"Somehow, I didn't expect an audience for this." Rory stared at the assorted party that Shirou had managed to drag with him. He didn't pay them any mind. He couldn't be bothered to.

"Your god. What do they want?"

"Straight to the point, I see?"

Shirou's gaze remained fixed on Rory , "Cut the theatrics and answer the question."

"Lord Emiya!" The Grand Elder frowned at him, "Mine people respect thee, but still, thou are in the presence of an Apostle." He couldn't help tensing at the last bit.

Try as he might, he still couldn't get over the fact that a creature that fed off of death and destruction, a being that held the same name as an Apostle, and was functionally immortal, wasn't an enemy. His time within magus society had ingrained such thoughts into him that it was more of an instinct than anything.

With his tiredness, he couldn't keep such a reaction hidden as much as he would have liked.

"Hmm?" The Apostle certainly noticed, as she hummed with a smirk, "Do I make the big bad 'Lord Emiya' nervous?"

"Yes." Shirou shrugged out the tension as much as he could while giving an honest answer. Everyone around him looked more or less shocked at his brazen admission. Even Rory looked slightly taken aback.

Still, Shirou had found no reason to lie, "Everything you've shown me so far, parallels quite well to creatures we call Dead Apostles in our world. Said Dead Apostles are more or less hostile to humans as a whole. So, forgive me when I say that I'm waiting for you to show your true colors and try to gut us all."

They would've found out eventually. Even if it would have taken months and years to get to the topic of the Dead, by the nature of how people were with 'secrets', everybody would have known by the time someone thought to ask.

And someone, be it those from his world or this one, would eventually put together a profile and see just how similar Rory and the demigods were to the bloodsuckers that plagued Earth.

It was easier to nip the bud early.

Unfortunately, that day was not today. Not when he needed more answers.

"Well, forgive me for spoiling your paranoia, but I won't be killing anyone if they don't give me a reason to." Rory huffed in surprising annoyance. And with how she looked, Shirou felt that that annoyance was nothing short of real.

"I see." He did. If anything, it was something that he should've done the first time he met her. He knew that what a person is doesn't necessarily mean anything, especially in a world with magic and magecraft.

"Well, I suppose this is as good a time as any to show you why Lord Emroy is so interested in you."

Shirou and the others watched as Rory carefully pulled out a small, wrapped bundle from a small pouch. Slowly, she peeled back the cloth, and as she did, Shirou had to recoil at the scent it gave off. It was less of an actual scent, and more of the stench that magi gave off.

And it smelled worse than death.

Rotting. Decaying. Somehow viscous.

It was utterly repugnant. He had seen countless deaths, been the cause of more. And yet, one whiff of the thing in the Apostle's hands was more than enough for his stomach to do cartwheels.

"What…" He choked out, "What is that?"

"You tell me." Gone was the playfulness that marked Rory's tone. In place of it was the Priestess of Emroy, "It came from your side of the Gate, after all."

With a quick burst of mana, Shirou tried to filter out the stench. It barely worked, but it was enough for him to approach the bundle. It was hard not to recognize it.

A worm.

Mangled, torn apart. Jagged, unnatural teeth, with an angular carapace covering it.

A Crest Worm.

When he first ventured into this world, he had a main goal in mind: bring Zouken, or Zolgen, to justice. He thought that it could've been fairly straightforward. The man wasn't exactly inconspicuous, and surely, wouldn't be all that difficult to hunt down.

That was when he saw the world beyond. Utterly massive, with entire empires and factions, people who did nothing more than live their lives.

The perfect place for someone like Zouken to hide.

And so, he shifted his priorities. He did what he always wanted, helping people who needed his help. Fought things for the greater good. Defended the people who needed defending.

Zouken would eventually show himself, or he'd find a hole and die in it. This world operated on a different scale than theirs. The only reason he himself was still alive despite fighting a Phantasmal was because of the unique circumstances of having anti-dragon weaponry.

For someone like Zouken, who subsisted on corpses in order to continue living, which just kept deteriorating in effectiveness as time went on, it was only a matter of time before he died completely.

That's what he thought, at least.

"Where did you find that?" He didn't reach out for the bundle. It felt dirty just being in the presence of it, let alone coming into contact. Just the idea that these grotesque things were inside Sakura filled him with dread.

Reading about them, destroying a swarm in the midst of a high adrenaline fight, and seeing one in the hands of Rory were all different matters entirely.

"They've been popping in some bandits recently." Rory herself didn't sound too enthused about them either, "A few times, they end up eating through the corpses before trying to take a bite out of me. Didn't do them much good."

"And you think that they come from our side of the Gate, why?" She wasn't wrong in her assumption, of course. It was still a good idea to ask, if only to determine how she came to that conclusion.

"These worms are hidden from Lord Emroy's sight." She started wrapping the worm up again. Behind him, he could hear the sighs of relief accompany his own. He hadn't been the only one to feel the unnaturalness of the worm, it seems.

"And the only way that your god doesn't see it is if it came from beyond the Gate?" Shirou hazarded a guess, if a hopeful one.

If true, that meant that the clairvoyance that gods were usually touted with had a definable limit.

"Yes." Rory nodded, "Whenever the Gate opens, the gods usually cannot see beyond it, bar the case when their envoys journey through it. When you cross over here, then the gods can see you. Except, even after this attacked me, Lord Emroy still couldn't perceive them, as he told me so himself."

A soft round of gasps came from the elves.

"Lady Mercury, thou've spoken with Lord Emroy?" A revered tone from Adrianne. One that Shirou had never heard. It spoke of the pedestal that the Apostles and the gods were placed on. Especially since most, if not all, the elves had the same, awed look on their faces.

"Indeed." A similarly awed smile from Rory, "He deemed it important enough that he spoke to me in a dream. Though his words were shrouded in mystery, he told me to look for the Hunter of the Bloodied Hill. You, 'Lord' Emiya."

That was exactly what he was afraid of. He felt the pit in his stomach open up even deeper. He had hoped that it hadn't been him, that it was just the destruction he had caused. He knew it was unlikely, not after the message from Atlas.

The message was a warning to everyone, true. It warned that the gods themselves were watching things closely. And yet, why would that message be given to him specifically? Why not to those who could do something, like Zelretch?

It was simple. This had all but confirmed it.

The gods were watching Shirou Emiya.

The elves crowded around the Apostle and himself soon after that, their previous discomfort against the Crest Worm all but forgotten. It was understandable.

From what Shirou could glean, it was rare that the gods 'talked' to anything, even their own Apostles. It was then seen as a prophecy whenever people were mentioned by name or title. Of course, such things could be falsified, in which case, that person would likely suffer at the hands of the religious peoples of this world.

This time, it was a full blown Apostle that spoke of him specifically. It was no surprise to him, then, that the respect that the elves had given him, from his actions against the dragon and subsequent help, now bordered on fanaticism.

He would be lying if he said it didn't disturb him. He was not unfamiliar with religious fanatics - the Holy Church and their Executors usually had more than a few at the best of times. Having it directed at him?

Weird, he admitted.

"Cease this!" Thankfully, the Grand Elder must've seen the uncomfortable scene and intervened. Her voice akin to that of a mother scolding her children, which wasn't far off from the truth, he supposed, she spoke up, "Thoust are acting unbecoming of thine positions! Behave thyselves!"

With an air of embarrassment, the elves reluctantly stepped back, exchanging glances of both disappointment and reverence. Shirou offered a nod of gratitude to the Grand Elder. His relief was palpable, the weight of sudden adulation lifted.

"Thank you," he murmured, his voice barely above a whisper. The Grand Elder simply nodded, understanding the unspoken words between them.

The scene shifted, the atmosphere easing into a more somber tone. The elves began to disperse, leaving Shirou, Rory, and a select few in a semi-circle.

Shirou's mind was racing. The existence of Crest Worms - which meant that Zouken wasn't just alive, but thriving if he could make some - in this world, the attention from a god, and now, the elves' near-worship. It was a precarious position, one he hadn't anticipated nor desired.

So much to do, so little time. He didn't even know where to start.

No, that was wrong. He did know.

He stepped up to Rory, the elves near him parting like the Red Sea. Wordlessly, he held out his hand. Rory raised an eyebrow while looking up at him, the height difference almost comical. Just as silently, she handed him the bundled Crest Worm.

As he pulled away, her grip on the bundle suddenly tightened. He looked to her in askance, as a sly smile danced on her lips, "I expect a full explanation on what exactly these things are." It wasn't a demand. It was a declaration. She didn't expect him to do so because he was willing to do it, but rather, that it was already written in stone.

Her grip relaxed as he nodded.

For bringing this to his attention, Shirou supposed she deserved this much.

He turned to the only other magus, Waver, now looking at the bundle with disgust. Shirou raised an eyebrow. He didn't expect the Lord to know of the Crest Worms, though he supposed it less of knowing and more of understanding how vile it was from just the descriptions Rory gave.

He wanted nothing more than to destroy it, if he was perfectly honest.

And yet, he couldn't. Not yet. It was the only means of tracking down just where Zouken was. And, with how Rory didn't even mention their progenitor, he figured that even she and Emroy didn't know about the rogue magus.

Either that, or she knew and kept it to herself.

He didn't know which was worse. That Zouken was able to hide from a god, or that Rory, an Apostle herself, was withholding vital information. The tension in the air was thick, a mixture of uncertainty and the unspoken questions that hung between them.

Shirou's resolve hardened. This was no longer just a mission to stop Zouken; it was a race against an unknown clock, with stakes higher than he had initially realized. The presence of the Crest Worms was a glaring sign that the danger was imminent, not just a shadow looming in the distance.

He motioned to Waver, and the Lord nodded to the side, already figuring out what he wanted. While undoubtedly one of the more agreeable people in the Clock Tower, he still wasn't exactly the best when it came to the more practical aspects of magecraft.

That said, they had a much better mage already with them.

It just pained Shirou that he'd have to deal with the inevitable headache of asking a favor from Reines.

A/N: If you like what I do and want to support me, check out my P-atreon at P-atreon•com(slash)Almistyor.

Thanks to my newest patrons: Ryujin Jaeger, and Xu Ming Chen.

And a special thanks to: FireRogueWolf25, brutalcrab and Tassimo.