"Why are you using Spiritual Evocation!? Even if you have some talent in that branch of magecraft, isn't it obvious that your talent lies in the Bioelectric Magecraft?" said the Lord.
The same had not happened with him because, unlike Caules, he had already found what he was good at. The problem was that the redhead's talent was located in very few areas, so the Lord decided to give him some alternatives to complement his Magecraft.
In fact, he listed them for him:
"1-. Try to manipulate the shape of your projections, so you can make them better suit your needs. 2-. Reinforce your body at the same time that you reinforce your projection so that both are more resistant. 3-. And finally, I recommend you study the runes, with these, even if you don't have any elemental affinity, you can use them to your advantage; you will be able to engrave them on your weapons and give them other effects."
And Shirou, following his teacher's advice, had practiced a lot and, until now, the results had been mixed:
He could slightly manipulate the shape of his weapons, their length, weight, and thickness, but manipulating the form to his pleasure was something that was still beyond him. He was also able to strengthen his body in a short time, though it still hadn't reached a level where he could do crazy things like molding steel with his bare hands, even so, his reinforcement was good enough to resist things like attacks from Shinji's familiars, however, the redhead still couldn't reinforce his body and the weapon he was using at the same time. And lastly, and most importantly, his study of the runes. Unfortunately, he planned to delve into the runes during his second year of learning, but time was not on his side, he had learned the basic runes, but he wasn't able to combine them or use complicated effects with them.
And this was the reason why Kiritsugu didn't want to reveal his relationship with Shirou until he had completed his second year of studies. During his first year, he had only received the introduction to studies, namely, the introductory education that everyone should know, and, in his second year, that's when he should start digging deeper into it. But fate was capricious and if they wanted to have a better chance of retrieving Emiya's Crest, then they would have to take a chance.
Speaking of the Emiya's Crest, Kiritsugu had made sure that Shirou knew how to use all the tools at his fingertips, making his training almost hell. The redhead had spent hours for days shooting at various targets, from immobile to mobile. He had learned to use all types of firearms, from the oldest to the automatic, even with the use of a scope or a silencer. But this wasn't the really hellish thing about training...
One of the first things the magus killer had taught him was to hypnotize himself. And he did when he had to project a more powerful weapon than usual, like Caliburn, which required quite a bit of his energy. In the case of the projections, he used the command: Trace On, but to quickly activate the Time Manipulation Magecraft of his Magic Crest, he used the command: Time Alter.
The magus killer also taught him how to move so as not to put more pressure, well, more than he was already putting by speeding up his time, on his body.
"Old man, why did you bring that gun?"
Kiritsugu was loading rubber bullets into a pneumatic gun, "Shirou, you told me Avalon works when you're around Lord El-Melloi's apprentice, right?"
The redhead nodded.
The magus killer finished loading the bullets, "That's fine; however, Avalon only works with its full power when you are near the girl, and once you get too far away from her, its performance will depend on the mana it has stored. And as you do not use any type of shield, your only tool when defending yourself will be your reflexes and the temporary alteration to dodge."
"I understand."
"But that will only work if you can use magecraft in a matter of seconds, so, to improve your reflexes and get used to using the double accel more naturally, I'm going to shoot you and you'll have to activate the Time Alter to avoid it."
"What!?"
"Don't worry, this pistol is designed to fire a bit slower than usual, and these bullets won't hurt you much..." Kiritsugu pointed the gun at Shirou.
In his mind, the young magus apprentice could only think of one thing:
Oh shit...!
The result of that infernal training was that the redhead ended up with multiple bruises all over his body from his failed attempts, and Kiritsugu also did not allow him to reinforce his body as the pain made him on alert. However, at the end of those two horrible months, he had gotten used to activating the Time Alter in a matter of seconds, allowing him to dodge the bullets... most of the time.
1
"Rou…? Shi... rou…? Shirou!?" his father yelled, snapping him out of his reverie.
"Eh?"
"Are you okay? The phoenix tears worked, right?"
The redhead nodded, "Yeah, I was just a little nervous, so I got a little lost in my thoughts."
Instead of letting Avalon heal him from his injuries caused by Caliburn's reforging and his training, Shirou preferred to use Phoenix Tears so as not to deplete the mana the sheathed. These were part of the medicines that Dr. Pieceman had given them, although they did not have many due to how expensive they were, especially considering how strange the phoenixes were in today's world.
The freelancer nodded and got out of the car while grabbing his briefcase, "Come on, we've arrived."
The apprentice magus followed his father when he realized that they had parked at one of those stalls to buy fuel.
"The town of Aylesbury is a kilometer away. Numerous barriers and bounded fields are protecting the area, so it's best to make the rest of the journey on foot."
"The Association and the Church have prepared a place to meet half a kilometer apart of Aylesbury, haven't they?" asked the redhead.
Kiritsugu nodded.
As they walked, Shirou asked him, "Old man, there is something I don't understand, why are we going to attack the place just before the ritual is completed?"
"That's because, although the Magicians Association and the Holy Church have been monitoring the area, all that has been invested in the city is legitimate funds, as well as human labor, therefore, they cannot act, even if they know that it is a hatchery for the dead apostles, as long as that human justice is maintained, they cannot act until the supernatural has made an appearance."
"And the time before?"
"It happened more or less the same. The Association and the Church attacked when the ritual was about to be completed, and although they managed to stop it, it still caused the premature degradation of the planet."
"And now the same thing will happen?"
Kiritsugu nodded, "Five years ago, the dead apostles started investing in the land once more. It was then that the Association again monitored the village..."
The Dark Six, the second apostle dead within the 27, how powerful will it be so that the ritual that serves for its rebirth, even incomplete, is capable of degrading the entire planet?
The boy thought.
After thirty minutes of walking...
On a hill, they could see a kind of camp. This was surrounded by barriers, bounded fields, executors, and other members of both organizations.
"The Association and the Church need to modernize..."
The freelancer nodded.
They reached the entrance to the camp and found two executioners and, by their clothing, one seemed to be from the Church and the other from the Association. The latter recognized his father and reluctantly let them pass.
The camp could be separated into three parts: The Church zone, the Association zone, and, in the middle, the freelancers.
"Oh? The magus killer..."
Shirou turned towards the origin of the voice to see a man in his thirties. His devilish appearance was like that of an American outlaw. He possessed a scarred face, sharp eyes with a look hidden by dark glasses, a muscular body, and a black jacket made from flayed skins of magical beasts. He also smelled of blood and gunpowder, and this essence emanated from his entire body.
"Sisigou Kairi?" Kiritsugu asked, noticing the mercenary.
The man approached, showing a sharp smile, "Himself, I had heard you were back in business, but I never expected to see you here."
"Considering the stakes, there was no way I didn't come," Kiritsugu replied calmly.
"Yes, you're right. The pay is very good," said the necromancer.
I didn't mean that...
Thought the magus killer. "This time I did not come to loot bodies, or for money..."
Kairi looked at him strangely but did not ask questions, "And the boy?"
"He is my son, Emiya Shirou," Kiritsugu replied, "Shirou, he is Kairi Sisigou, a spellcaster, and freelancer, just like us. I have met him in some jobs..."
"It's my pleasure," Shirou replied politely.
However, the necromancer did not reply, and, for a moment, an awkward silence reigned throughout the environment.
Kairi took off his glasses, cleaned them, and, seeing that Shirou's image didn't disappear, he asked the question, "Are you serious?"
They both did not understand the question.
"What do you mean?" asked the magus killer.
"Nothing... is that... I never thought that, of all people, you were a family man."
"So strange is...?" Shirou asked.
The necromancer smiled uncomfortably, "W-Well kid, your father was classified as the magus killer for shooting down a plane to hunt down a dead apostle, so it's kind of strange to be told that person is a family man."
Kiritsugu frowned as he recalled the last mission he performed with his teacher.
Seeing Shirou looking at him with curiosity and concern, he clarified, "Excuse me both… In that mission, Borzak had turned all the passengers into his "extensions", So the safest thing was to eliminate them all by shooting down the plane..."
"Borzak?"
"The dead apostle..."
Although Shirou would have liked to know more about that story, the three of them were interrupted by a third...
"Hmm… You are quite an interesting human, you know?"
"Eh…?"
Shirou turned to see an elderly priest, the man was quite tall and had white hair, also he wore glasses and was dressed in a ceremonial robe.
"Excuse me, are you referring to me?" Shirou asked.
"Yes." The priest nodded with a smile, "My master became interested in you after feeling the energy emanate from that weapon on his belt."
"Can you feel it? It is inactive…" said Shirou surprised.
The priest nodded, "Even if you're not using it, it is a powerful holy sword. Its power is felt at a great distance, as long as you can sense this kind of thing, of course."
Suddenly, a little rat walked up to the priest, he picked up the rodent and... did he start talking to this? The rat seemed to say something to him, and he nodded, "It seems that my Master wants to meet you, but because the Church does not allow him to come in person, and because my Master has to attend to someone else, he cannot come, but even so, he says he will look for you when starts the operation.
With this said, the priest began to walk away.
"Wait! Who you are!?"
The old man stopped and replied, "I have no proper name, but they know me as the King of Rats."
Kiritsugu narrowed his eyes, "Shirou, be careful."
"Why?" asked the confused redhead.
"Kid, the King of Rats is how one of Merem Solomon's familiar is known, one of the dead apostles who works for the Burial Agency," Kairi replied, to which Kiritsugu nodded.
"Are there dead apostles working for the Church?"
"Two so far, maybe three actually."
Again, the conversation was interrupted, although this time by three people: two women and a man, they were on a platform.
The two women were young.
One of them was a woman with brown eyes and hair, her hair was long, and she wore it tied in a ponytail. She wore a white suit while carrying a whip, and it could be said that she denoted nobility above all things.
The other was a woman in a Church uniform, and as the other woman, her hair was long. She was smiling kindly, but that smile made Shirou's spine tremble.
The last one was an older man wearing ceremonial Church robes.
Shirou felt a hand on his shoulder and looked at his father...
"The woman with the whip is the Deputy Director of the Clock Tower, Barthomeloi Lorelei. The other woman is the director of the Burial Agency, Narbareck. And, finally, the man is Cardinal Laurentis. He is said to be the closest Cardenal to obtaining the position of the next Pope."
Shirou nodded, these people were extremely powerful in various ways.
The Cardinal was the one who directed the operation, "We are gathered here in harmony, even with our differences, to destroy a common enemy." Despite what the Cardinal said, Shirou could tell that the three parties that made up the assembled wanted to kill each other. However, the gaze of the two women behind the Cardinal silenced any attempt to dispute, "The operation will take place in ten minutes and will consist of three phases:
The first phase will be the incursion of the vanguard, this will be made up of members of both the Association and members of the Church.
The second stage will be made up of freelancers paid by both organizations, and all of you will be in charge of destabilizing the enemy formation.
The last and third stages will be made up of the most powerful members of the two organizations. Once the location of our objectives is known, we will attack them using the most powerful of our arsenal. That said, the family of magi, the Ainsworths, have agreed to help us using their magecraft, Flash Air, to take us to town without the dead apostles being able to detect us. Brace yourselves, we start in ten minutes..."
The Flash Air was a type of scrolling magecraft that substitutes something for something else, it had been created as a derivative of Alchemy, and the system had a fundamental rule: the replacement will always suffer some kind of degradation. Flash Air was considered basic and low-level magecraft, so there are very few who use it, however, it was said that there was a family that had dedicated themselves to polishing this magecraft to the maximum level possible, to the point that there was been able to minimize degradation by various means and use it in a multitude of ways.
"Well, that seems to be it," Kairi said, seeing how the three of them retired. It seems that both the Deputy Director of the Association and the Director of the Burial Agency had only come to silence any objections and to make an appearance, "See you on the battlefield, magus killer, and magus killer Jr."
Kiritsugu frowned slightly due to the way the necromancer called out to his son. He knew that other people would link Shirou to his title sooner or later; however, he wanted to prevent his son from being seen as the second magus killer. He didn't want this to become a hereditary position or something like that, but it seemed that it was already late.
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AN: And this chapter is for the 6th review!