Shirou watched in fascination at the spectacle that took place before his eyes. Just a few moments ago his opponent had taken the form of a lean well-muscled man dressed in a Chinese outfit that Shirou could not remember the name of. This was not the case anymore as he silently observed the form of his opponent shift and the substance of his body to reveal itself as clay and mould itself into the form of an androgynous figure with green hair wearing a white robe.
"Interesting," Shirou mused as he idly reloaded his gun. "I cannot conceive how you were made."
"I was made by created by the gods," Enkidu admitted. "I would not expect anybody who has lived such a short span of time to be able to replicate the act of my creation."
"I know for a fact nobody alive today could," Shirou admitted. "I'm actually one of the most knowledgeable about the creation of artificial bodies. While I don't like to toot my own horn, I don't believe anybody has sufficiently greater skill than me to make a noticeably better attempt. I'm afraid Enkidu that there is no Frankenstein with the ability to end your solitary existence."
The servant inclined his head in acknowledgement. "So you have guessed my identity," the servant acknowledged.
"It's not much of a guess," Shirou said. "You weren't doing a very good job hiding it. Despite your strength and speed you lack the skill necessary to properly wield that weapon. The fact that you're made of clay was the smoking gun." He said. "Are you aware that Gilgamesh is alive?" Shirou questioned curiously. "I'm having trouble believing that you have not met up with him yet."
"I am aware that he is alive," Enkidu said. "But I am also aware that he would simultaneously be aware of my own existence. The fact that he has decided not to contact me indicates that he does not intend for a reunion. It is not my place to go against his wishes." A touch of sorrow managed to seep into the voice of the man made of clay but his face remained stoic.
"Fair enough," Shirou admitted. "For my interest can you tell me what Sumire's instructions for your fight with me were?"
"My master has instructed me to defeat you," Enkidu confessed. "She also further told me not to go easy on you."
"I see," Shirou said. In the next instant he clicked his fingers and a flood of water washed towards the clay man. The wave was blocked by a wall that appeared from the ground and redirected it around the servant. This didn't stop the magician for a second as he immediately teleported behind Enkidu, leaving his swords planted in the ground, and fired multiple bullets from his Desert Eagle at the back of the servant. A massive axe rose from the ground blocking the bullets. While the impact from the projectiles caused cracks to appear on the axe they were ultimately not able to penetrate the weapon.
Shirou eyes widened as the axe suddenly flew towards him. Thinking quickly he pumped prana to the Emiya family crest causing the world to slow down. He stepped to the side driving his elbow into the axe as it swept past him taking note of the fact that the weapon returned to clay once it was struck hard enough. Shirou didn't have any time to rest as he was forced to use his improved speed to doge multiple weapons that rose from the ground. Shirou grit his teeth as the waves of weapons forced him to move away from his opponent. Suddenly agonizing pain and weakness shot through his shoulder and Shirou saw a spike skewered through his scapula.
The magician pulled it out of his shoulder immediately but it was too late. An axe cut through his side and Shirou felt a moment's lethargy during which he was run through by a lance that penetrated fully through his tough body leaving a hole through the lower portion of his torso. Under pressure Shirou pumped more prana towards Nolava II causing metal to fill the holes in his body. In the same instant that he healed himself Shirou teleported to the other end of the park.
Catching his breath Shirou thought through the various methods he could use in order to defeat his opponent. He discarded matching the output of weapons with blasts of water and ice; the servant's weapons were of superior quality and he seemed to be able to draw a limitless supply of them from the earth. In addition whenever he touched the clay he felt a brief period of weakness which ruled out engaging him in melee combat. Shirou took a deep breath relaxing his body and mind. He was going about this the incorrect way. His opponent was a piece of clay that could absorb more of itself from the earth. Suddenly inspiration struck the young magician and he smiled as he recalled a fruitless experiment that he had performed a year ago.
Crossing his arms Shirou waited for the arrival of Enkidu. He didn't have to wait long as within a few more seconds the servant appeared in front of him. Words were not wasted as another collection of peerless weapons rose from the ground and sped towards the prepared magician. This time however instead of dodging or blocking Shirou raised his hand that contained the ring that he had used so many years ago when he was still inexperienced to gather water so that he could use for attacks. A year ago he had revisited the project when he had obtained access to the Matou family library. The Matou magecraft centred around absorption in an abstract way. With their collective knowledge Shirou tried to empower his ring to the extent that he could suck out all the water in a human's body leaving them a desiccated corpse.
This experiment was a failure as the human body refused to let water leave in quantities like that and had many safeguards to prevent it. These however were safeguards that clay wouldn't have. An almost visible corona of magic swept outwards from Shirou's hand causing the grass to turn yellow and then brown as water was sucked out of the surrounding vegetation. The effect on the weapons was just as pronounced. Where before they were peerless weapons greater than any modern day equivalent and able to easily pass through his defence; when they were hit by the wave and had the water ripped out of them they cracked and warped and the few that didn't veer off course of break apart entirely bounced off Shirou's body. Despite the high velocity it would take more than a broken weapon to penetrate his skin. Shirou smiled and raised his hand as the water that was sucked from the land and absorbed into his body.
To Enkidu's credit the green haired servant did not stick with a tactic that didn't work and instead launched himself at Shirou at such a tremendous speed that the magician automatically activated [Time Alter] causing the world to slow down by three times as much before he was able to hastily block a bone-shaking punch from the dangerous servant.
When the Enkidu's fist connected with Shirou's forearm two things happened at the same time. Shirou felt the typical weakness that came with being struck by the clay man set into his bones and Enkidu's entire arm warped and cracked. The servant looked towards his arm in shock and Shirou took the opportunity to strike the servant in the chest with his hand holding the ring.
As soon as the punch connected Shirou felt the typical weakness in his muscles but he overcame it by concentrating on the water that made up over ninety-nine percent of his body and forcing it to send another punch and then another. Enkidu backed off, his body cracked and warped, but he didn't have any breathing room as the magician teleported behind him grabbing the back of his head and slamming it down into the ground below.
In a moment Shirou was left clutching Enkidu's head and the majority of the clay disengaged reforming into the green-haired servant before. But he was noticeable weaker this time with his body less defined then before; his existence of a golem was plain to see. Shirou teleported back to his original location and picked up Enki. While in most circumstances he would have kept up the fight, he actually had too much water in his body at the moment and if he was forced to continue it was likely he would start instinctively firing off water from his body. Thankfully the pair of blades that Gilgamesh had given him had the special ability of absorbing water and a particularly massive empty reserve that Shirou had been filling up.
Teleporting back to the location of the green-haired servant he noticed that his body had been restored to its original form; although Shirou was utterly certain that he was not as strong as he originally was due to the lack of water.
"Not going to give up," he said feeling a bit of reluctance to kill Gilgamesh's best friend. "This fight is basically over. You're like a dragon Pokémon and I'm an ice-type," Shirou said. "Now that I've found out your weakness, there is basically no way for you to win."
"Please don't refer to me as a dragon again," the man of clay said still politely. "Where I come from they were not looked upon favourably and the feeling was mutual." The servant straightened out. "I'm sorry but I was instructed to win and not to go easy on you." There was a look of genuine sadness in his eyes and then Enkidu exploded.
Shirou reflexively closed his eyes when he was hit by a wave of pure mana. He had to physically dig in his heels and even then he felt his whole body slide backwards under the oppressive force that had now confronted him. Regaining his footing he opened his eyes to find his opponent had once again changed his form.
Enkidu had previously adopted a shape that could pass for human. However there were subtle things that caused Shirou to easily remember that the creature had never been human. His perfectly androgynous, too beautiful form was one of them but it also manifested in the way he spoke and his gestures. They looked too learned and gave the impression of something trying to imitate humanity.
This new creature had a humanoid shape and that was the full extent of the beings relationship with the masters of the planet. It stood eight metres tall with tanned skin and was incredibly bulky with four arms with human hands. That was where it's passing resemblance to humanity ended. The creature had no definition to its muscles appearing as if it was made out of a child's moulding clay. In addition besides the mouth that split the creatures face revealing a prehensile tongue and massive crushing teeth its face was devoid of any extra features. No ears no nose and no eyes adorned its visage.
The resulting effect caused the young magician to raise an eyebrow but it was nothing compared to the effect on the environment. The brown and dying grass had rejuvenated, new trees had sprouted from the ground and the park now looked like a paradise with types of vegetation that Shirou had never seen before.
"I may have made a terrible mistake," Shirou admitted as he stared down the creature. "He had not forgotten the class skill of the berserker but he did not expect its activation to have this much of an impact. Shirou kept his eyes on the beast as he walked forward to retrieve his swords. The beast that Enkidu had become did not seem to be hostile but the sheer power that it gave off indicated that it could become a very deadly opponent.
But the beast did not attack instead it merely looked around and then turned around and walked away annoying the magician. Shirou merely snapped his fingers and condensed all the water in the sky into a massive iceberg above the creature. The next scene happened unbelievable fast. The creature lashed up with a single hand shattering the multi-ton iceberg like it was made of glass. On instinct Shirou immediately cranked his [Time Alter] as far as it could go causing the world to go silent, dark and cold. Still even if he lost access to his senses he couldn't miss the hand extending towards him. The power behind that blow created ripples that threatened to deafen his mystical senses and he pushed ineffectually at the diamond hard air in order to dodge the incoming blow. The human sized hand approached Shirou and the Magician felt his body creak as his bones and ligaments were pushed to their absolute maximum in order to dodge the mountain coming his way. At the last second Shirou managed to create enough space in the frozen air to move his body enough to the side that only his arm was impacted by the monster. Pain coursed through his body as his arm was slowly crushed by the force of nature. He felt his body weaken again and he lost control over his crest.
Time returned to normal, the world grew warm, air returned and light and sound came into being but Shirou was only peripherally aware of it. Massive pain coursed through his body from the position of where his arm used to be a few seconds ago. He was knocked out of his stupor a moment later when the sonic boom hit his ears and the air rushed into the space where his arm used to occupy.
Shirou sighed as he watched the beast examine its own arm as if it was surprised to see that happen. "Really," he mused to himself smiling. "I don't think I've been this scared since I stumbled onto Arcueid's pornstash." But the smile died on his face. "You're not even interested in fighting are you," Shirou said with copious amounts of blood still spewing from his left arm. "But I can't leave you to wander around like this. Hmm, now what should I do?"
Shirou's musing ceased as his ears picked up sounds in the park. "No," he said, his eyes widening. "Not now, please not now."
The monster did not share his trepidation as it turned its head to the side at the noise and then a moment later took off after the sound.
"Of all the fucking times," Shirou said. He absentmindedly absorbed the blood from the ground into his body, picked up one of the dual blades and took off after the monster. The monster seemed to be naturally faster than Shirou but the young magician was far more determined. Even without the use of the crest he managed to keep up with the creature and as he managed to intercept the creature landing in front of the young man and forming a wall of ice between him and the monster.
Shirou watched as the monster slowed and approached cautiously at the sign of the ice. He eyed down the phantasmal beast trying to discern its weakness. Behind him he could hear the startled gasp of the young man as his eyes fell upon the massive beast.
"I-I-I-Inke," Shirou heard the young man's voice from behind him. "What is that," he continued on his voice unsteady.
"The closest thing you'll ever see to a god in this modern world," the magician replied and he turned towards the human. "I'm sorry do I know you."
"We go to the same sc… Wait your arm," the young man said and he sounded like he was having a mini panic attack.
"Calm down," Shirou said firmly. While he sympathized with his situation this kind of battlefield was no place for a high school child. "You need to head straight home and stay out of the street at night.
"Don't you…" the guy started.
"No," Shirou interrupted. "If you don't leave you will die." At the boy's hesitation Shirou grabbed the boy's shoulders turned him around and pushed him. "Fly you fool," he yelled out in English." This was the last straw as Shirou's schoolmate turned and ran into the blackness of the night.
A crushing noise rang out through the night and Shirou turned to see the beast deliberately crushing the ice beneath its feet.
"You really are strong," Shirou admitted. "This is a fight I cannot actually hold back in. I'm going to have to go all-out and hold nothing back to defeat you," Shirou continued and an undercurrent of anticipation sounded through his voice. "I hate to admit this but I find it very hard to back out of a good fight. When it comes down to the wire and I have to stretch myself to the limit before I can even consider winning." Shirou shook his head. "Why am I even bothering to talk to you? You can't understand me and I could be using this time to do more important things, like killing you."
At those last words Shirou activated Nolava II to its fullest and used the Emiya crest to create a bounded field to speed up the position where his arm would be. A black spindly limb grew out of his shoulder and in under a second it was replaced by a metallic arm. Shirou flexed his arm as Nolava II finished its healing process leaving an unblemished left arm where none had been before.
Shirou shuffled his feet laying four taps alongside the grass and leaving four runes behind him. "The beast that was once known as Enkidu I challenge you to a duel," Shirou said and he felt the power from the runes wash over him. The combination of the four simple runes was inhumanely powerful and Shirou watched as the beast from the age of the gods was affected.
For the first time in the battle the beast turned towards Shirou and actually regarded him. Shirou didn't return that consideration as in the next moment he had summoned Niddhoggr the giant dragon appearing besides him. The beast's attention immediately went to Shirou's companion but the Magician did not pay any attention as Shirou immediately prepared his ultimate attack.
"Get him Nidhoggr," the red head said. The dragon obeyed his commands and charged down the clay monster. The thing that used to be Enkidu waited until the monster was on top of it before it lunged out with its four hands pulling the creature apart. But Shirou did not stop there. The normal ability of the dragon was to absorb water from the air to regenerate itself. But it had a second mode that he could use as a suicide attack. With a snap of his fingers the hands of the clay monster froze and started extracting water from the clay to fuel their freezing. Immediately once the arms were frozen Shirou teleported behind and unleashed a full powered [Amessunu Istenis] directly at the back of his opponent. Shirou slowed down time further and this time instead of dodging the attack he met it head on using the sword that Gilgamesh bestowed upon him to cut through the hand of the creature.
The beast howled as its hand was cut in two and Shirou returned to normal time before teleporting onto the beasts head and leaving a deep slash in the back of its head. Shirou frowned and teleported away as a giant hand covered in ice landed in the spot he was previously. Shirou watched from the ground nearby as the ice covered hand smashed the beast into the ground.
"I thought that only happened in cartoons," Shirou mused. "My swords don't do much damage to it." He watched as the being smashed all of its hands on the ground causing the arms to be obliterated. This state of being didn't last for long as the arms regenerated almost instantly. Shirou frowned as he noted that the creature healed by drawing in mana from the surrounding land. That could prove troublesome. He did not have the ability to drain the land of mana in its entirety and he did not believe he could teleport the beast into a mana dead zone. Sighing he realised that he didn't know of a way to win currently. This beast was far beyond him and any other being since the gods died off and he didn't possess any weapons in his toolbox that could kill it.
"No," Shirou corrected himself with a smile on his face. He always had one last tool in his toolbox. He still had his most powerful and yet most dangerous one, Magic.
When Shirou was far younger he had created a trigger. It was a simple image that had transformed him from the state of being a normal human to that of being a magus. As he grew older he had lost that trigger or to be more precise he had decided to never turn it off. His circuits were always either on or on the verge of being on. Night or day Shirou was a master of magecraft 24/7.
Now he once again he recalled as water burst through the ground and he drew fully upon his Magic past any level that he had ever reached. His eyes took in the gardens and he could see how much more they were than just their physical shapes. He could see what they represented.
A hand reached out to crush the Magician and it was instantly [Frozen]. The creature launched another attack but this time Shirou blocked it by summoning an [Unbreakable] wall of ice in the path of the attack causing the hand to splatter against the wall. Shirou accelerated his own time and stepped between the other two arms the hard air giving way beneath his magic. Concentrating his power on his ring he stabbed it into the chest of the creature and he dodged back as he watched the god of clay extremities start to dry out even as the chest started to turn to mud. Delving deeper into his magic he froze the mud causing the body of the god to ice over.
This didn't go over very well with the mud creature. It tore through its body extracting the ring and charged at Shirou plunging a hand at his torso that was only barely blocked. The fight shifted into the creatures favour as Shirou was forced to push his crest to its limits in order to keep up with the sheer speed of the rampaging giant. Blow after blow were only blocked by the conceptual ice walls that arose from wherever Shirou raised his hands and the magician found his prana running low for the first time in ages. A bit of mud splattered against Shirou and the magician felt himself losing strength. He quickly wiped it off but in that moment of distraction the clay creature was able to power through his conceptual defences and land a blow that, if it weren't for a hasty water shield, would have killed him outright. As it was the magician was sent flying back into the park with his entire body aching.
Shirou dug himself out of the trench that he was in. "This guy is too strong," he mused to himself as he felt the creature move towards him. "But I've fought stronger," he said before thinking back to a behemoth in the underwater ocean.
"Wait what was that," Shirou thought to himself in alarm. "I've never fought something like that. But the image of a massive creature of unprecedented power continued to flash through his eyes and he put a hand to his forehead as felt a headache begin to develop.
"No," Shirou yelled into the cold night. "I don't have time for this now," he said softer. He took a few deep breaths and felt his overstrained magic circuits begin to slowly recover his prana. Watching as the creature limped through the trees he began to feel a little bad for it. What he was doing could be considered close to infanticide due to the mental state of the creature. It was worse by the fact that the creature genuinely didn't know that any of the things that it was doing was wrong, it didn't know that it would be incompatible with the land of today. In effect it was born and then it was suddenly forced to fight him.
But pity would not stay his hand. As fearsome of a foe that Enkidu must have been back in the age of the gods here he was still a servant and constrained by a servant's body. No matter how much mana he could absorb from the land it couldn't compare to the quality from the Age of the Gods. Thus Shirou hypothesized that the difference must be taken out of Sumire's reserves. The fact that she seemed to have cut him off from the extra magical energy spoke very well of the damage that Satsuki must be doing. Shirou attempted to smile but it looked half-hearted at best. He still hadn't quite got his thoughts around Sumire dying but now wasn't the time to properly come to terms with it.
Looking at the pitiful form of the creature Shirou decided to get it over with. He summoned ice around his hands but he didn't stop there. Water from the surrounds coalesced around his body causing the grass to once again turn brown. The beautiful trees that the creature had sprouted withered as their desiccation was complete. At this derisible sight, the creature let out a mournful sound and launched itself at Shirou.
It was slower this time and Shirou was able to catch it in mid-air with only a [Quad-Accel]. His entire arm was covered by ice which cracked and shattered but was replaced by more of the water that was absorbed into the frosty suit. Blows once again came raining down on the magician but the ice around his body absorbed more and more and with each strike the armour that Shirou was wearing grew and became more defined and condensed until facing Enkidu was an eight foot tall headless giant in which Shirou resided. It was at this point that Shirou decided to fight back. He lashed out with his fists and he met the clay god blow for blow. A thrust through the chest of the golem was returned with a barrage of blows from Shirou's opponent that rocked the suit of ice armour back and forth but Shirou was able to regain his footing. He retaliated by grabbing two of the arms of the creature and tearing them off. The creature took this time to attack him but Shirou weathered the blows and placed the armours hands on the stumps freezing them and preventing him from regenerating without tearing his shoulders off.
The creature howled in pain and Shirou took that moment to kick the legs out from underneath it. This caused the creature to go falling to the floor and Shirou took that opportunity to lay a beating on his prone opponent. In less than ten seconds the creature had its arms and legs ripped off as well as the bottom of its jaw and Shirou was just punching at the defeated creature as it feebly tried to regenerate. Suddenly a punch from Shirou pierced through the creature's body but in turn the arm cracked.
Shirou's eyes widened in shock as he tried to repair the arm and felt his reserves hit rock bottom. Unfortunately magic circuits were part of the soul and thus under the domain of the third. He had never found a way to increase his prana reserves and he had lost interest when he realised that he never ran out of prana. Unfortunately today seemed to be the day when he would have to amend 'Never' to 'Almost Never'. Shirou tried desperately to hold on to his failing armour but he suddenly felt a wave of mental tiredness that he realized came from overusing the fourth magic.
"No," Shirou said to himself. "No, no, no," he repeated as he felt his armour begin to fall to pieces. He was over a sea of clay right now and he really didn't want to fall into it. But it was futile as more and more pieces shaved off the armour. Suddenly the chest piece in which Shirou resided fell to pieces and Shirou found himself barely hanging onto an outcrop with one hand. Unfortunately his body was also at its limit and after just a few short moments Shirou plummeted towards the clay below.
But he never hit the clay as an instant later Shirou found himself landing on a soft surface. He felt sudden movement and the next instant he found himself sitting in front of Gilgamesh. The King of Heroes was standing and looking at the sea of clay. Occasionally and arm or a face would show up but for the most part there was no recognizable being in there.
"I don't like seeing him like that," Gilgamesh admitted. He withdrew an arm from the golden ripples and pulled out a… thing. Just looking at it gave Shirou a headache and a weird feeling in his chest at the same time. He was overwhelmed and so tired he closed his eyes so that he didn't have to see that thing at the moment. A mass of prana erupted from a few feet in front of Shirou and after it disappeared Shirou opened his eyes to see a scorched crater where Gilgamesh's friend was a few seconds ago.
"I seem to do nothing but saving people this entire war," the golden king said to himself.
"I'm sorry," Shirou said. He had all but killed Enkidu and now Gilgamesh had to finish the job.
Gilgamesh shook his head. "I didn't want him to see me like this and I didn't want to see him in the manner that he existed. You did me a service." Gilgamesh shook his head. "It was an incredible feat worthy of a hero. You should be proud."
"I don't feel proud," Shirou admitted. "Just tired right now."
Gilgamesh nodded and then a cocky smile appeared on his face. "I also see that you are attempting to imitate your king," Gilgamesh said smirking.
"What do you mean," Shirou said honestly confused.
Gilgamesh didn't say anything and merely withdrew a gold mirror from his vault. Shirou took it in one shaky hand idly noticing that it had diamonds embedded in the surface and then he gasped.
In the mirror staring back at him were two crimson orbs.
Author Note: Really busy week. Tired now. Go sleep.
fg7dragon: Shirou actually summoned Ishtar naturally with no influence on the choice besides his own personality. Sumire actually takes pride in that she got the cheapest servant. She took a trip to Iraq and came back with a handful of Babylonian mud. She even took economy class.
Guest: Ishtar would actually lose horribly against Enkidu. There are a few reasons. He has an anti-divine nature. He has a noble phantasm that he didn't use in this chapter that does more damage based on how much of a threat to the world you are. He would very happily go all out on the goddess.
GoldenKingOfUnlimitedBlades: ...Maybe. Wait a few chapters.