Chapter 2: The Devil King

Shirou straightened, his hands kept loose at his sides and holding the hilts of swords that didn't yet exist.

There were four of those unnatural wolves bounding towards him. The aura they gave off wasn't unlike the corrupted monsters he had fought before. A feral intelligence, wanting nothing more than to maim, kill, and devour.

An imperceptible sound, and steel appeared in what were once empty hands. Twin blades, black in his left and white in his right, paralleling his sins of life and death. A design inherited from 'himself' in the future, and in a path he never chose.

-Flawed. They had nowhere near the power of the married swords Kanshou and Bakuya that he remembered. Though the shapes were similar, the stance he took familiar, it was nothing more than a pale imitation of the memories he had of 'EMIYA'.

Shirou couldn't remember the history. The image was vague, and the process blurred. Even so, that guy had used it to slay a creature even more monstrous than the wolves approaching him.

For these wolves, even a hollow mimicry would do.

The first wolf attacked with a lunge, its jaw opened to reveal wickedly sharp fangs. Fast, a charge that an ordinary human couldn't hope to match.

But it was still too slow.

A dance in the rain, a mind of steel, and a body reinforced beyond human limits. Shirou stepped forward and Kanshou cut through the night air, splitting the wolf in half along its entire length, starting from the jaw.

The sound of shattering glass. The black curved sword that Shirou projected broke, vanishing with a small display of light. But he didn't pay any attention to it, turning his gaze instead on the next enemy.

Another wolf, already on the move. This one bounded forward with gleaming claws raised to pierce Shirou's skin and knock him down.

Shirou stepped forward again, twisting his body to bring Bakuya up in a rising slash.

Like its brethren, that wolf was split in half and returned to shadows.

Again, the sound of shattering glass. The imperfect Bakuya broke in that last attack, leaving Shirou without a weapon.

The last two wolves noticed his lack of swords and attacked as one, an attack from high and low.

But his counterattack had yet to finish. With his hand held above his head, a new sword was formed and Shirou stepped forward.

A massive stone blade, cracked and splintered from the flawed image he possessed of it, reinforced to maintain its form for a single strike.

Grabbing the fake axesword with both hands, Shirou swung it down with blinding speed, utterly decimating the two wolves and tearing apart a portion of the asphalt.

Like his other projections, the axesword also shattered, leaving behind only a soft splash of light as evidence of its existence.

Shirou straightened, now that the immediate danger was gone, and winced as a wave of pain passed through his body, like the feeling of small cuts across his skin. "Too much that time... I'm getting closer though."

He still couldn't perform reinforcement like he used to, but he was getting there, unlike the first time he had tried.

That memory brought a grimace to Shirou's face. If it wasn't for the fact that this new body of his had abnormal healing abilities and durability, he would have died the same night he got to start his new life. Feeling your body burn up and your veins feel like they were filled with fire definitely wasn't something Shirou wanted to repeat.

There was the sound of a car spinning out, and an explosion in the distance. In the dark and stormy night, Shirou saw the light of a fire, and heard the screams of the wounded, though it was muffled under the heavy rain.

A cool clarity, obtained by a focus honed with a mind of steel. "It looks like I'm not done yet."

It had seemed like the wolves were focusing on pursuing a particular target, but Shirou realized that wasn't quite true. They were also striving to wreak as much destruction as possible, and would go out of their way to harm the innocent.

Shirou couldn't allow that. Even if he didn't follow the ideal of 'saving everyone' seeing the cost and hypocrisy in pursuing that dream... It's not wrong to want to save someone. And in that moment, at that time, there were people that needed him to save them.

He was standing in the middle of the road, having moved from the sidewalk he had been walking on. The intersection was before him, and the pack of wolves had run to the left, moving deeper into the depths of the city.

Along either side of him were towering buildings, the auspicious constructs that gave way to Tokyo's success.

He couldn't see anything from down here. Trying to chase the wolves in this weather wouldn't be possible, not unless he wanted to risk crashing into a building while he ran after them. No, the best place to be would be...

"The rooftops, huh? Geez, even after all this time, Rin's still helping me out with her ideas..."

It reminded him of how Rin had told him she used the rooftops to scout out Fuyuki during the war, jumping from building to building to cover ground, and that one time he saw her doing that.

He wiped away the brief smile that memory gave him and focused, turning his attention inward. He needed to get to the roof. Entering the building wasn't an option, so he had to climb it. But a human body couldn't do that, at least not anytime soon. So he needed to go past that, reinforcing his body to a level that would give him both the agility and ability to ascend.

His circuits flared, and the rain splashing against his skin turned to steam upon contact-

"Hah!"

-and Shirou broke off into a sprint, leaping at the side of a building. The moment he touched it, he kicked off, heading towards another building's wall. A series of flips and bounds, ending with him standing on the roof of a building top, and giving him a bird's eye view of the surroundings.

It was the neighborhood of the Roppongi district. That was where a majority of the wolves were converging, ironically not far from the apartment complex that Shirou lived. But that wasn't what concerned him. No, it was the sight of ruined cars upon the highway, the wrecks and wounded bodies belonging to those who had only wanted to return home.

And prowling among the scene of devastation were more of those feral creatures, malevolent monsters that Shirou had to end.

He wasn't Archer. Even if he possessed the same potential, he had focused on close combat both in the war and as a hobby. While that guy could probably take out the wolves from this distance, at least half a kilometer, with a bow and arrow, Shirou couldn't-

"Trace... on. Freeze out. Continuous projected fire."

-But then again, he didn't need to.

It will hit. Though Shirou couldn't kill them with a bow and arrow like Archer could, as he didn't have the capability to create that equipment yet, the principle remained the same. Deciding the outcome before the firing, and calming the mind with the act as only a courtesy to the world. That was the ideal of the Archery that Emiya Shirou had learned, and though he didn't use a bow, what he fired were 'arrows', all the same.

Steel swords, reinforced to a level such that they could hold their own against a Noble Phantasm for at least a single strike, cut through the rain. Gleaming like silver light amidst the dark water falling from the sky, they skewered those monsters where they were, returning them into the shadows.

It was a small solace. Wounded as those people were, it was likely that they would die from blood loss or other complications within the hour. Shirou himself didn't know any healing magic, so he couldn't do any more for them even if he wanted to.

But he had given them a chance, and from the flashing emergency lights coming down the interstate in the distance, it seemed that a chance would be all they needed.

With that done, he turned his attention back to the source of all the trouble, and the target of the creatures that were so malevolent. The pack of wolves were headed towards an elementary school, and it looked like their target was-

"Hold on... isn't that Godou and his friends...?"

Godou and the two girls, Erica and Yuri, were standing at the playground.

Erica, the blonde foreigner, was dressed in a red blouse and skirt, though the skirt was torn at the sides. Judging from the divine silver rapier in her right hand, the damage to her outfit hadn't been an accident, but more likely a practical decision.

Yuri was dressed in a shrine maiden's outfit, and stood close to Godou. Even so, her body language was hesitant, awkward, as if expecting Godou to protect her, and yet not wanting him to do so.

Godou himself was calm- no, not calm. Shirou's underclassman was expectant, waiting with a self-assured posture that was cautious, and yet unfearing.

All in all, it looked like Shirou wasn't the only 'abnormal' person in this world. Those three looked like they were used to these types of situation, and weren't panicking like an ordinary person unaware of the hidden aspects of the world would. Shirou probably didn't even need to be here, truthfully, as it was clear whatever was going on had those three at the root of it. It was none of his business, and interfering would likely result in more harm than good. Even so... What kind of Senpai would I be if I left my underclassmen to deal with this alone?

The pack of giant wolves had finally reached the playground, and slowly circled the three younger students, as a predator before prey.

They were outnumbered, with about thirty or forty wolves to their three.

In that case... let's even the odds.

His twenty seven circuits flared once more, and a rain of steel joined the drops of water in the air.

As one, the pack of wolves were slain, with steel swords to mark their deaths.


"What?" The one who had spoken was the usually composed Erica.

Godou was just as surprised.

It had been a tense situation, and the odds were heavily against them. While he could have used the 'Boar' to blow the wolves away, he couldn't afford to if he wanted a chance of victory against that older devil king, Voban.

Erica had been ready to fight, and was a moment away from incanting the spell words to change Cuore di Leone and attack, to even the odds a little by slaying some of the wolves, when there had been a literal rain of steel.

Swords. One, two, three... a dozen, two. It was an onslaught of steel to which the wolves had no defense, so sudden and unexpected that they died in mid-prowl.

But they weren't ordinary swords either. Only a few moments after the last of the wolves disappeared, they too faded, vanishing with only the slightest display of light to show that they had once existed.

"...Erica," Godou said, his eyes still locked on where the swords had been. "That wasn't you... was it?"

The knight shook her head, her own eyes scanning the night sky. "No, Godou. That attack was not my own. It appears that someone has chosen to interfere in this conflict between you and Marquis Voban."

Godou frowned. "But didn't you say that only another Campione could dare oppose a Campione?"

Erica nodded. "Indeed, Godou, that is the truth. Even so, it appears that one so foolish to do so has appeared."

There was a moment of deathly silence, where the rain itself came to a halt. A moment of eerie calm, where it seemed like the world itself had grown still.

"Well, boy. It appears that a fool has joined our little game." Voban's voice echoed through the night, easily carrying across the unearthly silence. "A competent fool, as they managed to slay my hunting hounds, but a fool nonetheless."

Lightning struck, and Voban appeared in front of them. The elderly devil king looked every part of his malevolent history, as if a demonic tyrant spawned from the darkness, and stepped towards Godou.

Voban smiled, a cruel expression befitting a true predator. "No matter. It will only be a matter of time before they, too, are added to my Dead Servants."

At those words, a veritable army of undead warriors appeared. An army of the knights and mages that Voban had slain and bound to himself, cursing their souls to an eternity of servitude to the devil king they had opposed.

"Now... shall we continue?"