In the Dark

by FiendLurcher

A day in the life of a man struggling to become a Hero of Justice. Accepting what should have been an easy job, Emiya Shirou is pulled along into a catastrophe with repercussions that will echo through time. Once again, he must surpass himself if he wishes to survive, much less save those unfortunate enough to have been pulled into this disaster.

10. Loop 6-8

AN: Sorry, had to work for three weeks and due to only writing intermittently during that time I had to spend another week just to go through that stuff and try to reason out what the fuck I had actually written. 200 words here and 400 words there make for some very different tones for writing.

This is the penultimate chapter, with only the epilogue remaining.

---

Shirou glared at Rin, his eyes locked onto her completely and utterly. If he looked away, he was sure to be drawn to the sight of Illya once more.

A demand for answers almost passed his lips, but he reigned it in. Did he really want to hear what she was doing? Or give her the opportunity to explain herself in the first place? To make that first step of making this a matter up for discussion? The glance he had taken had told him more than enough. His circuits thrummed hot, unconsciously switching on, no doubt due to his anger.

She hadn't changed at all; the passing of time had barely affected her. Perhaps her unnatural body did not decay upon death, simply due to having been born perfect. Homunculi did not grow, thus it made a morbid kind of sense that did not decay. They merely ceased to function. It would have been a comfort under any other circumstance. To know that despite her passing, her body would not rot and decay but remain ever that little girl he had loved with all his heart.

But now, that only made the grim scene all the more disgusting and abhorrent. To him, it looked like she could have been breathing mere moments before. Minutes ago, she could have been jumping around as she always had been wont to do, filled with her usual boundless energy and love of life.

He knew better of course; she had been dead for years. But for a second...

Fire coursed in his veins, black anger burned in his bones and he felt as if his breath was coming out as acrid smoke as his throat constricted.

The grotesque scene flashed in his mind's eye despite his studious avoidance of looking at anything other than Rin. Internal organs, bone and muscle; all lay visible and out in the open as she lay motionless on the cold stone altar.

The joints in his hands cracked, as he realized he was gripping so hard that his fingers were going numb. That was no good; both gun and blade required a deft hand. He only had one bullet left; it wouldn't be enough for a single magus, let alone two. He remembered vaguely that he had left the sword in the car, so that was no good either.

Coming up beside him, Luvia seemed to notice the sudden tension in the air. She looked at the two Japanese magi with curious eyes, not quite understanding what was going on.

"Sherou, what is—" She began, but stopped as she saw his face. Rage flared through him, anger coiled his fists and his heart beat harder as his veins burned.

Shirou did not say anything, nor did he bother to face Luvia, but the look in his eyes spoke volumes of his agitation. Before Shirou's eyes, Rin seemed to finally began to recover from the shock and pull herself together.

No doubt she hadn't wanted him along just for this reason; had left him behind to keep him from finding out, from making trouble for her. Finding Illya like this... His right hand twitched as he thought about the gun on his hip again. He could do it. He still had the one bullet left; it would be easy. Quick. Perhaps just quick enough that she wouldn't be able to react, expecting him to explode in angry words; she had known him back when he was a hot-headed youth. Not as he was now.

He would have tried to talk, not simply act decisively, back then. Sought understanding, peace and reconciliation. Now he had waded knee-deep in the dead and dying, his hands colored red and stained with both his failures as well as his successes.

Time, failure and hardship had tempered him. Death, suffering and despair had finished the job and made him cold. Not like magi were; proud and conceited. No, his was a sharper serenity. A killer's mien that simply sought to end everyone who barred his way as he threw away pieces of himself to keep up to par. To sharpen a blade, you had to forcibly remove parts of it after all.

The hints of success, the rare smile, the sporadic tearful gratitude he sometimes received had kept him hungering for more, always ready and willing to dive right back into those hells. If he simply tried a little harder; acted a little more decisively; a little more prudently and a little more proactively...

More and more had been whetted away as his continued to run along, blindly, desperately. As if addicted to the feeling, he continued to plunge back again, and again, and again. The he of now could do it.

His hand twitched, and the spell of the moment was broken as Rin had already recovered her cool. Her eyes hardened and suddenly Shirou felt like he was standing before a complete stranger. Everything about her remained as it had always been, but somehow her entirety changed. Perhaps she was merely mirroring his own stance, subconsciously.

"Ah, well this is rather unfortunate." Her voice came out calm and casual, as if the murderous intent in the air was a lie. "But I'm sure you understand, Emiya."

He ground his teeth but couldn't help asking, "Understand what?"

She affected a proud mien, turning to look at Luvia. The blonde, realizing her cue as it were, jumped to join the conversation. "Ah, I do not know what you think of necromancy, but it is an entirely legitimate branch of magecraft. Sherou, this homunculus is the child of the man who last inherited the crest Relchronos stole, with—"

"I know. She's my sister, after all." Shirou ground out, his eyes still refusing to let go of Rin.

"...Oh." Luvia said simply. "Oh."

The church descended back into silence as Luvia took a metaphorical step out of the conversation, having all the wind taken out of her sails. Rin shrugged and nodded at the body behind her.

"She's necessary, if we want to wrest back control of the Emiya Crest. And we must, if we want to face Relchronos at all." Rin spoke simply, as if discussing how to most easily prepare dinner rather than how she had been cutting up the body of a little girl.

Luvia brightened at that, jumping back in. "Yes, that's right. If you're the heir of the Emiya I'm sure you would want to retrieve it all costs, right? When we take down Relchronos, I am sure that with that achievement you will be able to successfully petition for the restoration of your family crest!"

Rin winced at that, a tiny thing that even Shirou almost missed despite staring at her the whole time. He knew that tell; he had made enough faux pas during his time in the Clocktower alongside her to know what it meant. She didn't mind the words or the thought behind it; she merely felt it had been a tactical error in this conversation. She was treating this as a fight, as it were.

Had she changed so much in the few years they hadn't seen, he wondered. Had she been doing it all along? How many other times had she deceived him in the past, when he hadn't known to look for any tells? Shirou's eyes finally left Rin as he looked at Luvia.

"Like I give a damn about that."

The blonde was stunned and looked at Rin for cues as that what to say or do. But it didn't matter anymore. Shirou was no longer the hot-headed youth he had once been; he had already calmed down. The burning anger, the unyielding indignation, the overflowing wrath, now little more than a glowing core in his gut as he suppressed it.

If it was as they said; that it was a means to take down Relchronos the he understood why they had done it. The chill touch of apathy replaced the burning anger in his chest. He wanted to save those people and that meant stopping this out-of-control magus. The only thing that remained in him was the fact that he no longer recognized the woman standing before him.

"Alright."

That one word echoed in the church and both female magi looked at him without understanding. Giving each other a look, they shuffled uncertainly.

"You're…"

"I said, 'alright'. If it's to take down Relchronos, I'll not make it an issue." For now.

They had a means for defeating the heretic magus, which was more than he could say. If he could not bring about results, then he had no right to complain either. No matter how repulsed and angered by their means he was. They had stepped over a line he wasn't sure he ever could, but it was not one that he could bring himself to strike at them for.

This is what his maturity had taught him; on the battlefield, nothing is sacred. His hands were awash in enough blood that he had no ground to stand on when it came to lecturing people.

"So once you have whatever-that-is ready, I'll be ready to take you there. Assuming I'm not mistaken or that Relchronos hasn't fled, that should be the long and short of it." Shirou continued, affecting a detached professional interest in the matter. Nothing more, nothing less.

Luvia nodded and made a sound of acknowledgment, glancing at Rin who seemed to have frozen in place.

Rin swallowed nervously, not sure what to make of Shirou. This was entirely different from the man she remembered years ago. Partly she was relieved, but partly she was also saddened by how much Shirou had changed since they had last seen each other. This hadn't been how she had wanted things to go.

"I'm going back outside and inform Adrian." Shirou said, turning on his heel and leaving the church. He gave one last, almost unwilling look at Illya before his eyes shot away as he turned.

Behind him, the two magi looked at each other. Several silent moments passed as neither knew what to say, yet the minds of both racing for words.

"Why did you bring him here...?"

Luvia frowned at Rin's annoyed tone of voice. "He says he knows where Relchronos is; it only makes sense to team up with a reliable independent force instead of leaving him to rust on the sidelines.

"But more importantly, what the hell is going with you two? Why didn't you tell me about the homunculus?"

"Does it change anything?" Rin asked and Luvia looked like she wanted to say something, but Rin cut her off. "It doesn't, does it? Therefore we should simply concentrate on what matters and get this done with."

The Japanese magus turned her back to Luvia and walked back to the altar to continue with her work. Luvia frowned and looked back to the outer door, wondering what exactly she had managed to get herself involved in, now stuck between these two stubborn fools.

---

Shirou clenched his fists as he closed the large wooden door behind him. He took several deep breaths, making sure to exhale all the way. He threw away everything with those breaths, forcing himself to calm. His heart was still hammering in his chest, but he suppressed it with his continued controlling of his breathing.

Illya was dead and had been for years.

He walked down to the gate, where Adrian was still standing. For whatever reason, Luvia had forbidden the Enforcer from entering the church grounds. Perhaps they did not trust the Department of Policies, perhaps Adrian was a known factor to the two, perhaps necromancy or whatever they were doing was a forbidden art, perhaps they simply abhorred his taste in clothing.

It did not matter; Shirou was glad that the exchange had not been seen by the other. Perhaps he could pretend for a moment none of it had happened. That he could simply forget it and go back to concentrating on what needed to be done.

He was older now. More experienced and perhaps even a slight bit more mature than he had been all those years before. He could ignore his feelings and concentrate on what needed to be done; he could keep down the urge to throw up and keep himself from turning back to the church now.

Shirou took a deep breath, and at the exhale he threw away the last of all his emotions. His mind became as still as water, his heart empty like glass. Only the fire in his veins remained, but it could not touch him now.

This had changed nothing.

"How was it?" Adrian perked up at his approach. Shirou could see the tension in the other man and now perhaps he understood why the Enforcer had been so wary of the two mineralogy magi.

"They seem to have a plan. I don't know what it is, but they seem confident in it." Confident enough to desecrate a body, at least.

"...What kind of plan?"

Shirou merely shrugged, affecting nonchalance. For one, he didn't care to talk about it. For another, could he trust this Enforcer with anything sensitive? He had been poised to set Shirou against the two magi, perhaps for good reason seeing what their plan was now. But whatever reason the Enforcer had for distrusting them, he had not seen fit to share it with Shirou. Anyhow, Adrian did not need to know, so Shirou was content to not tell him anything.

"Something about breaking into a bounded field; we'll show the way once they're ready. No need to make this complicated." Shirou said as he made it to the car. He opened the door and found Caliburn inside, unmoved and unchanged.

Shirou doubted Adrian would have tried to take it and in any case it did not matter if he did. Still, forgetting a holy sword in the car would make him appear slightly careless. Or perhaps it made him seem confident enough that he did not care where the sword was despite its obvious value. Truthfully, he had simply forgotten it in the car, since it was a bother to constantly carry around.

He took the sword and drew it out, careful with the blade. Knowing that it could cut through the car with ease did not mean he had to show that to Adrian. Shirou peered at the sword, holding it with one hand on the hilt and another on the flat of the blade. The projection had not degraded at all since he had made it. He had been right after all. Or rather, he had been wrong all along.

His projections, as long as he made them in a manner that made sense would not vanish from the world regardless of what other people said of the matter. The red-haired man frowned, wondering how many years he had wasted with not using his abilities to their fullest extent.

He sighed and flourished the blade before closing his eyes in concentration.

"—trace on,"

The sheath that he had seen in those dreams alongside this sword appeared in his hands, accompanied by a leather belt. He thought about strapping it to his waist, as was usual with such swords, but it was unlike how he was used to carrying his arms. Rifles were carried across the back or held at the ready, so he had not experience with long sheaths at his hip.

He frowned at the belt, before shrugging and throwing it over his shoulder, almost like a baldric. The hilt of the golden sword poked over his right shoulder, ready to be grasped. Though drawing it would be cumbersome due to the nature of wearing a long sword on the back; its length exceeded his arms' length after all.

Still, he had means for that if it came down to using the holy sword.

Beside him, the Enforcer stood silently, stock still. Shirou thought his presence felt weird, so he turned to look at the man, noting his undisguised interest in the sheath he had produced. Though the moment Adrian noticed Shirou staring, he regained his control and affected neutral nonchalance at the whole affair.

"So... Uh, What happened in there? You came out looking ready to spit fire and chew rocks, with the way you were grinding your teeth." The Enforcer obviously wanted to shift attention away from something, as he seemed to struggle for words.

Shirou purposefully ignored the question, instead pretending to be busy scanning the surroundings dutifully. He was eyeing the houses around them, just in case something did happen, but he didn't feel like anyone was observing them. The bounded field around the church was not one that offered great protection, rather one that concealed the insides and masked them in the aura of the church itself.

The only reason they had found it, Shirou suspected, was due to the fact that they had used Luvia's odic force to track them down in the first place. As the field was made with the same odic force in conjunction with the sanctified boundary of the graveyard, it was the strongest source of the talisman to find.

Though, would it have worked if there had been a suitable Mana source for them to use? Leylines tended to color the area around them, thus it masking Luvia's odic force was not impossible. Shirou frowned as he closed his eyes; since he had begun to notice the oddities in the world since running into the bounded field some hours ago, his awareness had been spreading uncomfortably. It was as if the whole town had been dyed in some empty blackness, which now crawled and buzzed against his skin.

He shook his head, to clear his thoughts. But Adrian took this as a reply to his earlier question instead.

"I merely think that we should trust one another over those two. Even if you knew them previously, they have been playing the games of power at the tower for several years now. Undoubtedly their hands are stained and their interests aligned against yours, more than you know." Adrian continued and Shirou tried to ignore it, but found that he couldn't.

"...No, I think they haven't changed all that much." Shirou spoke, his unconscious urge to defend the two welling up despite his earlier anger. "People change with time, I know that. But even now, I feel like I made a mistake in the moment."

The image of the pale, albino girl he had loved like family floated in his mind for a moment. The smiling, hyper and boundless smile of her sister interposed for a moment over the cold corpse inside the church.

Perhaps if he hadn't unveiled his murderous intent at Rin, she might have explained to him her motivations. Perhaps he could have found it in himself to forgive her, perhaps he could have told himself it was what she would have wanted. And perhaps that would have only made him angrier and would have made him lash out at her. No, ultimately this was for the best.

The anger in his veins continued to slowly pool into his gut, as he controlled his breathing; taking even longer and deeper breaths, to force that molten anger into cooling into a concentrated ball of ice in his core. The dead are gone and will never come back; the living must never put the dead before themselves.

Thus, his actions were correct. So why, why did he not feel any better despite knowing that? Adrian tried to ask something, but the cold look Shirou gave him disabused him of that notion in an instant.

The two magi stood there in tense silence as Shirou brooded.

---

It took another hour, until the church doors finally opened again. At the same time, the bounded field that Shirou could sense just at the fringes of his senses, vanished as if it had never been there in the first place. Unlike the bounded fields that Relchronos' put in place, there was not great explosion of collected air, no sigh of pent up Mana, no sudden expansion of the World back into the space where there could be nothing before.

One moment he thought there was something pressing against the hairs on his forearm, the next that slight sensation was simply gone.

They came out, carrying a small bundle wrapped in sanctified cloth. Not any true holy shroud, but still enough to cut out the bundle from sight and senses. Still, Shirou knew what it was from the way Rin carried it. Too light to be a body, one would think.

He had oft wondered at how light she had been, when she would run and jump to hug him, attempting to smother him in in her excitement and love. She had waved off his concerns with a smile, saying it was merely due to her homunculus nature. When he tried to make her eat more, she would pout and whine but still happily dig into his cooking until she looked as bloated as a balloon. Then she would complain about getting stomach aches and wonder how Fuji-nee put it all away, all the while looking as content as one can be in life...

Shirou shook his head and pushed away those memories. He did not react in any way visibly to their appearance, but as they approached he finally raised his voice. "Do you have a car? It's a little ways off."

Luvia nodded, pulling out a car key from her pocket and pressing a button. In response, a black land cruiser's lights blinked as the doors were unlocked.

"Did you bring a car of your own?" Luvia asked, looking around behind them. Shirou had moved the car they had come with into a suitably discreet spot, where if need be they could drive off as quickly as possible. But unless she had memorized all the cars parked outside beforehand, there was no way for her to know.

But it was a far worse car, he could tell. There was no merit in bringing it along.

"Yes, but it is of no consequence. Your vehicle shall suffice." Adrian spoke, clearly finding the larger car the Edelfelt had procured more to his liking.

Luvia looked at Shirou, before nodding and throwing him the keys. He caught them, and the motion managed to bring her attention to the sword hilt sticking out over his shoulder. She frowned at the sword, before realizing its potency and looking at Shirou again with wide-eyes. Then her eyes shot back to Rin, who merely noticed the sword but did not give it any further thought as she seemed to be studiously avoiding looking at Shirou as she carried the bundle.

"You knew...?" Luvia whispered, harshly, glancing back at Shirou. Rin offered a non-committal shrug and turned to walk to the car instead.

Seeing as how no answers were forthcoming, Luvia merely gave an annoyed huff before eying Shirou speculatively, as if weighing how easy it would be to get her hands on him, the sword or the means by which he had procured the phantasm for himself.

Shirou ignored them as he jumped into the car, frowning at the lack of leg space with a glance at Luvia and then re-adjusting the seat to fit him better. Taking off the sword, he set it against the door like previously.

"Get in." He said, closing the door. Luvia took the front seat while the two others loaded up in the back after setting the clothed bundle in the rear. The car came to life at the press of a button and Shirou had to admire the quality of both the car and the level of maintenance that had been used on it; the car felt absolutely perfect as he rolled out of the parking spot.

For a moment, he thought about driving straight to the house but then he re-considered. Aside from the knowledge of where Relchronos was hiding and a supposed trick to take down his bounded field, they had no actual plan in place.

"I'm going to drive us to a spot where we can see the house from a distance. Let's make a proper plan there." Shirou said and no one objected.

Driving to a spot higher up, where they could see the houses clearly without any obstructions, the mood in the vehicle was awkward at best. They had all grouped up due to Shirou, but now that he had begun to avoid Rin that trust was growing rocky. What remained was the inherent distrust of magi, existing between Adrian and the two women.

Adding in that despite their cooperation, Rin and Luvia did not get along at even the best of times, and the end-result was a team for whom it would not be out of place to say that group synergy was zero.

Of course, as magi that meant very little. Shaky relationships and treacherous pacts were the lifeblood of the Clocktower, which kept the gears moving in the hallowed and dusty halls of the ancient organization decade after decade.

They would suspect one another, never turn their backs to each other and plot with abandon. But as long as they had a common goal and no reason to discard one another, they would stick together. That was what it meant to be a magus.

Shirou pulled to a stop and nodded for them to exit the car. As all of them stepped out, Shirou made sure to extra carefully scan their surroundings. With a deep breath that hardened the still molten orb in his gut, he turned to Rin.

"We might have to be here a while and being found by anyone could prove disastrous. Can you put up another bounded field to hide us?" Shirou said and Rin appeared somewhat hesitant for a moment, as if she hadn't expected him to talk to her at all. She blinked and then nodded, giving a glance to Luvia as if to say 'you help out as well' to her.

The two female magi raised their hands and for a moment, the two crests shone with an unnatural light. They chanted for less than ten seconds, before a strange sensation washed over Shirou's skin. Like being submerged only to pop right back out; jumping into the waters before coming up dry and above the surface. What made it especially peculiar was the dual nature of the sensation. He realized that both of them had raised a field by themselves, so that one was covering the other.

It had felt like there were two distinct liquids, like a layer of oil floated above the water and giving him a momentary sensation of slipperyness followed by a second wave of a lighter liquid. Not quite water, but close to it.

"Is there any purpose in placing an attention-deflecting weave, if you already placed an invisibility field?" Adrian asked, sounding just as stand-offish as he had originally towards Shirou.

"Of course. What is the point of being invisible if someone simply walks straight into you? It works on familiars as well. Then again, placing two bounded fields on the same location must be so beyond your abilities that you have never had cause to consider the effects, I'm sure." Luvia replied with deliberate off-handedness, as if to make sure that for her it was no challenge at all.

"Tch."

"Enough. We don't know what kind of time-table Hermit is operating under, so we don't have time to waste." Shirou chastised both of them and while both glared at him, they remained quiet. Noting that they were listening to him, Shirou pointed at a house in particular some 300 meters away. "That's the house, with the red tile roof next to the one with the flat, black roof."

Adrian had already seen the house, up close, so he did not bother to look as instead he pretended to keep an eye on their surroundings. Rin and Luvia however peered at the place Shirou pointed to, raising their hands as if to block the glare of the sun and squinting at the house.

"I though you said you would take us close enough to observe..." Rin peered, giving Shirou a momentary glare of annoyance.

He blinked at that, before considering the distance. It wasn't that much, was it? Outwardly he said, "Reinforce your eyes if you have to, this is as close as we'll go before we have a plan."

Luvia gave him a flat look, before closing her eyes. He noticed with approval that her self-Reinforcement was a Single Action spell, as it should be. It took some training to master, but was essential given the usefulness of the spell.

"Are you certain? I don't see anything there... I mean, it's big, but..." Luvia muttered, turning her head left and right instead of looking at the house in question. "Nothing at least that sets it apart from any of the other houses."

"It's under a bounded field." Shirou explained.

"...While it is true that any half-decent bounded field would make it nigh-on impossible to detect his presence, that does pose the question of how do you then know that he is there?" Luvia asked, crossing her arms with a frown.

Shirou opened his mouth but closed it again as he tried to think of a way to explain. The house simply felt different, unnatural, ephemeral and yet heavy somehow. It was somewhat similar to how the other bounded fields, scattered around the town felt but not quite the same. Perhaps if he explained his reasoning for searching that area in the first place...?

He shook his head. No, a demonstration would be more apt. He had chosen this location for more than one reason, after all.

"Alright, Adrian did we come by here earlier?" Shirou looked at the Enforcer, who had been quietly observing them.

"Huh, what?" He looked startled to be called upon suddenly. But then he shook his head as Luvia and Shirou stared at him. "Uh, no. I don't think so."

"You were with me the whole time I was in town earlier, right?" Shirou asked Luvia and she nodded, if somewhat hesitantly as she did not see where he was going with this. "And since I was at the camp since we separated, I shouldn't have had time to come here to check things out right here, specifically. Right?"

"Certainly, if you say so I have no reason to doubt it." Luvia nodded and Shirou nodded back, as he pointed to the south, where nothing of consequence seemed to exist.

"Watch." Shirou said, picking up a pebble. He weighed it in his hand and then put it aside, and picked up a larger rock. Finding its heft satisfactory, he turned and cupped it in his hand as his body coiled like a baseball player readying their pitch.

His hand whipped out as all the movement, starting from his legs and hips, coalesced into turning the rock into a missile that flew straight and true. Only to stop after flying thirty meters.

Someone gasped in surprise behind him, but Shirou couldn't tell who. He turned around with a smirk; the rock had stopped in mid-air as if someone invisible had caught it. Just as he had known it would, the rock had gotten stuck into the time stagnation bounded field on the sidewalk. Unlike the other ones, this one merely slowed down the rock so much that it continued to fly in extreme slow-motion. Already it had advanced a few inches into the field.

"I can't really explain it, but those things stand out like a flame in the dark to me." Shirou said shrugging.

Luvia was looking at him wide-eyed while Adrian was keeping a decidedly neutral expression on his face. As for Rin, as Shirou glanced at her, there seemed to be realization and dawning understanding in those eyes, like the pieces of a puzzle she had been working on falling place after she had been pondering over it for years on and off.

But as he looked at her, she noticed his gaze and hastily wiped her face clean of any inner emotions and affected her usual self.

"There's no reason to suspect Shirou, he's not the type to lay complicated ambushes. We will simply have to plan for the possibility that it is a trap left for us by Hermit and go by Shirou's words." Rin said, breaking eye-contact and turning to speak to the other two.

Luvia looked at her askance, glancing at Shirou before sighing and nodding. Whatever it was that was bothering her would have to wait.

They settled down and began to discuss a course of action. Shirou had memorized the outer layout of the building and provided a rough drawing on the ground—though his use of Caliburn, to etch lines into the pavement which drew some queer looks that he ignored completely—as they hypothesized and deliberated.

In the span of time that Relchronos had had in town, what level of preparations could he have made? Could he have owned the house from before? Would the size inside match the outside, or was the flow of time inside skewed in some fashion? Were there any alarms or tripwires outside the building? Inside? What of familiars? Had they seen any horrors or other, more traditional familiars?

Were they walking into a hastily prepared bolthole or a fully stocked and prepared Workshop? Or was it merely another distraction like they assumed all the other bounded fields around town were? Shirou assured them that no other bounded field that he had sensed was located on top of a building, or so precisely formed; it filled the insides of the house, ending halfway in the outer walls.

Shirou explained that he could simply sense the field itself but not gleam any particular information of it beyond the outer dimensions and that as far as he could tell the area surrounding the house was utterly abandoned. He had seen some broken doors and smelled some stale blood, but no fresh signs of the horrors were to be had.

Finally, a rough course of action was decided upon.

Shirou, Adrian and Luvia would form a breaching party, while Rin would handle her new mystic code to allow them entry into the bounded field. When Adrian had questioned the efficacy of her mystic code, for a moment she had seemed to swell with pride. But with a mere glance of Shirou she had completely deflated, realizing that it was not the time for boasting.

Rin would open up an entrance in the bounded field, prioritizing stealth over speed, but making sure to keep it open in case of sudden retreat. In the worst case scenario, she would be tasked with throwing all of what remained of her jewels inside the bounded field and then legging it to regroup.

Shirou volunteered to take point, and due to his ability to sense things that the others could not and his sword no one protested. Second would come Luvia, capable enough in both close-range battle as well as in supporting from the rear, she could handle the center. Rearmost, guarding their backs would be Adrian.

Once discussions reached a close, they dispelled the bounded field they had set up and had returned to the car. No words were exchanged, as everyone knew their place. Rather than being called an awkward silence, it would be more apt to call it an expectant solemness now.

The car stopped, but no one moved to leave. Shirou had stopped a good thirty meters from the house itself, despite there being plenty of parking space in front of the house. Leaving it parked so he could drive it off directly without having to worry about backing out or turning, he did not even bother pulling the handbrake as he turned off the engine. The first gear would have to do; each and every second could matter when it came to a hasty retreat.

"Alright." Luvia spoke first. "Let's go."

They exited the car, Shirou naturally taking point. He slung the sword onto his back once more and stretched his neck. While reason dictated that he keep the sword drawn and at hand, especially since he was taking the front-most position which was also naturally the most perilous one, he still kept it on his back.

There was meaning behind keeping the sword sheathed on his back. For one, anyone who saw it would undoubtedly be cautious of it. But, by presenting that weakness of saying 'see, I wear it on my back, where I cannot draw it quickly' he would naturally draw all the attention to himself as a high priority target with their guard down. Once it came down to wielding the sword, well, that would be then. For Emiya Shirou, taking the most risky position and drawing the initial hostility to himself was the right course of action.

The reason they hadn't approached by car was because by foot they—being the three magi other than Shirou, who had to be content with simply keeping his eyes open—could properly apply their mysteries and sense anything out of the ordinary.

Perhaps due to the caution and the tension of the moment, crossing that last stretch felt like it took much longer than it would have normally. They walked at a normal pace, merely keeping their senses peeled and their circuits ready, but it felt to all of them as if each step felt very sluggish. As if wading through molasses, their each step felt like it took effort beyond what it ought.

Finally, arriving at the front door of the house they stopped. They had considered other entrances; a window, the backdoor or even knocking down a wall. But ultimately they had decided that since they had no idea what to expect on the inside and only hoping that they would not be expected, that the front entrance on the outside would probably correspond to the front entrance of the inside.

Beside him, Shirou noted that Adrian was fidgeting. Unlike Luvia and Rin who appeared resolute and ready, the Enforcer seemed to be having second thoughts. Shirou thought about giving some words of encouragement, but seeing as when Adrian noticed his gaze and sharpened up, Shirou simply shrugged and let him be.

Rin took a deep breath, as she set down the bundle she had been carrying. Shirou pointedly looked away, as much to keep an eye on their surroundings as to avoid looking at the wrap of cloth,

"What is that?" Adrian asked, clearly puzzled.

Rin did not say anything, as she slowly revealed the contents. Shirou could hear to rustling of cloth followed by a surprised gasp from the Enforcer. In his gut the molten ball churned slowly as it expanded suddenly before contracting again under his control, as if it were the heart of some great beast. He clenched his teeth and took a deep breath through his nose.

"Why... What is the meaning of this?"

"This is the last true child of the Emiya's," Luvia spoke simply and Shirou could feel a gaze on his back. Probably Adrian staring at him questioningly. "and together with Rin we have developed a means to... ah, shall we say, 'usurp' the Emiya crest back from Relchronos."

"...Usurp, you say." The doubt was evident, even from the Enforcer's voice alone.

"Enough." Shirou said, with a tone of voice that brokered no argument. "We're on a schedule here; save the meaningless prattle for another time."

He could feel the sullen silence, the unvoiced objections and wondered whether this 'team' truly could work together. None of them truly trusted one another any more. He shook his head; it was meaningless. Even if they were all to attempt stabbing him in the back, he would still go. Stopping the source of this conflict took highest priority, before even more people died meaningless and grizzly deaths.

He stretched his arms and rolled his shoulders and wrists, making sure to warm up and stretch properly. He hadn't used a sword in a long time before the past few days, so he needed to make sure that his physical condition was at its peak.

Finally, after a minute which felt like ten, Rin spoke behind him. "It's done. It doesn't feel like it will be hard to hold this opening up, but who knows what will happen when he notices it."

Shirou turned around and put his hand on the doorknob, taking one last glance at the three next to him. His eyes landed for a moment on Illya and he felt his heart ache at the sight of her. It looked almost like she were still alive, as if her lungs yet drew breath.

Shirou broke away his eyes from her forcefully and looked at the door, as if willing it to burn.

He thought that once this was done, he would demand the body back so that he could return it properly. It should have been turned to ashes years ago, as was custom. But someone had intervened, he realized. He would have to look into that later; it wasn't what he had been told before.

He would make sure to handle it properly this time. With that declaration to himself, he turned the knob and opened the door.

---

Rin let out her breath, as the tension in the air passed as the others entered the house.

She hadn't been the only one to sense it, she knew. Everyone was nervous, feeling it. Everyone except the source himself that is. With the trio's entering of the hostile bounded field, she wondered whether Luvia worried for herself or felt reassured that she was standing behind Shirou. Once he let out all that which he was bundling up inside him, it would be a thing of spectacular terror, no doubt.

She for a moment wondered, whether there hadn't been some other way, but shook that thought aside. The damage was done and could not be undone. Perhaps with time, her relationship with Shirou could be mended. But perhaps it wouldn't; it didn't truly matter to the magus known as Tohsaka Rin.

Or that's what she told herself anyhow.

She looked at the still form next to her and felt like cursing the little brat again. It wasn't like it was Rin who had stolen the body and hypnotized the Fujimuras to leave Shirou grieving at an urn filled with the ashes that weren't his sister.

No, that had been the Einzbern's doing. Reclaiming the grail, they said, was their duty. Sure, she had suspected as much when she had contacted them in hopes of acquiring her body and she had been proven right when they agreed. Everything relating to the construction of the lesser grail had been removed from the little girl's corpse, leaving little behind a half empty container that was of little use to the Einzberns.

It was not like them to recycle or anything, but they were not ones to throw away excellent specimens either.

Acquiring her hadn't been easy, but as old allies the Einzbern apparently made the exception for her. Accepting a geas for the Tohsaka to not take any hostile action against the Einzbern in the next Holy Grail War, it seemed like those old foggies still had not given up. It didn't matter; she had found out about the true nature of that thing already. She wanted no part of it and neither would any of her offspring as far as she was concerned.

Rin sighed and closed her eyes; the bounded field inside the house had not changed. It could mean anything, but she took it to mean that her plan was working flawlessly. The other options did not bear thinking about.

Perhaps there were other ways she could have found a way to strike at Relchronos, she mused. But as she had been struck by inspiration, she had worked tirelessly to acquire the body laying on the ground next to her.

Simply put, magic crests were curses that wished to propagate themselves. Similarly to how one could usurp control of a masterless bounded field with the right means, one could also attract the 'attention' of a crest if one could provide it with a suitable host. Of course, this required the crest to be without an owner and for there to be a supremely compatible host at hand. Crests were finicky and temperamental things at the best of times and this was hardly such a moment.

The Einzbern had ransacked Illyasviel's body for all their secrets' worth, but just as she was half homunculus she was also half human. Her father had been Emiya Kiritsugu, the heir and carrier of what had been released of the Emiya crest. This she had judged would go far in enticing a Crest, especially since it had been sealed away for so long.

Prodigious magical capacity, magic circuits beyond the pale, the pure unbroken bloodline of the Emiya in her veins. All of these things made her a stupendously attractive 'heir' for the crest. As long as Illya was alive, that is.

She had never delved into necromancy, but she knew enough to know that the theory was sound. Her prodigious skill was also quite useful in turning that long-shot plan into reality. Useful in 'reviving' Illyasviel von Einzbern. At least enough to fool the crest momentarily. Thus, as 'Illyasviel von Einzbern' she could touch and directly work the bounded field which she could not even sense despite standing right next to.

That's right. It required all that effort and tools for her to be able to even engage with the bounded field.

Which made it peculiar that Shirou could sense it naturally, as if it were a matter of course. Despite having some of the lowest talent for magecraft she had yet seen along with senses so dull for magical energy as to be labeled as half-blind-and-deaf, that Shirou still could point out those bounded fields as if it were easy. Like a "flame in the dark", he had said.

The other two had no idea what to make of it. But that was because they did not know what she did. They saw only the sword, not the means with which he had made it. But she had seen it years ago first hand and seen him do it with other things only yesterday.

She had thought it a fluke back then; a happy accident of his contract with Saber, like the prodigious healing and his superb ability to work together with the heroic spirit of the sword. Once she had gone, his ability to Project such fantastical things had seemed to vanish like smoke.

No, perhaps they had vanished because that was around the time she began to hammer in lessons of magecraft into him. 'Projections could not exist for long periods of time, for they are illusions which violate the World', 'you cannot project something that is greater than yourself' and 'compared to Reinforcement, which works on things already here, Projection is an incomplete mystery which is merely costly and transient'.

She had told him such things and more. Hammered them into his skull, under the guise of making him into a proper magus. But she had been wrong. Or rather, she had been right when she thought he had been using something else entirely.

A reality marble. That was the reason for Emiya Norikata being designated for sealing.

Perhaps it had been something he had achieved and had accidentally revealed or perhaps it was something one of his ancestors achieved and stored in their Crest. Time Manipulation definitely was an impressive mystery, but by itself it would not be worthy of notice much less a sealing designation.

Nonetheless, it was successfully engraved into the magic crest of the Emiya and subsequently had been sealed for study upon his death. She did not know what kind of mysteries Emiya Kiritsugu who had survived and been given a portion of the crest used, but she had a feeling it would be related to bounded fields which manipulate the flow of time.

Time dilation was certainly possible with some preparation—and ironically enough, spare time—but not in such quantities and rapidity as was present in this town. The extent of which she had seen here was certainly impressive, something which she could not see possible to create if it were not for some extenuating factor. A factor such as an innate bounded field.

If such a bounded field were to be hidden so well as to even completely elude her, there would be only one way she could understand Shirou being able to detect it.

Emiya Shirou possessed a budding reality marble of his own. Possessing an innate bounded field, he would have an innate understanding of the way it functions that surpasses even old and learned experts of bounded fields. Thus, sensing something of it which neither she nor Relchronos nor anyone else could possibly understand, Shirou was able to find his way here.

That was the only explanation she could think of.

Rin sighed again. That was where the problem lay; once this was all over, there would no doubt be consequences for Shirou. Even if he did not know it, even if no one else suspected it yet, undoubtedly his innate bounded field would be revealed and he would be designated for a sealing.

Thus, there lay a choice before her; to hide Shirou or to turn him in.

As a magus, the choice was easy. Just as easy as it was to use Illyasviel to corner Relchronos. If she were to try and ignore Shirou, once he was found out it would no doubt be traced all the way back to her. No doubt there would be questions of why she had not noticed anything before; how had she managed to let someone like him slip past her fingers for so many years?

And if she turned him in, there would be a wealth of benefits to be gained. Political goodwill, resources and connections could be gained. As the discoverer of this unusual specimen, she would exercise great power over his being.

She could even protect him, keep him happy and alive despite his sealing. She could— As if.

To seal him would be to completely betray his trust, or what little remained of it anyhow. But to protect herself if she were to ignore his existence would require her to actively cover up for him lest he be discovered.

She felt extremely weary, all of a sudden. She wondered when she had begun to feel this way; when she had ceased to see magecraft as a wonder and a joy, but as a mere chore and duty.

Her thoughts were cut off all of a sudden as a sudden surge went through, her mystic code which she had connected herself to with her Crest.

"Huh—" She had barely time to make a sound of surprise, before the door that had been left open slammed shut and she felt her control over the bounded field vanish. She started, before hesitating. Illyasviel's body would not move and had not been damaged, so she decided to try and rush in after Shirou to warn him.

But as she kicked open the door, the hallway that greeted her was completely different from the one she had seen moments before. It looked, smelled and appeared identical, but was wholly different. This was the inside of the house as it should be, not as where Relchronos had secluded himself inside.

The realization made her stomach drop; Shirou and the rest were trapped inside and had no way of getting out.

---

Shirou had entered taking point, with Luvia following three meters behind him. Close enough to give back up in case of a confrontation, but far enough away to react to anything that outright killed him with time defend herself.

The house appeared fairly normal, aside from the pervasive darkness inside and the overwhelming thickness of magical energy in the air. It felt like entering inside a living beast, the sheer unharnessed force in the air making it feel like the floor beneath them was vibrating and the walls were contracting and expanding, like the insides of some great beast's heart.

They walked on, nonetheless. Silently, carefully, but determined to move onward.

Shirou peered around corners, frowning at the furniture and the little knick-knacks here and there, presenting a common enough appearance of a perfectly average household. To put it simply, the inside matched the outside entirely. At any other time this would have been perfectly normal, yet for a magus' workshop and supposed hidden fortress...

It did not fit.

It spoke of either overwhelming confidence or a complete lack of care for the location. Was Relchronos' even here? Why did he not bother to even put the most basic of protections around? Did he have that much trust in the bounded field? Shirou did not understand, but as he arrived at the end of the hallway from the kitchen into what must be the living room, he felt more and more unnerved by it all.

"Welcome." The voice spoke from the room ahead, even before he could take a peek around the corner. They all froze at the word; knowing that it could only mean one thing. That they had been spotted and were as good as mice in a box, now that the master of the workshop was aware of their presence.

Within the workshop of a magus, one was quite literally in a domain of their creation. Furthermore, the very act of treading inside one was as good as a declaration of war, after which no mercy could be expected.

As they had been discovered, they were truly and utterly in his power here.

Shirou grit his teeth and walked out, behind him Luvia tried to reach out and stop him but was unable to make it in time. This was why he had agreed to take point; to face the dangers head on so that the others would have enough time and opportunity to figure out how to remedy any situation.

He came face to face, perhaps nine meters apart, with an old man. Shirou hadn't received any profiles or descriptions of the man, but somehow he guessed this was the man they had been looking for all along.

Between them was a sofa, a table and several recliners. To the side of them was a television and behind the man stood a piano, covered in a doily and several family photos. He was in none of them; that was a good sign, Shirou thought. If this was a recent base of operations for the magus, then there would be relatively few security measures in place. However what stood out most to Shirou, was the magnificent lance propped up in the middle of a great magical circle that glowed with arcane power behind the magus.

He swallowed as he wondered at the weapon. He had never seen it before, but he knew what it was at once. He broke his eyes away from the lance to look at the man. They made eye-contact.

"Relchronos de la Torre, I presume." Shirou spoke, calmly, ignoring the two around the corner who were still deliberating as what to do.

"Oh—hoo... I am impressed. I had thought that I had uprooted all traces of my past, yet I am recognized time and time again. How peculiar. And you might be?" The bearing of the man reminded Shirou a great deal of the aristocracy of the Clocktower, of what little he had had contact with that high and mighty lot. Straight of back, stiff of upper lip and cold piercing eyes that stared at him down the length of his nose.

Shirou gauged the distance. Nine meters would be difficult even with a clear ground; with all the furniture there was no way that he could rush in and cut down the magus if it came down to it. He needed to get closer. Seven meters would do against a single action spell, assuming no other safety measures were in place. Of course, that was a fool's bet against a magus as old as the one who stood before Shirou.

"...Emiya Shirou." He replied after a moment of hesitation. Relchronos went utterly silent and still at his name, eyes widening ever so slightly. Wishing to cut off any misconceptions at the bud, Shirou spoke before the other man could. "Adopted."

This only caused the man to be further nonplussed, as he stared at the Japanese magus. Finally, with a frown the man seemed to shrug off whatever it was that had halted him so.

"How portentous." He said, simply, before turning to the wall as if he could see right through it. Perhaps he very well could, it was within his workshop after all. No, Shirou could tell his eyes weren't focusing on anything, especially on neither of the two. That meant that he couldn't sense anyone inside the house, or at least not their specific location. Probably. "And the rest of your party? Normally, I do not take very well to trespassers... Yet you are the first to do so with the courtesy of at least not breaking down my entire bounded field. In comparison to many others, you are quite polite. For what measure of politeness one can expected from unwanted intruders."

Shirou blinked, not sure if that was a jibe at him or someone else entirely. Had Relchronos' been watching him, seeing how he had used the holy sword to break the bounded field around the camp? Or had he already fought with someone else before their arrival?

Luvia stepped forward, perhaps having resolved herself to the situation she did not wish to behave in a manner unfitting the Edelfelt family. Adrian stepped forward a few seconds later, as if unwilling yet cowed by the decision of the rest of the group.

Relchronos seemed to light up at the blonde Finn, as if having expected her. "Miss Edelfelt. How fortunate of you to make it as well. We have not met before, but I have heard good things of your struggles under the Wizard Marshall. —I take it that it would be Miss Tohsaka who is standing outside my door, this very moment as well?"

Luvia, who had been about to introduce herself, could only close her mouth with an audible click. The look of annoyance that flashed in her eyes was not missed by the old magus who chuckled mirthfully at her.

"I must say, you almost managed to steal away my prize beneath my very hands. Yet, you underestimated the depths of my mastery; I have toiled over this Crest long before either of you had even been born." The magus chuckled some more.

Shirou looked away from the man, to gaze at the lance once more. It was behind him, over at least ten or eleven meters away from Shirou. Something about the lance did not feel right, but he could not place his finger on it. Perhaps it was simply its nature that confused him. But at the very least, he could say that the old man had not used it for anything.

...Yet somehow, despite being certain of that, he felt like he was missing something. But he tore his gaze back to the magus, lest he be discovered looking around.

"—thus, I recommend that you give yourself up. You have nowhere to run and it is only a matter of time before the rest of the Clocktower's punitive force arrives; we have already informed them of your location prior to our own arrival." Luvia spoke and Shirou realized that she was negotiating as he focused on the conversation again. Or rather, handing him an ultimatum despite being in his grasp this very moment.

"'Only a matter of time' is it...?" The magus seemed more amused than anything else, though not in the sense that he did not believe her. "You are more right than you know, young Edelfelt. Though, that will not avail you here, I'm afraid."

"They're already working together with Arcueid Brunestud, you've no chance of defeating her once you've been found. You shoul—" Luvia continued, her tempo picking up as if sensing a rising danger to her if she could not talk him down here. But, she was cut short by him.

With a wave of his hand, Luvia froze in place. She did not merely stop talking, her entire body seemed to have been turned to stone in an instant. Yet Shirou understood, that this was no petrification magic.

"Fret not, I am entirely aware." He said, with a chuckle. "But you needn't worry. When you say it is only a matter of time, you are right after all. I am he who winds the clock; if it is time I need then it is time I shall have.

"With your rather unexpected—and might I add, unwelcome—appearance, I am forced to cut short my experiment for today. Still, that does leave me with a rather sizeable supply of magical energy that I suddenly have no use for." He made an elaborate shrug, smirking as he shook his head. "I do not need all too much to return, so I have plenty to work with. Or rather, plenty to work out. Stress, that is."

The old magus shook his head and sighed, as if lamenting to himself over his misfortune.

Shirou took a step back away from Luvia as he reeled in shock. He could sense perfectly how easily Relchronos had initiated and cast that spell; it had been a bare single action on his part to enact a bounded field that could have stopped a freight train instantly.

He swallowed nervously as realization struck him. Against something like this, he could do nothing. Any action he took, within this bounded field could be instantly and easily nullified. No, not nullified. Rather, put on pause indefinitely.

So this was the power of a Grand, Shirou realized. They had come woefully unprepared.

"First and foremost, I must learn how you lot managed to find me. It will do me no good if I repeat everything, only to stumble on the same pebble on the road yet again." Relchronos made small smile, as if chastising himself for making that mistake in the first place.

His words only served to further confuse the two younger magi and Shirou was certain that had Luvia been present she would not have understood it any more than they did.

"Emiya, was it? No matter. And hmm... Who might you be? No one of consequence, I suspect." He looked at Shirou and Adrian in turn, sizing them up as if they were poultry to be plucked for dinner.

Shirou turned a hesitant look at Luvia, too wound up to even take a step as he knew that the moment he did he would be encased in a magical snare just as Luvia had been, and trapped in time. It was then, that he spotted the item. Lying in the corner of the room on the floor as if someone had simply dropped it and not bothered to pick it up.

It was something utterly mundane and yet something so utterly out of place that it naturally caught his eye. Even if this were not a mad magus' workshop, it would have been a peculiar thing, but with his presence it only served to utterly confuse him.

Why is the old man's gun here? Was what he first wondered, but as his eyes naturally drank in the sight there was another realization.

The structural composition of most items were naturally understood by him at sight, especially if they were weapons. Doubly so if he had already used his Structural Analysis on them or similar items beforehand.

Thus he understood, that this was and was not the same weapon that he had handled the previous night. He could not understand how that was possible, until suddenly it clicked and he perceived the truth of the matter.

He turned to face Relchronos.

No, not towards the old magus posturing at them. The Holy Lance behind him. The words came out of his mouth naturally, as if they had only been waiting for him to lower his guard but for a moment so that they could spring forth. "Rhongomyniad."

"What—How?" The look on the old magus face was of utter confusion. The man blinked, not understanding the word Shirou had uttered. A mere second passed, but this second was more than enough for Shirou to steel himself as his perception of time slowed down to a crawl, his mind racing at the implications.

He had thought that even if they failed, the Clocktower could handle the rest.

He had thought that this man before him was merely a madman seeking to further his craft, like so many others Shirou had run into.

He had thought that even if he failed here, there was a chance that no more people would be hurt due to this previous actions.

But he understood and knew better, now. He understood and the taste of bile threatened to spread in his mouth, as he held back his anger. This tragedy has happened not once, but many times, counting even beyond his ability to gleam. The reason why Luvia and Rin had been sent here must have to do with this matter, he certain of that now.

But what could he do? Already Shirou could see the intent to neutralize them all forming in the old man's eyes. A second from now, he would be as good as a statue, frozen to the world. Helpless. Useless. Unable to save anyone.

No, that's not right. It couldn't be right, he had to think of a way. What did he possess? What could he do?

The gun? No. A single bullet would not be able to take down a magus. Perhaps if he lined up a perfect headshot, passing through the eye and destroying the brain in a single hit... But no, that would take too much time to get a perfect shot. By the time he had a bead, his trigger finger would already be unable to complete the pull. Even enchanted as it was, a 9mm bullet was not a reliable enough a cartridge to ensure an instant kill.

But he could quick-draw and fire that single shot from the hip with some accuracy. It could serve as a distraction, perhaps.

But that would not prevent his own elimination an instant later. He couldn't rely on Adrian here; the would-be-Enforcer's instincts were simply too dull and their teamwork was not on a level where it would work against a magus inside his own workshop.

Besides, Feyn-Mallard had utterly frozen in place. Someone who had been paralyzed in fear was of no use.

But just as he dismissed Adrian Feyn-Mallard as a partner, so too must have Relchronos de la Torre dismissed him as a threat. Yes, Shirou could see it in the way he was completely focused on Shirou and ignoring the other man entirely this instant.

Therefore, if Shirou could get Adrian's head back into the game, there would be an instant where a reversal would be possible.

A plan was beginning to form in Shirou's head, despite the fact that he knew his oblivion lay a mere half-second into the future. If only he could surpass that first hurdle, he lamented. On his back, the weight of the sword rested comfortably. As if saying, you can do it and telling him not to give up, the holy sword seemed to possess a presence of its own against his mind.

He had no ideas, but he could already feel the self-imposed veil of eternity on the moment slipping. There was no more time, not for deliberation nor second thoughts. He could only act and hope for the best.

Time snapped back into play.

"Tsk, " The magus made a sound of disapproval, as if saying he would handle Shirou later. Already, the pressing sensation of nothingness was approaching and Shirou exploded into motion.

Right hand went to hip, drawing the gun and in one motion turned off the safety and fired a bullet from the hip.

Left hand want over his right shoulder, finding the golden-blue hilt which seemed to have been waiting for him, singing at his touch as he swung down the sword down from his right shoulder with force that could cleave through an anvil.

An explosion of sound, a flash of light, a sensation of something being cut down.

"Omph...!" An unknown voice cried out in pain and for a moment Shirou wondered whether it was himself.

Shirou did not know from which hand which sound or flash came or if the sensations merely overlapped so perfectly that it was impossible to tell in that instant of motion. But next he knew, he held Caliburn in his left hand and Relchronos was holding his gut where a sizable bloodstain was spreading.

In his hands, Caliburn shone like thirty torches as if to say this man will not fall so long he grasps me.

He couldn't tell who was more surprised, himself or Relchronos. At the bug-eyed look in Relchronos' eyes, Shirou almost let out a nervous chuckle before he realized the seriousness of the situation.

"The- The Sword of Selection?!"

It was Shirou's turn to gape at how Relchronos could possibly know that, but he refused to let it halt him. Dropping the pistol, Shirou grabbed Adrian and pulled both behind the concealment of the corner they had come around a moment earlier. Whatever it was that the old magus did, it seemed to work on line-of-sight.

Turning the corner, he pumped his feet as fast as he could as he pulled the Enforcer behind him. He could not stay here. Leaving Luvia behind was regrettable, but he could do nothing for her at this moment; he could only hope she would be okay.

Shirou still had no idea what he had done to block the Single Action spell, but chalked it up to the sword. This was the exact reason why he had worn it on his back. Commonly speaking, a sword on the back cannot be drawn unless it is an uncommonly short blade. Thus, it should have been a foolish choice. But as the sheath and belt both were mere projections and at his whims to dispel, this fatal flaw turned into a great advantage.

The art of the quick-draw with the sword was an uncommon one around the world, but Shirou could with definite certainty say that if he held the sword at either the high guard as if with the back sheath or at the hip as if with a regular sheath, then the former would definitely deliver both a stronger and a faster blow.

As he thought these self-congratulatory thoughts, Shirou wondered whether the stress of the moment was getting to him. Stray thoughts in battle were tantamount to death, yet here he was doing so nonetheless.

He shook his head, replaying the moment in his head as best he could. He could not very well look back out around the corner as he had already run down the hall and dragged Adrian with him. He could feel the bounded field of time stagnation being cast behind him, where he would have been standing had he remained still.

That settled it; line of sight only. And no method for finer sensing.

It was the bullet he had shot which had exploded a meter away from Relchronos, of that Shirou was certain even as he had been half-blinded by the burning light borne of the swing of his sword. Thus he deduced, the lead 'jacket' of the bullet had exploded into pieces and struck the magus not unlike a double-00 buckshot shell. But unfortunately, the charge of a handgun round was much more anemic than a shotgun's, thus it couldn't have done much more than draw blood as it struck him in the gut.

Whatever defenses the magus had, they worked to block small arms fire quite well, but not had not been designed to deal with a round that exploded on impact.

"I WILL TEACH YOU UNENDING AGONY FOR THIS, YOU THIRD-RATE WORM!" A voice bellowed from behind them and Shirou almost felt a grin coming up.

"Well, someone's angry." He looked at Adrian who finally seemed to have collected himself somewhat. At least enough to be on the verge of a panic attack, judging by his wide eyes and his unsteady, rapid breathing.

"Adrian. Adrian." Shirou shook him, but to no avail. He frowned and finally simply slapped the magus; the whip-like strike sending the Enforcer reeling back before he stared at Shirou with wide-eyes. "Adrian, you've got two choices here."

The Enforcer looked at Shirou blankly before nodding.

"Either you get the hell out and get to Rin, which I doubt you can; there's no way the door isn't already closed." Shirou said, almost offhandedly as if being trapped inside a bloodthirsty, howling magus' workshop was nothing to get worked up over. Adrian's eyes widened at those words, realizing that he was trapped.

"Or..." Shirou drew it out, before noticing that he was being ignored. He slapped the Enforcer again, satisfied that he was being listened to he continued. "Or you can help me and then we get out together.."

Adrian blinked and slowly nodded. Making sure that he was paying attention, Shirou outlined his plan.

"You're mad."

"Well, it's either that or dying here. Your choice." Shirou shrugged.

"Fine, but just... Fine. But how will you know where to..." Adrian deflated as if all the fight had been knocked out of him and he was only running through the motions. Still, despairing-and-angry-at-him was better than catatonic with terror.

"Oh, that's easy." Shirou put his hand on the drywall next to him. "—trace on,"

The Enforcer blinked and before he could ask again, Shirou opened his eyes and dragged him along as he ran.

They made it through three connected rooms, before Adrian realized that Shirou seemed to know where he was going.

"D-did you just structurally analyze the whole house in less than a second?!" Adrian gaped.

"Uh, I guess." Shirou shrugged, turning another corned and cutting through a bedroom with two doors. Luckily, the house was quite big, giving them plenty of hiding room.

"What do you mean, 'you guess'!?" The Enforcer roared in outrage, which only served to make Shirou raise an eyebrow. "You know what? You know what! Once we are done here, I am having you designated for sealing! I can do that, you know! Sealing Enforcer! Of the Clocktower! I can lock you up for the rest of your life! In fact, you can have a cell right next to Gazamy, you lunatic hedge-mage from the ass end of nowhere!"

Shirou merely gave the other an unimpressed stare as he turned to look around as he judged the mental map of the house in his mind's eye. Behind them, the swearing intensified and Shirou turned his head as his eyes went wide, "Uh oh."

"'Uh oh' what?" Adrian ground his teeth as he gasped for breath after his rant. While Shirou was relieved that some life had been knocked back into the Enforcer, having the other shouting at the top of his lungs until he was completely out of breath was hardly optimal.

"Twelve... No, make that fifteen horrors were just summoned. I think." Shirou scratched his jaw, as if weighing whether that would be a problem.

"Oh, just what we needed."

"I'm sure you can handle one or two. This way." Shirou said as he turned to sprint down into one room. It had several dressers, a pair of chairs and a divan along with a small table. Around the walls were several book cases, filled to the brim with various books and knick-knacks.

"This is a dead en—" Adrian was about to say, but the Shirou jumped up on a cupboard, vaulted onto a dresser and then used the holy sword to cut open a hole in the ceiling. Before the Enforcer could even finish his sentence the red-head had already jumped through the hole into the first floor above them.

The Enforcer gaped until Shirou's head popped out to stare down at him with a frown. "Hurry up, come on."

Ignoring the proffered hand, Adrian made his own way up with his wind magic. Shirou then put the floor back in place where they had come up, as if replacing a cork on a flask. "Come on, this way."

Shirou lead the way, walking quietly down one hallway and finally stopping before a door. Arriving at a guest bedroom, Shirou entered and pulled Adrian along with him and then closed the door after checking both ways down the hallway. He turned to look back at Adrian who seemed confused.

"I thought you told me that we were going to flank him and that you would then break us out. Why did we go up?"

"Yeah, that was the plan until he summoned horrors. Change of plans. And keep quiet." Shirou said, placing a finger on his lips as he had been speaking in a quieter voice.

Adrian blinked and frowned at him.

"We're right above Relchronos; he hasn't moved. I think he made it so the horrors won't enter the room he's in, somehow. I had thought to flank him, but I don't think that will work anymore; the horrors will make too much of a racket the moment we approach him." Shirou elaborated as he closed his eyes and measured his steps from a wall. "Alright, so you only have to do two things. I'll handle the rest."

"...Go on." Adrian said, crossing his arms.

"Use that thing you did with the sword to cut a hole right here about this big." Shirou showed where he stood. "And then do the thing with the coins like I told you to. I'll be standing over there in 3 minutes."

Shirou pointed at a wall and Adrian nodded slowly, understanding the rough outline of the plan. "But why cannot we simply attack him from here? If he's unaware of us, it should be doable."

"I don't think so. He has some kind of defensive barrier, so I'm hesitant to just attack him. Also, if he's not distracted he'll just freeze you in place the moment he sees you. My way his back will be turned to you." Shirou said and smirked at the wince Adrian did at the word 'freeze'. It seemed that their experience at the camp had turned the Enforcer against all sorts of time stagnation fields. "Make a hole; use coins; I'll be there."

Shirou repeated and looked intently at the Enforcer until he nodded his understanding.

"Alright. Now I just need to get down, myself. Remember, two minutes starting now." Shirou said, taking a few casual swings with the sword as if to work out some kinks and to make sure he was in top form. He turned to the door and opened it, very carefully and quietly. Making sure to check both ways before he left, he left with a wave of his hand, holding two fingers up. Adrian pointedly ignored him.

Shirou made sure to walk as quietly as he could until he reached the first floor. The stairs were old and the wood wanted to groan and creak beneath his feet, but he managed to get down undetected. The whole point of setting Adrian upstairs was to keep the horrors from finding him after all.

Walked down the hallway, Shirou readied his sword; it was time to make some noise.

He whipped out the sword and carved a deep rend into the wall. There was a sudden stillness that went beyond mere sound, as if the attention of every living thing within a hundred miles had suddenly turned around and locked onto him.

Shaking off the oppressive weight of the ghostly sensation, Shirou turned around and began to dash. In his head, the clock for one minute had already begun ticking.

He heard a sound as he approached the hallway that had originally lead to the room where he and Adrian had jumped a floor above. One or two, perhaps three horrors had followed them into that room. It could only have been a matter of timing that he managed to run into them.

Not sparing even a moment for the horrors, Shirou sprinted across the open doorway and behind him he could hear the sounds of the roused and piqued horrors noticing him.

Shirou cut a corner instead of continuing down towards the kitchen, buying himself some more time before the horrors could get line of sight on him, at the cost of adding four seconds to his schedule. Still he could manage it, he thought as he readied his sword. Behind him two horrors came barreling down the hall and hit the wall with a loud thump and a groan of wooden wall.

The two began to excitedly whistle and click-clack their claws and teeth as they chased after him. Shirou ignored the two as he turned left and entered another bedroom. He frowned at the pink décor for a moment, which he found more than a tad bit unusual but shook those irrelevant thoughts aside.

He shook his head and pulled shut the door behind him. He inhaled and then at the peak of his breath, whispered "—trace on,"

Shirou's sense of touch expanded and flooded the door as he shoved a chair beneath the handle, to keep it from being opened. There was no lock and the walls were too thin to hold against a horror's attempts for any real length of time.

But that is where his magecraft came in to play.

He exhaled and poured out his magical energy into the wall and the door. The lock morphed, turning into a spike that drove straight into the wall, expanding inside the weak material like frozen water on glass, tendrils and branches expanding within it. The old wood, so dry and thin that a single solid kick was all it took to smash through it, was flooded with magical energy and accordingly gained the toughness of a sheet of mild steel.

He cut off the flood from his hand and stepped back, just as a pair of impacts hit the door. They weren't getting through, not at least for another ten seconds. Forty eight seconds left. He spun on his heel and used the momentum to slash out diagonally, following that with another pair of slashes to complete a large triangle.

His foot lashed out and the equidistant triangle of wall popped out into the room on the other side. Without a second thought, Shirou dived through coming up in a roll as he spun around again and picked up the piece of wall and stuck it right back where he had cut it out.

Just as he got the piece in place, he could hear the door on the other side being knocked down. He could almost feel it through the wall as the door broke beneath their assault. Behind him, the door to this room was closed thus he felt safe any strays wouldn't notice him immediately here. Judging that the piece would hold in place without him holding it so long as none of the horrors prodded it, Shirou left it and snuck to the door.

Opening it quietly and peering left and right, he sighed in relief when nothing was outside. He could hear the noise of several horrors screeching in the room he had just left behind and he paid them little heed as he moved. Thirty seconds.

He cornered and noticed a horror standing before him, looking away. It seemed puzzled by a cupboard, trying to open the thing with one long tentacle, its claws drawing deep gouges into the lacquered wood. Shirou thought for a second that he could sneak past it, but realizing it was already turning due to the sound of his running steps he thought better.

Taking a deep breath and putting power into his legs, he kicked up a gear and went into full sprint. The sword took point naturally and before the horror could even see him it had already been in cut in twain as Shirou blew past it like the wind.

It didn't even have enough time for a dying screech, but Shirou knew that the smell of its innards would draw in more horrors. Twenty four seconds.

There was a sound ahead, from the kitchen. Shirou kicked open the door and in the same motion sprung forward and slashed down a horror before it could react. Holding his breath he turned on the spot grabbing a chair and shoved it against the door. It wouldn't hold against a horror, but if it were merely curious at the noise it might be discouraged by the obstacle for a couple of seconds. Eighteen seconds.

He ran through the kitchen and came out to the dining room that connected to the living room around a small doorway. He neared the wall and put all his efforts into controlling his breathing as his ears strained to listen. It didn't sound like he had been spotted, but he couldn't be sure.

At least, Shirou didn't think that Relchronos had a familiar bond with the horrors, so having been spotted that way seemed unlikely. Still, he must suspect something due to the racket and would be facing this way. It wouldn't matter, or so he hoped.

Ten seconds. Shirou took a deep breath and focused.

Eight seconds, Shirou took a step back and eyed the wall in front of him. There was no point in walking through the doorway to the living room; he had definitely made enough of a ruckus that Relchronos would be facing that way.

But that's what the sword was for; he raised the blade over his left shoulder as he coiled his entire body. Held with one hand the sword was both faster and more mobile, and he wanted speed more than anything right now. Besides, its keen edge hardly needed another hand to bite through the walls of this house.

Five; his breath came out as an audible gust as his entire body exploded into motion. Four cuts, all flawlessly performed cut through the wall as if it were made out of cardboard, flashed in the space of half a second. His foot lashed out and his new improvised door went flying inside as he charged inside.

"W-what...!"

Perfect, Relchronos was facing 45 degrees away from Shirou, his hand outstretched at the door to the dining room and Luvia remained where she had been frozen in place earlier. A stray thought of worry almost penetrated his concentration but he forced it away; he couldn't afford to be distracted right now.

Shirou could probably make it all the way to the old magus if he rushed; he might even be able to cut down the magus before he snapped off a bounded field and froze Shirou in his tracks. But even then Shirou had no guarantees that Relchronos would not simply use the lance.

Thus, this entire convoluted plan. Three seconds. The lance was simply that important.

Thus, he had to brave this man head on and risk facing that ridiculous bounded field that could stop a True Ancestor in her tracks despite being nothing more than a third-rate magus. Thus, he could only leave it to Saber.

After all, she had never failed him in his time of need.

"Haaaa—" He took a single step, his eyes tracking the motion of the older magus' eyes widening in shock, followed by his correction of alignment. The flow of time Shirou could perceive seemed to have stagnated, but he knew it was nothing more than an illusion; a self-delusion as he clung to every second he had.

One.

It all happened at once; the ceiling came crashing down behind Relchronos who was almost hit by the falling floor; the spell wove into existence right on top of Shirou and began to shape into existence; the golden sword burned with a furious light and struck down the pinhead-sized point of origin of the bounded field before it could actualize and it exploded in a burst of light as it vanished.

They both stumbled; Relchronos from the falling debris and Shirou from the sheer backlash of striking down a mystery of the highest order with the holy sword.

Zero.

The sound of clinking coins hadn't escaped Shirou's notice, despite all the racket and explosions. Despite the sheer confusion of the moment, Shirou could only grin as he knew he had already won this exchange.

Shirou danced back a step to the left and just as he stopped to look at Relchronos who had finally recovered from the moment of confusion, it was already too late. The coins landed on the lance and took hold; as if magnets they stuck to the shaft and as Adrian swung out his sword the lance followed.

"Huh—?!" Relchronos let out a panicked yelp as the lance almost hit him on the shoulder as it sailed past him. The old magus' eyes bugged out of his head as Shirou caught the lance with a grunt; the force of the swing continued despite Shirou catching it thus it his him with the force of a swung baseball bat.

But the sweetness of success overpowered any strain or suffering he could have felt at that moment.

With this, the conditions for being able to defeat Relchronos had been fulfilled; he had understood perfectly how unfair an advantage the old magus had possessed. The last thoughts of the late Lord El-Melloi, the intense pain and the horrified realization of just how Relchronos had managed to survive despite the forces arrayed against him.

Shirou had grasped it all and in that moment been catalyzed to achieve the last one thing that Lord El-Melloi thought. Get Rhongomyniad away from Relchronos de la Torre, at all costs.

"Y-you! Return that to me! At once!" Relchronos all but screeched, his eyes wide and a noticeable tremble to his hand. Gone was that absolute confidence, that unbreakable stride and swagger of his that let him ignore any adversity. Because, his reset button had been stolen, the true weakness of his heart had finally been revealed.

The fact that he was trying to deal with words rather than actions in this moment only all but confirmed this for Shirou. He gave a mocking half-wave with the hand holding onto the sword as he took a step back.

"Wait—"

"Adrian! Time to run!" Shirou shouted over the magus above and then turned on his heel and ran off, leaving the shouting magus behind him. He realized a second later that he had left Luvia behind and cursed, but did not stop. He had hoped that perhaps there would be an opening for him to break her out, but no such lucky occurrence had come to pass.

Still, as long as he held the lance it was only a matter of time until Relchronos was defeated. Even without it, perhaps the man could still achieve his original goals—or could he? Shirou wasn't all too certain—but given that his lifeline had been cut, the old magus would be far more cautious and reserved henceforth. But Relchronos should at least possess the ability to run away from here, even now. With Luvia as a hostage, the others would not cave in to his demands but Shirou might agree to let him go for her release, if Relchronos agreed to stop his experimenting.

Then again, what magus worth their salt would agree to such a condition? No, Relchronos would fight.

That is, if his confidence hadn't been shattered. Shirou judged from that exchange, that lasted less than ten seconds, that the magus would not dare to act overtly now. Thus he only had to get out of the house to secure that Relchronos would be taken down. Shirou dismissed his naivety and concentrated on running.

After all, without the lance he would not be able to summon in any new—

His new ghostly sense of the world warned him before his physical senses could detect anything amiss. The crack in the veil of reality only extended for half a meter, but through it in a single instant a horror suddenly appeared before Shirou.

Ah, well it turns out he can still somewhat summon monsters, Shirou had time to think before the horror noticed him. The lance in his left hand shot out and pinned the horror through instantly; long enough to keep Shirou safe as it slew the beast, it was still more than a little awkward to use on foot and in-doors.

Originally a weapon meant to be wielded on horseback, it was not something one could simply wield with one hand and hope to excel with. Still, it had worked here well enough, he thought as one last shudder went through the horror before it died.

His relief was short-lived however, as he realized that his ghost sense was pinging off like mad. Six, a dozen, twen—thirty... Shirou swallowed nervously as he tried to count the numerous incoming cracks and realized that he lost count after fifty.

"Ah shit." Was all he could mutter, before two more horrors were forcefully ejected out of the ether right in front of Shirou. They seemed as put out by the summoning as Shirou was by their presence and twice as willing to take their frustrations out on him.

The three, one magus and two otherworldly monsters, all looked at one another for one awkward moment.

Shirou turned and spun on his heel and slashed out twice in succession at the wall and jumped back. The holy sword cut through the wall just as easily as before and the lance followed suite and smashed through the parted wood with the force of a wrecking ball. He turned on his heel and ran for all that his legs could carry him. Behind him, there came a great creak of wood and plaster followed by a crash and howl of pain from the horrors.

Structural Analysis was good at that, finding load bearing sections of the wall. Two cuts and the whole corridor came down on the horrors. Shirou didn't waste time admiring his handiwork, rather he shoved the lance into the wall at about shoulder height and then with a small apology to the lance he jumped up onto the platform created by the shaft.

He nervously glanced at the direction of the living room; Relchronos should be coming after him any second now.

Three slashes, this time with far less care and precision, and an opening to the second floor was opened and the piece of the ceiling fell down with sound of wood on floor as a cloud of dust was kicked up. Shirou jumped down, pulled out the lance and then took some distance and with a running start used the lance to pole-vault against the wall and then pushed off with a jump into the second floor.

Just as he got his bearings again, Shirou heard a panicked cry of pain from his left. He tensed up, realizing it was Adrian's voice. He froze and then cursed silently; he kicked off and the door that barred his way exploded in a burst of shrapnel-like splinters under the lance and struck one unfortunate horror straight on as he rushed out. It barely had enough time to register the surprise before the lance pierced through it and ended its miserable existence.

Shirou jumped over the dead horror, using the lance as a pole to vault with once more and almost hit his head in the ceiling. He dashed off with the lance trailing behind him in a reverse grip and drawing a line of blood and guts on the floor as he ran, he turned a corner only to have his blood turn to ice.

Relchronos was there, as was Adrian. Shirou felt his guts churn as guilt welled up in him. The Enforcer had come along out of his own free will, but it had been Shirou's plan that had put him here. Maybe if Shirou hadn't shouted out earlier, Relchronos would not have thought to chase up into the second floor after Adrian?

A dozen other such thoughts, self-recriminations and admonishments at himself raced through his mind in a second as he took the scene in.

As it was, there was no more time for regrets. After all before him, there caught inside a time stagnating bounded field, Shirou could only behold in grotesque awe as Adrian was being torn apart in slow motion by four horrors.

The Enforcer's face was a rictus of terror and agony, his glasses had been crushed by a tentacle wrapped around his neck and head and were speckled by blood and the remains of his crushed left eye. There were at least six tentacles inside him, ravaging his muscles and organs with their teeth and claws.

He was beyond hope and Shirou realized that he had been far too optimistic, far too drunk with his moment of success mere moments before. Did he really think that a magus would simply give up after his plans were laid to waste? He should have set up contingencies; planned how they would retreat and break away; how and where to meet up after he had gotten the lance.

"Oh, there you are..." Relchronos turned to Shirou, noticing his arrival. "Now, if you would be so kind as to return to me what is mine, we can avoid any further unpleasantness."

Shirou took a step back only to stop a grimace, as he realized there was a half-formed crack seven meters behind him. Relchronos would summon horrors behind Shirou and trap him the moment anything departed from the way he preferred things to run their course.

"Yours? Hah, a thief's claim is a thief's blame. This belongs to you no more than it does to me." Shirou spoke, before his brain could catch up with his mouth. He inwardly cursed and winced at his habit of his tongue running wild under pressure, as Relchronos' eye twitched.

"...Yet again, I see no means through which you could have come by that knowledge, yet possess it you do." Relchronos ground his teeth so hard between words as he spoke, that Shirou thought he could hear them cracking between his frustrated words. "Is this the work of the deterrent force? Or perhaps that lordling? No... No this is fate, is it not, Emiya?"

Shirou licked his lips in a nervous habit as he realized that deep within those ancient eyes, veiled by his tired mien and his exhausted appearance, lay a spark of true madness.

"I do not know how you managed to slip by my notice; the notice of the entire Clocktower, after the debacle that was Norikata Emiya... But you have, haven't you? You have waited for this day, to reclaim what is your right, your duty and your heritage!" His voice rose with every word, until he was shouting at the top of his lungs as he raised his arms to the ceiling.

Shirou took a look behind him and gauged the size and number of cracks, perhaps he could slip past them in a moment of inattentiveness on Relchronos' part? Just like this moment right now; he wasn't looking; should he run or should he wait?

His hesitation cost him the moment as Relchronos gathered himself, lowering his arms as if to embrace Shirou, a kindly smile on his face.

"Very well. Yes, very well. Well done and so shall it be; I have regretted that day for all my days since. That one moment of arrogance cost me my only friend and equal." Relchronos took single step forward, arms still held aloft and his expression softened. To Shirou it looked like years and years, decades even, seemed to slough off of his shoulders like so much water with every step. "I would be remiss to deny my friend's grandson this momentous day of discovery; of truth; of purpose! I apologize for my previous behavior; from the bottom of my heart, truly and wholly. It has been a trying several days, I hope you can find it in you to forgive me, as I forgive you for treating me naught but as a nemesis!

"Come, join me. And together we shall make right the mistake that has plagued us for decades." The magus took another step, his eyes boring into Shirou's own and not even once glancing at the lance. Did he really care more about Shirou's—Emiya Shirou's—cooperation than he did about getting back the lance?

The thought seemed ridiculous, yet staring at the man before him, Shirou couldn't say for certain.

Shirou weighed his options and then with a sigh twirled the sword in his right hand, holding it point down as he extended his hand. Three hundred. The magus looked at Shirou with curious eyes, not quite understanding.

Then Shirou shoved it point down into the floor and let go of the sword; it flashed one last time, as if mourning the loss of his touch before it dimmed back into a state of normalcy. The magus blinked and opened his mouth, an expression of hopeful joy glimmering in his eyes.

Shirou took a step forward, and another, until he stood before Relchronos holding only onto the lance in his left hand in such a grip that the point was behind Shirou. It was not a position from where he could strike out, not easily at least in this cramped hallway.

"My father received what was left of the crest, but it was damaged. I... received nothing of his heritage and have struggled long to catch up to what he could do. Desperately clawing at anything that, anything at all..." Shirou said, his eyes downcast. He extended his right hand, as he met Relchronos' eyes. "I forgive you for everything that has transpired and hold no grudges, so I ask you... Please, would you teach me of my family's arts?"

Relchronos' eyes widened and with a bubbling laughter he grabbed Shirou's arm, shaking it wildly before pulling Shirou in and casting his arms around him, clapping him on the back and laughing exuberantly. "Of course, of course! I would love nothing more! Come, come! Let us go downstairs, I will show you all that I have learned since then. Together, together we shall delve deep into the very veil of existence and I shall show you wondrous things. We have all the time in the world, yes. Yes!"

Pulling Shirou excitedly with him, the two walked down the stairs. Neither spared the Enforcer, still in the middle of his death throes, a second glance as they walked around the bubble of stagnated time as if it were nothing more than furniture in their way.

"While I had heard of the Emiya bloodline thinning out since the death of Norikata, I must commend you for your mastery of mysteries that elude even my learned eyes." Relchronos gave one last glance to the sword Shirou had left behind, as if not quite sure what to make of him leaving it there. Finally, seeming to accept Shirou's act as a gesture of trust he tore his eyes away from it to look at Shirou once more.

The question was plain to see in his eyes, yet the older magus hesitated. Shirou felt strangely amused by this; it was common courtesy among magi to not overly pry into the mysteries of others, but it only mattered among those who acted with hospitality to one another. That Relchronos wished to avoid such an awkward situation spoke about the honesty in his offer, as far as Shirou could tell.

"It's something like regaining treasures which have been lost to time." Shirou said, somewhat hesitant to pretend to be an expert on his own magic due to quite literally having been stuck at such an elemental stage until quite recently. Until yesterday night, really.

Relchronos' eyes lit up at that as he nodded thoughtfully, "Yes, yes. I can see how such a devastating set-back could influence your magics, going so far as to induce a radical shift in your inclinations. 'To regain', you say? Quite impressive and obfuscative; most excellent work, of the highest grade without a doubt."

Shirou was not sure what to say to that, so here merely nodded. They arrived at the living room once more, the walk seeming somehow far quicker this time than before, despite his walking at a far more sedate pace.

There, still standing frozen in mid-sentence was Luvia. Shirou eyed her with a frown and as soon as Relchronos' noticed his gaze he seemed to notice her presence as well.

"Oh, I had all but forgotten about her altogether." The magus spoke in a tone of voice that suggested he had forgotten to put the juice back in the fridge after getting a drink. "Oh, well. It is not as if she matters. What a bothersome woman, she and that oriental as well. Though I must admit to being somewhat distraught at first at your intrusion, all is well that ends well. No?"

Shirou nodded and gave a shrug, as if saying 'I hadn't expected this either' to the man.

"We did sort of blow your cover. Would you be able to go back with the both of us?" Shirou asked and Relchronos raised his brows in an expression of utmost surprise.

"Truly, your insight is first-rate." He praised the redhead wholeheartedly before he nodded. "I made certain to always retain a stock of magical energy sufficient for most any contingency, as the road I have taken upon is most perilous. It will be stretching it, but a few hours for the both of us is no problem. That far should be enough to undo most of your mischief, yes?"

Shirou nodded and then looked thoughtful. "So alone you could go further?"

"But of course. Though it is a matter of diminishing returns to an extent. The creatures I summon are little more than creatures displaced through a use of the Flash Air mystery." Relchronos elaborated and nodded at Shirou's wince. "Indeed, they are degenerated and enfeebled by the process. Not something one would want to experience first hand."

Shirou raised the lance he was still holding and spoke, "And that is where Ron comes in?"

"Ron...? Ah, yes. The holy lance? Indeed it does. Rather than a transportation through space and time, it is merely a method of reincarnating in the past, by rewinding the entire world around the self. But due to this limited scope, its accuracy is most excellent. I've not accrued any rot of the soul or such like as of yet. Worry not, my young friend, it is as safe as any magic of this magnitude can be. I do not intend to fail due to minor errors and inconsistencies piling up; I have waited long enough to make such ."

"That's incredible." Shirou admitted his awe honestly, before looking thoughtful.

"Thank you, but I must honestly confess that I have expectations as great for you as well; with your mystery would it not be possible to bring back the summoned creatures much more wholly? By increasing the quality, the quantity required obviously will decrease proportionately. I may have to spend more magical energy to bring you with me, but in the long run I suspect that our partnership will save us a great deal of effort."

Shirou nodded before looking thoughtfully at Luvia and Relchronos looked at him with furrowed brows. Shirou walked up to the blonde, leaving between them the original divide of nine meters just as there had been when they had first come face to face.

"What is it?" The magus asked and Shirou sighed.

"It's about Luvia." Shirou admitted as he avoided looking the other in the eye.

"Oh, who is she to you?"

Shirou did not say anything, instead walking up to Luvia and setting down the lance to rest against the wall behind her. "We studied together and while we weren't exactly close, she did help me out on occasion."

"And you feel there is a debt there?" Relchronos inquired, though Shirou could feel his interest was not on him, despite his back facing the older magus. The magus was probably eyeing the lance now that Shirou had set it aside. Good, that would make him lower his guard in distraction. Twenty.

"...Yes." Shirou said simply, turning around as he stood between the frozen Luvia and the Grand Magus. "So, sorry about this."

Relchronos sighed, as if he had been expecting Shirou to have been merely playing along. "Tumultuous as our first meeting was, my offer was not made in jest nor in prevarication; it did my soul good to have made the effort to reconcile for that old mistake, regardless of your refusal. For that, you have my thanks. But matters be that they are, this shall be the end. Goodbye, young Emiya."

Shirou nodded and squared his feet and raised his arms; magical energy coursed through his body, strengthening his muscles, bones, skin and sinew to the utmost limit of human potential. He prayed that it would be enough.

"One."

Relchronos raised an eyebrow questioningly at that, wondering if that would be Shirou's last word of choice for some reason. The older magus opened his mouth, a reply on his lips, but it never made it out.

Zero.

And then there was pure whiteness. Scorching heat. Blinding golden light. Pressure strong enough that it should have made his brain would pop out through his eyes, ears and nose, before his entire body felt like it was being squeezed by a gigantic hand and backhanded at the speed of sound.

Shirou lost consciousness for an instant, but the impact of his body flying through the wall behind him was enough to jolt him back awake even through the complete haze of his nonfunctional senses. His eyes saw nothing, his ears rang painfully, there was a bruise forming on his back and his skin tingled as if he had burns on his entire front.

He lay there in a daze for some time.

When the blinding brightness in his eyes finally faded to give him enough visual feedback to pull himself together, Shirou could not tell if he had been lying there for a second or for an entire day. His entire body tingled and his face felt wet and warm. His throat constricted and sore as if he had been screaming at the top of his lungs for hours, on top of it all.

Well, that was the last time he did that with a Noble Phantasm.

Oh certainly, the idea to replicate the gem magics explosive power through Reinforcement seemed like a good idea once he had it, but now that he had been on the mere fringe of the effect he realized he had been woefully unprepared for the sheer destructive force he would be calling forth.

Half of the house was simply gone.

He had made sure to get as far away from the Noble Phantasm as possible and to have Relchronos standing closer to the Holy Sword. And still it was such a ridiculous attack as to almost kill him. To think Shirou had been planning to use this as a trump card attack with a projected weapon; it would be nothing less than suicide to try in a fight.

"Shows me... to try and copy those two..." He groaned with every word, realizing that he was spitting blood as well as he slowly moved to wipe his face with his hand. There was blood coming out of his nose and ears too, he realized numbly. "Never... doing that... again..."

"Ugh..." Someone behind Shirou groaned. He then realized that he could only hear with one of his ears; that wasn't a good sign, he somewhat realized.

Shirou turned around to look and noticed Luvia lying there, some meters behind him. Ah shit, he realized. He had smashed right into her and sent them both flying, despite having planned to protect her body with his own. Shirou moved to get up, but felt something beneath his hand and looked down curiously.

It was the handgun.

Shirou stared at it for a long while, not understanding its existence there. Then he shook his head, blaming the confusion on a probably concussion and placed the gun in his now empty holster. A loaded gun could be useful, after all. That much sense he still had in himself.

He stared around, taking in everything in a half-comprehending daze. The living room was now a big hole and the sun was shining through. There was debris and dust everywhere, Shirou realized as he spat out some dirt from his mouth. He was currently in the kitchen, together with Luvia. With slow realization, he understood that she must have cushioned the impact. He hoped she was alright, as he on wobbly feet got up again.

He needed to find the lance again and make sure Relchronos was down for good.

"Shirou! Luvia! Answer me! Is anyone still alive, answer if you can hear me!" A voice sounded outside and Shirou blearily tried to raise his voice but found himself unable to make any great sounds.

At least he found the lance. Rhongomyniad had been behind Luvia, leaning against the wall. Shirou had wanted to set aside the lance since he wasn't very familiar with it. Had the Broken Phantasm Caliburn failed to down the magus, Shirou had intended to project another one to use the first as a distraction to get close to the magus.

As it turned out, that had been an entirely unnecessary worry.

There remained nothing of Relchronos as far as Shirou could tell, even through his muddled state he was sure that the magus had been hit much, much harder than Shirou had been by that explosion.

"Ah!"

Shirou turned to face the sound of the new voice. There stood Rin, looking none-the-worse for wear beyond her tired eyes, yet frazzled into a state of complete panic nonetheless. She seemed a little tired, despite hurrying over to him.

"Hey..." Shirou croaked, raising one hand as the other used the lance as a crutch to stay upright. The Tohsaka heiress paled at the sight of him, before she rushed forward to support him.

"Shirou! What the hell happened!? One second you went in, the next the house bloody well exploded!" She pulled his free hand up and over her shoulder, helping him stand as she looked around for a place to have him sit down. Her eyes registered Luvia and the lance in Shirou's lance, but neither seemed to matter to her at the moment.

"Huh." Shirou groaned. "Time dilation."

He should have guessed; the old magus seemed to make enough references to time being on his side. It seemed obvious in hindsight. Well, it didn't matter anymore given that Shirou had managed to blow up the entire field to kingdom come.

For a moment Shirou wondered whether he ought to tell Rin about the gun and the lance.

"What...?" She blinked at him and Shirou shook his head.

"Why isn't Zelretch handling this?"

"...What is that supposed to mean?" She tried to affect confusion, but Shirou saw right through her.

Shirou gave her a flat stare and after a second she turned to avoid his gaze. Deciding to worry about Luvia in hopes of avoiding the subject, she got up without a word to look at the Finnish blonde. Shirou, realizing that she was going to ignore him for the moment, used that time pat his body to check that he didn't have any superfluous holes on his person and that he could still feel everything. He was also relieved to note that nothing inside seemed to be moving unnaturally, either.

"Urgh... what...?" Luvia finally groaned as Rin gave her a weak magical jolt. She seemed to be unhurt, though dazed and confused enough that she was essentially just as incapacitated. Satisfied that the blonde was mostly fine, Rin gave Shirou a sideways glance and as their eyes met she sighed.

"Fine..." She propped up Luvia and then moved back to Shirou and began to take a closer look at him. "It seems like you have some idea of what's going on beyond what that snake Adashino was telling us."

Shirou nodded and then looked curiously as Rin's hand began to glow as she moved to touch his left ear. There was an uncomfortable popping sensation, as if someone had pulled a wad of gum out of his ear, and suddenly he felt dizzy.

"That's just your inner ear being healed, just try to focus on breathing and it will normalize. And try not to vomit, at least not while I'm here." Rin paid his discomfort little heed as Shirou groaned. He grit his teeth and focused on the sound of her voice as she continued to speak. "Well, basically de la Torre was doing something insane and the entire World is on the verge of ending. Master Kischur did not explain beyond the basics due to his haste, but due to the Universe despising needless expenditure of energy on timelines we are on the verge of being Pruned."

Pruned? Shirou didn't like the sound of that. "That's bad?"

Rin merely gave him a look, as if asking whether he really needed her to tell him that.

"Huh. Well as long as he doesn't have this, it shouldn't be a problem." Shirou shrugged as he hefted the lance.

Rin blinked and looked at Rhongomyniad, not quite understanding Shirou's meaning. "And that is...?"

Shirou shrugged and put the lance between them sideways, running fingers over it as he admired the crystallized mystery.

"This is the EX-rank Noble Phantasm that upholds all of reality as we know it." Shirou explained. Rin blinked as she looked at him. Then at the lance. Then back to him. "I call it 'Ron'."

"...Ron, is it?" Rin said, tasting the word, as if it were a morsel of food she was told to eat but was sure smelled a bit off and not sure if she would be impolite to decline. "Hmm, your pupils seem a little dilated beyond the usual. A concussion?"

Shirou scoffed as she ignored him. Still, he probably did have one.

"Got anything for one?"

"No... That's, I dare not start messing with the brain. You'll have to tide it over the old fashioned way. So no heavy, strenuous exercise until you've seen a healer." Rin said sternly, but there seemed to be an undercurrent of worry there. Shirou shrugged and made a noise of understanding. As long as Relchronos was dead, it should be fine.

"Oww... What happened? Where is Feyn-Mallard?" Luvia finally seemed to have enough presence of mind to join in the discussion and she blearily looked around with obvious confusion.

Shirou blinked and his uplifted mood immediately sank at the reminder of the Enforcer's fate. "He... didn't make it."

Luvia blinked and then nodded at his words before looking at Rin. The raven-haired magus shrugged and the blonde seemed to relax at that.

There was a sudden enormous groaning sound, as if the very earth beneath their feet was suddenly straining. The three all froze at that and when the second tremor came and the house began to make creaking sounds, they were all galvanized into action.

"The house is going to collapse!"

They all rushed out as best they could; Shirou used the lance as a crutch as he half-awkwardly hobbled forward until Rin ran back to lend him a shoulder. A dozen seconds later they all stood outside the house as it came down with a tumultuous crash and creak of wood and stone. It didn't so much collapse as it simply fell over, as with half the house's support structures missing the balance was so lop-sided as to cause the remaining walls to tilt over.

The three stared silently at the house for a minute before Shirou finally almost fell over, almost pulling Rin down with him.

"Well, if we're done here, let us go and get the car. I believe Sherou needs some medical assistance as soon as possible. Seeing as how you're spent, I will handle it once we get my supplies." Luvia spoke as she dusted herself; the short run had seemed to help her regain her bearings for the most part.

Rin glanced at Shirou and he waved her off; saying that he'd wait for the car here. She hesitated and nodded, the raven-haired and blonde magi walking off at a brisk pace without another word leaving Shirou there alone.

Shirou took a deep breath, letting out his breath as a gust as he rubbed his head. The redhead looked at the ruined house and thought back, wondering if there were a better way to have gone about this. He needed to lay to memory everything that happened here for later review; he had failed again despite coming out alive.

His eyes spotted a bundle of cloth, half-buried and with a start he tried to get up. His legs were quite weak after the desperate run out of the house, but using the lance as support he managed to make it to the remains of the door.

There, still wrapped in the cloth, lay Illyasviel.

Shirou fell to his knees as he let go of the lance, using both of his hands to stop his fall as he began to tear away the debris. Luckily nothing big or heavy had fallen on top of the girl, Shirou thought relieved. She deserved better than this. He would make sure that she got it, that much he wouldn't budge on.

He scooped her with one hand and then took the lance with the other, using the remains of the wall to prop himself back up onto his feet. The exertion left him panting for breath. There was another low groan, Shirou froze as he furrowed his brows at the sound. The house already collapsed, why was it making that sound now.

It almost sounded like...

"Eeeeeemmmiiiiyaaaaaaa..."

Shirou felt a cold shiver run through his spine and he took three steps back, wanting to make as much distance between himself and the ruins of the house as quickly as possible. At the edges of his perception, Shirou could suddenly feel as one by one, then two by two, then a dozen at a time, the various bounded fields around the town and beyond were suddenly disappearing.

And at the same rate, there was a truly massive surge of magical energy growing from the ruins of the house, as if some great ancient demon god had been awakened from its ancient slumber.

"Humanity Extinction-Level Event Confirmed; Commencing Complete Culling."

Shirou almost jumped out of his skin at the voice, turning around to look at the source. There stood a tall, tanned man wearing black armor, a white ragged cloak and snow-white hair. It turned to face him, its empty eyes meeting his.

"Wha—"

Shirou did not sense killing intent.

He did not react to the motion.

He did not realize he was in danger.

But somehow, the lance was between him and the new arrival in that instant as it lashed out. A mere backhanded blow powered by the shoulder muscles only, barely enough for a stinging slap normally, Shirou realized as he landed over twenty meters on the other side of the street with a huff of air leaving his lungs. And yet it had had enough power behind it to kill him in one blow, had Shirou somehow not miraculously parried it.

His hand was numb; his head pounding; his shoulder felt like it had almost been dislocated; his feet felt like jello. And worst of all, the being was still looking at him. Shirou blinked away tears and in the space of a fraction of a second his eyes were closed, a bow had appeared from somewhere in its hands.

Shirou was going to die; of that he had no doubt. The moment this thing became serious, Shirou could no longer hope to have any chance of survival.

There was that earthshaking groan again. Both man and other froze, eyeing the ruins with a sideways glance. A pregnant silence, where nothing moved for a good ten seconds.

Then again, even stronger than before the groan came out. This time the tremors were so powerful that the asphalt road cracked and twisted, houses around them collapsed and windows for hundreds of meters cracked and broke.

"Wha—"

Again, Shirou did not have time to complete his confused utterance as the ruins of the house exploded upwards. An arm stood upright, as if digging its way out from beneath the rubble. Only, it was no human limb. For one, it was far too big. Reaching upwards as it was, it was easily twice as tall as the house had been when whole. For another, it was covered in black scales and glowing with red magical energy.

"eeeeeeeeemmmmiiiiiyyaaaaaaa..."

Shirou finally realized that the groans all along had been repeating that one word. He barely had time to swallow and kick himself half a step backwards on his behind, before another gigantic arm shot out from the ruins, sending an entire wall flying a hundred meters into the air effortlessly.

"Priority Target Located; Engaging."

The being turned on its heel and raised the bow, holding nothing in its other hand. Shirou, not caring one whit to see what happened next scrambled to his feet and began to half-run away as fast as he could. Illya in his arm was heavier than ever before and the lance got in his was as he dragged it along, but neither of his hands let go as he struggled to put one foot in front of the other.

Behind him, a five seconds long roar sounded and Shirou almost fell on his face as the shockwave hit his back. He realized belatedly, that it had been the staccato sound of arrows being loosed so rapidly that it had resembled a single long sound a second later as he recovered.

He did not dare to look around or slow down as he hobbled forward. Behind him, a massive rumble shook the earth itself and next he knew a whole house landed thirty meters ahead of him to the side, smashing another house in an explosion of wood and stone.

He had to get to the car, he had to get to Luvia and Rin, he had to...

The car came to a screeching halt next to him, almost running him over. The door was kicked open and Rin jumped out, eyes wide and her expression one of pure panic. Shirou had barely enough time to register her presence before he had been dragged and thrown into the back.

He barely managed to hold onto Illya and the lance as he stumbled in, and as soon as he raised his head the door was slammed shut and Rin jumped back in. The length of the lance was poking out the window as Shirou let go of it to try and sit up.

The engine roared to life and the car swerved around as Luvia turned 180 degrees before pushing pedal to the metal, the wheels squealing as they speed away at speeds far exceeding the street limitations for maximum velocity.

"What the hell did just happen?" Shirou asked as he managed to sit up and looked behind them.

Neither magus sitting in the front spoke and Shirou could feel that they were both on the utter edge; the tension was so thick that he could have cut it as they both studiously kept their eyes forward on the road ahead.

"Hey! Answer me. What the hell is going on!" Shirou shouted, hitting the back of the side-passenger seat for emphasis. The two on the front winced at his voice, but neither seemed willing to speak.

Finally Rin turned to look at him, her eyes straying behind him for a moment as she look to see if they were being followed.

"That... Was a guardian of the deterrent force." Rin said simply, as if unwilling to further put truth to word in hopes of denying by simply not saying it out aloud.

"...Guardian? You mean of the World?" Shirou asked and Rin nodded. Shirou blinked before frowning. "Isn't that a good thing? That the World is finally reacting and taking care of this mess?"

Rin glared at him and Shirou could feel even Luvia's anger flaring at him as he said that.

"Certainly, if you do not mind being exterminated in the process as well." The blonde spoke, as Rin seemed too agitated at the moment to talk.

"Wait, what?"

Rin bristled and grabbed Shirou by the collar as she pulled his face close to hers, their noses almost touching as she grit out the words, accentuating each word with her overflowing anger and annoyance. "The guardians are only ever deployed when the situation has degenerated into a disaster where no means of salvation remain and the only thing that can be done is to wipe the slate clean. The only confirmed such event was Pompeii."

Shirou blinked. "Oh."

Rin shook her head, as if to emphasize his realization and to tell him he was an idiot at that moment and then turned around to look forward again.

"Damn it. I hadn't even considered the possibility that the moment he came outside his bounded field that the guardians would appear. No wonder he was hiding and only using summoned creatures." Luvia cursed as she drove.

"Yeah, I doubt that even a familiar would escape the deterrent force's attention. Indirect means must have been the only ones left to him. Kischur was right, he's become a walking disaster by now." Rin agreed.

Shirou looked between the two magi as the car continued to speed down the road, taking wild turns and drifting with the tires squealing wildly as Luvia drove. He was about to ask a question, when he suddenly felt that strange sensation again. It was probably only chance, that he had been leaning against the door and been able to see the glimpse of something flash past above them.

"BRAKE!"

Luvia, luckily or unluckily, had enough presence to mind to obey Shirou's yell. Thus, the house that landed in front of them on the road did not crush them instantly. Instead the car, still in motion but only slowed down marginally due to the brakes being floored, rammed headfirst into the house with a great crash.

Metal warped, windshield shattered and tires blew up upon impact.

The jolt sent Shirou flying against the backs of the front seats and he groaned in pain as he felt a rib break. He realized he should have worn a seat-belt, but it was too late for regrets now.

He looked up, only to freeze. Luvia was staring back at him with glazed eyes. From her chest, a rapidly expanding pool of red was spreading. Through her torso, all the way through to the back of the seat, was a long cracked rusty pipe of some kind. Shirou realized that it was the water line of the house that had been thrown at them.

She had died instantly.

Shirou tore his eyes away from her and looked over to Rin. Unlike Luvia's airbag, which had been speared through and deflated, Rin's had worked just fine. The raven-haired magus was unconscious, but trying with his hand he could find a pulse which relieved him immensely.

But they couldn't stay here, out in the open. He kicked open the door and slid out. Taking the lance, he eyed Rin and Illya.

"I'm sorry. I'll be back for you both. I swear." He mumbled a hasty apology, mostly to relieve himself of the guilt of leaving them behind, as he opened the front door and lifted Rin. She was heavier than Illya, but Shirou merely grit his teeth at the pain and carried her over his shoulder anyhow.

Shirou looked around, looking for a suitable hiding place left and right until he spotted a house with the door half open. He stumbled into the yard and made his way towards the door, he ignored the bloodstained floor inside and stumbled inside as he dragged along the lance and carried Rin. The lock had been shattered from the outside, he notes distantly.

They had tried to make it as far as they could, but had only managed to make it less than three hundred meters down the street. They were still literally within walking distance of the center of all this chaos.

Having been taken out that easily while they had a vehicle, what chances did they have on foot? Especially injured as they were. Escape wasn't an option, Shirou noted with a bitter chuckle.

But what about hiding? Relchronos had managed to stay out of the deterrent force's spotlight for long enough that once he had been revealed, the deterrent force had deemed it necessary to move in with overwhelming force.

Could Shirou make such a bounded field? Could Rin? And once he had chose to hide, would he have to continue hiding inside of it until the end of his days? Would the deterrent force continue to mark him for erasure?

His radio cracked to life in his pocket and Shirou almost fell over at the sound, thinking it some other new danger. He set down Illya and fumbled with the headset for a moment before getting it into his ear.

"—ay! Anybody, come in!"

"This is Emiya, come in." Shirou spoke, as loudly as he dared as he looked out the window nervously for anything unusual.

"Emiya! Fuck! You gotta help us. Where are you?"

Shirou frowned as he looked at the radio, he hesitated for a moment before pressing the call button once more to speak. "I'm hiding out in town; there's something big going on. What's going on there?"

The radio was silent for a long while and Shirou frowned. He was about to try again when it buzzed again.

"Fuck! Fuck! You have to get over here, it's ba—"

The signal crackled and then died abruptly. Shirou blinked and waited. And waited. When nothing was forthcoming, he tried to call back. He tried to get back into contact with them for several minutes, but ultimately it was useless.

Either the line was dead, or the people on the other end were.

Shirou slumped down as he clutched the radio in his hands. His eyes fell on Rin, who was still unconscious.

He leaned over and shook her gently by the shoulders. She did not wake, so he frowned and looked her over. He patted her over to see if she had any wounds and finding none, he checked her airways. Then her breathing and her pulse again. Her skin was pale, almost translucent in the darkness of the abandoned house, he noted.

Finding nothing immediately wrong with her, he let out a relieved sigh. Then he pulled back one eyelid and looked at her pupils. They did seem slightly dilated and of different size. That was bad, if he remembered his first aid correctly. Probably a concussion; were it any other injury, Rin would no doubt be able to handle it with her magecraft.

But given that she was unconscious, that was not possible. Wasn't the Crest designed to prevent just this kind of scenario?

Shirou swore as he leaned back against the wall. He couldn't do anything for Rin right now, which only served to fuel his helplessness-borne frustration. Shirou sat down, crossing his legs and palming his forehead.

Around him, he could hear sounds of fighting and chaos in the distance. The sounds of the world ending, he thought. Was there anything he could do? Had anything he had done up to this point been worth anything at all?

Shirou looked at the lance and huffed.

He understood the siren call of being able to travel back in time now, as he wondered how many times Relchronos had used Ron for that exact purpose. But that was a meaningless and self-serving desire; the refuse loss and reject any ending that was not a complete success. There existed infinite parallel worlds, this he knew.

So to travel back in time, to a place where that-which-has-happened was still that-which-could-happen, explicitly meant arriving at a different place. The people who had died would still be dead and any changes you wrought were simply to alter the lives of those in that new place. Nothing had been changed, only your own perception of the world had been altered. There were infinite worlds where people died and there were infinite world where people lived, thus once you accepted such means your scope became such that nothing you did had any meaning anymore.

Traveling through time could not change the past. A man can never cross the same river twice, for both man and river have changed.

Except...

That is not what Relchronos de la Torre had spoken of. Of what Rin and Luvia had worried over. If that mad magus merely jumped from world to world, would there be any need for any of this to have occurred. No, he had spoken of "rewinding the world" around oneself.

Shirou frowned as he looked at the lance. He reached out for it and held it up, letting the tip rest against the ground as he thought about the lance. On top of everything else, it was degrading slowly but surely. Shirou didn't know what that would mean, but he had a vague understanding that it was bad. He took out the pistol he had grabbed and extended his magical energy as he for the second time used Structural Analysis on the firearm.

It was the same, yet a completely different one.

Everything he had done and though, remained the same. Everything prior to Shirou parting with the weapon remained the same as far as he could remember. The difference lay in what happened after that.

Waver Velvet was still alive.

Shirou sighed as he set down the lance and re-holstered the gun. He looked at Rin, still unconscious and for the nth time. She would probably have a better idea of what to do. At the very least, she knew what was going on better than he did. He had been vaguely aware of the deterrent force from his time at the Clocktower, but as it had turned out his education being cut short had left some gaps in his knowledge.

Shirou sighed and shook his head. Enough wallowing in his thoughts and hesitations; he had always been the kind of idiot who only knew how to keep on trying.

There was a knock at the door and Shirou almost jumped out of his skin as he drew the gun with one hand, only to fumble with it due to the unfamiliar form. But nothing happened and Shirou blinked as he kept a bead on the door.

"Who is it?" He asked, half merely voicing out his thoughts.

"Bow, of the Church. We met before briefly." A voice, half-familiar spoke out and Shirou blinked as she walked in.

Blue hair, blue eyes and a blue robe. Or the tattered remains of one, anyway. Shirou gaped at her state of dress and what little he couldn't see. Most of her long legs and her belly could be seen, with only the hinting of cloth to cover her chest and her hips.

With only her combat boots and her leather belt on her hip in anything resembling an undamaged state, it made for a very suggestive image. Skin flushed, the hint of sweat and smell of something unusual in the air that he couldn't quite place.

"Put on some clothes, will you!" He snapped, almost reflexively at her state of near-undress.

The burial agent blinked and looked at him as if a frog had just jumped out of his and begun to serenade her. She looked down at herself and then back to him, before shaking her head.

Shirou felt a little silly at that moment, as he realized what he had just shouted out. He cleared his throat. "Sorry, forget I said that."

The nun raised an eyebrow at him, but then shrugged as if saying she didn't really care either way.

Shirou cleared his throat and looked at her. "So... What do you want?"

"Blunt, aren't you?" She gave him a judging look but then continued. "You managed to retrieve the holy lance. I will take it from here."

Shirou blinked.

How did she know about Rhongomyniad? And more importantly, what did she want with it. Shirou suddenly felt very uneasy about her sudden appearance. How had she managed to get past the guardians?

"Why?"

Ciel raised an eyebrow at him, as if wondering whether it was worth it to keep talking to him. "Because the fate of the world rests on that lance not being allowed to deteriorate further."

Shirou blinked and wondered if she was being facetious. "You're serious?"

"Of course I am." She said and reached for a pouch on her belt.

Shirou gaped as she drew out a length of cloth; a rich crimson veil that somehow spoke of long history to him despite being no weapon. Despite holding onto a vastly more potent and ancient relic in his hands, Shirou had to admit his awe at the cloth as well.

"For the time being, wrap this around the lance to keep it from degenerating. Hurry." She said as she handed over the cloth. Shirou numbly accepted it and awkwardly wrapped it around the lance, being forced to holster the gun once more.

"What is this...?" He said, marveling at the feel of the cloth between his fingers.

"It is a shroud that protects the wearer from the external world. A first rate holy sacrament. You understand how valuable it is, right? So hand the lance over." Ciel said and Shirou frowned.

"...I will give it to you, if you help her." Shirou said, nodding towards the unconscious Rin still lying on the floor behind him.

The burial agent raised her eyebrows, as if not sure whether to be amused or annoyed.

"You know, usually when the Assembly of the Eight Sacrament wants something, they get it." She said, the first hints of a threat entering her voice.

"...But you are with the Burial Agency, why do you care?" Shirou asked.

She grimaced and for a moment, Shirou could see the thought of simply taking the lance from him entered her mind. He couldn't accept that.

"Rhon—" He began and the lance pulsed suddenly with power, causing the burial agent to take several steps back, her eyes wide and unbelieving.

"You...!"

"Let's not turn this nice conversation into a fight, just yet. Why do you want this?" Shirou said, not budging an inch.

She looked him in the eyes for a long moment, before sighing and shrugging.

"What can I say? I have superiors and they handed me a bunch of Executors from the Assembly. They had received a revelation of a holy lance, you see? The Holy Church cannot very well accept the Lance of Longinus passing through their fingers, can they?" She spoke of the matter, like it had nothing to do with her.

Lance of Longinus?

"You mean the lance from the Bible?" Shirou gaped at her and she nodded.

Shirou blinked and looked at the cloth covered lance in his hands. No, no. That couldn't be right.

"...You're wrong. Or, they're wrong." Shirou said and the burial agent gave him a piercing look. "This design of jousting lance did not exist during that Roman period. Besides, this isn't that lance, trust me on that. I would know."

The burial agent did not look impressed, merely raising an eyebrow at him.

"It doesn't matter. A revelation was confirmed regarding the existence of a holy lance, vital to the existence of the world and I was dispatched to retrieve it. Hand it over." With every word, her eyes hardened and suddenly Shirou felt very much trapped.

He took a deep breath and took a step back.

"Like I said. Help her and I'll gladly give it to you." Shirou repeated, raising the lance up between them.

The burial agent looked annoyed at him, as she crossed her arms. "Look, I don't have anything that could help her and she's already gone. Look at her; she has internal bleeding and no magical energy. I don't know what kind of idiot magus would let themselves run so dry that even their Crest can't function, but she's already dead."

Shirou blinked. What did she mean that Rin had no magical energy? She had had plenty before. Before they went inside the house, she had been brimming with— "Ah." The realization struck Shirou like a sledgehammer.

She must have been desperately trying to re-open the entrance to the bounded field while they had been trapped inside. That overwhelming presence, her radiance and sheer force of presence had been utterly gone once he had seen her afterwards, he realized now.

Shit, that idiot.

"Right, but you can help her, can't you? She saved you once, doesn't that count for something?"

"Look, that was that and this is this. I don't owe her anything. I already told you I can't do anything for her. Just hand over the lance." She said not budging one bit as her eyes bored into his.

Shirou realized then, that she had no care for him or for Rin's lives. The deterrent force had already awoken; in the burial agent's eyes the two magi were already as good as dead. Therefore, trying to negotiate with her was useless.

Her eyes hardened as she saw the realization hit him. "Oh well, I suppose I have to do it like this, then."

She flashed before his eyes and Shirou had barely enough presence of mind to raise the lance to defend. But it was just what she had wanted, as she grabbed the shaft above his hand and pulled. He almost lost his grip on the lance and was pulled along with it as he marveled at her physical strength.

He barely had the presence of mind to pull the gun and magdump into her. In less than 3 seconds, every bullet had struck her in the gut. But it had no effect; she merely grimaced and then swung the lance again and sent Shirou flying as he was forced to let go.

He landed with a roll and ignored the pain in his body as adrenaline filled his veins. Shirou realized he couldn't beat her, not as it was. Hell, she had taken a point blank explosion and shaken it off in a couple of minutes; what could he do to her that would keep her down long enough for him to even recover his breath?

The burial agent looked at the lance and nodded, already ignoring Shirou. In her eyes, he wasn't even a threat.

Fine.

"—trace on,"

The burial agent had barely enough time to sense the wave of magical energy and just as she looked up to him, he was already upon her holy sword in hand.

A diagonal strike from above right, she blocked with the lance purely on instinct as her face was a mask of awe and wonder at the clashing holy blades. That was fine, he could feel that she had no experience with lance or spear; the sword turned, using the point of contact on the lance as fulcrum and he brought the pommel around on the other side to hook around her wrist and the shaft of the lance.

As he pulled her expression of wonder had turned to momentary panic; in a sword fight, once you are in the bind most amateurs will freeze up as the logic of the situation is completely alien to them. She pulled back, hoping to make distance and had she been able to she would have won. He was in no condition to engage in a prolonged fight.

But his pommel and hilt were hooking her, thus her motion pulled him with her and he jumped forward with that momentum as well. His left hand went to her knee and pulled, the sword in his right hand brought its point on line and as she tripped, pierced her chest like a hot knife through butter.

They fell, Ciel pinned beneath Shirou and sword, as Caliburn had punched through her solar plexus and her spine all the way to the ground beneath them. Her spine had been severed, he could tell by how limp she was and the crossguard had been pushed all the way to the chest.

But, this was hardly enough to stop her. She growled and backhanded him with the lance and sent him and lance both flying back. He hit the wall with enough force that he must have cracked all the ribs that weren't already broken. Those that were, sent lances of pure agony through him.

Yeah, even a holy sword to the chest could not kill this woman, Shirou wondered. But that was fine. Shirou got up, awkwardly and gingerly as he used both the wall and the lance to support himself.

"Sorry about this." He apologized lamely as he looked at the still lying down and struggling burial agent.

"What... Khhhh...! What is this!" She tried to remove the sword, but could not. She tried to lift herself, but with her legs paralyzed and the crossguard pinning her solar plexus, she could not.

"That sword can only be drawn by an ideal king. Or someone who's faking one, I suppose. It's no black key, but it seems to work." Shirou shrugged.

"Khh, you...!" She glared at him but he stood unmoved.

"Sorry, but I'm going to go and finish this, now." Shirou said as he unwrapped the shroud from the lance.

"Wait, you can't...!" Ciel continued trying to struggle, but no matter how she tried she remained rooted to the spot.

Shirou shook his head and then with a flourish put the shroud around himself, before turning to leave. "I'll dispel the sword if I die. Good luck."

He closed the door behind him as he left. His legs were wobbly and his breathing shallow; she had done a number on him. He closed his eyes and focused; the magical energy inside of him was still enough for him to keep going.

Analyzing composition of self—dismissing; sympathizing—voiding; initializing projection, nulling warnings.

Shirou grit his teeth and ignored the hesitations and fear welling up in his heart, the hammer was cocked and the projections—numbering several dozens—were loaded. The cost would have been considerable, but inside himself it was no problem at all. That is, as long as he did not mind the pain.

Fire coursed through his veins; steel lanced his body and Shirou gasped as his muscles spasmed uncontrollably; he bit back and barely managed not to bite off his tongue as he fell to his knees. As he regained his self-control, blood speckled his lips and his breathing was shallow.

"Shit..." Shirou rasped, his voice sounding like a dozen swords grinding blade against blade inside his chest. "Pierced a lung, huh..."

He shook his head and stood up. His joints and muscles creaked unnaturally, but there were no issues with his mobility. On his stomach, a spot of red wetness was expanding slowly. He couldn't feel anything, but he could guess what it was. It didn't even warrant looking at; it would kill him quickly enough to be an issue.

Shirou picked up the lance and gave the house one was last look as he thought about Rin, before he walked out of the house.

The town was in shambles around him, Shirou noted as he hefted the lance up. The fighting had spread, somehow. Relchronos had obviously brought to bear all that he had had in reserve and the deterrent force had ramped up in equal measure until a battle beyond anything Shirou had ever seen had built up.

There were a dozen dragons from where Shirou could see and just as many cloaked figures battling them on equal ground. No, the guardians were pushing back. Relchronos would find no victory here.

Shirou needed to find a vantage spot before anything else; the conditions he had set for himself were quite strict. He had no idea how to make it happen; how to turn that ideal into reality. But, this was his selfishness guiding him. Thus, he could only do it without fail.

Luckily, the shroud was helping. Or it seemed to anyhow. The monsters were too busy fighting to notice him and guardians did not seem to have any presence of mind to pay attention to him. Perhaps it was only a placebo effect, but Shirou continued to walk unmolested.

He walked, ignoring the grinding and twisting sounds, the spreading spots of wetness and numb all over his body and the continued fighting around him. He made it to the tallest building in sight, which was little more than a three story apartment building, and slowly made his way up the roof ladder. Climbing with one hand was a pain, but Shirou knew he needed the lance so dared not let it go.

On top of the chimney, he looked around.

He found Relchronos. Or what was left of him. The magus must have been quite desperate, to take on such a form. The arms Shirou had seen right before he had run, were now broken and bloodied, but still recognizable enough for Shirou to notice them.

The thing that they were attached to was also something he recognized, but could scarcely bring himself to believe.

It stood twenty meters tall and was thrice that wide; an amalgamation of horror and dragon in equal measure, wrapping around itself and fusing just like Shirou had seen them in the forest. His mind almost refused to believe it, but he finally shook himself free of his doubts.

Relchronos had spoken of reincarnation. Would it be possible to possess a summoned creature in such a fashion as well? Apparently he had, Shirou shook his head and stopped trying to figure it out.

"Hey!" Shirou shouted and raised his hand to try and catch the morphed creatures attention, but to no avail. That meant he would have to go to them, then. Which also meant crossing half-a-dozen other battles raging between summoned and deployed combatants. Any one of them could squash Shirou in a second, even were he in perfect condition.

Shirou scowled as he looked back down to the street. He supposed he had no choice but to go there, then. He sighed as he jumped down; ignoring the pain spreading throughout his body at the impact. It would have to be left to the lance; then again, if he was able to consciously accomplish it he was sure the restraints would prevent it.

Shirou continued walking and he reviewed what he knew of the lance, specifically the thirteen restraints and how it functioned. There was something he knew he was missing, but he couldn't quite place his finger on it. Something about the way Relchronos had been using it struck Shirou as being off. Something about the the fact that the Church had been so mistaken about its true nature.

It was almost like it was nothing more than an illusion... Almost like the lance felt extremely similar to something Shirou knew intimately.

It was like trying to grasp a shadow, cast by the original item which the shadow was being mistaken as it was thrown against the cave wall—

A great tower, reaching up and touching the heaven itself—it sees all, binds all. It is the needle with which the fabric of reality that is the "real world" has been sewn in place.

"Ah." Shirou froze in mid-step and stumbled. He looked at the holy lance with slacked jaw as he could scarcely believe his realization, but as he extended his sense of touch through his magical energy into the lance he felt that he was correct after all. "So that's why the previous owner took such pains to hide it away from the World. The World does not allow illusions to exist, huh."

"Rhongomyniad", "Lance of Longinus" and other holy spears... Were they all just the shadows that the Tower cast?

Shirou chuckled as he began to walk once more, his steps now more brisk and confident. He had his means; he had his resolve; he had his victory in sight.

The thirteen restraints, Shirou mused. Who knew they would serve him so well now in this hour of darkness?

The enemy must be more powerful than oneself; The battle must be one-on-one; The enemy must not be an elemental; The battle must be one against evil; The battle must not involve personal gain; The battle must not be inhumane; The battle must be for truth; The battle must be to live; The battle must save the world; The battle must be an honorable one.

Such are the thirteen restraints, one and all handed by the Knights of the Round Table.

The first he could nothing about; he was by far the weakest here.

The second was easy to remedy as was the third; simply make everyone here his enemy and it would be locked. Jumping into this battle royale and making the World's elementals his enemies was enough, Shirou was sure.

Shirou wondered whether the guardians of the deterrent force would serve as being not-evil enough for the lance to take umbrage, so he could not say for certain over the fourth.

He wasn't sure what defined personal gain, but given that he was acting out of pure selfishness to see that this disaster had never come to pass, he was confident in his belief that the lance would reject him.

Shirou wondered how one judged a battle to be inhumane and how one was for truth, but ultimately shook his head. He didn't care for either, thus surely he was violating the spirit of both restraints.

To live? Shirou knew he was going to die; even were he to miraculously survive the guardians and monsters, he was sure to have internal bleeding. And going back in time wasn't an option; the deterrent force would be hellbent on erasing anyone who would violated time. No, Shirou was not fighting to live, but to die.

To save the world? Hah, the world is far too big for Shirou to comprehend. Even as stubborn and childish as he was, even he had to admit that much. Beyond those he had personally seen and met, how could he even understand saving them? The thought of "saving the world" was far beyond him. The deterrent force was already saving the world, wasn't it? Shirou merely wanted to save a handful of people.

Honor? Well, that was easy to remedy. After all, Relchronos was busy fighting a guardian this very moment. What kind of honorless cur would barge in and ambush everyone present?

Just as it wasn't necessary to unlock all thirteen to wield the lance, the more of the restraints that were placed onto Rhongomyniad the weaker it would become. As long as six of the thirteen were denied, its power would be still enough for him to comprehend.

Therefore, he could work on it. He could analyze it. He could comprehend it. He could sympathize it. "—trace, No... That's not right."

"I am the bone of my sword."

Therefore, he could break it. This shadow cast by the true tower which stands at the core of reality.

"Rhooon—"

The lance suddenly pulsed in his hands; it had been imbued with enough power to be activated conventionally, seeing as how it was the keystone around which Relchronos turned the world. The massive power, a mere fraction of its true potential, roared to life as Shirou raised the holy lance aloft and pointed to the heavens.

Suddenly, the entire town seemed to still. Guardian, beast and monster alike were all seized by the roaring light to began to churn as the very fabric of reality seemed to twist beneath that power.

Only one among them knew what it meant and they rejoiced and quailed in horror in equal measure.

"eeeeeemmmmiiii—"

"—NNNGHOMYNIAAD!"

His roar shattered the air and the lance answered his call despite the multitude of restrictions still in place; the raging whirlwind of pure power ripping through everything around him for hundreds of meters in a wave of pure destruction.

The great pillar rose to meet the very heavens, the clouds parting and twisting before its might. The earth shattered and the air roiled, all water turned to vapor and everything that had been torn apart caught fire from the power of the lance.

Only Shirou stood unharmed, in the eye of the storm as everything around him was torn, shattered and broken by the maelstrom of pure magical energy.

Finally it calmed down and Shirou fall to his knees as all of his magical energy had ran out. His own reserves had been but a drop in the bucket, but the lance still demanded his all. Not for the activation itself; rather for what came after. The charge was set. Sixty.

Only one beside himself still remained standing.

Relchronos de la Torre, twisted and warped into a pure monstrosity in his despair and panic, shambled towards Shirou. There was only one thing that could bring him salvation; the holy lance Rhongomyniad upon which he had based all his plans.

And the man who had unraveled all of his plans had brought it back to him in the eleventh hour. How could he resist it now, as the guardians had been momentarily been blown away by that earth shaking attack which only he had managed to survive?

Shirou smiled; there was nothing more he could do; there was nothing more he needed to do.

And thus Emiya Shirou died.

---

AN: Well, that went to hell in handbasket real quick.

Basically, there is a line in FGO about how Rhongomyniad's main body is the pillar of light that fastens together the two layers, the inside and outside the World. So I read this along with the two contradictory conditions of "in the unlikely event that this is undone, reality will be tear off from the world."(FGO) along with "temporary seal to stop the degradation of the weapon's Mystery in the first place."(Case Files 1) and I started to have some questions and strange thoughts.

So on the one hand it is unlikely that it will be undone, but on the other it seems that if left alone it will naturally degrade. Weird. So I figured that, fuck it. The lance seen as a lance is only a shadow cast by the true pillar of light which will not be undone easily. So essentially, it's a projection, but everyone is going full Plato's Cave and Ooh'ing and Aah'ing at the holy lance they see.

Thus, Shirou blowing Rhongomyniad up with a Broken Phantasm isn't going to end the world as we know it.

I had a fun time trying to figure that one out once I realized that my original ending idea would cause reality to collapse as a side-effect and bring about the second Age of the Gods or something.

Shirou: "HERO OF JUSTICE TO THE RESCU—wait, where did those unicorns come from?"

EDIT 9.8.2017:

Went reading through the Japanese wiki and found a lot more to back this view up. 『槍』はその塔が地上に落とした影のもの。 etc.

Additional thanks for guest reviewer for proofreading.