"That is not a tower!"
"'Tis metaphorical, you silly girl."
Artoria sputtered. An accusatory finger pointed at the distant pillar of light.
"Name one tower-like feature, Arthur! I see none!"
"It is... quite tall?"
"What is the point of making such an important construct so blatantly obvious?! 'Tis practically announcing itself to its prospective enemies! 'Here I am! Come destroy me'!"
"That is the equivalent of asking why mountains are tall. 'Tis the Tower. The Tower is tall. I do not see why you are so obsessed over this."
"They should have called it the Light Pillar!"
"I see. Fear not, Artoria, I shall summon the gods forthwith and give them thy demands."
"Oh, the gods named it, aye? 'Tis quite a shame the gods are no longer here! The Light Pillar it is!"
Arthur begged for a way to make her Hrunting go faster.
She had learned quite a few things about the strange girl over the course of their journey. In a nutshell, Artoria was the child who perished the day she drew Caliburn, the one not meant to live past fifteen years. Naive, happy-go-lucky, horribly blunt and selfish beyond measure. In her heart, Arthur knew the girl never truly disappeared, but never had she made a conscious effort to understand that which lurked beneath King Arthur's duty.
She ignored that girl, Artoria, all her life. Pretended she did not exist. And it was not until she found herself in a young man's house that the abandoned girl began to... re-emerge as Saber.
A quaint combination. One with which she had grown comfortable. Not fully King Arthur, not fully Artoria, but someplace in between. Enough responsibility to keep her mind focused and give her purpose, coupled with just enough leeway to relax and loosen the walls she had so meticulously maintained.
Arthur enjoyed that. That was what she desired. She was his Saber.
To that end, she understood Artoria. She was Artoria, in a way.
And Artoria grew testy without her Shirou.
"He is fine. You must rela—"
"Is there a way to free him of his bondage?"
Of course, she knew better. They were never one for platitudes. Always focused on the results, on the end objective. Save Britain. Win the Grail. Save Shirou.
"There is not. He is a Counter Guardian, Artoria. His fate is sealed for eternity. 'Tis the one contract that cannot be undone."
"I refuse to believe that."
Ah, Arthur knew that look well. 'Twas surely the same desperate expression she wore upon the accursed hill, the one that led her to that beautiful moonlit night, all those days ago.
"If such a thing was possible, do you not think I would have seen it done by now? I was there, you know. I bore witness to the day he tried to kill himself. I heard the words, I saw the blood. Archer and I served together in Chaldea. I lost track of often I tried to talk sense into that man."
Ever so fiercely did the girl's expression darken. Shoulders stiff, jaw clenched.
"If... if we hid him with the other Saber, would that work? Could his taskmaster reach him there?"
Arthur loathed this conversation beyond measure. And she detested the necessity of her words, and the sick feeling in her chest, and the omnipotent desperation that compelled her to agree, to say, 'Yes, there has to be something we can do'.
"Alaya shan't let him escape. Not even Merlin could contend against its wishes."
...
"I... I just..."
One and the same. Artoria and Artoria. Just as she once wished to undo her fate, so too did this girl now fight against the inevitable.
"—You are lonely, and he is Shirou."
Artoria shuddered, gulped down a breath. Hrunting alone kept her from curling in on herself.
"I cannot stand this," she muttered. "I fear letting him out of my sight. The moment I do so, Sakura or Alaya will... descend from the heavens a-and snatch him away with nary a word. And... and...!"
Here it came.
"And I am powerless to stop it! I can do naught but sit here and beg! 'Please do not undo this!' 'Please do not shatter him!' 'Please do not send him off to some far away apocalypse!' He is my Saber, mine! He is the one thing I have! They cannot take him, 'tis not up for debate, he belongs to me, there shall be no sharing! Not with Rin, not with Sakura, and certainly not with that eldritch, unthinking abomination!"
She, as Saber, needed his approval. She required the acknowledgment of the one person who saw her for who she was. It was of paramount importance, a key aspect of her self-worth and confidence, a cornerstone of her identity. Shirou was her judge, he who evaluated her morality. The thought, 'Would Shirou approve of this?' had over time established itself as the final, critical checkpoint in her decision making. A negative response forced a reevaluation. The lack of a response left her unsure and hesitant.
He was her humanity. And she liked it that way.
Artoria now faced the same conundrum. She saw the wall for what it was, she recognized the importance in her role as the Master. 'Saber' and 'Master' inherently filled the same void and occupied the same part of Artoria Pendragon's identity. Anything infringing on that was an enemy to be eliminated, a threat to be neutralized with the full might of the king's army.
Alaya could not be neutralized. Alaya owned him. 'Twas petty and selfish to think extrication possible.
"Thou art not the lord, Artoria, thou art the vassal."
Like her counterpart had been struck. Arthur schooled her features and pressed on. The girl needed to understand.
"The lord is deathless. The lord is eternal. The lord shan't perish unless everyone perishes, and his mere presence by your side is due to the Counter Force's machinations. Shirou is an enforcer, Artoria. He has more experience and skill within his toenail than every mortal army in the world combined. And while he may ultimately lay the blame with Alaya, the truth of his memory loss is far simpler to explain: he struggles to remember his mortal life because from his perspective, his mortality ended millions of years ago. He cannot be unwoven from that fate. He is part of that fate. He is responsible for the correction of countless worlds, he is the destined murderer of trillions who needed to die."
She directed her Hrunting closer to Artoria's, intent on making her see reason.
"Removing him from the weave will create an untenable paradox. His is a necessary, despicable torture. And Alaya shall always prioritize the survival of mankind over a single soul's torture."
"—Unless, of course, that soul's torture is revealed to be the source of our problems."
...
A woman clad in white robes hung in the sky before them. Her head tilted, an ethereal smile flitted across pale lips.
"My apologies. Am I interrupting?"
It took Arthur one observational look-over to determine her identity. An evil twinkle sparkled in her eye.
"Oh, he shan't ever live this down."
Merlin's smile widened. "Fret not, neither shall Arthur."
An invisible spark rippled, a connection was forged, a mutual understanding made. Far away in reality's distant outskirts, two men shivered in fear.
Artoria's mind was elsewhere, however. "What do you mean, 'the source of our problems'?"
The half-succubus brought a hand to her cheek. "Oh dear, I fear I cannot explain. Not until I know thine intentions."
The girl's eyes narrowed. "Our intentions?"
"Indeed. Allow me to pose to you a question."
Something dangerous flickered beneath Merlin's crimson orbs, something mischievous and conniving.
"Wouldst thou allow them to burn? All those worlds, with their people, their hopes and their dreams?"
Never could Arthur believe the filth she just heard. "I would never! What kind of question is that?!"
"A question with a reward."
...
Artoria froze. Her mind raced. "You... you mean..."
Two sides of one coin. Arthur had the right of it. If he was allowed to walk away, everything would tumble down. It would all be incinerated.
The Throne? Paradox.
The Grail War? Paradox.
Guardian interventions? Paradox.
Chaldea summoning? Paradox.
Rin Tohsaka? Paradox.
Sakura Matou? Paradox.
Artoria Pendragon? Paradox.
To create new life, one must sometimes burn away the rot. Ten thousand realities, one survivor. The Counter Force wouldn't stop with one branch.
Merlin beamed, broad and wide.
"I do."
It would cull all of them.
"You seem oddly eager to participate. I expected you to show more distaste at the potential of recombining with your younger variants."
Fate/ess
"I present to you a choice, Artoria and Artoria."
Descent - 1
"The Tree of Life... or the Archer's freedom."
FATE: PART TWO
"Unlike you, I see only an opportunity. I'm more than willing to play along if it gets me what I want."
"Archer."
Less than a second. Immediate, swift, without the slightest bit of hesitation. She damned trillions in the time it took to breathe. Arthur whirled on her, horrified.
"Artoria. You cannot—"
"I can and I shall. He did the same for Sakura. Saber was willing to consign to oblivion Taiga, Rin, Illyasviel and everyone else in his hometown - in his world - for the sake of one person. He sacrificed you."
Artoria leveled Arthur with the craziest glare the latter had ever seen, period. She did not know her face could make that expression.
"He knew those people. They were his friends and his family and his Servant, his first love. I have no right to call myself his Master if I am willing to abandon him for the sake of the faceless masses I have never and will never meet. The choice is obvious and simple."
"Those faceless masses have families and lives of their own, Artoria! What if it were Sir Ector at the end of thy blade?! What if it were Kay, or thy knights, or another Shirou?!"
Artoria turned to Merlin. "Will my home survive the Counter Force's hellfire?"
"It shall," the witch responded. "This place is protected from the World's cleansing."
"Then thy question is moot, Arthur. I have my Saber, my family, and my city. I need nothing else."
Merlin seemed oddly pleased.
"Hoh... what a selfish girl. Vicious and brutal, like a lioness protecting its mate and territory. Ah~! I cannot wait for you to meet dear Arthur! You two shall get along exquisitely!"
And then her silly charade fell away, once more replaced by calm, aloof serenity.
"Speaking of Arthur... what say you, lady king?"
...
Disgust rolled over her in waves.
"I..."
To be forced to make this choice. To be forced to pick. They were not mutually exclusive. Artoria had told her as such in the baths. That one, the one with all the answers, found some way to become a human king. King Arthur, Saber, and Artoria. A complete package, a whole person, someone who reconciled the dissonance from which she had always suffered.
She wanted that. She wanted that ideal for herself. So why, then, did this female Merlin force this choice upon her?
Was she his Saber?
Or was she King Arthur?
...
"Hey. What are you doing, Saber? You're coming too."
"No. I will stay here, Lancer."
"Are you serious? That girl's your Master now, right? You should be protecting your Master."
"I understand that. But I still would like to stay here. ...I need to watch over this fight."
"—Fine. Do as you wish."
...
Her fists clenched.
"I... I-I..."
What did she seek?
What did she pursue so vehemently, all this time?
...
"You won't do anything, huh? That's good. If Saber interrupts me now, I'll have broken my contract with Rin for nothing."
"I will not interfere. I will not do anything during your battle with Shirou."
"Very good. I can kill him at ease."
...
All of this. Everything leading up to this point. Every argument within Chaldea's halls, every answer she demanded and every refutation he so bluntly returned.
But her duty was to her people! She could not abandon them!
But he was Shirou.
...
"...Yes. But please answer me before that. Why are you trying to kill Shirou?"
"—There's nothing to explain. Just as he cannot approve of me, I too cannot approve of him."
"That cannot be true...! You are Shirou. You are the ideal of Shirou Emiya, the one who became a hero. S-So why are you trying to kill yourself...!?"
"Why do you think? The hero called Emiya and the inexperienced Shirou Emiya are two separate beings. We cannot exist at the same time unless that is the case."
"That is because you became a Servant. I heard that Guardians can be summoned into the age in which they lived, since they are not bound by the time axis...!
You are Shirou. You should be the personification of his ideal, the person he became after so much hard work. So why—"
She finishes in a broken voice,
"Why are you so different?"
...
She shuddered, and she knew not why.
"T-Tell me, Merlin! Tell me: my alternate self, the one Shirou seeks - is she behind all this? Is she responsible?!"
Merlin's expression did not change.
"I cannot tell you that until you give me thine answer, King of Knights."
...
Not responding, he starts down the stairs.
"Archer...!"
She steps forward to confront Archer.
"—It's fine, Saber. Just step back."
"But Shirou...!"
"I appreciate it. But talking's useless. From the very beginning, his objective has been to kill me."
"...!"
Saber bites her lip in frustration.
She stares at Shirou, then at Archer.
"...Why, Archer? I do not understand. I heard that Guardians are ones who become Heroic Spirits after their deaths in order to protect people. So why are you trying to kill yourself?"
"—Guardian?"
Maybe something she said got through to him.
He stops and looks down at Saber without emotion.
"You're wrong, Saber. Guardians are not ones that protect people. They are only cleaners. They are definitely not the heroes I once wished to become."
His voice sounds different.
Hatred and scorn fill it now.
"Archer...?"
"I did become a hero. I became a superhero, just as Shirou Emiya had wanted."
...
"Did... did she find some way to free him, Merlin?!"
Neither her expression nor tone of voice changed. Still ever so serene. Ever so apathetic. She simply repeated herself.
"I cannot tell you that until you give me thine answer, King of Knights."
As if to punctuate her indecision, the sound barrier shattered in the distance. Arthur turned.
The broken Excalibur Morgan streaked into the sky.
...
"Ar...cher...?"
"Yes, I certainly did save some people. I have made many ideals come true, and I have saved the world from danger several times.
—A hero... I did reach the place I had dreamed of for so long."
"You became a hero—then Shirou was rewarded, right...? At the very least, you made Shirou Emiya's ideal come true. Then you should not have any regrets. Shirou was able to make his wish come true."
There is no conviction in her voice.
...She already knows.
She knows that she is only voicing her own wish.
"'Make his wish come true', huh? I certainly did become a superhero, just like in my ideal. But all I obtained in the end were regrets. All that was left was death.
I killed and killed and killed.
I killed so many people to act on my ideal.
I killed so many that I stopped caring about innocent people, and I saved a thousand times as many as I killed."
"..."
Saber stares at Archer, speechless.
She looks like someone who saw her own mirror image.
...
She could not stop hyperventilating.
Faced with this choice, this gruesome turn of events, Arthur's mind began to shut down. Her vision blurred, her armored hands trembled.
She could free a man she understood better than she understood herself.
She could save a man who had saved her.
She could truly, absolutely, free Counter Guardian EMIYA.
One man. One tortured soul, forever denied his peace.
If she cooperated in this, they could walk away forever. Together. Shirou and Artoria, arm in arm, finally at rest. If she cooperated in this, she would never again be able to call herself a king. It held equivalency to abandonment. Abdication. Betrayal.
"M-My... my H-Heroic Spirit...? What... what happens to m-my...?"
Merlin at last took pity. "Your fates are intertwined, Artoria."
And her breath hitched.
...
"—Yes, I don't know how many times I've repeated the cycle. I fought as often as requested, and I fought with my life in danger whenever I knew there was a conflict. I fought many times. So many times that I can't even remember now.
It can't be helped, right? No matter who I save, there are always people who will perish. No matter how many conflicts I resolve, new conflicts are always created. A superhero had to keep existing ad long as conflict exists."
Who did he direct that to?
The knight slowly descends the stairs and recounts his past.
"That's why I killed.
I trampled on dozens of wishes to save one person. I ignored even more people to save those I trampled over.
I killed scores of people, rescued only those in front of me, and destroyed many more wishes.
I kept being stubborn, saying that it will end this time, that everyone would become happy.
—But it never ended.
Conflicts come into my view as long as I'm alive. It was endless. I didn't dream of a world without conflicts. I just wanted people in my view not to cry.
My vision expands after I save one. Ten after one. A hundred after ten. How many was it after a hundred? At that time, I finally realized that Shirou Emiya's ideal was just a convenient fantasy."
"...Why is that?"
"Don't ask for the obvious, Saber. You should have experienced the same thing many times already. You cannot save everyone. I assume it was a daily routine for you to sacrifice a few people to save the country."
"..."
The quiet voice is rendered powerless to object.
The words of the red knight are Saber's darkness as well.
"Yes, the seats are limited. There are always fewer seats called happiness than there are people to fill them. Since you cannot save everyone, someone will have to be sacrificed.
—And... I quickly killed the ones that would eventually fall out to minimize the damage. That is what it means to be that boy's vision of the ideal superhero."
The wish for nobody to become sad.
The desire to save as many people as possible.
When the two coexist and contradict each other, there is only one solution.
...
"—The only people a superhero can save are those he sides with."
Arthur's low, broken whisper caught Artoria's attention. She replied with a grimace.
"'So if it reassures you, the one thing I can promise is that if push comes to shove, Camelot will survive, even if it means everything else does not.'"
The King of Knights turned to her. The girl gave a halfhearted shrug.
"Saber's words to my brother before we departed. I am not as familiar with Archer as you are, I believe, but... I would like to think he is happier this way. It seems he has found a goal for himself."
...
"I don't want to clean up after people. But as long as I'm a Guardian, there's no way for me to escape this cycle.
—Save one exception."
Murderous intent flares in his cold eyes.
He isn't looking at Saber.
There is only one objective for Archer: to kill his own self.
But even if he dies, the real body of Emiya, who is in the 'place' outside of the cycle and not bound by time, will not disappear.
There is no elimination for Guardians.
They are 'nothing' to start with. It is meaningless to kill something that is not part of the real world.
...But.
There is one way for him to disappear.
If someone who is to become a hero is killed before he becomes a hero, that hero will never come into existence.
Therefore—
"Are you going to kill Shirou with your own hands?"
"Yes. I kept waiting for this chance. It was a possibility close to zero. But I staked everything on it. I could not contain myself unless I believed in it. While I acted as a Guardian, this was the one hope that kept me going."
"...That is meaningless, Archer. You have already become a Guardian. So it is too late. Even if you kill Shirou Emiya, who has yet to become a hero, you yourself will not disappear."
"That may be true. But there's still a chance, however small. Just altering the past might not be enough, but the paradox will be even greater if I am the one to do it. If the distortion is large enough—a hero called Emiya will disappear here."
...
"He... h-he..."
Merlin allowed herself a small smile.
"Ah, you have figured it out. He is quite the interesting one, hm? To have the wherewithal to take advantage of the Counter Force's desperation... the dog gnawed on its leash just enough, you see, and finally escaped into the wilderness."
He did not stop, he escalated. He bargained, and he struggled, and he at last created a plan. Affecting one timeline had inconclusive results - it merely altered that Shirou Emiya's development so he would never become Archer.
...But that was the answer, was it not?
So he instead targeted all of them.
Every single Shirou Emiya at the exact same time.
The Grand Saber... was Archer's grand escape. He observed the timelines. The main body outside time recorded every detail: he noted the time loop, Caledfwlch's existence, his ties to it through both his Origin and Avalon...
"Shirou... you...!"
He saw the opening and pounced. He healed himself of his projection's feedback scarring, merged with every one of his alternate past selves, and in the process severed his own fate, in one fell swoop.
And then, through his Origin's connection—
A shuddering wail built in her throat. Merlin tilted her head, confused.
"Hm? What ails thee, King of Knights? This is everything you desired, is it not? Thy Master at thy side? A fresh start? A chance to save thy kingdom? To wipe the slate clean? To give the crown to one better suited?"
"Saber! One day, someone will appear who will free you!"
—He did the same for his Saber.
He walked the tightrope well enough to somehow force Alaya to save her and her alternate selves from the ensuing paradoxes by means of their shared fate. Where one went, so too did the other.
He took her with him.
"The... the s-seats..." she choked. "There w-were two... two seats... and he p-picked...!"
Not Rin, not even Illyasviel or Taiga. When faced with the ensuing destruction his absence would cause, Archer saved the one person he knew he could.
She was not a king. Her kingdom was gone, washed away in a metaphorical flood of biblical proportions. Through her their memories lived on.
Merlin presented to her a trick question; nothing she did now could save the people she cared about. The Counter Force planned this from the beginning, and the Counter Force was absolute. The one deserving of her focus happened to be the most important person in her life.
She was his Saber.
It was just as Artoria said. Even if the logic stemmed from a different place, the resulting choice was obvious and simple.
"A-Archer! Please free Archer!"
Her sudden emotional outburst never phased Merlin. In all her unfaltering serenity, the witch lifted her hand above her head.
"Marvelous. Let us depart."
And with a snap of her fingers, transported the two girls to a 'place' - a realm, somewhere, a location - Arthur had ventured but a single time before.
The Tower.
The golden tendrils of the anchor tying together the World's textures spiraled from below to above. True Ether wisps trailing sparkling motes curled around the nothingness upon which they stood. No walls. No floors. No sense of direction, nothing at all save the overwhelming torrent of controlled power that was the thing called Gaia. It was from these depths that Arthur once procured the Tower's shadow, the terminal of authority shaped as the 'spear of the end', the Lance that Shines to the Ends of the World.
And where they found Rhongomyniad, so too would they find—
"Thou art late, Saber."
—its wielders.
Arthur's lips quivered with suppressed annoyance; it took but a moment to drag her emotions back behind the wall.
"Lancer. Lalter."
Before them stood two decorative suits of armor: one of a white lion, the other of a black dragon. The lion helmet tilted.
"Where is that strange creature, the one like Salter? The Counter Force sent her as well, no?"
Arthur so very desperately did not wish to explain the Camlann-tier situation named 'Artoria'. She struggled enough herself; she dared not consider the Lancers' reactions. So instead, she thumbed in the girl's direction.
"She is present."
The girl looked between the two newcomers, blinking owlishly. Lalter shifted her weight between her sabatons.
"'Tis unlike you to jest, Saber."
"I am not jesting. Salter is inside the girl."
Artoria sniffed, observing the Lancers, and put two and two together. Lancer's hum came out muffled.
"—I see. She is a pseudo-Servant."
Oh no, oh no oh no.
"N-Nay, Lancer, she is—"
"Thy face is a pseudo-Servant!"
...
Arthur loosed a long sigh. The two Lancers leaned back in tandem, caught off guard by the strange retort. Artoria stared down her older counterparts, as if to dare them to... do whatever it was Artoria thought they dared do.
"...I did not know our voices could be that loud," Lalter muttered.
Very well. Introductions.
"—Artoria: Lancer and Lalter, our older counterparts. Lancer, Lalter: Artoria. We at... eighteen years of age."
Lancer at last removed her helmet. It vanished to the ether; she blinked, disbelieving, and rubbed at her eyes. The corner of Artoria's grimacing lips twitched at the king's squint. Lancer grunted a single word:
"...How?"
The three kings, as one, turned to Merlin for their answers.
Merlin, who levitated cross-legged, munching on popcorn. Literally: a bucket of popcorn. The kind of bucket pulled from a twenty-first century movie theater. The witch's gaze shifted between the three, a bit amused, and she waved a vague hand through the air, as if to say, 'Don't mind me, please continue'.
Rhongomyniad blinked to Lancer's waiting grasp. Merlin rolled her eyes, took a moment to swallow.
"Were she summonable, she would be thine Alter Ego. The humanity you cast aside, granted form and shape as Artoria Pendragon. A cute village girl presently unrelated to the prophecy. She is your darkest secrets given a voice, dearest kings! Be careful!"
A nervous bead of sweat dripped down Lancer's cheek. She turned to the girl, who leveled a suspicious squint at her breastplate. Arthur found herself overcome by schadenfreude; it increased further when Lalter tried to change the subject.
"—Where is Archer? We were told he would be here."
Merlin continued to munch. Her fingers snapped.
"Wh—ngh?!"
An ashen suit of armor plummeted face-first into the nothingness that was the Tower's floor. Shirou's helmet evaporated; he rolled over to rub his forehead, wincing.
"...Ow."
Adrenaline surged. Arthur's nostrils flared, Instinct compelled her movement. Not this time! She would not allow—!
"Aaaah-chaaaa~!"
"Aaaah-chaaaa~!"
Attack! Attack!
Her Mana Burst-infused kick cratered Lancer's breastplate... but it dissipated into empty air. She had used it as a diversion! Which meant—!
Arthur spun in place, furious.
"L-Lancer?! Lalter?! Wait a—mpff?!"
Forced onto his knees, two hands around the back of his head, his face buried within a warm, soft valley. Her armor likewise dematerialized, Lalter ran her hands along his cuirass and gauntlets.
"Archeeeer~! It has been so long!"
"Ah! Look at what he wears, Lancer! He shall fit right in at the Round Table!"
Arthur's fists clenched tight enough to draw blood, for even beyond Chaldea's walls she could not rid herself of the Equation of Eternal Hatred:
Older Artoria plus Older Shirou equaled Lots of Sexual Tension.
Simply put: Archer and the King of Knights... both died in their thirties. If the connection between Shirou and her alternate self came from the understanding of the soul, the emotional connection between a seventeen-year-old boy and a fifteen-year-old girl, both equally traumatized, then the connection between Archer and the Lancers came from the mind, the understanding between adults denied the aspects of life not associated with warfare and struggle.
At least, that was what Arthur tried to tell herself. In truth, the Lancers really just liked to tease them both. They knew their actions bothered her.
Desperate for breath, Shirou pulled himself from Lancer's cleavage. Lancer grinned at his panicked look, ran a hand through his hair.
"Ara ara, the Counter Force has made thee so very cute, Archer. Worry not, my little queen, thy valiant king shall always—"
An absolutely monumental amount of prana flooded the immediate surroundings. A genuine flood. Crimson-black energy whipped at their hair and clothing; the three turned. Artoria stood over them, a veritable goddess of fury, golden orbs flashing in the shadow of her bangs.
She cracked her knuckles.
...
"—I see," Lalter nodded. "Salter is with her."
Lancer glanced at Merlin. "You said she is human, witch."
Utterly nonplussed, Merlin continued to chow down. White locks whipping, robes twisting, she flicked her wrist, conjured a pair of twentieth century aviator shades, and placed them over her eyes.
"I told thee the truth. I did not tell thee the entire truth."
Shirou seemed beyond terrified. "A-Artoria, it's fine. I told you about the Lancers already, remember?"
She paid him no mind. The girl's malevolent glare focused on two hefty objects.
"—What is the meaning of this obscenity."
Arthur spun away, desperate to conceal her laugh. Lancer cleared her throat, shared a knowing look with Lalter. The woman in black nodded.
"'Tis a result of Rhongomyniad's machinations," Lancer began. "The Tower absorbs the host's mental image of divinity, then models their body accordingly."
The girl twitched. "The host's... mental image..."
A creature of pure, humiliated malice, she ever-so-slowly twisted in place. A chill ran down Arthur's back; Artoria pierced her to her very core, pointed a judgmental finger.
"You have such a complex, Arthur! It starts right before our sixteenth birthday, will you stop?!"
Arthur sputtered, her face crimson.
"And you, mister!" Artoria's fury turned to a now-standing Shirou. Her own blush spread across her cheeks.
"D-Did you know of this?! Is that why we are... why we are here?! Is this p-part of the p-plan?!"
With an exasperated sigh did Shirou bring a hand to his hip. His head tilted, a single eye closed.
"—I knew nothing of the sort, Master. It's rude to ask such things. I assumed the Lancers were the natural end of Artoria Pendragon's puber—"
"Do not fall back on thine Archerisms for this, Saber!"
The wall shattered like a faulty projection. Shoulders slumping, Shirou rubbed at his neck.
"No, Artoria, I had no clue. You can't just walk up to a girl and ask why her tits are so big."
...
...
...
Merlin's continued chewing occupied the silence.
"You have no one to blame but thyself."
Lalter used Artoria's embarrassment to her advantage. Callused hands unfastened the girl's chest armor; it fell to the floor, and the taller woman pulled Artoria's collar just enough to sneak a peak down her tunic. Her skyrocketing shame fueled the elbow driven into Lalter's gut, and the two women stumbled apart. One smirked, the other fumed.
Shirou dragged a hand down his face, while Lancer leaned her head on his shoulder. Despite his de-aging, Archer's latent influence averaged out his height. Seven inches - twenty centimeters - between Shirou and Archer landed the Grand Saber right in the middle at five-foot-ten, which meant, much to his internal relief, that he still had two inches over the Lancers.
He refused to be shorter than them. The teasing would never stop.
"Well?" Lancer asked.
"Hold her still."
The two women blinked to Artoria's sides. Lancer pulled her arms up while Lalter swept her palms from the girl's armpits down to her waist. Artoria squirmed beneath the pat-down, visibly uncomfortable; that was all Shirou needed to put an end to things.
"Alright, stop. Leave her alone."
They released her at his order. Artoria teleported to her Servant, back against his armored chest, and made a point of point of tugging his arms over her shoulders and down across her front. The message wasn't lost on the present company: territory reserved, trespassers not allowed.
"Do that again and I shall render you as flat as Arthur," she warned.
"—I am right here, Artoria!"
Lancer smirked, hand on her hip.
"You have found quite the feisty Master, Archer. Our apologies, child, we could not help ourselves after thy remark to dearest Saber over yonder. We have not lived normal lives, and our curiosity claimed us."
"If thou art so curious, perhaps reconsider drawing that accursed sword, next time, then!"
The older Pendragon's smirk darkened. "Hoh..."
Shirou could practically see the sparks flying. Time to change the subject; two and a half he could handle, two on top of that was pushing it.
"Why are we all here, Merlin? Are you taking us to Arthur?"
The witch lowered her aviators, harrumphed, stretched on her reclined lawn chair. She sat up to fling her legs over the side.
"Nay, not yet. There are two tasks before thy merry band. Firstly, the Artorias must become one. Secondly: TYPE:Pluto shall invade this world in..."
She checked an invisible wrist watch.
"...three hours, ten minutes, and fifty-one... fifty... forty-nine seconds. It would be foolish to depart to the Reverse Side with the demise of Gaia's defensive bubble so heinously imminent."
...
How—
...
What?
"We assumed we were meant to join with Saber," Lalter attempted.
"Nay. The girl is the core of thy soul."
...
...
Shirou didn't like the look in Artoria's eye.
"I... I am... the what...?"
Merlin cocked a brow.
"I am surprised you all have not connected the pieces together. Very well, I shall relay to you the facts of the matter, as requested by my counterpart and his ward in Avalon."
Merlin and—?!
"Have you never thought it strange, Artoria, that you somehow summoned a Servant nearly thirteen hundred years before the invention of the relevant system? That you possess command seals in a time long before the mere thought of such constructs had entered the minds of men? That thy Servant is a Counter Guardian, who do not require Masters to function? To say nothing of one powered by the perpetuity of the Heaven's Feel."
A horrific chill wrapped its frozen tendrils around Shirou's unified soul. He stomped forward, the epiphany etched in deep stress lines across his face.
"No. Absolutely not. That was not part of the deal. I will handle it, Merlin, so—"
"If you were capable of handling it by thy lonesome, we would not be in this position in the first place, Monster. She shall aid thee, or we shall all die."
He halted, canines bared, pupils dilated. "What do you...?"
"All in due time. Hush."
Artoria swallowed. "S-Saber, I want to hear this."
"Artoria, this is far beyond—"
"You said you would not leave me behind!"
...
She saw the struggle within. The urge he had to deny her, to fall into old habits as just another expendable weapon. The suicidal tendency to throw himself into harm's way, to lose life and limb so she and others could remain blissfully unaware.
But she knew the lesson. She understood.
His Saber escaped because they did not leave each other's side, no matter what. Right through to the end, arm in arm, carrying the other to salvation. Arthur and Alter both became prisoners, meanwhile, albeit in two separate, unequal ways.
"We stay together always, Saber. We promised."
Merlin smiled that serene, eerie, emotionless smile.
"Aye. Whether you like it or not."
The ominous words left Artoria quite aware of her situation - surrounded by other Artorias.
"Why must we... u-um... b-become one?"
"Have you heard of the Beasts, child?"
Shirou's breath hitched. Artoria shoved away her growing fears.
"A-Aye? They are... equivalent to... to s-seven Grand Servants, was it?"
"Correct. They are also, on occasion, split into halves."
...
Arthur paled. Everyone in that room paled. The witch lifted her hands, as if to conduct the world's most ironic orchestra.
She gestured to the Servant.
"Into a Left—"
And then to the Master.
"—and a Right."
There, within the Tower, Arthur breathed the answer. The answer to all their questions, to why Shirou Emiya and Artoria Pendragon always seemed to find each other. The sacred memory flashed in her mind's eye, that night in the moonstruck shed.
"Shirou Emiya falls in love with Artoria Pendragon at first sight."
"It truly is fate. A Monster and his Goddess."
The witch Merlin proclaimed the truth.
"Two entities alone may access the Last Phantasm, Caledfwlch, Sword of Humanity: the scabbard and the wielder. Just like its Beast counterparts, the two halves of the Grand Saber are bound together by fate. Time and time again shall they separate. Time and time again shall they reunite. And that unison and separation, that eternal dance, that movement across time immemorial between those two kindred souls, is the brilliance..."
And she lifted her hands to gesture to the golden madness twirling about them, the spire of light holding the World itself together.
The beauty of they who danced for eternity.
Sheathe the sword.
A boy and a girl.
Shirou and Artoria.
"...of the Avalonians."
The Grand Saber.
Confusion Corner
One must search for eternity
Archer's situation can be boiled down to a logical thought experiment centered around a hypothetical multiple choice question:
Q: How can I prevent myself from becoming a Counter Guardian?
A. Fate
B. Unlimited Blade Works
C. Heaven's Feel
Before we can answer Archer's question, we need the background information.
Firstly: per the events of the first three days, we know that Rin saves Shirou's life using her pendant, and that Shirou never returns it. This is why Rin "summons" Archer no matter what - Archer's pendant is the catalyst, not Rin's, and instead of the Master summoning her Servant, in actuality, the Servant is summoning himself to his Master. Archer will always be Rin's Servant.
Secondly: we know through Nasu that Archer's route is a so-called Fate "good end", in which they win the Grail, but Shirou fails to save Saber's heart; she doesn't stop her quest despite their victory:
Q: What was the Fifth Grail War that Heroic Spirit Emiya experienced in his lifetime like? Was the Archer summoned there also Emiya?
Nasu Kinoko: It was a world where the conditions at the beginning of the war were mostly the same, but something was missing. Shirou summoned Saber and fought until the end, didn't save Saber's heart but understood her, and they destroyed the grail together and parted... that's the image I have.
Takeuchi Takashi: Ahh, so something like a Fate route Good End we didn't make in the game?!
Nasu: Yeah, probably. After that, it is believed he cooperates with Rin who survived, and heads to London.
[Fate/stay night [Unlimited Blade Works] Animation Material II - Kinoko and Takashi Q & A]
Nasu and Takeuchi have also confirmed that the VN's opening summoning scene was told from Archer's perspective - or rather, the Shirou who would make the contract and eventually "become" Archer:
Q: In the Fifth Holy Grail War that Archer was retracing, were the inner dealings of the Matou clan or Sakura's circumstances known? If he had known, how did Sakura look through Archer's eyes in this particular Holy Grail War?
Nasu: That Archer only has "memories of Saber" when it concerns the Holy Grail War. When he was summoned, seeing his summoned before him, he started to acknowledge things around Rin as "his own things." The inner dealings of the Matou clan is something he didn't know before turning into a Servant, and Sakura's current circumstances were something he deduced after being summoned for the Holy Grail War. But that doesn't necessarily mean that he would assist Sakura. Archer is Archer. It's not the guy.
Takeuchi: He remembers just Saber… you're talking about the opening scene in the original game.
Nasu: It's not that he clearly remembers details. His memories are vague, and at the point where he was assigned as a guardian, his memories are all blended together chaotically regardless of past or future. So, he no longer has the sensation of "what he feels is beautiful" anymore. Just think the "first contact with Saber" was something engraved into his soul as an Art Graph. Also, how that young man met Saber and how he was involved is something completely different from that in stay night.
[Fate/stay night [Heaven's Feel] I. presage flower Animation Material - Kinoko and Takashi Q & A, p.22]
With this info and our knowledge of the Fate route, we can reason out that Shirou is at risk of signing the contract if: he never learns Archer's identity (UBW); if he isn't influenced into drastically changing his ideals (HF).
This gives us our defining variable:
Shirou becomes Archer if Shirou isn't influenced.
The question is a trick; every answer is wrong. Archer is locked in a no-win scenario, and his creation is forever outside of his control. With his influence, Shirou doesn't make the contract. Without his influence, Shirou does. Archer's actions, words, existence, do not matter - that is what's ultimately meant when he's described as being "outside of time and space". He is locked out. Trapped. It is impossible for him to influence the specific chain of events that led to his creation.
But there's a loophole.
The winning move is to delete the question.
If Archer can prevent the question from being asked, the retrocausal paradox could very well rip him from the Throne. How can Shirou Emiya make a contract with the World if Shirou Emiya never survives long enough to make the contract? It's the definition of a shot in the dark, a Hail Mary play, but if every Servant iteration of Archer goes for Shirou's throat the moment he's summoned into the war through Rin's pendant - as he knows he will be, because hindsight is 20/20 - then no Shirou Emiya will survive to see that creepy blue orb, and Archer will finally be free.
That, of course, is an impossible scenario. The multiverse is nigh-infinite, and as we see in Fate/stay night, there are confirmed timelines in which Shirou survives to the end of the war and presumably doesn't (or perhaps does) sign the Guardian contract. Archer failed.
Or did he?
As we all know, Shirou cannot save himself. Left unchecked, he will become a Counter Guardian. But when he is influenced, when someone else steps into his life, things begin to change. Who is Fateless!Shirou? He's a conglomeration of every single Shirou Emiya, including Archer. He's a man with all of his memories, good and bad. He's in a timeline. He isn't outside time anymore.
This is the impossible scenario Archer dreamed of, and how it happened - why it happened - is a key plot thread in the story. Stay tuned.
Dramatic irony
My primary goal with this Confusion Corner is to provide an alternative, optional interpretation of Shirou Emiya's abilities, which for years have been a source of confusion within this fandom. To do this, I'll start by providing a definition for dramatic irony.
Per Wikipedia:
Irony (from Ancient Greek εἰρωνεία eirōneía 'dissimulation, feigned ignorance'[1]), in its broadest sense, is a characterization of a situation which discloses that what on the surface appears to be the case contrasts consequentially with what is actually the case. Irony is an important rhetorical device and literary technique.
Dramatic irony exploits the device of giving the spectator an item of information that at least one of the characters in the narrative is unaware of (at least consciously), thus placing the spectator a step ahead of at least one of the characters.
According to Stanton,[27] dramatic irony has three stages—installation, exploitation, and resolution (often also called preparation, suspension, and resolution) —producing dramatic conflict in what one character relies or appears to rely upon, the contrary of which is known by observers (especially the audience; sometimes to other characters within the drama) to be true. In summary, it means that the reader/watcher/listener knows something that one or more of the characters in the piece is not aware of.
Next, I will issue a hypothetical statement that, at first, will sound like a bunch of fanon shipping wank:
Artoria Pendragon, not Rin Tohsaka, is Shirou Emiya's perfect Master.
Why? Why do I think this? What is my logic?
To answer this question, we must first talk about two literary tropes: Death Of The Author, and Word Of God.
Death Of The Author, per TvTropes:
"A narrator should not supply interpretations of his work; otherwise he would not have written a novel, which is a machine for generating interpretations."
— Umberto Eco, postscript to The Name of the Rose
Death of the Author is a concept from mid-20th Century literary criticism; it holds that an author's intentions and biographical facts (the author's politics, religion, etc) should hold no special weight in determining an interpretation of their writing. This is usually understood as meaning that a writer's views about their own work are no more or less valid than the interpretations of any given reader. Intentions are one thing. What was actually accomplished might be something very different. The logic behind the concept is fairly simple: Books are meant to be read, not written, so the ways readers interpret them are as important and "real" as the author's intention. On the flip side, a lot of authors are unavailable or unwilling to comment on their intentions, and even when they are, they don't always make choices for reasons that make sense or are easily explainable to others (or sometimes even to themselves).
Next, Word Of God:
"The preceding paragraph is all stuff I just made up. But it's canonical now."
— Sarah Monette, writer.
A statement regarding some ambiguous or undefined aspect of a work, the Word of God comes from someone considered to be the ultimate authority, such as the creator, director or producer. Such edicts can even go against events as were broadcast, due to someone making a mistake.
Fans may look for the Word of God to settle Fanon disputes, but the Authority may have moved on and doesn't care to respond. In many cases the authority does not feel the need to respond; further pressure simply leads to suggestions that the fandom is misaimed. In point of fact, there are good reasons many creators don't respond to requests for this: they want the fans to make their own interpretations. Especially in an ongoing series where the creator knows facts the fans don't, they might very well know for a fact that both fan theories have truth in them and thus not wish to take sides. Alternatively, the author might view both readings of the story as equally acceptible, and thus not want to comment.
Of these two conflicting theories, the Type-Moon fandom overwhelmingly subscribes to Word Of God. Fans generally hold what Nasu says in his various interviews to be the supreme authority on any and all matters, superseding even what the written work states as fact. But there's a problem here: Fate/stay night is - and I know this is the mother of all plot twists - a written work. It isn't an anime, it isn't a series of interviews. It's a visual novel filled with lots and lots of words.
And nowhere within these lots and lots of words does Fate/stay night ever say Shirou Emiya cannot trace a Divine Construct, or that his traced weaponry is degraded by one rank.
In fact, it often heavily implies the opposite:
There's no principle of behavior.
There's no meaning of behavior.
There's no meaning of existence.
I don't feel any fear.
The meaning behind my existence disappears.
I'm not alive anymore.
My arms won't move for any reason.
"—Trace."
Words come out of my mouth.
There's something still remaining even after language, neopallium, and cerebrum are lost.
"—On."
The body dies.
But the soul remains.
[next slide: static]
Spinning the eight verses.
The load transmits from the body to the soul, and more meaning is
"—Ah."
And Emiya Shirou dies.
The standing figure is no different from a machine.
It's programmed to swing the sword, but it's a corpse with no desire to move.
But even without human intelligence…
There are machines that weave many dreams in this world.
[next slides: golden beams of light, the destruction of the Grail, and Sakura's smile]
There was a promise.
Once winter's over, when it's spring—
A recitation of words without meaning.
A small hope that I remembered until the very end.
[Source: Fate/stay night: Heaven's Feel, Day 15, Normal End - in which Shirou Emiya successfully projects Excalibur (Morgan? the sword he sees is Morgan, but the effect is Excalibur) at the cost of his own life]
Without further ado, let us discuss the protagonist of Fate/stay night.
human | hero
SHIROU | EMIYA
My abject fury with Kinoko Nasu begins and ends with the understanding that, through his ample use of Word Of God, he is, perhaps unintentionally, undermining his own written masterpiece.
To understand why UBW's mechanical limitations are pointless, to understand why it doesn't actually matter whether or not Shirou can project Divine Constructs, to understand why I want to bash my fucking head into a wall every time someone asks, "How strong are Shirou's/Archer's projections?", we must first understand UBW's thematic purpose within Fate/stay night's narrative.
Everything about Shirou's powers can be summarized with a single definition. From wiktionary:
double-edged sword
Etymology
From the notion that if two sides of the same blade are sharp, it cuts both ways. The metaphor may have originated from the Arabic expression سَيْفٌ ذُو حَدَّيْنِ (sayfun ḏū ḥaddayni, "double-edged sword").
The metaphor is first attested to in English in the 15th century.
noun
(figuratively) A benefit that is also a liability, or (a benefit) that carries some significant but not-so-obvious cost or risk.
Now, how could this possibly relate to Shirou's reality marble and the swords within? Oh, I know!
Benefit: Shirou saves others.
Liability: Shirou fucking HURTS HIMSELF.
Or, phrased another way: Unlimited Blade Works is a physical manifestation of Shirou's self-destructive mindset.
again, for those of you in the back
Unlimited Blade Works is LITERALLY Shirou's self-destructive mindset.
IT'S IN THE FUCKING NAME GUYSSSSSS
It's called UNLIMITED because Shirou's idealism is UNLIMITED in its scope!
Because he wants to save EVERYONE?
HELLO?
Why can he project Excalibur in Heaven's Feel despite Saber being dead? OH GEE I FUCKING WONDER
Excalibur
[ noble phantasm ]
Sword of Promised Victory.
Sword of light. It is not a man-made weapon, but rather a divine construct tempered by the planet. It is the Noble Phantasm standing at the very pinnacle of holy swords.
The strongest illusion (Last Phantasm), crystallized and refined from the wishes of humanity stored in the planet.
Though it was entrusted to elementals, who act as the planet's sense of touch, it temporarily passed into the hands of a human king for a time.
[…]
[ Fate/side material: Fate Encyclopedia ]
And why does he DIE whenever he uses the sword? Because the dream he's asking Excalibur to embody is impossible! He's trying to save everyone! A single man is trying to be everyone's sword!
That is why he has ALL of them!
Shirou himself - his humanity - IS his reality marble's limitation; its strength and abilities in the story depend exclusively on his status, health and mindset. For example:
- In the Fate route, he's utterly focused on Saber, so he ONLY TRACES CALIBURN.
- In UBW, he learns about Archer and where he went wrong, so UBW BECOMES A CLEAR SKIES VERSION OF ARCHER'S.
- In HF, he decides to fight against his ideals and live for Sakura, so UBW - HIS IDEALS - FIGHT BACK AND BEGIN TO KILL HIM.
The whole point of why the reality marble seemingly has no restrictions in the VN outside of Ea's fuckery is because Shirou is trying to be perfect. He's trying to be the absolute perfect hero, so his ability reflects that thematically. He cannot handle it because perfection is impossible, he is killing himself and driving himself insane as he attempts to do so! Trace Excalibur? Sure, go for it, enjoy the death! Copied weapons are just as capable as their originals? Of course, go get cut to bits by literal Gilgamesh! He can use Heracles' Nine Lives and wield the demigod's sword-axe and lift it easily? Well, that's because the traumatized 17 y/o teenager is pretending to be Heracles! Oh, look, his brain just imploded a bit! Conjure up a famous Greek's shield and use it to deflect King Arthur's literal fucking death ray? Absolutely bud! Oh, that's nasty, there are swords coming out of your fucking arm! And if you guys notice, UBW's greatest feats always happen specifically when Shirou or Archer are defending other people:
- Caliburn? Defending Saber.
- Six lives taken from Berserker? Defending his younger self, Saber, and Rin.
- Against Gilgamesh? Defending Rin and Saber.
- NLBW? Defending Illya.
- Sparks Liner High? Keeping Salter in place and defending Rin and Sakura deeper in the cave.
- Rho Aias against Excalibur Morgan? Defending Rider.
You know, when he's pretending to be, oh, I don't know, A HERO? A hero with no sense of worth, a body made of swords, and swords are really quite sharp!
But Shirou's thing is that his dream is a fucking lie and his heroism is all fake, because in reality he just wants to feel what Kiritsugu felt the night of the fire. He really just wants to make people close to him happy, because making people happy will make him smile and be happy himself. So because his heroism is fake, all his tools used to perform those heroics are fake, too.
y'know kinda like fuckin UBW guys HELLOOOOOOOOOO
And why does Archer get so fucking pissy? Because Emiya is Shirou's heroic side while Shirou is his human side, and that's why he's just called EMIYA and not Shirou, because he's lost sight of himself. When he's doing his Counter Guardian bullshit, he isn't seeing anyone close to him smiling anymore, he's literally just fucking killing people as Alaya's attack dog. So what does he do? He goes after his human side, because he feels like his human side betrayed and abandoned him. And then the two sides fight, and Emiya loses and admits he was wrong. Why? Because UBW is a physical manifestation of a purely metaphysical concept, and their battle was metaphysical in nature. Emiya forgot what made him Shirou, and Shirou is always at his strongest when his human side (Shirou) is working together with his heroic side (Emiya). Ya ever notice that it's Archer who gives Shirou the best motivational speeches and the best advice when shit's about to hit the fan? What happens in Heaven's Feel when Shirou finally lets all of this go? When he decides to stop chasing his impossible dream and instead live in the present for a girl he cares for? He finally lets go of his impossible superhero ability. He literally FORGETS that he is an Emiya!
The guy's entire shtick is performing superhuman feats for very human reasons, and then getting utterly demolished by the consequences of his actions.
but shirou can't project excalibur or w/e haha degraded by one rank haha lol fuck i need a beer
And how does all this relate to Artoria? Because Avalon - you know, her scabbard - created UBW by changing his Element to Sword.
scabbards hold swords btw KINDA LIKE UBW if you think about it
And who adopted Shirou after implanting him with the scabbard? Kiritsugu EMIYA. Was Shirou an Emiya before the fire? No he wasn't. Was he a hero before a fire? No he wasn't. Was he broken before the fire? No he wasn't. Did he want to save literally everyone before the fire? No he didn't.
When he became an Emiya, he became a "hero". Artoria, then, made him an Emiya by proxy through Kiritsugu, and since Emiya is a synonym for hero, it means she made him a hero as well.
It's said that, in the Last Episode, Shirou Emiya became a hero.
I really really hope you can all see where I'm going with this.
He can do nothing by himself. That's what UBW is about. He is copying the weapons and heroics of other people, because Shirou is EMPTY. He has NOTHING to call his own! No dreams, no motivations, no nothing. And in Heaven's Feel, in order to STOP being a hero, in order to live in the present and throw away this living bag of traumatized weaponry he's become, he has to kill the person who made him a hero in the first place. He has to throw that person away and forget them forever.
So he forgets Kiritsugu, and he kills Saber.
On the flip side, when he embraces the person who made him a hero in the Fate route, he goes on to accomplish his own heroics while still staying human and grounded. Why? Because Fate's conflict is the reverse of UBW's - in UBW, Shirou is confronting his heroic side, Emiya, while in Fate, he's confronting his human side, Shirou, by means of the basement scene and his interpersonal conflicts with Saber. We see this arrangement through the heroines of each route: Saber and Emiya parallel each other, so in Fate the conflict is with Shirou and Saber's human sides; while in UBW, Shirou and Rin are both human, and so the conflict is with Emiya, the hero, with Saber not reaching her own conclusions until she understands Emiya's journey, what he went through, and the resolution he finds against his human side, Shirou. Saber is the cause of Emiya, while Emiya is the symptom. Shirou in Fate is still able to reconcile both aspects of himself by facing that cause, because again, Saber and Emiya are exact mirrors of each other and have the same conflict, so Saber stands in as Emiya's proxy once he leaves the story after the off-screen fight against Berserker.
All of that leads me to say it again, and this time, I hope you understand that it is absolutely not fanon shipping wank:
When considering both the themes and the in-universe mechanics, Artoria Pendragon is Shirou Emiya's best Master, because she alone best enables his heroism. She is why he becomes a hero in the first place.
He lacks the magical energy; she has it in spades.
She excels in melee; he excels at range.
He is a scabbard; she is a saber.
He makes the swords she uses.
That is why they both are the Grand Saber.
It's always been that way, they are reflections of each other, and it carries over into Fateless. Don't believe me? It's been in the story since the very beginning. From Chapter 2:
"If Kay finds out he'll make you clean the pigsty for a week."
...
Artoria stared at him.
"Why aren't you downstairs?" he asked.
She jabbed a finger into his surcoat.
"If I recall thy words, Saber, you called me the Master and yourself the Servant. That implies hierarchy, nay?"
She'd tucked Bakuya into her belt loop. After everything they'd went through, to be betrayed by his favorite weapon without a second thought! Hmph! Kanshou would hear of this. Unbelievable.
For years I've seen this fandom occasionally wonder what a role reversal would look like. How cool would it be, if Type-Moon did a Master Artoria/Saber Shirou setup? What would a Saber Shirou even look like? Is it possible? But Archer doesn't have the stats! But he's literally a sword. Nuh uh, he's a mid-tier Servant at best! On and on and on and on. But no one at all has seemed to realize that Shirou in the visual novel is limited by just his trauma and his mortal body. Artoria with full access to her dragon core is easily stronger alive than she is as a Servant. Shirou is mana starved by default. Back when FGO was fresh and new, datamining revealed that Ayako Kawasumi, Saber's Japanese VA, voiced the Grand Saber. The obvious guess was that it'd be Artoria with both Excalibur and Avalon, at her full power - but by herself, Artoria cannot use both Avalon and Excalibur at the same time. Despite going together, their functioning is mutually exclusive.
So I added another person.
The dramatic irony here is that Fate/stay night set up something we're probably never going to see in official media. Master Shirou with Servant Artoria is one of the weakest combinations. But Master Artoria with Servant Shirou? Unlimited Blade Works fueled by a dragon core? What happens when Shirou finally has everything he needs to become the hero he's always wanted to be? What happens when he has the strength of body and the mana supply backing it up? omigosh shirou-sama ur so coo—
"HIGH SPARK! HIGH SPARK!"
"Let his teachings guide you!
Use the Grain!
We shall fight fire with fire, and death with death!"
...
Oh. Right. The worst ending in the Nasuverse.
Why do things still go to shit? Because only half of UBW's restrictions have been undone - the mortality. Shirou in Fateless can now physically handle the awesome power of his idealism, but he still cannot handle it mentally. The trauma is still there, the conflict is still there.
Nasu said their journeys were done. Respectfully, I think he's just a coward. He got so damn close with Lostbelt 6, but he chickened out and made them Castoria and Muramasa, and avoided the final leg of their journey entirely.
So we'll finish it ourselves.