Spirit Sword

Chapter 8:

I own nothing beyond this crazy idea and the laptop I write it on.

Author's Note: This chapter covers a lot of story progress with very little filler. In the future, I may rewrite this to have a little more 'fluff' so that parts are such a information dumb. Also, Shirou is seen for the first time benefiting/suffering from Devil's luck. I don't think this is cannon, but it is in my fannon that powerful devils have larger amounts of luck as they gain power. As Shirou was already incredibly unlucky, this causes events to randomly happen with a large chance of having (un)lucky things happen.

Again, this chapter is fast and not really to my standards, but I felt that I had reached a point were holding on to it wasn't benefiting me or the story any more. So I hope you enjoy this and leave a review with ways I can make this better.


The feminine cry of the female devils within his peerage drew Shirou's attention. Shirou spun around and drew Kanshou from the bundle at his hip. What he saw left him stupefied. A green goo? No, it was more of a slime really, was covering Rias, Koneko and Akeno. It was pinching around their groin and chest, apparently feeling some combination of erotic and uncomfortable.

Looking to the side revealed that Kiba had prevented a similar fate from falling on Asia. Issei, between Kiba and Shirou, was staring at the sight in front of him with barely contained lust. There guide was behind him and he looks fairly calm. Then again, for all Shirou knew this could be a regular even for this place. Further analysis of the slime showed that it was eroding the clothing under itself.

"What is this?" Shirou asked, his voice quiet and cold.

"A simple slime that lives in this forest. This particular breed of slime eats female clothing to sustain itself." Ash explained, his voice smug and amused. Shirou was completely silent for several moments before he stared back at Ash.

"And what is different about the cloth formed into female clothing when compared to the same clothing worn by a man?" Shirou asked, focusing on the confusing problem in front of him.

"It doesn't matter! Just help us!" Rias asked, her face bright red.

"More important, is it acidic? Can I just grab it?" Shirou asked. Upon receiving an amused nod, Shirou strode forward and gently peeled the slime off of the youngest devil. Koneko's face was cherry red while Shirou worked. It took a couple seconds, but the petite devil was freed. Koneko gave a short 'thank you' before walking behind Shirou.

Shirou was vaguely amused to hear the pained shouts of Issei receiving his 'punishment' for being perverted. Honestly, the way that Koneko tortured Issei was hilarious to watch. It was fortunate that being a devil enable Issei to recover from the 'light' injuries he received. Shirou began to work on removing the slime from Rias.

Honestly, this creature was a mystery. For some reason it either evolved to only target women, or even worse, was designed to only target women. That was an interested idea to consider. Devils, in general, tended to fall prey to one of the seven deadly sins. While it would be easy to assume that it was a 'lust' devil, like Issei, that made these, that was perhaps not true.

Shirou mechanically finished removing the slime from a mostly nude Rias, have only scraps of her outer clothing left. If this had been a year ago, Shirou would have broken out in blushed and stuttering, but he was past that now. Honestly, between the handful of memories he had 'borrowed' from Archer and the tantric ritual he went through just to survive the Holy Grail War he was not even bothered by nudity anymore. Shirou's body was tensed as he sensed a presence directly behind him. "Shouldn't you go and help Akeno?" Rias asked, wiping the faint residue of the slime from her face. Rias seemed confused for a moment before Shirou burst into action. A dart flew from his fingers into a blue creature in the distance. The resulting squeak and blast of lightning proving that it hits it's target.

Shirou dodged directly to the right of the blast, completely focused on the creature before him. Shirou nearly had a panic attack when he realized it was a dragon. Thankfully, the dragon was a young creature, so it wasn't likely strong enough to destroy entire countries. Actually, the creature was bleeding from a hole in the wing membrane to it's left side.

Asia gasped in shock as Shirou drew forth his dual blades and strode forward to end the dragon's life. "Stop!" Asia cried as she placed herself between the dragon and Shirou. Shirou's mind was still for a moment before he relaxed himself mentally.

"Asia, that creature is dangerous. We have no way of knowing whom it may kill if we let it live." Shirou said, stopping his motion a single pace from Asia and the downed dragon. He felt the rest of the peerage catch up to them after freeing Akeno from the slime creature.

"Shirou, this dragon could be a strong familiar for either you or Issei." Rias said, mysteriously fully clothed again. Shirou did feel conflicted about killing the creature, it was still a child after all. However, it ultimately was a creature that would endanger other people in the future. The life of any human was worth the life of a dragon.

Shirou heard a large blast of wind in the distance, followed by repeated blasts. Besides Shirou, it seemed that Rias and Ash both heard it, the former dismissing it. Ash's face was blank as he tilted his head slightly before a look of horror washed over his face. Dragon's were proud creatures, and took offence to the smallest of things, and Shirou just attack a dragon's child.

"Rias, take everyone and get out of here!" Shirou called, his voice cold as Steel slowly overrode his mind. Rias stared at him for a moment, before nodding slightly and getting the rest of the peerage to leave. As Kiba left with Asia on his back, she turned back and made a motion for him to follow with them.

"Shirou! Come on!" Rias urged.

"The dragon will just follow me. Ash! Make sure that Rias and the rest of her peerage gets out of here safely!" Shirou called out, his eyes darted over his surroundings. A frightened nod from Ash was his only response.

"Shirou! As your King I command you, -" Rias began, before Shirou darted in front of her and knocked the wind out of her diaphragm. Handing Rias to Ash, Shirou began running in the opposite direction. Shirou checked in on his magic circuits as he dashed away from the peerage. Most of them were completely unusable, but a few were healed enough to produce a drop of prana for him to use.

When Shirou heard the large wings of the elder dragon over him, he rolled to the side and threw a dart at the giant beast. Unlike the younger version of the creature, this beast wasn't injured by the sharpened length of wood. The dragon release a storm of lightning at Shirou, causing him to duck behind a tree to avoid the attack. The tree of itself was almost completely destroyed by the dragon's single breath attack.

"WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE!?" The dragon roared. Shirou used this opportunity to dash from the tree he was hiding behind to another. The mana in the air was rich enough that his 3 functioning circuits were producing prana fast enough to be of use. Of course the dragon clawed out the tree that formed Shirou's new cover quickly enough, before biting at Shirou.

A knight piece granted reincarnated devils additional speed. A mutation piece is even more powerful then a normal evil piece. This meant that Shirou was out of the way of the jaw before he was in mortal danger. What Shirou wasn't taking into account was the tail of the great beast.

Shirou's back smashed into a rather thick tree, causing Shirou to lose hold of Bakuya and Kanshou. The following smash was avoided by Shirou, as he rolled out of the way, picking up Bakuya on the way. The black blade was lost on the other side of the blue dragon.

"You think to injure my brood! The brood of the great Lightning Lord, Zilant!" The beast released even more lightning, this time piercing through Shirou's left shoulder. Shirou jumped back as he grabbed Bakuya with his right hand. Shirou's mind was still and completely focused. The loss of mobility in his left arm was terrible but -

-My body is the sword of my Soul.-

- he could handle it.

Bakuya was sent flying towards Zilant, spinning such that it appeared to be a white disk. The dragon went to knock the blade from the air, but the blade instead bit deep into the scaled front paw. Zilant gave out a roar of shock.

Shirou was running was fast as he could, his left arm following uselessly behind him. The blast of lightning missed Shirou by a few millimetres as he slid underneath the beast. When Shirou managed to hide behind another tree, he was only a couple of metres from Kanshou. Shirou once again dashed from his cover as a massive claw bisected the tree he was hiding behind.

Zilant had removed the blade from it's paw, leaving the equivalent of scratch for the dragon. Unlike the fight against the Fallen or even the stray devil, Shirou couldn't use his abilities wastefully here, not if he wanted to continue to serve Rias. His reality marble sparked to life as he called upon Archer yet again.

It was difficult to apply two spirits simultaneously, but Shirou needed this blade to curve for his strategy. If he had more time, he might have been able to unlock one of the seals. However that is not the case, so Shirou applied the spirit of Bakuya Kanshou to both the blade in his hand and the forgotten blade under the dragon.

Shirou felt his body weaken great under the strain of maintaining the two spirits, but he couldn't care while he was Steel. The blade was thrown out of Shirou's hand so hard that Shirou ended up unbalanced and falling over. The beast was going to attack but stopped after seeing the blade fly nearly directly upwards.

"This is the pathetic devil that dared to strike my brood." Zilant ranted. "You can hardly stand up but you think that you are immune to my wrath! LET ME SHOW YOU SUFFERING!" The dragon unleashed black stained lightning upon Shirou. The pain was terrible, Shirou could feel parts of his body dieing and disappearing from his own senses. Had he not been Steel he would have already fallen unconscious from the pain.

When the dragon let the lightning stop, Shirou's main muscular groups had been fried almost to the bone. The black flakes that had been skin and muscle were escaping to the wind. By all rights, he should have been dead. Steel observed Shirou body and knew it could not win with the body in this state.

"Full Trace!" The Steel managed to make Shirou croak out. The first segment on his left hand glowed red. The point of the sword it formed reverted to the red tattoo it was in the beginning, allowing the magic core underneath to function. Using the small remnants of prana that the circuits produces set the core going, producing prana much more quickly than Shirou could use. Thankfully, Avalon stole that prana directly and used it to being healing the wounds on Shirou's body.

Shirou dashed directly away from the dragon, using more prana to move his otherwise immobile body. Zilant attempted to take to the air once again, only for a blade to come back down and pierce it's wing. The moment that the blade hit the earth underneath the wing, it exploded. The wing was in tatters, with only the bones and a handful of raw tendons and muscle remaining. The beast was crippled.

Shirou wasn't stupid. He knew that he may not have a sense of self worth, but he wasn't going to die now if he could help it. Rias needed him for some unknown reason and Shirou would be damned if he let another person relying on him down again. So he knew that the dragon would kill him if he wasn't quick enough, but Shirou wasn't likely to escape.

So he did something that any proper magus would never even dream of. He used a mystery before perfecting it and truly understanding it. The nearly uncontrollable energy was immediately syphoned into the mutation piece inside Shirou's soul. He felt the world itself slow until it was moving at nothing more than a crawl.

Shirou moved as quickly as his still healing legs would let him. His soul was beginning to suffer from rejection and the seal would have to be reinstated soon, unless he wanted to have his soul ripped apart and scattered to the winds. Shirou managed to make it for two minutes before his soul was so damaged that it Avalon could no longer maintain his current condition.

Shirou collapsed into a pile after hiding his body under an upturned root. The command seal glowed before it's command was restarted, becoming a seal that the magic core was locked under. The damage to his soul was immense, but ultimately Avalon would attempt to heal it. After all, when his soul had been all but destroyed during the fire all those years ago, hadn't Avalon healed it then?


It had been a week since the peerage had lost Shirou. When they first tried to go back and save him, it had been Ash who told them to stop. An elder dragon was too powerful for devils as weak as them to even hurt, let alone kill. Even their king had agreed that no one in her peerage could stand up to an elder dragon, but still she tried to leave and save Shirou. Of course, Ash wasn't week enough that they could get past him without actually killing him, anything less and he would be able to capitalize on their hesitation.

It had been only five minutes since they had left the clearing and three since they found out that Shirou was staying behind when an explosion ripped through the air. They had been quiet for a minute before it really sank in that Shirou had died. When they returned to the club house afterwards, the mood had been somber.

Even now, two weeks later, they were slightly depressed and upset. At first, they held hope that by some of chance Avalon had saved Shirou. The next day they managed to get back into the familiar forest and look for him. This time they came with both phoenix tears and several rapid teleportation runes. Of course they found nothing, but they came back again the next day.

After the fifth day of search, they gave up. In the end, the chance of him surviving an elder dragon, even with 'Avalon' was slim. According to Kiba, the sheath was supposed to prevent King Arthur from losing even a single drop of blood. However, Shirou wasn't King Arthur, so when he was killed he died.

Kiba and Issei took his loss the worst, the former because his fellow knight was a close friend and the latter because his weakness had cost the someone else their life. The duo had taken to training themselves into the ground. Kiba managed to increase his speed of manifestation in his sacred gear, while Issei only managed to activate his on command.

Koneko and Akeno weren't terribly close to Shirou, but they were vaguely sad. Rias on the other hand was devastated at losing one of her peerage. As the king of her peerage, she had been unable to keep them safe. That thought tormented her dreams and drove her to training up her own personal strength and teaching her peerage how to fight and training up their physical abilities.


Archer frowned as he looked down upon the comatose Shirou. Since the events that happened last week, the sword incarnate had retreated into his reality marble. The once beautiful land filled with the stone monuments and vast geography was torn into shreds, The lands had large gashes that revealed a sea of golden energies underneath.

The energy of Avalon was slowly repairing the damage to the reality marble. Like all the regeneration that Avalon caused in Shirou, these repairs left Shirou stronger and better able to use Avalon. The areas that had once been plains of grass were now marble tiles and pillars. The swords that had been in those areas were now on pedestals or framed on the pillars. The larger items, like Vimana, were placed on large slabs with marble posts surrounding them.

In ways, the changes reminding Archer of a museum. The items were placed in a way that showcased them to people whom would come here. This could be the 'true' form of Shirou's reality marble, or perhaps a mutation caused by the presence of Avalon or Archer's true soul. Either way, it showed that Shirou was becoming more independent from Unlimited Blade Works.

Chulainn was napping nearby, bored of this land without more spirits to occupy his time. During the event of the previous week where Shirou's reality marble had been damaged, Chulainn had been killed. Thankfully, the reality marble regenerated the spirit slowly since then, but whatever did this to Shirou was dangerous. Knowing him, it was probably Shirou pushing his abilities much to far, but what could have happened to have Shirou rely on the magic core?


Shirou's body was no longer hidden under a root where he had collapsed from the soul rejection syndrome. During his time unconscious, faeries had found him practically glowing with the energies of Avalon. They could not leave the one who possessed the Sheath on the ground. Not without breaking their oath to the King.

During the time he spent in the glade, the energies of the Sheath would attract the best of their species to inspect both the Sheath and the one whom held it. From what the diminutive creatures could unravel, the boy had been gifted the Sheath at a young age by theKing and the Sheath only worked because the King instructed the Sheath to heal the boy.

An elder dragon had burst into the faerie glade during the time the boy had been healing from his wounds. The left wing of the beast had been injured by the boy, and the dragon wanted revenge on him. The wing would have been easily healed, but it had instead taken time for the beast to find the boy even without flying. The faeries refused to relinquish the Sheath and the one whom held it.

When the dragon attempted to attack the boy, the faerie brought the boy into Avalon. Unlike most devils whom entered their lands, the boy wasn't destroyed by their defences. Of course, the boy had been in Avalon before, if only for short times, by using the Sheath. The only dangers to the boy would be the energy of the world itself. Other humans whom entered the fae lands became a flesh changer.

The boy was a dark one, but the Sheath prevented him from being completely altered. It was impossible for the truth to be known about the effects on the boy. Many believed that he would remain safe because the Sheath would protect him from the effects. Other thought that the Sheath would not stop the energies of the homeland from changing the boy for the best.

The Seelie court had ruled that the boy would rest and heal in Avalon, as per the contract with the King that had made the contract to begin with. Many were pleased with the choice, as the creatures of Avalon saw the Sheath as the epitome of beauty and felt it's energy even across their land. The queen of fae was often seen attending to the boy, helping him heal and granting him strength.

Faerie were not blind during this time of peace and quiet. Despite the blessing of the Sheath and the mystery of the boy, they kept their ears to the ground. The flesh changers were out in the land of the mortals and the land of the dark ones. The fae learnt of the dark one that called the boy it's knight. The dark ones knew of the Sheath but not of the power the Sheath held or the importance of the Sheath.

The Unseelie court did not trust the boy. They feared that the boy was like the skin changers, a trick for the dark ones to invade the homeland. Resistance to the Seelie court was pointless, it was long before the King that the Seelie court had been closer to the queen of the homeland.

It would be another week before the boy would wake of his slumber.


Shirou woke, seeing a black sky with a moon red like blood. The cracks that ran across the sky were faint this evening, being less brilliant under the waxing moon of this land. Underneath his back, Shirou should feel the grass of his reality marble. His head shifted to the side, and saw what he would never unseen for the rest of his life. Chulainn was reading! The miracle was amazing and would be something that Shirou would probably never see again.

Shirou smiled as he mentally taunted Chulainn. Hell, if he ever said anything like that out loud, Chulainn would wipe the floor with him. Shirou close his eyes and sense through out his reality marble and what he felt scared him. All across his world, there were scars of marble that poked through the ground. The stone shells were still present in these scars, but his world shouldn't be changing this quickly.

Archer approached from somewhere and poked Shirou's side. The resulting flinch and gasp fully awoke Shirou and he saw Archer above him, scowling. Chulainn looked up from his book and gave his wide smile that freaked Shirou out.

"Shirou. What. Did. You. Do?" Archer asked, his voice cold and hard.

"Released the first seal. And I didn't reseal it before rejection kicked in." Shirou explained, sweat travelling down his spine.

"Really now? You just decided to let the implanted magic core destroy the very essence of your soul. If you were anyone else and you didn't still have Avalon, you would have died. What would happen to Rias then?" Archer asked.

"She was already safe! That was the first thing I made sure of!" Shirou flipped onto his feet, being within his own world let him do things like that.

"Oh, and once you died who would guard her? Not Issei, he's too weak. Kiba? Too emotional." Archer countered. "Akeno? Completely driven by her lust. Koneko? Too meek! You are the only one that is both strong and in control of yourself!"

"It was an elder dragon! What was I supposed to do?" Shirou replied. "My circuits were too damaged to be used at that point."

"An elder dragon?" Cu Chulainn asked. "Ain't those incredibly powerful and rare?"

"Yes, so why were you fighting one?" Archer's stare was burning a hole straight through Shirou's head.

"I, uh, kinda, like, attacked it's child." Shirou said, looking away.

"This isn't the holy grail war anymore Shirou. You don't have to attack everything on sight anymore." Archer explained, pinching his nose. "I guess it's understandable that you would have to use the first seal to fight one. Still, know your limits Shirou."

"Yeah, I understand. So the marble sections of the reality marble are what? My 'true' reality marble?" Shirou asked.

"It would be better to say that it represents your 'pure' reality marble. Before, Unlimited Blade Works was influencing the marble. When the damage was healed by Avalon, it must have regenerated into a stronger form. Maybe it is because the progress you made would have slowly rewritten the marble but those areas were healed into the most 'current' version of your reality marble."

"So you have no idea."

"Yup. Well, I do know that your aren't a normal devil anymore." Archer explained.

"Oka- Wait what?"

"You are a changeling now, a human exposed to the energies of the fae world." Chulainn cut in, flipping another page in his book.

"Normally you would have to be exposed as a child, when the soul is the most malleable. However, almost half of your soul was destroyed and in the process of being regenerated. So naturally, the energies of the fae world was infused into your soul as you were healed." Archer explained

"So what? I can now change my appearance, something that I could do anyway with a little work as a devil. Did I gain anything at all from this?" Shirou asked, bringing a hand up to rub his forehead.

"Well, you ain't dead." Chulainn said.

"Why can't anything normal happen to me." Shirou whined.

Archer and Chulainn looked at each other before Archer spoke, "Well, you did directly cause this mess." Shirou didn't even react, silently complaining about the lack of sanity the world apparently had. Unlike his old friends, oh how he missed them, he could handle when strange things tried to kill him, or even talking to strange people wasn't that big of a deal, but now Shirou was the weird one.

Honestly, he wasn't that bad. It was plenty normal to want to help people. Even if it meant giving some stuff up. A lot of people with survivor's guilt had a lessened self worth. Shirou had been normal, but now he was undoubtedly a strange creature. His entire delusion of being 'normal' was gone now. Being a fae creature there was no manner of illusion that could convince him that he was a normal human. Now HE was the enemy that was a threat to humanity.

The only thing for him to do is to continue to protect Rias. He couldn't save everyone, he always was aware of that, but had contented himself with saving the most important person to him, Sakura. Except that he wasn't strong enough. Shirou had failed to save her. He had a second chance now, but it wasn't the same. To add insult to injury, he had lost his own humanity for his cause and ultimately failed when it mattered most.

Shirou wasn't strong enough.

But he could be.


Rias had just returned from the large training session she had for her peerage. Being able to disguise it as a field trip had helped of course. However, it wasn't even the fact that her peerage was far too weak compared to that dragon that had prompted this particular trip. It was the looks she constantly received from Sona that made being at school unbearable. The pity, it was disgusting. Rias was not some doll to be protected! That's why she came to the human world! To get the hell away from all that.

The blood and sweat that her peerage had put out this time was admirable. It had only been three weeks and already her peerage had made tremendous progress. Issei was finally physically strong enough to release the first seal on his pawn pieces. Kiba had found a new extension of his sacred gear, which was apparently derived from some of Shirou's own techniques. Kiba could maintain his blades even when he wasn't holding them.

Koneko hadn't been personally present during this training. She was actually attempting to increase her agility on her own. Akeno herself was training with her lightning magic. It wasn't interesting, but it was practical. Rias had made it a point to also increase her own magical reserves to ensure that such an event wouldn't happen again.

Rias was only just finishing her shower when she felt a familiar magical signature appear in the centre of the club house. Thankfully, Rias had created a spell that teleported a set of her school uniform. It was good because her image as the heiress of the Gremory clan was paramount. Otherwise her political allies might end up leaving her to the wind.

It wasn't like it mattered, because it wasn't anyone that would have spoken of it. Grayfia was a rather tall woman with an impressive bust and a rather stern look upon her face. Despite wearing a maid uniform and generally acting as a lowly maid under the Gremory clan, she was one of the most powerful devils in the underworld, under the four maou but above most other devils.

"Rias, I have come with some dire news." Grayfia said, her voice low. "Riser Phenex is pushing to have your wedding moved forward too a much sooner date." Riser was a young and rising star in the underworld, having an almost unbeaten record during rating games. Rias had an arranged marriage with the devil, and she detested it.

"What? I thought I had until the end of my education in the human world?" Rias asked, her voice coming out in rasps that betrayed her panic.

"Apparently, he originally planned to push the issue much sooner." Grayfia explained, "But when you lost your knight he decided to wait." Of course, when Rias had lost Shirou it had created a big stir in the underworld. Most stories were fairly accurate, with Shirou staying behind to distract and elder dragon. However, people began panicking when news had gotten around that an elder dragon was taking residence within the familiar forest.

"Does Onee-sama agree to this?" Rias asked, despite knowing the answer.

"I don't believe he would agree to it, but he is currently too busy with the dragon issue to participate in any meaningful family politics. Despite the fact that he has sworn off ties with the Gremory clan, he decided to send me to inform you and help you prepare." Grayfia replied, moving over to the window overseeing the large field.

"Do you believe that Riser will force this into a rating game?" Rias asked, walking over to the window to see Kiba and Issei walk up towards the building.

"That was always his intention. He believes that he is unbeatable in rating games. Not without reason either." Grayfia explained, looking down upon the knight and pawn walking up towards club house. "Are they strong enough?"

"Not likely enough to win, but at least we will lose with grace." Rias said, her eyes darkening and her posture stiffening.

"That will have to do if we can't convince Riser to grant you time to train your peerage." Grayfia said.

"Do you think that he will come by today to issue the challenge?" Rias asked.

"Most likely, if your parents don't manage to delay him." Grayfia said.

At that moment, Issei and Kiba walked into the room. The former stared a Grayfia with drool coming out of his mouth while the latter raise his eyebrow and sat down on the couch. Rias sighed as Kiba once again was acting indifferent and cold. It wasn't healthy for him to mourn this was, but Rias had no idea how to even approach the topic.

"Issei, this is Grayfia. She is my older brother's trusted queen and one of the most powerful devils in the underworld. Grayfia, you know Kiba, but this is my pawn Issei." Rias introduced the two devils to each other.

"A p-pleasure." Issei stuttered, bowing at the waist. Grayfia just waved it off as she turned back to Rias.

"I haven't mentioned it yet, but I do sympathize with the loss of your knight. I do hope that he rests in peace." Grayfia offered.

"So do we all." Rias answered for her peerage, noticing the slight tensing of Issei and Kiba's shoulders.


It had been a nightmare for Shirou to finally get his changeling or 'flesh changer' attributes under control, even with the help of the Seelie court. The faeries were kind, but they were so archaic and alien that it was sometimes difficult for Shirou to even understand what they spoke of. The queen of the fae was understanding of his situation with Rias and had struck him a deal.

Shirou would be allowed to leave with only three very minor conditions. First, that he told no one of the homeland of the faerie creatures. Second, he returned to meet with the Seelie court to reach a conclusion about his status and loyalties. Third, the he had complete control of his changeling nature and didn't let his 'dark master' know of this shift in nature.

The first and third condition was easily agreed to, as not many would believe him anyway. It was the second condition was the one that had held Shirou up. Returning to Avalon to speak of 'loyalty' sounded not only very risky, but ultimately suspicious towards the remainder of the peerage. However, he had to accept it, otherwise he wouldn't be granted the chance of leaving.

So as Shirou recreated the proper rune combination to teleport himself to the club house, he mentally prepared himself for the scolding he would be getting from his master. The runes were quickly set up and he was gone. The faeries that had been assigned to him offered a goodbye before the world disappeared in a flash of red.

When he returned to the clubhouse, he was in the hallway and exhausted. Evidently, teleporting was more difficult from Avalon or he was lacking in his runecraft ability. The room itself had a large collection of magical energies that assaulted his nose. Shirou's first reflex was to activate his magic circuits and open the door slowly.

Issei was being attacked by a girl with her hair in twin buns. In her hands was a wooden staff that was being held with both hands. Shirou's hand was already moving a he launched a projection towards the girl. Issei had closed his eyes as he saw the staff speed towards his midsection. When he didn't feel any pain, he opened his eyes to watch in horror as his fellow pawn's head fell off her body.

Shirou rushed in front of the peerage with a projected copy of Bakuya and Kanshou in his hands. The enemy appeared to have his entire peerage there. The king of the enemy peerage was a tall man with golden hair and a red opened jacket with a white undershirt. His magic 'smelled' of smoke and ash.

"Shirou!" Rias shouted, spinning around to see her 'dead' knight appear once again. The other members of her peerage seemed to be in similar positions of shock.

"MOTHER FUCKER!" the enemy king shouted, blasting flames at Shirou. His peerage seemed to be mostly shocked, but the queen of the peerage launched herself backwards and allowed the king room to cast. Shirou reacted by activating the spirit of the black keys on the projected blades, before using them to deflect the magical flames.

"Enough!" a third voice shouted. It belonged to a maid(?) that had an enormous level of power. She marched between Shirou and the enemy King and prevented them from attacking each other. "Who are you? Rias' old knight is dead."

Shirou's eyes narrowed. He was sure that they had come to that conclusion, but this 'maid' said so with strength hidden beneath her voice. Shirou had been lucky to survive the attack of the dragon because he was underestimated. He seriously doubted that this woman would make the same mistake.

"Reports of my untimely death were slightly, exaggerated."

The woman's eyes narrowed as she stared at Shirou intently. Evidently she couldn't find any evidence of falsehood in his expression. "You just killed a member of Riser Phenex's peerage. Surely you know their will be consequences for this."

"Shirou! How did you survive that? That entire section of the forest was decimated?" Rias asked, interrupting the maid. Shirou gave a glance at the enemy king. He was literally shaking in rage and releasing a veritable storm of magic around himself. At least the 'maid' was enough deterrent to prevent him from attacking.

The truth would destroy the image of his strength that the enemy had of him. Beyond simply giving his enemies confidence, it would give away his new abilities and his tricks. A simple lie would have to do considering the situation; "Have a little confidence in your knight. Did you really think that one of the your own knights would lose to a simple dragon?" It was the sarcastic smile that he had learnt from Archer that sold Shirou's "lie".

The comment only seemed to enrage the enemy king even more, but at least it didn't reveal any information that Shirou didn't want known. It seemed that some of Archer's thought process had bleed over to Shirou during the Holy Grail War, though it was only now that Shirou had noticed it. Then again, that's how change worked. People only noticed it in hindsight, not while the changes are happening.

"Where were you for the past three weeks?" Kiba asked, directly behind and to the right of Shirou. Shirou knew he had been in a coma for a while, but three weeks? Granted, damage done to the soul is very serious, but apparently Shirou had been ignorant to the true scale of the damages done to him.

"Hey, prick! We are going to solve this in a rating game." The enemy king's voice interrupted whatever lie he would have tried to pass by them. Riser's face was twisted into an angry snarl as he stared death into Shirou's very being.

"He doesn't even have a peerage!" Rias objected, the others of the peerage staying silent.

"Then he better get one! He have a fortnight." With his final declaration the enemy king turn and disappeared into a storm of flames as he and his peerage returned to where ever they came from. The maid turned and gave Shirou a calculating look.

"Surely Riser wont be able to force this?" Rias asked, her voice meek and quiet.

"Normally he wouldn't have the ability to declare a rating game against such a low level devil, but if it is true that he survived an encounter with an elder dragon, he might be able to forcibly increase his status. The political power his family holds is not to be trifled with." Grayfia explained, causing Rias to frown.

"How could he make Shirou a high class devil just because he survived an encounter with an elder dragon? Surely just survival isn't enough to make people think him worthy, no offence Shirou."

"None taken."

"Because it was Zilant that he encountered. Zilant was also seen to have lost a wing during the same time period. If someone was to apply the right pressure and release just the right amount of political pressure, than it would no doubt force at least a proper evaluation of his abilities." Grayfia said, before staring at Shirou, "If he then said that you killed one of his pawns, he could predictably offer to duel in a rating game to determine your fate. With enough care, he could probably convince your supporters that it will give you a fair chance, while the devils who just want you dead will not care in the least."

"So let me get this straight. Because I both dealt a lot of damage to Zilant and killed one of his pawns, he will be able to strong arm people in power into making me a high class devil just so that he can beat me in a rating game?" Shirou asked, a single eyebrow raised.

"On the condition that if you lose he will be able to personally see to your death after an uncertain amount of time." Grayfia finished. "Zilant is a well known dragon that is often considered on par with several ultimate class devils. The ability to damage him while remaining unharmed makes you at least the lowest level of high class. So the fact that he is actually accurate in making you a high class devil is on his side."

"Can't Shirou refuse the challenge?" Rias asked.

"Then he would just be murdered before he becomes important. Riser, for all his ability, wants this to be a public humiliation of your knight in revenge for the death of his pawn. For such an important political figure, his plans have always been predictable."

"Then why give me fourteen days? Wouldn't he want to have the game now so that I have no chance to even gain the slightest amount of strength?" Shirou asked.

"Devils value strength and power above all, but that does not make them quick or rash." Rias explained. "He needs that time to gain the political support in this case so that he can force the issue."