Emiya Shirou was dumbfounded.
He had no idea what to make of his current situation. Shortly after the Grail War, Tohsaka had asked him and Saber to move to London with her.
"Think about the big picture, Emiya-kun!" She professed with uncharacteristic vigor.
There was nothing for them left in Fuyuki, Fuji-nee aside, and she would be happy to see him moving on. Something about how children shouldn't squander their potential and get stuck living in the past.
To say Saber had been ecstatic about the prospect of moving back into England, or as she put it, 'my kingdom', would be a reach, but she was curious about how things progressed after she "died" and showed interest in travelling the country on our spare time.
Tohsaka had received an invitation to join the Clock Tower, not only as the Second Owner of Fuyuki and as a genius magus herself, but as the first apprentice to Zelretch in hundreds of years. A position she quickly declared as the best thing that had ever happened to her. Surviving the war aside.
So, they left.
Left their lives or what remained of them behind, left that battlefield of a city, that cemetery and went on to better shores, or however that saying goes.
For the past eight months he had been enrolled as Tohsakas's apprentice, mostly in basic courses, a fact he didn't completely understood as his "master" was someone else's apprentice and a student.
He had spent his time divided between taking classes, studying his own magecraft and going on apostle hunts with enforcers, sometime also accompanied by Saber when they deemed it necessary in solo missions.
(Which also counted towards Saber's country trips as a bonus.)
All of that on top of cooking for and being in a relationship with Rin and Artoria.
Needless to say, it was a lot. His life was brimming with activities and not much time for rest or contemplation. Despite that, or maybe because of that, he was stumped.
Not because he didn't have time to relax or any plot to destroy the world, no machinations against Tohsaka, no one got wind of his developing Reality Marble or Saber's status as a living Servant.
What he couldn't understand is how he felt about it all.
He was happy. Genuinely so. And he just couldn't accept it. He didn't deserve it. He was a murderer and a failure, he was supposed to live for others, not to have a happy life! He was wasting time he should be spending saving people by studying theoretical magecraft and being in love.
Granted, on a strictly intellectual note, he knew this was a farse. That he was helping people and that he also deserved some satisfaction, at the very least. That was not how he felt, though. That feeling had led him into doing some reckless things like risking his life by pushing his limits in apostle hunts instead of waiting for backup or taking on a rogue magus without any help.
He had gotten reprimands from both Tohsaka and Saber for that.
"If you can't be safe and happy for yourself, the least you could do is to live a good life for the people who care about you, Emiya-hun. Sheesh, I can't believe I still haven't hammered that into that thick skull of yours, you idiot!" Tohsaka loved him a lot, but he could tell how much worry he put her through, she deserved better.
Saber had a bit more tact but also displayed her disapproval. "Shirou, it is noble that you put so much in the line to save people and do the right thing but you should not lose focus of the bigger picture, if you die saving people, they might not be saved at all. Not to mention all the people in the future you won't be there for if you die." Saber was more ready to lose him, not that she would be any less sad but despite Tohsaka's Magus persona, she was the one more experienced in the life of a warrior, in loosing people precious to her.
He loved them so much, that was progress, wasn't it?
So he had taken those words to heart, at least on most days, and had tried his best to act smart and stay out of trouble, this was not such a day.
"…oh! And can you pick up groceries on your way back? If you are going on a hunt tonight, I'd like to have provisions to make dinner to Saber and still have some leftovers waiting for you! She has had a lion's appetite recently, more so than usual" He heard on his cellphone.
"I already did, Tohsaka." He held his phone between his neck and shoulders while carrying two large bags of food.
"My apprentice really does learn, it seems! ~" She says in false mockery. "I knew you had it you to be the perfect butler, I mean, the perfect boyfriend!"
"Har Har, it seems I am. Also, don't pretend you aren't almost as big an eater as Saber. If I didn't know any better, I'd say you only keep that lovely figure of yours with magic. True Magic at that!" I bite back a cocky smile.
"Eep! When did you start with the snark? You are starting to sound like Archer!"
A heavy silence hangs for a couple seconds as he cuts through an alley he never entered. The bustling of the city starts to die down.
"I didn't mean anything by that, you know."
"I know. I'll see you when I get back" He awkwardly turns off his phone and put it back in his pocket.
It didn't help that he his hair was starting to get white on the front and his skin was darkened in some spots.
Wait, the bustling of the city dies down? It was quiet, eerily so. He felt that all familiar smell of magic, almost imperceptible, like as if he had always smelled impure mana and this was refined. unaltered.
He dropped the bags on the floor and got into a ready stance. He was inside a bounded field and from someone extremely adept.
"Bravo! Your senses do you justice apprentice of my apprentice! But throwing your food on the ground is hardly sanitary." a voice beckons him from an old TV atop a trash bin.
"Apprentice of my apprentice? It is a bold claim to call yourself the wielder of the Second Magic!" He reinforced his body and produced the twins married blades Kanshou and Byakuya on his hands as the mana in the air continued to increase in both purity and intensity.
The black and silver blades seemed to resonate with the increase of energy, making a low sound as if the very "metal" of the blades were heralding the voice's owner arrival.
The light from tv increases and projects itself forward, a myriad of shapes and colors, all so vivid and mesmerizing. A portal made in the pattern of a kaleidoscope.
A tall, white haired man with red eyes and short beard comes out of the portal, he wears elegand clothes, ones you'd see on nobles. Shirou feels, for what must be the first time in months, fear.
"You're right! It is a bold claim, and one I'm the only one who can boast it!" He projects his voice in a resounding manner. Zerlretch doesn't show any signs of being offended by being challenged of having two blades, two noble phantasms somewhat pointed in his direction.
Shirou doesn't feel like pushing his already abyssal luck any further and releases his blades into motes of light. "Ah! It is an honor to finally meet the Wizard Marshal himself." He says somewhat awkwardly after a moment of thought about how best to proceed here.
Shirou knew the man to be exceedingly dangerous, he wouldn't outright kill him but he knew the reports of what happened to people who displeased the Old Man of the Jewels.
He was not prepared to be sent to a parallel world where living talking opposable thumbs or some nonsense like that was the norm.
"Relax, boy! I didn't come here to give you trouble." Except, he did. "I came here to make a proposal that would be in your best interest!" It really wasn't.
Shirou relaxed, only the tiniest bit. "I'm sorry, master but I have a some pressing matters, such as an apostle hunt in the morning. Besides, someone as insignificant as me couldn't possibly hel-"
"It's about how thousands of people will die if you don't help them, maybe even more!" Zelretch cut him. From the Shirou's change in expression, he could already tell he had the boy's attention. "You can go on your hunt, I still need some calibrations to make, but I need your help. They need your help."
….
…
Shirou, if anything, was a predictable man. At least when it came to one prerogative. He needs to save people. He saves people, that's it. No reasons for it are needed. It is not wrong to help and save people.
"Fine, I'll help." He knew it was foolish, he could almost hear Archer's worlds back to him, 'that's hell you are walking into', but it didn't matter. Lives were at stake so he would help.
A grim comes across the old man's face. "The gist of it is that there is this world where, instead of magic, curse energy exists. It's not all that different from our magic but I need someone like you to let me properly see into that world and in turn, guide you into avoiding an event where Japan is wiped from existence, with maybe the world following it into the abyss."
"I take it you can give me more details than that? If magic doesn't exist, how can I do anything about this threat? And a bit more information on the world would be good." Shirou asked, not being taken aback from the influx of information.
"Of course! With you as an anchor and me as a medium, I'll be able to funnel magic and allow you to use your usual abilities and make it so they can interface with curse energy. There's also the whole thing where people with near death experiences get to see cursed monsters and curse energy anyway, the bit about domain expansions and yadda, yadda, yadda. I'll give you the details as you go. I need to get things ready and you need to go home, right?" The Magician parroted while walking back and crossing the portal, not giving the boy any chance to protest.
The noises of the city slowly came back. He got his bags and started to make his way home.
Shirou was a bit annoyed at how the Wizard Marshall was clearly leading him on but if had his abilities then it was something. The rest he could discover through good old detective work, and he doubted he would encounter anything as scary as a servant on his first day there.
"Shit." He had just jinxed it, hadn't he?
He decided he would tell Saber and Tohsaka after coming back from the hunt. That way he could have that conversation without worrying about having to rush out to fight vampires. The evening goes smoothly and Shirou leaves his lovers just before 11PM.
There had been a string of murders and disappearances close to the coast leading to the Bristol canal, that by itself wouldn't really call for enforcers, just the regular police, if it wasn't for the fact that every "survivor" that was found had something terrible done to their bodies.
Varying from an extra set of lungs to extra arms, sometimes they would have their hearts removed but would still live for a few hours. In one week, over a dozen of those kind of incidents were reported and now even the mage's association was having trouble making sure it doesn't go public.
The enforcer leading the team goes over the operation, about how they engaged the apostle's ghouls and thanks to human error, allowed the apostle to escape towards some woods north of its original hideout. Regrettable, specially because it would be waiting for us now, which is somewhat offset from the fact that it lost its territory. Some hours go by while they travel to the location and set up the appropriate perimeter.
'I just hope the apostle didn't have the time to set anything up that is too elaborate'.
"Emiya!" The Lead enforcer, a somewhat short and scrawny man called him. "You provide fire support; we'll need those senses of yours." Despite his appearance, the guy was a beast, almost as many magic circuits as Tohsaka and magecraft specialized in tearing down bounded fields and other types of territory creation through the use of summoned animal spirits. That and a terrific hand-to-hand combatant.
"Understood, mister Forvedge." Emiya responded flatly, they all were wearing dark clothes that reminded him of black ops teams in movies, though more practical and less elaborate.
They landed a couple of kilometers away from the target and went in on foot from there, Shirou took an advantageous position and started to look around for ghouls or any other sign of trouble. Not 5 minutes gone by and he spotted a group of ghouls around the general area the team of enforcers had passed through.
"They are trying to make a pincer move on you, it knows we're here." Shirou talks quietly into his radio while a flash of light materializes Archer's bow. The ghouls don't seem to notice.
"Roger that." Is all the answer he gets in return.
Emiya had never missed a target, he was the embodiment the "art of archery", without any worry he drew the bow using traced arrows and shot. He didn't even need to look, the moment he drew his bow and shot, it had already connected, the process of aiming, drawing, firing and confirming the condensed into one. Shirou would never admit or even think as valid, but some could think that's the close Emiya Shirou ever got to do something similar to Tsubame Gaeshi or Gae Bolg. Getting pretty close to a reversal between cause and effect. Virtually no sound was made, that is, until the arrows reached their targets.
"Going loud" The enforcer reported.
Something akin to the sound of thunder echoed through the forest, the arrows, mostly normal ones, exploded upon impact with the power of a small tank canon, turning the ghouls into a red and brown mist of blood and dirt. It is not that it would be impossible from a creature to evade or deflect his arrows, just that Shirou himself never made a mistake.
His nose could detect the use of mana past the death cloud he made, he wasn't very good at distinguishing different kinds of magecraft by smell alone, specially at this distance, but he had gotten used to mister Forvedge's spirit summoning and as he felt it go out, the barrier went down.
It wasn't pretty.
He could see dozens of people in varying conditions roaming the forest beyond where the barrier was concealing them. Most of them ghoulfied and moving towards the small team of enforcers but some of them yelling in pain and strapped to trees or rocks. People that would never again be normal, even if they survived and got their memory erased.
The barrier was formed around a, seemingly, random patch of the forest, one not too dense, no rivers, valleys, mountains or any feature that might be a differential or be used as an escape route of any kind. If anything, the most distinguishable feature Shirou noticed was that the area was oddly plain, without nearly any changes in terrain height.
There was no more time to be passive, he clenched his jaw tight and began shooting again, killing the victims he knew were a danger to the team or were already under the apostle's control. The team hunting for the thing and Shirou providing cover fire, this went on for more a few minutes until Shirou smelled magecraft so foul he almost vomited. It felt like putting his face against roadkill.
Forvedge's team had engaged the blood sucker.
Shirou continued to trace arrows and take pot shots at the creature while a mix of elemental and spirit magic wearied down the monster. One of Forvedge's enforcers seemed to be able to use fire in conjunction with melee attacks, effectively creating jet propelled punches and kicks, while firing blasts as soon as any hits connect.
The ground turned black whenever the enforcer dashed in and out while switching with another enforcer who was a weapon's expert wielding a large war hammer mystic code. Shirou's structural analysis instantly places this enforcer as the weaker link in the trio. That's not to say he was weak, as the war hammer served as a prana repository allowing him to maintain his high-level reinforcement, as well as resupplying his elemental colleague with small boosts.
Forvedge continued to use his spirits as attack weapons, as well as keeping them around the perimeter to warn the team for any threats or magical traps and countermeasures, while he didn't have the most offensive power out of the trio, he was by far the most versatile and experienced, keeping a wary eye on the thing they came to exterminate.
It made no sense. The apostle was strong, sure, took every hit he couldn't doge in stride and had claws so sharp that they were beginning to damage the war hammer mystic code but from what he could tell, Shirou could take the vampire down, should it come to it, if he was willing to use noble phantasms and blow his 'cover' as a 'normal' magus. How in the world had him injured and escaped the last team of enforcers?
The battle went on with the team slowly getting more and more shots in. However, that part of him that was Archer was screaming. He couldn't feel any magical misdirection but the experience ingrained in him by the counter-guardian based upon hundreds of years of being called as Alaya's dog told him this was a trap. He wasn't outputting that much power since the beginning of the fight. But he couldn't prove it.
If he asked the team to retreat and was wrong, it would give the monster time to leave or prepare some other contingency. He would be responsible for all deaths that choice would bring. Had him been his younger self he would sprint full throttle into danger in the hope he would make it in time to do something, not even sure what.
Now? He knew better, better than throwing his life aways meaninglessly and knew better than to ignore his battle instincts.
"Forvedge, retreat! It's about to do something bad." He activated his radio while getting closer to where the barrier stood while not actually entering it.
"Why? What is it? The spirits should have warned me of any mana buildup, there aren't any magical circles and if he created any territory to activate, I could tear it down. He also doesn't seem to have any mysteries worth the worry." He calmly went through the possible traps while still beating the beast back.
"I don't know the specifics, but something is not right!" He ran through the forest while still firing some shots when he could.
Then, it happened, the sun rose. They spent too much time in briefing and securing the surround villages and roads. Too much preparing and waiting for better viability between the bouts of heavy fog.
The light the sun emitted created shadows, long cascaded shadows that were projected in a circular manner, closing a loop; the terrain creating almost no deformations. The people still tied to the vegetation and rocks worked as runes inscribed in that shadow, bloody runes for a blood sucker. Forvedge's spirits tried to warn him.
They didn't do it in time.
Blood flowed from everyone in the circle, towards the Dead Apostle. The enforcers, with their magic resistance and skill resisted for whole 2 seconds before they were overcome by the rising power outlet from the fed vampire.
All the screams stopped and there was only two left.
A fake hero in one side, screaming bloody vengeance.
A grinning monster in the other. "Come! Let's end this disaster, little Magus!"
Married blades came into reality and the battle resumed.
All thoughts escaped Shirou's mind right now, all self-pity, all mourning for people he had come to know, for the innocent bodies.
The pistol's hammer came down in his head, magical energy coursed through his body.
Hot air blew from his mouth as he reinforced himself to dangerous levels, he darted towards the cursed entity while copies of lesser swords materialized all around him, sent flying towards the monster who, in return dodged and repelled the blades with ease.
Twin swords met bloody claws as the apostle tried to eviscerate Shirou, it was fast and way more agile now that it was properly fed. Shirou couldn't really compare, all that kept him from being gutted the first time was the fact that he knew it would strike there.
Almost decapitated but he knew it would go for the neck.
Knee almost broken but avoided.
Elbow to the face missed, it was a tricky one.
It continued like his for another 15 seconds, thirty fatal attacks parried or dodged, twenty-two turned into minor injuries or used as openings to counters. It was almost like fighting a servant again. He knew he couldn't win like this.
Even though Kanshou and Byakuya had anti-monster properties and that he was actually hurting the monster, he knew it was too full to care. He would run out of mana before the apostle did and he would die.
"I am the bone of my sword" The boy begun. His Od output doubled.
The vampire reached to grab one of his swords. Shirou let it threw Kanshou to the ground before producing another.
He darted back before throwing both swords and tracing black keys, the swords were deflected with minor injuries to the creature's arms before it jumped back, narrowly avoiding the black keys hitting it or it's shadow, activating its curse of paralysis and anti-curse.
Shirou went back to throwing pairs of married blades, alternating with some black keys. Every time the creature got closer it got to hurt him further. Its smile grew larger and larger.
Avalon, still ebbed in Shirou's body, worked double time to keep its user whole, keeping the creature unable to actually get his claws on his blood. However, it wasn't as instantaneous as with Saber, despite her refueling the scabbard with her od every once in a while.
Another pass and it would be able to hurt the magus enough to actually drink some of his blood, then he could suck the rest with his power.
It advanced forwards, intent on finishing the fight, before jumping back, it almost let its shadow touch a black key that laid there.
"Spirit and technique, flawless and firm;"
A pair of swords from before flew from the ground into it, but it was child's play to avoid, it danced around the swords while keeping wary of the black keys, that now formed a veritable mine field, dozens engrained in the ground. Normally it wouldn't be a problem, back keys hat to actually stab into the shadow to work, however, countless years as an immortal gave the creature a sixth sense that told him that the boy had tempered the keys somehow, making them stronger.
"Our strength rips the mountains;"
Another pair begun circling while the original pair went for another slash.
It was starting to get annoying…
The boy continued to move around the minefield, seemingly unaffected by his own black keys. It artificially made Shirou capable of keeping up with the monster's speed.
"Our swords split the water;"
The boy charged him. 'Fine! It will make it easier if my pray comes to me.'
A pair of swords slashed just the tips of its eyes. Pain barely registered in the apostle's body before it was gone
'My regeneration will have it handled in less than a second.'
It was all the faker needed.
He surges forwards.
"Our names reach the imperial villa;"
One pair of swords jammed into the things back, beneath his shoulder blades, making it lower its claw hands just a bit.
The pair that struck its eyes punctured its legs, making him kneel in shame.
"The two of us cannot hold the heavens together."
The married blades in his hands grew 3 sizes, it was overflooded with prana. They became dangerous, they became broken. Ragged lines, like the blades grew from a crystal formation.
And he swung them down, getting one stuck to its collarbone and another to its spine.
The boy continued forward another 5 meters before stopping.
The three pairs of swords exploded when the fourth and last pair collides with the broken variants.
The foul smell of roadkill vanishes, Shirou falls to his knees panting.
"God dammit, Forvedge." He screamed between breaths of air.
Why didn't he listen? He didn't trust Shirou's warning, but the truth is, why would he?
Shirou wasn't trustworthy after all; he was lying from the start. Sure, he had good reason to hide his noble phantasms, but if he had used them from the start, then dozens of people would still be alive now! He might get a sealing designation and get stuck in London; Rin would probably be able to be keep him from being experimented on and it would have saved all those people that now were dry mangled pieces of flesh and bone.
Well, it was over now. He had to call someone to clean this up, make sure no ghoul remained and get all the corpses to where they should go. He would take a shower, talk to Rin and Artoria and try to save the Japan from that other world, to do better than what he did here. He couldn't afford to be weak right now. More people were counting on him.
"Hey, boy!" A disembodied voiced called to him, pure prana filled the air. "It's time to go!"
"What? Wait, I've got to…" A Kaleidoscope portal formed in front of him.
The smell returned, reinvigorated by an absurd amount of 'unclaimed' prana in the vicinities; Shirou almost gagged before doing 180 swords already in hands.
The apostle tackled him.
All Shirou saw was infinity.
Notes: So... This will probably make or brake people's expectations of what's to come.
Writing is HARD. In the time it took me to write this I would probably have read ten times the amount. I probably won't be able to update this anywhere this quickly in the future but for now I'm high on the idea and it's flowing.
The setup is complete and in the next chapter worlds will clash.
Would love to hear critiques of how I handled the fight and... everything else, tbh.
Hope you all enjoyed, I know I did enjoy writing it spite of how hard I still find it.
Cheers
PS: Rewrote the last battle a bit and some descriptions, I am trying to take things a tad slower in the sense that I allow time to better describe things and make everyone that don't have a magic window into my mind to understand my thought process. Thank you all for the reviews, the next chapter is already half done.