God Slaying Blade Works: The King of Wrought Iron
Prologue Part 2: King's Fall, Sword's Rise, And After-Incident Report
In a world of swords and flames, of steel and battles, there can be seen a marvelous sight. The sky itself seems to burn in an eternal dawn's light, with a giant monolithic series of gears, perpetually moving and continuously spinning eternally, shining down on a silent world with a ground of iron sand and steel dust, interlaced with patches of grass, as if from a meadow or a grassy plain, with a large number of gashes in the ground, as if a horrific battle of epic proportions took place here, with the land itself still recovering from said war, almost as if the land itself was in the midst of healing. Stabbed into the very ground at numerous points and intervals, with seemingly chaotic and disorganized clutter, was a large number of weapons, blades of all kinds, stabbed into the ground almost like memorials, honoring the great warriors who once wielded these very blades. At the very center of this ominously silent, yet oddly comforting world, a hill stands alone, with a small series of seemingly inconsequential weapons, yet are obviously placed deliberately as symbolic of the importance they hold, to the sentimental value they have, in the heart of this world.
And yet within this seemingly empty world, ominously isolated, yet serenely peaceful and comfortable, a battle between two warriors is being waged in this otherwise silent space.
One, an Ancient King from the [Age of Gods] who has grown animosity towards humanity as he feels their unworthiness merits their extinction and moves towards his goal with unruly brutal abandon and arrogant egotistic pride. His boredom and loss of faith in mankind drive him to commit an atrocity worthy of the envy of [All the Worlds Evil]
.
The other, A young teen, who has grown into a young man, and become a warrior chosen by fate to be a hero of the modern era, in the [Age of Humanity]'s darkest hour. Refusing to even acknowledge the golden king as a fallen hero from an era long past, he has long since stopped trying to reason with the fallen [King of Heroes], and stands against him, the world as his witness, to the birth of the [Blade of Humanity], the [Ally of Justice] and the last [Hero of Mankind].
Scene Break- Shirou P.O.V.
As I fought Gilgamesh, the two of us were literally throwing our weight around, our weapons firing at each other and canceling out one another as we continuously clashed, collided, and showered the area with the broken remnants of once exquisite weapons, the pinnacle of the very best blades ever made in all of history. With each weapon the golden archer fired at me, I hurled an exact copy right back, shattering both in a shower of sparks and broken steel. While closing in on him, he seems to get extremely pissed, that I keep him from killing me, on top of sending EXACT COPIES of his treasures right back at him, and one look at the hateful glare his eyes are piercing me with, if looks could kill, I'd have been skewered countless times by now from the sheer blades his eyes are currently directing at me, both figurative AND literal.
"DAMN YOU FAKER, STOP COUNTERFEITING THE ROYAL TREASURES AND DIE ALREADY!" Shouted the golden archer, his face morphing into an arrogant sneer filled with absolute loathing and hatred. Can't say I don't feel the same, considering I only ever felt hatred from the bottom of my heart for three people, and the funny part was, each of them is dead. "Why don't you try harder than [King of Heroes], or are you so far gone in your arrogance, that you fail to even realize just how twisted your mind has become from the [Corrupted Grail]'s influence that you can't even tell HOW FAR YOU'VE FALLEN?!" I taunted right back, shouting out the last words right at his face in anger and hatred for what the once [Oldest of Heroes] and [Greatest of Kings] have been reduced to.
His golden armor which was once the most exotically beautiful piece of craftsmanship, had been cracked, damaged, and even dented and broken with pieces missing from the set, and shattered from the repetitive explosive force of several pounds of dynamite, courtesy of a few [Caladbolg II] broken and fired off in rapid succession. His Hair, which was once spiked up in a style similar to a golden crown of blonde spikes, had become disheveled and his bangs fallen to his forehead, with blood and grime covering his face and body from his numerous wounds, mostly severe cuts, burns, and a few cracked, maybe broken bones, but otherwise unharmed.
I wasn't exactly looking much better, my jacket had long since been discarded, revealing my tattered white sweater with blue sleeves just barely holding itself together. My jeans had been ripped here and there at the seams, with blood and dirt from a few tumbles and minor wounds from the constant clashing. Suffice it to say, this outfit has pretty much been ruined, just like most of my outfits during this [Holy Grail War]. But my physical condition isn't really much better than his, my od is down to less than one-fourth my full capacity, my stamina has been drastically reduced from the constant back and forth between me and this golden bastard, and both mentally and physically, I am nearing the absolute limit I can possibly go before my body, mind, and prana give out. I only have enough in me to go at least a few more clashes. After that...well, at least I kept him busy long enough for the plan to go off without a hitch.
The plan was simple: I fought Gilgamesh, while Bazett and Caren used the distraction to find and rescue the monks in the temple who passed out from having their bodies exposed to the curses spewing out of the [Corrupted Grail], and purifying as much of the tainted [Infernal Mud] as possible, while using the cover story of an old, underground toxic gas leak that was sealed in an abandoned, private gemstone mine that was owned by the Tohsaka clan, but was sealed when the mine stopped producing gems and unearthed an old, toxic gas deposit that killed a few of their miners. The idea was actually rather clever, that the gas was both toxic and highly flammable, the perfect cover for the explosion from Saber's use of [Excalibur] to destroy the greater grail. While that's happening, Rin and Sakura would face Kirei Kotomine, and kill him, then free Illyia from the tainted muck that is using her as the core for the [Corrupted Grail]. Rin had a few complaints about the plan, but in the end, I convinced her this would not only give us the best way to deal with the [Holy Grail] once and for all but also give a legitimate excuse in the event we don't survive this battle as to what we were doing and what had happened. In the end, she only gave in to the plan because her pragmatic magus side and her human side ended up conceding at the same time that it was the best choice.
But I just HAD to jinx myself. My own fickle, Root-be-Damned E-rank luck just had to bite me in the ass. Just as he and I were about to continue our battle, we were interrupted by a sudden tear in my world, something that had started to drag Gilgamesh into it, right by his arm, dragging him and my [Reality Marble] along with him into it, and I couldn't look away, like watching a car crash or a train wreck as it happened right in front of you, I just stared watching dumbstruck while the golden archer began shouting and struggling against the void that seems to wish to devour him.
"NO, you DAMN STUPID CUP! Doesn't the [Grail] know a servant can't become its core? I absolutely REFUSE to die in such an insultingly indignant way as THIIIiiii-" The golden archer's screams of defiance and shouts of protest were cut off as the hole in space itself dragged him inside, leaving me right in the middle of the ruins of [Ryuudou Temple], with but a single thought running through my mind.
' By the [Root], Mother of [Akasha], [Alaya], [Gaia], and all things in between, just WHAT in the HELL was THAT DAMN THING?!'
I didn't take my eyes from the spot where the space itself distorted, with my mind running miles a minute.
But a sudden trio of voices from behind me broke my gaze, causing me to miss a key detail in the moment of my lapse of attention.
P.O.V. Third Person
Rin, Sakura, and Illyia were stumbling wearily up to the place where Shirou was just battling against Gilgamesh, when suddenly they felt a strange shift in the ambient mana in the area, causing their tired bodies to become fully alert for any and all possible threats, only to relax when they saw a familiar head of red hair staring off into space, with a look on his face that just seemed to show full attention to a single spot, in a battle stance that would not be out of place if he were facing an enemy, causing them to share a look between them.
"Shirou/Senpai/Onii-chan? What are you staring at?" They all ask him at the same time in a weary voice. Shirou suddenly starts, then turns to look at them, his guard dropping for but a few moments, when suddenly, a series of golden chains suddenly rips out of the very spot from which the tear Shirou was staring intensely just a few seconds ago, wrapping tightly around all four of them, shocking the trio while Shirou just silently swore under his breathe.
"WHAT THE HELL?!" screamed the Tohsaka heiress, shrieking the exact thoughts of all four of the teens present, as suddenly a face starts to pull itself out of the dimensional rip, using the four of them like an anchor to keep from being sucked into oblivion.
"Don't you DARE to pull in a KING of all people into the grail!" shouted Gilgamesh, the Golden Archer simply pulling himself out while the struggling teens tried to stand in place without being pulled in with him. They all glare at the fallen [King of Heroes], when Shirou Suddenly shouts at him over the noise, "What are you DOING?! Are you trying to pull us in with you?!"
"Fool, I merely need you to stand where you are so I can pull myself out! At least make yourselves useful in something as simple as this!" the golden archer suddenly shouted in annoyance, his face itself being ripped as it started pulling even harder to drag him in. The fact he wasn't screaming at all from such a horrific ordeal shows just how much of a tough bastard he was in Shirou's opinion. Then Gilgamesh did something that absolutely caused the four teens' minds to screech to a halt.
"At least it couldn't possibly get any worse!"
…..
With a perfectly synchronized movement, the four teens suddenly looked right into the golden archer's crimson eyes, and said with a perfect deadpan tone and face, "Did you really just say that, you just had to jinx it."
Gilgamesh just looked at them with a look of confusion and irritation, before the ground beneath the four teens suddenly shifted, causing the four of them to start being pulled in, all eyes widening and each screaming a curse at each other.
"DAMN YOU MONGREEeeeeee-" "That golden BASTAAAaaaa-" "Onii-chan, you and your damn bad LUUUUUUUuuuuuu-" "Senpai, help Uuuuu-" "Girls, hang on I'll- *SHHRIIKK thump*"
In that instant, the only trace of the teens even being there was a severed left arm from a young man, the only sign of the four found, by Bazett and Caren, who were aware of something going horribly wrong, and were even more horrified when a certain Dead Apostle Sorcerer showed up in the aftermath and found out what was left of Emiya Shirou, Tohsaka Rin, Matou Sakura, and Illyiasviel von Einzburn. His apparent annoyance at the disappearance seemed even more disturbing than [Clocktower]'s usual reaction to his boredom.
After-Incident Report for the Fifth Holy Grail War Disaster
In the wake of the Explosion caused by the Asian magi who participated in the Fifth Holy Grail War, with testimony from both Bazett McRemitz Fragga and Caren Hortensia, the Fuyuki Holy Grail System has been deemed far too dangerous to allow its continued existence, and as such has been ordered by the authority of Lorelei Bartholomelloi, Head of the noble Bartholomelloi family of magus, to be dismantled as of immediately, to prevent the risk of any possible discovery of mage craft by those who are ignorant of the existence of magic. Furthermore, according to a more in-depth investigation, the remains of four magi teens were summarily given up as lost, with one being the hated heir to Emiya Kiritsugu, the infamous 'Magus Killer' himself, resulting in the absolute loss of the mage bloodlines of Emiya, Matou, and Tohsaka. While the Einzburn family has made strong opposition to the idea of dismantling the grail system, they have been warned by the Queen of the Clocktower herself that if they press the issue, then she would have them slapped with a sealing designation for attempting to even think of trying to salvage a ritual so corrupted that children whom were the last of their respective mage bloodlines, and even his own granddaughter, died in the attempt to prevent the disaster they seemed intent upon releasing, and said in no idle threat, that if he kept pushing, then she would use all the power of the Clocktower at her discretion to personally end every single member of their family, especially when the Wizard Marshal himself, Kishur Zelretch Shweinorg, stepped in to reveal that he knew the grail was corrupted, and that he simply could not do anything about it sooner because if he did, then he would have broken a promise he made to the three founders of the Heaven's Feel ritual where he agreed NOT to interfere more than necessary with the ritual itself.
When the old enemies of the Emiya clan stated their intentions to take the young boys remains for study, Zelretch shut them up by stating the boy's remains were to be taken under his protection, and any who even DARED to try to desecrate them knowing he had done so, would be subjected to such torturous pain as to literally wish they could die. NOBODY dared to even test the dead apostle sorcerer afterward on this issue, when one of these people tried to argue before the poor fool started screaming in an inhumanely impossible amount of pain, falling to the ground, with his mind shattered, his eyes lifeless, and his very soul, shattered. When the Queen demanded to know what he had just done, Zelretch responded by stating he simply gave him the idea of simply a mere SLIVER of the pain that was essentially a part of the existence that is this world Emiya Shirou, and only this world, much to the utter shock of everyone here. The man had essentially died from how much pain he was in, and yet the young Emiya was not only still alive afterward, but had been through WORSE? The very notion caused all to realize the reason why Zelretch found him so entertaining. If a young teen not even two decades of age could withstand enough pain to utterly kill a full-grown man in his forties who had literally had his mind shattered and his very soul broken, then just HOW much pain could the boy take? "The boy can literally surpass his own limitations time and again without even flinching. Do you even realize what that means? The boy's potential is essentially LIMITLESS! In the entirety of the multiverse, he is the one person I have ever seen with this one trait as the sole constant of his existence." the Wizard Marshal cackled in glee at the obvious shock in all present to hear his statement. Then he suddenly looked absolutely furious as she simply growled, "But then he just had to get killed far too soon. I had way too many plans for him, but now they are ruined, all because of this. The STUPID machinations of old men, who just can't accept that their abilities are waning, and are too focused on their stupid, lost glory to even care about any lives lost in their doomed pursuit to reclaim it." THAT got Everyone's attention. The Wizard Marshal, a man who never taught his magic to ANYONE, actually had planned for the young Emiya heir? There was only one reason they could think of, but it was the Queen who asked what those plans were.
Zelretch proceeded to state right to the startled responses of everyone that the young Emiya was actually one of the few Emiya Shirous in the multiverse who was not only a potential future Heroic Spirit, but possibly the one who could have done it the proper way, without becoming a Counter-Guardian, as the Archer of the Fifth Holy Grail War was. When Jubsacheit von Einzburn demanded to know what the Wizard Marshal was talking about in a rather rude way, Zelretch, much to the horror of all present, Suddenly unleashed so much killing intent into the room that even the Queen of the Clocktower herself seemed to draw back from the seemingly uncharacteristic rage from the dead apostle sorcerer, revealed that Emiya Shirou was an existence whom he was NEVER bored of watching, but nearly every one of him who had walked the path of a magus had become a Dog of Alaya, making a deal with the world in order to gain the power to save even more people, but at the price of becoming a Counter-Guardian upon his death, which was always caused from being betrayed by his own comrades, whom he made the deal to save, framing him for something he did not do. And In this world Emiya Shirou could have very well become the one to save his alternate selves from their contract, by becoming a proper Heroic Spirit, acknowledged as a hero, thus freeing Counter-Guardian EMIYA from his cursed fate. This shut up every single enemy of the Emiya clan when the realization that the one salvation for someone who was forced into an existence of an eternal living hell who was now forever damned, and that the son of the Magus Killer was this world's counterpart to this very Counter-Guardian, they suddenly felt like the grudge they felt towards the father was not deserved upon the son for what fate seemed to have in store for him. NOBODY deserved that much of a cruel fate.
After which, Lady Lorelei Bartholomelloi interrogated him on everything he knew, and the Kaleidoscope then dropped the proverbial bombshell on them all, shocking even both Miss Hortensia and Executer Fragga, who were rather *ahem* 'friendly' with the boy. The Wizard Marshal stated, to the utter shock of all present for the investigation, in I quote, "The children aren't dead, but have apparently been sucked into another world. How it happened, I don't know, but somehow, the four of them were dragged into a rip between dimensions caused by the Heretical Servant Avenger, Angra Mainyu, to a world where he could manifest in order to regain a foothold in Creation from whence he was expelled. That would normally be impossible, as Alaya and Gaia would never allow him to do so, which means they most likely were hurled into the dimensional gap and thus killed." He told them he was just as plain angry because the young Emiya was apparently his favorite source of entertainment. He never got bored watching the boy, and he was somebody who seemed to be a rather amusing one to mess with on occasion, as his rotten luck had a tendency to put him in some rather...compromising...situations with women, the dead apostle sorcerer stated, much to the embarrassment of all the women present, and the envy of all the men...even I have to admit, I find myself rather jealous of such bizarre luck.
As such, the official investigation and clean up, as well as the dismantling of the Grail System was handled by and overseen by the Queen herself, and she summarily left back for Clocktower as soon as everything that was needed was finished. Both Miss Hortensia and Enforcer Fragga remained in Fuyuki City, even going so far as to stay in the Emiya family estate until further notice. They still perform their respective duties, but both have felt as if the town just will never be the same without the young magi who gave their lives to save the world. The City itself held a memorial service for the four young teens, even placing a statue honoring them for their actions, and their sacrifice, and are thought of as local heroes who died far too young. Zelretch's Declaration of the young Emiya's remains as off limits, and any who even dared challenge him on this would be wishing they were dead by the time he was through with them, a threat none were willing to put to the test, ensured NOBODY even attempted to pull anything.
As such, all proceedings ended, and everything seemed to return to normal, save the exception of the obvious avoidance of the Wizard Marshal whenever he appears in Clocktower, at least, more so than usual.
~Summary of the Fifth Holy Grail War incident, and its aftermath, now referred to as the "Mt. Enzo Disaster" by the locals, By Waver Velvet, Lord El-Melloi II