A tall young man with tan skin sat inside a police station holding a cup of coffee as he looked up at the officer across from him. His hair was a strange mix of red and silver and his golden eyes were staring at the officer in front of him even as they were half covered by his eyelids. The young man was giving a kind and normally disarming smile to the officer even as the adult was doing his best not to panic while jotting down information onto a device that looked to be a glass tablet.
"Ok let's get this filled out and then we'll get you into your pod. Start with your name, age, relatives, and place of residence son." The officer hurriedly said as he looked down at the steely eyed young man who had walked into his prescient mere minutes ago claiming to be suffering from the nightmare spell.
Said young man did not react to the man's hurried speech in the least. He understood perfectly why the man was worried, especially given the fact that even with the smile on his face Shirou's eyes were half lidded "Emiya Shirou, age 21, no living relatives, and I'm afraid that as far as residences go, I'm somewhat homeless."
Shirou said those words with no sadness of his own, but it still earned a look of pity, shame and a touch of fear from the officer and others in the room. They had every right to show such reactions since Shirou had just essentially admitted that he was some kind of outskirts vagrant and thus would have very little chance to survive what was coming. The fear that mixed in with their pity and empathetic sadness was due to the danger of facing whatever might be left of Shirou should he fail what was to come.
As the officer in front of him wrote down Shirou's answers he sucked up his own disappointment and put a brittle smile on his own face. "That's all right son, lots of folks have issues with housing these days. Times are tough after all." Nothing the officer could do would make any difference here but at the very least there was no need to bring down the lad's spirits anymore. "Hell, even a sergeant like me has to share a room with my whole extended family, even my in-laws, So don't fret about it" with that the man finished off his paperwork, or rather glasswork, and gave Shirou the best smile he could offer to a young man who was very likely to die by the end of the day. "In fact once you get through this nightmare you'll be raking in even more money than me, so make sure to do your best!"
Shirou's half lidded smile turned a bit brighter at the man's words as he reflected on them. This officer was certainly a kind sort to be trying this hard to lift the spirits of someone who was by all rights a corpse that simply had not died yet. It was equally as touching as it was tragic to watch the man dealing with watching a young man get ready to die while being able to do nothing to stop it. Although doing nothing wasn't quite right was it. Even if the words were worthless, and the smile was brittle they both were still actions to try and reach out and comfort someone.
If he was half as incompetent as the man feared he was Shirou may have been too terrified to appreciate that gesture but as it was Shirou only nodded his head and stood up before putting his own hand on the man's shoulders. The action left the officer at a loss for a second until Shirou widened his smile and gripped the man's shoulder gently. "In that case I'll have to stop by here again after I'm done to tell you all about my new life as an awakened, in fact why don't I buy all the officers here a round?"
The show of confidence somewhat got the officers out of their funk and a few even replaced the grim frowns on their faces with smiles at the sight of the confident young outskirts rat in front of them. The mention of a round of drinks was even enough to earn some claps and applause which further drove away the cloud of malaise hanging over everyone. Shirou seemed to them like a likeable enough sort that his inevitable death would have been depressing but at least he was facing it with some impressive dignity and grace. The officer who had been working on Shirou's documents patted the young man's hand and gave him another smile. "In that case young man, we'll be looking forward to hearing about your exploits. Gods, once you become a saint we can even brag to everyone that it was our station you went to for your first nightmare!"
The boast earned a smattering a laugh from the officers on the wall but most importantly to the man it earned one from Shirou. Taking that last bit of boasting as a fine send off the officer led Shirou into the back of the station and into an elevator. The ride down was slow enough to no doubt be nerve racking for most but after the words above the mood was calm. After only a couple minutes the two arrived at the destination which from the elevator panel seemed to be down in the lower utility strata of the district they were standing in earlier. It was a sensible location to stick nightmare aspirants considering the damage they could do on the surface or upper levels, and even more clever was the fact that most Dormant nightwear creatures would be unable to escape a place like this. It was almost enough to give the impression that humanity had gained enough understanding of the new horrors of the world to adapt to them and get comfortable again.
The reality though was that despite coming as far as they did humanity was still woefully under equipped to stand against the creatures of the nightmare and even the lowliest of them could pose a huge danger to normal mundane people. Even this place so deep under the earth was not as safe as it needed to be, and all it would take to cost many good men and women their lives was the wrong type of beast coming through and bypassing their best attempts at safety. Something gaseous, or a swarm of nightmare insects, or even some vengeful dormant spirit they couldn't touch would be all it takes to turn the building above into a graveyard, along with the rest of the district to follow.
It was a harrowing world to live in, and one that Shirou found himself pitying the longer he was here. If he wasn't an accomplished combat magus himself the idea of being thrust into horrific dreamscapes to battle against beasts and abominations would have left him paralyzed with fear. It made him respect the people of this world even more to know that they did all of this oftentimes with precious little help of support, which made their accomplishments all the more impressive.
Despite those thoughts though Shirou knew what he had to do. They both had a mission to accomplish in this world and the first step was braving the Nightmare spell and becoming integrated with the dream world. Given what information they'd uncovered regarding the nightmare spell it seemed that it was somewhat manageable during the initial nightmare and as a result Shirou had no real concerns about his chances. It may be a difficult challenge but after all that he had been through he wasn't really worried about death claiming him.
As Shirou and the unnamed officer made their way through the aspirant wing they came to a reinforced door that led to a barren room dominated by a sleeping pod in its center. The pod itself was not the nicest on the market and had a rough look to it, made all the worse by the fact that it had thick reinforced shackles welded onto it for the wrist and ankles.
It hardly looked like a comfortable way to rest but given that the Nightmare was already hard at work to force Shirou into unconsciousness he didn't have any worries about being able to fall asleep once he sat down. Sparing one more look at the officer to give him a nod Shirou sat down and climbed up into the chair. As soon as he laid down even before the cuffs were fully locked over him Shirou was already drifting off to sleep as he finally let the spell take hold of him.
***
As sleep fully took him and Shirou succumbed to spells siren call he found his consciousness in a great white expanse. Before he could dwell too long on the mystery of this place a voice rang out like a million broken gears grinding into one another.
[F̵͔̫͑̆̄̅̅̅͑̈́̄ơ̵̢̳͍̩̱͙̝̲̲͌̋͗̄̈̈́̈͠r̶̡̡̡̖̻̭̹̻͉͇̥̣͍̿̿̉̍͝e̴̯̗̮̩̰̙̰̤̠͎̱̭̐̓̑i̵̹͋̇̌̅̂͘ġ̶̞̯̟̗̬̝̖͎̘̩̫͈̈̋̒͌̔̏̎̀̈͒͘ņ̶̨̡̛̛͙͉̰̫͚̺͓̳͚͉̣̓̀͋͗̆͊͑̀̅̃̑̕͝e̴̛̘̣͓̫͗̽͗͂͋͒̑͌̚ŗ̴̤̺͍͔̮̊̋̅!̶̛̱̲̗̯̰̰̣̍̄̋͒͒͘ ̸̱̝̝͇͎̹̙̮̰̖̣̊́̉͂̆̔͊̀́͋͌̍̉̂W̵̧̛̞͚͔̣̤̥̟̱̜̰̘̏͐͛̇͑̐ͅ3̷̧̢̠̪̫̥̲͕̩̪̅̔̂͌̈́̽̓͗͗̊̊͌͘ḻ̶̛͓̝̱̟̎͑̎̑ć̵̹͇̒̅͛̈́0̸̛͖͔̗͓̩̦̘́̇͆̕͝ͅ%̴̧̛̙͕̪̘̘͎̟͙̤͉̳̟̀̂̋̌̀̇̈́̎͒̃͜͝͠ȩ̵͙̰̖͖̲͈͔̥̩̟͙͈̙́̏̄̈́͗̉͆̎͆̍̈̇̏̔͠͝ ̷̤͖̼̖́͒͒̿̆́̊̑̕̕ț̶̻̜͚̙̺͓̘̦̭͕̤̥̫̝̍̉̉́͊̅̿́̋̐̾ͅo̸̧͇̭̗̱͛͒͌̓͆͌͠ ̷̻̼̤̾̐͒́̎͛̈́͘͠t̷̞͉͈̦͕̪̖͔̊͐̒̒̆̿̈́̋̃̀͛̚͝͝ͅ^̶̭̮̣͙̬̫̹͕̯̱̀̋̏͗̈́̇̊̒̈́͐͛̚͠ę̶̠̥̦̹̮͔͙͕̀͊̈́̈́ ̴̛̜͖̺͚̩̺̰͔̳̩̘̎͊͒̾̒̈́͒͐̔̊͗̌̀͝͝N̷̛̯̹͙̙̍̾̿͂̂́̓́̚̕&̷̢̲̼̮̥̖͇͕͍̻̙͚̱͖̭̤͍̒͊̒̓̉́͐͛̄̅g̸̮̻̪̟̫͙̖̦͐͗̾͗́̏́͊̚ͅ*̴̛̠̗̃͆ͅt̸̜̋͌̀͒̿͌͛̉̊ḿ̴̨̧̢̞̯͇͚̺̰͕͔̈́͑͊̾̚͘͠ͅ(̷̛̺̻͇̟̣̗͓̠́̾͆̎̓̌̄̈́͜ͅr̵͙̪̆̓͋̋͆̅͊̓̕̕͝ę̵̨̳̖͎̜͓͚̬͇̻̱̮͔̱̥͆̈̑̍̐̊̇ͅ ̸̨͓͔̺̤͎̣͔̠̾̈́̿̀̂̀̅͊̂̿̇̅̐̈̉͠͝Ş̵̢͓͈̻̩͙̲̳̻̺̣̝̲̣̌͂̚#̶̡̡̜̼̦̺̜͎̞̬̻͕͚̆͐͛̅̔͐̀̾̿̏̋͋͘͜͠͠ę̶̜̳̼͓͎̟͕̭͍͇͔̭͋̉͊͝ͅͅ@̵̡̲̗̳̮̥͚͕̹̝͓̞̹̱͆͗̓́̌̑̂̓̀̀̕̕̚̕^̷̮̯̺͎̦́͊͊.̵̧̛̪̜̫̬̘͍̦͂̓͑͑͑̈̃́̈͒̎̌̓̓̅ ̶̨̲̦̖̮̬͉̫͛̿͐̈͘ͅ$̸̙̰̝̜̮̰̰̜̳̗̬̈͆̇̍̾͋̃%̶̻̯̠̗͒̿̿̋̈͐̓̂͋̾̓̈͒̾̊͘͘!̵̧̰̰̙͖̝͙̱̰̤̱̪̦̈́́͂̈́͐̍̉̐̕͠#̷͚͚̥̱̜̤̓̔͛͛̾̀̍̃͋̔^̸͔̝̾̒̓̏͝ṛ̶̋̕ͅ%̵̡̨̜̰̱̝͎͚̹̩͙̺̺̼̗̎̽̈́̍̐̇͜͝ͅ ̷̧̲̪̳̤̦͕͎͎͔̺͕̈̉̋̉̈́̈́̚͝f̵̨̨̢͔̘̰̦̲̘̻͇̭̟̥̅̏̏̀͘͜%̷̧͇̪̼̘̜͙̫̳͍̠̭͉̼͕̈́͊̊͗̃͗͐̐͑͌̄͜͠ŗ̸͓̳͈̬͈͎̳̺͎̰͐͒̽͌̍͐̀̍͜.̶͕̗̞͍͉̈́̽́̊̓̽̑͛̊̔͠͝ͅ.̵̡͈̰͉̮̞͓̟͖͕͂͊̋̈́̓͑̈́̿͋̓.̶̧͇̦͔̼͉̮̙͓͓̾̓͋͒̍̓͊͊̈́̃ͅ]̸̤̳͙̝̣̙͍̖̯̹̻͎̼̋̉͗͐͛͆̔͌͐̒̈́̂͜͝͝
As the voice pounded against Shirou's disembodied mind he was left reeling from the sensation of its broken shattered words trying to force their way into his mind. If he had been subjected to that noise with his flesh and blood eardrums he had no doubt they would have ruptured and been left leaking blood.
As he was left trying to wrap his head around what he just heard another series of runes blitzed past him, too fast to be read or heard and speaking about things that his mind had now understanding of.
[ERROR ENCOUNTERED: EVALUATING…]
[FOREIGNER DETECTED…]
[ANOMALOUS SOUL DETECTED…]
[ANOMALOUS PHYSIOLOGY DETECTED…]
[NON - FATE PARSEABLE MEMORIES DETECTED…]
[CONCLUSION: CRITICAL SPELLWEAVE INSTABILITY IMMINENT …]
[...]
[...]
[EXECUTING SOUL INTEGRATION WEAVE…]
[ANOMALOUS SOUL INCOMPATIBLE: INTEGRATION WEAVE FAILED…]
[EXECUTING PURGE WEAVE …]
[FOREIGNER UNABLE TO BE PURGED: PURGE WEAVE FAILED …]
[EXECUTING SOUL ALTERATION WEAVE …]
[PHYSIOLOGIC AND COGNITIVE INTEGRATION WITH ANOMALOUS SOUL EXCEEDS WEAVE PARAMETERS: SOUL ALTERATION WEAVE FAILED …]
[...]
[...]
[...]
[BASIC SPELL PROCESSING ERROR ENCOUNTERED: ELEVATED PERMISSIONS REQUEST SENT …]
[...]
[ELEVATED PERMISSIONS REQUEST APPROVED …]
[EXECUTING ELEVATED PHYSIOLOGY ALTERATION WEAVE: EXECUTING ELEVATED MEMORY ALTERATION WEAVE: EXECUTING ELEVATED SOUL ALTERATION WEAVE …]
[...]
[...]
[...]
[ELEVATED PHYSIOLOGY ALTERATION WEAVE: SUCCESSFUL …]
[ELEVATED MEMORY ALTERATION WEAVE: SUCCESSFUL …]
[ELEVATED SOUL ALTERATION WEAVE: SUCCESSFUL …]
[RE-EXECUTING SOUL INTEGRATION WEAVE …]
[...]
[SOUL INTEGRATION WEAVE: SUCCESSFUL …]
[...]
[PERSISTENT SPELLWEAVE INSTABILITY REMAINING…]
[...]
[...]
[ELEVATED SPELL PROCESSING ERROR ENCOUNTERED: FULL PERMISSIONS REQUEST SENT …]
[...]
[...]
[...]
[...]
[...]
[...]
[FULL PERMISSIONS REQUEST APPROVED …]
[EXECUTING FATE INTEGRATION WEAVE … ]
[...]
[FATE INTEGRATION WEAVE: SUCCESSFUL …]
[...]
[SPELL WEAVE STABILITY RESTORED: SPELL INTEGRATION COMPLETE: RE-GENERATING USER GREETING AND APPLYING WEAVE CHANGES…]
[F̵͖̹̦̝̔̇̍̈͆̕ǫ̴̭͖̀̂̃̄r̶̫̻̙̫͗ȅ̵̺́i̴̢̧̦̣̰͉̍̇̾̑g̸̜̀̃̓͗n̴͖̔ȇ̷̞̜̻̲͔̞̦̇̏̕̕r̴͚̻̫͗́̆̇ ̴̘͔̲̎͒͊̇̇̌̒̒̌́́͂͘͝͝, you have journeyed far and bear a terrible weight upon your heart and soul. Entry into this land carries a great price which must be paid.]
Shirou's mind was left stuttering to a halt as he read those runes and tried to process the fact that the nightmare spell was aware of his origins. Before he could think on it any more though his mind, body, and soul began to be shaped and molded by the nightmare spell in a torrent of mana and indescribable agony.
His soul was searing and his magic circuits were left scorching and burning as an immense amount of raw mana forced its way into them from the outside. The mana was surging in through his body back in the waking world and crashing into his inner world like tidal waves from a vast ocean even as a separate river assailed his mind.
The pain was blinding not only spiritually as his soul was drowned in foreign mana which began to batter and assault his blade works but also the terrible physical toll extracted from his beaten and battered magic circuits. Shirou himself could not feel it in the dreamscape but had he seen the situation back in the police station he would have witnessed nearly a dozen panicked police officers looking on at his smoking burning body with faces of dread and horror. Sharp angular lines of charred flesh were rapidly forming across Shirou's skin and burning through his clothing at any point he was covered. As the circuits burned the flesh around them was ravaged and twisted into painful weeping wounds. Even as his soul and mind were cut off from his body the pain was intense enough to cause his body to twitch and writhe in pain. The sight of the young man's roasting skin was terrible enough that none of the officers realized that on top of his body being cooked and set aflame, he was also changing physically. The 21 year old young man who had come in and sat down was slowly twisting and changing as his body was shrunk back down from the cusp of adulthood back into the late stage of adolescence. His bones were reshaped and his muscles shrank down mercifully into a shorter and slightly thinner frame.
All the pain assailing Shirou's physical body was a mere side effect of what was happening to his soul. As the foreign mana made landfall within unlimited bladeworks it immediately began ripping the world apart. Had Shirou had the presence of mind to understand it, he would have seen his inner world being undone and lashed to pieces by almost surgical tendrils of mana. With every blow they landed the ground and sky peeled away leaving behind only a pure white void. As the shards peeled off the backdrop of the world like a cheap Television set they gravitated towards one another and floated towards the shining outline of a golden sheath in what passed for the center of the world.
As the lashes of mana struck at the bladeworks and left empty tears in their wake the world of the bladeworks began to regenerate and heal itself, filling in the cracks as they came and rebuilding the space base on Shirou's memory of it. But as the mana threads snaking their way into his mind began to attack his memories the process slowed, and then halted all together given the blade works no way to resist the attacking mana. Along with the assault on any memory of his inner world, the mana of the spell surged through Shirou's consciousness and scoured anything that was considered to be outside the weave of fate. Memories of a war with mystical servants, a dreadful giant with ashen skin, a blonde haired king of knights wielding a magic blade, and a dreadfully dangerous archer who claimed the whole world as his own. Even further in the spell twisted its tendrils through Shirous mind and pulled apart the threads of memory from even his normal and mundane past. Memories of his school, his old friends and hobbies, his father and the night under the stars that he promised to become a hero of justice. Every individual memory was unraveled and plucked away leaving only indistinct echoes in their place.
Within Shirou's crumbling soul every lash of the mana destabilized his bladeworks even more, and as the gashes in space grew larger they spread and more of the firmament of the world peeled away, seemingly pressed in and crushed under the oppressive brightness of the void around it. The strikes of the sentient mana carved everything that made up the bladeworks into pieces and yet also helped in dragging it all further and further into the great swirling mass in the center.
Size in a place as unlimited as Shirou's soul should have held no meaning and and as a result there should have been no possible way to collapse it all into any kind of finite volume. Despite that fact the orb growing in the center still continued to form and absorb every scrap of the once infinite blade works until finally it alone sat in an endless white expanse.
As the sphere surged and swirled against itself the mana tendrils threaded and wove themselves through the shifting cracks in its surface, diving low into the now smoldering core and then cresting back out to the surface. With each motion of the mana the sphere that was once a world grew smaller and denser as the threads pulled it tighter and tighter until finally It was wrapped tightly and held in a mass of intricate threads. As the threads snaked across the newly formed core they pulsed and tightened. Crushing what was once a world down tighter as the light shining through its cracks was made to glow brighter and brighter.
Finally after reaching an equilibrium point that only the weave of the spell was aware of the tightening stopped and the newly formed dormant soul core was left idle. More threads wrapped across it and obscured its surface until the whole of its light was blocked off and it was left indistinguishable from the white around it.
Finally as its purpose was completed the mana pulled out from Shirou's mind. Its work now done as countless memories were scoured and cut out with strangely surgical precision, leaving the foundations of a personality in their wake with no memories of a place beyond this universe.
Finally in the real world the officers looked on with wide fearful eyes at the sight of a young man… no wait at the sight of the teenager laying on the bed with his body wracked in a whole road map of jagged smoldering scars. The damage done to his body almost as soon as the nightmare began left the officers present confused and alarmed but the monitor showed his mind was still dreaming and so they did not trigger the kill switch yet. Their earlier call to get government support here asap was elevated though, in light of the anomaly they were describing.
Finally the weave of fate restitched itself, an act never performed until now and intended only for the most dire of cases when a fateless creature forces itself into the Nightmare spell. Although no new memories of him were created in people's minds the steps necessary to tie him to the spell's functions were performed and its operational weave once again functioned properly, now with him included.
And finally after all the crippling agonizing pain that the one known as Emiya Shirou had endured was done, the spell spoke to him again.
[F̵͔̫͑̆̄̅̅̅͑̈́̄ơ̵̢̳͍̩̱͙̝̲̲͌̋͗̄̈̈́̈͠r̶̡̡̡̖̻̭̹̻͉͇̥̣͍̿̿̉̍͝e̴̯̗̮̩̰̙̰̤̠͎̱̭̐̓̑i̵̹͋̇̌̅̂͘ġ̶̞̯̟̗̬̝̖͎̘̩̫͈̈̋̒͌̔̏̎̀̈͒͘ņ̶̨̡̛̛͙͉̰̫͚̺͓̳͚͉̣̓̀͋͗̆͊͑̀̅̃̑̕͝e̴̛̘̣͓̫͗̽͗͂͋͒̑͌̚ŗ̴̤̺͍͔̮̊̋̅, your price has been paid. Welcome to the Nightmare Spell! Prepare for your First True Trial…]