For as long as Shirou could ever remember, his life had been empty. His dreams, his hopes, and his aspirations all revolved around a single desire to obtain the same happiness from the smile he saw on the tragedy of the Fuyuki Fire. From a different perspective, it sounded quite shallow, but for him it had always been enough to keep walking forward step by step. Surely, in the end he'd obtain the salvation and joy that he'd been yearning for in the act of saving others. It may not have been guaranteed, but surely the act of putting others before himself had its own rewards.

The lives that he'd saved; the people that he'd influenced; the fact that he could see them grinning from ear to ear had its own kind of gratification despite the hardships he'd endured. In the end, wasn't this the only reason he'd wanted to become a hero? For a smile he'd always wished to understand and one day wear on his own face.

Beast who knows not of the world's beauty or life's fleeting brilliance, this is where you must fall.

That which had once been empty had found purpose and become whole; a void once thought unable to be filled, sealed shut through the events of another world and the light found there. This was the confines of his soul, his world.

An Unlimited Blade Works.

Magic thrummed in the air, altering the landscape itself. The horizon shimmered, power radiating from the swords and weapons standing erect upon a land of budding green hills that stretched on eternally. Wind blew softly; a calming breeze revealing a sensation of peace and tranquility.

Everything that he'd done in this other world, it all led up to this.

The world needed a hero, a Holyman to grant salvation. He would take on that role for the sake of those relying on him.

"Trace. On."

In this world, he was strong.

His muscles bulged, veins popping over his skin as the armoury sprung to life. Every sword, every weapon that he'd ever need was already here awaiting his command. The clang of steel echoed with the beat of a thousand drums, an arsenal of weapons poising themselves to strike while amassing energy.

Steel was his body, and glass was his heart.

He who stood facing against a primordial being of destruction was not a God, Demon, or Monster, but a Human blessed by both Holy and Demonic energy. They who were the most fragile and short lived of intellectual races would be the one to guide the future. Change, innovation, and potential, this is what made a human different from the Gods.

The power to strive in wake of a limited lifespan.

Before him was the Beast that heralded the end of worlds. Weapons of the mortal scale would not work. At the very least, he had to create weapons with divinity or anti-divine properties. Vibrations rippled through the sky, forming a vast array of luminescence and the deepest darkness as he released the holy and demonic energy stored within him. The swords of his Reality Marble assimilated the power.

He was ready, and Goetia had held the Trihexa off on his own for long enough. Goetia and the Trihexa's power were near equal, making his involvement the most crucial.

His fingers curled into fists, the doubts within him fading into a distant twilight. The things he cherished, and the people that he cared for, he would protect them with his own hands.

With power that supplemented his own, it was time to see the true extent of what he was capable of without the limitations of magical energy.

A keening noise echoed in his head, his arms raising up in front of him.

Power welled through the ground in unseen shockwaves that resonated with each and every weapon in his Reality Marble. They stirred and pried themselves from the earth to hover as one in the sky.

Individually, each blade would do nothing to the Trihexa, but all of them together would surely have an impact. This was his all; the power of his soul unleashed!

From the heavens, the swords descend.

He willed his armoury forward, the blades rocketing towards the Trihexa and leaving shockwaves behind. They blurred, taking on the likeness of shooting stars. Dreams for a better tomorrow fought in the present for the future. For a moment, the droning noise of grating metal and the fleeting brilliance of sparks was all that could be seen and heard.

The Trihexa was engulfed within a veritable avalanche of magic and metal.

Not yet! He wasn't done yet!

Blood trickled down his skin from popped blood vessels over his forearms, his vision reddening from the strain. The Trihexa was roaring within the onslaught, but it sounded more annoyed then burdened, such was the vitality of a primordial feared by the pantheons. It put more attention into fending off Goetia's attacks than the swords impacting against its body. This would be its mistake.

In what world do you think that you're in?

Vein-like cracks began forming over the hills and plains the Trihexa stood upon, fiery light glowing from the depths. More than an armory of unlimited blades, this world was a forge capable of housing even the strongest of divine weapons.

Fire was his blood.

From the earth, the fires of the forge ignite to smelt steel.

A chasm abruptly opened beneath the Trihexa, destabilizing it and bathing it in a cauldron of flames. Tongues of fire lapped up the Trihexa's arms and legs, creating a network of interconnecting webs that caused the ground to bubble. The Trihexa's body sunk waist-deep into the scorching earth, its limbs thrashing yet finding no purchase to free itself.

The Trihexa was trapped. This was the extent of what Shirou knew he could do, but even if he couldn't directly damage the Trihexa, there was someone present that could and would.

"Ars Almadel Salomonis!"

Power gathered over the eye of Goetia's chest before congregating above him and connecting to a temple within the realm of time. No longer did he have to worry about the stability of the earth when unleashing his strongest attack. Right here in a different dimension and reality, he would charge it to full power.

If Deities and Gods could render the mountains and seas asunder in their divinity, then this blinding light of the stars incinerates the core of an entire planet. Everything is reduced to ashes, Gods and mortals alike.

A dull ringing echoed as rings of ethereal nature condensed upon a single point of release that exploded into a beam of transcendental energy that washed over the Trihexa. The world went white, Shirou's vision blinded. Fissures formed in Unlimited Blade Works, and expanded outwards into hairline cracks.

"Aaagh!" Shirou yelled, forcibly tolerating the strain to his inner world and using all his focus to maintain it. His knees buckled and his eyes grew bloodshot, but his determination never left him. "Steel is my body, unbreaking, unbending." This was his world. It didn't matter about his physical or magical limitations; his beliefs were his power here. There could be no room for doubt or weakness.

One by one, the fissures and cracks began to seamlessly close, as Shirou shakily stood back up onto his feet. "I am steel!" He would shoulder the weight of Goetia and the Trihexa's power. He would not allow himself to falter.

Goetia inwardly marveled at the sight. Time and time again, he was being shown what it meant to be human and the fleetingness of human life. They were imperfect, doomed for ruin, but each and every time they showed a resolve heedless of death or injury. It was remarkable, admirable.

He would meet that resolve with the respect it deserved. Goetia clenched his fists and gathered his energy to them, forming twin spheres of light that radiated immense power.

Very well. He'd meet that resolve in earnest. He engraved Shirou's resolute form in his mind before starting the beginning of the end.

"Ars Almadel Salomonis!"

How many blasts can you take?

Goetia began rapidly punching, each strike leveling beam after beam of world ending power at the Trihexa trapped in the mire of the ground which held it in place. The attacks caused the Trihexa to howl in pain, it's body distorting and gradually becoming pulverized in the onslaught.

This was a battle of endurance.

Shirou's body was soaked in blood from head to toe and battered such that Serafall and the others would probably cry if they saw him, but still he gritted his teeth and bore with it. The Trihexa was pancaked to the ground by this point, parts of its scales and limbs missing which was why Shirou could not give up now. If given the chance the Trihexa would surely regenerate if Goetia stopped attacking.

Winds buffeted the area, shockwaves that carried the might of typhoons.

In the battle between Goetia and the Trihexa, Shirou was the deciding factor. Without him, Goetia wouldn't have been able to recklessly unleash such powerful attacks, and as such, the Trihexa instinctively reacted.

Shirou's eyes were half-open, his vision blurred. He felt delirious, and wasn't quite sure if he was still standing at this point. All that mattered to him was making sure that his Reality Marble didn't shatter before the main body of the Trihexa could be defeated. His body was trembling, fingers white at the tips, and yet he held strong. So long as his will wasn't broken, his world would never fall.

-Then fall.

Faster than Goetia could react, the Trihexa unleashed a blast from its maw towards Shirou. The attack was only a fraction of what the beast was capable of as a majority of its energy was being used to stave of Goetia's assault. However, by mortal and immortal standards, it was overwhelming.

Shirou had less than a second to realize what was happening, and a tenth of a second to mount a defence. If he were outside his Reality Marble then he'd be as good as dead right now, but the outcome and the steps of Tracing were different.

If before he had to bring out his Traced weapons into existence, here, they already existed.

In the battle of Troy fought by the Mycenae and the Achaeans, one warrior stood out against the mighty Hector, champion fighter of Troy. This confrontation brought about the end of the invincibility of Hector's spear for said spear was utterly blocked by a shield.

The Seven Rings that Cover the Fiery Heavens.

The petalled shield of the warrior Ajax.

"Rho Aias!"

A veil of purple rippled in front of Shirou before blooming out into translucent purplish light capable of defending against the strongest of projectiles. The instant that they formed, the first three layers shattered with cracks forming in the rest. Each layer had the strength of a fortress wall which basically meant nothing when up against divinity.

No! Shirou could tell immediately that he didn't have the ability to stop this, and therefore used the only method left available for him to survive: Dodge. The shield's deployment slowed the Trihexa's attack long enough for him to maneuver his body by a small margin. In the end, it was this difference that changed the outcome.

Rho Aias's remaining petals shattered simultaneously before the impact of the Trihexa's blast sent Shirou tumbling over the ground, singed and burning. He was panting and bleary, trying to keep his vision focused from where he lay sprawled over the ground. He'd lost his left arm and had hole pierced through his shoulder. The cracks and fissures that he'd been so adamantly keeping at bay formed again all at once; the pit keeping Trihexa immobilized disappearing entirely.

In a heartbeat, Trihexa hauled itself out and began regenerating while Goetia mounted a fruitless assault knowing that the Trihexa's vitality would prevent him from killing it. Goetia instead attempted to pin the Trihexa in one place, but the creature was to nimble despite its size.

Damn it. Damn it all.

With his right arm, Shirou attempted to push himself up onto his feet. His injuries screamed at him in protest, but he forced away the pain in order to assess the situation. This wasn't going to work. He could tell that he didn't have it in him to do what he'd been doing before.

He released a long breath and balled his right hand into a fist. This wasn't over. There was still a back up plan. If that failed, he didn't know what he'd do. In any case, he'd managed to stall the Trihexa long enough for the One God to complete the summons.

From his connection with the One God, he could feel God create a channel into his Reality Marble. His body shuddered in relief, the strain finally catching up to him. "About damn time." He looked up at the portal of light that formed above him and let himself fall to his knees in order to catch his breath.

"For a human, you've done well for enduring," a carefree yet strong voice spoke. "Sorry, our manifestation lasted longer than expected, and my friend isn't exactly one to care about urgency. Let us do our part from here."

A long green-haired man clad in a plain white tunic flew through the air. Almost instinctually, the Trihexa stared up and felt an ancient restrictive force seamlessly wrap around it. It broke the force with an exertion of power, but it was already too late.

"Beast who knows not of peace's tranquility, let me show you the power of a weapon crafted by the Mesopotamian King of Gods, Anu."

A golden magic circle spanned across the entirety of the Trihexa's form. Sigils and crest rotated around the array and shone in ancient script. God or Primordial, this was a weapon designed specifically to bind them.

"I will show you the breadth of the stars!"

The man clad in plain white shut his eyes, and transformed to reveal his true identity. The spiked tip of an enormous construct. Golden chains sprung up from the ground and wrapped around the Trihexa, each link charged with divine energy.

They were the Chains of Heaven.

"Enuma Elish!"

The weapon was activated, and in response, the chains binding the Trihexa multiplied ten-fold, rooting it in place. Even if it was only able to hold the Trihexa back for a moment, that was all that mattered. Goetia immediately grappled the beast and pinned in in place such that the Trihexa had no opportunity to exert its power even while wrapped in the Chains of Heaven. The moment the Trihexa even tried to struggle, Goetia matched the Trihexa's magical energy and forcibly contained it. There would no means for the Trihexa to mount a defence against the attack that was coming, but the same was true for Goetia.

Yet there was a key difference.

Goetia and the Trihexa were both Beasts of the Apocalypse, but Goetia was immortal so long as he possessed his grand temple of time; his Reality Marble and second Noble Phantasm, Ars Paulina. He didn't care what happened now.

Sprawled over the ground, Shirou craned his head up to stare at the Trihexa. This was it. The back up plan that both he and Goetia knew through the connection they had with the One God who was communicating with them.

The only task the One God asked of Goetia was to hold the Trihexa in place, and now the time had come.

A ripple of power swelled through the air, followed by a gust of wind that churned up dust and debris at Shirou's face.

"Lie right where you are and eat dirt, Faker. Just this once I will ignore your treasonous forgeries to show you the strength of a real treasure!" A voice echoed in the air, filled with power, regality, and arrogance.

Friend and foe were only a matter of perspective. When deciding whether to fight against something you detest, or something you detested more, you'd obviously choose the latter option. The man clad in golden armour hovering from the portal in the air was no exception. Gods and Deities were at the top of the animosity list.

"The stage has been set. The ones who banish forth the end of the rule of Gods will not be through the work of a primordial or a beast of apocalypse, but through the hands of man."

A black conical sword inlaid with the colours of blue, red, and gold was drawn.

Shirou's mind blanked, unable to replicate the history and make of the weapon that appeared within his view. It was one of a kind, forged before the very idea of 'concepts' had ever formed. It is the one sword that does not exist in the world.

A Sword of Rapture representing the universe.

"Awaken, Ea."


-Sorry for shorter update! My dog ended up eating chocolate, so I'm going to take him to the vet just in case since chocolate is poisonous for dogs. I just posted what I had done.

Thanks for reading! And thanks to my newest patron: Jocelyn L!

Next update: Huntsman of Red V2

P a treon. com (slash) Parcasious

Fiction Press: Survivor's Log: Reflections

Book link: Fatedlegacydark. ca

Summary of book:

Death. Grief. Ruin. Nothing was left unchanged after an unexplained tragedy led to the loss of millions across the world in key locations. Cities were reduced to wastelands of steel and concrete, and many were forced into migration. When events leading to the prior tragedy occur once more, Kevin Black was going to have to learn that sometimes mysteries were better left unsolved. Trapped with his friends in the world of a ruined city filled with monsters, the journey out would be far more perilous than the journey in.