Heaven's Fall
Chapter 1: Faux parallÞle
I shivered.
From atop the high-rise building, there was little protection against the cold night's air, so it would be understandable that I was shivering, but...
That wasn't the reason.
From atop the high-rise building, there afforded an unobstructed view of Shinto below. On a usual night, the scene would be blinding with the glaring lights of a busy city, signs of activity and life standing stark in contrast with the darken night's sky.
Tonight, a part stood out.
There, on the far side of Shinto, a business district laid dark. Even from here, I could feel the spell that smothered it. A nexus of twisting energy that separated everything within from the rest of the outside world.
It felt wrong. The barrier screamed of the unnatural. The surrounding mana recoiled from it, shied from it, and was dragged in and devoured by it in turn. It was like a ravenous beast, consuming and coiling about tightly, feasting on the natural magic in the air to grow larger every second.
I shivered.
A figure appeared beside me.
ôShirou.ö She greeted me.
ôHow is it?ö I asked her.
ôBy my count, there are over 432 ghouls scattered across the area, most of them dormant. And..."
Here, she paused.
"...I could not find any survivors."
I clenched my fists. It shouldn't have been a surprise, I should have knew it before she even told me. There was nothing I could have done. But still...
I can't accept it. That's why, I will stop it. There was no time to waste.
ôLet's go Rider.ö
_______________
Our plan consisted of two parts. With Rider off to deal the boundary field, I was left alone to lure the ghouls. The street was empty, but not silent. Restless groans vibrated through the night air, a sure sign of the troubles ahead. Going through my memories of this area, I chose the most appropriate route to take. Gritting my teeth and steeling my mind, I rushed in.
A few moments later, I stopped dead in my track. Standing in front of me at the other end of a winding street, stood a corpse. It was wearing a dress that was bloody and torn, the colors faded by dirt and time. It was rotting, with chunks of flesh hanging loosely from various areas of its body, dried blood caked on its skin from numerous pores. It stood dazed, moaning mindlessly, swaying back and forth to the breeze, carrying with it the sickly smell of decomposing flesh.
I felt nauseous. My eyes saw red, my heart raced. I felt sick. That corpse was a contradiction, a perverse violation of nature. This was a ghoul, a corpse that had taken in a vampireÆs blood. Unable to die, it remained trap within its own body, thirsting for the livingÆs flesh to replenish its own rotting body.
I shook my head to rid myself of unneeded thoughts. This wasn't the time for idle thinking.
I must have made a sound, for the corpse's head slowly turned towards me. Its milky eyes, glazed over by bodily death, seemed to scan over me like I wasn't really there.
ôTrace on.ö
I took a single step forward.
The change was immediate. The ghoul dropped to a hunch, its eyes quickly fixating on me, its mouth opened to let out a strangled cry. It ran straight at me, hands outstretched as if to grip then tear me to pieces. The ghoul was fast, covering the distance between us in just a few seconds.
But I was prepared. Twin steel swords flashed into my empty hands. Twin steel swords met the advancing corpse and separated its head from its body, which crumpled like a puppet removed from its strings. Two more ghouls appeared from the shadows of the surrounding alley, attracted by the smell of spilled blood. Two thrown flashes, black and white, cleaved apart their heads.
Howls of rage sounded about, each sequential cry blending with the last to form a deafening cacophony of madness and pain. The eerie atmosphere was quickly replaced by a curtain of blood-lust as each and every single ghoul focused their rage on the living invader in their midst, as each and every single ghoul focused their rage on me.
_______________
In hindsight, this plan might not have been such a good idea. I had underestimated the numbers of ghouls. Within a few moments, I was surrounded by crawling, lunging, and jumping corpses, some even falling from the rooftop of buildings. They clawed at my body, threatening to rip off my head, neck, throat, arms, and legs. With Kansho and Bakuya in hand, I had quickly dispatched of those that came near me, but they were relentless, continually rushing without end. If I stayed still, I would have been overwhelmed and mauled to death. So I ran.
My legs burned, my lungs gasped for air, my breaths quickening to fulfill its demand. I ran through a side-street situated between two buildings, arm slashing through a corpse with Kanshou, my forward momentum cleanly bisecting the ghoul in half. A jolt of pain came from that offending arm as it voiced its complaints. I suppressed it, focusing all of my attention on staying alive. I couldn't afford to be distracted.
A ghoul lunged at me from above. I shifted my feet to side-step it in mid-air and, with a well practiced motion, struck the ghoul with a thrown Bakuya, still conserving my running stride. I emerged from the side-street to a four-way intersection, catching Bakuya as it returned.
I took the leftmost street, running toward an empty lot. I could almost feel the maddened scramble of the ghouls behind me, pressing against my back. A few seconds later I neared a pack of ghouls, teeth bared, mouth salivating, and fingers twisted, with sharpened nails like the talons of a vulture.
I let out a deep breath to calm myself.
An image of a firing hammer appeared briefly in my mind. My body burned in anticipation. I triggered the hammer, my circuits flared open as energy traveled through it. Mentally, I prepared three copies of the twin swords in my hands.
I threw my twin swords ahead at the pack of ghouls. The two swords traced an arc towards the center of the pack. Projecting the first copy I had prepared, I rushed against the ghouls.
The thrown twins cleaved their way through the bodies of the ghouls, dropping them like flies before veering off, racing past behind me as I dashed forward. A ghoul thrusted its hand at my head. I dropped low, sweeping Kanshou at its legs, cutting off the left and causing the ghoul to become unbalanced. As it fell down, Bakuya swept up and through its neck.
Five ghouls attacked my exposed back. I quickly turned, an outside slash by Kanshou cutting the first, an inside slash by Bakuya following to stop the second. But there was still three left. One swung its sharpened nails at my jugular. I countered with an upward swing of Bakuya, detaching the swung arm, then sliced opened its neck. Another ghoul lunged at my heart with its clawed hand. I tried to twist aside.
ôAgh!ö
But I was too late. The ghoul lacerated my side with its nail, trailing across my body to leave behind a bloody gash of torn flesh. Before I could recover, the last ghoul jumped at me, a mouth full of teeth positioned to gouge out my throat.
With a rushing whoosh of air, Kanshou and Bakuya slashed into the ghoul from behind. It fell against me, limp and harmless. I took that opportunity to recover. Using the fallen ghoul as a shield, I spun around just in time to block a wild swing aimed at my neck. Dropping my make-shift shield to the side, I attacked the last remaining ghoul, stepping just inside its reach and stabbing it right through the head. It fell without preamble.
My hurried breath slowed as the sensation of victory filled me. I felt a rush of joy, of life, flow through me as the endorphins kicked in, as the adrenaline pounded throughout my body.
Then I heard the moans, rising and rising to sound around me. I looked up, and saw that I was surrounded by an ocean of corpses. All about me were grotesque faces. The ghouls were gathered and packed like fish, rows upon rows stretching as far as my eyes could see, shambling forward one by one, a slow but certain walk of death. I straighten up. Gripping Kanshou and Bakuya tightly, I resigned myself.
And then they charged. All at once, the ghouls ran at me howling their cries of death. I stood my ground, but I knew it was futile. There was simply too many of them.
There was a shift.
A red dome flashed across the sky. Everything took on a crimson hue, as if the dome had saturated the very air itself with a fine mist of blood. And in the center of the dome, directly above the empty lot behind me, a giant eye flared against the sky, marking the border of the boundary field.
Rider was successful. The Blood Fort was active. The air, the ground, they all felt unnatural. A sweet smell permeated my surrounding, a lulling calm crept into my head, bidding me to sleep. But I wasn't the target. The effect was even starker on the gathered ghouls around me.
They had all simply stopped. More than that, they were all melting, their bodies seeming to morph and liquefy into a viscous substance, red in color. They were turning into blood. Hundreds on hundreds of corpses, all seeping away into an ocean of blood, with flowing-like tendrils extending to the eye in the sky.
_______________
I relaxed for just a moment, loosening my grip on the two swords in my hands. That was a mistake.
The vampire took me by surprise from behind. My body reacted instinctively, immediately jumping away.
ôGah!ö
I landed with my left arm missing. No, I landed with my left arm torn off. Where my arm used to be was just a bloody chunk of flesh, bleeding profusely. White hot flashes of pain blinded my mind. My left arm was on fire. The pain knocked the breath out of my lungs. I gasped frantically for air as my mind shut down, heading towards blessed unconsciousness. Kanshou fell from my limp hand, joining its twin to lay useless on the ground.
It can't end like this.
I dug the fingers of my right hand into the shoulder of my left, squeezing it tight as if to strangle the tortured nerves from screaming out in agony, shocking myself awake. I forced my entire will into staying conscious. I could not faint. To lose myself now was to die. My eyes started to focus, my vision slowly returning to normal. I warily regarded the vampire standing in front of me, his figure still a blurry image against the spinning earth. The image cleared.
The vampire had a manic wide grin on his twisted face, showing off a mouth full of serrated knife-like teeth. His eyes were dilated, the whites red, the iris gold, and in his hand was an arm. My arm.
ôYou look hurt,ö he mocked me, swinging my arm around as if it was a bat, ôneed a hand?ö
He laughed, a shrill cackle of insanity, a full body laugh that echoed through the now empty street.
I tried to stay still but found myself wavering.
His grin widened, stretching completely from cheek to cheek. He brought my arm to his mouth and drank the dripping blood with eyes closed, his body shivering in obvious delight.
I took the chance and threw Kanshou at his head. The sword whistled through the air, but the vampire deflected the spinning sword almost lazily with one hand without sparing it a look.
But I wasn't done. As soon as Kanshou was thrown, I had already begun projecting another copy from the image I had prepared earlier, throwing another Kanshou soon after the first. The second Kanshou followed directly in the wake of the first, hiding just behind it. As soon as the first was deflected, the second struck the vampire's hand, slicing it cleanly through the wrist before spinning away.
The vampire howled in pain. He clutched the bloody stump, staring at it in disbelief. I dashed in, slashing at his neck with Bakuya. The vampire's head snapped up, his other hand moved with invisible speed and batted Bakuya away, flinging it far off behind me. Without a pause, I swung Kanshou at his neck.
It struck a shallow cut, managing only to further enrage the furious vampire. But it also opened for me a few precious seconds of opportunity. Discarding Kanshou, I disengaged from the vampire and traced my last prepared Bakuya. I swung it beside me, seemingly at the empty air. Even the vampire was confused for a few seconds, before his eyes widened and he tried to jump aside.
Two Kanshous flew in from his left and his right, attracted by the Bakuya I held in my hand. One struck the vampire directly on his back, embedding itself into his body, while the other sailed pass him to me. I threw Bakuya at the vampire and caught Kanshou, then jumped at him, bringing the white sword down in a cleaving blow with all my weight. Bakuya sliced into the vampire's chest, while Kanshou bored down from his collarbone to his waist, a fatal wound.
The body of the vampire jerked taut, then went limp.
The pain of my left arm caught up with me as the adrenaline faded away. I collapsed to my knees, eyes screwed shut as lightning hot current flayed the remaining flesh of my left arm. I wanted to fall unconscious; I wanted to be rid of the pain.
But Rider was still around. She would have come to my aid if she had been able to, so there could only be one reason why she hadn't. Something must be keeping her. Something that was strong enough to fight against a Servant. Even with my left arm missing and my right side slashed, I wanted to help Rider.
Now that I was less focused, I could clearly sense the signs of a major battle happening near me. There was a massive amount of mana concentrated in one area, just ahead of me, centering over the skeleton of a half-completed skyscraper. An ominous aura bellowed out from that direction, oppressing the air, crushing all the sound into an unnatural silence. That must be where Rider was battling her enemy, that was where I needed to go.
I got up from my knees and started to stagger towards the skyscraper. With every step, fluids seemed to fill my lung and flow up my throat, filling my nose with the scent blood, drenching the back of my mouth with a tangy bite. I ignored it. I have to hurry, Rider might need my hel-
I stopped. There was a bloody hand sticking out of my chest.
ôGoing somewhere, human?ö the dead vampire half-asked, half-stated, his clawed hand dripping crimson blood.
I tried to talk, my throat wouldn't work.
ôI have to say, you almost had me there.ö the vampire continued, ôYou're tougher than I thought.ö
I tried to walk, my feet wouldn't move.
He giggled insanely, twisting his bloody arm inside my body, while grasping my head with his other hand.
I tried to think, my mind stopped.
He withdrew his hand from my body. I fell to the ground.
ô........ö
What was he saying? I couldn't understand.
...
He walked past me, pacing back and forth.
...
He turned to me, gripping my head with both his hands, smearing my face with blood.
...
He laughed, bouncing up and down in giddiness.
...
He stopped, frowning in concentration.
ô.........................ö he said, glaring at the skyscraper.
à
ô...ö he continued.
à
He paused for a moment, as if a thought had just struck him.
ô...........................ö
He clasped his hand, delighted with his idea.
K...ll? H...er? Ri.....r?
The vampire turned its back to me.
ô~Kill kill kill!ö he sang, ôKill! Kill! Kill!~ö
à
...
Kill? R...der?
-Trace On-
I pushed myself past my limits. My body moved on its own. It stood up, short black swords filling its hand, shaped in the form of a cross. Three rapier-like swords, designed to be thrown, struck the vampire from behind with enough force to smash concrete, knocking him forward.
ô-What?!ö
The vampire sounded surprised. Twisting around, he looked at me. A twisted smile formed on his face.
The vampire fully turned to face me. My body projected more swords, flinging them at the vampire like arrows. The vampire dodged them all. With unnatural speed, he attacked. My body blocked his first strike, then his second, then third then fourth then fifth, turning away every consecutive attack. But there was no room for me to counter, my body could only defend, one arm taxed beyond its limit as it tried to block the cascading blows.
The vampire laughed a carefree laugh, his face a mask of cruel delight as he swung his nails over and over again, grinning wider and wider with every deflected strike.
But my body, already past its limits, could not keep up with the strenuous pace. Seven became ten, then thirteen, then twenty. Finally, on the twenty-seventh blow, my body slowed. I was backhanded away, flying through the air.
I landed heavily on the ground. I couldnÆt get up.
The vampire crouched over me.
ôAh....are you tired?ö he asked me, ôWhy don't we play something else then?ö
He circled my prone body, looking at it from head to toe, nodding, inspecting it like a butcher does his meat. Seemingly satisfied, the vampire stood over my body, tracing my chest with his nails, leaving behind streaks of blood as they tore through the shirt and opened the skin. Smiling cruelly down at me, he raised his left hand, spreading his fingers, the pointed nails gleaming in the reddened air.
A curtain of hair caressed my chest, a shadow flew across my body. The vampire was viciously flung off me, crashing into the side of a building with terrific noise.
ôShirou...ö
Was this...?
ôRi...der?ö I asked, straining myself to do even this simple task.
ôYes, Shirou. Sleep. You have done well, I will handle the rest.ö
Her voice was calm and soothing.
Rider was fine. I relaxed with that fact in mind.
The vampire stumbled out of the crater in the wall, feet unsteady. He took one look at Rider and grew visibly distressed, his eyes widening in disbelief.
ôYou! Wh-HOW?!ö he sputtered.
Rider said nothing.
With a flick of her wrist, a giant iron nail impaled itself in the arm of the vampire, its chain wrapping around his entire arm.
ôANSWER ME!ö the vampire roared, struggling against his binds, ôWHERE IS MY SIRE?!ö
Rider said nothing.
Another nail impaled itself in the vampire's other arm, chains wrapping in the same manner as the first.
ôDAMN YOU!ö the vampire cursed. His struggle became frantic, but he couldn't escape from chains' tight grip.
Grasping the middle of the chains that connected the two nails together, she lifted the screaming vampire into the air. With a casual swing, she threw the vampire into the ground, jumping up as he came crashing down. The vampire slammed into the asphalt, a circle of cracked pavement radiating out from the center of the impact. Rider descended, smashing her foot against the vampire's head, crushing it instantly.
I let myself sleep.
_______________
I woke up to the wind blowing across my face. I noticed that we were high above the ground. I was being carried by Rider, who was traveling across the top of the buildings of Fuyuki. She noticed my wakening almost immediately.
ôShirou, did I wake you?ö she asked in a gentle voice, concern on her face.
I must be dreaming still.
I lightly shook my head no.
ôThen please, go back to sleep.ö
I heeded Rider's advice and drifted away.
_______________
The next time I woke up, I was standing in front of a door, leaning against Rider.
The door opened.
ôSenpai!ö a familiar girl gasped from inside the house.
I must look terrible. Through a haze of pain, I smiled at her.
ôI'm home, Sakura.ö
With that greeting, I fell back into oblivion.
End Chapter 1.
_______________
Author's Note: Updates will be erratic. I'm also looking for a beta.
Some might recognize this. Yes, it's the same. Yes, I'll repost it. The beginning was changed, I didn't like the old one much. I feel that this one is much better.
Questions? Comments?
Chapter 1: Faux parallÞle
I shivered.
From atop the high-rise building, there was little protection against the cold night's air, so it would be understandable that I was shivering, but...
That wasn't the reason.
From atop the high-rise building, there afforded an unobstructed view of Shinto below. On a usual night, the scene would be blinding with the glaring lights of a busy city, signs of activity and life standing stark in contrast with the darken night's sky.
Tonight, a part stood out.
There, on the far side of Shinto, a business district laid dark. Even from here, I could feel the spell that smothered it. A nexus of twisting energy that separated everything within from the rest of the outside world.
It felt wrong. The barrier screamed of the unnatural. The surrounding mana recoiled from it, shied from it, and was dragged in and devoured by it in turn. It was like a ravenous beast, consuming and coiling about tightly, feasting on the natural magic in the air to grow larger every second.
I shivered.
A figure appeared beside me.
ôShirou.ö She greeted me.
ôHow is it?ö I asked her.
ôBy my count, there are over 432 ghouls scattered across the area, most of them dormant. And..."
Here, she paused.
"...I could not find any survivors."
I clenched my fists. It shouldn't have been a surprise, I should have knew it before she even told me. There was nothing I could have done. But still...
I can't accept it. That's why, I will stop it. There was no time to waste.
ôLet's go Rider.ö
_______________
Our plan consisted of two parts. With Rider off to deal the boundary field, I was left alone to lure the ghouls. The street was empty, but not silent. Restless groans vibrated through the night air, a sure sign of the troubles ahead. Going through my memories of this area, I chose the most appropriate route to take. Gritting my teeth and steeling my mind, I rushed in.
A few moments later, I stopped dead in my track. Standing in front of me at the other end of a winding street, stood a corpse. It was wearing a dress that was bloody and torn, the colors faded by dirt and time. It was rotting, with chunks of flesh hanging loosely from various areas of its body, dried blood caked on its skin from numerous pores. It stood dazed, moaning mindlessly, swaying back and forth to the breeze, carrying with it the sickly smell of decomposing flesh.
I felt nauseous. My eyes saw red, my heart raced. I felt sick. That corpse was a contradiction, a perverse violation of nature. This was a ghoul, a corpse that had taken in a vampireÆs blood. Unable to die, it remained trap within its own body, thirsting for the livingÆs flesh to replenish its own rotting body.
I shook my head to rid myself of unneeded thoughts. This wasn't the time for idle thinking.
I must have made a sound, for the corpse's head slowly turned towards me. Its milky eyes, glazed over by bodily death, seemed to scan over me like I wasn't really there.
ôTrace on.ö
I took a single step forward.
The change was immediate. The ghoul dropped to a hunch, its eyes quickly fixating on me, its mouth opened to let out a strangled cry. It ran straight at me, hands outstretched as if to grip then tear me to pieces. The ghoul was fast, covering the distance between us in just a few seconds.
But I was prepared. Twin steel swords flashed into my empty hands. Twin steel swords met the advancing corpse and separated its head from its body, which crumpled like a puppet removed from its strings. Two more ghouls appeared from the shadows of the surrounding alley, attracted by the smell of spilled blood. Two thrown flashes, black and white, cleaved apart their heads.
Howls of rage sounded about, each sequential cry blending with the last to form a deafening cacophony of madness and pain. The eerie atmosphere was quickly replaced by a curtain of blood-lust as each and every single ghoul focused their rage on the living invader in their midst, as each and every single ghoul focused their rage on me.
_______________
In hindsight, this plan might not have been such a good idea. I had underestimated the numbers of ghouls. Within a few moments, I was surrounded by crawling, lunging, and jumping corpses, some even falling from the rooftop of buildings. They clawed at my body, threatening to rip off my head, neck, throat, arms, and legs. With Kansho and Bakuya in hand, I had quickly dispatched of those that came near me, but they were relentless, continually rushing without end. If I stayed still, I would have been overwhelmed and mauled to death. So I ran.
My legs burned, my lungs gasped for air, my breaths quickening to fulfill its demand. I ran through a side-street situated between two buildings, arm slashing through a corpse with Kanshou, my forward momentum cleanly bisecting the ghoul in half. A jolt of pain came from that offending arm as it voiced its complaints. I suppressed it, focusing all of my attention on staying alive. I couldn't afford to be distracted.
A ghoul lunged at me from above. I shifted my feet to side-step it in mid-air and, with a well practiced motion, struck the ghoul with a thrown Bakuya, still conserving my running stride. I emerged from the side-street to a four-way intersection, catching Bakuya as it returned.
I took the leftmost street, running toward an empty lot. I could almost feel the maddened scramble of the ghouls behind me, pressing against my back. A few seconds later I neared a pack of ghouls, teeth bared, mouth salivating, and fingers twisted, with sharpened nails like the talons of a vulture.
I let out a deep breath to calm myself.
An image of a firing hammer appeared briefly in my mind. My body burned in anticipation. I triggered the hammer, my circuits flared open as energy traveled through it. Mentally, I prepared three copies of the twin swords in my hands.
I threw my twin swords ahead at the pack of ghouls. The two swords traced an arc towards the center of the pack. Projecting the first copy I had prepared, I rushed against the ghouls.
The thrown twins cleaved their way through the bodies of the ghouls, dropping them like flies before veering off, racing past behind me as I dashed forward. A ghoul thrusted its hand at my head. I dropped low, sweeping Kanshou at its legs, cutting off the left and causing the ghoul to become unbalanced. As it fell down, Bakuya swept up and through its neck.
Five ghouls attacked my exposed back. I quickly turned, an outside slash by Kanshou cutting the first, an inside slash by Bakuya following to stop the second. But there was still three left. One swung its sharpened nails at my jugular. I countered with an upward swing of Bakuya, detaching the swung arm, then sliced opened its neck. Another ghoul lunged at my heart with its clawed hand. I tried to twist aside.
ôAgh!ö
But I was too late. The ghoul lacerated my side with its nail, trailing across my body to leave behind a bloody gash of torn flesh. Before I could recover, the last ghoul jumped at me, a mouth full of teeth positioned to gouge out my throat.
With a rushing whoosh of air, Kanshou and Bakuya slashed into the ghoul from behind. It fell against me, limp and harmless. I took that opportunity to recover. Using the fallen ghoul as a shield, I spun around just in time to block a wild swing aimed at my neck. Dropping my make-shift shield to the side, I attacked the last remaining ghoul, stepping just inside its reach and stabbing it right through the head. It fell without preamble.
My hurried breath slowed as the sensation of victory filled me. I felt a rush of joy, of life, flow through me as the endorphins kicked in, as the adrenaline pounded throughout my body.
Then I heard the moans, rising and rising to sound around me. I looked up, and saw that I was surrounded by an ocean of corpses. All about me were grotesque faces. The ghouls were gathered and packed like fish, rows upon rows stretching as far as my eyes could see, shambling forward one by one, a slow but certain walk of death. I straighten up. Gripping Kanshou and Bakuya tightly, I resigned myself.
And then they charged. All at once, the ghouls ran at me howling their cries of death. I stood my ground, but I knew it was futile. There was simply too many of them.
There was a shift.
A red dome flashed across the sky. Everything took on a crimson hue, as if the dome had saturated the very air itself with a fine mist of blood. And in the center of the dome, directly above the empty lot behind me, a giant eye flared against the sky, marking the border of the boundary field.
Rider was successful. The Blood Fort was active. The air, the ground, they all felt unnatural. A sweet smell permeated my surrounding, a lulling calm crept into my head, bidding me to sleep. But I wasn't the target. The effect was even starker on the gathered ghouls around me.
They had all simply stopped. More than that, they were all melting, their bodies seeming to morph and liquefy into a viscous substance, red in color. They were turning into blood. Hundreds on hundreds of corpses, all seeping away into an ocean of blood, with flowing-like tendrils extending to the eye in the sky.
_______________
I relaxed for just a moment, loosening my grip on the two swords in my hands. That was a mistake.
The vampire took me by surprise from behind. My body reacted instinctively, immediately jumping away.
ôGah!ö
I landed with my left arm missing. No, I landed with my left arm torn off. Where my arm used to be was just a bloody chunk of flesh, bleeding profusely. White hot flashes of pain blinded my mind. My left arm was on fire. The pain knocked the breath out of my lungs. I gasped frantically for air as my mind shut down, heading towards blessed unconsciousness. Kanshou fell from my limp hand, joining its twin to lay useless on the ground.
It can't end like this.
I dug the fingers of my right hand into the shoulder of my left, squeezing it tight as if to strangle the tortured nerves from screaming out in agony, shocking myself awake. I forced my entire will into staying conscious. I could not faint. To lose myself now was to die. My eyes started to focus, my vision slowly returning to normal. I warily regarded the vampire standing in front of me, his figure still a blurry image against the spinning earth. The image cleared.
The vampire had a manic wide grin on his twisted face, showing off a mouth full of serrated knife-like teeth. His eyes were dilated, the whites red, the iris gold, and in his hand was an arm. My arm.
ôYou look hurt,ö he mocked me, swinging my arm around as if it was a bat, ôneed a hand?ö
He laughed, a shrill cackle of insanity, a full body laugh that echoed through the now empty street.
I tried to stay still but found myself wavering.
His grin widened, stretching completely from cheek to cheek. He brought my arm to his mouth and drank the dripping blood with eyes closed, his body shivering in obvious delight.
I took the chance and threw Kanshou at his head. The sword whistled through the air, but the vampire deflected the spinning sword almost lazily with one hand without sparing it a look.
But I wasn't done. As soon as Kanshou was thrown, I had already begun projecting another copy from the image I had prepared earlier, throwing another Kanshou soon after the first. The second Kanshou followed directly in the wake of the first, hiding just behind it. As soon as the first was deflected, the second struck the vampire's hand, slicing it cleanly through the wrist before spinning away.
The vampire howled in pain. He clutched the bloody stump, staring at it in disbelief. I dashed in, slashing at his neck with Bakuya. The vampire's head snapped up, his other hand moved with invisible speed and batted Bakuya away, flinging it far off behind me. Without a pause, I swung Kanshou at his neck.
It struck a shallow cut, managing only to further enrage the furious vampire. But it also opened for me a few precious seconds of opportunity. Discarding Kanshou, I disengaged from the vampire and traced my last prepared Bakuya. I swung it beside me, seemingly at the empty air. Even the vampire was confused for a few seconds, before his eyes widened and he tried to jump aside.
Two Kanshous flew in from his left and his right, attracted by the Bakuya I held in my hand. One struck the vampire directly on his back, embedding itself into his body, while the other sailed pass him to me. I threw Bakuya at the vampire and caught Kanshou, then jumped at him, bringing the white sword down in a cleaving blow with all my weight. Bakuya sliced into the vampire's chest, while Kanshou bored down from his collarbone to his waist, a fatal wound.
The body of the vampire jerked taut, then went limp.
The pain of my left arm caught up with me as the adrenaline faded away. I collapsed to my knees, eyes screwed shut as lightning hot current flayed the remaining flesh of my left arm. I wanted to fall unconscious; I wanted to be rid of the pain.
But Rider was still around. She would have come to my aid if she had been able to, so there could only be one reason why she hadn't. Something must be keeping her. Something that was strong enough to fight against a Servant. Even with my left arm missing and my right side slashed, I wanted to help Rider.
Now that I was less focused, I could clearly sense the signs of a major battle happening near me. There was a massive amount of mana concentrated in one area, just ahead of me, centering over the skeleton of a half-completed skyscraper. An ominous aura bellowed out from that direction, oppressing the air, crushing all the sound into an unnatural silence. That must be where Rider was battling her enemy, that was where I needed to go.
I got up from my knees and started to stagger towards the skyscraper. With every step, fluids seemed to fill my lung and flow up my throat, filling my nose with the scent blood, drenching the back of my mouth with a tangy bite. I ignored it. I have to hurry, Rider might need my hel-
I stopped. There was a bloody hand sticking out of my chest.
ôGoing somewhere, human?ö the dead vampire half-asked, half-stated, his clawed hand dripping crimson blood.
I tried to talk, my throat wouldn't work.
ôI have to say, you almost had me there.ö the vampire continued, ôYou're tougher than I thought.ö
I tried to walk, my feet wouldn't move.
He giggled insanely, twisting his bloody arm inside my body, while grasping my head with his other hand.
I tried to think, my mind stopped.
He withdrew his hand from my body. I fell to the ground.
ô........ö
What was he saying? I couldn't understand.
...
He walked past me, pacing back and forth.
...
He turned to me, gripping my head with both his hands, smearing my face with blood.
...
He laughed, bouncing up and down in giddiness.
...
He stopped, frowning in concentration.
ô.........................ö he said, glaring at the skyscraper.
à
ô...ö he continued.
à
He paused for a moment, as if a thought had just struck him.
ô...........................ö
He clasped his hand, delighted with his idea.
K...ll? H...er? Ri.....r?
The vampire turned its back to me.
ô~Kill kill kill!ö he sang, ôKill! Kill! Kill!~ö
à
...
Kill? R...der?
-Trace On-
I pushed myself past my limits. My body moved on its own. It stood up, short black swords filling its hand, shaped in the form of a cross. Three rapier-like swords, designed to be thrown, struck the vampire from behind with enough force to smash concrete, knocking him forward.
ô-What?!ö
The vampire sounded surprised. Twisting around, he looked at me. A twisted smile formed on his face.
The vampire fully turned to face me. My body projected more swords, flinging them at the vampire like arrows. The vampire dodged them all. With unnatural speed, he attacked. My body blocked his first strike, then his second, then third then fourth then fifth, turning away every consecutive attack. But there was no room for me to counter, my body could only defend, one arm taxed beyond its limit as it tried to block the cascading blows.
The vampire laughed a carefree laugh, his face a mask of cruel delight as he swung his nails over and over again, grinning wider and wider with every deflected strike.
But my body, already past its limits, could not keep up with the strenuous pace. Seven became ten, then thirteen, then twenty. Finally, on the twenty-seventh blow, my body slowed. I was backhanded away, flying through the air.
I landed heavily on the ground. I couldnÆt get up.
The vampire crouched over me.
ôAh....are you tired?ö he asked me, ôWhy don't we play something else then?ö
He circled my prone body, looking at it from head to toe, nodding, inspecting it like a butcher does his meat. Seemingly satisfied, the vampire stood over my body, tracing my chest with his nails, leaving behind streaks of blood as they tore through the shirt and opened the skin. Smiling cruelly down at me, he raised his left hand, spreading his fingers, the pointed nails gleaming in the reddened air.
A curtain of hair caressed my chest, a shadow flew across my body. The vampire was viciously flung off me, crashing into the side of a building with terrific noise.
ôShirou...ö
Was this...?
ôRi...der?ö I asked, straining myself to do even this simple task.
ôYes, Shirou. Sleep. You have done well, I will handle the rest.ö
Her voice was calm and soothing.
Rider was fine. I relaxed with that fact in mind.
The vampire stumbled out of the crater in the wall, feet unsteady. He took one look at Rider and grew visibly distressed, his eyes widening in disbelief.
ôYou! Wh-HOW?!ö he sputtered.
Rider said nothing.
With a flick of her wrist, a giant iron nail impaled itself in the arm of the vampire, its chain wrapping around his entire arm.
ôANSWER ME!ö the vampire roared, struggling against his binds, ôWHERE IS MY SIRE?!ö
Rider said nothing.
Another nail impaled itself in the vampire's other arm, chains wrapping in the same manner as the first.
ôDAMN YOU!ö the vampire cursed. His struggle became frantic, but he couldn't escape from chains' tight grip.
Grasping the middle of the chains that connected the two nails together, she lifted the screaming vampire into the air. With a casual swing, she threw the vampire into the ground, jumping up as he came crashing down. The vampire slammed into the asphalt, a circle of cracked pavement radiating out from the center of the impact. Rider descended, smashing her foot against the vampire's head, crushing it instantly.
I let myself sleep.
_______________
I woke up to the wind blowing across my face. I noticed that we were high above the ground. I was being carried by Rider, who was traveling across the top of the buildings of Fuyuki. She noticed my wakening almost immediately.
ôShirou, did I wake you?ö she asked in a gentle voice, concern on her face.
I must be dreaming still.
I lightly shook my head no.
ôThen please, go back to sleep.ö
I heeded Rider's advice and drifted away.
_______________
The next time I woke up, I was standing in front of a door, leaning against Rider.
The door opened.
ôSenpai!ö a familiar girl gasped from inside the house.
I must look terrible. Through a haze of pain, I smiled at her.
ôI'm home, Sakura.ö
With that greeting, I fell back into oblivion.
End Chapter 1.
_______________
Author's Note: Updates will be erratic. I'm also looking for a beta.
Some might recognize this. Yes, it's the same. Yes, I'll repost it. The beginning was changed, I didn't like the old one much. I feel that this one is much better.
Questions? Comments?
