DxD : Emiya Shirou

I ran my hand across the blades of grass growing from the ground of my Reality Marble, feeling oddly giddy as I did so.

Something grows here.

This was no desolated landscape, a desert of nothing but iron and steel where little lives or grows and never for long, not without withering and dying. This was not Archer's Reality Marble, it was mine. And as I continued to run my fingers through the blades of grass I felt content with that thought.

Something can live here.

I was not wrong, this path while a hard one was not a wrong one. This land maybe a place of eternal twilight, a world where the sun will never truly set nor the promised dawn ever appear but it was a world where something other than me can live.

I still remember vividly Archer's reactions when he first saw it. How he looked around in disbelief before staring at me for a long moment and told me 'you really are different'. Then he smiled. It wasn't his usual ones, his harsh mocking sharper than broken glass of a smile that he would often give me. This was different, watching it was like watching a new dawn, bright innocent and so very warm.

It was such a smile.

Pulling my hands away from the grass, I rose up and turned towards the horizon. I looked past the fields of rolling glass and endless swords that filled them and stared at the distant horizon that hid the sun from sight.

It will come. One day my dawn will come and this world will be bathed under the light of a sky the colour of clearest of blues. I will make sure it happens, after all what kind of Hero would I be if I couldn't even save myself. That is why I will make sure that one day, the dawn will come.

…but that was for another day.

I turned my back to the horizon. Right now I had something else to do, someone else to save. I shut my eyes and focused, searching for the others. This was my realty marble, a manifestation of my very soul, I knew it better than I could possible know anything else. I knew where every sword lay, where every blade of grass swayed in the wind as easily as I knew where my fingers were. And finding them all in this place was almost child's play.

When I brought them into my world, I made sure to scatter them all across my Reality Marble, a helpful little trick I learned to do not too long ago. It wouldn't do to draw them all in here but place them side by side to an enemy that was just trying to kill them. After all-

I frowned as I noticed something wrong. Someone was in here that wasn't supposed to be. Whoever they were I couldn't recognize them. And it definitely wasn't one of the Fallens or Devils, this person was human. And not one of the Exorcists, I already have all three of them accounted for.

It didn't matter, I didn't have time to waste with whoever this was. While I couldn't identify much about them, not even their gender, I could sense the magic coming from the intruder so at the very least whoever this human was they were at least magically aware. That meant I didn't have to worry about erasing their memories. So for the time being I'll let them wander alone away from everyone else but keep them away from the fight. I'll deal with whoever it was when this was all over.

That decided, I mentally pushed the matter to one side as I searched for the others and quickly drew them to me, while making sure to keep the Fallen separate from the rest.

I felt them come to me in an instant. In this place distance had no meaning to me. It wasn't teleportation or anything like that but rather, it felt like floding the pages of a map together to bring two objects closer to one another.

And just like that, I felt them arrive all around me. There was no distortion, no loud nosie to herald their arrival. They simply took one step someplace else and by the time they set their foot down they found themselves here. First the exorcist, then Sona and Gremory with their Peerages and final Kokabiel with his army of Fallen.

"What is this place?" I heard Kokabiel question as I opened my eyes, though it didn't seem like it was directed at me. I wasn't sure he even noticed me. Nevertheless, I decided to answer him.

"My soul."

In any other circumstances it would have been funny to see so many heads, especially those of all three factions, whip around as one to face me. So fast that I was sure more than a few of them suffered from whiplash.

As it was I only allowed myself a mildly amused smile to make its way to my lips as I greeted them, "I welcome you all to my soul, to my Unlimited Blade Works."

I was greeted by a wave of confusion filling faces, though I could see a flicker of comprehension dawning on Kokabiel's face. But it was the blue-haired exorcist's reaction that caught my attention the most. She didn't look confused or surprised, just sad as she started at me with…was that pity in her eyes?

"Shirou," I turned to see Sona cautiously approaching me. She was looking around her as she did so, her eyes opened so wide that I could see the white of her eyes. She wasn't the only one either. While the exorcists being humans could neither sense nor properly comprehend the scale of the magic flowing out of the world around them, that wasn't the case with the Devils or even the Fallen.

They were surrounded by thousands of swords, where even the least among them was radiating enough power to match an Excalibur, and more than a few of which could bring down an entire mountain, and each and every one of them knew it.

"Shirou," Sona repeated and even now she could not stop looking about herself, only stopping to stare at the great gears that hung without support in the sky as even now they continued to slowly turn and grind against one another, "Where are we?"

I smiled at her, not the least surprised that she did not understand what I meant. Most didn't after all and Sona had always been a realistic and practical sort. Logic and reason were what ruled her mind. Something like this that not just borders on the impossible, but runs over logic like a truck before backing up and running over it again, would not have been something she could easily accept.

Only someone with an extremely flexible and imaginative mind could accept something like this easily. A mind like Serafall's for instance.

Oh Hell, Serafall. When she visited my Reality Marble for the second time she ignored all my attempts to explain it to her and declared that as the owner of my soul that it was her right to redecorate the place, as the Unlimited Blade Works was the literal embodiment of it. She then somehow managed to produce thousands of pink ribbons from who knows where and proceeded to tie it around the hilt of ever sword she could find.

I shook my head in an attempt to dispel the memory from my head, having never been more gratefully that nothing could remain in my Reality Marble that was not a part of it. I would be too ashamed to bring anyone in here otherwise.

"I already told you," I answered Sona, "this," I waved a hand around us, "is my soul."

"But what does that even mean?" Her frustration at my not answer finally breaking thought her shock, causing her to turn and glare at me. I had to resist the urge to pinch her check at how adorable she looked trying to be so commanding.

"It means exactly what it sounds like, this is my soul. Everything in here, every blade of grass, every sword and even the ground you walk on, everything is a part of my soul. All that your eyes are can see and everything it cannot is the physical manifestation of my soul.

"All of this Sona," I indicated the world around me with my arms, "is my Reality Marble, the Unlimited Blade Works, and it is the manifestation of my inner-world, my very soul given form."

"A world?" a voice whispered out. I turned to find Kokabiel staring at me with a look of utter awe, enough that it made me feel more than a little uncomfortable. "You've created a world?" He looked around himself one more time to make sure he what he was seeing was real before he turned back to me, his face no less reverent than before.

"Shirou…Do you realize what you've done?" He questioned, seemingly almost in a state of shock "You've created a world Shirou, a world! That is something only a God can do. Something that only they can accomplish.

"Father with Heaven, Odin with Valhalla, Hades and his the realm of the Dead. That is a power belonging to the Gods alone. To forge an entire realm, where only they rule and everything in it falls under their command. That is something only the can do, and you…you did this?"

He titled his head to one side as he looked me in the eyes. I felt him scrutinized me, dissecting me with his eyes as he searched through me. Then he acted.

It came without warning. No tells whatsoever. So fast that I was sure that I was the only one who could see him move. In less time it took most people could blink, Kokabiel conjured a spear and hurled it at me, moving nothing but a single arm as the rest of him stood stock still. It crossed the space between us before anyone else realized what was happening.

I didn't dodge, didn't block, didn't so much as move. I didn't need to. Not here, not in this place where only I ruled. Nothing could hurt me here unless I allowed it.

A sword shot down from the sky and slammed onto the oncoming spear. It tore through it, shattering it to pieces before it buried itself on the ground between us.

It was over before anyone else could even comprehend what just happened.

"So it true." he breathed out in disbelief, ignoring the sounds of alarm from around us as the others finally reacted. The uncomfortable looks of reverence returned to his face.

"You can control everything in here. You've breached the realm of the very Gods themselves and you did this… with just your soul?" He continue to stare at me for a time before he began to laugh.

It started out small, soft breaths that could hardly count as laughter, but it quickly grew. His shoulder began to shake and shake as the sound of his laughter began to grow faster before he simply threw his head back and laughed. 

By the end of it his entire frame shook from the force of his laughter and still it went on until he seemed to run out of breaths and his laughter began to taper off to the soft breaths for laughter that he started out with.

"This is it." He began after he finally got a hold of himself, flashing me a wide smile. "This is what Father spoke of, what he saw in man that day. This is the power of the mankind, the potential of the human soul-"

"No." Kokabiel stopped, then turned and looked at me in surprise at my interruption.

"No?" He parroted, tilting his head in incomprehension.

"No," I repeated with a slow shake of my head, "while the Unlimited Bladeworks is many things, the pinnacle of mankind it is not. The thing that you seek is something greater, something far more sublime than this world of steel."

"You-" he asked with a face filled utter bewilderment, "You mean to say there's more?"

"Kokabiel," I admonished him with a smile, "you should know better than anyone that when it comes to humans, there is always more."

Again he looked completely bewildered before "Pfft-" a muffled laughter escaped his lips "Hahahaha! You're right, you're absolutely right. Of course there is more! I had forgotten, with your kind there is always more. What else can I expect of a race that embodies potential?" Then he laughed again.

I waited for him to finish, watching as has he announced his joy to the world with guileless innocent laughter, so happy for the accomplishments of race that was not even his own. When he was finally done I spoke.

"So?" I asked.

"So?" he asked back, a mischief smile on his lips as his eyes twinkled with unconcealed amusement.

I shook my head at his sudden bout of childishness, "Will you surrender?"

"Will the Devils leave humanity be? Will the Three Factions withdraw from the world of man and let them live in peace?"

"No," I could not lie to him, not even if it meant that it might stay his course and save his life. He deserved better than that, "That will never happen. So long as there is something for them to gain, those that are not humans will never leave humanity alone." It has always been that way.

He slowly shook his head had at me, a fond smile still adorning his face, "Then I'm sorry my friend but that is something I cannot do."

I nodded in understanding, not having expected anything else. "So we fight?"

"We fight." He nodded in response.

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