Hello! Welcome back to my little story! I hope you have enjoyed the read so far! I really want to thank all of you, my dear readers, for all the loyalty you have displayed so far. It really warms my heart to know you enjoy this poor, deluded noob's story so much :D
Well, without anything else to come, let us get into the good stuff!
Disclaimer: All rights go to their respective creators, and even thought some of the new Servants for this story do not exist within the Nasuverse and are my own creative imput, i still reject all rights and grant them to Type-moon.
Nanna widened his eye for a moment as he saw he was suddenly back at the scene just after the beginning of his fight against Emiya Shirou. He glanced around for a moment to take in his positioning, then gulped. "I see... if I don't take him seriously, I die..." Nanna thought while he glanced forward again, his eyes meeting Shirou's analytically. "good thing he doesn't know of the full extend of my Authority. I have to make the best use of it." He thought to himself before he moved his right hand up and held its wrist with his left hand, rubbing his skin slightly.
Shirou noticed the sudden shift in Nanna's stance, but gave it little thought for now, materializing Vajira in his hand and readying a few arrows, engulfing them all with the Mana Burst (Flame) Attribute before firing them all at Nanna, who, unlike last time, dashed forward to dodge them all on the run and aim to close the gap between him and Shirou. When close enough, Nanna reached out to grab the redhead, who lifted his left leg for a heel-kick to force the deity back, but with little effectiveness as Nanna just grabbed the leg instead and pulled Shirou in, holding him with both arms in a firm, hug-like lock. Once he had what he wanted, Nanna started to accumulate a lot of power in the narrow space between him and Shirou, intent on releasing a large shockwave at point-blank distance.
"Shi-!" Shirou cursed, but didn't get to finish it, as the accumulated energy released itself in a large explosion, tossing Shirou a lengthy distance and cratering the ground they stood on. Each time Shirou hit the ground from his flying back, it made a loud impact noise, indicating he hit the ground with a lot of force, as was further indicated by visible bruises all over his body. Shirou coughed up some blood as he got up and wiped his face with the back of his hand, grunting in the process. "Ugh... that hurt." He commented to himself and finished getting back up on his feet.
"Give up, Emiya Shirou. You cannot defeat me. I am Faster than you, Smarter than you and well prepared to face you." Nanna taunted before he started to create a few of the grey energy-balls above and next to him, which then shaped themselves like blades before he fired them all towards his opponent.
Shirou was ill-prepared to take those on, but tried his best by going into the defense, extending his arm forward to create Rho Aias, taking on the hits of the projectiles head on. At first, the defense worked, but then the energy-balls started to fly autonomously and go around Rho Aias, hitting Shirou from the sides, each hit following an explosive release, injuring Shirou further and causing him to grunt and scream from the pain inflicted. Nanna didn't stop, however, and he kept raining the attacks down on Shirou, starting to create a large cloud of dust and dirt from the explosions against the ground, into which Shirou was being pinned by force.
"HOW'S IT FEEL!?" Nanna taunted before he then started to prepare a big one, concentrating the energy above him, extending his left hand up and holding the created ball with his index-finger, waiting to see if Shirou was going to get up.
Shirou struggled, pain covering his body all over, cuts and bruises covering every inch of his torso and arms. He coughed up largere amounts of blood than before, but he did eventually make it back up on his feet. "What the hell... he knew exactly what to do... he saw every loophole in my defences, he knows where to hit me..." Shirou thought before he glanced ahead to see that Nanna prepared a big ball of energy, ready to toss it at the redhead. "How do I-" Shirou started, but then felt a sudden headache and gripped his head firmly, groaning in pain as he suddenly felt a memory, a vision invade his mind.
When Shirou recovered, he got back up on his feet and glanced ahead, seeing Nanna throwing the ball at the redhead, who clenched his fists tightly before running at it, leaping up to intercept it and punched at it for 26 strikes, the last hit being specially powerful, causing the ball to dissolve, which let Shirou land on his feet and continue going ahead.
"What..." Shirou thought to himself before he glanced forward again. "What is this... deja vu?" He asked himself before he did like the vision showed, running ahead with his fists balled as the Ball was thrown at him.
He leapt up into the air, punched the ball until it dissolved before he ran at Nanna to close the gap, left fist ready to meet the Deity's face. Nanna, remembering this exchange, knew how to intercept it this time and took on the attacking stance a little earlier than last time so when the two swung their fists at one another, Nanna's connected first, hitting Shirou's chin very hard and launching him up about 50 meters into the air and equally 50 meters back, letting the redhead fall to ground at full speed to suffer worse injuries.
"Weird... he did things exactly like before." Nanna thought to himself before he created another ball of energy right at the palm of his hand. The ball then changed shape, extending itself to a long staff with a cross-shaped blade at one end and a spiked ball-mace at the other, taking stance to prepare himself for Shirou.
Said Redhead was currently laying on his ground for a moment, thinking about this incident. "This doesn't make sense... why would I remember something that hasn't happened?" He contemplated as he slowly pushed himself up to sit, rubbing his chin and feeling that it was bloodied. "There's only two possible explanations... I need to be sure, so I have to test them out." He then told himself before he fully got up and materialized a golden spear in his hand, eyeing it for a second before he spat out some blood to the side. "Oh well, time to get myself even more hurt..." He snarkily commented to himself before he leapt high up into the air and took a javelin-toss stance, the spear beginning to glow a flaring and wild red. "BRAHMASTRA!" Shirou roared as he threw the Brahmastra at his enemy, accelerating at a high pace towards Nanna.
The Deity just crossed his arms over his chest, creating the Barrier to take the hit from the Brahmastra head on, the massive explosion englufing everything in a large radius, covering it in dust clouds and flickers of red from leftover traces from the released Mana.
Shirou grunted out as he felt another headache emerge, and saw another memory.
Shirou used Kanshou and Bakuya-Handguns to fire hails of bullets at Nanna, who blocked them all by catching them with high speed. Shirou then fired with Kanshou into a seemingly random direction past Nanna and the Bullet was ricochet off of the defensive plates from Rho Aias that Shirou projected behind the Deity to hit his back.
"Ugh... Gotta try." Shirou said before he projected Kanshou and Bakuya-handguns and did just as he saw, firing as many bullets as he could at Nanna, who however didn't drop the barrier as he knew what would happen. Shirou, however, didn't get discouraged and still tried, firing the bullet off into a different direction than Nanna.
"Fool! I see through your trickery!" Nanna said and he reached his hand out, causing a cluster of energy to suddenly appear before the traveling bullet, intercepting and destroying it before the cluster was tossed towards Shirou, who very narrowly dodged it by projecting an anvil tied to his leg to pull himself down faster before he dissolved it again so he could land on his feet. "You think you can outsmart me with a maneuver like this?"
"No..." Shirou spoke before he materialized Archer EMIYA's Longbow in his hands. "But I can confirm that you have done something to the outcome of the fight..." Shirou exclaimed, which made Nanna narrow his eyes suspiciously. While the redhead materialized Cadalborg II and prepared to aim at his adversary, he continued. "I don't know what you did, or how, but you rewinded our fight. I've been getting these Deja Vu memories about instances of our fight. So whatever you have done affects me as much as it affected you."
Nanna started smirking, then broke out into laughter, head tilted back and arms spread out in classic supervillain style, continuing until his laughter eventually subsided and he stared ahead with an overconfident smirk. "Well, took you long enough to figure it out. Usually, my enemies already know after the first Deja Vu, but by then it is too late, so where you were slower than the others, you lived longer. Win some, lose some." Nanna responded before he lifted his arms up to create more of the clusters of energy to counter Cadalborg II. "How about this. You manage to cut one of my arms off and I will tell you how I did that. Sounds fair, don't you think?"
Shirou narrowed his eyes threateningly as he listened. "He's so damn cocky... he reminds me of a certain blonde bastard who couldn't shut his mouth even if you stuff it with a fist... if he is anything like that, it means he will not go all out because he underestimates his opponent too much. He somehow rewinded the fight, which means he is being cocky due to thinking he has an advantage. I need to make use of it, lure him in, let him drop his guard. That's only going to happen if..." Shirou thought to himself before he let the bowstring go to fire Cadalborg II while activating its power, causing it to rotate mid-air, creating a tempest of air behind it.
When Cadalborg II collided with the clusters, it punctured through some, but was eventually stopped, creating another explosion. Shirou knew this wasn't going to be enough, so he prepared more, firing them one after the other while he was running to re-position himself and keep distance from Nanna, who continued to create clusters of energy to parry the incoming drill-arrow-swords. The ensueing explosions engulfed the entire area, creating a large cloud of dust that hid the two of them from one anothers sight, but neither one seemed impaired by this situation. Shirou continued to project different weapons to fire them with his bow, his aim being very precise as Nanna had to deflect or evade every projectile coming his way as he was running towards Shirou. When the two were within close combat range, Shirou quickly dropped bow and all weapons and materialized Hrunting and Naegling, crossing them over himself to block Nanna's punch, causing a shockwave that dispersed the dustcloud as fast as it was created. The Punch ended up causing cracks along Naegling's length, destablizing the sword's main body, to which Shirou reacted by pushing both weapons to his left to throw Nanna's fist off before he made a rotating backwards kick to send the Deity back.
"Pah!" Nanna tauntingly spat as he focused his might into his right fist, the grey-ish energy surrounding his right arm, creating a strong amount of pressure due to the raw concentration of Mana in it. "Is that all you got? Pathetic! How even did you get the upper hand at all during the last fight? I must have simply been paranoid." The God continued to taunt before he went for the hit.
Shirou knew his weapons couldn't stop this attack, so he decided to go for a feinted block, moving both swords up to cross over one another, taking the hit, which broke both weapons, no surprise, but deflected the trajectory of the fist upwards just enough to barely miss his shoulder, scraping it lightly. Shirou then used the damaged shart of Hrunting and impaled Nanna's left shoulder, causing the Deity to grunt out. Shirou let the weapons go and put his arms around Nanna to get him in a firm lock, kneekicking him from such an upclose range before throwing him to ground, then retreated again to take some distance.
Nanna just laughed and pulled the broken sword out of his shoulder before the wound healed up. "Alright, not bad... but that is less than enough to even damage me."
"Damnit, do you ever shut up?" Shirou suddenly snapped as he materialized Caliburn into his hand. "You're worse than Gilgamesh." Shirou added while taking a stance with the sword and preparing himself.
Nanna, who by now fully got up to his feet, had suddenly an incredibly sour look on his face. "... the fuck did you just compare me to? You..." Nanna growled angrily before he suddenly disappeared and re-appeared right behind Shirou, gripping him by the back of his neck and lifting him up, gripping his left leg with the other arm, keeping the redhead above ground. "YOU DARE COMPARE ME TO THAT TREACHEROUS IMPURE, IMBRED MONGREL!?" Nanna roared before he suddenly slammed Shirou's back down to the ground, causing the redhead to cough up in pain.
Nanna didn't stop there, he immediately created two sharp blades of pure energy and impaled Shirou's hands to keep him on the ground, earning painful screams from him in the process. Then, Nanna sat down on Shirou's torso to keep him from moving and began to pummel his face, punch after punch, breaking something with each hit, indicated by audible and ugly cracks. After the 10th punch, Nanna got back up and pulled Shirou up by the shoulders, forcing his hands to get wounded even more due to being dragged along the impaling energy-blades, causing him to groan again in pain.
"YOU LESSER BEING DARE INSULT A GOD LIKE THAT!? SUFFER FOR YOUR INSOLENCE!" Nanna continued as he then punched Shirou's face again, letting his head hit the ground hard enough to cause an echoing thud. Then, the energy-blades impaling his hands dispelled and Nanna lifted Shirou by his hair before then tossing him a distance like a doll. "FUCK YOU, EMIYA SHIROU! I WAS GOING TO TOY WITH YOU A BIT LONGER, USE THE REWIND TO BREAK YOUR FIGHTING SPIRIT, BUT NOW I JUST WANT TO HURT YOU!"
Shirou groaned in pain while he laid there, cursing himself for having snapped. "Ah crap... he's out for blood... I tried to keep him arrogant and in a state of mind to hold back, but now I just enraged him and betrayed the idea. I need to think of something quickly or else I am dead." Shirou thought before he slowly pushed himself back up to his feet.
Nanna meanwhile clapped his hands together, then parted them about 20 centimeters. When he did, a large amount of energy started to accumulate, forming another one of the grey-ish balls, but despite its smaller than usual size, this one was much more concentrated, so much so that by the time Nanna was finished creating it, it exalted a strong shockwave in a small radius, severely cratering and damaging the ground beneath the Deity.
"Crap!" Shirou thought as he started to concentrate. "If I take this head on, I am dead!" He thought before he began projecting weapons wildly, using anything in his known arsenal and firing them at his opponents, one after the other.
Nanna deflected each oncoming projectile by kicking them away while his hands were feeding more of his own Mana to the energy-ball created, intent on making this as lethal and overkill as possible to end the fight. Seeing this, Shirou projected Vajira and prepared a Brahmastra as the projectile to fire, pulling the bowstring and firing it. Nanna evaded by leaping up just high enough for the mighty projectile to graze him, giving it no chance for a flight adjustment, then dashed forward to Shirou, closing the gap faster than the redhead could react. Shirou attempted a last-ditch effort by creating Rho Aias in its full might between him and Nanna, but the Deity pushed the energy-ball into the defensive spell, causing it to emit a dark light that spread out, blinding them both before an explosion was set off, so powerful it shook the entire area, engulfing everything in its effective area, hollowing the ground out in a half-circle crater of over 500 meters of Radius.
As the Dust began to clear and the dirtclouds settled, Nanna was revealed first, somewhat wounded all over, but regenerating the injuries quickly. However, as the dust continued to disappear, slowly but surely, Shirou was also revealed, lying on the ground, left arm missing, a gushing puncture-wound in his abdomen, breathing very weak.
It was evident to the spectators that Emiya Shirou was mortally wounded.
"SHEROOOOUUU!" Luvia cried out as she tried to run towards him, but was being held back by an equally tear-filled Rin and a sorrowful El-Melloi II, who did their best to try and calm Luvia down without the use of words.
"No..." Mordred gasped out as she took a step forward, eyeing Shirou with shock in her eyes.
"So he couldn't do it..." Gordes expressed, gritting his teeth and shaking. He didn't know Shirou at all, yet he, too, felt like crying.
The group was overcome with depression and premature grief, assured that if Shirou wasn't already dead, Nanna would do the deal the finishing blow. Enraged as he was, there was no way he'd just walk away.
It was then that the Root appeared before them all, silently eyeing the scenery for a moment before she let out a loud sigh. The others didn't know what was going on as the Woman was balling her fists tightly and grit her teeth before suddenly stepping forward and spoke. "Damnit, get up... I know you can, this isn't everything you got, not by a longshot. Come on, Emiya Shirou, GET UP!"
Shirou suddenly opened his eyes and inhaled sharply into himself, taking a few seconds to recover his attention. But when he did, he noticed that he wasn't at the Flower-field within the Grail. He was standing on a plain, grassy piece of land that seemed to stretch beyond the horizon, no mountains in the way, no constructions, nothing. It was just grassland as far as the eye could tell.
He glanced around some more despite not seeing anything and began to walk forward. "Am I... dead?" He asked seemingly no one as he continued to walk, still looking around as if hoping that soon enough, something or someone would show. He had a feeling he wasn't alone. "Is this the Afterlife? Did I... fail?"
"You didn't fail, and you are not dead, Shirou..." Suddenly came a female voice right behind him. A voice that Emiya Shirou knew only all too well, a voice he thought he wouldn't hear again for a long time, maybe ever. He turned around and saw it. The blonde, mid-length hair with two wild strands going down the side of her face, the green eyes, the small ahoge. "But you do look a little lost if you ended up here of all places. Wouldn't you agree, my Scabbard?"
Shirou couldn't believe his eyes. He rubbed them firmly for a moment, blinking wildly and even did the age-old test of slapping himself enough to leave a mark. When everything seemed to not erase what he saw, he gulped heavily. "You're... real?"
Artoria seemed insulted, thought she was just being playful, crossing her arms over her chest and letting out a little pout. "How mean, of course I am real. Is this how you greet your King?"
"N-no, I didn't-" Shirou started, but when he saw Artoria begin to laugh, he sighed out slightly. "When do I ever NOT fall for it..." He complained slightly before he took a step forward. He only now got a closer look to what Artoria was wearing.
She had a sky-blue dress on that was neatly buttoned all the way to her throat, two small waves of cloth following along the buttons, making the center part appear a little more decorative. Her Shoulders were pushed up, evident of either some other clothing underneath it or shoulderpads. Over the dress, she wore something that Shirou swears has to be a nightgown, which was separated down the middle and held together by one, adjustable thread, similar to modern shoelaces tightening or loosening a shoe.
"You look... great." Shirou complimented, hesitating for a moment.
"Why the hesitation? You don't mean it, do you?" Artoria teased again, pouting even harder than before.
"No, I do mean it. I just..." Shirou began, chuckling nervously before giving his signature smile at her. "Never saw you looking so pretty before. I forgot that underneath all that armor and lordship is still the woman of my dreams."
This got Artoria to become beet red and she glanced away franically to distract herself. "Y-you... got good with... words..."
This seemed to suddenly pull Shirou's thoughts to something else and he sighed. "Damnit..." He then cursed.
"Hm? What is it?" Artoria questioned.
"Nothing big. I just... There is this new Grail War going on and I summoned you in it... but since you are really dead now, I suppose your Heroic Spirit within the Throne of Heroes isn't going to retain memories... which means I summoned you, but not YOU you..."
"I can see why that would be a bit disappointing." Artoria commented with a little smile before she closed the gap between her and Shirou and placed her hands on his cheeks, rubbing them slightly. "But you have ME me now, right? I bet you have a lot to tell me. I'd like to hear it all."
Shirou smiled at her more somberly now, closing his eyes and losing a single tear before he nodded, placing his hands on her cheeks too, cupping her face gently before he leaned in to give her a little kiss, which she more than gladly accepted. They stayed like this for an extended amount of time before their lips separated and they leaned their foreheads to connect with one another.
"You have no idea how much I missed AND needed this..." Shirou whispered just enough for her to hear it.
"I can only imagine... I waited forever for a chance like this."
Shirou nodded for a second before he let out another deep breath, his eyes still a little teary and red-ish from the reunion and how much it touched him. He looked towards the horizon and the sun's rising and nodded his head again. "Why don't we lay down for a bit? You said you wanted to hear about my time since that last War, so let us chat while I still can, but I do have a few questions I have to ask you first."
"Sure thing, my Scabbard." Artoria said in a sing-song voice before she chuckled out and laid herself down on the ground, together with Shirou, cuddled up into one another as they glanced at the sky.
"Where am I?" Shirou began. "You said I am not dead, but... this feels an awful lot like I am."
"I can see why you would think that" Artoria responded with a small humm in her voice before she gave Shirou's cheek a kiss to try and comfort him some more, spoiling him almost. "You are in Avalon. That is a section of the Reverse Side of the World."
Shirou let out a small sigh from himself and lost his smile. "So I AM dead... or dying... either way, my soul isn't where my body is."
"I suppose..." Artoria began before she gave Shirou another cheek on his kiss, seeing how he looked and figured this caused him slight distress.
"I just... this Grail War went south all kinds of ways... A Sumer God invaded my body, screwed with me, made me hallucinate an enemy to trick me into killing the summoned version of you, then wrecked my mind some more by making me re-live that moment a couple million times all while he was sowing all kinds of chaos in the real world. Things got... slightly fixed and I got a chance to fight him to end it all but..."
"But you were mortally wounded, and your spirit made the journey all the way here." Artoria concluded, earning a silent nod from Shirou. She seemed happy, however, humming a laugh with a closed mouth before she moved closer and climbed ontop of him, laying on him. "Well, I think that's not a bad thing. If you're here, it is probably temporary, and if it is, then you are here for a reason other than JUST to see me."
"If there is another reason, I wish I knew it... but me and my subconsciousness aren't exactly getting along after everything." Shirou said as he leaned himself as much into the grass as he could, his arms going up to hug Artoria slightly, give her back and hair gentle strokes. "I don't trust my memories anymore... I thought that separating myself from Nanna would rid me of his influence, but it didn't... I still don't remember Luvia by anything other than name and appearance, courtesy of Nanna having seen her while in my body... but things like this make me really question it. If I remember what he does, who's to say he didn't intentionally play tricks with his sight to create fake memories and throw me off? What if he's thought it all out?"
"Oh Shirou..." Artoria sighed before she gave him a kiss on the lips to shut him up for a second before she spoke, her face looming right over his. "Since when did you become the person to ask 'What-if'? When did you lose confidence in yourself like this?"
"I..." Shirou said before closing his eyes, gulping heavily before he glanced away. "After he made me re-watch your death a couple hundred times... everything that has gone wrong, did, because I never questioned it enough... my lack of doubt caused me to be in this predicament-"
"And so you think, the natural course of things, is to abandon trust and begin doubting anything and everything?" Artoria asked, her voice visibly deteriorating into sadness.
"...yes..." Shirou silently responded, closing his eyes again, shame beginning to build itself up within him. "And I am scared that... that I am no longer the over-optimistic, idealistic idiot you loved 3 years ago... I am scared that what's happened to me will push you away."
Artoria seemed serious, nodding her head slightly before she suddenly sat up and pulled him up to sit as well, hugging him tightly afterwards. "Shirou... I of all people should know best how it feels to regret... and you of all people should know that you shouldn't regret anything... oh how the tables turned." She said, sounding very sad despite the rather comedic choice of words for the last part of the sentence.
Shirou was just silent, taking the hug, but wasn't giving one back. He didn't think he deserved holding her, not after all that he did wrong and how he's become.
"But..." Artoria continued, patting Shirou's back slightly and stroking his hair. "Falling down every now and then isn't bad... it is inevitable. When I fell, you were there to have my back. You helped me up, reminded me how to make the steps and I walked my path once again. You've taught me what it is like to love, what it is like to not be just a King, but also a person and a woman."
Shirou let out a little scoff to surpress a chuckle. "I guess you did become more feminine... I never imagined you with loose hair and a dress, and you've grown quite open with showing your affection for me."
Artoria just pouted with a loud scoff herself before she let the hug go, looking Shirou in his eyes, the pout quickly changing to a bright smile. "The point is, you taught me how to live when I forgot how to, when I was only asking myself 'what-if' and regretting. So it is my time to remind you of living without regrets. Don't you agree?" She finalized, her smile so bright and cheery that Shirou tried his hardest to surpress tears, gritting his teeth before he lowered his head and shut his eyes closed, letting the tears flow due to failing to keeping them back. Artoria showed herself supporting and resumed hugging him. "There, there... It's been tough, hasn't it? You never got a break until now, and so much has built itself up in you..."
Shirou, who let the floodgates open all the way, let out a loud cry as he held Artoria tightly, all of his pent-up depression, sadness and rage pouring out at once. Years of frustration from never getting a rest during his travels, towers of rage from being tricked into killing Lancer Artoria, heartbreak and guilt over not being able to prevent it. Everything he had came out.
Artoria knew exactly how he felt, because she felt much the same way at once point of her existence. So she made sure to hold tightly no matter what, letting Shirou know that she was there for him no matter what.
"SHEEEROOOOUUU!" Luvia cried out again, still trying to reach out for him. By now, she fought herself free from Rin and Waver's grip and ran towards him, but no matter how much she ran and ran, she never got any closer to him. She turned to the Root, face full of tears, eyes red and puffy. "LET ME OUT! I NEED TO HELP HIM! IF I DON'T, HE WILL DIE!"
But The Woman just shook her head slightly and sighed out, her own expression looking rather serious and sorrowful. "I am sorry, but I cannot do that... I can only let you out in the event that he loses his heart to rage... that is the only reason why I brought YOU here... but I cannot interfere with this."
"WHY!?"
"Because!" The Woman turned to Luvia with a deathly seriosity to her expression now. "It doesn't matter how I look at it. Every version of this event that goes down across all the infinite possible timelines, the only time where you truly win is if we do NOT interfere with the fight, no matter how it looks! So we CANNOT interfere, or else we give Nanna a fighting chance against Destiny itself. And that would be much worse! So my hands are tied!"
"THEN MAKE A DEAL!" Luvia suddenly shouted, catching The Woman off-guard. "ANYTHING! JUST PLEASE GIVE ME WHAT I NEED TO SAVE HIM!"
"I refuse!" The Root fired back before turning back to glance ahead. "I refuse to abandon trust in Emiya Shirou, unlike you lot. Now shut up and watch, something is going on."
"To Think I had to resort to 'Lunar Phase One' to take you down..." Nanna growled to himself as he approached Shirou's heavily damaged body and created an Energy-blade in his hand, gripping it backhand and stood right over the redhead's body, tip aimed at his heart. He lifted the Energy-blade up, ready to strike down. "DIE!"
But the Strike never came.
Nanna's Right Arm suddenly flew away a few meters, and he glanced aside to see Durindal, hovering next to Nanna, its blade bloodsoaked, indicating it is what cut his right arm off. Nanna grit his teeth and immediately leapt away to dodge, but Durindal caught up and impaled his right shoulder before cutting upwards in a spinning motion, creating a gushing wound. Nanna slapped the sword away with his left hand and gripped his shoulder, falling to his knees.
"Damn you-" He cursed, but stopped as he saw something that caught him off-guard. Shirou's left arm was regrowing fast. "So Avalon has been re-activated... it can't be... his mental blockade was supposed to isolate Avalon by corrupting it with darkness so he can't regenerate off of it... impossible!"
As the Arm continued to re-grow, Nanna squinted his eyes tightly before he gasped again. He sharpened his sight to analyze Shirou's arm and saw something the naked eye likely never could. His cells were first projected swords, growing over the wounded area before they were then re-shaped into live cells, multiplying at a commensurate rate.
"Impossible... He is projecting the base materials for his cells in the form of swords? No... no, this must be something else... his projection magic and Avalon are working together to sew 'A body of Swords'..."
After a lengthy while, Shirou's crying had stopped and he had managed to let it all out, feeling a little tired, but was otherwise alright. He actually felt a lot better now, and he showed so to Artoria by patting her shoulder lightly, tapping out from the hug. Artoria complied and let him go, still having a bright smile on her face.
"How do you feel?" She asked while moving a hand to his cheek to cup it lightly and wipe away leftover tears with her thumb.
"I... I feel much better, actually. I feel like so much weight got lifted off my heart. I..." Shirou spoke, stopping mid-way before he gave her a little smile. "I owe you everything, Artoria. Without you, I don't know what would have become of me..."
"Well, I know, and it terrifies me." She said before giving Shirou a forehead kiss. "Which is why I am so glad you got it out of your system. The Shirou you would have otherwise become is... terrifying."
"You're not wrong..." Shirou spoke as he held his head with his left hand, another one of those Deja Vu memories seeping into his mind. "I don't know how, but Nanna changed the outcome of the fight, and I keep remembering parts of it and... whoa." He mumbled to himself before looking at her as if he just saw a ghost. "Apparently, somewhere during the fight, I tore his leg off and beat him with it."
"Whoa..." Artoria reacted exactly the same as he did, gulping strongly before she sighed out. "See? All the more glad that you're back to being yourself."
"Yeah..." Shirou agreed before he let out a sigh and laid himself back down, with Artoria flopping right ontop of him. "I am just glad to have gotten this chance to be with you again."
They shared a small laugh with one another before they resumed to snuggle up to each others. That however came to a quick end when Shirou suddenly started to dissolve into particles on his hand, which he noticed by lifting it up to stroke Artoria's head, and saw it mostly by chance.
"It seems... my time has come." He said, his voice heavy.
Artoria nodded and got off of him, getting up on her feet before helping him up on his. "At least it was worthwile."
"It always is if I get to see you." Shirou shot out of a gun, causing Artoria to blush again and look away to try and hide some embarrassment.
"You keep going like this and you might end up as a playboy." She said, fiddling her thumbs together for a moment, much to the redhead's amusement. However, as his dissolvement continued, Artoria sighed slightly. "I want to give you something before you go."
Shirou only raised an eyebrow in curiosity when Artoria, after she said that, extended her hand. After a few seconds of awkward nothingness, Excalibur suddenly shot like a comet into Artoria's hand. When she caught it, it caused a shockwave from the force of impact, catching Shirou off-guard. She then handed it to him.
"Here... so you don't have to use crappy copies. I want you to have the real thing."
"But... isn't that impossible...? I would have to get the real Excalibur from where you last left it, at the Lake of Vivienne-"
"That's where I called it from." Artoria responded before pushing it lightly against Shirou, urging him to take it. "When I extended my hand, I called for it. It answered, but it had to travel from the Lake into the Reverse Side, and then to Avalon. So it took a moment. But you're holding the real Excalibur now... make good use of it."
"I..." Shirou started, eyeing the sword before making up his mind and nodded. "I will be returning this to you very soon. And we will see each others again... just you wait, my King."
"Oh and wait I will, my scabbard." She said, smiling happily in the process. "But you owe me an extra-large dinner for this."
Shirou had to let out a laugh for a moment and nodded, thought scoffing. "You traded Excalibur for a date?"
Artoria only silently nodded, making an oblivious expression.
"Heh..." Shirou chuckled before he closed his eyes. "Moments like these are the best... see you soon, Artoria." He spoke, and as he finished, he was fully gone from Avalon, and Excalibur was gone with him.
Back at the real world, Shirou's eyes suddenly shot up and he got up very quickly, gasping for air before he looked down at himself to check his condition. No wounds, left arm is there, torso has no gushing puncture wound. "I am back..." He said to himself in barely a whisper. He then turned his head towards Nanna, on instinct knowing where the Sumer Deity was, who meanwhile was panting while holding his shoulder, his arm still missing. Shirou cracked his neck for a second before he crossed his arms over his chest. "Your arm is gone..." he spoke, stating the obvious, much to Nanna's frustration. "You know what this means. You can't lie, so by extension, you can't break your word. Spill, how did you rewind the fight?"
"You get up from a wound as lethal as having your spleen drilled through with a hole the size of my fist, your arm missing and almost every inch of your body wounded, and the first thing you do, without any shock at all, is get up, shrug it off and ask me for answers?" Nanna asked, sounding almost in disbelief, but only almost. "Tch... so you're back to your old self... Fine, I shall tell you." Nanna responded as he got up on his feet, his arm beginning to regenerate itself as well, slowly growing back.
"I am the God of the Moon. My Authority operates based on the 5 Phases of the Lunar Cycle and that three of the phases have mirrored opposites, visually speaking, making it a total of 8 Phases. New Moon, Waxing Crescend, First Quarter, Waxing Gibbous, Full Moon, Waning Gibbous, Last Quarter and Waning Crescend. Each of those 8 phases represents an aspect of the Moon. Each two phases that are polar opposites to one another connecting to create one of four Powers, which I so coincidentally dubbed 'The Four Lunar Phases'. Lunar Phase One is Waxing Crescend and Waning Gibbous. One fate shall Grow, one shall fade. My Crescend grows, and your Gibbous fades, in other words. It creates an attack based on difference of power. The Stronger you are, the mightier my attack. Seeing as you weren't shred to pieces on a sub-atomic level, you are about even against me based on my Authority's decree. Lunar Phase Two would be First Quarter and Last Quarter, the two half-moons. Children often can't tell which one is which. Half-moon is Half-moon, after all. My Authority allows me to conceptify this childish nonsense, allowing me to flip two destinies, so long as those Destinies have a yes-no situation attached, a positive and a negative. Thus, the positive 'The Fight has Happened', has become the negative 'The Fight has not happened'. This power is however limited solely to interfering with fate itself, and as such, I can't apply it on abstracts. I can't turn a positive 'You are alive' into a negative 'you are not alive'. But I can eliminate fate as I please, so whenever I lose a fight, I will just erase it from Time and start anew. A side-effect is the induced Deja-vu that you've been suffering."
Hearing this explanation, along with it's sheer versatility just from being able to manipulate Fate has made Shirou gulp heavily. "If he can just infinitely rewind fights, then he could just go back over and over... no, there has to be something else..."
"Lunar Phase Three is Waxing Gibbous and Waning Crescend. Equinox Absolute. Any damage I and you have sustained is switched. You gain my wounds, I gain yours. And then there is Lunar Phase Four... Full Moon and New Moon... Stardust Descend. You will know what this one does soon enough, as I have every intention on using it against you."
Shirou took a step back and gulped. "Think... what is his weakness... what hinders him from rewinding this fight again and just killing me immediately... Moon God... Moon Cycles... Lunar Cycles... Lunar... OF COURSE!" Shirou exclaimed before he gave a grin to himself, which Nanna noticed. But before he could ask, Shirou spoke. "I figured it out..."
"Figured out what? Your inevitable demise?"
"No..." Shirou deadpanned before he got serious again. "You're not the God of Knowledge, thus, your Authority is not Infinite Knowledge. Deities can only possess One Authority. You are just a Lord of Wisdom... your Knowledge comes from your Eyes. Mystic Eyes of Identification, if I had to name them. Anything you lay your eyes upon, you immediately recognize as if you fondly remember it. But... using your Mystic Eyes messes with your Authority, doesn't it?"
This caused Nanna to narrow his eyes threateningly and he immediately prepared a Blade made out of pure, grey energy, ready for an engage.
"As long as your Mystic Eyes are active, you cannot use your Authority, or you cannot use it fully... and your eyes are always active, which means you need to have at least one of them destroyed, which I did in our previous fight, allowing you to unleash Lunar Phase Two and rewind the fight by erasing Fate due to turning its Positive into a Negative. Therefore, you can't just erase Fate as you please, you need to suffer a specific wound for the condition to be released... If I had to guess, you can only use Lunar Phases One and Four while both eyes are intact..."
Nanna grit his teeth tightly and turned to an expression of pure fury, growling out loudly. "Damn you, Emiya Shirou... So you figured it all out. Good for you, still won't save your LIFE!" He roared the last word as he dashed forward into Shirou to attack him, but Shirou remained unmoving, projecting two Caliburns which quickly stopped Nanna in his tracks, colliding with his energy-blade and pushing him back.
"No... it means I now know how to defeat you without rewinding again. I have to eliminate every trace of you at once... using my most powerful Weapon." Shirou spoke before he stretched his left hand out and placed his right hand against the elbow, concentrating himself as much as he could, which caused Mana to visibly flare along his arm.
"I am the Bone of my Sword. Steel is my body and fire is my blood."
"AS IF I'D LET YOU!" Nanna growled and started hailing energy-blades at Shirou while he was focusing Lunar Phase One again, clapping his hands together and creating the strongly concentrated sphere.
"I have created over a thousand blades." Shirou continued. In response to the ranged attacks incoming, a fully developed, 7-layered Rho Aias built itself before him, swalloing the attack without even the first layer breaking. "Unaware of loss, nor aware of gain."
"NOOOOOOO!" Nanna roared and fired Lunar Phase One against Shirou's Rho Aias, which took the hit head on, and the explosion began to built itself up.
Shirou however was craftier this time and created several Rho Aias, 6 in total, one from each direction, clapping them together with the plates facing towards the Sphere, trapping it in a pseudo-cube while the explosion raged on. "Withstood pain to create weapons, waiting for one's arrival. I have no regrets. This is the only path."
"DAMN YOOOOUUUUU!" Nanna howled as he dashed forward, seeing that his Lunar Phase One got swallowed and contained, running as fast as he could towards Shirou, reaching out to grab at his face.
"My whole life was-" Shirou spoke, inching his head to the left to dodge Nanna's grip. After he did so, the ground began to severely crater and flames arose from each of those craters, creating a red vein that engulfed everything, before a bright light emerged. "UNLIMITED BLADE WORKS!"
When the Light faded, the spectators, one after the other, recovered their sight just to see that the landscape has suddenly changed.
"She...rou?" Luvia spoke. After Shirou got up and showed himself not only healthy, but somehow different, lighter, happier, she was rejoiced. But then, this happened, and she was left speechlessly confused.
"This kid..." Barthomeloi spoke between grit teeth. "How dare he..." She then said and took a few steps forward in anger, approaching the Root. "Did you give this to him!? DID YOU GIVE HIM THE POWER TO BREAK THE ONE TABOO OF MAGECRAFT!?"
"No..." The Root responded before she turned to Lorelei for a second. "And did you suddenly forget that without him, humanity would have been pushed close to extinction? Who are you that you can affort to forget the debt you owe him and criticise him because he broke one human-made code of Magecraft?"
Lorelei immediately receeded, but remained pissed as fuck. "Reality Marbles..." She spoke as she looked around, seeing the depressing sight of a red horizon, the sky covered in clouds with a few holes inbetween, but nothing else. And the hill... swords everywhere as far as the eye could see. "Reality Marble are the one unbreakable Taboo-"
"No..." Rin intervened. "RESEARCH on it is Taboo... possessing one is not." She added before going all into Lorelei's face. "The Root is right, you owe Shirou a debt of gratitude you couldn't even repay to someone who, hypothetically speaking, saved your life from a Dead Apostle Ancestor! What's your deal with suddenly forgetting that?"
"She's right." Gordes then added. "We at the Yggdmillennia family may not have been top notch Magi, but... even we know to see things for what they are, even if it sometimes means forgetting the rules. Besides, when has any Magi at the Clock Tower ever abided to the rules anyway? You gives basically live to teach people how to break rules without being caught!"
"ALRIGHT, FINE!" Lorelei responded, stepping back to get away from Rin. "I will pardon it... but it won't be for free. But we will cross that bridge when we burn it."
Nanna felt a sharp kick in his abdomen, knocking him back a long distance, making him roll on the ground for a bit. When he stopped, and got up, he glanced around and grunted. "Damn it all... in here, my chances of victory are very slim..." Nanna complained to himself before he forged a spear out of his Energy, one tip having a cross-shaped blade, the other end having a spiked mace head.
Shirou stood proudly atop the hill, his infinite swords on display across the landscapes. "Now then... let us end this, once and for all, Nanna."
Nanna began firing Energy-projectiles at Shirou, aiming to hail down on him and supress movement before showering him with so many holes that his body will be unrecognizeable. Shirou responded by letting projected weapons rain from below into those Projectiles in equal number, halting them all. The few that made it through were barely a threat to him as he was running in a circlr around Nanna, getting closer in the process. When he saw an opening, he fired three swords against the Deity, who deflected the first, dodged the second and destroyed the third with a small, concentrated energy-nova. After said nova, Shirou closed the distance enough to try and attack Nanna from close range, having projected Aestus Estus, which Nanna blocked with the energy-made weapon of his.
"You have the nerve... to force a God into your domain to challenge him. For such insolence, once I have killed you, I will drag your soul out of Akasha and force you to watch as I rape every woman in your life you've ever even remotely liked!"
"That is why you won't leave this place alive!" Shirou responded before activating Aestus Estus' flames, then swung down by force, knocking Nanna's energy-weapon out of his hands before swinging a second time, creating a scorched slash across the Deity's chest.
Nanna grunted out in pain before he accumulated clusters of energy that hailed down from below, forcing Emiya Shirou to retreat via backflips.
"You are getting on my nerves. Just die!" Nanna roared before he started creating many clusters of Energy above him, all firing towards his enemy.
Emiya Shirou prepared himself for the onslaught and projected two Rule Breaker's into his hands. However, these Rule Breakers were different, their blades were extended, thicker, less zig-zag'y, shaped more properly as swords rather than daggers. He took a step forward, solidifying his stance before he began to slash at the projectiles about to hit him first, dispersing them due to Rule Breaker's Anti-Thaumaturgic trait. As the numbers began to increase, Shirou projected a large number of Rule Breakers and Cadalbord IIs, raining them all against the oncoming Energy-clusters. While Nanna's offense was crumbling, Shirou roared out while leaping forward, whereas Nanna grit his teeth and inched back a step. While Shirou was in the air, he continued to deflect oncoming clusters until he landed back on the ground, where he immediately began to run ahead at full speed, destroying anything that Nanna threw at him with his Rule Breakers.
Nanna decided it was enough and clapped his hands together, focusing all of his Mana that he currently could into another Lunar Phase One. While he concentrated, clusters suddenly surrounded Shirou and rained down on him from all directions, creating a large explosion that covered the area. Nanna knew that Shirou wouldn't be done in, and when he sensed something above, he glanced up to see Shirou, looking unharmed, having projected Rho Aias to block the attacks. As Shirou was descending at an alarming speed, Nanna fired his strongest Clusters he could, breaking Rho Aias, but otherwise not managing to harm Shirou, who reached his hand up to project Kanshou. "FUCK-" Nanna screamed to himself before Shirou crashed right before him and cut his right arm off completely before dashing back while Lunar Phase One collapsed from de-stabilization and engulfed Nanna into a large explosion, creating a large dustcloud once again.
It took a moment for the cloud to disperse, and when it did, Nanna was revealed, heavily wounded, left arm missing, right arm covered in cuts as he used it to guard himself from the explosion of his own attack.
"For someone who likes to boast at least twice as much as Gilgamesh, you've lasted half as long as he would have in my Unlimited Blade Works." Shirou spoke, being uncharacteristically taunting to the Deity, intent to provoke him into one more mistake to end it all.
"YOU GODLESS BASTARD!" Nanna roared out before he lifted his left, only maintaining arm up and balled it into a fist while it hovered right before his face. "I WILL ERASE YOUR VERY EXISTENCE!" He said before he turned a bit to the left, glancing up at the sky for a moment before he lifted his left hand up, pointing at it, then made a very struggling grab, balling his fist. As he did, his muscles bulged to the point of ripping, and something illuminated itself in the far distance in the sky.
"Oh..." Shirou gulped as he watched.
"BEHOLD AND GAZE IN FEAR! LUNAR PHASE FOUR! DEITY DESCENT!" Nanna roared before he then made a throwing motion with his left hand.
As he did, the glowing in the sky suddenly began to grow and the clouds from Shirou's Reality Marble dispersed, leaving a clear sky, and giving a clear view on what was coming down.
It was a Meteor.
A very large Meteor
A very fucking large Meteor.
"How!?" Shirou roared as he watched the celestial body descend, slowly inching closer towards himself.
"Lunar Phase Four breaks off a part of the Moon and drops it as a Meteor into the Earth's Space. A Deity's Descend, the literal descend of the Moon to the Earth. And while Alaya forbids me from bringing down the whole Moon, or Enough to destroy the Earth, I can still throw chunks large enough to eliminate a large populace! And since we are in your Reality Marble, the world is not in danger! So I have free reign to use as much as I want! And while I no longer have the Mana to drop a whole Moon on you, a Meteor with a diameter of over 500 meters should be more than enough to kill you! You can't get away from the impact radius, and if you lift your Reality Marble, the Grail and everyone in it will be destroyed!"
Shirou gulped heavily as he glanced up at the chunk coming closer and closer. He was panicking for a moment, but then his eyes widened as he was reminded of something.
'I want you to have the real thing'
He remembered that Artoria gave him Excalibur to use. "Can the real Excalibur... destroy a Meteor like this?" He had to try. He had only one chance, and it was the only current weapon in his arsenal he knew could have a chance. He concentrated his arms, imagining the Divine Construct, then extended his arm out. Just as with Artoria, the Sword answered the calling and landed with a strong shockwave in Shirou's hand. He then grabbed it with both hands, blade upright, right before his face, and he closed his eyes. "I can hear it... I can see it... Excalibur... give me the strength to protect all that I love"
"Approved" A voice suddenly spoke, which Shirou realized came from the Sword. "Approved by: Bedivere; Palamedes; Lancelot; Mordred; Galahad; Gaheris; Gareth; Agravain; Kay; Tristan; Percival; Gawain; Arthur. Approved by the Knights of the Round Table. 13 Seals: Released."
When the Voice was finished speaking, Excalibur suddenly began to have a very shiny and powerful glow to its blade, its shape was also somewhat more elegant. It had a cross along the blade, right after the armguard, and it was decorated with 9 Cubes which's edges were aligned to touch one another and the blade's edge. Excalibur seemed much more Majestic and strong. Its power was so overwhelming that it gave a permanent gust of wind from itself, creating a massive windhose around Shirou which tremored the area around him. When Shirou was done gawking at Excalibur, he glanced up at the Celestial Body again and gulped, seeing that it was less than 1000 meters away from collision, its surface burning up due to adiabatic compression.
"It's now or nothing!" Shirou roared as he pulled the sword down and held it to his right, aiming for an upward swing with both hands.
And then, he swung it. "EXCALIBUR!"
When he did, the Blade shot out energy of pure light with such power and mass that Shirou didn't even notice how fast it was. Barely done swinging, the Light already collided with the Meteor, hitting it at full power and destroying it, firing beyond it, creating a beam that reached beyond the clouds and into the sky, spreading out while particles were dancing around it in a light show that was beyond dazzling.
Shirou didn't waste a chance and took a second swing with the Blade, adjusting its energy to be aimed straight at Nanna, who gazed at Shirou in horror
"DISAPPEAR! YOUR TIME HAS ENDED LONG AGO!" Shirou roared out loud as the light engulfed Nanna in its entirety.
"IMPOSSIBLE! IT CANNOT BEEEE-!" Nanna roared as the light engulfed him and destroyed him completely, raging on for almost a whole minute afterwards before the light only began to fade, which it did by releasing itself into a pillar, before it was then gone. Where Nanna stood before, there was only a large crater.
Not a single trace of him, not even a burnt leftover patch of skin. Nothing.
When the Light finally faded, Shirou felt a large amount of exhaustion hit him out of nowhere and he fell to his knees while his Reality Marble crumbled around him, fading away in a dimm light before they were back at the Scenery.
Before they were back at the Grail's Flowery Plains.
Which looked like nothing ever happened to it. No craters, no damaged boulders, not a single flower missing.
"I can't believe it..." Semiramis said, her eyes as wide as it can be. "He really did it... he used the Blade of Promised Victory... the real thing..."
"Heh, he won't stop suprising us, will he?" Amakusa spoke, who began waking up by now and chuckled out as he saw that Semiramis was holding him like a bride.
This prompted her to immediately drop him. Zero Mercy.
"HE DID IT!" Rin and Luvia cheered at the same time and gave one another a high five.
El-Melloi was silent, having lit another cigar while he approached Lorelei, who seemed to still look a bit sour. "You know you want to... go ahead, we don't judge."
Lorelei squinted her eyes for a second, blushing as embarrassment overcame her before she got up and rose her fists up. "THAT'S OUR BOY!" She roared in full swing, taking everyone by surprise. When she saw that they were all looking at her, she angrily turned to Waver. "YOU LIED TO ME!"
El-Melloi II just chuckled slightly before he took another smoke. "Nope, did not. We are all happy." He spoke, before turning to The Root. "Which means, lift the Phase Field from us."
The Root suddenly rose an eyebrow slightly as she glanced to Waver. "So you figured out that I put up a Bounded Field created through the Spacial Manipulation Magecraft?"
"I knew that the second you did." He spoke before he took another smoke from his cig. "There's a reason why the old people at the Clock Tower call me the Mage Detective. I may not be a gifted Magus, hell my Magic Circuits are crap, but I have an Ability to understand Magecraft and Magic."
The Root simply nodded before she clapped her hand.
When she did, Shirou turned his head as he suddenly noticed a few presences and he chuckled out. "Hey everyone..." He spoke as he used Excalibur to support himself as his legs felt like giving in. "I... did it." He said before he suddenly felt his vision blur, then darken, and fell on his back to the ground.
"SHIROU/SHEROU/KID/BOY!" They all cried out with their respective addressing of him, but The Root stopped them by waving her hand in front of the person closest to Shirou by position, halting her, being Luvia, and everyone else consequently.
"He will be fine. He just needs to rest. But there is a bigger problem at hand..." She said before she pointed at herself beginning to turn into Particles. "He is just having a little nap as the effects of the Mana mixing within him that all 12 of you gave. Since he only had it for 20 out of 30 minutes, the big side-effects didn't kick in. So we can just safely let him sleep for an hour or two. However... I made some... drastic interventions to allow us all entrance just to watch. The fight is over, so our spectator-rights are expired. We are getting kicked out of the Grail, so just be nice and await him outside, will you?"
Before anyone even could complain, The Root clapped her hands.
Then, no light, no flash, nothing that would give a visual transition. They just, boop, suddenly stood in the Cave, with the Great Holy Grail in view from the outside, glowing in its usual ominous gold-green from the open part.
"Great..." Gordes said as he sighed out and shifted slightly to set down Caules, whom he held by piggyback this entire time due to him not being awake yet from the earlier fatigue that came when he gave his Mana to Shirou.
"So... what now?" Roche asked, earning everyone's glare, to which he just gulped and retreated.
Rin, catching herself with a facepalm, sighed. "No choice but to wait... The Root said it would just take an hour, two at most..."
Luvia nodded wordlessly before she clapped her hands together. "Alright! Then let us prepare to celebrate when Sherou comes out of the Grail!"
Roche nodded again and chimed in, trying to be part of the group. "Alright! I will go and activate some of the reserve Golems so they can go upstairs into the Castle and bring us some Tea! I have no intention of standing around a whole hour without refreshments!"
"Not a bad idea..." Mordred responded. "But, I want some of the hard stuff. Bring me your highest concentrated alcoholic beverage!"
"OH NO, YOU DON'T!" Jeanne chimed in before gripping Mordred by the ear, causing the Knight to slightly yelp. "You may look like a late teenager, but you are a child, and an artificially aged one, too! You are barely even 10 by age, so you are NOT getting any alcohol!"
"Hey now, Jeanne." Semiramis intervened. "Be a bit softer on Mordred. We did win, after all."
Jeanne nodded, and let Mordred's ear go...
Only for Semiramis to grip it. "Being a Mom is MY role, and as the authoritarian figure, I say, NO ALCOHOL FOR YOU!"
With this, the group went into laughter before they went to spend the waiting time however they thought was most productive / least boring.
True to The Root's word, Shirou was knocked out for about 1 Hour and 20 minutes, sleeping through his fatigue. He began to wake up, feeling well rested already due to Avalon's regenerative abilities rejuvenating him much faster than any regular human could.
When he slowly opened his eyes, he saw a blurry, silver-outline with two red dots and some yellow in his field of vision. As his eyes widened and his vision sharpened, he saw that this was a woman's face looming over him.
"Finally awake, Victor of the Grail." The woman spoke before making a very faint smile, barely noticeable if not for her lips curling up.
"Who..." Shirou began to ask, but then realized something. Her head was looming over him, and her upper body was. But where were her legs? It was then that his sense of touch kicked in and he felt something very soft against the back of his head. This made him shoot up to his legs in less than a second, taking a few steps forward before turning to her in abrupt shock. "FOR HOW LONG WAS I LAYING ON YOUR LAP?"
Justeaze was surprised by the reaction and chuckled very slightly before she rose her right hnd and waved it off. "Why would it matter? You enjoyed every second of it. While you were asleep, that is."
"Oh no..." Shirou cursed himself as he fell to his knees, being overly melodramatic. "I laid my head on the lap of a woman other than Artoria!" He shouted, then leaned his upper body back, screaming to the sky. "I HAVE BEEN UNLOYAL! FORGIVE ME!"
"Oh come now..." Justeaze spoke with amusement in her voice. "Getting a Lap Pillow isn't such a big deal."
Shirou's head shot down to look at her so fast one might worry he broke his neck. Not the first time he did this. "Not a big deal? THE LAP PILLOW IS ONE OF THE MOST SACRED AND HOLY SIGNS OF AFFECTION! ONLY ONES LOVED ONE AND THEIR MOTHER CAN GIVE THEM ONE!"
"Pff" Justeaze mockingly dismissed it before she got up on her feet, dusting her lap off. "There, all traces of you are gone. Happy?" She said with a fake-insulted voice, much to Shirou's frustration. "Now... we have important things to talk about. Namely, your Wish."
This got Shirou to be serious again and he nodded, gulping slightly before he thought about it. "Before I make my wish, I have a question. You do abide to technical truths, do you?"
"My purpose as the Grail's Host Body is to simply fulfill your One Wish. How you word your wish, is up to you. Therefore, yes. I must obey even the most nitpicky of technical truths. Because of that, be VERY careful about what you wish for."
Shirou nodded and thought about it for a long second. Then, he got an idea. He used his Projection, tapping into the skill of projecting basic materials like a charcoal pencil and a piece of paper, which he was able to do since about a few months, and started to write something on the piece of paper. Once done writing, he handed it to Justeaze.
As she laid her eyes on it, her eyebrow rose. The Paper was a list of names. Three names to be precise. Mordred Pendragon (Deified); Assassin of Red, Semiramis; Artoria Pendragon.
"I want those three people to be Reincarnated into human bodies. As I am asking for the Reincarnation of the names of this List, I am therefore making it One Wish."
Justeaze nodded and lit the paper on fire, letting it turn to ash before she clapped her hands. "This shall be accepted. The two Servants outside as well as your beloved from Avalon shall be physically reincarnated."
When she finished speaking, she began to disappear into particles, and when she did, Shirou saw someone standing behind her. It was Artoria, in the same blue dress with the nightgown over it from before, when he saw her in Avalon.
She smiled gently at him and took a step closer, and he did the same.
"I told you..." Shirou said with a grin on his face. "I told you I would see you soon."
Artoria just grinned back and nodded. "Didn't think it would be THAT soon. I was ready for a year or two, not 13 minutes."
"Soon is soon..." Shirou said before he then took the remaining steps and closed the gap, placing his hands on Artorias while having his most wholesome smile he could muster. "Come... the others are waiting."
"Lead the way, my Scabbard."
"As you request, my King."
The two then began to walk into a seemingly random direction, hand in hand, taking step after step until they saw a doorway of pure light open itself for them.
The wait was torturous for most of the 12 people. So much so that some of them decided to have a little sport.
Roche, after going upstairs with his Golems, brought down a soccer ball.
Yes, you are reading this right. A fucking soccer ball.
And they began playing Soccer, 6v6.
The Narrator is not amused, and neither should you be.
Roche used his Golems to create makeshift-goals for the teams and they went at it like utter hooligans, kicking the ball with the utmost of force every single time. They shattered several of the pillars supporting the cave, not like it needs them given how wrecked it is.
"COME ON!" Semiramis roared towards Sieg, who took the ball after the latest force-kick from Mordred, dribbling his way past Amakusa and Rin before giving a pass over to Gordes, who passed on to Semiramis, who kicked the shit out of the ball to score a Goal.
"VICTORY!" Luvia screamed out as she was making her usual laugh, the Ohoho that always grinded Rin's gears. The two Rivals were on opposite teams, so Rin was having her defeat rubbed into her face by default of their dynamic to one another.
They were all suddenly distracted by a small light coming from the Grail, forming a cube against it, and stairs were projected from it as well, glowing a faint green. Sure enough, Shirou walked out from the light, with Artoria in his hand, and they descended the stairs, much to everyone's suprise.
"SHIROU/SHEROU/KID/BOY!" Everyone shouted as they all forgot their damn game and ran up towards the Redhead.
"So you made your wish?" El-Melloi II asked as he saw Artoria next to Shirou.
"Sherou! Who is this!?" Luvia asked as she was all into Artoria's face.
Artoria gave one look at her, turned to Shirou and stated the obvious. "This girl is in love with you. She is VERY in love with you."
Shirou didn't deny it, he just closed his eyes and hesitantly nodded.
Artoria eyes Luvia again before placing a hand on her own chin, rubbing it in thought. Suddenly, Artoria started to blush lightly, then heavily, glancing away.
"Sherou, who is-" Luvia began, but was interrupted when Artoria's hands shot up to her cheeks to grip them, pulling the blonde in and smooching all hell out of those lips.
Needless to say, everyone's mouth was gaping.
"A...Ar... Arto..." Shirou started, unable to formulate any words.
When Artoria was done, she just pouted slightly. "I am not the competitive type... and in my time, polyamourous relationships were not uncommon... you are denser than a church bell, you could never reject her... so..."
Shirou didn't even know what the hell, so he passed out and fell on the ground.
Shirou,exe has crashed.
"F-F-F-FATHER!? WHAT THE HELL?" Mordred shouted as she power-walked to Artoria and gripped the slightly shorter blonde by the collars of her dress. "You really are just spoiling him to hell! When did you become so submissive and girly!?"
Artoria just scoffed and tried to play it tough, pushing Mordred off before dusting her dress clean. "He saved the world from an Evl Mesopotamian God who wanted to massacre almost all of Human Civilization. He deserves a bigger reward than just Thanks-"
"You just want to have a non-platonic relationship with a woman while Shirou is okay with it, don't you?" Amakusa fired out of his mouth, much to Artoria's annoyance, which was shown by a very hard bonk on his head, courtesy of her fist.
"You know Nothing of a King's Curiosities!" She said, trying to play it tough again.
"Well..." El-Melloi II chimed in, fixing her glasses while glancing over to the blonde. "She loves Shirou incredibly dearly, and she isn't a stuck-up bitch. But more than that, she is acting out of a sense of logic more than acceptance." He said, which made Artoria and Luvia raise their eyebrows in curiosity. "Artoria knows that if she and Luvia start a rivalry, they will both lose Shirou because their pettyness will eventually harm him, which will make her wallow in self-loathing and guilt and fill her with the idea that she has to break up with him and surrender him to Luvia, who will then play nice out of guilt herself, and they will come to the agreement of either both forfeiting him, or both sharing him. She went into the assumption that they would agree to share him, and decided to skip all the drama that would come beforehand. Figuretively speaking, instead of climbing the stairs one by one, she just leapt from ground level to the uppermost step in one go."
Everyone was stunned by how elaborate this explanation was. It makes sense. It shouldn't make sense. IT. SHOULDN'T. MAKE. SENSE.
"Well..." Artoria said, feeling slight embarrassment. "I will accept this as the correct answer."
"Then..." Luvia said and turned to Artoria, blushing slightly herself before bowing. "Let us get alone, then... I... I am not sure, but I will try my best to not get petty with you."
"Then, by royal decree, we have an agreement-" Artoria spoke, but was interrupted by Luvia
"Royal decree?"
"Why yes. I am King of Camelot."
"Oho? And I am descendant of a powerful and Noble family of Magi."
"A fellow Noble?" Artoria spoke in a singing voice which send chills down Mordred's spine.
"Why, yes, I am." Luvia proudly exclaimed.
It was then, that the two discovered, they would get along much better than they first thought.
Somewhere, a few Kilometers away from Trifas.
"Curse... you..." Nanna panted as he was pulling himself up against a tree. He was beyond ruined. His right arm was still missing ontop of his left leg, he was wounded all over, his skin was cracked like damaged stone, he had a constantly bleeding cut right below his right ribcage, indicating a damaged and bleeding Liver. He was an utter mess, and it was clear that he was too hurt and exhausted to regenerate, and because of the extend of his wounds, he was likely not going to survive. "I... I will..." He spoke, but suddenly, he stopped and glanced ahead.
A sword's clank was heard as the tip hit the ground. A figure covered in a black hood, the only visible thing the head. Or what should be a head, because all Nanna saw was a skull with blue eyes of fire. Horns coming from the side of his head and a chestplate with a skull was seen. But other than that, it was all covered in black.
"Heh..." Nanna coughed out as he stood as upright as he could. "So the Counter-Force sends YOU to deal with me?" He said, his speech more fluent, now that he wasn't struggling with movement.
"Thou art but an expired shadow, fallen God. Where thy heart was good, thy chosen path was riddled with evil."
"What do you know of paths? You sold your soul to Thanatos himself, or let him touch you and lived. The Stench of the Death God is all over you..."
The Figure just quietly stared for a moment before its eyes flared up. "Thou art scared."
"Of you?"
"Of Death." The figure responded, its voice deeper and slightly softer. "Of Humanity's Death. Thou hath seen what is to come. The Apocalypse is nigh. It is but a few decades now before Humanity's Faith shall undergo its uttermost difficult trial yet. And thou art terrified of Humanity's Defeat."
"If you know what is coming, then you know that what I had to do was necessary... Humanity needs to be at its most powerful to deal with Beast VII"
"And yet, for thine fears and terrors, thou hath been bested by but one human with the hubris to love without defeat. If but one single soul, empowered by the heart of loved ones reacheth the power to best divinity, then humanity, united, shall remain undisputed."
"Heh... maybe you're right... but that won't change that they are doomed..."
"Perhabs... but things art not beautiful because they last." The Figure spoke, making Nanna perk up slightly. "In death, Value finds. Grace is to be found within one's Failures."
"Pah... for one as old as you, you sure know how to spout idealistic nonsense, just like him..."
"Faith and Hope... thou art inclined to try it one day."
"We both know I won't get the chance to..."
With that spoken, the figure in black lifted its sword as Nanna leapt at him.
The only thing to be seen would be a flash of blue and black, before nothingness. If anyone were to scout the forest now, neither figure would be found.
PHEW. Typing all of this within 24 hours was exhausting! Now onto the Epilogue-chapter!
As always, I hope you have enjoyed the read, so please leave behind an R&R if you did (or didn't) and let me know why so I can continue to improve my writing!
Cheers :D