Fate/Celestial Sword
Chapter 6 (2/2) - wishes or regrets
"Don't you think that's exaggerating?"
Caster was worried about the amount of exercises Shirou was performing, although that was not the reason for her concern but the gravity in which he was performing it.
There were many more benefits to using the increased gravity his haori had than increasing weight through the conventional means of the Azure Dragon Continent, your entire body experienced the added weight and not just your legs and arms.
Your own organs were experiencing that weight gain.
Shirou was taking advantage of that and his twenty-five kilograms became thirty-five kilograms, his muscles, bones and organs were not prepared for such sudden changes in gravity and they received many wounds but the redhead was lucky that Caster had healing spells in her arsenal. .
"I can't afford to waste time…I'm going to take advantage of every second and train at my absolute limit to…arg…increase my strength faster"
Caster was impressed by Shirou's resistance, the pain of resisting the weight on his entire body was something very difficult for a "normal" person to resist.
The training was truly insane, even by the standards of Scathach who was known for her ridiculous training.
but Shirou never complained.
It had only taken Shirou a few more minutes to finish and after a spell from Caster, he was already fresh and clean to be able to talk about what they would have to do for the day.
"Did you get any important clues about Caster?"
"I managed to find some clues but nothing about their location but I found something similar while searching for them..." it was difficult to explain so she showed him what she had found by sharing her senses with a familiar.
"...how is it possible to leave him in that state?"
The remains were the skin of the corpse, without organs, blood or bones, the skin was not in perfect condition as it showed signs of wounds on the chest and back.
The remains appeared old making it clear that the murder was carried out a long time ago. Caster had found the remains by coincidence while searching the surrounding area for dying mana to find another clue to Caster2.
It was an unpleasant surprise.
"I found something else near the body"
The familiar's gaze went down to observe something that was wriggling trying to escape the familiar's paws.
a worm.
"Do you think that worm was the cause of the corpse's condition?"
"I am very sure that it was them since it was not the only specimen that I managed to find in the surroundings but it was the only one that I managed to ensure from self-destruction"
Caster could perform magecraft through her familiar but it was very difficult to do something of that caliber with her current state, she was very lucky to get it in the few opportunities she had.
"I have carried out many analyzes and discovered two things, this worm is a familiar or an invocation of some magus and it has a characteristic that caught my attention... I better skip the very complicated explanation but to summarize, it has the ability to carry the soul of a person"
"Why on earth would anyone want to put their soul in a worm?"
"By changing your soul from your body it allows you to extend your life a little more but it is not very viable due to the need for magical energy"
"...wait, you had explained to me about...what were they called?...noble vampire?"
"Dead apostle," Caster corrects, "that's right but we can't say for sure, we'll find out once I get my spiritual core."
"We're back to the same thing…" They couldn't act before recovering Caster's missing spiritual core.
If they wanted to quickly recover the part of Caster's spiritual core, they had to use all their power in searching, finding and defeating Caster2.
According to Caster, the servant considered most powerful was Saber due to her high statistics and abilities. The most annoying Servant was torn between Assassin for her stealth abilities and Caster for her territory creation ability.
They would have to somehow force Caster2 to leave his base and take advantage of that moment to attack with all their strength, but it was clear that the Servant would not receive the attacks just like that.
he would use some sick spell like his tentacles or something more macabre.
"Aren't Servants supposed to be heroes?...Is the other Caster considered a hero by the Grail?"
"The concept of a hero is something very difficult to define...the hero for some is the villain for others" Caster tried to excuse the existence of the other Caster but she knew that no one could think of that man as a hero.
The throne of heroes was in charge of determining who was a hero and who was not, the only thing the grail did was take a part of the soul of that heroic spirit to fight in the war with a master to fulfill his wishes.
"an absolute desire…heroes often do not have desires but rather regrets that they want to fix"
"Do you have a regret?" Shirou asked Caster but didn't force her to give an answer.
Repentance.
Something you couldn't do, something you did or something you could have done.
Caster was a non-existent being, she had no history of her own, so she had no regrets of her own.
but Scathach and Skadi were the opposite.
"There is no person who does not have regrets, I think even you should have them"
Shirou had regrets but a cultivator cannot allow himself to carry those regrets, they have to accept them in order to improve and prevent them from happening again.
A person cannot meditate when he has a regret that weighs on his conscience, these are the so-called "demons of the mind" of cultivators.
Shirou unfortunately had many.
"I have regrets but all the actions I took are what shaped me into who I am today." Shirou looked at the sky, it was barely noon "if something hadn't happened, it wouldn't be "me" who would be talking now...I would be a totally different person"
Carrying regrets could be a way of seeking redemption for your actions but for Shirou all the actions you took, whether you regret it or not, are what made you who you are.
but where did that leave Caster?
She was someone who had no experiences of her own, no regrets of her own, not even what she wanted was completely hers.
It was Caster, the fusion of Scatchach and Skadi.
" I wouldn't have these problems if I had my complete spiritual core. " Caster was very affected by the conversation and knew the reason for her mental and emotional instability.
She cursed inwardly.
...
The day had passed without pain or glory and the night began in Fuyuki.
Night was the time when the majority of the population of Fuyuki rested and minimized the chances of a civilian crossing paths with a participant. With that premise, the masters went out to patrol the city in search of an opponent.
but not everyone did that.
"How could we face that black knight?"
The concern of all participants was the strange Servant and Kayneth El-Melloi Archibald was no exception. He was currently in a meeting with his Servant to determine his next course of action.
"It is clear that his parameters are much superior to mine, I could have a chance thanks to my weapons but I am not sure of the extent of his abilities"
"We will have to carry out a surprise attack to be able to land a safe blow and have an advantage…or take it to advantageous terrain for us"
Kayneth was also confident in his Servant's weapons, Lancer's noble phantasm had its disadvantages such as not having great instant damage like Excalibur but it had the advantage that it was a passive ability.
The ability to cut mana or cause an unhealable cursed wound was an advantage that Kayneth needed to surprise her opponents.
but they no longer had the surprise factor.
Lancer remained silent, even if he did not agree with his master's ungentlemanly methods, he was kneeling in front of his master as he listened to the plans and gave his own ideas.
"We must be careful of Saber's master's retaliation…they will give priority to recovering the status of their Servant."
"Servant that you could have defeated if you weren't playing" Kayneth did not overlook Lancer's imprudence in playing knights with the sword Servant "With the skills of your weapons you could have ended the fight before Rider could intervene…now "Everyone knows our abilities"
"I apologize for my recklessness, I will make sure that such a thing never happens again."
"...I hope so, now-"
"Are you continuing with your supposed strategy meeting?"
Kayneth almost let out a sigh, he loved the woman before him but for some reason she always antagonizes him. A woman with a good figure and a face considered pretty, red hair and brown eyes.
Sola-Ui Nuada-Re Sophia-Ri, his fiancée.
"You have been locked in this room since the day began, I hope you have really planned a plan all this time."
"There are many things to consider when creating a plan, me and Lancer have to raise the pros and cons of the strategies we will use" Kayneth took a breath to calm down and poured himself a glass of wine to calm down.
"You didn't raise the pros and cons of ordering Lancer to expose his Noble Phantasm." Sola-Ui stole the wine glass that Kayneth poured and took the seat furthest from her fiancé and closest to Lancer.
That brought displeasure on Lancer's master's face.
"What you have to do is finish what you started with Saber, you have to take advantage of your advantages" she took a sip of the wine "to take care of the black armored servant... you just have to face the master while Lancer entertains that monster"
Kayneth and Lancer had thought something similar but the problem was the unknown master of that servant and also the lack of information about the abilities and parameters of that black armored servant.
although she was somewhat right about Saber.
"You don't have to worry about that, dear, Saber is no longer a problem for us… we can take care of her whenever we want."
"that-"
*Ring-Ring-Ring*
A fire alarm interrupted her and the room's phone began to ring.
" How strange… "
She tried to look smart in front of Lancer but now she didn't understand the reason for the alarm.
In the end I just wanted to impress him.
...
"We have found Caster's lair and we have discovered that his master is the cause of the murders of six people, in the period of three days the number of missing people in Fuyuki exceeds fifty and we confirm that the cause is him"
"Caster…"
Tokiomi was considered the master with the most advantages in the entire war, he had an alliance with the church, an alliance with Assassin's master, a powerful servant and a possibly impenetrable base.
But problems always appear through the gaps.
"The kidnapping of those people was careless and reckless, Caster's actions could cause a fatal outcome for the holy grail war" the priest Risei along with his son, Kotomine Kirei, were waiting for the Tohsaka leader's response.
Careless and reckless were the words the Magical Association hated the most and the punishments they handed out were merciless for those who did not care to hide the secrets of the moonlit world.
The association was not the only problem, the church would also have to interfere if the secret was not hidden.
The war could be called off if they allowed Caster to continue doing whatever he wanted and the punishment would be doled out to everyone connected with the war but it doesn't end there. Tokiomi Tohsaka was the leader of his family, a family that owns Fuyuki by order of the Magic Association and would not get away with the events.
What a mess.
"An uncontrolled Servant and an incompetent Master…we must deal with him as soon as possible and make sure to hide all the disaster he caused."
"Using Assassin will be useless, in addition to discovering the hoax of his death, they could also discover our alliance"
"...Tokiomi-kun, with my influence I can change the rules of war a little...we should order the masters to work together to get rid of Caster as quickly as we can"
Using all the participants to stop the magical servant was the simplest solution they could devise but the problem was that it would have to have a reward that would attract the attention of the masters to collaborate.
Command spell.
"It will be necessary to deliver a command spell to the master who manages to defeat the servant."
The supervisor's right arm was filled with the marks of command spells, Kirei could count about thirty spells.
"Do what you think necessary, Father Risei…the stability of the war is at stake."
…
"Everything went just as we planned"
Caster was happy to know that the Overseer ordered a truce between the masters until Caster2 is eliminated and the reward was something that even Caster was tempted by.
Command spell.
"Everything turned out well thanks to your mystical codes."
Shirou was the one who had planned to make people "disappear" so that the blame would fall on the other Servant, he had ordered Caster to equip many people with mystical stealth codes and with a little hypnosis, they forced them to leave the city by...unconventional means.
Many suitcases had left the city in a short period of time.
The total number of people who had "disappeared" was around thirty people who Caster influenced but there were still another twenty or thirty people who had truly disappeared and their fate was obscure.
"Tonight is really loud."
"It was impressive to see such a large structure destroyed"
A gigantic building was destroyed, Caster2 met with Saber, and the Overseer ordered a hunt for the mad Servant.
"Now we just have to wait for them to take care of the other Caster and I can recover."
"Why wait if we can guide them?…"
Caster and Shirou managed to find Caster2's lair because of their master. They had seen the teenager walking around the city with a mystical code in the form of a necklace to prevent any master from recognizing him.
Useless skill in Caster's eyes.
"I love your ideas"
"The masters that we currently know are four"
The albino woman, representative of the Einzbenr family and master of Saber.
The blonde man, Magus of unknown affiliation and Lancer's master.
Waver, Magus of unknown affiliation and Rider's master.
The man in the red suit and brown hair, representative of the Tohsaka family and Archer's master
"We know everyone's location but the blonde man's base was destroyed by someone and we don't know the identity of the Assassin and Berserker masters..."
"The best candidates to take care of Caster are Saber, for her magical resistance, and Rider for his speed and power...we can try to bring a familiar near their locations with the corresponding information, but they will be suspicious."
"My plan was to attract everyone's attention to an area near the other Caster's base with some tricks...Boundary fields, hypnosis and other tricks you can perform"
Caster was liking the master the grail had assigned her more and more. The night was almost over but I still had work to do.
Boundary fields would be the beginning, she could put some ghosts around the area and one or another disgusting familiar to alert the masters, it was a shame that she had to work with the basic runes.
"...hey Caster" Shirou was thinking about something but he needed his partner's opinion "do you think Lancer's master died?"
"I really doubt it. The building took a long time to collapse, time that Lancer surely took advantage of to protect his master."
Shirou was questioning the supervisor's hasty decision to give the order to hunt down Caster when one of the masters was not in a position to receive the news. He thought that the majority would have the same idea and would be attentive to the appearance of the Servant of the spear.
Apparently the supervisor did not think the same and called all the masters on the same night that one of them received an attack.
" Are you upset by the number of missing people? "
Shirou and Caster greatly exaggerated the problem and forced the supervisor to take action much faster than usual, causing everyone to feel that there was little left before the war had to be called off.
"What a mistake…or maybe not"
If one of the masters was not aware of the truce, he could use that moment to attack the others and then be the new target of all the others by breaking the truce, making Shirou and Caster kill two birds with one stone and being more close to winning.
But Shirou realized something important at that moment.
I didn't need to win.
The supposed grail wish didn't catch his attention, the whole situation had forced him to think of everything as a competition but the final reward wasn't something he really needed.
Power? It was a matter of time before he achieved it. Riches? It was easy to obtain in this world. Knowledge? He had a divine spirit at his side who could answer all his questions.
"Caster…what is your wish?"
Shirou didn't need the wish but his servant could have a wish that she wanted to fulfill.
"I don't really have one…you know that my current state is not optimal, the personalities within me are not completely fused and a lot of the key information I would need I don't have…causing me to have something similar to amnesia"
Caster remembered her time as Scathach and also remembered her time as Skadi but there were small holes in her memory that prevented both personalities from merging.
Blame its incomplete core.
The inability of a successful fusion caused her to be unable to take into account the memories of Scathach and Skadi as her own, it was like watching someone else's history as she could not relate to those memories.
"Do we really need to do all this?"
"what are you talking about?" She looked at the redhead with doubt, was he referring to the war?
"I don't need the wish, I just want all the inhabitants of this town not to suffer from the greed of the mages and you don't have a wish as such either... couldn't we leave once the other Caster is killed?"
Caster was surprised by what Shirou had said, she knew that the boy was serious with what he had just said but...maybe he didn't understand the possibilities of making a wish?
Power, knowledge and wealth were not all that someone could desire.
Furthermore, the war will not continue until all Servants are defeated, including the winner's Servant. Caster knew it from the first moment she knew what a command spell was.
The grail was not for servants.
"Shirou...it won't be possible to flee from the war, it is necessary for all other Servants to be defeated in order to obtain the grail, besides, why wouldn't you want the wish?"
"Everything I want I can get with some effort and discipline…I don't think I have anything similar to a "desire" from the beginning."
When Shirou began his training on the Azure Dragon Continent, his teacher had convinced him to train so that he could have enough strength to stop something comparable to fire.
Remembering the events, Shirou believes that he did not "want" power to help but power to feel safe.
His survivor complex healed over time in the martial world, there he understood that humans could become stronger each time they overcame the difficulties that were presented to them.
The comparison of his friend Qin Dabao was still in his head. People like metal and difficulties like the blacksmith's hammer, all of this was necessary to become a weapon capable of withstanding the difficulties of the future.
humans are not weak.
So why does he continue to strive to be strong to help others?
"My desire was to protect people…but people become stronger in the adversities they experience, if I save those people…am I good or am I bad?"
"…"
"I understand that there will be times where it is necessary to save that person…but I also believe that it is not my right to save them"
The martial world was not suitable for the faint of heart, Shirou had experienced many things in his entire life and his constant meditation led him to the bitter answer.
The strong survive and the weak die.
The strong is the one who fought tooth and nail to get to where he was, the weak was the one who did not take advantage of all his possibilities.
"Shirou" Caster's voice brought him out of his thoughts "Do you consider yourself a god?"
Shirou's head turned to the side at the strange question, he wasn't arrogant enough to claim such a thing. He was a small drop of the sea in an infinite ocean, he was not very different from other people.
"of course not"
"So you consider yourself a King?"
"No, where are you going with that?"
"Your worries are what someone superior thinks for people inferior to him" Caster got a little closer to Shirou and looked at his face "Many times people worry about the most useless things…do you have someone to guide like a God, do you have someone that you should protect like a king? Do you have something similar to that so that you have the concern of a leader?"
"…"
"Regardless of whether you save those people or not...you will still be evil, if you save those people you will become evil for not allowing them to grow and if you don't save them you are evil because you could have saved them but you didn't" Caster's hands gently grab the face from Shirou to force him to see her face "It is a leader who has to make those decisions and his followers are the ones who determine if he is good or bad"
Shirou couldn't look away from Caster, the Servant's hands prevent that. The redhead never had the need to lead, he thought it was unnecessary and very arrogant for someone like him to do that.
It was now that he noticed that he was a bit hypocritical.
"What you have to do now is enjoy life, travel, meet people, fall in love, have a family or embark on an adventure to fight against strong people and have fun with all that"
Shirou remembered his trips with his teachers, his meetings with his friends, and the long drinking parties they had when they all got together for a meeting.
That was all very fun.
"c-could you give it a chance…"
"...That's good"
A sword is only focused on its purposes, a sword was a tool after all but the sword called Shirou was not an object.
Slowly the sword became human again.