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Fate/Blade Zero

Prologue

The sun came up behind a mountain as it brightly shone its morning rays across the rolling green plains, Shirou squinted his eyes while covering the emerging light with his arm in front of his face. By the time the light dimmed, any signs of Arturia, the king of knights, was completely non-existent, even the patch of green blades of grass that she once occupied were all now straightened and obeying the will of the constant breeze.

"That's just like you," Shirou thought aloud as he stared out at the beautiful scenery ahead. He smiled a bittersweet smile, she was now truly gone, back to her timeline 1,500 years ago. For all he knew, she was now long dead and he would never have the chance to see her again for eternity. Shirou solemnly shook his head as if to drive the thoughts away, he had more pressing issues right now, the people who are now still alive after the Holy Grail War were all waiting on him. He needed to take care of Illya and Tohsaka as well as check up on Fuji-nee and Sakura.

He began to turn around to get out of serene landscape before the dimming sun suddenly caught the corner of his eyes. The sun that not too long ago emerged out of the rolling hills and shone radiantly began to grow darker and darker at a rapid pace before it turned completely pitch black. The now blackened sun looked in every way like an unending black hole instead of the radiant golden sun it was earlier. Out of nowhere, a menacing voice ran through Shirou's head that made his entire body freeze and chill up in a frightful manner. "I will not lose to you easily, victor! I will be reborn!"

The voice of Angra Mainyu carried a statement of a contempt vengeful promise as the sun began to pour out massive contents of cursed dark sludge through it. "This is impossible!" Shirou thought to himself. Saber destroyed the Greater Grail with her holy sword Excalibur! Deciding to forget the technicalities behind what's happening now, he knew he had to stop this cursed liquid from spreading outside of the temple and into the civilian populated area. Closing his eyes in concentration, the image of Caliburn entered his mind as he quickly ran through the steps in creating it.

"I won't let you!" the Grail screamed out in his mind with multiple voices ranging from a young child to a withered old man. For any normal human being, it would have frozen them dead in their tracks, petrified in their fear to act out anything. But Shirou was no average human being, he was a human who has literally survived through hell ten years ago at the end of the Fourth Holy Grail War. Ignoring the constant tortured screams in his head, Shirou began the process.

"Trace on!"

Judging the concept of creation

Hypothesizing the basic structure

Duplicating the composition material

Imitating the skill of its making

Sympathizing with the experience of its growth

Reproducing the accumulated years

Excelling every manufacturing process

Shirou went through all the seven steps in an instant and Caliburn immediately materialized in his hands. But before he could cry out the sword's name and activate its noble phantasm, a black sludge that formed into a shape of a tentacle grabbed his sword arm and violently twisted it as his bones and arm gave a strained creak. If he had not hastily reinforced his arm, his bone would have surely been broken and possibly his entire arm would have been ripped off of his body.

"Argh," Shirou grunted in pain as he projected Kanshou in his left hand in an attempt to sever the overly-sized liquid appendage. He accurately slashed at the liquid as the tentacle-shaped sludge was forced to release its grip on him. Even though he got the tentacle detached off of him, Angra Mainyu was nevertheless able to accomplish its objective by getting Caliburn out of his hand. He could project another copy of it, but even he doubted he would have the time to call out the blade's name and fully release its power onto the abominated Grail. And even if he somehow managed to have the time to release Caliburn's power onto the Greater Grail, he highly doubted even a sword of Caliburn's power would completely destroy the dark pouring hole in the sky.

That leaves it to his last resort, to unleash his ultimate trump card, the reality marble that could be said to be a manifestation of his soul. He could possibly project Excalibur in that world and destroy the Grail; however, he might kill himself due to the complete depletion in mana, and the Grail will most likely have had already killed him five times over by the time he finished his incantation. But what else could he do? He would rather die trying than not try at all. Staring straight ahead at the still spilling liquid coming forth from the dark "sun", Shirou began his incantation in unleashing his Unlimited Blade Works.

"I am the bone of my sword."

His voice reverberated strongly in the air as the wind began to pick up its speed. Shirou automatically projected Bakuya in his right hand to substitute the Caliburn he previously held as he slashed away at any oncoming sludge. Barely dodging his head to the right as he performed a side ground roll, he hastily yet accurately threw Kanshou and Bakuya right at the attacking cursed liquid as the blades violently exploded in mid-air. Shirou then re-projected the twin swords back in his hands as he resumed his defensive stance.

"Steel is my body and fire is my blood.

"I have created over a thousand blades."

He was actually holding out better than he thought he would be able to as the weapons' accumulated experience guided him through every move. He might be able to make it! He threw six pairs of the twin swords right at the army of disfigured arms and hands that were all trying to grapple him before he changed his attacking position once again. Backing up a little, he discarded the twin married swords as he traced out Archer's bow and a handful of "arrows". Reinforcing his muscles, he drew the bowstring back as the bow creaked under the tremendous amount of stress due to the ridiculous poundage of the bow. Firing at almost unfathomable speeds, Shirou shot out ten mana charged arrows in a matter of seconds before dismissing the bow.

Diving for cover as the projectiles he shot out continue to shower the Grail's filth with explosions, Shirou continued his aria, "Unaware of loss, Nor aware of gain.

"Withstood pain to create weapons, waiting for one's arrival."

With a desperate leap, Shirou managed to get away from the relentless bullet-speed tentacles that tried to completely wrap around him.

"I have no regrets. This is the only path."

"Almost there," Shirou thought to himself as he threw out Kanshou and Bakuya towards the living mob of cursed sludge. The twin swords spun in a blur like boomerangs before detonating in a brilliant explosion; however, the blast didn't deter the cursed content within the Grail as they continued their attempt in enrapturing Shirou. With a last ditch effort while running away from the spilled content of the Grail, Shirou said the last verse to his incantation.

"My whole life was Unlimited – "

He was immediately interrupted when a semi-solid liquid appendage slammed right across his head without warning as he flew off several meters to the side while tumbling onto the ground over and over again. Landing in a painful heap, Shirou gasped in pain as he tried to sit up and attack the source of the smack only to find that his feet were completely immobile.

"Wha – ?!"

He wasn't able to voice out his involuntary shock when the painful acidic liquid that kept his feet immobile began to extend and wrap up the entirety of his body. Shirou quickly projected Kanshou and Bakuya, but he was unable to do anything by the time his projections came into existence when the Grail's content has already wrapped its away above his chest.

"I will destroy your very soul and origin, victor. I will tear your existence apart," the Grail hissed in his mind.

With Shirou's peripheral vision, he could see more of the Grail's content splashing and spilling forth from the black "sun". Not willing to make the end of Emiya Shirou in this manner, he called out the last two words to his incantation before the black liquid covered his mouth.

" – Blade Works!"

Right after the words were uttered, the ground ruptured violently as the sky impossibly cracked opened. The current scene began to fade away and rapidly change into an entirely new scenery – an unending plain of swords. Shirou's mana was now at a dangerously low level as he was barely able to maintain his diminishing consciousness.

"NOOOOOOO!" the Grail roared in his mind, "I will rip away your very origin and soul!"

The Grail managed to wrap its cursed liquid around his whole body for a moment before Shirou rained swords onto the abominated content as it got immediately vaporized. It was after that final effort did Shirou finally unwillingly passed out.

The last words Shirou heard from the Grail within his mind were, "I will continue to seek to destroy you, victor."

Then there was nothing but darkness.

Thank you for reading!

Please note that the Fifth Holy Grail War Shirou has experienced here is a mixture of all the events in all three routes. It may sound confusing, but it's actually quite straightfoward once you read on.