he was, tired, alone, and aching; lying on a medical bed in an unknown location feeling as if he got thrown under a steamroller and squashed repeatedly. And it took him less time to think about something else rather than his friends... Oh no! His missing friends!
'Where are the others? Are they here?' He wondered.
Doing his best to sit up once again; this time taking it just as slowly as before, Shirou looked around the hall of beds and came to the realization that all the other beds were in pristine condition void of dust. No signs of anyone having slept on them at all, such as crinkled bed sheets or ruffled pillows still dented from someone placing their head on it.
'At least that answered the question...' So no one had been around, and no one would probably come back any time soon.
But are his friends alright?
This, he couldn't answer. And the fact he can't is grating on his nerves. He was supposed to protect them! How is he going to do so if he doesn't even know where they are?
What if they are... dead?
This thought sent down disturbing chills to his bones. And he decided to discard that line of thought entirely.
Another scream tore through the air and broke his musings, although this time it wasn't a woman, but a man's. Say whatever you want, but Shirou had to admit that it was a manly scream despite it being slightly high pitched and also filled to the brim with fright.
And before Shirou could think about the screams further, another scream sounded from a different location, and another, and another... Until the entire place seemed to be filled with a chorus of terror stricken exclamation.
Shirou was sweating in panic from all of this. And despite having been slightly hardened from the Holy Grail War, was still unprepared for all that screaming. The fights during the war usually happened at night and there never had been this much screaming. The only time he had ever heard so much screaming was all but a distant memory, the great fire from long long ago...
The next sound that filled Shirou's ears however, completely blew his mind.
It was the rhythmic CLING! KLANG! of metal and steel clashing into one another. Then Warcries of every kind imaginable filled the air, grunts of exertion and pain were all over the place. Heavy footsteps coupled with ringing and rustling of metal indicates people wearing armor running about.
'What!?' Shirou was startled and baffled all at once. Where the heck was he? Its not like he landed in some medieval/renaissance fair, right?
Before he could think about it any further, the door of the hall bursted open with a loud BANG!
Two man and a woman wearing golden armor stormed to his side, one man and one woman hauled Shirou into the air, and proceeded to carry him out before he could even react.
"What is the situation with the gate?" The man that was not holding onto Shirou barked out.
"It's currently under siege. Our enemies followed the tracks of the refugees." The woman holding his arms replied.
"The Gate will hold for now," The man grabbing his ankles piped in.
"We will have to hurry to the deeper part of town and leave the lad there so we can go back to the gate." The man, clearly the leader, ordered in a clear voice.
Two "Yes Sir,"s was the last thing they said for a while, and the sound of booted feet frantically stamping on the ground filled the silence after the sound of battle slowly started to fade out as they went away from it.
The three people wearing golden armor made quick way to the who-knows-where, and Shirou not being able to do anything but look upwards, was greeted with the sight of another wooden ceiling. The infirmary he came from was eerily silent and empty, and in contrast to the one he just went into, would probably be considered as peaceful.
The whole place was filled with smells of metal and herbs. The metallic smell is a mix of blood and discarded armor pieces, while herbs are obviously from the medicine and whatever healing concoction that was around. Sounds of painful moans and quick demands for more supplies ("Bring me more bandage!" "I need another Potion here!" "Hot water!") as well as panicked calls seeking for help were flying all over the place.
The three people who 'escorted' him into this place stood still and shuffled awkwardly for some reason
"There are no more empty beds anywhere, sir." A different woman called out to his left
"Then where do we place him?" The woman still holding his arms asked,
"We have placed rugs on the ground..." the woman that was probably the healer trailed off. But a moan of pain stopped her from finishing the sentence.
"Dammit! Not again!" the Healer seems to be frustrated over something and went on mumbling curses under her breath.
The three people wearing armor decided to go around looking for an empty spot on the ground and not bother the preoccupied healer.
"Master! Over here!" a youthful voice bellowed out
"Ah! Arthas! Report, would you?"
"Yes sir, I came to the infirmary to assist the healers under your orders. So far we have saved quite a few lives but we lost five of our comrades here." The person who was identified as Arthas replied, taking on a solemn tone when he mentioned the lives that had been lost.
"Who did we lose?"
"Mundo, Aria, Din, Erhart and Lopen."
"Ah, Mundo... I will miss him. He always loved to tinker with the Gnomes." The man holding his ankles lamented.
"And we would never hear Aria singing again. She had such a beautiful voice too..." The woman holding his arms said.
'Master' had let out a long sigh.
"It can't be helped, this is war."
"..."
"..."
"..."
A tense silence followed after that statement from the man. The two holding onto Shirou placed him onto the rug on the ground.
"Arthas, I want you to take care of this lad over here. He was the one we went to fetch."
"The guy who supposedly survived a big fire from one of the other villages?" Arthas couldn't help but question this fact,
"What? THIS is the person who got life threatening burns all over his body?" The woman who is no longer holding his arms asked in bewilderment.
"But the lad looks perfectly fine now! Not looking like a half-dead burnt corpse I might add." The man who held onto his ankles when hauling Shirou couldn't hide his surprise.
"Enough of that. We have to get back to the Gate!" The 'Master' barked out.
Again, Two crisp "Yes Sir"s sounded out.
They then proceeded to dash out of the crowded infirmary.
An awkward silence - as silent as it could be inside a busy infirmary full of injured warriors - stretched between Shirou and the blonde teenager that was called Arthas.
Shirou was not oblivious to the point that he couldn't feel the waves of curiosity rolling off the other person, nor was he trying to be impolite and ignore him.
But his mind was preoccupied with all the new information he has gathered so far, and it was not pretty.
So first of all he isn't in Fuyuki anymore, this much is obvious. After all, the first whiff of air he got was impossibly fresh to be even considered as modern city air before everything went down to hell. People in Fuyuki also didn't wear armor and wield metallic weaponry other than maybe combat knives. Nor is there a gate in it.
And second, he might be in the past and not in modern times now. Armor and metallic weaponry were all things of the past after all. All healing stations usually reek heavily of disinfectant or chemical medicine, not herbs.
From the looks of it, the 'Arthas' person that was currently sitting on the ground next to him, staring a hole through his head, is probably the Squire of the guy that was dishing out orders and rushing off to help the front lines. It would fit historically, since Squires were taken in by Knights when they are teenagers most of the time. Some exceptions are where they take very young Squires that haven't even reached ten years of age, but Arthas seemed to be the same age as him.
'A Squire that is fifteen-years-old?' Shirou questioned no one in particular in his mind. He couldn't really say anything about someone getting into a fighting career this early in their life, since he did participate in a freakish war with heroes of old... even if its without his consent at first.
Shirou moved his head enough that he can look at Arthas. It seems Arthas is distracted by something, and his lips were unconsciously moving as if he is mumbling something under his breath, since he didn't meet Shirou's eyes when his head moved and kept on staring straight ahead. The teenager had a head full of golden blond hair, not unlike Arturia's. They are semi-long by male standards, coming down to his chin. Shirou knew how to read lips after he got the memories from Archer, namely EMIYA, his future self; and he managed to figure out what Arthas is saying.
"Insufferable old man, treating me like a child." spoke Arthas voicelessly.
"I have been learning to fight ever since I was born! And what does he do? Stick me into an infirmary with a random peasant, and demanding me to take care of them." Shirou kind of wanted to feel offended by the 'random peasant' part, but found out he couldn't exactly find his anger after being lectured by Rin, who is much worse in terms of high-and-mighty-ness most of the time. He was kind of used to these kinds of degrading treatment.
Well, it was most likely that Arthas is a stuck up son of a noble that became a Squire at a very young age then. That fits the norm too.
Seeing the other teenager so absorbed in his foul mood, Shirou decided to do a self check-up and not initiate any conversation to be safe.
Doing a brief Structural Analysis on his body, Shirou confirmed the obvious fact that his limbs and organs were still perfectly intact, and despite having heard from the other people saying he was at one point covered in burns, still had his hair on top of his head.
Now that is a bit contradictory. Someone who's body was covered in burns should have their hair burned away as well.
Strangely, he couldn't find anything that could cause him any of the ache he is experiencing right now. The non-existent burns have all vanished, no bruises, and no other kinds of abnormalities to his physical body. So Shirou went ahead and took a deeper look into himself, namely, checking up on his magic circuits. What he found startled him enough to almost fly into the air horizontally. Almost.
His 27 magic circuits were filled with energy. They are completely full to the point they probably could burst open anytime now.
'No wonder I feel sore all over! My circuits are hurting from all the strain.' And this fact sent Shirou into a panic because he didn't want his circuits to all burn out due to energy overload.
Shirou started to frantically suck in air.
"Hey, Hey! Calm down! You are hyperventilating!" Cried Arthas on his side. It seems Shirou's frantical breathing has brought him out of his sulking.
But Arthas's attempt in calming him down was met by deaf ears.
'What is happening? I am suddenly back in the past, my circuits are about to explode, and what would happen if the energy overflows? Will my body explode as well?' Shirou's mind went racing hundred miles per second, and continued to suck in more breath than he let out.
Arthas was starting to panic as well. He couldn't possibly let his charge die on him right now! That would make his Master even more displeased with him, and if that is the case, would probably never let him fight on the front-lines.
So Arthas did the first thing on his mind.
He punched Shirou right in the face; hard.
"Ah-mph! What was that for!" Shirou grunted in pain.
"Calm down! You are not in danger right now." Arthas admonished, and grabbed Shirou's shoulders, ready to shake it if necessary.
Shirou closed his eyes and tried to bring his breathing under control. After a few moments, he felt better.
'...My circuits seem to slowly expand itself and assimilate the energy. I guess I will be fine for now. And if I am correct, whatever that caused this spike in my prana reserves also caused those burns on my body the others have mentioned.'
Opening his eyes again, he met the pale ice blue eyes of Arthas.
"... Thank you." Shirou stated a bit awkwardly, and Arthas released his hold on his shoulders.
"Are you feeling better now?" Arthas inquired.
"I think so. I am only aching all over but nothing else." Shirou replied.
"I guess that's a good sign. Let me see if anything else is amiss." Arthas raised his hands as they began to glow with a golden light.
Shirou was startled by the almost casual use of magic before his eyes. Arthas did not chant any aria, or focus for a set moment of time, plus Shirou didn't find any mystic codes from where he can see.
"Whats the matter?" Arthas asked confusedly.
"Huh? Oh, uhm... Nothing." Shirou lamely tried to pass it off as nothing, seeing how Arthas didn't seem to care.
Arthas first started with his face, and Shirou could feel the pain from the punch earlier to fade away, and so Arthas slowly hovered his glowing hands over Shirou's torso, then moved them across his entire body in a snail pace, as if trying to detect any injury or malady through it. Arthas's hands did not falter any where, and his calm expression hasn't been broken yet, so Shirou assumed nothing was wrong.
After Arthas's hand finally hovered over the last part of his party that he hadn't checked (his feet), he re-positioned himself so he was kneeling over where Shirou could directly see him.
Arthas was also wearing armor, but the color seem to be much more muted and subtle than the other three people he met just now. There was much more silver and blue, as the golde ends up accentuating the armor instead of being the main color. Shirou guessed that only full fledged Knights could wear those almost entirely golden armor.
This still brings the question to how he used his magic though.
"How did you do that just now?" Shirou tried to ask as politely as possible. After all, during his time, asking someone else about their magic was something quite offensive. But he reasoned with himself that this is not his time, so he might as well try and gain as much information as he could.
"Oh, I was just using a weakened version of Holy Light on you to find out if you have any injuries. The spell's healing energy automatically seeks out injury you see; so hovering around someone's body would make it possible to detect obscure injuries." Arthas explained to him as if he was talking about the weather. But in Shirou's opinion, its actually a quite impressive spell.
"That... is good." Shirou was kicking himself for being such a lame conversationalist.
"Is this your first time seeing Holy magic?" Arthas asked curiously.
"Oh, yeah." Well, Shirou technically isn't lying. He has never seen 'Holy Magic' before, but he is no stranger to healing spells. God knows Tohsaka complains all the time when she's healing him, and always miss the unseen injuries because she normally couldn't find it by herself; even though those obscure injuries usually disappear on their own in time due to Avalon.
Speaking of Avalon, its probably why his burns all disappeared over night.
"You would probably see them a lot in the future. There are many people injured after all." And as if on cue, a cascade of golden light appeared on Shirou's right side. Several empty rugs away lay an injured women in plain armor (Shirou guessed that she isn't a Knight due to not wearing the trademark silver/golden armor) and a female healer casting a similar spell on the warrior.
Shirou watched how the injuries on the warrior's arm began to close under the glow of golden light right before his eyes. Wow! The speed of that healing! Rin's healing would never be able to compare!
It seems that whatever expression Shirou had right now gave him away to Arthas, as he registered the next few words.
"Don't let the simplicity fool you. Its a somewhat costly spell, and to use it repeatedly without a break could exhaust the caster. Personally, I need to stop after casting it thrice in a row."
True, and Shirou doubt that one could regrow a heart with that spell. Hip-Hip-Hora! to Avalon.
The rest of the day went by without any incidence. Shirou simply stayed where he is on the rug, and chatted with Arthas.
He managed to fish out some more information about this place.
Like a certain 'where the hell is he' information.
Shirou almost went into another hyperventilation phase when he heard he was no longer on earth. Azeroth? Eastern Kingdoms? Lordaeron? Dalaran? Caer Darrow?
He couldn't very well deny the fact that he isn't even on Earth anymore with all those unknown places, could he now? He has never heard any of those names in his short life so far, and from Arthas's description and summary of the exotic location he knew about, Shirou could definitely say with certainty that he is no longer on Earth. According to Arthas, he is currently inside Caer Darrow, a keep on an island surrounded by the biggest lake in Lordaeron.
After hearing that information, Shirou experimentally used some minor reinforcement on his fingers, to test how the magic in this world worked. Not wishing to risk his circuits from overloading, he only used the smallest amount of prana possible to do this. He tapped the ground with his reinforced fingers, and was rewarded with finger-shaped-dents on the wood board.
He then decided to reinforce various parts of his body, but let them stay stationary in case he destroyed the ground. The reinforcements wasted no prana, and were nearly effortless, with even better effects than a max powered reinforcement back on Earth. It seems that the world of Azeroth doesn't have any Counter Force like Gaia on Earth.
This opened up countless new ways for Shirou's magecraft to work, since he is no longer actively fighting against the Planet. Normally he would have been happy, ecstatic, even; but the weight of the situation smothered any positive feelings he has right now.
Arthas has told him how there are 'Orcs' on their door steps, attacking the settlement right now. He also explained a few of the monsters and threats to human in this world and how different races of people, like Gnomes, Dwarves and Elves banded together to create the "Alliance", which brought Shirou back to his friend's unknown whereabouts.
How did he get here? Is it related to the Grail? Hypothetically speaking, since they were all there together when Shirou was consumed by darkness, they should have all been transported. However, knowing the flimsy nature of magecraft on Earth in general, chances are they might have been separated in various different ways. Someone might have been sent to a different world other than Azeroth, a world without Oxygen or where there is no magic and rendering their capabilities of self-defense useless. Or on another location in Azeroth, thrown into the wilderness, unconscious while horrific monsters prowled around the place. Heck, there is even the possibility they are sent into the past or future of this world or another world to consider.
Shirou cut himself from thinking anymore depressing thoughts by forcefully coming to the conclusion: The chances of reuniting with his friends are extremely slim.
Which wasn't a smart thing to do, as it immediately threw him into a depressing funk.
Arthas at that moment was tired of Shirou's pestering anyway, and took a break to get some food and drinks for both of them.
The infirmary slowly became even more crowded as the battle raged on. A big majority of the rugs on the ground now have people lying on them, and the beds are reserved to people who need it the most. From what Shirou heard so far, the infirmary that he initially woke up in, is currently even more crowded. Arthas told him the reason why he was moved here.
"The battle is happening at the Gate. And there are chances they will find a way into the infirmary which is very close to the gate. Couldn't exactly risk placing defenseless people there. The heavily injured are sent here to the this infirmary, while people who need to take a break or have minor injuries that can be immediately treated stay at the other infirmary."
Shirou was affronted by the extremely tasteless and bland magically conjured food he got when Arthas came back. Apparently, people could actually make food out of thin air if they didn't mind the taste. After a structural analysis Shirou found out that the nutrition is still there, but there was almost nothing else. In Shirou's personal opinion, he will never consider them as food. But as consumable magical energy that had the same base function as food minus the taste.
His inner cook was slightly appeased when Arthas told him that experienced Mages (Shirou had to correct himself repeatedly to not call them Magi) can conjure food that taste like the real thing. He was still determined to never touch conjured food ever again though.
This opened up a new topic for Shirou to pester Arthas about, since he found out Mages don't know the Holy Light spell. How only Paladins knew them, and the Priests use a different spell called Flash Heal.
Arthas proceeded to explain the 'class' system to Shirou, and he absentmindedly compared them with the 'Servant class system from the Holy Grail War'. A Hunter is definitely an Archer, but could also work with wild animals. A Paladin is a Saber with supportive abilities and don't always wield Swords. Warriors are Berserkers, Rouges are Assassins, Mages, Priests and Warlocks are Casters with different focus of magical abilities.
And depending on the race, some races simply can't make the cut to enter a certain class. Gnomes due to their small stature cannot wield bows effectively, because even though one could make a small bow to match their size, the bows would become utterly useless since there are no power in the shots. A Gnome will have to compensate by using magic or other avenues to match the power of a regular Human Hunter, and if that is the case, why not just be a Mage?
Shirou was extremely interested with all of those classes, but once again Arthas shot him down before he could voice the idea of learning everything.
"It is frowned upon to learn more abilities than one class even though it is theoretically possible. A Mage could study the theories behind the Holy Magic used by Priests and Paladins without problems, but only a Paladin or Priest have the right to actually learn the abilities and techniques. Even then, Paladin teachers and trainers will outright refuse to teach a Priest their skills."
It put a downer on his scholastic side, that's for sure.
Shirou and Arthas continued to talk about various things well into the night, and wouldn't have realized how late it was if not for the entrance of the 'Master' and the other two Paladins.
"Hiya! I see that you are well, lad." The ankle grabber greeted Shirou cheerfully.
"Ugh, that was awful. Its going to take a long time getting all this blood and grime out..." Mumbled the Arm pulling women.
"I have returned, Arthas." The 'Master' greeted Arthas directly.
"Welcome back, Master."
"Were you bored out of your mind?" If Shirou had not seen Arturia, he might have missed the slight teasing note in that statement. The 'Master' has the same stoic aura as her.
"You have no idea." Arthas rolled his eyes.
The three Paladins and Shirou fell into a fit of giggles from that statement.
"I am sorry, but I haven't caught any of your names?" Shirou decided to initiate the conversation this time.
And now that he thought about it, he hadn't even introduced himself to Arthas yet! The Japanese inside him cringed from the dis-respectfulness he displayed today.
'Hang on! What language were we talking in just now!?' Shirou couldn't believe he only just realized everyone was speaking in English. If Rin was anywhere nearby, she would be banging her head on a table or wall right now, and even Arturia and Sakura would be hard-pressed to stop themselves from doing facepalms. 'Dammit, I am so dense sometimes...' Alright, so the Japan inside slightly conceded to the point that since they are not in Japan, and not speaking Japanese, it has no place to dictate his actions. He was also secretly glad his adoptive father decided to drill the knowledge of several foreign language into his head when he was younger.
"My name is Shirou." So Shirou decided to forego telling others his last name. Plus, most peasants back in the day usually don't have a family name; telling them he has one would only rouse suspicion. He doesn't want anyone keeping too close of an eye on him for now.
"I am Nikolas, its nice to meet you Shirou." The Ankle Grabber introduced himself as Nikolas, and from what Shirou could see, he is a cheerful and upbeat man since he is smiling despite all the blood and gore on his armor.
"Joydee, pleasure." Joydee is a quiet and serious woman that doesn't seem to talk too much. Shirou was once again reminded of Arturia, and had to stop himself from wincing when a stab of longing hit him hard.
"And Greetings to you, Shirou. I am Uther the Lightbringer. This here is my Squire, Arthas Menethil." Uther raised his arms and placed them on Arthas's shoulders as he spoke.
"Oh, we completely forgot to introduce ourselves to each other... Whoops. Sorry." Arthas cringed.
But Shirou completely ignored Arthas's apology when his mind went into a shutdown after hearing the Master's name.
'UTHER!?' And Shirou promptly fell into another hyperventilation phase.
"Here he goes again... Hey Shirou, calm yourself." Uther released his hold on Arthas's shoulder and the teenage Squire quickly stepped forward to take hold of Shirou's shoulder, he proceeded to shake it.
"'Here he goes again'? Arthas, has Shirou been doing that more than once?" Frowned Uther as he asked Arthas bemusedly.
"Yup, the first time it happened I panicked and punched him in the face." Arthas admitted somewhat sheepishly, and Nikolas burst out laughing.
"Sh... Shut up! I healed him afterwards!" Arthas denied in vain with a blush on his face, but Nikolas simply laughed even harder. At this point, even Joydee was trying to hide her amusement.
"Don't worry Arthas, at least nothing bad has happened." Uther told Arthas as they watched Shirou compose himself again.
'Uther, the Lightbringer... Alright, so this person probably isn't Uther Pendragon. I can't find any physical similarities between him and Arturia. They are both stoic, but they give off different feelings to my sensor.' But Shirou wasn't exactly positive, since Arturia as a Heroic Spirit definitely wouldn't feel like a normal human being regardless of heritage.
But he decided to leave those thoughts to another day.
"So how did the battle go?" Arthas asked Uther.
"Bloody." Nikolas piped in on the side.
"Noisy." Joydee added
"You don't want to know." Uther concluded.
But those were clearly the wrong things to say, as Arthas adopted a furious expression, his ears were starting to go red as well.
Not wanting the teenage Squire to explode, Uther quickly tried to salvage the situation.
"Arthas, fighting in general simply isn't pretty. I know that those dwarfs have told you about Honor and Glory and what not. But those things don't exist on a battlefield."
The teen Squire still looked displeased, but somehow forced his anger down.
Shirou simply thought that to be unhealthy; bottling emotion inside never did good on anyone.
"Its all about who dies and who doesn't. Blood and pain up there are guaranteed. And people who have actually seen such carnage usually wish to un-see everything." Uther continued Solemnly.
"You saw what happened to those five people who died here in the infirmary up close, Arthas. How did it feel, when those lives slip away?" Uther asked.
"...Sorrow, and injustice." Arthas still seemed angry, but answered his Master calmly.
"Its painful, isn't? When people witness the passing of a life, it leaves a terrible mark on them. Just imagine watching a whole army of people dying before you. Battles and Warfare are never fun, Arthas." Uther is doing his best to try and break down this anger inside Arthas with words of wisdom.
"..." Arthas simply didn't say anything, but Shirou noticed how the teenage Squire's face seem to go pale and turn green in a split second.
Seeing that he made is point, Uther turned back to Shirou.
"How are you feeling lad?" Uther asked gently.
Finally being able to have a close up look at the man, Shirou liked what he saw.
Uther had auburn hair that was a few shades darker than Shirou's own hair; halfway between red and brown. He also had pale blue eyes like Arthas. Probably a trait for the humans in this world to have, since Nikolas and Joydee also have blue eyes. There is a beard and mustache on his face, with the beard completely whitened out, and some white peppered his auburn mustache.
Another look made Shirou correct his assumption regarding the 'entirely golden armor' he made on his first impression. It was a silver colored armor with tons of golden outlines everywhere that it almost made it look gold. There are also blue gems dotting the entire ensemble, and a big blue cape draped across his left shoulder while a clasp is on the right. There is a crest of golden C, with a sword stabbing into the middle of the letter much like the $ symbol for dollars in America. There is a gigantic book attached by a chain to his hip as well.
"Sore, but generally Ok." Shirou tried to smile at the man. But it quickly turned into a grimace as another stab of pain hit his body. Damn, even though he felt sure his circuits wouldn't explode on him, it was still pretty painful.
"Master, I have already checked him over, but there doesn't seem to be any injury. I believe he will be fine with enough rest." Arthas interjected.
"Then let us not bother him any longer, rest well Shirou. We should go and rest up as well."
The three Paladins, followed by a Squire, swiftly left the infirmary.
'Might as well sleep now...' Shirou thought to himself. The infirmary has mostly gone quiet once the battle winded down.
So he closed his eyes, and dreamed of being reunited with his friends.
The next day was not much different for Shirou. He just stayed on the rug in the infirmary and rested.
Arthas frequently visited him, but he always had to swiftly depart. Something about finishing menial tasks like cleaning armor or gathering supplies assigned by Uther.
The other healers in the infirmary just kept buzzing around, and Arthas also had to help around when they needed more healers.
Like at one time, Arthas was called to help heal a man who lost an arm. The man got infection and was burning high with a fever, struggling and squirming. He reopened most of his injuries, but most of the other healers were busy with someone else. Arthas helped stabilize the man's injury while the healer took control of the fever.
The man who lost his arm would have definitely died if Arthas wasn't there to help.
When Shirou talked with Arthas, he could see that this action has benefited Arthas's confidence in himself after the talk from yesterday. Being exposed to the ugliness of battle usually diminishes ones self-worth after all.
But he didn't just rest all day, Oh no. He experimented with the prana inside him and came up with different theories about the things he has been exposed to so far.
Such as how something either managed to repair or strengthen his Magic Circuits into something entirely different, because when Shirou looked into himself again he was faced with the astounding revelation that his circuits are currently holding 500 unit of prana per circuit.
Shirou used to only be able to hold a maximum of 800 prana if he strained himself back in Fuyuki. Now he is easily holding 13,500 units of prana without feeling anything different. His circuits are continuously expanding itself even now, and he dare not think how much unit of prana he can hold by the end of the day. Its mind boggling and extremely alarming.
He looked around to confirm if the coast is clear. The people on the beds cannot see him if they don't sit up, and since all the people who occupy the beds are the critically injured, it was probably not a good idea for them to do so. The rugs around him are empty, since most of the lightly injured have been discharged or sleeping. The healers are too busy to pay attention to a stable patient like him to even look his way.
So Shirou decided to project a normal steel dagger. It is utterly plain, without any special ability or extraordinary history, made out of ordinary materials, made by an ordinary black smith.
He didn't want to aggravate his Magic Circuit right now by calling upon something big or costly.
The steel dagger didn't degrade the moment it completely entered the world, and neither did its innate quality degrade further by being projected. With another glance around, Shirou experimentally gave the dagger a few small swings. He peered into himself to check how much prana he needed to maintain the mystery, but couldn't discern anything when the number of Prana units inside him just continued to climb higher and higher without any sign of stopping soon.
He sent out even more Prana into the dagger to see if he could 'Break' the thing. He easily broke it with a tiny push of prana, and quickly removed the projected dagger from the world before it can explode into metallic shrapnel.
Since the process of 'Tracing' the dagger actually happens inside his Reality Marble, the Unlimited Blade Works, and is only realized through the action of Projection, the 'Traced' version of the dagger should have became nothing but shapeless Prana once the Projection fades and he stops the tracing process.
But it didn't.
Shirou was awkwardly holding a bent dagger in his hand.
'Impossible!' Shirou almost screamed in fright.
Projected objects are in no ways the real thing. Its like creating the picture of a certain object, and you cannot substitute a real desk with a picture of a desk for example. But somehow, his projection just became the real thing.
Shirou continued to stare at the 'Broken' dagger in his hand.
Did he just create objects out of thin air, like how Arthas mentioned the Mages could create food out of nothing?
Shirou still stared at the ordinary dagger in his hand.
'Well, technically, the Mages of Azeroth projected the image of Food instead of creating it. But still!'
Shirou couldn't remove his eyes from the little dagger that changed his fate in his hand.
'Does this mean I can recreate Noble Phantasms in this world with naught but willing it into existence?'
Shirou gawked at the ordinary dagger as if the gods created the thing just to mock him.
Finally catching up to the fact that he was looking like an idiot as his inner Tohsaka Rin admonished him, he tried his best to undo the creation of the dagger. He had to use extra effort to decompose it to actually get rid of it. Think of holding a flashlight, and the only way it would shine was for someone to hold the button. But in this case, the flashlight didn't stop giving off light when people stopped pressing the button, and they will have to go the extra step to remove the battery to stop it.
Not wishing to do anything regarding his new ability again, he went ahead to ponder on the magecraft of Azeroth instead of the magecraft of Earth.
Alright, maybe not magecraft of Azeroth. Magic of Azeroth.
'Who in the world could open up portals or teleport from thousands mind away?' Oh wait, almost all Mages in Azeroth could do that.
'Changing the composition of a living entity through polymorph, making a ferocious monster turn into a Sheep?' Science could replicate this effect to an extent, but this was still impressive.
'Calling down miracles such as Resurrection through the use of Holy Magic?' Well that is definitely nothing close to magecraft. Sorcery! SORCERY! How the hell can true Resurrection happen?
... Thinking about these absurd revelations gave him a headache.
So Shirou decided to just go back to sleep.
...
...
...
"WE ARE UNDER ATTACK!"
Shirou jolted awake.
Hello readers, thank you for reading this story.
I was startled when I got about 40 favorites/follows in a single day on my first serious fanfic ever; especially on a very unpopular category like Fate/stay night X Warcraft crossover. (I know people love the idea of this particular crossover in general, but since there aren't many people writing it, I just thought it was unpopular.)
This chapter is about 9k words, and I am already 4k words on the second chapter. I am a fast writer, but the words are jumbled or makes no sense. So I take about 10% time to write the words, but 90% to smooth everything over.
Technically, if you guys want to read completely illegible crap, I could probably finish the whole story in a month.
But since I am not going to do that, this is going to take at least half a year to progress where I really want it to be.
Right now the whole story is at its infancy, and I am trying to set up everything perfectly to make things in the future work.
Gonna try my best to surprise everyone.