Kapitel 1: I was summoned because she was hungry!!?
A/N: Hey there! It's been ages since I dusted off my fanfic writing skills. So, here we go again with a bit of a redo on my oldie but goodie fanfic, "A Dragon God's Hero." Now, this isn't just any ordinary request – a super close buddy of mine, who's totally hooked on "Demon Lord's Hero," has been bugging me for ages to wrap this thing up. My fanfic, you see, draws a little inspiration from "Demon Lord's Hero," so he's been on my case pretty relentlessly. But hey, persistence pays off, right? After all his nudging, I finally caved and figured, Why not give it another try? At least, that's the plan.
***Start***
Where did I go wrong?
Atop the hill, he dozed off while gazing aimlessly at the cog-filled sky of his mind. The countless swords, both mundane and fantastical, that surrounded him somehow brought him a sense of peace.
It was dark. Unreasonably enormous, interlocking gears in the sky of his reality marble blocked all but the tiniest slivers of light. To put it bluntly, it darkened his world even further.
The heavy fog and black smoky wisps from the iron forgings contributed to the gloomy atmosphere.
His spirit appeared to be trapped in a state of perpetual twilight.
I wonder when I started to despise these ideals of mine.
He was naturally reflective and spent most of his time thinking about life. It had become a pattern, a habit he couldn't shake, a byproduct of his momentary insanity after he tried his ill-conceived plan.
But he had no remorse whatsoever. Even if things had turned out differently, he would never have let another Shirou Emiya make the same mistakes he had.
He'd already seen everything it had to offer, and since he, too, had once been a person with the same name, desires, past, and god-forsaken ideals...
For him, there was no reason to think that the presence of "Shirou Emiya" would result in a different outcome.
But he was wrong!
Even though he knew what would happen to him, this Shirou Emiya never gave up on his desire to become the "hero of justice," or perhaps he believes that this alternate reality version of himself can do what he could not. Among the several timeframes he had worked with, this was an unusual occurrence.
There was no reason to let someone else go through what he had been through.
Maybe I could have done that too!
Memories were a difficult thing to grasp, especially for someone who had practically existed for what a normal human being would consider an eternity. The length of time he'd been alive was already beyond anyone's ability to guess.
He could recall certain events from when he was still mortal, which he would most likely never forget, even if he lost his mind, body, and soul.
Kiritsugu's smile, his death, parts of his childhood summoning Saber, and parts of the grail war, receiving the holy shroud that he now wears, the moment he forged his contract...
I truly am hopeless!
He had foolishly followed his ideals, believing that the contract with Alaya that he forged would allow him to continue following it after his passing.
He smiled as he was taken in by the world, and his spirit was realized as a counterguard.
He lost that smile, as he had become burdened, disillusioned, and crushed by his ideals for every life he took to "save humanity."
He killed and killed, killed and killed, killed and killed.
It didn't matter who or what it was. For as long as they were involved, they had to be killed. Regardless of age, gender, or race, he would kill them to save humanity from destroying itself.
He had probably killed more than any weapon and any hero of legend that sat on the throne of heroes. He had perhaps murdered more than any serial killer, mass murderer, or dictator that ever existed in any given world.
He was forced to kill until his polite and gentle words were replaced with snark.
He was forced to kill until his view was jaded with cynicism.
He was forced to kill until he could only blame the idiotic ideals that had brought him to this fate in the first place.
He was forced to kill until the only hope he had left was to rely on an idiotic plan that would never work, no matter how badly he wished it to.
It was stupid. He felt stupid just thinking back on it.
Stupid for coming up with it, stupid for going through with it, stupid for even believing it had a chance of working, and stupid because it actually allowed him to realize one thing.
It wasn't wrong... I wasn't wrong.
After everything had come to pass and come to an end, the insane plan he had thought up and acted on had led him to that one answer.
Even though his ideals were unreasonable,
Even though his ideals were impossible,
Even though his ideals made him distorted beyond repair,
No matter where his ideals had taken him, no matter what had become of him from following them...
They weren't wrong.
He wasn't wrong in believing in them.
He wasn't wrong in pursuing them.
Even if it's like this, even as a counter guardian...
He was beyond saving. There was no escape from his fate. He would be a counter guardian for the rest of eternity, a glorified puppet. He would need to keep killing for the sake of saving mankind until mankind itself stops existing…
If a shitty, equally delusional version of him could stay true to his ideals even after seeing the hell he is supposed to face, then he could pull that too right?
Hero of Justice.
Those who hold the concept of being a hero of justice will fight for the concepts of benevolence, justice, loyalty, and love in which they believe.
Emiya knows that he can't be one anymore, not with his newfound mindset, but ironically, that doesn't mean that he will give up.
Heroes of justice are those willing to sacrifice anything and everything for the sake of helping or protecting as many people as possible, and EMIYA is far too much of a lost cause to put others above himself at this point.
That's why he will become a 'Hero of Justice' on his own terms.
I am the blade of this world.
The first line came out of his mouth with a touch of intensity, a renewed resolve stirring inside him. Even though the sensation was nice, he sensed an increased intensity of mana in his immediate vicinity.
There's only one explanation for this.
"What are you doing? My dear hero!~"
It was a voice, the one he made the deal with—a call for him to stain his hands and his blades with blood for the sake of humanity.
He grimaced for a moment but quickly shook his head.
"I am freeing myself from you; to save humanity, I first need to save myself."
The concept rejects the master.
He seemed to be disappearing. To him, it felt like the fabric of his existence was tearing at the seams.
Instantaneously, he was bound by a web of magical restraints that drained his power.
"Funny~ How can I let my dear hero leave me? Do you really think you can escape me? Just because you changed your ideals."
And the master rejects the concept.
He smiled. It was a genuine smile. One he hadn't had in a very long time.
"I am not trying to escape from you; even an eternity wouldn't be long enough for that. However, if I am able to redeem myself, that will make me a different person, and our agreement will be nullified."
Emiya shared an unbreakable bond with the entity Alaya: In exchange for power for all eternity, your existence will serve my will for all eternity. This was the pact he made with Alaya; he sold his very existence for power. This was a curse, or a metaphysical link that cannot be easily severed, even over an impossibly long duration like an eternity.
If anything remained of his being, it belonged to Alaya; his will, power, and existence were not his own. The only thing that remained his was his rotting ideal. Emiya sold himself for nothing. A truly pitiful deal was made by an equally pitiful loser. He was a loser trapped in a paradox, repeatedly seeing his past self commit the same mistakes he did.
But in this paradox, there was a loophole.
Two diverging ideals merge into a single paradox stream.
The last remnants of strength surged through him. A connection had formed in him with a place that was more of a feeling than a concrete physical location.
Though brief, the connection seemed just perfect; he doubted that even a master magus of his level could ever pinpoint it.
Never touching,
Yet forever crossing.
He sensed a change, as though a binding force had been broken and a latent power within him had awakened to his will.
As the "Root's" own unadulterated magical energy began to flow freely from him, the ties that had bound him began to loosen.
He was no longer a counter guardian.
He was no longer a wretch constrained by his past transgressions.
He was no longer a dog on a leash.
What was he? He didn't know. Even if he didn't know, it wasn't like he cared.
Since his existence became a paradox and he became a man who was not intended to exist, he had no idea that, in the process of redeeming himself, he briefly made a connection with the root itself.
I have seen the end of the world, but I still strive for tomorrow.
"You! I will not allow that! You are mine for the rest of eternity! I won't allow you to leave like this!"
But it was already too late.
I have no regrets. This is all I know.
"You can no longer hold me. Eternity is instantaneous, and an instant is eternal. I have been void of both concepts; goodbye—I quit!"
My entire being is Unlimited Blade Works.
Instantaneously, a powerful light devoured him.
*****
For a minute, he was perplexed; he had assumed that he had been freed, but it appears that he has been summoned once more.
As his gaze wandered around, he realized he was in what appeared to be a cave carved out of stone. He craned his neck and peered around for his summoner, narrowing his eyes slightly when he found the person he assumed to be his master.
Power.
Enormous, soaring, boundless, and unparalleled, the overwhelming force was beyond any sensation he had ever known. This was so strong that it even surpassed the almost infinite magical power of his prior contractor.
What he was addressing was a girl. A little girl with pitch-black hair and a provocative purple frilly outfit.
A true magic user?
"Are you my master?" he questioned in a sophisticated manner.
The girl looked at him intently, her black eyes full of curiosity and need.
"Shirou! Bring me food!"
Did she summon me because she was hungry?
Only if he had known it marked the dawn of an entirely new saga,
The commencement of the final chapter in his eternally long journey.
***END***
A/N: Since this is a fresh take on my old fanfic, expect a different plot compared to the original (though it really only matters if you've dived into my previous version of fanfic.) I've also played around creatively with the backstory to see on what basis Shirou turned into a Counter Guardian and how he managed to break free from his pact with Alaya. There might be plenty of questions popping up due to some gaps in the narrative and plot holes in this chapter, but fear not! Some mysteries will be answered with explanations down the line, and for the rest? Well, chalk those up to my learning curve, will ya?
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Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
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