Author's Notes: I own nothing. Familiar of Zero belongs to Noboru Yamaguchi while Fate/Stay Night - Heaven's Failure is a Doujinshi made by Limit Break.
Legend of the Sword Dancer: Watching the Seeds Grow
The Kaleidoscope...
Was the optical instrument named after True Magic? Or was the True Magic named after the optical instrument?
Those who peek into the instrument will see a multitude of colors. It is the same to those who can use the True Magic, but instead of colors, will see multiple worlds. There is no one description to how these worlds begin to exist. Some would describe it as a tapestry where each thread a is a world parallel with each other. Some would describe it as a tree, where each branch is an outcome of the same trunk or beginning. And another would just count the numbers, both positive and negative.
And within the Boundary Between Worlds, Zelretch sits and watches the bud bloom. He sees Emilya sitting at the table with her new family, then her being taught how to read by Eileen, and later at night training with her sister Karin.
"Have you not interfered enough?" a voice called out. "It is better to just send her back to where she belongs than save a dying world."
"A fragment of an Ultimate One was planted on that world." Zelretch replied. "The Aristoteles of Conquest and Strife, not to mention the Will of that Planet has already made plans to end life."
"The trunk cannot be affected if the dying branch is cut." the other person offered. "It would be better that way, remove one branch, save the tree."
"But the cause of the dying branch can transfer to another one," Zelretch countered. "By grafting the girl near the dying part, she can be the cure to prevent the damage."
"Yet you also tampered with the minds of the locals, making them accept her easier." the other person added. "You purposely made the girl exist in a world where she doesn't."
"You are older than me Merlin," Zelretch replied. "You must realize that one must make sure the grafted bud will grow and be accepted, otherwise, the grafting process is useless."
"I have told you to never call me by that name brat." the man snapped.
"Oh, my apologies Kevin." Zelretch corrected. "You really should meet your counter-parts, they might help you lighten up."
The man said nothing and started to walk away. The sound of a locomotive could be heard, and a large train appeared stopping in front of Kevin.
"I should have stopped you years ago," Kevin stated. "When you first accessed the power to travel between worlds, I was annoyed that a magician was able to replicate the functions of the Key of Infinite, yet your cause was admirable, and still is, so instead I let you be."
"Pray that the disease I try to prevent never make it to your branch." Kevin warned.
After that parting words, the man entered the train and it gradually sped up and entered another dimension.
"And may the ones I prevent never reach yours." Zelretch said as the train disappeared.
A year have passed, Emilya spent her days either getting taught by Eileen, and/or secretly training with Karin. Laurence had hired a tutor for Emilya, an Earth Mage named Rex Lapis and have gifted her her practice wand. Sadly the mage soon discovered that he cannot teach the child anything advanced beyond simple earth spells, which Emilya found odd since she could not use any of the standard elements when she was Shirou Emiya. The mage/tutor was surprised when Laurence told him about Emilya's Weapon Creation Spell.
"The child may be a cripple Lord Mailliart." Rex said, before immediately explaining. "Not in an offending way my lord."
"Explain." Laurence demanded.
"My colleague Sir Venti describes Karin as "the girl who calls the wind" among his peers," Rex explained. "Normally, when a mage cast a spell, it would take a certain amount of willpower. Let us say that both Karin and Venti has a willpower count of 100, and both of them cast [Levitation, Venti would use 10 counts of will power while Karin only needs 5 counts. Even though both of them are Wind Mages, Karin is more Elementally Aligned to Wind than Sir Venti, therefore her spells may either cost less willpower than normal, or stronger than normal."
"And how is that related to Emilya?" Laurence asked.
"It may be due to her Elemental Alignment Lord Mailliart." Rex explained. "She may be more Elementally Aligned to Metal, than Earth. Similar to the late Queen Elsa, who could cast Ice Spells better than Water Spells."
"So you cannot teach her?" Laurence asked.
"We have started on the basic Earth Spells my lord." Rex answered. "I shall teach her all that I will be able to."
Jealousy was never Karin's problem. As the only child for a long time, she would just ask her father and she would get what she wanted. That was until Emilya came to their lives. Her parent's had to divide their attention between them. During their first lesson together with Eileen, Emilya was awkward and shy, but still somehow demonstrated a more ladylike presence every time. She didn't know what to feel when she overheard her father and Emilya's tutor discussing.
At first she was proud that her tutor had high praise for her, but became jealous when they talked about Emilya's Unique Alignment. While a subset of the Earth Element, from what Karin understood, Emilya can outclass even the best Earth Mages when it comes to Metal Crafting, and steel is a well sought after metal.
"They compared her to Queen Elsa." she thought.
The enigmatic Queen of Tristain three generations ago, one of the women who Karin looked up to. Unlike previous queens who only sat beside the king, she instead fought for her country, and her greatest victory was besting Drache von Germania, Germania's Strongest Fire Mage during her generation.
The story told by the archivist tells during her time, a newly discovered mine at the border of Germania and Tristain was discovered by Tristain's Earth Mages. But Germania caught wind of this, and immediately started a mining town before Tristain could, sending Drache and his army as guards. This became a heated dispute between Tristain and Germania. Tristain could not fight back because they were outnumbered. But Germania's Emperor was feeling generous, believing that Drache could not be defeated in a duel, challenged Tristain's King, stating that if anyone from Tristain could defeat Drache, he will surrender the mine.
The King sent his best Water Mages to fight, but were all defeated. Drache's fire was intense enough to not only evaporate water, but also melted the earth. The then Princess Elsa secretly donned a knights armor that only bore Tristain's coat of arms, and answered the challenge. For every fire spell Drache would cast, the princess would answer in kind with an ice spell.
According to the archivist their duel lasted for almost an hour, until Drache had enough and cast his most powerful fire spell. It was described as a square-class [Flame Pillar] spell that burns everything and left no trace, not even ash. The spell struck the disguised princess, and was brought to her knees. The Germanian Crowd cheered as Drache stepped towards the kneeling knight with the intent to finish the duel. However before he could come near, a ring of ice formed around the disguised princess, and she shakily stood up, water dripping from inside the armor. It was said that frost formed around them and Drache once more cast his [Flame Pillar, only to be caught off guard by the sudden cold. Cold air blasted from the arena, and when it died down, the onlookers saw nothing but ice. An image was burned into the minds of the onlookers as they saw the disguised princess standing, and before her, a frozen pillar of ice that was once Drache's [Flame Pillar, and the man himself who was frozen while casting. Tristain's crowd cheered and Germania's Emperor had no choice but to honor his words, and surrendered the mine to Tristain. This secret was then revealed when the princess was crowned Queen, and later give a name to her spell.
[Frozen Elysium]
It was one cold morning that Karin arrived a bit late to her mother's lessons, and found Eileen and Emilya began without her. She saw that Eileen taking her time teaching Emilya, not because Emilya is a slow learner but the exact opposite. It was as if Emilya has been a "proper lady" her whole life, while she was the brash and had headed one. Her tutor Sir Venti compares her to the wind, unrestrained and free, but that was not what she wanted. She wanted to impress her mother as well, sadly Emilya overshadows her, both a lady and a fighter.
"That's it!" Karin shouted, as her mother reprimanded her and once more compared her to Emilya.
"I challenge you to a Duel of Honors!" Karin said pointing at Emilya.
"Karin!" Eileen gasped. "It is not ladylike to-"
"The stakes?" Emilya asked. She already noticed Karin hated being compared to her. But hearing it daily must have pushed her. She couldn't help it however, the girl that was once Shirou Emiya was, as dubbed by Saber, Rin and Sakura, the perfect househusband.
"If I win you'll be my personal maid for a week." Karin declared.
"And if I win?" Emilya asked.
"That's up to you to decide."
When Laurence was informed of the duel, he was worried. When Karin stormed of to somewhere, Emilya explained that she noticed Karin's insecurities. Both husband and wife blamed themselves, they were to occupied with Emilya that they didn't notice the subtle hints their daughter showed. Laurence was also informed of the secret training ground that will be their arena.
"Emilya," Eileen said in a worried tone. "Is it too much to ask you to lose? A week is only a short time."
"Karin is not dense Eileen, she would even feel worse if Emilya purposely lost." Laurence explained. "She takes so much after you, proud and headstrong."
"I fear she inherided not only my hair color Laurence." Eileen sighed. "She may have inherited too much from the Marilarc Family."
"Yes," Laurence sighed. "Your father only allowed me to court you if I win a duel against him."
"I remember you losing all of them." Eileen smiled. "But you never gave up, stuborn till the end, until father allowed you to court me."
"Don't remind me." Laurence sighed. "I guess Karin also inherited my stuborness."
"Still," Eileen said as her eyes wondered the secret training ground. "For her to build her own training ground hidden behind the greenhouse-"
"She is still determined to be a knight." Laurence finished.
It was no secret that even at a young age, Karin aspired to be a knight. Eileen kept the lessons to dissuade her as she grew old, but it seemed that she failed. But she suddenly realized that since Emilya came, Karin tried her best to follow her lessons. Maybe she could still be a knight and at the same time a proper noble lady.
"I'll go change as well Father, Mother, a dress is not suited for a duel." Emilya bowed.
"Is it too late to discourage this duel?" Eileen asked. "You might get badly hurt."
"It will only get worse if we don't continue, just as Father has said," Emilya explained before leaving. "Just be there to support her, either she wins or loses, Mother."
Minutes later Karin arrived wearing a white dress shirt, an extremely short shorts, black socks that reached up to her tighs, and a pair of brown gloves and boots. She also had a long blue sleeveless coat that reached her boots. A holster with her sword-wand was held at her belt.
She scanned the surrounding, noticing Laurence and Eileen were present. Emilya must have informed them of the secret training ground.
"Where is she?" Kairn thought. "The coward must have ran off."
Minutes later, Emilya entered the training ground wearing a black seamless shirt and pants, and boots. She wore a short red coat that reached her waist, held together by metal chains in front, and a red open skirt that reached her shins. Emilya wanted to be original, but still somehow ended creating clothes similar yet different form Archer EMIYA.
"I see you didn't run off." Karin said, drawing her sword-wand.
"Sister-"
"Don't call me sister!" Karin snapped. "You aren't even a real Mailliart!"
Emilya however didn't answer back and instead took a stance. Karin saw Emilya's lips moved before light briefly gather into her hands before a pair of black and white short swords appeared. Karin also took a stance, and willed the wind to form a blade.
"We will settle this." Karin declared.
POST CHAPTER NOTES:
I like Honkai Impact's way of explaining their Multiverse, from the God Beneath the Sea to Sea of Quanta to the Imaginary Tree. And I found it surprising that Kevin Kaslana is their version of Merlin.
To answer some reviews on the previous chapter (this is not all reviews though as some reviews may be integral to the plot):
1. I've been using Genshin Impact names, well I kinda need names, I suck at making OCs. Also speaking of G.I., my gatcha luck suck so bad that I've spent 10k Primogems in said game and I've not pulled a 5* Character/Weapon. My friend pulled a Diluc & Jean with the 10 Free Pulls, and I wanted to murder him. Oh don't worry, Primogems are in-game rewards so I'm yet to top-up.
2. Yes silver = steel, at least some iterations of Magic use silver as a color for steel.
3. I kinda keep wondering how Light and Dark/Shadow became elements in Magic. Most RPG's place Light and Dark as the direct counter to each other, and has no significant advantage against other elements.
4. Structural Analysis needs the user to understand something. So would someone understand something if you cannot read it?
What is Coco con Chili Ice Cream?