15 - Unreachable
After hearing the information that Cassie provided to them, everyone except for Shirou decided to go to sleep. Shirou climbed up to a higher portion of the cliff carrying some meat.
Shirou took a seat and wordlessly held it out to his side. A second later, a woman appeared and took the meat out of his hand. She smiled gratefully at him before absolutely devouring her food.
It doesn't taste that good, right?
The meat that they were cooking came from the Carapace Scavengers. Although they might have tasted good considering the amount of ingredients, they shouldn't be able to match-up to modern day cuisine.
…Oh, she's from the past, so of course it would taste that good.
Shirou waited for Ingvild to finish her food, before commanding her to lay down on his lap again. Although she complained about being "impure", and "having lost her chastity to a brute", she was asleep in only a couple of minutes.
Shirou concentrated on entering his soul sea.
The last time that he had entered his soul sea was during his First Nightmare, and it looked much different than it does now. Currently, Shirou's Forge Core was radiating with a magnificent flame. The fire seemed to be much darker than mundane flames. The clouds obscuring the massive cogs were gone, and the gears were rotating smoother than before. Without the clouds hiding it, Shirou could see a source of light in the distance, similar to a setting sun. When he looked towards it, he felt as if he had lost something precious to him. He shook his head and concentrated on the other additions to his soul sea.
Orbiting his Forge Core were four steel orbs, which Shirou guessed were his memories. Lastly, there was a long, flaming chain, connecting from his soul core, to Ingvild's sword, which was in the same position as it used to be. The fire that the chain radiated seemed to be of the same kind of flame that was being expelled by his soul core.
Shirou returned his attention to the light. He tried to move closer to it, but he couldn't close the distance for some reason. He stared at it for awhile before feeling a pain in his skull. Strangely enough, unlike the burning feeling from the Winter Solstice, he actually reacted. He flinched before looking away from the light.
Everdistant Utopia
The words were engraved into Shirou's mind, feeling as if he had just been invaded by an eldritch being. He tried to look back towards the light, but it seemed to be rejecting his gaze. It was as if it had deemed him unworthy of being in it's presence.
…No matter what, I'll definitely get there.
Shirou didn't understand why he felt such a desire to reach that light, but he just accepted that he wanted to.
Shirou looked at the chain connecting Ingvild's sword to his Forge Core. He figured that the link he has to Ingvild is not directly to her, but rather the sword. Now that he thought about it, when he last grasped the sword, the memories extended for thousands of years. He wouldn't be surprised if it was actually in the millions. His brain had automatically stopped him from seeing most of the memories, probably to stop him from going insane at the sheer number.
There's something special about that sword.
When Shirou saw Storm Ruler when Ingvild first became his Blade, the weapon was exuding a presence. It was like a god exuding it's power, yet much more sinister.
…Ingvild doesn't have some sort of cursed weapon, right?
————————————————————
Once morning had arrived, the group met in order to decide their next course of action. Shirou was surprised when he saw Cassie look excited.
"Is something wrong?"
"A-ah! Well, nothing is wrong. Actually, I got a vision! It seemed to be good one too!
Sunny and Nephis seemed to be awake as well, and although Nephis gave Shirou a glance before averting her gaze, they had both seemed to pay attention to what Cassie was saying.
"There was a large city, with a castle in the center. Sunny was leading me to it, so I think we end up finding a human citadel!"
She seemed to realize something however, as she tilted her head down.
"Oh… but I didn't see Shirou or Nephis there."
Sunny was the first one to speak up.
"Your Aspect doesn't work on Shirou though, right? The only one we should think of is Nephis. If she wasn't there with us, then it's possible that she dies later."
Shirou widened his eyes.
"Huh?"
Nephis replied to Sunny's words.
"Yes, it is possible that I might have died."
Sunny completely changed the topic of the conversation suddenly.
"Can you train me? I'll give you all of the soul shards in exchange."
"Wait a second!"
"I don't mind, but I think that you should ask the other two first."
"Are we just going to ignore what what he just said?!"
"Oh. Yeah, I probably should. Shirou, is it fine if I give Nephis all of the soul shards we find?"
"Yeah, I don't need them… Is what you thought I was going to say, but don't we have more important things to worry about?!"
Sunny and Nephis looked at Shirou in confusion. Sunny asked:
"What do you mean?"
"Didn't we just talk about how she might die?!"
"Oh, you shouldn't worry too much about that."
"…How can I not worry about that?!"
"Between me and you, the odds of the vision occurring is not too high."
Shirou looked at Sunny in confusion. Sunny sighed before explaining:
"Unlikely things happen to me, while Cassie's Aspect doesn't work on you. Considering that her Aspect was what gave us this vision, I can say that the chances of it actually occurring isn't 100%."
Nephis nodded along, as if she had already thought of this beforehand.
…Why are they so in sync? They only met yesterday!
Shirou flopped onto his back and stared at the cloudless sky.
"Well… to answer your question, you can give Nephis the soul shards. I can't use them anyways, and Cassie won't be fighting anytime soon. As long as I can get the last hit on the Nightmare Creatures, I don't really mind. Do you not need them either Sunny?"
Sunny didn't speak for a few seconds.
"…No. I also can get stronger just by killing them. I guess we'll both have to split up the kills."
"Right. Oh, we'll have to split up the memories too. I call dibs on bow memories!"
Nephis and Cassie seemed to be surprised at hearing this information. They had never heard of an awakened who can progress without soul shards. Nephis looked towards Sunny before telling him:
"Summon your sword and swing it 1000 times."
Sunny paled.
Shirou laughed at his friends struggles before turning towards Cassie.
"Do you know where this citadel is?"
She smiled before pointing in a direction.
How does she know where to point?
"That's west. Well, I guess we're going to be walking for a while."
As Shirou stared in that direction, he saw what seemed to be a crimson spire. It towered over everything that he could see from this distance.
…That looks menacing.
————————————————————
The rest of the day was spent with Nephis training Sunny. Shirou wasn't sure, but Sunny seemed to grow quite fast for someone who has never held a sword before this. Actually, he remembered that Sunny had said something about that.
The first time he held a sword, he dropped it because it was too heavy.
They had enough food to last them for the day. Tomorrow, they would set out to the west in order to find the citadel. Shirou spent the rest of the day catching up on sleep before night falls. He had Ingvild keeping watch for him while he rested.
…Is it just me, or is their something soft under my head?
Shirou did not open his eyes and went back to sleep.
————————————————————
When Shirou woke up that night, the soft sensation immediately dissapeared as his head fell into a puddle.
[…Ingvild.]
[…Y-yes?]
[Why is my head wet?]
[…Maybe it rained a little?]
The night sky was clear.
[…Why were you near my head?]
[…I was making sure that nothing approached you! Yes, that was what I was doing. You should be thankful that I am such a useful Blade!]
[Oh. That makes sense. Good job!]
[…Huh?]
Shirou shook his head around to get the water out of his head.
[Time for your reward.]
[Wha… what?!]
[Go back to human form.]
Ingvild immediately appeared where Shirou's head was. Her cheeks were flushed and she seemed to be nervous.
[Uh… I don't need a reward! It was enough for my generous master to compliment my services!]
Although she said this, she was slowly stepping away from Shirou, as if in fear.
[…You know, those things of yours have really been pissing me off.]
[…What?]
[I mean, how can you even fight with something that large?]
[…I don't like where this is going.]
[I was willing to let it slide, but today you have really set me off.]
[I'm sorry for getting your head wet! Just don't get any closer to me!]
[Im going to tear them off.]
Ingvild froze. When she looked at Shirou, she started to sweat. She didn't see Shirou, but rather, a blade that had been hammered until it broke.
Shirou continued.
[I wonder… will you be able to survive without them? They're so big that I wouldn't be surprised if most of your blood went there.]
[You wouldn't…]
[You have brought this upon yourself Ingvild. My father told me that one of the greatest things a man can experience is a lap pillow. The greatest, of course, is achieving the ambitions of a Hero of Justice. You have tarnished that memory by drowning me in your fluids.]
[…Don't say it like that!]
If Ingvild was able to scream, she would have been heard across the shore. Listener's wouldn't have been able to differentiate between pain and pleasure.
————————————————————
When he came to, Shirou was staring off into the distance. He doesn't know why, but he felt that he did something pretty bad. He looked around before finding Ingvild passed out. She seemed pretty exhausted for some reason that he didn't know.
…Why is her chest out in the open?
Shirou assumed that her revealing outfit had slipped off while she was sleeping. He went over and pulled it up without touching anything important.
She really needs some better clothes. It's not like I have any memories though…
It turns out that Ingvild could be given Shirou's memories. The only limit is that she cannot use weapons. He assumes that it was because of her nature as a Blade, but couldn't be sure.
He layed her head on his lap and simply watched the silent waves.
…No matter what, I'll definitely become a Hero of Justice.
It was a random thought, but he couldn't help but think about the dream that was passed down to him by his father.
クリエイターの想い 
Type_Sword
Type_Sword Probably the first OOC thing that Shirou has done over the course of the story. There is an actual reason for it, so it wasn’t just a random scene. I’m not too sure if I can post another chapter today, but I’ll at least try.
週次パワーステータス
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