And I'm Back after 8 month of nothing... sorry, I will talk more about it after the chapter

I do not own any of the respective characters and all rights go to the respective owners.

A Bladed path of crimson

# Forging commencing part 2

With a tired look in his eyes, a gray-haired old man sits on his veranda looking up towards the cloudless night sky.

A cold breeze flows through the garden making the old man shiver and pulls the haori on his shoulder closer to himself before reaching his old and calloused hand towards a cup of tea at his side. 'Cold.' Only to frown at the cup of tea in his hand before returning the cup to his side with a sigh.

"Guess I have been out here longer than I anticipated." With a sigh, the old man lifts himself while grabbing his cup before turning around and beginning to walk inside towards the kitchen.

Placing the teacup down on the kitchen counter, a few coughs slip out from the old man before he pulls out a handkerchief from his yukata to wipe off the bits of spit and blood from his cheeks.

"Guess I ain't got much time left in me huh." Looking down at the handkerchief the old man lets out a small chuckle before placing it back into his pocket and walking out of the kitchen.

As the old man walks down the veranda, he stops as he looks towards a small smithy out in the corner of his garden, a small glint in his eyes as he turns towards it, a single step forward, but before the old man gets any closer, he shakes his head with a deep and tired sigh. "I'm too old for this shit."

And with a tired look in his eyes, he turns around and goes to bed, a single wish deep within his heart, yet unfulfilled.

Slowly opening his eyes, Shirou Gremory found himself looking up at the very familiar ceiling of his room, hundreds of thoughts running through his mind as confusion overtook him, all of them having only one consistency in common. "W-What happened?"

"I think that's what everyone wants to be asking you right now Shirou." A familiar voice replied close to the door.

"M-Mother? Argh!" Shocked from hearing his mother and still a bit groggy from just waking up, he would try to sit himself up with his hands, only for the pain to shoot up through his left arm.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Venelana says to Shirou as she slowly walks to the side of his bed and sits down. "Not after what you did yesterday."

"Yesterday?" Shirou asks, confused as he notices the cast around his arm, he puts his right hand on it while turning his gaze towards his mother. "What happened yesterday?"

"You don't know what happened?" Seeing Shirou shake his head, she lets out a sigh before asking him again. "Can you tell me how much you remember?"

"Not much really and most of what I do remember is hazy." Shirou tries to think of what he can remember from yesterday, but most of it is blurry and hard to piece together. "I-I Remember training my magic a-and I think sparring with Okita?"

"And how much can you remember from the spar?" A third voice speaks up at the door, making both Venelana and Shirou turn towards the voice, finding Zeoticus walking in with a frown on his face.

"Not a lot really, the only thing I can remember from the spar was the beginning with the rest being a total blank," Shirou replies, turning towards his father. "Why are you asking?"

"Because whatever you did at the end, sent Okita flying with heavy bruising on his back from the crash." Zeoticus Answers as he comes to a stop beside Venelana. "And it damaged your body pretty badly."

"I see, guess that explains this thing on my arm." Shirou lets out a sigh as he waves the arm with the cast on with an annoyed expression. "But it still doesn't ring a bell, nothing is really coming back with that."

"I see, then maybe this will help you remember, Okita said you summoned it after speaking some incarnation," Zeoticus raised one of his hands as a small magic circle began to appear on it, and from it, a naked katana blade began to appear. "He didn't hear clearly what you said, but from what he got, it was something in line with 'Thousand blades' and 'Pile of swords'."

Shirou's breath hitched in his throat as his eyes began to widen when Zeoticus explained it and he began to sweat a lot as his eyes turned to the katana in Zeoticus' hand. Memories began to invade his mind as information about the katana's make and history began entering his mind as confusion overcame him.

How? Looking into the history of the katana revealed something that should be impossible. The blade's history is not very old, but still tells him something insane.

He made it. He is the one who created the katana through his Unlimited Blade Works, something he thought was impossible to do.

Sure, he has tried in the past, but they would always be hollow and lack the substance needed to be worth it, or he would try too hard and end up hurting himself, so it would always be better to just copy a sword made outside UBW.

Now though? Now he's not so sure anymore, as the katana is telling him something completely different, something he is planning on investigating later as now is not the time.

"Looks like that helped you remember something if that reaction is something to go off on." After having waited for Shirou to say something. Only to see him freezing up after seeing the katana in his hand, Zeoticus finally said something.

"Something like that," Shirou replies nervously, looking to the side, thinking of what to do. Lying wouldn't work as they would see right through him, but telling them the whole truth wouldn't work either because of multiple reasons. The only thing he could think of that would work is half-truth and so with a deep breath, he turned to look up at his parents and pointed at the katana.

"I didn't summon that katana, I made it, with my magic."

"Sorry, what?" A look of surprise appeared on both parents' faces, Zeoticus turning to the katana blade in confusion. "You said you made it, but swords made through magic are normally very brittle and weak, this however could send Okita flying without so much as a nick to the edge."

To demonstrate his point, he made what looked like a normal kitchen knife in his other hand and put very little pressure on it, snapping it almost instantly and turning it into particles.

Afterward, he did the same with the katana, but nothing happened to it. "See what I mean, it doesn't even bend at all. So while most devils can make objects through their magic, they don't bother to, as the amount of time and concentration it takes to make even the simplest of items would be too much of a hassle."

"Yet I still made that katana blade."

"While we don't want to doubt you Shirou, you must understand that it is pretty hard to believe that," Venelana replies with an apologetic smile.

"Especially when what you are saying means you made it in an instant while fighting Okita." Zeoticus continues.

"I know it may look far-fetched, but I'm serious." Seeing that both his parents don't believe what he just said, he points a finger towards the katana to draw their focus on it and undoes his projection, surprising both his parents, but just to further cement the fact, two exact copies of said katana appears on top of his bed, surprising them even more. "See."

Without saying a word, Zeoticus picks both blades up and begins to examine them with a critical eye. Silence fills the room as he does this, Shirou waiting patiently, with Venelana taking a glance towards the door while waiting for her husband.

After a little while, Zeoticus sighs and places both blades onto the bed again. "Both of them are the exact same katanas."

"Truly?" Venelana asks curiously.

"Yes, everything from size and weight, to even the Hamon patterns on them, everything the same on them," Zeoticus answers his wife's question while holding his focus on Shirou. "So how long have you been able to do this?"

"I have been able to do this for as long as I can remember," Shirou stated to his father.

"And why didn't you tell us?" A frown appears on Zeoticus' face.

"I didn't think it was important, so I didn't want you to worry about it." Shirou nervously replied, turning his eyes away from Zeoticus.

"And that would have been fine if that was the actual reason as to why you didn't tell us, but we both know that is not the case." Cold sweat ran down Shirou's brows as Zeoticus stared him down. "I can believe your reasoning of not wanting to worry us, but that it's not important enough to tell us is definitely up for debate."

"I-I don't think it was anything worth mentioning." Shirou tried reasoning.

Not looking impressed by his son's excuse, Zeoticus just raises his fingers in the air one by one. "Firstly is the ability to create weapons of such high quality that it didn't even chip attacking an ultimate-class devil, secondly is the ability to strengthen yourself to such a degree that even an ultimate-class devil had trouble to block it, and thirdly is having the ability to reach a speed surprising even the fastest knight in the whole underworld."

"So you telling me that it's not worth mentioning is pretty hard to believe," Zeoticus replied with a harsh voice.

Shirou didn't know what to do at this moment when his father stared him down, anything he could say would only dig the hole he had already dug deeper, and he couldn't come up with anything to get him out of the situation, so he just kept his mouth shut.

An awkward silence began filling the room as no one said anything and after a little while, Zeoticus moved to sit on the bed, letting out a tired sigh as the tension in his body left him. "We're worried Shirou, what you did yesterday was dangerous and you're lucky you got away with only a broken arm."

"What do you mean?" Turning his head around, Shirou looked at his father with a frown.

"From what the doctor told us, a magical overload in your body caused most of your injuries, likely from strengthening your body beyond what it can safely handle if his hypothesis is true."

"Oh…" A chill went down Shirou's body after hearing that, how could it not, he knows what happens when one reinforces one's body beyond what it can handle, he has seen it and tried it himself. Muscle tearing, bones breaking, and blood vessels bursting from the pressure and that's if you're lucky, else the part you reinforce can explode from the amount of pressure.

"Good, I can see you understand the danger, so don't do that stunt again, you understand?" Receiving a nod from Shirou, Zeoticus stands up with Venelana following suit. "Good, then I will take my leave so you can rest."

"Good night Shirou." Venelana gives Shirou a small smile while leaving with Zeoticus, surprising him.

"Night?" Looking at the clock he sees it's around the time he normally goes to bed, seeing that a rumble could be heard coming from his stomach. "Great…"

Hearing the rumble, both parents turn to look at each other before a small smile embraces them both before turning to an embarrassed Shirou. "We'll get someone to fetch you something to eat."

Scratching the back of his head, Shirou gives his parents an awkward thanks before wishing them goodnight.

With the last farewell between them, both Zeoticus and Venelana leave, and not long after a maid comes in with something light to eat and after he finishes eating, she also leaves, leaving Shirou alone to his thoughts.

Looking up at the ceiling shocked at what he heard tonight, Thinking about how he ended up in this mess and how he was going to explain it without revealing everything to them. 'Not yet, I know I won't be able to hold it a secret forever, but the time just isn't right.' A tired sigh escapes as he turns in his bed, his eyes focusing on nothing in particular. "And then there are those words again…"

Not getting anywhere with his thoughts, he closes his eyes and lets himself fall asleep, and for the first time in forever getting a dreamless rest.

The morning after Shirou would wake up later than he normally would, a feeling of soreness through his body and an uncomfortable itch around his left eye he couldn't do anything against, both things he didn't remember having the night before.

Said things however didn't stop him from finding time to do his morning training with magecraft before leaving for breakfast, though it would make it a pain to get through. After getting through his daily routine of tracing different varieties of weapons, he would set himself into doing something he hadn't tried in a long time and thought he never would, the creation of a sword born solely from his reality marble.

Closing his eyes and letting every stray thought disappear focusing only on one single objective, he slowly activated his circuits and began.

"Judging the concept of creation." A sword forged through the Unlimited Blade Works with the origin of birth being the Unlimited Blade Works.

"Hypothesizing the basic structure." No predetermined structure set, a creation of one through own image set, a simple short sword with no special characteristics.

Sweat began to run down Shirou's body as his focus became harder to hold, yet he fought through and continued as blue lines began traveling across his body.

"D-Duplicating the composition material." No predetermined material set, choice of material in process, the material chosen, 1095 carbon steel.

"I-Imitating the skill of its m-making." No skills to imitate, use of one's own skills and knowledge needed.

The stress on Shirou's mind from focusing on making a workable sword was beginning to be too much as he tried to make the sword, his body and night clothes drenched in sweat. Staying on the stages longer than he would have liked he finally tried to move on to the next step, but the once blue lines on his body began to flicker red, the pain increasing the faster the lines flickered until finally he couldn't take it anymore without fear of permanently hurting himself and he stopped, falling onto his back breathing heavily.

Looking up at his ceiling for a few minutes letting his body cool down and his thoughts wander. Again it happened, I tried with everything I could, but yet it still wasn't enough. Something must have triggered it to happen, but what?' Nothing concrete stood out to him, the best he could come up with was half-baked theories and ideas, yet none of them seemed plausible to him.

Laying on his bed after minutes of theorizing he began to feel uncomfortable as he lay there drenched in a cooling sweat. Sitting up and jumping out of bed, Shirou grabbed some clothes and left to clean himself up, getting ready for the day.

Walking through the halls of the Gremory mansion, Shirou lets out a bored sigh after having nothing to do. After he was done eating, both his parents told him that his private lessons had been canceled for the day so he could relax both physically and mentally.

Shirou had tried saying that he was fine, but.

"I'm fine, you don't need to worry so much," Shirou replied, giving them both a small smile.

"Ah-ha, and didn't you say that last time too, and how did that go?" Only for the smile to strain at his father's nonchalant reply while he was reading the daily newspaper.

"Bu-"

"No buts Shirou, we serious about this, you told us last time that you were fine when you were clearly not, and see what happened." Venelana cut him off before he could get a chance to say anything, a worried look appearing on her face when her focus went towards his bandaged arm.

"So how about just enjoying not having to worry about lessons today and maybe doing something fun for a change, instead of working all the time?" His father chimed in afterward, closing the papers while giving him the look indicating they weren't going to change their mind.

After getting shot down without a chance to negotiate, the only thing Shirou could do was reply with an 'ok' and leave quietly, closing the door behind him.

"Something fun huh…" Stopping and looking out of a window with a faraway look on his face, he watched the butlers and maids doing their daily activities.

"Great…"After a little while, he just let out an annoyed sigh and began turning around.

"Boo!"

"Ahhh!" Before getting spooked by a wild Rias popping out of nowhere.

"ha, finally gotcha for once." A victorious smirk appeared on her face.

"Was that really necessary Rias?" Shirou asked exasperated.

"Not really, just felt like doing it and you made it too easy," Rias replied, giving him a not-so-innocent smile.

"Of course," Shirou said with a twitch in his eye, walking away.

Walking down the hall, Rias strides up beside him and begins matching walking pace, both of them not saying anything to each other.

After a while of them both walking, with none of them talking to each other and Rias following him even when he tries to change direction, Shirou begins to get an uncomfortable feeling that his sister is up to something and takes a peek towards her, hoping to figure out what she was planning, but only seeing her humming a small tune to herself with a smile.

Sensing that she wouldn't stop following him, he chose to bite the bullet and get it over with. "What do you want?"

"What do I want, oh I wonder?" putting a finger on her chin, Rias replied with a hum and a thoughtful expression. After a few seconds, a more angry expression appeared on her face as she faced her brother. "How about you start with the reason why you didn't tell me?"

"Tell you what?" Shirou replied nervously.

"Don't play dumb with me Shirou, you know exactly what. Why did you keep your powers a secret!" Rias shouted back at Shirou, not in the mood for him trying to deflect the subject. "We're twins, aren't we supposed to tell each other stuff like that, or am I wrong?"

"No Rias, you're not wrong, it's just…" Shirou tried replying, but he slowly just stopped talking, knowing his sister wouldn't like what he was about to say.

"Spil it."

"It's just that I didn't really think about… it." The more Shirou spoke the slower he became as the glare from his sister got more intense, but when he finished talking the glare vanished from her face before a very familiar smile replaced it and Shirou could only think of one thing as the sensation of Rias power began to flair. "Shit."

Rias smile widened even further.

"Well, that happened." Closing the door, Shirou let out a sigh as he leaned against the closed door, rubbing his eyes with his working hand.

Rias wasn't as merciful as their mother and father were to let him go when he wasn't comfortable talking about it, choosing instead to be more forceful in her methods, and in the end he cracked, wanting to get her off his back. He told her that he kept it a secret because he wanted to be more proficient in it before revealing it, feeling that his control wasn't up to the standard he had set for himself and he didn't feel comfortable revealing such stuff unless he had a better understanding of the problems he had.

While most of it was true, it wasn't the full truth and he felt bad about it, knowing that he had to keep secrets from a family he's come to care for and respect, both for the love and care they gave him even knowing that he wasn't that talented. Most devil families he had heard about would have called him a failure compared to Rias and Sirzechs, he could see that with Sairaorg Bael and his mother, both being ousted after Sairaorg didn't show any capabilities of using magic at all. So seeing his parents care and help him get better in any way they could warmed his heart, but he also knew it wasn't the right time to tell them either. Devils lived for centuries and while he was still coming to terms with that fact himself, he knew that his secret would not be an easy one to protect for long, but was still necessary to keep for at least a while longer.

Pulling his hand away from his face, he turns his attention to the room he had entered, the Gremory family library which contains most of the books and tomes the Gremory could get their hands on, other than the more classified information hidden away somewhere else. Rows upon rows of bookshelves over four meters tall, a cozy reading area at the wall across from the entrance, with a sofa and a few chairs creating a half circle around a giant fireplace, small side tables standing beside the chairs and sofa, looking up one could see a second floor leading to even more bookshelves filled to the brim with books.

Everything added up to this grandiose library that would take decades to get through even half of it, the sheer size of it making Shirou uncomfortable just being in there as he had never truly gotten used to devils over the top architecture and designing, even after 8 years of living as one of them.

Shaking his head to focus, he began walking further into the library until he reached the reading area before he stopped and turned around. Looking at all the shelves filled him with dread, knowing he would have to look through most of them to find the books he was searching for. Knowing this would probably take hours, he stretched his body before letting out a sigh, muttering to himself in a bored but firm tone. "Guess I better get this over with."

Shirou began his search, starting from one side, and slowly made his way through the sections, he took his time skimming each and every title, even going as far as taking the books whose titles piqued his interest along the way and skimming the description on them before deciding whether he should put it back or take it with him.

While the way all the books had been sorted was understandably through alphabetical order through the shelves, that only went so far with the first letter which afterward it was a jungle to find anything of value if you wanted to find books about weaponry as he was, then you were in for a tiring ride of actually finding them, none of them were on the same selves, want to find something about Holy swords then you need to go to the H section, Demonic swords, then it's the D section, it was never collected together either and it made the whole search take that much longer than was necessary.

After a few hours of searching, Shirou had amassed a small pile of different books, all of them having something to do with either weapons, myths, or legends, with most of them geared more towards demonic and Shintoism.

placing the pile of books onto one of the small side tables beside the sofa with a huff, Shirou looked at the pile with a satisfied smile before a small yawn escaped his mouth. Rubbing his eyes, Shirou turned his attention towards the unlit fireplace and walked over and arranged the wood, looking for anything to light it with after being done, only to find nothing to light it with.

"Of Course, magic, how could I forget." Shirou let out a sigh before he looked around, seeing no one there, he turned back and traced a small dagger with reddish steel and fed a small amount of magical energy into it, igniting a flame around the blade, he placed the edge of the dagger against the wood and let the fire spread.

With the fireplace lit, Shirou detraced the dagger and returned to the sofa and made himself comfortable on it, took a book from the pile beside him, and read the title on the cover, 'Swords of the east,' Shirou opened the book and began reading it, skimming through most of its contents, stopping when he got to the history of Muramasa. Shirou read most of the book's content about Muramasa, getting nothing of what he wanted as it only talked about their properties and the legends about them, something he already knew, but nothing about the smith himself.

Shirou placed the book back and took another one, doing the same action of skimming through most of its content, then reading about Muramasa, but getting nothing of worth again, he placed it back and repeated the action again, and again, and again.

Each book he took and read, he got the same result of either the book talking about the same thing as the others, or it didn't have anything at all about Muramasa. Every time he finished a book, he would place it on a separate pile that had already gotten taller than the books he still hadn't read yet.

"Still nothing, is there something I'm missing?" He was beginning to feel tired after having read for hours now and after still not finding anything important he was also beginning to feel discouraged, but he was still not giving up and continued to fight through it, and it bore fruit in the end when he picked up a book about different Japanese families through history.

Shirou opened the book and began going through it, his interest peaking reading the pages. "The Five Principal Clans, huh, let's see, Doumon, Himejima, Kushihashi, Nakiri, and Shinra. Each the keeper of a sacred beast, huh, probably for another time."

While Shirou was interested in learning more, it wasn't what he was after, and continued flipping through the pages, skipping families that weren't on the objective, yet some of the names he noted for later, those being the Masamune, Nanaya, Ryougi, and Sakatsuki families.

Shirou didn't think much of the book, in the beginning, only picking it for the off chance that it had something useful about Muramasa, yet as he skimmed through it he found the book to be extremely interesting, ending up not caring about whether it had anything on Muramasa or not, but luckily it did have something about them, as when he flipped through the pages, he finally found the page about Muramasa.

"All right, let's see." Looking more in-depth at what he read through the pages, a history that those from the regular world didn't know of was revealed to him, while it was common knowledge that the Muramasa was a family of swordsmiths that had a reputation for making demonic swords, that wasn't the whole truth.

Muramasa was a family of swordsmiths that had their limelight doing the Entoku to Shōchō Era or through the 1480s to 1600s eras, but afterward disappeared from the common history and was thought to have died out. That wasn't however the case, as they rather went into isolation, wanting nothing to do with the outside world and would rather perfect their craft, yet not one reached the level of the third, Muramasa Sengo, who was the embodiment of the Muramasa clan's peak.

The family needed, later on, to go into hiding after their swords became symbols of anti-Tokugawa, and supporters of the Tokugawa began hunting them down, leaving only a single line left to succeed the Muramasa line, who gained the protection of the west youkai faction and have continued to do so to the modern age.

Shirou continued to read, but in the end, 'there was nothing truly of worth, great, at least now I know they are still around I guess.' A sigh escaped his lips as he turned to the last page.

"And when was this book made, early 1900-hundreds, huh."

Closing the book, Shirou placed the book on its own, interested in reading it at another time, and took another book, continuing to read, completely forgetting the time as the hours continued to go by.

The days for the old man went as they always did, monotonous, uneventful, and utterly boring.

Every day he would wake up, eat breakfast, drink morning tea, go for a walk while watching the fauna, go home, eat lunch, sit at the veranda watching the garden, eat dinner, read a book, and go to bed.

Always the same old routine that he had gotten himself in, with the only difference being his grandkids coming by ever so often, however rarely that is.

He knew he didn't have long to live, his body growing weaker by the day, and yet he never could reach that peaceful slumber he knew waited for him in the end, something inside him never allowed it, so he continued living this uneventful life a while longer until a certain day came.

It was the same uneventful day as any other before it, but instead of reading, the book lay forgotten, the full moon being the only thing occupying his view, shining down on him with its silver luster.

Something felt different, he didn't know what, but he couldn't relax because of it.

His mind wandered to days gone by, when the only thing he had to focus on was the roaring fire, the steel in his grip, and the hammer, shaping the steel, ooh how he missed those days, the days where his life had meaning, where he could do what he loved! But, nothing is meant to last, and his days in the forge are now nothing but a memory of the days gone by.

The old man let out a chuckle, if he didn't think he was old before, now he knew, reminiscences of the 'good old day' like his old man before him.

His eyes drifted away from the moon, the humor dying with the thought, eyes wandering toward the old forge in the garden, old and forgotten, not having been lit in years, the same yearning to do what he loved, but instead of smoldering the flames, he finally does what he wished to do oh so long ago, he sets that small ember in him alight and stood up.

Every step he took, his heart beat faster, every breath he took, his adrenaline rose, and every second it took, a red mist grew thicker, he didn't know if it was his mind playing tricks on him or not, but he didn't care, what he cared about was to do what he loved, one final time.

When he finally reached the forge, he did what always felt natural to him, igniting the forge, picking the metal to use, and beginning the process of forging a sword.

Every time the hammer struck the steel, the fire inside him pulsed, every time he folded the steel, his soul rang with a melody of peace, and every time he heated the metal, he felt more alive than he have in years, he put every fiber of his being into the sword, forgetting everything else around him, the night became day, the day became night, he didn't eat, he didn't sleep, it didn't matter to him, the only thing he had on his mind was the steel in his hands.

Days upon days of none stop forging, putting every fiber of his being into the steel, shaping it, strengthening it, and giving it life, not caring that his body was giving out on his, he continued like he was possessed, never once resting, blood dripped from his hands, yet he didn't care, eyes turned red with insanity, yet he couldn't care less, all that matter for him was the sword in front of him, nothing else.

After days of non-stop hammering and the fire roaring, everything went quiet, not a sound could be heard, not even the once lively wildlife uttered a sound, the silence was deafening for anyone who dared approach the mansion.

"Grandpa!" Yet there was one little girl who dared, a small girl no older than ten years of age, one who walked in with a smile so dazzling and innocent, yet when she entered the mansion, no one answered her call.

"Is he still sleeping?" an innocent thought, yet when she checked the bedroom no one was there, she checked the living room next, then the kitchen, and finally she began walking down the veranda. "Where is he?"

She continued her journey, finally noticing a book lay forgotten on the floor, picking it up, she looked confused at it before finally looking out to the garden, her eyes wandering towards the forge, the door slightly open, a look of worry marring her face as she stood up and moved her feet forward.

"Grandpa, are you in there?"

"..." No answer.

"Hello." her voice slightly shaking.

"..." Yet there was still no answer

"Grandpa?" Finally, she reached the door, her eyes darting back and forth between the house and the forge, contemplating if she just goes home and comes another time, yet she continued as she opened the door fully, letting the sunlight shine into the forge, and when it did, she froze, her face slowly turning pale, her eyes widening with tears, as a trembling hand slowly moved up and covered her mouth, yet it did not stop the ear piercing scream that escaped her lips as she fell on her butt, shaking uncontrollably.

In front of her laid none other than her grandpa, dead and withered, an empty husk of skin and bones, his face drenched in a pool of dried blood, tear streaks of blood running down from his nose and eyes, his fingers skinless and bloody as if someone had filed them away, and right in front of her, a naked katana blade so beautiful yet so sinister, no color escaping its darkened blade, as bloody fingerprints were edge into the tang of the blade, it gave off a malevolence like nothing she had seen before in her life.

She ran, her eyes frozen in horror.

She would never be the same, her innocence stolen that day.

Author Notes:

Yeah, so firstly I will say sorry for going kinda radio silent for 8 month, life's been hectic with a lot of stuff happening.

Story specifik reasons for why it took so long was because I was part of the Alex keller writing contest and wanted to get this chapter out before feb 10, but when there was a day or so left, I reread it and it just felt wrong to me, really out of place and such, so I scrapped it and planned on rewriting it, but I just didn't had time which blew out my sails a bit.

The other reason was that it just didn't feel right a lot of time, like I was writing something wrong and I didn't know why, in the end I just began writing when and we got what we have here, I'm not the biggest fan myself, but I just wanted to flesh out the story and set some stuff up for what I'm actually excited for.

Let's check the reviews, and I'm suprised that most of it is positive, thanks!

A guest in spanish: While yes Shirou is "nerfed", that's because he's a kid, he still growing up and is not going all out, and I gave him PoD and demonic magic because of how crazy DxD power scaling was going to be later on and I felt it could give some interesting story telling that hasn't really been done before.

Azelios: While he did reach the root, remember his memories got fractured because of it, he can't remember what happened in there because of an overload of infomation.

keybladelight: at somepoint he will, he hasn't found out yet, I wanted to write something here, but felt it would be too much.

W8W: I am planning on giving reason as to why someone loves Shirou, some probably better than others, but that would depend om writing skills xD. Also the things you pointed out with Rias I am think about and have some idea about it, but I will keep the Rizer arc, as I feel like it would be good for character and relationship building, but it would be changed to fit better with what I'm writing.

TheSlySage: sad to tell you, but this is a harem story, but I am still in the planning phase of whose who is going to join.

Well I guess that's all I wanted to answer for now, and Thank you all for the positive feedback and sorry it took so long for me to get this out.