The Holy Man of The Church Creek

60

Wind buffeted the area with heavy zephyrs that gathered dust, grime, and debris up into a conical mass pointed at the tip of a rotating sword. The ground was shaking, fissures forming over the earth where thousands of weapons plummeted into a deep abyss. Dark clouds of energy formed, tendrils of red lightning writhing from within like slithering snakes.

The sheer accumulation of energy was massive, the air itself distorting and shattering into broken fragments that vanished into tiny mots of light. Roars echoed amidst a ruined expanse of land; the shockwave produced upturning a countless number of blades erected over a distant hill.
The world was dying, and one man stood in the center of all this chaos. He was clad in golden armour, pauldrons rounded and riveted with interlocking plate rings which he soon discarded in favour of better mobility. Tribal marks ran up and down his torso, interlacing around his arms where they shown with the energy of divinity. His blond hair was slicked up, and the red cloth attached to his tasset billowed in the wind. HIs red eyes shone with the arrogance befitting of a man of his station. He was two-thirds a God, and was known as the progenitor of all heroes who stood up against the rule of the divine.
He was Gilgamesh, the King of Heroes.
Shirou liked to think of him differently.
Smug bastard. He inwardly cursed while trying to keep his vision clear. Due to the extent of his injuries, he was being thrown around and tumbling over the dirt unable to put up any resistance to the energy Gilgamesh was outputting with his sword.
Its name was Ea, the sword of Rapture capable of ending entire worlds. A single swing was enough to shatter his reality marble, and he along with it. Gilgamesh showed no regard for any collateral damage, but this was the nature of the King of Heroes summoned as an Archer during his years of immaturity.
Shirou shielded his face as the winds grew stronger and took on a reddish hue. The energy the Trihexa was outputting in order to mount a defence was being sucked up into the growing vortex formed over the tip of Ea's drill.
For once, Shirou saw the arrogance slip from Gilgamesh's face, replaced instead with solemnity. This was the true bearing of the King of Heroes when faced with an opponent he didn't deem unworthy.
"The elements coalesce, amalgamate, and bring forth the star that interweaves all creation."
The three independently rotating segments engraved with crimson cuneiform that made up Ea's blade began to speed up and blur. The world shuddered, the cracks and fissures growing more and more pronounced.
Shirou could feel a splitting migraine in his head. He knew that with this one strike, even he wouldn't be able to hold onto life let alone the Trihexa.
Before there was life…
Before there was death…
There was nothing. Man didn't exist, Gods didn't exist, and neither did Demons and monsters. Everything was simply a void bereft of any purpose. This was where Ea was born, predating everything that would eventually exist.
Ea was a sword of beginning and the end, created before the idea of concepts ever formed. It shouldn't have existed in the first place, and yet here it was, raised and poised to strike from Gilgamesh's hand.
The Sword of Rapture, that which was born from even beyond the stars.
"Bow down with death! Enuma Elish!"
The weapon was swung, and in response, everything faded into white. The earth tore, the skies ripped asunder like a popped balloon. The dimension was falling apart, and as the attack was directed at the Trihexa and Goetia the both of them were fully consumed by Ea's conical blast.
The Trihexa's body began to tear and crumble, while Goetia spoke not a word. He would be back.
'Let us meet in the Grand Temple of Time.'
Goetia's voice echoed in Shirou's head, and then there was nothing. All that Shirou could hear was the sound of sizzling flesh and cracking bones before it was all drowned out by an unresigned roar, but even that didn't last; all that did was the towering vortex of energy moments away from consuming Shirou too.
Gilgamesh you bastard!
Shirou looked up and saw that Gilgamesh had no intention of holding back his attack. There was even a smirk of amusement on Gilgamesh's face.
Shirou regained his senses and yelled out a command.
"Come, Saber!"
Over his right hand, three Servant Command Seals flashed before one abruptly vanished and tore a hole between dimensions used to pull Arturia directly to him. At first, she was appalled at his current physical state, but she quickly realized her priorities. It happened in a split second. Arturia already had an inkling of what she was getting into, making her prepared the moment she arrived.
Ea was an attack that no Servant or being could ever survive a direct hit from. Even the strongest defence would crack and shatter under its might, but there was a method to survive. Ea was a sword that could destroy an entire world, but it couldn't attack more than one reality at a time.
In which case, Arturia's strongest defence born of her own legend was Ea's greatest counter.
An ever-distant utopia.
"Avalon!"
Arturia pulled out her sheath she'd recovered from Shirou and held it out in front of them. It was coloured in blue and gold, inlaid with the magic of the Fae able to heal Arturia from any injury that didn't strike her heart or head. However, this wasn't Avalon's true power.
As a protective film of energy burst forth from Avalon to surround Shirou and Arturia, they could feel nothing even as Ea's blast engulfed them. Avalon's true power wasn't its ability to rapidly heal its user, but the ability to shield others by bringing them into an unreachable utopia. Not even Ea's power could reach this promised land of fertile fields and tranquility.
Avalon shook as Ea's attack continued its course and severed the origin of the world.
Shirou could only watch as his Reality Marble was split in half and rapidly deteriorated. Then, all he could feel was himself and Arturia rapidly falling. Gilgamesh watched everything with a critical eye before scoffing and dematerializing right where he floated with his arms crossed and Ea stored away. He wouldn't involve himself any longer, as his aid was already enough to show his magnanimity and place as the King of Heroes. Besides, he couldn't guarantee not lashing out at Shirou for desecrating the image of his treasures by producing lower tiered fakes. Moreover, Enkidu had asked him to restrain his attitude. It was a favour from his only friend, and for that, the Faker could live.
Gilgamesh grunted before the last of his body faded away into mots of golden light. His role was done.
Meanwhile, Arturia was using Avalon's potent healing to heal Shirou as Unlimited Blade Works broke down. The flesh and blood Shirou had lost was rapidly healing as Arturia used her own energy to act as a catalyst for her sheath.
She was cradling Shirou in her arms to the point that Rin would scream at her for taking liberties with her chosen man, but knowing Rin, she'd never admit to anything. In any case, it wasn't as if Arturia was averse to the idea of getting a lead on Rin. She held Shirou tighter as gravity began pulling the two down faster and faster.
When Shirou had deployed his Reality Marble, he'd done so in the air so as not to involve any innocents. With his Reality Marble breaking, this meant everyone was free falling which included what was left of the Trihexa's body.
Shirou stared, and for a moment, he found himself in a white world, a boy in plain rags seated across from him. The boy had six wings, bird, dragon, bat, insect, light, and dark. Each wing was as long as a grown man, and they hugged around the boy who was seated with his knees in front of him.
The boy's eyes were a bright shade of verdant green, and they blinked innocently up at him.
"What did I do wrong?" The boy asked, head tilted to the right and expression confused.
To this, Shirou had no answer. In case it wasn't already clear to him before, but the energy he could feel from the boy was identical to the Trihexa's. The image between the Trihexa's ferocious outward appearance and what Shirou was seeing now were miles apart.
Destruction was all that the boy ever knew. There was nothing to blame him or scorn him for, as it wasn't a sin just to be born.
"I'm sorry," was all Shirou could say.
The boy blinked, but let out a small smile while shaking his head, and then the white world was no more. The last thing Shirou saw was the boy waving back at him.
Goodbye.
Shirou just stared, and when he came too, Arturia was holding him close.
"It's over," Arturia whispered.
One look was enough to determine how brittle the Trihexa's main body now was. A single touch and it may as well by blown into dust in the wind, but Shirou's eyes never left it. "Not yet," he gritted his teeth and fought to keep the dizziness out of his head.
Shirou took careful note when a murky shadow manifested from the Trihexa's remains, and leered at him.
"My thanks," the shadow spoke before enveloping the Trihexa's body.
All along, the Trihexa had been housing a parasite that had been working to corrode it from the inside out. The analogy was similar to a poisoned animal. It may have looked alright on the surface, but on the inside, the shadow had been siphoning away energy for its own use to become a being above even the Gods. However, the Trihexa's power had been overwhelming and constantly suppressed the shadow, but no longer.
Shirou and Arturia froze in morbid disbelief.
The Trihexa's main body abruptly blackened, glowing blue tribal patterns flashing over its skin.
Ba-bum. Ba-bum.
The sound of a heartbeat began to echo. Flesh was made new, and power was beginning to swell up uncontrollably. Each heartbeat caused a pulsation of violent purple energy that circled the globe in the form of a rallying call that blew away the clouds.
The One God stood up from his throne, and Angra Mainyu perked his head up. The snake had left its den.
The time had come.
Everywhere throughout the world, a change occurred. Humans that were running towards safety in the street all stopped while combatants from both sides began to frown. The creatures formerly spawned from the Trihexa dissolved into mud-like black liquid that hovered and shot off into the sky, leaving only the Evil Dragons and the Wyverns to fight against the strength of the pantheons.
Cities once infested with enemies suddenly became deserted, leaving behind ruined cityscapes amidst the shockwaves of magical energy violently expanding outward. The remaining bodies of the Trihexa all broke down into masses of pure energy. It didn't matter where they were or who they were fighting, but the energy dispersed to congregate upon a single source.
In the Reality Marbles forcibly kept together, EMIYA and Iskander watched as the behemoths the armed armies were sieging abruptly disappeared. The only enemy left in sight was Crom Cruach who revelled in the violence.
In India, Greece, and the other parts of the world, the remaining bodies of the Trihexa exhibited similar behaviour.
Everywhere, negativity began to permeate.
Dread. Fear. Revulsion.
The black liquid squirmed and pulsed as if attached to a blood vessel. Anything that attempted to impede the mud immediately decayed through a flurry of curses. The energy itself permeated uncontrollably, killing all in its path. Agonized screams and shouts echoed from friend and enemy alike. There was no discrimination whatsoever. All grew appalled and terrified, but to the Devils, they swallowed audibly. They'd seen such a thing occur before in the battle of the near past.
The Underworld Civil War.
A field of curses, and an energy of stark oppression which abided to death. House Bael had the power of Destruction, the Great Leviathan had dominion over ice, and the authority attributed to the Demon Marbas was none other than pestilence.
He who grants and takes away disease. Once caught in the black energy Marbas released, all manner of fatal symptom emerges. This same authority was being shown once again in the hands of someone other than the Hero of the Civil War, causing many Devils to falter.
Angra Mainyu who was in EMIYA and Iskander's Reality Marble suddenly closed his eyes. "I'm going," he declared softly before forcibly making an exit to the realm using his own power. Serafall, Adelina, Xenovia, Rias, and the other Devils who weren't needed in this space promptly followed.
In response to the tidal wave of curses slaughtering all in their path, the same authority bloomed from Angra Mainyu the moment he manifested back on the earth. It was his authority of curses in the first place, and once his power touched the incoming curses, he effectively began to assimilate. The tribal marks over his body twitched and writhed, as unbelievable pain registered in his head.
He did not grunt. He did not scream.
He was the one who bears All of the World's Evil. This was the duty forced upon him since the beginning, only now, he was taking on the burden through his own will. His arms raised up, his hands grasping at the energy around him and wresting control of his own curses.
In the skies of the earth, the One God mimicked Angra Mainyu's actions, but instead of gathering curses, Holy Light shone down from above. It didn't matter what it touched; all were filled with a power that warded away darkness.
Everyone else didn't keep still either, but the speed in which the black liquid congregated towards the main body of the Trihexa was too fast to intercept or keep up. The mud struck against the body and molded to assume another shape.
Man was made from the image of the Gods, and it was in their image that the humans worshiped them.
In the black mass of condensed mud-like liquid, a humanoid shape took form. Featureless and blank, it resembled a void. One that threatened to swallow all of existence. Using the body of that which brings about the apocalypse, the machinations of the corruption from another world emerged in its truest form.
666 Beast VI/L Sin of Ruin.
The goal since the fall of the One God had become complete.
Whether or not Shirou expected another battle after he defeated the Trihexa, he already knew that the true enemy had been hiding in the shadows since the beginning. This was where he had to put the most effort in order to put an end to everything.
He groaned while trying to steady himself. Arturia had helped heal his injuries, but it did nothing for his fatigue. He felt groggy and disorientated, and if not for Arturia supporting him, he would have collapsed onto the ground after Arturia had landed with him from their fall.
"Shirou, are you alright?" Arturia called out, a hand placed by his back to help steady him. Meanwhile, her gaze never left the being that formed in the sky a kilometer in front of her. It was ginormous, easily the size of a three-story house. The presence it exuded was crippling, causing fluctuation even in Arturia's Spirit Origin despite not engaging in combat of any sort.
"I'll be fine," Shirou whispered before regaining his bearings. He stood strongly on his feet while his body shuddered. He was completely out of magical energy, divine or otherwise. He'd used all he'd had in the previous battle to maintain his Reality Marble for as long as possible.
His legs felt weak, his arms barely able to keep themselves in front of him.
What was that?
Looking at the new adversary before him, Shirou felt an ominous premonition. He'd fought Humans, Devils, Angels, and Gods, but the feeling Beast VI/L exuded was beyond compare.
"Shirou, we have to leave. Now." Arturia's expression twisted into one of concern. The caution she'd been showing before had shifted into certainty. "You do not have the strength to stand at this stage any longer…I will handle it from here."
Arturia attempted to shield him, stepping out in front of him in order to combat against the foe before them. She shifted into combat stance, but grew apprehensive a second later. She tried to hide it, but there was no way Shirou didn't know Arturia enough to see past the mask she placed on herself.
An Evil Dragon soared through the air and roared in challenge towards Beast VI/L. They were beings that thrived in battle and violence. When the Evil Dragon looked at the foe before it, it took no heed of any danger it may impose. After all, Evil Dragons, though killed, will eventually return. However, this was different.
'Nega-Messiah.'
Each Beast had a skill unique to them known as Nega Skills.
Beast VI was the opposite of the messiah who would bring the world to prosperity. Beast VI/L was the incarnation of ruin. It merely stood there and allowed the Evil Dragon to attack it, but like striking water, the Evil Dragon's breath attack was absorbed into Beast VI/L's body. It was the prophet of the end times that would accept all. A bounded field was constantly surrounding its body in a thin layer.
Any attack with the intention of doing it harm would become negated.
This meant that Beast VI/L's appearance already signified the end of all as the one who brings about the apocalypse. Arturia was trying to fight against such an adversary on her own?
No. This wasn't part of the plan.
Shirou sucked in a breath and slowly stepped forward by Arturia's side rather than run.
"Shirou," Arturia called out to him, lips pursed.
"It's fine Arturia," he said wheezing. "Running now or not makes no difference."
Beast VI/L lowered itself to make contact with the ocean beneath it, and a wave of crawling black began to expand around it. Everything the wave touched neither died or rotted, instead, it just vanished as if it were never there into a sea of black mud. At such a close proximity, neither Shirou or Arturia had any method of dodging.
Avalon which Arturia had swiftly raised in front of her was the only reason the two of them were still alive…everything else within a three-hundred-kilometer area was gone as if it had never existed. The Gods, Angels, Devils, and monsters that were within this radius ceased to exist.
Only Avalon's golden light remained like a spec in an ocean of dark, both Shirou and Arturia standing over a platform of magical energy.
Arturia's expression fell while Shirou took in a long breath.
This was it. The end of the world. The pace of the black energy Beast VI/L was exuding would soon cover the entire planet in a matter of hours. When the people died, there would be no underworld to greet them, but a void of nothingness. Should Beast VI/L energy make contact with the shore, then there was no turning back. Millions would die.
"You've been trying to fight against this monster all along ever since coming to this new world?" Arturia gripped onto the hilt of her sword tightly.
Looking at Beast VI/L, Shirou could only nod. He could see now why the One God would request for help despite all of his power.
Waves lapped at their feet, neither speaking as their countenance grew grim. In the darkness that came at the world's end, one sword steadily began to shine. The power of a Last Phantasm, the strongest illusion born from the wishes of humanity stored within the planet.
Excalibur, treasured sword of the Fae.
A beacon shone in the despair. A hope found in illusory dreams.
Power welled within Excalibur's blade, shifting the entire weapon into a sword of golden light, sand-like particles of energy converging over the tip. Nega-Messiah negated all attacks with the intention of harming Beast VI/L, but Excalibur was different. It was true that it released its blast in the form of heat values emitted from a golden light, but this light was born from a concept inherently free of ill intent.
Dreams.
Light pushed back the dark, drawing Beast VI/L's notice.
Arturia swallowed, the pressure of the world's safety riding over her shoulders. The weight of her sword had never felt so heavy, but against a being that even Gods feared, she had nowhere near enough energy to compete.
Then what if there was more than one Excalibur?
Another light began to shine from another sword sheathed around Arturia's waist. What was once incomplete had now become whole with the return of all seven fragments. The Excalibur of another world shone brightly.
Arturia drew it forth, but rather than wield a sword in each hand, the newly completed Excalibur gravitated towards Shirou.
"This Excalibur isn't mine to wield," Arturia accepted the situation quickly and looked Shirou in the eyes. "Swords have their own sentience, and this one is calling you." Arturia offered the other Excalibur hilt first.
Shirou stood stunned.
Him? It chose him over Arturia who was its historical wielder.
Shirou hesitated, but as soon as his hands made contact with Excalibur's hilt, his doubts faded away. Memories of his time in this new world flooded his mind. His time in the Holy Sword trial, the underworld, Kuoh Academy, and lastly, the scene of him first appearing by the Church Creek. Everywhere he'd gone, he'd touched upon the hearts of others and formed bonds that would last a lifetime. The Devils looked to him for governance, the Angels deferred to him for guidance, and the rest of the world depended on the actions he'd take.
He was the one who carried this new world's hopes and dreams.
Their prophet and harbinger, their Holyman.
Strength that he did not have allowed him to keep firm. His body stopped wobbling, and the steel of determination manifested in his gaze. Excalibur was channeling power through him. If Arturia's Excalibur required magical energy to function, then Shirou's Excalibur was the opposite. It was pulsing with energy that was shared with the wielder. This was the strength of a Holy Sword User. The stronger the Holy Sword, the stronger the wielder. What matters is if the wielder could handle the sword's strength, and Shirou's body could already house a God and a Demon; there were no problems whatsoever.
Energy swelling through him, Shirou nodded towards Arturia as the both of them raised their swords in tandem. Two guiding lights creating pillars of mankind's hopes and dreams, bidding them to remain steadfast.
The energies clashed together and pushed, neither side gaining dominance over the other. It was like a tug of war. At times, the dark would suppress the light, but then the light would grow stronger and overpower the dark before the dark pushed back harder.
Was this still not enough!?
Sweat was visible over Shirou's brow, trickling down over his cheek and dripping from his chin. His body strained from his efforts, shivers running down his skin. Arturia was no better. She was standing firm, her knees bent, and feet shoulder width apart. Her complexion was paling rapidly. She wasn't a Heroic Spirit possessing Divinity nor did she posses a God-level amount of energy to draw from. The effort to match the energy output required to face off against Beast VI/L was rapidly draining her reserves.
To accommodate, Shirou was siphoning his excess energy and guiding it through the connection he had as Arturia's Master. They were linked, allowing her to share in his pool of energy, but he'd long since depleted his reserves. The energy he was running on was the energy his Excalibur was outputting, and he couldn't convert fast enough to provide the amount of energy Arturia required.
The two of them alone simply didn't have enough power to rival the adversary before them. Something had to be done, but there was nothing else Shirou felt he could do. He'd tried everything already, and was now left with no other options than a frontal clash which he could see was doomed from the start.
"Aah," Arturia groaned as her knees buckled beneath her.
The light that both Excaliburs were outputting struggled to cope against the ensuing dark. They grew dimmer and dimmer as Beast VI/L's authority pushed harder and harder.
Shirou felt a feeling of helplessness. In coming to this new world, he'd regained parts of himself that he was only beginning to understand, and understood that there was value in his life. People would cry if he got killed, and there was this burning determination in his heart not just to 'save others' specifically, but to 'save his loved ones.' The feeling was only getting stronger and stronger, but he'd long since exhausted himself.
The thought of failure came to mind, and it was utterly crippling. H-He couldn't fail. He couldn't allow himself to even think about it, as he felt a pain he couldn't describe in his chest. He pictured losing Rin, Arturia, Serafall, Xenovia, and everyone he ever cared about and felt utterly afraid.
It won't happen. It can't.
"AAARRG!" Shirou burst out with everything he had, but his willpower amounted to nothing. There was no sudden burst of energy or a miraculous recovery.
Beast VI/L looked down at Shirou and Arturia and no longer felt any threat from them. Soon, it's darkness would smother them and the world. When only nothing but the void was left, he'd move onto the next universe.
Shirou Emiya had reached his limit. Blood seeped from ruptures over his skin. He didn't know how much more he could take before it was all over. There was nothing more he could do.
What he had to remember was that he wasn't alone.
He felt a hand abruptly clasp over each of his shoulders.
The One God stood to his right, and All the World's Evils to his left.
"For what it's worth, you have my gratitude."
"…"
The both of them melded with him once more to create a single entity and complete the power of three, the holy trinity. Newfound energy swelled from within him which funneled directly to Arturia who visibly recovered with a grunt.
The light grew stronger and stronger, pushing the dark back once again into a stalemate. If it were to continue as things were, Beast VI/L would soon overpower them as it grew in strength, but this couldn't be allowed.
Look to the stars.
Rays of multi-coloured light showered towards Shirou's location like a meteor storm, Heroic Spirits of all kinds travelling through the air. Excalibur was the sword that carried the hopes and dreams of all.
Win.
Win.
Win.
There was only a single goal in sight. Against Nega-Messiah, there wasn't anything most Heroic Spirits and individuals could do, but their presence alone was fuel for the sword that shines at the world's end.
Pray to the Heavens and fear the Underworld.
The Gods and members of the pantheons made their presence known, hovering the in the air. Michael, Gabriel, and the Seraphim watched with pinioned wings stretched far and radiating holy energy. Sirzechs, Serafall, Ajuka, and the other Devils stood ramrod straight, steadfast in their belief of victory.
The other Gods watched from various parts of the world, but all were channeling their energy into the swords acting as the conduit of the very world's entirety.
If you would seek to end the world, then let the world reveal the strength of its life.
Everyone gathered together. For Xenovia, Rias, and the others too weak to get any closer, the power of their dreams were enough.
Look up and behold…
The light of the world.
Mots of golden light hovered in the air. From ruined cities, tranquil lakes, and populated areas they glowed a glow that encompassed the earth itself. Man watched on transfixed as legends and myth blurred between the lines of reality, taking the mind back to a time of old.
Of Saviours and Tyrants…
Of Heroes and Monster…
Let a new legend be sung upon the unwavering belief of man.
This would be the final strike to put an end to everything.
Shirou and Arturia glanced at each other. Stand proud. Stand strong. Though you may not be able to change anything on your own, trust in this power. As one, they raised their swords high, gathering the power of the world's convictions and funnelling it towards a single release.
The swords were swung.
This was neither the individual strength of man, demon, god, or monster. This was the might built from the completion of dreams brought together.
"Excalibur!"
Salvation.
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Final chapters to this story coming soon!
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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.