"Hgh" a hacking sound reverberates throughout the battlefield. A man who could be no older than 30, with snowy white hair, which could only have been caused by untold amounts of stress, he had steel gray eyes, the quality of which could only be compared to a sword. He had tanned skin which could only have been caused by an untold amount of time in the sun. Another cough left his lips shortly followed by a spurt of blood before the man promptly shut his jaw, swallowing the blood. He couldn't let out any more blood; the foe he faced would be able to make a contract with it, after all, and what happened from then would be out of his control. Such is one of the many abilities of the master of blood and contracts: Altrouge Brunnestud, a superior dead apostle with a pet, who, by all rights, shouldn't even be considered a pet. What was he talking about? You may be asking yourself, well, he is talking about a phantasmal being so much more powerful than him that it isn't even funny. That phantasmal being is the one and only primate murder.
"Ufufufu, is that all you are able to do, oh seigi no Mikita?" Brunestud questioned the man. "After hearing of all your accomplishments, I had thought you capable of at least giving me and Cath a bit of pushback in this fight," she says mockingly. The giant dog/fox/rabbit hybrid beside her lets out air almost as if he's laughing at my attempts. "Honestly, why do you even fight?" the superior apostle almost laughs out.
"Why do I fight?" I question myself. Suddenly, memories of days now long past flash into my mind. That meeting in the moonlight and then the departure at sunset. I can still hear the words she said at our departure.
"In the end I must tell you something... Shirou... I love you!" As fast as that memory passes through my mind, it departs. Ah, that's right, I fight to see her again, to accomplish my ideals, and find her back in Avalon.
With my goals reasserted in my mind, I get up, my insides being stabbed by bits and pieces of bone that pierce both my muscles and internal organs. "It seems... that this is where I'm going to die," I whisper to myself. I have no delusions; my death is guaranteed. I can't win; all I can do is maybe force them to retreat.
I scoured my inner world, my unlimited blade works, in an attempt to find something that could at least push them back. Multiple blades reached out to me, but a certain sword forced itself out of my blade works to be held by me.
"What?" I hear Brunestud whisper in incredulity. The primate murder merely growl in apprehension.
I understand where they're coming from I hadn't expected this of all swords to answer my call and so readily at that, for it to do that, does it consider the current situation a danger to humanity?
"Even after all this time you still look out for me don't you? Saber," I say longingly with a hint of nostalgia. "No matter," I say fixing the pair in front of me a stare that promises pain, "Now then, let us continue, oh master of blood and contracts."
"Hehehe," she laughs, "You were hiding this all this time I must have underestimated you, Shirou Emiya!"
I say nothing, taking the lessons I had learnt from Saber to heart, I ready myself for battle, after all to speak in battle is a sin.
Wind whistles by as seconds pass, and in less than a moment primate murder is upon me.
CLANG
The sound of steel striking steel reverberates, and in less than a second a thousand clangs have already happened each one louder than the last.
It was honestly mind-blowing. Attacks that had overwhelmed me just five minutes ago, to the point where each block felt like it could be my last, are now being parried, blocked, and dodged with a master's level of efficiency. It's almost as if the sword of promised victory itself is granting me strength, similar to Artoria's own. However for each movement I do I feel my newly discovered wellspring of energy drain away at the rate I'm going at the moment I would run out of energy in 2 minutes. In other words I have two minutes to do injure either of them enough to force them to retreat.
Knowing my luck if I don't force them to retreat they're going to get curious of where I came from and probably kill an entire village and turn them into dead.
Which means I only have one option, and that is release Excalibur and hopefully force them to retreat.
While in the middle of my musings I dodge a bullet of blood and out of the corner of my eyes I notice her chanting something silently under her breath, I can feel the power leaking of of them she must be preparing something, something big.
In my stupor while trying to understand what it is she's doing the primate murder hits me, landing his first blow since I got my second wind. I feel my internal organs die almost instantaneously my heart is almost stabbed by a rib that he had shattered. I don't have long to live, the time I had thought I had has now been fractioned into 15 seconds.
I would only have one chance.
So with a heave I start the chant.
This blade represents hopes and dreams!
Proof of the life that inhabits this planet!
EX-
The primate murder realizing his mistake dashes in to kill me before it's too late. Alas...
It was.
CALLIBUR!
And the world turned white.
I open my eyes half expecting to be in a hospital bed, somehow, even though I was in the middle of the Russian tundra, investigating a missing persons report and strange murders. Which could have only been the work of an apostle, and surprisingly, it was. Just... not the one I was expecting. The other half hoping that I had finally reached her, my saber, my sword, Artoria.
What I didn't expect was seeing Merlin looking at me with eyes that were both at the same time embarrassed and a bit sad.
"Merlin?" I whisper oddly my body doesn't feel tired or injured, "Where... where am I?" I question the court magus.
The court magus looks at me oddly before responding, "We are in my tower, where I have been trapped in for... how long has it been?" The man ponders before finally remembering, "Oh yeah almost a millennia and a half, either way getting back on track I have to tell you something," he says seriously now looking at me in the eyes. "You're reunion while have to be conducted in a different place I'm afraid," he says with a twinge of sadness.
Now it's my turn to look at him oddly, "Did I do something wrong, was I rejected from entering the utopia, did she lose her feelings for me," I say panicked while grabbing onto his robes and shacking him for answers.
"Calm down, will you," he says more than slightly irritated removing my hands from his gown, "No she didn't lose her feelings for you, no you weren't rejected from Avalon all that there is that a parallel word is in danger and while it doesn't have anything to do with pan-human history it is still a key part in the separation of multiple timelines without it all hell would go loose and Zelretch would have an aneurysm."
"Then..." I start slowly, "what do I have to do with anything?"
"You well are one of the better options for going there and why is that well you see in that word line there is no Gaia and no Alaya," he pauses, "In other words that timeline is a literal shit storm where the age of gods never ended but continued with the advancement of technology. You see in that timeline there are plenty of factions be they of biblical figures or other mythological figures, but they are a multitude of times weaker than the ones here."
I level him a flat stare before asking him a simple question, "by how many orders and magnitudes are we talking about?"
Merlin in response answers me in the most dead tone possible, "Enough that the you right after the grail war could take on a lesser deity beat them, and give a higher deity a good fight."
"Y-you're kidding right they can't be that weak right?" I ask in an almost desperate voice.
"They are," is all he responds before continuing, "Though there is the dragon gods who are on the level of primate murder and some of the higher tier Olympian's and gods of our world."
"Well then what do you want me to do there? What's the mission I must accomplish before I can return to Avalon so I can be with Artoria?" The magus levels me a gaze before responding with an almost chipper tone, "Well I'm glad you asked, your job there is to basically make sure the world doesn't end. And to do that you shall be able to have Artoria by your side as you both masquerade as highscool students in the one of the most prestigious educational establishment of Japan which by the time you will enter will have recently turned co ed. And if your wondering on how you're going to survive in an atmosphere that has the same amount of mana and ether in the oxygen as the age of gods you will both be reborn you with Avalon inside you since you are 2 months old in the womb so that Avalon can accept you as a being who lives on its land which will not only increase your circuit quality but also give a magic core of the same type as Artoria as you are her sheath. And Artoria should be fine as she will have Excalibur at her beck and call. In other words you will both be born with Avalon and Excalibur in you respectively," the mage finished his explanation.
"So basically reincarnation but I have Avalon in me before I am even born and It is the same for Artoria and Excalibur? Did I get that right?" I ask the legendary wizard.
"That is a gross understatement of the complexity of what I explained but... yes," the wizard affirmed while giving me a slightly irate look. I smirk in satisfaction before asking a question of my own.
"Say...," I pause, "you did speak to Artoria about this right?"
Merlin looks at me as if I'm an idiot, "I wouldn't be talking about this to you without her permission I'll have you know she is rather excited to finally be able to grow passed the age of fifteen," he says smugly while looking at me with an infuriating smile.
"But outside of me surviving in the different atmosphere is there another reason why I need a dragon core?" I question the magus, "Hell how are me and Artoria even going to get there in the first place if it's in another world line entirely?"
He looks at me before scoffing and looking at the side, "You know Shirou," he starts, "true magic can normally never enter Avalon for it is in a dimensional plane of existence higher than it, but if the planet agrees it can let a true magician in, alas this rarely if ever happens and if it does it is normally a matter of true import."
"Get to the point Merlin," I sigh exasperatedly.
"Geez you can't even let me finish can you?" He pouts before continuing soon after, "As I was saying in matters of extreme importance a true magician can enter."
Right as he finishes a portal of kaleidoscopic light appears in the area in which he was looking and out stepped a man Shirou knew rather personally because of his position as Tohsaka's teacher, Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg, the kaleidoscope. He looked around before his gaze landed on Shirou and he merely smirked and opened a portal right under his feet causing a scream to resound from Shirou before a female scream followed soon after. Afterwards he merely looked at Merlin and exchanged a nod with the womanizer before stepping back through the portal leaving Merlin alone in Avalon with a woman who hated him and merely interacted with him for artoria's sake even though she never admitted it.
Thanks for reading!
this is my first fanfic so I'm sorry if the characters are a bit OOC this is my first time making something like this after all. So I hope you enjoyed if you did read it and dealt with my admittedly average capabilities in writing. And if there is even anybody who even read this I would very much appreciate if you put a review highlighting things I did wrong, OOC moments, things you liked (if there even was anything) and any advice I can use for my later chapters I am after all an amateur writer.
And if there actually is people who read this and want to see more chapters I'll try and put out some more during the summer since afterwards I have school and it is single-handedly the most important year of school for me. And I'm mostly doing this out of passion.
THANKS FOR READING!
