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Myhriad Kowlp: No, Rhonogomyiad doesn't exist in this world.
declanbeech97: UBW will not recognize the planet as a sword, for it is a planet shaped as a sword.
Chapter 10: Magus Killer
Akane was worried. Shiro usually woke up at the crack of dawn, but it was almost noon and he still hadn't left his room.
"Honey, have you seen Shiro?" Kenji asked. Akane shook his head. "I'll go check his room."
Kenji walked over and knocked on Shiro's door. "I'm coming in!"
Akane walked behind him when her husband opened the door. Shiro was nowhere to be seen, but there's a note on his bed. Akane walked over and picked it up.
"Elizabeth is in danger. I'll be back soon.
—Shirou"
"Oh dear," Akane shook her head and handed the letter to Kenji. "What do we do?"
"I guess the most we can do is hope he's safe," Kenji sighed. "We will have words when he gets back, though."
"That's for sure," Akane laughed. She then looked out the open window. "Please come back soon, Shiro…"
It took 6 hours of brutal reinforcement to make his way to the dagger's pendant. It was a mystic code that Rin designed for Shirou after he almost died taking on a particularly nasty dead apostle. He was able to easily alter the beacon to go to him instead of Rin. He was in what seemed to be at a warehouse a couple kilometers south of the school. He looked inside the window to see several cloaked and hooded figures with Elizabeth nowhere to be seen.
Alright, Shirou thought as he traced Archer's bow. Let's do this.
Elizabeth was awoken by a splash of water. She was tied to a chair with rope and her hands and legs were handcuffed. Excalibur and Avalon were gone, but she was still wearing her school uniform.
"Wake up, successor," said a cloaked man with a bucket. Elizabeth assumed he was the one to wake her up. "It's time for the ritual."
"Ritual? What ritual?" Elizabeth asked.
"The ritual to revive the Goddess Artoria, of course," The person next to the man responded. It was a woman's voice. "Those who believe that Vivianne is the Sword Goddess are a bunch of frauds. Queen Artoria descended down all those years ago to save us, and with the heart of a wielder of Excalibur, she shall walk the earth once more."
"You're fucking insane," Elizabeth said, only to be smacked in the face by the man.
"Silence!" The man shouted. Elizabeth glared at him and spat out a clot of blood. "We will not accept blasphemy within these walls. Now, it's time."
Elizabeth caught the spirit of Artoria in the corner of eye. The queen was shaking with rage and her eyes spoke of pure fury. Elizabeth almost laughed. Even if they succeeded, they would die almost immediately after by the very person they worshiped. The two picked the chair up with her still in it. They moved to another room where Exalibur and Avalon lay in the center of a circle similar to the one Elizabeth used when summoning her sword. Several people were standing around the circle, all cloaked and hooded.
"Is everyone ready?" The man asked as the two took their place in the circle after placing Elizabeth in the center. After a few mutterings of agreement, they started to chant.
"Let silver and steel be the essence. Let the stone and the archduke of contracts be the foundation."
The circle started to glow blue.
"Hey! Let me out of here!" Elizabeth shouted. The hooded people ignored her.
"Let my great master Artoria be the ancestor. Raise the wall, against the wind that shall f—"
The incantation was interrupted as something smashed through the window and embedded itself in one of the hooded people's heads.
"Who dares?!" The man, who Elizabeth deduced was the leader, shouted. Elizabeth turned to the person who was hit and saw… an arrow embedded in his head.
Who uses arrows these days? Elizabeth thought to herself. She would have been more horrified about the dead body if it didn't belong to someone who was trying to sacrifice her to summon her mentor.
The leader got a response when a man wearing black jumped through the window. He had golden eyes and silver hair and wielded a long red spear and a short yellow one.
Two spears?! Elizabeth thought, her eyes bulging. She turned to look at Artoria, who had an unreadable expression on her face.
"Who dares interrupt this holy ritual?!" The leader demanded. The man smirked and turned to Elizabeth. His smile faded when he laid his eyes on Avalon, however. He stayed silent for a couple seconds before opening his mouth.
"I suggest you close your eyes," The man said. Elizabeth, predicting what would happen next, was more than happy to oblige. From then, the carnage began.
Shirou sighed as he dispelled Gae Buidhe. If anything happened, he didn't want to accidentally maim someone with a cursed spear.
"You can open your eyes now," Shirou said, reinforcing his voice to make it deeper. He scowled as he realized his voice was almost identical to Archer's.
"By the Goddess…" Elizabeth muttered as she opened her eyes. Shirou silently walked over and used Gae Dearg to cut her ropes.
"I'm sorry you had to see that. Get your sword and sheath," Shirou muttered as he helped Elizabeth stand up. "I'll escort you back to the Academy."
"T-thank you," Elizabeth said, shuddering. Shirou couldn't blame her. The screams weren't exactly quiet. "Who are you, though?"
"Me? I'm just a nameless Archer," Shirou said with a smirk. He was sure Archer was laughing at him from wherever he was.
"If you say so," Elizabeth muttered as Shirou led her out of the warehouse. He stopped by the school before going to the warehouse to get its location, so he knew where to go.
"Alright, it should only take a couple minutes if we run. Can you use Strengthening?" Shirou asked.
"Yeah," Elizabeth replied. The two then dashed towards the Academy, Shirou barely ahead of Elizabeth.
Huh, she really has improved, Shirou said. Even if he didn't look at Excalibur, he would know that, but since he did, he couldn't help but be proud of the girl's hard work.
"Get your hands off her!" Shirou was snapped from his stupor when he saw a woman flying towards him with a gigantic greatsword. Shirou reinforced his body and held up Gae Dearg, parrying the weapon. Without a word, Shirou engaged in combat with the woman.
What a monster, Shirou thought to himself as he fought. The woman was pushing him back with her monstrous strength combined with earth-shattering Sword Arts.
"Tch, where the hell did someone like you pop up from?" The woman grumbled as an arc of energy was launched at Shirou. The young boy simply held his spear out and as soon as the arc made contact with the tip, it instantly dissipated. "Wha—"
"I'm but a simple Archer," Shirou shrugged his shoulders. "Anyways, my job here is done."
"Job? What job?" The woman demanded, pointing her gigantic sword at him. How she was able to hold it so effortlessly was beyond Shirou.
"My job was to save the girl and deliver her to someone from the Academy. I've done just that," Shirou turned to walk away.
"Wait!" Elizabeth called, causing Shirou to turn. "Thank you."
Shirou nodded before tracing Carnwennan behind his back. He then wordlessly faded into the shadows.
Elizabeth heaved a sigh of relief as the man faded away.
"Who was that?" Alcia asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Honestly, I don't know," Elizabeth shook her head. "These hooded people were going to sacrifice me to apparently summon Queen Artoria? He interrupted the chant and killed all of them before bringing me here."
"Oh… I'm sorry you had to go through that," Alcia pulled Elizabeth into a hug. The girl's eyes widened. She never imagined Alica of all people hugging someone.
"I know what you're thinking. Stop it," Alcia grumbled, earning a small laugh from Elizabeth. The young woman then hugged her mentor back.
"It's fine. He had the sense to tell me to close my eyes before he did it," Elizabeth then shuddered. "It's just… the screams…"
"That's always the hardest part," Alcia pulled away and pursed her lips. "Anyways, let's get you back to the Academy. I'm sure you're tired.
"Yeah," Elizabeth agreed as she slumped her shoulders. "It's been a long day."
"Lizzy!" The first thing she saw when she opened the door to her room was an RPS (Rocket Propelled Stella) barreling into her. "Oh thank the Goddess you're okay!"
"Oof!" Elizabeth stumbled back, but was successfully able to hug her friend back. "Sorry for worrying you like that."
"What happened?" Stella looked up at Elizabeth with beady eyes.
"These weirdos kidnapped me," Elizabeth groaned. She still had the bruise on her cheek to show for it. "Thankfully, there was someone kind enough to save me. Too bad Alcia almost killed him."
"Yikes," Stella inhaled sharply through her teeth. "Must've been bad."
"He was actually a lot better than either of us expected," Elizabeth shrugged her shoulders. "He completely negated one of her high-level Sword Arts with that spear of his too."
"He was using a spear?!" Stella shouted.
"Quite down! It's still after hours!" Elizabeth scolded her friend.
"Alright, spear aside, we need to talk about the important part," Stella said.
"What important part?" Elizabeth tilted her head.
"The guy who saved you…" Stella leaned close, her voice barely a whisper. "Was he hot?"
Elizabeth groaned. Why did her best friend have to be like this?"
Elizabeth cheered as she walked out of the Academy for the last time that year. The finals were hard, but she managed to ace every single one of them.
"Sucks we're going to have to split for the summer," Stella stuffed her hands in her pocket and slouched. "Home is so much more boring."
"You can always stay here over the summer with me," Jasmine offered. The young girl had really come out of her shell ever since Stella started pressuring her to get into more social situations.
"Nah, I have a little brother to take care of," Stella waved her friend's request off with a smile. "I don't really mind being home. I'll just miss you two."
"Fair enough," Jasmine's shoulders slumped. "What about you, Lizzy? Are you sure you want to go home?"
"Yeah. I want to help Shiro prepare for his school year," Elizabeth said.
"Oh? Is this the Shiro I've heard so much about?" Jasmine said with an infuriating smirk. "You need to tell me all about it when you come back. I'd love to meet him."
"Why must you betray me like this?" Elizabeth said with a deadpan. "You were supposed to be the cute one."
"Blame Stella," Jasmine punched the bluenette in the shoulder playfully. "She's the one who corrupted me."
"Corrupted? I was just showing you the way!" Stella laughed.
"Elizabeth!" The wielder of Excalibur heard a familiar voice shout in the distance.
"Ah, that's my teacher. I have to go," Elizabeth said. She pulled her two best friends in for one more hug before running off to meet Anderson, who was sitting at the driver's seat on his carriage.
"How was your year?" Anderson asked with a smile. "I heard about the kidnapping."
"It was alright. Luckily there was someone to save me," Elizabeth said as she forced a smile. Sure, she appreciated the support, but after the first month, things started to become suffocating.
"Yeah, I heard about that too," Anderson pursed his lips. "Anyways, I have a surprise for you in the carriage."
"Surprise?" Elizabeth tilted her head. She then made her way to the side of the carriage and opened the door to see a familiar redhead waiting for her.
"Hey," Shirou smiled and waved. "How was the Academy?"
"Shiro!" Elizabeth hopped in and closed the door. She did not hug Shiro and she was very proud of herself for restraining herself this time.
"Nice to see you again," Shiro's smile widened. Before long, the carriage started to move. "Now, tell me how your year went."
"Goddess, Shirou! It was so much fun! I know you'll love it," Elizabeth said. She then started to rattle off on all the events that happened that year. For once, she was excited to be coming home.
I am literally uploading this on my phone so please bear with me. Anyways, the real fun can begin now that this miniarc is over. I have to start working on a research paper so do expect updates to slow down to daily or once every other day. I apologize for the inconvenience.
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