All around me, the only thing I saw was that taint of a wish long forgotten, corrupted beyond its original purpose.
Flames marred with darkness, mud filled with humanity's evil. Even for a normal human, it would be hard to miss such an evil feeling.
And at the center of all this sat an incarnation of the Zoroastrian evil god.
Angra Mainyu, Ahriman, Ahrimanes. Call him what you will.
The truth, his very essence, cannot change.
And facing this being that was prepared to step into the mortal realm was a boy whose body was made of swords.
Pity and understanding. The only emotions that I could feel for the boy as he forcefully stepped forward, his body ringing with the noise of metal rubbing against metal.
Yet, he kept walking.
This is the only path. With no regrets.
Well, except one.
I watched silently, knowing from experience that I could do nothing in these memories. A silent ghost. A mere observer lost in the memories of what I could have been, what I may have once been, or what I might become in the future.
Soon, the boy will project the Last Phantasm and sacrifice his life to protect the woman he loved.
But here is where this memory varied from the last one.
I watched as a small figure, wearing a mystic code that allowed her to toe the line of True Magic, walked past the boy.
Her words and actions, I knew them all too well, for I had seen variations of this so many times that my heart had long since died.
It was the final goodbye between a brother and a sister. A pair of siblings that never got to truly live happily as a loving family should.
Then, a miracle was performed. The price was the half-homunculus's life, and the result was the preservation of the boy's soul.
In the end, the boy got his happy ending. He got to live a life with his beloved, his friends, and his loved ones. Even if it was only in a puppet body.
But at what cost?
What of the little girl who never truly got to live? What about his sister?
My sister?
...No. Do not let yourself go. Take heed, and learn. Learn from this memory, from this alternate life of mine.
From all of the failures and successes of my alternates. So that I can make sure that none of the tragedies that befell them shall ever befall me.
For I am the bone of my sword.
My body is Steel, and my blood is Fire.
There are no gears in my world, for I am no machine bound to the Collective of Man, nor am I a broken man seeking to save everyone around me.
There is no snow in my world, for my mind is not clouded, and neither is my ambition dead.
My world is one that is a reflection of my determination. My yearning to protect what I hold dear.
My name remains the same, no matter what world, and i make this vow upon it.
Alaya, Gaia, Holy Grail, Demons of Solomon, and whoever else may come my way, seeking to take what I hold dear.
This living sword will cut you all down.
"Shirou! Wake up! You are going to be late!"
As my dream faded, I opened my eyes to my life and got up from the bed.
"I am up, Sella!"
The 'maid' of the house shouted from the other side of my door, just like she has taken to doing these days, thanks to the memories that I have been seeing every night, throwing my schedule off.
"Then hurry and come down! You said you were going to head out early for some club activities, right?"
"Ok!"
I could not help but smile as I heard her voice fade along with her footsteps from beyond the door. She does not know how much she, Liz, Dad, and my little sister help anchor me to reality, assuring me that I am not in a dream and not living an empty life like many of my other selves lead.
"Another mundane and peaceful day, here I come."
I whispered to myself with a smile and got up from the bed.
A life like this would have many of my counterparts envious, while others would never know how to appreciate such a life due to their mechanical way of living.
But for me? This life is a blessing, one that I will protect with everything I have.
Walking into the bathroom, I begin my morning ritual.
With practiced ease, I let my golden eyes fall on the pack of razors in the cupboard.
"Trace On"
With the image of the imaginary valve controlling the flow of magical energy in my imaginary pipe system that represented my magic circuits, I activated my magecraft. A Mental trigger that was quite different from my other counterparts, showing just how different I was compared to them, and showing how different my circumstances were.
I felt the twenty-seven Magic Circuits within my soul light up a little bit, thanks to the precise control I developed after years of study, and send magical energy directly into my eyes.
Structural Analysis, one of the most basic forms of magecraft that my counterparts have mastered alongside our own brand of projection, which I learned thanks to my dreams.
With a pulse of magical energy, I immediately knew the complete manufacturing process and history of the razors. With a quiet use of Projection, a copy of the razors appeared in the palm of my hand. A complete success as usual.
Now, for the real test.
Dismissing the projection, I prepared my magecraft again. This time, I concentrated on the towel on the hanger and used structural analysis, completely understanding its history just like with the razors. Now comes the hard part.
I cranked open the imaginary valve more and more as my projection slowly started to form the vague form of the towel.
Nearly one minute after the process began, I finally had the copy in hand. But even without using structural analysis, I could immediately tell that it was not the same as the towel on the hanger.
Externally, there are no changes, but internally, my Structural Analysis tells me that the threads that make up the towel are of slightly worse quality. That they are slightly off path and that their atomic structure is slightly different.
If I were to put it in terms of the stats system used during the Holy Grail Wars, if my projections of weapons drop by one rank compared to the original, then my projection of anything that is not a weapon drops by at least two ranks and sometimes even more, depending on the object.
And yet, despite this failure, I did not let it discourage me. Because this is still a significant improvement compared to what I used to get when I first started to try to Trace anything that is not considered a weapon conceptually.
This shows that my magecraft training is coming along just fine, even if it is a bit slow for my tastes. Not to mention how difficult it is to recreate the magecraft of my various versions in this world that seems quite different from the others.
"Shirou! How long are you going to take?"
Let it be said, no matter the world, Shirou Emiya will always have bossy women pushing him around in his own home.
To my counterparts, it is mostly Taiga who takes on that role. For me, it is Sella, and occasionally Illya, when it concerns her precious manga or anime.
Then again, I won't have it any other way.
"Yeah! I am coming!"
I absentmindedly reached for the few strands of white hair with the scissors and cut them off while using a little bit of makeup to hide the uneven tanning of skin on my face that looked suspiciously like burn marks.
A result of recklessness born from a single moment of vulnerability. Something that I felt after a particularly bad memory from a version of myself appeared in my dreams more than a year ago.
Illya crawled on the floor, tears and blood flowing down her doll-like face as she reached for Berserker, finding solace in the mad giant's presence before passing away.
All the while, the monster known as the King of Heros stared down coldly at her struggles before tearing out her heart with his own hands.
I shook my head to get rid of that particular nightmare.
Thankfully, I managed to make an excuse about burning myself during my part-time job. However, I had to make sure to use makeup every day since I did not have an explanation for why the marks were expanding instead of healing like any ordinary 'burn marks' would.
Which, unfortunately, led to the adults in the household looking at me strangely and probably thinking that I was more girly than my physique would suggest.
I will never forget the embarrassment I felt when Dad learned about it and tried to awkwardly comfort me that it was ok to be interested in such things as a guy, and then tried to follow up with his version of the birds and bees talk. It was extremely mortifying for me, especially since this took place nearly three years ago now, when I was in Junior High.
I am grateful, however, that none of them shared this information with Illya. I don't know if I would be able to handle my sweet little sister calling me girly in public, thanks to how innocent she is compared to many of her counterparts.
With the preparations done, I reached under my pillow and felt the cold touch of the card that started it all. The mystic code that looked like a playing card, yet is capable of giving the user a portion of the Heroic Spirit it is connected to.
A Class Card. A mystic code created by the Ainsworth for the sake of their version of the Holy Grail War from a world that I once saw in my counterpart's memories. A life where he had a different sibling called Miyu Emiya instead of Illya.
I still do not know how something from that world ended up in this world, and fell into my hands so coincidentally, triggering these memories that I experience every night in the first place.
My first instinct was to blame Zelretch, but I knew that he was not someone who was so reckless as to toss a tool this powerful into the multiverse just for amusement.
That man might appear like a troll that loves to prank others, leading to the infamous quote about blaming him for anything that does not make sense, but I knew from many of my memories that he is someone who always has plans within plans, and all his plans are usually targeted at the greater good, one way or another.
So the fact that this thing is here in the first place and fell into my hands is very concerning.
Then, there is the other possibility, one that is absurd to even think about, but one that I must consider all the same.
That this could be a trap prepared by Alaya to turn me into its slave, like the many versions of Shirou Emiya that it enslaved and merged into Counter Guardian EMIYA, its perfect attack dog.
Or, this could also be some kind of plan from the Ainsworth for whatever goal they are pursuing.
So many possibilities, and none of them were reassuring. And all of this is not even considering how different the magical energy of my world feels compared to what I remember from my dreams, along with the existence of various Phantasma species that I have spotted in the past few years, ever since I started getting these memories.
Worse still, if the Archer Class card is here, who's to say that the other Class cards are not here?
What will happen if they fall into the wrong hands? And more importantly, what if they become a threat to the safety of my family?
'I need to get stronger. And most importantly, unlock my Reality Marble's full potential if I am to face Servants while still being a human.'
As those thoughts flashed through my mind, I couldn't help but look at my reflection in the full-size mirror with a wry smile.
I guess I really am like my alternate selves, selfishly playing the hero without depending on those who would be willing to help.
Shaking my head to get rid of the depressing thoughts, I dressed up in my school clothes and walked down from my room.
Immediately, I sensed Sella and Liz's presence downstairs, along with another presence.
One that had become a common sight at my table in the past years, just like her other counterparts.
With an amused smile that showed my genuine happiness, I walked into the room where I glanced at the various framed photos of my mother and father, and the rest of our family in the past.
For a split second, the smiling man reading the news in one of the photos was replaced by the same man, but wearing a traditional yukata. An empty smile on his face in place of the one filled with warmth.
And in the place of the woman that I called my mother, all I saw was the empty gaze of a corpse bleeding on the floor as a chalice overflowing with blood floated in the sky with a black sun right above it.
Suppressing the chilling memory, I turned away from the photos, heading downstairs.
Emiya Kiritsugu and Irisveil von Einsbern are the biological parents of Illya and my adoptive parents. And yet, despite not being related by blood, I still think of them as my real parents all the same.
Unfortunately, they are always out on business most of the time, even taking along our maids, Sella and Leystritt, in very rare instances.
Before I found the Class Card and started experiencing the memories of my alternate self, I never really questioned it. However, my new memories paint a different, and worrying, picture entirely.
Then again, I guess I will have to wait until they feel ready to tell me the truth. Until then, I will continue keeping my trust in them, just like they trust me and love me so much.
Sella gave me an annoyed look as she spotted me, and her fellow maid, Liz, lazily waved at me.
"Finally! Do you know how long you took up there?"
"Morning, Shirou."
I smiled at the two 'sisters'.
"Good morning to you as well, Liz. And yes, I am aware that I am late, Sella, but I am still faster than Illya, right? So it doesn't matter."
"Tch. That is no way to measure time, Shirou. As a man, you should make sure to maintain a healthy schedule so that you can become a successful person in the future."
"Yes, yes. I get it."
I turned my gaze to the final member at this table, spotting the mischievous grin on her face.
"Good morning, Fuji-nee. Aren't you supposed to be at school by now?"
"School can wait! I came to collect that lunch you promised me yesterday!"
"Fujimura-sensei!"
Sella's glare had no effect on the woman, who just continued grinning at me.
Taiga Fujimura. A woman who originally walked into Dad's life when he and Mom first came to Japan all those years ago. Her relationship with my family started just like many of her counterparts, with her crush on Dad, but then, it evolved into a genuine friendship with Mom, Sella, Liz, and Dad.
Shaking my head at those thoughts, I smiled at the woman.
"I've already made that bento and placed it in the fridge. Take it and go, before you get yelled at again."
"Will do! See ya!"
The Tiger of Fuyuki, or should I say Kuoh now? Since Fuyuki does not exist in this world and instead is called Kuoh, she ran out the door after grabbing her lunch, making Sella sigh while Liz continued giving her trademark bored look, which did nothing to hide her amusement.
"What was that about? Shirou? Why are you supplying that ravenous tiger with food these days?"
I just smiled at Sella's question, not willing to answer those questions.
How am I supposed to explain to her that I have been sneaking off during the later hours of school to train and using Fuji-nee's apatite to cover for my absence?
The moment I even speak about such things, I have no doubt that Sella will tattle to Dad and Mom, and things will escalate from there.
That is something I wish to avoid at all costs, if only to preserve the thin veil of normalcy I clung to these days to keep myself sane.
Shaking my head to get rid of those thoughts, I sat silently and ate my breakfast, talking about school-related things and the club activities with Sella and Liz, along with things like my grades and other such mundane stuff.
It was during this moment that my enhanced hearing picked up rushed footfalls from upstairs, followed by a familiar presence dashing downstairs.
Knowing what was about to happen, I put down the chopsticks after stuffing the last of the tempura into my mouth while giving the older women a knowing look, much to their amusement.
Lo and behold, just like I predicted, my precious little sister, Illyasviel von Einzbern, dashed down the stairs. Her eyes frantically staring at me.
"WE ARE LATE!! ONII-CHAN!! GET TO THE BIKE!!"
She did not even wait for my input before swiping the toast set aside for her, grabbing my arm, and dragging me out the door.
For a young girl, her physical strength is surprisingly high. That's a half-homonculos for you, I guess.
Since this is basically our daily routine at this point, I just grabbed the bag that I placed near the table, expecting this situation, while waving goodbye to the women who waved back with exasperation and amusement.
My little sister only paused at the door briefly so that I could bring out the bike before rushing me again.
Of course, being the loving brother I was, I took the scenic route and peddled quite slowly, barely making it in time for her class, much to her rage.
"Onii-chan!! Why are you slowing down!?"
"I am just a little tired. Illya."
"Liar!"
I laughed as she hit my back with her tiny fists.
"ONII-CHAN!! I HATE YOU!!"
Her tiny fists continued their assault against my back throughout the entire ride before she ran into the school the moment I stopped, not even turning around to wave me goodbye, much to my amusement.
Watching her panicked run, I could not help but laugh loudly, knowing that she would soon realize there was no need to panic since I made sure she would have enough time to make it to class even if she did not run. Not to mention how Kuoh Junior Academy does not take much interest in her punctuality, thanks to her grades, which place her at the top of her year, just like any other school that teaches the children of the elites of Japan and beyond.
I also may have failed to tell her that I've tampered with her wristwatch and set it to be ten minutes faster than her school time.
I am very sure I'll catch hell for that little bit of mischief tonight.
But, then again, these moments of normalcy are what I wish to retain in the first place. It is to preserve this sense of normalcy and protect my family that I push myself so much.
Yes. In this life, I will be no hero of justice or a sword wielded by the Collective Unconscious.
In this life, I will not allow anything to take all of this happiness from me.
For this promise, I will create a thousand blades.
Kuoh Academy.
Originally an all-girls school that taught the daughters of the elites, a prestigious school, it became co-ed a year or so ago due to certain changes in management and other things.
To boost the population of male students, it even lowered the bar for entry to an extent, which worked to a certain extent.
Unfortunately, this meant that some unsavory characters would also make their way into these prestigious halls.
Such as the trio that was currently trying to peep into the changing rooms through a hole in the wall that they found.
"Ooh~ Murayama's rack is so huge!"
"And Katase's legs are so good!"
Two of the three boys who are infamously known as the 'perverted trio' in this school giggled lewdly as the third member watched them have fun while fuming.
He kicked their butts while growling at them.
"Don't keep it all to yourself! Let me in!!"
The last words were unconsciously shouted by the boy, alerting the girls inside the room.
The two boys immediately realized that they had been had.
"Uh-Oh!"
"Scram!"
The two immediately bolted, leaving their unfortunate partner in crime behind to receive punishment from the Kendo club member whom they were spying on until that moment.
Fortunately, the other two would not make a clear escape as a certain someone stood in their path.
The first one to suffer was Matsuda.
The bald boy ran straight into the older teenager and slammed into him, like a car going at full speed crashing into a steel wall.
And just like that analogy, the boy crumbled to the ground, having run into an impossibly strong body that seemed as if it were made of steel.
Motohama saw the danger ahead of time and tried to evade, but the teenager casually caught the scuff of his neck like catching a kitten and held him in the air with ease, showing his ridiculous strength.
"Ow! Ow! Did someone catch the number on that truck!? I almost got isekaid by it!"
"Hey! Let me go! Emiya-senpai!!"
Shirou Emiya sighed at the antics of the two younger boys.
With a casual toss, he threw Motohama onto Matsuda, making them crumble into a pile.
"You guys have so much energy so early in the morning. Why not use it for something productive instead of doing things like this?"
"Tch! What would a handsome guy like you know about our troubles?"
"Yeah!"
Shirou smiled wryly while scratching his cheek.
"I'm not handsome, though?"
"....Tch."
"Damned Raijuu."
The boys continued to complain while Shirou gave them confused looks. However, things changed immediately as a stampede rang out, sending chills down the spines of the boys.
The perverted boys felt their instincts flare, forcing them into action. However, with the disorientation born from running into Shirou's steel-like body and getting tossed around, they were too late to react.
Allowing the Kendo club members to catch up with them, with a thoroughly roughed-up final member of their trio in tow.
The moment the girls spotted Shirou standing over the slumped duo, their rage-filled looks changed to admiring looks.
"Ah! Shirou-senpai!"
"Thank you for catching those criminals!"
Shirou smiled awkwardly while the gaggle of girls surrounded him and started speaking rapidly, alternating between expressing their gratitude and then beating up the two boys, an excellent display of multitasking, even if the skill was used for rather dubious purposes.
The way the girls acted made Shirou very uncomfortable, but it was understandable when viewed from the outsider's perspective.
Shirou Emiya had a really good track record in terms of grades. He is a friendly person who helps out when he can. Not to the extent that he would compromise his own life, but still enough to make people grateful. He also takes an active role whenever things become difficult for his classmates or other students in school-related activities. And on top of all of this, he was quite good-looking with his crimson hair and golden-brown eyes.
To the girls across the school, he was the perfect package. To the boys, he was someone that they looked up to despite hating his guts for stealing all the attention from the girls alongside another boy called Kiba Yuuto.
It was only when the bell rang, reminding the students to start moving to class, that the girls finally let up and left the boys as a pile of bodies while waving goodbyes to Shirou.
Finally, Shirou drew a deep breath and sighed in relief, looking down at the three idiots.
"Oi. You three can stop pretending to be unconscious now. They are gone."
Instantly, like zombies coming back to life, the three stiff 'corpses' on the ground jumped to their feet and gave indignant looks.
"Why the hell didn't you stop them when they were beating the shit out of us?"
"Yeah!"
"You owe us an explanation-"
The three stopped talking and huddled together as Shirou brought out his own Shinai from his bag, the infamous weapon of a certain Tiger from another life, making the boys tremble in fear.
The smile on his face was angelic, but to the boys, it was no different than the sneer of a devil glaring down on them.
"If I remember correctly, it has been some time since you three took some PE classes, yes? How about I give you three some personal training to keep you in shape?'
"N-No need! Senpai! We are very fit, you know?"
"Yes, yes. Like Issei said."
"Oh! Would you look at that! It's time for class!"
The three idiots bolted on the spot, not even daring to look back lest the demon in human skin catch them and 'train' them, which was a civilized way of saying that he was going to make them regret ever being born.
It was only when the three idiots disappeared into the building that Shirou put away the Tora-Shinai and turned back to the building himself, heading in.
"Oh! Emiya! Good morning!"
"Good Morning."
"Good Morning, Senpai!"
"Good Morning."
"You are looking stressed out as usual, Emiya."
"Yeah. A bit tired."
The same morning ritual of greetings and casual talk. Another fragment of normalcy in my life.
After getting those three idiots to leave, I headed to my classes, greeting everyone who bothered to greet me, which was wierdly everyone I came across, and having small talk.
Truthfully, the three might have been perverted to the extreme and unwilling to change, I would normally ignore such people and go about my day.
There is a reason why many of my counterparts were able to maintain a friendship with an arrogant jerk like Shinji in their lives until the Fifth Holy Grail War.
However, things are quite different in my world.
Specifically regarding Illya.
As a student in Junior High's first year, she usually comes around to eat lunch with me or just to visit me at the High School division, and there is no way I am allowing perverts like those three to go about their ways when she gets here lest they corrupt my precious sister with their way, or worse yet, scare her or traumatize her with their actions.
That is why I took such a personal interest in keeping them in line as much as possible.
Soon, I walked into the class and was hit with the strange scents that I had gotten used to in the past three years.
Most of them belonged to regular students. The same students who greeted me on my entry, just like the other students in the school.
However, there were a few scents that stood out.
A sickly sweet scent, signifying decadence, with an undercurrent of darkness that all the anomalies held within them, belonging to a girl with long crimson locks and blue eyes. Rias Gremory is her name.
Another scent which felt similar to Ozone, belonging to a girl with long black hair and violet eyes. Akeno Himejima.
The third scent felt like the sea, belonging to the Student Council President. The girl with violet eyes and short black hair is wearing glasses. Sona Shitori.
The final scent felt like glass, steel, and a few others mixed in, belonging to the girl with long black hair and light brown eyes framed with glasses. Tsubaki Shinra.
Four beings that felt quite different from humans, because they were not humans at all.
Gremory was the first one to notice me as she waved at me with a smile.
"Good Morning, Shirou-Kun."
"Good Morning, Gremory-san."
The creature disguised as a teenager pouted at my response, causing Himejima to giggle.
"Ara~ why the long face? President?"
"I told you to call me Rias, right?"
I nodded at her words.
"You did, Gremory-san."
"Then why?"
"I don't feel comfortable doing it."
"....Wow, such a straightforward rejection."
Shinra's muttering was low enough for others to ignore, but I still caught them, just like the rest of these things probably did, given how Rias flinched slightly.
I don't know exactly what they are, but I am very sure that they are not human.
Another anomaly that is quite different from my various other versions I know of. One that I have been investigating for quite some time now.
The first time I came to know about these differences was nearly two years ago, when I was returning late from my part-time job.
A strange creature that looked like a chimera between a human and a giant spider attacked me when I was passing through an alley, using it as a shortcut.
The thing must have thought that I was a helpless victim that it could gobble up.
Unfortunately for it, I had already been practicing Magecraft for a few months by that point back then so it was relatively easy for me to project Kanshou and Bakuya, killing the thing easily.
Ever since then, I've run into a few instances of similar creatures that look different from each other, but share the same kind of power source based on my observations.
Somehow, someway, it would seem that Phantasmal creatures still persist in this world, probably due to the denser mana in the air. A worrying revelation that I've been investigating ever since.
Unfortunately, I've hit a wall in terms of what I can do without alerting whatever equivalent of the Clock Tower exists in this world, if it exists at all.
That is why I am so cautious with these four, and a few others in this school.
"Alright. Enough of that. Class is about to begin, Emiya."
I nodded at Shitori's words and sat down, preparing for the day, but I was not ignorant of the low conversation that happened between the creatures, thinking that I would not hear due to how low they were speaking.
'Hah. The lengths I go to for the sake of my family.'
Another frustrating but fulfilling day in the life of this unfortunate Shirou Emiya.
Nighttime in Kuoh is a beautiful sight.
The gentle skyline that consisted mostly of homes and a few multi-storied buildings here and there gave off the vibe of a countryside despite its status as a large-scale town near the heart of Japan.
The low light pollution allows the residents to see the stars clearly, unlike those who live in large cities.
However, not all was peaceful in this town, for it hid secrets that ordinary humans should never know about.
Somewhere inside an old warehouse, strange noises rang out in the darkness.
"Blood. More blood. I need more blood. Want more blood. Give me blood!!"
A strange, humanoid creature with distorted bat-like wings and long fangs feasted on the corpse of a stray dog, drinking its blood as if its life depended on it.
It was originally going to look for other, more preferable, prey in the night. Maybe a school student who stayed out longer than they should, or some office worker caught outside alone.
However, with the way stray devils had been disappearing across the town these days, the beast instinctively decided to hide out from whatever trouble was going on outside. It's built in survival instincts as a Vampire who later on became a Devil, allowing it to hide till now and survive by drinking blood from animals and eating their flesh to control its urges till now.
As the creature continued its feast, it suddenly stopped and looked up at the shattered skylight, its instincts screaming that something was not right.
And sure enough, its instincts were true.
Standing at the edge of the skylight, his face obscured by the darkness and the hood that he wore, a young man stared down coldly at the creature.
The normal reaction would have been to run away, especially when it did not know what kind of enemy it was facing.
But its hunger had been held back for too long, making it really hard for it to concentrate when it caught sight of fresh prey that delivered itself straight to its den.
"Blood! FRESH BLOOD!!"
The beast leapt up, its distorted wings instinctively trying to channel demonic energy and taking flight as it used to before becoming a stray, yet it could only leap an impressive distance now, the power of flight stripped of it after going against its master.
The young man took advantage of the beast's actions and casually dropped down from the skylight, easily avoiding the beast's reach.
The moment he touched down, the ground cracked under his Reinforced body.
Magical energy thrummed in the air as he spoke out softly.
"Trace, on."
A strange weight settled in the air with those words, as if something utterly powerful and alien had been unleashed.
The beast finally realized the danger it was in and tried to flee, only to realize that its escape routes had been blocked off.
Swords. Colossal broadswords the size of a large man were blocking off the Skylight, the windows, the doors, and even the vents, ensuring that it would not escape. The Holy Energy reeking from those blades made the beast flinch every time it tried to approach them.
If the beast still had its reasoning left, it would have broken down the walls and escaped that way, something that it could easily do.
Yet, fear had robbed it of what little remained of its rationality as its instincts screamed at it.
Finally, desperation won out, and the beast lunged forward.
The moment its hand grazed the crimson shroud on the young man's body, however, it felt a burning pain beyond description, forcing it back. Its hand now corroding at a rapid pace, with flesh falling right off the bone.
The Holy Shroud that the teenager wore was not something a mere stray devil like it could withstand, after all.
The black armor he wore under the shroud gleamed in the barely functional lights of the warehouse as he raised his hand.
"Sword Barrel"
Strange shortswords, shaped thin like rapiers, yet with crimson guard and handles too short to be wielded even with one hand, materialized behind the teenager.
The holy aura that the swords radiated was enough to terrify the beast beyond reason, finally allowing it to make the proper decision of breaking through the wall and escaping.
However, the teenager wearing black armor, a crimson holy shroud with a hood, and wielding weapons specifically designed to kill dark creatures like it, would not allow it.
"Full open."
The swords shot forward like missiles, impaling the creature with several of the swords, which are known as Black Keys in another reality.
The creature tried to scream in agony as the holy energy of the Sacrimental weapon burned its very soul. But the young man would not give it that chance.
"Cremation Rites. Activate."
With his command, the technique of the Burial Agency sprang to life within the blades, setting the creature ablaze with holy flames.
Within barely a handful of seconds, all that was left of the creature was ash.
The young man did not even pay it any heed and waved his hand, dismissing his swords, both the Black Keys and the broadswords blocking the warehouse's exits, which turned into motes of light dispersing into the air.
Without another word, he jumped through the skylight and started running across rooftops, heading to the more lavish parts of the city where his home was located.
Finally, after arriving at a modest two-story home that read 'Emiya' on the nameplate, he silently crept into the room with its window open and lights off.
Walking into his room, he waited for a bit, his nose working overtime to sniff out anything out of place while his senses spread across the house, searching for anything that might not belong there.
Only when he was sure that everything was fine, did he release a sigh and stop using his mystic code, making his clothing disappear as a card flew out of his chest, landing in his hand.
Gone was the mysterious teenager whose clothes were similar to a certain Archer. In his place now stood Shirou Emiya, wearing his school uniform, as he collapsed on the bed tiredly.
'That's the fourth one this month. Looks like the frequency of these creatures' manifestation is dropping with time.'
'While it is a good thing, I still don't know what exactly they are since none of them are sane enough to hold a conversation, much less answer any of my questions. All I know so far is that they are weak against holy energy and holy weapons like Sacraments. My first guess would be that they are demons, but I don't think I have ever seen any demon similar to these things in my counterparts' memories.'
'Could they be unique to my world? Another difference between our worlds? Possible.'
'The lack of information is really starting to hurt me in the long run.'
Shirou sighed once again and got up, heading for the bathroom, preparing to clean up and head to bed.
'Whatever they are, it is clear that they are dangerous and, based on what I've seen, will not hesitate to attack civilians. Maybe even my family should they be caught up in it.'
'Their counterparts may have been strong in my memories, capable of easily handling things like this. But I don't know if my Sella, Liz, or even Dad and Mom can handle such things, given how different my world seems to be compared to my counterparts.;
'In the end, the plan remains the same. Exterminate these things whenever I catch their scent so that my family is not in potential danger.'
With those thoughts, Shirou Emiya placed the Class Card below his pillow and went to sleep, once again dreaming of his counterpart's life and learning from them.
All in the name of protecting his family