Chapter 5 - "A Booming Baritone of Broken Blades" = "? ? ? Blade Works"

They walked to the church in silence, Archer and Saber both having already said their parts.

Shirou was contemplating his new situation, and Rin was silently brooding over the connection between the two servants and her magically incompetent dunce of a class-mate.

Shirou and Rin went inside, leaving Saber and Archer to keep patrol outside of the church.

There was an awkward silence between them.

Saber was the first one to speak up, and break the silence.

"If things are keep going on the same route, Berserker will be our next opponent."

"Yeah," Archer said, "...But things might not take the same route. After all, we don't know if Ilya has summoned the same Berserker or not. Lancer was the same, but you were different."

Saber nodded. "Yeah. And even if she did summon the same Berserker, she might decide to do things differently this time around, anyways."

Archer grunted his agreement.

They went back to their awkward silence, not having much else to talk about.

Shirou and Rin left the church. Shirou had a newfound determination in his eyes, though Rin looked a little bit flustered.

Shirou and Saber exchanged a look. Saber nodded. Nothing needed to be said, understanding each other as they did, perfectly.

They started walking down the path back.

"Well, I can walk myself back from here, Emiya-kun." Rin said solemnly, "But keep in mind, the next time we meet, we'll be enemies."

Shirou looked at her and smiled.

"Thank you, Tohsaka. You really are a nice person."

Tohsaka blushed and stuttered with her words, denying it.

Saber and Archer both with were a bit amused. It was a rather familiar, and a bit of a nostalgic scene for the both of them.

But as Shirou and Rin were about to part, they were are intercepted by a certain small girl.

Ilya and Ilya's Berserker had finally made their appearance.

...

"You know," Ilya started, "I was really very surprised that I summoned you instead of Heracles, Onii-chan. But looking at your Servant and Tohsaka Rin's, I suppose that it's only natural. Still, to think that three of you were summoned here at once..."

Ilya sneered, "You're surprisingly popular, Onii-chan."

Shirou was surprised to see Berserker, who looked much more closely to being near identical to him, even compared to Saber (though much more severally wounded and beast-like in demeanor), but Berserker's appearance only confirmed his own suspicions about Saber (and Rin's suspicions about Archer).

Berserker's body was almost painful to look at, as it looked in several areas as though his body had been impaled by sharp, miniature blades, though he didn't show any pain on his face, instead snarling fiercely towards the enemy Servants as he hovered protectively in front his Master, his eyes glazed over by a heavy red taint.

Shirou was confused by Ilya's comment, though. Weren't there only two of him (Saber and Berserker) that had been summoned here?

"I'm not summoned, you know." Shirou quickly remarked, confusedly.

Ilya (and Rin) rolled their eyes, and Ilya rebuked him, "Not you, silly. Tohsaka's Servant."

"Ah."

With that comment by Ilya, Shirou only just now started making the connection between Saber and Archer's appearances.

Up until this point, Shirou was just assuming it might've been a coincidence that they looked similar. But now, upon seeing Ilya's Servant Berserker, and from Ilya's comment, Shirou had finally started putting the pieces.

'Wait, does Archer is also me?! Why are all these servants, besides that "Lancer" guy, all versions of me?'

...

Meanwhile, Saber and Archer had started talking, off to the side.

"I don't want to fight this guy." Saber said, "There's something wrong about him. I'll leave him to you. I'll take the masters to safety as you distract him."

"What? As a Saber, wouldn't you be the better choice to fight him off at close range? I would be better used as long-ranged support."

Saber nodded, "Yeah, you're right. If it was just close-ranged combat, I'd likely be able to win, no problem. And I might just be being paranoid."

"...But," Saber continued, "If it comes down to a battle of our trump cards, I feel like I'd lose. Or it'd be a bad match-up, at least. So I'll leave him to you."

Before Archer could argue any further, Saber already had taken each of the Masters under his arms (much to Rin's displeasure, followed by her protests and indignant squawking), and had fled before Archer could say anything else.

Archer sighed.

He had actually still half-heartedly wanted to assassinate Emiya Shirou, to snipe Emiya Shirou from a distance. Though now he was significantly less sure about his course of action, especially with Saber promising to lead the young Emiya Shirou on to a different path. Would killing Emiya Shirou now even do any good, given that?

For that matter, was Saber actually being sincere? Or did he know about Archer's hidden intent and flee with both Masters (Emiya Shirou to keep him safe, Rin as a "hostage") while making an excuse to appease and distract Archer?

Well, maybe he was just overthinking things and reading too much into Saber's intentions and actions.

Archer shook his head. Well, it didn't matter either way. Saber had already fled, so all he had to do was focus on the enemy before him.

...

"Hey, wait!" Tohsaka was protesting under Saber's grasp, "Don't tell me you're just going to leave Archer there alone?!"

"Don't worry," Saber assured, "He'll be fine. He's strong, after all."

Rin didn't look convinced.

"And I'll come back to support him, once you two are brought to safety."

That, at least, had Tohsaka relaxing slightly.

...

Ilya had let them talk patiently, mainly as a courtesy, but also to let them sort things out between themselves.

Just being able to guess what their personalities would be like (from the dreams she had received from Berserker), and with the information on the other Servants she was had as a Master of one of the Three Houses, she was had guessed that they would probably discuss having a proper one-on-one duel with Berserker, and would decide which one of them would go first. That being said, she had no actual intention of letting them escape.

Ilya a bit miffed that Saber just retreated like that, before she could even react in time, but, oh well, it wasn't a big deal anyways. Ilya could always just hunt down Saber later. It might even be better this way, since she could take her revenge out on all these different versions of Shirou one by one and savor their deaths and suffering more like that.

Ilya smirked, and set Berserker loose.

Berserker snarled and charged forward like mad, with glazed over red eyes, the tips of blades piecing out from them and blades gushing forth from the rest of his body, especially around his shoulders, his unnaturally large arm covered by a red Holy Shroud.

"SAKURAAAAAAAAA!"

...

Archer engaged Berserker.

His fighting style was like that of a mad beast, swinging and breaking sword after sword, and projecting and firing swords like mad.

No finesse or style, truly just a mad berserker-like charge.

Unlike Heracles, who was such an amazing warrior he could retain some semblance of his finely honed skills and incredible battle sense even as he lost his mind as a Mad Enhancement-enforced Berserker, this version of Emiya Shirou was truly just like a wild animal, acting purely on instinct.

Normally, Archer would be able to easily defeat such an opponent, but with the extremely high level of Mad Enhancement that had been placed on him, and with Ilya supporting Berserker as the Master, all of Berserker's parameters (or at least his physical parameters) had exceeded Archer's own. They had gone up by 2? Maybe even 3 or 4 ranks of what Berserker's parameter's normally would, which spoke volumes about of what a monster of a master Ilya really was.

In Archer's own Holy Grail War with Hercules, Hercules was already such a monster that even with Ilya's extensive mana supplies and a high level of Mad Enhancement, Hercules had at most a 1 rank boost in all physical parameters - if even that. No, maybe not even that much. And Ilya had to use up much of her mana supply and focus just to support Berserker's existence and keep him in line.

However, Emiya Shirou was a very different case. As a much weaker existence, his parameters were boosted that much more, especially since as Ilya didn't have to focus on trying to tame him in the same way she would have to with Heracles as a Berserker.

The intense increase in Berserker's movement and reaction speed and strength made it difficult for Archer to find an opening - And since Berserker wasn't a rational opponent, he didn't even have the reason or battle instincts to try for Archer's false openings and fall for any of the traps Archer's style set up for more skilled warriors.

At the start of the battle, that was fine, since Berserker was just attacking randomly, so Archer could still exploit the many openings Berserker left.

But as the battle went on, more and more of Archer's experience was being leeched by Berserker, and Berserker's attacks continued to get sharper and more accurate as the battle went on. Berserker wasn't a thinking beast and couldn't analyze the experience he was gaining, but by instinct alone, and as Emiya Shirou, he knew exactly what the best angle to attack another Emiya Shirou was. The more experience he leeched from Archer, the more he was able to match his style against Archer's, with better physical parameters.

And it wasn't just that, either - Berserker was also using an insane method to defend himself from Archer's attacks.

Every time, right before Archer could slash or pierce him, Berserker would temporarily manifest blades inside of his own body the instant that Archer struck at his body with Kanshou and Byakuya, blocking metal with metal inside his own body, preventing Archer from gauging his flesh deeply or penetrating into his body, but still doing damage to the surface of his own flesh in the process. Even if he dismissed the blades immediately afterwards, it would still rupture his own skin and muscle and even sever his own flesh and joints, depending on where Archer chose to strike at. The only way he could possibly be fighting and still moving as fluidly as he was, Archer deduced, was because his sense of pain had been cut off, and because of support from Ilya's magecraft.

Truly, an insane and counter-productive way of fighting. A fighting style that marked him as truly worthy of being called a "Berserker".

Beyond just that, the feedback also worked in reverse, with Archer feeling the intense pain from swords internally rupturing through his body, and from the swords emerging out of his body. It was only enough to distract Archer for a split second every time he felt it, but even those split seconds were enough for Berserker to knock Archer back and give him a few shallow wounds.

If it was only one of those factors alone, Archer, or any sufficiently skilled Servant, really, would have still be able to win against Berserker relatively easily. But, these two factors in combination, really proved to be quite the bad match-up conditions for Archer himself, specifically.

(And they likely would for Saber, too - though Saber's more direct fighting style might've proved a better match-up than Archer's counter-based style against Berserker's wild instinctual attacks).

It would be best to end this quickly then, before Berserker improved any further.

All Archer could do at this point was to parry the attacks, setting up for Unlimited Blade Works while fending Berserker off.

...

"I am the Bone of my Sword."

Startled, Archer could hear something from Berserker, a similar line, an similar echo coming from Berserker. It was faint, but he could hear it through the snarling of Berserker's voice.

"I am the Bone of my Sword."

No, it was not accurate to say that he could hear it.

Berserker was not speaking any words, and all he could do was snarl and grunt, but the meaning of his sounds were resonating with Archer's own, and being projected directly into Archer's own mind.

Archer could tell. It wasn't an action that was being done consciously on Berserker's part, but rather that Berserker was instinctively reacting to Archer's own aria.

"Steel is my body and fire is my blood." - "Steel is my body and fire is my blood."

But here, their paths diverged, and they took on opposite routes.

The red holy shroud that was covering Berserker's arm started to come off, as if reacting to Berserker's resolve.

"I have created over a thousand blades." - "I have pilfered over a thousand blades."

"Unknown to Life, nor known to Death." - "Unstoppable by Pain, nor stopped by Suffering."

"Have withstood pain to create many weapons." - "Have withstood loss to protect what's precious."

"Yet these hands will never hold anything." - "For these hands will only ever hold her."

"So as I Pray," - "So as I Shatter,"

"UNLIMITED BLADE WORKS!" - "BROKEN BLADE WORKS!"

Clashing ideals, inner worlds, materialized realities,

Archer could feel it as their Reality Marbles clashed against each other. Their worlds were exact opposites, formed from inversed ideals.

Sacrificing the few to save the many, the minority to save the majority. That was the essence of Archer's own Reality Marble, the backbone that held up its structure.

Berserker's was the exact opposite. Saving the few, even if it meant sacrificing the many.

No, it wasn't just that.

It was that ideal taken even further, to it's logical extreme. The will and the resolve to sacrifice the many, no, to sacrifice the whole of humanity and even the world itself, in order to save the one, the one person who was truly precious to Berserker. The manifest form of Berserker's loyalty, his resolve, his madness (恋).

Archer smirked warily. Berserker, this version of Emiya Shirou truly was insane (恋病). Well, at least this version of Emiya Shirou would never go down the path that he did.

Their Reality Marbles clashed intensely as they started to materialize and clashed, acting to nullify each other. But Berserker's Reality Marble had a slight advantage at first, and was starting to gain a little bit of ground.

It wasn't that that Archer himself was lacking in power or resolve.

But Berserker's will way in no way weak, either.

Undeniably, Berserker's sheer will-power was incredibly strong. Even Archer himself would admit that this incarnation of Emiya Shirou had certainly far surpassed the degree of willpower Archer had in life, and perhaps even early into death.

But even so, for as incredible as Berserker's will-power was during his lifetime, even he could not stand up to the willpower of a fellow Emiya Shirou which had been forged from the steel and hellfire of decades and centuries and millennia of despair and cynicism. The life of Archer, of EMIYA, would never lose in battle of sheer resolve.

Even so, in terms of just pure conceptuality, Berserker's version of "Unlimited Blades Works", his "Broken Blade Works", was stronger. Not because it was an inversal of Archer's ideals.

But because it was an inversal of Archer ideal's taken to it's logical extreme.

Just as a materialized ideal, and as a realization of an inner world itself, it was conceptually superior to Archer's own inner world.

It was only because of Archer's greater will-power that he was able to hold off and nullify as much of "Broke Blade Works" as he did.

"Broken Blade Works" was a much weaker and less versatile version of his own "Unlimited Blade Works", Archer could tell. One that focused exclusive on making use of broken phantasms to do pure destructive damage, ignoring the original weapon's special properties for the most part.

Butt in terms of pure conceptuality, if all other conditions (including willpower) were equal, then "Broken Blade Works" would undoubtedly always win out against "Unlimited Blade Works", 100 out of 100 times, without even one chance of victory for Archer.

That was just its inherent nature and conceptual advantage (superiority) relative to "Unlimited Blade Works", as a competing Reality Marble of Emiya Shirou.

However, as the two inner worlds continued to clash, Archer's reality marble gained the slight advantage in materializing and gaining ground, as the two incompatible worlds continued struggling against each other and cancelling each other out.

Archer's willpower, forged through many centuries and millennia of experience, just weighed that much more than that of an Emiya Shirou with only one life time's worth, no mattered how hardened and broken that one life may have been been.

Unlike a clash between two similar worlds fighting to gain ground and dominance over which would materialize and conquer the other one, the two inner worlds were so incompatible and mutually exclusive that anywhere they touched, they nullified each other and the other's internal world wherever they happened to touch, at any and all points of contact.

"Tch." Archer scoffed in annoyance.

Seeing that he wasn't gaining much ground (at least, not very quickly), and realizing his disadvantage against Berserker at close range combat (and seeing in the corner of his eye that Ilya was readying attack spells to distract his focus on materializing his reality marble), Archer took the chance while Berserker was distracted to jump back, escaping outside of the range of the manifestation of "Broken Blade Works". Ilya, seeing this, also ordered Berserker to collapse his Reality Marble.

But, it was already too late.

Archer had already fled to a far away building, intent on sniping down Berserker (though making sure Ilya was out of range first).

Saber had likely already taken their Masters to a safe range, so sniping down Berserker should be fine at this point.

From the far building, Archer projected a bow, and then Caladbolg, which he quickly altered into an arrow form, Caladbolg II.

Aiming closely, he fired.

And a massive explosion followed, though it had been driven a bit off course and had it's impact had been reduced by an intercepting Caladbolg fired by Berserker.

Still, the explosion had taken it's toll, and Berserker had collapsed on the ground, clearly heavily injured. Ilya looked concerned, and though Archer couldn't tell exactly what she was saying, Berserker quickly returned to spirit form, and Ilya looked to be retreating.

Archer sighed a breath of relief.

It had been a long night...

Chapter 5 - "A Booming Baritone of Broken Blades" = "Broken Blade Works" END

Author's Notes:

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Translation note: 恋 is Japanese for love (specifically, in the romantic sense). 恋病 means lovesick.

Saber really would be a bad match-up against Berserker. In some sense, Berserker is like a dark mirror of Saber, in terms of how they lived their lives. Both devoted everything they had to their one special person.

But one managed to reach that utopic ending by pursuing their ideals to the extreme, while the other had to sacrifice all their ideals in order to strive for their own happy ending.

Shirou's "Broken Blade Works"'s "loss" refers not just to loss of his memory and the eventual loss of his life, but also to the loss (sacrifice) of his ideals in order to protect Sakura, his loss in order to become Sakura's own personal hero.

The fact that Ilya has seen Berserker's dreams is also significant, and will play a part in Berserker's (and Ilya's) brief interlude.

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Support from Ilya's magecraft means something like puppetry or a support-type of familiar magecraft, allowing Berserker Emiya Shirou to move beyond his natural limits. It would be extremely difficult, near impossible, even for someone like Ilya, to support a monster like Heracles like a familiar. But to provide support an already half-broken Emiya Shirou? It could be done easily, especially for a monster of a magus like Ilya.

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So funny story, I actually decided on Heaven's Feel (True End) Shirou because I was thinking of the end of Heaven's Feel, and how throughout Heaven's Feel, Shirou became an increasingly blank-minded and single-goal focused Shirou, and as such, would be an excellent match for the Berserker class, and as a target for Mad Enhancement.

I didn't even realize until a few weeks after writing down my ideas for the chapter down that Ilya used Berserker's stone slab as a summoning catalyst.

...And that in Heaven's Feel, Shirou used that very same stone slab against Berserker to defeat him, so he actually has a connection to that stone slab summoning catalyst!

The realization seriously blew my own mind at how coincidentally perfect it was, without me even realizing it or choosing Heaven's Feel Shirou as Berserker for that reason. Shirou was even witnessed using it by the Ilya of the Heaven's Feel route, so there's even more of a connection there. To be fair, you could call those just loose connections. And yeah, I agree, but even so, the fact that they coincidentally match up so well even though I wasn't really considering or thinking about that moment, or even considering those factors when deciding to make Heaven's Feel Shirou into Berserker is still pretty cool.

You could argue maybe I had subconsciously taken into account Shirou's fight against Berserker to protect Ilya moment into my account of making Heaven's Feel Shirou as Berserker, and maybe there was some subconscious influence there. And yeah, that might be true, there might've been subconscious influence or sway there. Although, I didn't know Ilya used the stone slab as Berserker's summoning catalyst at that time, so that part wasn't actually a factor in my choice.

Still, even if Heaven's Feel didn't have that moment, though, I still would've chosen Heaven's Feel Shirou for Berserker, for the first reasons I stated above (i.e. my main reasons). That being said though, the sub-reasons also aligned incredibly (and surprisingly) well, so it turned out even better and more well-suited than expected.

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Next up is the Rider and Assassin (Summoning) interlude. They'll both be pretty interesting, so look forward to it!

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