Someone said, 'The Author Has dabbled in the fate verse by I don't think he has memorized the important details.' last chapter and I don't think I've ever taken a harder hit than that đ.
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A barren world that breathed flames and smoke, running on great gears, with not a soul in sight. That was the truth of the wilted Shirou Emiya stood across from myself. His words bore no lies. His eyes held no deception.
Then, indeed, what a sad truth that was.
"What happened to you, mate?" I asked, raising a hand to my chest. This world, as foreign as it was, still bent and stretched as unreal space spilled inside.
He gave a slight smile, "I became what I wanted, a hero of justice."
I heard glass shattering. A multitude of swords erupted from the barren desert, right at me. I realised immediately that this was the 'place' I was unable to see. The 'place' where he kept pulling his numerous noble phantasms from.Â
This man had just popped a Domain Expansion on me.
"You know they won't reach me, right?" I grinned.
Infinity formed around me, separating myself from the rest of the world.
He grinned right back. "A cursed technique can't block a domain expansion."
"How do you even-"
The swords blew right through me... not. I waved my hand and his noble phantasms were dragged into a compressed space, exploding against one another instead.
"Of course, I still don't understand what any of that means, but understanding the mind of an idiot is beyond even me." He tapped the side of his head with a finger, "Still, magecraft needs self-hypnosis for a reason."
The only reason he'd be able to bypass my defense then was-
Emiya gave me no time to collect even those thoughts. In the blink of an eye, he was upon me, body tilted and blade raised. He cut down with speed that far exceeded my own... yet that had never been an issue. In that same blink, I reinforced and shoved my foot into his gut.
He forced through, and cut down regardless. The gleaming steel tore through the bone and sinew of my shoulder, spraying red-hot blood that dyed his gray hair. My flesh regenerated instantly, and got a fist in his face for the trouble. A fist coated in Living Stone, thrumming with Red.
The moment he was flung away, I pointed my palm at him and the space between us disappeared. Before I could hit him again, a hundred nameless swords were upon me. They exploded bright, blinding me with smoke and dust.
That... was all they did.
"If you're just going to throw swords at me, you're better off flinging dirt instead."
Those numerous weapons at his disposal were noble phantasms all, but they were replications, weaker than they were meant to be. Attacks of such calibre weren't even worth blocking.
"You're looking down on me?" Archer noted, once more stood across from me.
I smiled. "You can still stop, mate."
He wasn't going to. I knew. He knew. Still, I hoped. He dashed that.
With a sigh, Archer crossed the distance between us once again. I was more prepared this time. When he swung Kanshou at my neck, I outright punched the blade. I could feel the steel tear into my fingers, but it was given only an inch before mana exploded outwards.
"That's... Caster's? I see-"
The Machia Hecatic Graea, the power of A-Ranked magecraft from the Age of the Gods concentrated into a single burst. Against that, Archer, who was weakened by not one but two command seals working in tandem, had nothing.
The strangest bit was... he had to have known that clear fact.
 If he were given free rein to fight me, and boosted by his master, then I'd be in trouble but like this... the fight was pitiful.
Hurriedly, he raised his blades to block the explosion. They failed to withstand the sheer power unleashed by my magecraft and cracked, shattering under the pressure. They were discarded immediately, and the burst was intercepted by another nameless sword exploding against it.
"Henry. Aren't you supposed to love mystery?"
"What?" I tilted my head in curiosity. "Of course I do."
"Rin's already cut off my magical energy. And this Reality Marble isn't exactly easy to maintain. Why don't you get it yet?"
"Why are you trying to commit suicide?" I questioned calmly.
"Because there's no point in sticking around anymore." He straightened his back. The sky shimmered. "A servant's just a shadow of the real thing. This is borrowed time anyway. You get it, don't you?"
I did.
That did not mean I had to like it.
If he was to fade away anyway, he had decided that everyone would be better off if his 'death' ended up changing something for the better.
"I didn't think you'd be that altruistic." I huffed, reaching for my aviators.
Archer reeled at my words. He stared at me in actual surprise for the first time since we'd met. Then, he chuckled.
"I just want to see that golden piece of shit driven into the mud."
Ah... I'd been wrong.
Much like myself, Archer was just a vindictive bastard. No, he was a step even above me. Where I had decided against gambling with my life for the laughs... he had embraced that way of life.
At that, I couldn't help but laugh.
"I can respect that."
The sky shimmered brighter. Instead of multitudes like before, a single sword shot down at me, shaped like a spiralling bolt. I easily side-stepped it. That was a mistake. The ground erupted underneath me. When I jumped away, Archer was suddenly beside me.
"Son of a-"
The bastard kicked me right in the head, and drew an obsidian bow long before I even touched the ground. Instead of an arrow, he nocked a sword. When set loose, that sword broke into dozens, perhaps hundreds, and rained down with all the force of a carpet bombing.
His own world exploded all around me.
'His'.
Dammit, this really was an actual Domain Expansion.
This barren world burning around me now was his 'truth'. It was his nature. He had pulled out his own flawed 'being' entirely and substituted the texture of reality with his own.
That was... I'd seen it before.
The daemon I fought so long ago had done exactly this as well.Â
I... hadn't known humans could accomplish this as well.
"Then-" My eyes widened, "That fire was the boundary line."
"You're getting it."
A bounded field of the highest order. A region of space completely severed from the world. The 'magecraft' woven into it was his very 'being', his own logic.Â
...
"Are you telling me this is what you are on the inside?"
At that, a ghost of a smile began tugging at the corners of his mouth. He pointed Byakuya at me.
"I am the bone of my sword."
"Instead of a sword, shouldn't you be a forge?" I voiced my thoughts, craning my neck.
"You'll get it some day."
Well, that was fine too. I definitely intended on keeping an eye on the Shirou cluelessly living with Sakura Matou from now on. There was all the time in the world to investigate.
Right now though...
"But you messed up-" I raised a finger. "This is still a Bounded Field, on the level of grand ritual and you're no hero of the past."
"So what?"
"That means this is super mana-intensive and you don't have the supply to keep it up."
He pursed his lips. "I already said that, Detective Sherlock."
Raising my hands in mock surrender for a moment, I immediately plopped down on the ground, legs crossed. Slowly, I rested my chin atop my palm and... began staring at Archer.
"What is this supposed to be?"
I understood his confusion.
I relished it.
"You're going to run out of mana soon. I'm not killing you."
"Why?!"
I shrugged, "Don't wanna."
For a good moment, he lost his words entirely. Then, he put a hand on his head and groaned. It was nice that he knew me well enough to realise there was no point in trying to convince me to rescind a decision.
"I don't know you all that well, but you've meant well for me this far." I shrugged again, "I'm not the type of guy to be forced into something either."
He held his silence a while.
Then,
"No... you're not. But, what about Rin?"
"You're weak, mate. I can protect her."
I cackled like a madman, feeling utterly euphoric. After all, I had just poured cold water over the final conviction of a proper heroic spirit. There was a certain... joy, in denying him what he wanted to force me into so badly.
"Why are you like this?" He sighed exasperatedly again.
When I shrugged, his grip on Kanshou tightened. I thought he was about to attack me impotently once again but... he put the blade to his own neck.
"What's that supposed to be?"
"The Holy Grail needs one more death other than Gilgamesh-" He grinned wider than ever before, "And I promised myself that, this time, I'd have the last laugh over you."
"Mate-"
With wide eyes, I jumped to my feet.Â
The moment I did, he ruthlessly drove the blade through his neck, not a hint of pain or hesitation on his face. No, he kept grinning even as the world began to shudder and collapse all around us.
I rushed to him regardless... maybe I could heal-
"Now, when you... tell Rin who I am... she'll hate the Shirou she knows too."
Just how vindictive was he?!
Unable to understand what to feel at the moment, I desperately tried to reach him. Nameless swords rose from where they were buried and... impaled him.
"What the actual f-"
"She'll... also... think you're too brutal... for doing this to me."
"I didn't do anything though!" I shouted.
He laughed at me.
As he faded away, this Shirou Emiya from the distant future laughed at me just like how I laughed at him.
...He'd just won this, hadn't he?
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Hope you enjoyed.
You can find chapters ahead at patre0n.com/Bleap but they're not that many since we're really close to the end.