The inhabitants of Fondval did not understand where they were.
Only a few seconds earlier, the sky above them had been clear and cloudless. Now, there was nothing but an immense, dark storm, streaked with red and black lightning that crossed the horizon without ever being accompanied by the slightest rumble of thunder.
And yet, despite the storm that should have plunged everything into darkness, the village remained perfectly illuminated. Every house, every face, every blade of grass remained just as visible as in broad daylight, as though light itself refused to obey the laws it followed everywhere else.
"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Unlimited Blade Works."
Almost no one paid attention to Emrys' words. They were too busy staring at the sky, mouths agape, desperately searching for an explanation for what they were seeing without ever finding one.
It was Joran, the first to snap out of his stupor, who finally questioned Emrys.
"Unlimited Blade Works?"
"It's a separate dimension over which I have complete control," Emrys replied. "I've transferred all of Fondval and its surroundings here."
No need to tell them that it's my soul.
That simple statement was enough to pull the other inhabitants out of their initial shock, only to plunge them almost immediately into an even greater one.
"A... a dimension?"
"Is that even possible?"
"I'd heard magic could perform miracles, but to this extent?"
Seeing skepticism already beginning to mingle with their astonishment, Emrys let out a sigh.
You of little faith.
He turned toward them.
"Come with me. I need to show you something."
The first to follow him were the children, long before their parents. Unlike the adults, who were still frozen by the sheer scale of what had just happened, the younger ones seemed far less stressed, simply staring at the sky with wide eyes, more amazed than frightened.
A small group broke away from the rest and came to stand directly beside Emrys. Rou, Iklia, and all their friends.
Emrys did not slow his pace or even turn his gaze toward them.
"Shouldn't you be with your parents?"
One of Rou's friends answered in a perfectly flat voice, as though stating something as ordinary as the weather.
"We don't have any."
Another child in the group added in the same neutral tone.
"We live with Uncle Joran. He took us in when we were little, after our parents died."
"I see," Emrys replied simply, preferring not to press the subject any further.
After several minutes of walking, they left the center of the village and reached its outskirts. With no more buildings blocking their view, the inhabitants discovered something that finally swept away their last remaining doubts.
With the naked eye, the boundary between the village and the rest of this strange world was perfectly visible. Fondval's familiar green grass stopped abruptly, giving way to a red desert that stretched as far as the eye could see.
"What the hell is that?" someone muttered incredulously.
That wasn't all. In the distance, a hill rose, standing alone in the middle of that arid expanse. And by narrowing their eyes, they could make out dozens, hundreds, thousands of thin metallic silhouettes planted in the ground like gravestones.
"Those... are..."
"...swords."
Everywhere one looked across that scarlet desert, swords stood upright, motionless and silent, sentinels of a kingdom that no one here could have imagined even in their wildest dreams.
They really had been transported into Unlimited Blade Works.
But not quite in the way most people would have imagined.
Emrys had not deployed his Reality Marble the way Emiya would have, projecting his own inner world over the outside reality. He had done the exact opposite, literally. He had taken Fondval, torn it away from its place in the world, and deposited it inside himself.
Rather than bringing Unlimited Blade Works into reality, Emrys had brought a piece of reality into Unlimited Blade Works.
In a way, one could say that Fondval had now become an integral part of Emrys' very soul.
One of the villagers suddenly turned his head, noticing something in the distance that stood out completely against the arid landscape.
"Hey, look over there."
He called out to the others, and everyone followed his gaze.
A lake could be seen on the horizon, its surface shimmering with an unusual glow that did not seem to contain the ordinary fluid people would expect. Even without much sensitivity to magic, anyone could have guessed that this water was not ordinary water.
Emrys spoke again, his tone hardening slightly.
"Never go near that lake. It's not water you can drink."
The sudden dryness of his voice made it perfectly clear that this was not a simple piece of advice, but an order that was better not disobeyed.
"If that's clear to everyone, we can move on to the important matters."
A stele suddenly appeared beside Emrys, without the slightest sound or flash of light, as though it had always been there, planted in the ground from the beginning, and no one had simply noticed it until this exact moment.
"This is the Code of Hammurabi," Emrys said, pointing toward the black cylindrical stele with a gesture of his hand. "This is what will allow me to guarantee that you can trust me, and that I can trust you in return, even when I'm not here."
"How?" Joran asked, raising an eyebrow.
"The Code of Hammurabi allows a geis to be established between two parties, even if only one of them possesses magic," Emrys explained. "And before you ask, a geis is an inviolable contract established by mutual agreement between several people. I'm not going to get into the technical details. But I can assure you of one thing: you really don't want to try breaking it."
Even if it doesn't really work like a normal geis. But whatever. I'm not even sure geasa exist in this world anyway.
*
The first geis was simple, almost obvious after what Emrys had just shown them.
"No one approaches the lake," he said, placing his hand on the black stele. "Not to drink its water, not to bathe in it, and not even to touch it. Those who accept this geis, come forward and place your hand on the stone, one after another."
There was a moment of collective hesitation, the kind of uncertainty that always preceded the first step into the unknown. Then Torvald, probably to prove that he wasn't afraid, stepped forward first and placed his large hand against the black surface of the stele.
A faint warmth, barely perceptible, traveled up his arm. Nothing painful. Just a strange sensation, as though something had been tied somewhere deep within him, a promise engraved directly into his own magic.
"That's it?" he asked, almost disappointed by the anticlimax.
"That's it," Emrys confirmed. "You'll feel it if you ever get too close to the lake. Some kind of warning. If you continue anyway..."
He left the sentence unfinished, the threat clear enough that it didn't need to be completed.
One by one, the inhabitants of Fondval stepped forward in turn, placing their hands on the stele and feeling that same fleeting warmth before stepping back. Some were reassured, while others remained slightly uneasy at the thought of now having a magical bond engraved somewhere within them without truly understanding how any of it worked.
They don't really need to touch the stele, but let's let them do it. It'll leave a stronger impression on their minds.
"Second geis," Emrys announced once the last inhabitant had placed his hand on the stone. "No one speaks of the existence of Unlimited Blade Works to anyone living outside this place. Not its name, not its nature, nor how you arrived here."
This time, a voice rose from the back of the group, sounding almost amused.
"What does a rule like that accomplish? There's no one else here but us anyway."
Emrys turned his head toward the speaker, a faint smile appearing beneath his mask.
"Exactly," he said. "Because that won't remain the case."
A murmur of curiosity passed through the crowd.
"I'm going to open a passage between this place and the outside world," Emrys continued. "You'll be able to leave if you need to, get news, trade with other villages, whatever you want. And you'll be able to come back here afterward, completely safe."
"A passage," Joran repeated incredulously. "How would that actually work?"
"With a password," Emrys replied. "I'll give it to you soon. It'll be the key that allows you to enter and leave Unlimited Blade Works as you please, without needing me every time."
He placed his hand on the black stele once again.
"Third geis, then, directly related to that. No one reveals this password to anyone who hasn't already received it directly from me. Not to a stranger. Not to a friend. Not even to a member of your own family who hasn't received it yet."
This time, the atmosphere became slightly more tense, the seriousness of the situation finally beginning to settle over everyone.
"And if we reveal it anyway?" someone asked hesitantly. "By accident, I mean. Without meaning to."
"The geis will make sure that never happens," Emrys replied without the slightest hesitation. "That's the whole point. Once you've accepted it, your own magical energy will literally prevent you from letting it slip, even by accident."
One by one, the inhabitants stepped forward once again to place their hands on the stele, accepting this third and final commitment with a newfound seriousness, as though everyone was finally beginning to understand what living here would actually mean.
*
Once the last inhabitant stepped away from the stele, it dematerialized as quietly as it had appeared, without the slightest sound or flash of light.
"Well," Emrys said, letting his arms fall back to his sides. "Now that most of the problems are taken care of, there's only one left."
"Which one?" Joran asked.
"Water."
Joran frowned, clearly not understanding what Emrys meant.
"We have the well. And the reserves we already had in the village."
"The well isn't much use anymore now that it's no longer connected to an underground water table," Emrys replied. "And look at the sky."
Everyone's eyes rose once again toward the immense, perpetual storm, the red and black lightning continuing to streak across the horizon without ever weakening.
"It looks threatening," Emrys continued, "but it never rains. I've never seen a single drop fall from that sky since I gained control of this place. And aside from the lake, which I've already told you to stay away from, there isn't a single natural source of water here."
The silence that followed this revelation was heavy, everyone gradually realizing the scale of the problem that had just been presented to them so calmly.
"Then we'll have to leave regularly to get water," Lira murmured, one hand covering her mouth.
"That would be the case," Emrys confirmed. "If I didn't have a way."
He started walking again, inviting them all to follow with a simple gesture of his head, retracing the path toward the center of the village.
The well stood exactly where Emrys had left it, the same stone rim worn down by decades of use, the same bucket hanging from its rope, gently swaying despite the absence of any real wind in this place.
Emrys stopped in front of it, the villagers gradually forming a curious circle around him, clearly wondering what he intended to do this time.
He extended his hand toward the ground, away from the well, in the direction of the red desert stretching just beyond the last houses.
A staff literally burst from the scarlet earth, rising on its own before settling directly into Emrys' outstretched palm. It was a gnarled, ancient piece of wood, almost alive, engraved with symbols none of the villagers present could decipher.
"What is that?" Rou asked, fascinated despite himself.
"The Staff of Moses," Emrys replied without further ceremony. "One of the most practical things I've ever projected, honestly."
He approached the well and, without any further hesitation, dropped the staff all the way to the bottom.
A moment of silence followed, every eye fixed on the dark opening of the well, waiting to see what would happen.
Then a dull sound rang out, followed by the crash of breaking stone echoing back up toward them.
The sound of rushing water could then be heard from the bottom of the well.
A few seconds later, the visible water level had already risen dramatically, clear, fresh, and abundant.
Torvald leaned over the stone rim, observing the water with an expression of both admiration and disbelief.
"You know that what you just did was literally a miracle, right?"
"I couldn't have found a better name for it."
If he only knew.
A light laugh, the first since their arrival, timidly passed through the small group gathered around the well, as though the simple appearance of that water had reminded them that, despite the absolute strangeness of everything that had just happened, they were still alive, still together, and perhaps, finally, a little safer than they had been in a long time.
"Well," Emrys said, straightening up and sweeping his gaze across the small crowd surrounding him. "With this, everything should be ready for you to live here without trouble. Water, security, a place where no outsider will ever be able to come looking for you without your permission."
He paused, letting his gaze, or at least the intent behind it, sweep across the village surrounding him one last time, those familiar houses standing in the middle of a scarlet desert beneath a sky that would never know rain.
"Welcome home," he finally said.