Disclaimer: I do not own any characters, names, and any copyrighted material used in this work. This is a fanfic, period. Everything belongs to their respective owners. Comments and constructive criticism are all very much appreciated.

Legacy of the Ancients: Evolution

Chapter 10

Shinji Matou bit down on a finger, and allowed his blood to drip onto the open books before him. "Accept the offering of blood…" he said as the dried blood which made up the writing within the Books of Unquiet Spirits flared angrily. "…and answer my call."

The ambient temperature instantly dropped several degrees, which the magus easily ignored due to the burning sensation of active circuits cycling prana within him. Grass and leaves shriveled as the very life was sucked out of them, and an eerie fog rose from the ground and around the trees at the edge of the village. Shinji smiled and looked up at the full Moon peeking out from behind a cloud.

"A wonderful omen, if I may say so." He said to himself, and then raising an arm above his head, brought it down in a chopping motion forwards. At that signal, he marched down the central road of the village followed by a double file of ghastly wraiths of 15th Century samurai cavalry. The village watchman tried to bar his entry…only to fall dead mere moments after noticing the macabre procession behind the magus.

Shinji sneered and kicked the corpse out of his way, the dead man's face frozen in shock from having his heart stopped in an instant by the slightest touch of an eldritch lance. Shinji marched through the mountain village towards the temple stairs, his wraith soldiers following in spectral silence. Armored feet, iron-shod hooves, and spears struck the ground in uniform fashion without a sound, the wraiths draining the heat from the air and wrapping their surroundings with damnable fog.

Shinji paused as he reached the base of the temple stairs, and signaled with his arm. Barely a tenth of his army was with him – it hardly seemed necessary to bring all one hundred thousand wraiths along – but it was still enough. Kurogane ghosted through the fog and landed on his master's shoulder, and watched with beady red eyes as peasant spearmen formed a line before a second line of peasant archers. "Do you think we're expected youngster?" the crow asked.

"Almost certainly…" Shinji replied. "…there's a bounded field around the entire village. It's an unusual design – no doubt due to the Far Eastern origin of the magecraft – but it checks out. The villagers may not know, but the cultists do. Speaking of which Kurogane…?"

"What...?"

"…I need you to watch the village. I wouldn't want an angry mob attacking from the rear out of nowhere."

"No, you don't."

The crow flew off, and Shinji exchanged a nod with the leading samurai. Of course as a mere spirit it couldn't really think much less feel, but it retained faded impressions of past events and memories. Such familiar gestures would make increase the awareness of the wraiths by a small amount. It wouldn't be very useful, but it wasn't exactly useless either.

Shinji cautiously ascended the steps and passed through the open temple gates…and stepped back as a shinai nearly slammed down on his head. The magus blinked as the midget of a gatekeeper leapt at him, brandishing his weapon…and was frozen in place as ice encased his feet at Shinji's command. The midget blinked, and then his eyes went wide as Shinji stabbed him in the heart with a stiletto.

As the gatekeeper fell dead to the ground, Shinji turned with mild amusement as he heard a pair of oni-masked acolytes in white yukatas charge screaming at him with shinai held high. He rolled his eyes, and his arms blurred…and both acolytes staggered back and fell dead with throwing daggers buried in their throats.

"I don't need to poison my blades like Sakura…" he said as he casually walked past their twitching corpses, playing with another throwing dagger in one hand. "…unlike her, my superior skills as a knife thrower are enough."

"Really now…" a fat and bald man dressed as the high priest said as he exited the main temple building. Shinji came to a halt and raised an eyebrow. "…what's gotten into the youth of today? They stay up so late, break into holy grounds, and kill sanctified people…"

"There is nothing holy about this place." Shinji interrupted him coldly. "Just for starters you and your ilk worship no god, merely a vicious snake spirit whose followers raped and murdered the priestess of this place before defiling it."

The magus sniffed and ran a hand through the air, his fingers twitching as he ran diagnostics and analyzed minute substances wafting through the moisture in the air. "And from the look of things, the 'creative' aspects of this cult of yours are dependent on psychological dependency and quite possibly chemical inducement."

"...that's very clever of you boy." The high priest noted neutrally.

"It's my business to know." Shinji replied, and the high priest laughed before gazing coldly at him, all trace of joviality and indulgence gone.

"And pray tell, what are you going to do about it boy?" he asked imperiously. "You know some tricks I see – foreign trash but quite impressive for all that – but do you really think you can get out of here alive much less safe? I don't know what you care here for…!"

Shinji didn't even blink. He didn't even let the high priest finish what he saying. Instead he relaxed, and coolly regarded the acolytes gathering from the surrounding temple buildings. "Fat…" he said laconically, eyeing the corpse of the high priest with a dagger buried all the way to the hilt in one eye. "…fat and bald…an isolated temple…a cult with promiscuous elements…lots of acolytes who stink of hormones…this has got to be a joke. A very bad joke or parody of some second-rate porno flick…"

"He killed the high priest!"

"He knows our secrets!"

"Kill him!"

"Don't let him escape!"

"…people like me always get the short end of the stick in such scenarios." Shinji muttered while looking up at the Moon, the acolytes charging in and shouting around him. He sighed and tensed. "But this isn't something like that. This is reality."

Steel flashed between his fingers, and Shinji threw six daggers with unerring precision, and killed six acolytes. He grabbed and pulled a shinai as an acolyte swung it at him, and slit the man's belly before turning and stabbing the same knife into another man's neck. The man went down gurgling, while the other screamed and desperately tried to cram his intestines back into his body.

Sidestepping another swing, Shinji slit the man's neck arteries open, and reinforcing his legs jumped onto a man's back and used it as a springboard to jump closer to the gate. He snapped his fingers as the survivors regrouped and charged.

They came to a halt as wraiths ran through the gate, their armored shoes making no sound as they lined up between their master and his enemies and levelled their matchlocks. The two sides stared at each other before the acolytes renewed their resolve. "They're just a bunch of ghosts! They can't hurt us!"

"Get the witch! Burn him!"

Shinji rolled his eyes as the wraiths pulled their triggers, sparks erupting soundlessly…and the charge broke as many of the acolytes fell dead, their faces set in shock. "What the hell?" one of the survivors yelled with his face pale with horror.

"H-how…?"

"He's dead!"

"They're just ghosts! They can't have…!"

"Idiots…" Shinji snarled while massaging his neck muscles. "…just because wraiths are insubstantial it doesn't mean that they're harmless. Even if they can't cause physical harm, they'll just cause harm on the conceptual level, in this case by 'imposing' a subconscious belief in one's own death."

"W-what…?"

Shinji smiled and raised a finger to his lips. "It's called magic." He said smugly. "And a good magician never reveals his secrets. Now fire…!"

Again matchlocks fired in spectral silence, and more acolytes fell. The rest broke and fled, and Shinji gestured for the musketeers to follow…and then his eyes went wide as the ground began to shake and he felt power flowing through the air. "What the hell?"

In response the main temple exploded from the inside, and Shinji could only gape as a giant, green serpent emerged hissing with anger. "Oh hell no…" he muttered, and then he was forced to jump to the side as the enraged serpent spirit lunged at him. Musketeers opened fire, wounds opening in the spirit's side.

Incensed, the snake lunged towards the musketeers and began to destroy or devour their spirits in quick order. With only a little time available, Shinji reached out through the link with his familiars. "…damn it!" he swore as he dodged yet another lunge by the snake – having already consumed all his musketeers – even as samurai cavalry charged through the temple gates.

One samurai leaped over the snake's snout, his pole-arm carving a gash across it. The snake reared and hissed with agony, and turned all its attention on the samurai encircling it. Shinji took advantage of this and ran for what was left of the temple complex. As he climbed up the shattered stairs, he risked a glance back.

The samurai were riding in a circle around the serpent, some raining down arrows upon it while others charged in alternately to attack with swords and pole-arms. Nodding with satisfaction, Shinji made his way deeper into the defiled temple.

Kurogane sighed as he perched on a tree and looked on with exasperation as villagers armed with a mix of torches and farming implements took to the streets and marched on the temple. No doubt if his master was here he'd make a funny comment at all the Human-like mannerisms he was gaining.

It's only natural considering that I am a familiar. And eventually I will become more than that.

Going back to the task at hand, Kurogane directed his gaze at the wraiths under his command. "Archers form up…" he gave the telepathic command, and the peasant bowmen notched arrows to their bows and pulled back, the arrows aimed into the air. "...fire!"

The spectral arrows flew into the air and fell back down in elegant parabolas. Naturally they simply passed through the bodies of the villagers without causing physical harm, but those that did get hit fell dead from shock. Kurogane sighed as the mob broke and fell back in horror.

"Don't let them escape!" He ordered, and the peasant spearmen levelled their spears and charged. Kurogane ignored the screams and turned his attention up at the temple. "Everything's taken care of down here youngster."

The priest charged Shinji with a katana in his hands. And if he was actually skilled at using it, he would probably have killed the unsurprised but unskilled – at close combat – magus. As it was Shinji deftly avoided the would-be death blow and grabbed the priest's face with his hand. Prana surged through magic circuits and the priest's blood froze in his head, his eyes exploding with bloody crystals.

"Ugh…" Shinji cursed, stepping back as the corpse fell at his feet. "…that wasn't such a good idea."

He wiped his hands clean with a pocket handkerchief, and continued on his way. As he turned a corner, two more priests emerged from nearby rooms and charged at him. "Stop!" he commanded, and the two priests fell under his spell. He nodded with satisfaction. "Kill yourselves if you please."

"Gladly my master!" they shouted as one, and proceeded to commit seppuku.

"I should have gone down that route from the beginning." He muttered as he walked past the disemboweled priests. As he continued through the temple, Shinji found several rooms wherein waited women and adolescent girls, scantily-dressed and reeking of some kind of aphrodisiac. A surge of prana through his circuits was enough to dampen any of the effects on him, and a wave of throwing daggers put the cult's sex slaves out of their misery. "In hindsight, this seems dreadfully cliché for some reason." Shinji muttered, pausing in front of another pair of doors.

Unlike the others from before however, these ones were prevented from being opened from the inside by a bounded field, and had reinforcement-like spells placed on them. Drawing another dagger, Shinji worked away on the bounded field until it finally gave way. Satisfied, he opened the door and entered the sanctuary.

And from the look of things the snake saved me a lot of work.

The ground and floor had all been torn up along with the ceiling and most of the adjacent area, the snake spirit having escaped through the hole in the roof. The agonized and enraged hissing of the spirit could be heard in the distance, and Shinji smiled at the continued success of his servants.

He looked down at the ground, and saw to his relief that the circular casket which held the corpse of the dead priestess was still intact. Powerful seals lay on the casket, and Shinji could feel the malevolent and rotting will that lay within.

Pulling out a case from a pocket, Shinji opened it and removed a gauntleted half-glove set with runes and etherium – alchemically-condensed ether – circuitry. He pulled it on the gauntlet and the circuits on the gauntlet flickered as they interfaced with his crest. He reached into a pocket again and removed a hardened container from which he removed a specially-prepared gem.

He inserted the gem into its niche on the gauntlet, and broke all but the final seal on the casket. The decayed and malevolent soul within began to throb with anticipation, and ghostly whispers began to be heard in the air as the long-dead priestess sought to barter its freedom.

"Darkness drowns the grave." He began to cast the binding spell, the runes and circuits on the glove beginning to glow. "The rest is unquiet. There is no peace in death. Purpose I will give you, in exchange for your servitude."

A magic circle appeared around Shinji's feet, while the casket began to glow and the whispers grew louder. "Anger is all you know. Resentment and hate consume your essence."

The final seal began to crack, and the whispers were reduced to mad ravings but Shinji continued to cast his spell, his gauntleted hand held over the casket. "A mockery of life is all you have. But if hate is what you hold against the living, then that I can assuage."

As the spell completed, the final seal broke and a bloodcurdling scream filled the air. Shinji staggered and grit his teeth in pain as purple lightning crackled between his gauntleted hand and the ruptured casket, black tendrils and the ghastly image of a rotting, feminine face and form flowed up and into the gem which began to glow with nightmarish light.

The ritual complete, Shinji took a moment to catch his breath before again reinforcing his legs and jumping up through the ruined ceiling and onto the roof. He looked out over the battlefield and saw that while the snake spirit was seriously injured, his own cavalry was cut to a third. That clearly wasn't good, even more so considering he didn't have the other books with him.

He raised his hand and stared at his gauntlet for a moment. He smiled.

Let's test it out, shall we?

He fed prana into the gauntlet, and ignoring the mental trauma of the decayed soul fighting his control, released it onto the battlefield leashed to his will. "Come forth…" he hissed. "…and strike my foe with your ancestral power!"

The gem flashed and black tendrils trailed out and coalesced into a ghastly corpse dressed in the rotting robes of a Shinto priestess. The priestess screamed in vain defiance at Shinji before summoning a bow in her hands. She aimed it at her ancient nemesis and fired several arrows in quick succession.

The snake spirit staggered and fell as the arrows punched into its partly-immaterial form, but before the remaining samurai could close the priestess was already closing with a scythe in her hands and used it to decapitate the snake in one fell swoop. Shinji breathed deeply with relief…and then his eyes went wide as the gem began to crack.

"What the…!" he said, and then to his horror saw that while most of the dead snake spirit's form was fading away into prana, the dead priestess had managed to tear out its heart and was about to consume it. "NO!"

It was too late. The samurai closed, only to be torn apart and absorbed in a whirlpool of entropic energies. The gem shattered, and Shinji tore off the gauntlet before the magical backlash could cause too much damage. A whirlwind erupted around his ex-servant, and sent him tumbling back.

Coughing as he got up to a sitting position, Shinji looked up and gasped as the spirit began to approach him. "This…could be a problem."

"Sakura…" Rin Tohsaka said as she stormed into the Baking Club again. "…I've got a bone to pick with you."

"Sit down." Sakura Matou replied absent-mindedly as she cut a freshly-baked pie.

"Sakura…"

"Sit down…" she repeated as she took a slice and placed it on a saucer before deftly using a silver spoon to carve out a generous spoonful.

Still incensed about Shiro and her sister's apparent infidelity, Rin opened her mouth to forcibly take control of the conversation…and was promptly choked and seared when Sakura pre-emptively placed the steaming spoonful into her mouth.

"...it's hot…it's hot…it's hot…!" she spluttered much to the amusement of the rest of the club, one of whose members handed Sakura a glass of water.

"Thanks Hanako…" she said while handing the same glass to her sister.

"What was that for?" Rin spluttered after taking a drink.

"...keep calm and have some pie." Sakura said, offering the spoon to Rin. After a moment Rin took it grumpily lest Sakura start forcibly shoveling it into her mouth.

"Is this supposed to help me?" she muttered after another spoonful. It was surprisingly good, although if she overindulged she'd get fat.

"I don't think you're getting the idea here." Sakura said while resting on an elbow. "Sweets won't calm you down unless you let it."

"I'll get fat."

"You're as skinny as hell…" Sakura deadpanned before giving a cough. "…anyway, it seems you're still angry over your boyfriend seemingly cheating on you."

"Aha! So you admit it?" Rin said triumphantly, and Sakura rolled her eyes.

"Don't put words in my mouth sis. That's called sophistry, and it's very bad form." She said. "And use your head. You're supposed to be Suzumiya-senpai's anointed successor as student council chairman, aren't you? Why would I want to date the school doormat?"

"He's not a doormat!" Rin said vehemently. "Sure he's a bit of an idiot, but he's also very reliable and determined…"

Rin trailed off at the sight of the amused expression on Sakura and the other club members' faces. "Wow…" Sakura said. "…you've got it bad sis."

"…I…I…shut up! You tricked me!"

Sakura rolled her eyes again. "Right…" she said. "…okay so I tricked you there, but personally I have little to no interest in Emiya-senpai in that area. What point would there be for me in stealing him from you?"

"You hate my family."

"I hate your mother and resent our father." Sakura corrected firmly, and Rin blinked in surprise. This was the first time her sister had ever been so upfront about it, so much so that she just knew that she wasn't lying. "But I certainly don't hate you. Nor am I that petty of a person."

"No…" Rin said half-heartedly before continuing to eat. "…I suppose not."

Sakura busied herself briefly with club matters while Rin finished up. "Um…" she began as approached the door. "…sorry for breaking in like this…"

Sakura grinned and a playful light entered her eyes. "It's no problem." She said in a sing-song fashion. "Although if you intend to make up with Emiya-senpai, here's a piece of advice: don't forget to use protection."

Rin turned beet-red and slammed the door behind her, but not enough to block out the raucous laughter from the Baking Club and the scandalized comments from the resident teacher.

A/N

Another chapter done…Shinji should be coming home in the next chapter. Two or more chapters up, and we're going into Tsukihime territory.