Rin had had a theory. It had been crazy, heretical, and absolutely brilliant all at the same time.

"What if everything the magical community has been doing for the last two millennia has been wrong?" she had said. "Magecraft has been weakening for over one thousand years. Not only the craft, but the abilities of magi themselves have been slowly but surely deteriorating. In any magical family, circuits have been on the general decline from generation to generation in both quality and quantity. The most common theory, which states that the increase in human population has led to a division of the human spirit, doesn't make sense. The strength of a mage born in the eighteen-hundreds and one born a thousand years before is absolutely incomparable even though the populations were still in an analogous state. While the amount of mystery may have decreased that should have only weakened the individual spells related to the mystery in question, but it's not only the spells that have decreased in power but their practitioners as well. The theory that natural selection or more specifically the lack thereof is the reason for humanity's stagnation can also be disproven. Families of magi have always used their craft whether it be potions or spell to make sure that their children would live past infancy with no reduction in magical potential observed in these children or even their offspring. Additionally, how did Alaya grow to the size it currently is? How would our population increase lead to a weakened Alaya, and why would Alaya not grow at a similar rate? Our theories make no sense….so what if it is not the decrease in mystery or the increase in human population that has caused the change in magecraft? What if it's the reaction we made to the supposed 'change' in the first place?"

"Think of the Age of Gods," she had continued. "The gods and their pantheons are dead and gone. They faded because humans stopped believing in them and they slowly lost their power and authority and were reduced to nothing. Belief. That is what led to the gods' downfall, simple human belief. The Greeks believed that magic resided in all things and they produced the highest number of heroic spirits of any era. What if our supposed cure, hiding away both ourselves and our craft from the rest of the world, is actually the true disease? We both fought in the Grail War, Gilgamesh himself, the oldest of all Heroic Spirits, said that humanity should have grown far beyond what it is in the present day. If you asked most individuals who the de facto witch or wizard is from any era the answer they would give would be Merlin. Merlin who was born at the end of the Age of Gods. Merlin, who was born just before the majority of us went into hiding. Is our lack of growth due to a lack of belief? Are mysteries becoming less and less possible because people believe them to be impossible and in doing so are limiting the potential of both their souls and that of Alaya? If we were to reintroduce ourselves into society, would we be able to regain our former strength, would our magical potential come back?"

She had thought of this, ironically enough, because of me. Magical degradation, the reduction in mystery, the elimination of the True Magics, the cause of each of these is supposed to be common knowledge to any magically raised child and it is, or at least it is for any properly educated mage's child.

My education in magecraft had been poorly done, barely covered most of the basics, and would have likely killed or crippled anyone else. Whenever I had to ask about the reduction in magic, Rin gave me the same answers she had received. Whenever I asked why these things happened she gave the same answers she had gotten along with the most prominent theories available. I then disproved all of said theories. With Unlimited Blade Works, I had a copy of every magical or mundane weapon I had ever seen and through them we had records of the practices of magecraft from the dawn of human history to today. I was able to trace wands, staffs, and other foci and say exactly how they had been used and the strength of their users as well as the spells they had produced. I was able to accurately state when the general decline in the magical community had occurred based on the decrease in strength of the average mage, something that happened over a century after the Clock Tower's accepted date.

Rin was shocked, and said she would look into it and get back to me with whatever information she found. In the span of less than a day she had made the aforementioned theory that questioned the very foundation of her society's beliefs and had called upon two of her colleagues, her rival, Luviagelita Edelfelt, and another former participant in the Grail Wars, Waver Velvet to verify. Geis were signed, details vehemently discussed between Rin and Luvia, the original Fragarach used to verify that neither yet knew anything about the reduction beyond what was common and that nothing said between us would reach another's ears. The discussion itself was naturally held in our own apartment complex that was warded against any outside observation or interference by several of my Noble Phantasms. Then she shared with them her thoughts.

"Ludicrous," Waver stated. "Insane," Luvia corrected. She acknowledged their statements, right before she showed them her proof. We explained the nature of my abilities and projected staffs, staves, mystic codes, and Noble Phantasms and I was even able to say that everything I said was true without violating the geis. After the shock of being next to someone who was so distorted wore off, which occurred nearly instantaneously for Waver while Luvia had required a minute, another debate began. I wasn't able to grasp the full significance of this, of such a clear and deliberate act of misinformation. I had not been exposed to the scheming and often justified paranoia that resided in the Clock Tower's culture long enough to understand what they did, that someone or something had to be behind the cover up with their end goal most likely being the crippling of humanity.

The Clock Tower's first records that asserted the benefits of the concealment of mystery was made by a Botany mage who had been sent to study a series of African tribes and supposedly found proof of the descent in the secluded tribes circuit count and quality. Over the next several decades other mages came forward with similar evidence, having gone to other areas withdrawn from mankind. Each and every one of them had been sent on research trips by the Clock Tower from different department heads and some even from the other branches of the Mage's Association: Atlas and the Sea of Estray. This continued for some time until the amount of evidence supporting the benefits of concealment had seemed too much to ignore and the withdrawal of magi from regular society began.

Luvia was the first one to come to the most probable conclusion and once she did we wondered how no one could have seen it before. "The Director," she had put forth. "He…She…It has been the head of the Mage's Association for literally millennia. Most believe that he is something more than human and they're probably the only individual who would be capable of influencing this many different departments within such a vast time frame."

I think that that was when it became real, that moment when we had a definite target, a goal that we could strive for. The first step was obvious. We had to find out the species of, and then potentially kill, the Director. That is where I came in. With my reality marble I most likely had a weapon capable of killing anything whether it be a god or a demon, a man or a monster. The problem was determining what the Director was to begin with. He had been alive long before Crimson Moon had created the True Ancestors, let alone the Dead Apostles and was subsequently unlikely to be among their ranks. All reports that mentioned his appearance placed him as Middle Eastern. In the event that that wasn't a red herring perhaps his species originated there. He likely wasn't a Djinn, the Clock Tower had been warded very heavily by Zelretch himself against all of their kind after the incident that spawned Gazamy the Wraith. An elemental was similarly unlikely as they were not known for having any interest at all in human affairs. A Primordial Demon was the next suggestion, as they would be capable of a millennial long schemes such as this. I traced Uriel, the angel-sword that guarded from all directions and watched over Eden's gates. If a demon of such strength resided anywhere within 33 kilometers the light that the celestial blade produced would condense slightly as it prepared for battle. It did so but with an intensity that had only occurred once before in the weapon's history at the beginning of its guard. The light gathered along the edge of the blade at such a density that it was as if the sun had wrapped itself around the blade something that only occurred in the presence of its natural adversary. I had dispelled it instantly reeling at the knowledge of who our foe was.

Good God, we were idiots. How could no one in two-thousand years have stopped a moment and thought 'Hey, is it weird that the head of our organization is rarely seen, doesn't seem to age, and has been alive since at least the creation of the modern calendar?' There must have been something, a conceptual defense or inherent Noble Phantasm that prevented others from contemplating his strange existence, something that perhaps only we alone were able to do because of the Noble Phantasms around our home protecting us from its influence.

It all came back to belief. Belief was what gave the gods strength and humans moving away from their worship is what led to their downfall. I said this before but how could I not have realized its implications then because that wasn't true of all gods, was it? There were a couple pantheons whose number of believers had only grown over the millennia, and one in particular whose second most well-known member was infamous for manipulating humanity, one that many would consider a deity of multiple religions with half the world believing in his existence. Masking himself as the head of the Mage's Association to limit humanity's growth? The devil in plain sight.

When I finally spoke into the silence that occurred after Uriel's dispersion it was to explain what we were up against, and the weapons I thought best suited to deal with it. Luvia and Waver took the whole 'fighting against Lucifer' thing remarkably well. When the discussion continued into the night I began to trace a few of the more likely contenders for the Director's elimination as the history of every blade that I had that had been in his presence told me he needed to die. Longinus, Vasavi Shakti, Enkidu, Gae Bolg, and Mistletoe were possibly the best contenders, all having slain gods and celestial beings before. After setting those five down I traced two more out of habit just to feel their familiar weight in my hands, and to admire their craftsmanship that had enthralled me so long ago during the Fifth Grail War. Waver asked me for their names and abilities, seeing two weapons that we had not discussed using. I had leaned forward and presented him with the blades and explained their ability to attract one another, how they gave a one-rank increase in physical and magical resistance to their wielder and always returned to their owner's hands. They were my favorites, if any one of my swords could be called that, something that is there when you need it and acts as both shield and sword, even though I had not thought them capable of helping us in our present endeavor. I even, with what may have almost been a small measure of pride, said how they had been able to take two of Heracles' lives in one of Archer's previous wars. This particular tidbit drew Rin's attention.

"Shirou, aren't those C rank? I thought it took at least an A rank weapon to kill Berserker?" "Yeah, but their rank and abilities increase with each copy of their counterpart that is in their vicinity so with three in existence they qualified as A rank." Then came a period of silence that had been produced solely by my own stupidity. The first person to speak afterwards, Lord El-Melloi, asked the rather obvious question going through the minds of everyone in the room that wasn't me: "What is the limit of how strong they can become?"

…How had I never asked myself that before? We moved the discussion from my apartment to Luvia's larger rooms upstairs and I started tracing. At three copies the swords gained a wing-like appearance. At eight their shape shifted to that of large spiked clubs. The next change didn't occur until fifty-four when each blade looked like a large teardrop. I had to stop afterwards, having spent nearly all of my prana. Rin wasn't letting that deter us however and after a not-so-quick mana transfer ritual, one which Luvia offered to assist in but Rin vehemently vetoed, I was back to tracing. Even so no difference occurred in any of the blades even after the hundredth pair was formed. Whenever it seemed that nothing else would occur I traced the one-hundred and eighth set with the last of my prana and everything changed.

Each blade drew its partner together and each of them combined to from a Taijitu with one-hundred and eight of the symbols in total. I somehow felt that there would be no more increases so we decided to experiment. We found that my magic and physical resistance had increased enormously and that things could be stored within each copy. We put a watch in and then withdrew it a minute later and found that its hands had not moved a second. It seemed to be a storage Noble Phantasm similar to the Gate of Babylon, something that preserved anything placed inside from Gaia's will. Remembering the vault's ability to act as a passage way between two points, I tried to will one to open another entranceway on the other side of the room. It did so immediately and when I crossed it I was able to do so without traversing any of the space in between. We had teleportation.

We found that it could only take us somewhere I had been before or where someone I knew currently was. There didn't seem to be any range as I was able to travel to Fuyuki as easily as I was to the kitchen on the lower floor. Not only that but since any object stored within one of them was resistant to the passage of time any of my projections that I stored within would not have to deal with Gaia's corrective influence until I brought them out. Waver and I performed a memory sharing ritual that added a hundred more Noble Phantasms to my repertoire from his encounters with Gilgamesh alone and I then took us into Unlimited Blade Works and launched the entirety of my armory into Kanshou and Bakuya. With this we had a chance.

I faced the Director by myself, alone in body but not in spirit. I had formed a contract with both Rin and Luvia beforehand to make sure that I would not be lacking in regards to Prana, as well as to unsure that they would be aware of my potential death. I used Helena's Nail to locate him, Ariadne's String to reach him in his localized workshop, Uriel to both verify his identity as well as distract him, the Chains of Heaven to bind him, the Lance of Destiny, the Arrow of Mischief, the Soaring Spear that Strikes with Death, the Dart of Indra, and the Scythe of Time to kill him and then used my personal vault to hit him with the remainder of my weapons that had a chance to harm him. Once Uriel verified that he was dead for now, I relaxed

Afterwards, we had to convey to the Queen our goal, convince her not to try to kill us or worse, explain why the top floor of the Clock Tower was destroyed, and then get the help of Atlas and the Sea of Estray to assist in the reintroduction of magi to modern society. It was at this point that Zelretch showed up and … didn't make everything worse. He explained the entirety of the situation, took Rin and Luvia on as his students, and managed to pacify the Clock Tower Lords. We were able to convince the new Director, one Lorelei Barthomeloi, of the validity of our plan who was then able to convince the Meluastella head who convinced the Toranbelio head of our plan. With them along with the Archibalds and Edelfelts on our side the rest of the Clock Tower swiftly fell into line with the other two branches of the Mage's Association following shortly after.

The effect that the Association's influence had on society was astounding. Its control of the media was unparalleled. It first subtly shifted general opinion to a more accepting mindset then gradually began to introduce us back into society. I became the Association's mascot, someone who could travel to any location that I had already been with a tool available for any situation. I arrived in countries before tsunamis could and calmed the waves with the swing of a trident. I prevented a terrorist attack on a nuclear facility that would have led to a meltdown. With my portals I could be anywhere. Mages became the first responders in relief efforts, evacuation attempts, you name it. Eventually, after years of effort, the separate societies had seamlessly intermingled.

With the dismantling of the Aylesbury ritual and elimination of a large amount of overly hostile Ancestors the moon became the first extraterrestrial location to be settled with Mars being the first planet to be terraformed. Now, almost one-hundred years later as I gazed out upon the seas of the formerly red planet I could not help but marvel at how far we'd come. My portals had allowed for travel from the Earth to the moon in seconds and were currently doing the same here. They were one of the primary reasons that humanity had reached this far and everyone has been preparing for my death for the last few decades. That was the purpose of the World Portal Network, a series of points spread throughout every Gaia claimed world that allowed for mass travel along real and hypothetical leylines that took hours instead of days or months. Humanity had advanced so much and I was the person credited for most of it, something that was orchestrated from the start.

I think Rin planned for my rise to fame. With my reality marble and portals being instrumental to integration and with my distorted mindset of absolute selflessness making it so that I became the lauded image of everything good that the magical community had to offer, my rise to fame was almost inevitable. There were incredibly few people in the world who did not know my name and face. I was a legend and almost certain to be remembered as one on my passing. Which is why there was only one thing left that I absolutely had to do, one that I couldn't return from for it to be a success.

I was over one-hundred and fifty. Rin, Luvia, and Sakura had seen just over a century when they passed, Sakura and Rin at the same time due to a soul link they shared that extended Sakura's life after Zouken's experiments. Luvia followed after them a year later, probably because she missed her rivals and best friends. My children had grown, most of them becoming like their individual mothers, thank God for small mercies. They were in their second century as well, with their children not too far behind them. I was a five times great grandfather. When all the descendants that one had numbered in the hundreds you knew that you had lived a long life. Each and every one of them had done great things in their lives, each one of them had a life of their own. They did not need me to guide them anymore and while I shortened travel time, I was confident that they would make sure humanity continued to excel after I left.

I steeled myself, took a breath, created a portal, and walked through. I didn't enter with any specific destination in mind, just entering the space that connected all of my copies of Kanshou and Bakuya, an endless space, a void with the only presence inside being my own and whatever I decided to store within it. Time didn't pass in here for anyone unless I urged it to and space was only determined by thought. Rin had hypothesized that this was a conceptual area that embodied the existence of 'Nothingness' the state of reality before time and space became definite laws and that that was why they bent so easily for me here. So if this was pre-existence, wouldn't that be infinitely close to the beginning of every world, a common starting point from which all things emerged? I certainly hoped so because as that was the only way this would work. I traced another portal, something I had never had to do inside this place as I could will them to open anywhere I had already been but once again I did not think of any specific destination while forging this gateway and I once more stepped through.

I stood upon a precipice/height/peak. I was in a land/space/area of abstracts/concepts/meaning. Before me was all things. I did not try to see/understand/grasp it for I knew it would do the same and with my inner world acting as a perfect record it was very likely I would see more than I could and never be able to forget it. I was at the edge of Akasha, the Root of Creation and I was going to use it solely for its location. As the Root of all worlds, connected to all of them and familiar to all of them, it was the only location that this ritual had a chance of succeeding in. I reached into the pouch I kept on my belt and drew forth prana saturated gems. Rin, Sakura and Luvia had worked for decades to get enough energy in these stones for one almost impossible task. I was going to use all of their hard work in a matter of moments but if it was successful than everything would be worth it. I began to chant.

"Silver and iron to the origin. Gem and the archduke of contracts to the cornerstone. The ancestor is my great master Schweinorg." The words were chosen as the catalyst in part for nostalgia's sake, partially so that in the event that my target heard them he would take notice, and lastly because they were the words inscribed upon the jewels to activate their mystery.

"The alighted wind becomes a wall. The gates in the four directions close, coming from the crown, the three-forked road that leads to the kingdom circulates. Shut (fill), shut (fill), shut (fill), shut (fill), shut (fill), simply shatter once filled." I felt something from behind me first, then from every conceivable direction as it seemed a hundred beings took notice. From them I felt surprise, curiosity, and the beginnings of unexpected hope.

"I announce. Your self is under me, my fate (doom) is in your sword. In accordance with the approach of the Holy Grail, if you abide by this feeling, this reason then answer. Here is my oath. I am the one who becomes all the good of the world of the dead, I am the one who lays out all the evil of the world of the dead. You seven heavens clad in three words of power, arrive from the ring of deterrence, O keeper of the balance!"

All the gems I had on my body shattered as I finished the chant with a shout of exclamation. Their fragments scattered around me and formed a prismatic spherical enclosure. Runes scrawled themselves over every inch of its surface. The markings acted as an amplifier as they increased the resonance of my soul a thousand times. This would only have a noticeable effect if I was close to an alternate version of myself whose soul bore enough of a resemblance to my own to be seen as the same being. Fortunately for me, I was infinitely close to every world and in every world that Shirou Emiya became a Counter Guardian that Zelretch had bothered to check that man was used to guarantee that nothing came back from the Root to endanger Alaya, meaning that they all were within reach of this spell. I felt a pulse of elation from every direction and a thousand silvery lights converged on my location, each of them a soul of one of my counterparts that had enslaved themselves to humanity's will. Each of them sworn to be a Counter Guardian, a fate that was eternal, excluding one escape clause. If the recipient became a Heroic Spirit then their soul would be elevated to divinity, beyond the reach of Alaya, and in doing so attain freedom. This was what I was attempting on a vastly magnified scale. As I felt all of their souls synchronize with my own, their memories join mine and our very beings become inseparable, every one of their bonds transferred to me as well. Now for the last step.

At what point in a Heroic Spirit's life did one ascend to the Throne? As far as I could determine from my tens of thousands of armaments so intrinsically linked to their wielders that they had ascended with them it occurred on the event of their final death whenever they passed from the world for the last time. I had to specify final death as some legends, Lazarus, Jesus, Sisyphus, and Baldur to name a few, just don't stay dead whenever they are killed and none of their items ascended on their first passing. It is only when a hero's soul passes from the planet's domain for the last time that their existence resonates with Gaia and Alaya, gathering strength from how much they had influenced the world above and below and raising their existence to near divinity. It was the separation that did it, that initiated the pseudo-apotheosis. That was why I was about to fake my death and try to fool the entire solar system and all of its inhabitants.

I didn't tell anyone what I was doing. Everyone that I had collaborated with in the making of this scheme had been dead for the better part of a century and no one was absolutely sure what would happen whenever I died. There were several theories on what would occur and their makers were about to wrongly feel vindicated. I reached out to each of my portals on the Earth, Moon and Mars and withdrew them back to me, closing them and simultaneously dispelling all of my projections, removing all of my remaining presence from my dimension and letting the entire world know of my supposed passing.

I waited for a few seconds for Alaya and Gaia to realize what had occurred. I didn't feel as if my existence were suddenly heavier or as if I could break mountains with my fists. There were no outward signs of a change and I may have worried that I had failed if I didn't have any other indicators to go by. Fortunately, in a sense, I now had a hundred intangible bonds that formerly tethered my alternate selves to the will of Alaya and as I felt all of them shatter I knew that the plan that we had worked on for so long was a success.

Everything had gone perfectly. Oh, how I savored that thought as the situation so rarely came up that I was able to have it. I had saved my other selves and payed back any debt I may have owed to my annoying alternate future self.

I no longer had any connection to my Earth and never could again as it would most likely reject me if I ever tried to return. The only place left I could maybe claim as my home was the Throne and with me residing there it was possible that I may even be summoned in alternate Grail Wars or other rituals, so anywhere I went would likely be a temporary settlement at best. Even so, just because there was no place for me didn't mean that I was just going to die. I turned inward to my reality marble and tens of thousands of new additions. "We have the entirety of the Root before us, and the capability to go anywhere," I thought to all of my more sentient occupants. "You have stood with me for thousands of years and served me well. Do any of you feel drawn to any of the worlds before us, somewhere you would like to go?" A dozen voices chimed in: the kaleidosticks Ruby, Sapphire, and Amethyst immediately falling into strife, Kalevipoeg's Bane, Oma and Kullervo all acquiescing to any world where they would be able to draw blood, Bridal Chest to anywhere she could observe friends, Uriel and Marquis to whatever world was chosen as long as they could serve me, and the final decision being made by two of my swords coming to an agreement with each other, something rather abnormal as neither seemed to get along despite their similar origins. Even so, each of their inner worlds felt drawn to one particular realm. "Two seems to be the highest vote," I said, tracing the fused kaleidosticks and thinking of my destination. I followed the connection that resonated with the black and white straight swords to that reality and felt myself moving faster and faster through a prismatic storm until-

*Floom!* Ah. I seem to have crashed. I stood up from the small crater in which I had found myself and dusted off my cloak and pants. My surroundings were still obscured by the debris my sudden impact had generated but even so I could feel the presence of an individual several meters in front of me, the person that the twin swords had been drawn to.

"Um…" began a male youth based on the tone of their voice and what outline I could make out "are you alright?!"