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)

7. Excalibur Blade Works - Part 3

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: November 24th 2016

Edited on: December 12th 2016 / September 18th 2017

Chapter 7: Excalibur Blade Works Part 3 - Finale

Part 1

'Man, I am getting too out of bounds for this shit! I should be in bed with Buchou and Asia and enjoying Oppai! Not dealing with a crisis that could end the world as we know it and with a dude that screams final boss!'

Ise grabbed his head in frustration as he considered his situation around him. Shirou was busy dealing with Lyle, the girls from the Student Council and Griselda were dealing with Creed, and the rest of them were trying to deal with a possessed Kiba who was proceeding to beat the living crap out of their system. And while all of this was going on, the fallen angel was seating on his throne like some final boss just waiting to be unleashed on them after they dealt with the lesser henchmen.

Man, this sucked.

"OUI, Hyoudou move it!" His thoughts got interrupted by Saji who pulled his collar in time to miss the spiral shaped sword aimed at his face. Ise paled as he watched the sword hit the wall behind him and proceeded to burrow its way into it, continuing all the way to the Kendo Club's Room before exploding in a spectacular fireball.

Looks like Kiba had taken quite a few pointers from Shirou.

"Darn it, that guy is not letting us get to him so easily!" Saji cursed as he wiped the sweat off his brow. "If anything, I think he is even faster when mind-controlled."

"Shirou did explain a little on mind-control. Evidently it is one way of tricking the body into removing all the limitations of a person, be it physical and mental." Ise panted as he looked at his possessed friend. "I don't understand all the technical bits, but in a nutshell that means Kiba is not pulling back any punches. He is doing everything he could do but just didn't do so in the past."

"Great, just great!" Saji threw up his arms in frustration.

"You two, watch it!" A timely shout by Xenovia directed their attention at Kiba who had created a rather sinister looking sword with a large curved edge at the end and was preparing to swing it hard.

"SHIT! Promotion [Rook]!" The both of them promoted and jumped in time to miss the swing that went to where the legs were a moment ago and proceeded to destroy the building that Ise barely recalled belonged to the Chess Club and the Science Club.

Seriously, he did not need to do so much repairs later! Once they get Kiba out of his mind control, he was so going to force his share onto him!

"Ise, you still have that knife right?!" Rias called out to him. "We are going to try and ground him, use that moment to stab it into that device in the neck and get him back!"

"Got it! WOAH!" Ise threw himself backwards to avoid a spiked blade aimed for his head, and barely raising his gauntlet in time to avoid the spikes that shot off the blade and aimed for his eye. He was however unable to stop the ones that got through and hitting his legs, causing him to buckle in pain.

"Hyoudou, get your big ass up now!" Saji yelled as he tried to send out a tongue from his gear at Kiba, but the knight merely sped up and appeared by his side, and with a straight right, punched him in the stomach and sent him flying to the other side of the courtyard. Without breaking stride, Kiba created another sword and stabbed the ground with it, causing the ground to splinter from its entry point and fire to start sprouting from the cracks.

"Everybody get back!" Akeno raised her arm to summon a few rain clouds and sent them ahead to extinguish, with the added bonus of the lightning used to push Kiba back. She immediately used a spell to pull Ise back to their side in time to avoid another strike from Kiba.

"Man that was close!" Ise groaned as Asia stepped forward to heal his legs. "Thanks for the save Himeji-san!"

"No problem." Akeno quickly conjured up a barrier to prevent a few swords aimed at her. "But this is becoming rather troublesome for us. Yuuto-kun is getting very aggressive."

"No kidding, the damn handsome just won't let up!" Saji cursed as he ducked for cover from a rotating blade.

"HUHUHUHU~ Yuuto-kun is going to be receiving a very big punishment when he is out of that mind-control." Akeno gave off a rather scary smile while exuding an aura that made Ise have chills down his spine. He was not pitying Kiba at all.

A howl brought their attention to one part of the courtyard, where they could see something crawling out of some dark portal emitting dark energy. The figure quickly took shape to reveal some hellish creature with three heads, each with crimson eyes, sharp teeth and drool coming out of their mouths. Another one soon followed that, snarling as they looked at them.

"What the hell are those things?!" Ise's eyes bulged as the three-headed hounds let out a howl that chilled his bones.

"Cerberus!" Akeno called forth another barrier in the nick of time as the closest hound let loose a stream of flames that pounded hard on them and she got pushed back lightly. "Oh this one is a very bad boy!"

"Then allow me to discipline it." Xenovia passed Irina Excalibur [Destruction] and brought up a hand as she started chanting. "Saint Peter. Saint Basil the Great. Saint Denis. Holy-mother Mary. Please hear my voice." The space in front of her got distorted and she placed her arm inside before pulling out a sword that radiated large amounts of holy aura. "In the names of the saints whom reside within this blade, I will release it. Durandal!"

"What?! How can you possess both Excalibur and Durandal?!" Galilei's eyes were bulging as he gasped at the exorcist with the huge blue sword. "Even with my research, there hasn't been anyone who was capable of wielding that sword!"

"Of course. Then again, unlike those artificially enhanced, I am a natural born user of Durandal." With that, she gripped the sword with both hands and swung hard, releasing a tidal wave of holy aura that completely decimated the creature.

"Well, that was weak." Xenovia commented in a bored tone as she shouldered the weapon. "I was kind of hoping for a real challenge."

"Indeed." Ise turned to find his childhood friend twirling Excalibur Destruction as she walked away from the smoldering remains of the second hound. Wait a minute, how did she killed it off so easily?

"Irina has better control than me despite having a lower compatibility with that particular shard." Xenovia answered, likely recognizing the expression on his face. "She was always someone who aimed for quality rather than quantity, thus making her ideal for [Mimicry], but otherwise she could handle others just fine."

'Ah, that explains it. If only a little.' Ise thought privately as Irina returned to them with a jovial smile.

"Right then, now that the bad doggies are gone, can we deal with Galilei at least, or should we try our luck with Kokabiel?" Irina asked cheerily as she looked around only to pause in confusion. "EH~ where did he go?" Ise looked around to find Galilei still nearby, but…

Wait, where was the Yakitori's cousin?

"BOOM!"

Everyone's head snapped to one of the buildings where the roof got destroyed to find Shirou flying through the air and a smirking Kokabiel hovering near him. How the heck did he get there so fast?!

"From the looks of it, I think Shirou managed to take down Lyle!" Rias said as she tried to restrain Kiba to no avail. "At least we have one less problem to deal with!"

"EI!" Koneko let out another battle cry and punched through the ground, covering up the cracks spewing fire while distracting Kiba enough for Saji to connect a line to him.

"GOT HIM!" Saji activated his ability to suck the energy out of the knight, making him stumble and dropped to his knees. Akeno quickly came forward and threw in her own spells to secure him to the ground. "Hyoudou, now would be a damn good time!"

"On it!" Ise took out the knife and transferred a portion of his power to the knife, increasing its durability. He was not sure how much he would need to get the weird thing off his neck, but he just needed one good hit!

"This will hurt you more than me!" Ise pushed forward and forced Kiba's head down to the ground, lining his neck up for the point of the knife. He took aim and brought his hand down.

'Got it!'

"CRASH!"

He was not sure what happened. For a moment everyone was about to reach his position to help him secure Kiba; the next, he saw Rias and Koneko fly through the air like ragdolls and Saji dropped to his knees in agony. Before he could react to that, he felt a metallic object hit him squarely in the face and he got thrown off his feet and crashing into the ground hard.

'What the heck happened?!' Ise got up unsteadily to see what hit him, and the sight made him groan in exasperation.

"Well that was a close one." Galilei remarked as he looked on with a smile. "Good thing I installed that apparatus on him so that he can use it. Now you get to see the fruits of my work." He paused before giving a question in a mocking tone. "So do you like the sight of my other project?"

Oh, it was certainly a sight to see, and a sight to want to beat his head with a tailpipe in anger.

Around the now standing Kiba were several suits of armor carrying an assortment of weapons, ranging from lances to swords to battleaxes. Their designs seemed to lean heavily towards the European stereotypes, though there were a couple that seemed to be inspired from the old Shogun days, but all bore the symbols of the church etched into them. Red eyes peeked out of their eye-holes as they kept their gazes on the devils.

"Like them? They are one of my latest creations." Galilei waved his arm at them with an air of a salesman promoting a new product to a prospective customer. "These are autonomous armors that allow a regular soldier to summon and protect him when in combat. Based from one of the Holy Sacred Gears and Sword Birth over there, one of the perks is their immunity to any demonic weaponry or magic, so in the case of your Sacred Gears, their effects will definitely be lessened." He paused as he looked at the knife that was on the ground.

"Hmm, that looks interesting, but if it actually stops my device from controlling him, that would be very problematic for me." Galilei remarked as he picked up the knife and inspected it. "Oh, influence from Greek Mythology huh? That definitely narrows it down to a few I could think of." He mumbled as mentally took note of it before tossing it to the ground where one of the armors lifted its legs and stomped on it, snapping the brittle blade into pieces and making it disappear in a cloud of dust.

Oh nuts, Shirou was so going to murder him when he learnt what happened.

"Hmm, that magician really is unusual. I wonder if his ability revolves the creation of concepts. That would explain some of the more esoteric items I have seen so far." Galilei commented before he turned back to them. "Oh well, at least this has been a very fruitful experiment so far. My test subject has been able to handle the lot of you quite easily and he is able to utilize the 'Knights of Glory' without feedback." He paused as he looked at Kiba who was giving off some smoke and the scent of burnt flesh filled the air. "Correction, make that a bit of feedback."

"Damn this guy!" Rias growled as she and Akeno got up on their feet, the energy raging from them to the point of breaking some of the loose debris around them. Ise too was feeling rather angry at this point. This damn fake priest was totally not feeling any pressure on him and he dared to understate Kiba's rejection to Holy Objects that much?! He was so going to lay a punch on him later.

"ROOARR!"

"What now?!" Saji grabbed his ears and yelled over the sound that rocked the entire academy. He got his answer when the courtyard temporarily lit up, drawing everyone's attention to the sky where they saw a bolt of white light through the area and hitting Kokabiel, forcing him back quite a distance to a spot that was a few feet away from them, all while having lightning bolts and some dark energy chasing after Kokabiel.

Okay, what the heck was Shirou doing with Kokabiel all this time?!

"That is enough!" Kokabiel yelled out in frustration as he spread his wings open, pushing away all the lightning bolts and destroying the dark energy around him. Before Ise could react, a pulse of energy stopped him in his tracks, cold sweat running down his face while his breathing quickened erratically.

'What? What was that?'

Ise turned slowly to the roof where he felt the pulse, only to find Shirou in an archery position and notching what appeared to be a drill onto his bow. The amount of energy that was coming from it seemed to be extremely volatile, and it was making him feel weak in the knees, like he was but an insect before an elephant.

"Caladbolg II!"

"ROOOOOOOORRRAARRR!"

The amount of power released from it was enough to send everyone hurtling to the ground as the make-shift arrow soared through the air in a brief flash of light, looking like it was dragging space and time in its wake. Even as the Fallen Angel tried to move away, the resulting force of the arrow seemed to pull him back in, and with a somewhat horrifying manner of amputation, his left arm appeared to have disintegrated in the wake of the arrow's shot, and without stopping went all the way to the hill in the far end of the town.

Damn, how much power was Shirou packing?!

"Damn, what type of weapon did he pull out this time?!" Saji demanded in a panicked manner. "That sword seemed to be packing more power than any of the other Strays we have fought! Hell, it actually made that Kokabiel's look like a damn droplet!"

"Indeed, I don't think I have ever felt that amount of power outside of the Maous before." Akeno actually shivered as she clutched her arms while harboring an expression of both fear and somewhat feverish desire. "It was almost like a maelstrom of power was contained within that weapon."

"Forget that, look!" Xenovia pointed at the fallen angel. "The magician actually wounded him!"

Yes, he did, didn't he? Ise could see the clipped wing and bloody stump, and he could tell that Kokabiel was clearly shocked by that attack as he lowered his head down. Then why…

Why did he suddenly feel more terrified by the lack of anger the Fallen Angel was having?

"Ha~ ha~ ha~ ha~"

A light chuckle could be heard over the silent breeze that blew around the school, then with unsettlingly speed, the chuckle became louder and somewhat more crazed, before Kokabiel threw back his head and let out a maniacal laugh that sent chills down Ise' spine.

"HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA!" He let out a roaring laugh that sounded dreadfully joyful as though the sight of his own blood had rendered him insane. It continued on for a few moments before he took a few breaths to contain himself and lowered his head back to reveal an expression of gleeful cruelty and crazed eyes, as though a switch was flipped inside him to release a somewhat primal instinct to hunt down a worthy prey.

And right now, those eyes were directed at Shirou Emiya as he spread his wings wide open and flew forward.

Part 2

Oh Crap!

I barely had enough time to project my swords when Kokabiel came slamming into me and forced me back with pure momentum alone. My arms screamed in agony as I endured the crushing force that was threatening to overwhelm me and the grinning face of a mad man being right in front of me.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHH!" I let out a frustrated yell and pushed my arms upwards, diverting the force away from me and ultimately pushing the Fallen Angel away from me, just barely in time to stop at the edge of the roof.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAH! Yes! This is it!" Kokabiel flipped over in the air and faced me with that crazed expression on his face. "Looks like I can have some actual fun aside from some weak performance by devils."

"TCH~" I let out an irritated sound as I readied my stance. This was so not what I need right now, some crazy-ass higher being to come after my head. But at least now that I had his attention, the others should be able to handle Kiba right now just as long as they do not lose Rule Breaker.

"Better look sharp boy!" Kokabiel spread his wings wide open as spears of light appeared behind him, lighting up the area in a deadly radiance of purple light while looking every bit of a higher being about to inflict divine punishment on the offender. "This is going to be a big one!"

Darn it!

"I have created over a thousand blades."

"Trace Bullet, Continuous Fire!" I poured a large portion of my prana into my projections and released them at the same time as Kokabiel unleashed his spears on me. Both our attacks met mid-way and the area got showered in a spectacular rainfall of light and cold steel as they broke apart in mid-air, neither side giving way to the other. After a while, it got hard to keep an eye on him as the flashes got too much for my eyes to see anything.

Darn it, I really can't see anything!

"Surprise!" The onslaught of light in front suddenly split to reveal the horrifying face of a gleeful Kokabiel as he pulled back to throw his spear. In haste I grabbed a broadsword from my rain of attacks and swung hard to intercept the spear, using the momentum to project my bow and notched the sword to it, forcing it into its arrow form before releasing it at him.

"BOOM!"

The explosion pretty much blew away all the spears and swords that were occupying the area a few moments ago. After a while the smoke cleared to reveal a relatively untouched Kokabiel with a very unhinged expression of glee.

"HHEHHEHHAAAAAHAHAHAHAHA!" He let out a gleeful crackle as a magic circle appeared behind him. "Not bad boy, but better keep it up!" Several more circles appeared in the sky, each one glowing ever brighter with balls of energy concentrated in their centers and aimed right at me. "See if you dodge these!"

"CRAP!" I started moving in time to avoid the rays of lights that rained down on me with the occasional bolts of lightning and fire mixed in. Darn it, this guy was relentless!

"Hrunting!" I quickly projected the sword and broke it before putting it on the bow I created on the fly and let it loose. Kokabiel smirked as he moved to one side to avoid the shot, only for it to be replaced with an expression of surprise as the arrow bent at unnatural angle and aimed for his back. Stopping his onslaught, he opened his wings and flew off into the sky with Hrunting following him like the blood hound it was, not once letting up on the momentum.

"Hey you got him on the run!" I could barely hear Ise yell out excitedly as Kokabiel started taking hard turns to throw off the sword.

"I'm not done yet." I created another Hrunting and let it loose to chase Kokabiel at the other end, forcing him to hightail it at a hard corner and having two Hruntings chasing him. Then…

"BOOM!"

"Yeah, you got him!" Saji whooped loudly as he high-fived Ise. I merely notched another sword into my bow and kept it there at the ready and aimed at the burning cloud of smoke where the arrows detonated. Knowing my luck and seeing the toughness of this fallen angel, it won't be that quick. I was proven right when a spear broke through the cloud of smoke and nearly clipped my head off if I did not move at the last minute.

"Ohh~ not bad boy, not bad at all." The rest of the smoke got blown away by the fallen angel flapping his wings as he revealed a leering face that seemed more reminiscent of devils in the books. "But it seems you are still holding back on me. That is not very nice of you, you shouldn't do that when we can have a good fight. I would have to think of something to motivate you"

Great, I have to have another battle maniac for an opponent.

"Oh wait, there is one." His smirk went a little wider as he looked at me. "I believe you are currently looking after one of my subordinates. How is she? Have you been keeping in touch with her for today?" My heart stopped at those words, my mind briefly removed from the fight and to the little girl with the temper. He couldn't have!

"A little careless of you, not wanting to check up on your charge." Kokabiel remarked as a magic circle appeared beside it and a bound and gagged Mitelt came out of the circle and hovered next to him. "So then, does this motivate you more to fight seriously?"

… He wanted me to be motivated? Okay, I was officially motivated. And officially pissed off.

I dismissed Kanshou and Bakuya from my hands and replaced them with the gauntlets that I loaned to Koneko during the Raiser match while removing my coat. It had been quite a while since I used these guys, so let's see if I still got the touch. First I got to get Mitelt out of the way.

"Let her go." The words came out of my mouth in a deadly whisper as my eyes hardened at him.

"You want her?" Kokabiel motioned with his hand as more circles appeared around Mitelt and the light rays radiating from them connected with one another to form a cage. "Then you better come at me with a bit more work."

"Fine." I raised my arms and balled up my fists. "You want me to be serious, you got that!" With that I slammed my fists together, activating the runes on it and making them glow brightly. Then slowly, the glow spread to my arms, then my torso and finally my entire body, all the while feeling a heat on me that reminded me of that time as a child.

The fire from which I was forged.

I did not need to look at the others when they gasped loudly despite the distance; the visual confirmation was before me when the glow diminished and I found my body encased in what could be considered as 'blade mail'. The blades interweaved and interlock one another, creating a layer of swords that was totally abnormal and yet naturally organic. I should feel freaked out, but on the contrary, it was like taking a breath of fresh air.

My body was made of swords.

"Well that you don't see every day." I lifted my head to find Kokabiel looking at me with an eye I would see was a cross of analytical and maniacal. "But I wonder if it is more than just a show."

"Let's try it out then." I clenched my fists and crouched before pushing my feet off the ground, leaving behind a crater and getting up close to his face to deliver a straight right. I was somewhat satisfied that he did not expect me to be this quick, and I took that chance by layering on the punches and the kicks at his body, feeling some of his bones break under the impact.

Yet he was still smiling like it was the best thing ever.

"HAHAHAHA!" He laughed even more despite having his body pummeled by my fists and looking like a bloodied piñata. "This is what I mean to have a good fight!" With his one good arm, he grabbed one of my fists and with a hard swing, sent me flying over him and towards the courtyard. "Come on boy! Give me all you got!"

I growled as I rolled on the ground and quickly got into position. Kokabiel being airborne was certainly a problem and I highly doubt he would give me the chance to use my bow, but with [Brahma Ka Caimpiyana] equipped and its dual ability to enhance my traits and equip certain attributes, I got that part remedied.

"Hrunting!" I projected the original sword form in my right hand, then with a flick of my wrist and a light punch of my fist, the sword dispersed into red dust and got absorbed into the gauntlet, making my body glowed briefly before taking on the same crimson hue as the sword.

Let's try this again.

I jumped straight at him and predictably he dodged to the side to try and aim a spear at my sides. What he did not expect was me changing my direction without warning and coming right back at his face. With a quick left, I sent him hurling back a bit, then without letting him take a break, I got closer again to kick him in the gut. His next few attempts to escape got thwarted as I continued to hit with both my fists and legs at him.

"GARH!" He coughed out blood as he took the damage and gave me a glare that was somewhere between murderous and interest. "Well, you do have more tricks, but…" I swung a fist at him only to get pushed back by an odd looking rune that appeared in front of him. "If your only solution was to get up close and personal, you will need to rethink your strategy boy!"

Well that was a bit annoying, thankfully I had other options.

"Bring into my hand, [Black Lotus Custom]!" I commanded [Hell's Trident] to create the next weapon I had in mind, hovering in the air as I took a quick peek at Mitelt. I would need to get her out of his clutches.

"First Illusion, Hell's Locust!" I swung the dark purple spear at Kokabiel, the tip glowing ominously before a dark energy issued from the spear and rushed forward, breaking apart and changing its form into hellish looking insects that barely had a resemblance to locust and their crimson eyes directed straight at Kokabiel.

"Whoa!" Kokabiel spread his wings and fled upwards, the Hell's Locusts following in hot pursuit and relentless in their desire to murder him. Kokabiel called forth another one of his weird rune to block them. For a moment it seemed it was effective in halting them temporarily, then to his shock and much to my amusement, the apparitions started to chew through the barrier, tearing it down quickly to let the others behind to push through.

"OUI! OUI! That is some serious voodoo type magic you have there!" Kokabiel crackled as he called forth more of his magic circles to send forth bolts of lightning at them while using his spear to parry my attacks. "But you would need to do a little more boy!"

No need, my objective has been met.

Using Hrunting's ability to home in on the target, I maneuvered my way to Mitelt and jabbed the circles with Rule Breaker, disrupting their structure and allowing me to grab her away from him. With a quick application of Prana, I made my way to the ground and next to the group of devils.

"Whoa!" Ise jumped back as I hit the ground a little harder than intended and forced everyone back a little. I ignored them for the moment and focused my attention on Mitelt. Apart from several bruises and a shortage of Prana, she seemed to be mostly fine. With a quick projection of a healing staff, her skin color became less pale and she started to breathe a bit better.

"Hey guys, how is it hanging?" I inwardly enjoyed their expressions at my metallic skin, no doubt wondering what I did to get this. I paused to look at Kiba in the distance with a few other armors around him. "Okay, so what's the story on him and his buddies?"

"Well, it seems Galilei had a few more tricks up his sleeve by installing something into Kiba that summoned those armors around him." Ise gave the answer rather quickly and with a face that spoke of his frustration of the situation.

"Okay, where is Rule Breaker?" Ise and a couple of the others gave me a confused expression. "The dagger I lent to you to stop Kiba, Ise!"

"Ah!" Ise let out a sound of understanding before adopting a sheepish expression. "I'm afraid that got destroyed by those knights there." He pointed while looking away from me. I could only let out a frustrated sigh while massaging my eyes. Great, now I needed to make another dagger.

Typical.

"Well boy, you definitely made this day very interesting." I turned to face an old man dressed in priest clothing and having an expression that clashed with his cold eyes. "You are an unusual entity that has been in the way of our plans for quite a while. I dare say that you are the first one in a long time that I actually had to bring out some of the contingencies to deal with you."

"I guess I should be honored, Galilei Valper." I eyed him while alternating my sights on him and Kiba. "Though considering what I have heard about you, I will rather not."

"Ouch, you hurt my feelings boy." Galilei remarked without much truth in them. Yeah, something told me that he and Kirei might get along in some way. Maybe it was because they were both 'fake priests' as Rin would put it.

"Everyone, are you okay?!" My attention was briefly directed at the Student Council coming the distance, but my body was automatically moving forward to intercept the mind-controlled knight who was rushing forward with the automated armors to blindside them. With a quick projection I managed to block his initial strike while demonic spears impeded the assault by the armors.

"Whoa, the heck is going on?!" Tsubasa yelled before looking at me with wide eyes. "And what the heck happened to you?!" I rolled my eyes at the similar expressions by the others, no doubt wondering the same thing.

"Long story short, I ended up facing Kokabiel earlier than expected, we fought each other, I used some spells and [Hell's Trident] to hurt him, Kokabiel started getting high, I am now here with an unconscious blonde fallen angel and half-battered devils." I gave my answer in the flattest tone possible as I pushed back Kiba a fair distance away from us.

"Wait what?! You fought against Kokabiel alone!" I had to admit, despite me being taller and covered in blade-mail, the glare coming from Sona Sitri looked ready to melt the steel off my body. "Are you insane?!"

"I have been asking that since day one." Rias commented as her group drew near. "Clearly there are a few screws loose somewhere. Asia would need to look into that."

"Don't worry, Emiya-san. I will do my best to heal your head injury!" Asia made that promise with such a cute yet determined face that I could not bring myself to tell her that this was something she could not fix. Believe me, I should know, after all Rin and Luvia tried to fix this issue to no avail.

Joy.

"Well, looks like the whole gang is here." Everyone looked up to find Kokabiel coming down slowly, looking a little calmer now that we had stopped fighting for a moment. "Aside from your two exorcist experiments that is." Kokabiel continued while looking at Galilei with a hint of a stink eye.

"That part is likely because of Lyle fighting with Creed as we speak." I said drawing his attention, noting the looks of surprise from the Gremoy Group while the Student Council seemed to have gotten the confirmation that I sent him to head Creed off.

"Well then, from the looks of it, I am guessing Lyle has gotten his answer then." Galilei said as he looked at me with a keen eye. "Well that is a bummer."

"Hmph~ I could care less about those two." Kokabiel let his eyes wander at the others. "The devils and the exorcists were surprisingly resilient, but still not good enough if they have so much trouble with two underlings and a puppet of a devil." His eyes then went to me, and his frown got replaced by a sinister smile. "You on the other hand, are someone who has peaked my interests quite a fair bit. I haven't met such an interesting human in such a long time, boy~"

"Erm, Shirou, don't take this the wrong way." Ise stammered as he looked at the both of us. "I am so glad that you are the one handling him, I do not need that type of attention from a guy." I could only put the palm to my face again at the sheer crap I was in.

Honestly, if I could get a dollar for every villain who had an interest in me, I would have been able to retire in the Bahamas by now. Then again, that amount would probably be taken away by Rin for her jewel-craft in an instant.

"For you, I am willing to do something I haven't done for a long time." With his remaining arm, Kokabiel reached into his coat and pulled out an object that was wrapped in charms written in some forgotten language. "For you, I am willing to go this far to fight you." He bit hard on the charms and tore them off, revealing an apple that seemed to glow lightly in the dark. There was an odd feeling from it that prompted me to gaze at it with my projection, and the results I got made my heart stopped for a moment.

You have got to be kidding me! That was!

"A Fruit from the Garden of Eden!" Galilei's voice resounded in the silence as he watched with somewhat reverent eyes. "This is not from the tree from which Adam and Eve ate the Fruit of Knowledge. That is a different fruit altogether."

"Indeed, that is so." Kokabiel agreed as he looked at the fruit for a moment. "I got this from one of the many trees in the garden before I fell. Normally this would not be able to last long outside the garden, let alone of Heaven after so many years. But there have been attempts by the humans to grow the seeds outside of Heaven and though they were not entirely successful, they were able to bear enough results for me to attempt my own. I have managed to grow one of them with my own set of spells, and I am finally able to make it bear fruit. Of course, it would not be as potent as back in the garden. But by human standards, this would do nicely."

"Yes…" Kokabiel turned his eyes back at me with the eyes of a hunter who has found a worthy prey to have its head be placed on his mantelpiece. "For you, I am willing to do whatever it takes to win this fight, and in this case, I will do so by fighting you with my full strength!" With that, he took a huge bite of the fruit, the juice oozing out of it seemingly turning red upon contact with the air, giving him a somewhat animalistic look that feasted on flesh and blood. But the effects were obvious the moment he swallowed the fruit; the injuries on his leg and other parts started to steam and before long the skin lost any trace of his injuries. The amount of Prana that burst forth from him was enough to send some of the less prepared individuals to their knees and sweating while I managed to withstand the brunt of it and merely grimaced at the feel of it.

But the biggest change came from the stump which started to glow brightly. Then with a splitting sound and a few rays of light, an ethereal blob of light came out of it and took form into the shape of an arm, and after a while, the glow diminished to reveal a brand new arm.

Great. Just bloody great.

"Ah come on, that is SO UNFAIR!" Ise threw his arms up in exasperation as he looked at the situation and voiced out our possible thoughts. "Why can't you just have one missing arm? At least make it easy on us by having a handicap damn it!"

"Too bad little devil, that won't do at all." Kokabiel flexed the fingers of his newly acquired arm before looking at me. "So then, how do you want to fight me now? Do you wish to continue our little bout, or perhaps you wish to work together with your buddies over there?" Before I could reply someone else decided to butt in.

"We will be helping you Emiya. Not a word otherwise." Sona stepped forward to speak while throwing me a glare that dared me to say otherwise.

"Indeed." Rias stepped forward while looking at Kokabiel. "I want to make sure that you will at least feel some pain from me."

"Oh, so the princesses want to join in. fine, you may do so." Kokabiel shrugged as he folded his arms and looked at us. "Tell you what, I would be generous and even give you 10 minutes to discuss whatever plans you need to fight me. It is the least I can do since the magician was able to entertain me so far. Though I highly doubt you can do anything of the sort to match him."

'Gee~ thanks for the big vote of confidence and appreciation.' I grimaced for a brief moment before turning to the others while keeping a subtle eye on the mind-controlled knight. For the moment, it seemed that Galilei was content enough to hold him back, wanting to see what would be our attacking strategy.

"Okay, I am open to suggestions. So what do we have?" Sona asked with a definite tone of irritation and resignation.

"Well, as it stands, we cannot hope for a prolonged battle. With him now at full capacity, it would be hard to deal a heavy blow that could take him out quickly." Griselda gave that blunt analysis while sneaking glances at the fallen angel. "And I am not sure that Galilei would not use that opportunity to get the rest of us while we tackle Kokabiel."

"He won't, he is that confident." They looked at me with surprised expressions at my comment. "As you said, Kokabiel is currently at full capacity while we are battle-worn. Logically Galilei should order Kiba to wipe us out at the first opportunity he gets, but he is very certain of Kokabiel's victory so he would not send Kiba after us. Besides…" I turned my head to peer at Kokabiel. "I know Kokabiel's type, he would make sure that Galilei does not interfere with this."

"If you are certain…" Griselda hummed as she looked at us. "Okay, how shall we go about?"

"Who are the ones with the heavy attacks?" My question brought forth mostly everyone from the devils, Xenovia and Griselda. "Okay this is going to be a bit tricky. Do you know any spells that might ground him for a short while?" I turned to Momo and Reya for confirmation.

"We do have some spells, but against someone like him it would only be a few seconds." Momo answered with a worried expression. "Maybe with help from Akeno, we could make it last longer?"

"That would suffice. Ise, that ability called [Gift], how long do you need to transfer to any of them?"

"Considering the big boss is willing to let us do whatever we want, I think I can put in maybe a couple of minutes, but I would only have enough charge for two people at once." Ise said with a grim expression. "Maybe more if I had the chance, but I can only do so when I have both hands."

"Okay." I nodded as I turned to the exorcists. "What little I have seen, Xenovia is the one who is the major hitter, Irina is someone who deals with speed, and Griselda is the precision."

"Indeed. Our styles are as such." Griselda motioned to the two apprentices. "For the time being, Irina is borrowing Excalibur [Destruction] from Xenovia because she would need a shard to at least last against Kokabiel. Xenovia is already a natural user of Durandal so at least we have two Holy Swords on our side."

… Okay, I would not comment about the counterpart of Roland's sword and just focus on the situation.

"Okay, then you guys will have to go in waves. When he gets down to the ground, Momo, Reya and any other spell-casters will use their spells to temporarily ground him, giving time for the Rooks and the exorcists to lay the attacks while giving Ise the opportunity to give the power to the Rias and Akeno, and if possible, Sona and Tsubaki. The four will be the ones to deliver the final blow."

"What about you?" Sona asked noting my lack of involvement.

"I will be taking the first wave." I held up my hand to stop the possible arguments to come from them. "Right now Kokabiel is very eager to fight me and as such would ignore you guys for the time being. I will fight him and try to ground him. When that happens you guys will take over to give me a bit of time to set something up. If it goes well, we should be able to hit him hard."

"Wait, in that case you should be getting a bit of power from me as well." I mentally nodded at Ise's attention to detail, if only because this is not a perverted situation.

"I would be fine, I got an idea to help my with the power issue. You should save that Gift ability for the girls." I looked at all of them with a steady glance. "So any more questions or words before we start?"

"One thing." Before I could react, Reya grabbed my metallic ear and tried to pull it fruitlessly but nevertheless got my attention. "You need to be careful okay?" Despite her fierce expression, there was a notable tone of uneasiness in her words.

"…" I looked to her for a moment before giving off a gentle smile. "Don't worry, I will be watching myself, and each of you. So that you don't get hurt" I raised my arm to light touch her hand. "That's a promise." Reya lightly blushed at the contact but relented with a smile.

"Do you two need a room to yourselves?" Ise's amused voice cut through the moment, and I suddenly remembered that we were in a midst of a dire situation with a Fallen Angel, a mind-controlled devil, a demented priest, one senior exorcist…

And a group of teenagers who were looking at us with various expressions of amusement (Rias, Ise and Momo being the most obvious), exasperation (Sona, Xenovia and oddly enough Meguri who had an angry pout at me) and glee (Akeno, Tsubasa and Irina).

"Right then, big fight with bad boss. Heading out now." I stepped away from the group and made my way to Kokabiel a few feet away, all while berating myself for getting caught up in the moment.

I would need to correct that later.

"Well, are you done with your preparations?" Kokabiel looked down on us with a slightly impatient tone.

"Yeah, we got something." I readied [Black Lotus Custom] as I looked up. "I will be your dance partner for the first round at least."

"Haha~ Now that I don't mind." Kokabiel let loose a very nasty smirk as he spread his wings wide and flew higher in the air. "I am hoping you got more tricks up your sleeve boy."

"Let's find out then." I spun the spear a few times before stabbing the tip into the ground, the dark energy spreading out on the surface like the threads of a spider's web. "Second Illusion, Hell Hounds!" The lines glowed a bright purple before dark mist came up and took form into something one would remotely call a canine, if a canine were to have a head that was half-flesh and half-skull, while the body seemed to be made by poking spikes through half-rotten flesh and the paws looked to be relatives of Edward Scissor-hands. They let out a chilling howl before directing crimson eyes at Kokabiel, each one emanating the scent of death around.

"Damn, those guys are ugly!" Ise yelled out with a baffled tone. I ignored his comments and directed my intention to the hounds, to which they responded by rushing forward and leaping high into the air, continuing to move in the air to attack Kokabiel.

"So earlier were insects, now you send out dogs?" Kokabiel called forth his spears and fired them at the hounds, only to be stopped by them biting on them and breaking them with their teeth. Then with a howl, the hounds let loose a stream of blue flames at him.

"OH SHIT!" Kokabiel flew out of the flames path, with a few catching fire by their tips. His concern grew more pronounced as the little embers on his wings quickly blazed to life, forcing him to use his spear and removed a huge portion of his feathers to avoid getting caught on fire. That was the distraction I needed to start the next part of the plan.

"Bakuya and Kanshou!" I called the blades in both my hands and crushed them, their essences getting absorbed into my blade-mail and the properties merging as I kept an image in my head. With a grimace, I felt the blades on my back to move somewhat sporadically, before swords erupted from two spots, elongating and forming two wings of white and black.

"Whoa!" I couldn't help but grin a little at Ise's voice as I grabbed [Black Lotus Custom] and looked to the sky. Silently commanding the married twins, I flexed my wings and flew straight into their, levelling at Kokabiel in no time. I guess I made quite a sight; a figure clad in steel blades while wielding a dark spear, with wings of black and white, the metal shining in the moonlight.

A literal angel of death.

"Oh, so you fancy being an angel yourself?" Kokabiel raised an amused eyebrow. "Well then, allow an elder angel to show you the heavenly combat!" Calling forth a spear into his hands, he dashed forward to me, dodging and taking out the Hell Hounds in his path. I gripped the spear tightly and focused my mind to move the wings as I bid. I only got some general idea from one of my templates during the world travelling between dimensions, so I could only do so much.

But I only need enough to distract him.

I met his spear midway in the air, parrying his weapon and trying to grab his wings, but Kokabiel showed me why he was a dangerous opponent as he maneuvered in a manner that spoke of his years of avoiding such attacks and use his momentum to kick me in the head. Spitting a bit of blood from my mouth, I directed the Hell Hounds at him while calling out a certain item in mind.

"Come on little man, you can do better than that!" Kokabiel seemingly hugged his body with his wings before spreading them out wide, letting loose an array of feathers that rained down on the spectres and somehow managing to turn their bodies to shreds, likely due to the light energy in the feathers. No matter, thanks to their distraction, I was able to call out the item I had in mind.

After all, this was one of the weapons that wanted to come out for a while due to this situation.

"Come forth, [Sudarshan Chakra]!" I held my hand high above my head to project the celestial weapon of Vishnu, the golden tips of its serrated edges glowing deadly in the moonlight as it started spinning quickly to the point of letting out a light hum. With a quick of the wrist and a thought in my mind, I let loose the weapon right at Kokabiel.

"So now you are bringing in Eastern Cultures, huh?" Kokabiel flew upwards to avoid the blade, but with uncanny reflexes, the spinning disc twisted at a weird angle and continued chasing after him like some heat-seeking missile.

"HAHAHA! Now we are getting somewhere boy!" Kokabiel crackled as he let loose another set of spears at the blade while dodging the spectral hounds, all while maintaining the demented smile on his face. I ignored him for moment and looked down to find the others in position, awaiting the order to take Kokabiel down.

Time to set the plan in motion.

I rushed forward to grapple with him in the air, taking him by surprise since he would expect me to do a long range fight. With some quick projections, I impaled his limbs with Black Keys before I moved away to let the hounds bite him at those areas, holding him in place.

"Ouch, that was so uncalled for!" Kokabiel let out a remark that seemed somewhat humorous, but he was still sporting that murderous smirk as he attempted to free himself from the death trap he was in, which though unsuccessful, was enough to avoid getting bifurcated by the spinning disc and just got a wing cut off.

"Oh shit!" Kokabiel struggled to keep his balance, but I went to detonate both the Black Keys and the spectre hounds so that his limbs would be damaged while distracted enough for me to fly higher into the air and hang above him. With a thought, I cancelled the effects of [Brahma Ka Caimpiyana], letting gravity take over as the blade-mail slowly receded from my body. I reached behind my back and grabbed the joints where the wings were attached, waiting for the moment the scales stopped at my hand before I pulled hard, wincing lightly as the steel splintered and broke off from my back, leaving behind the enlarged forms of Bakuya and Kanshou. With a quick motion, I righted myself just in time for Kokabiel to look up and see the incoming attack.

"Eat this!" I swung hard at the Fallen Angel, the accumulated energy plus the gravity giving me the necessary force to make the make-shift weapons blow up spectacularly and enough to send Kokabiel crashing to the ground, leaving him inside a huge crater.

"All yours everybody!" I yelled at them as I hit the ground hard. I would let them take over for now as I prepared the next part of my attack.

"On it!" Momo, Reya and Akeno came forward and threw a whole bunch of charms at Kokabiel, some attaching themselves to his body to restrict his movements while the rest created a bubble like barrier to imprison him.

"Hit him hard!" Griselda led the charge to strike Kokabiel in the chest, forcing him back as he attempted to move with the charms stuck to him. Griselda jumped back to avoid a strike and to let Tsubasa and Koneko come in with an attack of their own in the form of several blocks of debris thrown at Kokabiel, distracting him from the exorcist apprentices coming at his sides.

"Have a taste of this!" Xenovia and Irina let loose a huge wave of holy aura at Kokabiel, slamming him back into the ground as he tried to get back to his feet. With a monumental effort, he pushed back with a blast of Prana, shattering the charms on his body and sending everyone back.

"Not bad, but not good enough children!" Kokabiel summoned a few of his spears and sent them out in a circle, causing many to take cover. A few ended up close to the Bishops of the group, causing them to lose focus and loosen their grip on the barrier.

"Finally!" Kokabiel spread his wings to hover in the air and looked around. "You children put up one hell of a show, but you are not quite there yet!" He let out a light hum as he looked down at them. "Now where is the boy that has been able to entertain me properly?"

Right here pal. And right on time.

"CHING!"

As one, five demonic spears of different elements hit the ground hard, embedding themselves deeply with the charms attached to them. The spears lit up and started spewing out their elements, joining together to form a fragile web of energy that lengthened and reached high into the sky, creating a rather terrifying image of a tower made of webs.

"What the hell?!" Ise yelled out as his eyes bulged at the sight. He and the others turned to look at me with baffled faces. "Did you do this, Shirou?"

"Yup." I looked up at the Fallen Angel who seemed to be almost giddy with malice as he sought me out. "You wanted more entertainment from me? You are about to get some."

"Oh yes, bring it boy!" Kokabiel called forth his spears and sent them at the webbing, only to have them shatter upon impact. I merely smirked as I directed my attention to the charms. Time to see if my crash course in exorcism and seals were good enough.

"Restriction!" I activated the charms on the spears, creating an energy wave that caused the space to distort within the barrier, causing him to fall once more to the ground hard. "BIND!" The spears started to draw power from the Leylines beneath the school and sprouted out lines of different elements in between themselves, creating a pentagram with Kokabiel in the center.

Now for the actual spell-casting.

"Fire that melts Metal! Metal that chops Wood! Wood that Parts Earth! Earth that dams Water! Water that extinguish Fire! The Five Elements that bring forth the Movements of the Spiritual World, lend me your strength to restrain the unholy creature before me!" I chanted the verses as the spears glowed brightly and started emitting electricity of numerous colors. "The Art of Destructive Restraints Number 23: Elemental Hammer Strike!" With that I brought my fist down to activate the charms. Then like an act of divine retribution, a portion of the sky lit up and a giant pillar of light fell on top of Kokabiel, creating a huge crater where he stood and cracks extending from the point of impact.

"What the heck is this?!" Kokabiel dropped to his knees and hands as the destructive force intensified to the point that the nearby buildings and trees started swaying from the air pressure that bellowed from the point of contact. The cracks on the ground widened and extended all the way to the outer parts of the courtyard, bursting the underground pipes and spewing out large amounts of water.

'Oh I am not done yet!'

I created another spear from [Hell's Trident] and threw it into the air, having it hover above Kokabiel high in the sky before chanting another verse. "The fire that burns from the peaks of Gods, rain down upon the enemy before me and smite thee with thy righteous fist of fury! Reduce him to ashes and send him back to the depths of purgatory! The heavenly flame that was bestowed from Prometheus to mankind, show me thy [BLAZE OF GLORY]!" The spear I was using as a sacrifice cracked and burst into dark blue flames, quickly turning into a huge fireball that spun wildly in the air before descending towards the ground like a meteor.

"ARE YOU SHITTING ME BOY!" Kokabiel's eyes bulged as the fireball hit him hard and setting the entire area in a blaze, the amount of heat escaping from the barrier was enough to make me unconsciously take a step back while some of the others held back out of fear of getting burned. But I held on to my stance and focus on maintain the barrier as the combined force of both spells were starting to strain the barrier.

'Come on, just a little more!' I nervously licked my lips and tasting the iron from the blood as I watched the higher being struggle with the energy that was mounting on his shoulders. It was a bit of a risk using this move; I only learned the bare basics for both western exorcism and eastern sealing arts, but it was enough to try and mix them to create my own blend to deal with some of the more outrageous creatures I had faced in the past. I would not normally try this particular spell so early without testing the effectiveness, but with Hell's Trident on my side, I could use the spear as a substitute for the elements and use less of my Prana.

I just needed a little more!

"RRRROOOOAARR! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHW!" The fallen angel started to push back as he got one leg firmly set on the ground, then placed the other before lifting his arms in defiance to force back the light and fireball bearing down on him. The five demonic spears around him started to shake and crack under the exertion of his defiance, and I found myself wincing in pain as the effort to keep the spell active was starting to strain my Prana Reserves despite using the Leylines as my main power source.

"HAHAHAHAHA! What a nasty set of tricks you have there, boy!" Kokabiel let loose another one of maniacal smiles as his wings spread wide and a huge wave of Prana rushed forth, causing the barrier to crack ever further under the strain.

"Guys, now would be a damn good time to hit him!" I yelled out in frustration as I poured more of my Prana into my barrier to reduce the speed of the cracks.

"Way ahead of you!" A sudden draft of cold wind washed over me, and against my better judgment, I took a quick glance behind me to see what was going on. It was a few seconds later that I was hightailing to the side, extremely grateful for checking behind me.

Because a huge ball of swirling darkness that screamed instant death would make anyone run away for cover.

"WHAT THE F!" Kokabiel's curse got cut off as the big ball of darkness slammed right into him, followed shortly by a huge thunderbolt that nearly blinded me from my spot and rocked the entire foundation of the campus. That was soon joined by a deluge of water that seemingly rose from the ground and created a water spout that killed all the fires in the area, and lastly a few bolts of fire and ice rained through the water at him.

"WHOA!" I could not help but let out a whistle as I looked at the cloud of dust and debris scattering all over the area. That bolt of lightning, water attacks and elemental bolts were at least B-Rank to create that much destruction, and from what I could tell, that big ball of darkness was also quite a devastating move in its own way. I will need to test Ise's Boosting Ability if he could bring out that much firepower.

"CRIK! BOOM!"

Unfortunately I had to take a rain check on that, as the barrier finally could not hold back the maelstrom of power that was inside and exploded spectacularly outwards, pushing me back quite a distance and forcing me to shut my eyes tight to block out the dust. It took a while for the dust to settle and the heat to diminish before I could risk opening my eyes.

The sight before me made me groan in frustration.

"HEHEHEHEAAAAA~ well that was definitely an eye-opener!" Kokabiel crackled as he emerged from the flames, now sporting a few bruises, burns and some wounds that were ultimately non-fatal. Despite of those wounds being present on his body, his eyes were the most telling; they were not showing anger or frustration from all those attacks, there was a light of elation that spoke greatly of his rekindled desire for a strong fighter to take him on.

Crap.

"You seem to favor the combination of Eastern and Western Arts of exorcism, and that odd combo with the Sacred Gear. Clearly you are one who has trained a lot to utilize it in such a short while. That is good, you are ultimately the one that dealt the most damage to me. If I hadn't taken another bite of the fruit before the attack, that would surely be my end." He looked at the others as spoke. "Then we have the Red Dragon Emperor, The Princess of Destruction and even the Thunder Queen who inherited the powers of Barakiel."

"Don't mention that man's name around me!" Despite the situation, I nearly pointed my blades at her out of a reflex from the sheer venom in her voice. Kokabiel merely shrugged as he looked on.

"The Sitri Princess and her small group of fighters aren't too bad in the tactics department. That's from the devils, then we have the Catholics who could hang on pretty well considering the power gap. Truly, the whole lot of you are able to do so well despite the loss of your masters!" Kokabiel spread his wings wide as he let out a laugh. "Truly, I am so thankful for this generation!"

"… What do you mean by that last part?" Griselda asked while looking at him with a critical eye, no doubt noting the odd set of words Kokabiel used to describe us.

"Hmm~ oh yes, I forgot. Lower-ranked children are not permitted to know about this information. Oh well, since this might be the last fight you would ever have, allow me to enlighten you." He paused as he waited for everyone to listen to him. "During the Great War, the Fours Maous were not the only casualties from the fight. God himself was killed."

…

If there was a record for the most amount of silence in an area, I think we just broke it. It was as though the area was covered in a vacuum, stifling everything in an instant. To the side, I could see the exorcists dropping their arms and releasing their tight grip on their weapons, too shocked at the information that was said. The devils were not too far behind in both distance and thoughts, but the ones that seemed to be hit the hardest was Rias, Sona and Akeno.

"… You lie." Xenovia said softly before her voice took on a higher and somewhat shrill volume. "You are lying! There is no way that God is dead! You are just trying to distract us!"

"Oh~ am I now?" Kokabiel raised his hand and waved roughly in my direction, or rather the person behind me. "Why don't you ask my former underling over there?" From the corner of my eye, I could see everyone direct their gazes at Mitelt who had finally regained consciousness in time to hear what Kokabiel said.

"… It is true." Mitelt looked down to avoid their stares. "Father is dead. He has been dead since the Great War"

"But it can't be!" Xenovia seemed to have lost all of her strength and just buckled to the floor like a loose puppet without her strings. "How?"

"My Lord Kokabiel, is this true?!" Everyone turned to find Galilei who was no longer sporting a smile but an expression of absolute shock and despair. "Is God truly dead?!"

"Is it really that surprising? The evidence has been staring in your faces for quite a while now." Kokabiel remarked as he raised an eyebrow. "The birth of True Angels has ceased since his Death. The line of the 72 Pillars have all but disappeared along with the Four Maous. Even our side got our numbers reduced to the point that we needed time to recover. The devils understood that pain all too well by seeking the humans for procreation or reincarnation, whereas the angels sought the prayers to maintain their strength. But what can one do with such worthless sheep? They lose so much control if they find out their Shepard was no longer amongst them, so the Higher-Ups have decided to hide the truth about it." He turned to the exorcists with a dark chuckle. "I dare say even your Pope knows a little about it."

"No, it couldn't be…" For the first time since I met her, there seemed to be a crack in Griselda's exterior, showing me a hint of the despair at the knowledge. "But the Pope wouldn't…"

"As I have said, he might know or at least suspected something." Kokabiel seemingly, if somewhat disarmingly, tried to defend the Pope. "You should have some idea seeing as you are one of the more senior exorcists, but have you noticed the recent attempts at bringing in people to the church, how he attempted to restore the faith of people who questioned the teachings? How about the other signs that are present?"

With a hand, he pointed at me. "How about the magician who could supposedly create weapons that combine the aspects of both heavenly properties and hell's? Such ideas have been present before, but none were successful before. The mere hint of such a move would be catastrophic as the two would cancel each other out explosively. Someone like him should have failed spectacularly in such a creation."

He then motioned to Asia with his head. "How about the girl who was once hailed as a saint, only to be discarded for healing a devil? I have seen the Sacred Gear a few times in the past, Twilight Healing should not be able to heal any other creatures aside from humans and Angels, thus her able to heal a devil without repercussions is proof that the system was broken."

"No…" It kind of pulled my heart a little when I saw the senior seemingly break down from the truth before her. Something about this scene reminded me of the Holy Grail War when Rin discovered all the nasty truths about the Grail, Kotomine Kirei, the death of her parents and Sakura. As much as I would like her and the others to mull over the matters, this was not the time and place to do so. I highly doubt Kokabiel was going to let us go so easily, and I could really use some backup for this.

… I supposed that approach would work. It did worked with Rin after she found out the truth.

'Oh boy, this is going to be so awkward.'

There was only one way to defuse this and likely resulting in a bit of head-bashing for my part. I briefly closed my eyes and took a deep breath, before letting out my thoughts.

"So what?" Everyone looked at me with a surprised face. "So the big guy is dead? That is like old news. I never bothered with the whole religion thing, so I don't care."

"What~?" Despite the situation, I nearly chuckled at the sound that Ise made while the others looked at me as though I grew a third head.

"I am an atheist, I don't really bother with the whole religion issue." I paused before speaking again. "Well, I call myself an atheist, but that is just part of my cover story. Considering I am a magus and there are other gods out there, that is a mistake. I guess I am more liberal in the thinking, I just don't get caught up with the idea that Gods must exist in the world. There are better ways to do things than to depend on the Gods all the time."

"Young man, are you even aware of what you are saying?!" At least I knocked Griselda off her depression horse, now she was looking at me with a hint of anger.

"So young magician, you are of the opinion that humans will remain unaffected even if the news was broken out to them?" Kokabiel asked with an amused and curious expression. "That they can carry on without God watching over them?"

"Oh there will always be a fallout. There will always be people who will lose their heads and faith once they find out the one they believed in is not really there." I recalled the worlds I travelled to, recalling the reactions by the various magus who found their own research heinous after discovering something so profound it consumed them. Hell, the Holy Grail War was one for Rin and Luvia when they found out the true nature.

"Thing is, we humans have mostly been on the short end of the stick when it comes to the Gods, Devils or any other supernatural creatures since the old days. Those stories you hear about the 'Champions of Gods', those are mostly just people who were unknowingly chosen by the Gods to be their spokesman, their way of showing to others that they have a bigger stick than the rest." I continued while drawing upon the memories of the Noble Phantasms, some of which were resonating in agreement with my words. "So why not? The death of another god isn't going to affect us too much, it would be likely be better in the long run. Humanity has lived long and prospered without much assistance of the gods. Think about we have accomplished without them, I mean." I pointed at the moon with a wry smile. "You think the gods like Selene or Igaluk are able to help mankind get to the moon? Are there any who could help us check galaxies for our possible second Earth? We worked our asses off to do that. We may have failed at the Tower of Babel, but we can definitely reach the stars."

"…"

I think I may have blown their brains out with that, what with the exorcists gawking at me and the Devils looking at me with mouths open, even the fake priest was looking at me like I suddenly had a third arm growing out of me.

"HAHAHAHA!" Kokabiel was the first to recover and grabbed his head with a hand as he laughed loudly. "Oh~ this is so rich! It has been such a long time since I last met a human this interesting! A magician who doesn't care about the ways of the world and its politics! A human who truly believes in the potential of his race to surpass gods! HOHO~ this is so funny." He seemed to calm down a little as he looked at me again. "Then again it does ring some truth, after all you are that example of one who never stops moving forward without looking back."

Those words momentarily gave me pause, thinking about Rin and Archer during the Holy Grail War. Was it such a problem that I kept on moving forward? Granted I was influenced by my past, but was it a good thing at times? Archer was perhaps the biggest question mark of them all, someone who worked their hardest to become a hero, only to become a 'cleaner' of the world, made to destroy.

Was I going down that same path? Could I really do something with my life?

"Don't screw with me! I could care less about it either! All I know is you are making a mess of my town and you are attacking my friends! And you made the damn handsome into some puppet!" My thoughts were interrupted by Ise who stepped forward and glared at the fallen angel. "You think you can walk right into this town and piss everyone off? You got another thing coming at you pal! Not to mention you are getting in the way of me achieving my dream of becoming the Harem King! Get back down here so I can whip that ass of yours!"

… Really, that was your motivation? You had a good speech going for you and you had to ruin it with your desires. Not cool man.

"Hahaha! So the Red Dragon wants to be a Harem King huh? Come with me then, we can snatch girls on our way all over the world. You will get your harem in no time!" Kokabiel remarked with a light sway of his hands. And for one damning moment, Ise looked like he was about to consider it.

"That guy is so messed up in the head." Mitelt placed a hand on her face and shook her head lightly. I could not help but agreed with her words and sympathized with the Gremory girl as she ranted at Ise for having such a reaction.

… I found myself thanking the Root for not having Rider here in this world, Ise would have become putty in her hands. Well, maybe a stone putty, but still…

Someone, anyone! Hell, even the Root or Archer! Please send something my way to get my normalcy back to this situation that has become loony!

"BOOM!"

Hah~ thank you.

The distraction came in the form of explosions that were quite close to us, then with a final loud boom, someone came crashing into me, forcing me to brace myself to avoid falling over.

"Nice of you to drop in." I quipped at the gunslinger in my arms.

"Stuff it." Lyle replied with a light twitch in his eye as he got up and straightened his clothes. "Well at least you are still alive."

"You!" Xenovia and Irina rounded on him with their two swords, only to be stopped by Griselda and me.

"Have you not listened to a word that young Emiya has said? Lyle Wallner is currently our ally." Griselda paused as she looked between him and me. "At least for now."

"Nice to see you too Griselda." One had to give props to Lyle for making that sound so flat when greeting in such a setting. Further thoughts were removed when a second fellow decided to drop in.

"Well, isn't this a big gathering?" Creed landed on the ground near to Kokabiel as he remarked. Considering the damaged clothes and blood, it seemed that the others were able to deal a fair bit of damage. "Oh look, the magician is still alive! So I can still fight the bastard!"

"Seriously Shirou, I am so glad I do not have that type of attention." Ise shook his head at the maniac in front of us and I was quite inclined to agree. This guy was a little too focused on me for my liking.

"So we are having Mexican standoff huh?" Creed looked at everyone in the area. "Well I guess I am lucky, I get to pick my fighters again."

"Creed." The fallen angel narrowed his eyes at the rogue exorcist. "It appears you have a bit of difficulty dealing with a few schoolgirls considering all of them are here."

"Hey Big G. What can I say? I love my women dead, but I also like to have them squirming before giving them the final hit." Creed greeted and replied rather easily to Kokabiel. "There is nothing more joyful than to give them the faintest hint of hope before taking it away."

Man this guy was a nut-job.

"Ugh! This guy is like a cockroach, nothing seems to kill him!" Tsubasa grumbled quite loudly as she glared at the offender who had the audacity to wave back with a demented smile.

"Creed, where is Excalibur?" Galilei asked while frowning at him. Wait this guy was holding on to the sword shards?

"Oh that?" Creed made a show of pondering before pointing up. Alarm bells went off in my head and I made to pull Lyle away in time to avoid a few beam blasts that struck the ground and exploded spectacularly, forcing the others back.

"Well then, I hope you don't mind." Creed took out some charms and threw them lazily, their spells activating and flying to different parts of the area before they got connected by glowing lines and formed a barrier around the rogue exorcist, the fake priest, Lyle and me.

"Not again!" I turned to find Tsubasa, Reya and the others trying to smash through the barrier to no avail. "Emiya-kun, you need to get out of there now!"

"Oh I don't think so, girly~" I have been meaning to have a proper fight with him for quite a while now." Creed cheerfully answered back while flipping the bird with both hands. "Everyone else keeps taking him away from me, well now I will be doing it. Too bad~"

"Creed, you dare to take my prey away from me?!" I turned to find Kokabiel looking very angry for the first time since I met him. The glare he directed at Creed looked ready to set him on fire.

"Don't mind me Big B. I am just cutting in a bit." Creed smiled cheekily at the guy. "I am going to have my fun, and no one will get in my way this time." With that, he did some sort of motion with his hand, making the barrier glow brightly around us, Lyle and the priest. This was bad.

"ISE!" I yelled at him as I projected a second Rule Breaker in front of him. "Don't lose that one!" With that, the last thing I saw was a group of panicking Devils before my vision went out.

Here we go again.

Part 3

"Well, this is getting rather crazy." Siegfried had to roll his eyes at the comment Georg made of the situation. It was rather typical of the wizard to downplay the missions they were on. In this case though, 'crazy' was perhaps the biggest understatement of the year.

As instructed by Cao Cao, they had arrived to Kuoh Town to survey the area and keep a lookout for their surveillance target, Shirou Emiya. Evidently they arrived at a rather peculiar timing, as a renegade group consisting of Stray Exorcists, a banished priest and a Higher Fallen Angel came to the same town with four of the Excalibur Shards, followed shortly by a trio of exorcists wielding the other two shards. Then everything literally went downhill from there with the apprentice exorcists going after the rogue exorcists with a ragtag group of devils, with the end result of a few skirmishes that spread around town and resulting in one devil getting captured by them. That was followed up by the group of devils and exorcists coming to the academy where the ritual was taking place, upon which they split into different groups to deal with the attackers with very explosive results.

Honestly speaking, Siegfried had to find the architect who made this place. He wanted to know how to fortify their base considering the amount of damage that academy was withstanding.

"So, what is your opinion?" His thoughts on getting a reinforced room of his own got interrupted by Georg who was still surveying the area.

"You mean our target?" Georg nodded to Siegfried's query. "So far, he has proven to be quite interesting to say the least. He is quite capable in combat, tactics seemed sufficient enough, and as his style of magic is rather unusual. Have you seen it before?"

"Nope, it resembles what some schools practice, but this is a level of control I have not seen before. The manner in which this Shirou Emiya is utilizing it is very baffling. And to use it solely for close combat? I can see Cao Cao's interest in him." Georg remarked as he alternated his sights on the group dealing with the mind-controlled knight and the group dealing with Kokabiel.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but those spears he used in his fight, some of them were similar to those of Regeis Cornelius, the Stray Devil?" Siegfried asked as he tried to find their target.

"More like they are the same. If our intelligence is correct, Shirou Emiya has some unusual ability to attract Sacred Gears to him." Georg replied as he winced lightly at the thrashing one of the devils was receiving from the animated armors. "We don't know what the conditions are or for that matter, what type of gears would be attracted to him. For all we know, it may be a one-time deal or perhaps it affects only those with combative abilities."

"…" Siegfried stayed silent as he tried to locate the subject of their discussion, but his mind was going to other bits thanks to that reply. It did explain something that was somewhat bugging him for a while; his Sacred Gear [Twice Critical] started having reactions every time they laid eyes on the magician, and he could have sworn the feeling was like some child being happy to see his father again after a long time, and it was at times straining to leave his body.

The part that slightly worried him was the fact that at such a distance, the target was able to bring out such a reaction. What would happen if he were closer, say face-to-face? Would the gear 'jump ship' and just go to him without any warning?

Not to mention the fact that those things were in front of him…

"Hello~ Earth to Siegfried. Anyone home?" His thoughts were thankfully interrupted in the form of Georg waving his hand in front of him. "You okay there?"

"Hmm, yeah…" Siegfried tried to play it off, but Georg did not look convinced.

"… It's about those shards, isn't it?" Georg looked at him with a soft expression. Siegfried merely kept silent as he tried to find something to divert the conversation. Thankfully for him, that came in the form of an explosion from the gym.

"Looks like we found our target again."

=()=

"Well, this just plain sucks." I grumbled as I shook my head lightly and got off the ground I crashed into. I took a quick glance around me, noting that I was now in the portion of the gymnasium that did not get wrecked, not too far from where I was previously, but far enough to not be able to provide backup for the others.

For now at least.

"Are you okay, Shirou Emiya?" I turned my head to find Lyle cradling his head lightly with one hand.

"I think I should ask you that question." I remarked while noting his injuries. "Pardon the language, but you looked like shit."

"I'll live." Lyle winced slightly as he shook his head. "I'm going to be feeling that in the morning." I was about to reply when I saw some movement in the background. With a quick grab of his collar and a push of my leg, we barely managed to avoid having extra holes in our bodies from beams of light.

"Oh man~ I was hoping that would work…" Creed stepped out of his hiding place and looked at us mockingly. "Well better luck next time."

"You were being too obvious with your attacks." I turned my head lightly to find Galilei watching on from one of the relatively less destroyed benches. "You should have turned yourself invisible before making the attack."

"Yeah! But that ain't any fun in that." Creed said as he used his hand to signal his attack in the form of lasers raining down on us. With a grimace, I called out Rho Aias to block them before calling out my own set of swords to fire back at him and whatever was shooting at us.

"Hmm~ Interesting." Galilei looked at me with a deeply analytical eye, his voice echoing in the empty area. "Another concept, this time on defense. If I am not mistaken, that name you uttered was that of the shield of Ajax, the Greek Hero whose shield was reputed to be the strongest defense around. So you are wielding weapons that revolve around concepts of different properties like elemental sets or even shadows. How intriguing indeed."

Well since he liked my stuff so much, let's see how he like these.

I motioned with my hand to create a bunch of weapons to appear around him, creating a cage that could hurt him if he attempted to force his way out. Rather than being frightened at the suddenness of his imprisonment, Galilei got more intrigued at the weapons around him.

"Ah~ how nice of you to provide some solid samples." Galilei peered at one of the weapons and prodded it lightly, not caring that brief moment of contact was enough to cut his skin and drew blood. "Such a diverse group of weaponry, each from different cultures. Oh the amount of data that could be retrieved from this!"

Okay, really not liking the way he was saying that while looking at my projections. And it seemed the weapons agreed with me somewhat, if the shuddering they made was of any indication. It seemed the sight of my weaponry was enough to knock him out of his funk from earlier.

Bummer.

"Well, that is nice of you. At least old man Galilei is getting some fun." Creed shrugged, not caring the slightest that his boss was currently in a make-shift cage of weapons. "Now then." Creed raised his hand as six balls of light glowed around the ceiling. "Think it is time we have our proper fight." The balls of light came down to our level and gathered around his hand, combining and forming a general shape of a sword that was misshaped and…

What?

What the heck?

What in the Root's Name was that abomination in his hand?!

"Whoa there, that is some intense expression on your face." Creed remarked as he idly twirled the Excalibur in his hands. "You got a problem with my weapon?"

'You think?' I was practically growling at the sight of that weapon that was before me, and I could tell that practically all of the weapons in my Reality Marble were going ballistic at the sight of this thing in front of me. This was not some holy weapon made to protect people; this was made out of some twisted magecraft that got enhanced from the mad desires of the people around it, and it was wreaking havoc on its structure and purpose. And worse were the voices ringing from it.

[MAKE IT STOP!]

[UNWORTHY! FREE US FROM HIS CLUTCHES!]

[WE WISH TO BE MADE WHOLE IN THE HANDS OF A WORTHY ONE! NOT IN THIS MANNER AND BY THIS HEATHEN!]

[SAVE US!]

[RELEASE US FROM THIS PRISON!]

[GET THIS HERETIC AWAY FROM US!]

"So you too can hear it." A soft voice cut through the screams in my head and I turned to face Lyle, only to note the paleness and the odd amount of grimacing he had. "You can feel the pain of the shards in his possession. They want to be freed from his clutches."

"Oh yeah, Lyle here has that affinity to attract the other swords huh?" Creed hummed as he reversed his hold on the sword. "Tell me, what is it telling you two?"

"It is telling me to shut your damn mouth up for good." Lyle let out a rather uncharacteristic growl as he gripped his gun and blade tightly.

"Ha~ ha~, big words Lyle." Creed gripped the sword tighter while giving off a scary smile. "But I doubt you can back it up. After all, you are practically running on fumes."

"Maybe so, but then again, I'm not the only one running on borrowed time." Lyle looked at Creed with a steady eye. "It must be pretty hard having to maintain the high maintenance of those shards, after all this is the first time in a long while they were brought together, and considering the manner they were merged, the consumption of energy would be quite strenuous."

"Hehehe~ you are right, but that is why this fight is so much fun to look forward to! Me and the glutton of a weapon, against a broken test subject and a magician who fights unconventionally in close combat. This will likely be a fight to the death." Creed grabbed his sword tighter, making it give off a wave of malevolent intent. "And I intend to savor it."

Well this was going to be a fun night. I took a quick peek at my dance partner and noted to myself that Creed was not too far off about Lyle running on fumes, he honestly looked ready to collapse at any moment, and I would admit that we could use all the help we could get to lessen the disadvantage we have.

"Here, drink this." I handed Lyle a small bottle I brought along. "It is a tonic for your wounds. It won't last long, but at the least you can use it to get your strength back."

"… Why are you handing this to me? Should you not use it on yourself?" Lyle handled the bottle lightly while looking at me.

"No offense, but you are looking a lot more messed up than me." I snorted before gesturing my head towards the general direction of the Fallen Angel. "And as it stands, we are probably going to need all the help we can get to deal with Koko-head over there, so let's get this one done and over with."

"… My thanks." Lyle popped the bottle cap and took one big swing to down the contents, the effects of the tonic making itself apparent from the manner his body straightened and his eyes seemed to widen with a fire in them.

"You two done? I like to make some music of blood and screams!" Creed rushed forward with an application of Excalibur 'Rapidly', before twisting his body and using the momentum to swing the sword at Lyle. Thankfully he seemed to have been invigorated by my tonic and got pushed back lightly, quickly recovering and returning fire with his gun.

Undeterred, Creed transformed the weapon into some weird whip that knocked away the rounds before twirling it around to destroy the ground around him, forcing me and Lyle to back away from the area.

"Oh, don't leave! I haven't get to hit you yet!" Creed pulled the whip and changed into an odd rapier before thrusting it forward and releasing a bolt of energy right at me. I barely had time to raise my swords when the bolt hit the flat side of the swords and I got pushed back a fair bit. The swords cracked and splintered, eventually breaking from the attack.

"Hah! I finally broke your toys! Now I can WHOA!" Creed stepped forward only to backtrack from an attack by Lyle, thankfully giving me time to check on my Prana levels and to reassess the situation.

Okay, this was going to need a proper weapon. Even if it was some bastardized piece of work, this was still a weapon that was currently B-ranked from the merging of the shards. I should just bring out one of the demonic swords and…

'Ba~ Bump!"

The sudden feel of steel in my hands caught me so completely by surprise that I was really thankful for the muscle memory that kicked in to help blocked a surprise attack from Creed and forced him back a few feet away from the sheer strength in my swing. With a quick glance, I looked at the weapon in my hand and for a second time in a row, found myself so caught up in shock that I nearly dropped the weapon to the ground.

I did not even have time to consider the weapon to 'Trace', yet here it was, a Noble Phantasm that came out of its own, and not any weapon. This belonged to one of the British Legends of Old.

Specifically, the Grail Sword of Percival, which was now glowing with a faint green light while giving off defiant waves of energy towards the mockery of the King before it.

How did that happen?!

"WHOA! Now that was a good hit!" Creed sneered as he got back into position. "That actually hurt a little~"

'CRACK!'

All of us directed our attention to the Excalibur Sword, where the blade portion that was struck by the Noble Phantasm was now sporting a huge crack along the blade. Well at least I now know that the sword was not indestructible, likely due to the manner it was put together haphazardly and also the possibility of it missing a couple more shards if I recalled the information correctly. Still it was just a small crack, I need to hit it more.

The other two and the priest however seemed to be taking it a little harder.

"What!" Creed hissed at the damage, and for the first time for the fight, a hint of anger was detectable in his tone. "The heck type of blade is that?! This is supposed to be the second strongest holy weapon around, and it got banged up from some random sword with one hit!" He turned to direct a heated glare at me. "What weapon is that?"

"This is impossible!" Galilei was now sounding a little angry himself. "This is supposed to be the strongest Holy Sword around, it would not crack under some imitation! Especially after my modifications!"

"I would like to know that myself, but after I deal with you two." Lyle raised his gun and fired off another set of rounds while rushing forward to intercept with his sword. Creed merely let out an irritated sound as he healed the blade and started to retaliate. I hung back a little as I tried to cancel out my projection only to frown at the odd stubbornness it was presenting.

This was weird; this had to be the first time that a Noble Phantasm came out of my Reality Marble on its own and resisted my attempts to return it. I think I have underestimated the amount of displeasure the swords have towards the Excalibur of this world, they have taken it a lot more personal than anticipated.

Fine, I will have to work with this one for now.

I rushed forward in time to intercept an attack aimed for Lyle's neck, using the momentum to push Creed back. Gripping the sword with both hands, I swung hard to let loose a wave of Prana that bypassed the holy energy of the sword and made deep cuts one his body.

"GARH!" Creed yelled out in pain and swung in retaliation, transforming his weapon into some nightmarish combination of a scythe and a chainsaw blade as he did so. The serrated edges glowed a deep crimson before they started vibrating. With a hiss, I threw my head back just in the nick of time to have it trim my hair a little, before it continued on to a wall and seemingly chewed it to bits.

Damn.

"That sword is going to be a problem, I will need to get rid of it through you!" Creed twisted the handle and swung back the sword at me. It was so fast that I actually thanked my E-Rank Luck for making me lose my footing at the last second, having the serrated edges just grazing my eyebrows before they made contact with the uprooted tree behind me. Before I could move, a line connected to my wrist and pulled me away.

"Better watch your neck." Lyle grabbed my collar and lifted me up a little roughly. "You seriously do not want to know what Galilei has in mind with your body if Creed delivers it to him."

"I think I can imagine." I grunted as I got to my feet. I have been chased by so many maniacs after my reality marble, and the few people I had the 'pleasure' of visiting their basements… Let's put it simply that they would spare no expense to finding out about the inner workings and leave it at that.

"HELLO~" I dropped to my knees in time to avoid a quick swing by Creed who apparently used Excalibur Nightmare to hide himself and try a sneak attack. I rolled forward before swinging the Grail Sword hard, forcing him back further.

"My turn!" Lyle fired off a few rounds to keep Creed at a distance before rushing forward with his sword to attack him. At least with my tonic, he was able to keep up with Creed's weapon, but from the looks of it, that imitation of a holy sword would not last long against the Excalibur Shards.

"Hah! You really think that little toy sword is going to stop me?" Creed sneered as he took the Excalibur in his hands and swung hard, forcing Lyle to lift his sword to block the attack, but Creed changed the shape of his weapon into a whip at the last second, making it bend around his weapon and smacking Lyle in the head from its end. The force behind it was enough to knock him off his feet and barreling into a wall.

"You have no idea how much I wanted to do that to you!" Creed crackled as he used the whip to pull Lyle's sword towards him. "I will admit, your skill with the sword is good, but…"

"CRACK!"

"It is but a cheap imitation in the end." Creed said as the broken pieces of the energy sword dropped to the ground, the blade flickering before dying out. "Now that is done…"

'Crap!' I made to strike at Creed only to hit one of his solid illusions as he zipped past me and made his way to Lyle. Damn it, his gun was away from him and he was about to become a kebab! He needed a weapon! A sword!

'Ba~ Bump!'

I looked towards my other hand where the outline of a sword was glowing and I could feel the weight forming in my hand. A brief read on it told me that another one of Camelot's Knights was making his opinion known about the situation, and normally I would be worried at them just coming out without warning, but right now I would welcome it. I quickly projected a few blades to impede Creed's progress enough for me to come over and knock him away, before turning to Lyle.

"Lyle!" I yelled out to get his attention. "Catch!" With that, I threw the half-projected weapon at him who barely had the time or energy to raise his arm and get a grip on the handle just as Creed dashed forward with the end aimed for his heart, then…

'SHRING!'

Creed got pushed back again, this time with Excalibur cut cleanly in half through the center of the blade and a huge cut made diagonally down his chest.

"… Huh?" Lyle let out a slightly choked sound as he looked at Creed before looking at the dark blue sword in his hand, raising it slowly to see it better in the light. "What type of blade is this? This feels stronger than the other one, and this type of aura…" He frowned as he looked at the decorations. "This was once a Holy Sword, but something seemed to have tainted it. What is it?"

"Arondight." I answered him as I readied my stance. That reply definitely caught his, Creed's and Galilei's attentions as they all turned to me as one with varying expressions of shock.

"Wait, as in the sword that was once wielded by Lancelot, the traitor once hailed to be the Knight of the Blue Lake? But that is impossible, that is supposed to be a myth, just musings by people who had insufficient knowledge about King Arthur and his knights!" Galilei seemingly exploded with disbelief as he looked at the sword in Lyle's hand. "That sword cannot exist! How is that possible?!"

"That is something for me to know, and you to never know." I said as I stood next to Lyle. "I will talk about it later, but for now, can you work with that sword despite your beliefs?"

"…" Lyle alternated his eyes between me and Arondight with an indescribable expression before letting out a heavy sigh. "Not like I have a choice for this situation." He gripped the sword tighter and from the looks of the dark mist issuing from it, it seemed to approve of him in some odd way. "Well at the least, I currently have a big enough 'stick' to deal with Creed."

"Oh~ is that so?" Creed seemed to shake with suppressed excitement and rage as the Excalibur halves changed their shape accordingly to suit his preference. "Let's see if that stick can really stand up to this!" He raised the parted blades before slamming it down to the ground in a forward slash, releasing two arcs of light that threaten to bifurcate us. We leapt to the sides to avoid them, before I took the initiative to charge forward and occupy one side, while Lyle covered my blind spots with precise strikes. We alternated our fighting styles to keep Creed back and injuring him at the same time, with the result of him getting more frustrated at the fact he was being pushed back and that Excalibur was getting more wrecked.

"That is it! I have had it already with you two!" He threw the two halves into the air where they split and turn into six individual daggers that had a small ball of energy directed at us. "Have some lasers on me!"

"Ah come on!" I cursed as I dodged the lasers aimed at me. Seriously those were getting on my nerves. Okay then, new strategy. I needed a weapon to deal with these flying pests and…

'Ba~ Bump!"

This time, I just sighed in resignation as another one of the Arthurian swords appeared my hand. Honestly, I get that they were pissed at the shards, but this was getting ridiculous in their rebellious manner of appearing without my expressed permission.

Oh well, if they were so eager, I might as well use them.

With that in mind, I gripped the Red Hilted Sword of Balin tightly and swung hard, releasing a beam of light that split into multiple arcs and shot down the flying shards.

"Oh seriously! How many swords do you have?!" Creed summoned the shards back to him to recreate the sword before charging straight at me with speed and illusions. My response to that was to plunge Balin's sword into the ground to call forth a huge barrier of light that rushed forward and take out the illusions, leaving the real one for Lyle to shoot at.

"This is getting us nowhere!" Lyle ducked down for cover behind some old benches as he tried to avoid an extending scythe. "At this rate, Kokabiel is going to run away!"

"That is a good point." I grimaced at the reminder. It has been a good half-hour since Akeno informed us about alerting Rias's brother, but if this kept getting into a stalemate, Kokabiel would leave and likely this guy as well. I was starting to wonder if I should use some of my more explosive swords when Lyle interrupted my thoughts.

"… I might have an idea." Lyle gripped Arondight tightly as he glanced at Creed before looking at me. I only needed a quick glance at the situation to know the plan he had in mind, and there was only one thing I could say.

"You are nuts."

"So are you, considering the speed you understood what I had in mind." Lyle threw me a confident smirk and I could not help having one appear on me as well.

Ise was right, we really were similar in tactics as well.

"I guess we don't need to go over the plan. We go on three." Lyle took out his last grenade and pulled the pin. "One. Two. THREE!" He threw it over the cover before we split in opposite directions.

"Oh, so you guys have some plan? Okay, I will play along." Creed slashed at the grenade before it hit him, only for it to explode and spew out smoke, followed shortly by some flares that blinded him.

"GARRH! My eyes!" Creed started swinging the Excalibur randomly and releasing huge waves of energy to clear the smoke and try to hit us. I stood way back as I prepared a weapon in mind, this time letting one sword have its way and come out of my Reality Marble.

"Have a taste of the sun!" I stabbed the Grail Sword and Red-Hilted Blade into the ground before grabbing Excalibur Galantine with both hands and swung hard, the bright radiance of the Prana lighting up the entire area instantly and blasting out a good portion of the gymnasium and taking out the waves of tainted Holy Energy away from me. I then shoved the blade into the ground to create fissures filled with light that extended all the way to Creed, ensuring he remained blinded by the light while giving him some burns.

"Damn it! Stop with the light show!" Creed was about to say more only to get interrupted by Lyle who came at him from the side and swung Arondight, forcing him to block it with Excalbur and resulting in the sword getting broken again. "Damn you, Lyle!"

Lyle ignored him and kept on pushing him back, continuously hacking away at the mockery of a sword. In my eyes, I could see a vision of a dark knight occasionally overlapping over Lyle's body, taking up the same position and stance, seemingly channeling whatever energy and rage to the exorcist for the purpose of destroying the shards.

And it was showing results.

The first shard to be removed was perhaps the most ideal for us, Excalibur [Nightmare], thus eliminating his advantage of using illusions to confuse us. [Rapidly] followed shortly after, causing him to drop his speed significantly.

"DAMN YOU!" Creed snarled as he plunged the sword into the ground, creating spikes that erupted from the floor and spread in a wide radius towards us. Lyle threw a line to the ceiling and hoisted himself upwards while I leapt high into the air and landed on some steel frames that came off the damaged walls.

'Thank you for giving me some conductors to work with.' I recreated [Thunder Custom] and threw it at the field of spikes, sending out arcs of electricity to make them conductive and send them back at Creed.

"Oh shit!" Creed was too late to pull back as the electricity reached him, shocking his entire body with near deadly amounts of electricity and forcing his body to lock up.

"My turn." Lyle removed his line and fell straight down at Creed, Arondight aimed right for his head. But Creed forced himself to move at the last second, narrowly avoiding the strike to his head.

"STAB!"

"Got you this time, asshole!" Creed snarled as blood flowed from Lyle's wound and down the edge of Excalibur. "Now this proves I am the better of the two!"

'CHIK CHAK!' Creed paused before looking at the desert eagle that was aimed for his arm, before looking back at Lyle who had a smirk on his face.

"Bang." Lyle pulled the trigger lightly…

"BBBOOM!"

"GARRHH!" Creed let out a pained scream as the smoldering remains of his sword arm dropped to the floor and disintegrated upon impact, at the same time releasing his hold on Excalibur that dropped to the ground. Without stopping to check on his wound, Lyle raised Arondight and plunged the sword straight through his leg and a piece of steel bar, immobilizing him in place.

"GARGH! Darn you!" Creed used his remaining arm to punch Lyle in his wound, causing him to gasp in pain. "So you took my arm, big deal! What are you going to do next huh?!"

"Oh not me." Lyle gave Creed a shit-eating grin that looked out of place with the blood trailing his mouth. "Have you forgotten about our mutual dance partner?"

I dared say that it was in that moment, Creed knew that he had screwed up big time, as he turned around to find me at the far end of the gymnasium.

Right on time with another sword that wanted to make its opinion clear about the Excalibur Shards.

"Get ready for a major tanning, asshole!" I gripped Clarent tighter and poured my Prana into it, making it roar in a somewhat primal manner while the blade started to warp and distort irregularly as it prepared to take down the Excalibur Shards. The form changed from a beautiful blade to something befitting a weapon meant for a demon hell-bent on destroying everything in its path.

And right now I was sharing its desire to destroy this mockery in front of me.

"NO!" Creed struggled to get away as he continuously hammered Lyle with whatever he had on him, but Lyle merely gritted his teeth and pushed the blade further into his leg, making Creed yell out in pain and ceasing his attacks.

"Shirou Emiya, do it now!"

"CLARENT!" The Noble Phantasm responded to my call by releasing red lighting that burst forth from the blade and struck the ground, creating huge cracks in the ground as the sword strained to contain the energy.

"BLOOD!" The area around me seemed to reflect the bloodthirstiness of the sword as the cracks on the ground became stained with veins of dark crimson blood, extending in all directions as the sword let out a howl befitting a blood hound from hell.

"ARTHUR!" With a yell, I brought down the sword, releasing its pent-up Prana in the form of a blood-red burst of light that seemed to issue from the depths of hell. At the last moment, Lyle slammed his fist into the butt of Arondight, embedding the tip of it into the ground and locking Creed in his place. With a last punch to the face, Lyle kicked himself out of the way, leaving Creed to his doom.

"GGGAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" Creed let out a final yell as the Prana burst reached him, completely engulfing his body in a bright light and reducing him to nothing within seconds. With nothing to stop it, the Prana burst continued on to demolish the wall and everything else behind it, finally letting up after a while and leaving behind a scorching mess.

… Okay, Clarent was a lot more pissed than anticipated. But with that, it seemed that their desire to trash the Excalbur Shards have been sated, as the Noble Phantasms of the Knights finally heeded to my call and vanished into a cloud of gold dust.

A light thump drew my attention to Lyle, who seemed to have succumbed to the injuries now that Arondight had fulfilled its purpose for the fight.

"Hey there, need a hand?" Lyle snorted at my query but grabbed my hand and let himself be pulled up, wincing lightly at the pain. "Anything I need to know?"

"Beside broken ribs, torn muscles, a hole in my stomach and possibly a blown ear? I'm peachy." Lyle replied while shaking his head lightly to rid himself of the dizziness. He turned his head slowly to look at Galilei who was staring at the broken pieces of Excalibur with a stunned expression. "Man, I wish I have a camera right now to document that face."

"Would a phone do?" I raised an eyebrow as I took out my phone. Inwardly I marveled at the durability of the item in my hands; considering the amount of fighting it just went through, it was still working properly.

"I haven't seen that model in such a long time." Lyle noted the phone as he took it and quickly took a picture with a brief moment of glee on his face.

"Nokia at its best." I replied as I took it back. "So you think you can continue fighting?"

"Maybe, if I have time to rest and that tonic to drink, but I think this injury is going to limit my time." Lyle spat out some blood. "We would need a plan to deal with Kokabiel."

"You would need a good one then."

Before either of us could register that voice, a light spear hit the ground next to us and exploded spectacularly, sending us hurtling to the ground outside of the building. It took me a few seconds to shake off the pain and a few more to get myself off the ground. Wincing from the headaches, I turned to find Lyle on the ground next to me, bleeding and breathing lightly, but still very much alive and now unconscious.

"So boy, you are still alive~" I raised my head to find Kokabiel back with his sinister smile. "That is good, you should not have too much problems with Creed. He may be a capable fighter, but I know that you have a few tricks up your sleeve." He motioned with his hand at the destruction left by Clarent. "That much is clear."

I ignored most of his speech as I looked around the area trying to get my bearings. It seemed I was now at the edge of the courtyard, rendered unrecognizable due to the amount of damage the buildings had sustained. But one thought was persistent for some time and it only got reinforced seeing the bodies on the ground.

'What happened to the others?'

Part 4

'A few minutes ago…'

"Come on, you damn handsome! Wake up already!" Ise yelled out in anger as he tried to lay one hit on the knight to knock him out only to be forced back by the armors that have no qualms on decapitating his head.

"Damn it! These suits of metal are getting on my nerves!" Tsubasa growled as she pulled out a lamp post and swung hard at the armors, shattering them before more took their place. "They just keep coming!"

"We can't get to Galilei, so we would need to subdue Kiba properly!" Sona replied as she used the water within the area to make the ground wet to the point of making the armors sink from the weight.

"Speak for yourselves! We are just trying to stay alive!" Xenovia growled as she avoided having her head cut off by Kiba. "I have no qualms in killing him if need be!"

"You would do no such thing to my knight! Got that?!" Rias swung her arm to release a few balls of her dark energy at the armors, making them disintegrate upon contact.

"Can we at least agree on just trying to remove the device off him for now?!" Ise growled in frustration at the lack of progress. "We just need to remove it then this entire bullshit can be dealt with!"

"Agreed." Griselda remarked as she expertly took down four armors in quick time. "The main priority would be to remove the device that is supposedly controlling him or the apparatus granting him these armors. Whether we do so by disabling him temporarily or permanently" She looked at Rias without flinching at her glare. "That would be decided later."

'Works for me.' Ise thought as he used his gauntlet to block an attack from Kiba. This was getting very problematic, and the only reason they were not up to their necks in dirt was due to a certain final boss who was merely looking at them with a bored expression. It seemed that Creed taking Shirou away from him sucked the enthusiasm away from him, leaving him hovering in the air without any desire to fight them. A part of Ise felt a little insulted at Kokabiel's lack of enthusiasm but the bigger part of him and logical side was thankful.

Now the important question: how were they supposed to restrain Kiba? At least Shirou had enough time to create another dagger for their use, but now that Kiba had seen the item, he was making sure they did not have a chance to get near to remove the spider. Darn it, if only Shirou was here to help out!

Wait, Shirou?

He wasn't sure why he had that thought, but the moment Ise thought of the magician while looking at the swords littered around them, words started to come out of his mouth.

"OUI! [Sword Birth], can you hear me?!" Ise yelled loudly, not knowing if it would work and not caring that he looked stupid at the moment. "You do realize that your master is going ape-shit on us right?"

"Ise, what are you doing?" Rias looked at him with a confused expression.

"Are you really okay with this? Sitting behind and watching your master try to kill us under some weird mind control shit?!" Ise sidestepped one of the swords swung at him. "I figured a weapon like you would rather be taking on real opponents rather than be a backseat driver for some stupid mind-controlled shit!"

"Has Ise-san gotten hurt in the head?" Asia asked in a distressed tone while trying to get close to him. "Don't worry, I will heal your injuries!" Ise wanted to refute that statement, but he ignored it in favor of continuing his tactics, especially when Kiba was heading straight for Koneko's head.

"Not to mention that your master is about to go after Shirou with the intent to kill him!"

There, right there. It was for a brief moment, but the swords in Kiba's grasp clearly reacted in some manner considering his speed dropped without warning. Koneko took the chance to kick Kiba away before get back to her feet.

"… Do that again." Koneko nodded her head, likely remembering what happened during the training camp. Ise obliged her as he thought of more ways to talk to a weapon. Ise thought back to a small conversation he had with Draig regarding the effects the magician has on the dragon and possibly the other Sacred Gears.

"I thought Shirou was supposed to be someone important, like your creator, your dad or whatever he is supposed to be!" Ise said as he pushed back Kiba who decided that Xenovia would make a better target. "Are you sure you want to assist your master in hurting him, because I think that is rather stupid!"

Again, the swords reacted by pulling themselves back at the last second, denying Kiba his killing of Xenovia, who promptly swung hard at him to knock him off.

"Okay, spill it. What is going on here?" The blue-haired exorcist demanded as she readied her sword, likely noting the odd behavior.

"Emiya-kun has some weird effect on some of the Sacred Gears where they actually respond back in different manners." Rias answered now understanding the strange ramblings that Ise made. "In Kiba's case, [Sword Birth] has a way of being overprotective towards Emiya-kun."

"So that explains a lot about the odd words you were using." Xenovia narrowed her eyes. "If that is the case…"

"I will just need to keep saying something to make [Sword Birth] stop or at least give us a chance to retaliate." Ise looked at the others trying to occupy Kiba. "With any luck, we can do this safely."

"Safely? Right~" Xenovia drawled while rolling her eyes. "That is so not in our job resume." Ise ignored her in favor of thinking of more words to try and get a bigger reaction from [Sword Birth]. Unfortunately he did not have a lot to go on as Draig was not sure himself about the whole deal with the Gears being attracted to Shirou, and Kiba did not exactly talk a lot about it.

Oh well, he might as well follow the old saying. When in doubt, wing it.

"So like seriously, are you going to be gunning for Shirou's head? Some loyalty there huh?" Ise continued to talk, noting that the swords from Kiba were now displaying more noticeable signs of holding back. Unfortunately it also clued Kiba in that something was wrong and that Ise was the source of the problem. With a quick step, Kiba almost got up close and personal to Ise's face.

"Oh shit!" Ise threw himself backwards, and through the reflexes brought by Shirou's hellish training and sheer dumb luck, avoided a sword strike to the head, embedding itself into the wall behind him. He used that opportunity to kick Kiba away and get to safety.

"We just need to get him in one spot so that we can immobilize him." Reya said as she cradled her arm. Before anyone could throw in any ideas, a yell from Saji distracted them.

"Incoming!" The boy barely had time to react before a spear detonated the ground, sending them flying everywhere and hitting the ground hard. Blinking in pain, Ise directed his attention to Kokabiel who seemed to have gotten tired of boredom and just threw a spear to get some reaction.

"I might as well do something to pass my boredom." Kokabiel looked on with disinterested eyes. "So which one of you is willing to fight me?"

"Princess, you devils concentrate on your knight." Griselda forced herself up to her feet alongside Xenovia and Irina. "We will deal with Lord Kokabiel."

"Are you sure about that?" Sona asked while cradling her arm.

"I am open to other suggestions." Griselda commented dryly before gripping her weapon tighter. "Go." With that, the exorcists went forward to Kokabiel, leaving the devils to deal with the knight.

"Continue talking!" Rias leapt forward to restrict Kiba in certain areas while the others continue dealing with the armors. Ise frowned as he tried to think of more words to get a bigger reaction from the sword-type sacred gear.

"Come on [Sword Birth], you got to work with me here! Do you want your master to be doing this shit?!" Ise yelled while noting the swords around him were glowing a light red around the edges. "Okay, I don't get anything about his past or whatever resolve he has about this whole revenge crap, but I would like to think that you have his interest, and I am pretty sure his buddies does not want that!"

The effect of his words was now more noticeable, as the swords started to vibrate and give off faint hints of demonic energy, as if the sacred gear was now working to free itself, but it just needed one more push.

And Ise may have the perfect one.

"So with all that, you think that Kiba would want to get himself mind-controlled, so that he can be used to kill us and Shirou!"

'BZZT! BBOOORMFKDFFK!'

With a sudden surge of energy, the swords around the area glowed a crimson red and started to have electricity flowing between them in the air, linking each other in an unholy mesh of dark energy, with Kiba being in the thickest area. Before the knight could do anything, the energy gathered above him and struck him hard, forcing him to his knees and shocking him with enough electricity to make his body spasm and release his grip on his weapons.

"He is immobilized! Quick, everyone get rid of those armors now!" Rias called out to everyone before turning to Akeno. "Akeno, can you summon some chains to restrict him more?"

"No problem." With a gesture, several chains appeared and bound him tightly, their ends embedding themselves deeply into the ground. "Ise-kun, now!"

'This time I will get it in!' Ise pushed through the onslaught and made his way behind Kiba, who tried to make a last ditch effort of killing him by summoning a wall of swords. Despite the amount of killing intent, Ise could not help but feel it was lacking compared to Shirou's steel.

It was official, Shirou Emiya's weaponry had more intent to kill even during training. It was sad, yet currently it was the only thing going for him.

With that in mind, Ise pulled back [Boosted Gear] and gave a hard punch that broke the swords into pieces and used the opening to quickly jab the dagger into the spider-like device.

'SQUEQLLLQLR!'

'AAAHHH!' MY EARS!' Ise winced as the spider let out a shrilling squeal of pain as it writhed and struggled to free itself from the dagger. While gritting his teeth and maintaining a hold on the dagger, he used the gauntlet to grab the spider and with a firm tug, ripped it out of the apparatus and out of Kiba's neck before throwing it to the ground. "Buchou!"

"On it!" Rias called forth another dark ball of energy and personally walked to the spider before slamming the ball right on top of it, pinning it down and making sure it could not escape. Then with a final squeal of pain, the body cracked and disintegrated, leaving behind a small pile of ashes that drifted in the breeze.

"Yuuto-kun!" Rias did not give any more attention to the deed and rushed her way to Kiba whom Ise gently placed on the ground. With worried eyes, her hands went all over his body, checking for any grevious wounds. After a while, her eyes softened and she let out a relieved sigh.

"He is all right. My dear knight is safe." Rias let out small tears of joy as she lightly cradled Kiba in her arms.

"Thank goodness." Ise let out a tired sigh as he slumped on the ground. Normally he would be jealous of Kiba in such a position, but for this round he would just let it slide.

"Well that is over." Akeno also let out a tired sigh as she looked around. "Now we just take a short break before helping the exorcists with Kokabiel." Ise wanted to mention that they needed a long break, but that wish did not come true in the form of falling bodies near them.

"What the?!" Momo jumped back a little before her eyes widened at the sight of the wounded exorcists. "Shit, you guys are banged up!"

Xenovia groaned in reply as she clutched her wounds in a futile attempt to stop the bleeding, while the other two were unresponsive, seemingly knocked unconscious from their fight with Kokabiel. With a sinking heart, Ise noted the damage on Excalibur Destruction and Durandal; both of them were sporting deep cracks on their blades and the Excalibur Shard in particular looked like it was subjected to a trial of hellfire, what with the scorch marks on the face of the blade, before getting hit with a chipped hammer. It looked like crap.

"Ah, you guys have finished your little tussle." Ise looked up to find Kokabiel floating down to their side. "Hah, took you long enough."

"Kokabiel, you would not live to see the end of this day! I am going to make you pay for what you did to my knight!" Rias yelled as Koneko took over to move Kiba away from the area, but Kokabiel merely looked at them with a bored expression.

Too bored now that he was looking at him, and that was making the hair on Ise's neck stand up rigid.

"… Fine, let's get this over with." Kokabiel replied while giving out a tired sigh. "Might as well pass the time until the magician returns."

"Right then, let's!"

"BOBOOMM!"

"Sorry, you were saying something, lowly devils?" Kokabiel picked his ear as he looked down on them with disdain. "You would need to speak up."

Ise coughed up some blood while clutching his wounds. It all happened without a moment's notice; one second Rias was about to go into her speech, the next all of them were spread apart by an explosion that tore through their defensive charms and injured them deeply. It was a miracle that they were still alive with all the blood loss and lack of energy used for their healing.

"This is why I don't want to deal with your lot, you guys go down too easily, especially after I have eaten the fruit." Kokabiel let out another bored sigh as he looked at Rias and Sona struggling on the ground. "The two of you, I am really disappointed. The Red Dragon Emperor I can forgive for being weak on the basis of him being a greenhorn, but I was hoping for more of a challenge considering you are both the heirs of your clans and the sisters of the Maous. You two are a disgrace."

"Why you ERGH!" Whatever retort Rias was about to say got interrupted when Kokabiel let loose some of his energy to her back to the ground, with the others gasping for air. Ise himself wanted to scream if not for the fact his chest was being crushed to the ground.

"Silence." Kokabiel said that softly, yet the tone made it sound a lot louder. "You have no right to say otherwise."

"RRRROOOOOAAMMM!"

The pressure ceased immediately, enough for everyone to breathe properly while looking up from their side to find the gymnasium explode spectacularly at one side, with a blast of blood red energy and lightning rushing out and demolishing some of the other buildings and trees in its way before disappearing, leaving only scorched grounds and debris in its wake.

"… Yes~" Once more, Ise felt chills at the excitement in Kokabiel's tone as he looked at the building with a demented smile. "I can sense him, he is still alive. My real prey!" With that he spread his wings and flew straight for it. There was only one though in Ise's mind before he blanked out.

'Be careful man. This guy is a complete monster!'

Part 5

'Present time'

Okay this was bad.

On the one hand, Kiba was finally rid of that weird spider device on his neck and was now lying unconscious on the ground. On the other hand, the others obviously expanded a lot of their energy dealing with him and got their asses handed to them by Kokabiel. Considering the amount of firepower he possessed, I imagined that he did it with little effort needed.

"So boy, now that the minor distractions are over, shall we get back to our little bout?" Kokabiel looked down with a crimson light in his eyes. "This time we won't have any interruptions."

'Great.' I thought grimly as I looked at the others. At least they were still alive, but it looked like it would take them a while to get back to their feet, especially with Asia unconscious. I would need to get Kokabiel away from the area and…

"Oh don't worry boy." I looked back at Kokabiel who gave the others a bored look. "I have no interest in these weak people, and I can tell you would be too concerned about their well-beings to fight your best, so why don't we take this fight elsewhere?" Before I could reply, he swooped down to my level and grabbed my head, using his wings to propel the both of us well away from the others and to the front courtyard of the campus.

And that was a good 6 kilometers away. Damn.

Further thoughts were put on hold when Kokabiel threw me to the ground, forcing me to use the momentum to go into a roll and back on my feet after a few rounds.

"Right then." Kokabiel let out a dark chuckle. "Let's continue where we left off shall we?" With that, he called upon another rain of spears to take me out, forcing me to create a wall of swords to block the bulk of the attack before rolling out of the cover in time to avoid getting overwhelmed by the remainder.

"[Ice Heaven Custom]!" I commanded [Hell's Trident] to grant me a white spear with clear crystals decorating the shaft and the head made of solid ice. Twirling it lightly, I pointed the spear into the sky. "First Dance, White Hail!"

"Whoa!" Kokabiel called up a barrier in time to avoid becoming Swiss cheese as icicles rained down from above and struck his barrier like a few dozen sharp boulders at once. The barrier held for a short while before cracking and breaking apart, leaving him open to the hail that forced him down to the ground.

Good, now for the restraints.

"Second Dance, White Moon!" I traced a quick circle on the ground with the tip before stabbing the spear in the middle of it, making the outline glow brightly. As Kokabiel tried to stand up, the ice around him created a rough circle around him and glowed brightly, before more ice started to grow and extend towards him. Seeing this Kokabiel poured a bit of his Prana into pushing away the icicles before flying upwards to avoid the ice on the ground.

Too bad that would not work for this spear.

The ice on the ground momentarily stopped before bursting upwards the fallen angel, who was clearly taken off guard by it and attempted to move away only to have one of his wings caught in what would be a perfect pillar of ice. For a while he was stuck, then with an annoyed snarl Kokabiel used a spear to cut off the wing just in time to see it get encased in ice.

"Well, that is something you don't see every day." Kokabiel mused as he watched the pillar cracked and break apart along with his wing. "That was rather innovative. Clearly you have pushed the use of [Hell's Trident] a lot further than most would anticipate after gaining a Sacred Gear. I dare say not even Regeis could be this innovative."

"Which begs the question, what else are you holding back?"

Seriously, why must you have such a disturbing expression when asking that? I am not into guys damn it!

Further thoughts on questioning the Fallen Angel's preference were put on hold when Kokabiel took another quick bite of that apple, restoring his missing wings and healing his injuries again. Though it was concerning, there was something I noted; it seemed the apple's properties diminished with each bite, what with the Prana Levels that he gained being lower than the previous times, not to mention some of his injuries did not heal completely, leaving behind some scarring. And he was also looking a bit rugged from the ongoing fights we were having.

That meant he was not invincible, just a little harder to kill.

And I specialized in dealing with these type of creatures.

"Third Dance…" I held the spear similar to Lancer as snow and ice gathered behind me. With a hard push, I leapt forward and drew back my arm. "White Storm!" With that, I threw the spear right at Kokabiel, the snow and ice that accumulated behind me following suit in a spiral of freezing chaos.

"Oh shit!" Kokabiel folded his wings and poured his Prana into creating a barrier between him and the spear as it hit him, pushing him back as the torrent of ice and snow came soon after and enveloping the area. I prepared Kanshou and Bakuya in my hands, my eyes fixed on the spot where Kokabiel was standing.

Please just go down already!

"RROOOWWWOOAAAAA!"

My prayers went unanswered as the torrent of ice and snow seemingly bloated and blew up spectacularly, enveloping the area in a thin layer of ice that snuffed out the flames and made everything looked like some freakish remake of a snow storm. A few seconds later, the snow cleared enough to find a smirking Fallen Angel.

Not that I was surprised, it was a good thing I watched out for him. I rushed forward and swung both swords at him, releasing them and creating a fresh set on the go as I attempted to restrict his moments with them. A few more strikes and a couple more of the Twin Swords, and I got his area of movement restricted. Now all I need to do is to break the swords and…

"Oh, that would not work on me boy."

I barely had time to put up my guard when Kokabiel slammed into me with his entire body, this time with more force behind it that I ended up losing my footing and have me back flipping on the way to a broken fence, resulting in my arms getting tangled in the mesh.

"Oh dear, you are caught like a fly in a web." Kokabiel let out a dark chuckle as he raised his hand to call forth a dozen spears all aimed at me. "So let's see how you will get out of this one." I grimaced as I hastily pulled my arms to no avail while preparing my mental trigger to call forth a shield. This was going to be a tight race!

'STABB!'

Then again, I may not have too.

"GARGH!" Kokabiel yelled out in pain as he looked at the spear of light embedded in his hand, the pain distracting him enough to have the spears vanish in a cloud of dust. With a snarl, he pulled it out before glaring at the little blonde girl hovering above us. "So the little underling has finally entered the battlefield huh?"

"Mitelt, what are you doing here?" I coughed as she came down to my level. "You should be taking cover."

"And you should be dealing with Kokabiel at a distance, not going mano-o-mano with some close combat weapons." Mitelt rolled her eyes while replying back as she used her spear to cut the fencing. "Besides, I can't have my caretaker die on me, otherwise who will deal with those devils and make those pancakes for breakfast?"

"Nice to have your priorities in order." I replied back flatly to which she replied by sticking her tongue out, but my heart was slightly lifted at the usual banter we have. Rubbing my wrists to circulate the blood, I turned to find Kokabiel looking at us with a raised eyebrow.

"… I am sensing some odd tension between the two of you." Kokabiel gestured with his finger while looking at us with an odd expression. It took me a moment to process what he said and it nearly brought my mind to a halt considering he was asking that in the midst of a fight. "Are the two of you?"

"OH HELL NO!" I interrupted loudly with a thankful thought that I was able to hide the blushing on my cheeks and that I had dirt and blood on me to help with the cover. "Dude, not that way! She is like jail-bait!"

"Are you kidding me?!" Mitelt also added in her bit, likely realizing what her former employer was referring to and was now sporting a bright blush as she pointed at me. "Who the hell would want to be with this idiot?!"

"Are you sure you two aren't?" Kokabiel tried again with a hint of a smirk that reminded me of a certain Wizard Marshall, and that pissed me off big time.

"Yes, we are sure!" We both yelled while throwing our respective weapons at him at the same time, letting them meet midway and exploding spectacularly, forcing him back a bit.

"… Okay then." Kokabiel shrugged back easily as he called out two of his spears. "Then let's have a dance."

That was the only warning we had before Kokabiel figuratively became a tornado of violence as he rushed forward with the spears and spun in mid-air to hit the both of us, forcing us back a distance. Without stopping, he continued to attack with an aggressiveness that might make Lancer salivate at the prospect of fighting him, not once stopping in his thrusting and stabbing, not once bothering with defense.

"UGH! I forgot how tenacious he is!" Mitelt called up a few spears and stacked them to form a temporary barrier that was barely effective against Kokabiel's barrage of attacks. "I could use some help here!"

"Way ahead of you!" I called several swords and broke them into arrows before firing them in quick succession with my bow, forcing Kokabiel back from the explosions and giving me enough time to grab Mitelt to safety. "Okay we need a plan."

"No shit, Sherlock." Mitelt blew a few hair strands off her face as she looked at her former boss grumpily. "I thought you said the Maou is coming with the hour, I think it is past that!"

"Well, I think this is a case of bad police work. They will only get here after the whole thing is over." I remarked flatly as I noted the timing. There was maybe ten more minutes until reinforcements arrived, but considering the crap we were in, we really needed some help.

"Okay, new plan. You provide support fire from the air, I will get his attention. Use that moment to restrict his movements." I projected a katana belonging to a certain Servant I knew.

"How are you planning to do that?" Mitelt asked while eyeing the elongated weapon, her raised brow a clear indicator of how puzzled she was at my choice.

"Trust me." I gave her an enigmatic smile before directing my attention to the Fallen Angel. With a big leap, I rushed forward at Kokabiel and swung hard at him, mentally thanking Fuji-nee for her lessons in Kendo as I was able to deliver several strikes at his body. But as always, rather than feel pain and death, Kokabiel seemed to be getting high from the fight.

"HAHAHAHA!" He let out a raucous laugh as he parried some of the strikes and gave me a few injuries of his own. I gritted my teeth through the pain and pushed him back enough to get some distance before calling out to Mitelt. "HIT IT!"

"Incoming!" The sky lit up temporarily before an array of light spears descended on the battlefield, showering Kokabiel with explosions and kicking up a lot of dust. For good measure, I projected extra swords and sent them at him to keep him on the ground. It won't be enough to kill him, but it would give me enough time to use a certain maneuver. I grasped the katan with both hands and held it parallel to the ground. With a few breaths, I steadied my heart rate and calmed my mind.

"Hiten…"

"ROOAAAHH!" The hailstorm of spears literally broke apart to reveal Kokabiel battered and bruised, now visibly showing some exhaustion from the continuous fighting we have done. That brief of lapse was all I needed

"TSUBAME GAESHI!" With a few steps I was in front of him and without giving him time to react, swung the sword and letting the experience of the sword guide me to using the technique to cut Kokabiel down. This should be easier in some odd way.

After all, a Fallen Angel was technically a bigger and darker version of a swallow right?

My first swing was able to cut deeply into his torso, forcing him backwards and putting him in position for my second swing that took away another wing of his. But before my third swing could take his head, he saw it fit to detonate his spear in between us, throwing my last swing off course and only making a deep cut at the side of his neck. My thoughts got cut off as the blast carried me all the way back a few feet.

"Well, that was something." Kokabiel touched his neck and looked at the blood on his fingers. "I have heard of fast moves, but that was something else." He looked at me with eyes that spoke of his age and years of war. "With one move, to create three consecutive strikes, that is not humanly possible even if augmented by powers."

Clearly you never met the Assassin from my world, or the Sasaki Kojiro of Japan at least.

That aside, this was getting very repetitive. No matter what we threw at him, this guy just won't quit. Seriously, I was kind of glad the Holy Grail War does not apply to this world, he would be a monster to deal with as either a Lancer or a Berserker.

"Now then, let's continue our little bout." Kokabiel called up a ball of light into his hand and slammed it into the ground, making the ground explode spectacularly in front of me and showering the area with dust, reducing my field of vision.

"Surprise!" The smoke on my right parted to reveal a very disturbing looking Kokabiel and a spear that was aimed for my neck, and I have no time!

Oh damn it!

"BBOOMM!"

"GRAGH!" I got treated to the sight of Kokabiel getting blindsided by an explosion that sent him crashing through a wall a few feet away. Slightly dazed, I turned to find Akeno with that ever-so-sadistic smile of hers.

"Hello Emiya-kun. Sorry for the long wait." She waved as the others came into view. "We needed a bit more time to get ourselves back on our feet."

"You won't hear me complaining." I turned to find a slightly panting Sona Sitri as she came up to me. Noting the similar states of the other females, I reached into one of my dimensional pockets and pulled out several cloaks to cover themselves up. "I would presume that Kiba has been dealt with safely?"

"Indeed." Sona replied while gratefully taking the cloak and wrapping it around her body tightly. "At least we do not have to worry about the armors or him attacking us anymore. Unfortunately we may not be able to deal with Kokabiel in our current state."

"That said." Ise punched his gauntlet into the palm of his other hand. "We can at least lay a few punches on him. That much he owes us for the mess of the town."

"Right then." Rias conjured up another ball of dark energy as Kokabiel got back up to his feet. "Time to get back the interest he owes us." With a throw of the dark energy, the battle restarted with a loud explosion.

"BBBOOMMM!"

I could only say that the resulting series of attacks were something of scuffles mixed with magic and extreme violence. There was no order, no rules, just all out chaos that somehow managed to be retained within the barrier. Rias's group were dealing out the heavy attacks while Sona's group was providing support. On the other side of Kokabiel, the exorcists were dealing with the close combat aspect with Griselda directing the attacks to Xenovia and Irina, making sure that the Fallen Angel could not fly off so easily each time the devils brought him down to the ground. Mitelt provided artillery from a distance while I dealt with the middle and long range attacks.

Yet despite the overwhelming firepower, Kokabiel looked thrilled at the prospect of fighting all of us at once.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!" Kokabiel grabbed two spears in his hands and spun on the spot, redirecting some of our attacks at each other while dodging some of Rias's dark ball of energy. Then with a move that screamed cheating, he actually grabbed hold of Akeno's lightning and threw it back at the devils in quick succession, causing them to lose focus due to the electric shocks. He followed shortly by stabbing his spears into the ground to detonate and blast the exorcists away.

"This is getting my blood boiling~" Kokabiel crackled as he directed that animalistic smile at me. "Let's kick it up a notch!" Gripping both his spears, he threw them both at me before using his wings to shoot a few more feathers, forcing me to play defense and getting myself pushed back further.

"OUI, BIRD BRAIN!" Ise came charging with several rounds of those 'Dragon Shots', making Kokabiel pause in his attacks. But those attacks did not do much damage and apart from distracting him, it had the unintended effect of irritating Kokabiel.

"You call that an attack?!" Kokabiel raised an arm and swing lazily, the resulting gust of wind pushing Ise away and sending him to the wall, making him cough out blood before sliding down the crater he made.

"Darn it!" With a grimace, I called out Arondight to help me get some of my strength back and rushed forward to attack. With a ruthlessness matching the dark knight, I started to push Kokabiel back enough for Akeno and Tsubaki to aim their fireballs and lightning at him, before Momo and Reya threw in their own set of attacks, causing the ground to buckle and collapse under us in a cloud of dust, making us lose our footing temporarily.

"Think we got him?" Ise panted as he collapsed to his knees. He got his answer shortly afterwards in the form of the smoke parting and black feathers spewing from behind.

"ARHG!" Everyone yelled out in pain as they buckled from the feathers stuck in various parts of their bodies, leaving only me and Mitelt still relatively fine.

"That was not too bad, but still not good enough." Kokabiel commented as he used his wings to clear away the smoke and dust. "Guess you lot are not ready for this type of assault."

Darn it. One last shot.

"Mitelt, bring on as much spears as you can!" I called out to her as I created two [Thunder Customs] and led the charge to attack, using one spear to conjure the lightning while the other to assist in close combat. Then I decided to take a leaf out of Archer's book and started to call out several other spears and swords, alternating with a new one each time the current set got intercepted by Kokabiel, thus giving me the constant edge of being unpredictable while pushing Kokabiel back to the spot I wanted him to be in.

"YES! This is what I want boy!" Kokabiel crackled even as some of the weapons' sharp edges cut deeply into his flesh and drawing blood. "Now we are getting somewhere!" Then with a bravado that defied all reason, he proceeded to punch all of my weapons with his bare fists before grabbing my head and lifting me off the ground. Then with a roar, he threw me straight up into the air before following me shortly and delivering a drop kick.

Thankfully I had something in mind.

'SHNGK!'

"AAAHHRG!" Kokabiel yelled out in pain as he stopped in his motion to deal with the sword attached to the leg that was about to hit me. With him distracted, I called out to Mitelt.

"NOW!"

Kokabiel looked up from his leg to find a few dozen spears aimed straight for him. With a snarl, he made to fly away only to widen his eyes at the sight of the spears homing in on him like heat-seeking missiles. The more he dodged, the more the spears seemed to speed up.

"That is new! Someone has been training hard!" Kokabiel directed a quick glance at Mitelt with an expression that almost resemble pride at his former subordinate. "Looks like you can create these type of spears now."

"Wait till you see what they can do next!" She raised both her hands to gesture her spears to cluster together and with the sounds of gnashing gears, merged to form very rough imitations of birds. "Have some on me!" She sent them off with a hand, making them fly around like some predator hungry for Fallen Angel's flesh.

"OH~ how exciting!" Kokabiel flexed his fingers. "Let's try them out then!" He grabbed the sword stuck in his leg and yanked it out before throwing it at the incoming barrage of spears. With a light clenching of his fists, he called out several balls of lights of different colors, each one glowing menacingly in the dark, before directing them at the make-shift birds. To no-one's surprise, they hit the birds and broke them into many pieces, but what no one else expected were for the pieces to glow and reformed themselves to back to their original forms. Their speed then went up considerably as they circled around Kokabiel, making a few explosions as some hit his body.

"Oh, so they multiply and explode with such intensity!" Kokabiel commented on the sight with an air of discussing on the weather. "Not bad, but…"

"SHRING! BOOM!"

"AAAAAHHHH!"

"Not good enough dear." Kokabiel said as the birds exploded spectacularly from his barrage of spears, pushing me back while taking Mitelt by surprise, leaving her with deep wounds and a crippled wing that sent her crashing to the ground.

"I will admit, you have gone far Mitelt." Kokabiel started walking as a ball of energy formed behind him, the size growing in volume and the glowing became brighter to throw darker shadows in all directions. "Before you were only able to dispatch maybe a few low-level devils and your abilities were subpar. Now you are able, if only just barely to, create slightly more complex constructions within the few months you were away, not to mention the increase in both your energy and timing in your attacks. Truly." He looked at the ball behind him, the size now a bit bigger than a beach ball. "You earned the right to die a warrior's death."

"Well then…" He looked down at Mitelt with an expression that spoke both of his seriousness to end her life and oddly enough, almost fatherly pride at her strength to force his hand. "I hope to see you on the other side."

'No!' I rushed forward ignoring everyone's yells of surprise and got in front of Mitelt just as Kokabiel threw the huge ball of energy. Without hesitating I hugged Mitelt close to my body and turned to ensure that my back was facing the attack and blocking Mitelt from it and waited for the pain.

"BBOOOMMM!"

I could hear the deafening explosion, followed shortly by the feeling of searing heat from the blast. I held Mitelt tighter as I braced for the pain that was to come any second.

Any second…

Any second now….

…

… Okay, I was supposed to be feeling excruciating soul-crushing pain right about now. So why was that not the case?

I opened one eye slowly to see what was going on, only to have both eyes opened in disbelief as Excalibur Destruction hovered before me, the deep cracks and discoloration showing that it withstood the full weight of Kokabiel's onslaught. Alongside it were the broken pieces of the merged Excalibur, the pieces of metal melting and breaking from the attack. Despite all of that damage, both swords seemed to stand resolute against the might of the Fallen Angel.

"The Excalibur Shards… They are reacting again." Griselda muttered as the others slowly got up from the positions.

"Hoo~ how very interesting. To have nullified my attacks by sacrificing themselves…" Kokabiel was thankfully more occupied at the behavior of the shards and thus halted his attacks for now. "That type of loyalty is rather new, the only time that ever happened…" He paused as his eyes narrowed on both the shards and me. "It was when King Arthur was facing the demon horde during the final vestiges of the Battle of Camlann, after he got wounded by his son Mordred."

I did not have time to react to that particular bit of news when the shards shone brightly to the point that all of us had to raise our arms and close our eyes to block the glare. In the blinding light of gold, I watched with slight disbelief Excalibur Destruction continuing its deterioration, golden light glimmering from the ever expanding cracks that was going around its body. The other shards by its sides were in turn breaking apart and losing all the metallic components that made them up. A loud crack drew my attention back to Excalibur Destruction which seemed to have come to the end of its destruction and simply broke apart from the hilt upwards, crumbling away like fine sand. That was about as much as I could see because the amount of light coming from the shards became too great even for me to handle and I had to shut my eyes completely to block out the glare.

It lasted for a few more seconds before the glare diminished to somewhat manageable levels, and the rest of us dared to risk blindness by opening our eyes a bit. The sight of the six glowing shards that shone like miniature suns caused some of the devils to gasp while the exorcists seemed to stop breathing.

As for me, I was feeling a little suffocated in the presence of the shards that seemed to be radiating the full might of their energy.

[Please make us whole.]

[Let us help you, Child of Steel.]

"What did you call me?" I voiced out loudly, ignoring the manner the others looked at me as I looked at the shards that hovered before me, the image of the disfigured shadow standing behind them and looking at me with an odd light in that empty eye socket. "And why do you want to help me?"

[You are a Child of Steel. One who wields the weapons of past, present and future.]

[We have seen your destiny, one that traversed beyond the passage of time.]

[We have seen your determination to defy the fate set by the world. That same determination shared by both your king and ours.]

[You understand the pain of war, yet you do not let it break you like many.]

[You have the strength to carry the weight of the world on you, we seek that feeling once more.]

I shook my head in slight confusion and frustration. Nothing made sense from all of this. "Even if you said that, I am not worthy to wield any of you, so why?"

[We sensed our counterpart in you, and the item that belonged to the Fairies of Old.]

[The Relics of the Fairies do not bound easily to one even if they are mere imitations.]

[You are a custodian worthy to hold on to them, so we deemed you worthy to wield us.]

[We believe you can make us one again.]

[We deem you worthy to make us whole.]

[We desire to be whole again.]

[Make us whole. Make us whole.]

All the shards started that weird chant again and this time the others seemed to hear it as Mitelt held on a little tighter while the others looked around them looking a bit spooked. I ignored them in favor of focusing my attention on the shards hovering around me. I understood what they were saying, but I still don't feel I was the right choice. That however got questioned when I felt a tug in my Prana, and before I knew it, one other weapon decided to make its opinion.

"What~" Mitelt let out a sound as Caliburn glowed radiantly in front of the shards, its presence seemingly silencing all in its wake. For the shards themselves, they started to circle around it in a manner that reminded me of fireflies around an open flame, no doubt feeling an odd kinship with the sword. For me, I looked at the sword with mixed emotions; the fact it actively came out on its own meant that it wanted something to happen. Did it want me to help the shards out? The sword of the chosen king lightly pulsed at that point, as though it agreed with my question.

Was that what it wanted?

Was that what Saber wanted?

For a moment, I found myself on a hill, with green pastures around me, and a blonde-haired-girl sitting next to me while lightly holding a flower and a plush toy of a lion, her sword laid on the grass next to her. She looked up from her spot and gave me a smile and a look that I remembered from the last time we saw each other before she got sent back to her timeline.

A second tug of my Prana made me pause and peer into my Reality Marble momentarily, and found myself another sword and a certain scabbard that wanted to help them, if only just barely. With two swords of Saber's thinking the same thing, there was only one thing I could do to respond.

All right then, let's do this thing. I put forth my hand slightly and let out a steady breath.

"I am the bone of my sword.
Steel is my body. Fire is my blood.
I have created over a thousand blades.
Forged from Heaven's Feel, tempered through Hell's Flames."

The faintest outline of Excalibur appeared in my hand, just barely visible in the glow of the shards which intensified greatly in its presence. Then without a moment's notice, they flew right into my half-constructed projection and aligned themselves along the center length of the blade, following shortly by Caliburn which aligned itself parallel to Excalibur and laid on top of it, making the half-formed projection shine brightly. Amidst it all, I could feel the projection taking form and power in manners I did not understand, but right now it mattered little.

Right now I have to perform the final forging. I closed my eyes to focus on the projection and began reciting the seven steps.

First Step. Judging the concept of creation.

Originally made by the faes and the help of the Christian God, it had passed through years of damage and abuse after King Arthur's time, but still remained undamaged at its core in the form of the seven shards after all these years. One became lost in time, the six got scattered through the Halls of the Vatican.

Second Step. Hypothesizing the basic structure.

Each shard was made with a design to emphasize their separate abilities and their associations with the various factions of the church, but the original form was that of a small European broadsword roughly the length of a man's arm and a huge guard to symbolize the Knights of the Round Table. One star for every knight that served King Arthur in his time.

Third Step. Duplicating the materials that made up the sword's composition.

Originally of divine materials, the shards were restored and made into their respective forms through copious amounts of steel and iron, with a lot of unnecessary metals serving as decorations, thus reducing their effectiveness by a great margin. With materials of normal perceptions, their strength was reduced.

Forth Step. Imitating the skills used for its production.

The original sword was made through the hands of God, while the later incarnations were created through alchemy and hours of iron-forging by multiple blacksmiths. Each incarnation was blessed copiously by the top Archbishops to ensure that evil does not prevail against them. This in turn changed their nature slightly from one of acceptance to one of exorcism.

Fifth Step. Sympathizing with the experience of its growth.

A total of thirty hands have touched the shards in the years that passed, yet none were as worthy to wield them as their original owner. Each time they were touched, the shards wept at the undeserving swordsmen who thought of emulating their king.

Sixth Step. Reproduction of the accumulated years.

Each shard has spent an average of thirty years with each user separately, but together they wield at least a few hundred years' worth of experience. Each has seen a different type of battlefield, but none were glorious to them. For they understood that war was never glorious, only sadness that came from the rightful master.

Final Step. Excelling its manufacturing process.

In the moment of great need, the shards shall find a way to be made anew. In that moment of great urgency, they will fulfill the dream that [Creator] had for Heaven and the other spirits of the earth. In that moment, all shall know its name as the sword that belonged to the King, the one called…

And with that, the Rekindled Light of Promised Victory descended on us all.

=()=

"Woah, my eyes!" Ise shielded his eyes from the glare with his hand, squinting through his fingers at the latest creation that Shirou made on the spot. Seriously he had more or less given up on what Shirou could create at this point, it seems that given the right materials and time, he could make almost anything.

Wonder if he could create a weapon with the ability to see through objects? That would be very nice to have and even nicer to not have the Kendo Club hit him all the time.

"What is happening?!" Xenovia yelled as the glare got even brighter to the point that everyone was actively blocking their eyes with anything they had to minimize the glare. Even Kokabiel was momentarily stunned by it and was using his wings to block it out.

"I am not certain, but I think the shards are finally getting what they want! They are merging into one!" Sona dared to peek between her fingers before shutting them again to block out the light. "Damn it, what is with the light show?! At this rate, forget the neighborhood, the entire town will be wondering what is going on here!"

The glare persisted for a while before slowly diminishing and shrinking to form a glowing shade of light that hovered around Shirou. With his eyes watering, Ise dared to open his eyes to see what was going on.

In all honesty, if he were asked to retell this moment in the future, he would probably have a hard time trying to put it into words.

In Shirou's hand, an extremely ornate sword shone brightly as though a second sun had descended from the heavens. It was a particularly large sword that was as long as Shirou was tall, with a golden hilt that resembled Excalibur [Destruction]'s on a smaller scale and a royal blue handle that ended with a gold pummel that resembled that of Excalibur [Transparency]. At the area where the blade met the handle, the golden guard sported an encircled cross inscribed with an unknown language around the edge that made Ise's head hurt just looking at them, with thirteen stars spread evenly around the other side of the guard. The blade portion of the sword was decorated with a pattern that crisscrossed itself elegantly with blue and gold accents, creating diamond shaped patterns upon which six of them were decorated with patterns that Ise instinctively recognized as symbols representing the Excalibur Shards that made up the sword, leaving the middle diamond empty presumably for the last shard to appear.

It was totally different from the fused Excalibur from before, that was a weapon that seemed twisted by the desires of mad men who wanted to start a war. But this was something else. That work of art could be used as a weapon, but at the same time, a symbol to rally behind. Somewhere at the back of Ise's head, the answer was obvious.

It was a symbol of promised victory to the people the user was sworn to protect.

"It's… beautiful" Griselda sounded like she was choking on tears as she looked upon the sword.

"It's weird, we are this close to it and yet…" Rias also sounded like she was holding back deep emotions that threatened to overtake her. "We are not harmed, and this feeling… is so warm…"

"That is… the sword of the king…" Xenovia's arms sagged as she looked at the golden sword with slightly fearful admiration. "Is it possible for such a weapon to be this beautiful?"

"That light…" They turned to find Galilei with tears running down his face and an expression of feverish reverence as he struggled on his knees. "I had forgotten how beautiful it was. The light of one who has undergone trials to protect the country. The light of a warrior who stands tall above all else. The light of one who would keep standing against all adversaries. The light of the True King chosen by Excalibur!" With that, he collapsed and went unconscious with a somewhat demented smile on his face. Ise paid little attention to him as he consider what Galilei said while turning back to Shirou. For a brief moment, he thought he saw two figures standing by his sides, one of which was a young girl dressed in a blue dress and armor, the other was a young man dressed in armor and with a crown on his head.

A true king chosen by Excalibur?

Shirou?

Part 6

This was weird.

I lightly gripped the sword as I raised it to my eye level and evaluated what I had created. I was using an image of Saber's Excalibur and Caliburn to form the basic foundation, and the Excalibur Shards took over to fill in the gaps of that construct, creating a sword that was similar to Saber's but totally different in both nature and abilities. There were certainly elements of the other shards present in the design and from what I can feel, the bulk of the power was based from them. The shape alone was a dead giveaway since it resembled nothing of Saber's Excalibur, Caliburn or the original form of this world's version at all; this was a very big weapon to say the least.

This was not Saber's Excalibur of my world, this was King Arthur's Excalibur of this world. Yet at the same time, the opposite could be said. This was similar to Hell's Trident when it came into my possession, my projection seemingly merged with a weapon of this world to create something entirely different.

This was a totally different Excalibur.

"Now this is exciting!" My thoughts got broken by Kokabiel who looked on from above with a very disturbing expression. "It looks different from the last time I have seen it, but then again the shards have been passed around for many years, so their individual abilities would have become distinctive enough to be called their own. And whatever you made seemed to have formed the basic shape for them to use. But just because you can combine all the shards here, it won't mean a thing if you can't use it." He spread his wings wider as his smile became more predatory. "Let's see if you can handle that blade, boy!"

For a moment I looked at him, then lowering my sights at the sword, I let out a sigh before speaking out loud to the sword. I was not sure why, it just felt like I should get it out of the way just to be on the safe side. "I personally don't feel worthy to wield you, but until we can find you a new owner worthy of your approval, I will hold on to you. For now, are you willing to work with me for this fight?"

[Yes] The blade responded with a voice that was combination of all the shards' voices and with a bright glow of light. I lightly nodded at it before turning to Mitelt. "It is best to stay back. I do not know what is about to happen."

"But…"

"No buts" I interrupted her and looked her in the eye. "Right now, the both of us are injured, so I do not know what tactics we would use on this fight, and from the looks of things, this will be a very big one." I placed a hand on her head to get the point through. "In the event I get taken out, I will at least try to wear him out enough for you and the others to get rid of him, or least buy enough time for the reinforcements to come along. So please let me take this."

Mitelt bit her lip as she alternated her sights between me and her ex-boss, then with a sigh she looked at me with that same spitfire look in her eyes. "Fine, but you better return in one piece, got that?"

"Got it." I lightly patted her head before standing up and looking at Kokabiel who had been very patient all this time. With another sigh, I gripped the sword tighter in my hand. "Let's do this."

[Your orders be fulfilled!]

The blade shone brightly as I felt my Prana being drained somewhat abruptly, making me slightly wince in pain as the sword hungrily took in my Prana like a man who had come across an oasis after a week without water. From the palm that was gripping the sword, bright lines started to travel up my arm, stopping midway past my elbow and leaving me slightly heaving at the drained feeling I had. I had my doubts, but it seemed that having both Caliburn and Excalibur as the templates ended up creating a weapon with higher Prana consumption.

No matter, if this could help me deal with Kokabiel, I would take that risk.

"You done preparing?" The Fallen Angel spread his wings once more with his maniacal eyes shining a bright red in the night. "If not, too bad!" He rushed forward with a spear in hand, aiming straight for my chest.

Not a chance.

With a quick and somewhat loose swing, I deflected the spear and accidentally breaking the ground in its path. Without missing a beat, I grabbed the handle with both hands, feeling the heat from the sword as wind started to gather around the blade. Gripping it tighter, I brought it down hard to cleave him in half, but he barely sidestepped in time to avoid the edge, lightly clipping his feathers before a deluge of light blew past him and struck the already wrecked school, causing it to break apart and collapsed to the ground.

"SHIROU EMIYA!" The indigent sound of Sona's scream only served to hammer it home that I wrecked what's left of the infrastructure.

… Whoops?

"HAHAHA! Now this is interesting!" Kokabiel crackled as he took flight and summoned his magic circles again. "Let's see how you deal with these then!" I merely grimaced slightly at the number of glyphs appearing in the sky, each one promising a very painful death if I was not careful. I was going to need a lot of speed to deal with this.

'Thump~ Bump!'

"Have a dose of heavenly artillery boy!" He roared as he brought his hand down to unleash the arsenal in his control right at me. I made to move as far as I could when the sword glowed brightly and suddenly everything around me seemed to slow down to a snail's pace. I blinked a couple of times to make sure I was not imagining it, before turning to look at the glowing sword.

Was it another application of the shard? The closest one I could think of was from Excalibur 'Rapidly', but as far as I could tell, it was only to speed up your momentum a little, not slow time down.

'Or maybe not.' I frowned as I looked at the attacks aiming for me. It was a little hard to tell from all the glare, but the spears and bolts of elemental energy were moving really slowly. It seemed that either the Excalibur Shards were slowing my perception of time to the extreme, making me see things a lot slower, otherwise the shards may have gained some new ability that involved the Fifth Magic somehow.

Well in that case…

I gripped the sword harder as I ignored the feeling of my Prana getting drained more, then jumped high into the air before imaging the burst of air that Saber used with her sword. The sword responded to my thoughts and launched me with a huge burst of Prana that brought me straight at Kokabiel. It was oddly satisfying seeing the expression on his face slowly change from a demented smile to a shocked look as time seemed to speed up and I raised my sword to strike him down. A brief flash of light and I found myself descending slowly to the ground while Kokabiel was lying in the middle of a freshly made crater, the look of incredulous surprise on his face making me wish I had a camera on me.

"What the heck just happened?!" I overheard Ise yell out in shock as I hit the ground lightly. "One moment he was about to become shish kabob, the next he appeared over there and Kokabiel is the ground! How the heck did he move that fast?!"

"Indeed." Kokabiel shook off his surprise quickly and stood back up with another crazed smile. "It seems that [Rapidly] has attained one big upgrade. So it only begs the question, do the other have it?"

Let's try that out then.

The sword glowed briefly as I leaped forward and started to lay heavy attacks at him, the resulting swings let loose a torrent of energy that dug up a lot of earth and sent the others stumbling back. The fallen angel however was not going down easily as he matched some of my attacks easily and managed to get a few hits at me. I ignored them and concentrated on utilizing the shards as best as I could, sifting through the memories of the past users and understanding the manner it was utilized.

There, I got one.

"Twelve wings of the Holy Dragon!" I briefly commanded the shards of [Rapidly] and [Destruction] to activate and changed the form of the sword to a single bladed longsword that glowed brightly and let loose twelve blasts of energy that resembled the wings of a dragon, each one far exceeding what I had conceptualized as they hit Kokabiel before he could attempt to dodge them. Without stopping, I raced forward and swung hard. Kokabiel jumped back in time only to yell as part of his chest got cut deeply.

"How?!" Kokabiel looked the Excalibur and saw his blood gleaming on the edge of some invisible edge that extended past the blade edge. "Oh~ clever, creating the illusion of a shorter blade so I won't notice the attack." His smirk went wider. "Very nice~"

Okay seriously, I think I understood the feelings of the Chicago magus when he complained about the creatures that came after him. This guy was really disturbing me.

Okay, regular attacks was not going to cut it, and whatever heavy attacks that do work were something that needed more time and manpower, both of which I was lacking since the others were down for the count, so unless I could make doubles of myself…

'Thump~ Bump!'

I looked to the sword in my hands to find it glowing and the Prana levels rising slightly. Out of a hunch, I applied my Projection onto it and found that it was trying to tell me something.

Maybe…

'Let's give it a shot.' I gripped the handle harder as I focused on the image I had in my head. For a brief moment, I experienced the sensation of getting pulled at the limbs and heat coursing through my body, before it died down and I heard another gasp from the others to know that I was done with that action and I opened my eyes to see the result.

Well, call me a Monkey's Dead Apostle. This was definitely NOT what I had expected.

By my sides, I was seeing different copies of myself, each wielding a smaller version of the Re-forged Excalibur that had the design elements to represent their individual properties. My clones seemed to reflect them in their choice of clothing that made me think modern versions of the Servants I have met. But only one caught my full attention.

After all, the one wielding Excalibur [Mimicry] was a splitting image of Archer with a more modern update of his clothes.

"Okay then." I stepped forward while glancing at the clones. "Shall we pluck his feathers and knock him down a few notches?"

"Hmph~ that's fine and all, but one question to you." The Archer-lookalike rested the blade on his shoulder and gave me a smirk that reminded me so much of that fellow. "Think you can keep up with me?"

… Even his tone and words were alike damn it!

"More like you having to keep up with us! Let's get moving!" As one all six of 'me' rushed forward towards Kokabiel and attacked at different angles. From the get-go, I could tell that the similarities with the Servants I had encountered in my world and others were not limited to their clothes; there was a certain element in their fighting styles that were reminiscent of the Servants and it seemed to reflect the type of swords they were in possession of. The one I dubbed 'Assassin EMIYA' seemed to favor using Excalibur [Nightmare] to create ghostly apparitions of himself to confuse the Fallen Angel while the one wielding [Blessing] seemed to be reflecting the Caster Class more, given the amount of spells he was using in conjunction with the Noble Phantasms he was calling out.

"HAH! You will need a lot more than cheap parlour tricks boy!" Kokabiel momentarily wrapped his wings around him before opening them violently, the sudden burst of wind pushing us back a distance.

"Well then, try this up for size!" The 'me' wielding Excalbur [Rapidly] make it float behind him and created a few spears around him from [Hell's Trident], then with a ferocity that could match Cu Chulain, pounced towards Kokabiel and started alternating through the different spears in his arsenal, differing greatly in his use from fire to ice to phantasm summons.

"Ha~ you would have to do better than~ WHOA!" Kokabiel narrowly dodged an attack from the version of me wielding Excalibur Destruction and for whatever reason was sporting a rather aggressive expression and a glowing red eye.

"Well then, how about a bit of bone crushing?" That version growled before using an abnormal amount of strength to swing and hit Kokabiel, sending him flying from a wave of holy energy and crashing through a wall. He then proceeded to call upon a pair of gauntlets and greaves before going to town with the fallen angel, constantly laying down the heavy attacks with reckless abandonment before finishing it with an uppercut that sent him flying upwards. He then jumped straight up and used both his arms to slam Kokabiel back into the ground, creating a small crater.

Okay, I think I know which Servant this guy represented.

"My turn!" The one I dubbed 'Caster EMIYA' called forth several swords of different properties and elements by the dozens and arranged them in a pattern I recalled from an opponent I have fought a few years back, before using a charm to connect them through rays of light to create a huge magic circle with runes of different cultures and periods. "The righteous king that stands in the East, the virtuous queen that hails from the West, the knight that rides from the North, and the guard that defends the South, aid me in my quest to take down the enemy that threatens thy kingdom! Grant me the lances that topples mountains, shakes the heavens and smother nations!" The magic circle shone brightly in a wide array of colors, before a multitude of elemental powers shot down upon the field and concentrated on the Fallen Angel that was just barely getting out of the rubble.

"What?!"

"BOOM! BMB! CRKGK!"

I stabbed the sword into the ground and held on for dear life as the shockwave from the explosions shook the ground like a 4.2 earthquake and created more cracks in the ground. This time I could tell that these explosions might be a bit much for the illusion charms, as I could see in the distance cracks forming on the barrier surrounding the school. At the rate it was going, it would be a miracle if we could hold it together. Even if the illusions held firm, there was no way of explaining the shudders.

"HHAAAAAHHHHH!"

That yell was followed shortly by a wave of energy that actually forced back the rain of energy spears and shatter the magic circle, releasing a torrent of heat and wind that threw us all off our feet and sent us to the ground. In the midst of all the dust and gravel, I could see my clones dispersing into gold dust and I could feel the Prana used for the clones returned to me partially alongside the shards.

The sound of chains was the only indicator I had before a yell drew my attention to Ise who was currently gripping onto a piece of steel with his gauntlet while the other was entangled in chains made of light, his arm starting to burn and darken from the holy energy.

"Not bad magician, not bad at all." Kokabiel said in a tone that spoke of both frustration and excitement at the same time. The smoke cleared enough to show a battered and bruised Kokabiel who was still trapped within the barrier, one arm holding up the chain that was trying to pull Ise in. "I admit, this is something totally new to me. In all the years I could recall and what offhand knowledge from scholars, none indicated Excalibur having the ability to split the owner into several copies. But I will not be taken down so easily, not while one of your own can be used as a way out!"

"Like hell you are taking me you dumbass!" Ise yelled as he strained to keep his hold on the bar and resisting the holy energy. "I would rather cut my own arm off than to let you escape from that trap!" Before I could remark on that, someone beat me to it.

"That is fine, you can go right ahead if you wish to do so, but before that could you take a step to your right?"

"Huh?" Ise momentarily turned his to see who talked, just in time to avoid a sword shot past his face and right at Kokabiel, who barely had time to move before it connected with his hand, exploding spectacularly and destroying the barrier in the process.

"Whoa!" Ise flew off from his spot having been thrown off from the blast. I forced my way to him and grabbed him by the collar in time to avoid a collision with some of the sharper debris.

"Thanks." Ise panted as he gave his thanks before directing a glare at the doppelganger wielding a bow. "Hey, the 'Shirou' over there, you nearly killed me!"

"Hmm, I wouldn't worry too much." The one I dubbed 'Archer EMIYA' shrugged without a care to the world. "You are too stubborn and perverted to die from a shot like that."

"…" Ise looked at him in disbelief before turning to me. "Shirou, per chance are you…"

"No, that is not the real me, it is just some other version of me." I replied while massaging my temple. Technically he was me, so was Archer since he was my future version, but this was getting ridiculous. As I was thinking this, 'Archer EMIYA' dropped next to us.

"So then, looks like we have to share this dance partner." My doppelganger quipped as we watched Kokabiel get back up with his left arm destroyed again. "Think we can take him?"

"Let's have some hunting to do." I gripped the sword before we spilt up to attack him at both sides. We immediately release our hold on our respective shards to free our hands for more comfortable weapons, in which case was our favorite set of weapons.

"You and your trinkets!" Kokabiel spread his wings again to make a temporary barrier to protect his weak spots while parrying our attacks. We took turns to strike at his limbs and head, but it was very slow and the worst part was Kokabiel not even reacting to those attacks as much as I hoped. If anything, he was getting his high from those hits if the steadily rising levels of Prana were of any indication. I caught the eye of 'Archer EMIYA' and we silently exchanged an idea.

Time to do our favorite move.

"Spirit and technique, flawless and firm."

We threw our blades at Kokabiel at the same time before we rushed forward with a fresh set. Kokabiel for his part was able to parry three of the blades while twisting his body to avoid the fourth, using the momentum to prevent any of our blades from hitting him. His wings made it doubly difficulty to get a good fix on his next spot.

"Our strength rips the mountains."

"Our swords split the water."

'Archer EMIYA' threw Kanshou at Kokabiel while I threw Bakuya, the two blades getting attracted to each other and flew straight at the fallen angel. With a snarl, Kokabiel lept and spun his body to avoid them, only to yell out at the other two that we both threw and hit his wings, clipping him and sending him stumbling to the ground.

"Our names reach the imperial villa."

"Trace…" 'Archer EMIYA' called forth a third set of Kanshou and Bakuya, the blades showing the familiar signs of Prana overloading the structure.

"Overedge." I readied the elongated blades in my hands and started at Kokabiel, who only started to get to his feet and realized the situation he was placed in.

"The two of us cannot hold the heavens together."

"CRANE WING!" 'Archer EMIYA' reached Kokabiel at the same time as me and raised his set above his head.

"SIX REALMS!" I yelled out as I lashed out my swords at the sides while my doppelganger swung at Kokabiel's head, our blades meeting at the same moment as the other swords in the air, making every one of them shatter into tiny shards that went straight at Kokabiel and forced him back into the ground with multiple explosions that shook the area.

"Ha~ Hah~ Hah~" I panted while grabbing my legs. The amount of Prana that was used to create the clones was seriously ridiculous, I don't think I had this much trouble trying to supply Prana to some of my more gluttonous weapons.

"Well, that ought to do it." I turned my head lightly to find a similarly pale-faced doppelganger in a similar state. "Even if he is not yet dead, he should be sporting some injuries." I was about to comment on that when the smoke stirred, then…

'SHRING! STABH!'

"GARRHGGG!" I let out a yell when a light spear pierced my right arm, making me fall to the ground in agony. Through hazy eyes, I saw 'Archer EMIYA' glowing and disappearing in a cloud of dust, the spear that was lodged in his chest clattered to the ground noisily. With a grunt and a grimace, I grabbed the spear and pulled it out of me.

"Now that, little boy, really hurt me a lot." I turned my head and groan at the sight of Kokabiel getting out of the crater and looking every bit excited and angry at the attacks. "Now I am royally pissed at the pain you gave me."

I merely snorted and got to my feet using Excalibur as a makeshift crutch, focusing on healing the wound on my arm while checking Kokabiel for any signs of weakness. It was harder than I thought, the drain of my Prana was getting more intense by the minute and I was not sure how long I had left to maintain it.

At least now he was sporting some wounds, mostly due to him being distracted from all the clones attacking him at once. I could see how the magic attacks were able to affect him from 'Caster Emiya' and the surgical attacks from 'Lancer' and 'Assassin' were enough to slow him down, and quite obviously were the ones done by the combination attack and 'Berserker EMIYA…

'Hmm, there is an idea.'

I placed the sword in my left hand and lifted my arm in a manner that would have the sword above and somewhat behind me while grabbing the image in my head.

"Trace On."

The sword let out another heartbeat before glowing brightly, its form enlarging and distorting to the point of being double my size, until settling on a form that resembled the weapon that Berserker used in the war.

"Trigger off."

In my mind's eye, the targets were set. Upper right arm, collar bone, the windpipe, the temple, diaphragm, ribs, groin and the thighs. Eight targets before the final blow to the heart.

"Firing…"

The image of a Greek Giant that fought against Saber…

'Be faster, be stronger. Be like a Berserker."

"Ba~ Bump!"

"Nine Strikes Excalibur Works."

For a moment there, it felt like I was actually very angry.

=()=

Kokabiel was honestly stumped and excited at the human before him.

He had fought many fighters in his life; be they human, devils, angels or even demigods, he would always end up fighting them to the death. There had been a few close calls before, but he was always able to snatch victory in the end. In his entire life, there had been at least five that could compete for the top spot.

Now he was having second thoughts as to whether this could take the top of the list as the best fight he ever had.

It was not the first time he fought a human, and it was not rare, though certainly not common, for him to fight a magician. But this magician was actually able to fight him in close combat and last so long against him. He had many unusual weapons that he instinctively guessed to be related to other mythologies and legends around the world. Furthermore, something about him seemed to connect with him, as though he too was weary of the stagnant flow of the world and wanted something to happen.

Yes, if he had to guess, this human was just born with skills of war but in a time of stagnant peace that grated him wrongly, and now he could use those skills with relish.

The smirk on his face went wider as they continued to exchange blows that occasionally slip past their defenses and leave small wounds on their bodies. Yes this was someone whom he could relate to greatly! Someone who understood the fragile peace of this world, and the unrelenting dullness of such a world, one who was forced to sit back and have his fangs dull away as he watched innocent sheep go about with their boring lives.

Now here he was, fighting a higher being. The magician was no doubt feeling the adrenaline pumping into his system, relishing the blood that flowed from his wounds as he dealt out blows that would incapacitate most people. And he was no doubt hoping that this fight could last as long as it could!

Kokabiel himself wanted that. He wanted to fight this person at his best, enjoy the euphoria that came from this fight, use every tactic and every bit of his power to win before crushing him completely. Only then would he be satisfied.

Only then could he prove to Heaven that he was better than Michael.

Only then could he prove to those weaklings that they were wrong to stop the war.

Only then could he help his Father.

Only then can he atone.

Kokabiel frowned inwardly at that random thought as he let off a blast to vanquish four of the doppelgangers and fought off the remaining one with his original. He was not sure why that happened, but he was starting to have odd thoughts coming into his head for a while and it was beginning to irritate him. It seemed that seeing the Excalibur Shards come together did something to him; he would need to rectify that quickly.

"Trace On."

Kokabiel snapped his head at the boy who raised the sword over and past his head, and could only gaped at the design that the sword had formed into. He did not know how to describe it, but if he had to try, he would say it was an apprentice smith's impression of a rock slab that was roughly chiseled into a huge sword with very coarse edges, and it was clearly meant for a giant than a regular human. It was like twice the height of the boy! What the heck was that boy thinking of creating that weapon out of Excalibur?!

"Trigger Off."

He blinked for a moment out of an instinctive need to block off the glare, and he found himself facing a creature that he could only describe as a giant with the bare likeliness of a human. It was at least three times taller than the boy in front of him with nothing but an armored kilt and metal bracers on its wrists and ankles. The body was covered with a skin that had a color of dark leaden grey and its muscles looked too dense to be achieved from normal training, not even through a reckless course of drugs and human experimentation could render that type of figure. This was furthered highlighted by the bony protrusions that emerged from its forearms and elbows and its face that was distorted by the thick veins that bulged from beneath the skin, giving it the appearance of being in constant rage.

But perhaps the thing that was stopping him from attacking the boy now was the manner the creature was looking at him with those eyes. It was as if the giant would love nothing more than to tear his limbs apart, smash his body to bits before crushing his head like a grape. And if that was unsettling enough, its eyes were an odd match, one eye showing a golden gleam while the other showed a crimson light.

What the hell was that giant?!

"Firing." The boy raised his head to reveal a black right eye and a glowing red left eye and what looked like steam coming out of his mouth as he growled out his words. "Nine Strikes Excalibur Works."

What happened next could only be described as a whirlwind of smashes and slashes; each one of those strikes hit a part of his body like a thousand cannonballs hitting him at once (he should know, he had that number hit him in the 13th century) and more to his annoyance, of all the places to be hit in, why did one of them had to be between his legs?!

It was a good thing he made love all those years ago, at least he had some descendants to prove he was a male.

With that out of the way, he barely had time to move his wings and spear in time to impede the giant sword aimed for his heart, stopping it enough to just barely pierce his chest. Using the momentum, he lifted his legs and kicked the boy aside, removing the sword and getting him back into the air. He panted heavily and coughed out some blood as he took stock of his situation.

Aside from the loss of his arm again, he was missing two of his wings, his left leg was sporting deep gashes and his right leg was barely hanging on by the bones and tendons. His upper torso was showing gaping holes and blood was practically streaming from the wounds inflicted by the human. He panted hard as he tried to regulate the amount of energy to heal his wounds, but it was slow going; even if he took another bite of the apple to get back the energy, all of it would be used to keep his body functioning, he could not afford to take another hit.

He turned to look at the human who was glaring up at him while lightly panting from the exertion of using that attack. His arms were slack by his sides with the now default form of the sword barely gripped properly, and his frame was clearly showing the early signs of fatigue. The wounds he had also inflicted on him were leaking blood at a rate similar to his, and Kokabiel did not need his Second Sight to know that the human was running low on his energy.

But Kokabiel ignored all of that and focused on the boy's eyes. Despite the blood flowing out of him and the pain that was undoubtedly accumulating on his body, his eyes held no hesitation, no weariness, only a bright flame that promised to keep burning until either one of them was taken out of this fight.

This was it. This was the moment where they would put their soul into their strongest and final attack. This was what would define them both.

And he intended to go all out on him!

With another bite from the apple, Kokabiel let out a loud roar as his wings spread wide once more in its dark magnificence, the feeling of pain replaced by the euphoria of adrenaline as light spears of different colors appeared above him in the sky, occupying every visible spot above the school until the darkness got pushed away from the ensemble of colors. The amount of energy emanating from them was enough to make some of the vegetation wilt and the water spewing from the pipes to start boiling.

In response, the boy straightened his posture and let out a roar of defiance as the Excalibur glowed brighter and the glowing lines that were on his arm extended their reach to the right side of his face and seemingly over his torso if the glow under his clothes was of any indication. Behind him, the demonic Sacred Gear shone a deep crimson before spears of numerous designs and powers appeared behind him alongside other swords of legends and old.

"I will say this, it has been a very long time since I have been injured this much." Kokabiel commented as he looked down at them. "The last time was during the Great War when I faced off against Michael and Gabriel. Those two did quite a number on me. So be honored boy, no, Shirou Emiya." He locked eyes with the magician in question. "I will show you why I am called the angel who leads the army of 365,000!"

"Oh are you kidding me?!" He could hear one of the male devils scream out in frustration and fear as figures of light started to form around Kokabiel, quickly numbering to hundreds. The forms quickly solidified to form what appeared to be angelic bodies of armor, their weapons held firmly in their hands while the six wings of steel shone brightly in the glow of the magic circles and light spears above them.

"Surprised? There is some truth to me leading the angels to war, but what most didn't know was that as one who leads the angels to battle, I gained the ability to call forth my brothers who have served me from the ages of old. This was how the legend came to be." Kokabiel raised his own spear to rally his troops. "So then Shirou Emiya, you think you can handle my army?"

"That depends." The magician looked at him with a defiant smirk. "Think this is enough swords for you?"

"LET'S FIND OUT!" With that, the spears descended on the academy, followed shortly by the animated armors who directed their weapons at the group.

"Trace Bullet, Continuous Fire! Start!" The magician raised his arm to command all his weapons to defend against the onslaught. A few meters stood between them, then centimeters, then…

Zero.

"BOOM! CLANGK! POHJKK!"

The two sides met in the middle of the grounds and all hell broke loose as the weapons crashed into one another. Swords and spears broke into pieces while armors got shredded and ripped apart from the sheer volume, neither side giving way to the other. The few armors and light spears that got past the magician's defense were dealt with by the devils and the exorcists.

Kokabiel paid them little heed and focused on the magician. Through the blinding flashes of light, he could see the human parrying attacks from his armors while focusing on the onslaught of weapons at him. That boy's level of endurance was certainly remarkable; not as much as the likes of Hercules or Perseus, but then again those individuals had the blood of the Gods flowing through them.

This magician had no blood of the Gods in him, but he had something in him that seemed to yield to no one, be they mortal or otherworldly. There was a fire in him that seemed ready to burn the world around him, and a will that would challenge those higher on the food chain.

Yes, if he had to describe it, he had 'Steel' in him for some reason.

Kokabiel pushed those thoughts away and refocused on the magician. This was meant to be a fight to the death and the boy was willing to challenge him head on, so it was only right to reply back in the similar fashion. With a quick flap of his wings, he dived through the river of weapons and went right up to the magician.

"Let's enjoy ourselves, Shirou Emiya!" Kokabiel immediately went about jostling his spear while using his wings to maneuver his body and deliver kicks and punches at the magician. The boy responded by splitting the Excalibur into two swords and alternated the powers between them as he took on Kokabiel and the armors. They both of them were completely blocking out the world around them and focused mainly on one another as they continued to draw blood from one another. They did not bother with defense and focused solely on trying to gain an advantage on one another, with him using his armors and spears against the magician's swords and spears. Then for one brief moment, the boy stumbled.

This was it! The Final Moment!

Kokabiel kicked the boy backwards to gain a bit more distance before calling upon the remaining armors that survived the onslaught of weapons. Half of them formed a wall in front of him and aligned the shields to form one huge barrier, while the remaining half directed their weapons at the magician and a ball of energy started to gather at the spot in front of them, rapidly growing in size and power. In response, the magician gathered the rest of the weapons and launched them at an attempt to disrupt their attack, but Kokabiel made sure to position his defensive armors to protect the offensive armors. He could see the other devils and exorcists trying their best to break through the blockade for the boy, but too bad for them, the armors had charged their attacks and the ball of plasma was now towering over them.

With a victorious smirk, he dropped the hand that served as his signal to tell the armors to launch the ball of plasma at them, the amount of energy coming off it was clearly making the devils and exorcists suffer as they hit the ground hard on all fours, fruitlessly trying to get back up. But the magician did not go down, if anything he seemed to stand taller in defiance, and the last thing he saw before the ball of plasma hit the ground was a smirk on his face.

Then the ball exploded.

"ROOOOOOOAAAAAAAGGGGG!"

The amount of power that went into that attack was enough to force Kokabiel and his army of metal back a fair bit, even the barrier erected by the armors was cracking under the strain to control it while a huge pillar of light shot up from the point of impact, lighting up the entire area and creating a huge mushroom cloud high up in the atmosphere. Kokabiel paid little heed as he watched the pillar for any signs of the magician. This was his strongest attack that had no equal, no one was able to take on this much firepower and he had increased it through the fruit he ate.

This fight was finally over!

It was his victory!

"BREAK, RHONGOMYNIAD!"

That shout was accompanied by a sound that could only be described as the ripping of the world itself, as the pillar of energy suddenly got split right in half and what looked like a whirlwind of light and fire tore through all of his armors, reducing them to mere pieces of melted scrap metal, before continuing its way at Kokabiel. He barely had the time to spread his wings and moved away when the attack reached him, and for a brief moment, he thought he saw a long spear in the midst of the energy, the shaft seemingly breaking apart in the maelstrom. All thoughts were removed when the spear seemed to stop a few feet away from him and exploded in a spectacular fashion, sending out shrapnel and hot flames at him and pushing him further back, the force alone breaking off the weak portions of his limbs and letting them fall to the ground where they got burned instantly.

'I don't believe it, he took on my unstoppable attack and lived!' Kokabiel thought deliriously as he hovered in the air, trying to keep the blood loss from affecting him too much. That was harder than it needed to be as he was reeling from the light-headedness from using that much strength, and something about that spear seemed to scream at him that it was something to be avoided at all costs.

What was that weapon?

"You liked that?" His thoughts were interrupted by the magician who was barely standing, but from the looks of it, he was in arguably better shape than the others who were sprawled all over the place, their injuries and lacked of mana finally conquering them. "That was just the thunder." The magician slowly raised the sword to his level, the glowing emitted from it getting brighter and seemingly warmer. "Get ready for the storm."

In that brief moment, the sword shone brightly, making Kokabiel blink on reflex. When he opened them, he saw to his shock three figures that were definitely not there before.

The one that stood on his right was a young man with platinum blonde hair, dressed in dark blue robes that had plates of armor attached to his forearms, chest and his legs. He held a spear in his right and wore a golden crown that was simple in design but nevertheless majestic.

The one on his left could be considered the man's fraternal twin, being a young girl with blonde hair that was tied into a tight bun, dressed in a blue dress with white frills and adorning armor that covered her chest, arms and feet. She held a golden sword that seemed to scream familiarity to him as she glared at him with emerald eyes.

But the one that got his attention was the figure that stood behind the boy. The figure was that of an old man that was dressed simply in a white robe that seemed to have a mind of its own as it fluttered in the area. Light obscured the head hiding the facial features, but as one of the Angels of old, Kokabiel would never mistake that light nor the warmth that radiated from the figure. And with a sudden clarity, he saw through the light and recognized the face.

"Father?"

And with that one word, memories came flooding back to him.

=()=

He was once a high-ranking angel that stood by his [Father's] side.

He was once a brother to the seraphs of old.

He was once a great warrior of Heaven.

He led his army to victories, taking down [Father's] foes by the thousands and always being able to come to him with a smile. Try as he might though, a part of him did not liked the idea of Michael being favored by [Father], and chosen to lead their brethren. Even more so when Michael was chosen over him to lead the battle against the original Lucifer. In his attempts to have one-up over Michael, his pride took over him and eventually led to his falling.

That did not sour his relations with [Father] though; disappointed he may have been, [Father] still tried to reach out to him at times to talk with him in his many attempts to maintain peace between the two sides. For his part, he was content; in his new role, he could at least help his [Father] with dealing with his enemies with less restraint. He would at least continue his job still.

Until that day came, when [Father] died in the Great War.

"WHY MICHAEL?! WHY!" A wounded and delirious Kokabiel nearly destroyed his vocal cords as an equally injured Azazel tried to drag him away from the battlefield. "You were supposed to protect him! You are supposed to be by his side, so why did you let him die?!"

His despair and anger got worsened when the news of a truce came to them after a few days from their final battle. To hear those words from Azazel felt like poison going through his veins, threatening to take him down on the spot he stood. All the blood they had shed, all the sacrifices they had made, all that he had done for his [Father], was to be rendered moot by this truce.

A truce made by those lowly devils, the cowardly Azazel, and lastly, the angel whom he despised with all his heart for even going to ignore [Father's] need for aid.

How was that fair?!

Try as he might, he could not undo their decisions, and much of his objections got overruled and to his outrage, many had dismissed him as some warmonger just wanting to spill more blood. In his madness and despair he was forced to temper his emotions and went about taking down stray devils while many of his old comrades became weary and slack.

In time, his despair would give way to unfathomable rage.

In time, his bloodlust would consume him from the inside out.

In time, his clothes would be soaked in the blood of the enemies he took down, and his wings would be stained to a black that many would flinch in fear at the sight.

In time, his visage became twisted to resemble the ugliness of those he felt were the monsters of heaven.

In time, he would forget why he even took up the sword in the first place.

In time, he had forgotten the face of [Father]…

…

What had he turned into?

=()=

"What… was that?" Kokabiel muttered as he blinked, only just realizing the presence of tears going down his face. How had he forgotten the reason for doing what he did? How could he let himself get controlled by dark emotions?

"You ready for this?" He turned to find the boy raising the golden sword to his side and gripped it tightly with both hands. In response the blade shone even brighter to the point it lit up the school yard and the surrounding area while the energy build up caused the ground to shake and the wrecked building to crumble. And to Kokabiel's eyes, he could see the two figures at his sides taking up similar positions, seemingly overlapping his body.

"EX…"

What had he been confused about all this time? What had he lost sight all these years? What had he been struggling while drowning in his emotions?

'Dear Father, what have I become?'

"CALIBUR!" The boy yelled before swinging down the sword like it was the hammer of judgement.

At that moment, 'Light' galloped.

At that moment, 'Light' roared.

The energy that came out of the sword's strike surged and accelerated into a torrent of holy energy that shot forth at Kokabiel and like a dragon rising to the heavens completely consumed his body together with the darkness of the night.

'Ah, what an odd feeling.'

Kokabiel thought as his clothes and wings caught on fire. He was burning yet it was a comforting warmth. He should feel angry at his defeat, yet he was oddly calm. It felt like a heavy burden was lifted from his shoulders.

'So I finally fall in battle huh? Well, guess there are worse ways to go.'

Through his good eye, he peered at the magician who had given him the fight of his lifetime. The boy was probably feeling conflicted at this, the taste of victory likely to be both sweet and bitter at the same time, someone who could relate to his fighting only to be left alone again, never knowing whether he would find another to give him the rush.

'Ah, that's right. He won, so he needs to be rewarded.'

Concentrating whatever remaining powers he had into a small ball, he let it fall gently through the beam, watching it go silently to the magician. It was a small matter, but for someone as proud as Kokabiel, the fact that someone was willing to face him head on with his fully power was worth his attention and respect.

'You won this fight, Shirou Emiya. Perhaps this small token can aid you in the future.' Kokabiel thought in his head as he closed his eyes, letting his body break apart silently. It was such an unusual thing having his body destroyed, yet he was fine with it.

'My Son…'

Kokabiel's eyes snapped open, wondering if he was suffering hallucinations at that moment. 'It couldn't be!'

And in that moment, as though it was a trick of the eye, a fair hand appeared in front of Kokabiel, while a voice called out to him, beckoning him to come back home. Weakly, Kokabiel reached out to the fair hand with more tears running down his face and an expression of disbelief and joy. As he grasped it, his black wings turned white, his dark clothes changed to a simple white hammock, and his visage transformed into one that could only be described as angelic.

Part 7

"…"

Ise blinked a few times as he peeked out of his cover, the sweat pouring down his face and his heart hammering away from all the excitement that happened. Near him, Rias and the others also started to emerge from their cover, their eyes looking over the damage that strewn across the entire academy, the scorched schoolyard, a semi-conscious and injured Lyle, the unconscious priest, and finally the lone human magician who was standing in the middle of the battlefield holding the golden blade of the king.

No sign of Kokabiel.

"You are kidding me?" Ise turned to Tsubasa who was looking at all the damage before focusing her attention on Shirou. "Did Emiya-kun just take down Kokabiel?"

"Inconceivable." Koneko nodded her head while wincing from her pain.

"A high-tier Fallen Angel, from the first generation of Angels. And Emiya-kun took him out?!" Rias muttered as she started to take the information into her head. "That's amazing."

'You got that right. That was truly amazing.'

Ise shook his head slightly to rid himself of the lightheadedness that caused his vision to sway, before getting out of his hiding spot and sluggishly made his way to Shirou. He paused for a moment in front of some broken glass panes to take stock of his own injuries.

Boy, did he look like crap?

His arm was dangling lifelessly with blood running down the length of it, his legs were twisted at the joint in odd angles, and his neck was sporting a very big gash courtesy of Kiba's attack. His head was sporting several bruises and a deep cut that was bleeding quite a fair bit. He was feeling a little lightheaded from the blood loss and a little winded from the fight.

He was so going to feel all the pain in the morning.

Ise snorted as he continued to make his way to Shirou, noting his state as he got closer. On the surface he looked normal, if one was willing to look past the glowing lines that was running along his arm that gripped Excalibur and the torn portions of his clothes that seemed to barely conceal what looked like old injuries. But having trained with Shirou for some time, Ise have gotten enough intuition to look past that, and he got his conclusion.

Shirou was seriously burnt out and seeming in the throes of a painful collapse.

It was not hard to see the drops of sweat going down his face and the heavy breathing that he was making to tell Ise that Shirou had expanded a lot of his 'OD' and was running on fumes at the moment. He wouldn't be surprised that Shirou would drop face first to the ground. And the cause was likely to be that glowing sword. Based on what he was told by both Shirou and Kiba before, that sword was drawing a lot of his energy as fuel, and that was a very dangerous thing to do.

As he was within talking distance, Ise paused momentarily to watch a ball of energy descend from the spot where Kokabiel was last seen. It slowed its descent and hovered closely in front of Shirou, who looked at it with a close eye. Then with a tired sigh, he conjured up a small glass jar that sucked the ball into it and capped it before disappearing into that weird dimension pocket of his.

"Shirou, I think you can put the sword down now." Ise said as he dragged his legs to him. "The fight is over."

"Ha~ Ha~ Not yet…" Shirou panted hard as he turned his head, and Ise could not help but stop fearfully at the sight of his hard eyes that seemed to have turned a dark shade of gray. "There is… one more nearby…"

'What?!' Ise twisted his head around to find any other enemies around them. "I don't see any."

"There is one… right over there!" Shirou swung the sword in a huge arc and let loose another beam of light past Ise's right side and towards one of the buildings of the academy.

[Divide! Divide! Divide! Divide! Divide! Divide! Divide!]

"BOOM!"

An explosion smaller than before appeared a few feet away from him, sending out a wave of hot air that blew Ise off his feet and sent him hurtling to the ground. Blinking the dust out of his eyes, he turned to see a sight that could be described with two words.

Majestic, and terrifying.

The explosion created another crater in the ground despite the relatively smaller amount of power put into that attack, flames filling the innards like an illustration of hell brought to life. But the part that got Ise's attention was the glowing white figure that hovered above the flaming crater with its arms folded and looking down on them coolly. The figure was covered in white armor that greatly resembled his in design, with the exception of the jewels being blue and the wings on the back looking like a futuristic version of dragon wings. Aside from the cracks that appeared on the right gauntlet, everything else was pristine and untouched, making the figure looked like a god who has just descended from the heavens.

"Oh no~" A groan came out of the mouth of the brown-haired exorcist as he looked up from his angle. "Vanishing Dragon, Albion!"

Wait, Albion? Wasn't that the name of Draig's dragon rival?

["Hello, Red One. It has been a while, hasn't it?"] A deep voice emanating from the white figure reverberated in the area.

["It certainly is, White One."] Ise snapped his head to the red gauntlet where the jewels were glowing a bright green. ["How long has it been? A few millenniums?"]

["Give or take a couple thousand years."] A tone of amusement was evident in Albion's voice. ["This is certainly an unusual setting to meet up after so long."]

["Indeed."] Draig agreed with the voice. ["So, are you here to continue what we have begun so long ago?"]

[Hmm… I would not mind, but your hostility is relatively low."] Albion remarked curiously.

["As is yours."] Draig replied back nonchalantly. ["Then again, we can guess that it can be attributed to this weird age and our current users."]

["So true, so true."] Albion agreed. ["My current master is very unusual even by our standards, he is… what is that word? Fickle."]

["Then why are you here?"] Draig asked with a notable tone of tension.

["Ah for that matter."] The voice paused as the figure lifted his head for a moment before continuing. ["As much as it vexes me, my partner is currently on a small assignment if you would. He is supposed to find and arrest a certain worthless Fallen Angel who has broken the treaty and declared war on the Devils while attempting to make the Heaven Faction bear the blame."]

["Ah, if that is the case, please direct your query to the human there."] Draig replied while the gauntlet forcefully pointed a finger at Shirou. ["You might get an unexpected answer."]

["You are certainly correct."] The figure turned to Shirou who was looking at him with a stern glare while Albion continued commenting with an interested tone. ["It seems we have encountered a very interesting individual in the process."]

"You are here for Kokabiel, huh? Well then, sorry to make you come all the way here and see him dead." Shirou replied back while the glowing lines started extending past his neck and to spread on the other arm. The figure looked at him for a moment before turning his head slowly towards Galilei and Lyle.

"They are staying with us." Shirou raised the sword and directed the tip at him. "There are some questions we want answers for, and you are not taking them back or killing them, got that?" The figure turned his head back to him with a slight tilt to the side, as though he was amused by the actions being directed at him. Ise could only swallow hard as he looked at the standoff in front of him. Shirou was in really bad shape and even he could tell that this was not a fight that could be won without some casualties.

Fortunately, that worry was rendered moot as the figure relaxed his posture to look at everyone before pausing to look at his cracked gauntlet. Lifting his other arm, he grabbed the gauntlet and pulled lightly to dislodge the broken piece of armor, dropping a few fragments on to the ground and revealing a slender arm covered in supposedly the sleeve of a black shirt. He inspected it for a while before carelessly throwing it at Shirou who may have anticipated something he might do, as the gauntlet slowed down and small runes appear around it in a form of a netting, before going through one of his weird dimensional pockets that gave the effect of the gauntlet entering a still pond and giving off ripples. The armored user did not give any acknowledgement of that and merely repaired the missing gauntlet, clenching his fist to test it before looking back at Shirou.

The message behind that action was clear. Shirou got a 'consolation price' for damaging Albion's armor.

With that and one last glance at Ise, the figure turned around and shot off into the night sky, looking like a falling star going across the horizon. Everyone stood still for a moment, speechless at all that had happened and what was to come.

The only thing that knocked them out of the thoughts was the sound of Shirou collapsing to his knees and stabbing the giant sword into the ground for support.

"Oui Shirou, are you fine?!" Ise hurried over as best as he could and grabbed him by the shoulders, noting how pale Shirou seemed to have gone and the amount of hard panting he was showing, the glowing lines seemingly fading away to a light red.

"No… Not all right…" Shirou heaved heavily as his body started to shake violently. "Remember… what I said… about overusing… our 'OD'? This… is one… of those examples!"

"Shirou!" Ise let out a panicked tone as Shirou finally released his grip on the sword and he fell backwards, yelling out in pain.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Part 8

["After a rough night from an earthquake measuring 4.2 on the Richter Scales that shook the area, the authorities were finally able to contain the fires that had erupted from Kurou Academy and burnt down half the school's gymnasium and damaging the infrastructure of the other associated buildings of the campus. There have been no casualties, though there were a few injured students who are currently hospitalized due to them sticking around for after-school activities. Sources indicate a failure in the gas system as the likely cause for the fires, but authorities are not ruling out the possibility of more fires coming and have placed the school under observation to remove any likely sources of future fires. This is Maya Origami of Kurou News Japan."]

"Well, that's a wrap then." Sona said as Tsubaki turned the television off. She looked to me with a shrug. "So at the very least, you don't need to come back to school for a short while."

"Yeah, but quite honestly it would have been better I did not have these injuries on me." I replied while wincing at the small pangs of pain shooting down my spine.

It seemed that my injuries were severe enough to the point that I would require a few days of rest even with Asia's Twilight Healing and Avalon working overtime. Whatever the Excalibur Shards did was pretty damaging to me in the long run; I ended up with two broken ribs, several torn muscles in all my limbs, at least one lung collapsed and my Prana severely drained to the point I could barely project a butter knife without a fair bit of effort. With a taste of irony, the school's utter destruction of the gym and courtyard meant I was one of the few to have a perfect excuse to explain my injuries. I ended up visiting the same hospital I spent my first few months recovering in this world.

Though I really wanted to punch one of the doctors when he asked if I had a fetish for nurses. He sounded genuinely disappointed that I was not inducing my injuries purposely for the nurses, muttering something like he thought he had a fellow comrade or something.

"Well at least we all have our limbs intact." Ise grunted as he shifted a little in his chair. He had relatively lighter injuries compared to me, but he was also pretty banged up from the fight with Kiba, having his arm broken, his legs twisted and nearly having his head removed from his body. Considering that Asia was tired out from healing the others, he ended up coming here to get the doctors give him some treatment.

"So how long do we have to recover before returning back to the academy?" I asked while thanking Reya who helped to adjust the pillow.

"Probably long enough. The damage done to the academy was significant to the point that even with our repair crew working overtime, we cannot get away without explaining about some of the damages." Sona replied back tiredly. "It would raise some suspicion if the academy was able to recover the damage overnight or even two days, so we would need to close off the area to finish the restoration work, which could take a couple of weeks at best, a few months at the worse. Lessons will be held in a different location in roughly two to three days' time until the repairs are done, so use this opportunity to recover okay?"

"Well, I can live with that." I replied as I leaned back on the soft cushioning. "Sorry about the mess though."

"Well much of it was by those exorcists and Kokabiel, so we can charge the bill at the Fallen Angel Faction." She paused before adjusting her glasses. "However there are some portions of the academy you are responsible for by using the Excalibur, and I don't recall allowing you to plant explosive charms around the academy."

"Erm I was just being prepared, I did not plant all the explosives and I tried to limit the blast radius?" I weakly replied at the glare of the Shitori Glasses. "Erm, can I at least get a discount?"

"Oh, I will think of a suitable price later." Sona said that with a smile that immediately got me afraid. "So look forward to it."

Damn it. I let my head hang in tiredness, thinking about the amount of money required. This was going to suck.

"… Well, I will of course give you some form of discount." I looked up to find Sona looking to the side with a slightly flushed face. "It is only appropriate since you saved us."

Was she okay? Maybe she did not recover enough from the fight?

"Erm Emiya-kun?" Momo voiced out uncertainly. "I don't mean to interrupt the conversation but" She pointed to my side of the bed. "What are you going to do with that?" I turned my head to the object of her interest, looked for a moment before letting out a deep sigh.

I was kind of out of it when I came to the hospital, but it seemed that the fused Excalibur decided to tag along with us instead of being taken back to the Church. The others were understandably worried about dealing with the holy sword, but it seemed to understand their frustrations enough to hover a fair distance from them and made itself invisible when we arrived at the hospital and continued until we were alone in the room. Now it was currently placed against the wall, its golden aura lighting up the room with a warm glow.

And to my eyes only, the figure that had plagued me was sitting next to it, its form no longer resembling something from a horror film; from what I could tell, it was a knight with platinum blonde hair, light blue clothing with white accents and lightly plated armor fitted to him. Even with one arm missing, he was now more comfortable to the eye, especially without the empty eye sockets.

The history books were somewhat wrong of King Arthur's appearance it seemed.

"Honestly, I have no idea." I turned my head back to Momo. "I guess we would need to ask those exorcists when they come for it."

"That might be a long wait." Akeno remarked from her side of the room with her arm in a sling. "From what I overheard, the exorcists have a lot of questions to answer for our faction, and the situation is a little volatile."

"Well that sucks~ OAUI!" I replied only to yell out in pain as my chest muscles flared up in agony and I had to slump back.

"Emiya-kun, are you okay?!" Meguri leaned over to stop me from hitting my head against the bed stand.

"Yeah, it is just my ribs." I grumbled as I tried to adjust myself properly. "I have serious injuries before, but this is by far the third longest I ever gone to suffer."

"Even for a human, you are particularly idiotic." Mitelt snorted as she came along and gave me a look that reminded me a little of Sakura when she disapproved some of my decisions or actions. "What type of moron goes around trying to take on a high-tier fallen angel and the Vanishing Dragon with a weapon that could kill him in a few seconds by having his life-force drained out?"

"Evidently me." I grunted as Meguri and Tsubasa helped to lift me up a little and readjust my position. "Granted I should be more careful, but considering the circumstances, I did not have much chance to test whether the sword would absorb a lot of my Prana."

"Hmph! Well take this as a lesson and be more careful, okay?" Mitelt pouted lightly as she glanced to the side. "We can't have you getting injured too often okay?"

"Yeah, I will remember that." I smiled gently at her. "Thank you for your concern."

"What~ I am just making sure that you do not die on me, otherwise there will be no one to protect me from these devils! That is all!" Mitelt sputtered and replied back while crossing her arms and looking away with a red face. What was her problem?

Erm, why were Reya and Meguri looking at me with slightly angry expressions? Why was Akeno and Momo smirking in amusement? And why were Ise and Saji face-palming?

"I am still surprised you were not dead from all those attacks." Tsubasa shook her head as she looked at all the bandages on my arms. "Even for those implanted with the Rook Piece like me or Koneko, I think those type of injuries could have been fatal enough to take us out."

"Well, technically I went through worse." I shrugged while looking away slightly.

"Evidently so." Sona adjusted her glasses again. "If what the doctors said were true, you went through a lot of fights to get the scars and wounds I heard so much about. We should be thankful that the damage from this fight was not too severe."

"Well, thank goodness for that bottle of, what do you call it? Phoenix Tears, huh?" I leaned back with a sigh and looked at the ceiling.

"Save your thanks for the fallen exorcist named Lyle then, he was the one who gave it to us." Sona remarked while frowning. "Though I wonder how he got that bottle."

I lightly nodded as I thought about that bit. Apparently, Lyle helped in curing me by handing over his bottle of Phoenix Tears before disappearing to god-knows-where. When they asked for the reason of helping them, he had this to say.

"I have finally found the true user of Excalibur, and I am duty bound to ensure his survival until our next meeting."

Not sure how to feel about that, but thanks to him I was able to control my Prana discharge enough to stop thrashing around and getting my body healed by both Avalon and Asia's Sacred Gear. And in an odd way, I was glad that he was still alive. He did not seemed as bad as the others, just a good person in the wrong crowd, even if he was under orders or whatever it was to do so.

"How about that fake priest?" I asked Sona with a slightly irritated tone to indicate my displeasure about that man.

"He is currently in our custody, although I imagine a lot of people from every faction would want him dead for a great number of reasons." Sona replied with a frown that agreed with my thoughts. "One of the conundrums we are facing is the wealth of knowledge he has gained from his research regarding Holy Swords which is what the church wants. At the same time, he has information on other areas of expertise or information regarding certain people the government is seeking out. Much of it is beneficial for each of the factions while also a source of problems. No one would want someone like him alive to give away potential information."

Well, I for one just wanted him to be out of my sight. The way he was looking at me like a fanatic having found his god or a scientist who found the secret to the universe was a little too intense for me, and the manner he kept muttering "Your Lordship" while being led away by the authorities was truly creepy, like he had finally found what he seek in life. And it was a very disturbing look.

"So what's going to happen now?" I shook the disturbing image out of my head and asked Sona.

"For the time being, our faction is demanding answers from both the Heavenly Faction and the Fallen Angels Faction. After all, the Church did not protect the Excalibur Shards as well as they should, and it was one of the Fallen Angels who went rogue and almost declared war on us. We have to be thankful that at least one of the Church's Top Exorcists was around to serve as a witness."

"Well, at least that whole load of crap is over." I said while Ise nodded his head.

"I would not quite put it that way Emiya-kun." Sona dashed our hopes while she adjusted her glasses. "There is a matter of the exorcists' seemingly going rogue during their mission and wrecking the town. There is the bit of Ise apparently threatening the church faction." The boy in question winced at the reminder. "Then we have the matter of you, an unknown magician, possessing the Excalibur Shards and somehow merging them into one sword. Not to mention the fact that it absolutely refused to allow any of the other exorcists from wielding it. And lastly you used said weapon to take on a higher being that belonged from the first generation of Angels and the Genesis. I think a lot of people are going to be directing a few questions to you."

I could only sigh in exasperation as I cupped my face in my hands. It was honestly times like this I wished I had kept my nose out of these type of situations and just laid low, it was honestly too much work to deal with the fallout. Why me?

Oh right, Rin had that part figured out. I was an absolute idiot for heroics.

The door opening and closing interrupted my thoughts and drew my attention to Rias who entered the room.

"Oh, so Emiya-kun is awake now." Rias smiled as she made her way over with a slight limp in her leg. "How do you feel?"

"I would live, with a cocktail of painkillers for a short while." I replied while wincing again at the pain, this time on my legs. "So what's the verdict?"

"It seems that both the Heaven Faction and the Grigori have a lot to answer for this mess. And considering this has happened on our jurisdiction, we have the advantage to demand some answers. Hopefully we can get them."

"What did the exorcists say?" Sona got her reply in the form of Rias pouting.

"I don't know, because they left before I could get a chance to talk with them!" Rias lifted her arms in frustration. "That is so unfair, and I wanted to demand repayment for all the crap they put us through, and I wanted to ask the apprentices if they wish to join my Peerage! It would be nice to at least have one of them as a knight."

"Hmm... Maybe it is a good thing they left." I muttered softly as we watched her throw a small fit.

"You still having issues with people taking contracts to become devils?" Momo asked having heard my comment. "Granted, I can understand your fears about people getting tricked into becoming Devils, but if you are worried about Gremory-Senpai and Kaichou, you don't need to. They are pretty okay, otherwise I would not give mine over."

"For Sona, at least she does things properly. Rias seems more fickle and the type to seize the moment." I quietly gave my answer to her words. "And considering the situation with Ise, I would rather keep her away at a distance." Momo merely shrugged as she continued watching Rias complain about not getting one of the exorcists over. As for me, I was still leery about the devils despite this working relationship we have. Maybe it was just me, but the manner in which the devils bring people to their side reminded me a little of what Archer had to go through when he became a Counter Guardian.

I wonder if the pact could be nullified with Rule Breaker. I should test that theory out the next time we have a hunt.

As I stowed that thought away for future reference, I looked around the room and noted one person was missing.

"Wait, where's Kiba?"

=()=

It did not take me that long to find the blonde knight sitting outside on a bench at the recovery park, considering how much the nurses were gushing all over him while we were here. Ise for one was fuming at the amount of attention that Kiba got from the younger and more curvy nurses to the point a doctor mistook his red face as getting a high fever.

Oh the absolute mayhem that came about.

"Hey neighbor." I called out to the boy who startled at my voice. He turned to look at me briefly and nodded before looking back at the sunset in the horizon.

Oh boy, this was going to be difficult.

I made my way to the spot next to him and sat down, wincing slightly at my limbs protesting in pain. After a while, I let out a tired sigh and looked at the sunset. "So how are your injuries?"

"They are mostly gone." Kiba replied in a tired tone of his own. "Asia was able to remove the wound on my neck and heal the internal injuries. However Buchou wanted to make sure I am really cured, since I was released from the mind control in a rather rough manner." He raised his hand to show his fingers twitching a few times. "Evidently, my nerves are a little messed up. For a short while I will be hospitalized until Asia has recovered enough strength to do another healing session. Hopefully it would be done in a week's time."

"You are lucky that Asia is around to heal a wound based from electric attacks." I grumbled with a smirk. "When I get electrocuted by an electro-master, I could not go to the bathroom without collapsing halfway for two days straight."

"That must have been a bad time for you." Kiba lightly chuckled at my story.

"Don't I know it?" I rolled my eyes at the memory. Rin occasionally used that story as a means of teasing me whenever I told her about certain injuries being less serious than most.

"What about your head though? From what I gathered that was a seriously messed up procedure."

"… Physically, there should be no injuries, but I am experiencing gaps in my memories." Kiba replied in a pained tone. "Much of it is minor so I'm not too worried about those, but ones involving my past, my teacher and the ORC are a bit fragmented. Asia said she should be able to get them back once she fully healed my head, but I would need to jolt my memories a little."

"Better take it slow, trying to get back memories after a procedure like that sucks a lot." I said with a grimace at my own experience with such problems. Rin and Luvia nearly tore their hair out trying to help me recover from one such incident after a mission knocked my memories out of my head.

"…" Kiba fell silent soon after that, and the air between us became extremely awkward. There was a certain tension in the air that felt like you could snap it with a knife. I was wondering whether I should break the silence, but Kiba decided to broach the subject.

"Shirou Emiya, are you a member of the church?"

"Nope." I immediately answered him while shaking my head, knowing that he wanted answers quickly.

"Then are you a test subject from the Holy Sword Project?" Kiba asked again with even more tension in his voice.

"Again, nope." I shook my head. "I never heard about this project until Ise told me about it." Kiba lightly nodded while having a complicated expression.

"Are you… a true user?" There was a hint of trepidation as he said that, as though the answer I would give may give rise to his fears.

"Personally, I am highly doubtful of that." I replied while maintaining a tone. This was a very fine line to be talking on. "In all aspects, I doubt I should even wield Excalibur at all. This was most likely a one-time usage by the shards to avoid being used by the Fallen Angel."

"Then, how…" Kiba turned to me with an expression that was a mix of frustration, confusion, slight distrust and sadness. "Maybe it is your magic."

"Perhaps it can be my mage-craft, or perhaps I am the only other human around that was not artificially enhanced by some weird experiments, or perhaps the shards figured that with all the individuals in the area, I was the only viable choice at the moment." I rattled a few points out as an example. "I am sure that once the shards find another individual who is more worthy than me, they would jump ship."

At least, that was what I am hoping. But that would be for another time, right now I would have to tackle this problem head on.

"Kiba, take it from someone who has gone down certain paths during certain jobs that cannot be mentioned." I turned to him with a strict expression. "You need to let go of your obsession with destroying Excalibur and possibly avenging your fallen friends."

"What?!" Kiba snapped his head back to me with an angry expression. "You are asking me to give up on my revenge on the holy sword project?! No way, I must avenge my fallen comrades who died for making that damn project work!"

"And in the process of doing so, you got yourself captured and brainwashed by the enemies and forced to fight your own allies." I countered mercilessly while giving him a glare. "You have endangered many of your comrades and possibly the lives of the entire town by engaging in your petty revenge. And have you considered for one bloody minute, that maybe your friends do not want you to do that?"

"But it is all I have!" Kiba clenched his fists tightly. "I am only alive because my friends sacrificed themselves to get me out of the research center! If I don't take revenge, their deaths will have no meaning."

"Pardon me for being blunt, but your comrades are stiffs in the ground, six feet under and rotting." I replied derisively while preparing for a possible confrontation. "And honestly, do you believe for one second, that this is what they want?"

'CRACK!'

Good thing I kept my guard up and placed a few charms around the area to keep our conversation private, because Kiba swung his arm straight for my face. I grabbed his wrist and used the motion to throw him across the yard, sending him crashing across the lawn.

"What would you know?! You know nothing!" Kiba spat out blood as he got up and ran towards me with his fists again.

"Do I now?" I grabbed his head and slammed him into the ground. "Believe me, I do know the feeling of being indebted to people who died when I should be dead in the first place."

"How would you?!"

"I am a lone survivor of a fire that took my family and the townspeople. I am more than qualified to remind you of what your comrades are trying to tell you." I narrowed my eyes as a couple of swords and spears appeared behind me and aimed at Kiba. I know I was about to sound very hypocritical to Rin and the others if they heard me say this. "At least you have the chance to live out a better life when you were resurrected. I believe that your comrades tried to save you so that you can have a chance at something other than those experiments, and certainly more than just revenge. You are not indebted to them just because of survivor guilt."

"But!" Kiba tried to rebut my words. No chance kid.

"Kiba Yuuto, your dead friends knew they would die in that chamber and they knew that you had the best chance to live on. And what little I know, I highly doubt Rias Gremory resurrected you so that you can indulge on your ideas of revenge. She probably tried to stir you away from such thoughts she knew would make you do something very stupid that could potentially drag everyone into the fires of hell. Is that really what you want to do after all they have done?"

"OF COURSE NOT!" Kiba yelled as he finally got free of my grip and kicked me back to get some distance away from me. "I never wanted to get Buchou in trouble! I never wanted the townspeople to get hurt! And I certainly did not want to fight them! But!"

"But what? Do tell me." I took a step forward while hardening my eyes, and it seemed in that moment, Kiba may have caught a glimpse of how terrifying I could be as he took a step back in hesitation. "Let me ask you this. Will you really feel satisfied with your revenge after taking down Galilei? Will you feel less burdened by destroying Excalibur? Will you truly be at peace after taking down anyone with a holy sword?"

His expression gave me the answer I knew would be given.

"I will be frank. I have seen many go about trying to fulfill their revenge on others, and all met a very messy end. What you read in books about some living happily ever after is just that, a fairy tale. Those people became so obsessed with their thirst for revenge that many sacrificed their friends, families and loved ones so that they could kill that one person. Sometimes they became so twisted that they themselves became shadows of their past selves and even do the same heinous acts as their targets, or worse." My expression became grimmer and sadder as I talked. "Revenge would only make you into something worse than the one you seek to kill."

Don't I know it? I have been on the receiving end of such people obsessed with trying to kill me, the Einzberns and Archibalds being the top groups around. At one point I found myself almost enacting one such act when Rin got attacked at the Clock Tower and would have probably done a lot of things just to find the offender if Lord El Melloi did not step in at the last minute. I have seen many deaths and wasted lives from all walks of life, and the avengers never seemed to realize what they did until my sword meets their heart.

Heck, Julius Balsforth was the last person I met who did just that to the guy who killed his wife, and he became so broken that he himself could tell that he had fallen quite badly.

"I believe this is what Ise was after when he offered to help you out." I chuckled lightly as I thought back to what the boy said. "Honestly, the kid is weird. He does not understand some of the most basic things and lacks common sense in other areas, yet he can tell that something would happen if you carried on with your revenge. I don't know whether he is smart or just lucky."

"… Then what am I supposed to do?" Kiba dropped his arms and lowered his head. His voice seemed to quiver with both sadness and uncertainty "If I don't have revenge, then how…"

"That is something you would need to find out for yourself." I replied as I dismissed my weapons. "It will not be easy, but you need to find another purpose for your existence and those around you. It is fine if you wish to take down those who conducted inhuman experiments like that Holy Sword Project, but it must be for a proper reason and not just for revenge."

"Think about your comrades, both old and new."

With that, I grabbed my crutches and made my way back to the entrance, dispersing the barrier charms I had placed earlier as I went. I continued on for a short while before pausing at the corridor. "Okay, he is all yours."

"GUH!" Ise let out a weird sound as he came out of his cover, followed shortly by Asia, Koneko and finally Rias, all looking sheepish. "How…"

"Please~ in situations like this, there will always be someone listening in on the conversation." I rolled my eyes tiredly. "Just give him a little room to mull over." Ise and the other two juniors nodded before making their way to the knight, leaving me alone with the red-haired devil.

"Not running away this time?" Rias let out a teasing smile as she leaned forward to emphasize her assets. "I thought you were in danger of losing your soul to me or something?"

"Sona told you that huh?" I snorted as I laid my clutches on the wall and leaned on the window seal. "As much I would want to, my legs are not cooperating. So I am tolerating you for now."

"Hmph! One day you will tell me why you keep running from me." Rias pouted as she leaned on the opposite wall. Her expression then changed to a neutral one. "So how is he really?"

"Physically, he is almost healed. Emotionally and psychologically…" I glanced out of the window to see Ise being punched by Koneko, likely him acting or saying something perverted, while Asia acted flustered and Kiba was shaking his head in forced amusement. "Those would take a while."

"True, though I question your opinion about the physical aspect, considering what you did." Rias remarked while pressing her lips.

"Sorry about being a little rough on him then." I apologized while nodding my head to Rias.

"While a part of me wants to clobber you for what you did to him, I will not do so." Rias sighed heavily and for a brief moment, I caught a glimpse of how old she really was, like a tired person who had worked at a problem for a few dozen years and could not see any progress. "At least he seems to be understanding what would happen if he carried on with his actions. I have worried about that child and tried to dissuade his thoughts, but he kept hanging on like it was his only lifeline."

"As uncomfortable as it is, revenge can serve as a purpose for one's existence. People need something to live on." I looked at the knight who was framed in the last rays of light while Ise and the two girls talked to him. "But if left unattended, that would consume them greatly."

"Speaking from experience?" Rias raised a cursory eyebrow at me, likely trying to get some information from me so as to find some leverage in the process.

"You can put it in that manner." I took the crutches and checked them before making my way to the elevator. "At least Kiba should be a little more controllable now, so I suggest that you monitor him."

"I will." Rias Gremory stood up straight and bowed her head. "Thank you for your assistance in the battle and this conversation." I merely waved my hand as I continued on. I was really in need of some sleep. But all that talk about the experiments Kiba was in got me thinking.

Where was that Lyle fellow now?

Part 9

"Is there anything else you would need, Your Holiness?" A man dressed in the traditional garb of the Vatican Guards asked the elderly man dressed in simple white clothes.

"No need, you have done more than enough for this old man." The pope smiled as he shook his head lightly. "Go and get some rest young man. I will be sleeping a little late tonight and you should not need to wait up for me."

"Understood, but call us if you are in need of anything." The guard saluted him before making his way down the corridor, pausing every so often to check the doors before continuing. The pope merely closed his door and made his way slowly to the balcony. It was one of the simpler rooms in the Vatican and one that he had taken for his quarters. It was a small room that had a few shelves for books, a small table and a couple of chairs next to it, and a fireplace that was now burning away and giving much needed warmth for the cold night. The elderly man stirred the embers himself to get a bit more heat, before opening the balcony door to let in some night air. He took a moment to admire the moon and the stars, then taking in a deep breath, he spoke softly.

"It is a cold night, I have some hot scones if you like, right next to a hot fire."

"Thank you for the offer, but I am not that hungry." A voice replied back as a figure appeared on the ledge next to him. "Although a cup of tea would be preferable." With a light leap, the figure stood next to him and saluted the pope.

"Welcome back, young Lyle. Come in, I have just obtained some nice Earl Grey leaves." The old man turned to the exorcist with a small smile. "And I even obtained some of that nutmeg you tend to put into your drinks."

"Thank you, Your Holiness." Lyle lowered his head lightly before coming after him, making sure to close the door behind him and drawing the curtains to avoid prying eyes. He turned to find the pope pouring out some tea and offering the cup to him alongside some biscuits, both of which he accepted with a bit of gratitude.

"I assumed you have heard the news?" Lyle took a sip of the tea as he asked, lightly sighing gratefully for the warmth.

"Something of the sort." The pope nodded as he tried to remember the details. "Granted, the council members were not being clear about it considering the amount of arguments they have regarding who should take the blame for the theft of the shards, but the general gist about it would be that the shards are now gone?"

"Indeed, though I am afraid the news is a lot complicated than that." Lyle replied as he took a bite of the biscuit. "Then again, considering the stakes at question, I feel those guys would probably overlook it for a while if they could find a scapegoat for the theft."

"I am ashamed to say you are correct. Oh dear…" The pope merely shook his head in disbelief. "Regarding the news, is it true that Galilei is currently behind bars?"

"It is, Your Holiness. Due to his ties with the Grigori and the subsequent robbery of the Excalibur Shards, the Devil faction are not too trusting of the two being able to guard such an individual. Currently he is under the care of the devils and alive. For the moment at least." Lyle answered before mumbling that last part with a bit of heat.

"Hmm, I would imagine that a lot of people would prefer him elsewhere other than a jail cell, and likely in a state aside from him being alive. What with all the information he has on all of us."

"This is the reason they decided to keep him alive. Like it or not, he does hold valuable information regarding the three factions, and in some ways, the devils would want to ensure that whatever secret he may have on them stays put. As for the other factions, that would likely be one of the leverages they have if they ever call for a meeting." Lyle agreed with the pope's sentiment.

"Yes, I have just received word regarding their arguments. There is a high possibility of that meeting actually taking place, we should consider choosing someone as the envoy to go with the angels." The pope thoughtfully fiddled with his cup as he considered the people suitable for the occasion before he paused for a moment and gave out a smile that somehow raised alarm bells in Lyle's head. "How about Griselda?"

"URGH!" Lyle groaned and accidently knocked the teacup against the plate. "By chance, you knew about that?"

"I only got the news recently, and I must admit, some of the tactics used by both of you were a little much." The pope commented with a raised eyebrow. "I am still wondering why the two of you are so extreme with your methods when you only met two times before."

"… She might have a different reason, but I feel that if I don't give it my all, she would definitely beat me." Lyle admitted as he lightly swirled the tea in his cup. "Considering the high stakes of this mission, I had to make sure that she cannot interfere with the operation too much."

"Honestly, the two of you are just reckless children." The pope shook his head in slight amusement. "There is something I would like to ask. Something seemed to have happened to the Excalibur Shards but no one seems to know anything about them, and Griselda had requested a private meeting with me regarding that together with some witness statements from her apprentices and the devils. Don't suppose you know about it?"

"Ah, so you have not been informed yet." Lyle paused for a moment to gather his thoughts before looking at the pope. "You know of my wish, don't you?"

"To witness with your own eyes the next natural user of Excalibur." The pope answered before his eyes widen. "Wait, you don't mean!"

"Griselda will likely tell you during the meeting, but I will say it now just to avoid any confusion and the possibility of eavesdroppers for your private meeting." Lyle took a deep breath before letting it out. "I have found him, the one who is able to unite all the shards into one form, the one who could be considered as the true user of Excalibur. He is 'The One'."

Silence descend on the room, the sound of burning firewood and charcoal being the only source that broke it. Then the pope slowly placed his cup on the table and sat down heavily on the chair behind him, his brow furrowed in deep thought.

"Continue." The old man spoke one word with a tone that Lyle recognized. Right now this was not the old man who had picked him up from the collapse of Galilei's experiments; this was the Pope talking to him. Lyle collected his thoughts while setting his tea down. Where to begin?

… Best to start from the beginning then, when they first hatched the plan.

For the next hour, Lyle gave his report about the activities that brought them to the town and the area they were to perform the ritual. Then he relayed the information about the Japanese wizard that lived in the area, emphasizing the bit that he was not truly an ally to the Devils, merely a neutral party caught up in their mess. He then spoke of the shards' unusual reaction towards the person in question, how they would react in occasional violent manners to get to him. Finally he talked of the final fight, where the shards seemed to have merged together using some template conjured by the magician, combing the shards into the proper and ideal form of the sword, and with it, dispatched Kokabiel.

On the Pope's side, he was silent for most of the conversation, occasionally pausing Lyle to either ask a question or to retell one portion with greater detail, all the while maintaining a neutral expression that betrayed none of his thoughts. After Lyle had finished, the pope stayed silent for quite a while as he digested the information. Then with a slow motion, he got up from his seat and made his way to the fire, placing a hand on the mantelpiece and stared at the flames, the light reflecting off his dark eyes and his face giving him the look of a man who was to make a very big decision in the future.

"This is not quite what I had expected." Pope Francis spoke after a long time of staring into the flame. "It was a good idea to tell me this beforehand, this is a lot to take in."

"I figured you would need time to listen." Lyle sat down on the chair and focused on the elderly man. "I also felt that there might be some people that you probably do not want to know about him. Having a person being naturally tuned to a holy sword, let alone one Excalibur Shard, is quite a big deal. Having someone that is not only unanimously accepted by six of the seven not counting Arthur Pendragon's shard, but one able to combine all of them into one and recreate the sword? I don't even want to think about that mess to come."

"… It seems that I would need to have a word with the High Angels on this matter." The pope sighed heavily at the information he got. Lyle pursed his lips at that remark; now would be a good time to ask the question.

"Your Holiness, permission to ask a particularly sensitive question?" Lyle asked with a complicated expression.

"I think I know what question you wish to ask." The pope turned to him with a serious expression of his own. "You want to know about the 'Death of God'."

"So it is true? The original Christian God is gone?" Lyle clenched his fists tightly as an odd feeling started to build up inside him. "Tell me, how long?" Pope Francis could not help but feel slightly impressed that Lyle was able to maintain his voice without breaking, with the shaking of his clenched hand the only indicator of what Lyle was feeling.

"By that you mean how long I knew about it?" The pope let out a sad smile at him. "I had some suspicions during my time as a Bishop, but it was only after entering this office for more than six months that I got a house call from Archangel Michael and the other Seraphs to have a serious conversation. I was standing right where you are now when they told me that particular news. I will admit, I was both shocked and yet calm when they told me about it. I dare say the feeling you are having right now is similar."

Lyle looked at him for a moment before letting out a troubled sigh, the odd feeling leaving his body to be replaced with a reluctant acceptance. The pope was right again; his emotions were somewhat in turmoil and yet he was oddly calm about the news. Then again, when he thought about the different experiments and the different situations he had been in, it made sense. Considering how the lines between religions have been thinning for the past few centuries, it would seemed logical that the Christian God was dead; after all he was quite a hard-liner when it came to other religions. Not to mention some of the experiments were directed at the idea of combining concepts from other religions. There was no way some would have worked the way it did if he were alive.

"So what now?" Lyle asked after controlling himself.

"I have already gotten the letter from the Maou Faction asking for an explanation as to our incompetence to protect the Excalibur Relics, and in all likelihood, all three factions will be going to have a major talk about this situation." The pope straightened his back and straightened his clothing. "This might be the opportunity to propose something we have not had the chance to do."

"Considering what I know of the other factions and you, I can make a few guesses." Lyle let out a tired smile at him. "Peace being the foremost."

"Yes perhaps this is a chance to do that, and while we are at it, we can ask more about this individual called Shirou Emiya."

"… I see." Lyle drained his cup of tea, only realizing that it gotten cold during the time they talked. He settled for the biscuits as he tried to take his mind off other matters.

"My son, I know you are troubled, so speak it out." The pope looked at him with a knowing eye. At times like this, Lyle wondered if the pope had some ability to read minds.

"… It is just, seeing and meeting Shirou Emiya is an odd experience." Lyle started to speak while taking his turn to watch the flames. "I have met several users who were either augmented from the experiments or natural users for one sword like Xenovia Quarta, but he is the first one aside from me that has a reaction to the shards and compatible with other swords. Be it Holy Swords or Demonic Swords, he has the same affinity as me."

"I'm… I'm not alone anymore in that area, yet it feels weird."

"Hmm, I thought you would be glad for such a change." The pope replied with a raised eyebrow.

"That is the thing. I have done my research on him, and overheard the chatter from both the devil's and Creed's, and the way we fight, act or even speak seems to be very similar to the point that Creed even mentioned that we are like mirror reflections of each other. I should be happier about it perhaps, but I feel uneasy." Lyle flexed his fingers unconsciously as he thought about the magician.

"How so?"

"… I am not sure." Lyle paused for a moment before letting out a tired sigh. "Maybe it is the shock of finding out about him and God's Death. I just can't seem to wrap my head around it."

"At the very least, you are no longer alone my son. At least someone else can understand your pains being so compatible with the holy swords in the vault." The pope remarked in a comforting tone.

"I am not worthy." Lyle answered a little too quickly and with a bit of heat. He took a moment to calm himself down before continuing. "I cannot be worthy, what with my past and what I have done."

"Who is to say that either you or him are worthy or not? After all, there have been people who are zealous in their teachings, constantly shedding blood and tears in their search for redemption, fruitlessly donating huge amounts of money in the hopes they would be welcomed through Heaven's Gates. But it is not for them nor for us to decide. There are other powers at work, and the swords themselves are that proof. You and a magician, two unlikely people as you said, are the ones chosen to wield them." The pope replied to his comment.

"Maybe, but I am not that good a person, even if I had the compatibility to wield holy swords."

"Even if you were also granted the mark of Christ?"

"…" Silently Lyle lifted his arm and unbuttoned two from his shirt and pulled the collar to one side while looking at the reflection on the glass cabinet. Located a little higher from his heart, a rather intricate tattoo adorned his slightly scarred body. Split into three parts, it was formed into the shape of a cross with vines intertwining each part. Now that he had a look at it, Lyle noted that the tattoo seemed to have gotten a lot more noticeable since the last time he laid eyes on it.

"I have looked through all the archives here and other sacred grounds I know, yet there seems to be little to no information to supplement the book you have on this." Lyle remarked while covering it back up.

"In some ways you have better luck in finding out information than me, I couldn't find out more about that tattoo apart from some odd words that seemed to be part of a poem." The pope shook his head tiredly. "The only thing that is consistent with all of the documents is that those given those tattoos are chosen for some ritual and each of them fit some form of requirement to do so."

"I still don't get it. Why me?" Lyle looked at his own reflection with a troubled frown. "Why was I the only one to have this mark from the experiments? If you are saying that I was chosen for some noble goal, it should be given to someone else since I had committed so much killings all this time. Otherwise, and forgive me for my language, the whole issue of me being chosen is just utter bullshit."

"And yet it didn't." The pope walked back to him and placed a hand in his shoulder. "I can't say I know the truth about the tattoo appearing on you, and I know you do not have that much faith, but I would like to think that all you have done were trials to prove your mettle, and the tattoo stayed on because you were able to overcome those trials and stayed true to what you believe."

"… We won't know until the time comes then." He adjusted his attire and made his way back to the patio. "The guard shifts will end soon, it would be best to take my leave."

"My son, please wait a moment." The pope's voice made him stop just before the entrance. "You should not need to do this anymore. You are already out of that man's control, and have brought down many of the old factions that persisted after the abolishment of the experiments. If you are worried about being a wanted man, I could just send out an official order and…"

"You can't." Lyle said it calmly and firmly to cut the words off. "If you do that, those who opposed your ascension would use this to make you look like you are abusing your authority and extending favoritism towards me who is a criminal. Not to mention there are many who were already suspicious of my allegiance and will seek me out now that Galilei is behind bars. They will come after me and will likely get to you if needed."

"But still, you have done enough." Pope Francis spoke with a great deal of grief in his voice. "You say otherwise, but I can't help but feel you are taking on a burden that could potentially lead to your fall. You ended up under Galilei's control far longer than planned because of his influence. You kept taking up covert missions that involved taking down the old research facilities that dealt with the Holy Sword Project, and your body is breaking apart from said experiments. You need to stop, my son."

"… I don't really have plans for a long life. As you said, I won't have much time because all the experiments done on me have significantly shortened my lifespan." Lyle agreed as his hand tightened his grip on the door frame. "So while I still have breath, I will go and find those who were involved or continuing the Holy Sword Project. Galilei may have started the program, but there are still those who continue that type of work on children even after the project was abolished." He opened the doors, letting in a cold breeze as he raised his head to look at the moon shining in the sky. "No matter how much we pray for miracles, there is one sad fact about this world."

"Sacrifice one life for ten. Ten for a hundred. A hundred for a thousand. And so on." Lyle turned to face the Pope with a sad smile. "In reality, we cannot save everyone. Someone must die for another, for either noble reasons or selfish ones."

"… You still blame yourself for what had happened to that girl? And those town folks?"

"… If you recalled, I was the sole survivor of an earthquake that consumed my hometown. I don't have any memories of my family or that place after the incident, the only thing I recalled was waking up in the facility with the other children. One by one, they all succumbed to the effects of the experiment. Most died off within the first couple of weeks, some grew mad and bloodthirsty, and the last few of us ended up having been marked by the experiments." Lyle rubbed the back of his neck with an uncomfortable expression, like remembering a bad memory or a wound on his neck. "We were basically removed from everyone else, they looked at us like we were mere tools. Even among ourselves, we were more or less dead to one another."

"Only she looked at me differently, only she looked past the blood and carnage I had endured, and she was also the first one to hold my hands without caring about the innocent blood I had spilled." Lyle looked at his hands and lightly flexed them. "She was the first one who pointed out to me that I could use my skills for something other than killing. She showed me a world that was not covered in the color of blood nor a world of cold tables, pills and needles. It was also thanks to her that I met you."

Lyle gripped his hands tightly with an anguished expression. "If I did not go out to meet her that night, she wouldn't end up getting killed! The people of that town wouldn't have gotten wiped out! Maybe it would have been better that I did not know her in the first place, then maybe!"

"I highly doubt that doing that would have prevented her death." The elderly man reached out to lay a comforting hand on Lyle's shoulder. "Given the type of experiments you had to undergo and that man's way of thinking, you may end up going after her without hesitation with the intent to kill. You may not want to hear this, but sometimes these type of matters are not in our control. No matter how much you plan there will always be some factor that would disrupt it."

"Let me ask you, have you, for one moment, ever regretted meeting her?" The old man smiled gently at Lyle shaking his head immediately. "Then you have your answer."

"… Guess this means I still have the will to continue this mission." Lyle looked up with strong eyes. "It may take me a long time, but I will keep the promise to her and you. I will make sure no one else has to endure what I went through."

"Then…"

"If it is possible to save the children, then I will undertake it." Lyle moved forward and climbed the ledge of the patio. "In exchange for this broken soul with bloodstained hands, many children can live on with smiles and with a future. One broken man for the lives of many unspoiled innocents. I cannot do this in the halls of the Vatican, it can only be achieved from outside the system."

"And besides." Lyle turned around with a crooked smirk. "Having been on the side of lawlessness for quite a while, I don't feel comfortable being in the halls of the Vatican. I am after all a sinner." And with that, he took a leap out of the ledge and vanished into the darkness, leaving behind an old man who looked on for a moment before closing the door with a deep sigh.

He honestly feared for the young man's life.

=()=

"Well that was rather unexpected." Georg remarked as he walked down the corridor. "Looks like Cao Cao's informant might be on to something, huh?"

"…" Siegfried continued to walk by his side in silence, the expression on his face being a mix of confusion, awe, frustration and a hint of sadness.

'Ho Boy~ this is awkward.' Georg thought while scratching his head uncertainly. His friend had been completely silent on the way back to their base and seemed to be on the brink of snapping at anyone. Not surprising when Georg thought about it. Siegfried was one of the many test subjects under the Holy Sword Project to try and increase the compatibility of a user. The type of experiments he had managed to dig up were so horrific in practice, he could not help but feel glad that Siegfried got off relatively easy by being kicked off the selection process early. Even when he had taken Gram and the other swords, they were partially due to his induced compatibility from the project, and there have been times when Georg could see Siegfried looking at those holy sword users with a very complicated expression of longing, envy and sadness.

Seeing a relative nobody popping out of nowhere and using the Excalibur Shards like they were going out of fashion would definitely set him in a bad mood.

"Georg, Siegfried." A voice broke his thoughts and he turned to find a teenager holding a staff in his hand walking towards them, followed shortly by Jeanne and the others looking rather solemn. "I have obtained your report, but I would like to hear a debriefing from you."

"Erm, sure. But must it be now, Cao Cao?" Georg looked uncertainly at the swordsman who was still sporting the odd expression. He was not sure if Siegfried was really in the best of moods at the moment, but Cao Cao looked to the person in question.

"Siegfried, go and get some rest. I can get the answers from Georg." Cao Cao continued speaking with a gentle tone. "We got to do a lot of preparations for Kyoto, so it is best for you to catchup on some sleep."

"… I will be taking my leave." Siegfried lightly bowed his head and immediately made his way down the corridor and disappear at the next corner.

"Man, this is going to suck." Leonardo scratched his head uncertainly.

"Yeah, looks like he won't be in a good mood for quite a while." Jeanne remarked a little quietly.

"Hey Georg, anything we can do to help him?" Hercules turned to the wizard with a very somber voice. Georg for one was both surprised and humbled that Hercules was being serious about wanting to help Siegfried. Seems even the biggest bruiser of them all had a soft spot for tender issues.

"At times like this, it would be best to give him some time and room to get over his situation." Cao Cao said it before pausing. "Although I hear there is a church nearby performing other questionable experiments on children for other matters…"

"Okay then, we will take that mission along the way back to Kyoto!" Hercules pumped his arm in enthusiasm. "I'm sure Siegfried would be a lot happier after that!"

"We can do that later. For now…" Cao Cao turned to Georg. "Give me your impression about the groups living there."

Georg silently nodded and made his way to one of the nearest rooms, stepping to one side to let the other through before closing the door and facing them. "First and foremost, the rumor of the Red Dragon Emperor joining the ranks of the devils is true. He is a student of Kuoh Academy and until a few months ago, a human. He is currently under the house of Gremory, his master being the Crimson Princess."

"So the Red Dragon is with the Devils, while the White is with the Grigori." Cao Cao lightly tapped his staff. "Next."

"During our observations, we were able to determine other users wielding Sacred Gears. One is the former nun wielding [Twilight Healing] from the Gremory, while at least two others are from the Sitri Group. Of the two from the Sitri group, I believe the female user is more dangerous as her ability to reflect and potentially double her opponent's attacks would be a big problem for us." Georg continued on with his explanations. "Unusually enough there is also a swordsman who was once a test subject for the Holy Sword Project, now wielding [Sword Rebirth] and under Rias Gremory as well."

"Ara~ so that fellow is using my gear's counterpart." Jeanne remarked with a smile. "Well then, it will be my obligation to get rid of him then."

"Okay, that is some decent information." Cao Cao let out a smile that was almost predatory. "Then how about the observation target?"

"… Honestly, he is a mystery." Georg started talking with a big frown. "His magic style is not from any of the schools I know, and the manner it is deployed is plain weird. For one thing, he is not using calculations for his magic style."

"An instinctive type huh?" Cao Cao nodded lightly. "Rare enough to be considered. Next point?"

"The second point is, again, related to his magic style. There are at least three schools that allow some form of weapon creation, but they involved actual black-smiting and multiple types of charms. His seems to skip all those steps and just create them without any form of equivalent exchange, if anything it resembles the powers of the devils' or the fallen angels more than other magicians, even mine for that matter." Georg replied with a notable tone of frustration.

"Unique, but not that shocking." Leonardo raised an eyebrow at the wizard. "Based on your report, you are deeply disturbed by something else entirely."

'Leave it to the quietest person in our group to guess the nature of my worries.' Georg sighed heavily before looking back at them. "Weapons created by magic should not have presence as profound as his, yet for whatever reason, each of the weapons he creates seemed to be alive, making any other weapons we have until now feel different and insignificant. Something about them seems to be in line with the Longinus themselves."

"At the same strength level as the Longinus?!" Leonardo sat up straighter as he looked at Georg with a hard expression. "Surely you jest?"

"I wish." Georg snorted much to Hercules and Jeanne's amusement. "I can't say for certain, but it seemed that those weapons possessed something equivalent to a soul, thus being very similar to the Longinus. And on a slightly different note, he seemed to have claimed a demonic Sacred Gear that matched that of Regeis Cornelius. If so this means he could steal Sacred Gears."

"Interesting." Cao Cao scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Anything else to report?"

Georg opened his mouth before pausing and closing his mouth again. There was one more bit he had yet to tell them, but he felt unsure about that bit of information. During his observations, Georg observed very unusual reactions from [Dimension Lost]; on the one hand, it was 'happy' for the lack of description, like a young child happy to meet his father. On the other hand, it also felt 'apprehensive', especially when Shirou Emiya combined the Excalibur Shards and killed off Kokabiel. He was not sure why that was the case, but he felt he should not report that tidbit until he got more info.

"Georg?" The wizard blinked at Cao Cao who looked at him with a cursory eye.

"No, nothing more." The wizard shook his head to clear his head and answer Cao Cao at the same time. He would think about it later.

"Okay, with that I would like everyone's opinions." Cao Cao looked at everyone in the eye. "Do we bring Shirou Emiya into our group?"

"I don't see why now." Jeanne smiled brightly. "He is strong enough to take on Kokabiel, he is worthy to use Excalibur, he is able to wield strong magic, and on the plus side, he is pretty cute."

"Hmph! That is good and all, but I still say he is scrawny." Hercules folded his arms as he snorted. "He may be able to take on Kokabiel, but that is because he used the sword, I doubt he is good in hand to hand combat."

"As for me, I suggest we hold off his recruitment for a while longer, at least until we can get more information about him." Leonardo answered as he leaned back with a thoughtful expression. "Based on the information given by our informant, Shirou Emiya seemed to have spouted out of nowhere and just took up residence at the town. As far as we know, not even the best sleeper agents can appear without a trace. It is best to watch him and gather more information about his magic cabal, if he does belong to one."

"Hmm…" Cao Cao looked to Georg. "What is your opinion? You and Siegfried have seen him in action, and I can't really ask Siegfried right now. You will be our tie breaker."

"… In all honesty, I agree with Leonardo's suggestion." Georg replied after thinking for a while. "There is much we do not know about this person, and given his brand of magic and the unusual manner of the sword shards reacting to him, not to mention the possible ability to claim or steal Sacred Gears, it would be wise to keep an eye on him and make our decision later."

"Hmm, very well then." Cao Cao lightly nodded his head. "We shall hold off recruiting Shirou Emiya until we can understand more about him. Are we all in favor of that?"

"Okay~" Jeanne raised her hand and replied energetically. Hercules and Leonardo lightly shrugged while Georg only answered with a quick nod while having thoughts about the individual in question.

He was going to be doing a lot of information gathering in the near future on Shirou Emiya.

=()=

"So then, are you satisfied with your findings?"

"Oh yes, very much so. At last we have proof that it is the Shirou Emiya we both know and hate. The Excalibur Shards reacting to him was somewhat surprising, more so with the transformation, but well within my expectations."

"As long as you are happy then. Correct me if I'm wrong. You actually recorded that fight and showcased it to several other factions around here?"

"Well, I figured the fight could go two ways. Either Shirou Emiya gets killed by Kokaibel, thus starting a war, or he lives and the other gods and leaders start to take notice of his fighting capabilities. Either way, we benefit from this."

"Guess we will have more players coming in."

"Well since Shirou Emiya loves to play the hero, let's see how the other gods and leaders feel about him."

"Looking at this fight though, he seems to look a lot younger than the last time I have fought him. I supposed it is the same for you?"

"At least it confirms our theory. Anyone who comes to this world seems to undergo some major remodeling of the body, thus either resulting in a younger appearance, a stronger body, or even something else completely."

"Well, guess that makes us the lucky ones. I think there were at least two who totally abandoned their old bodies and took over some new ones. Even I lost my limbs when I arrived and took a while to repair myself."

"That is not surprising. I'm more surprised that the both of us were able to hold on to our original bodies given the amount of damage we undergo, but I guess there are some benefits to this; at least I am back to my prime state and form thanks to that transformation."

"Indeed, though I feel that much of it can be attributed to the influence of the different mythologies around here. The Age of Gods never ended here, so much of our abilities are enhanced significantly. Even one of my weakest abilities is strengthened to a level I did not think was possible."

"Well then, it makes one wonder if Shirou Emiya's abilities have also been upgraded from the process. I wouldn't be surprised if the Wizard Marshall had a hand in this. After all, it was him who got most of us stuck here in the first place."

"Well then, we can find out on my visit to Kuoh Town."

"Oh, so you are going to do something?"

"Seeing as you have started the ball rolling by using Galilei as bait, and the others are not doing anything aside from sitting on their asses, I might as well play along and see if Shirou Emiya is sharp enough to see the clues around him I will be sending him."

"If that is the case, you might get your chance sooner than expected. It seems the three factions are coming together for a little happy hour to discuss this fiasco, and all the bigshots are coming along for the ride. What a perfect setting to test the 'hero', wouldn't you say?"

"Hmm. I will prepare a stage that would be fitting for the death of a hero if that ever comes about."

Epilogue

"Finally." I muttered as I trudged my way up the stairs. It had been close to a week since the incident, and I finally got enough Prana to give Avalon the boost required to heal my injuries. I made sure to control the output on those that the doctors had inspected before to avoid any suspicious questions about my quick recovery, and it was with a few bandages and a couple more checkups that I was able to leave the hospital much to my relief.

That said, I was a little worried for some of the younger nurses. They seemed saddened at me leaving for some reason.

I shook my head as I made my way to the new apartment where I was currently living in. Sometime after Mitelt came under my care, it became clear that we would need better accommodations in order to look after one another without any issue. It got more pronounced when the owner came to tell us that there others who needed the single-room flats. Thankfully the owner had one unused small 3-levelled building that essentially have three apartments connected to one another via side-doors, so we could live next to each other without problems. His only request was that we helped to maintain the place, something I could deal with through the fixing of the appliances and electric work.

Mitelt on the other hand, had the dubious job of dealing with any trespassers but that was quickly taken care of, as our first and last intruder learnt very quickly and deeply.

I would never look at a bamboo stick, rubber bands, a lighter and a rubber duck the same way again.

Shuddering at the memory, I finally got to the third level, noting the lights that were on. At least Mitelt was up so at least I could check up on her, but the one that got my brief attention was the apartment on the right side of mine. It seemed that the owner may have found extra tenants to rent out to. A minor inconvenience for me and Mitelt, as we would need to keep a low profile, but it should be manageable.

For now I was really looking forward to my futon.

"Oh, hello there. Still alive I see." Those were the first words Mitelt said as I opened the door to the apartment. At least she helped to keep the place clean.

"I'm back." I merely replied back as I set my bag down and trudged my way to the basin. "Honestly all that paperwork sucks."

"Paperwork, meaning the cleanup or the hospital?" Mitelt asked as she got up from her spot and made her way to me. There was an odd expression on her face that looked as though she was thinking about something but she was not telling, and I was too tired to think about it.

"Both." I took off my jacket slowly and started turning only to have a hand offered to me to hold the jacket. "Oh, thanks for that."

"You are welcome. Was the paperwork really that bad?"

I merely nodded as I made my way to the sink to wash my face. "I mean, sure there was going to be a lot of issues with me killing off a major player from the old ages, but that amount of identification required and witness reports was insane. And I get that the school got partially wrecked because of my fighting with Kokabiel, but come on, does a few dorms really require that much equipment? Half of it doesn't even conform to the regulations of any building whatsoever!"

"That sounds bad."

"No kidding." I muttered as I shook my head a little while blindly grabbing for a towel when it was thrust into my hand. "Thank you."

"No problem."

Well, she was certainly being thoughtful today. Guess being hurt got its merits.

"In any case, at least this crap is over, now all we need to worry is when that meeting is coming, that is if the meeting actually comes about in the first place." I dried my face off as I thought about the conversation with Sona and Rias during my stay at the hospital. "From what little I gathered, it seems the higher-ups from each faction are playing hot potato regarding who takes the blame. We would need to prepare ourselves for that."

"Understood. There is one question that needs answering."

"Oh, what would that be?" I asked as I made to hang the towel by the hook.

"What would you like first? Dinner, a bath, or me?"

My hand jerked just short of the hook, the towel slipping from my grasp and hitting the floor with a soft sound. I paid little heed to that as my brain had locked up hearing those words.

"C~ come again?" I stammered the question while my eye twitched lightly.

"What would you like first? Dinner, a bath, or me?"

'What?!' I was about to say something when my brain finally caught up with the situation and started to process the conversation we had from the moment I entered the front door, and it dawned on me that the person who took my coat, handed me my towel and asked that question was not Mitelt; rather it seemed there was at least one or two other persons in the apartment with us, and I recognized that voice.

But it couldn't be them, right?

I slowly turned around to find myself facing a serious Xenovia, a smiling Irina and a blonde fallen angel who had given up on containing her mirth and was currently on her knees losing control of her rather loud laughter. Who knew such volumes came from such a small body?

"Why are you two here?" I blinked before twisting my entire body to face the wall, my face burning at what I have seen. "And what in Root's name are you two wearing?!"

"Hmm, is this not the clothes women wear to greet the man of the house when he returns?" Xenovia looked at her attire that basically consisted only of a naked apron costume that barely covered her admittedly hot body and emphasizing all the right curves and seemingly having a hard time containing her assets. "Irina said this is what is done in Japan." She pulled at the string on her shoulder that showed off her smooth skin and the curve of her…

Whoa, do not go there! Think Good thoughts Emiya! Bad thoughts be gone!

"Yes, it has been a few years since I have been here, but I remembered reading from a book this is how you greet a man coming home after work." Irina enthusiastically waved her arms in a similar attire of only an apron, with the unintended action making a couple of very nice assets bouncing.

No! Think unsexy thoughts! Think swords! Spears! Avalon! Servants who tried to kill you like Gilgamesh, Herakles, Ride… NO! Unsexy thoughts!

"Though that said, it is a little embarrassing." Xenovia started to turn her body and I shut my eyes tight and kept my head facing the wall to avoid seeing her rear. After a moment of silence I slowly turned my head and opened my eyes to find that she was not totally naked, and that she and Irina at least had a two-piece swimsuit underneath. "So forgive me if I break any customs by putting this on."

Phew~ that was close.

…. Yet why did I feel a part of me die while another part was swooning in joy at the sight?

"Enjoying the view?" Mitelt asked with an expression that seemed to resemble Zelretch's expression of absolute glee and trolling when the joke was on me.

GAH! My mind was being poisoned by Ise! I must cleansed myself the next time I see him by using Gae Bolg on his ass!

"Okay, there are so many things wrong with what you two just said there, but I am going to ignore that for now and repeat my first question." I closed my eyes and massaged my head. "Why are the both of you here?"

"… You might want to sit down for this, Mr Emiya." Xenovia motioned to the table I have in the apartment. With a sigh, I sat down by the table and readied my mind for the conversation to come. This was going to be serious and despite my desire to sleep, I would need a mind of steel for this. After a quick breath, I calmed myself and looked at the exorcists dead in the eye, with the now silent Mielt by my side.

"After the battle at the academy, we had a talk with Griselda regarding the situation that we were in." Xenovia began talking with a serious tone that at least was able to detract her current image. "As you can imagine, we were devastated in learning about the Death of God, and we had started questioning what we believed and everything we thought of our missions."

"We were taught to fight those against our teachings, we forfeited our childhoods for the training of becoming exorcists and we were told that we would be rewarded in the halls of heaven when we die." Irina seemingly choked on her words as she struggled to control her emotions. "And yet…"

"It would seemed that we were deceived." A tone of despair and self-loathing was evident in Xenovia's tone as she took over. "We now find ourselves questioning the authenticity of certain missions where we were ordered to execute certain devils, sinners and heretics? Were they really sinners, or were they those that the church did not want in their ranks for being too open-minded about their thoughts? Did we take the blood of those who may have learned too much like us?" She forced out a laugh that sounded so broken that it made my heart ache a little. "The irony is that now we would likely be hunted down by our ex-partners from the church."

"It was in light of this that Griselda had suggested we held back on returning to the Vatican to avoid the possibility of us getting persecuted. Griselda had to return to the Vatican to submit her report but she does have some leeway with the Pope being in the higher ranks. For us though, we were at a crossroads of sorts."

"Either to be executed as traitors or to pledge our allegiance to the devils or the Grigori." Irina put in her word after seemingly containing her grief. "As you can imagine, it was a tough decision. I guess it was lucky that we had Griselda around for some minor counselling as she advised us to cool our heads before thinking. For all I know, we could have taken up any of the Devil's offers to join their Peerages immediately."

Well then, I tipped my hat off to the elder exorcist. At least Griselda had a cool head to think it through, I had no doubt that the Gremory girl would love to have these two in her group. Sona may consider it, but I was not set on Gremory just yet.

"It was during our discussion that we bumped into the Fallen~" Xenovia paused as she looked at Mitelt. "No, Lady Mitelt in the corridor, and we remembered that she was currently under your care. With that in mind, Griselda went to ask her regarding you, how you were able to handle her under your custody."

"Much of it went over our heads, but the short end of it, Griselda asked us to wait for you with her." Irina came in to substitute while Xenovia took a sip of water. "What we did not expect was you being stuck in the hospital for so long. We could not really approach the devils given the odd relations you and young Mitelt have with them, and we don't have much funds." I could tell what she was about to say and turned my attention to the fallen angel in question.

"I did not want to be anywhere near the two princesses for too long, so I suggested to them they could hunker down with me for the time being." Mitelt motioned to the apartment that was next to ours, the one that had the lights on. "Considering the owner does not come to this building that often, I let them in that other apartment for them to wait. It was meant to be a day or two, but" she moved her hand to Xenovia. "She was really insistent on meeting you. She wanted to ask you something."

'Me?' I turned to face the blue-haired exorcist who seemed to be struggling with something in her mind before she closed her eyes and let out a sigh.

"Shirou Emiya, you said earlier you were an atheist?" Xenovia started off the conversation with that question.

"That is only my cover." I waved my hand to emphasize the explanation. "Perhaps I had started out as such, but even after the time I learned about the existence of the gods, a part of me still wanted to defy that bit. I did not want to place so much faith in higher beings who have a habit of making everyone suffer for their own petty reasons. It is one thing to punish criminals and those who harmed others without remorse, it is another thing to curse someone who was either a victim of a god's adultery or to disfigure a person's visage because they were acknowledged more than them."

Case in point, the Servant 'Rider' from my world. I only caught glimpses through the chains, but my travels through dimensions helped to fill in the blanks of her history, and I found myself sympathizing with her greatly. She did not need to suffer that much.

"… That may be the case, but perhaps you would be the one I can ask." Xenovia looked at me in the eye. "Tell me, what should we do?"

I had to admit, that was not quite what I had in mind.

"As we have said earlier, we had undergo the training to become exorcists our entire lives, we never questioned our superiors or our teachings, and we were willing to fall in our mission to retrieve the shards." Xenovia paused for a moment when Irina lent a comforting hand on her shoulder. "We had basically gone through our lives believing in a lie, and now we do not have a purpose."

"We were wondering what to do when we recalled your declaration to Kokabiel that mankind was better off without the gods. How we could go against the odds and achieve miracles through hard work and science." Xenovia paused as she contemplated on her next set of words. "You seemed to have travelled a lot to gain both experience and understanding of the world, and the fact that you have the trust of the Excalibur Shards is proof that you are someone we can look to for guidance."

"So please." She looked at me right in the eye. "Tell us what to do."

… Okay, this was so not my area of expertise. I would need to tread carefully.

"Before that, ask yourself this." I clasped my hands together and look back in the eye. "Despite your knowledge of the Death of the Christian God, do you still wish to follow his teachings and protect the innocent?"

That seemed to have perked the interest of all the girls as they looked at one another, before the exorcists looked at me. "We may continue having doubts about his teachings, but as for saving innocents…"

"We will definitely continue to do so, it is after all a fundamental thing." Irina held her hands together as she looked at me thoughtfully. "There is nothing wrong in wanting to help another, religion or not."

"There you have it. Your first decision after finding out the Death of God." I motioned with my arms out wide, a part of me noting with the voice of Archer that I was almost imitating Kirei's movements. "Well maybe your second decision? The face you decided to wait around to ask me was something of your own violation as well."

"What? But that was just our thoughts on that manner, what does that have to do with asking for guidance?" Xenovia asked with a perplexed face.

"It doesn't. It is something you do on your own." I looked at her right in the eye. "I can help with advice and perhaps do some minor guidance, but whatever actions you take will be yours alone. I can't babysit you all the way, you must choose yourself. You already done that a few times before, you should be able to decide that even without your God."

"…" The two exorcist apprentices looked at each other, clearly not expecting my reply. I merely stayed quiet as I watched them, knowing what the likely outcome was from this conversation.

"… It would seemed that we may have gotten an answer and more questions in the process." Xenovia directed a wry smile at me, and I was thankful for my mind of steel as that smile combined with her current attire was quite suggestive. "You seemed to be shrewder about this than you let on, magician."

"Not magician, just a third rate magus who has travelled a lot in my time." I replied while mentally grimacing the way I said it. Damn it sound like I was getting old. No doubt the magus from Chicago would make some joke about it, with that skull poltergeist shortly after.

"Well in any case, you now have your answer." I looked in the direction of the room they were using. "I guess you would be leaving in the morning."

"Actually, no. We are staying put."

… Okay, so it was possible for the brain to suddenly stop with the sound of a needle running off a turn-table. But disregarding that…

'What?'

"You see, with the current situation as it is, we can't exactly leave town without gaining suspicion." Xenovia started to explain. "Not to mention we are low on funds."

'What?'

"Also, we still have a bit of issues with the Devils, so we can't exactly go to them now, not to mention it is a little weird after our fight." Irina chipped in as she gestured to the apartment next to mine. "So we moved our equipment and belongings here, and we will be staying here for the next few days at least."

'What?!'

"You don't need to worry, from what we gathered, the owner of the building does not come around that often, so we are safe for the time being." Xenovia waved her hand carelessly. "We will of course be working to cover any of the expanses that come with the stay. Besides you said you are still willing to give advice, and right now we need some guidance since Griselda had to return to the Vatican. You seemed to have some independence from the devils and so we will hang on until we are able to go on our own."

'WHAT?!'

"Don't worry about the expenses, we will make sure to not of inconvenience to you. We will use our bodies, blood and sweat to get the money." Irina said that with such a happy expression without realizing the manner she was moving her body in that outfit and her choice of words could be interpreted in that other area of thought.

'…What?'

"So please look after us." Xenovia and Irina bowed their heads at me, their bodies somewhat emphasizing the hidden valleys in between their arms, while the blond fallen girl beside me stuffed her fist to her mouth in a futile effort to stifle her laughter.

As for me…

"What in the name of Blue Tits is going on here?!"

"Hey, keep it down over there! Some of us are trying to sleep here!"

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Current Chapter's Noble Phantasm(s)

Sudarshana Chakra - The Divine Disc of Vishnu

Type: Anti-Fortress

Rank: B++ (Inactive) / A (Half-Activated) / A++ (Full Activation)

A golden disc roughly 4 meters in diameter, with 10 million spikes arranged in a two rows in opposite directions to form serrated edges similar to a circular saw. It has Hindi symbols decorating one side of the disc while constellations and pictographs of the Hindu Gods decorated the other side. A hole in the center allows the user to grip the weapon and either throw it at the enemy or use it as a defense.

Made by the architect of Gods Vishvakarma, it was one of three divine objects created from the 'Sun Dust' left after he had made Surya shine less to help his daughter go closer to him. In its time, many stories sprung up, each depicting its use differently, but all have the same description of it being one, if not the ultimate weapon, of Hindu Mythology.

Due to its destructive nature, Shirou usually has it half-activated to ensure he has proper control over it. The only time he can afford to let it loose is when there are no allies around him, because the weapon does not differentiate friends from foes, all will be mowed down in its wake.

=()=

Red-Hilted Sword of Balin - The Blade of the Virtuous Knight

Type: Anti-Personnel

Rank: B

A normal European Broadsword with a hilt wrapped in dark hide and dyed in a crimson red. A small red gem is embedded at the tip of the handle, and the blade has indentations lining the edge of the sword.

Hailing from the stories of Arthurian Legends, the sword was first brought forth by a damsel claiming that only a virtuous knight could remove the sword from the scabbard. Balin, having just been released from his imprisonment, asked for a chance after the other knights have failed to pull the sword out. In the end, he was able to do so and thus allowed to keep the sword with a warning that he would ensure his own destruction by killing his best friend with that sword. That came in the final battle where he attacked Sir Balan, his own brother. The sword would later be taken by Merlin who secured it in a block of stone where it remained until it was drawn by Galahand and later passed down to other knights.

The sword has an ability that channels light in different forms, either as a huge wave or as daggers that shoot out from it. Being a cursed sword that forced Balin to kill his own brother, the sword has an affinity with curses, especially those dealing with hurting one's own blood kindred. At the same time, the sword carried a similar nature not unlike Caliburn as a weapon that could only be drawn and used effectively by a chosen user.

=()=

The Grail Sword - Sword of Percival / Trebuhet

Type: Anti-Personnel

Rank: A (Normal) / A+ (Depending on the mythology of the Grail)

A Holy Sword in the form of a longsword, with a light green sheen on it and a gold piece down the middle of the blade, with a crimson crack cutting across the blade. It has a green handle with a simple jewel embedded in its guard.

Another sword hailing from Arthurian Legends, this was a sword that was said to be broken in the 'Story of the Grail' when Partinal used it to kill Goon Desert, brother of the Fisher King. When it broke, some of the shards flew to the Fisher King and injured him, making his wounds uncurable until the death of his brother could be avenged. That was accomplished when Percival found him resting on a bier and later slew Partinal. The knight then brought the sword remains back to be repaired, leaving behind a red crack that represented his flawed psyche of being naive to matters outside of the court of the kingdom.

As a weapon that belonged to one hailed as the second knight after King Arthur, its strength comes from the belief of the wielder to uphold the ways of a knight and a desire to protect others, thus making this one of the weapons that Shirou could call out effectively despite its high cost in Prana. Due to its association with the Grail, it has the 'accidental' attribute that copies the powers of the Holy Grail, making the weapon on a level similar to the Servant called Sasaki Kojiro who is an amalgam of other stories merged into one form. This attribute will differ in each fight to reflect the different depictions of the cup, such as temporary immortality, ability to heal wounds and even divinity.

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=()=

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

Hello, I have returned with a new chapter for this story and it is also the final part of the Excalibur Arc. This chapter alone has taken up 107 pages on my word processor, and based on my check, this would be the longest chapter to date, even more so if I had gone with my original idea to dump the entire Excalibur Arc (Close to 200 pages).

I think I speak for a lot of people that the Excalibur Arc is one of those portions of the novel that makes one wonder what would happen if Shirou was involved in the battle. I also believe that we would want some serious, if not major, deviations from the storyline for this portion, be it the fighting or the overall story. So when we have people start using Unlimited Blade Works or the Fate Excalibur for this area for many of the crossovers, I get a little frustrated. I mean, once I can enjoy. Maybe I can overlook if used a second or third time, but when everyone just does the same, it gets rather tiresome. I wanted something different.

Thus, this version I did up.

One of the thoughts was how to ensure the fight could be a good one for Shirou. This is a human Fate (mostly) Shirou from the future, so I would think that he has some strategies and experience to deal with this type of opponent, especially if coupled with a Sacred Gear like [Hell's Trident]. He should be able to use that in conjunction with other weapons or spells that he could use the weaponry as quick go-arounds.

Then I considered about Unlimited Blade Works. Most people seemed to forget that the Reality Marble is a huge repository of weapons to be called up, not just to be spammed like some cheat code or to be called up so easily. UBW is supposed to be used as the final card against the strongest opponent around, not for Kokabiel who is perhaps a starting 'boss' if you would. And I had the idea that Shirou is currently undergoing a change in his mentality, just creating some new arias for his ability.

Next bit comes from Kokabiel himself. A lot of the latest stories seemed to use Fahad09's version, which portrayed a totally different version of the angel. Now for his story it made sense, but when others used it, the angel does not make sense. I tried to make mine follow the novel, which is him being a war-angel, and from there, I figured that it would be nice to show how he could be called that based on current mythology. The novel did not expand on it much, so I decided that he needed to be motivated to fight, and what better way than to start off with him getting injured by a supposedly normal person/magician in a manner he would not foresee, something that would make a battle-maniac go happy.

Finally the bit on the shards themselves. A lot of you seemed to of the same mind that DXD Excalibur was lackluster and that it needed to be put in its place. Others considered just using Fate Excalibur for the job, but that gets repetitive around here. One of you however has the same idea as me: why not use other weapons to go against the shards? That was the thought I had when I wrote the parts about the swords from the other knights reacting badly towards the shards. I figured since I am changing quite a fair bit, let's go crazy with that idea. Finally for those who requested it, I am making Shirou the custodian for the shards.

One wonders what would the confrontation be between our magus and a certain modern Pendragon of the DxD World?

Regarding the polling for Xenovia and Irina (Griselda included later), I had to admit, I had other ideas in the beginning, but since a lot were asking about the pairings via comments or private messages, I created the poll to see the people's desires. Results were pretty consistent in the beginning, but the numbers started to jump irregularly, and a couple of users had pointed that out to me as well, so I had to hide the results to ensure fair polling, and it is showing the proper ones. Don't get the wrong idea though. Right now the apprentice exorcists are staying with Shirou based on the first half of the polls, the second part (the relationships) is still fair game. So I am leaving this poll out here for maybe another week or so. For those who want the original Ise harem, go for it!

Now onto comments from users and previous chapters.

To ChaosRune: Sorry to hear that you no longer like my story due to Lyle. I pretty much figured that any OCs will be hard to some people so I can't please everyone. If you are reading this though, please give the story another chance.

To Kaitosama: Thank you for pointing out my mistake with the words on Caladbolg. I mixed it up with Hrunting Xp

To worldwanderer2.0: Your wish has been granted, and your comment has just given me an idea for one area of the storyline.

To Guest Reader 'thunderdragon': 2 things to say to you.

One, your previous comment got removed before I could check. Please send again.

Two, regarding the first point, why not create a separate account then send me via private message, it would be easier to keep track.

To general public:

I knew that when I started with the crossover, I was going to be scrutinized. When I started with OCs, I knew people will be checking for pitfalls. When I started the Excalibur Arc, I knew people will be checking for issues.

What I did not expect was for my OC character Lyle Wallner to be such a subject of division. With just two chapters of this arc, I am getting a lot of comments and post messages about him to the point that my email account has registered words including his name as spam and I had to look through them carefully to avoid losing one. One group hates him with a passion, another loves him for being a foil of sorts to Shirou, while a third is hanging on just to see the flow. Hopefully this chapter puts him in a more positive light.

Many of you seemed a little put off that he is often commented being similar to Shirou. I like to point out that the observations is mostly from those who knew the exorcist better than Shirou. For the devils' side, their observation would be more on Shirou being different from what he portrays in public. For the two in question, Lyle is viewing it as one who meets someone who might relate to him in terms of pain and uncertainty, while Shirou views it as someone that reminds him of himself and Kotomine when he was younger.

Now that is done, onto the final notes.

Shirou's involvement in this fight is going to have bigger consequences because his enemies will be checking on him. As stated, one has decided to broadcast his fight to others just to place pressure on him. Not to mention the Hero's Brigade is now having their eyes set on him?

Also, since Shirou now has the shards, Kiba will not have the holy-demonic fusion. That is one of the biggest changes to this story, and I will have a lot of fun with it. I hope to be able to work the changes to come.

And I put my pen down for now.

... With that, I like to think I now have the right to say I am the second or third person to have major changes to this story arc.