"Well, you have a good eye there." I gave a light nod. "This fellow is a little fickle about the user who wishes to borrow its power, so it tends to judge everyone that touches it. It would give out an appropriate amount of protection based on how it feels about the user." I pointed to Rias.
"In her case, she could only use five percent of its power."
...
"Wait, five percent?!" Tsubasa turned to me incredulously. "Five percent was enough to take on Raiser's flames?!"
"Svalinn has the power to go against the flames of the sun at its strongest for years on end, so a mere phoenix flame would be weak compared to it. I should know, because this guy saved my butt against another phoenix a few times over." I replied back with a shrug.
"Interesting…" Sona looked at the shield one more time before turning to me. "Emiya-kun, may I borrow this for a while? I would like to study its properties to have a better understanding of its defenses. I might be able to create better defensive spells against flame type attacks with the concept."
"… Not for now, but if there is a time and opportunity, then perhaps I can loan it to you." I decided to give that reply after thinking it through. One thing I would hand to Sona was her cunning intuition to certain things not within her scope of understanding; if she were to study the shield, she might discover something that I would really not want her to know.
I would have to keep my abilities under a low profile for the time being.
"Well, in the end we won. In a way, it was a good thing that Ise-kun appeared with the others when I was facing off with Raiser." Rias said as she leaned back on the chair.
"Actually, you should thank Shirou for that too?" Ise scratched his head in slight embarrassment. "I mean he was the one who guessed that Raiser would come directly at you."
"Huh? When did he say that, and how would he know about Raiser's reaction?"
"Remember when I say that Raiser has a lot of pride? That same pride will demand gratification by going to the front lines and taking on the King." I pointed to Rias. "To him, he needs to take you on to ensure that his image as the undisputed champion is intact, not to mention he was counting on your personality to do so. He knew that if he agitated you enough, you would no doubt accept against your better judgment."
"Hey, that makes it sound like I'm impulsive!" Rias frowned at my choice of words.
"You did accept his challenge right? But in anticipation, I decided to relay that message to Ise only, and let him decide how he will handle the situation." I nodded lightly to him. "At least he has enough sense to know that he would need more backup to ensure your protection in the event he needed to go one on one with Raiser."
"Wait that meant that small talk you had with Ise was…"
"That would be me telling him to watch over you just in case Raiser decided to confront you and you do fall for his ruse." I raised an amused eyebrow at her. "Good thing I could predict your behavior, otherwise half of the preparations would be useless if you were to get yourself defeated because of your headstrong mind-set and volatile temper."
"HEY!" Rias pouted heavily at my words.
"That is true." Sona added her two cents with a straight face. "After all, she lets her emotions run wild whenever she gets pissed."
"SONA!" Rias turned to direct her glare at Sona, who merely sipped her drink in a manner that was meant to hide that smirk appearing on her face.
Oh, the both of us were so evil.
"Well, now that the match is over, we can now go back to our studies, and I can continue working properly." I said as I took a sip of the drink. Seriously this training was pretty disruptive to my working schedule, and the rent was not going away on its own.
"You know, you could just take up our offer of going on full-time hunts, that should pay you better?" Sona remarked at my words.
"And if you want, there are other ways to get paid even more." Rias added in that with a glint in her eyes.
"Firstly, I am fine with my current part time job. Secondly I do not need to hunt those creatures down so often considering how weak they are. And lastly, I am not joining your Peerage." I replied back with the last one directed more towards Rias. Her pout was all I need.
"But you know, I didn't know that Ise-kun achieved Balance Breaker during our training." Akeno mused while directing a questioning gaze at me. "Granted you have trained us individually, but then something like that was kept from us."
"For my part, I did not think he would actually use it in the fight." I replied back with a glance at Ise. "We were able to awaken the dragon sleeping inside the gear and made great strides in his training, but regarding the armor, the only way for him to use it prematurely would be to sacrifice his arm."
"And it was worth it." Ise lifted the left arm that was still sporting the reptilian gauntlet on him. "Granted it is a pain in the ass getting used to it, but at least we can hide it by getting the dragon energy sucked out somehow."
"That is good and all, but Ise, allow me to repeat my lesson. You do not do that type of stunt again without supervision or council. DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?" I looked to him with Rin's patented smile and my eyes closed to emphasize my point.
"YES SIR!" Ise stood rigid and saluted me while having a very pale face much to the amusement of some of the guests in the room. Guess my threat helped to make him remember some of the more painful lessons.
"Seeing the results of the match, perhaps I should consider asking you for a few tips in strategy, maybe a quick sparring session if it is possible." Sona mused as she finished off her drink.
"That would be interesting, I would like to know how strong I can be." Tsubasa agreed as she clenched her fists.
"Oh, is that so?" I kept my tone and expression evenly while looking at them.
"Yes, that would be great!" Saji clenched his fists eagerly. "Maybe if I train hard enough, I might be able to gain Balance Breaker like Hyoudou! And then I can…" His voice trailed off as he looked to Ise who had an indescribable expression. "Err, Hyoudou? Are you okay?"
"You… Want to… Train under him?" Ise stuttered while his eyes started to twitch. "You want… to undergo… that hellish training… Heh... Heh~Heh… HEHEHEHEHEHIIIIIII!" Ise started to let out a slightly wicked crackle while cradling his head in his hands and curled up into a fetal position.
"Wha~ what the heck happened to him?" Momo blinked owlishly as she watched him. "Why is he acting like…? Er Akeno?" She paused as she watched her friend spilling the drink from her shaking hand while having a smile that was honestly creeping her out.
"Yuuto-kun?" Tsubaki looked at Kiba whose mouth was twitching uncontrollably.
"Koneko-chan?" Tsubasa blinked at the little girl whose hair was literally on end and she was totally rigid.
"…" Sona slowly turned to look at Rias who was absolutely pale-faced. "Rias, are you okay?"
"Sona, if you are thinking of taking Emiya's training…" Rias turned her slowly with a forced smile and sweat droplets falling from her forehead. "I wish you the best of luck." That made the Sona Peerage paused at their reactions before slowly turning their heads towards me.
"Well then, if I am going to train you, would you like the slow and easy route, or the fast and hard route?" I asked them calmly with a very gentle smile on my face. "Either way, once you take up my training, I will make sure you will get a lot stronger."
Oh, the expressions on their faces were very satisfying.
...
"I'm back."
"You sure took your time getting back. Was the Rating Game that good?"
"Not too bad. Granted it was a little too restrained for my tastes, but it is better than the earlier ones I have seen."
"I don't see the point of going to those games run by those devils. They are just simulated fights, no one is going to get killed, their actions are lacklustre and their tactics are deplorable. To me, that type of game is a mockery to what we do back in our old world."
"True, it is a tad juvenile to me as well, playing make-believe warfare just to pass the time, but I find solace in understanding the creatures we have to fight every so often, not to mention the occasional breaks in normalcy that makes them interesting. And this match was particularly educational."
"How so?"
"I believe you know the Crimson Princess of Gremory and the Immortal Phenex?"
"By Phenex, you mean the arrogant blowhard who purposely keeps a harem of women just to show them off? Yeah, I know the idiot. As for the princess of Gremory, kind of hard not to know her, given her power, her family and that smoking-hot body of hers."
"Yes, well you will be pleased to know that her Peerage completely decimated the Phenex Peerage under 7 minutes and took him out without much effort on their part. Evidently they had researched on several methods to bypass his abilities and took him down quite easily"
"HAH! Serve that guy right for believing in his immortality to get his ass out of the way."
"Hmm~ how unlike some people we know."
"Don't push it! Anyway, that can't be the only reason you took this long to come back, was the fight really that good?"
"Although it was good, something else had turned up that made me stay longer."
"What would that be?"
"… Do you remember the message we got a month ago from two of the others? I think I might have stumbled onto some proof."
"! Explain. Now."
"From the Gremory group, several things caught my attention. After arriving here we have seen a lot of weapons, both holy and demonic, but having been on the receiving end of Shirou Emiya's weaponry, I remembered their appearance and power. One of them was the same type that took me out and sent me here. Another thing that struck me was the type of tactics used against Raiser; they were almost a carbon copy of what Emiya used against us."
"… I see, so he is here."
"We do not know yet, it may be a coincidence, but I have set some familiars in the area to keep an eye on the residents. One way or another, they will find out if it is him."
"Good, very good. HEHEHEHEH! So if it is him, we will be able to have our revenge again very soon. HEHEHEHE!"
"Indeed, the legend of the Magus Killer will be ended with his head on a silver platter. That would be the ideal present to bring back home to his family once we can leave this world."
"YES~ YESSSSSSS! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!"
...
( You can skip if you want. )
Current Chapter Noble Phantasms:
Sunō-Buros Samu - The Snow Blossom Dagger
Type: Anti-Personnel
Rank: B+
A small dagger with a simple brown leather shethe, with a small white gem encased within the silver hilt. On the blade itself, there are japanese words that reflect its origins.
The origins of the blade are shrouded in mystery as there is not much to go on. Some debated that the blade gave rise to the story of the "Little Matchstick Girl", others suggested that it was a mere fairy tale that may have fallen out of history and only resurfaced as a separate story all together.
What is known is that it involved a japanese servant girl who tried to sell firewood for her family in the middle of winter, with a dagger by her side to keep her safe and a memento of her late grandmother. No matter what troubles came her way, she remained pure of heart and refused to take a life of another. She was later taken in by an aristoucratic family and got married to one of the lesser sons. In her lifetime she helped others in any way she could, and thus the dagger she held became a family heirloom passed down the family to a girl of pure-heart.
The main abilities of the dagger focused on the principle of protection, and the strength depends mostly on its user. The more pure-hearted the user, the stonger the power of its defensive barrier which takes the form of tiny snowflakes that surround the user in a tiny bubble of white aura. If the user tries to hurt someone with it, the dagger will automatically freeze the user into solid ice and shatter the body completely to avoid bloodshed on its blade.
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Brahmā Kā Caimpiyana - Gauntlets of the Champion of Brahma
Type: Anti-Unit
Rank: B+
A pair of metal gauntets adorned with Hindu decorations and ancient scriptures. The knuckle portion is reinforced with metal bands for added protection. When active, the metal portion and scriptures will glow brightly to the point they resemble gold.
In a relatively unknown part of Asian history, a few of the Indian Gods were having problems with Asura, who would often rampage and disrupt the lands, polluting the area with his unruly aura and unintentionally the minds of the people, making them extremely bloodthirsty and constantly seeking battles.
In their desperation, they tried to send in their best warriors to contain the situation, only to lose them to the same bloodthirstiness. Finally, one relatively unknown farmer boy took up arms for Brahma and took on the soldiers, eventually stopping Asura's rampage and forcing him to retreat. The relatively humble gauntlets he put together for his battles thus became a Noble Phantasm associated with Brahma's champion.
The gauntlets have the ability to enhance known traits of the user while increasing the attack and defensive capabilities. For a regular human this would be more than sufficient, but in the hands of a magus or a Dead Apostle, the gauntlets would boost their abilities tenfold. Depending on the user, other traits would get stronger.
When Shirou uses the gauntlets, they would boost his trait of Steel, transforming his entire body into a type of "blade-mail", with the added bonus of him able to use any of his swords as a base to add attributes to his body, such as dragon-slaying or flame enhancement.
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Svalinn - The Shield that protects humanity from the Sun's Wrath.
Type: Anti-Fortress
Rank: A++
A Norse shield of intricate design, it is roughly the size of a full grown man's torso, with old Scandinavian text around the circumference of the shield. In the center of the shield, a man's face represents the sun with his hair flaring in the form of sun rays. In the place of the eyes, dark red gems are embedded.
As the object of some of the most known poems for Norse Mythology, its fame arises from the ability to protect the earth from the sun. The multiple defensive spells placed on it are made in such a manner that they feed off excess energy from one another, in effect creating a stable loop of power that does not get wasted and at the same time enhancing their own abilities, most helpful when facing off a flame creature, as the spells would only get stronger the longer it get exposed to a higher grade of firepower.
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Hey guys If you want an extra chapter you, need to throw some power Stones ;)
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