[Chapter 6-The bloody Hulk]

I was dumbfounded, she appeared from within the flash of light as if,

*STING*

The command seals were glowing, I looked back to her after taking a quick glance at the seals and answer her question after standing up and cleaning myself up.

“Well, it sure looks like I am” I said while looking at her eyes, I took the back of her hand and gave it a light kiss.

“It’s a pleasure to be in the presence of a king with such beauty” were the words that came out of me while I was still mesmerized by her. She kept staring at me for a second trying to figure out how to react to my actions but her thoughts were interrupted by the man in blue behind us.

*Cough*

Both saber and I looked towards him and remembered the situation we were in.

“Oh! sorry, I totally forgot about the fight, let’s go back to the yard and finish it, I can’t wait to speak to her properly.”

“Hoh! So, you want to keep going even though you already summoned your servant?”

“Of course, this was a fight between you and me and it will stay like that until your master jumps in to help you.”

“I like your guts kid, but … do you think the situation will be any different from before?”

“Yes, it will be totally different, first of all, for some reason I am feeling better than before both physically and mentally, the only reason you pierced my heart earlier and that I couldn’t fight properly was because of the information I was being given about your Gae Bolg and that Archer in black’s Kanshou and Bakuya. It was really embarrassing but with the shock of summoning Artoria I am finally able to think straight again.”

I was scratching the back of my head from embarrassment, I was looking straight at Cu’s eyes but my peripheral vision still caught sight of his lance, it looks like that was enough for my eyes to keep analyzing it and sending me information. It’s actually not that hard after you get used to it, by focusing on Cu, it looks like the information is being send to my subconscious.

“If you say so” said Cu while supporting his lance in his shoulder’s which was about to make me drool for it again but I regained focus in half a second and followed behind him who was going out of the shed.

“Wait, I can’t accept this” Said Artoria while following behind us.

“I was summoned as your servant to fight for you in the grail war, if I let you be in danger like this then I cannot call myself a proper servant”

“eh? Well, don’t worry about it, I’ll be ok, probably?”

“No! I refuse to allow you to put yourself in danger for no reason, even if I have to go against your will, my duty as a servant and my pride as a king will not allow me to leave you in danger when there is no way for a master to match a servant in battle.”

“Don’t worry about it… now, I Shirou Emiya challenge the child of light Cu Chulainn to a duel”

That caused her to freeze just like I wanted to, she was a servant, a king, and also a knight, and now I was taking advantage of her knighthood.

“I see what you did there kid” he said with a smile “I Cu Chulainn accept the challenge of Shirou Emiya”

“Wha--- I told you to stop playing with the kid and now you go and accept his challenge?”

“Don’t worry about it master, it’ll be over soon enough for us to avoid causing anything that will attract another servant here.”

*sigh*

“Just hurry up and get done with it”

“Yes master, now, you heard her kid, we better hurry up”

“haha, alright”

Alright, so what the hell am I going to do now, it’s true that my condition is magically better than before, but I can’t match him while bare-handed, I need something to counter his spear, something strong enough to fight against a servant. Something like his spear, or those two short swords, if only I could create a weapon just like in my previous li----.

“Oh! why didn’t I think of that before”

It came out as half a scream, if that Idea succeeded then the rest would only be a matter of who can fight better. I mainly depended on my skills in my previous life so I didn’t really train with the weapons I made, but 12,000 years of experience cannot be something to ignore for a weakened servant.

“I don’t know what that was about but here I go kid”

Just like before, his knees bended, his hip lowered, his heels digging into the ground, and his back arched forward like a predator who was more than ready to jump at me and … he did.

“Trace---on”

It was something I’ve never tried before so it was a gamble, since I was interested in projection magic since the moment Kiritsugu thought me about it, I managed to succeed and project anything I analyze, but I’ve never done it with something of this caliber before. But for some reason it felt easier than before. Mana flooded my eyes and my magic circuits and something I’ve never experience before happened,

I recreated the concept of the creation.

I recreated the basic structure.

I recreated the composition materials.

I recreated the skills of its making.

I recreated the experience of its growth.

I recreated its accumulated years.

I recreated the manufacturing process.

After completing these seven steps, I was holding both Kanshou and Bakuya in my hands before any of the people in the yard managed to realized I had them. They were both big and heavy, but thanks to my reinforcement it was easy to lift them and move them with ease.

*CLANK CLANK CLANK*

Before Cu’s eyes went wide, I had already repelled his first, second, and third attack, now it was my turn to attack while he was still in disbelieve. I lowered my stance by bending my knees, and by kicking the ground I shot forward like an arrow heading straight Cu. My target was his neck, if I had the opportunity then it would be stupid to let such a dangerous opponent keep fighting. Kanshou approached his neck at an incredible speed just like I wanted but it was blocked by his spear, to amend my failure I used Bakuya instead to slash at his stomach.

*CLANK*

I failed a second time, there are two reasons I realized were the cause off this, first, his confusion lasted way less than I expected, and the second one and mostly the main reason is that, in short, I am rusty. This is what happens when you stop doing something you’re use to for a long time, the last fight I had was with the gods 3,000 years ago. Then it was all about researching souls in order to bring my wives back, now, I am unconsciously hesitating and my body doesn’t move the way I imagine it, I can keep up with him but back in the old days I would have kill him with the first blow.

“Fuck”

“Hoh” he was impressed, a master fighting him like this was something he didn’t expect to find in this war. He jumped at me again and the fight continued, slashes and trust were exchanged many times, we aimed for the heart, the eyes, the stomach, legs, and many other vital points but the other always reflected or dodge the attack, sparks kept flying until a change in the stalemate happen.

*Crack*

Kanshou broke, I could hear a gasp from behind me that was coming from Artoria.

“Master!!!”

I think Saber was about to jump towards me in order to defend me but Lancer was faster in taking advantage of the now broken sword. Unfortunately for him by the time he reached me I already had another Kanshou grasped within my hand, which I used to deflect his spear once again, and retreat a couple of steps to then follow up by throwing Bakuya to get a couple seconds to breathe.

After catching my breath, I stepped right behind the flying sword and approached Cu at high speed, he deflected the white sword and send it flying behind him, I started fighting him at close range with a single sword which strained my senses to their limit but my plan was going just as I wanted.

“Lancer! Watch out” yelled Lancer’s master from the top of her longs, but it was too late, he dodges to the side but Bakuya which came back flying like a boomerang slashed his side, it wasn’t a deep cut but it was the first injury I managed to get on him.

“How was that?” I asked him after catching Bakuya and getting back into position.

“Not bad at all kid, I knew you had a knack for fighting but if you can fight like that on this era then you must have been born for it, and that grin on your face confirms it.”

“Thanks for the compliment but you still haven’t use everything you have, right? Come on, you’ve already said you were coming at me with your all twice but are still holding something back, it’s about time to use whatever it is you’re hiding.”

“You wish for cursed crimson spear” he said while changing his position, the tip of the spear was now producing a red fiery energy.

“Let’s see how you handle my noble phantasm kid”

He didn’t have to say it for me to know, I was shivering the moment that spear started letting out that red mana. I had a feeling, I was rusty but I could still sense that peculiar feeling you get from time to time in a battle to the death, it was the feeling of a sword held against your neck, the feeling of death.

“Shit” note to self, don’t taunt servants in the future.

I am still getting information from my eyes at this moment, more and more details about the structure, more and more details about the concept of its creation, and the detail that managed to change the feeling I have from I am going to die if I don’t do something to there is nothing, I can do to prevent death. This is the noble phantasm GAE BOLG, it rewrites causality, meaning that my heart will be pierce before the spear even reach me. How am I supposed to dodge a blow that rewrites causality? With luck?

My back was drenched in sweat, my pupils were the size of niddles, and my mind was working faster than ever before in order to think of a way to survive. This brought back a memory, it was the first battle I had when I used the skill monster attraction at max level to find some prey in the mountains but attracted an army of monsters instead, I almost died in that battle and I am about to die here too. I tried thinking of something but even if I used all of my mana or use Time alter to become faster, I am sure there is less than a 50% chance that I might survive.

“The fuck man, that’s cheat level”

“GAE” the mana in the air froze.

“Lancer stop”

That voice saved my life, weirdly, it came from Cu’s master. Caught by surprise by his master’s action Cu stopped his attack and looked at his master with confusion.

“What’s wrong master, don’t tell me you fell for the boy after seeing him fight me.”

“Wh--- of course not you idiot, there is another servant approaching and there could be more on the way, so unless you want to give away your identity to more servants then you better stop right there and leave the fight for some other time"

She spoke fast but it would have been more convincing if she wasn’t blushing from being teased by Cu. After stopping and focusing on the magic energy in the area I was able to feel two sources moving fast in our direction.

“Looks like we’ll have to save the conclusion for another time, you better not die before that kid”

He swung his lance and face towards his master then nodded and left by leaping over the wall of the yard, his master followed without showing any difficulty in doing so. Looks like she can also take care of herself.

I looked at Artoria who was staring straight at me and said,

“Well, looks like I’ll live another day, hehe” she didn’t like that response, I knew because her staring turned into an angry glare from a second to another.

“We will speak about this right after I finish fighting the ones outside”

After saying that she jumped above the wall and headed towards the front of the house to fight that other servant.

“This just keeps getting more and more interesting I wonder who I am going to fight next, let’s hope that it’s not someone with a cheat ability like rewriting causality, I could have survived the blow but to do it would be the same as committing suicide so ill either die from Gae Bolg or die from self-damage”

Well let’s leave that for later, now that I managed to catch my breath let me see how saber is doing.

#

*CLANK CLANK CLANK*

Steel clashed with steel and that metallic sound with many sparks were being let out of the conflict. Saber was now facing the Archer in black that was fighting Cu back in the school, the owner of Kanshou and Bakuya who are now in both his hands and mine. It was interesting, when I got to the scene, I was able to notice an attraction force coming from the swords pulling them towards the other pair. But strangely that wasn’t the only pulling force I felt, there was another, it was something I just came to realize right this moment without even having to analyze the memories within Kanshou and Bakuya in order to know who the Servant fighting Artoria was.

The fight stopped when I jumped down from the wall and Artoria jumped back in order to place herself in front of me.

“Master! What are you doing here? I told you that I would handle it.”

She was speaking to me but I couldn’t hear anything she said. I was too focused on the individual across from me, this white hair servant…. It was a gut feeling, instinct, it told me, kill him, making disappear first or you will disappear. Not only that, Hate, pure anger started brewing up from the deepest place within my soul, the person in front of me was myself, it looks like I became a heroic spirit in this timeline or another, but that’s no problem, I wouldn’t mind being a heroic spirit for some time.

The problem came from the feelings that were being emitted from his soul, and the lack of the curse I have within my soul. He broke the curse that serves as the last connection to our dead wives, and the feelings being released from his soul are helplessness, anger, and many other negative emotions, but there was not a trace of it, there was not a single trace of the feelings I have for my wives and children within him.

“I will ask you this just once, what happened with the curse, and what happen to those feelings for them”

He understood my question right away and answered with an uninterested tone.

“I broke the curse at the first opportunity I had, as for those feelings, I threw them away, there was no need for me to keep something as unnecessary as that.”

*SNAP*

“I AM THE BONE OF MY SWORD”

This is something i came up with in my times as a blacksmith. With that chant, one of the locks I have within my soul was broken. I made those after the accident with reinforcement magic, I realized that the amount of magic within me was too much for my circuits to withstand. So, I created an 8 level lock that divides my od into 9 portions, with those locks I created an aria that its divided into 8 sections which each serve as a key for each lock.

The part of the aria I just recited now allows me to use 2/9 of my magic, the limit before my circuits can’t withstand the od is the 4th lock, if I use more than 4/9 of my od then my circuits will start breaking down.

Od was released from my body and now I was able to reinforce my body to another level, not only my body but I was also able to reinforce Kanshou and Bakuya better than before.

*CLACK*

“Why are you still holding on to things from a past that will only continue to hunt you until you can’t bear it anymore”

“SHUP UP”

I slashed again and again towards the man in front of me, the murderous intent grew so much that it could almost be physically seen. I thrusted and swung both swords at him to every single fatal point I could find, anger can be a mysterious thing, the usual feeling of unrestrained anger consumes whoever is the one feeling it, but in my case, I consume every bit of my anger, I consumed it and used it to find every and the best possible ways to cause pain to my enemy and kill whoever made me drown in anger.

If I had to choose between fighting a berserker who couldn’t control his anger or someone who use his anger as a focus for his actions then I would not doubt choose the former.

“Mas…ter”

I could hear saber behind me but I didn’t bother to double check on her, all of my attention right now was focused on killing this bastard, which I had to do as fast as possible. We are two beings that shouldn’t exist at the same time so the world will no doubt try to erase us, but that it’s not easy even for the world itself, so now it’s trying to unify us instead, every time we clashed the process becomes faster as I gained his memories, I was looking at him but I was also seeing his memories, in other words a possible future for me.

“If you want to die so badly then be my guess” he said and then for the first time since I started attacking him, he switched from defense to offense. He started attacking me nonstop, which I barely could handle. His projections surpassed mine so it was a no-brainer that my Kanshou and Bakuya were weaker.

*Break*

They broke into pieces, I was going to project another pair but this guy unlike Cu, knew that I could project another pair so he wasted no time in kicking me in the gut releasing all the air in my lungs and sending me flying back to where saber was.

“Master!”

Saber ran up to me from behind and caught me while jumping back to kill the momentum of my flight.

“Master, are you ok?”

#Point of view from Saber

My name is Artoria Pendragon, I am a saber class servant summoned in the Holy grail war in order to fight with my master and win the grail to fulfill my wish. When I was first summoned it seemed like my master was in the middle of a fight, it was a fight against a servant no less so it was lucky of him to summon me right before things got worse.

Or so I thought, this Master didn’t stop surprising me even for a second, first of all he called me by my name when I am sure I haven’t met any youngster that looks like him before, even if the era I was summoned was just ten years after my last fight for the grail war. Second, he not only doesn’t allow me to fight but insist on fighting himself.

When I was getting ready to jump in and intervene, he challenges Lancer to a duel, which made me freeze in place, my code as a knight will not allow me to dishonor the duel between two agreeing parties.

This then brought my third surprise, He stated that his name was Shirou Emiya, He doesn’t look like him but the family name Emiya is the same as the one my master in the last war had. The duel was about to start and my mind returned to the fight when I saw the lancer running like a wild beast towards my master, it was a foolish decision, it looks like I will have to wait for another change in order to acquire the grail.

“Trace on”

Wh- he deflected the lancer, the kind looking guy that looked to be in trouble before now had two shorts in his hands and was fighting the lancer to a stalemate. The lancer wasn’t using his noble phantasm but it was still impressive. My master taunted the lancer to use his full power and now he will, he was prepared to use his noble phantasm when his master stopped him and left.

“Well, looks like I’ll live another day” said my master which won him a glare from me, how can he be so irresponsible.

Now my master is fighting another servant again but this is different from before. The smile he had while facing the lancer was gone, in place of it was anger and killing intent, how can such a young child have such a killing intent. There was only a mild breeze in the night but his hair seems as if there was a strong wind hitting him straight on, his hair was raised on its end and it was flowing with the magic energy my master was releasing.

“Mas…ter”

It was too different for me to adapt so fast, my master was send flying to me with a kick to the stomach and I caught him before he gained more damaged than he already has, it looks like he hasn’t notice it yet but his clothes were stained by blood from his fight with the lancer, he didn’t seem to notice the many times when the spear hit him before he dodge or parried.

“Let go of me SABER”

*Flinch*

I flinched without noticing, this was the first time he called me saber, it’s not weird for a master to call his servant by his class but from the very start he was calling Artoria with a likable warm tone, but this was different, this was not a request but an order, the likable tone from before change into a tone filled with anger and hatred. What did that other servant do in order to get my master to become like this, what was that thing they spoke about before my master became like this.

I had no idea. My master forced his way out of my grasp and ran up to the other servant again, and once again he was holding onto the same swords that the servant was fighting him with.

“AHG”

3

“UHG”

7

“UWAA”

13

This was the 13th time that my master was send flying by that servant and once again he struggles to stand up and repeat the same thing who knows how many more times. The weirdest thing is that the more times he was send flying the more time he managed to hold off against the servant, it was as if he was improving while fighting him.

But still, I couldn’t watch it anymore so I approached my master again and helped him up from behind, he wanted to break free but I didn’t let him no matter how he must struggle. Lucky for me he had his anger under control but no enough for him to use a command spell against me.

“Let go of me Saber”

“Sorry master but I cannot follow that order, please change your order to something more acceptable”

He looked towards my face and I could see the pure hatred in his eyes that had a weird glowing circle within them. But after looking at my eyes he froze, I didn’t know why until I saw the reflection of my face in his eyes. He knows me somehow but I don’t know him, but it is still painful seeing someone full of hatred with no regard for their life.

The feeling was showing on my face which he finally looked at after a while, his muscles relaxed and his face regained calmness, the anger within his eyes was still there but it had decrease enough for him to stop and think for a second. The last pair of swords that were on his hands gave out and broke just like the pair before them, and the ones before those, and the many before those.

I sensed something in front and when I looked, I saw the servant trying to attack my now distracted master. I was about to jump and engage him when a female voice sounded from behind.

“ENOUGH! What do you think you are doing archer?” asked the girl who seem to be his master.

“I am finishing the enemy.”

“and? why are you fighting the master instead of the servant?”

“well, you clearly saw that he was the one attacking me, right?”

The girl blushed when she realized her question was not too smart but that quickly change to an expression of annoyance.

“Shup up, stop trying to be smart with me. I am going to have you reflect on this later, go and check the area for any other servants around.”

“Yes master”

The servant gave a polite bow towards his master and his swords disappeared from his hands and a small knife took their place which he threw at something that seem to be an insect before he left to scan the surroundings.

When I looked back to my master, I realized that he was still staring at me but his eyes no longer had those weird glowing circles in them.

“Thank you, Artoria” he said in a soft voice while a small smile found its way to his face. This smile looks charming but I find the one he wore when fighting Lancer was better for some reason.

“So, this is the rumored bloody Hulk, nice to see that you’re well Emiya-kun”

“All thanks to you saving me from the hole lancer left in me earlier Tohsaka”

It looks like my master was already acquaintance with this other master, but.

“What’s this Bloody Hulk thing”

I asked which caused both to look at me at the same time, I wonder if I said something wrong for Master to be looking at me with that trouble expression.

#Back to Shirou’s point of view

Right there and then an unbelievable fatigue and pain washed over me from one second to the other, I fell to my knees but all of this didn’t last long either, the fatigue and pain started leaving just as they came. When I looked down to my body, I managed to see that my clothes were cut here and there suggesting that I was cut in places I didn’t even notice, and since these two were the first real fights I’ve been in the last 3,000 years, the fatigue is more than what I thought it would be. My eyelids are getting heavier by the second, and the lock in my soul was once again closed.

“Artoria, can you take care of me for a couple of minutes?”

I said while looking at her. She looked at me and realized what I was talking about and answer with a smile on her face.

“Yes Master”

My eyes closed and I fell into darkness. This time, the dream I had was different. It had nothing to do with my past, as a matter of fact, it was my future. I saw myself, or more like, I saw the Archer me who now I’m sure came from a different timeline, he is just one of the many possibilities of what could have been my future.

The main difference? That would be that he never received the last message left to me in the bracelet, souls are a mysterious thing, those pieces of their souls having survive across time and space is just a matter of luck but he didn’t have the luck I had. He never saw them after the fire, after having been tough magic by Kiritsugu he killed him as revenge for saving him, then there was only loneliness that was only kept away by the remands of their memories kept within us with the curse from the gods.

He kept everyone at a distance, there was no Taiga, no Sakura, as for saber, after summoning her in his holy grail war, he killed her and absorbed her, then followed by killing the other 6 servants and masters and becoming something similar to a pseudo servant, who managed to sell himself to Alia, the will of humans to survive in exchange for the only thing he had left, lust for battle. After searching for more and more battlefields, he found many weapons he managed to “take” with his “mystic eyes” like Kanshou and Bakuya, the Shield Rho Aias, and even used his knowledge as a blacksmith to create his own bow able to withstand the power of a broken phantasm and his battle gear which is a mystic code.

He stopped being Emiya Shirou and became the counter guardian Emiya.