I know that many people really enjoyed the previous chapter. However, I don't have a great deal of interest in continuing this story. Mostly because Heroic Spirits are too powerful. Most of them will easily overwhelm the aliens, just turning into curb-stomp battles. I don't like long curb-stomp stories because it is too easy with no conflict, and as such, they are boring to me. As such, I am writing this epilogue and leaving the story open for adoption.

That being said, enjoy!

Epilogue:

Caster hovered anxiously over the alien life pod, like a mother over her child.

She had a good reason for it too. This was her key to escape the Grail War. She had no interest in the Grail beyond getting a mortal body and this was going to be her new body. To make a body by means of magecraft would be unsustainable for her as the prana needed to keep her alive past the Grail War would not be sufficiently produced by any body that she could possibly make with the materials that modern society had.

But the aliens were not modern society. Their ships had had sufficient biological materials, mystical substances, and knowledge onboard such that she could use her A ranked Item Construction to make a mortal body for herself.

Their silvery material that the invaders used for energy was both small and produced enough energy to allow her to maintain her existence after the Grail stopped supporting her. She would have a mortal body housing her Servant's core without any loss of abilities-well beyond the astralization ability but to be able to hide her presence from the other Heroic Spirits seeking to kill her for their own wishes…

It is a good trade. A mortal body for astralization and escaping the Holy Grail War.

Not to mention, as Caster, her abilities did not really lend themselves to overt combat too well. She could do it, sure. Last night's battle against the aliens had proved that. But against Saber, Lancer, or Berserker? It would risky.

And she had not been able to make it so far without being able to manage risks. Her refined instincts told her that unless she would not be able to win this Holy Grail War without cheating. So why bother risking it all in a competition that she could very realistically lose?

So, she was working on her escape plan. Move her Spirit Core into this mortal body, grab her beloved Master and flee the city. Pretty simple and once she leaves Japan…who would ever find her?

Now all she needs in order to succeed is work, time, and talent, all of which, except for time, she currently has. Hopefully Assassin will be able to stop any enemies before they discover her appearance, her mortal body, or her plan.

Caster doubted that the other Heroic Spirits, or their Masters, would be happy to discover that one of the 7 Heroic Spirits that they needed as sacrifices to operate the Grail had no intention of dying.

Caster cast a quick glance at the magical indications of her work. She always had sensed magic by means of sight. And after her many, many years of practice in addition to her abilities granted by being a Servant, she could now easily instantly identify many magecrafts just from a glance.

Now, by using magecraft to help speed up the growth of the soulless body while keeping any soul from forming, Caster would be able to transfer her Spirit Origin into the body without the risk of rejection. The alien power source implanted inside the biological material would provide her with enough energy to keep her materialized in this world.

It had taken a while to figure out how to get the alien energy to respond but she managed. She was Caster, Medea of Colchis, the Witch of Betrayal. She would betray the Grail and the Grail War in order to stay with her beloved Souichirou.

And at long last, she would finally be happy.

As Archer descended down the steps to Rin's basement, carefully balancing the tea and loaf of bread, he wondered how this alien invasion would change the Grail War. He barely remembered any of his life, much less the Grail War. But it certainly appeared to have altered the priorities of his Master.

He opened the door carefully, he didn't want any of Tohsaka's Bounded Fields to attack him. That would be unpleasant. As he eased the door open, he got to watch Rin finish a brief chant while focusing on the light rifle she had picked up from off an alien body.

A whiff of Rin's prana streaked through his nose. Hmm, it looked like she had just analyzed it. It smelled similar to his own Structural Analysis although with Rin's distinctive scent instead of his own smell of steel.

Rin grimaced. "This material is different from anything I have ever seen." She said to herself. "Obviously, the aliens used different materials than what we have but I should be able to figure out how to create a substitute. The sheer energy output would provide immense benefits to Jewelcraft. But how to do it? The source of the energy – how can it be hydrogen and yet not hydrogen? Are the aliens somehow doing a fusion reaction for each shot? But how do they get the energy to rise so quickly? The pressure and temperatures-"

Rin walked over to a physics textbook. She had sent him out to fetch textbooks from the library and wherever he could find them. Magecraft hadn't seen anything like this before so logically, her family's texts on magecraft would be inadequate. But what about science?

It seemed odd that aliens that could travel across the stars would be unable to use magic but everything they had seemed to be more in line with science than magecraft. At least, that was what Rin's newest hypothesis had concluded.

Archer didn't care. They died when you hit them, some were harder to hit than others like the tall, four arms grey alien or the armored bodyguards around it them but throw a conceptually heavy enough object at them and not even their psychic ability was able to stop it. Slow it, yes, but not stop it. And some machines blew up if you caused enough damage to incapacitate them while some of the aliens released clouds of poison upon death.

And then there were the invisible aliens. One of them had seriously surprised him when it appeared out of nowhere to attempt to strangle Rin. It had no weapons to do so but the robot's squid-like tentacles had seriously grossed out Rin.

After he had destroyed the robot, Rin had ordered him to take one for study. Apparently, her great-grandfather had loved optics and had worked on using Jewelcraft to bend light but had never figured out how to create a mobile field to bend light around them. He had managed to create a stationary invisibility Bounded Field but adding motion had disrupted the invisibility, not to mention being unable to see out of it.

Rin said that she had read up on his work several years ago and had made some improvements but hadn't figured out how to get past the 'unable to see out from the inside' problem while maintaining the invisibility. Yet, here was an alien machine with the similar type of Bounded Field for invisibility but was able to see and thereby attack others.

Fortunately, the next strangling robot was rather easy to capture. He just stabbed its shadow with a Black Key that a Church Executor had once used and it fell to the ground. He wondered who that Executor had been as she seemed to have gone by different names according to the Black Key.

Anyways, Rin was rummaging through the textbook, looking up information. About what, he had no idea. His Master could do research if she wanted but he wasn't interested. Even in life, he had only learned what would make him more effective at saving people.

His job was to fight, to kill, and cut off the lives of others, Archer reminded himself. It wasn't to save.

"Master, your lunch is ready." Archer interrupted Rin's ramble to herself. "Your chances of succeeding at eating lunch looks a tad higher than understanding alien tech."

Rin jumped. "Archer! What have I told you about sneaking into my workshop?"

"Not to do it even if there is an Assassin hiding inside to stab you." Archer sardonically replied. "After all, Assassin would have no problem in sneaking into a workshop undetected so they couldn't possibly kill a magus alone in their home."

Rin glared at him.

"I can at least promise that Assassin did not poison your food." Archer finished. "Your odds of dying due to lunch are much lower than that of an alien gun shooting you."

"Oh, you know an alien gun?" Rin asked, a tad too sweetly. "As an Archer from the ancient eras, I'm sure that your experience with guns are quite formidable."

She walked back over to the light rifle. "Why, you could probably take it apart, blindfolded, and reassemble it while a fire burns under your feet."

Archer internally grimaced. Rin was upset. And soon she will be testing his endurance. And judging by fact that Lancer had died last night, the alien weapon could actually hurt him.

Rin idly placed a hand on the rifle.

A roar of plasma shot out and Archer dove for the ground. He came up after a roll with Kanshou and Bakyua traced and ready to be thrown at wherever or whoever just snuck into Rin's mansion. He thinks Assassin is Sasaki Kojirou but it could be someone else. He has faced enough Assassin Servants over his career to know that just because he has a weapon or Noble Phantasm of a Servant in his Reality Marble, doesn't mean that the Servant had shown up in a Holy Grail War.

But after the sound of the crash of the tray and its contents shattered on the ground, the only source of sound in the room had been from Rin.

Rin stared down at the plasma machine whose trigger she just accidently pressed. The gun which had been pointed at a high angle upwards. Her eyes tracked upwards to the new hole in the ceiling.

Archer after quickly scanning the room for any hostiles and finding none, cocked an eyebrow at her.

Rin blushed before quickly saying "I think it is time for lunch."

The sound of large objects crashing came from above. Rin paled and bolted for the door. The Bounded Fields included a sound dampener. Only the loudest of sounds should have been able to get through down to here.

Archer followed, amused. From the sounds of the crash, part of the uppermost floor had just collapsed. Seriously, the mansion had survived, almost unscathed, an alien invasion with plasma and Noble Phantasms flying everywhere only for Rin to destroy her own mansion with a single shot. This was worth a laugh. Silently, of course. His Master would be likely to shoot him if he commented on it.

"Master, be careful. There might be dangerous persons running around with the ability to destroy an entire section of the mansion. Why, one might even be in here with us right now."

Rin shot a Gandr at him even as she fumbled with the door knob and opened the door.

Rin calmly sipped a cup of tea.

Her house had 'relocated' a wing on the upper floor to a lower floor, aliens had attacked in such a way that not even the Association could ever cover up (not that they had succeeded in any of the other alien assaults), and the supervisor, who was incidentally her guardian, had died. No one knew if the Holy Grail War would continue but it was looking like secrecy was blown out the window after a Heroic Spirit had fought the spaceship in the night sky in plain view of everyone.

Right now, Rin was hoping that the 'anonymous tip' that a new top-secret aircraft was deployed against the aliens would cover up the Heroic Spirit's intervention. But as she was a minor, she just didn't have the connections to make it stick. All she could do was hope that her fast action would impress the Association and that the Church would deploy a new supervisor here quickly.

She didn't have the time to act as supervisor, fight in a Grail War, attend school, and take care of finding out who was her new guardian and persuading him/her to let her stay here at least until the school year, and incidentally, the Grail War ended.

At least the kitchen was fine. Rin took another sip of tea. Delicious.

"Archer," she called out.

The Heroic Spirit simmered into view. She had sent him out on a scouting mission and now he was back. Hopefully with good news.

"What did you learn about the other Masters and Servants?" she asked. He had to have noticed something while the aliens were fighting all over town. Also, while she had been sending in the 'anonymous tip', she had sent Archer on a scouting trip around town, to see if anyone had moved from their base and where their previous base was.

She doubted that any Master or Servant would stay in a secret location when the piles of alien bodies would give it away. So now everyone was basically bunkering down in secure fortifications. Secrecy was out, at least until someone managed to trick the other Masters into thinking they were somewhere else.

But Archer would know that better than she would. Archer had much better senses and sight than she did. She needed to know what he had learned before it became outdated.

As Archer reported to Rin what he had learned about the other Heroic Spirits from what he had seen, such as Lancer and Saber rampaging through the remote parts of town as well as their Noble Phantasms. Or another Servant which happened to have dozens of Noble Phantasms flying through the night sky. There was quite a bit of mystery and secrecy blown out of this war.

At least Rin's reaction when she finds out that Rider was stealing alien spaceships should be amusing.

But even as Archer reported what he figured he should tell Rin, his eyes tracked the tall, odd man down at the street corner. If he would just turn around, Archer could check his eyes.

As an Archer, Archer's eyes were able to identify small traits from ridiculous distances. The man had an unnaturally thin body, especially for that height. His skin color indicated that he was a Caucasian, which could explain his physiology. But even for one of the rare foreigners in Fuyuki, there was something off about him. As the man turned around, Archer's eyes narrowed in focus, trying to see past the man's glasses.

Come on, move your head a little.

"The heavy assault against Ryuudou Temple failed, indicating that a Heroic Spirit has set up camp there. Also, scars from the battles in the south-western part of town indicates that the aliens might have killed either Lancer's Master or Lancer is dead-," he reported even as he finally saw past the black sunglasses into the orange reptilian eyes. Quickly manifesting his bow and a sword-arrow, Archer roared "And you're not human!"

Rin jumped, spraying her tea from her mouth, even as the sword flew through the window, down the street and through the alien's head. It exploded in a fit of poisonous gas.

The sounds of glass falling reigned in the house. Rin's eyes narrowed in anger.

"You're going to pay for that window, Archer."

An entire floor of the house collapsed because of her and he had to pay for the window? His life as a Servant certainly wasn't getting any better.

"Now, about Shirou and Saber? Were they taken out as well?" Rin asked, trying to hide her worry.

Definitely not improving.

Shirou lay immobile on the bed as Saber kept eye on him while Sakura fussed in the kitchen.

Last night had been horrible. He had saved some few people, yes but too many had died. He hadn't saved them all.

What had prevented him from saving more was the fact that a hulking grey alien robot had blasted him and the sword he tried to block with from several hundred meters away and burned a hole nearly the width of his forearm through his chest. The beam of light was the last thing he had seen last night and he had woken up this morning to find Saber, pale-faced, letting Sakura into his room to assure her that he was alright. Sakura hadn't been very convinced but she didn't suspect that the bandages were hiding that the shot had gone all the way through him and out his back.

Come to think of it, isn't it odd that Sakura was here? School and all school activities and clubs were canceled on account of the alien invasion so she didn't have club today. So why had she come over?

Had her house been destroyed by the aliens? No, if it had been, she would have come over last night looking for shelter. As she had gotten dressed in her normal clothes, she at least had her wardrobe intact. So again, why had she come over today?

Well if she didn't need anything, it probably wasn't important. Shirou shrugged and winced as pain raced from his chest. He wanted to get up but -

"Shirou! Lay back down now! You are in no condition to move about." Saber again barked out her earlier order. She suspected that Shirou would ignore his injuries and would keep an eye on him.

Shirou obeyed before even thinking about it. Mind catching up, he opened his mouth to protest.

"And no talking!" She snapped. Her face hadn't gained color since the morning except for a little red on cheeks, showing her anger at him. However, she did lower her voice to keep Sakura from hearing from the kitchen. "You lost both of your lungs and your heart last night. The alien attack hit you square in the chest. It should have been- no, it is a fatal injury you received. Fortunately, it appears that the irregularity of my summons allowed you to heal even killing blows. I safely brought you back here once your organs started regenerating."

Huh. Shirou mused. Two nights ago, Lancer stabbed me through the heart and Berserker crushed my back with his sword. Last night, an alien shot me through the heart. I wonder if there is a way to replicate the healing process for others?

Probably not, Shirou concluded. The summons was done completely by accident as Rin had said, which meant that the normal flow of mana from him to Saber was reversed, thus allowing him to heal. Saber must have a lot of mana if her normal amount of mana allowed him to heal even fatal wounds.

The door opened as Sakura let herself in with the food. From the smell and the bowls she had grabbed, she had made porridge. She set breakfast and a little portable table underneath it, which he last remembered using when Kiritsugu had been too sick to leave his room, down on the floor next to him.

"Let me feed him. It is my fault for not protecting him adequately," Saber said to Sakura.

Sakura emphatically shook her head, hair swaying from side to side. "No, he is injured and it will be bad for him to be shaken too much. Let me." She reached for the bowl and spoon.

Saber reached out her hand and caught Sakura's from across him. "The fault lies with me as I failed to protect him last night. I should have paid better attention to the situation and gotten him out of the way. Please, let me make reparations for my failure."

Sakura pulled her arm away, forcing Saber to let go before reaching for the food again. "No, you fought last night and are tired. I am in better condition. You might slip and accidentally hurt him."

Saber didn't relent. "I am well enough to feed him." An aura leaked out from her, taking the image of a proud lion.

I must have lost more blood than I thought. Shirou thought as Sakura released her own aura of black and red shadow. Now I am seeing things. Must be a dream.

The argument might have continued if the sound of the front door banging open hadn't reached them.

"Shirou! I'm here! What's for breakfast!" A cheerful, loud voice yelled in greeting.

Nope, now it's a nightmare.

Shirou and the two girls with him widened their eyes. Each of them knew that this could not be a good thing.

"SHIROU! You better be here and safe! If an alien killed you, I'll hunt it down and use Tora-shinai to bludgeon them to death!" Taiga called out. The patter of her feet running across the floor resounded to the room.

Taiga could not be called delicate or possessing a bedside manner. If she decided that she would be the one to feed him, he might die. And Shirou refused to die because his guardian pushed a spoon too forcefully into his mouth or blocked his windpipe with food.

It would prevent him from making up for all the deaths he ignored in the Fire and all the people he couldn't save tonight. He refused to die before he could save others!

Saber and Sakura's eyes met. Silent communication issued between them.

You go and intercept her.

No, I'll feed Shirou. You stop Taiga.

You know her longer. She'll listen to you.

Taiga doesn't listen to anyone. You're stronger than her so you can forcibly restrain her.

But she might hurt Shirou before I can stop her. You can persuade her to calm down before she sees him.

It might have been better if they hadn't continued arguing.

"Shirou! Are you okay? This part of town wasn't too badly damaged by the aliens-" Taiga threw open the door to see Shirou in bed, bandages covering him with both Sakura and Saber sitting on opposite sides of him. A moment of stillness, the calm before the storm.

"SHIROU! DON'T DIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" She cried out as she threw herself forward.

Saber lunged at Taiga, tackling her through the open door and back out of the room. Sakura quickly got up, running over to the hallway where Saber and Taiga were rolling around, Saber trying to use force to keep Taiga from tackling and potentially hurting her Master. Unfortunately, while the Servant was much stronger, Taiga both outweighed her and was taller.

Sakura paused at the door, looking back at Shirou. "Don't worry Senpai. We'll calm her down. Just lie there and rest, okay?"

She then slid out the door and quietly shut it before her voice started entreating Taiga to calm down, joining the cacophony of Taiga's wails, Saber's occasional grunts and the two women wrestling on the ground.

Shirou sighed in exasperation before wincing at the pain.

Even with an alien invasion last night, Taiga was still the same.

Shinji couldn't nod fast enough.

Illya smiled, an innocent, cheerful smile that was definitely out of place on the girl who was threatening to kill him painfully in a myriad of different ways. Well, just one way but Berserker was its own league of terrifying. "Great! I'll just take your Servant for a quick ride and return her back to you then. Isn't that generous of me?"

Shinji whimpered as Berserker continued holding him up by his neck. He had already wet himself, lost control of his bowels and his tears and snot were dribbling down his face. But it was hard to blame him for those reactions considering that Berserker of all Servants was holding him off the ground by the scruff of his neck. It had already tried to hold him by his shirt.

The torn remains from where Berserker had accidently ripped his shirt were over a meter beneath him and had definitely attributed to his current state as he had gone flying into the sky from the speed that Berserker had hoisted him up into the air. That was when his shirt had ripped as Berserker had grabbed him by his clothes, not caring that Berserker was not capable of delicate things like holding a shirt or grabbing a person by their clothes.

Fortunately, Berserker had caught Shinji on the way down. Pity about his balls though.

Rider just turned towards the stolen alien ship. She had tried to stop Berserker but the mad Servant had surprised her and caught Shinji before she could reach him. It was just his luck that Berserker's Master wanted Rider to do something so she had ordered Berserker to not kill Shinji.

Yet.

Rider could always hope that Berserker's Master would decide to kill him after she finished.

Illya continued. "Now, you wouldn't want to do anything foolish with those command seals, do you? So just stay here with my good Berserker and I won't have him breath fire- I mean, get creative on you."

Shinji whimpered again.

"Great!" Illya beamed like Shinji had agreed. "You and Berserker should have lots of fun together. Let's go Rider."

She spun around and strolled into the alien spacecraft. Rider followed her into the third alien spaceship that she and Shinji were in the process of stealing when Berserker -ah- joined in.

Rider didn't blame Shinji for loaning her out. If she had been in his place, and was alive and sane when Berserker was alive, she probably would have done the same.

Hercules was a scary guy, especially when you realize that he was Perseus's great-grandson and half-brother. Rider would have hated him but his legend was so much like hers.

He had killed his wife and children in divine inspired madness. She had eaten her sisters in her bloodthirst. Both of them were victims of the jealousy of the Greek goddesses. She had little doubt that he wanted to use his wish to prevent the deaths of his family, just like her wish that had originally sent her here from the Throne of Heroes.

Besides, Berserker was, without a doubt, the strongest Servant in this war. To oppose him was certain death, even if he was insane with madness.

Better to just let him have his way, pray to the Earth Mother Goddess for help, and obey whatever his Master said. Maybe she would get lucky and some other Servant would manage to kill him.

Besides, Illyasviel von Eiznbern was so cute~!

She was small, adorable, had beautiful long hair, petite, cute, pretty, and small. She reminded Rider of her two older sisters, Euryale and Stheno. She even had a sadistic personality like them! And she was so small and cute~!

So lucky. Why couldn't Rider be small and pretty like her?

If only Sakura didn't need her, Rider would happily have a cute woman like Illyasviel as her Master. She could coo over a cute Master like her. Maybe even cuddle a little.

Rider didn't show any of her thoughts on her face, even as she followed Illya into the spacecraft so that Illya could have a joyride in the alien vehicle. Rider was looking forward to it, even (especially) if Illya later ordered Berserker to kill Shinji.

Illya was so cute~!

Zouken Matou wasn't paying any attention to the Holy Grail War. He was having his own problems.

Namely, intestinal issues. His Crest Worms were not reacting well to the alien bodies passing through their digestive system.

But there was also the stuff on the alien spacecraft. Many bodies, much biological substances, and most interesting of all, the genetic modification materials.

With this, he could grow his own future hosts. He would no longer be dependent on whatever woman he could ambush and eat.

And if the aliens could enhance physical and mental abilities with just this, what could an experienced magus could do with their research?

Zouken Matou could almost see the improvements to be made to his Black Grail. But which ones? And how should he prepare for the next war?

At least his idiot grandson had finally proven useful. The first two alien spaceships were full of interesting materials.

It would make letting him keep the third one a suitable reward for his initiative.

He wondered when Shinji would realize that Rider was the only one capable of flying the spaceship and that Rider would have to die in the Holy Grail War. His spaceship would only work for less than two weeks.

He would have chuckled at the thought but a Crest Worm let loose a burst of gas at that moment.

He wrinkled his nose. Maybe he should have invested in better ventilation?

Nah, it would ruin the atmosphere of an evil, gloomy dungeon full of horror. Better to have the proper atmosphere when it came to dominating his weak fools that called themselves his descendants.

Assassin was sitting down on top of the ruined gate. The gate to the temple that he was supposed to protect.

It was a heap of rubble. Alien projectiles had hit almost every part of it and destroyed it. Was he supposed to protect an entrance that no one would use now?

Assassin poked a crazed alien body at the foot of the heap. He wondered if it would move again or if more aliens would come this way.

He was getting bored.

He sighed. He may not be a proper Heroic Spirit but when he answered the summoning, he expected a better War than just sitting here and guarding a temple gate.

He really wanted to test his swordsmanship against the heroes of legend.

Aliens just didn't cut it, especially when they knew nothing of sword techniques.

Gilgamesh nodded in approval as the X-Com military landed their finest ship in front of Fuyuki Church. It wasn't much when compared to his kingdom's finest but at least his army was rolling out the red carpet for him, their king.

The squadron of elites poured down from their ship and saluted him before taking up a guard position. He didn't need it, he was the King after all but he remembered from his kingdom that it was the people's pleasure to put guards around their king. He would deign to accept this honor guard.

Gilgamesh strode forward onto the Skyranger, ignoring the two modified alien craft in the skies above. His army was impressive in their ingenuity. He would have preferred it if they hadn't used the stolen alien technology and instead used pure human workmanship. But he liked the way they took from the aliens and remade it into their own.

He wished that he had thought of doing that to the gods of his days. It would have been a delicious irony.

Gilgamesh pulled out his throne from the Gate of Babylon and set it down in the middle of the ship. Taking a seat, he regally watched as his guardsmen gave reports over their radio and waited for their officer's instruction. Eventually, all but one strapped themselves into their seats behind him.

The captain saluted. "Commander! We-" Gilgamesh cut off the guardsman with a glare.

"Your Majesty."

The guardsman stopped, confused. "Sir?"

"The correct address for you mongrels towards me is 'Your Majesty'. Get it wrong again and I will kill you."

"Alright- your majesty?" The South American guardsman tried out the address, stumbling a bit over the words before continuing. "Your Majesty, we are ready to depart."

"Finally," the incarnated survivor of the 4th Grail War nodded and gave the order. "Set off."

The ship rose into the air and took off, while Demon-1 and Demon-3 took up guard positions around the ship.

X-Com had a new charismatic commander, Earth's oldest Heroic Spirit.

King of Heroes and Commander of X-Com, Gilgamesh of Uruk.

The end.

This is what I figured could be the most entertaining. I personally thought that this could be an interesting turn of events. Caster has found a way to escape the Holy Grail War, Lancer had a good series of fights, Illya got to ride in an alien spaceship, Shinji got to meet Berserker (poor guy), Rider discovered the cutest Master, Gilgamesh got distracted by his new army, and Archer, Saber, and Assassin just want to return to the war.

But for those who are interested, here are some of the longer-term ideas that could turn interesting.

That wasn't the end of the alien invasion. Already it was having a drastic effect on the normal and the magical communities of Earth. Human civilizations were in a panic and mobilizing military forces. Several nations had started drafting troops while others were noising about conscription. Korea had already recalled half of their adult male population into military service. China had tripled their standing army.

Military research and extraterrestrial research was receiving large amounts of funding as everyone scrambled to find some way to better defend against the aliens. Rumors of a secret elite military force was noised about. As well as whispers of traitors switching allegiances to the alien forces.

But while human nations were mobilizing into war efforts not seen since the end of the World Wars, the mystical civilization was suffering from a complete upset in the balance of power.

The Church was in the middle of a boom. More recruits and funds were pouring in every day as the aliens caused people to turn to the church for either protection or alleviation of their fear and panic. After all, when the world was ending, it might be a sign that it was time to repent of your sins.

But aliens were costing them. Several teams of Executors had run into aliens and were wiped out before they even saw their Dead Apostle targets.

The Mages Association, on the other hand, was suffering. The average magus was more powerful than the average alien. But the average alien took less than a second to shoot and hit the magus while the magus could take up to a minute to chant the spell that would wipe out the landing craft.

The time difference meant that the magus who didn't understand why speed mattered in combat were dying out in droves. Their Bounded Fields geared against other magus and normal humans didn't slow or stop the aliens. It just meant that the aliens brought along a powerful psychic as well.

But the older magus families and the families that recalled their non-heir sons and daughters that had been working as Enforcers, were finding that they were able to fight off the aliens.

New deals and alliances were being made everyday so that the weaker families could defend against the psychically powerful aliens.

The rewards were considerable though. Alien corpses and captured aliens were being dissected and studied and more than a few families were now wondering if psychics were worth a second look. When they considered that the alien equipment were meant to work together with psychics to accomplish impressive things, perhaps a new field of study might be in order?

The new energy-dense materials were worth quite a bit when you converted that energy into mana. And the alien materials could accomplish things that simply was not possible to stuff that obeyed Gaia's rules.

All of which meant that the Mage's Association was at its weakest. Many of their Enforcers and students had returned home, answering the call of their families, leaving the Association without personnel and a lack of funds. Many families were dying out and when the remaining Enforcers went to grab the dead family's research, they had to fight against the aliens who had already killed the family. If they arrived too late, then all they got to see was a looted mansion with all of the family's research stolen.

The Clock Tower was not happy with the latest turn of events.

To make things worse, some of the reports making their way through the upper ranks of the Church and Mages Association were worrying.

Namely, several towns in rural Africa had gone silent. And a Dead Apostle had last been seen in that area as well as an alien battleship.

The last report from some investigating groups of Enforcers and Executors that had been sent into the area were about aliens and Dead working side by side… before their screams had rang out. And a few others had grunted about mind-control before going silent.

It might just be that the Dead Apostle hierarchy of old ghouls turning into lesser Dead Apostles under the thrall of the one that had turned them was a vulnerability. And according to some reports being made to the Mage's Association, the most powerful aliens had very strong psychic abilities. If the alien's will could surpass that of the Dead Apostle?

Perhaps, some magi suggested, perhaps, if a Dead Apostle was young enough, it was vulnerable to being mind-controlled by a strong alien psychic?

If so, Earth was in for a rough time. The Chrysallids with their ability to use humans as breeding nests were bad enough, but if the Chrysallids were using the Dead to spread further…

Was this the end of the age of man, like the end of the age of the gods? Were they about to enter the age of aliens? Or will the new age be the time when man spread out throughout space and to new worlds after defeating the full might of the alien invaders?

No one knew. No knew if Gaia, Dead Apostles, humanity, aliens or EXALT would triumph.

Or at what cost would be needed for victory.

And if one side did manage to triumph, what would their victory mean?

The Fairy Swordsman.

The story that stood above all others of the early 21st century. It stood firm as the example of the impact of the alien invasion upon the history of man.

Just as "The Count of Monte Cristo", "Frankenstein", "Nursery Rhyme", and many other novels stood as a peek to the minds of the people of a past time period, "The Fairy Swordsman" by Hikari Kurihara stood as the representative of the mentality of the people during the time of the Alien Invasion.

The Fairy Swordsman, the story of a small, slim, blond woman who despite looking weaker than everyone else, stood up in defiance to aliens and wandered from town to town fighting aliens. Her only weapons were what she took from the aliens, whether it be the invisible parts of a Seeker, or the plasma cannon of a Muton.

She was accompanied by a red-haired sidekick, a swordsman and archer who fought against plasma with only bow, arrow and sword.

Many were the essays written about the similarities and contrasts between the two heroes. One stood by with the weapons of Earth, the other fought with whatever she could scavenge from a technological superior foe.

Did the man keep his pride and stuck with what he knew? Or did the woman discard what man knew and used whatever scraps from a mightier foe that she could find? What should mankind do in the face of a superior foe?

Numberless were the papers written by students on that book. But without their knowledge, their assigned readings did have an impact greater than what they knew.

"Hey sidekick!"

Shirou Emiya scowled at the annoying Magus.

"Sidekick? What's wrong?"

Merlin snickered, amused at his own joke.

Shirou was not.

Shirou had wanted to become a Hero of Justice. How was he supposed to know that it meant that he would be forever remembered as the sidekick of King Arthur?

And now, stuck on the Throne of Heroes, Shirou wondered if he would ever get off of it.

He couldn't save anyone here!

Wasn't there supposed to be at least Holy Grail Wars or something?

This was not what he imagined being a Hero would be! If he had known, he would have-well, he wouldn't go back in time and try to kill himself… The problem wasn't with his ideals after all.

It was just that he didn't like this situation where he was stuck on the Throne of Heroes and he couldn't save anyone.

It was horrible!

And Saber's annoying magus was not nearly as funny as he thought he was.

There you have it, Shirou, as a Heroic Spirit, is on the Throne of Heroes, finally a Hero of Justice as he had dreamed! Only, his dreams weren't about him being called the sidekick of the Fairy Swordsman, who is the "once and future king". And once on the Throne of Heroes, you can't exactly save people. So like Archer, Shirou arrived at the end of his dream only to find that he doesn't like the destination.

Because once you are dead, you can't save anyone.

As for the Dead Apostles, not all of them would succumb to the aliens. The stronger Dead Apostles would not succumb to the power of an Ethereal. Instead they would slaughter the entire force. But not all Dead Apostles are as strong as a Dead Apostle Ancestor. Some of the younger ones would be dominated by the aliens and used according to the alien's wishes.

I had fun writing this. Hope you enjoyed it!