Soul of the Lost withdrawn from its vessel...I am the bone of my sword

Let strength be granted so the world might be mended...Steel is my body and fire is my blood

Soul of the Lost withdrawn from its vessel...I have created over a thousand blades

Let strength be granted so the world might be mended...Unknown to death

Soul of the Lost withdrawn from its vessel...Nor known to life

Let strength be granted so the world might be mended...I have endured pain to create many weapons

Soul of the Lost withdrawn from its vessel...Yet these hands will never hold anything

Let strength be granted so the world might be mended...So as I pray,

So the world might be mended...Unlimited Blade works

He felt like retching the moment he woke up. His head was pounding as though that Berserker was using it like a doormat.

One thing could safely be said about Emiya Shirou: When he felt like doing something, he did it. He took only half a second to suck in a breath before he lurched himself onto his side. He dry heaved until he managed to reach his hands and knees; only then did he allow himself to fully retch up whatever he'd had for lunch.

Purplish green gunk splattered over stone, the smell was immediate, horrid, and overpowering. He reeled, pulling himself away before he retched again from the assault on his senses alone.

He fell again, nearly flat on his back as he backpedaled and finally had a moment to look at his surroundings.

' .hell?'

That was Shirou's immediate, and only thought as his eyes swept over the massive face of a castle.

A castle!

Why the hell was he in front of a castle?

Where was there a European western style castle in Japan!?

It was with some difficulty that the teenager was able to push down the quickly rising panic enough to actually look around his immediate area.

A splotch of red on the cold granite floor caught his eye, without thinking, he rushed forward.

"Tohsaka!" He yelled, all but sliding on his knees as he reached her, turning her over so she was lying on her back rather than on her side.

She groaned, prying the sound from her throat like she was waking after having just been hit by a line backer. She blinked, staring up blearily at his worried face. She stared blankly for a few seconds, then..."You look like hell."

Shirou sighs, half in relief half in exasperation. Then he sees Tohsaka's eyes widen, her pupils dilate and with that same, lurching motion he gave just seconds ago as his warning, he grabs at her hair and holds it behind her as she swivels around to throw up.

She coughs and sputters, making heaving noises as though she's about to throw up all over again before she inches away from the half digested mess on the floor. Weak as a kitten, he helps her pull away and stand up.

She looks around, and unlike his reaction, she doesn't panic. He's fairly sure he's the more normal of the two. "Where are we?" He questions after a second.

"You're asking me?" She shoots back, swallowing thickly with a grimace, no doubt the aftertaste of the vomit is making it just as unpleasant for her as it was for him. "I appreciate the confidence but I'm not omniscient Shirou."

He would have spoken again to say that he already knew that but decided to look around instead. "Where's Saber?"

That made Rin look up. "Strange."

Shirou shook his head, troubled, looking down to his hand he saw the command seals were still present, the two remaining runes glowing brightly on his skin. He sighed in relief. "She's still alive." He noticed then that Rin wasn't moving.

"Rin, what's wrong?" He was worried that she was going to throw up again but the second he looked down to her he saw what had driven her to stop.

Her command seal was glowing too, that little crescent at the base of her hand where it met her wrist was glowing again, as bright as day.

"Archer." He heard her mutter, almost frightened at the possibility. He would have said something more, but was interrupted by a groaning, shuffling sound to his right.

He and Rin both turned to look:

The man was grotesque, skeletal thin, his skin was blotched with weeping sores and fresh scabs from what looked to have been self inflicted wounds. He was dressed in blood stained rags that couldn't even really be said to cover much of anything.

Shirou narrowed his eyes, standing in front of the still wobbly Rin. He saw the starved man gripping a thin, long knife in a white knuckled grip.

The youth cursed and after looking for a moment he reached down and grabbed a long, thin stick. Strengthening the improvised weapon, he made it as hard as a steel pipe.

The sick man stumbled forward, groaning as his listless eyes focused on them.

"Hey!" Shirou called holding up his weapon in a single hand like a sword. "Stay back, I'd rather not hurt you."

But at his words the man's eyes grew sharp, his breathing quickened, white foam oozed from the edges of his lips as he yelled and sprinted at them.

Shirou felt himself tense with surprise; not at the fact that he was being attacked but rather at the sheer lunacy he could feel in this man. It was as though his mind had been completely melted away and now only base instinct and the wish to do violence was left behind.

The man had a dagger meant for piercing, but he swung the thing like a club, projecting his attack to the point that a child could have stopped it.

Shirou didn't think, he swung the stick almost as a reflex and struck the man's hand and wrist with all his might.

There was a crunch of bones being snapped, but to Shirou and Rin's immense surprise the man didn't even stop. His weapon fell, but the crazed dreg surged forward regardless, grasping at Shirou's neck with his left hand.

Shirou gasped, the sound half choked as he backpedaled to try and get away but he tripped on Rin's feet behind him, and both he and the man fell as she yelled out his name.

The man's broken hand joined his other, clawing at the teenager's neck and Shirou placed the stick across the man's naked chest, directly beneath both arms, and pushed.

The madman yelled some more, pushing himself down with more force, his fumbling fingers losing their grip on Shirou's neck, leaving only fingernails to scratch.

Shirou could feel and hear the man's bones shifting sickeningly beneath the skin of his fingers and hands, it was a revolting sensation that served to drive home only how sick this man was.

Then with a brutally hard blow to the back of the man's head he was unconscious and Shirou pushed him off in an instant to see Rin standing there, plank of splintered wood in hand as she stared at the downed attacker.

Shirou scrambled to his feet, rubbing at his neck. "What the hell is wrong with him!" He shouted at no one in particular.

"Don't know, but you wanna be here when he wakes up?" She grabbed at his wrist, not waiting for an answer before she turned and began to drag him behind her.

Then they both froze.

Across from them, formed of contrailing wisps of white, smoky flames was a man, clad from head to toe in what looked to be steel armor, they could not see his face, all they saw was the gesture.

His hand reached, beckoning them forward quietly, urgently, then he turned and began to run across the bridge.

"What the hell is this place?" Rin asked this time.

Shirou took a second to look around the bridge, noticing splintered wood from shattered barricades, overturned carts, putrefying animals and people, burning corpses piled high along its edges.

He looked, and when the phantasmal presence paused to beckon them again, he made his decision.

This time he grabbed at her wrist and pulled her along.

"Come on!"

Ahead of them, the Phantom turned and ran again.

Ostrava cursed as his run came to a dead halt, face to face with a sheer wall of stone, the prince-turned-hedge-knight rounded, Runesword and shield at the ready when nearly twenty others chased him into the dead end yard.

He counted them all quickly, a dozen dreglings, the rest were crazed soldiers.

Even a dozen dreglings would not have been overmuch risk...his armor was of plate steel, and he knew well how to defend the weak points from their pointed daggers and how to block the blunted clubs three of them were wielding.

No, the problem here were the maddened soldiers.

Though wild and crazed, the soldiers retained some of their training. They had weapons, and they knew very well how to use them. Four alone, at once, in such an open space would have been a challenge.

There were five of them with a dozen dreglings for backup.

He gripped the runesword, tightening his stance as he backed up towards the corner. Best strategy was to put a wall at his back. If they had to come at him, they were gonna come at him from the front.

The dreglings didn't wait much longer, they rushed forward all at once tripping over eachother and injuring the ones at their side with their wild movements.

One even had the good grace to trip and skewer himself on his own blade before it ever reached him.

The others weren't so graceful. Ostrava cut off the first one's hand at the forearm, when he tried approaching with an upwards strike from the left, spinning around, he slipped into the guard of the second, delivering a solid elbow across his face that shattered his nose and most likely snapped his teeth with the metal encasing his limb.

Then he spun again, this time punching with his shield, the very edge of his rune shield struck at the next dregling's forehead. It barely broke the skin but Ostrava heard the crunching mess that was his skull splintering and shattering beneath the sack of his skin.

With a parry and a counter riposte he opened the chest of the fourth.

The fifth was too close to swing at, so he swerved, feeling and seeing the knife scrape uselessly across his breastplate as he kicked at the crazed dreg's knee, shattering it with a single blow of his shin guard.

A sixth one grabbed at his shield arm, holding it in a vice like grip, belied by the sheer lack of muscle or mass on his frame.

Ostrava cursed, using his sword to strike at another of the dregs who was rushing at him, dagger in hand.

He opened up his face, the tip of his runesword cutting into one cheek and emerging out the other in a splatter of bloody viscera. The thing that had once been a man slumped over, dead.

Ostrava then twisted the blade in his grip, holding it in reverse he stuck it under the shield and pushed.

The warm wetness of the blood seeped through his shield arm as the dreg holding him lost all strength. Ostrava kicked him off and turned;

The spear scrapped harshly across the crown of his helm, sparks flying, Ostrava felt his heart leap into his throat as he backed again towards the wall, two of the soldiers were rushing him with the remaining five dregs, their spears in hand, they each struck with coordination that defied their collective madness.

His shield met the first, sword parried the second, then the soldier that had struck his shield pushed with his spear and Ostrava stumbled, losing his footing on the dead at his feet, leaving him wide open for the third.

"Haa!"

The third spearhead never struck. Before his very eyes the thing snapped off, and it was only then that Ostrava saw the woman.

Clad in blue and silver, she held nothing in her hands, but her stance hinted otherwise. Her blond hair and clothes were already spattered with blood, the dreglings and the crazed soldiers turned at the arrival. And Ostrava found himself shouting before they moved.

"Run! They'll kill you!"

The woman took her stance, readying herself with absolutely nothing for a weapon. "No, they won't." She answered so simply he almost believed her outright.

When the dreglings rushed her, he did believe her outright.

She struck down three of them before he'd even blinked, her movements were so fast Ostrava would never have believed the tale without being witness. She deftly skirted around their strikes and returned with her own devastating ones, only the stance she held and the movements she made, revealed that she was wielding a sword.

Not even blood coated the weapon, rebuffed by some invisible barrier.

But he could hear it, a faint whistle. Like the sound of a sharp wind through the trees.

The two soldiers that hadn't attacked him turned, and by that time she'd already cut down the last two dreglings.

One held a chained flail, the other a simple sword.

She raised her blade, as the first soldier swung with the flail, its chains coiling around her invisible blade before she yanked it out of his grasp, swinging her sword, she cut the man down with the tip, and then, with the same motion stopped the blade in such a way that the coiled flail shot out, sliding free and smacking the second soldier in the face, most likely killing him.

Being dumfounded long enough, Ostrava finally had the mind to capitalize on the distraction the woman had presented. He pushed back with his shield, shoving himself off the wall. He cut down the spearman that had tried to skewer him, then turned and cut down the one whose weapon he'd deflected.

The last spearman tried to hold him at bay with the spear lodged in his shield, pushing him back, Ostrava harshly twisted his forearm, snapping the spear at the neck, the head lodged firmly between the opening slit of his rune shield before he rushed forward and ran the man through from stomach to back.

The Knight of Boletaria turned and regarded the woman before him.

He instantly knew, even covered in blood and grime that she was the most beautiful woman he'd ever laid eyes on.

His tongue swelled in his mouth and he found himself gaping like a fish beneath his helmet before he was fully able to compose himself.

"I-I thank you for your timely aid my lady." He said. "I am..." He paused, catching himself. "I am Ostrava of Boletaria."

"It is no trouble." She said, nodding. Then she turned her back, the bloodied, invisible blade dripping onto the floor. "But I must go, I have to find my friends quickly."

"W-wait!" He called out, his hand outstretched towards her back. "Allow me to accompany you. As a Knight of Boletaria I would be remiss if I allowed a lady- even one as skilled as yourself -" He added hastily. "To wander through these madmen alone."

He wasn't sure whether she wished to argue the point or not, but apparently, her haste to find whatever friends she was looking for won over her urge to say something more before she began walking.

He fell in step beside her and the two marched through the streets of the desecrated city.

The two moved quickly and quietly, the phantom leading them deftly through the tight streets, often times its ethereal shade would round a corner, only to be gone when they rounded the same corner and be on some walkway above, pointing them where to go. Other times he would vanish altogether, leaving them to wander until it reappeared again, walking across a yard or hallway into a room where they followed, just in time to avoid a group of wandering madmen.

They called out to him at first, but he never spoke, and twice they'd drawn the attention of someone they didn't want. So for now, Shirou and Rin both kept their mouth shut and followed quietly.

They were up above on the walkways when their guardian angel finally slipped up, or completely forgot about them. The thing ran across a wide open bridge, lined from one end to the other with aimlessly wandering crossbowmen that hadn't seen them yet.

They didn't even take notice of the spirit, though it walked past them plain as day.

The moment he reached the other side the spirit turned and beckoned them forward.

Rin pursed her lips in displeasure before she turned her head to look at Shirou, both of them hiding behind a pillar. "I don't know, but Casper the friendly ghost seems to have forgotten that crossbow quarrels tend to kill people. Might explain how he died in the first place."

Shirou narrowed his eyes thinking for a moment. "I think I have an idea."

Rin looked at him and Shirou soon turned, rounding a corner they'd passed by. Rin raised an eyebrow, curious, then she watched him as he dragged forward one of the wooden barricades.

When he saw her looking at him he pointed at the wooden slab. "What if we reinforce this? Then we carry it across with us, to stop the arrows.

"Are you a complete moron or just half of one?" She said, eyes narrowed at the sheer stupidity of this. "They're not just gonna let us walk right past them because we have a big piece of wood.

"It can at least protect us then while you fire off some spells." He shot back. Tapping at the wood he gave her a pointed look, "No arrow or spear is getting through this if we reinforce it Tohsaka"

Rin rubbed her temples. This had stupid written all over it.

Damn ghost.

"Alright I say that we-" She paused, curiously, eyes swiveling up to the roof. "Do you hear something?"

Shirou listened, and realized that he, in fact, did hear something.

It sounded like...were those wings?

With a crash that threw the floor out from under him and then shot it right back up so it could hit his knees he fell forward, hearing the screeching hiss of some beast, he and Tohsaka looked to the bridge just in time to see a perched dragon- a god damned, heaven as their witness, Dragon currently swallowing one of the soldiers!

The others screamed, even their crazed minds enjoying the sensation of fear brought by this terrifying beast. Some shot at it, most fled.

They didn't get far.

The dragon swallowed his victim, blood dripping from his mouth before he reared back, and with a hollow howl breathed out a river of red hot fire onto the bridge.

The soldiers screamed in agony, the furthest of them burning slowly, he screamed the loudest, and the longest as his clothes were burned onto his flesh, as his skin roasted and his organs popped within his body from the heat.

When he fell, the red dragon took to the skies once more.

Shirou and Tohsaka stared from where they were, wide eyed and disbelieving.

"Wha-Di-did I just see what I think I saw?"

And across the other side of the bridge, the phantom still beckoned them forward.

Of the two of them, Rin was the first to regain her wits and taking only a second more to look to the skies, she stood and ran across the bridge.

"To-Tohsaka!" Shirou yelled after her before he too stood up and ran.

The ghost beckoned them, more urgently now and a second later Rin heard the flapping of wings.

Her heart pounded in fear and the young woman rushed forward with greater speed, sprinting towards the doorway, to the safety of indoors.

She ran straight through the phantom and behind her she heard Shirou's footsteps. She could almost feel the gust of the wings at her back. She didn't wait, she threw her shoulder into that door and smashed it right off its rusted hinges. She fell on the same shoulder, rolling so she could look outside she saw the Dragon just as it landed again, Shirou grabbed at the doors edge, bringing his sprint to an end as he rounded the corner just as the beast breathed its fire breath again.

It wouldn't hit Shirou, but she was dead center of that fire breath.

She reached into her jacket pocket to pull out one of the few remaining jewels that was left to her for a defensive spell. She would never be able to stop that on her own.

But she wouldn't be quick enough. The fire was swallowing the distance between them in milliseconds too fast for her, too fast for a servant even.

She almost missed the instant the Ghost appeared in-front of her, standing at the door.

The white, wispy thing held its hands open, and with a crash like water on rock the fires were stopped dead in their tracks, not passing the door as Shirou grabbed at her arm and pulled her out of the way.

When the fires died down, Rin saw the ghost collapse, falling onto one exhausted knee as the sound of flapping wings announced the dragon's leave again.

Rin and Shirou stood frozen to the spot, watching as the Ghost looked at them, and she could almost swear the thing was smiling sadly behind that helm.

She wanted to say thank you, but her mouth felt like it was stuffed with cotton, and the words died on her lips.

The ghost turned his eyes away from them, and then, pointed wearily to a lever Rin hadn't noticed before.

Before she or Shirou could say anything, the Ghost fell forward, his ethereal body making no sound, though he fell flat on his face. Then he faded away.

Without saying anything, Shirou moved forward, checking out the door before dashing to its other side, he put his hands to pull at the lever the Ghost had directed them to.

She would have asked how he knew it wasn't some trick, but bit her tongue at the last minute.

At this point...if that Ghost wanted to kill them, he'd done a very bad job of it.

The gears of the opening gate were so loud Saber and Ostrava heard them clearly, hell, Saber was sure everyone in the entire castle had heard it.

"What's that?" She asked.

"That must be the main portcullis!" Ostrava answered. "Your friends." He concluded. "They're the only ones who could have opened it! The madmen wouldn't! Come, this way!" He turned and began to run through the narrow alleys and winding streets.

"Your friends must be as strong as you my lady." He said panting for breath as he led her. "I had been searching for a way past the red Dragon for some time now."

Saber stopped for a full second before she ran again, eyes wide with shock. "Did you just say Dragon?"

Ostrava glanced behind him, glancing at the woman over his shoulder. "Yes, the power of the demons has lured them from the distant shadow lands. The red Dragon circles above the rooftops and bridges, the only entrance to the main gate's release mechanism. If your friends made it past both it and whatever madmen wander up there, they are clever indeed.

Saber grit her teeth, worry splayed across her beautiful face. Her lips thinned. Shirou was not dead. She knew he was not dead. She may not be able to sense him as a normal servant and master would, but he was still her master. If Shirou were to die she would know! She would...

Ostrava went into a building, winding his way through the soldier barracks and the storehouses with the garrisons spoiling provisions before he finally opened a door to the exterior of the castle.

The door, couldn't even be called a door really. It was a barred entry way that led into a narrow crevice passage where one man could barely fit walking normally. Furthermore, the main 'entrance' to this area was elevated, with neither a stairway nor ladder to the ground that was about fifteen feet below.

Ostrava didn't hesitate, he strapped his shield onto his back, sheathed his sword and jumped, Saber followed.

Then they ran some more.

By the time they reached the main gate, which Saber realized was absolutely massive, there was no sign of either Shirou, or Rin, only an abnormally large lance embedded in the floor, and a barrier that felt like the void itself was standing in place of the physical barricade that was the portcullis.

"They're not here." She said, her voice ringing with a note of disappointed sadness.

"I apologize my lady." Ostrava said sincerely. "I-I did not mean to raise your hopes needlessly.

Saber shook her head. "No...there is no reason to apologize."

With a screeching of rusty iron gears the two turned, their weapons held ready as they looked to the rising bars of a postern gate.

"Saber!"

Saber froze, her face showing surprise for a moment before she relaxed, smiling as Shirou and Tohsaka stepped through the doorway, dirty, worse for wear, but alive.

"Shirou, Rin."

Ostrava for his part, heard the relief in her voice, but even so it did very little to truly reassure him.

These people were dressed strangely, stranger than any he'd seen before and that was saying something when your homeland had been overrun by demons. The young man's clothing was of strange material and the young lady called Rin was downright indecent.

Regardless...they were sane. Which was more that could be said for most of the people in his homeland right now.

He sheathed his blade again and saw the black haired girl, dressed like a working lady, turn her eyes to him. "Saber, who is this?"

Saber flushed with embarrassment. "Ahh, forgive me. Rin, Shirou, this is Sir Ostrava, Sir, these are my friends Emiya Shirou and Tohsaka Rin."

More foreign names he'd never heard in his life. Doubtless they were from some distant kingdom with such alien names and odd clothes.

He nodded. "A pleasure, but I'm afraid we have no more time to dawdle here." He said simply. "That portcullis opening was probably heard throughout the entire barracks. In just a few more moments this place will be swarming with the soulless dregs, or worse, the red Dragon."

He saw Shirou and Rin tense, confirming his original suspicions that the two had slipped past the dragon and did not in fact, bring it down.

It was Saber who first brought her eyes to the barrier. "Sir, what is this?" She asked.

Ostrava looked to the barrier, taking it all in as he stepped forward, the massive doorway that could fit entire platoons marching abreast was covered from edge to edge, top to bottom in a shifting, nebulous fog.

"It's the colorless fog." He said, raising his hand to brush across the very surface of it. "I've never felt it this strongly before." He noted, mostly to himself. "This must be it, this has to be the Demon anchoring the fog here."

"Not to interrupt-" Rin said, saying one thing but very clearly intending the opposite. "But what are you talking about? What demon? Just what is this place?" Or when is this place? Were the words she kept to herself.

Ostrava turned, regarding the three. He addressed Rin. "My lady, I have no time to explain now. But I must go through this fog and face the demon beyond. Should I survive I will explain everything after."

"And if you don't survive." She deadpanned. "Then we'll lose our only lead at finding out just what is going on.

Ostrava realized she was right. The demon stood beyond this gate, he could go in and fight right now. If he slew the beast, it would slow the fog, it may even push the encroaching nebulous death back. But if he failed, if he died, then these people would be left defenseless, more victims to the Demons' insatiable lust for souls.

He was about to speak when there was a shuffling from somewhere in the castle, things falling and a groan that sounded too much like dregs for his comfort.

"There is no time." He said, pushing back his sense of chivalry in the face of urgency. "Go, now! Find somewhere to hide from the dregs, I'll find you once the demon is defeated.

"I will not allow you to go in there alone." Saber spoke, stepping forward.

"I thank you my lady, but neither of your friends have weapons, they would need you to defend them."

Saber paused, but just as she was about to say something more Rin growled out something unintelligible and marched right past the both of them and stepped into the fog.

"Rin!" Shirou shouted, having remained mostly quiet until that point before he followed his classmate.

"Wait no!" He heard Ostrava cry just as he entered the nebula after her.

The moment he stepped through the barrier, he felt like some cloying, fungal liquid had replaced his blood.

His entire body convulsed like he was sick, as though a switch had been pulled and now everything was in reverse inside of him.

The air felt too cold, too thick. Like he was sucking on some watered down milkshake, it flooded his chest and stomach with cold while his skin burned hot from this strange place.

He saw Rin directly ahead of him, one hand at her skull another gripping at her stomach.

"A boundary field?" He heard her ask herself, wondering. He grabbed at her hand, pulling her back.

Ostrava stumbled through, his knees wobbling only for a second before he recovered himself as normal.

Saber came through last, and the blond servant immediately went to her master's side.

"Shirou, are you alright?" She questioned pointedly.

He took a second to speak, struggling to do so the first few times like the words were being pushed back down his throat by the cold air he was breathing.

"J-just give me a minute." He gasped. "Check on Rin."

"I'm fine!" the dark haired girl snapped before she finally brought her eyes up and into focus.

The entire chamber was littered with bodies from one end to the other. Rusted, grime covered metal works of armor, swords, spears, axes bows, arrows, quivers, hide, plate and all other manner of tool designed for warfare wielded by a person was around them.

They'd just walked into a tomb.

Ostrava unsheathed his sword, bringing his shield up. "There." He breathed.

The others had already seen it though, a blue light at the other end of the cavern, perched atop a hill of...was that mud? Tar?

Ostrava took a step forward, ready to approach the beast before him when he noticed something.

The walls were melting.

A thick, black grease oozed its way out from between the cracks in the stone bubbling up from the floor, dripping from the ceiling and trailing down from the walls.

The Knight moved to rush forward but the moment his foot touched the black stuff now emerging from the ground in front of him he felt his feet stick to the ground so hard it was like he was caught in knee deep mud.

With a curse he pulled himself free, nearly falling soundly on his hindquarters for his efforts.

"Ostrava!" He heard the blond knight's shout behind him! He didn't think, he just reacted, bringing up his shield without even looking.

The javelin struck so hard his armored wrist smacked him soundly across his own helmet when it hit the shield.

Off balance, the Knight of Boletaria did fall this time, just in time as another lance rushed through the spot his body had occupied a second later, burring itself into the very stone of the walls. An impossibly strong throw.

Then it melted and rejoined the growing puddle of ooze on the floor.

The black grease was forming up, coalescing into numerous, bulbous...pod like slugs.

Then the front part of their bodies visibly hardened, receiving form and shape. Where only bubbling ichor had existed now lay the face of a tri-pronged shield.

Hundreds of them lined the cavernous chamber. From one end of the hall to the other, impassive faces of a hundred shields lined in row after row, packed atop one another the closer they got to the source of this magic at the other end of the chamber.

Then they formed spears.

The spears emerged out of their sides like some mutated cancerous growth, hardening to be as strong as steel, if not as sharp.

Ostrava, Saber, Shirou and Rin were currently surrounded and staring down hundreds of pointed spears.

Then, the creatures started throwing them.

Every step was painful.

It wasn't sharp pain. It was an ache. That slow, rolling constant pain that couldn't be alleviated no matter what you tried or how you moved.

He wanted to collapse...he wanted to fall, roll over and just drop dead for a day...or a week...at least until his arm healed itself again.

He took another step.

The sun was just beginning to rise when he finally reached his destination...

Damn near every tree was broken.

Trunks with the width of a car had been snapped like twigs, or uprooted entirely, or had been toppled by sword swings that had ripped out entire chunks of them.

And there, almost at the center of all this damage was a girl.

He walked over, instantly recognizing her purple blue clothes, her white hair...Her eyes were closed and her pale skin had the distinct mark of tear-tracts.

The white haired servant known as Archer went to kneel at her side, falling so hard the small cleft where his knee met his shin stung like all nine hells.

He reached down, wincing with a sharp breath as he let go of his arm, feeling it shift with the added pull of gravity.

He pushed the girl onto her back, lightly tapping her face. "Illya." He called.

But the girl slept on, whimpering for her vanished servant.

Painfully, Archer reached down with his remaining arm, and as gently as he could manage with his undamaged limb, lifted the girl, so her cheek rested on his shoulder, his arm coiled around her thighs to hold her in place as he stood up with a drawn out hiss.

Thankfully, she instinctively wrapped her arms around his neck, keeping herself upright as she cried.

Archer felt the ache in his body grow as he began to walk away from that place, Illya's hot tears seeping through his clothing.

Hello long time and new readers. This is my very first work involving both the Fate Stay Night universe, and Demon's Souls universe.

That said, I know a fair bit about Fate Stay and I know alot about Demon's Souls, so I do not expect to make many mistakes, if however I do make mistakes please feel free to point them out, if it can be edited and fixed, it will be.

For those of you who've played Demon Souls however do not mistake liberties taken in the pacing, or the amped up bosses the protagonists will be facing as "mistakes" I've beaten Demon's Souls multiple times in various ways so I know the ins and outs of that game and its sequel Dark Souls like the back of my hand. But for story purposes, things will be done in a certain order/way, and the bosses, already difficult/impossible for some, will be given various boosts to their skills now that they're not "limited" by gameplay mechanics.

Now, to those of you who plan on reading this story, I will warn you in advance that the first planned ten chapters are very action oriented. There is very little character development and very little being done with the characters of Saber Shirou and Rin as a whole, primarily because these first ten chapters will be used to set up the groundwork for later development, of which there will be a lot of revolving around Saber and Shirou more than Rin, but a lot of character development/progression regardless.

For those of you picking up this story and are unfamiliar with Demon Souls I've made this as friendly as possible to non Demon Souls players. To anyone who's played Demon Souls but never watched Fate Stay you might find yourself a little lost truth be told but there really is very little way that I can avoid that. Go after two hares and you'll catch neither as they say.

Now this story has more or less been fully planned, There are five Demon's Souls realms each of which hold 3 bosses not including the final boss of the game. Each location already has an "outline" to go by and the consecuences to the actions the characters commit therin, BUT, I am working on picking up "The Void" again, as well as a few more things I'm dealing with on my end ATM so the update rate will be Bi-weekly AT BEST. It may be a little slower but this story does have an ending planned, I will not "get stuck" mid way with no way out. I know what I want to do and where I want to take it so I do hope to be able to carry it fully towards its conclusion.

Anyway, that's the conclusion to the first chapter of this story. R&R and I hope you all enjoyed it and I'll see you again in the next update.