"That is not good," Shirou stated the obvious as he teleported into the ruins of his house. Seeing the still unsettled dust in the air he reflexively brushed off his new clothes. Yes he had new clothes. Apparently while he was resting in a circle designed to isolate his personal time from Gaia, a few of the people had gotten together to create a new wardrobe for him. Apparently he now wore the most popular branded clothes or something. While the jacket was pretty warm, he didn't quite think it warranted the price and white was a horrendous colour for these kinds of fights. Yukika had presented him with a superb sapphire scarf though; that was pretty cool. A bit too chunni for his tastes normally, but if it was a gift he could justify wearing it.
Stepping forward he walked around an excavated box, a nostalgic chuckle escaped his lips as he recognized the rotted remains of the absurd amount of cannabis, he had obtained when he first built his ring. His amusement was short-lived however. The mephitic miasma that he had perfected whenever he had some free time signalled the destruction of the last of the grails and the completion of the ritual. Circumventing the mist of instant death he laid his eyes upon the motionless form of Arcueid. His senses immediately picked up a familiar set of curses that burrowed into her flesh and soul. His eyes flickered to the form of Rizo-Waal Strout who was being torn apart by countless arrows that he had also seen before, through his familiar's eyes.
"So he's changed sides," Shirou mumbled to himself, deciding to avoid looking a gift horse in the mouth. Stretching out his arm he lightly touched Arcueid's forehead. The sword that the Black Knight Strout wielded, "True Demon Neardark", was a blade that Shirou could confidently state is unable to be created in the current era, a remnant from when gods and demons freely walked the earth. It was an embodiment of hate, indiscriminately attacking a target's all with no subtlety but a surplus of power and cruelty.
Shirou on the other hand was a magician who controlled concepts such as curses. In addition he had prior experience with a very similar type of curse. On top of that he had dedicated a large amount of time improving his ability to resist and neutralize curses after seeing the grail shards that were implanted into Sakura. Lastly in his past life as Enki he was acknowledged as the first and archetypal god of cleansing and exorcisms.
The curses that infected Arcueid were instantly dissipated and the True Ancestor's breathing returned to normal as she opened her eyes.
"Did I kill her," Arcueid said stretching her body experimentally, wincing slightly at the lingering pain from the curses.
"Maybe," Shirou replied as his eyes fell upon the beast of Gaia. One of the creature's limbs was slowly regenerating and Shirou gave a rueful glance at the culprit. The Sword of Rupture would never tolerate an existence like Primate Murder that sought the death of all humans.
"Shirou were you listening to me," Arcueid said waving her hand in front of his face.
"Yes," Shirou said beckoning Ishtar and Satsuki to join him. "She might have been dead when the grail was destroyed, but she's not now." He looked in wonderment towards the site of the destroyed grail. "Can you feel the pressure of that prana," he exclaimed showing traces of excitement despite the situation. "It's been five thousand years since I've felt anything like that."
"So she might have died and got better," Arcueid said optimistically.
"Quite possible," Shirou said conversationally. "You can stop firing now," he turned and yelled at the assailant who was determinedly destroying Strout's body. "The ritual is continuously modifying their bodies; until it is finished they can't die." He turned back to Arcueid. "No she definitely did experience death of some kind. That mixture was inspired by the movie Alien. It's the end product of my attempts to combine both science and magic to create a liquid/gas that can instantly corrode anything. The secret ingredient is magic and fluorine if you're wondering. Basically don't touch it."
"Got it," Ishtar said as she arrived at Shirou's side. "Where were you? You've missed quite a party."
"I had to take a rest to regain my spell slots," Shirou replied instantly. "Ishtar I give you permission to unseal Manifestation of Beauty."
Rider smiled and in the next second a goddess once again descended upon the world. An artist could spend years examining every inch of her body and he while wouldn't be able to concretely say what the improvement was, he would likely drive himself mad trying to capture her impossible beauty.
"Feels good to be back to normal," Ishtar said as she inspected her body, the simple action appearing impossibly sensual. "The situation must be bad if you're letting me out."
Shirou didn't say anything and only gestured to the completely healed Primate Murder who was staring at the deadly cloud. The beast perked its ears up at the attention, before giving a glare and resuming its inspection of the miasma in which its master lay.
"Rin," the young magician said to the magus who had been making herself relatively inconspicuous up until that point. "You've been great up until now; you've performed beyond my expectations. If you don't retreat to a safe distance you are going to be caught up in this and killed."
"What would be a safe range," Rin replied.
"Well firstly do you have a passport?" Shirou started and then chuckled at the look on her face. "Nothing is safe," he said far more soberly. "I cannot promise Fuyuki will live to see tomorrow, but I can promise that if you don't get out of here then you're dead." Shirou raised his voice. "The same goes for you Bazett, you should leave your servant and get out of here! If I survive this I'll fix your problem, but I can't fix death!"
Silence fell for a moment and then the ground shook as a familiar form descended next to them. Well, familiar for Shirou and Ishtar at least, the others had met him yet. Black hair and a muscled body standing at well over two metres, the greatest of the Greek heroes descended.
"My master has commanded me to fight for you," he said, not taking his eye off of the three enemies for a second. "Do you have a plan?"
"No," Shirou said. "If we survive this, you must really tell me how you ended up as that woman's servant, it sounds like quite the story."
"Gladly," Heracles said. "But beware negative thoughts. If you consider death, then you shouldn't be surprised if he responds."
"Yeah," Arcueid said grasping his shoulder shaking the magician slightly. "We've gone through so much together. This will be no different."
"I'm confident that we can win," Satsuki said. "We have the strongest Vampire in the world, the Fourth Magician, two servants and me."
"Two magicians," the voice of Aoko reminded the rest of her presence. "Sorry Shirou, I think I still have some curse left. Could you get rid of it?"
Shirou nodded before grasping her shoulder and instantly dispersing the rest of the curse. Unlike Arcueid it seemed she was able to disperse most of the curses, leaving only a few stubborn ones remaining. Checking her over with the Fourth Shirou gave a brief smile in satisfaction.
"Thanks," Aoko said. "He nicked me with his sword and I waited slightly too long, before rewinding myself. I'm really not putting on a good show this war."
"Even the greatest warriors have been felled by luck and the fates," Heracles said sagely.
"I don't really want to hear that from you," Aoko said in a voice that would have been too soft to be heard if she wasn't surrounded by superhumans.
"That reminds me," Shirou said to the Greek hero. "I'm going to fix up your God Hand now."
The Greek hero blinked in surprise. "You can do that," he said. "It was divine protection bestowed by the gods themselves."
"I [broke] it," Shirou said flippantly. "I can [fix] it. Besides I'm basically the closest thing to an incarnated god on the planet right now."
"Hey," Ishtar yelled indignantly, her newly enhanced form almost compelling Shirou to immediately apologize.
"What?" Aoko said simulateneously.
"Oh right you were sleeping for that," Shirou said. "I'll tell you after the war," he waved off her concerns. "And it's fixed." He removed his hand from Heracles. "There are eleven charges remaining. Don't be afraid to use them."
"You think this will be the last stand?" Heracles asked.
"I think that if we hold back today, we won't see tomorrow," Shirou said looking off into the distance. "Rin's almost made it past the Fuyuki Bridge. Bazzet as well," Shirou said looking at Heracles. "I've sent Len with her so the exorcists shouldn't attack, despite her condition."
"It's ending," Satsuki said as the outpouring of prana abated slightly. Chatter died as the torn and broken body that was all that remained of Strout stood up suddenly like a mannequin on strings. His hand still grasped the sword that had cut into Arcueid and his eyes opened revealing pinpricks of red that illuminated the night. Everyone tensed as he lifted his sword up and then brought it down in a lazy swing.
A surge of pitch darkness extended from his sword, tainting the air with a fetid smell that attacked the senses. A moment before it hit a wall of ice sprang into being, defending the six. Shirou had a look of grim determination on his face as he sent his prana into the wall purifying the tainted energy as he did so. The raw malice that these curses contained was on a completely different level than those that infected Arcueid's wounds and Shirou found himself using all his concentration to struggle against the tide.
Unfortunately that loss of concentration prevented him from noticing the other threat that assaulted their position. The ice to his right shattered like glass and a blur of motion took Arcueid out of his sight. Purging the last of the curses he turned his body just in time to receive a kick to the chest that flattened sent him careening into his own ice wall. Shaking off the blow that he was pretty sure splintered his ribs, he watched as Altrouge Brunestud backflipped away from him and he was forced to use the Emiya crest in order to keep up with her movements. She landed and immediately took off with a burst of speed in the direction of Ishtar and Shirou summoned up his magic to stop her.
He didn't need to however, as she stopped for a brief moment as she approached the goddess, courtesy of the Manifestation of Beauty that Shirou had unlocked, and then stepping in front of her and proving the faith that Shirou had in him, was Heracles. He didn't even bother to attack the swift Dead Apostle Ancestor instead putting his body on the line and allowing the hit to connect. Her hand pierced through his chest with a sickening squelch; God Hand doing nothing to reduce the attack. Grasping her arm that had entered his body he held it tight and lashed out with his other fist, punching her square on the face.
Shirou blinked in surprise as Altrouge was sent flying back, but a quick glance confirmed his worst suspicions. Standing up and ignoring the rapidly dwindling pain he held a hand to forestall any more attacks. His body felt heavy and his movements felt slowed and his lungs were telling him that the oxygen content was lower. Kneeling without taking his eyes off the Dead Apostle playing possum he ran his hand through the soil and pulled out a handful.
"Non-terrestrial," he said examining the fine dust with small pebbles inside. "Moon rocks," he followed up. "Lunar rocks," he corrected himself not wanting to get into any sort of misunderstanding. "You guys should probably hold your breath, oxygen's going to be getting sort of scarce soon."
"Is that why I'm feeling so weak," Aoko said examining her body. "There's some reality marble surrounding us."
"Pretty much, her very presence is turning this place into the moon," Shirou said, the longer we take the worse it will get.
"Then why aren't you attacking," Altrouge said nonchalantly as she brushed off the dust. "I gave you the perfect opportunity. Are you perhaps stalling," she said cutely. "Maybe you're building up a last plan to defeat me."
"Hold on a moment," Shirou said raising his hand in a stop-gesture and then he punched himself in the face, quite hard. When Altrouge had been soaked in the bath of "molecular acid" her skin had come out looking great, unfortunately her clothes hadn't survived. "Excuse me; I was having inappropriate thoughts for the middle of a battle."
"Hmm, maybe I should go to battle like this in future," Altrouge said posing as she did so.
"Please don't," Rizo-Waal Strout said walking over to stand next to her. "Let's try to avoid getting a strange reputation."
"We could just flatten whoever goes against us in future," Altrouge said enthusiastically and Shirou winced due to the fact that she still wasn't wearing clothing. "Can't you feel the power flowing through you," she finished flexing her biceps.
"Yes I can," he said, it's very impressive. "I truly feel like my strength has reached the heavens. Now please put on your clothes." Apparently this was enough because Altrouge clicked her fingers and her prior clothes reformed on her body.
"Thank you," Shirou and Strout said simultaneously.
"Wow, that was quite a punch," Arcueid said as she reappeared and Altrouge scowled. "Hey Shirou does this mean we lost."
"We've lost a battle yes," Shirou admitted.
"But you still think you can win the war," Altrouge said with a smirk and then she relaxed. "Listen, we won. The Aylesbury ritual has been completed but this doesn't mean the end of the world. How about we leave you here and go do our own thing. I will admit your little adventuring party are pretty formidable and I'd rather not fight you if I don't have to."
"So you think you can complete the Aylesbury Ritual, plunge the world into chaos and walk away," Shirou said stoically.
"Yes," Altrouge said flippantly. "I have no real reason to fight you, do you have any to fight me."
"You're a person that has brought untold calamity to the world and will in future bring even more chaos," Shirou said still betraying no emotion. "Your companions are a man who wields curses that even I would hesitate to touch and the incarnation of human death. If that isn't a good enough reason to fight me I don't know what is."
"Nah, I don't feel like it," Altrouge said. "I'd rather not risk my life here. I'm just going to leave."
"Even if I tell you that I'm the person who killed Fina-blood Svelten," Shirou said. While his words weren't very loud the world immediately went silent.
"Huh, did you," Altrouge said. Not a speck of emotion came from the usually cheerful girl as an almost tangible pressure formed between them. She stepped forward and Shirou mirrored her making a gesture for the others to stay back.
"Well, I didn't kill him directly," Shirou started. "But my presence was instrumental to his death and defeat. If it wasn't for me," Shirou said; his voice barely more than a whisper. "He would still be alive."
A crunching noise sounded out and for a moment it looked like Shirou's body had become a corpse before he stood back up again. His new shirt that he had got was destroyed and his skin was covered in a layer of ice that was cracked but swiftly mending.
"You're fast," he said to her. "That was definitely faster than Arcueid's punches."
"You're durable," she rebutted. "That blow would have killed a servant. But that's good," she said smiling. "I don't want you to die just yet."
She stepped forward and disappeared and in that instant Shirou activated the Emiya crest to its fullest extent. Powering through the wind resistance and light he was able to dodge the first of the upcoming punches by stepping backwards, but Altrouge didn't let up as she rained cruel blow after cruel blow upon his armour of ice. Every time she aimed a strike towards his head he teleported away, but he deliberately let the blows towards his midsection and armour connect.
Finally after what seemed like ages but in reality took less than a second she stopped and he had to lock his legs to keep standing despite the fact that he could feel cracks running up his spine. Altrouge didn't get off easy either, her hands were blue and burnt and bloodied as a result of contact with ice that was far below zero. She didn't look like she gave a damn however and in the next few seconds the injuries were gone.
"Why?" she asked an impossible question. Or rather there was no answer that would satisfy her. "Why did you kill him?"
"Do I need a reason to defeat evil," Shirou said with an absolute lack of tact.
"I'm going to kill you," Altrouge said. "No death would be too easy for you." For the next few minutes she gave a tirade of things that she was going to do to him, going into graphic detail. Too her credit, none of the options that she presented would end with him dead, just wishing he was. Shirou silently applauded her creativity even as he counted down the seconds. He felt four signals that were connected to him, leech of the surrounding prana and direct it towards him and he forcibly stopped himself from tapping his foot with impatience.
Altrouge stopped her rant eventually her angry voice fading into nothing and she wiped her eyes. "Are you not going to apologize," she said. "Beg, pray, run or are you going to fight me. Well you wanted one; it will be your last so you better enjoy it."
Shirou opened his mouth to speak and then he closed it and smiled. "Kaede you beautiful girl," he said with a smile. Then the very next second the world went white. Prana build up comparable to that emitted when the last grail swirled around Shirou and despite her anger Altrouge took a step back warily. She would definitely avenge Fina, but Fina would have lost his mind if she got killed for revenge.
Rizo who had remained silent up until this point stepped forward to stand in front of Altrouge holding his sword aloft in a defensive position. While he also burned to take revenge he realized that despite their strength there was massive dangers in attacking somebody with that amount of prana within them.
Primate Murder stood up the hackles in his neck rising, his senses surpassed his master and her body guard both. The amount of prana that the watery one held was immense but it was dropping every second and being funneled into the one that smelt of gods, an unusual smell in this ages. He longed to rush forward and stop whatever they were planning but his feet wouldn't move. If he unleashed that amount of prana at his master then she could be hurt or killed. While he loved her, she was quite soft and squishy.
Arcueid, Satsuki, Heracles and Aoko had retreated as soon as the prana appeared funneled away by the urgent words of Ishtar. She alone stood next to Shirou and she felt the prana from him roughly enter her body. She cursed her weaker servant form as she realized that she wouldn't be able to hold this amount for long. But she didn't need to hold it for any amount of time. There was only one reason why Shirou would either give her this quantity of prana and she mentally prepared herself.
Suddenly the influx of prana around Shirou died down, all of it having being absorbed by Ishtar. But there was no time for any thoughts of attack.
"Ishtar, use it," Shirou commanded.
"Come forth Gugalanna," Ishtar said almost simultaneously.
And in the next second half of Fuyuki City drowned in flames.
Author Note: Shirou has now officially done more damage to Fuyuki City then all of the prior grail wars.
Indra Uzumaki: I've worked too long on this fucking story to not at least write out a bittersweet ending.
hyperomegasonic26: In the moments that she was cast into the grail she fell into Shirou's final trap and had her body basically dissolved. However the ritual was meant to reconstruct their bodies and both her and Rizo were healed and improved rather than dying.
DPSS: Crimson Moon wasn't reborn. The ritual was never intended to do that. What the ritual was meant to do was to filter the impurities in the blood and bodies of the Dead Apostles of imperfections, making them closer to the blueprint that was Crimson Moon and his people. Cards on the table I scoured over mentions of the Aylesbury ritual on the wiki. Text says it's meant to bring Dead Apostle's together, my interpretation is it does so by raising the Dead, Ghouls and Vampires all to the purity of the original Lunarians/True Ancestors.