Chapter 43: The Dagger
(A/N: guys made a mistake last time while uploading so this is chapter 43 and the previous was 44. I'm sorry for the delay I had a exam today so I only reached home now)
This time instead of sending Saber off alone shirou followed her. He watched as she smashed through the horde of skeletal warriors like cutting weeds and smashing rotten wood. He followed her and they came across the purple-robed caster.
From here on the fight was very one-sided most of the casters' magecraft was shrugged off by the sabre and she only held on due to the constant sacrifice of her bone familiars. Shirou watched as Saber overwhelmed the caster.
Shirou felt a sense of disregard for the servant suffering the beat down but he immediately became alert as kiritsugu had made sure to train it into his bones to never underestimate any opponent especially if they were a magus.
Perplexed by the source of the sudden feeling of arrogance shirou witnessed Saber abruptly pull back a heavy slash that she was about to strike the witch in the face with. Mumbling something she dogeed back but suddenly the witch pulled a z-shaped dagger glowing in a sinister purple glow and a dreamy-coloured blade from under her black cloak.
The dagger immediately pierces Sabre's chest while bypassing her armour, but there is no blood from the site of the wound. This scene reminded the boy of the 4th Grail War where she suffered a wound from the cursed spear of the lancer.
"Cas..ter this is?" she croaked out as if fighting something inside her body.
"Yes. this is my noble phantasm sabre. It's the weakest weapon that cannot kill anyone or create anything. But it is an indulgence from the age of gods that is forgiving of anything for one purpose."
The witch`s bewitching voice resounds and the movement of her hood revealed lilac-coloured locks. Amid the monologue of the enemy the king of knights fell onto her knees without any injury and groaned towards her master
""Haa—Shi… rou—run…"
Feeling a burning sensation on his arm Shirou's body raises his left and he witnesses a single unused command seal fading away. This scenario made shirou understand what had happened last time, somehow caster`s noble phantasm could either break the servant contract or steal it.
"All is according to plan, boy. Now, if I collect the magus and the vessel inside, my victory will be assured." said the caster very dismissive of shirou, as if his existence was a waste of space.
She waved her hand and a gust of wind hit shirou hard enough to snap his legs making him look like a jellyfish. With an evil snicker, she said while waving her hand
"I think it's about time. Stand up, Saber. Even if the gods punish you, I will forgive you."
Saber rigidly stood up and moved in an eerily similar manner to those bone creatures she slowly moved toward shirou and Swing her sword down with eyes like she was having a nightmare.
"Beautiful, Saber. Now you are the same as me, you bear the crime of killing your Master…! Yes, as the same criminals, let us condemn this world to its death…!" exclaimed the caster as she released the trademark lunatic crackle of an evil witch,
The crazy witch`s voice was a piece of background music while the main piece was the expression on Sabre`s face as she swung her blade, the tear-stained face was seared in his eyes as the pain of the blow registered.
This thing led to him having his 3rd concrete desire amidst these visions
< I don't want her to cry like this, especially for a version of me.>
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As the saying goes speak of the devil and it shall appear, kiritsugu`s premotion proved true. When they were 2 hours away from fuyuki he saw Shirou's shirt being stained red. And smelled the scent of blood, checking the source he found it to be a small 2-inch long tip of a sword poking out of his son`s bicep.
He called an air hostess to their seat and motioned her to look at the boy as she saw the blood and was about to gasp he called her name making her look up and meet his eyes. His eyes were glowing with the colour of mana, they hypnotised the woman.
Kiritsugu made the hypnotised hostess take them to the first aid area and made her call the other air hostesses one by one and hypnotised them one by one as he tolerated the pain of using his circuits.
They quickly scanned through the passenger list and by luck, they had a doctor on board. He made the woman call the lady doctor quietly with the excuse of avoiding panic. As the woman wearing glasses likely in her early 40s came in she was hit by a suggestion from kiritsugu.
Under the suggestion they took it as a small first-aid situation and bandaged Shirou's arms multiple times as each sword sprouting ruined them. And when shirou completely calmed down after an hour, the magus killer had the doctor remove the blade and then apply stitches.
Covering the boy`s bloodstained clothes with an overcoat kiritsugu wired till their landing.
After landing shirou was abruptly woken up by his father and quietly followed the older emiya along towards their house.
Once they were at home kiritsugu summarised the incident on the plane in a few words. Shirou just nodded his head at the bad timing and luck and quickly bolted away to get cleaned. After taking a bath shirou came to the kitchen to prepare breakfast.
While having breakfast the pair of father and son discussed the vision. Kiritsugu listens in silence and commented
"Skeleton and a dagger that breaks the contract. Age of gods and indulgence….. From this, we can say that the woman is a witch from the age of gods and one with high status because she became well known for what she considered an indulgence."
"She killed her master she said. So we have to search for legends of witches of high status who were known for their cruel nature and having skeletons or necromancy and desire to possess whatever they like. Shirou it is your work to research her, the information is lacking so I don't expect immediate results but you should try."
The father and son pair then kept their discussion about the topic as they ate their meal. And so time passed on for 3 weeks.
During this period shirou didn't practise any bounded fields as he had established the best of what he could do at the emiya residence. So he moved the improvement of bounded fields down the list and practised making a bounded field inside his body.
That extra time went into practising blacksmithing. Emboldened by his last death he and Rin held frequent sparing matches and unfortunately for him the ratio of wins between him and Rin is 2:8.
So getting thrashed by Rin was added to his routine of getting thrashed by Taiga. If not for being a kid and lacking strength and height shirou would have needed Taiga to fight him seriously if she wanted to win. He was absorbing the sword smithing and sword arts knowledge like a sponge and making progress in leaps and bounds.
Shinji had been more irked by shirou spending most breaks with Rin rather than them and Issei had been considering pulling both of his friends into preliminary training of monks. That night when shirou went to sleep after exhausting his od to their limits by stuffing mana into a bunch of wooden swords he made and heat-treated as well as sharpened.
But instead of waking up in his bed in the morning, he woke up in the familiar void now permeated with specks of red blaze and orange flairs released from the sporadically.
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Shirou`s vision appeared from the swirl of colourful lights that he had learnt to not focus on to avoid the headache. This time unlike all other times shirou can feel mana the second he connects to his body.
He senses that his body is using od to apply reinforcement on himself and this reinforcement is above what kiritsugu had even displayed. Then he is hit by the searing pain of his magic circuits that are continuously being destroyed, and he also feels them being repaired.
Looking at the severely injured sabre with parts of her dress vaporised leaving her skin with severe burns. She was bleeding out as she lay on the cold stone floor but what hurt him the most was the look in her eyes the eyes devoid of hope and filled with despair.
The eyes were similar to the ones his father had at the end of the 4th holy grail war. shifting his attention from the injured girl behind him he felt his body take a stance in front of her, knowledge and moves were being poured into his mind forcibly giving him excruciating pain but avoiding it he focused.
(A/N: And cut people guess who is the bastard that that did this to Saber. And now it's time for a major reveal for shirou, that will make him give up things and focus. He would be shown a glimpse of the end.
And shirou has also fallen victim to the charisma of King Artoria Pendragon. Plus I also made a funny anecdote of shirou sprouting swords on the plane.
And guys I am researching the Garden of Sinners and as soon as I solve the conflicting points i will include it in this world. People have said to me that they happen in the same timeline like Witch of the holy night happens in both timelines.
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THANKS FOR READING:)