Hunter of The Red Plains

In The Middle of Nowhere: Another Game

The mud of the grail that was stored in that black orb now was creating a vortex of mana, devouring everything around, including the trump soldiers who had folded themselves to look like humans, with a little help of some paints, as well as the Reality Marble Alice created, The Nameless Forest. In the middle of everything happened, a man who had lost his past and a little girl were staring at each other, with the girl and her saddened smile she wore on her face. On the other hand, the man was just staring at her, without any expression.

"You do not seem to be surprised, Mister." Alice said. The expression of Archer's did not change. "Could it be that you knew it was me who would be your opponent from the very start?"

"Anyone would be suspicious of a girl who is having a tea party in a place like this." Archer replied. 

"Then, may I learn the reason for you not to finish me off?" Alice asked. "You could have done that and completed your mission immediately, yet, I could have not sense any killing intent towards myself from you." 

"Who knows? I forgot." Archer replied. "But the same goes for you, doesn't it? I was just protecting you from harm because of a reason I already forgot, but you had no problems with your memory, I daresay." 

"But if I did so, wouldn't it be way too boring? What I wanted was to play, and I cannot do that without an opponent." Alice cheered. 

"Rather than playing against me, weren't you teaming up with me? Of course, all these opponents I have fought through were summoned by you, but you did not fight against me directly. The only thing you did actively was that time reversal, right?" Alice nodded and opened her mouth to speak, but Archer went on. "Which was just to play for longer, I daresay." Alice's eyes sparkled of astonishment after his words.

"You're completely right, Mister! To think that you would understand Alice this much only within a few hours, you surely are the best playmate!" She cheered and hopped and hopped within joy, before keeping talking with a smile. But this smile was saddened, was full of sorrow. "If only she had met you, she would not fade away like that, perhaps." The Reality Marble, Nameless Forest, was nearly got destroyed, since the craks in the sky, the burnt or devoured trees were seenable. 

"Those are our last moments, I daresay." Alice mentioned. Archer felt a great pain in his heart, which he seemed to forget the reason of. "Mister, I am greatful that you were my playmate. Maybe, for the first time, I enjoyed a game which I lost. And about the question why I didn't play against you, well, it can be said that I was interested in you." She said with a slight blush. "I was interested in that gentle man who was willing to protect his opponent, who was struggling just to protect a smile." A teardrop fell to the ground, and with the raised head of Alice which was full of tears was enough to break Archer's heart. "This might be the thing she was trying to tell me, that even the end might be beautiful." Among all these tears, a pure smile took its place on the little girl's face. "Thank you for playing with me! Let us play another game, at another time, Mister Emiya." With this name said, the whole world stopped for Archer, whose head got every single memory it had. The memories full of tragedy, saddness, treachery. With all these, he remembered the reason why he wanted to protect her as well, and shouted her name with his eyes full of sadness, while running to her. The last scene he saw was the Alice's, no, Nursery Rhyme's face full of tears with a pure smile, before everything got devoured by the orb.

This man now was just standing under the rainy sky, among countless soldiers, with his arm streched as if it was trying to grasp something. This man had an empty gaze within his eyes, as if he was broken internally, completely. He was just standing there, without moving an inch nor reacting to those men who had a number beyond five thousand. This man was just an objectile in their way, and the commander decided to clear that. He ordered five of his men to kill him, and they did as they were told, piercing the man in their way with swords, spears, and hitting them with many weapons, after surrounding him completely. The body of the man now was lying on the ground, in a puddle of blood. The commander said an "Hmph." and ordered his man to go on. But, just after they could take but a few steps, the man lying on the ground slowly raised his body in a kneeling position. The  commander could not understand what was happening, since it was not possible for a human to survive such blows. Yet, here he was, looking at the sky as the raindrops washed his face, as if nothing happened. 

"Ah... I see..." He slowly stood up after mumbling, and pulled a sword from his torso, since the soldiers let their weapons on his body. "In the very end, this is the only thing for me to do, right?" Then, in a blink of an eye, he threw his blade just at the man next to the commander, spliting his head half. "K-kill him!" The commander shouted at his men, causing them to rush at their enemy along with their battlecries. Their enemy just pulled another sword from his torso, and gave an icy gaze. A completely cold gaze which belonged to a man who was completely empty, whose life was nothing more than a double-edged sword. He waited until his enemies' arrival, and began slicing them one after another as they approached.

He was jumping over one of them while finishing a few of them by powerful blows, then projecting a weapon to slice more of them, while creating a great amount of swords to cause a rain of death. He was simply doing what he was supposed to do, killing in order to save. Destroying in order to shelter. He had lost his faith in his ideal, with the last thing happened. Surely, killing Alice was the solution for that situation, yet, Archer did not want to believe that it was the correct choice. He had to destroy a pure life, in order to go on killing. He surely had saved many, for every life he took, he saved thousands. Yet, it was not something he could do as himself. What he needed to become was completely different from his own self.

Those were the thoughts of his, on a red plain painted by those five thousand men he had slaughtered. He was standing there, with his body being pierced by many weapons, as well as his face raised up to the sky. He began to walk on the hill of corpses and weapons, and found himself on another hill, which was in his own Reality Marble. He pierced the ground with the blade in his hand, and looked forward, to see the sky he knew well of changing. Now, the slight rays of the sun were being blocked by the giant gears taking shape in the sky. Archer laughed dryly at his own situation, realising what he had become and what those gears were representing. 

A machine. A life of a machine was what he had, what the path was he was to walk on from that moment on. Without a need of an emotion, without a need of an ideal. He was just to do the same things over and over again for all eternity, trying to save some people while killing some other. What he saw from those gears before his eyes was nothing but that, with many weapons piercing his back, on his knees, as if he was completely subjugated by this cruel destiny.