Words: 221k+
Link: -https://m.fanfiction.net/s/12986442/1/Fate-Hero-and-Sword
( Left in a new world with hardly an explanation for his arrival, the only thing left for him to do was to keep walking forward one step at a time for those watching behind him. )
Chapter 1: A New World 1
The game YGGDRASIL was revolutionary in that out of all DMMORPG's (Dive Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) it was hailed as the best.
Not only did it contain an exceedingly large amount of content and versatility in gaming structure, it also allowed the player the freedom to act as they wished.
It was a game of exploration and innovation. Players could choose from a plethora of various classes, races, magics, skills, and abilities without care for future penalties involving said classes due to a unique leveling system. This leveling system itself was designed to allow players to explore undiscovered regions to find new things and bolster the community's interest in expanding towards the unknown. After all. The unknown regions generally possessed the highest drop yields of high-ranked equipment, and perhaps more than that was the possibility of discovering hidden dungeons.
That in itself was the treasure; for hidden dungeons contained monsters which dropped valuable data crystals that represented weapons and armours which could be used in game. There was even a bonus of ten-percent to treasure chests to first time dungeon divers of a newly discovered dungeon. Nonetheless, even if these dungeons were found, some were exceedingly difficult to clear, let alone for one guild or party to do so by themselves.
This point was the same even for Super Guilds with outstanding members. In which case, the concept of Raid-Bosses took full swing.
It would take countless numbers of players to even defeat one Raid-Boss and even then, they may not be able to do it. Raid-Bosses in particular were generally spawned in their own boss environments and were either assisted by swarms of minions or were simply insanely powerful and could continuously spam their abilities.
When such difficult bosses were encountered in game, they were generally referred to as 'World-Enemies.' The number of bosses alone that could be attributed to this category were above thirty-two.
Oddly enough however, that number was steadily increasing to the shock of even the game developers who couldn't understand what was possibly going on. It was true that the developers themselves had hidden a certain number of other Raid-type bosses that had yet to be found, but these new Raid-Bosses as termed by the players and gaming community were not in YGGDRASIL's original set program.
YGGDRASIL had nine separate worlds that represented the realms of Norse Mythology, and within these realms suddenly sprouted new dungeons and Raid-Bosses.
The Holy Kingdom of Camelot in Asgard.
The Land of Shadows in Midgard.
There was quite literally one for each realm, and if a realm was missing one, most players simply speculated that the particular dungeon hadn't yet been found.
It was only after months of trying to search for a program malfunction in the game that developers realized something astonishing.
The new dungeons and Raid-Bosses,
They were player-made.
Yet it was hard to believe even if YGGDRASIL allowed players to freely design and create characters. After all, there was no such feature that would allow a player to create something as absurdly powerful as a Raid-Boss and dungeon. The only way would be if the player were able to fully comprehend the true in-game script and alter it like a blue print. Yet this in-game script was not something with public access. Only developers would possess such a privilege as they were the ones to decide on new bosses and expansions.
Still, with the player community demanding an explanation, and the developers unwilling to admit that some player may have had compromised their game, the new dungeons and Raid-Bosses were expressed to be simple expansion packs in a later update.
Therefore, only the developers knew that there was a player in YGGDRASIL capable of altering the game. Generally, they would have had stopped at nothing to locate this player and ban him or her, but the newly generated Bosses and dungeons were racking in an absurdly high revenue. It wasn't even the challenge of these dungeons themselves sometimes that attracted players, but the life-like designs of the bosses created.
They were beautiful, breathtaking even.
Many players even challenged the dungeon just to see the bosses faces.
It got to the point where some even became infatuated and started to attack serious players who wanted to kill the bosses for their drops.
Regardless of the active discussions in the game community, the developers had to admit that this mysterious player added more depth into their game. Thus, they put aside their efforts to locate this player and just allowed him or her their freedom as this player wasn't jeopardizing their game in the least. Or even if he or she did, the developers just turned a blind eye due to corporate reasons of weighing the good and the bad.
This player was eventually dubbed as a legend by the game developers, and would continue to be all the way until the end of the game.
Because even the dreams of players had their end,
And so too did YGGDRASIL, the game that began the Stylistic Revolution.
The world of virtual reality was something Shirou never considered would be able to alleviate the sorrow he felt in his heart, but as he stood there staring at the mirror image of the woman he loved, it was enough.
It was an identical copy of Saber, Arturia Pendragon, from the night of all those years ago.
To her refined expression and elegant blue armour, it was all there. He wouldn't allow for a single defect and this was what made him utilize Structural Analysis when YGGDRASIL first launched to allow himself an extensive range of customization.
Structural Analysis in the first place allowed a magus to analyze the structural composition of an object. As his physical body itself was in contact with the Dive-Gear for Virtual Reality, it wasn't too difficult to gain access to the programing stored within. This alone granted him the access and privileges he required to create the NPC's before him.
Besides Arturia, there were several others that he had transported into his in-game residence before the developers of YGGDRASIL would close down the game. They were the other NPC's he had created and programmed using the memories of their personalities stored within their weapons.
It was a capability of his that stemmed from the very nature of his magecraft, Tracing. Not only could it recreate any weapon he had ever seen and store it within the separate space of his inner world, but it recorded the history of the weapon's wielder.
Hardships and happiness, struggles and ambitions, he understood everything.
Which was why, he alone was the most suited to creating the NPC's of the heroes whose honours and glories were fully known to him.
He stared at Arturia for a moment longer and then sighed before prompting her and the rest of the NPC's behind her to follow him down the hall.
He had created the other NPC's in fits of nostalgia and purpose.
The bosses of Camelot for example included the Knights of the Round Table created on behalf of the memories he had shared with Arturia in her rule as the King of Britain. Even if it was only a game, he wanted to recreate the glory of the memory Arturia had of the Holy City of Camelot and her faithful Knights.
It was just that he didn't expect that players would assume that she was a dungeon boss and begin attacking. Then again it was his fault for tampering with YGGDRASIL's settings and giving Arturia boss-level parameters to allow for certain stylistic designs.
Expectedly, he couldn't bear watching her die by other players and intervened by maxing out her stats and equipment; going as far as to replicate certain effects of World-Class Items and tacking them on to her designed equipment.
Inadvertently, he had created new World-Class Items which many players would then understand on a more personal level due to the number of times they were probably killed by it.
Holy Sword Excalibur became one such hated item.
Gae Bolg more so for undead players attempting to clear the Land of Shadows.
He smiled wryly at those memories, Arturia's example used when he made the other dungeons and bosses in tribute for other famous heroes. Being a participant of the Holy Grail War really did influence him, as he saw first hand the motivations of past beings of great respect.
He couldn't help attempting to recreate them, for his dream itself was to become a Hero like them.
An Ally of Justice.
For it was in this dream that he could find the will to keep walking forward, to one day meet her again when his duties were fulfilled.
Yet his journey was too lonely, too painful that even those around him could feel his sorrow. It was why a colleague of his during an assignment suggested YGGDRASIL to take his mind off of things.
At first, he wasn't exactly too interested, but when YGGDRASIL first launched and Zeltrech had given him a Dive-Device, he didn't really have much of a choice. It was just that he became addicted from the moment he had discovered YGGDRASIL's customization system, and the fact that in the virtual world, he could see her image again at any time.
He hadn't stopped playing since.
And now it was all coming to an end.
This was why he had brought together all the NPC's he had ever created to his in-game base, a mausoleum made of hard granite and orichalcum, a common ore found in YGGDRASIL. The interior of the mausoleum had a wide space with an alter set at the middle which he used to rest on while staring at the NPC's he had dedicated days of time and effort to create.
On the stroke of midnight, he would be forcibly logged off as YGGDRASIL officially shut down. It was just that until then, he had decided to spend every moment he had left to stare at the faces of those he would never be able to see again.
There was only five minutes left.
And from then it became two, then one.
His eyes closed as he gradually waited for the familiar sensation of logging off in game, yet it never occurred. Instead, his brows knit together in agitation when he felt of wave of energy surround him and the environment.
Magic?
His eyes immediately shot open, trying to assess what exactly had occurred. He wasn't originally a gamer, but a magus who walked alongside death. Therefore, he was highly sensitive to magic as he was known for another name in the Magi community, the Second Magus Killer.
He couldn't count how many times he had been actively hunted by other magi hired by prominent families, but it was enough to develop a sixth sense.
Something big had occurred, and he was inadvertantyl involved in it.
His gaze scanned the surroundings, and that was when he first realized that he hadn't been logged out of YGGDRASIL.
Everything was still the same.
He felt confused on the matter but was certain that something did occur.
It was then that he noticed.
All of the eyes staring at him, facial expressions no longer set in flat data pixels.
His breath hitched, his mind going blank. Even in YGGDRASIL it was unheard of for players or NPC's to have any type of facial expressions. It was simply because facial expressions and artificial intelligence were not supported due to a lack of technology. Then how was it possible for the NPC's in front of him to stare at him with such fervour.
No, it didn't matter.
What did was that his attention was fully concentrated on the woman in front of him.
A woman with refined features and eyes the colour of the deepest teal.
Her lips parted, her mouth saying the words he had not known in years as his body trembled.
The words once spoken to him before.
The line he had once included in her settings.
Arturia stared at him in the face.
Her expression revealing her earnesty for an answer she already knew yet would ask anyway.
"I ask of you, are you my master?"
Disclaimer: I do not own Fate or Overlord.
Thanks for reading!
The next update will be the Holy Man of the Church Creek in a couple days
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