Disclaimer: I obviously don't own Fate/stay night or any Blizzard related merchandise. Now stop trying to be silly and sue me.
This story is Rated M for safety reasons. Although it will not be my main focus, I might spontaneously add in mature content such as violent imagery ranging from bloody fights, torture, or physical/mental abuse as well as foul language, lemon or other contents not recommended for youth below certain ages. You have been warned.
Hello everyone, this is Minaly22. This is the second chapter of the story. There will be a bit of bloody imagery but hopefully nothing over board.
PS: The previous chapter has been modified. I suggest you read through it again.
'Haaaah... I never get a break...' Shirou sighed dejectedly.
He twisted his head to the entrance, and saw Arthas standing there, leading a group of other Squires to evacuate the building.
"We must move, QUICKLY! They say the gate will fall any time now!" After finishing his announcements, he made a beeline towards Shirou.
The infirmary quickly fell into Chaos as patients were relocated by the Squires holding stretchers or giving a shoulder to lean on to people who can still somewhat walk, and Healers buzzing around carrying supplies or helping patients onto those Stretchers.
"Shirou, are you alright to walk?" Arthas cut him off from his observation once he was close enough.
He flexed his hand, twitched his arms and legs to detect any soreness or pain. There are still some of them lingering, but its manageable compared to when he tried to convert nerves into Magic Circuits or the first time he awoke in this world.
"Yeah, there are still some lingering pain but I can manage. Where to?" He shakily stood up from the rug, then gave a grateful smile to Arthas when he held out an arm for him to hang on.
"We will have to a hurry to the secret tunnel connecting to the other side of the island, then we board a ship to get out." Arthas guided Shirou towards the entrance, a bit quicker than the other patients since Shirou is simply unsteady but otherwise mobile.
"Alrigh -" But he was cut off by a mighty boom coming from the gate.
Both of them quickly twisted their heads, and stared at the gate.
BOOM!
Another mighty boom sounded out, the gate shook.
The sunset sky gave everything a blood-like glow. It was absolutely unsettling. Shirou could feel his goosebumps all over his body.
"Damn, they somehow got close enough to the gate, and are probably using a ram to try break it down." Arthas frowned.
As they were about to turn around again, flying fire balls and flaming arrows flew in the sky. Although most of them did not fly to their direction, some still managed to hit the inside of the keep. Fire began to burn on where those attacks landed.
The two teens exchanged alarmed glances, then turned around as one.
'Seems like we think alike.' Was the thing that flew by both teen's minds. They began to swiftly make way to that side.
Well, in Shirou's case, as swiftly as an unsteady person could, anyway.
Once they reached closer to the gate, another CRASH! happened not too far away from them, but this time it was not the sound of a battering ram hitting the gate.
Shirou twisted his head to look all around, trying to find what made that big noise... He found what he was looking for a bit later, but he didn't like what he saw.
It seems a flying fireball hit one of the buildings close to the infirmary he first woke up in, and a steady fire was beginning to grow. If left alone, it will probably consume the infirmary quickly before everyone could get out. Worst case scenario, even if they won this fight, there wouldn't be a town left to defend.
Then right before their eyes, a few more flaming arrows hit a stack of hay on the other side, another fireball crashed into that flaming building again and it quickly became an inferno.
He knew that Arthas came into the same conclusion as him when he heard a sharp intake of air.
"Oh no, if we don't do something, people in the infirmary will be in danger." Shirou frantically told Arthas.
"But what can we do?" Arthas was at a loss.
"Is there a well or water source anywhere nearby?" Shirou suggested.
"Its too far away. It would be a losing battle if we do it that way." Arthas shook his head.
Shirou swore under his breathe, and he could feel Arthas shuffling uncomfortably.
"We might be able to contain the fire if there were Frost Mages around, but most of them are up on the garrison and towers. It might be too late if we call one from there and come back." Arthas suggested, but Shirou could see that even the other teen wouldn't think it could work.
Arthas quickly swallowed his words when he saw one of the injured from the infirmary shoot out a Frostbolt into the fire, diminishing it but not out right putting it out.
Then another Frostbolt from a different person shot out, and that particular section of fire was stopped. Steam and smoke rose from the burnt remains of the building.
Shirou gave a sigh of relief when he saw that the people in the infirmary might have a chance, until another hail of flaming arrows and fireballs crashed down.
One of the injured Mages had to stumble away to dodge those attacks, and then the previously dead fire began once more.
"It doesn't matter if they stop the fire from spreading - " Arthas mumbled under his breath.
" - If they don't stop attacking." And Shirou finished his sentence for him.
'Huh, we truly DO think alike.' Shirou gave a thoughtful frown.
"Are there any shielding spells that could stop those attacks from hitting the buildings?" Shirou inquired.
"There is Divine Shield, but its impossible to cast it repeatedly." Arthas grimaced
"How about we time it, where we only cast it once an attack is sure to hit a building or anywhere that could start a fire?" But Shirou was at his wit's end. If that is not going to work, he might have to 'create' a Noble Phantasm. But he doesn't really want to do that unless absolutely necessary.
"Not practical, but I guess we don't have a choice." Arthas unhooked their arms, and dashed into the infirmary again.
"EVERYONE! We need Frost Mages outside to stop the fire from spreading. Any one that can cast Shield spells should help. We have to stop the attacks from burning down more buildings." Shirou heard Arthas shout, and saw him come out of the building with a few people tailing behind him.
It was not exactly a good solution to their problems right now. Half of the people who volunteered to help are limping or shambling, and there were not as many Paladins or Squires as they would have liked. Most of the Squires were helping the injured get out.
This time a BOOM! from the gate made Shirou cringe. Standing so much closer to ground zero made him extremely anxious.
"Power Word: Shield!" A man wearing white and gold robes sent out a golden glow to surround a building to his front left when it was imminent the arrows were going to hit it. The arrows bounced off, and harmlessly fell to the ground.
"Spirits of Water! Heed my Call!" One of the purple robed man shouted out. And a SPLASH of water sounded out to his right. From within the pool of Azure blue water rose a figure vaguely shaped like a human body, with twin brass bracelets on its arms.
The Water Spirit, or whatever, quickly extinguished the flaming arrows on the ground by simply 'floating' over it, and shot a jet of water into a smoldering building.
So far so good...
"INCOMING!" Someone shouted, and Shirou quickly tore his eyes to the sky.
Several Fireballs rained down.
"Light Protect Me!" Arthas along with a few people wearing silver armor shouted out, and a golden shield made out of seemingly tangible light covered their bodies in a big halo. They then proceeded to dash into the line of fire, body blocking the Fireballs from doing any harm. One Fireball still went past them, and crashed into a different building. The white robed man who used Power Word: Shield managed to stop it from burning down completely, but the shield did not hold for long and some damage still went past it. The Water Spirit shot another jet of water to extinguish the small embers of fire.
More Fireballs crashed into Arthas and the other men, but the shields held on. They quickly retreated when the shields broke off on its own, seemingly on a time limit.
"That just now was Divine Shield, if you're curious!" Arthas shouted in his direction when he ran past Shirou.
More Power Word: Shield glowed on the buildings.
"INCOMING!" "Light Protect Me!" And once again the Paladins dashed forward.
Suddenly, a barrier made out of ice appeared in front of a Mage who was too slow to dodge away from a flying Fireball.
The barrier held, but from the expression on the Mage's face, its not easy to continuously maintain the spell. The Mage waved his hands in a sweeping gesture, and the barrier shattered, forming into several spears and shards of ice. Flying into the sky, managing to eliminate a few Fireballs before they could get any closer.
The defenders who saw this let out a cheer. And other people began to imitate this as well.
Some priests sent out a glowing bolt of light, slamming into a Fireball, it shattered into smaller embers that burned itself out harmlessly in the air.
'The situation seems to be under control, for now...' Shirou thought grimly. He had to compliment those people's precision and accuracy though. Shooting a moving target is always much harder than it looks, he would know since he does Archery, although he sometimes cheats by using Thaumaturgy to lock onto targets.
He kind of jinxed it when an Ice Lance flew by his ear. He cringed.
"Sorry~" A distant voice sheepishly called out.
This somehow looked like a game. A morbid game, sure, but still a game.
The Paladins have to tag Fireballs with Divine Shields, the Mages shooting ice or water to stop fire from spreading like target practice; and from what he could deduce, the people in white robes are priest casting shields on the building just in case as if throwing up a curtain to block paint bombs. However those glowing priest shields seem to be weak in comparison to the tangible Divine Shields of the Paladins, although it is true they appear more frequently than Divine Shields and last a tad bit longer. Curtains indeed.
But Shirou knew for a fact that they are going to tire very soon. Running around in full Armor or casting repeatedly without a break is taxing enough as it is. With most of the volunteers tired or injured, something is definitely going to give; sooner or later.
Shirou gazed at the infirmary entrance, and saw that most people have been evacuated already. There are still a few people inside, but its much better than before.
'At least the casualties wouldn't be too bad.' Going down in flames is a very painful way to go, and he was speaking from experience.
Would it be a better idea to retreat now and let the this part of town smolder silently, hope the fire doesn't spread too far, or risk their lives trying to prevent any more collateral damage from happening?
Fire.
So hot... Burning...
Its every where. Everything...
Fire. Burn. Hot. Hot. Hot, so hot, he is going to melt.
His fingers twitched and he tried to stand up, his body felt broken.
"SOMEONE! HELP!" A womanly scream tore through the night
"MAMA! I'm scared!" A little girl's whine,
"AAH! I'm on Fire!" a boy shouted
"Please..." A man pleaded, but what did he plead for? Salvation? Or Death?
He stood up on shaky legs.
Screams of anguish and moans of pain hammered on his ear drums,
All the while, the world kept on burning.
Everything was covered in red.
"Shirou! Wake up! No time for Daydreams!" Arthas was standing beside him, waving a hand over his face.
"Huh?" Shirou was jolted out of his musings.
As Shirou came back to his senses, he realized the sky has already darkened. Enough that it was barely visible with the remaining light peaking over the horizon, if you discount the flaming buildings that is.
The defenders are clearly tired, if more than half of them kneeling or positioned strangely half way on the ground are any indication.
There are also less flying Frostbolts or glowing shields protecting the buildings now.
Another gigantic BANG! from the besieged gate rang through the air.
"We HAVE to get out of here! Someone reported that they are going to launch a big attack on the gate." Arthas frantically shouted over the roaring chaos of battle on the other side of the gate. Shirou saw the others picking themselves up , running or shambling to the deeper side once they heard the message, hoping to make it to the escape tunnels in time.
Grabbing a hold of Shirou's arms, Arthas tried to drag Shirou away.
But it was too late.
Several war horns went off - the tone extremely rough, and emitting a sound that could only be described as wrong.
Then a chorus of "LOK'TAR OGAR!" (Victory or Death!) sounded out just beyond the cracked gate. And the crashing sounds became more and more frequent.
BOOM! BOOM! BANG!
Shirou could hear the gate crack again as the wood begins to fall apart, he tried to hasten his steps to get as far away from it as possible.
"HEEEEELP!"
But both Arthas and Shirou, along with a few of the nearby defenders froze when they heard a desperate cry coming from the Infirmary.
It seems the Infirmary was still not completely evacuated, and since the volunteers to control the fire have all quickly retreated, a corner of the Infirmary has caught on fire since there is smoke coming out from the entrance.
"There are still people inside!?" Shirou asked, alarmed.
"I don't know!? I didn't know!?" Arthas was equally as panicked as Shirou,
"HEEEELP ME! PLEASE!" They both abandoned all notions of self-preservation, then dashed into the flaming Infirmary.
The whole place was filled with smoke, and the visibility was too low for them to make out who was calling for help.
"Where are you!?" Arthas shouted
"Here! On the ground!" Both Shirou and Arthas twisted their head towards the left side of the Infirmary, and saw a girl wearing white robes on the ground, with a wooden beam right next to her.
"My leg is stuck! I can't move!" The girl cried desperately, and despite all the smoke in the air, there are visible tear trails on her face which indicated she had cried.
There was also someone else lying under the fallen beam.
"Don't worry, we will get both of you out of here." Shirou tried to sound as calm as possible, but in truth his heart was hammering so hard he feels like his chest is going to burn. The smoke inside his lungs also aren't making him feel any better.
A crash of wood and popping flame noises indicated that something had fallen behind him, but he didn't have time to look back.
Shirou went to touch the side of the beam that came in contact with the ground, but recoiled immediately.
"Argh!" The beam was really hot. And it burned his hands.
"I will handle this side, I got gauntlets." Arthas told him and moved towards him
Shirou quickly relocated himself to the side where it was closer to the fallen girl, and even though it was still hotter than he would have liked, it at least didn't burn his hands.
"On my mark," He could see Arthas tensing his muscles
"Heave! Ho!" Shirou discreetly reinforced himself to pull the beam upwards. As he suspected, the reinforcement costed almost nothing, and was so effortless it almost felt like a child's trick now. He easily lifted the beam into the air. Shirou was surprised that Arthas was strong enough to lift it on his end without any reinforcement; although Arthas's lift was noticeably lower than Shirou's, it was still impressive.
The girl quickly shuffled her trapped leg out from under the beam when she felt the pressure on her leg gone.
She grabbed onto the injured man's arm, and gave a harsh tug, effectively freeing him from the oppressive weight of the beam.
She gave out a cry of relief, and tried to stand up, but quickly collapsed back to the ground.
"I think its broken..." Then she started to sob in despair. "I don't want to die... *hic*"
Once Arthas let go of the beam, he stepped forward and lifted the girl in bridal hold, startling the girl out of her sorrow.
"We will make it out alive, I promise." He tried to calm down the girl, with limited success. The girl gave a nod and stopped crying, but she was still trembling and occasionally hiccuping in his arms.
Shirou pulled the injured man over his shoulders, then turned around. But froze up in terror.
"Erm, Arthas?" 'This is not good...' He gave an involuntary gulp.
The entrance of the infirmary was blocked by another fallen beam, and this time, the beam was entirely on fire. Lifting it out of the way was impossible.
And the smoke began to worsen, making Shirou cough.
Arthas scowled at the burning beam.
"Curses!" Arthas swore under his breath, but Shirou heard him clearly anyway.
'We are trapped! How are we going to get out now?' Shirou was panicking. His mind raced through the possible ways he could get out of this situation alive.
'Destroy the obstacle with a Noble Phantasm? I might end up bringing the whole place down if I am not careful. Trace a Water element Noble Phantasm to douse the beam, then lift it away? I don't think I have a water sword...' He decided to go look through his Unlimited Blades Work as fast as he could to see if anything else would pop out.
Diving into his inner psyche, he could feel the outside world to slow down as he began to fall deep down to his internal world.
He gently set foot upon the land of eternal twilight, swords standing tall and strong on the barren wastelands, and gigantic gears turning in the sky.
Normally he would take time to appreciate everything that is in here, as they are all parts of himself. But right now he was too preoccupied to do so.
Quickly moving his head in all directions, he tried to look for a suitable solution to his problems.
The usual Noble Phantasms he would use as a solution are all out of the count, they are too destructive. He isn't confident with himself that he could limit the power enough that it won't squash everyone from the collapsing building, plus there are also people outside waiting for them.
That makes about 70% of his main offensive weapons obsolete.
Shirou began walking around the wasteland, since the more frequently projected items would be closer to him when he enters the world, he might as well look through the things he doesn't usually project. Then he saw something he would never imagine to find inside his Unlimited Blade Works.
Usually, his Unlimited Blade Works stored weaponry of all kinds, ranging from Swords, Axes, Lances, Staves, Maces, Hammers, Bows, even Modern Firearms; and who knows what more.
'...I guess this is like the mundane object section?' He did a double take at that section of the wasteland. He rubbed his eyes to make sure he isn't hallucinating 'Heh, hallucinating inside your own inner world. Yeah right.' Shirou scoffed.
But this particular part of his inner world was filled with everyday objects instead of weapons. There is a toaster, an egg whipper, eating utensils like forks and spoons, cleaning utensils such as mops and brooms. There is a telephone, a water bottle, a screw drive, hammer, scissors, lamps, desks and chairs lying there. Countless more objects spread out from here, so it was safe to say that all manner of mundane objects are scattered around this part.
'Wait, is that a frying pan? When did that get here?' Normally an ordinary frying pan wouldn't have caught his attention. But this particular frying pan stood out too much. It looked nothing like those modern frying pans he used when cooking. It was old and slightly rusty, made out of plain and semi-unrefined metal, there are also several suspiciously shaped dents on it... Dear Gaia, is that a bloodstain?
'Rapunzel's Frying Pan?' Somehow, that thing is a Noble Phantasm and its a Rank C too, the same as Taiga's Tora-Shinai.
Deciding to ignore the strange, unsettling frying pan inside his Unlimited Blade Works, he took a closer look at the other mundane objects, and his attention was caught by a musical instrument.
A Biwa to be exact.
One could call it the Asian version of a Lute. There are mainly two different kinds of Biwa, the Chinese type and the Japanese type. Shirou wasn't sure how he knew, but he could tell the one in front of him was a Japanese Biwa.
'What is a Biwa doing in here?' Shirou frowned in confusion.
'Huh?' And Shirou grew even more confused when he realized he was staring at a Rank EX noble phantasm.
Its name is Benzaiten's Five-String Biwa, and has the power to control 'all things that flow'. Natural Phenomena such as fluids (water, blood, other liquids), wind, sounds (music, song), words (such as speech, poetry) and 'flowing' energy can be easily manipulated.
'Jackpot!' finding what he was looking for, he quickly took hold of the Biwa and returned to the outside world.
"SHIROU! Now isn't the time to space out!" He heard Arthas shout right into his ears.
"Yowh! Please don't do that!" And reflexively raised a hand to cover his ear.
"We are in great danger, and what do you do? Stand still, stare straight ahead, and let the fire consume us?" Arthas was in an extremely foul mood. But who could blame him? They are in the middle of a burning building after all.
'Let's fix that issue. Trace... On!' Shirou's inner hammer stroke down, and the Biwa was projected right into his hand.
The Noble Phantasm was an elegant piece of art. The wood was of pure black ebony the color darkest night, with the firelight dancing on its contradictory shiny black surface. Two ivory crescent moons are carved out on the top of the pear shaped resonance chamber close to the head of the instrument where the strings are strung. The strings were of the highest quality silk, taut and ready for use.
It stood out like a sore thumb inside this raging inferno.
"What's that strange wooden thing you are holding? Kindle for the embers?" One could hear the sarcasm dripping from Arthas's words.
Shirou deftly dumped the guy on his shoulder back to the ground so he could free his hands... But he winced when the man fell onto the floor harder than he would have liked. 'Oops.'
Arthas was going to open his mouth again to bite out a snarky remark when he was silenced by the music coming out from the 'strange wooden thing'.
'Thankfully the history of this Biwa showed me how to use it effectively.' Shirou thanked whatever entity watching over him that there was a song that could call forth waves of water recorded in this thing, and he doesn't need to learn how to play the instrument to actually use it, because he could copy the original owner's skills.
Let it not be said that Shirou's lack of music ability could wreck a Triangle. He also somehow ruined a Guitar, Flute and Accordion; he was stopped just in time before his hands reached the Piano.
Kiritsugu outright refused to let Shirou touch any kind of music instrument after that incident.
Water droplets began to form around Shirou as the music notes continued to flow out of the instrument, and soon turned into music-note-shaped constructs of water. Deciding that the pace of water gathering was going too slow to do what he wanted to do, Shirou upped the speed of the music, and his hands began to quickly dance over the strings.
Water appeared more quickly than before, and the music-note-shaped constructs of water then banded together to shoot out, landing right on the flaming beam blocking their escape. At first it just sizzled and the fire didn't seem to stop whatsoever, but as Shirou continued to play the instrument, and water continued to pour out, the flames on the beam surely grew weaker.
It took a few more moments for the fire on the beam to be completely extinguished, the beam now lies in a wide puddle of water.
Arthas, and the girl in his arms, was absolutely baffled. But Arthas didn't stop to ponder this strange change of events. He leapt over the now drenching-wet pillar, then ran through the open entrance.
Shirou picked up the unconscious man, pulled him over his shoulders again, and decided to follow after him to get out of this inferno.
'Ah damn...' The moment Shirou stepped clear of the fire, he knew that he was in deep trouble.
Countless Orcs were standing in front of the infirmary, with Arthas, himself and the girl making a dynamic entry by jumping out of a flaming building, they all have their heads twisted to face them.
The defenders who stood outside the burning infirmary to see if they could help the people trapped inside surrounded the building, and even though they knew they were facing impossible odds, did not run away. Shirou thought it was more likely they couldn't run away. 'Where could they run to in such a short time?'
Despite the more noisy nature of the Orcs, everything was deathly quiet as the Orc army inside Caer Darrow simply stared at the trio and entourage. The broken gate of the keep hung uselessly on its abused hinges.
Shirou swore he heard the loose splinters from the gate fall to the ground.
He could see that Arthas was tense, and doing his best to stand still. The girl they saved who is still in his arms continued to shake in fear. Shirou commends her for not screaming everyone's ears off at that moment. The other defenders around the building also tried to stay calm.
...
...
...
'Why are they not attacking us?' Shirou's entire body was wound up like a tight spring in response to the tension in the air.
Some of the Orcs who are staring at them began to shuffle awkwardly, and threw glances at each other as if asking between themselves 'What to do?'.
'Clearly, this was not part of their operation. Or else, why would they just stand there and not slaughter us on the spot?' Shirou reasoned to himself.
'Now is my chance!' Shirou raised his hands over the Rank EX Noble Phantasm...
The building behind Shirou collapsed completely, and let out a few loud noises.
As if an unknown signal was sent out, the silence broke down completely when the Orcs raised their weapons...
"AAAAAAAAAH!" The girl they just saved screamed at the top of her lungs and curled inward on herself.
'Saraswati Meltout!' And his hands harshly hit the five strings in a forceful downward strum, the motion oddly reminiscent of a rookie electric guitarist trying to rip the strings off.
A great deluge of water sprung out from below the Orcs, lifting several into the air through the gushing geysers. The deluge quickly turned into a whirlpool, dragging the previously unaffected (albeit wet) Orcs into the thing.
The Orcs were dragged through the flying tornado of water that began to twist and turn, sucking up more and more Orcs. They twisted helplessly against the water current and pressure, trying in vain to break free. Shirou could see that some of them were starting to run out of air due to the surprise of the attack; involuntarily sucking in air but end up taking more water into themselves.
Shirou was about to repeat his previous motion again when several voices shouted out at once in no particular order.
"Blizzard!"
"Blizzard!"
"Frozen Orb!"
"Water Elemental! Freeze!"
"Deep Freeze!"
The onslaught of Frost Magic started with a larger-than-average localized snow storm appearing right on top of the twisting waters. Hail and icicles rained down, striking whatever they could inside the whirlpool before the swift water current swept those away, turning into a lethal attack with deadly cold shrapnel, shredding the Orcs inside open if the blooming dark purple in the frigid blue was any indication.
Someone then shot a gigantic orb of Ice into the center of the madness. Shirou could see that the orb somehow stayed suspended at the core of the whirlpool, and the thing began to ice over. The ice was thin, much like a layer of frost growing over a pool of water during an autumn midnight. But then, the orb shatter into countless Ice Shards, shooting outwards and into the embrace of the water. The water grew even darker than before, and he could see hints of red splashing onto the ground nearby.
Then a 'Water Elemental' joined the fray. Shirou has no idea how it did it, but the twisting maelstrom was slowly turning into pure ice, and the water began to slow down. It wasn't quite completely frozen until the Deep Freeze came into play, and rendered the entire thing into an immobile twisting ice statue that is halfway between a pillar and a tornado. The color was a strange mix of blue, and purple.
All the humans just stared at it in awe.
The Orcs who were fortunate enough to escape this carnage simply scampered and ran back out of the gate.
Everyone just stayed quiet for a few more moments.
"Shatter!"
Until the carnage was revealed.
Under the command of the Mage, the ice shattered into big chunks and fell all over the place haphazardly, without any order or pattern.
The Orcs were sticking together, frozen solid, with expression of pure fear carved into their faces.
Some of them were not quite as fortunate, because arms and legs were separated as the ice chunks broke off, there were also a few that had their upper and lower body separated, leaving the 'insides' bare opened for everyone to see.
One ice chunk fell right in front of Arthas's feet, and it was an ice chunk that contained the head of an Orc inside it, the face clearly visible.
Arthas fell to his knees and vomited.
The Master of the Order of the Silver hand, Uther the Lightbringer was worried. He was extremely worried.
He gave clear orders for everyone to retreat, and all the civilians evacuated to Arthas.
Although he doesn't show it most of the time, he trusts Arthas to do a lot of things for him. Its been a while since he has seen such potential in someone so young. He was grateful for his friend Terenas when he sent the letter to him, asking if he could take the Prince under his wings.
From the short amount of time he has known Arthas, the Prince has shown him that he was capable, and resourceful. He showed eagerness to learn, was an excellent pupil when he puts his mind and heart into something. Even if he was sometimes petty and immature, as well as possessing the trademark arrogance of nobility, as well as the legendary Menethil Temper, Uther had utmost confidence that he will outgrow such tendencies in the future. In fact, he respects the young Prince very much to be able to control the legendary Menethil Temper so well. When Terenas was his age he always shouted at the top of his lungs in rage where ever he was.
But he was not happy that Arthas didn't quite follow his orders to the letter.
Normally it would have been fine, since he is certain that Arthas holds nothing but good intention in his heart. And sometimes Uther concedes to the fact that 'orders' are way too rigid in volatile situations that it is sometimes better to abandon orders so it is easier to adapt to circumstances.
However in this case, the orders are way important to the future as a whole for Arthas to completely ignore. Uther is also positive that Arthas knew better than breaking this order, since the Prince is very self conscious about his actions.
'Evacuate the citizens, tell people to help the injured escape, then get out of here as soon as you can.'
Uther had the safety of his charge in mind when he said 'get out of here as soon as you can.' After all, Battles are always unpredictable, and who knows what could happen next. So he was at first relieved to see that most everyone got out unharmed and a bit proud of Arthas when he completed a mission soundly.
Until he realized Arthas is no where to be found.
He quickly interrogated the last few people who ran to the direction of the escape tunnels, and managed to gleam the fact that his young charge was stopping the fire from consuming the infirmary close to the gate.
Absolutely torn between anxiety of having him so close to ground zero and pride from protecting the week, Uther was understandably frazzled.
So he called up a group of his most trusted Knights to save their Prince from the clutches of their enemies. Before its too late -
"What in the Light is THAT!?" Uther was startled by the exclamation from Nikolas.
Right before his eyes, a gigantic water pillar shot off into the air, then began to twist into a mock tornado. Tell tale signs of a magically triggered Blizzard were also there.
"Hurry!" Uther barked out, and they ran even quicker than before towards the direction of the strange phenomena.
Chancing another glance upwards, he saw that the water was slowing freezing up, and was completely frozen just a few moments later.
Looking forward again, he willed his legs to run as fast as they could.
'Damn, I am really getting old...' Uther cursed his growing age. Even though he has been diligently keeping his shape up, there was no denying that he was not so young anymore. He was slower when he was in his prime. Not by much and probably unnoticeable to others, but he knew for a fact it is only going to get worse.
He stepped right into the field of vision to watch the ice pillar shatter. Thankfully, he and his group of Paladins were still far enough to not be in the blast zone and avoid flying ice chunks completely.
His mind went into overdrive however when he saw Arthas collapsing onto the ground.
"ARTHAS!"
"ARTHAS!"
Shirou snapped his head up and saw Uther, Nikolas and Joydee along with several other Paladins running their way.
Figuring that it is now or never, he quickly removed the Biwa that caused all this destruction from the world before anyone take notice of it.
'Rank EX Noble Phantasm...' Shirou mused sourly. He only 'copied' the technique Saraswati Meltout in a hurry so it was not done properly, making it less powerful as it could have been. He might be able to become better at it through practice too, since the copied history implied the Technique has only ever been done halfway by their users. The Benzaiten's Five-String Biwa is categorized as an Anti-World Noble Phantasm, and if used correctly, could probably drown the entire world with just a pluck of the string.
He shuddered from that thought.
'So effortlessly too...' There was no cost to maintain the Rank EX Phantasm that could potentially destroy the world except for the initial amount to trace the object, Prana used to summon water to douse fire and the Prana used to use Saraswati Meltout. And all those 'consumed Prana Units' added together is so minuscule when compared to before.
Another chill ran down his spine. He will have to be very very careful in the future with how he decides to use this new ability. Collateral damage not withstanding, he as a person is very uncomfortable when it comes to attracting attention. People would fear him for his mysterious powers, admire him for it, or even try to take advantage of them. Shirou doesn't want any of that.
Shirou then came to a stark realization.
'One misstep and he could unintentionally destroy the world...'
This sentence continued to run over his mind, again and again and again. He gulped.
Thinking about all the innocent families he could kill with just the lift of a finger made him queasy.
What historical landmarks would never be seen again? How many nations will come to an end? How many races? How many lives? What could possibly justify such destruction?
Then the images of the great Fuyuki fire appeared in his mind again.
'On the other hand, if I had that power, would I have been able to save them?' Shirou felt conflicted.
"Shirou?"
Sakura and Illya came to mind. Both had suffered so much.
"Shirou? Hey?"
He was too weak to save them. He was too dense to see the signs of distress. Even if they were hiding it from them, he should have been able to see through it.
"Hellooooo?"
It was only through the help of Rin and Arturia, and surprisingly, Archer, that they managed to pull everything off, if just barely. It was way too close.
'Weak, Pathetic.' A voice sounding exactly like EMIYA echoed through his head.
"Let me handle him."
'You are still that useless and naive boy that was the weakest person in the war.' EMIYA mocked.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?"
'Heck, even Kuzuki-sensei was much stronger than you, and he wasn't even a Magus.' EMIYA continued.
"Don't worry, I got this."
'And everyone had to hold your hand around for you to even able to do anything -'
EMIYA evidently wanted to say more, but was interrupted by the pain coming from his face.
"OW!" Shirou exclaimed in surprise.
"See? That always works." Arthas said.
"Huh? Oh, hey." Shirou greeted.
"Don't 'Hey' us! You've just been standing there doing nothing while everyone was working to the bone - !" Arthas heatedly started
"Calm down." But Joydee managed to cut in before Arthas truly went anywhere.
"Yeah, lay off him for a bit. Every thing was hectic and every one was tensed." Nikolas concurred on the side.
Arthas just huffed in response, and walked away with heavy stomps of his armored boots.
"How are you feeling?" Uther asked
Shirou blurted out "I am fine, why do you ask?" before he even realized what he said. 'Uh oh...' he inwardly cringed.
He was still sore and unsteady when he walked out of the infirmary, but sometime in between the chaos, he was feeling fine now. This is going to look even more suspicious with the still mysterious recovery from life threatening burns over night.
"We are going to move to outside the gates and see if there are any survivors on the front-line." Uther said in a grave tone.
"But I'm telling you! There are probably not going to be any! You KNOW how ruthless the Orcs are!" This time it's Nikolas's turn to be heated. He even went as far as point his fingers at Uther and jab it into the air continuously.
"It probably wouldn't be worth if we find out that there are even more Orcs waiting out there to ambush us. I say we gather everyone up and get out as soon as - "
"We can't."
Uther and Nikolas turned to face him. 'Oops, did I just say that out loud?'
"Oh?" Nikolas raised an eyebrow.
'Ah screw it, might as well spill it out now.' "What if there ARE survivors out there? Are you just going to leave them to the mercy of the Orcs?" Shirou tried his best to not sound too biased, since every part of himself screamed for him to go out and save them.
But he knew not everyone thinks of it that way. Not after the lectures from Rin, Sakura and Arturia have repeatedly given him during the war. They made it perfectly clear that they weren't happy with how Shirou usually did thing. Oh, they were fine when he is willing to help; if he didn't jump head first into unknown danger with the intent of killing himself.
He felt another wave of longing hit him where it hurts.
"So you are just going to mount on this minuscule chance of someone being lucky out there, and throw your life away?" Nikolas questioned with a scowl.
"If you were the 'lucky' person being alive, would you want someone to save you?" But try as he might, Shirou couldn't keep his personal emotion from interfering.
This clearly hit a spot as Nikolas immediately clamped up.
A pregnant silence followed.
...
...
...
"Nikolas, Joydee. I won't force you to come with me." Uther broke the silence.
"But Sir?" Joydee was uncertain.
"Both Shirou and Nikolas have their points. If you don't want to, you don't have to come." Uther stated again.
And this time, Joydee fell quiet. Nikolas was still silent on the other side.
Uther turned around and faced him, but Shirou already knew what his own decision was before Uther could have said anything.
"I am going with you."
"I am going with you." The red haired boy in front of him said resolutely.
'Oh my, so many surprises today...' Uther was honestly surprised by this boy. Just now Shirou showed more determination than he saw in a grown and hardened man like Nikolas.
'This boy... He too has amazing potential.' Uther began to ponder.
The circumstances in how Shirou was found was very strange. Uther was just off on a patrol (paper work in the office is so mind killing-ly boring) and then a burst of light that blinded everyone came out of no where. Once the light subsided, there was a boy lying on the road.
Another flash of light, this time not as intense as before, flashed out. And then the boy caught fire.
The other people on patrol, namely two male Paladins, both gasped in horror when the boy started burning for no reason.
Of course, he wasn't unaffected by this either. He has watched several people being burned alive during the first war, but didn't outwardly show any of the disturbance he felt except for the slight widening of his eyes and twitch of eyebrow.
The three of them quickly tried to extinguish the fire, thankfully all three of them had bottles of water stashed into those 'bigger-on-the-inside' magic pouches, rolling the boy around on the ground while they shielded their hands from the fire with Divine Shield also helped.
But the boy was not out of the woods yet, his entire body was covered in black burns.
Uther knew that they had no time to waste, and instead of trying to go back the normal way, grabbed his Hearthstone. The other two copied him, and together they teleported back to Caer Darrow with the boy in tow.
Once they laid the boy to the closest infirmary, Uther quickly had the other two go back and report. Turning around, he was about to start healing the boy as best as he could to try and save him before all is too late.
Then something truly extraordinary happened right before Uther's eyes.
Golden light began to bloom across the boy's body, as if it is shedding away the dark burnt skin like unearthing magical glowing gold from deep underground.
A miracle by the Light happened, with him, the Master of the Order of the Silver Hand as witness that day.
He resolved the 'misunderstanding' with the healers who were running later.
Since then, the boy stayed unconscious for a few days. His condition didn't change much, it just looked like he was asleep except for the fact that the boy had an extremely high fever.
How high you say? One of the times when Uther was checking on the boy, he saw a little boy frying an egg on his body.
Sunny side up.
Yes, it was all the way cooked.
No, he didn't let the little boy eat it.
Of course, he gave a stern talking down to the little boy later. But by all rights the boy should have died from the fever.
This time he asked for a Priest that was a certified mind healer to come check him up, to see if he is either brain dead or not.
A Mind Vision and a few Thoughsteal later, it was revealed that the boy was indeed alive. Mind Vision in conjuction to Thoughtsteal could be used to peer into minds, and since the boy was unconscious, dreams. The Mind Healer voiced his confusion when he saw nothing but swords and swords and swords in the dream. But also said that there was a lot of bright light.
And then, something finally clicked in Uther's mind.
'Wait, Light? Could it be?' Uther didn't realize he had shown his surprise on his face, until Shirou gave him a confused frown.
Reaching one of his hand out, he placed them on top of Shirou's shoulder.
"Would you mind if I try something on you?" Uther asked tentatively.
"Uh... Sure?" Shirou's expression didn't change from the confused frown when he said that.
'Alright then, now the moment of Truth.' Uther breathed in a gulp of air and focused.
Shirou was still confused when Uther held onto his shoulder, but nothing prepared him from what happened next.
O' Light,
Ever Far Reaching,
I as Your Humble Servant,
Seek Guidance,
Uther's voice was echoing, and other worldly. His eyes, previously pale blue, began to glow in a golden color.
By Your Touch,
We Receive Salvation,
And By Your Grace,
We gain Virtues,
The golden glow from his eyes became more and more intense as the 'aria' continued. The entire place was showered under the glorious lights similar to the sun pouring down upon them. Shirou was struggling to keep his eyes open as Uther's eyes are now completely glowing eye sockets with no eye balls in sight.
I Ask You,
Inhabit This Soul,
Give it Life,
Give it Respect,
Grant it Tenacity,
And Bestow it Compassion,
Everything was then consumed by the light...
A few moments later, Uther knew that his assumption was correct when all the light just vanished without anything else happening.
He stared at the red haired boy in front of him who has his eyes clenched shut.
He waited until the boy opened his eyes again before he spoke.
"Would you like to become a Paladin?"
I repeatedly rewrote the last part again and again, but it couldn't come out how I wanted it to be. So I just called it quits after the 7th time.
Hopefully I didn't weird anyone out too much. And if you are lost, then don't worry. That was the intended effect. Uther is just being cryptic right now.
See you next chapter.
PS: I noticed that some people might not be happy about the EX Noble Phantasm appearing so early. But this is a point where Shirou realizes he has to be very careful with what he do in the future. Think the UBW as his Omni-potent panic button, he was in a pickle, and decided 'why not'. Now he knows why he shouldn't use his abilities lightly.
Oh, don't worry. This is not going to be a Curb Stomp fic. This over powered version of UBW is going to be necessary for the future. I am just setting it up right now.