Then, what became of the vanished Shirou Emiya?
"Why…?"
Astolfo stared down at Shirou Emiya's unconscious body, bleeding profusely and riddled with arrows of brilliant light. A confused, almost pained look filled Astolfo's eyes.
"I'm supposed to be the hero… I'm just a Servant, after all…"
Gently, Astolfo lifted Shirou from the ground, struggling to stand amidst the shattered ruins.
When Achilles appeared before Arthur, Astolfo had realized instantly he wouldn't survive the coming onslaught. The thought of leaving the Holy Grail War after only two days left him feeling slightly melancholic.
It seemed Shirou Emiya, standing right beside him, had no means to withstand such an attack either.
"He was just a Master…"
Astolfo realized he had vastly overestimated Shirou's capabilities. Even if Shirou possessed the strength to defeat Archer of Red, that didn't mean he could withstand her Noble Phantasm head-on.
No Servant's Noble Phantasm should ever be underestimated—even the weakest Assassin could fell a Saber under the right conditions.
...
"Well, if this is how I go out, let's at least do it with style!"
Astolfo resolved himself as the rain of glowing arrows closed in, straightening his back proudly, prepared to meet his end with dignity.
Both Shirou and Astolfo had dismounted; at the speed of the falling arrows, they wouldn't even have the time to remount the Hippogriff. It was impossible to escape such concentrated fire.
[Phoebus Catastrophe] specifically countered high Agility but low Endurance Servants. Even with Astolfo's superior speed, dodging the dense hail of arrows was inconceivable. And Shirou Emiya, a mere Master, stood even less of a chance.
But abandoning Shirou and fleeing alone was not an option for Astolfo. That simply wasn't heroic.
Just as he was steeling himself, another figure stepped in front of him.
"Grab onto me!"
Shirou's voice was unnaturally calm, as though he'd already figured out how to counter Archer's Noble Phantasm.
At that moment, the arrows hovered no more than ten meters above them—within a fraction of a second, the downpour would pierce them mercilessly.
"[Broken Phantasm]!"
The instant Arthur's golden radiance collided with Achilles's shield, an earth-shattering explosion erupted in front of Shirou. It was the most powerful weapon Shirou could produce at that moment, detonating at point-blank range.
The fiery blast momentarily consumed a portion of the descending arrows, scattering them wildly.
But explosions lasted mere moments, whereas the arrows continued pouring down endlessly.
Even the immense explosion could only neutralize some of the arrows before losing momentum. The remainder effortlessly penetrated through, unimpeded.
Yet, the true value of Shirou's action wasn't merely blocking arrows.
The violent shockwave catapulted Shirou and Astolfo through the air like human missiles, hurling them clear out of [Phoebus Catastrophe]'s tightly focused attack range.
To maximize her Noble Phantasm's potency, Atalanta had narrowed its target zone precisely, calculating a radius so tight that Shirou couldn't possibly escape—even if he began sprinting the instant she fired. The arrows struck mere seconds after release, an attack speed impossible for ordinary humans to evade.
However, she hadn't anticipated that someone could be even more ruthless than herself.
Shirou had detonated a [Broken Phantasm] directly at their feet without the slightest hesitation, as if he didn't value his own life at all.
And this was precisely what bewildered Astolfo.
Shirou Emiya didn't care about his own survival, yet he was willing to sacrifice everything to protect Astolfo.
Because Shirou had shielded Astolfo with his own body, nearly all arrows preceding the explosion had pierced Shirou's flesh, and he had absorbed the brunt of the explosion itself. Astolfo merely experienced secondary shockwaves and was thrown against a distant wall—insignificant harm to a Servant.
If Astolfo were a living human, Shirou's sacrifice would have made perfect sense to him. Astolfo firmly believed Shirou Emiya would become a heroic spirit himself one day, so acting like a hero wasn't surprising.
But Astolfo was merely a Servant, a disposable avatar summoned from the Throne of Heroes. Even if he died in this war, it meant little more than losing a game. He'd simply vanish from this battlefield and return to the Throne without consequence.
Yet Shirou Emiya had willingly traded his mortal life to save him. A single irreplaceable human life in exchange for protecting a temporary, disposable Servant—it was laughably disproportionate.
Not to mention, he and Shirou Emiya barely knew each other; they had merely exchanged a few words. Astolfo considered himself heroic, but he'd never willingly give up his life for a mere temporary copy of another soul.
He considered it utterly foolish.
Yet Shirou Emiya had done exactly that. Even as a Servant, Shirou viewed Astolfo's existence as something worth more than his own life.
That was simply Shirou Emiya's nature—something he could never change.
Astolfo slowly walked through the ruins, a crimson glow brightening the horizon. His steed, the Hippogriff, quietly landed before him, unharmed by Atalanta's devastating attack.
This was Astolfo's Noble Phantasm, the Hippogriff—[The Steed Not Existing in this World].
As its name suggested, the Hippogriff's existence was incredibly vague, ambiguous to the point that its very presence wavered between existence and non-existence.
Astolfo, as the rider, was unquestionably real, anchoring the creature's existence every time it began fading away. The Hippogriff constantly cycled between visibility and disappearance.
Though Astolfo hadn't ridden it at the time—rendering it incapable of directly sheltering them—it had instinctively faded its own existence at the moment of the attack, elevating itself to a different dimensional state, unaffected by Atalanta's Noble Phantasm.
Still, this hadn't prevented the attack from harming Shirou and Astolfo themselves.
Astolfo gently cradled Shirou Emiya's bleeding, battered body, silently resolving himself.
For someone who would risk everything for others, I have no right to consider myself more of a hero.
Slowly, Astolfo climbed onto the Hippogriff, carefully holding Shirou close.
He refused to let Shirou Emiya's sacrifice go to waste.
---
T/N: KISS HIM!!!!
also the og name for astolfo's np is [Otherworldly Phantom Horse] but [The Steed Not Existing in this World] HITS SO MUCH HARDER
bonus chaps
100 stones -> 1 chapter
200 stones -> 2 chapters
300 stones -> 3 chapters
and so on
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