Chapter 186: The Heretic Sword
Several days later, the air over Fuyuki City felt... heavy. A palpable, ominous energy shrouded the night sky, a stark contrast to the peaceful city lights below.
"It's begun," you murmured, your breath fogging in the cold. You and Firefly stood on the edge of a high rooftop, overlooking the sleeping city.
"The 'Holy Grail War,'" Firefly said, her arms crossed. "Elio's script calls it a ritual of mutual slaughter among mages, all competing for a wish-granting cup. It sounds... primitive."
"And messy," you added. "I read the briefing. Seven 'Masters' summon seven 'Servants'—historical heroes—to fight to the death. The winner gets a wish. It's inefficient."
Firefly scoffed lightly. "Still, Elio's script is absolute. We find the Stellaron hidden within the Grail, we take it. Simple." She adjusted the strap of her green dress, looking completely out of place on the gritty rooftop. "Let's just hope this doesn't take too long."
Just then, a flash of metallic light, followed by a sound like a distant, booming explosion, lit up the forest canopy on the city's outskirts.
You narrowed your eyes. "Over there. The 'unusual movement' the script mentioned. It seems a Servant is already in combat."
"Mm. Let's get a closer look," Firefly said. "Script says we observe first."
With a shared nod, the two of you leaped from the rooftop, your forms descending like shadows into the forest below.
You arrived at the edge of a clearing, concealed by the dense, ancient trees. The scene was one of overwhelming, brutal power.
A giant, pitch-black Servant—a monstrous figure of muscle and madness—was absolutely dominating two other combatants. He was easily over two meters tall, his skin like dark, living stone, and he wielded a massive axe that was more a slab of carved rock than a weapon.
[Inorin's Note: This is Berserker, the Servant of Illyasviel von Einzbern in the Fifth Holy Grail War. His true identity is Heracles.]
A golden-haired female knight in blue and silver armor—Saber—clashed with him. Her own blade was invisible, obscured by wind magic, but every one of her powerful, elegant strikes was brutally parried, the force of the impacts sending shockwaves that shivered the trees.
Further back, a man in a red coat—Archer—fired a volley of glowing arrows from a distance. They struck the giant's hide and shattered harmlessly, failing to inflict even the slightest damage.
"Rin, this won't do! That Berserker is too strong!" a young man with red hair, Shirou Emiya, shouted anxiously from the sidelines. He stood next to a girl in a red twin-tail outfit, Rin Tohsaka, who was watching with a grim expression.
Berserker ignored the others, his mad, red eyes locking onto the more immediate threat: Saber. He raised his massive stone axe high, preparing for a final, fatal blow that would surely end the knight.
"He's going to kill her!" Shirou screamed.
You knew you couldn't wait any longer. The script could be adjusted.
A dark shadow plunged from the trees, moving faster than any of them could track. You emerged between the descending axe and the knight.
CLANG—!
A sound like a temple bell being struck echoed through the forest, so loud it physically hurt. Sparks exploded at the point of impact.
Your simple black blade, held in a one-handed grip, had firmly parried the unstoppable, house-sized axe. The ground beneath your feet cracked and spiderwebbed from the sheer force, but your arm, empowered by your unnatural strength, held firm.
"What?!" Rin Tohsaka shouted, her analytical mind completely blindsided. "He's not a Master! He stopped that?!"
Shirou just gaped, his mind unable to process the physics of what he was seeing. A normal-looking person, not a Servant, had just blocked a blow that could level a building.
Saber, her stance unbroken, also looked on in shock. This newcomer... he had no Servant's aura, yet his speed and, more impossibly, his strength... were on par with a high-tier Servant. Who was he?
"SAM, activate!"
At that moment, a new voice called from above. A scorching meteor shower—a volley of missiles—poured down from the night sky, exploding around Berserker and forcing him to leap back.
CRASH!
A giant, silver-white mech—SAM, piloted by Firefly—landed heavily beside you, the ground shaking from the impact.
"Orion! Didn't I tell you we were observing first?!" SAM's synthesized voice complained.
"Sorry," you replied, not taking your eyes off the giant. "My body just moved on its own."
"Roar—!!!"
Berserker was enraged. He abandoned Saber and turned his glowing red eyes to the more threatening, and much larger, target: SAM.
A brutal confrontation of brute force versus technology began. SAM's thrusters flared, launching the mech forward. The mech was a blur of silver and green fire, its fists moving like pistons. It landed a devastating uppercut that sent the giant flying, then followed up with a rocket-propelled kick to his midsection, smashing him through a grove of ancient trees.
"How's that for a beating, you overgrown monster!" Firefly's voice taunted from the mech.
But, to everyone's horror, the giant rose. The gaping, fiery crater in its chest, where SAM's fist had been, was already sealing. Black flesh and muscle writhed and knitted back together in seconds.
"What... what is that?" Shirou stammered.
"Regeneration... and on a level I've never seen," Rin said, her voice tight with alarm. "This is... God Hand. Heracles."
"Damn it! How many lives does this guy have?!" SAM's voice roared in frustration.
After another fierce punch sent Berserker crashing through a line of trees, the giant rose again. But this time, he didn't charge back at the mech.
His irrational, crimson eyes scanned the battlefield and settled on... you. You were smaller, less armored. You appeared to be "weaker."
Ignoring SAM, he charged at you like an out-of-control truck, his massive axe raised high.
Danger! You braced yourself, preparing to dodge.
But then… something happened. A sharp, splitting pain lanced through your temples, as if your brain was being torn in two.
Suddenly, your vision shifted. The world's colors faded, and the charging giant in front of you was... different.
He was covered in countless, crisscrossing, spiderweb-like black lines. They were everywhere—on his skin, on his axe, even on the ground he ran upon.
What are they? You weren't sure, but a cold, primal knowledge, an instinct you never knew you possessed, whispered in your soul.
Cut along them.
If you cut along those lines... you can kill it.
[Inorin's Note: Orion's amnesia is causing him to rediscover his [Mystic Eyes of Death Perception], an ability that allows him to perceive and cut the 'Lines of Death' on all things.]
You instinctively tightened your grip on your sword. The massive stone axe descended, blotting out the sky.
At the last possible second, you moved.
Your body slid past Berserker's charge at an incredible, almost impossible angle. The longsword in your hand, now guided by this new perception, didn't aim for flesh or bone.
It lightly, almost gently, sliced along the single, clearest black line on his chest.
The sensation was wrong. It wasn't the resistance of tough flesh and bone. It felt... like a hot knife slicing through butter. Effortless. Final.
Pfft.
All of Berserker's movements abruptly ceased. His furious roar was caught in his throat. The massive axe stopped, inches from the ground.
The giant's massive body shuddered, then collapsed to its knees. He didn't regenerate. He just... stopped.
"No... regeneration?" Rin watched, horrified. "He killed... a life? But... he should have 11 more!"
Saber stared, her knightly composure completely broken. That strike... it hadn't just destroyed his body. It had... ended his life. It was a conceptual attack. "That's... impossible..."
Then, Berserker's form began to dissipate into particles of light, vanishing into the night wind.
This time, he would never revive.
The entire forest clearing was silent, save for the crackling of the fires SAM had started.
"You… what did you do?" Rin Tohsaka was the first to speak, her voice sharp with incredulity. "That thing has multiple lives! How did you kill it in one strike?"
Shirou and Saber also stared at you, their shock palpable.
You didn't answer, sheathing your sword as you tried to control the throbbing headache. You were equally perplexed. What were those visible black lines? They felt like… "death" itself.
Firefly disengaged SAM with a flash of light, reappearing in her green dress, which only confused the Fate team more. She walked over to you.
"Orion, that was flashy. But remember to follow the script. Saber needs to be saved for last."
You understood. You turned to Rin and Shirou. "Who we are, you don't need to know," you said, adopting a cold, mysterious persona. "I just want to tell you that the Holy Grail you are fighting for has already been corrupted. It will only bring destruction. Give up; this war is meaningless."
"Nonsense!" Rin immediately retorted. "How would you know that?"
"Is he telling the truth, Saber?" Shirou frowned, looking to his Servant.
Saber gazed at you, her golden-green eyes filled with intense scrutiny. That final strike... it wasn't swordsmanship. It was something else. "I cannot judge his words," she said. "But his power... is not of this war."
"Hmph," Rin crossed her arms, her mind clearly racing. "You two are strong, I'll give you that. And you seem to know things we don't. I propose we temporarily form an alliance! Let's investigate the truth of the Holy Grail together. Then, at the end, we'll decide its ownership!"
She was clearly trying to keep you, a powerful and unknown variable, close.
You and Firefly exchanged glances. This fit the script's parameters. "An alliance is acceptable," you nodded.
Thus, you and Firefly found yourselves as temporary residents of the spacious, traditional Tohsaka mansion. That night, you found the dojo, a quiet, moonlit space that felt far removed from the modern world.
You were wiping your sword, the black blade seeming to drink the moonlight, when a soft voice broke the silence.
"Sir Orion."
You looked up. Saber stood in the doorway, the moonlight illuminating her golden hair. She had changed out of her armor and into blue casual clothes—a simple white shirt and a long blue skirt. She looked less like a legendary knight and more like a normal, beautiful young woman.
"Your swordsmanship is exceptionally refined," she said, her expression serious. "But that one strike that killed Berserker... that was not swordsmanship. If you don't mind, I would like to spar with you. Purely swordsmanship."
"You want to understand my technique," you stated, not asked.
She nodded. "I need to understand what you did. That... was not a Noble Phantasm."
"Alright." You picked up a bokken, a wooden sword, from the rack. She did the same.
The sharp clack of wood on wood echoed through the dojo. Neither of you used special abilities, engaging only in pure, unadulterated swordsmanship.
Saber's attacks were a storm. Powerful, precise, beautiful. Each strike was a perfect, textbook-ideal cut. She was, without a doubt, a master of the sword.
But you... you were something else.
You didn't block. You... parried in ways that made no sense. Your bokken would tap a precise point on her blade, and the entire force of her attack would just... die. She'd lunge, and you'd shift your foot, your own blade lightly touching her hilt, breaking her grip.
To her, it felt like you were predicting her every move. To you, you were simply seeing the 'lines of death' on her technique. You weren't fighting her; you were killing her swordsmanship.
After several minutes, she leaped back, panting, her eyes wide with a mixture of frustration and awe. "You... you're not just predicting me. You're... dismantling my style. How?"
You shrugged, lowering your own wooden sword. After an exhaustive practice that left you both sweating, you both lay side by side on the cool, dark wooden floor, staring up at the moon through the open shoji screen.
"...Your style... it's heretical," Saber finally said, not as an insult, but as a statement of fact. "But it's... remarkable. I've never seen anything like it. Where did you learn?"
"The Xianzhou…" The two words slipped out before you could stop them. A fragment of a memory, of jade palaces and endless war.
"Xianzhou?" Saber turned her head, her golden-green eyes curious. "Where is that?"
You cursed inwardly, covering the slip. "A very distant place. A series of... ships. In the East."
"Ships? Like... city-ships?" Her interest was piqued.
"Something like that," you said evasively, sitting up. "The spar is over."
Saber sat up as well. "I see…" She didn't press further, sensing your reluctance. She turned her head again, this time just looking at your distinct profile in the moonlight.
This man... he wasn't a Master, nor a Servant. He was an outsider to this war, yet he possessed the strength of a top-tier Servant and a sword style she couldn't comprehend. And... he had a past he was hiding.
"...And that girl, SAM... she is your partner?"
"Firefly? Yes. She's my... colleague."
"I see." Saber looked down at her own hands. Colleagues. This man was an enigma wrapped in a mystery, and for the first time since being summoned, the young knight found herself hopelessly, dangerously intrigued.