"But it will be on your tab okay?" I threw in one last wit as I gripped my weapons tighter. He only gave a light-hearted smirk in return.
It was time.
"Let's end this then."
...
The dead Apostle nodded before straightening his back and looking at me with a defiant look. "My name is Julius Luther Balsforth, the third son of the Balsforth Duke and wielder of the 'Shadow' Creed. State thy name and fight me!"
For this one alone, I will follow decorum and introduce myself. "My name is Shirou Emiya, the son of Kiritsuguru Emiya, the Sword Magus, the Blade Executor and lastly, the Second Magus Killer." With that, I kicked off the ground hard and ran straight at Julius, who quickly sent his minions after me in waves as he held back to prepare his spells. This would need to be handled… delicately.
"I am the bone of my sword."
"Trace Bullet, Continuous Fire!" I conjured more blades behind me and sent them straight at them, taking down most of them and leaving the few that escaped to be introduced to my two blades in my hands, all while shortening the distance between me and Julius. As I took care of my twelfth undead, I watched Julius complete his spell and his shadow started to rise up from the ground like some ghastly ghoul and the ends started to sharpen into blades. This was Julius 'Shadow Creed', the ability to use his shadow as a weapon. That was a particularly troublesome magecraft he used, as his shadow could be switched between the ultimate lance and the ultimate shield, and its ability to increase its distance using the shadows of either his minions or his territory was a definite headache. Many of the Executors sent after him were killed due to that ability.
Thankfully for me, I had just the right blade in mind to handle that after our numerous encounters with each other.
"Break, Claíomh Solais!" I traced the blade and launched it high in the air, closing one eye and using Byakuya to block the glare resulting from the explosion and saving myself from the brightness that blinded Julius and the undead. More importantly, the resulting heatwave burned off most of the undead forces and forced back the shadow that Julius sent at me. As soon as the light faded off, I quickly opened the other eye and made a beeline for Julius. Before he could fully recover, I raised Kanshou and cut off his right arm.
"GAHH!" He directed a small part of his shadow to cover the wound while commanding the main body to attack me, forcing me to backtrack and maintain a safe distance from him. Julius used this opportunity to stab a few of the corpses near him with the shadow and break them apart, gathering them near the wound so that the shadow could force the pieces into it and form a semi-deformed arm that was darker in colour, with strands of shadow peeking from the gaps like dark tentacles.
'Oh great, just freaking great.' I grumbled mentally as I readied my stance again.
That was the other troublesome aspect of his shadow and also related to his research. By using the undead as his replacement flesh and the shadow as his binder, he could effectively replace his body parts as many times as needed. Thankfully he can't heal immediately as the body takes a while to recognize the new parts and assimilate it properly.
And that was when the second part of the plan kicked in, in the form of an exploding sword right next to him.
"BOOM!" With that, his newly repaired arm became a newly amputated arm that flew in the air and vanish in the dark reaches of the dimension gap. "Tch!" Julius let out a sound of irritation as he raised his arm to cast a different spell. "Hölle Flamme!"
"Oh shit!" I barely had time to create a wall of blades before a giant wave of black flames came surging right at me and hitting them with enough force to crush a battalion of soldiers. I did not bother to check if it would hold and just jumped out of the way in time before the black flames flared up and surged over the wall, engulfing them completely. I quickly summoned a few more blades and shoot them straight at him, each one exploding upon hitting his defence of black flames and shadow. When the smoke cleared, it was to find an empty area littered with blown pieces of rock and flesh.
'Crap, where is he?!'
"Your sides are wide open, boy." A voice on my left side was the only indication I got before black blades cut my body deeply.
"GAHG!" I moved away from the spot and quickly fired off a few more blades in the general direction, just in time to see his body pierced by them, only for it to suddenly bend over unevenly like soft clay and changing colour, just as a figure emerged from the shadow and formed itself to be his look-alike. I looked around and saw multiple copies of himself popping up from the shadows, surrounding me and cutting off my escape routes.
Ah yes, how could I forget my least two favourite aspects of his 'Shadow' Creed? Shadow cloning and shadow teleportation. Oh Joy.
"Doesn't this remind you of our previous 3 fights?" The multiple bodies of Julius all talked at the same time, sounding eerily haunting in the setting we were in. Certainly not helped with the black eyes with a notable red gleam present and them smiling with more teeth than some of the Twenty Seven Apostles I knew. And those guys had a lot of teeth.
I Traced a few more blades and shot them in all directions, detonating them all at once to clear off most of the clones, with several Claiomh Solais to remove most of the shadows as I attempt to seek out the real one.
"Steel is my body, fire is my blood."
I decided to go for broke and create a few Dark Keys to latch on to some of the shadow to at least restrict them temporarily, before calling forth a sword of crimson flames into my hands. "Reduce all to ashes, Surtr!" I stabbed the flaming sword into the ground, forming a ring of flames around me which spread forward, consuming all the shadow clones and surviving undead in its wake. I ignored the screams of agony and used my eyes to find the real Julius. If I don't end this fight soon, it would be very detrimental for me.
It only took a few seconds to find him at the far of the rock slab, and what I saw did not comfort me at all. Standing in a ring of his shadow that served as his barrier from the flames, Julius had all the time he needed to call forth his greatest weapon yet: a giant spear that was swirling with black shadows and black flames, with red streaks of electricity arching from its surface.
"It has been quite a while since anyone pushed me this far." Julius said as he raised the spear to aim at me. "Honestly, I should be feeling angry for losing an arm, yet I feel extremely happy to be fighting you. This is a strange feeling."
Yeah ~ just to let you know, I am straight. On to more important matters then.
I am currently running low on Prana due to fighting this fellow for the past few hours now, and I'm not sure if I am able to return home with my current level. But if I don't stop him now, things will get very hairy and Rin might get hurt.
Guess there was only one thing left to do. Keeping my left hand on Sutr, I brought my right hand to the side and concentrated hard.
"I have created over a thousand blades."
"Trace. On."
I had spent a short time with Saber, and through our talks and shared memories, I was able to get a glimpse of many of the weapons in her past. Normally I would try to create Excalibur and just blast him to oblivion, but that was if I was at full capacity to begin with, and even then I was uncertain if that might work. So I went for the next best option of Saber's: Caliburn, the Golden Sword of Assured Victory.
"Beautiful." Julius praised as I tightened my grip on the blade and directed the tip at him. "In a way, I can understand why the Association would want to capture you. Creating all those Noble Phantasms so easily would make you one of the rarest magus out there, and that blade has a great deal more power than any of the others you have used against me." Julius narrowed his eyes as he looked at me. "By chance were you holding back on me?"
"Well you know heroes have to keep at least one trump card hidden for the final showdown?" I let out my own mischievous smirk. Technically I have a few more trump cards, but he did not need to know them.
"HAHAHAHAH!" Julius let out a laugh as he smiled widely. "You are a really strange man." Pouring more Prana into his weapon, he held the spear like a jousting lance and directed the tip right at me. "So shall we end this?"
I took Caliburn in both my hands and raised it high, pouring all my available Prana into the sword and making it glow very brightly in the darkness. Its light and warmth reminded me greatly of Saber during our final moments together before we went to take down the Grail.
'Looks like I'll be seeing you sooner than expected Saber.'
The flames curved and bellowed as both of us rushed forward without hesitation, the resulting leakage of power from our weapons causing the rock around us to crack and split from the ground. Despite the relatively short distance, it felt like an eternity, seeing Julius coming at me with the demonic spear of flame and shadow, knowing that failure would mean certain death.
"GOTT TÖTEN!" Julius bellowed as he threw back his arm to throw the spear. In response, I took my blade to the side and raised it to my right side.
"CA…"
"DÄMON LANZE!" Julius thrust his arm forward to pierce my body. Too bad he was a second slower.
"LIBURN!" I took one more step and brought the blade down, shooting out a Prana burst that collided with his weapon, generating a small ball of light and energy that swirled unevenly. Then with a loud explosion, the ball expanded, engulfing all of us in its light and blasting us off our feet. Idly as I soared through the air, I had a sudden image of Rin and the others back home.
'Sorry guys. Looks like I'm not able to come back for New Year's Celebration.'
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Hey guys I really need you to throw some power Stones ;)
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