An Oath
Chapter 2 - Setting The Stage
[-168:59:35] until Zero
…
It was still two hours before their time to depart from this country, in the past hour he had been more or less enjoying his last days before going to fight in the Grail War once more.
Only this time, his opponents would surely be far stronger, faster, more skilled than whom he faced in the past, no longer confined as mere instalment, but their true ability as heroes that enacted legends showcased in all their glory.
For example, the person he's duelling fiercely with, clashing their blades in a head-on match and matching each other blow after blow, this teenage looking woman who he'd bet no one could've suspected to be the once and future king of the Brittonic isles.
He didn't mean to be rude to stare, but he couldn't help himself, not only in that this girl that doesn't look the part was King Arthur, but a sense of nostalgia was flowing through him.
He didn't know what to make of it.
Her stern emerald green eyes that look like a gem he could plop off- he threw away that thought as soon as it had appeared, her golden hair akin to stardust braided into a crown, and her youthful yet stern facial expression that demands respect from everyone.
Shirou had to admit something, it is that if Saber's physical form were to grow up, she would turn into a gorgeous woman- not that such a thing would ever happen. Even so, if she were to soften her expression a little, her beauty would be able to make any hormone ravaged teenagers become infatuated with her.
Shirou took his rook and moved to the column his enemy's King is at.
"Checkmate." With his bishops, rook, and queen he had completely locked Saber's King in place, with his other rook delivering the final blow.
The last five minutes, Saber's eyes were fully concentrated on the chessboard, never did she take her eyes off it.
"One more time!" Saber challenged him with a tone of frustration, she was pouting and clearly upset.
He discovered another quirk of this King, it is that she's a sore loser, and you could call him an asshole here, however, he almost smiled at this fact.
Whether it is from this odd sense of nostalgia he was feeling, or he actually found amusement from it, it didn't really matter much.
"Saber (read: Seiba), you've said that four times now, how about you take a bit of time to rest first?" His offer- scratch that, his teasing earned him a glare from the girl knight before him.
"Are you tired? If so, then you're better off being our cook for the next week and staying in the safety of the castle." She bit back
"Alright alright, onemore round for you, Your Majesty." He chuckled a bit at her souring expression, but she bit her lips as a method of self-control from lashing out at him and beat some sense into him with a training sword.
Shirou placed back and rearranged the chess pieces back to their original place.
For the last twenty or so minutes, he and Saber had been playing chess after she asked him about it. It was invented some three centuries after her end, and it is the board game that dominated the modern world, so it would be obvious as to why it would be of some interest for the King of Knights as an imitation of medieval warfare.
After giving an explanation of how you play this game she tried playing with him, however, the first two rounds went by relatively quick. Shirou knew that Saber doesn't really understand how to play it as at every turn she tries to make way for her King and put the most important piece of the game to the frontlines for some abstract code of honour that she's applying to the board game.
However, even with such an excellent(idiotic) handicap, she's playing it like a professional and caught him by surprise to how sturdy her playstyle was, no it's more like she somehow knew all the options that he could take and prepared countermeasures again them.
Though, even with her incredible decision making and foresight, it only took him to play seriously to take out her King. The second round went more or less the same.
It seems after those two rounds of complete obliteration that Saber threw away her code of honour and play like how a normal person would, which is to let her troops march without risking the King.
Although he could feel that she's having an internal crisis at the moment as she was gritting her teeth and staring at her hands and every chess piece she moved as if she was sinning every time she moved her troops without playing the King.
Some part of him was slightly amused at this, but his instincts were telling him that she was hurting, legitimately hurting, he didn't place much care in how he plays, however, he felt like Saber was imagining something taking the place of the chess pieces.
He knew that she was experiencing some form of trauma as he had learned to spot such things while travelling with Kiritsugu to help people. Normal methods wouldn't work in helping her, so he had only one choice, and one that the cynical and sarcastic EMIYA favours the most when dealing with difficult people… To tease and annoy her until she forgets about her problem.
And as such he started to emphasize certain words and sarcastically respond to her, poking all of her buttons and aggravating her, at one point she tilted her head downwards with her hair covering her face, and started to talk in a disturbing manner.
It legitimately spooked him as she looked eerily similar to a yandere from those weird cliche romance mangas he took a look at. He didn't know whether this passive ability gained from EMIYA was a blessing or a curse, one he was able to provoke people easily and acted the role perfectly, while on the other, his first time of utilizing it turned the entire ordeal to seem to be straight off an eroge(don't ask him how he knows that).
"Yorokobe shounen, kimi no negai wa you-" Damn it, fake priest, not now.
There was something off with those memories, but Shirou didn't give it much of a thought.
Once more they played, gradually in the last 3 matches she had been improving at an alarming rate, he had to cheat a bit and analyse a chess piece played by a Master then copied their skill and experience to keep up with the girl.
Halfway through their match, Shirou remembered something crucial.
He intentionally left his King exposed, and Saber immediately took advantage of it and ended the game in three more turns.
She was silent at first, her body as still as a tree before she smiled and smugly turned to look at him.
"I told you, I would win." She proclaimed haughtily yet in a dignified tone befitting for a King.
The contrasts between her outside personality and her internal one are making themselves known.
"It is my loss, truly Her Royal Majesty is truly impeccable in the arts of chess." With a slight hint of sarcasm, Shirou congratulated Saber
She didn't catch on to the sarcasm and had a big, wide smile on her face, she was like a child after their sibling intentionally let them win, though to know she's internally thirty-five and yet she's still that childish and immature, it makes the hypothesis that physical maturity influences one's mental maturity more valid.
"Well, I have to go now, we could play again later if you wish so."
"Very well then, but I won't be holding back the next time we clash in wits."
Shirou walked out of the dining room where they held their duel of ages.
With the image of a gunshot, a mysterious presence flowed through his veins, as if water flowing down the stream. Add to that, he wasn't entirely sure yet, but he feels like he could hear a hammer striking down steel as if there was a forge in the far reaches of his mind.
'I suppose that's just another one of the quirks of thinking like a sword.'
"Analyze. Strengthening Components." Starting up one of his circuits, a small stream of magical energy courses through his body, he concentrated until the magical energy took a firmer form.
"Success" He breathed a sigh of relief, his body is now strengthened to a degree, not on the level of Servants, hell not even on the level of the Class Cards, but it would put him in the realm of superhumans.
After the incident this morning, he had been more careful at handling his circuits and treaded more closely. By that, it means he has been keeping his usage of his magical circuits at an all-time low since he has gained this enormous source of power.
He looked out the window, though to his surprise something somewhat unprecedented is in his view.
The usual dark and dim sky was absolutely filled to the brim with stars, the atmosphere suddenly became ethereal, the galaxy is in full view.
Nothing hampering the light, no forms of pollutants, the sky clear of clouds, it felt like a once in a lifetime view of the night sky was before him.
"I have to add this into the list of things to do with Miyu." He mumbled beneath his breath while his eyes were still awed at the spectacle.
Fuyuki was a relatively pollution-free city as the number of people living and working there is comparatively lower than of any of the surrounding cities. It was peaceful and quiet.
However, even with that, it's rare to see stars littering the sky as pollution was still a major global problem since not only the cities and factories produce a lot of carbon dioxides, but the number of plants to help clean the environment's air was depleting year after year in mass.
He understood why Kiritsugu wished to use Miyu's power to save the dying planet.
"It's a real bummer that this would be the probably last opportunity to see the night sky that is this clear, but still, I have no regrets in choosing to save my adorable little sister."
[-163:14:51] until Zero
"Aaagh…" Waver groans as he awoke from his slumber.
Opening his eyes, he was met with the blazing sun shining right to his eye and pushed himself away, consequentially falling down the bed.
"Ugh! Ow ow ow, that hurts…" The sharp pain from falling off the bed immediately alerted his brain and cleared his sleep ravaged mind.
Rubbing his eyes, he was still exhausted and felt like lazing around and going back to bed, and he was about to do exactly that when the face of that war thirsty barbarian broke through his sleep-deprived mind's walls and made itself known.
It was then the memories of the previous night struck him down at full force.
"Agh, it's all his fault! Damn it Rider." He cursed to himself, not even bothering to confirm whether that huge Servant was here or not.
He now knew why he felt tiresome and sleep-deprived, even more so than when he was still in the Clocktower making theses.
That's right, just as Waver was planning to go to sleep early, Rider out of nowhere suddenly showed up with a weird strategy game he claimed to have been given by a magic talking stick.
Like anyone would ever believe that madman.
Either way, he also brought back a flat panel computer monitor and an excessively decorated PC that has inbuilt lights that glow and changes colours at every moment.
Admittedly he isn't an expert in these devices, it was more of a hobby to relieve himself from all the problems that come with being a Mage, it started out with seeing all those people gathering in front of a game store waiting for the new device.
He was pretty annoyed at the time but at the same time curious about what these technologies are all about, so he decided to line up for one and buy it. When he got to play it, he had to admit that it relieved all of his pent up stress, and starting from there he started to test out these modern devices.
However, at first glance at not only the PC case but also the computer parts, it looked otherworldly, far more complex and streamlined than anything he had ever seen, it looked spookily futuristic for him.
So with a few sighs, he decided to help Rider in completing the device.
Starting up the computer, the software is mind-bogglingly alien, it's like this device doesn't belong in this era, but he still didn't believe that a magical stick actually gave this to Rider.
Looking at the casing of the game disc, it's called "Hearts of Iron IV" the fourth instalment of whatever this game is that took Rider's interest. Inserting the disk in, it took a while to download, however miraculously when neither he nor Rider was looking, the download bar sped up to completion.
Going through the game made something startlingly clear, it is an extremely large and detailed simulation of the Second World War, with some historical figures he was able to recognise.
It was astounding that such a game exists, with all of its game mechanics that are almost all completely foreign to him, however, it brought him excitement to play this massive strategy game alongside Rider.
You could guess what happened next, Waver completely blew his sleeping plans and stayed up overnight trying out the game with Rider for hours unend, playing Macedonia as per Rider's intention.
Presently, he is regretting that he agreed to play with Rider, he should've rested to prepare for whenever the War starts, or at the very least made some progress on what he should do when it started. But he did neither of those and felt like he had a hangover
After contemplating on all the life decisions he took to get to this point, he stood up and walked to the bathroom in a vain attempt to get his day started less horribly.
"I'll have to dispose of that cursed machine somehow, otherwise I might get too addicted to it and completely blow my chances of winning this war!" He mumbles to himself
[-161:14:51] until Zero
People say murder is a crime but think about it. There are over five billion people crowding this world, isn't that outrageous?
Uryuu Ryuunosuke once tried counting all the gravel in the park when he was a kid, it started from single digits, tens, the twenties, then hundreds, thousands, after ten thousand he became discouraged at counting any further.
Now, try to imagine when there are fifty thousand times more people than the amount of gravel. If he was frustrated at ten thousand, it would be unbearable to reach such an absurd number.
There's then the birth rates that reach tens of thousands every single day.
So what's even the difference if he murdered a couple of people? Not even dozens, hundreds, or even thousands would weigh anything more than a drop of water.
Although just because he doesn't see anything wrong with murder, doesn't mean he enjoys it. No, he doesn't get much joy from it, it is more of a chore than anything, however, the process of death was the main course.
But of course, every appetizer must be great too otherwise your appetite would fall on into itself and ruin the entire experience., so he was a little picky on who and when he chooses to bring home the people who would help his artistic desire. Perfecting their death in the most satisfying way, the fear of death and suffering, all of those emotions were thrilling, before finally all would be left would be the art.
While most people would pursue the art of life, he did the complete opposite and studied the reactions of the people to the very details, such as how previously confident and cocky dudes would suddenly get scared and beg for help, before putting up a tough front, but the knife is law, they would break down like every other people.
It fascinates him how people would behave strangely, and usually act along with the likes of a cornered beast when faced with death as if such a thing was the worst thing that could ever happen to them.
That's not to say that he only studied death. No, that's a major red flag that you would get one of the bad ends. He studied life extensively, the more people he killed the more he understood human nature, and that knowledge makes him feel cool.
Attracting and finding the perfect people to ensnare, and then lure them by manipulating them with sweet words, or provocative ones, controlling the mood of the scenario, walk right straight into his trap as if a venus flytrap, the flies would make the mistake and get trapped and captured, before being slowly digested.
Eh… The analogy was supposed to make him sound cooler, though he failed at properly wording it. But it wasn't a metaphor, his excellent charms, bravado, and the dignity that emerged from his posture and composure work particularly well on the opposite sex, they wouldn't realize the falsehoods until they're right on it.
He had to thank all of those people for entering his sight when he needed it the most, or perhaps thank God for granting him these opportunities, and in return, he would create the blasphemies and ever so slightly satiate the Lord's thirst for blood in this era of peace.
Overall, homicide is far more productive than anything anyone around him has ever achieved. He got arrested a few times, of course, however, he didn't fear the feeling of being imprisoned and handcuffed, he merely understood it as a fact as the consequence of his works.
But… Things get old pretty fast when you keep doing the same thing over and over again, especially when they worked perfectly each time.
He had been on a streak of thirty this time, it was spectacular when he performed this new method at the time, after a while of not having anything new to his life, every new way to extract the expressions and emotions of people becomes satisfying, so he had gone a little carried away with it.
But even so, somehow all thirty of his victims didn't understand the concept of death flags, it wouldn't been nice to have something interrupt his plans and someone trying to become a manga protagonist, it is those types that he finds the most satisfaction in killing, they intentionally put themselves in a bad spot and would try become a Knight in shining armour, only for their expression fall like a stock market crash.
The fear from those types of people was usually far more incredible than say a regular old grandpa. Speaking of grandpas, they're the most boring of them all, just because they're old and all of that shouldn't mean they should fear death less, but they do, whenever old people would somehow stumble into the middle of his normal routine, they would be at peace even though they're witnessing a literal abduction, it is quite an odd quirk of old people, but it is for that reason he leaves gramps and grannies alone since his own gramps didn't scold him for expressing his hidden dark desires when he was a kid.
Well, back to the story, long story short, he had tried summoning Ctuhlu or something, he found a weird-looking tone from the warehouse in his old home, it was old, at least a couple hundred of years ago, at those times people were mostly using Chinese as the main communication method, and Japanese kanji were just used as decorative texts.
He had learned some Chinese back when he was a student, though because these texts were so old, he had some difficulties recognizing some of the words, but inscribed in the book was a script that talks about some kind of dark magic and summoning spirits of the dead, it was a mix of eastern and western occults, heresy.
He thought it was some kind of joke made by some old dudes in the past, though the old wizard slash dark theme made it cool and funky, authenticity wise is questionable, but he didn't care whether it worked or not, it had already stimulated the homicidal maniac within him.
So he located the "spiritual grounds" described in the notes and went off to get some people to use draw some kind of tantric magic circle etched into the notes in the town presently named Fuyuki.
He didn't know what weight and history were behind this seemingly random town in the middle of nowhere, but he was in the mood of killing things again and followed the instructions as faithfully as possible.
Completing the diagram, he brought an extra kid to sacrifice for the demon that he would possibly summon to appease their desires, then he chanted out the script he had memorised, and to his surprise, everything in the house started flying everywhere as a wind-like pressure blew them away.
Before voila, this guy called "Bluebeard" appeared out of thin air, it was as if he was in one of those fantasy worlds where the MC discovered a hidden world of magic in the shadows of the outside world.
It was a bit disappointing that he didn't summon an actual demon at first, since the guy seemingly let the kid go after chanting some kind of spell in french or something, the kid was so happy and filled with hope when he was about to open the door out before cool disfigured tentacles suddenly appeared out of nowhere and dragged the kid into the basement.
Then there were the cries of pain and the hope being drained out of the kid, even though he didn't get to see it, he could imagine what it is like.
He knew most people would be horrified and what the man had done, an evil wizard from legends living and breathing right in front of them. But for him, it was the opposite, an entirely new way to kill someone, and with magic?
It was so cool, it was something he couldn't ever imagine actually happening in a million years, and to add the final touch, the grimoire the guy had was made of human skin, it adds even more immersion to the evil wizard theme, more so than those in the stories itself.
As those evil wizards in the story are basically just normal wizards who happen to have the need to kill people, whether to do some kind of ritual or the sorts, but never actually using the bodies of their victims more than that, so you could say that this "Bluebeard" guy was the personification of what a main antagonist evil wizard should be.
The dude asked whether he was his Master or not, he didn't know what he meant by that, which was explained to be that red tattoo that spontaneously appeared and hurt a bit, but even after that he didn't care about this Holy Grail, Master and Servant thing, all he could think of is all the things he could accomplish with his new friend.
"Hey Mister Bluebeard, what was that cool demon you summoned earlier?" Uryuu asked with excitement in his eyes
"Oh, that? Those are what was called water demons, a creature from the depths of the sea tainting the Lord's perfect image of the world, a remnant of the world's past, the blasphemer feared by the commons." Caster explained with a majestic, and gleeful tone the further he describes it
"Whooaaaaa… That's cool man, can you summon more of those?" Uryuu felt like a missing piece of him was finally put back into place
"Of course! After all, one of these wouldn't be enough to bring the attention of the Lord himself to me." Uryuu tilted his head a bit at the hint of hatred when Bluebeard mentioned God
"Do you have a grudge against God or something?" Uryuu decided to ask
"Of course, it is the Lord that had given Jeanne and I our mission to change the world… and yet, when the time came when my precious Jeanne needed help, he ignored all of my prayers and cruelly let her die!" Caster rage came at full force explaining it, only his composure had stopped him from proceeding any further
"Before I was immersed in these occultic arts, I was once a knight who served as Jeanne's trusted advisor, I was with her since the very beginning, from the day the Lord came to bless us, to the day he abandoned us, it hurts me that my dear Jeanne would never see the day the result of her hard work." Caster dropped down to his knees and started crying
"This is why I took up the word of my friend and deepen myself into these blasphemous arts in the hopes of disgusting the Lord and finally have my pleadings heard!" Caster breathed heavily
"Hm… Mister Bluebeard, I think you're doing it the wrong way." Uryuu thought to himself
"Oh? What may that mistake be my newest friend?" Uryuu gives Caster a grin
"The reason God isn't coming to you is that he enjoys bloodshed." Caster's mouth gaped wide
"Think about it for a second, if this world is sculpted in the image he desires, why else would there be war, cruelty, demons and many other things? Why would he endorse devastating wars, send disasters to our way?"
"So you think… That instead of peace and tranquillity, what the Lord actually wishes for is bloodshed?" Caster grits his teeth at the thought that such a thing might actually be the case
"No, no, no. God actually wants both goods and evils, he loves the peaceful world and kind people, but he would of course bored if he only watches things like that for eternity, therefore evil came to balance it out and wreak havoc all over the world.
With evil and chaos, a new form of good is born in the form of Heroes, whether they're good or bad, God loves those protagonists and antagonists, along with the background and setting that makes each story stands out and unique from others, mold-"
"Molding the perfect image of a balanced world in which the greatest minds and heroes of humanity are formed." Caster gawked in awe at the sudden epiphany
"Uryuu, your faith in the Lord's works and his elusive hands are astounding, to think even I wasn't able to comprehend his words even when I was once in his presence."
"It was no biggie, I completely understand your feeling of helplessness, I had the same feeling of frustration too, why were there so many people crowding this world? I tried counting rocks once, but I gave up on the ten thousand mark and there are fifty thousand times more people than the rocks I counted!" Uryuu expressed his sympathy
Caster nodded in response, satisfied with this.
"Then, Uryuu, shall we paint this world red together?" "Hell yes, bring out more of those cool monsters out."
[-162:37:51] until Zero
"Rider! We need to go scout the city, you can't seriously expect us to win if all we did is stay in our base the entirety of the war." Waves attempt to pull the hulking giant pile of muscle that was Rider, but the man didn't budge a single bit
"So what boy? You have already made the necessary preparations, there's no need to rush things." Rider doesn't even bat an eye to him and focused on playing that decades advanced game
Waver grits his teeth in frustration, Rider's attitude is getting to him, last time he had calmed himself and let resigned to having this stubborn conqueror do whatever he wants, but his hands right now are itching to use the command seals, in fact, he's extremely tempted to right now.
Waver's eyes flicked to the monitor, Rider is somehow doing finely right now, he learned the ropes of the game and had invested into the technology tree and developed a couple of better units.
He had also had built a couple of military factories, and converted a lot of his civilian factories into military ones… And then his grand strategy of conquering the world was to just throw his troops into direct battles, he doesn't even bother to fully train them saying "Only men who had seen the battlefield would become true warriors"
This man sacrificed his economy into mass-producing weapons and then just throwing half baked troops into battle, he doesn't even bother to micromanage his troops to win battles that the "AI" or Artificial Intelligence couldn't perform, the only thing he does is lead the most well trained of his troops and charging in.
'Leading an example is the duty of a King,' he says with a straight face, yeah right the only reason he was winning the battles is that the troops he decide to manage are the cream of the crop of his army…
And yet somehow Waver couldn't get himself to point out that fact for the reason that somehow, by simply managing those troops he's pretty much winning the wars he waged, empirically Rider's army is at a massive disadvantage, and yet somehow he keeps winning.
'It doesn't make sense at all.' Waver sighs in dejection
"Fine! Do as you want, I'll just go ahead and to the scouting myself!" Waver yells and grumpily walked out of his room with his backpack
"Geez, I'm already regretting this before it has even started." Waver mumbles
Why couldn't he had just summoned a more obedient Servant? It doesn't need to be western Servants, hell he would settle with oriental ones if they do their job. But Rider just goes off on his own and make fun of his height.
Walking down the stairs, he's greeted by an elderly couple.
"Waver-kun. Are you going to school now, would you like to pack breakfast?" The elderly woman asked
"Yeah, Grandma. But I can stay for breakfast." His foot left the last step of the stairs and headed towards the dining table.
Placing down his bag secretly filed with all the supplies a mage would need, he pulled the chair and seated himself comfortably.
"What is Gramps doing over there?" He asked while filling his plate with the homecooked meal
"He is worried about you, recently bad things have been happening all over the city." At the perfect time, the news was interrupted
"A body has been found in an alleyway, the victim's body was desecrated and mutilated with no recognizable facial features, this murder is different from the others that have been reported as of recently, the body as if mauled by a beast, though what animal experts are still trying to figure it out."
"Waver." Glen Mackenzie called out to him
"While out in the city, stay safe in populated areas, these cases all happen in crooked places. Perhaps you could bring your friend with you." Waver nodded
"Yeah, yeah. It's fine really, I will just go out for the usual walk and get home for dinner." He assures the man
"That's good then, by the way, what is that thing that both of you brought home yesterday? It looks expensive, you shouldn't buy things like that with your pocket money, you could always ask."
"No, no! It's fine, besides it wasn't that hard to get anyway." He shook his head and denied it
"Waver…" Martha calls with a worried expression
'Damn it Waver, calm down, you're a genius mage, handle this situation better!' Waver coughs
"It's fine, someone… Someone… My friend from England sent it to me as a gift, he is wealthy and carelessly spends his money on anything he finds interesting." He lied with a boldface
The friend he was talking about of course didn't actually give him that game and computer, but he couldn't exactly say that a magic wand gave Rider it, so it was the best lie he could think of at the moment.
There was a silent tension.
"..."
"..."
"..."
The smell of burnt food interrupts the silence
"Oh no. The pancakes!" Martha exclaimed
"Grandma, let me help you." Waver stood up and went over to the kitchen where he turned off the heat.
The bottom of the pancakes is burnt to a crisp…
"..." Yeah… Definitely couldn't let her see this
Grabbing a lunch box, he moved the pancake into the box and poured maple syrup over it in the hopes it would mask the burnt taste later on.
"Waver, can you do it?" Martha arrived at the kitchen
"Yep, I've put it in my lunchbox, I'll need to go now," Waver reassures
Bringing it with him, he put on his bag with some difficulty.
"It's almost time that the first class starts. See you soon Grandma and Grandpa!" Waver waves towards their direction
"Don't forget to get home safely!" Glen shouts at him as he leaves the premises
Walking down the concrete path, he could see the sun shining brightly overhead, it was warm but not hot.
A gentle breeze blew over him, the weather was just perfect, and it's also not too cloudy.
"Gah. My luck tells me that something will go wrong today." He shook his head and turned back to the path
He walked. He walked. He walked. Walked. Walked. Walked. Walked. And walked. And walked. And walked. And walked. Then walked. Then walked. Then walked. Then walked. Then walked. And thus he continued to walk
Passing by the nearby greenery, the area the Mackenzie couple chose was on the outskirts of the city and observes the entirety of the town.
On a whim, he took out his binoculars and looked through the city.
On the bridge, there were many vehicles passing through it at this time of the day, and some people are walking through it too.
Moving his sight he could see a park, it was surprisingly devoid of people, although he could see some kind of light flashing in the distance, red and blue, maybe it's one of those murder cases that Glen was talking about
There wasn't much conclusive evidence, but he suspects that there is a rogue mage in the city, or maybe even a creature like a dead apostle.
Something like that would be really dangerous, though as a mage he has a responsibility to keep the existence of magecraft a secret, and confirming whether there was the use of magic in these cases would be one of the steps he has to take.
Or maybe even a Servant was the cause of this, no one can tell what those occult backwater mages are doing, or what their potential summons would lead to.
Waver put down his binoculars and stored them back.
"Welp here goes day number one, surely nothing could go wrong this early." He tells himself and was about to start heading towards the city, before he noticed something in the corner of his eye.
A man garbed in a navy scholar coat, white gloves, dark pants. With eyes of a bright green hue and blond hair, and most of all, with the most distinctive dignified, know it all expression.
"No way-"
"Waver… Waver Velvet…" Lord Kayneth El-Melloi Archibald
"S-Sir…" He's screwed
[-163:29:54] until Zero
He's dreaming.
It's been a long while since the last time he had dreamt up anything, over the past year all he has been doing is devote all of his time to training himself and finding a way to break through the Ainsworth's bounded field.
That plan never went anywhere as not even those ridiculously expensive black keys he had purchased off the fake priest was able to break through the spatial displacement type bounded field.
It was utterly infuriating and exhausting in that no progress was made day after day even with all the Herculean effort he had put in.
It was pain. pain. pain.
Muscles aching for each time he pushed himself into throwing the keys with ever more force than before, training to Reinforce objects in hopes of improving the keys into something conceptually strong enough to make even the tiniest of dents in the barrier.
He could stop, his body wanted to stop, his body can turn back whenever he wanted to.
There's nothing wrong with him, maybe he had some screws loose, but in the end, he was a perfectly normal human being.
He wanted to stop, he wanted to, he really did want to just stop and turn his back to the opposite side.
But he would be struck with a heart quenching amount of guilt for having that thought.
He do not want to believe in the excuse "You're human too", he didn't want to start giving up just because he was too lazy one day.
He wanted to see her once more. Play with her, bring her to festivals and create better memories even in a world as cold as winter. He desired to find her hand once more and give her a happy childhood.
"Is that why you didn't stop? You couldn't stop?" The red garbed hero questions
No, that's wrong. It's not he couldn't, he would not stop, even if he had options infinitely better than what he wanted, he would always choose the one where his little imouto would be happy.
"I see, you seem to have truly lost something. No more of the pretty ideals you held lightly, but even so what do you truly want to do? Surely you're not naive enough to believe you can get somewhere just because you wanted to?" His words are as striking as the contrasts between his white hair and dark skin
He remained silent, not wanting to respond.
"I see, even with different objectives and a different worldview, you're all still the same." The man scoffs and stared down at him with condescending eyes
"With that level of naivety but with such heavy goals, it's almost the same as trying to chase after a beast that could run endlessly. In the end, you would lose sight of that goal." The man scolds him
However, even so, he would never stop searching, he would not allow himself to let go.
"Then with some luck, you may have an encounter with the beast once more, but knowing your luck, the chances are next to none, no?" The man thought to himself deeply
"Very well, I shall give you a chance to become sharp, diligent, and become able to persevere through it, though it won't help much in the grand scheme of things, you should last longer than I did." The man rose from the hillside
With a single swipe of his hand, the landscape around him begins to change, into an endlessly far-field of snow.
"This will be your birthplace, your home, your battleground, and your grave that you will carry for the rest of your life. Nothing else matters." With a snap of the man's finger, a large hulking figure appeared in the distance.
"You may not remember this, however, to give you every little bit more chance o survival, you'd need to learn how to truly fight. This great hero is the strongest man that you would ever face, however, he is not the strongest opponent."
"Think of nothing, feel them and connect with the world, your foundation is of poor quality, even if you don't stand as tall, you would persevere through challenges longer than those who try their best into achieving the very best."
The strongest opponent that one can ever face is themselves
"▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅!" Th beast howled and rushed towards him, arriving in mere seconds.
I am the bone of my sword
He creates the strongest weapon that could ever be imagined, the greatest of lights-
"Excalibur." The divine construct releases the brightest light of the world, and a life was taken.
"Twelve lives left, fight, survive, kill, sacrifice, do anything necessary to win, that's the code that would save your life." The world of unlimited blades rains its arsenal
Shirou gasps awake, he's feeling fuzzy and confused, he felt like he's missing something.
He was definitely just dreaming, but somehow he couldn't remember anything.
"Agh, dear god the headaches. Where are these phantom pains coming from."
He rubbed his aching forehead while looking around. To his left, Kiritsugu was still clearly awake and seems to be writing some notes.
He seems busy, thankfully they didn't get the seats that are right next to each other, he didn't want to be distracting the working man.
Turning back to his seat, he decided to end all thought and stopped thinking. Staring on ahead.
Eventually, after some time, he fell back into a deep sleep.
Dreams and Unlimited Shirou's | Sponsored by Kaleidoscope Services
His memories are hazy at best, not sure where he is right now but everything around him felt dreamlike, and he sure as hell don't remember drinking anything that could intoxicate him.
"Hey, that's hell that you're walking into." A voice far too familiar to him for comfort rung through his ears
He opens his eyes, and what greeted him was a landscape of scorched earth, smoke of the forge, the heat of the blazing false sun in the distance, and a world of steel unlike his own.
"Just because you're correct doesn't mean you're right, Actually Satan!" A red-haired boy screeched at the red bowman
"That doesn't make sense, learn the meanings before you use words, right and correct are the same thing, a superposition that is being right and wrong at the same time could not exist while being observed."
"Screw logic! I want that!" 'Shirou' pointed in every direction
"No, you can't." 'Satan' denies his request
"Then I'll just take it for myself!" Shirou started grabbing all the swords, tracing them and stabbing copies into the ground…
The landscape suddenly changed
"What?" The red hero was shocked too
Stabbing the traced sword into the ground started changing the mental landscape even more so, the world of 'Shirou' is invading 'Satan's world.
"It's not over yet!" the swords somehow sprouted like a plant and transformed into Shirou's
"I want that!" 'I want that too!"
"Wha-? What is this-"
"Shut up!" "Silence, non-shirou pfp" "We are the bone of our swords!"
"That's right, my true ability is to create a world that contains an unlimited number of myself's, can you match me Actually Satan?!"
All the Shirou's ran towards Actually Satan and he swore he heard the red bowman mutter something.
"This world is a lost cause, I give up." Before the infinite number of Shirou's arrived at Satan's doorstep, the dream end.
"What- What was that?" That is the single most disturbing thing Shirou had seen in his entire life
And frankly, he wants to forget he ever saw whatever that twisted parody world ever again
Author's Notes:
Next Chapter: Accidental Start, Caster Troubles!
Haven't finished writing yet at the time of writing this text. If what I wrote goes as planned, this chapter should be mostly dedicated to interactions between the other teams, and the start of Saber and Shirou's friendship, wouldn't want to get it too rocky start.
By the way, this chapter is probably going to be published at the end of October, but still the bone of my sword allies of justice, happy Shirou Day!
I have also drawn a cover for this fanfiction, you could visit my newly created Twitter or Instagram for dem pics in high resolution, the links is in my profile bio.
Right, I just finished this chapter up, about 6900 words if we don't include the alternative world's version of Shirou's dream. A lot of this chapter is just filler and an introduction to the characters that you guys should already know if you've read the Fate/Zero light novel. We also entered a glimpse into Shirou's subconscious battle experience inheriting process, there would be a couple more of these dream chapters before Shirou inherit Archer's combat experience to the teeth and become an absolute tactical genius. There's a couple more hidden effect of these dreams, but that's spoiler territory.
I guess that's about all I have to say on this chapter, the next chapter would finish up the day. See ya guys, next month,