Ryuudou Temple was in sight as Shirou and Elena ascended the stairs towards the grand site. Shirou recalled not visiting the temple since the Grail Wars had ended. Issei had told him that he and his family where moved to another temporary residence until the reconstruction of the temple was complete.

Slowly they ascended the stairs, Shirou stealing quick glances at Elena. He felt his heart pounding in his chest every time he looked at her and he couldn't explain why. Was it that she looked so much like…

He shook his head once more trying to get his thoughts out. He shouldn't be thinking like this especially not at a time like this.

"Shirou you okay?" Elena asked as they came to a sudden stand still.

"Huh oh yeah just got a lot on my mind" Shirou replied sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head.

"I figured you seemed pretty out of it the entire walk to here. What's on your mind?"

Shirou was caught off guard by that question. He didn't answer immediately and tried to find a plausible excuse.

"Well uhm…it's just….this entire situation has got my head spinning. With what you've told me and you know Tohsaka acting up…"

Elena didn't seem fazed by what he said, instead she chuckled slightly and replied with "yeah I got the feeling she wasn't exactly my biggest fan."

"Oh it's not you Elena it's just…"

She stopped walking and stepped right in front of him "Shirou you don't have to make excuses for her. I don't blame her for not trusting me, heck if I was in her shoes I'd probably wouldn't trust the situation either. So I don't blame her, but with the situation so dire and the Four Kings so close to arriving here there is no time to waste."

"I understand that's why I'm helping you. But maybe it's also best you tell me more about these guys. Just so we have an idea who we are dealing with, I imagine that would sway Tohsaka as well."

Elena nodded and turned around to start walking again as she spoke.

"I don't know much about the Four Kings or what they are all after individually. All I know is that their leader assembled them all because of what I pieced together a combined association with the three most powerful magus families."

"The what?" Shirou asked curiously. Kiritsugu had never told him much about the magus world's history, the Grail Wars or much anything aside from a rudimentary knowledge of reinforcement magic.

"In the magus world there are three very powerful families, the ones that started the system for the Holy Grail Wars. The Tohsaka, the Matous and the Einzberns."

Shirou immediately thought back to Rin, Sakura and Illya. All of them where from those families, he was surrounded by the some of the most powerful magus families out there and he had no idea.

"From what I could gather the three of them each served one of the families during the Holy Grail War from ten years ago. How the leader of the Four Kings assembled them I don't know. All I know is that they each bring a particular set of skills to the table and that makes them formidable."

Shirou listened attentively as they finally stepped over the gateway to Ryuudou Temple and saw what had become of it. The roof was caved in and the nearby shrine was completely leveled. The battle between Gilgamesh and Saber clearly had done a lot of damage

"Okay here we are. Where do we start?" Shirou asked.

"With this" Elena answered as she fumbled into her pocket and pulled out a glowing red stone, Shirou could feel the warmth coming off it.

"What is that?"

"This is a Sentry Stone, a very rare artifact the leader of the Four Kings gave to me. It can pick up any residual magical enemy no matter how faint. So if it's here this should do it."

Elena chanted something unintelligible and the stone began to glow even more. At that point Shirou saw it. All around him where small streams of white light reminiscent of falling snow going in all directions around the temple ground.

"Wow," Shirou said with amazement "that is amazing."

He looked at Elena and she looked at him, staying there in silence for a moment as a blush appeared on both their faces and the world seemed to just disappear around them.

"Hey Shirou what's going on here!" a familiar voice called to them. Snapping them back to reality they turned to the entrance to the temple and saw a white haired young girl standing there nonchalantly with a cheeky grin on her face.

"Illya? What are you doing here!" Shirou said in shocked surprise.