Omake: One Punch-Servant 9
Wake up…
A world that was wrong, everything filled with a hidden shadow of oppression, wonders beyond belief hidden under seemingly simple people…
Had to wake up…
Five Gods, the Avatar of Death and the Usurper of Destiny, trying to defeat the Shadow of the Almighty…
He had to wake up…
Humans, simple and powerless, standing strong and heroically, as Reality itself opened and the Almighty One stared at them, proclaiming their end…
Everything was…clear now.
Standing strong, a Hero raised his fist to oppose the One Above All…
Finally aware of his surroundings again, Emiya Shirou realized he was standing out of his room, and that sounds of panic and screams were filling the city outside, not to mention that quickly approaching rumbles that seemed to announce the end of the world were starting to drown all other noise.
Shaking the remains of the fragmented bits of Savior's past he had just been relieving again, the young Magus quickly realized that he felt…'strange'. Different.
All of this, though, was quickly put on the back of his mind as he felt an explosion occurring very close to the area, making the entire house shake. Eyes snapping back into the room, the red-haired boy saw Sella's unconscious form squirming in the futon where she had been put and, after confirming she was okay, turned around, a sudden sense of purpose filling him.
He knew what he had to do.
"Trace…On."
Outside, a mix of dread, hopelessness, and confusion had been filling the people who had taken refuge in the Emiya house.
It seemed that things had totally gone to hell when the malignant presence of the Grail made itself known, a pillar of darkness and corruption arising from the Ryuudou Temple to the skies.
But the moment the forms of SIX Counter Guardians had descended, and Rider had confirmed the terrifying nature of the living natural disasters, Rin had all but mentally broken down, before quickly rushing towards Sakura and hugging her while crying, the shocked Matou trying to calm her down as the last Tohsaka apologized to her for everything time and time again.
Leysritt had simply narrowed her eyes and stopped at Illya's side, as if willing to spend her last moments with her master no matter what. The half-homunculus, for her part, had gaped in shock before heatedly demanded the Servants present to get them all out of the city, almost seeming about to break down sobbing at the thought of having just gotten a new chance in life only for it to vanish in the most unexpected and over-the-top way possible.
Rider had sadly looked towards her Master and then hung her head. If Medusa had thought there was even the slightest possibility for her to escape Alaya's dogs by using her Pegasus at full speed, she would have tried to, even if only to save Sakura. Of course, the fact that she knew that she, as a Servant, would never be able to escape the wrath of humanity's Counter Guardians aside, she also knew that the young girl would never leave Shirou or the others behind, and her mount was unable to carry them all…
The mysterious Librarian, however, had only remained silent, eyes narrowed as she stared at the form of the incoming devastation and the city seemed to sink into pure chaos.
Then, her gaze snapped back towards the point where the 'crack' in Reality had been, a wide and pure smile appearing on her face, utterly shocking everyone, who had thought her unable to show such a look.
"About time." simply said the Pseudo-Servant before turning towards them again. "If you excuse me, I need to join my companions and fight off mankind's Cleaners. Please, stay alive."
As soon as her words had finished, the bespectacled child had suddenly SHONE with an ethereal and otherworldly power, her clothes and form changing for an instant before she shot to the sky so fast it created a shockwave that threw everyone sans Rider to the ground. Even with her blindfold in place, the paralyzed Servant of the Mount had no problem letting her head move following the meteor of power in which the Librarian had become, feeling her now somehow Divine presence as it headed towards the nearest Counter Guardian to the side of Fuyuki in which the Emiya house was, this one hidden inside the façade of a tornado.
Everyone else felt it, and THEM a second after too.
Suddenly, absurdly powerful presences had filled the city, some simply bizarre while others changing into devastatingly powerful entities from a moment to the next. All around the town, the mighty beings stood still for a moment before most of them shot towards the dogs of Alaya, clashing directly against the living natural disasters as the rest headed into the city, seemingly protecting the people that were trying to run away and/or eradicating any remains of the dark familiars the grail had summoned by the hundreds before.
One homunculus, the last heirs of the 3 families that founded the Grail War and one Servant stared in open-mouthed shock at the display, even as explosions, sounds of devastation and phenomenon's neither of their minds could properly put a name to filled the air and the heavens, a clash the likes this world had never seen since the dawn of time devastating the landscape around the city.
"…the hell?" was all that Rin could say at the display.
"It seems…Savior-san survived. And brought reinforcements, too." softly added Sakura with a suddenly hopeful smile on her face.
"…if I hadn't just had my body somehow fixed and upgraded to something akin to a superhuman I would probably be freaking out more, but what the hell? Get them, Librarian!" cheered Illya while jumping in place and looking towards where the Pseudo-Servant had engaged the massive tornado, the land itself rising as newborn mountains against the seemingly surprised Counter Guardian.
"…go!" also cheered Leysritt at her master's side, raising a hand for the emphasis her face clearly didn't show.
Medusa, for her part, stared in silence, a mix of utter awe and fear filling her as she saw the impossible feat.
Not even at her prime as a mindless and nigh-unkillable monster could she have hoped to even last more than seconds against one of the Cleaners of Humanity. Who the hell, then, were these people that followed the ungodly strong boy whose legend no one seemed to know and had the power to fight them as not even proper Servants?
The musings of the gorgon, however, were brought to a screeching halt when a massive explosion of otherworldly energy seemed to shake the tornado from the inside out. Everyone's eyes widening at the phenomenon, they were barely able to make out what seemed like massive black nails shooting out and piercing the mountain that had risen to block the Counter Guardian's advance as if it was hot butter, three of them heading straight for Fuyuki.
From somewhere within the city, what seemed like a supersonic projectile of some kind of destroyed, no, annihilated one of them, vanishing it from existence. Then, a blur of golden and emerald appeared from nowhere before the second one and cut it in half, both halves turning to dust before the figure vanished again as if it had never been there, possibly to help Librarian against the roared beast of Alaya.
The last one, though, was still heading towards the city at supersonic speeds. Even more terrifying, though, was that Rider realized it was heading straight towards them.
Realization had just started to settle on everyone's minds, horror filling them, while the Servant grit her teeth and prepared to jump, willing to use her body to destroy the strange 'black nail' and save her Master and friends at the cost of her life…
Before something appeared among them at ungodly speed and slammed the unholy projectile out of the way, redirecting it towards the heavens with a roar of thunder, the black nail vanishing from view.
Slowly, all the gazes in the backyard turned towards the familiar figure standing among them.
Emiya Shirou stood proudly there, Ignis Heart at his back inside a sheath no one could remember to have seen before. There were some key differences with the red-haired boy, however.
First, he was generating more Prana than several Servants together should be able to have. Second, his right arm had become metallic and was burning with divine energy, which somehow seemed related to the small golden hammer he had tightly gripped with it.
Oh, and he was 'wielding' another hammer, this one almost as big as a car, with his left hand, presumably the one with which he had just batted away the projectile that had almost killed them all. How he had done so, however, was something no one's mind was able to understand, given that he barely seemed to be grasping it with the tip of his fingers, and yet the Berserker-sized weapon didn't seem to weigh him down at all.
Not to mention, he had moved FAST. Too fast for even Rider to follow, despite having been swinging that abominably big weapon. On the Servant's eyes, the boy had been like a bullet, like a flash, like…
Like a Blast.
"…Mjolnir." softly whispered the young Magus before both hammers vanished from his hands and his arm returned to normal, even as his gaze returned to everyone, concern being replaced with relief at seeing everyone there. "You're all okay…thank Heavens…"
"Se-sempai…?" muttered an awed Sakura while staring at the red-haired boy, as if she couldn't believe her eyes. "Is that really you…?"
"Uhm, yes?" answered Shirou with hesitation. "Why would you ask that?"
"The absurdly impossible feat you just did may have to do with that." flatly explained Rin while staring at him, though there was a clear relief in her eyes and she seemed about to collapse. "Also, Shirou, your eyes are shining."
"They are?" blinked the Magus in surprise, clearly unable to see the otherworldly glow in them. "Ah…I hadn't noticed."
"Shirou…" muttered Illya while looking at him, then staring down sadly for a moment. "I…I'm so…!"
"Don't worry, Illya. I know." cut her off the young Emiya, surprising the Einzbern heir at the warm smile he gave her. "I can't talk now, though. Savior and the rest are fighting, but they're not going to last. I need to go."
"Wait, what?!" shouted an alarmed Rin while everyone stared at him in shock. "What do you mean go?! There are 6 Counter Guardians out there, you will…!"
"I need to destroy the Grail. That's the main reason why Alaya summoned them, even if it was eager to do so probably since Savior appeared." quickly explained Shirou while looking at the Tohsaka heir, making her freeze (And blush) at the uncanny serious and mature tone in his voice. "Savior and his friends are running on fumes and borrowed time, if they vanish and the Grail is still working them we're all dead."
"Ho…how do you know that?" quietly muttered Sakura while staring at him, making the Magus turn towards her.
"…because, uhm, I think I can see the Truth now." lamely explained the young Emiya while scratching the back of his head.
"…I see. Please, come back safe, sempai." answered her with a soft smile, much to the other's shock.
"I will." replied Shirou in a similar tone, giving everyone there a smile. "I promise."
"…go and destroy that wretched thing already, Onii-chan." whispered Illya while turning around, half-hiding her face behind Leysritt's body.
"If…if you dare to not come back…I will dedicate the rest of my life to find how to bring you back just to kill you myself." curtly stated Rin without looking at him, her eyes downcast.
Shirou smiled again, Ignis Heart pulsing warmly on his back as he looked towards the silent Servant there.
"Rider, protect them."
Then, he moved once again, reaching the courtyard's edge and jumping an impossible height in less than a second, shooting down the street faster than any racing car.
In the ensued stunned silence that filled the Emiya house, the battle homunculus-maid Leysritt made a simple statement.
"…he's cool."
As he shot through the streets of Fuyuki at speeds that even Servants would envy, Emiya Shirou felt his heart pounding like a drum as he tried to understand what had happened to him. He knew it was a result of both having seen Savior's life and then gazed upon the [Truth] inside Gilgamesh's Ea, similar to what had happened to the boy and his friend's in life, an 'snapping' of the self as a barrier that wasn't meant for humans to reach was utterly broken.
Of course, the main difference was that he was a Magus with a potential Reality Marble instead of a 'normal' teen, like most of them had been when it happened to them, and his 'trigger' had been directly related by having a Concept of Reality engraved into his mind.
He wasn't sure what that meant, but he knew that he now somehow could Know things he shouldn't be able to or even be aware of, like how he perfectly understood the current situation right after entering the action, even when no one had told him anything. He also knew what he had to do in order to resolve it.
Also, he was pretty sure his Magic Circuits shouldn't be shaped like some sort of multi-dimensional polygon, spinning with otherworldly color and directly connected to the World inside his soul. And he was also pretty sure Archer's world didn't look like…
His train of thought was brutally interrupted by an explosion happening overhead. Idly, he saw that what seemed like a living storm had somehow gotten away from the grip of the half-forming head of a dragon of pure conceptual energy the size of a skyscraper, the Counter Guardian trying to take the opening to unleash destruction upon the city.
Shirou also suddenly knew that there were many people hiding in the houses around where he was running, praying that they would survive. He also suddenly knew WHO was the Beast of Alaya about to destroy everything around him, and he couldn't help but feel pity as he stopped and unsheathed Ignis Heart.
On cue, swords rained from the sky, fakes and imitations raining to kill and destroy, the one who had summoned them unable to do anything to oppose the chains that bound him as an eternal slave of Humanity.
They were all intercepted in midair by exact copies of themselves…but all of them executing the Sword Skill 'Linear', shooting like missiles of light and piercing the living storm.
For a single instant, the warped form of EMIYA was exposed in the middle. Shirou almost imagined he could see the shock and something that he could almost call relief behind the Counter Guardian's 'eyes' in that instant.
Then Ignis Heart was already piercing his chest and draining him from the nigh-endless Prana that Alaya supplied him, the Cleaner of Humanity screaming as the storm once again covered him from view.
The meager distraction also gave enough time for the now complete dragon-head and neck to bite down into it, engaging the Counter Guardian again.
Shirou was already running while that happened, though, idly calling Ignis Heart back to him, the blade materializing on his sheath full almost to the brink with raw magical energy.
Around him, what was probably one of the most amazing and incredible things the world had witnessed was happening, the Counter Guardians being driven back by others that were willing to protect humanity in a different way than its murderous collective consciousness.
With just a small hint of wonder, the young Magus saw the power of the sun being unleashed by a flying form to push back a cloud of ashes, aided by what seemed like bloody ice that sucked the very Life out of everything it touched. Around the city's hospital, a glowing barrier formed that stopped the incoming wave of fire from a spinning sandstorm as if it was nothing. Atop a building, a glowing entity shot endless projectiles at every single one of Alaya's dogs, and a bit beyond he clearly heard someone screaming Hens…
Everything stopped mattering, even as his mind was pulled towards one of the Counter Guardian's closest to the city, a black and white blur punching it back and breaking the natural disaster surrounding it, only for the screams of Alaya to reform her servant.
The Master felt the Servant's frustration clearly. Savior couldn't use the power necessary to truly stop the threats without destroying the city or damaging Reality further. And if he himself tried to go for the Grail then countless lives would be lost if even one of the Guardians slipped past his friends, as it had almost happened several times already. And their time was running out, Shirou knew, their fake bodies barely staying materialized and straining more as they were forced to use their full power…
Without a doubt, the young Emiya raised his hand, never stopping to run, and let the marks engraved on it glow with power.
"By the power of my three remaining Command Seals, Savior, I order you and your allies to protect this city till the end!"
Instantaneously, pure Prana was poured through the link as the 3 sigils vanished, a Servant's eyes widening in surprise before his face twisted in a feral grin, the magical energy touching everyone connected to him by his Noble Phantasm, bodies about to collapse once again becoming solid and power filling them to continue fighting.
Shirou almost missed the smile the Caped Hero sent his way as he arrived at the stairs below the mountain leading to the temple, where a quite unusual group was trying to stop the flood of dark familiars coming down.
"Kuzuki-sensei. Caster." greeted the young Emiya while stopping at the pair's side, casually swinging a golden blade and tearing apart most of the dark creatures without effort. "Tonky. Charlotte…uhm, you."
The elephant-jellyfish and the giant spider casually returned the greeting as they continued fending off the seemingly never-ending monsters. The tall and slender humanoid thing just waved with one tentacle, never stopping his own slaughtering.
"Emiya." emotionlessly replied the ex-assassin/teacher while punching two more of the beasts to death.
"Boy. Can I assume the impossibility around us Savior's doing?" dryly questioned the Servant of the Spell while shooting more and more volleys of Prana towards their enemies.
"Yes, it is." answered Shirou while touching her with the edge of his ruby blade, making her squeak in surprise before her eyes widened at the feeling. "There, Prana directly from a Counter Guardian. Should prevent you from disappearing and also give you enough to keep fighting. Now, excuse me, I have to get through."
Without hesitation, the young Magus dismissed Excaliber as he rushed forward and sheathed Ignis Heart again, only for an absurdly long spear to materialize on his hand.
Moving with swiftness and skill that weren't his, the red-haired Emiya let the weapon glow and shot forward together with it as a drill-shaped aura exploded from its tip, destroying the monsters and the stairs as it dragged him upwards.
Down below, the human and Servant of the group blinked before Tonky simply took fly, the slender being vanished and the spider jumped away while shooting some of its webs, probably rejoining the fight somewhere else.
On the once sacred Ryuudou Temple, most of it now flooded by dark mud that contained the very essence of Evil, Kotomine Kirei turned around and let a smile appear on his face at the explosion of light, the familiars being born from the mud growling even as a figure landed and cracked the ground at doing so, staring at him with narrowed eyes.
"Emiya Shirou…how fitting, that you stand here at the end, only to fall by my hand as Angra Mainyu is reborn in this world."
"Kotomine." said Shirou while letting Amenonuhoko vanish from his grip. "Just to be clear, I never doubted Savior when he said you were evil."
"Interesting last words." declared the fake priest as Black Keys made out of the very mud that was giving him corrupted power, resonating with the fake heart on his chest, appeared on his hands. "Now, let us end this, Emiya Shirou!" ordering the familiars to stay back, Kirei shot forward at speeds that most mortal wouldn't be able to even see, much less react to. "For today, the world shall…!"
"Gae Bolg."
The last thing Kotomine Kirei saw in this world was the crimson streak of a familiar-looking spear before he was suddenly missing his heart and part o0f his lungs, pierced through by a deadly cursed weapon.
"…eh?" eloquently said the man before falling down, dead.
The corrupted familiars blinked.
"Sorry, don't really have the time for any dramatic final battle right now. Ending everything in one hit may be boring, but it's practical." explained the young Magus while letting Lancer's Noble Phantasm vanish and throwing the fake priest's corpse into the dark mud, before looking with narrowed eyes towards the massive black tower of Darkness, feeling the presence of All Evils in the World about to explode from within, corrupted and incomplete, but still powerful enough to perhaps destroy the entire country. "Now then…how do I stop this?"
As if it had been waiting for his question, the Truth answered him. Shirou's eyes narrowed, even as he Traced several swords and shot them towards the dark familiars and tendrils of mud trying to drag him down.
Taking a deep breath, the red-haired Emiya closed his eyes…and spoke with words that came from his very core.
'My Soul is that of a Hero…'
The aria's effects were instantaneous. Suddenly, all the abominations born from Angra Mainyu's power froze and stared towards the new thing standing before them.
It seemed made of red and white light, twisting as if it was water and fire and energy all at the same time. No defining features besides its still vaguely humanoid shape remained, except that it seemed to have a cape, and its eyes were golden pools of infinity, staring unblinkingly towards the mass of curses and evil.
Emiya Shirou was no more. Only [Hero] remained.
Silently, the Incarnated Concept raised his right hand, as if it was a sword.
Panicking, the consciousness of the corrupted Grail sent a wave of mud towards him. All Evils in the World washed forward.
Rape, murder, destruction, despair, catastrophe, nihilism, hate, pride…
All of it vanished without a trace before touching the humanoid being. Angra Mainyu recoiled, screaming. Gaia shuddered, finally identifying the new being standing upon herself, and the wrongness it represented…
For it was something wielding a power as terrifying as it was unnatural.
[Hero] swung down his arm…and all evil was erased.
Without effort, without a scream or anything that it could do to stop it, all that the Concept's consciousness identified as 'Evil' was banished from Reality itself, thrown into Unreality and mercilessly annihilated once it intruded upon the domain of [DEATH].
Reaching down below into the cavern inside the mountain, the Greater Grail shuddered before it collapsed upon itself when the 'attack' reached it, literally everything that had filled its corrupted system abruptly vanishing causing it to implode into itself.
For a moment, the Reality 'shivered' around Ryuudou Temple, being replaced by the ghostly image of an endless field with soft grass, countless weapons floating everywhere inside strange screens, the World's owner standing upon a hill surrounded by the only weapons physically manifested, something floating on the far-away dawn…
And then it was over, Gaia reasserting her presence as Emiya Shirou fell on his knees, panting and shaking, the absurd reserves of Prana he had had until that moment being almost depleted.
"Trace…off." muttered the boy as he felt the otherworldly power he wielded leave him, receding into his World until it was needed again.
Even as he stood up again and grasped Ignis Heart's hilt, recovering enough Prana to not faint as he did so, a smile appeared on the tired Magus' face as he gazed upon the city.
It was over.
Slowly, almost reluctantly, the Counter Guardian's vanished, the natural disasters concealing them ending as Alaya called off her dogs when the 'threat' vanished, not willing to risk more damage than they had probably ever experienced.
And Shirou also felt them leave. Their purpose accomplished and having already been pushing themselves over the edge with everything they had, the Heroes left the world, their souls going back to the Throne, to wait for the most important of them.
Looking to the temple's destroyed entrance, the young Emiya saw the ghostly and barely solid form of Savior staring at him silently, his 'Saitama-face' on.
"…that's a very dangerous power you have there, Master." he softly whispered with an emotionless voice. "Be careful with it."
"I will. After all, I now know…what it truly means to be a Hero. And why is it really important." answered Shirou with a sad smile. "I learned from the best, Savior."
"…just call me Kirito. All my friends do." smiled the Servant of the Cape as he walked to his Master's side, not looking at him, but beyond, something only he could see. "See ya, Shirou. Have a good life…and I hope next time I'm summoned is by someone even half as interesting as you."
"This may not be goodbye. After all, the Omniverse is a very big place, right?" asked the Magus without turning around, making the Caped Hero chuckle.
"You may be right with that. Till our paths meet again, then." declared Savior as he slowly started to walk away…until he suddenly stopped, turning around with wide eyes. "Oh yeah, I almost forgot!"
"Uh?" blinked the confused Emiya while turning around. "Forgot what?"
"Something very important, that will surely save you a lot of pain and headaches in the future!" sagely nodded Savior before crossing his arms and staring seriously at his Master. "Hear, Shirou, when the girls in your life try to…!"
The Servant Savior vanished at that moment, whatever he was going to say lost in the wind as his body was finally unable to continue keeping its soul bound to the physical plane without any anchor or the Grail backing it up.
Blinking in confusion, Emiya Shirou stared towards where the boy that had become the greatest Hero he had ever imagined had stood before a smile appeared on his face again.
Not much later, Tohsaka Rin found him still standing there, staring in silence at the slowly darkening sky with closed eyes.
"Hey, idiot. Everyone is still waiting for you, you know?" muttered the pigtailed girl with a slightly annoyed tone, though unable to hide the relief and happiness at seeing him.
"Yes, I know. Sorry about that, Rin, I was just…really accepting that he was gone." answered the red-haired boy before looking at her with a smile, walking at her side before gazing towards the city in silence, staring at the destroyed landscape around it. "…this isn't over yet. There is no way the Association will be able to cover this up."
"…I know." accepted the Tohsaka heir with a sigh, turning to stand at his side. "And the entire fucking city saw that. There is no damage control I can do; in fact, it would only make it worse if people who suddenly didn't remember a thing about the event appeared among everyone."
"Most people either already contacted someone out of the city anyway. Some may even have already left. Word will spread soon." slowly, Shirou sheathed Ignis Heart on his back again. "This is a new beginning. Things are going to change."
"Yeah. And I don't know what that 'friend' of Savior did to Illya, but she now somehow can order a part of the World around with English words. I wouldn't count in the Association letting her go if they knew that." dryly muttered Rin while looking down, before staring at the boy at her side. "What now?"
"…we move on. We just helped stop a potential world-ending disaster, so let's try and use that in our favor." declared the Magus before looking at her with determination. "And don't worry. If the worst happens, I will protect you all."
For a moment, the shocked girl found herself staring at him, seeing a familiar and invincible caped figure overlapped with his.
And she felt as if she could truly believe his outrageous declaration.
"…idiot, don't go around saying that as if we couldn't do anything." challenged the Tohsaka heir while looking away, a noticeable blush on her cheek. "If something happens, I will be the one making sure you don't mess up!"
"I'm counting on that, Rin." he softly said, surprising the pigtailed girl and making her heart skip a beat. "Let's go home, okay?"
"…yeah. Let's go."
In silence, both teens started walking down the destroyed stairs, silently enjoying the company of the other…
"Oh yeah…where did you get that sheath, Shirou? Did Savior gave it to you?"
"Eh? This? Oh no, I found it inside me. It's Avalon, the scabbard of King Arthur's Excalibur. Do you have any idea how it could have gotten there?"
"…sometimes, I don't even know why I get surprised by you anymore…"
And with that, the story of the 5th Holy Grail War came to an end.
The legend of the Hero that would one day be known as Swordian, however, was just beginning…