AN: I have been plagued by some really annoying thoughts lately... and the one thing they all have in common is that they are related to bloodborne or my other story, Amongst Us.
Here I am, trying to write this one chapter and the next thing I know is, 'Okay, listen. What if-'
And it's been like that for most of my holidays. Oh yeah, I also made a whole document with bloodborne sequel ideas and two new stories. Why? So I can let the ideas for eldritch and bloodborne stuff to flow out until I ran out so I can write this chapter.
I wrote a story based off an idea for a story I had a few years back before I even started writing fanfiction. It had a power system and everything. Honestly, I don't like the fact that it was turned into a fanfic story since it was actually an idea for an original book I had in mind. But the terminologies from RWBY fit TOO well and so are some of the characters that the idea just works. Still don't like that it works though.
And for the second one I just made out of nowhere when I imagined a world of pure white, and it slowly devolved into dreams, corruption, survival and abilities. I might actually publish that on this site one day, but that's if I can finish this and the other story first.
Anyways, I've held you for too long. Let's get on with the chapter.
The Sword and the Star ACT I: Through Intertwined fates, do they meet.
Diary Entry 05:
It has been 5 days since the last entry. I still have not been able to locate the source of the problem the keeps occurring with the prototype.
Everything I've tried had come up with failed results. Dusts of Azoth was a failure and breaking it down into multiple parts didn't help either.
It has been stressful, I will admit. But like I said, this is no setback, but rather, an opportunity.
Alchemist Gold, signing off.
"Oi kid."
Shirou grunts at the voice that spoke to him. His eyes flutters slightly but he doesn't wake up, not even the bumping that he felt against the back of his head could do anything.
"Kid."
He grunts again, eyes fluttering once more, but he still does not wake.
"Kid, wake the hell up!"
"H-huh?" he stammered as he sat up straight.
Shirou checks his surroundings, still half dazed. There was a single dirt pathway which was surrounded by cliff side to its left and a lake to its right. The sun was out, although blocked by most of the cliffside.
He then looks down to find himself sitting on top of a cart of sorts, and thought, 'Where am I?'
"Listen kid, you're gonna have to walk for the rest of the way to Mondstadt," The man that yelled at him, sighed, "If I go any further, then I risk myself of getting attacked by monsters."
Right, he was riding a cart after having to travel two days on foot across Liyue. He wasn't able to really get any sleep due to being attacked by monsters and treasure hoarders trying to earn some small fortune from him.
When he had arrived at Wangshu Inn, a man had saw how sleep deprived he had been and offered to take him to stone gate. Of course, Shirou refused but the man kept insisting. Eventually, he just accepted the man's offer and slept on the cart while he took him to Stone Gate.
"Right… thank you for the ride," Shirou groans as he gets off the cart. He pulls out a small bag which held around a hundred mora and handed it over to the man, "Here, your pay."
"Pleasure doing business with you," The man said before pulling the cart along with him, "And stay safe!"
Shirou only nods at the comment, before turning to face the on the path in front of him. It was time to get a move on things.
He follows the only path laid before him, whilst eying the foreign landscape that surrounded him. There was a lake to his right and the stone wall of the cliffside that casted its shadow of the waters of the lake. Unlike the region of Liyue, this area's forestry are a lot greener than the yellow gold of most of the nature that surrounds Liyue. It was beautiful.
As he continued to follow the path, he saw a set of pillars poking out of the waters come into view.
'I wonder what that's for…' He thought aimlessly.
As he continued to stare at the strange pillars, he couldn't notice a teal object flying towards him.
"GEH!" He exclaims as he gets hit in the stomach.
He clutches the area to ease the pain and slowly looks up to see what had hit him. Three teal-coloured slimes with wings on their sides stared at him as they bounced up and down. Two of them were small while one looked big enough that it almost reaches his chin.
"Oh, come on." he grunts.
Two nights prior
'H-how… how come they haven't cleared this place up yet?!' Shirou screamed internally, 'No! How is no one dead from crossing through this place yet?!'
He had just crossed through the cliff section which the held a small resting area for travellers. This area is also guarded by members of the Millelith and separates Liyue Harbor from Guili plains.
A fireball made of condensed pyro matter splashed against the stone wall next to him, missing him by a mere inch. He wiped a few of the pyro matter of his black and white overcoat and kept his eyes trained on his opponents, specifically the two hilichurls, pyro slime and the yellow and purple electro slime, which surrounded him.
The two hilichurls rushed in, wooden bats held back. He dodges their attacks just as they were about to hit him and stabbed them through their backs simultaneously with his pyro blades. Not wasting time, he abandons the blades of flames and rolls away before the electric discharge that came from the purple electro slime could hit him.
However, this wasn't the same for the hilichurls. Pyro and electro energy mixed, and a miniature explosion bursts forth from the pair of hilichurls, killing them. Their bodies turned black and fade away into dust.
'Three more.'
He summoned another pair of pyro blades and charged for the electro slimes. However, the sound of roaring flames caused him to halt. And before he knew it, balls of pyro slime matter splashed against the stone floor of the ruins, mere inches from hitting him.
"Tch."
The purple slime jumped towards him, electricity dancing across its body. He backs away from the slime and reaches out into the air, teal markings spreading across his arms.
His bow was useless here, not when he was cornered in an enclosed space. And his vision is useless against that pyro slime. Therefore, he needs an alternative, and so he closed his eyes to focus.
"Trace on."
The image of the hammer striking the anvil came to mind. And blue light dances through the air between his fingers and palms. The blue light seems to take the shape of a sword in each of his palms before bursting, a pair of ancient, Liyue black yang and white yin swords taking the place of the blue light.
These blades were but mere copies of the original swords that Shirou have seen before. This was done with one of the three spells he learnt: Gradient air otherwise known as Projection.
For some reason, these blades feel so familiar to him in a way. Almost as if they had been with him for a lifetime, a tool which he had used over and over the course of his life. His elemental pyro blades were modelled after these two blades, instead of the same ones which his uncle had used.
The names of these swords were, Kanshou (Gan jiang) and Bakuya (Mo ye)
"Į̸͓͇̲̼͆́̌̕͝ ̸̻̻̃͒͐̕ả̷̲͋̎m̶̖̦̳̞̽͒̍̒̚-"
'N-not again! Why now?!'
He gripped his head whilst keeping his eyes trained on his foes. He could feel liquid flowing down towards his mouth, the taste of iron spreading through his tongue as the liquid leaked into his mouth.
'D-damn it!'
The purple electro slime jumped high into the air and descended upon him, intending to crush him.
Summoning two pyro swords, he blew back the slime mid-air by shooting it down, causing an overload reaction. Not wasting time though, he speeds towards it as soon as it lands and slashes it with his blades.
Electro matter splattered against the stone floor as he continued to hack away at the slime. The creature exploded once it was destroyed, and he rushes for the yellow slime.
He ducks under fireballs from the pyro slime and shoots three pyro swords at the yellow one, causing the overload reaction to occur once more.
He slices the antenna of the slime off to stop it from discharging a wave of electricity and slices it apart. It exploded, just like the previous slime.
The pyro slime backed away slightly, almost as if it was in fear and shoots another group of fireballs at him.
'Guess you're not as intelligent as I thought.' He thought as weaves through the flaming projectiles.
"This is the end." He said as he raised Kanshou into the air.
Present
The condensed elemental matter that belonged to the anemo slimes, slowly burned away into embers as Shirou stabs the pyro blade through the large anemo slime. The slime exploded like a balloon as matter sprayed across the soil, a wind current taking the place of the large slime.
Shirou lets out a breathe, willing his pyro blades to dissipate back into the air as pyro energy. He looks back to his traveller's bag to make sure it wasn't damaged, before moving out once again.
The fight with the anemo slimes caught the attention of nearby cryo slimes too, although they fell more easily than the anemo slimes did.
Shirou walks until he stops before two sets of paths, one to his right, continuing forward, and another to his left. The path to the left seems to lead to some unknown location while to his right, he saw a large building with a red roof, a few meters away. On that same path, there was a strange device of sorts stuck to the ground, glowing a bright red.
Those were the same types of stone devices which he saw in Liyue before. He had never questioned what it was, as he assumed that it was some sort of thing that was part of the culture of Liyue. But it seems that he was wrong.
'Now that I think about it. Weren't these stone devices also in Inazuma?" he wondered aloud.
He paid it no heed and pulls out a map of Mondstadt from his bag and inspects it to find that the location to his right was a place called, Dawn Winery. While the path to his left seems to lead to a large area that belonged to some sort of large ruin which seem to rival the size of Mondstadt, from what Shirou could see from the map.
"Hm… let's see. There seems to be two different routes I can take to travel to Mondstadt, both leading to Springvale," he mutters, slowly approaching the building as he inspects the map, "One goes through a canyon under a forest while the other seems to just crosses through what seems to be a large encampment of sorts."
He lowers the Mondstadt map to see where he was at currently, and to his surprise, he was already in front of the steps of the winery.
"Hey, you there!" a voice called from his left.
He looked to the origin of the voice and found a man in a purple suit and bowl hat watching him.
"Who are you? Are you a traveller?" the man asked.
Shirou nods, lowering the map in his hands.
"My name's Shirou and I had travelled from Liyue to here." Shirou told the man.
"Ah, I see," the man nods in understanding, "Are you perhaps here for a tour of Dawn Winery then?"
Shirou shook his head.
"No, I'm just passing by. I'm travelling to Mondstadt." He clarified, "Actually I have a question regarding the path to the city."
"Oh? Ask away."
"So, on the map, there are two different paths that I can take to get to Mondstadt," Shirou answers as he walks up the stone stairs and approaches the man, showing him the map, "I just want to know which path I should take."
"Hm… you should take the path to the right." The man points to the location, "That path is much safer compared to the other path that we used to take. As long as you don't go into the Hilichurl camp and stay on the path, you should make it to Mondstadt without any danger."
"Ah, alright. Thank you for your help, sir." Shirou bowed, putting the map away.
"You might still want to be careful though, recently the monsters have been acting up lately for some odd reason." The man quickly warned.
"I'll be sure to stay safe." Shirou waved as he begins to make his way out of the winery, "And thank you for the help again!"
~~Fragmented Star~~
"Thank you for your help!" Shirou waved, following the path.
He was currently leaving the small town called Springvale. The townsman were kind enough to provide him some small foods and water when he had arrived and introduced himself as a traveller.
On the way to the town, as he followed the path. had noticed something glowing at the top right corner of his eye. When he stopped to take a look, he found a giant stone door which emitted and was surrounded by a red light – not so dissimilar to the stone device he has seen moments ago.
Normally he wouldn't question it and would've just moved on, but there is something about that door that seems to be drawing him in. Like something within the door is calling to him to open it, to reveal the secrets behind it. Yet at the same time, his senses told him that the door is dangerous and shouldn't be opened.
But there was also this odd sense of… familiarity to the door. The feeling was akin to that of the yin and yang swords which he had traced.
'I wonder why…'
He was snapped out of his thoughts though, when he heard a loud roar coming from the skies, in front of him.
He looked up towards the sound and found…
'A dragon?!' he exclaimed, startled by the sight of a large blue dragon soaring through the middle of the daylight sky, 'Wait… is it landing in that forest?'
Shirou stood there, dumbstruck.
A dragon of all things wasn't what he was expecting to see when he came to Mondstadt – a couple of monsters, sure. But a dragon?
"E̸̹̹̦͛͆̄a̵̘̦͌̌̋s̸̛̯͙͈̭̟̯̬͖͈̽̈́̊̒t̶̨̗̙̤̺.̴̢̨̢͓̲͉̱͈̥͇.̷̧̠̩.̵̢͚̠̤͉͗̋̑̑̍̃ ̶̨̨̛͈͖̝̌͊̌Ṡ̶̡̧͕͕̱͖̤̲̺́̂̆̊͠ṫ̵̯̗̘͇̻̗̋̋̾ö̷̟͔͍̙́͛͝r̷̖͚͕͙m̸̪͉͋̍͌̓̿͜͜͠ͅ"
"Gaah!" He yelled, gripping his head tightly.
"T̶̻̪̖̺̗͕̮̙͇̱̰̗͆̉̍ȇ̷̺̮͍̭͚̰̙̻̬̩̇͒̈́ŗ̸̢̛ŗ̷̢̧̮͓̭͓͐̈̀͊ȍ̵̩͓̯̖̐͆̆r̶̫̥̼̜̱̟̐̕"
"C̷̹͓̙̤̠̗̹͆̉͊̀̍̿͒̃̾̌̂͂͘͝ą̸͈̫̬̫̔͑́͆̇͋̾͐͜ͅl̷̨̛̩͚̟̥̟̊̑̔̀̈́͆͑͌͛̌̐͑͝a̴̡͈̟̿̂̊͒̈́̀́̽̀̍̈̓̚͘͘m̷̡̺̮͎̲̟̖̗͙̤̤̖̞͋̈̇̈́i̷̢̦̻̝̬̅́̿̾̒t̶̗̩͇̦̅̐̇̒̀̀́̊͛̃̚y̶͇̓̓̒"
"Ţ̴̨̤̄͒̑́͘͝h̴͔͕̗̥͙̟͚̮͚̘̿̍̓̈́͛̂́̿̍͊͆͗͑̕͠ẻ̸͙̭̮͕̙͕̯̝͝ ̴͕̪̤̝̠̦̲̋̀͝E̶̫̱̽̓̓̃̑̾̕̕̕r̸͈̂͛̒͐͘͘͝ş̷̧̮̩͍̫̬͍̑͌̉͋̂͘̕͝͝t̷͙̗̞́́̈́ẅ̴̧̢̺̬̲͓͔́̔̓̑͒͑̓͝͠h̵̢̛̘̙̺̱̱̟̜̹͊̊͠ͅͅỉ̴̢̩͖̟͓̣͇̣͂͆̆̉̏̚ļ̵̗̲̦̳̘͍͕̲͉̋è̴̥̼̰̬̫̤̹̻̕ͅ ̵̤̝̠͚̥͎̙̩̭͔̭͕̄K̸̡̛͎̩̗̻̞̯̬̦͉͚͚̀̀̌͐̄́̾̾̍͘ͅį̸̛̠͉͔̥̫͛̏̈͑̉̈͒̐̌̚͘͘n̵̢̛̬̣̜̅́͌̅̑͋̅̀̽̊̈͗̚̕g̶̲̺̹͇̰̮̈́̂̇̂"
"Dv̶͚̙̫̹̹͎̟̯̞̖̰̱̋́̇̄̓̈̓a̷̡̦̪͕̪̿͋́̈́̃͊̀́͘͜l̶̨̛̜̤̫̮̯̹͕i̷̫̜̭͚̖̬̓͑͑͒̅́̓̾͋͒̉n̶̼͈̝̩̝̳̭̦̤̈͆̓͗̿̾͆̏̔̈͂͆̚͜"
He fell to the ground, the words penetrating his mind, flooding his brain with information which he had never known before. The words were incomprehensible, yet at the same time he could understand it, vaguely. This was like that time he had traced Kanshou and Bakuya – no, this was like when he traced that sigil of permission from Uncle Ajax.
"D…vali…n?" Shirou croaked.
His heart was beating fast, so fast he believed that it would break out of his body and splatter against the dirt ground.
Why was this happening? He didn't use any magecraft this time so why?
A sudden surge of heat caught his attention and he looked to the vision hanging off his hip. It was flickering brightly before it dimmed down.
'I… I need answers…' He thought, looking towards the forest the dragon had landed in.
He stood up and broke into a sprint for the forest. He sprang across the dirt path, dust kicking up behind him as he began to reinforce his body, his speed increasing. He was closing in now, and before he knew it, the forest was right in front of him.
But just as Shirou was about to enter, he was blown back as a large powerful gust of wind that he was unprepared for. Leaves rustled and trees cracked as he raised his upper half from the ground, fighting against the fierce wind, and when the sound of flapping wings reached his ears, he looked up to find the dragon he saw flying away.
The winds died down, leaving him to stare in the skies.
'Why did it leave?' He wondered, 'It looked startled, like it was scared.'
He quickly rose from the ground and entered the forest, in search of the source that startled the dragon.
Yellow light shone around his hand before it took the shape of a bow and it dissipated, revealing a red and black bow. The bow was part of the gifts given to him by Uncle Ajax. It was a mere copy of the original, forged by the people at Blackcliff forge, the birthplace of the original warbow. Although a mere copy of the original warbow, its quality and effectiveness cannot be denied.
Yellow light shone from his right hand and an arrow was summoned.
This summoning technique was something that he was taught by Uncle Ajax and Uncle Zhongli, during his first days of using a vision.
When he had asked them as to how this technique works and where the items he summoned when he desummons it, go. They said that they had no idea why, but it is simply something that they learnt when they got their vision.
"Okay we've got it! Now let's get out of here."
The voice caught his attention, and he aimed his bow at the direction in which it came from, the arrow nocked.
To his surprise he found a… floating girl… thing and a boy in foreign, almost alienlike clothing.
"GAAH! Wait a minute! Don't shoot!" the floating thing screamed, waving its hands at him; the blonde boy followed in suit and putting his hands in the air.
"Who are you?" Shirou asked, slowly lowering the bow and arrow.
"Listen! We're not looking for trouble!" The thing said, "We were just passing by, that's all!"
The boy nodded along with the floating thing.
"We are travellers." The boy spoke up, gesturing to the thing and himself, "Like Paimon said, we're just simply passing by. We were travelling to Mondstadt until we saw that dragon."
"You two are travellers too?" Shirou asked, his bow and arrow, dissipating into yellow light.
"Oh, are you one too?" asked the thi- Paimon.
"Yeah," Shirou nodded, "I was travelling to Mondstadt just like you, and then I saw that dragon and the rest you can figure."
"Then it seems we have a misunderstanding." The boy said.
"My name's Paimon! And this is Aether!" Paimon introduced.
"My name is Emiya Shirou." he bowed, "And sorry for pointing my bow at you two."
"It's alright!" Paimon chirped, "It's like Aether said, it was just a misunderstanding, so we won't hold a grudge."
"Thank you." Shirou said with a grateful smile, "Since we're both on the way to Mondstadt, why don't we go together?"
"Sounds like good plan." Aether nodded.
They then began to walk together, well… him and Aether, with Paimon floating close to Aether.
"So… Shirou," Paimon spoke up, "What are you travelling to Mondstadt for?"
"Oh, me? Well, it's a bit embarrassing to talk about, but I want to be a champion of justice." He said, rubbing the back of his head.
"A champion of justice?" Both Aether and Paimon asked.
"Yeah, it was a dream of mine since I was little. I want to be able to go around the world and save people. Becoming an adventurer was my first step in achieving that goal." Shirou explained.
"So, you're an adventurer then?' Paimon asked.
"Well… no, not exactly." Shirou sighed, "The thing is, I wasn't signed up onto the adventurer's guild. I realized that a little too late after I had already left Liyue."
"Wait, you're from Liyue? But your name sounded like it's from Inazuma!" Paimon exclaimed.
"Inazuma?" Aether asked this time.
They were now exiting the forest.
"Ah, right! You don't know about Inazuma yet." Paimon rubs the of her head, "Well, you see. Inazuma is-"
"Hey you! Stop right there!"
The voice came from their left. And as the group looked towards the source, they found a girl in red and white jumping down to meet them.
"May the Anemo god protect you, Strangers!" the girl exclaimed, "I am Amber, Outrider from the Knights of Favonius!"
The girl did a quick salute.
"You don't look like citizens of Mondstadt. Explain yourselves!" Amber pointed towards the group.
"Seriously?!" Paimon couldn't help but shout, "We're not looking for trouble alright?"
"Well, that's what all troublemakers say." Amber replied.
"My name is Aether." Aether introduced.
"And I'm, Emiya Shirou."
"Aether… Emiya Shirou… doesn't sound local." Amber hummed, "And this… mascot, what's the deal with it?"
"Emergency food." Aether said with a blank face.
"Hey! That's even worse than a mascot!" Paimon stomped the air.
"To sum it up, you three are travelling partners then?"
"We've just met but yes, we are." Shirou answered.
"I see." Amber nodded, "Well look, there's been a large dragon sighted around Mondstadt recently. Best you get inside the city as soon as possible."
"It's not far from here, I'll escort you three there." Amber pointed her thumb towards the walls across the river lake.
"Oh? But aren't you out here for another reason?" Paimon asked out of curiosity.
"I am. But not to worry, I can keep you three safe while doing that too." She waved off, "Besides… I'm still not sure I can trust you three yet!"
"Why so suspicious?" Aether asked.
"Yeah! That's a rather rude way to speak to guest!" Paimon pitched in.
"Oh, ahh… I'm sorry. Probably not something I should say as a knight." She said quickly, "I give you my apologies, uh… strange yet respectable travelers."
"Ah. That's alright." Shirou waved, "Like Paimon said, we're not looking for trouble."
"Hmph… that sounded so fake!" Paimon grumbled.
"Hey! Do you have something against the type of language prescribed by the Knights of Favonius Handbook?!"
~~Fragmented Star~~
"So, suspicious travellers, what are you doing in Mondstadt?" Amber asked.
They were currently following the path that lead to Mondstadt. However, it seemed that they were going to somewhere else as the group began to make a turn away from the city of winds.
"Well, you see, Shirou here plans to become an adventurer to fulfil his dream of saving people! Mondstadt was his first choice outside of Liyue apparently." Paimon explained.
"Oh, I see. What about you?" Amber asked Aether.
"Aether got separated from his sister during a really, really long journey." Paimon explained for him, "Paimon is his travel buddy, helping him to find his sister."
"Looking for your family, huh?" Amber looked down as they continue to walk, "Ah… okay! Let me finish some other stuff first, and then I can help you put up posters around the city!"
"I can help too." Shirou joined in.
"Thanks!" Amber said.
"What exactly it is that you need to finish doing first?" Paimon asked.
"It's simple, you'll understand in a bit."
~~Fragmented Star~~
Fire raged and burned away the surrounding greenery. The scattered pieces of a scorched red doll, laying around the battlefield accompanied the fire.
"I've got to say, you two surprised me with your moves there." Amber praised, "Thanks for the backup. How's it feel?"
"They were resilient, but I barely broke a sweat." Aether answered, letting his sword dissipate.
"They were no big deal; I've dealt with them before." Shirou said following in suit, his bow dematerializing.
"Now that you've mention it, how is it that hIlichurls ended up here?" Paimon inquired, looking around the camp, "These creatures don't seem to be like the type to set up camp so close to cities like this."
"Exactly, its more normal for them to be much further out in the wilderness." Amber nods.
"It must be something to do with that dragon then." Shirou said.
"Correct, because of the dragon – Stormterror – has been around a lot more recently, our orchards have been destroyed and our local market is affected as well." She sighed, "When the storms hit, we usually end up with at least a few injuries, so the Knights of Favonius have been tied up doing the best they can to defend the area."
"So, these creatures have been getting closer and closer to the city then?" Shirou asked.
"Exactly. That said, clearing out this camp makes the area a little safer." She confirmed, "Now that's over with, come with me! A responsible knight must make sure to see you guys to the city safely!"
And with that, the group began to make their way towards the city walls of Mondstadt. And it didn't take them long to arrive on the bridge that was connected to the city.
As they crossed over though, the group caused a flock of birds that was on the bridge flew away in a frantic manner.
"What're you doing! You're scaring the pigeons away!" a little boy yelled.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, Timmie!" Amber quickly apologised, "But I have to escort these travellers to the city, we didn't mean to scare them away!"
"Now what will I do?" The boy – Timmie – mumbled.
Shirou was about to approach the boy, but Aether beat him to it.
The blonde traveller knelt down to the boy's height and patted his head.
"They'll be back." He said with a small smile.
"They do come back usually… But what happens if one day they leave and never come back again?" Timmie asked, looking at the floor, "Just like daddy…"
'Just like daddy?' Shirou thought with widened eyes.
Amber touched Aether's shoulder and shook her head.
"Let's go." She said sombrely, "Sorry for scaring the birds away again, Timmie."
"Whatever." The young boy mumbled kicking an imaginary pebble on the bridge.
The group left the boy alone, continuing on forward to the city.
"What… happened to that boy's dad?" Paimon asked, now floating behind Amber.
"I'm not sure about the details but… it's not my place to tell." Amber shook her head.
The group was silent after that, leaving the three travellers to dwell in their own thoughts.
When they arrived at the gates of Mondstadt, the two knights standing guard quickly saluted to the outrider as they entered through.
"Come on, cheer up! I know you guys feel bad about Timmie but if you want to repay him, you can buy him some bread for the birds to eat." Amber patted their backs.
"Yeah, I guess you're right." Aether agreed.
Shirou nodded along with him.
"Now, let me officially introduce the city of wind, dandelions, and freedom!"
AN: Not as great as I hoped to be; this chapter.
But hey, what's done is done. At least I broke out of that bloodborne mindset, the thoughts and ideas are now gone too.