Draconian Fate Works - Volume 1

by Kratos1989

Honestly, I should have expected it. After all, my line of work would always be screwing with me when I don't need to. What I did not expect was getting myself into a world where Gods are alive and around, Angels and Demons are real, and the residents are really weird. I blame Zelretch for this. Rated T for the time being. (Yes, the title has been changed / Sporadic Updates)

5. Excalibur Blade Works - Part 1

Disclaimer:

High School DxD is a Japanese light novel series written by Ichiei Ishibumi and illustrated by Miyama-Zero. The Fate series is owned by Type-Moon. I do not own any of the characters mentioned from both series. The only things I own are the ideas that popped into my head for this story and whatever original characters I would create for the story.

My main muses come from Gabriel Blessing and Marcus Galen Sands, authors of great works themselves. This story is meant to be a work of pure fiction made solely for fun, constructive reviews will be welcomed, flames will be ignored. Any references to characters in real-life are purely coincidental and should not be taken seriously. If I could make money out of my ideas, it would be nice...

Root Damn It!

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Published: January 11th 2016

Edited: September 18th 2017

Chapter 5: Excalibur Blade Works - Part 1

Part 1

Edward Galahand was currently regretting his earlier thoughts of being lucky.

In the morning, he and a few of the others drew lots for the duties to be performed for the day, and to his surprise, he bagged the one job that many felt to be the easiest but at the same time, most important duty of them all: guarding one of the greatest relics in both human history and Christianity, one which motivates men and women alike to give their lives for a cause.

More precisely, one of the Seven Excalibur Blades.

Edward always felt great pride for the blade that the King of Britain used to protect the country of invaders and cleanse it of the demons that threatened its populace. Even when it got broken and reformed into the seven blades, his admiration never stopped. He would occasionally take a longer route to his apartment to walk past the cathedral where the blade was being stored, just so he could feel energized by the end of the day. Granted he only caught glances of the blade in question, but it still lighten his heart from a hard day's work.

So he was very pleasantly surprised to have taken the job shift for guarding the blade; that meant he could get up close and personal with the blade in question!

Of course, it was not all fun and games when it came to guarding one of the biggest relics of them all. He was to be partnered with 3 others in a group and they were to constantly radio in their positions every half hour for accountability, also to ensure no one tries to invade the inner sanctum, they have a separate team stationed closest to the blade. The numerous guard posts they were to be stationed at were regularly rotated to ensure there was no set pattern to the shifts and there were enough defensive spells in place to ward off some of the more determined intruders to the church.

Still, as many have stated time and again, they were in the most closely guarded area of the Vatican, with arguably more protection than the Pope's security detail itself, and most attempts of breaking and entering would get thwarted at the first gateway alone. So it should be the easiest duty around.

Boy was he wrong about that.

The first sign of trouble came in the late afternoon, when he and the others had to gather at the grand hall to allocate the shifts. At the roll-call, they found 4 people missing for over an hour. 3 of them were dismissed, since two were rookies who started out a couple of months back, and the third was a well-known slacker who would run off at the first chance of getting a break. The fourth on the other hand was the one that got everyone's attention. He was a senior who was known to be earnest in his duties and always completes them without a complaint. He might be late for a couple of minutes, but never for an entire hour. So everyone split up to find them while leaving behind a small group to watch over the blade.

It was roughly two hours later when a squad found their mangled bodies.

At the very least, Edward was glad that he was not the only one to have puked his guts out at the state of their bodies. They looked as though someone had meticulously used a blade to surgically their limbs at their joints, then fed their bodies through a meat grinder that had mismatched teeth, before using something to remove their eyes and tongues brutally.

Whatever the case, there was one more thing that got everyone's attention: a message drawn on the wall with the blood of the fallen men. It simply read:

"Prepare yourselves, or your precious Excalibur gets taken."

Needless to say, a huge uproar rang through the entire church. All non-combatant personnel were evacuated from the premises while the security got increased tenfold. Everyone was screened to ensure there were no spies in their midst, and the defensive spells were increased to the point that a butterfly flying into it would get incinerated. With all the precautions, surely the intruder would not dare to continue right?

It was times like that, Edward wished he would not try testing his luck.

The mayhem started in the late evening, when word of the first group being taken out spread through the halls of the church. Many groups fanned out trying to find the intruder, but in so doing made themselves easier to take down. Within the hour, 12 groups of highly skilled guards were taken out easily without any injuries and seemingly without any weapons. Then to everyone's concerns, the attacker seemed to be making a beeline for the atrium where the sword was being held. As a last ditch effort, the remaining officer ordered the remaining groups to converge at the atrium and barricade themselves in the inner hallways to ensure that the enemy would be forced to take that route.

Right now, his group and two other groups were currently in the atrium room, each having their own place near the sword to ensure that no one tries to get past them. It was a bit of a tight fit to have everyone stuck in the atrium, which meant someone would bumped into another unintentionally, making the already bad mood deteriorate further.

"Come on, bring it!" One of the guys was banishing his blade with somewhat crazed eyes. "Let him come through, then I will have me some fun! That's right, I will have me some fun!"

"Can you knock it off?!" Another member snapped at him while nervously gripped his sword. "We are trying to stay calm and your rambling is not helping us at all!"

Edward nervously swallowed his saliva as he watched his colleagues getting more agitated and ready to tear each other's' throats. He was supposed to be the only junior and in some ways expected to freak out, yet the more seasoned fighters were getting extremely paranoid and were taking their tempers out on each other. At this rate, they would end up doing the intruder a big favor of eliminating their numbers on their own. Edward sighed as he looked at the sword hovering on the podium. It was supposed to be one of the safest jobs, yet he was experiencing this crap.

Seriously, his luck sucked big time.

"Don't worry." Edward turned to face the twenty-odd year old officer left in this protection detail. Relatively young by church standards, he was regulated as a backup officer in the event that one of the more experienced ones got incapacitated, but recent events ended up thrusting him to the front lines.

"No offense sir, but telling me that now is not working wonders." Edward replied back in a disgruntled tone.

"Well, can't say I didn't try." The guy shrugged back easily. "I too am feeling nervous about this, but let's try to be a little more positive. As you know, the only way to get to the sword is through those hallways with the iron gates set with at least ten barrier and explosive spells, in between each hallway there are at least two groups of soldiers armed to the teeth to slow him down, buying time for the next group to focus their attacks. Then we have this room where we are in, not to mention the barrier that is protecting the sword." He motioned with his thumb. "From what I heard, the last bugger who tried to remove the sword from the barrier was lucky to be dead drunk, because that barrier packs a serious punch."

"Perhaps, but this is by far the most extreme attempt yet." Edward said as he looked at the others. "I don't think we are prepared for such an assault before. Who is doing all of this and why?"

"For that, I think I can make a guess." The leader looked around before leaning over to him. "You must have heard about the other churches right?"

"You mean the recent break-ins at particular churches for the past week?" Edward perked his ears up at this tidbit. Everyone had heard about intrusions at some of the major churches, but much of the news was hushed up, so most did not pay much attention to them.

"I overheard one of the seniors talking about them earlier. It seems that the churches in question had one thing in common." The leader motioned with his thumb to the sword behind him. "Each of them were related to the Excalibur Shards."

"Wait, that would mean that the intruder is trying to steal the shards?!" Edward's eyes went wide at the implication.

"Well then, we can go and ask that question at the intruder once we get our hands on him." The leader said as he clenched his fist. "Though he might have trouble answering, I have the number of his jaw on my fist."

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHH! MONSTER!"

Everyone turned their heads as one at the door where the scream was heard, followed shortly by the clashing of swords and gunshots. The sounds of combat quickly dissipated, leaving behind an eerie silence that got everyone nervous.

"You think they got the intruder?" One guy swallowed his saliva as he asked.

"BOOM!"

The answer came in the form of the doors breaking at the hinges and getting hurled into the room, with a few of the outside guardians thrown along with them. The few guards in their path got knocked down to the ground while the others grabbed their weaponry and stared at the open doorway. For a while there was silence, then Edward could hear the rhythmic footsteps coming towards their direction. After a while a shadowy figure seemed to form from the dark hallway and the guards could now see their intruder.

Edward had seen a lot of weird getups, but this was by far one of the most normal and yet the most terrifying in the current situation. Dressed simply in combat clothing that resembled much of the priests' clothing but darker and more armored than most, the intruder had a black hood over him that covered the head and his body. A red mask with black markings covered his face and with his dark eyes peeking out, it made him look rather demonic.

"Halt, intruder!" The leader raised his weapon with everyone else following suit and surrounding the masked figure. "You have come a long way to try and steal the Excalibur Shard, but you make a very big mistake in taking out our buddies and letting us know of your plans. Surrender peacefully and we might let you off with a light beating."

"…"

The figure stood still while turning his head sideways, keeping the guards in sight around him. There was something about the manner he move his head slowly that got Edward feeling chills down his spine; it was like seeing some sort of machine rather than a human doing those actions.

The guards at the intruder's sides inched closer, stopping every time his head turned towards them before continuing on. Finally they got closed enough that one thrust of their spears could pierce the intruder's neck.

"Okay, disarm him!" The leader gave the order to the guards at the sides. For a moment they hesitated, then two of the guards stepped forward and with a firm expression, placed their hands on the intruder's arms.

Edward did not know what happened afterwards, but one thing came to mind.

A monster had arrived to the church.

The guards trying to grab the intruder were sent flying into the walls and columns in the room, many leaving behind huge cracks and craters in the walls. Without stopping the intruder dashed forward and kicked the leader straight in the chest, sending him crashing into the podium and hitting the barrier.

"AAAHH!" The leader let out a scream as the protective spells on the barrier came on and started to inject lethal amounts of amps and volts into his body. After a few seconds, he slumped forward and hit the ground hard, a deep burn on his back and burnt clothing the only indications of what happened.

"Damn it! Everyone attack at will!" All order was abandoned as the guards rushed forward to try and strike the intruder down. Without hesitation, the intruder started dodging their attacks with simple footwork, occasionally leading one to collide with another. At one point the intruder grabbed the spear of one guard and effortlessly pulled him along and slammed into another group of guards, before twirling the spear once and hurling it at another guard and pinning him to the wall through his arm.

"Damn you bastard!" Edward gasped at the automatic weapon one of the guards was holding up. How did the guard get that through the church's internal sanctums? Wait for that matter, was he really planning to fire that weapon in the inner sanctum?!

The intruder seemed to have gotten the same thought regarding the gun as his eyes seemed to narrow greatly from the sight and his posture had changed from simple dodging to one prepared to go on the offensive.

"Eat this you prick!" The guard let loose a storm of bullets at the intruder while laughing a little maniacally. The intruder quickly drew out a scabbard from his coat and summoned a beam of red light to start deflecting the shots and ran towards the shooter without hesitation. Within a few seconds he was in front of the guard and with a quick swing, cut both the barrel of the gun and the soldier's arm.

"AARRGHH!" The man yelled while grabbing his stump, giving the intruder a chance to grab his neck and slammed him against the wall to knock him out, before throwing a line towards the ceiling and vanishing in the darker areas of the atrium.

"Damn it! Where did he go?" The guards looked around frantically at every direction possible when a yell of shock made them turn around in time to see one of their own hoisted up quickly by a noose around his neck and dropping his spear, disappearing within a few seconds.

"Somebody get a light up there, we are sitting ducks out HEREEE!" One guard tried to order the others only to have a rope around his neck and pulled upwards into the darker parts of the ceiling. Then one by one, the other guards got taken out in similar fashion via other dimly lit areas, with the end result of leaving Edward alone with the earlier batch of unconscious bodies on the ground and the area looking like the setting of a death montage.

Edward panted hard as he looked around, startling at every sound he heard and every muffled groan from who knows where. His eyes seemed to be playing tricks on him; everywhere he looked, it was as if the eyes of the intruder were watching him from every dark corner of the atrium, seemingly mocking him with his stare and just waiting for him to slip up.

"SHOW YOURSELF!" Edward wildly twisted his body back and forth, his eyes darting to every dark corner and pillars for any sign of the intruder when he tripped over one of his comrade's body and fell backwards, only to be stopped by hitting something on his back. A moment of relief turned to horror as he looked up to find the mask of the intruder staring right at him, the dark eyes seemingly spelling doom to him.

"OH MY GOD!" Edward screamed as he tried to fight back, only to be hit hard in the stomach. As his eyes went dark, one thought remained in his mind.

'My lord, forgive me...'

=()=

"..."

The figure looked at the unconscious teenager in front of him for a moment, before turning his attention to the sword hovering at the podium. Slowly, he made his way in a somewhat reverent manner, as though to show respect to the blade in front of him. Stopping at the edge of the protective barrier, the figure took a moment to admire the blade before reaching inside his coat, where he pulled out a few charms and placed them around the podium. Standing back a few feet, he muttered an aria to activate the charms, making the barrier glow brightly before shattering loudly. After a moment to look around, the man stepped forward and lightly gripped the handle of the sword. The sword glowed briefly before turning dull again. With a quick motion, the figure took up the blade and wrapped it in a cloth to hide its aura. Then as silently as he came in, he made his way out of the room in time to avoid the sentries rushing inside.

The figure lessened his speed as he made his way out of the inner sanctum and into the outer courtyard, taking great care to hide the blade and lowering his hood even further down while walking naturally to avoid suspicion. Only after he walked out of the final gate and made some distance from the area, did he paused to look around him, then with a quick recitation and a leap, he jumped onto the roof of the closest building and continued on for a short while, ending his getaway roughly three miles from the site by dropping into an abandoned park.

Breathing a little heavily from the assertion, he slowly made his way to a pond that was surrounded by broken columns of white marble, stained from the years of polluted rain in the area. He stopped by the pond and knelt down on one knee, lightly drawing the clothed blade from his side and removing the cover to view the blade.

"Forgive me for what I had to do." The figure muttered while bowing his head in shame.

"That type of behavior is best reserved at the confession booth, you know that right?" A voice broke his self-reflective thoughts and made him turn around. Sitting lightly on top of one of the shorter columns was a teenager, roughly at the age of a high-school student. He was dressed in an unusual getup, consisting of a priest's robe that had bits of protective gear on his limbs and chest, followed by a long coat that he wore over his robes. The overall dark tones accentuated the pale skin and white hair he had, giving him a rather ghastly appearance when complimented with his red eyes and cocky smirk.

"If you want to confess, I believe there is a church nearby Lyle." The teenager motioned to the figure casually. The figure got up slowly and removed his hood and mask to reveal a face that clearly showed that he was also at the age of a high-school student. He had lightly tanned skin and dark brown hair that he lightly tied into a ponytail, with the sideburns turning grayish-white prematurely.

"Ah, you have managed to get Excalibur Transparency. That is good." The teenager nodded his head at the sight of the blade. "Together with 'Rapidly', 'Nightmare' and 'Blessing', four of the shards are now in our possession."

"As far as things go, we should be thanking our stars for this." The person called Lyle remarked as he stood up and slightly covered the blade with his coat, as though to deny the other Exorcist the sight of Excalibur. "Disregarding Excalibur Ruler, we only need to attain 'Destruction' and 'Mimicry' to get the full set."

"Old man Galilei said that problem would be settled on its own." The teenager waved the issue away lazily. "We have already announced and taken the Excalibur swords, so there is a high chance they would send others equipped with the remaining two shards to capture us."

"I see." There was a tone in Lyle's voice that disapproved of the plan. "Still, this is too much. We should be content with the ones we have."

"Yeah well, who knows what is going on in the head of the old man?" The white-hair teen lightly tapped his head with his finger. "Think of it this way. At least the blades are being put to practical use, and you are in some ways more responsible than those losers who want to use them for their politics. Those guys would probably relegate the shards as glorified paperweights."

"... Perhaps. I still don't like it, Creed. We may be doing something that would be beyond repair." Lyle frown while looking at the blade in his hand.

"Hmm..." The guy smirked while glancing around. "I noticed that you did not kill those guards. Don't you think you are taking big risks just leaving them unconscious?"

"I will counter by asking you this: was it necessary to kill those four and mutilate their bodies?" An underlying tone of irritation and wrath was present in that query. "We only needed to grab the information regarding the shifts and we should not have to raise the alarm in such a manner."

"Come on, where is the fun in that?" Creed's smirk went wider and his eyes seemed to change to slits as he raised his arms. "Don't you just love the screams they made as they are taken out one by one? Also they needed a lesson in prepping their security, it was just terrible!"

"There is no pleasure in dealing out unnecessary pain and suffering, particularly to the innocent." Lyle hardened his eyes at Creed. "We do not need to spill more blood than required."

"My word, you must have missed your calling to be part of the clergy! Do you truly believe that any of those guys are as innocent as babies? Some of them have killed as much as you or me, some probably get high from killing. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised that the Pope would be as demented as them!"

"SHRING!"

The column that Creed was sitting on started to slide at an angle before crashing to the ground with a thunderous roar, the offender having drew out a blade of crimson light and cut it so cleanly that the only evidence of the column being cut was the clean shave.

"Watch your mouth, Creed. The church is one thing, but you will not badmouth the Pope in such a manner." Lyle pointed the blade at Creed who managed to jump away from the attack and land on the floor a few feet away.

"Oh~ I am so scared, I am shaking in my boots." Creed mocking shook his body before drawing out a pair of blades himself and readied his stance. "But now you have done it. I have been itching to have a fight for a while now, so let's have some fun!"

["Enough"]

Both of them stopped short of leaping at each other, looking to the sky as though to find the source of the voice. But they knew better; the voice came from a communication charm they have on them, and right now the person in charge was speaking to them.

["The both of you are to cease your needless fighting and bring the sword here now. The guards are spreading out from the church, and you only have a small window of time before the city is locked down."]

"Tch~ fine, we are coming over." Creed kept his blades and turned towards the next building, pausing to look at Lyle. "You coming?"

"..." Lyle sheathed his blade and took care in covering the stolen sword in the cloth. Then with the package secured to his back, he activated his charms and followed Creed out of the park and onward to the final location.

After a few minutes of intense running and hopping, they eventually made it to their end point on roof of a building, smacked right in the middle of the busiest part of town. Yet the residents below did not notice the figures flying in the air and landing on the roof due to their invisibility charms. Silently they entered through the door on the roof and made their way down the stairs, eventually entering one of the apartments in the building.

"Hello, anyone in the house?" Creed marched right in without a care in the world, followed shortly by Lyle who gave a cursory glance of the area, before locking the door behind them.

"Welcome back boys." The both of them turned around to find an old man dressed in white priest clothing exit out of one of the rooms with a slim case big enough to hold the sword they have. "You two took your sweet time getting here."

"Yeah, yeah." Creed waved his hand while rolling his eyes. Lyle wordlessly came forward and placed the sword carefully on the desk before stepping backwards.

"Very good, you have done well." Galilei nodded lightly as he looked upon the sword with a somewhat crazed expression. "Lord Kokabiel would be pleased."

"Yeah well, they are not too professional." Creed lightly propped himself onto the ledge of a window and let one leg dangle. "Most of them are still in their diapers and the few decent fighters got taken out without a hitch."

"Their standards have fallen quite significantly. Normally there would be more guards and better security. How low the church has fallen." Galilei shook his head in mocking disappointment. "But no matter, we can now proceed to Phase Two of our plan."

"Permission to speak, my lord?" Lyle voiced out to him as he leaned against the wall.

"What is it, young one?"

"Regarding the plans, are you certain we should be heading to Japan to perform the ritual?" Lyle asked with a serious tone. "I mean no disrespect to both yours and Lord Kokabiel's planning, but trying to recreate the blade in Japan is not really necessary. We should be able to get a decent leyline around here. Furthermore, doing so in that country could provoke a war between the factions again."

"And what is wrong with that?" Creed asked with a very big smile on his face. "At least we will be able to justify going after those devils."

"In case you haven't noticed, I am trying to limit the number of casualties that could arise from such an action." Lyle snapped at Creed. "I am also trying to ensure that our operation does not get discovered and interrupted during our stay there. Who knows what would happen if the devils were to interrupt such a delicate procedure."

"Your concerns are well noted, and you are right about the dangers present in Japan." Galilei nodded in agreement. "Unfortunately, our options here are very limited. With all our recent actions, many of the places where we can perform the ritual would be extremely limited to areas where the leyline would be extremely poor in quality. Furthermore, the church would likely be monitoring such areas, so we would need to go to the one place they would not think we would go, and that would be in enemy territory."

"Still, this is a very reckless decision, my lord." Lyle repeated his words. "If I recalled correctly, the place you are seeking to recreate blade is one of the most guarded towns of the lot. I believe the younger siblings of two leaders of the Devil Faction are residing there."

"Even better, that would be the last place they would think that we would go to. Even if they found out about the location, they can't afford to march troops into the area without antagonizing the devils, especially with the recent actions of some of the Fallen Angels in that area." Galilei raised his arms and smiled in a manner that did not match his empty eyes. "So rejoice Lyle, for our chance is upon us, and we shall use it to our advantage."

"…" Lyle only looked at him with an indescribable expression before sighing heavily. "Understood, then with your permission, I wish to think of some contingency plans for our stay there. It may be fruitless, but I would rather ensure the devils do not know of our little 'vacation' there."

"Understood, it would be wise to have some backup plans in the event the leyline we seek is too well guarded." Galilei nodded as he took the sword in his hands and slowly brought it to the open case. "Pack your bags and get some rest, we shall leave for Japan in the morning."

"Then by your leave..." Lyle lightly bowed and turned to make his way to the doorway, pausing for a moment to give a stern glare at Creed, before exiting the room. Creed turned his head to the window in time to see Lyle quickly making his way into the open street, blending with the populace despite his dark clothing.

"Oui, old man Galilei. Remind me again why did you let him into this mission?" Creed asked with a notable tone of irritation present.

"Since Freed got himself killed, the both of you are the only ones who could match him in terms of skills, furthermore the both of you are way more manageable in your behaviors. I would rather have you guys on my side than to have a loose cannon that would jeopardize us." The old man replied as he locked the case securely with a few holy locks. "Also, when it comes to actually wielding the Excalibur Swords, the both of you have a higher potential than the others, so I would not have to waste the amount of light particles on you two. And when it comes to tactics, Lyle has a good head for it."

"After all." Galilei hefted the case on to the table with a loud thump. "Thanks to his planning, we are able to attain the four shards within one week, and speed up our operations significantly by a full month. Not even Freed could achieve that."

"He suspects, if not knows the truth behind that complete bullshit you were spouting." Creed snorted.

"At least there is an element of truth. With four of the shards in our possession in such a short time, all the other churches would be jealously guarding the remaining shards. And though my research may have been halted, they have gathered enough of my notes to get an idea of what I might need to try and merge the shards, the leyline being the biggest factor. We needed to find an area where the land is rich with pure energy to help create the sword faster, and if such a place happens to be in devil territory, well we could use some test subjects."

"Yeah, but you are going to need to do a lot of sweet talking to convince him otherwise. He is really dead set on reducing collateral damage to the town, and he almost cut me down for taking out those four guards." Creed gestured with his thumb and his neck.

"Well you did go overboard from what I gathered, but you have a point. I will try to have a word with him, we still need his skills for the task at hand. If only he would be open to using the shards." Galilei sighed heavily.

"Wish all you want, but I think you may have forgotten to take his mindset into question." Creed got to his feet and lifted the case for Galilei. "Ever since we got excommunicated from the church, he has not touched any of the other Holy Swords around, even if he has a Light Attribute that grants him mastery over them. And when it comes to the Excalibur, he would only touch it for a brief moment to see and perhaps clean them. Not once would he use it for fighting. Hell, that dream he has spoken off is nuts!"

"What was that dream he spoke of again?"

"To witness with his own eyes the next natural user of Excalibur." Creed snorted in disbelief as though not believing the words he spoke of. "There has not been a proper user of Excalibur for the past few centuries, aside from Arthur Pendragon of that renegade group and a couple of old geezers that are ready to kick the bucket. He just won't face the reality that the only way anyone can wield a holy sword these days would have to be artificially enhanced to do so. The proof lies with the shards themselves, only one of them would react to one user, maybe two, but no two shards react to the same person."

"Well, I cannot say I can fault him for that." Galilei stopped to face Creed with a complicated expression. "Even now in our faction, there are some who still wish for a miracle that would not come to the church, so they could only seek them elsewhere. Lyle is perhaps one of the more grounded Exorcists we have in our ranks, but he still wants to find some answers that may not be of this world."

"You really buy into that whole spiritual connection crap?" Creed rolled his eyes and just walked past the old man. Galilei could only shake his head lightly and continued on walking.

In a way, he had no right to question Lyle's dream.

Part 2

It was silent.

It was dark.

It was serene.

Those were the thoughts in my head as the soft sound of grass rustling beneath me seemed to thunder in the depths of the forest while I trudged through the woods, trying to find my way out. The grounds were bathed in an earthly shade of light green created by the sunlight peeking through the canopy. One should feel afraid of being so deep in a forest, yet my heart was in complete peace.

Joyful in fact.

After a while, a small light appeared in front of me, getting brighter as I made my way to the edge of the forest. Then with a huge glare, I exited the forest to find myself staring a lush green hill with the clear blue sky as the backdrop. It was clean and peaceful, no traces of human activity has touched these lands.

This place, I know this place.

"Shirou..."

I stopped in my movement, my heart seemingly not believing what I just heard. Slowly, I turned my head in the direction of the voice and starred. "Saber?"

There she was, standing on a gentle hill just a few feet away. She was as I remembered; her blue dress seemingly shone on the hill with her blonde hair loose in the wind, her gentle emerald eyes looking on with that beautiful smile on her face. Her arms were spread open as she welcomed me.

At first I took a few small steps, uncertain and afraid of an illusion. Then my steps became a brisk walk, then a jog, and finally a full-on run towards her, not once stopping and taking care not to trip, until I was right in front of her and I found myself in her embrace. I hesitantly placed my arms around her, uncertain if she would disappear, to which she replied by applying a firmer grip in her embrace to show me. I no longer had any doubts and I hugged her tightly as well, my heart feeling ever lighter than ever before, and my eyes wanting to tear up.

I was finally able to see her!

I was finally able to hold her in my arms!

I was finally with her!

But just as that thought came to me, I suddenly felt a tug on my body that threatened to break my embrace with her. Try as I might, the tugging got more forceful and I found myself unable to move my body well enough to stop it. Around me the landscape seemed to fade into nothingness, until only I and Saber were left, but even she was starting to fade from her legs up.

No, I will not leave her!

Saber looked at me with a sad mile and lightly shook her head. "It is not yet time for us to meet."

No it was time! I won't be stopped by this!

I struggled against the invisible hold that bind me, but the actions seemed to only make the feeling of constriction get stronger. Even now I could see my legs slowly fading away, threatening to make the rest of my body disappear completely. Saber could only looked on sadly as she disappeared into the shadow, and the last thing I saw was her mouth opening to say a few quiet words.

No! NO!

SABER!

=()=

"Ha~ Ha~ Ha~"

I panted hard as I laid on my bed, using a hand to wipe off the sweat that appeared on my head. The night was cool, yet my clothes were completely soaked and my limbs were feeling extremely warm from the 'Od' that I was pumping through unconsciously. I got out of the bed and made my way to the bathroom to wash off the sweat, taking a moment to enjoy the coolness of the water and feeling the waves of an incoming headache wash away. I took a towel to wipe the water away before glancing at the clock.

Great, I only slept for four hours. I sighed heavily as I went back to my bed and sat on it, absentmindedly looking outside the window while thinking back to the scene I was in.

It was bittersweet to say the least; I haven't seen Saber for so long, and having her appear in that odd vision or dream seemed to have open a door to my innermost emotions. I missed her so much, and I could not help but curse the Root and everything else that there was such a great distance between us. The only thing that was stopping me from yelling were the words that Saber said to me before I woke up.

"I am still waiting for you."

My rage seemed to burn out and be replaced by a slightly warmer feeling of happiness and sadness. Saber was still in Avalon, and she was still waiting for me.

And I will continue to find her, until we got reunited on that hill.

Part 3

"..."

Mitelt looked at me from her end of the table with a confused expression as I went about in the kitchen making breakfast. No doubt she was wondering why I was whistling so cheerfully in the morning, and judging from the manner she was edging away slowly, I think it was also scaring her a little.

Well, I could care less. Seeing Saber in that vision or dream made my heart a lot lighter than ever, despite it being bittersweet. It certainly beat my nightmares of those Dead Apostles chasing me. And I got my confirmation that she was waiting for me, so I cannot stop at any costs. I will continue to find the golden hill and I will be with her in the end.

"Someone seems to have woken up on the right side of the bed." Mitelt raised an eyebrow as I turned off the stove and carried our breakfast to the table.

"I just had a relatively nice dream after a long time." I gave that simple reply as I laid the food out on the table. "Okay, food's ready."

"Finally!" Mitelt eagerly put her hands together and gave thanks before tucking in heartily into her meal. I sat in a chair next to her and took a glance at her.

In the short while she was under my care, her demeanor seemed to have improved a little, and that was reflected in her general looks. Right now, she was wearing a simple shirt and a pair of dark shorts, which combined with her untied hair, gave a slightly scruffy and tomboyish look that was at the same time cute.

Wish I could say the same about her attitude. Granted she had mellowed out somewhat, but at times she would lash out if something or someone offends her big time. The only exception was Kawako-san, whom she seemed to have developed a light respect and fear, likely due to her use of the ladle.

All shall fear the Ladle of Doom.

"So, how are you getting along with the others?" I asked as I sat on my chair and started on my share.

"Hmm... I am not talking to the two princesses much if that is whom you are referring to." Mitelt glared at me in a manner that would suggest she did not want to be associated with them, but with the syrup on her face and the pancakes on her fork, she looked more annoyed that she was interrupted during her meal. "As for the others, well I do not have that much interaction, especially with the perverted dragon user. I am not getting within twenty feet of him so that I don't catch his disease."

Ouch. Tough luck for you Ise.

"How about Ruruko and Asia? You seemed to be getting along with them." I remarked.

"Well, I guess I am closer to them compared to the others." Mitelt muttered lightly with a light blush. "At least they are nicer, and Raisei has been nice to me too!"

"Raisei, the sprite dragon right?" I thought back to the small blue dragon that became Asia's familiar after that trip to the forest. It seemed to be a nice creature, though it does have two odd habits. The first one was it giving me a confused stare and occasionally circling around me before going back to the nun or land on my head to sleep.

The second habit was it constantly sending out bolts of electricity at every other male apart from me. Ise and Kiba were quick to note that fact and often glared at me for an answer, to which I responded with a shrug.

Maybe it was because I gave it some treats so it would not attack me despite being a male? Maybe I can do the same for the forest guardian if I ever met that fellow again.

"You could try talking with the two princesses a little. I can't say much nice bits about Gremory, but Sitri-san seems to be a little more manageable." I remarked as I took a bit of the eggs.

"Oh, so you also think that way huh?" Mitelt raised an eyebrow at me. "Well, they have approached me mostly about my knowledge on the Grigori. I did not talk much to the Gremory Princess, since she was clearly not trusting me that much, but I have discussed a little with the Sitri Princess. She is perhaps a little more agreeable to me. The Gremory could take a few lessons from her to fill her brain apart from her oversized boobs."

'Hai~ what a messed-up comment.' I mused while thinking about her talk. There was some truth to her words; when she was first being questioned, Mitelt did not give out the information willingly so they turned to me to try and get her to talk, but considering their differing attitudes towards her and my interactions with the two, it seemed that Mitelt felt it easier to speak to Sona.

That, or she did not like Rias due to a certain asset she has in big abundance.

Now that we were on that subject about Angels and the like, perhaps I could ask that one question on my mind.

"Miltelt, I am curious about the description of God and Heaven. Can I ask you about them?" I raised my fork and lightly twirled it.

"GULP! Sure, what do you want to know?" Mitelt took a big swing of water to help get the food down from her over-enthusiastic eating and panted out her reply.

"Is there really seven levels of Heaven as stated in the old scripts?" I decided to go safe and asked one general question.

"There are, we call them the Seven Floors or Seven Heavens. The one that you humans would associate the word 'Heaven' would be the third level." Mitelt answered while using a few strips of bacon to illustrate.

"Then what about the other levels? What are they used for?"

"Well, the first level is the living quarters for the lower ranking Angels. The second level is where the Angels go stargazing and also serves as a makeshift prison for Angels who have sinned. 'Prime real-estate' as some would put it." Mitelt snorted lightly at the name. "The fourth level is the location for the Garden of Eden."

"Wait, THE Garden of Eden? The one where Adam and Eve used to live in until they got kicked out by God?" I blinked at the thought that there was such a garden.

"Yup, one and the same." Mitelt took a quick sip of water to quench her throat. "That used to be such a nice garden too, shame that it started to shrink after they left."

"The fifth level used to belong to the top members of the Grigori before they fell. Last I heard, they were converting them into some research institute for advancement of the technology available. The sixth level is the living quarters for the higher ranking Angels, particularly the Seraphs. You probably heard about the more famous Seraphs like Michael or Gabriel."

"How about the seventh?"

"... That is the place for the Sacred Gear System, and also where Father lived." Mitelt replied back softly before biting on her pancakes a little harder than required. Judging from her expression and what little I have learned all this time, she was very sad that she could not return home to heaven. Time for the next question, just hope it was appropriate.

"Regarding God himself, are the descriptions of him true? As in the part of him appearing as an old man in a white robe?" That seemed to knock her out of her funk, if anything it must have reminded her of a more happier time when she was still back home, as she started smiling a lot.

"Ah that, there was a rather funny story behind that." She chuckled lightly as she explained. "You see, roughly around 100 A.D., Father was on somewhat favorable terms with the Gods of other religions as opposed to his animosity to the Devils and the Grigori. Every so often, the gods would meet up for some big talk or to discuss truces with one another. Now at one point, Zeus was coming to meet Father while being half-drunk and he fell through the roof of a man who was praying for a sign. Because of that, the man thought he saw Father and spread the word, thus the image of Father being an old man with white hair and beard was born."

I could not help but chuckle at the image I got about the description of God's image. I can't help but wonder how some of the Executors I knew back in my old world would react to the description.

Considering how hard-core some of them were, mostly likely a lot of Dark Keys would be involved, followed shortly by several Black Bullets.

"That must have been quite a problem for God." I remarked cheerfully.

"Actually, he laughed quite loudly at that time." Mitelt let out a sad smile. "He always did enjoy the funny side of matters, and for his case he was thinking of coming here in a form other than a blazing tree or some other supernatural form, so he decided to adopt that form and went about with his work."

Well that was one way to make do with the situation. Now for a very uncomfortable question.

"Mitelt, don't take this the wrong way, but…" I paused while lightly tapping the knife against the plate. "Regarding that time at the church when we were dealing with the Raynare girl, are you still wishing to go back to Heaven?"

"…" Mitelt silently took another bite of the food in front of her and took some water before looking at me in the eye. "Yes, I want to go back home. I am not sure of the others, but I for one would like to go back to where Father stayed."

"I see." I took another swing of the tea before I looked at her to drop the next question that was likely to be a bomb. "One other bit, and I would like the truth. Your father, the Christian God. He is dead, isn't he?"

Her eyes widening and her mouth agape was all I needed.

"It was a little subtle, but the manner you refer to certain parts and what little I gathered from Raynare were enough to prove something." I replied back easily as Mitellt looked down at her plate in slight shame and bewilderment. "Your expressions, your choice of words, all of that meant the Christian God is dead."

"… Yes. You are correct." Mitelt looked up with disbelief. "You are not surprised?"

"Well, I am technically an atheist. I never really bothered much about the possibilities of gods and religion." I took a sip of my drink to quench the throat. "And personally, I feel that we are better off without them."

"Don't get me wrong, I am not dissing your beliefs." I held up a hand to stop a possible onslaught of vulgarities from the little girl. "I do not know much about your creator, and what little I get from you and a few others suggest that he seemed to be all right fellow, but other gods are not exactly nice guys themselves, given the type of treatment that was given to humans. Even now, any supernatural creature in question still exhibit some form of behavior that in their minds, humans are to be toyed around."

Granted, my knowledge about them were mostly applicable to my old world, and much of it was derived from my understanding of the Noble Phantasms in my reality marble and my travels between worlds, but what I have seen only seemed to reinforce the image that the gods were totally unrepentant about their methods and seemed to enjoy pushing humanity to despair just for their amusement.

As one of my enforcer buddies so eloquently put it: "The gods were fucking jerks."

"… I guess you are right in that aspect." Mitelt sighed in resignation, likely thinking about her own behavior from before. "I'm not trying to make excuses but it is in some ways in our nature. Humans have always been weaker, so many kept preying on them."

"In the end, I still don't understand Father's idea of creating mankind."

I stayed silent to let her mull over her words while I finished up on my breakfast. Well at least I got my confirmation about the Christian side, but something still did not add up. Based on what I had learned from Rin, the absence of a God or some higher being would make the domain they lived somewhat unstable if not destroyed. Sona and Rias had told me about the deaths of the four Maous, yet they were able to copulate and thrive by resurrecting other folk, and by their words, the world they lived in did not die out.

Was that the same for Heaven? From their descriptions, there was supposedly a large number of Fallen Angels, likely falling from grace due to the absence of God's teachings. Perhaps that was the reason.

"I did not mean to drag up any bad memories." I looked to the clock and noted the timing. "We can continue this conversation later, I would need to get to school."

"Huh~ Oh right." Mitelt looked at me before understanding what I said, before frowning lightly. "Here's what I don't get from you. Why are you going to school in the first place? It's not like you need the education, and correct me if I'm wrong, but you could have gone straight to university with your grades. Even the Sitri princess had wondered about that."

"Bad luck on my bit." I shrugged back in reply. "I will be going now, you have to meet Kawako-san soon, so don't be late."

"URGH!" Mitelt groaned while paling at the prospect of meeting the elderly woman, much to my amusement. Sona had offered to keep an eye on her at times when I could not be around to supervise, and ended up getting front row seats to what was possibly the most unusual play of a human subjugating a century-old being with only her ladle.

I wish I was there to see it.

"By the way, aren't you going to do something about that?" Mitelt interrupted my thoughts and pointed at me. "Not sure if that is wise to have it so open?"

"It is the best I can do." I fingered the miniature spear that was dangling off a silver chain around my neck. "This guy is pretty adamant in following me, and I can't store it the same way as I did with the swords."

And that was the truth. For the past few days, [Hell's Trident] was a major headache to deal with as it kept trying to follow me everywhere I went, and it somehow managed to pierce through the dimensional pocket I went to store it in. Making it invisible seemed to help my situation a little bit, but I can't make it incorporeal unless I was actively thinking of creating a spear with that property. It was after some experimentation I was able to reduce both its size and its Prana signature to be inconspicuous.

It did not really help me much though when some had noticed the spear and thought I had an odd accessory with me. Oh the number of advices for fashion.

Joy.

"You have to be the first person I know to make a Sacred Gear jump ship and make you its possessor." Mitelt shook her head in disbelief. "I can't help but wonder how Father would feel hearing this."

"Well I for one wouldn't mind it too much." I said as I put on the jacket and adjusted the collar to hide Sacred Gear. "After figuring out some of the kinks of this weapon, I think I'm getting the hang of it. I'm actually trying out some creations and new fighting styles."

"… You are really a weird human." Mitelt gaped at me with a very funny expression. I merely chuckled and made my way to the door. Guess I was weird considering I was already able to get a good idea of how to use this Sacred Gear in battle and the possible combinations that can be made. Furthermore, it was with great pleasure to find that I could use this gear as a substitute for some of the other spears in the reality marble. With a few more tweaks I should be able to get some decent results.

Now if only I could do the same for the swords I took from Kiba.

"Okay then I will be seeing you after my lessons." I waved at her who merely nodded back as she cleaned up after herself. Despite all her grumbling, she had become pretty well-adapted to living on her own and doing her chores, likely due to Kawako coming over to check on her. Still, this is helping me in the long run, so it was okay.

Now that I was out of the house and making my way to school, I could take the time to think back to my dream.

I knew it was probably a dream; I knew that it was just my senses playing tricks on me. But it felt so real, being able to see her, to hold her and to hear her voice. Just those alone were enough to bring back my memories of the time during the Grail War.

The memory of us meeting for the first time.

The memory of her going against Berserker.

The memory of us going on our only date.

The memory of her going against Gilgamesh.

And the memory of her swinging the sword of promised victory…

"THUT~ Bump!"

I stumbled slightly as I grabbed my chest hard, nearly knocking my head into a lamppost in the process. Before I could register what just happened the pain seemed to have vanished completely without a trace, as though I did not have the sensation of having a sledgehammer hit my chest.

What the heck just happened?

=()=

"Finally! This is the last time I am flying a budget airline!" Creed threw his arms in the air as he went through the door and collapsed on the sofa. "Honestly, who the hell ever thought of cramming every bloody kid in the same area?! I would find that guy and shove my gun up his ass!"

"As much as I would love to see you do that, I ask that you conserve your ammo." Lyle replied as he and Galilei entered afterwards and shut the door after them. "We will need a lot of it later."

"Hmph!" Creed sat up on the sofa with a disgruntled expression. "You can say that easily since you were in a different area altogether, Lyle. Hell, all those cute stewardesses kept coming to you all the time!"

"Something I am still getting irritated by." Lyle sighed heavily. "Honestly I was running out of excuses and stories to talk about with them. Why does every female come after me?"

"I do not know the reason, but I will advise that you control yourself, my son." Galilei said it with a smile so natural that it made Lyle cautious around him. "Remember, Lust is a sin. Do not fall into temptation, boy."

"I might take that into consideration if you were to do the same regarding the Excalibur shards." Lyle replied back flatly and with an expression that made Creed drop his disgruntled expression and snigger uncontrollably. It was situations like this that Creed would get amused by, seeing straight-laced Lyle getting all snappy at someone higher-ranked than him.

For Galilei's part, he just chuckled lightly while making his way to one of the rooms. "Well, at least the establishments of this country is quite nice. I think we can enjoy our stay here in comfort."

"Dibs on the mini-fridge!" Creed jumped up and went to the room with said fridge. Lyle rolled his eyes as he went to his own room. It was a good thing he looked through the establishments of Japan and got the ones with the mini-fridges; Creed was at least a lot more manageable when under the influence of some of the drinks, and he knew the Galilei would like to have a glass or two of wine while pondering over some of their plans.

As for him, he would just take fruit punch until the end of the mission to keep sober.

Lyle took a moment to inspect his room and considered the integrity of the area. It was a little too open for attacks and the window was basically a godsend for anyone trying to attack them in the event of an ambush. He would need to rectify that immediately. Maybe he should also fortify all the doors to ensure they can withstand a bomb blast at least, and perhaps add a few more traps and detection charms to the corridor just in case they were to have any unwanted visitors. While he was at it, he could put a couple at the elevator shafts to check the passengers and kill off any enemies at the same time. And after that…

Further thoughts about fortifying their living quarters got put to a halt when Lyle felt the sword cases vibrating slightly and the handles felt a little warm to the touch. He looked down to see a light glowing through the gaps of the cases, with a hint of smoke coming from them. He quickly laid them down on the table and checked the seals before removing the locks to find the swords pulsing with light, with an odd humming emitting from them.

"Lord Galilei, there seems to be some sort of reaction with the shards." Lyle said as he looked at the glowing swords.

"What do you mean?" Galilei came into the room with Creed to see the swords. "Oh my, this is very interesting."

"What do you think this is about?" Lyle went to pull the curtains at the windows and checked the locks to ensure they were secured.

"Maybe they are sensing all the devils in town and just want to let loose?" Creed shrugged with a bored expression. "I mean we are in devil's territory right now, and I would think that the shards are bored from lack of activity, having been stuck in the vault for all those years."

"I don't think that is the case." Lyle lightly prodded one of the swords with a thoughtful expression. "The feeling I get seemed more 'joyful' if I had to properly describe it."

"Intriguing…" Galilei mused as he inspected each one of the blades before reaching out to touch one. The reaction was immediate; the sword glowed a light red before letting out some static electricity that shocked Galilei and caused him to stumble backwards with a small yelping of pain. The sword continued that reaction for a few more seconds before the glow diminished.

"Yes, this is very interesting." Galilei commented excitedly as though he did not get shocked by the sword and received a bleeding hand; if anything he was more thrilled at the reaction. "They are reacting to something, or better yet, someone."

"Someone?" Lyle frowned at his words.

"Looks like my informant was right about something." Galilei let out a weird chuckle that send shivers down Lyle's spine. "It seems we are going to be meeting someone very special very soon. HEHEHEHAAAAA!"

"What the fuck?!" Creed took a step back while looking at his boss crackling like the mad scientist he was. "The hell is he talking about?"

Lyle did not immediately reply back to Creed as he looked back to the swords. He was not sure what information he may have gotten, but he recalled meeting the informant during one of their operations, and that person had said something that struck a chord in him.

"The one you seek will appear shortly, be prepared for his welcoming."

At that time, he was standing the furthest from the informant and he was technically talking to Galilei at the time, yet he could not shake off the feeling that the informant was giving him a message in his own way.

It would seem that this trip was going to be extremely eventful.

=()=

"…" A blue-haired girl in a white hood paused to look around her, ignoring the stares from the people around her for her odd choice of clothes.

"Xenovia, what is the matter?" A twin-tailed girl dressed in similar attire turned around to face her.

"The shard is reacting to something." Xenovia muttered softly as she gestured with her hand. "It has been doing that for the past few minutes now."

"Hmm…" Her partner touched her arm that wrapped in bandage. "It seems Mimic-chan is also reacting to something. I don't think I ever felt it this excited before."

"Do you think it is reacting to the other shards?" Xenovia frowned in thought. "After all this is the first time the Excalibur Shards are being brought together since the time they were broken and forged into their separate forms. The shards taken by the thieves may have started reacting to each other and are trying to call out to the others. This may be a good chance to find them if that is the case."

"We can think about that later." The both of them turned to the woman who was accompanying them. She was a very attractive woman around her mid-twenties to thirties and wore nun's clothing that clung tightly to her very shapely figure, and seemed to be oblivious to the males opening gawking at her while their girlfriends or wives were looking on jealously. "You know we should not speak of such matters in the open. And we must go and get to our hotel to check in if we want to let Irina meet her childhood friend tonight or tomorrow at the very most."

"Ah that's right!" The twin-tailed girl started to run along the path. "Hurry up Xenovia, I need to go and meet Ise-kun tonight! It is my job as his childhood friend to do so!"

"Right~ on my way." Xenovia rolled her eyes as she started to follow them. Her partner could be so excitable at times it was a little tiring.

Well, at least they have a possible lead on the other shards.

Part 4

Okay, something was seriously wrong with me.

For the past few days, this odd pain in my chest had intensified to the point that others had started noticing the reactions. Kano and Kawako had insisted that I went to a doctor and take some time off from work, and even some of my course mates had noted that I was looking a little off. So it was with great reluctance that I made my way to the nurse's office after lessons to try and get some medicine, but my body gave out halfway and I ended up slumping against the wall in an isolated part of the school.

This was really weird; Avalon was supposed to be able to heal and prevent all types of illnesses and poisons, heck it can even reattach my limbs in some of my more serious fights, yet something was clearly wrong with me. If anything, I think Avalon may be partially responsible for this weird feeling.

'Blood and death…'

I was feeling extremely feverish, my body was burning, and my hands were trembling uncontrollably.

'Fire raining from the skies…'

Man, this was really making me feel weird, now it looked like I was starting to see things.

'Screams in the sea of fire…'

My heart was racing, my vision started going dark, my sense of orientation was going off…

'A boy walking through a wrecked town consumed by flames, desperately trying to escape the hell he was in as the screams of people being burnt alive filled his ears…'

"… Iya-kun…"

Oh man, I seemed to be really losing it. Now I was also hearing things…

'The boy stumbled on to the ground, exhausted beyond physical and mental capacity, and the last thing he saw was the towering figure of darkness, and what look like a bright eye of fire glaring into his soul…'

"Emi..kun!"

Ah I can't breathe…

'Dark voices telling the boy to accept the inevitable and just die…'

"EMIYA-KUN! Wake up!"

"HAHH!" I gasped loudly and panted hard as my eyes went wide open and I was barely able to make out the concerned faces of some of the Student Council looking over me. Seriously what was wrong with me?! I couldn't even sense them when they were this close!

"Get him to the wall now." Tsubasa and Saji grabbed my arms and lifted me to lean against the wall while Reya took the bottle of water out of my bag and gave it to me. "Better drink up while you can." Tsubasa said as I took the bottle gingerly and clumsily drank the contents.

"Ha~ thanks for the help." I placed the bottle down after letting out a tired sigh.

"What happened man? You looked like you were going into cardiac arrest or something." Saji remarked as he made sure I was not slipping down.

"That makes two of us." I shook my head to rid of the dizziness. "This is the first time that ever happened. I think I am fine now."

"Are you sure you are okay?" Meguri looked at me anxiously, noting that I was sweating quite a fair bit. "You are still looking a little green. Even the other students were asking about you looking very sick when we were talking a little. Maybe we should get you to the nurse's office."

"Man, times like this, I wish I brushed up on my healing spells." Saji scratched his head in slight annoyance and regret.

"Why not ask for Asia-chan?" Momo suggested as she looked at me to check for any issues for Meguri. "Isn't she still in school?"

"The Gremory Faction is at their club house, but there is that meeting going on so we can't enter it." Reya mentioned with a worried frown.

"Kaichou is there, so I guess we could call in advance?" Ruruko scratched her head as she asked.

"Come to think of it, where are the top members of the group?" I looked around to find the president and vice-president of the student council, slightly thankful that Sona was not around to see me in such a state. For all I know, she would probably imposed martial law on me and stopped me from coming to lessons until I recovered.

"They are currently with Rias-sama to meet up with some bigshots. Not sure who, but evidently they are important enough to warrant the presence of both princesses." Tsubasa shrugged while Ruruko made her way outside with her phone. "So we can't just go right in, we would need to call them, then maybe they can excuse us this round."

"Okay then, you guys go ahead and call her, I will go and look for Asia." I said as I started to move only to be stopped by Tsubasa and Momo who held me back.

"No you don't, young man." Reya brought her face right down to my level with such a forceful manner and expression that I had to blink a few times to make sure I was talking to the actual Reya and not an imposter. "You are not fit to move on your own, you will have us to assist you."

"B~ but~" I tried to rebuke only for her to get into my personal space and right in front of me.

"No buts Shirou Emiya, you are not getting out of this. Do. I. Make. Myself. Clear?" Reya emphasized those words while steadily getting closer to my face and with a ghost of a smile I was too familiar with.

Oh by the Root, please tell me she was not related to Tohsaka Rin, please?!

"… Yes, madam."

"Good." Reya drew back her head and lightly nodded. "So we will be coming along with you. All right?" I quickly nodded to give her my approval.

Damn it.

"Ara~ so Emiya-kun is the type that would give way to women who could get past his defenses and have their way with him?" The both of us snapped our heads to the white-haired Bishop who was looking on with an amused smirk. "Oh my, what a scary fetish you have? Not to mention Reya being so forward, I have underestimated you."

"What~ what are you saying?!" The both of us yelled out to her the same time.

"Wow, they are also in sync when they say that." Saji crossed his arms and looked on with a bit of amusement as well.

"Can we please get going now?" Meguri turned around and made her way out of the corridor, with an odd expression of frustration on her face. Guess she did not like all the delays.

"Okay then." Before I could retort, Tsubasa placed my left arm over her and lifted me up easily like I was a feather, with Reya following suit with my other arm, then proceeded to carry me along. "We will get you fixed up in no time, so bear with us a little longer okay?" Tsubasa winked at me while sticking out her tongue cheekily. I could only grumble as I allowed myself to be carried away.

Man I was getting old.

=()=

"That was a little frightening to say the least." Saji commented once he could not see Shirou's back.

"Indeed, I believe this is the first time I have ever seen him have an illness, let alone a seizure." Momo also commented as she tapped her chin. Indeed, among other things like his grades and behavior, one other aspect that he was known for was his seemingly inability to fall ill. No matter what was thrown at him, he would always come to school in perfect health.

Until now at least.

"I hope Emiya-Senpai will get better once Asia-san looks him over." Ruruko said worriedly as she came back from outside.

"Have you informed Kaichou?" Momo turned to find her nodding her head.

"Kaichou had a hard time hearing what I said, so I had to send a message. But at least she got it."

"Okay then, time to do a bit of spring cleaning." Saji and Ruruko nodded while Momo helped to supervise. It was a good thing that Shirou had his panic attack in an isolated area, it would be a bit problematic to explain to the other students about the situation.

It would also be very hard to explain the stab marks in the wall.

=()=

This was seriously awkward.

I mean, could you imagine the sight of a man roughly two heads taller than most people being carried by two girls that barely reached his chest across the school yard? I was so glad that everyone else had gone home, that Rias was not seeing me like this, and finally, I was seriously grateful that Rin was not here to see me.

The twin-tailed magus would never let it down.

"You know, most boys would kill to be in your position, what with having a lady in both arms." I directed my eyes to the sporty girl who had a mischievous grin which could rival Rin's. "Why don't you smile about that?"

"Except most guys wouldn't be a magus that towers over most of his classmates, have some sort of illness that crippled them and end up getting carried by two ladies who happened to be reincarnated creatures of the night." I remarked as we got out of the perimeter and made our way to the area where the Occult Club was situated.

"Touché." Tsubasa pretended to be offended as she dramatically moved her hand to her face. "Oh the humanity." I snorted at her words, and surprisingly enough, Reya almost snorted herself before catching herself on time.

"But Emiya-kun, has this happened before?" Reya directed her worried expression at me who, despite being in a very crippled state, could not help but blush slightly at the cute expression in front of me. "Whatever this is, it is a very serious issue."

"No, this is the first time." I was so thankful that I was able to switch my mindset to focus on the situation, because Reya was one girl who seemed clueless to the effect she had on guys. "Even when I have been injured or suffering from internal issues, none were as messed up as this."

"Well we should be able to get you fixed up in no time." Tsubasa nodded her head in the direction where the clubroom was. I merely grunted in reply as I took the time to try and catch my breath. At least the pain was more manageable, I just hope to get this issue over and done with.

"Meguri is moving fast." I commented as I barely noticed her in the distance.

"Guess she is really worried for you. By the way Emiya-kun, don't take this the wrong way." Tsubasa paused before showing a slightly saucy smile. "You are really well-built beneath all these clothes huh?" That remark made Reya stumble and nearly took me down if not for the support of Tsubasa that held on to me.

"Oops, sorry about that." Tsubasa apologized in good nature as she used her strength to pull me and by extension Reya back to our feet.

"Tsubasa-chan, you should not be saying such things at this time!" Reya blurted out with a very embarrassed expression.

"Oh really? I was just complimenting him." Tsuabasa paused before letting out a smile which reminded me of Luvia when she was about to go a teasing roll. "And though you said that, you were also checking him out while hanging on, weren't you?" Reya looked down with her face now looking like a ripe tomato.

"Erm, should I be thankful?" I blinked at the odd atmosphere that descended on us.

"Ara~ Emiya-kun, you really are clueless to your own fame." Tsubasa winked in good nature at me. "Ever since the club recruitment drive, a lot of girls have been checking you out. And the few times you have to remove your shirt to fix some of the equipment, let's just say that a picture of you showing your arms in that state has become quite the marketing item." I could only gawk at her while idly thinking back to the times I had accidentally revealed my arms in order deal with some of the tasks at school. I honestly did not realize how bad the situation was for me.

By the Root, how did my life become a teenage drama show?

"THUK~ Bump!"

"GARGH!" I stumbled heavily as I gasped hard, nearly dragging both girls down with me. I grabbed my chest tightly as I inhaled heavily to try and control the pain, but that was not helping me whatsoever.

"Emiya-kun!" Reya steadied me on the ground as she checked my condition, paling as she took notice of my breathlessness and temperature. "You are burning up! We better get you cooled off!" I could only pant in response as I tried to keep my breath steady. The feeling was getting more intense now, and for whatever reason, I get the odd feeling that the swords inside my Reality Marble were warning me of something.

Something that was in the academy.

Something that was coming for me.

Something that appeared in front of me and headed straight for the girls' backs.

"Watch out!" I pushed the both of them away and sending them crashing to the ground in time to avoid the two objects that appeared and…

"STABH!"

… Huh?

Why was I flying in the air?

Why was the sky spinning?

Why were Reya and Tsubasa panicking in front of me?

I could not understand it at all.

The only thing I did understand was the fact that I had two swords sticking out of me.

=()=

Xenovia would love nothing more than to take the sword in her hand and just cleave the devils in front of her into pieces.

Yes, she understood this was devil's territory. Yes, there was supposed to be a ceasefire between the three factions. No, she did not think there was so much procedure to go through for this meeting. Yes, she figured that Griselda's presence would warrant the presence of both representatives and princess of the town. No, she was not very patient. No, she would rather not spend all this time talking. And certainly, the rumors about the current user of the [Boost Gear] being a perverted high school boy were clearly understated.

If she did not know any better, she would say that there was a higher power intent of making fun of her lifestyle.

They had spent the past hour or so discussing with the representatives of the town about the purpose of their visit and the people involved. She mostly stay silent during the discussion while listening in on their conversation, but she did listened more about the fallen exorcists to understand who they were.

Creed Diskenth, a fallen exorcist whose skills with the sword was supposedly on par with Freed Sellzen, he was one of the few considered to be borderline murderous when it comes to taking out devils and the church's enemies. But compared to Freed's 'loose-cannon' methods of fighting and torture, Creed's would be considered more methodical and ideal for psychological warfare if he ever needed to play mind games with his enemies. He was also someone that could easily take on some of the top fighters in the church ranks if given the chance to do so. He was often sent out a lone for assignments partially because his methods were extremely unethical and more likely to harm rather than protect anyone fighting alongside him.

The other fallen exorcist was the one she was interested though. Lyle Wallner was someone that many had considered to be an enigma; his faith towards their religion was not as steadfast as the rest, but he seems to hold a great deal of respect for the current pope that bordered on near loyalty to him. He was someone who was notably suited to wield some of the holy swords in the church's vault, but he refused to wield them for battles, his reasoning being that he was not the right owner for them.

His fighting style was also one that made many raised an eyebrow; he was skilled with the sword and martial arts to the point of being considered unofficially as one who could handle the top ten fighters in their church, yet he preferred the use of modern weaponry in his fights. He was also someone whose methods of combat seemed more at home as a mercenary than frontal combatant.

Much to her and Irina's surprise, Sister Griselda had met Lyle a couple of times in the past and she admitted wholeheartedly that she would rather avoid direct confrontation with him, otherwise avoid any contact with him whatsoever. She believed that he could easily defeat her no matter how much of a disadvantage he was in as long as there was 1 percent chance that he could turn it around.

It was because of his fighting style that he ended up getting a moniker that was both fitting and somewhat mocking. The Church Slayer.

For her part, Xenovia was confident she could handle Creed easily, but Lyle was someone she had a hard time understanding. As many remarked, him becoming a Fallen Exorcist and seemingly joining forces with Galilei was totally opposite of his loyalty to the pope. There were plenty of rumors and theories as to the reason for doing so, such as him losing faith in the pope's ability to save the church, him simply using his skills as a hitman for hire or he was under the pope's orders to infiltrate the group.

Whatever the case, she intended to find out the reason by fighting him later.

Her musings were temporarily interrupted when Excalibur Destruction glowed brightly in her hand while humming softly. For the past couple of days, the two shards in their possession kept reacting strangely, and it seemed to intensify when they entered the academy. When they revealed their swords to the devils, the repeating reaction nearly got them into trouble as the devils thought they were trying to attack them.

She had conveyed her theory to Griselda that the swords were reacting to the others, but Griselda said that they would have to check up on it afterwards. She could only wait until the meeting was over then she could try out that idea.

Her musings got interrupted by a ringing tone that came from one of the princesses, who blushed lightly while reaching into her pocket to pull out a cell-phone. Why would people want to use those contraptions was beyond her.

"Excuse me for a minute." Sona Sitri got up from her seat and went to a corner to answer the call. Xenovia peeked at her at the corner of her eye and noted the slight confusion and anxiety that appeared on the princess's face. Soon after she hung up and checked her phone for text messages, towards which she frowned heavily before turning back to Rias Gremory.

"Rias, I don't mean to interrupt, but I may have to borrow Asia for a while." Sona Sitri said as she leaned in. "It seems there is some sort of problem going on with Emiya-kun, and the others want her to check up on him to make sure nothing is wrong."

"Emiya-kun?" Rias tilted her head in confusion. "Well this is a first, but I guess his body finally gave out on him."

"Indeed, I think it is high time he takes some R&R and stop trying to force himself to finish all those tasks." Sona sighed lightly. "He is good at his work but he is still human."

"Well, that may be his charming point." Akeno said with a teasing tone. "After all, two of your members can attest to that."

"Akeno~" Sona let out a warning tone to which Akeno responded with a shrug.

"It is fine, I will hold down the fort." Rias turned to the blonde girl in question. "Asia, if you would?"

"Understood, I would like to help Emiya-san get better." She clenched her fists as though she was getting pumped up, though it only made her look cute. She got up and walked with Sona, rounding the table to walk past her. Xenovia looked at her noting her slightly restrained movements as she neared them before she spoke out.

"You are the witch previously called the Holy Maiden." The words directed at Asia was more of a statement than a question. "I thought you looked familiar when we met at the house, but I did not think that one who was called the Holy Maiden would fall so low as to become a devil."

"EH! I heard you were banished for healing a devil, but I didn't think you became one." Irina exclaimed while Asia bowed her head, unable to muster the courage to look at them in the face.

"Tell me, do you still believe in our God?" Xenovia asked while looking at the blonde girl. "I know of a few who tried to remain pious despite betraying their beliefs because they cannot forget their teachings and feel guilty about it."

"… I can't let go of my faith. It has been my entire life…" Asia replied in a soft voice.

"I see, in that case." Xenovia pointed the sword right at her head. "Then perhaps we can do you a service by cutting you down. God should be able to extend his hand to you even if you have sinned this much."

"Cut that shit!" Everyone blinked at the sight of an angry Ise who was on his feet and glaring at the girl in front of him. "You were the ones who put her on that pedestal of being a Saint in the first place so that she can heal all of you back at the church, but you kick her out for saving someone in need and branded her a witch! Nobody helped her when she needed you guys the most! You guys are the bunch of idiots who don't understand her kindness!"

"A Holy Maiden does not need friends. She only needs the love and guidance of God in order to live. The fact that she is here in that form proves that she was not worthy to become one in the beginning." Xenovia replied back like she was talking about the weather.

"CRASH!"

The table collapsed under the weight of Ise's punch as he hit it with Boosted Gear, his arm slightly shaking from the rage he was feeling. "You guys don't know what she went through! You say that Asia would have been fine if she had truly loved God? He didn't do jack-shit when his own son was getting crucified and he certainly did nothing when Asia was getting her Sacred Gear removed by those fallen angels!"

"Ise-san!" Asia, Irina and the others widened their eyes in shock while Xenovia narrowed her eyes in anger and grabbed Excalibur Destruction tighter.

"He did not do anything to help her out even though she is the kindest and most innocent person on this damn planet! We and another guy totally unrelated to any of us ended up doing the saving and at least that unrelated guy even helped to keep her alive long enough to heal her properly!" Ise continued to speak his mind out, being on a high of vitriol and righteous fury to care at all. "You guys talk big about saving the good and innocent, yet you did not do shit for her!"

"Why you little!" Xenovia poured her will into Excalibur Destruction, making it glow red in anticipation of a killing spree of devils.

"Xenovia, do not get angered by his words." Griselda gave her a warning before turning to Rias. "Lady Gremory, I would ask that you restrain your servant. He seems to be slightly lacking in manners."

"No, I will not keep quiet! I am not sitting back while some stuck-up girl comes along preaching about the good will of a god that does not bother to help someone in their need and trying to kill someone like it is the natural thing to do!" Ise gritted his teeth in anger.

"What would be the point of her living on if she can't even pray to God? He won't answer any of her prayers." Xenovia retaliated by saying those words with finality, but to her surprise Ise let out a delighted smirk.

"Is that so? Well too bad, at least he was lenient enough to make Asia an exception and allowed her to pray with no side-effects whatsoever." Ise folded his arms with a smug expression that Xenovia was tempted to cut off from his face. "She has been praying for the past few weeks and there has been no trouble for her at all."

"That is ridiculous, there is no way…"

"My Lord, please grant me this prayer and give them a sign that I am telling the truth." Asia put her hands together and gave a quick prayer for proof. As if to answer her words, [Twilight Healing] glowed a gentle green while Excalibur Destruction and Mimicry answered back warmly with a gentle humming.

"There! See, she can pray! Suck on that lady!" Ise turned with a triumphant expression only to pause at the sight of Xenovia's face. "What the!"

… What?

What?!

What was this blasphemy?!

Xenovia raised her sword automatically as she looked at the girl with hard eyes, ignoring everyone's shouting around her. She did not care if she got into trouble with Griselda later or whether she had to deal with the devils in this room, but she intended to remove this mocking display of her faith this instant from the face of the earth!

"BANG!"

Everyone's movements temporarily stopped when the door crashed open and a girl with red hair and an extremely distressed expression barged right in, homing in on Sona in a second.

"KAICHOU! Did you get Ruruko's message?!" Meguri rushed through her words without giving Sona a chance to butt in. "Emiya-kun started going into some sort of seizure, and he nearly suffocated for a short while, and…"

"Meguri, calm down!" Sona placed both hands on Meguri's shoulders to stop her movements. "What is the matter with Emiya-kun?"

That was when all hell broke loose.

The Excalibur Shards that had been glowing for a while suddenly shone with a brilliant glare that made everyone in the room wince and shut their eyes while pushing the devils away from the swords. Then without warning, Xenovia felt a heat radiating from Excalibur Destruction that threatened to sear the flesh off her hand, making her release her grip unconsciously. There was a loud sound of glass breaking and the glare diminished enough for her to peek through her eyelids to find both hers and Irina's swords have decided to leave the room through the windows, leaving behind broken glass and walls.

"Xenovia, Irina, where are the shards?!" Griselda demanded an explanation from the two.

"The sword tried to burn off my hand, I had to let it go!" Irina gave the same explanation as hers while revealing a hand that was slightly burnt.

"Never mind that, we need to get the swords back now!" Griselda got up from her seat and jumped through the window without any hesitation. Xenovia and Irina followed suit and, much to her displeasure, the devils came shortly after them.

"This is our matter, stay out of this." Xenovia growled at them as she ran forward.

"Like we would let you loose on our grounds, considering that stunt you just pulled, young lady." Akeno remarked with a dangerous smile that sent chills down the spines of the exorcists. "Furthermore, if any of the students saw those swords flying around, we are the ones who have to wipe their memories, so do us a favor and just be quiet." Xenovia was about to retort with a few choice words when a blood-curdling scream rang in the area.

"EMIYA-KUN!"

The fear that was evident in that scream made Xenovia's blood go cold. It certainly motivated the devils to move even faster with greater urgency, with her playing catchup for a short while before they went into a clearing that led to the school yard. It did not take her long to see two girls who were devils, frantically trying to do something…

And the lone human who was on the ground with two swords in his chest.

=()=

'Battlefields raged on for years…'

'Farmers and poor folk weeping in pain while cradling the bodies of their loved ones…'

'A decorated sword in the stone in the last lights of the sun…'

'"It is your choice, but if you should choose to take the sword" The old man dressed in rags address the young man in front of the sword…'

'"You will cease to be human." A young man with white hair and unusual presence address the blonde girl as she walked towards the sword in the stone…'

'"Britain must be protected." The young man gripped the sword without hesitation…'

'"For the sake of the country, I am willing to relinquish my humanity." The young girl gave that proclamation as she pulled the sword from the stone, the edge catching the light of the sun…'

'"ALL HAIL KING ARTHUR! ALL HAIL KING ARTHUR!" The people cheers resounded through the kingdom as a man in royal clothing and a crown waved to them from the castle walls…'

'"The king does not understand the feelings of humans" One of the knights muttered behind the back of the blonde girl as a village got razed to the ground…'

'A hand holding a golden sword of different design rose from the depths of the lake in front of the king…'

'"Why do you not accept me, father?!" A knight yelled at the king in front of the other knights before storming out of the castle…'

'"Mutiny!" One knight screamed before getting cut down by one who was formerly a comrade in arms…'

'"Forgive me Lancelot." The young man wept uncontrollably as he took down the man who was once the ideal knight and his best friend…'

'"Father…" The helmet broke to reveal a face identical to the girl who struck him down…'

'"I have failed my country." The king mourned the death of his knights as he stood alone against a legion of demons with a broken blade…'

'"I am not worthy to rule" The girl looked at the blood-stained fields of Camelot…'

'"If you can grant me this one prayer… To let me attain the Holy Grail and wish for a better ruler to take my place… Then I will serve you… for all eternity…" The girl raised her hand wearily at the sky as she leaned against the tree, her strength fading and her breath getting shorter. And in the last moments, she heard a voice that sounded like the devil's temptation…'

'"I am Servant Saber, by thy summons I have come." The blonde woman turned to face the red-haired boy who would be her future master and unknowing, her future lover. "I ask thee, are you my Master?"'

"Shirou…" The emerald eyes of the blonde girl seemed to cloud over as she and the boy embraced each other tightly…'

=()=

"That!" I clenched my teeth as I grabbed the blades edges of the swords.

"IS!" I pulled them with enough force to cut my hands and draw blood.

"ENOUGH!" With that, I yanked them out of my body and threw them away from me, my body collapsing shortly after from using a lot of my strength. Now that I regained full control of my body, the pain came right back and I started to cough out blood like a leaking hose.

Damn it, I was getting too old for this shit.

"Emiya-kun, hang on!" Reya rushed to me and flipped over on my back, paling at the sight of the blood that was staining my clothes. She placed both hands on my wounds and a light started to emit from them, only to yell out in pain when a golden light shone from my wounds and seemingly shocked her.

"Cough~ Get back~" I spat out some blood as I used my hand to push Reya away. I could feel Avalon was starting to get very agitated with all that had happened and it seemed to be lashing out with a fair bit of rage to the point of deeming everything around me as a foreign presence to be eliminated. I would have to try and calm it down later.

"Thump~ Bump!"

I quickly turned my head to find the two swords glowing brightly and vibrating hard. My fears that they would come straight at us came true as they levitated in the air before flying straight at us. Damn it, my Prana got disrupted by that sudden attack, and Avalon was getting agitated while trying to fix me up, I don't think I can project my swords in time!

"Ba~ Bump!"

The miniature spear around my neck glowed a crimson red and before I realized what was about to happen, a bunch of demonic spears appeared in the ground in time to block the swords from hitting me and Reya. It lasted for a few seconds before the swords got deflected back and hung a few feet away, the holy aura radiating from it seemingly intensifying in response to the aggressive aura of the spears.

"Xenovia, Irina, grab the swords!" I turned my attention to find the ORC, Sona, Tsubaki, and three other strangers rushing to our side. Two girls that I do not know jumped forward to grab the swords, only to yelp in pain and released their hold on the scabbards, revealing angry welts on their hands.

"Oh no you don't!" Ise called out his gauntlet and grabbed the handle of the broadsword, stopping it halfway in its tracks thanks to his dragon's immunity to the holy attributes. It was only for a brief moment as the broadsword started to glow brightly and restart its journey towards me, all the while dragging Ise with it.

"AH COME ON!" Ise grabbed the nearest column and held on for dear life as the blade struggled to free itself from his grip. Asia, Koneko and the blue haired girl came along and grabbed his arm, helping him to try and contain the blade.

"I got this one!" The twin-tail girl threw a rope around the katana to lasso it, but the katana glowed briefly before changing its shape into something like spike mace, tearing the rope into shreds before making its way back at me. The spears put up a bit of resistance against the weapon, but it smashed through them and made its way towards me and Reya.

"Emiya-kun! Reya-chan!" A brief flash of red and I found myself being carried away in time for the mace to miss us and hit the ground hard. I looked to find Reya in the similar position as me and a panting and pale-faced Meguri holding onto us.

"Meguri-chan! Thank you…" Reya's eyes went wide as her hand was raised to reveal blood covering her fingertips. I immediately lifted Meguri to the side and found a big gash on her back. Seemed like she got cut at the last moment and was currently feeling the side-effects of the holy blade.

Okay, now I'm pissed.

I projected the Asclepius Staff to help Meguri, before I turned around in time to find the mace transform back into a katana and aimed its edge at me before flying straight for my head. I projected Kanshou and broke it to extend its edge before slamming it at the sword to deflect it to the side, sending it hurtling in the air and embedding itself into the wall.

"ARGG!" I turned to find Ise and the girls straining to hang on to the broadsword. "Shirou, we could use a hand here!" That was mooted when the broadsword decided that it got held on enough and glowed a crimson red while radiating holy energy that managed to bypass the dragon's protection and burnt Ise, causing him to yell out in pain and releasing his hold on the sword. "Crap!"

"Oh shit!" I tried to dodge out of the way, but it seems the sword has taken a lesson from Gae Bolg as the sword seemed to bend at an odd angle and flew straight into my arm.

"AAAAHHHH!"

I let out a yell of pain as memories and visions seemed to clash in my head, rendering me immobile on the ground. With a bit of a struggle I was able to pull the sword out of my arm and threw it with as much strength as I could muster. Tsubasa came in time to catch my falling body as I stumbled.

"Hang on, I got you!" Tsubasa wrapped one arm around my frame and kicked the ground to jump out of the way of the broadsword that resumed its attempt to follow me. She grabbed hold of a tree and uprooted it with a huge tug before throwing it at the sword, but it practically disintegrated upon contact with the blade.

"Darn it! Just break already!" Kiba snarled as he plunged a bunch of swords around the katana and blew them up at once, but that only succeeded in freeing the sword from the wall and restart its rampage around us.

This situation was getting seriously screwed up, what with swords trying to stab me and everyone else in their way, female exorcists going around in tight clothes, Meguri getting hurt because of me, my blood spilling out…

And all the noise from the swords and the people around me was getting on my nerves!

"CUT IT OUT!"

To mine and everyone's surprise, the holy weapons stopped in the middle of the air, glowed once more before dropping blade first into the ground and embedding themselves deeply. Thankfully even the ringing has ceased, so I could finally catch my breath and gathered my thoughts.

That only made me realized the amount of pain I was in, thus leaving me a little overdrawn from the blood bank.

"Emiya-kun!" Tsubasa held on to me and laid me on my back as I started to cough out more blood from my mouth. "Asia-chan, I need your help now!"

"Meguri… help her first…" I pointed to the red-haired knight who was starting to have a hard time breathing properly, liking due to the holy attributes affecting her system. "I can deal with my own injuries, so help her."

"But!"

"Do it." I hissed out my answer while giving a look that made both Asia and Tsubasa give pause. "I can handle this myself." Tsubasa and Asia looked at each other for a moment before nodding, and I let out a sigh while watching Asia healing Meguri. I closed my eyes while regulating my breath before channeling my Prana to Avalon.

'Okay Avalon, do your thing.'

A bright glow of gold enveloped my body as Avalon finally got a break to heal me properly. I took in a steady breath as I could feel my wounds closing and my internal injuries feeling less painful. After a while Avalon deemed me healthy enough to stop the process, but I could still feel some parts of my body in agony.

"That light…" I could barely hear Asia's voice in my daze. "It is the same as that time my Lord saved me…"

That's it. The hell with my attendance, I needed a vacation right now.

=()=

"…" Lyle brought down the high-powered rifle slowly as he looked at the academy that he was spying on with a deep frown. He had uncovered a lot of things that could spell trouble for the mission.

He went ahead of Creed to scout the area so that he could mark out places for emergencies, then having finished his task earlier than expected, he decided to go ahead and find the devils so that he could identify them later.

It was not too difficult to find them; every devil emitted a certain aura that made their presence unique enough to affect humans on a subconscious level, and having been trained from childhood to detect such things, Lyle was able to identify a huge cluster of them coming from the academy. Lyle gritted his teeth lightly as he looked at all the students coming out of the gates, totally ignorant that devils were running their business there and that they were likely used as a gathering tank of souls for the devils to feast on. Normally he would disapprove of Creed's actions, but in this case he might consider letting him loose on these devils to save the humans.

He did not have to wait too long when he spotted three individuals entering the academy through the back gates and making their way to one of the older buildings of the academy. He could not help but smile grimly at the sight of a big bundle of cloth on one of the individuals' backs and what seemed to be an ordinary bandage on the other. Anyone with contact to the Excalibur Shards would be able to detect them even at a distance.

Looks like Galilei's plan was working. The church was desperate enough to send the remaining two swords for capturing the others.

He was however more concerned regarding the woman who came with the two girls. To say that his heart stopped at the sight of her was an understatement. He had met Griselda a couple of times before, and he would admit that he was both in awe and terrified of her strength. It seemed that the church was not sending out the other two swords without some insurance.

He was just about to consider sending in a familiar to spy on them after they had disappeared for an hour when he detected two other sources of the devil's aura coming near. He directed his attention and raised an eyebrow at two girls moving slowly across the yard. He adjusted the power of his binoculars to see what were they carrying, and he raised the other eyebrow at their cargo.

A human? And he seemed injured or ill to the point that those two were carrying him towards the location where the other devils were having a conversation with the church. And it seemed that he was struggling a little between the two girls by resisting their hold.

Wait, the devils couldn't be trying to use the human's moment of weakness to tempt him into selling his soul, or worse, trying to get leverage on the exorcists by using a hostage?! He would not allow it! Galilei would probably reprimand him for this, but he would ensure that the human maintained his soul and would not be involved with such a situation.

But just as Lyle readied his rifle and took aim at the girls' heads, a momentary pulse of energy directed his sights at the old building in time to see the a bright light emitting from the window before shattering and two swords flew out and headed straight for the trio. He moved his rifle back just as the man pushed the two girls away, making the blades hit him instead. To his surprise the human still lived and manage to pull the swords out, just as the exorcists appeared.

For a while Lyle watched the chaos that unfolded in front of him with a critical eye, before gasping at the sight of the swords actually responding to the man's yelling and stabbed their tips into the ground. They stayed that way while the human glowed a bright gold before getting attended to by one devil dressed in nun-clothing before he got escorted to what seemed to be the nurse's office. It was some time later that the exorcists were able to pull them out from the ground and left the academy.

This was a more volatile situation than he had anticipated. There were so many unknown variables that needed to be handled, too many uncomfortable coincidences to overlook…

And that one human…

Lyle silently took out his phone and pressed the numbers before placing it to his ear. The ring tone continued for a short while before the call connected.

"Creed, we have a problem."

Part 5

"All right, we are done. Go and take your break." Kano called out to me from the kitchen.

"I can still keep going." I tried to insist only to get hit on the head.

"Oh no you don't young man." Kawako brandished her ladle like a weapon. "You are going to take that break and you will rest the full half-hour. If I catch you doing something that is remotely work, I will personally ensure that you be made to sleep for the rest of the day. Do I make myself clear?" I could only raise my hands in defeat and nod my head quickly to appease her temper.

It was currently the afternoon after that incident of the academy, and I can honestly say that I was officially placed on leave from the academy until I recovered properly. Despite my body having been healed of my injuries and my attempts to dissuade their decisions, Sona with the help of the Student Council made sure that I do not return for a few days until the situation with those people they called exorcists had calmed down. With that in place, I had no choice but to go and continue my job while continuing to fix the Kaleidou-Amulet.

Hah~ if only Rin, Luvia, Sakura and the others could see me now. They would probably laugh their asses off at the sight of me being subdued by kids.

"Ring~" The bells at the front door chimed softly and we both turned to find Mitelt walking in and heading towards us.

"Oh~ Mitelt-chan, how are you dear?" Kawako beamed while walking over and hiding her ladle quickly.

"I am okay." Mitelt lightly bowed her head before pointing her thumb at me. "I am just here to check up on the idiot."

"The so-called 'idiot' is standing right here you know." I remarked while pretending to sound irritated.

"Well you are an idiot for trying to force your way to work after all the trouble those girls went through to get you some rest." Mitelt snorted without missing a beat. "From what I was told, you were practically running on fumes by the time they found you passed out at the corridor. You should be glad that you are given time-off from school, you know?"

"Was it really that bad?" Kano came out of the kitchen while wiping his hand with a cloth. "I figured it was bad that Shirou got sick, but this is the first I heard of it being that serious."

"It is fine, don't worry." I tried to assure them only to back down from the glare of the two elders.

"Shirou, it is clear that you will continue pushing yourself to the point of collapsing in a hospital, so on that note, you are not coming to work for one week." Kano held up a finger to stop me from arguing. "Take the break kid. I will still pay you your check, though it would be a little lower. Just concentrate on getting better."

"Mitelt-chan, could you please escort this young man back to his home?" Kawako paused before directing the ladle at me. "And if you dare to make any trouble for her, I will make sure that you will be spanked." I swallowed my saliva while eyeing the ladle she has. It was absurd to think about it, but I could swear that there was Prana emitting from it with the promise of divine punishment if I disobeyed their orders.

"Now get going." Kawako shooed me out of the bar. "Go and get some rest. The other assistants need to get their asses moving anyway, so it will be fine." I could only sigh as I followed Mitlelt down the street. After walking for a few minutes, Mitelt finally dropped her façade and started laughing.

"Ha~ Ha~, you got whipped big time by the granny~" Mitelt snickered evilly as she walked beside me. "To think the wizard who could kick all sorts of ass gets scared of a grandma who wields a ladle?"

"This is coming from someone who is supposed to be a higher being yet made regularly to kneel down in front of said grandma and sweats a bucket load every time you make a minor mistake?" I countered her words, to which she replied back by sticking out her tongue.

"So then, mind filling me in on why you were looking like you were dropped off at death's door rather than your apartment's front door?" Mitelt raised her eyebrow at me. "When I tried to get some info from the princesses, neither of them gave me much to work on, and I really do not want the person in charge of me to die and leaving me hanging by the noose."

I snorted as we turned the corner. Considering the temper she has, that may have been the reason they did not tell her and left me the task of dealing with the crap. Slowly but surely, I gave the abridged version to her while keeping back the more sensitive information, especially regarding the part of me getting stabbed by two swords.

It was mostly because telling her that would send her on a rampage at me, but at the same time, I needed to clear my head what I had seen and ingested from the swords. The swords' history, the past users, the number of years accumulated on it, and finally, the one name that appeared in both swords.

Excalibur, or more precisely, what remains of Excalibur.

I was honestly unsure of what to make of that bit of information. Knowing that it was this universe's counterpart of Saber's sword did little to help me through the various emotions that was going on inside me.

Confusion, because I was uncertain about the manner the sword could break.

Skepticism, because I was highly doubtful that a sword as famous as Excalibur could be broken so easily, even if it was a different dimension.

Rage, because such a blade was considered a mockery to Saber, the way it was being projected as one equal to hers when it was only at D-Rank.

Sadness, because I could sympathize with the swords after being remade and losing a huge chunk of their power in the process, and having been passed around to users that they felt were not worthy for their blades.

All these emotions were having a tug-of-war session inside me, and I was feeling very frustrated; I just felt like having a throw-down with a devil, demon, some crazy magus, or hell with it, even a bloody Dead Apostle just to get rid of these emotions in me!

"CRACK! BOOM!"

"What the heck?!" Mitelt yelled as she ducked in time to avoid a stray brick aiming for her head. I myself barely took cover to avoid a crumpled car that crashed where we were a moment ago. I had one armed holding Mitelt back against the wall while projecting a small blade in my hand and peeked out of my cover.

Looks like I could let out some steam.

=()=

'Great, just great. Whose bright idea was it again to go after two rogue exorcists and get back the shards? Oh yeah, me.'

Ise huffed and sweated as he took a quick moment to assess the situation he was in. The area he was currently standing in resembled more of a place that was stricken by gang wars, with the smaller buildings broken down and the vehicles completely flipped on their sides with the windshields broken. He himself was sporting a few wounds that was leaking blood, his shirt was torn up and he was a hard time hearing in one ear after Xenovia decided to blow up a car to try and take one of the exorcists out with the result of him and the others getting hit by the blast.

He was starting to think it was a bad idea to have them come along for this plan.

After that disastrous meeting, he and Kiba got into a fight with the exorcist girls where they got their asses royally handed over on a silver platter. Kiba disappeared shortly afterwards, likely trying to find the fallen exorcists and some fake priest called Galilei Valper, despite an argument by Rias who explicitly told him not to go after them. Ise was not too sure about the situation, but he did feel that the manner Kiba was going about this was not safe or normal.

So he decided to meet up with the exorcists while roping in Koneko and Saji along to propose a plan where they could achieve both their goals, whereby Ise and his side would destroy the shards while the exorcists could take back their shards home. It would be a win-win situation for both sides. Xenovia on her part agreed with his plan on the condition that Griselda does not know of it since she would likely object to it. Kiba who came later took a fair bit of convincing to agree working with the girls, but he too came along as he would get the chance to destroy the holy sword.

They started trying to find those thieves around town, but it was quite a hassle considering Xenovia and Irina have wandered off on their own while Kiba butted heads with them over some of the more trivial matters. It was during such a situation that the bad guys decided to ambush them and they ended up fighting for their lives while near residential areas. He fought the person that Xenovia had called Lyle Wallner for quite a bit, with Koneko by his side for attack power while Saji played support. It did little to affect the gunslinger who even used some of the attacks to assist his own partner in crime to hinder Kiba and the exorcists.

He had wondered if he should have called in Shirou to help out, but considering the mess that had happened in the academy, Rias and Sona had preferred he did not get mixed up in their mess. Ise could understand a bit of it, since he was slightly pissed at the manner Xenovia seemed to brush them off easily and how she disregarded Shirou's health once she learnt that he was somewhat related to them professionally. He would love nothing more than to increase his strength with Boosted Gear and just punched her to the next block.

Of course, it was not for the lack of trying. Ise had attempted to ask Shirou a couple of times before, but he always seemed to miss him by a few seconds, and considering the urgency of the matter, he ended up dropping the task after a couple of days. He still hoped to find him sooner if only because he was more used to his attack style and Kiba's, not to mention he felt a lot safer having him around.

Then again, he would have to put up with Shirou's battle comments if he had heard about their plan. Heck if he were here now, he would probably say something like:

"Hyoudou Issei, what type of problem did you get your ass into this time?"

Like that, and if that fallen-angel girl were with him, she would probably say something like:

"He probably got himself headfirst into some sort of situation he should have avoided at all cost and is now regretting so much."

Yes, she would probably say something… like… that…

Ise turned his head slightly to find a disapproving Shirou Emiya and a smirking Mitelt by his side. Oh boy was he in trouble?

"Ise, explain. Now." Shirou's eyes had a very scary glint as he asked for an explanation. Thankfully for Ise, the answer came crashing through the wall behind me.

"YEHAHAHAHHAH!" The white-haired individual gleefully let out a crazy laugh as he blocked Xenovia's and Irina's attacks with ease while nimbly sidestepping Kiba and avoiding his strikes. He then leaped high above their heads, momentarily flipping the bird at Xenovia upside down before landing neatly on his feet and running off, with a furious Xenovia, Irina and Kiba hot on his heels.

"…"

Ise looked at them for a while before pointing them to Shirou and Mitelt. "Short summary. We search for bad guys, bad guys found us first, bad guys are now trying to kill us."

"… I can work with that." Shirou sighed heavily before turning to Mitelt. "Maybe you should hide somewhere for a while."

"No way, not happening." Mitelt crossed her arms while raising an eyebrow. "The old lady told me to look after you while you are still sick from whatever it is you are sick from, and I have been itching for a fight. I am coming along for some support at least."

"Actually, we could use her help." Ise cut in before Shirou could retort. "The guy you saw earlier is using Excalibur Transparency to fight them and it has been throwing our rhythm off since the beginning of this fight. His partner is also some gunslinger who is taking on the rest of us from a distance and that guy is very quick. Maybe Mitelt could bombard the area with spears?"

"Wait, did you say Excalibur Transparency?!" Mitelt snapped her head at him, and Ise would admit he actually shivered under the glare of her eyes. "Why is there an Excalibur Shard in this town?!"

"I can explain all of it later! Right now I could really use both your help! So will that plan work?"

Shirou frowned as he looked around the area quickly, likely assessing the effectiveness of his idea. "Don't think that would work well since we are quite close to the residential areas. We would need to be in a wider area that has no bystanders nearby."

"Well, we were trying to get to the open grounds by the canal, but it seems that Xenovia and Irina are getting too excited at the prospect of taking them out, and Kiba is not listening to a word that I or Koneko are telling him." Ise scratched his head in irritation. "Don't suppose you can help us with that?"

Shirou looked at Mitelt for a moment, then with a heavy sigh and shaking his head, he turned to Ise with a reluctant smirk. "What will you do without me?"

=()=

Lyle clicked his tongue in impatience as he parried a stray attack from one of the exorcist while dodging both the punches of a little girl and the tentacle sent by a boy who had a lizard like Sacred Gear on his arm. This fight was becoming a bit of a hassle for him.

After his observation of the devils, he and Creed spent the next couple of days scouting the town for any usable leylines which they could use to speed up their operation. Much to his displeasure, the majority of the leylines found were pathetic; they had barely enough power to power a minor wind spell, let alone the ritual of their scale. Furthermore, much of their locations were in areas that were too populated or too out-of-reach for their usage, leaving very few options for them.

The first was the construction site that was near the hotel they were staying in. It had a decent leyline that could help out with their operation, but the only issue was the construction materials that could interfere with their spell casting. A basic rule of thumb for rituals is to avoid any man-made or unnatural materials around to avoid contamination.

The same went for the second option, which was an open lot a few miles away. It was relatively isolated enough that they could perform the ritual without anyone noticing, but the leyline was somewhat tainted from the factory nearby. The quality was poor and the chemicals present in the area made it clear that attempting to perform the ritual there would result in instabilities.

The last option they had yielded the best leyline of the entire town, but it was also the most heavily guarded and the one that Lyle suspected that Galilei and Creed would insist on using just for the sake of pissing him off and provoking their enemies: Kuoh Academy.

He had wondered if God was enjoying playing pranks on him just to see him suffer.

After their scouting, the two went back to discuss their options for the ritual. Unfortunately they ran into the group of devils and exorcists during their scouting and Creed decided he needed to loosen up his body. Before Lyle could process what he said, Creed charged right into the middle of the group and started attacking them viciously. With a curse, Lyle took out his sword and joined the fray. He needed to ensure the collateral damage was minimal.

It had been twenty minutes since the start of the fight, and so far they only accomplished in destroying their surroundings and Creed deliberately pissing the exorcists and one devil swordsman to the point that they were ignoring their surroundings and went about trying to hit him with their strongest attacks. Lyle was dealing with the dragon user, the little girl and the other Sacred Gear User with more success and more controlled destruction. He was able to take out the dragon user quickly and disable both the girl and the other devil boy without too much of a hassle. He was at least thankful that the princesses or Griselda were not here to complicate matters or he would be so pissed right now.

"Creed, we need to get moving!" Lyle called out to Creed while sidestepping the boy with the Sacred Gear. "All these fighting is going to attract more unwanted attention than we need, and I really don't want to fight Griselda or the princesses, let alone their peerages!"

"Fine, Mister Spoil-sport! I will be finishing up now!" Creed replied back in a bored tone while fending off Excalibur Destruction, Excalibur Mimicry and several devils swords with Excalibur Transparency easily. "While I'm at it." He let out a sneer as he grabbed the handle tighter. "I might as well be bringing back a gift for the old man."

With that, he started to speed up his attacks and forced the blue-haired exorcist back, before deactivating the ability of the sword to catch the sunlight and direct it at the other two, causing them to wince from the glare. He took that opportunity to kick the boy right into the canal behind him, before parrying Mimicry off the exorcist's hand and ending it with a slash at the girl.

"KYAHHH!"

"Irina!" The blue-haired girl called Xenovia turned to the twin-tailed girl in fear as she watched her friend fall back with a deep cut down her front that stained her clothes and the ground, giving Lyle the opportunity to take out his gun and aimed a few rounds at her blade, knocking it away from them before rushing forward to punch her in the stomach, causing her to bend over in time for him to grab her head, lift her and throw her to the canal to join her friend.

"WOOHO! Gift time!" Creed caught Excalibur Mimicry neatly in his hand before turning to Lyle and throwing both swords in his hands. "Okay, all yours!"

Lyle dashed forward to grab the swords and leaped away in time to avoid a strike from the little girl. Then with the ease and speed of one who has performed this action countless times, Lyle used the swords to etch out a circle and several lines inside it before stabbing the swords in the center of the circle. Taking out a charm from his pocket, Lyle slammed it into the circle while muttering a soft chant. The circle glowed brightly, followed shortly by the swords, then with a bright flash, the swords disappeared in a cloud of gold dust, leaving behind a smoking circle and a smoldering piece of paper.

"Done!" Lyle called out as he grabbed the arm of the other devil male and used his momentum to throw him towards the little girl. "Get moving!"

"All right then. Guess we can leave now." Creed remarked as he made to walk away.

"Like I will let you!" The white-haired devil swordsman dashed forward with the sword aimed for Creed's neck. "You will be dead before you can leave!"

"Oh~ is that so?" Creed's smile went wider as he looked on with hungry eyes.

"SHRING! CLANK!" Kiba got knocked back a few meters away by Creed who was now holding on to a double-bladed light sword.

"I like to see you try." Creed raised the sword to his eye level and motioned with his other hand.

=()=

"Come on!" Ise called out to us as he ran ahead of us. "That was Irina screaming! She must be in trouble!"

"Mitelt, go ahead to scout!" I called out to the girl who merely nodded and flew higher to get a better vantage point. "Ise, as discussed I will be providing mid-range support. You need to get them out of there and try to move those fallen exorcists to an open area so that I can bombard them."

"On it!" Ise gave a thumbs up to acknowledge as he sped up. I followed for a few more meters before jumping onto one of the roofs of the nearby buildings and made my way to one of the taller buildings in the area. Once there, I set my sights on Ise who was now a couple of street blocks away from the fight.

"I am the bone of my sword."

A bow and a sword appeared in my hands while I focused on the situation in front of me. Ise wasn't kidding about the enemies being skilled; both of them were able to handle several opponents on their own without issue, and their teamwork was solid compared to the rather eye-itching cooperation that was going on with Ise's group and the female exorcists, and they were paying the price by having one of the swords taken away by them. Even as I watched, one of them seemed to have conducted a teleportation spell to move both their shard and the stolen shard elsewhere.

"My steel is twisted, my soul is fragile, and my core is distorted."

The sword in my hand rapidly twisted and lengthen to form an arrow with angry barbs running along the length of the shaft. I notched it to the bowstring and pulled it back while confirming the distance. Just in the nick of time, Ise had arrived and seemingly managed to convince the others to leave quickly, leaving me plenty of room for target practice.

"Fire one." I muttered while releasing the string.

"BOOMM!"

=()=

"SHIT!" Creed swore as he ducked for cover. "I don't recall the Fourth of July being celebrated in Japan!"

"It seems we have someone crashing the party." Lyle emptied his cartridges and reloaded his gun before checking his sword. "I estimate roughly ten minutes before the others come along, so we need to decide whether to attempt taking Excalibur Destruction or leave now to minimize our losses."

"Good thing you kept a lookout for this type of attacks, I got too carried away with the devil." Creed knocked his head with his hand.

Lyle sighed in reply as he peeked from his location. He knew something was wrong when the dragon user returned to the battlefield only to call the others away for safety. He looked around in time to spot a brief flash of light before he dashed forward to grab Creed by the collar and dragged him away to avoid the explosion that set off every vehicle in the area.

"We might as well see the face of the one who came late for this party." Creed peered from his side only to pull his head back to avoid an arrow to the face. "WHOA! That was a close one!"

"Time to say hi." Lyle placed the magnum back into his holster before reaching back to his coat and taking out the Desert Eagle he had brought along for the mission. He took a few deep breaths before grabbing a piece of broken steel from the nearby wreckage and throwing it to the side to distract whoever it was shooting at them. The sight of the projectile hitting the steel gave him the chance to jump out of cover and aimed the gun straight at the last place he saw the flash.

"Bang." Lyle muttered while pulling the trigger.

"BANKG!"

=()=

"Damn!" I blinked as I looked at the damage behind me. The rooftop access that I had used as a makeshift protection was reduced to a smoldering rubble. I knew that I was in trouble the moment I took a glimpse at the gun that guy pulled out in front of me; in that brief second, the information came to me and I found myself dashing to the side in time to avoid the white ball of energy that was aimed for my head and ducking for cover when it hit the wall and blew up spectacularly.

I had no time to admire the damage, because I could see the gunslinger aiming again to fire another round. Considering how much of an explosion that was from the distance covered, I had to get closer to stop him using the gun. I immediately jumped off the building in time to avoid the second shot, landing on the rooftop of the next building and started jumping towards the shooter while firing off several swords at him. Despite the severity of the situation, I could not help the corner of my mouth lifting at the challenge ahead of me.

Time to go hunting.

=()=

"Here he comes." Lyle holstered the Desert Eagle and took out both the sword and his other gun as he watched with narrow eyes. "It seems to be one person doing all of this."

"Hmm, that is some serious speed he has. I think he is as fast as you." Creed commented while watching the figure getting closer by the second. "Those projectiles though, he seems to be using swords as makeshift arrows. Is that even possible?"

"One way to find out." Lyle got into a stance only to pause briefly as his eyes focused on the individual coming to him.

'The person from the academy, the one who made the shards react weirdly…' Lyle narrowed his eyes as he focused his attention on him. It seemed that it was not a coincidence that he was at the academy, this was an unknown factor to be dealt with. Lyle leapt forward in time to intercept the red-haired teenager and used his gun to block a strike from a white scimitar.

And thus, the first meeting between the Magus Killer and the Church Slayer began on the battlefield.

=()=

That settled it. My luck stats were definitely E-Rank.

These two fallen exorcists were clearly used to dealing with any type of combat situations, since even my surprise attacks did little to distract them from me. The gunslinger in particular seemed more determined to come after me, most likely to stop me from using my arrows on them. Even as I moved away to make distance, he continued to come after me quickly, ensuring that he was close enough to hit me if possible.

"HAHAHAH! Don't forget about me!" The white-haired individual from before came up on my behind and swung the double-bladed light sword at me. I quickly projected a sword right behind my back to block it, concentrating my attention on the gunslinger who took the opportunity to aim the gun at me. I blocked the shot aimed for my head and aimed Kanshou for the leg, only to be blocked by his shot. I swung Bakuya at his arm only to be blocked by his gun, which he used to push it out of the way before aiming it at my leg. I immediately jumped up to aim a kick for his head, but he quickly caught the foot with the hilt of his sword while switching his aim back to my head. I quickly twisted my position to hit his head before getting back to a stance.

Great, of all the people I could go against, I had to go against someone who uses gun kata as the combat style. That was practically a different version of my fighting style! It was cheating!

"Shirou! Get ready!" Ise's shout was my saving grace as the gunslinger briefly looked to the direction of his voice, giving me the chance to throw both my swords and leapt away to safety.

"He's clear! Let them have it!" The area lit up brightly as light spears filled the sky above us. The two fallen exorcists looked up with widened eyes before the light spears dropped down on them with the fury of heaven.

"BOOM! BKLH! ROAH!"

I quickly got into cover as the first of many spears made contact with the ground and exploded spectacularly in the area. That set off the next few spears and blew up the surrounding trees and the canal nearby. Within seconds, the entire area was getting completely pulverized by the light spears.

"Nice timing." I commented as Ise made his way to me and the explosions continued on for a short while.

"No problem." Ise gave a thumbs up while looking over his cover. "I think we got them, but we better keep this up for a while."

"Mind filling me in on our two guests?" I asked as the others came to our side.

"The gunslinger you were fighting with is Lyle Wallner, the creep with the white-hair is Creed Diskenth. They are here trying to hide from the group of exorcists because they stole some Excalibur Shards from the various churches in their group. Creed is using one of them called Excalibur Transparency to fight us earlier."

"I doubt the sword that guy is holding right now is an Excalibur."

"That man is arrogant in thinking that he did not need the sword to fight us after stealing Mimicry away from us." The blue-haired girl called Xenovia grabbed her sword tightly as she looked at the exploding grounds. "I hate to admit it, but he is good."

"Well with any luck, that should take care of them right?" Ise remarked before pausing at me. "Shirou, why did you just face palmed?"

"… Ise, did you forget my lesson?" I asked in a strained tone.

"Huh?"

"BROORAR!" A sound resembling thunder resounded loudly and momentarily silenced everything else as a red ball of energy shot out of the torrent of light spears and barely grazed Mitelt, surprising her and halting her onslaught. In that moment, I could see the glimmer of a barrier where the exorcists were, and once the spears stopped we could see the gunslinger standing up with the Desert Eagle equipped in his hand.

"… Never say the job is done until you do all the checks." Koneko said flatly.

Yup.

"Whew! Good going Lyle." The one called Creed whistled as he came out of his cover.

"This is a very bad situation. We must leave now." Lyle lowered the Desert Eagle and looked at us while muttering. "All of that should have attracted the other devils in the area."

"I agree, except this is the last barrier we have and I doubt that guy is going to let us go so easily." Creed pointed to me with somewhat dangerous eyes. "I think we just found some interesting people in this town."

"Yes, you have a point." Lyle narrowed his eyes at us. "You know what, I am feeling the need to let loose a little. I am guessing you too want to go crazy?"

"KEKEKE! Finally you are speaking my language, Lyle." Creed let out a scary smirk just as the barrier around them started breaking. "Would you mind if I can kill a few and take the sword from them?"

"Do as you want, but prioritize the sword if you are doing so." Lyle holstered the Desert Eagle and took out a new gun. "I will deal with the latest additions to the group. The others don't seem to have that much battle strength, so you should have no problem."

"Hey I want to fight the strong guy too!" Creed replied in an excited tone. "The others are so weak, I already got Excalibur Mimicry away from them. You should be able to grab the other one in one minute."

"Perhaps." Lyle took out the sword and activated the blade. "For now, let's focus on getting out."

"Sounds like they finished their strategy talk." I remarked as the last bits of the barrier came down.

"Well then, we would need to take out the gunslinger. As long as he is taken out, we should not have to worry about the big gun he has." Ise clenched his fists as he got up. "Let's move now!"

"Wait you guys, stop!" I called out to Koneko, Ise and Saji who ran forward to try and get that weird tentacle attached to Lyle, but they were too open about it and that fellow must have anticipated this as he took out some controller and pressed a button to blow some explosives in the ground.

"What! How did he get them there?" Xenovia yelled out as we watched the devils get blown to the trees nearby.

"Don't you guys get it? He knew that you would target him, he guessed that you would go straight for him." I narrowed my eyes as I looked on. "This was his plan from the start, in case they ever got into a fight with you guys. He is pretty good in his strategies."

"That guy is dead!" The two exorcist girls and Kiba jumped out of their cover and headed straight for Lyle, only to be intercepted by Creed swinging his sword.

"Sorry kiddies, but you guys will have to make do with me." Creed spun the blade by the handle as he talked. "My partner has an appointment with your buddy there."

Great, just what I needed.

I projected my bow and a few swords around my body for ammo before running along to the side, using the floating swords to act as my shield from Lyle's shooting. I grabbed a random sword and twisted its form before letting it loose at Lyle, who immediately grabbed a big wooden plank and threw it at the arrow before firing a round at me. At the same time, the both of us jumped forward and swung our swords in time to hit each other's blades.

"Damn, that guy is moving in the same way as Shirou is!" I overheard Ise's groan from my spot and I could only agree inwardly. This person's fighting style was more mercenary than the other fighters I have met in this world, and perhaps this one could actually grow up to be the Kiritsuguru of this world, and that was a very scary thought.

"Oh my, this is a definite first. Someone is actually keeping Lyle on his toes." Creed remarked while he lazily deflected the attacks by Kiba, Xenovia and Irina like they were kids trying to attack him with sticks. "Now I am interested in having a go at him."

"Don't you dare look down on us?!" Xenovia swung the Excalibur Sword at his head, but Creed merely moved to the side and used his sword to deflect her blade before kicking her.

"You are not getting away so easily, you will tell me where is Galilei Valper!" Kiba snarled as he projected multiple swords and detonated them to catch him off guard, but Creed emerged from the flames unharmed and merely stepped on Kiba's head as a foothold before landing on the ground a few away from them.

"You know what? You guys suck." Creed held up the sword briefly before swinging hard at the ground to break up the soil and scatter the loose dirt to rob them of their sight, giving him the opportunity to rush forward and kick the twin-tailed girl hard, lightly stabbing Kiba at the side and punching the blue-haired girl all at once. Without stopping, he grabbed the girl's hand that was holding the sword and pulled her right in, using the momentum to throw her at Kiba and releasing her grip on the Excalibur Shard.

"HAHA! I'll be taking this!" Creed lightly spun the sword before holding it firmly. "Why don't you kids take a nap?" He turned to look at me with eyes that seemed to resemble the slits of snakes. "I will be having fun with the wizard who can fight a lot better."

Crap.

He dashed forward in a single leap and struck the ground with the sword, creating a huge crack in the ground from which emitted miniature explosions that scattered rubble all over the area and blocking my view. Using the distraction Creed came forward to swing the sword right at my abdomen. Cursing my lack of vision, I barely had enough time to move Bakuya into position so as to block the sword and…

'CLANK!'

"Thump~ Bump!"

That odd feeling again, and this time the Excalibur Sword started to glow very brightly at the contact of Bakuya. I did not dwell on it too long, as the sword started to cut through my blade easily. I leapt back in time to avoid a cut that could have bifurcated me like my sword.

"Oh, what's this?" Creed lifted the Excalibur Sword with a curious expression. "It seems to be very happy for some reason, I guess that it is overjoyed to have a real opponent rather than these kids." He aimed the point at me with a rather disturbing smile. "Let's have some fun knowing each other then."

'I hate you.'

I started projecting multiple swords to block if not deflect his strikes, but his blade kept making short work of my blades and cut them like a hot knife through butter. Damn it, none of my usual swords would be able to handle it, but I do not want to bring out the big guns just yet. I needed a sword that could handle the destructive power of that blade, I needed either a holy sword or a demonic sword to do that, I would need…

Ah, there was one.

"Trace On."

The outline of the sword I had in mind appeared in my hand, then in a brief flash of gold, the sword of Turpin materialized to aid me in my fight. Having not been used for quite some time and in the presence of another holy sword, the sword's etched characters glowed radiantly in anticipation of a good fight.

"Let's go, Almace." This time I took the initiative to attack first and swung the blade at the Excalibur Sword, smiling at the satisfying sound of the sword holding its own against the enemy and pushing him back without any effort. I pushed forward with my attacks and was able to pick up speed and put more pressure on him.

"HAHAHAH! All right! Now this is a fight!" Creed gleefully let out a scary laugh and smile as he exchanged blows with me. "How long has it been since I last had such a good opponent?! All the others back home are so lame!"

Great, I think I just found Regeis's long-lost brother from another mother.

"Well then, try this!" He raised the sword and swung it down with full strength, but instead of it hitting the ground, it shot out bullets of holy energy like a shot cut that covered the area.

"Rho Aias!" I called out the shield in time to block the shots in time, before firing off a projected sword at him. He dodged while swinging the sword again to fire off another volley of shots, this time more powerful than the earlier volley as this one started to make cracks in the first layer of the shield.

"Shirou! Behind you!"

"BANG! CLANK!"

At the sound of Ise's shout, I quickly another shield behind me in time to block off a shot fired by Lyle, who took that moment to rush forward and aimed the sword past the edge and at my legs.

"Eat this!" A light spear intercepted his sword at the last second, deflecting his attack and barely cutting the cloth of my trousers. Lyle looked up to find Mitelt preparing to throw another spear at him. He leapt away from me and continued to make some distance, no doubt to get a shot at her with that Desert Eagle once he got to a safe spot.

Like I was going to let him do that.

"Trace bullet, continuous fire!" I projected a few swords and shot them at him, forcing him to dodge my swords and to a further distance, right where I want him to be. "Now!"

"EI~" Koneko jumped out of her cover and swung a torn piece of iron bar straight into him, making his body contort unusually and yelp in pain. Continuing the motion, she made one full round before stopping, letting the centrifugal force take over and sent him flying into some trees.

"All right! One down!" Saji let out a victory cry as he came out of his cover.

"Oryahh~ I hoped you haven't forgotten about me." Creed raised his sword again, flipped it to hold the handle in both hands, before stabbing it into the ground. "Try this! Desperado Bomber!"

A fissure appeared from the point where he stabbed the sword and extended to our side, branching out to us before a light emitted from the cracks and small explosions erupted from the cracks.

"GARH!" The devils in the group let out a yell as their skin started to turn red, smoked and even burst into blisters at areas most exposed to the light, while the exorcists got thrown off their feet and hit the ground hard.

"I don't want any interruptions, so can you guys just die?" Creed took up the sword and swung it again to let loose another volley of holy energy right at the others. I cursed lightly as I abandoned Rho Aias and rushed forward to deflect the shots aimed at the devils. I made it in time to project a wall of swords to shield them before deflecting most of the rounds headed my way, but there were too many to take out and I ended up taking a couple to the legs, forcing my legs to buckle under the pain.

"OHH~ Chance!" Creed let out a gleeful smile as he rushed forward to attack me. I projected a few more swords to shoot at him, but he nimbly dodge them without trouble and in no time got into my area.

"Shirou!" Ise yelled as he tried to get through to me.

"Now you are mine!" Creed swung down the Excalibur Sword right at me, and for a brief moment, I saw Saber's face. Then…

"Thump~ Bump!"

"AHAAHHH!"

Creed let out a scream as the hand holding the sword burst into flames, forcing him to release it and make his way to the river to put out the fire. The freed sword flew through the air and embedded itself deeply into a nearby chunk of rock. I quickly looked around but saw no one who could have done that attack. And that odd feeling from before…

Wait, don't tell me!

"The hell, man?! What the fuck is wrong with that sword?!" Creed cursed as he glared at the sword and me. "The heck did you do?!"

That I would like to know. I quickly took a glance at the sword that was standing upright in the rock, looking very out of place in the entire area. I wasn't too sure about it, but I think the sword must have reacted badly to the manner Creed was using it and it ended up rejecting him in some way.

"BOOM!" My thoughts got interrupted when a bomb was thrown into our area and smoke spewed out of it and blocked all our visions.

"Creed, fall back now!" Lyle called out as he came out of his cover and grabbed Creed by the arm, pulling him along to where the sword was. He grabbed the handle and pulled hard only to lose his balance from the weight of the rock. He tried once more to get the same result, took one look at me and the others getting back to their feet, before releasing his grip on the sword and putting his hand into a pocket.

"Wait a minute, Lyle! Are you abandoning Excalibur Destruction to these brats?!" Creed's eyes were bulging as he demanded an answer. "Are we really running from these fools?!"

"Be grateful that we even got an Excalibur Shard from this fight and protected the one we had." Lyle replied back sharply as he took a paper charm out and use his foot to draw a small circle. "All this extra fighting got us nowhere, and we are getting a lot of unwanted attention. The sword does not want to be removed from its place and you are injured. I will not be the one to explain why you ended up in a body bag." He placed the charm in the circle and activated it, creating lines of light on the ground that lengthened and twisted around to form a bigger circle.

"Like hell you will leave in one piece!"

"Kiba, stop!" I yelled at the white-haired knight who went past me and headed straight for the fallen exorcists.

"Tell me where is Galilei Valper now!" Kiba yelled out in frustration as he came straight at Lyle and swung the sword at him.

"Stab!"

"You have good skills, but that temper has dulled your edge." Lyle calmly stated that fact as Kiba staggered forward with a small knife in each of his limbs and his abdomen, causing him to cough out blood and fall forward into Creed's arms. "We are leaving now." He paused while looking at me with an indescribable expression. "Until we meet next time."

And with that, the two disappeared with Kiba in their clutches and us staring at the spot for a while. Then the silence got broken by Ise.

"What the heck?! The damn handsome got himself caught! And we barely survived this shit!" Ise punched the ground with Boosted Gear in frustration. "Those guys practically kicked our asses!"

"I am very angry." Koneko muttered softly with her blank expression. "Yuuto Senpai got captured, I am very angry."

"Damn, I will not forget this humiliation!" Xenovia growled her answer out as she supported Irina.

"We can worry about your wounded egos later. Right now we got bigger problems." I released my projections and relaxed my body. "We need to get Kiba back, after that we can concentrate on their plans, whatever they are. The idiot got himself hot and bothered and thus captured. Above all else, if you want to keep your operation secret, you should not get the hot-headed ones that could get the innocent bystanders involved."

"Involved in what exactly?" The voice and tone evident in it made my hand rest on my face as I turned to find a glowering Sona Sitri, Rias Gremory and that other exorcist woman looking at the others that were wearing expressions of fears so comical it almost made my headache go away. I looked back to the spot where I last saw the two fallen exorcists and recalled the look on the gunslinger.

That was definitely not the last time I would see that guy.

Part 6

"Okay, can someone explain to me, what is really going on?" I directed that question at Ise with a glare that I have managed to create after my time with Saber and Rin. It was not as effective as theirs, but it got the intended effect, as Ise started to squirm under the pressure of my gaze and after a while, buckled into submission.

"The church wanted to find and take back the stolen Excalibur blades, otherwise destroy them to ensure that the enemy does not have them. Kiba also wants to destroy the blades to have his revenge for his time being experimented at the church. So I figured that we can work together on this while ensuring that Buchou does not know about it and gets into trouble." Ise went into a bit of a panic as he said this while looking at the master in question who has a very disturbing smile on her face.

"Then how did the others get into this mess?"

"…I just want to help Yuuto-senpai." Koneko said it with an expression that would make any men around her beat up anyone else who dared to make her cry.

"I am here because Hyoudou dragged me into this mess." Saji directed his glare at Ise while lightly cradling his butt, likely due to the punishment that Sona had inflicted on him, whatever that was.

"The Red Dragon User had suggested the plan and I deemed it a probable solution to both of our problems." Xenovia replied as she crossed her arms. "Of course, due to the high possibilities of failure, we did not mention this to Sister Griselda." Xenovia shuddered slightly as said person smiled at her in a manner that would make Rin proud.

"I am tagging along since it is Ise-kun." The girl called Irina replied cheerfully as she munched on one of my emergency creations. She seemed to like the salty ones more, I would need to stock up on water then.

Great, now I was just running away from reality.

We were currently in one of the old warehouses by the canal, roughly a few miles away from the Academy. This was one of the few places I had designated as one of my safe-houses and one I was reluctant to show, but the situation was something which we could not ignore, and considering the amount of mess we made and the fact that Rias and Sona were reluctant to let the exorcists back into the academy meant that I have to bring them here to ensure that we were safe.

I would need to find a new safe house.

After that, it was a matter of them filling me in on the situation and understanding the enemy. Quite frankly I was quite disturbed about Kiba's past, but at the same time I could not help but feel irritated that Kiba had ignored my teachings from the training camp and rushed headlong into the fight without considering the innocent bystanders around.

I was getting too old for this.

"Young man." I directed my attention to the sole adult around here, aside from me at least. Even in this situation, I had to admit she was a very beautiful woman who could possibly pass as a model or an actress. Despite being dressed very modestly compared to those girls, the clothes hugging her shapely figure left little imagination to any guy who laid their eyes on her. I could only imagine how some of the more hormonal males in the academy would react to her.

I don't need to look at Ise to get the idea.

"Young man, thank you for your assistance." The woman called Griselda bowed her head towards me.

"It is fine, madam." I bowed my head while answering back. "I was in the area when they showed up, so I ended up getting dragged into it."

"Clearly, some lessons would need to be reinforced." Griselda turned to flash a smile at Xenovia and Irina who cringed fearfully and moved their bodies backwards. "I believe that I left very specific instructions that no one was supposed to get dragged into any operation and that you should at least ensure you are nowhere innocent bystanders. Not only did you fail to do that, you got carried away and got caught up in the enemies' pace, and you did some significant damage to the surroundings that it was a miracle no innocent lives got hurt."

"Yes, that's right. God is with us!" Xenovia tried to make a comeback and sat proudly with her head up high. "He is able to help us in our mission to deliver justice!"

"Yeah right." I turned to the Fallen Angel who snorted and looked away, no doubt sensing the irony of the exorcist praising the actions of a god not among the living anymore. "More like sheer dumb luck."

"What did you say?" Xenovia directed her head at Mitelt who merely stuck out her tongue.

"The former angel has a point. You girls were just lucky." Griselda crushed Xenovia's confidence mercilessly. "There is no divine intervention during your fight with Lyle Wallner and Creed Diskenth, you let yourself get pulled by the nose and clearly you lacked the ability to restrain yourself when it comes to dealing out attacks. If anything, it was probably Lyle Wallner who considered the possibility of civilians nearby and so moved the fight elsewhere. It is shameful that one of the enemies cared more for innocent lives than my own students." I could not help but let out a small smirk at the manner she handled the two exorcists so easily.

"Somebody got whipped~" A slightly mischievous tone was evident in Mitelt's words as she purposely whistled while looking away with Xenovia and Irina glaring at her with slightly tearful eyes.

"By the way, I understand if everyone is busy with everything else." Sona pointed with her finger. "But shouldn't you try to do something about that?" We looked at the object in question, then as one, let out a tired sigh.

Due to the fight taking place in a residential area, we had to vacate the area quickly with one big issue: Excalibur Destruction being stuck in the boulder. At least with Rias's and Sona's help, the area was sealed off with a barrier long enough for them to teleport the boulder to the spot I indicated. Then it was just a matter of transporting it to my hiding spot with a levitation spell and getting it out right?

Root be damned wrong.

The sword was particularly resistant to being pulled or removed from the stone in any way. Trying to blast the boulder did not help whatsoever as it seemed to be protected by some holy energy that was resistant to even Rias's Destructive Power or Sona's water attacks. Even now the sword was just sitting there in the boulder, the light glow seemingly taunting the rest of us for being unable to remove it.

It was in essence 'The Sword in the Stone.' Oh the irony.

"Yeah well, nothing we can do about it." I remarked as I stretched my arms. "This damn sword doesn't want to be let out of the rock, so for the time being we have to leave it."

"Ha~ honestly there are way too many things going on at once." Ise scratched his head in frustration. "And on top of all that, the damn handsome decides to go after those guys and disappear on us!"

"Kiba is getting too agitated by them. I can only say that he is getting blinded by his thirst for revenge. We may have to prepare for the worst and assume that he is dead or MIA for the moment." I folded up my arms as I said that.

"Emiya-kun, I would prefer you don't think that way." Rias directed her gaze while her scent seemed to have intensified greatly. "Yuuto-kun would never be beaten by those people."

"Princess Gremory, despite your faith in your knight, I believe the boy here has a better sense for fighting than you." Griselda crushed Rias's comments easily. "He might have a chance if he were of sounder mind, but considering his erratic behavior, it would be a little naïve to believe he can still function properly."

"At the very least, they might hold him hostage to deprive us of our fighting strength while trying to extract information from him. That would be the second best scenario for us, since the possibility of him escaping would be low." I continued on with my explanation without caring too much about Rias's expression. "You may not like hearing this, but if what I was told is true, Kiba got his ass kicked by the two girls here despite having less fighting experience than him and somewhat average in their handling with the Excalibur Shards. The two fallen exorcists we fought are on a different level, since one was able to hold back Kiba and those two easily while the other played cleanup and support for the others. Despite giving Creed an injury, it hardly impeded them and the person called Lyle seems to be the most level-headed and the one who calls the shots."

"Hmm…" Ise folded his arms and closed his eyes thoughtfully. "You know, I thought about this after fighting that Lyle fellow, but…" He looked at me for a moment before continuing. "Somehow, he reminds me of you Shirou."

"Me?" I blinked at Ise's comments.

"I am not sure, but the manner he fights, the fighting style he uses, the way he avoids the residential areas, it all reminds me of your fighting behavior for some reason, if you switch swords with guns that is." Ise titled his head while scratching his cheek. I pursed my lips at his observation while considering the meaning behind it. There was a bit of truth behind those words now that I thought about it; Lyle did remind me of myself at some points of the fight, and the fact that he prioritized the collection of the swords over needless fighting was something I could appreciate.

"Enough of that, I want my sword out now." Xenovia tapped her foot impatiently.

"Too bad 'princess', but that sword is not going anywhere." Mitelt butted in at this point with a slightly miffed expression. "You will have to make do without it."

"Like I would take the words of a Fallen Angel and be satisfied." Xenovia narrowed her eyes while balling her hands into fists. "But then again, someone who left Grigori to join up with the devils would care less since you are a traitor anywhere else."

"Care to say that again to my face, power idiot?!" Mitelt clenched her own fists as she looked defiantly at the girl who towered over her by at least a head. "Maybe your brain could use a little jolting!"

"CHING!" A few spears appeared as one between the two fuming girls. Man, I was really liking [Hell's Trident] big time.

"As much as any of us here would like to see a throw-down between the two of you, let's not do it right now." I remarked while the spears glowed a menacing red to reflect what I was feeling at the moment. Xenovia and Mitelt gave each other one last glare before backing off slowly.

"Thank you for that." Griselda bowed her head again. "That said though, the Sitri Princess and Xenovia have a point. We will need to have that sword out soon if only to stand a chance against the other shards they have in their possession."

"Good luck with that. I mean, we tried pulling the sword, breaking the blade, and even tried to destroy the boulder. So how else can you get the sword out?" I asked while shrugging.

"True, WE did that…" Griselda emphasized the word while looking at me. The sudden silence made me turn my head to find the others looking at me with a certain expression, and it was a moment later I realized the meaning.

"No way, not happening."

"The exorcists tried to pull the sword out, we tried to destroy the rock with some of our stronger attacks. Even Ise tried to pull it out with the Boosted Gear and Akeno tried to blow it up with her lightning. For your part, you have tried to destroy the rock, but you did not use a lot of firepower, and you did not pull it out." Rias remarked with the others nodding.

"Yeah, but that is because we might need the sword later for leverage or something." I replied as I unintentionally took a step back.

"But we do need to get it out, and you are the only other human around, so just try to pull it out then." Xenovia said with an impatient tone.

"Yeah, but the sword is stuck in tightly."

"Shirou Emiya, right? You are the lone wizard who has supposedly trained the Gremory group into fighting, and the one who has taken out Regeis Cornelius, the Rogue Devil who has killed many of the churches' top fighting strengths. The proof comes from the Sacred Gear you are currently using." Griselda remarked as she looked at me while ignoring the surprised faces of the devils around her for knowing that supposedly private information. "You have an unusual ability to create swords, and given what I have read up, they seemed to accept you unconditionally."

"I'm sure it is just coincidence." A hint of panic was now evident in my voice.

"No it is not." Griselda countered bluntly. "At first I thought the Excalibur Shards may have been attracted by the devils around them and got excited, thus attacking you by accident. Then Xenovia theorized that the shards may be attracted to each other since this would be the first time in many years that they were brought together into one spot. But seeing their behavior around you, I can safely say that all that was due to them reacting to someone who they believed could wield them without hesitation. Someone who could possibly bring out their true potential. So now for the real reason, why won't you try pulling out the sword?"

"Because I don't want to be near that sword!" I lost my temper and yelled out suddenly. An uncomfortable silence hung in the air as I took a few quick breaths to control myself. "I can't be near it, or rather I should not be near it."

"Can't, shouldn't, or perhaps you don't want to?" Griselda narrowed her eyes at me. "Right now, all the shards in this town are reacting to you specifically in a manner that we know that they are accepting you as their rightful user, something that has not happened since King Arthur's time. This is an honor, so why won't you want it?"

Damn this lady, you really want to know why?

"I'm not worthy." I looked at the blade while having a very heavy heart. "I know I am not."

That was the feeling I got. The swords may have been broken, their power may have been diminished from the alchemy process and time, their purpose having been regulated to little more than a glorified door-stopper. Hell, they were not even in the same league as some of my other lower-grade projections, let alone Saber's Caliburn or Excalibur.

But the history and feel were there. They were there when King Arthur took up arms, they were there to help him through his darkest times, they were there to help him with his kingdom, they were there to share his happiness with his knights, and they wept when they broke at the moment he needed them the most, leading to his death.

They wanted their king back, and I am not that person. Even if this was not Saber's Excalibur, both of them were something that was way off my worthiness. A part of me actually feared touching Saber's Excalibur, and it was the same with this world's version. I was not worthy to wield any of them.

"I do not know why you are apprehensive about this, but I ask that you at least try it." Griselda kept a steady gaze on me as she said. "If you can't pull it out, it is fine, it just means we would need to change our fighting style without the sword."

"Emiya-kun, this may be a bit much to ask you, considering all that had happened for the past couple of days. But as much as I hate to admit it, we might need the Excalibur Shard to help us out in this fight." Sona sighed as she adjusted her glasses. "I know that you can probably replicate the blade's abilities with your mage-craft, but they may not be able to handle the swords as well as you may be able to. The exorcist in particular might be more partial to the real sword, so it would be best to get it out if possible." I looked at her for a moment before looking at the others, their expressions somewhat hitting me at my sore points of my heart, before turning my attention to Excalibur Destruction. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, held it for a few seconds before letting it out slowly.

Well, let's give it a try.

Slowly I made my way to the boulder, stopping roughly one feet away, noting with some discomfort how the sword started to glow somewhat enthusiastically when I got near it and the hard thumping on my chest that felt like a sledgehammer was hitting at me. I reluctantly raised my hand to grab the handle, hoping that the sword would reject me at the last moment. That hope became moot when the sword shone brightly with a warm light and cracks started appearing on the boulder where the sword was stabbed through. I gave it a light tug and the sword started to slide out easily from the boulder, the cracks spreading across the entire boulder and with a final pull, the boulder completely fell apart, leaving the sword firmly in my hand as I raised it to my eye level.

"Oh my~" I barely heard Akeno's words as my attention was directed at the sword, which was now showing signs of repairing itself and the marks of its past battles disappearing quickly. Then with another bright flash, the sword started to change its shape before me. It started to become smaller, its guard looking less like battle axes and more proper of a sword, the decorations becoming a bit more distinct, the blade becoming slimmer, and the overall shape becoming grander…

The sword starting to resemble more like Saber's Excalibur…

[Make us whole.]

"CLANG!"

A loud metallic sound echoed in the safe house as I released my grip and let the sword hit the ground, pausing midway in its transformation before visibly regressing back to its previous form.

"I am not worthy to wield Excalibur." I looked away from the blade and everyone else. "Neither his or Saber's" Before anyone could stop me, I made my way out of the building and into the forest to blow off some steam.

I was really getting too old for this.

=()=

"…"

Xenovia walked slowly to her sword and bent down to grab the handle, noting that the sword had already returned to its earlier form and the glow seemed to stop almost instantaneously once she laid her hand on it. With a light grunt, she hefted the sword to inspect it for any damage. Oddly enough, it seemed to have repaired itself miraculously and ended up looking brand new rather than the worn out state she had become accustomed to.

And it was because of that wizard. But the reaction the sword gave towards him was a lot more energetic and almost fanatic loyalty, like it saw something in him that it preferred compared to all the users before him.

Well, at least except the king of Britain…

"Xenovia." A word from Griselda broke her thoughts and brought her attention back to the warrior who had the sternest expression she has seen to date. "That train of thoughts is a little dangerous."

"Ah! I am sorry, I did not mean to…" Xenovia bowed her head quickly only to have Griselda put her hand up.

"For the time being, please ensure you do not lose the sword. And also…" Griselda paused as she watched some of the devils and the fallen angel go after the human. "It is best to have Shirou Emiya under our watch."

"Sister Griselda?" Irina tilted her head curiously.

"As I said earlier, it is a safe bet to say that the shards are all reacting to the boy, which also includes the ones held by Galilei and the exorcists. That means there is a high possibility that he would have come to the same conclusion as us and would likely come after the boy for two reasons." Griselda tightened her grip on her sword.

"What two reasons would that be?" Xenovia asked as she bundled her sword up.

"Considering Lyle Wallner is with them, the first reason would be to silence Shrou Emiya. Lyle would want to make sure that we can't find them by using the boy as a natural detector for the shards, and at the same time, he would probably guess their behavior as one trying to get back to him. He would want to ensure they can still hold on to the shards."

"And the second reason?" Irina got up from her position as she asked.

"… Galilei." Griselda spat the name out like it was venom on her mouth. It only took a moment for the other two to get her meaning.

"Oh no…"

"Chances are good that Galilei would understand the swords' actions before us and is now trying to find Shirou Emiya. He may be a heretic, but Shirou Emiya is also someone helping us to fight Galilei and at the same time, a possible ally in the future." Griselda looked at Excalibur Destruction with a serious gaze. "It is presumptuous of me to say this, but for now, the shards are resonating with Shirou Emiya in ways we cannot understand. I believe this is a sign for us to keep an eye on him, he must be protected at all costs." Irina and Xenovia nodded as one with serious expressions.

Shirou Emiya. They would need to keep a close eye on him.

=()=

"Well I would like to say that I am pleased that we got another Excalibur Shard in our hands, but I am very disappointed that you somehow managed to lose Excalibur Destruction shortly after attaining it by having butter fingers at the last moment." Galilei said it with a very disapproving tone evident in his words.

"Come on, it wasn't my fault!" Creed said as he took the ointment and rubbed it on his injured hand. "The damn sword just acted up for no reason and burnt me! After that we could not get the damn blade out of the rock, so we had no choice but to abandon it!"

"I concur." Lyle bowed his head as he took up the explanation. "The sword's behavior became too unpredictable for us to handle, and with the exorcists, the devils and the magician in the fight, we had no choice but to retreat and avoid cutting more losses."

"Hmm…. If Lyle puts it that way, I guess I will be understanding. At least we have the fifth shard in our possession." Galilei took the sword in question and moved to the small where the others were resting.

"TCH! It is all because of that stupid magician! When I get my hands on him, I will enjoy cutting off his limbs!" Creed cursed as he bandaged his hand as best as he could. Lyle sighed as he took stock of the situation at hand.

They were in an old service building that was roughly a few blocks away from the hotel. Lyle designated it as one of their emergency safe-houses in the event their hotel got compromised, and he made sure to place enough emergency supplies and traps in the event they needed it. Now they were using it to their hearts' content, though not in the manner he would have expected.

"I keep hearing you talk about this magician. Is he any good?" Galilei asked as he secured their items.

"As far as I can tell, he is a resident of this town." Lyle took out a notebook and flipped to the page he wanted. "His name is Shirou Emiya, a magician at the same academy as the devils. He was the human I told you about earlier that made the swords react oddly." At hearing the name, Galilei paused in his motions and turned his head slowly.

"Did you say 'Shirou Emiya'?" Galilei asked with a slightly curious expression on his face.

"Yes, Lord Galilei. Do you know him?" Lyle tilted his head slightly.

"Know him? Not personally, but I have heard of him. There has been some chatter recently for the past few weeks regarding a certain magician who had trained the Gremory group to deal with the Phenex Team, and took out a high-bounty Rogue Devil. That person's name happens to be the same one that you mentioned." Galilei scratched his chin lightly while frowning in his thoughts. "I wonder if this is what the informant meant by a certain someone."

"I will need to run through that information with you later, but at least we have identified the source of the swords' unusual behavior. Shirou Emiya seems to have an affinity with the sword arts, both the fighting and magical types." Lyle looked at the collected swords. "Also considering what we have learned, perhaps this might be useful to us." He placed his hand into one of the pockets, rummaged a little before pulling out a small bundle of cloth. "I collected a few pieces of his weapons before we escaped, I figured you might be interested to study them."

"Oh~ good job, Lyle." Creed raised an eyebrow as Galilei took said shards and studied them with a careful eye. "How interesting, each one of these shards seemed to have attributes of holy, demonic…" His eyes went wide as he picked up one of the bigger shards. "I don't believe it, this one contains both attributes! Not to mention each one seems to have a separate ability relating to the elements and concepts!"

"Some of those shards came from the projectiles he used during the fight. Oddly enough he made them by transforming the swords he had into arrows." Lyle said as he pointed to each one of the shards. "This is just guesswork, but the weapons he used seemed to be created from a type of magic art that uses weaponry as the basis of the fighting style, and the ability to transform them into arrows seemed to be a secondary factor for that person."

"Hmm… A type of magic arts that allows one to create swords of particular attributes. Interesting…" Galilei scrutinized each shard with renewed interest. "If only I have a whole specimen to examine."

"Well, there is also this weird thing." Creed reached into his coat and brought out a white scimitar with a symbol of Chinese Balance around the scabbard. "I managed to grab this from that bastard, I am hoping to use this to track that guy down. Think you can get something from this?"

"Nice work, Creed." Galilei took the sword and surveyed it for a short while before taking in a sharp breath. "This sword, it does not have any of the usual attributes, but this craftsmanship is basically divine! It is a masterpiece!"

"That's quite a high praise from you." Lyle blinked as he leaned over to look at the sword. He had to admit, the sword in question was certainly something that could be considered as the perfect blade ever made. Even after clashing with his sword, the blade maintained that wonderful shine and there were no visible marks of battles on it.

"The steel has been tempered in such a manner that no amount of force would be able to break it unless you are facing off a divine beast, and this sharpness could only be achieved through painstaking hours of smiting." Galilei turned it over his hand as he scrutinized each corner of the sword. A soft metallic sound directed their attention to the side of the sword, where one of the black shards got stuck to it. Galilei took a finger and tried to pry it off to no avail.

"How intriguing. This one seems to have magnetism as the basis of its construction." Galilei looked on with excitement, only to yelp with surprise when the sword started to glow before disappearing into a cloud of gold dust. He turned his head to find the same was happening to the shards that were collected. "What is happening?"

"It seems that their construction has a time limit of sorts." Lyle looked on with an analytical gaze. "During our fight, some of his weapons disappeared in the same manner before he reconstructs them. Perhaps the amount of damage induced would affect the time it takes for them to hold their form before disappearing."

"Shirou Emiya, what an intriguing individual." Galilei let out a smile that did not reach his crazy eyes. "I would like to meet him very soon."

"Now that is settled." Creed went to the closet door next to him and opened it to have a white-haired boy tied up and gagged dropped to the floor unceremoniously. "What should we do about this one?"

"A devil? Why did you guys bring him here?" Galilei looked at Kiba who was glaring at him.

"He was following us for quite some time. We were planning to kill him, but it seems he knows you quite a fair bit." Creed kicked Kiba in the stomach with a dull expression. "He kept demanding where you were, so we decided to take him along for the journey."

"His name is Kiba Yuuto. Based on my research, he is the knight of the Gremory." Lyle added in his bit. "For whatever reason, he seems to have a grudge regarding holy swords, thus he kept coming after us."

"Hmm…" Galilei bent down to look at Kiba. "This one has the signs of having participated in my experiments before, but I am not sure if I know him specifically."

"Right then, let's ask him." Creed bent down and ripped the tape off the boy's mouth without bothering to control his strength. "Mind telling us how you know him specifically?"

"Galilei Valper! So you are here, now I can get my revenge on you!" Kiba immediately yelled out as he tried to free his hands.

"Yeah, basically he is a broken record. Keeps yapping about he would get his revenge on you and his comrades, whatever that means." Creed shrugged with a bored tone.

"GRRR!" Kiba struggled a bit more before blurting out in frustration. "Why isn't [Sword Birth] working?!"

"Don't bother." Galilei motioned his hand towards Lyle. "Lyle had informed me about possible Sacred Gear users in the area, so I have created this system that allows me to cancel them out. Granted it is not strong enough against Longinus and mid-tier types, but it proves to be sufficient against other low-tier Sacred Gears, and it is extremely effective against those with demonic attributes like yours it seems."

"Now that is taken care of…" Galilei took out a vial of clear liquid and moved towards Kiba. "The fact that you know me and you bore the signs of my experiments means that you were once one of the test samples from my research, and that we had come face to face at some point. There are some ways to find out." Galilei turned to Creed. "Would you give me a hand?"

"Sure." Creed grabbed Kiba by the hair and lifted his head slightly before slamming it hard into the ground, knocking Kiba out for a short while and stopping his movements. Galilei opened the bottle before pulling the collar of Kiba's clothes and pouring a few drops on the back of his neck.

"AAAAHHHHH!" Kiba yelled and started to trash about on the floor as the scent of burnt flesh filled the area. Creed went to grab Kiba by the shoulders and slammed his head against the ground again to stop him moving so that Galilei could inspect his neck. Right where he poured the liquid, the skin seemed to have been burnt slightly and dark numerals appeared on it with blood oozing from the wounds.

"Ah! Now I remember you." Galilei flashed a scary smile at Kiba who panted hard at the pain. "Subject number 3026, one of the last batches of test samples I had at the old research facilities. You were the one who escaped the gas chambers with help from your other friends. You were rather lackluster compared to the others, but I had guessed that you may have a Sacred Gear inside considering some of the techniques used for the experiments did not work on you like it did for the rest. To think it was the gear that specializes on creating demonic blades. My, oh my, you really are a hopeless heretic."

"I could care less of what you believe! I will kill you Galilei!" Kiba snarled as he struggled against his bindings. "I won't need [Sword Birth] to tear your limbs off!"

"Oh my, so feisty for such a young lad." Galilei chuckled darkly as he scratched his chin.

"Well then, now that your reunion is done." Creed raised his sword and aimed it at Kiba's neck. "Time to say goodbye to this world."

"Wait just a minute." The two fallen exorcists turned their heads to find Galilei with one of his maniacal smiles. "I just so happened to need a test subject for one aspect of the Holy Sword Project that I never got a chance to try out."

"Oh~ what would that be?" Creed flashed a crazy smile of his own while Lyle looked on with a disturbed frown.

"As our friend here can attest, I have quite a few of my test subjects reincarnated into devils or vampires, and it has intrigued me how some are able to withstand the holy effects induced by the church and other holy relics." Galilei answered as he looked at Kiba with an eye that could only be described as insane. "I have tried to secure some of them, but they died rather quickly, mostly due to suicides while the remainder just burned away from the experiments. I finally got an idea to work around those issues, but I did not get to since the church got word of my work and went to shut it down."

"Like hell I will participate in your experiments! I would rather be dead!" Kiba struggled more vigorously as he shot a venomous glare.

"Oh don't worry." Galilei's smile now resembled something that should belong to a monster. "When I'm done with you, you will be wishing for it."

With that, he went to the table again and rummaged into his bag for a while before pulling out a small box, to which he opened the lid to reveal an unsettlingly object that looked like a silver spider with an abnormally big body and small legs.

"I got this little trinket from my informant during our last discussion. This is based off a prototype I made for the church a few years back and perfected for the battlefield. The idea is to help fighters achieve their maximum potential by removing emotions and the mental limiters. However there have been a few 'side-effects'." Galilei lifted it gently from the box and admired it, just as it started to twitch somewhat sporadically. "Creed, if you would be so kind…"

"No problem, old man." Creed grabbed Kiba by the head and dragged him to one of the chairs closest to them, lifting him roughly and throwing him on it, grabbing a rope and securing him further to avoid any more movement.

"The troublesome thing about this trinket is that it does more than just remove emotions, it takes away everything that makes a person 'human', such as desires, memories and other smaller factors. Essentially it makes them into a little more than mindless puppets." Galilei continued talking like he was commenting on the weather as he made his way to Kiba. "The church publically condemned the practice, but many of the higher-ups used this on quite a number of devotees to build up an army to fight against the devils or each other. Their effectiveness was amplified by the blind beliefs that were left in them, and they were ruthless in their hunting of devils."

"Of course, when Pope Francis came into service, he immediately abolished many of the practices and saw fit to dismiss all who used the devotees as such. He dares to open the church to heretics and poison our good blood while destroying much of our life's work!" Galilei crushed the box in his hand as he seethed with anger. "That man does not understand the blood and sweat I have placed into that research!"

"Hmph! Seems like the pope has better sense than you." Kiba smirked at Galilei. "At least he knows about the type of trash in his church."

"Well, no matter." Galilei recovered quickly and flashed his smile again. "At least now that I have left the church, I can afford to continue my research unhindered, and this will be the birth place of my greatest achievement yet." He turned to Creed with a very nasty smirk on his face. "Let's get started." Creed nodded and grabbed Kiba's hair again to push his head down, while using his other hand to pull the collar down to expose his neck.

"If you think that I will follow your orders, you can forget it! You will not make me!" Kiba spat his words out as he tried to free his head.

"Oh by all means, resist more." Galilei gave one more smile at him that sent chills down Kiba's and Lyle's spines. "It will make this more meaningful." Galilei brought the spider closer to Kiba's neck, pausing just a few inches away while holding it tightly. The spider seemed to pause for a moment, then just as quickly, extended one of its legs and pierced Kiba's skin.

"GAARRRHHHH!" Kiba screamed as the pain shot through his entire body as though he had acid poured through his nerves. A second stab made it feel that fire had invaded his head and was cooking his brain.

'No, I will not give in!'

'A memory of a boy playing sticks with others his age broke like glass…'

"STAB!"

'I will not forgive or forget!'

'A memory of the boy stuck in the gas chambers as many around him cry in despair shattered into pieces…'

"STAB!"

'My fallen comrades!'

'The faces of children seemingly familiar to him distorted and burned away…'

"STAB!"

'My teacher…'

'A memory of a man teaching the boy shattered into dusts…'

"STAB!"

'The ORC…'

'Faces of people he felt he knew, but just could not remember…'

"STAB!"

'Ise…'

'A memory of some student running away from a group girls faded into oblivion…'

"STAB!"

'Buchou…'

'The smile of a red-haired beauty became distorted and vanished into darkness…'

"STAB!"

"Lyle, I would like you to go and investigate the others." Galilei let Creed take over the procedure and directed his attention at the other exorcist while ignoring the screams made by the devil. "In particular, I would like to know more about this magician. He is the unknown element in this operation and I would prefer that his skillset can be countered soon."

"What of Kiba Yuuto?" Lyle turned to the devil in question with a troubled expression.

"You need not concern yourself with him." Galilei's tone now held a certain edge in his tone. "Right now, we need to speed up our operation. Unnecessary emotions cloud your judgement and will endanger the mission. You do not want to fail your mission right?" He paused for a moment before leaning in and muttering a few words to him. "You do not want to make the same mistake like that time with that girl, right?"

"!" Lyle seemed to have stopped breathing for a moment before closing his eyes and taking a few quick breaths to steady himself. His expression changed to one that was totally emotionless, and when he opened his eyes, they seemed to have sunken into the darkness of his soul, though there was a hint of a smothering flame to suggest that he did not appreciate Galilei using those words.

"Understood, my lord." Lyle replied in a monotonous tone that seemed almost empty of any emotions whatsoever.

"Good. Get to it then." Galilei made his way to the table. "I will need to prep for this experiment. Oh I get the shivers thinking of the results I can get from this!"

Lyle wordlessly grabbed his coat and mask before making his way to the door. He paused for a moment to look back at Kiba before heading outside.

Normally he would not care, but for this Lyle would make an exception and prayed that they finished their task quickly, if only to spare the devil the treatment that was to come later.

"AAAAHHHHHHHH!"

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Current Chapter Noble Phantasm:

Almace - Sword of Turpin

Type: Anti-Personnel

Rank: B+

A plain double-edged sword with a simple silver guard and a handle wrapped in goat's hide. A medium-sized indenture run along the length of the blade, upon which a few characters that speak of the history of the blade and its user.

Very little can be said about the sword once wielded by the Archibishop of Reims who died in the Battle of Roncevaux Pass. Some claimed that it was one of three swords made by the legendary Anglo-Saxen blacksmith Weyland who also made Durendal, the sword commonly associated with the knight Roland. Others said it was a separate sword altogether, partially due to the warlike legends that gathered around the name of its user.

It is somewhat debatable as to whether it was effective as a weapon, since it was able to cut through a steel mound to about hand's breadth without damage, yet its edge was somewhat blunt which contridicts its purpose. Its main strength comes from the charm placed on it; since it was bestowed to a monk, the true worth comes from the belief that the sword was to be used soley to punish the wicked while liberating the oppressed.

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=====Author's Notes=====

Hello, I am back with a new chapter. This time it is the arc a lot of you (arguably) want to read about the most, Excalibur Arc!

I was planning to churn out a monster of a chapter for this one by trying to write the entire arc in one chapter, but it got pretty big and somewhat tedious to work with, and considering the number of details I had to be certain of, I knew that was an impossible dream. So I decided to split the chapter at a point I hope serves a bit of a cliffhanger. Hopefully I can get the next part out soon.

I know a lot of people were hoping for Shirou to bash the DXD Excalibur, but I had to consider this bit. A lot of stories go about having him getting pissed about the sword just for it being some mockery of Saber's sword, but I wanted to try a different angle at it. Hopefully this works.

Someone had pointed out that Kiba got off easy in the light novel and I agree on that bit. Since I changed the timeline by having Creed killed and two others replace him, I figured why not have fun with this. Also, cheers to the guy who suggested the same idea I had about Kiba's situation. Only time will tell whether he lives or not.

And I put my pen down for now.

... It seems in my absence a lot of stories popped up using some variations of mine. I have a complicated feeling about it.