Collective Consciousness
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Once Kiritsugu Emiya was a good clearing away, the Shepherd of Fire had gone about performing a barrier which consisted of spreading the kerosine across in a line, before using his knife to slit his palm.
Casting a chant as he began to spill his blood over the kerosine, it soon erupted into a large wall of fire that was some what sentient as it would reach out and pull in any of the Xolotol that were close.
With his work done, there was one thing left to do and that was to contact the man who set Kiritsugu up on this job as he began to pull out his flip trick cellphone.
"It's done my Lord, Kiritsugu Emiya is off to deal with the threat personally, though you sure it was a good idea to send him off by himself without any backup" asked the Shepherd of Fire as only mumbling could be heard from the public ear.
"Sentimental? Yeah, I guess you can say something like that" said the Shepherd of Fire as they began to pull out a small bottle of lighter fluid from their pocket, and proceeded to make themselves an 'X' within a circle.
"If those are your orders, than I shall follow them and put my faith in the man" said the Shepherd of Fire as he stepped on his flammable X.
"I'm on my way over right now, Lord El-Melloi, we'll talk right now sir" said the Shepherd of Fire as he hung up his phone just as he began to caught on fire as they soon were engulfed in flames, before disappearing with the flames themselves without a trace.
As this went on Kiritsugu Emiya had kept running down the road with his favored Calico M950 in his hands, as he kept his eyes peeled in case he'd get jump by any of Xolotol that were in the area, but for the most part they all kept to themselves.
This was a good thing for Kiritsugu as that meant this was one less problem for him to deal with as he continued to run towards a clearing, where he saw an army of Xolotol gathering many people to be sacrificed at the foot of one of the Aztec pyramids.
Spotting himself a small shanty shack, he decided to use that as his hiding spot, before he holstered away his weapon and pulled out a pair of binoculars from his coat to see exactly what was going on.
Not to his surprise, the Xolotol were not only kidnapping people for a sacrifice, but already started killing many of the people, but did so in a way that made sure blood was spilled, and I do mean a whole lot of it.
Then he began to raise his binoculars towards the top of the pyramid and what he saw sent a chill down his spine.
"Kirei Kotomine" said Kiritsugu as he was at a loss for words as to why he's here, why he's alive, and what he was doing by doing this.
Now understanding why he was personally sought out for this mission, Kiritsugu knew what had to be done and was more than ready to take him on, as he began to pull out gun parts from his person, and construct himself a rifle as fast as he could.
Once built, he perched his rifle on the counter of the shack, as he began to look through the scope and kept his sights on Kotomine.
Just one good shot, thought Kiritsugu as he intended to shoot Kiritsugu in the heart like he did the first time around, however his scope was blinded by the sight of a centipede.
Looking away to remove the insect from his line of sight, Kiritsugu realized that the counter and shack was covered by various night crawlers that he knew weren't here, nor were they natural.
Sensing that something was amiss, Kiritsugu ducked and covered just in time as 3 tendrils pierced through the walls of the shack, before he decided to abandon his post and deal with his current threat and Kotomine the old fashion way.
Pulling out his favorite gun again, Kiritsugu began to shoot away at the shack till it was nothing but broken debris and crushed bugs.
However it was all for nothing since emerging from the destroyed shack was Shinji, and did he had a new look since anyone saw him back in Fuyuki City.
"So this is the great Kiritsugu Emiya, I must say that I'm rather disappointed" said Shinji as it was revealed those tendrils that would've killed Kiritsugu came from his hand.
While Kotomine did gave Shinji a new hand, Shinji had willingly found himself to be baptized in a different pit of insects that belonged to the Matou family since Sakura destroyed the original one back at his family's estate.
Regardless, he was no longer the same person as his skin was now pale, his hair had changed into a brighter shade of violet, and the hand he had use to sacrifice in order to revive Kotomine was far from human as they weren't human, but 3 worm like tendrils with sharp fangs at the end.
"I care not for who you are, what I do know is that any friend to my enemy is my enemy as well" said Kiritsugu as he began to shoot away at Shinji but a wall of insects erupted before him taking most of the blunt of the damage as he began to duck down.
Seeing as Kiritsugu was running towards his left, Shinji launched his tendril fingers towards him again in an attempt to grab him, but Kiritsugu was far quicker and more experience as he fired a few more shots that managed to cut his cheek.
"Ok, I take back my comment about not meeting my expectations, but know this, you will not stop us" said Shinji has he controlled a swarm of locust from hell towards Kiritsugu as he began to back as he pulled a grenade from his coat.
Pulling the pin as he let it cooked in his hand, he waited for the opportune moment before rolling away and let the explosion do his job before using his infamous Innate Time Control.
Lining up his gun right, Kiritsugu began to fire away at Shinji as he had riddled his body with bullets as he began to scream in pain, before falling on his back.
"Damn it, I've wasted a lot of time on him" said Kiritsugu as he looked up at the top of the pyramid where Kotomine was at, still chanting away whatever he was doing, while not caring for Kiritsugu's presence.
"And he knows I'm here now" said Kiritsugu as he began to reload his gun as an extra precaution as he began to race towards the top of the pyramid, but was intercepted by Shinji's insects.
What's going on, I've already killed that punk already, thought Kiritsugu as he heard the creepy sounds of insects congregating from behind.
There reason for gathering was so that Shinji could emerged unharmed and not dead as he had on a sick smile on his face.
"Amazing right, who know I had a knack for necromancy and creating husks like the one you had just killed" said Shinji as Kiritsugu looked to see that the person he had killed was a mummified corpse that was filled with insects as they crawled away from its host.
"But then again, I should not be surprise as I am the true heir to the Matou family and am determined to bring us back towards the rightful glory" said Shinji as he couldn't help but do the classic villains monologue.
"I could care less if you're either Matou, El-Melloi, Einzbern, or whatever, so long as you stand in my way and continue to aid that mad man Kotomine, I will kill you" said Kiritsugu.
"That's rich coming from the man who not only married the Einzbern's failed homunculus, but had her birth it's first freak of nature hybrid, and of course you had to be the one to have adopted that bastard Shirou" said Shinji.
"I see, so you're grievances are with my son" said Kiritsugu, "That's putting it mildly, since he not only stole my right to claim the Holy Grail, but he destroyed it, revived everyone who died, including me, so that stupid bitch adoptive sister of mine could destroy our families home and purify it before I had a chance to claim what was rightfully mine" said Shinji as the picture was now clear to Kiritsugu.
I feared my son would bring back someone who would have an indefinite vendetta against him, thought Kiritsugu as he wanted to say that out loud, but wouldn't since he knew it would massage this boys ego.
"You should be glad Shirou isn't here, since he'd not only be disappointed in me having to kill you, but how he wasted his efforts in giving you a second chance back at life" said Kiritsugu as he stared at Shinji with eyes full of pity.
"Like I'm just gonna let you kill me, I still got to kill Shirou, my sister, and everyone who ever cared for them" said Shinji as he launched his tendrils at Kiritsugu again, who easily got away from his attack as he began to pull out his gun.
Before Kiritsugu could even pull the trigger his hand was struck by a rock of all things as he dropped his gun and gripped his hand.
Turning his head, he saw 3 more husks, all of which were clearly Aztec warriors at some point, but their bodies were barely held from decaying as Kiritsugu could see the Matou insects crawling around from under their skin or on their bodies.
"Amazing right, sure these guys lack the quality of any of the servants used during the Holy Grail Wars, they were surprisingly even lacking in quantity when I dig these guys up, but I did the best that I could, and I think you'll see that my soldiers, plus me or more than enough to take you on Kiritsugu" said Shinji.
Assessing the weapons the fallen soldiers were using, and whatever tricks Shinji maybe hiding under his sleeves, Kiritsugu remained calm as he began to pull out a smoke grenade from his coat.
"What, thinking about killing yourself in a kamikaze attempt" asked Shinji mockingly as Kiritsugu was done talking to Shinji, whom he saw was an idiot serving a cruel tyrant disguised as a court jester.
Pulling the pin, Kiritsugu needed to only drop the grenade at his feet, before it took it's affect of blinding his enemies as he hid in the growing cloud of smoke.
"Get him you idiots" said Shinji as his undead soldiers ran in with their weapons, while Shinji waited behind in hopes of spotting Kiritsugu, before he went into the cloud of smoke himself to deal with the problem personally.
Within a few feet, Shinji had seen one of his undead husks dead on the ground, which he found to be peculiar on account he heard no gun fire, before another fell besides him as he felt their corpse brush past his body.
Still moving forward, he saw the last undead husk proceeding to fall forward as he saw that all of their throats had been slipped open, as Shinji had finally pieced in how Kiritsugu was going about in all of this.
Just as he had figured it out, Kiritsugu was revealed to be standing behind Shinji patiently stalking him as he held the knife he was going to use to kill him.
Forcing the boy to face him, Kiritsugu had brought the knife as fast he could to Shinji's throat, ready to finish the job.
Instead, his attempts to kill him were once more put on hold when a thin, but sturdy foreleg popped from the right side of Shinji's neck to block and hold the blade in place.
"Peek-a-boo motherfucker" said Shinji as he finally had Kiritsugu where he had wanted him as he launched his tendril hand to hit and pierce through his left shoulder in place before holding him in a tight grasp.
"You see as much as I would like to kill you, I'd fear it just piss my partner off, especially since we agreed that he kills you, and I get to kill Shirou later on" said Shinji as Kiritsugu was admittingly in a tight fix, and his attempts to escape resulted in Shinji burying his tendril deeper into his shoulder.
"Come now, I think now's a good time to meet Kotomine again, don't you think" said Shinji as a set of dragon fly wings popped from his back as he began to fly them towards the top of the pyramid as Kotomine had patiently waited for Kiritsugu with the most smug smile he could put.
"It seems that no matter what, so long as their exist an Emiya, or any activity that had in part involved the Holy Grail, I'll be there, always to witness the event" said Kotomine as Kiritsugu glared at him angrily.
"Though I assure you, that my death shall not happened for a 3rd time around, for I'm determined to wipe out the Emiya clan once and for all" said Kotomine as he began to approach Kiritsugu, who got a good look at the man, and let's just say Kotomine has seen better days.
His skin was pale and showed signs of failing health as his hair was graying a little, and was overall frail to say the least.
"Whatever you're planning, I assure you that you won't get away" said Kiritsugu, "And you'd be right, that is if you were to kill me right now within the next minute, but even then in the next 5 minutes, you will be powerless for what I have in store for you" said Kotomine.
"What are you planning, tell me, what are you planning for exactly" demanded Kiritsugu, "Isn't it obvious, I want to start a war, nay throw the world into Anarchy, and set the whole world on fire" said Kotomine with a straight face.
"What for, what reason do you have to gain by doing this, why" asked Kiritsugu, "Cause as much as the young Matou master here wants to deny it, reality you are a flawed hero, with a double standard bullshit code of conduct, me I am a villain, the devil himself with simple choices, and no desires, other than seeing the look on your face when you realize that you heroes are nothing more than weapons used by someone of high authority to point and kill at what they deem as the enemy" said Kotomine.
"So please kill me if you like, but know that you will stand no chance against those I'm about to awaken" said Kotomine, "What do you mean" asked Kiritsugu.
"You see, this young man informed me as to how he came to this world along with you, and while his methods of bringing the dead back to life are a bit hit or miss, they are a guaranteed to give life back to the death" explained Kotomine.
"Of course, that doesn't mean I've given free will or guarantee that my body will remain healthy, though we are lucky however that once every 13 years the Aztec Moon will reach it's certain peak to not only heal these dead wounds, but give Master Matou here a magical boost needed to revive some old friends of ours" said Kotomine as Kiritsugu was confused by what he meant till he saw some items lying on an alter behind him.
"Speaking of which, watch as the Aztec moon heats this open room, and heal my wounds" said Kotomine as he began to pull out a knife from his coat, and used it to stab himself in the heart.
Collapsing on his knees, his act of suicide was a necessary catalyst towards the ritual as all the blood from the dead bodies began to race up towards the pyramid and crawled it's way back into Kotomine, as it not only popped the dagger out, but fully revitalize the man as he began to rise with his arms wide open.
"Now witness my second coming, as it'll be the first of many tonight" said Kotomine as he looked at Shinji to release his hold Kiritsugu as he stood on his feet and held his shoulder.
"Shinji, I'll expect you to finish the ritual from here, me and Kiritsugu here have some catching up to do" said Kotomine as he pulled out a familiar set of daggers held between the wedges of his fingers.
"You're the boss" said Shinji as Kiritsugu had no choice but to run down the pyramid with Kotomine chasing him, and was the man faster than ever.
With a blink of an eye Kotomine was behind Kiritsugu as he began to throw his daggers at him, causing the man to instead duck and slide his way down from the pyramid as he kept his eyes open for his gun.
Once he got it in his sight, he began to manipulate time to allow him to reach for it an accelerating rate, before whipping it towards Kotomine and began to fire away, but like many years before, the man was agile, if not more as he was able to duck and dodge it as he continued to throw his daggers at Kiritsugu without a second thought.
Not one to be out played, Kiritsugu pulled out another grenade from his coat and tossed it towards Kotomine, and waited for the right moment for him to be standing within the blast radius, before Kiritsugu manipulated time once more and shot a single bullet at the handheld explosive.
With the loud combustion going off, Kiritsugu kept his gun pointed towards where he last saw Kotomine as the man had proven himself to be full of surprises.
And he was right as Kotomine popped out relatively unharmed as he was covered in dust as he charged toward Kiritsugu as he threw another set of daggers at him.
While Kiritsugu was able to avoid getting hit by the blades, he was defenseless when Kotomine finally caught up to him, and delivered a straight knee to his face sending him on his back.
Let out a small hiss of pain, Kiritsugu lifted his arms up to see the Kotomine was lifting his leg up to deliver an axe kick to the head.
Listing his arms up, Kiritsugu was unprepared when a short blade popped from the heel of Kotomine's shoe as he buried it in his left shoulder, and slammed Kiritsugu to the ground as he screamed in pain.
"That attack should finally cause you to lose control of your arm" said Kotomine as he dragged Kiritsugu back with his heel, sending him sliding a few feet from him.
Walking his way towards Kiritsugu, Kotomine easily stood towering over him like he always dreamed of, before lifting the man up by his coat.
"This is what I wanted to see, this is what I truly desired, your defeat, and with it your beliefs" said Kotomine as Kiritsugu used his one good arm to cover his face.
"What's the matter, ashamed to face the reality" said Kotomine with a satisfied smile before he heard something drop by his feet.
Looking down, he saw that Kiritsugu planned for one more trick up his sleeve, specifically his left one as the pin to a concussion grenade was still ringed on his trigger finger.
And like that, Kotomine was unable to control his baring's as his vision was blurry and his ears were ringing as he let go of his hold of Kiritsugu, who took this as his one chance to finish Kotomine the same way he did all these many years ago.
Even in his weaken state, Kiritsugu can still kill Kotomine at this range, and in his state with his Thompson Contender, and even if Kotomine were to do some kind of trick right now in preventing his death, these were all loaded with his Origin Bullet.
Still not one to take any chances, Kiritsugu aimed right at Kotomine's heart, before pulling the trigger, and preparing to witness the death of his greatest adversary once more.
And while it would be nice to end things here, so he can move on and finish of Shinji, Kiritsugu was unfortunately forced to witness a wall of thick mercury appear to decrease not only the speed, but power of his bullet hit Kotomine in the arm shoulder instead, leaving him without an arm.
But that was not important, what was important was the fact he not only wasted a shot with his Thompson, a feat that he never thought of happening, and the wall of mercury.
Turning his head, Kiritsugu was left dumb founded with his jaw dropping as he saw an old enemy of his, alive and well protecting Kotomine.
"Lord El-Melloi" said Kiritsugu as standing before him, back in peak health once more was the man whom he not only forced to shamefully quit the Holy Grail War, but had him signed a binding contract, preventing him from killing the last El-Melloi male.
"Greetings Kiritsugu, I must say I would have never expected the day where I'd be given the chance to properly kill you and get my revenge" said El-Melloi as his solidus mercury began to surround him once Kotomine was in control of his body again.
"Kotomine, I hope you're alive and well, especially given how you've been shot by not only that gun, but the bullets he uses" said El-Melloi.
"I'm doing good Kayneth, and you have my most sincerest gratitude for saving my life, as for this wound, I'm not worried since the spell breaker of those bullets don't even affect me" said Kotomine as Kiritsugu was starting to get a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.
"I take it the others are alive and well" asked Kotomine, "They are, in fact they all seem ready and eager to join your alliance and your proposal for the most part, with but one of us having some reservations" said El-Melloi.
"Oh, how unexpecting" said Kotomine, "Yes, though it matters very little now, what does matter is dealing with this living disgrace to the magus association" said El-Melloi.
"Agreed, I shall finish what I had started" said Kotomine as he glared down at Kiritsugu, "No, no you won't" said El-Melloi.
"Pardon" said Kotomine as he raised a brow, "You see, you're not the only one with a vendetta against this man, and frankly I think I deserve to take this man on and kill him after the disgraceful death I was given" said El-Melloi.
"Unless you'd rather fight the both of us" said El-Melloi as he glared at Kotomine as he stared at him for the minute, before letting out a defeated sigh.
"It was my mistake thinking you'd be entirely on board with my plan" said Kotomine as El-Melloi began to smile in satisfaction.
"Very well, you are free to fight Kiritsugu, and then you and I can settle things before the night ends" said Kotomine, "I'm glad to see we're in a compromising agreement" said El-Melloi before he turned his attention back towards Kiritsugu.
"Lord El-Melloi, please listen to me, if you're truly not with Kotomine in his plans of setting this world on fire, than please, fight by my side, and together we can stop him, and whoever he dared brought back to life" said Kiritsugu as there was true merit to his words of needing to team up and let bygones be bygones in order to save the world.
For a man not filled with pride, and vengeance, he may be willing to agree, but as the former last living member to the El-Melloi name…
"Never" said El-Melloi as he began to send his mercury monster to pursue Kiritsugu who was unfortunately unable to kill the man, much less defend himself.
Damn it, I've failed, thought Kiritsugu as he pulled out his last grenade from his coat, as he pulled the trigger, before dropping it to send the mercury monster splattering and spraying around the area as he made a daring escape from the pyramids.
Kiritsugu was unfortunately one to see things half empty, and accepted death was the reality here upon taking this mission, especially those that depended on the fate of the world.
But even then, he can't give up, he must escape and plan for his next attack if he plans to save the world.
Granted he's expecting more than a 3rd of the worlds population to be killed off, maybe even more, and he might be a casualty among them, but he can't die today, he won't allow it, not until he's told everyone, prepare himself for yet another match against Kotomine, and who to select and he could trust to pick up where he should fall.
But more importantly he needs to go back to his family, and apologize to them, let them know he loves them still, and that he will fight while carrying the world on his shoulders if it means he'll keep them safe.
That's what he had in mind, not being forced to drop to the floor upon feeling 3 sharp needles piercing the back of his right leg
"You don't think I'd let you get away that easy now, did you" said El-Melloi as he used his mercury to restrain and hold Kiritsugu up as he slowly approached him.
"You know, there are no words as to how much I hate you for shaming me and my families name, however I should thank you since you're involvement in angering Kotomine, and that little bastard to the Matou family did brought me back to life, along with my servant, who is more than prepare to aid me in not only killing Kotomine, but everyone else he brought back to life and for me to claim the glory and bring my families name back to its righteous glory" said El-Melloi as this was what it was all about.
"Goodbye Kiritsugu, and tell my ex-wife that she's a bitch who deserves to burn in hell" said El-Melloi as he began to form a small bubble of mercury into whatever shape that will finally kill Kiritsugu as he was begrudgingly ready to meet his maker.
And we're gonna end things from here guys, cause now we're in the home stretch at this point, since these last few chapters will be filled with epic action, which should be expected since everyone from the 4th Holy Grail War, not including Blue Beard's master obvious reasons, will come back to life for an epic smack down, which should serve enough as a spoiler to you guys.
As always thank you guys very much for your loving support and as always, please be sure to fave and follow if you like it and want to stay update as to what happen next as we're nearing the end here, and please be sure to leave me your thoughts in the review section as I enjoy reading those and answering your guys questions as much as you guys enjoy reading my work.
Until next time, be safe, be good people, and please support your local fandom communities.
This has been your Humble Narrator and official author Tobi Yaza. =3