Enhance hummed to himself as he casually strolled through the front door of the house that his servants, however temporary they would have been, had torn down in their mindless rampage. Really, they were disgusting creatures, he couldn't understand the other Ancestors inclination towards them. But they were useful tools, so he wasn't exactly going to just not use them.
Even now he could feel their, admittedly pitiful, numbers dropping as the various Magi cut them down with impunity. But none of the other Magi mattered to him, only his rival. The 'sword' that was both his equal and opposite was moving towards the backyard, seemingly to meet the last two groups of Dead on their lonesome.
He was only about two steps into what he recognized as the 'living room' of the house when his hand twitched and glinting purple string of pure prana littered the ground in severed segments at his feet. The severed strings fading away as he casually leant out of the way of several cursed bullets of energy, hopping to the side to avoid the follow-up gout of fire from the hand of a black-haired girl with twin-tails. Swaying from side to side, the Ancestor twirled the blade in his hand and rushed in, swinging the heavy looking blade in a blur of metal and coming to a stop right before it cut into a white-haired girl with red eyes.
"Nice weapon." He complimented the similarly coloured woman, turning his head ever so slightly to stare her in the eyes as her giant axe continued to block him.
"You ruined a nice meal."
"Oh, did I? My bad." Before he could act, the woman did, tensing her arm and swinging, flinging him back and away from her in a burst of air.
'She's strong. Though I should have- shit!' The Ancestor leant to the side to avoid the blow that no doubt would have gouged out his torso.
And in doing so, moved directly into the foot of the white-haired woman as it swung upwards, striking him and imparting its momentum into him with no remorse.
The destruction of the roof as Enhance flew through it was honestly negligible to the man, a true laugh of enjoyment bubbling up from his lips as he shot higher and higher into the air. The dust following behind in the pseudo-jetstream his body created with its ascent. And a trail that the axe wielding woman seemed more than happy to follow after.
"I should have known my rival would surround himself with the extraordinary!" He crowed, blocking the swipe at his head by the shaft of the woman's weapon and pulling his firearm.
The shot missed, of course it did, as the woman leveraged the weight of the axe to move her body midair, something that gave him an idea. Flipping his blade around, he looped it behind the shaft of her axe and flipped them around so that he was behind her. A solid boot in her back sent her crashing into the front yard of the premises and sent him juuuust far enough back that he could land roughly where he wanted to.
And land he did, shattering the ground beneath his feet as the black-haired girl screamed something out, the impact in his non-reinforced but still supernatural legs fracturing at least every bone below his pelvis. And then they weren't. The Ancestor kicking off the ground and colliding with his rival in a burst of motion that sent both of them flying back, the much smaller figure being pinned between him and a support beam for his house.
Huh. He thought that his rival might be some middle-aged man, maybe greying, that has had some time and serious experience with Thaumaturgy. Perhaps a family that has finally finished some grand Magecraft and shown it to the world. But no, Enhance ended up finding some teenager who was turning out to be a rather unique oddball. How else could he explain the sword that had spawned in his hand and the Mystic Eye that was currently staring into his soul.
Another set of sparks flew from where identical copies of blades ground against one another.
"I…Didn't give…This blade to you." His rival growled, seeming to struggle to keep his blade from growing closer to the boy.
"Nah." He agreed, quite easily in fact.
Why wouldn't he? It was the truth after all.
"But I took it anyway." He grinned down at the red-haired brat who apparently had a connection to swords to rival his own.
Quicker than even Shirou was able to react, the Ancestor spun around and blocked a series of cursed bullets that made him almost want to coo. While he obviously could just let them hit him, he didn't want to have to deal with constantly regenerating while fighting, it got very annoying after a while. However in the instant he had his back turned to the red haired teen, he had taken the caring initiative to shove a Reinforcement-enhanced foot right between his shoulder blades.
In a crack of displaced air, the Ancestor shot high into the air and crashed directly onto the fence of the property, getting a groan from him as multiple wooden splinters got stuck in his back.
"Damn kid. Good kick you got there." He coughed, placing both hands on the ground and pushing off, tilting at his heels until he was on his feet properly.
An action which barely took half a second.
"Who are you?" Shirou questioned, his gaze moving between the blade in Enhance's hand and the man himself.
"Right, right. Where are my manners?" He mocked the swordsmith, bending at the waist and making a sweeping gesture. "My name is Enhance, Apostle number 18 and Principle of the Sword."
The voice he spoke in was a rather shoddy English accent, an attempt to sound posh if Shirou had to guess, but all he could hear was the clearly mocking undertone and the lackadaisically uncaring attitude that he showed despite everything he'd just done.
"Anoth- Another one Muramasa!?" Rin shouted, getting a snort from Illya as she started to move her hands up to her hair.
"Yeah well at least Onii-chan didn't make a deal with this one." A soft red glow began to emanate from underneath her clothing.
"Ah, right. Altrouge and her ridiculous contracts." The Ancestor scoffed, rolling his eyes.
At the mention of Altrouge, Shirou visibly tensed up, a small hand gesture from Rin being thrown out as she opened her mouth.
"Not a fan of her then?" She questioned, her right hand gripping an amber tightly.
"A fan of her? Hah! Hell no. It practically killed me a second time just to get his name from her." He gagged while pointing at Shirou, getting a stone-faced expression at learning just how Enhance know of him.
"Then why are you here? We don't exactly have anything of worth. You should try Europe for something like that." Now that they had a moment to breath and actually catch up with the chaos of the last couple minutes, the presence of this man was unnerving in the worst possible way.
Like a physical personification of hatred and ill omen stood before them with all the care of a child stepping on some ants.
"Oh, I'm not here because of Brunestud. No no. I have my pride now little lady." He scoffed, placing his free hand on his chest in an offended manner. "In fact, I'm here specifically for the little Muramasa. See I'm used to being the only one with an Authority for Sword. It's a part of my charm."
'He's arrogant, that can be useful. But he's also strong and doesn't hesitate in any action that he takes.' Illya thought to herself, running through all of their options as she stood tense and ready to act at a moment's notice.
"I have no Authority over Swords." Shirou spoke, getting a hiss from Rin since he was the one that was most likely to restart the fight that they would be hard-pressed to win, even with so many powerful Magi in one place.
"Au Contraire! I can't see half of the history of any blade you make. You block me. A regular smith, hell even a master smith can't do something like that. But. You. Can." He pointed that broadsword at Shirou, tip first and a hard look on his face. "You have a connection to blades, just like me. Hell! I can feel it from here, that world of blades that resides within you."
In an instant the tension in the backyard of the Emiya Estate skyrocketed as Shirou's budding Reality Marble was mentioned. The idea of 'this situation was serious' cementing itself back into the forefront of everyone's minds.
"Just like I know for a fact that you can feel my blade, can't you Shirou?" The grimace that appeared across his face all but confirmed it for the Ancestor, who let out a bark of laughter. "I knew it! You can feel Avenger! She calls out to you, doesn't she? Challenging that deep, dark part of you that embodies 'Sword'!"
"I feel no challenge." Shirou exhaled, glaring darkly at the Ancestor in front of him.
Ting!
"Muramasa?" Rin looked to the side, her eyes sparkling with confusion over why he had just created a blade before him.
And then the crushing, overwhelming feeling of darkness washed over her, making her shiver and jump back on instinct, noticing in the back of her mind that all of the other women in the yard had done the exact same thing. Every single person had made space from Enhance and prepared themselves for a fight, just from him getting annoyed.
'Just what the hell are Ancestors!?...' Rin gulped, feeling her hand tremble ever so slightly.
"No. Of course you don't. You've got the raw power alright, but none of the knowledge, none of the experience." Enhance sighed, his actions almost making him look disappointed, if his burning rage hadn't been emanating from him like a bonfire.
"Isn't that good for you? He's not a real challenger to your Authority." Illya called out, getting a disgusted curl of Enhances lip.
In an instant the man crossed the distance between them, his stolen blade swinging at her neck so fast that she couldn't even do anything except stumble back, her eyes widening in shock and fear. Though she was saved from her undoubtedly ugly fate by a katana which struck the broadsword in Enhance's hand, forcing it into a standstill in burst of hair.
Hitting the ground, the small girl looked up, seeing Shirou and Enhance practically forehead to forehead as her brother struggled against the physical might of the Ancestor before them.
"Do not touch them." The chill in Shirou's voice practically shook the girls to their very cores, but it did little to stop them charging up their various attacks.
"Make me then. Prove to me that you actually understand these blades you claim to have dominion over!" With a grunt of effort, the man threw his arm wide open, flinging Shirou away and immediately having to back-pedal to avoid the flurry of attacks from all of the girls.
"I never claimed dominion over any blade!" The teen shouted, stumbling to his feet from the collapsed support beam he had struck, watching the chaos before him.
A lightning strike from the amber thrown out by Rin was blocked by the broadsword in his grip even as he ducked under the purple wire's stretching from Sakura's fingertips. The man pushing off the ground and rolling backwards across the already ruined grass as Liz's great axe slammed right where he'd been standing, only to get flung away by the transmuted earthen pillar created from Sella. The man's body rag-dolling high into the air where two of Illya's wire familiars flew at him from opposing directions, striking the man amidst a flash of silver and fading away into motes of light as the hairs maintaining their structural integrity fell to the ground in tiny clippings. The Ancestor swinging the blade in his hand to throw his center of mass backwards and flip himself to land on the ground feet first, absorbing the impact with a flourishing crouch.
Before he could even straighten up, both a hail of blades and gandr shots came at him from straight on, some of the blades being blown off course as they struck the gandr and detonated them but enough hit to throw off the man's retaliatory lunge.
"That's your issue!" The blade in his grip came up to block the swing of Sella's axe, cracking and exploding in a hail of metal shards as he was thrown into and clean through the fence of the Emiya Estate.
"That hit did not put him down." Sella spoke, getting an annoyed huff from Shirou.
"Muramasa we can't keep fighting him here. The house is on the verge of collapse and half of us aren't prepared at all." Rin spoke, holding up a single gem as if to prove his point.
"I know that. But where can we go? Its not like any of us can outrun him." Shirou growled, the angriest that any of the girls had ever seen him as he gripped his katana in a white-knuckled hold.
"Come on Shirou Muramasa!" The teen's head snapped up to see Enhance, totally fine and unharmed, falling towards the yard with a cocky expression on his face. "Show me you understand your blades!"
"I know my blades! I made them!" The teen snapped, waving a hand and firing four blades at the falling Ancestor, watching him grab the first one and deflect the other three before hitting the ground in an explosion of dust and blood, only to stand up once more pristine.
The Dead Apostle lunged forward once more, overshooting his target as Shirou ducked and spun around him, slicing up his back and quickly retreating to avoid both the spray of blood and the retaliatory swipe.
"You know them, but you don't understand them!" The man once more had to deftly hop back to avoid the hail of attacks aimed at him from the girls, leading them into each other to make the girls get in each other's way instead of letting them work synergistically as they had just a moment before.
"Onii-chan! We need to move!" Illya shouted, stumbling backwards to avoid an explosion of dirt and dust from Sella and Enhance's most recent skirmish.
"I know I know!" He shouted in return, bracing his arm with his other hand and letting his katana fade away as he fired a volley of three fireballs at the Ancestor, coating him head to toe in fire and thick black smoke.
"But where!?" Rin shouted, clapping her hands together and mumbling an aria before striking the unmoving man with a fireball of her own.
"The Einzbern castle, it's distant and surrounded in strong privacy Bounded Fields." Sella suggested as she slid to a stop besides Illya, looking every bit the perfect maid she was meant to be, if you ignore the dirt marks. She let out slightly heavier than normal breathing and the trembling in her fingers shows how the fight had affected her.
"We'll never make it so far Sella!"
The argument only served to fuel Shirou's growing anger at this man who not only ruined his family's home, who not only stole a blade he made specifically for another client, but also who attacked those he held dear and continued to put them in further danger with every moment that he continued to fight.
Not to mention whatever he kept sprouting off about Shirou and his blades. It felt important for some reason, but Shirou just couldn't focus on it in the chaos of this fight and his anger.
"Trace on!" The fire in his heart exploded into the blade now in his grip, a newer version of his fire-starting katana from so many years ago.
The blade seemed to almost hum in his grip as he burst forward in a rush of reinforced speed and fury, slicing clean through the flames sticking to his opponent and missing by a hair's breath as the man leant out of the way. The fire surrounding him dying out as he hopped out of the flames with Shirou hot on his tail, cartwheeling backwards acrobatically and pulling a blade from the very ground itself as he did so. Levelling the blade at the approaching teen in a fencer's stance.
The teen's fighting style was good, great even, enhanced through his near unmatched knowledge of every blade that he held and hours upon hours of practice. Unfortunately, it held nothing to the Ancestor's style, born from an even greater knowledge of blades and years of practice and training that let him keep up with the teen with near-minimal effort. Batting the flaming katana away with precise strikes and counters and simultaneously carving Shirou up slowly but surely with cuts just slightly longer and deeper than a papercut.
Yet to the girls who stood off to the side, recuperating and waiting for the perfect moment to strike between the two swordsmen, a strange fact began to become evident the longer the fight went on. One that someone like Sella noticed in an instant but even the likes of Sakura picked up on within seven seconds of the fight's start.
With each strike the two exchanged, Shirou grew better, faster, sharper with each strike that he made. The teen's movements becoming more fluid and the energy that Enhance had to put in to continually damage the smaller fighter began to noticeably increase. Even if he made it look easy with his mocking expression and the single hand folded behind his back.
Two swords locked in combat, one made at a masterclass level and one still growing, being refined with each strike that it met the masterclass with. Growing sharper, deadlier, continuing to learn and refine itself with each and every strike no matter what damage it took in return.
'Oh. That's what he meant…' In the split second it took the thought to flash through Shirou's mind, tears burst forth from Enhance's eyes and his body locked up before exploding in motion like a compressed spring.
A series of strikes, all taking place within a single second, tore the blade from Shirou's grasp and ripped holes all across his outfit as the blade formed from the ground itself ripped through flesh and muscle. Small holes littering his body as he dropped to the ground with a choked gasp before finding himself flying across the yard as the girls flew into action now that there was even the slightest bit of room to do so.
"Sella. How do we get out of here?" Illya snapped with a hard, dark, look in her eyes while letting the wires she had used to pull Shirou towards her transform into more bird familiars to aid in the all-out attack on the Ancestor.
"A vehicle would be best. Master Shirou needs to leave the premises first given both the Ancestor's targeting of him and his injuries."
"Bike." Shirou groaned, pushing himself to his feet despite the injuries he had sustained and Illya's cry of worry.
"Bike?" Sella repeated, covering the three of them in a dome of earth to block the backlash of yet another failed attack against the Ancestor.
"Dad's bike. In the garage."
"Oooooh! Good idea! But I don't know how to drive it and the keys are…" She turned her head in the direction of the house, the words unspoken yet heard by all.
"I'll handle it." Shirou grunted, growling and placing a hand over one of the pin-prick holes that littered his body.
"Onii-chan you need to recover!"
"Avalon will handle it. And I'm not letting him tear anyone else apart." He growled, stumbling out from besides the earthen dome and watching the fight.
The man spun and sliced off the wires wrapped around his arm, stopping the feed of energy directly to the much healthier looking Sakura before once again having his blade shattered by Liz and her monstrous strength amidst his distracted dodges and counters. The man placing a hand on the ground and cartwheeling away from Liz's axe, reaching a hand out to the forgotten katana of his rival, only to grab nothing but upturned dirt as it shattered before he could even touch it.
"Back up already? That's what I like to see!" He grinned, instantly locking eyes with Shirou as he panted and leant against the earthen dome.
"Stay away from Senpai!" Sakura growled, the tips of her bangs fading in colour ever so slightly and her eyes dipping red for the briefest of moments.
The sickly feeling in the estate skyrocketed as a dark, malevolent energy washed over all of them following Sakura's shout, every cell in Shirou's body pulling in different directions at once as he once again felt that accursed aura that had clung to everything and everyone from that fateful day so many years ago. The girls shadow darkening and stretching supernaturally towards the Ancestor who suddenly turned to face her with a deadly serious expression, his entire body lighting up with glowing lines of red almost as if lava itself flowed beneath his skin.
"I alone reside over blades."
The shadow stretched closer.
"From my blood I find iron."
"From my authority I find structure."
The shadow split in two directions and began to encircle the Ancestor.
"Within my mind is the history."
"Within my body is the mystery."
The shadows rose from the ground, breaking into the third dimension and forming a demi-sphere cage around him almost in slow-motion.
"I have read over a thousand blades."
"The meaning of blade forms my being."
"The curse of 'sword' stains my blood."
The shadow's met directly above his head completing the latticework of paper-thin bars. Bars which began to extend, blocking off even the moon's light to the Ancestor.
"Upon my oath to end all Ancestors."
"Rise! Idea Blood: Demonic Sword Avenger!"
The dome completed, getting a relieved sigh from Sakura as she collapsed to her knees, almost as if something paining her had suddenly been taken away. And then the dome burst with a catastrophic crack and a shockwave which elicited screams and shouts from everyone in the yard as it carried a wave of dust and smoke behind it like a second shockwave.
XXXxxxXXX
Shirou grunted and sat up, rubbing his head while looking around as a thick mixture of dust and smoke hung in the air. So thick was the mixture, in fact, that he couldn't even see more than a meter in front of him, and even that was difficult.
"Onii-chan!" The stage whisper made him hum and turn back, just barely managing to see Illya's figure kneeling on the ground behind him. "Onii-chan let's go now."
"The..The others?" He mumbled, clearly hesitant to leave even despite what had just transpired.
"They're fine, I promise. Now let's go."
A feeling of thick, malevolent and old malice pressed down on them immediately following this. The very air that Shirou breathed almost feeling tainted, cursed, just by being in the proximity of the Ancestor.
"Going so soon?"
"ONII-CHAN!" Something struck the ground behind Shirou, what exactly it was the teen didn't know because he was already dashing in the direction of where he believed the garage to be, scooping up his sister as he ran.
"Ohhh? Trying to run now, are we? Too scared to face down my Idea Blood, Shirou? Not interested in looking at it with your very own eyes?"
Illya scowled at the taunting of her brother, recognizing that the Ancestor had undoubtedly undergone some kind of change. As where previously his mocking and taunting had been cocky and playful, now it was drenched in thick, seething anger that made his every word feel like he was threatening their lives.
With absolutely zero warning, her injured and bloody brother jumped high in the air, the sound of metal rushing through the air filling her ears as something created a vacuum through the dust below them. Refusing to just play useless little sister while this crazy maniac tried to attack both of them, a pulse of her prana created a wall of wire blades behind the two of them, eliciting a mocking laugh from the hidden enemy before something impacted them and they exploded. The explosion rocked the ground, and the shockwave threw both her and Shirou forward, the crunch of metal and wood ringing in her ears as they came to a sudden and abrupt stop.
"Illya. Up we get, come on." Shirou urged her, picking her up and putting her on what she recognized to be her father's motorcycle that he very rarely rode anymore.
"Onii-chan? What? How are you-"
"Trace on." Green lines spread across the vehicle as it near-on instantly roared to life, getting a very confused expression from the girl, a question mark practically hanging above her head.
No explanation was given to her unspoken question however, as they shot out of the garage a moment before half of it caved in under what she could now barely see was a blade sticking out of the ground itself.
"You think you can get away? Not a chance 'rival'!" As Shirou turned the corner out of the property and began to drive, a funnel of dust shot out of the cloud that hung over the back half of the estate, showing itself to be Enhance a moment later as the dust clinging to his form finally lost its hold.
Except where once had been someone completely undistinguishable from a regular human, now floated a man with a glowing sword in one hand, and blades of all sizes sticking out of his shoulders. From his shoulder blades two ugly, terrible sounding wings made of scales of blades flapped in the wind, making Illya wince and nearly cover her ears even from the growing distance between them.
"Onii-chan he's changed!"
"I know. I can feel it. It's like he's become one with that authority in his veins." Her brother grunted, speeding up even further the moment that Enhance began to actively move towards them.
"Can't say I blame him for hiding it so often if this is what he looks like." She snorted even as her eyes picked apart every detail that she could about him.
"Probably not easy to wield it either." Shirou swerved around a corner, straightening the bike back out and making a distressed sound as it wobbled dangerously due to his lack of overall practice at anything resembling driving.
"Please don't kill us Onii-chan!" Illya shouted, hugging him tightly.
"I'm trying! I've never driven this thing outside of the Fujimura compound!" Shirou responded, managing to gain control back over the bike.
"But he's become one with it, his authority, but it feels like its attacking him at the same time."
"What a hypocrite! Even after he attacked you for not 'understanding' blades or whatever!" She huffed, sending out two bird familiars to try and block whatever it was Enhance seemed to be charging up.
"Actually, he had a point earlier. I realized it right before he stabbed me through all those times. I've been making all of my blades basically empty, without a purpose."
"So?"
"Most blades are made for a specific purpose. Drawing blood, killing certain things, stuff like that. But all of my blades don't have anything like that, they're completely empty because I wanted my clients to make a purpose for them!"
The bike suddenly swerved to the side as a blood red arc left the sharp edge of Enhance's glowing blade, tearing clean through one of Illya's familiars and into the road. Once again causing the bike to lose speed and grow closer to Enhance as the teen struggled to regain control.
"Is there a point to this Onii-chan? Seems viable to me!"
"It is! But Enhance doesn't think so, and he has a point. I can't just create every blade empty. It's a cop-out and limits what I can actually create!"
"I'm not seeing the point to this Onii-chan!" Illya snapped, creating another three familiars to try and slow down the flying Ancestor.
"When we get to the Einzbern castle we'll need to do something to try and buy time for the others to catch up!" Shirou swerved left and then right, cursing internally as the road was once again gouged out by the flying red arcs. "So, I'm going to give him what he wants!"
"You think he's going to just sit there and let you forge a sword!?"
"Not really!" He answered, seemingly unperturbed by the revelation even as he sped up along an open stretch of road, now well and truly outside of the Bounded Field that the Ancestor had created.
XXXxxxXXX
Emiya Estate
"I hate Dead Apostle's. I reaaaaallyyy hate them." Rin growled, patting herself down and walking besides Sella as Liza and Sakura approached, looking just as dirty and miserable as the Tohsaka heiress did, at least in her opinion.
"Lady Illya and Lord Shirou have successfully left the premises and gotten Enhance to follow them." Sella reported, getting an unsure look from Sakura even as she panted.
"Are you okay Sakura?"
"I-I'm fine. J-Just a bit hot." She muttered in response to Rin's worry, knowing that if she spoke how she actually felt, none of the three women would allow her anywhere near her Senpai and the battle he was having.
"Right. I need to grab more jewels from my estate." Rin spoke, her mind cleared and her eye on the prize.
"Alright, I'll go with you Lady Tohs-"
"I'll go with her." Liz cut her sister homunculi off, getting an annoyed expression from the more proper of the two.
"You're more useful in this fight than I am. You getting there quicker with Sakura is the smartest option."
"I'll be more useful with Rin, I promise."
"And I'm telling you-"
"We don't have time for this!" Rin shrieked, making Liz lean back as if physically buffeted by her shout.
"S-She's right. Senpai needs us." Sakura agreed, her hands folded in front of her and her expression tight yet determined.
"Fine. I'll go with you Sakura, and Liz, go with Lady Tohsaka." Liz nodded, grabbing Rin and sprinting to the front of the house where the vehicle she planned to use was.
"Woah! Liz! Careful you'll break my arm!"
"Apologies but time is of the essence and your jewel Magecraft will be vital." She spoke, letting go of her and hopping clean over the roof of the particular vehicle that she had chosen.
"Why did you come with me then? Sella was right, you were a major help when he first appeared." Rin asked, hopping into the passenger seat of the car as Liz got into the driver's seat and started the vehicle.
"Because Sella is incapable of breaking a road rule."
"E-eh?"
XXXxxxXXX
Outskirts of the Einzbern Castle
"Onii-chan! More attacks!"
"I can feel them Illya!" Shirou swerved back and forth through the blood red arc's, using his unnatural ability to feel the blade in Enhance's grip to act as somewhat of a warning system as he drove.
Or at least attempted to, given just how many times he'd nearly driven the two of them straight into an early demise.
Taking a hard right, the teen shot clear off the road up to the castle and onto the flatland that surrounded it, avoiding a hail of ranged attacks entirely as he did so. His eyes widening in alarm as he hit the breaks as hard as he could and tried to turn away from the incoming attacks, managing to avoid being hit by them directly but finally being caught in the backlash of them, throwing him and Illya clear off the motorcycle.
"KUGEL!"
With the singular shout from Illya and a burst of prana, it was as if the girl was trying to defy fate itself with her actions. A sphere of Prana strengthened 'wires' formed around them, protecting them from the damage they no doubt would have received hitting the ground without it, but not the jostling bumps that spat both out in a chaotic roll across the grass.
Pressing against the ground and managing to get his feet underneath him, Shirou slid to a stop much faster than Illya, his softer side demanding he make sure she's ok and not injured, but his harder side reminding him to focus on the overpowered ball of rage and curses currently hurtling towards them with murder in his eyes.
Now while usually, Shirou kept his smithing attempts to purely manual forging with his own hands and physical effort, only adding Thaumaturgy in for magical effects to his blades, now was probably a better time than any to make use of the various spells and abilities at his disposal to speed that process up just a little.
The Ancestor's display back at the house had given Shirou the idea he was about to utilize, a singular hand being pressed to the ground and his lone Fairy Eye glowing in an unsaid display of the power laden within Shirou.
The Age of Gods within Japan had ended somewhere around 200AD, 1800 years ago, anything from that long ago would take longer to locate than he had any realistic chance of achieving. Instead, he'd look sooner, sooner than the Age of Gods, sooner than the Age of Fairies, he'd look as soon as he could get without losing all the mystery it held.
There, in a chunk from the 1500's! Thank you Irisviel and Illyasviel for teaching him this skill no matter how confused he may have gotten while they were doing it.
With a pulse of Od that lit up every single Magic Circuit in his body, natural and Family Crest alike, the ground before him unearthed a singular chunk of metal ore. A chunk of metal ore that Shirou took in his hands right before flinging himself back with every ounce of Reinforced strength that he could get, avoiding the absolutely furious Ancestor that cleaved through it barely half a second later. The figure zipping past in a crack of air and burying their sword into the ground to slow themselves to a halt, immediately using his wings of blades to block blades of magical wires sent from Illya herself.
Using the ever so brief moment of respite, the teen swordsmith continued his magical crafting, abusing family laden spells and Einzbern taught transmutation to heat and morph the metal to his wishes. Every lesson and every failure he'd ever learnt and experienced flying through his head on repeat as he worked.
Judging the concept of creation.
What was he creating? Why was he creating it? How would he create it? Why this and not something else? They were all questions he asked and answered as he continued the creation of the blade.
Hypothesizing the basic structure.
Enhance deflected a Prana-controlled wire blade before stabbing the 104cm glowing blade into the ground, the red gemstone inlaid in the cross guard, aligned with the center of the blade, glowing the colour of blood before sending a pulse out. The blade's suddenly spinning in the air and pointing directly at Illya before flying straight towards her, meeting another sphere of wires and stabbing deep in, unravelling a moment later as Illya deconstructed her constructs and managed to take back control of them.
(Duplicating) Molding the composition material.
Shirou could feel something deep within him swirling and whirring to life as he worked through what would normally be the steps to his tracing, but what was now a blueprint for the blade that he was hinging this entire battle on. The teen sensing the line of blades bursting out of the ground and approaching him with clearly lethal intent.
(Imitating) Setting the skill of its making.
Enhance was approaching alongside his bursting blades? He really wanted him dead, didn't he? Where did this sudden urge to kill him come from? Some kind of mental break? He couldn't handle the thought of a genuine challenger? Well, it didn't matter.
The teen twisted his foot on the ground and turned to stare at the approaching blades with a single eye, a hail of blades surrounding him in an instant and blocked the Ancestor's ground-bursting swords, the Ancestor himself flung away by a widespread attack from Illya that didn't do any damage but did knock him back.
Sympathizing with the experience of its growth.
The blade was still forming, but because of that, he knew exactly every single experience it had been through and was going through.
Reproducing the accumulated years.
The sword itself may be new but the materials it was made from weren't. They were located through a spell given to him by his blood family and unearthed by a spell taught to him by his new family. They were heated through his family crest and shaped through the experience he gained thanks to his family and the opportunities they gave him. The blade was brand new but so much history was put into it that it was practically blinding to the teen.
The marks across his forearm's, containing over 500 year's worth of circuits and history, began to glow brighter.
Enhance skipped across the ground, the blades sticking out of his shoulder blades tearing trenches in the ground before his wings flapped and he righted himself, his rage evident on his face.
Excelling every manufacturing process.
And with so much work put into it, he refused to let any part of this blade be supbar. Average wouldn't do either. Nor would above average or even exceptional. For the first time ever, Shirou was forging a blade for himself that had a purpose other than being a stepping stone towards his ancestor's dream. A purpose born of his sisters struggles and screams. Of their maid's tenacity. Of Rin's stubbornness and of Sakura's devotion.
"I'm sick of you girl!"
"I'm not letting you touch Onii-Chan!"
Mismatched eyes raised from the creation pressed between his palms, staring at the sight of Enhance spraying blood over his little sister amidst batting her aside, a blade of wires stabbed into his sternum and torn out by Illya's flight. The blade of wires unravelling immediately after ripping his left arm out of its socket, though the injury didn't last long.
This blade in Shirou's hand was made for a singular purpose. And that purpose was Kill the 18th Dead Apostle Ancestor: Enhance.
XXXxxxXXX
Rin and Liz
A catastrophic explosion up ahead bounced the car, getting a squeal of fear out of the twin-tailed Magus, her eyes squeezed shut and her right hand clutching the bar above her head with all her might.
"I can see them. Shirou is fighting Enhance." Well, that was an incentive to open her eyes if ever there was one.
And fighting was a strong word. Shirou was still clearly outmatched by the Ancestor, unsurprisingly, but whatever blade he was wielding now seemed to have Enhance weary, seeing as he seemed to be trying to avoid it where possible. That singular fact was probably all that was allowing him to stay in the fight because Illya didn't seem to be doing anything at the moment.
'Please. Don't have taken her out. If for nothing else than Shirou's sake, please don't have taken her out.' Rin thought to herself, clutching the bar above her head tighter, as they got closer.
And closer.
Aaaaaand closer.
And with a startled scream from the Tohsaka heiress, Liz crashed straight into the bladed monstrosity that had once been a regular looking man, burying him deep into the engine bay as they flew clear past where a confused Shirou was now staring, blinking in stupefaction at the car that was now coming to a harsh stop.
'Talk about an entrance…' Rin thought in a daze, blinking as a blade stabbed clear through the car and between the two front seats.
A marvelous silver coloured blade with a glowing red line in the center, a blade that she realized, with a startled scramble out of the vehicle, belonged to the very man that Liz had just struck with her car.
"And I thought Shirou was annoying with that new blade of his and his refusal to die. Is that just a common trait amongst all of you?" Enhance spoke as he began to peel himself out of the car, his injuries in the middle of reversing when Liz struck him, throwing his clear across the grassy plain in a splattering of blood and bone.
Watching him skip across the ground for a moment, Rin looked back at the indentation he had made in the car, seeing something bright white and vaguely familiar stuck in the metal. With a simple grab and twist, the girl had it in her hands, realizing that it was, in fact, the gun that the Ancestor had pulled and attempted to use on Liz earlier in the night.
She'd keep a hold on it because God knows that their enemy doesn't need another advantage with everything else, he already has, but she had more important things to worry about in the same token.
"Shirou!" The girl sprinted over to him, all pretenses of formality out of the window in the sheer desperation and chaos of the night's events.
"Rin! You're ok!"
"I'm ok- I'm Ok!? You look like you've been taking every single attack he's thrown head on!"
"Yeah, and it hurts, but I've had worse. And Avalon will take care of it. It's fine." He waved off her concern's, getting a scowl from her before the sound of metal on metal brought both of their attentions back to the ongoing confrontation.
"Where's Illya?"
"Over there. I don't have the time to check on her, but she seems ok, just stunned. Probably a Magecraft." Shirou guessed, getting a hum from the girl as she pulled a gem out with the hand not holding the shotgun.
"Well, I'm ready." And with nary another word, she threw her gem towards the power struggle of Liz and Enhance, blasting a whirlwind at them that threw them both in opposite directions.
With green lights that lit up both of their skin, both Shirou and Rin rushed forward with Reinforcement enhanced speed. The ground denting minutely beneath the force of their footfalls as they rushed in towards the practically frothing at the mouth Ancestor. The Tohsaka heiress falling behind as she ground herself to a stop and palmed three gems, holding them between her fingers and pumping Od into them. Launching them in arcing flight paths over Shirou's head as he rushed in.
The three-topaz hit Enhance and bounced off, getting the briefest moment of confused anger from the Ancestor before all three gems lit up a bright white that burnt his retina's and exploded. The detonation shaking the ground beneath his feet but doing nothing to deter the Muramasa heir as he dug his feet into the ground and slashed across where he sensed the man to be. His blade digging into the man's skin and tearing through muscle and bone as if he was fighting a regular Dead Apostle, his momentum keeping him moving despite the trenches his heels dug in the ground. Movement which, genuinely unbeknownst to him, turned out to be good as a moment later Liz flew into range and slammed her axe down on the Ancestor, getting a pained scream from him as he was thrown back.
"S-Senpai!"
Sakura was here? Perfect. Just what he needed to finally wrap this nightmare up once and for all.
"Sakura! We're ending this. Keep him restrained and take his Prana!" Shirou shouted out, following after Liz in her approach of the enemy.
"Lady Illya!" The scream from Sella made Shirou stumble, nearly face-planting entirely.
Had he been wrong? Was Illya actually damaged, and he'd just left her this entire time due to some belief she'd be fine? Had he just let his own family be injured and not so much as even try and properly verify how bad their injury was?
Self-depreciation later, ending a Dead Apostle Ancestor right now.
Even with all the injuries given to the vampire, with all the overwhelming attacks and combos constantly lobbed at him and the active deterioration of both his mind and his body, Enhance continued to prove just why Ancestors as a whole were feared. His attention may have been split 4 different ways, but he still made all four of them struggle to even get a single hit in. His regeneration may have constantly been working but it continued to keep him standing no matter where or what was targeted. His mind may have been deteriorating in his cursed anger, but he continued to spawn and use blades in dangerously creative combinations, keeping them on their toes no matter what. His body may have been deteriorating under its need for more blood that he refused, and currently couldn't give it but he continued to match Liz blow for blow and throw the three teen's fighting him around like ragdolls if they ever got too close or too annoying for him to deal with.
The fight devolved into a chaotic frenzy of swords, flying bodies, spells and mystery. Blood coating the grass as for every hit he managed to land on one of them, they landed three on him, both sides continuing to accrue more and more injuries no matter what attacks, tactics or spells were used by either side.
"Lady Illya please stay down!" Sella urged her mistress, seeing the small girl struggling to her feet as the battle raged on behind her, the maid too worried to look away from the girl for even a moment to check on its progress.
"They…need me Sella."
"That Ancestor has done something to you! Pushing yourself will only be detrimental in the long run." She spoke, standing up and blocking Illya's way to her brother.
"Sella. Move."
"I can't allow you to throw yourself at danger in a condition like this." The maid denied her, seeing the continually worsening appearance of her ward and the trembling in her extremities.
"Then I'm sorry Sella." All it took was a simple brush of trembling fingers amongst her hair to have wires that glinted in the moonlight tying the maid up and pinning her to the ground in a kneeling position.
"Lady Illyasviel!"
"I'll be back in a moment Sella."
XXXxxxXXX
Shirou breathed out a breath of almost pure steam as he stumbled back from another rush at the Ancestor, blood caking his entire body and the tatters of what once were some very nice-looking clothes. His blade clutched so tightly in his grip that if he lost focus, he honestly couldn't feel the fingers clutching the hilt anymore. As yet more wires from Sakura were sliced to ribbons from the Ancestor, a bolt of lightning seemed to fall from the heavens themselves and strike the monster of a man. Making him shout out in pain as Rin grinned victoriously at managing to land a hit on the Dead Apostle.
Shirou rushed in again and deflected a stab at his abdomen, thrown already further off course by the crash of Liz's axe against one of his wings. Slicing diagonally down Enhances chest he opened a fairly large gash that he immediately placed a hand against, creating a fireball that instantly detonated inside the Ancestor.
Fire poured from every unhealed gash, cut and scrape across the man's body, making him seize up for only a moment before motion returned to his body and he swung his blade at the teen. Forced to stop only by the equivalent of a magical flashbang in the form of a small obsidian sphere thrown by Rin.
"STOP GETTING IN MY WAY!" A flying slash of pure cursed energy exploded out of the Ancestor's sword as he screamed at Rin, striking her in an explosion of light and making her hit the ground like a sack of potatoes.
"RIN!" Sakura screamed, her malevolent aura once again appearing around her and creating tendrils of shadow's that fired out of her own and struck the Ancestor, completely halting his regeneration at the moment of each impact.
"Liz! Throw him up in the air! Sakura! Help!" The voice of Illya was a surprising one but one that Shirou was so happy to hear that he didn't even bother to doubt the veracity of the event, simply letting his Od pool in his legs in preparation for the upcoming combo.
And throw him in the air the Homunculus maid did, flipping in the air and landing on one of the Ancestor's wings before striking him in the stomach and launching him skyward in a horrifying squelch of flesh and blood as the wing she stood on didn't get the memo and stayed beneath her foot.
Wires of silver and purple rose in the air after the Ancestor, so many from so many different direction's that without his wings and as distracted as he was, Enhance had no chance of destroying all of them before they could grab him. The silver ones the stronger between the two but the purples one's drained his Od and slowed his regeneration due to that. The two intertwining wires and their different effects leaving him exhausted, injured and completely open to no doubt another attack from his riv-
The end of two cylinders pressed against his spine, burning into his flesh just from the slightest touch of them as gravity began to slow them to a halt.
"H-How!?" He turned his head just in time to see the cruelly narrowed eyes of the twin-tailed girl that he knew he'd hit head on with his cursed slash.
"Secret~" She grinned, holding up a gem with the same colour as her eyes.
A gem which glowed with the exact same colour and emanated the exact same malice as his curse.
And before he could say anything else, a trigger was pulled, and the full sacred power of the Holy Burial Artillery Scripture tore a hole through his abdomen. The Holy power completely destroying his lungs before he could even scream. But even that didn't kill him. He'd be a pretty poor Ancestor if it did after all.
And then, right as colour began to return to his vision from the sheer pain of his own gun being used against him, the rushing of the wind following soon after, he came eye to eye with his rival. The one that had started this whole mess and ultimately, the one that had led him to his own downfall. Shirou Emiya-Muramasa.
'Yeah. Go on. Do it. END ME MY RIV- al….'
In the end, for as flashy and theatric as Enhance had been in his life. For all the trouble he had cause and all the heartache he had caused. The end to his life was the exact opposite. A singular, clean, slash that split him through the middle. A singular slash built upon hundreds of smaller injuries and a combo attack that left him both unable to attack and unable to heal his injuries in anywhere near a satisfactory time.
With a wet squelch and disgusting crack, the two halves of his body struck the ground, followed shortly by the figures of Shirou and Rin themselves. Getting pained sounds from them as their reinforced legs took all of the impact once more.
"We…We did it!" Rin cheered, getting a disbelieving huff from Shirou as he ran his free hand through his hair.
Enhance began to disintegrate from the feet up.
"We….We actually did it." Shirou mumbled, his legs going weak as he stared at the disintegrating body of the Ancestor, almost unable to believe it.
'If nothing else….I die leaving yet another mess, and enemy, for the Dead Apostle's to deal with. Hah! Suck on that…pricks…' And with that one, final vindictive thought, Enhance faded from the world entirely.
Leaving nothing but a singular, constantly moving, crystalline marble behind. Surrounded by a constantly spinning latticework of blood rings, almost like a facsimile of an atom.
The sound of loud breathing and a body hit the ground attracted everyone's attention. The origin of which being the bright red, panting form of Sakura. Her purple eyes going in and out of focus as she clutched her chest, above her heart, with an almost painfully tight grip.
"S-sen-…pai…..hel….p."
"Sakura!?" Rin rushed over to the girls side and slid to a stop besides her, steadying her right before she collapsed onto her face.
"Onii….chan." Shirou took a single step towards his sister as she weakly called out for him, her arms outstretched before she collapsed limply to the ground.
Only for the sudden lack of adrenaline and combat to rear its head as that singular step turned into his very own trip to the ground. The teen ignoring the pain and the tears that sprung to his eyes from the pain in his nose, focusing only on the deathly still, unbreathing, form of his sister.
"Illya!? ILLYA!"
XXXxxxXXX
That's right, there's no Omake or Side Story this time.
Given the ending of the chapter I thought that it would sort of detract from the overall tone of the chapter to add something comedic or just lighter in tone in general right after the end of the fight.
Speaking of, how did you guys enjoy the fight? I reckon it was pretty good. Especially because I wrote about….7.5k out of 8.9K of this chapter in a single day. Thanks uni assignments, you always make me write so well.
Unlike last month, this chapter has been completed for almost the entire month, but still no stockpile. Evidently stockpiling for this fic is a difficult endeavor given my self-imposed 7K minimum for each chapter. It just feels like such an undertaking y'know?
Hopefully things get better but I'm not holding out too much hope on that. I'm very, very bad with deadlines. Self-imposed or not.
But back to the chapter, Rin, Sella and Liz are left standing after the catastrophic fight and Sakura and Illya are down for the count. With Shirou in the middle ground, down but not out. It was interesting finding a way to end this fight because obviously they had the means to do it but it was very much a balancing act between showcasing Enhance's overwhelming advantages over them and setting up the finishing combo.
Man, they're just lucky that Enhance is one of the weakest DAA's amongst the Tsukihime remake continuity. Imagine if like Fina had rocked up on Fuyuki, shit that'd be a wrap at this point in the story.
Regardless, I hope you enjoyed. I can't wait to see what all of you say x3
Discord code: ctMzhq3
REVIEW REPLIES:
NotSpecialDude: EMIYA would get summoned and be insta-merc'd by Gil just like "Nope. Try again. We'll turn this one into Saint Quartz"
NNathann: I've updated.
Rider126: Gotta love differing viewpoints. They're the greatest.
StayBlessed: As you can guess. Something else is going to happen xP
TheSlySage: Everyone keeps saying that about Enhance but it's like people forget that the dude, while hating everything about Dead Apostles, has no issues with abusing the abilities that being one has given him. The regen, the abilities, flight, etc.
Torukeru: See the above review reply. And yes, he literally is. Nasu made him as a direct Dante reference, like his description is "He looks remarkably like Dante from DMC". And as for interconnecting things, I have vague plans and I do have arc's planned for after the HGW. But for now I'm mostly focusing on building up the more immediate arc's. Also the sequel is planned to be a FGO-based story.
RandomCraziness: Idk man. There was just a lot of controversy surrounding that decision. And Plot Armour? How dare you, it's clearly Plot Reinforcement. Armour is too restricting.
CursedGenesis: Funny you should say that. One of my new beta's reckons that there's been barely any build up at all XD
LiteraryGas: Hi Gaow (Discord member).
Victorules: If anyone in the Nasuverse was going to be meta-aware, Gil would be the second of them.
END OF REVIEW REPLIES
And that's all! Farewell, have a good day/night/afternoon and remember that I'm lurking in your walls.