Fate: Bonds Beyond Humanity

"You can destroy energy… that is it!" Rias put a hand on his mouth.

"Ssshhhh." They both look around. "They can be close." After a while she lets him go. "What you figured?"

"Your attack needs to pass by the energy so he would need to just keep replacing it." That made sense.

"Except that his energy is not infinite, it can't be." It was literally impossible for someone to just have infinite power like that.

"Then maybe-" Suddenly they heard steps, lots of steps and both runned and got closer to a wall to check a corner.

They were there, a huge rat with a squad of small rats. They were lucky that the smell was covering their scent but that was just a temporary measure, the reality is that with their numbers it is just a matter of time.

"I am happy I didn't eat my lunch today." That many rats, the smell of the sewer and of the stray's power, all of it was making Shirou dizzy.

"Emiya-kun, I will go and distract the rats. You have to find an exit and call for help." Rias said.

"What? Are you mad?" She shakes her head.

"We can't win as it is, we don't know the secret of his regeneration and we can't call for help." Rias places his hands on the sides of Shirou's face. "I have no intention of dying and once I kill enough rats I will get out too."

"Then let me help!" Shirou demanded but she was not having it.

"I am Rias Gremory, the Second Owner and protector of Fuyuki together with my fellow devils, this is my job not yours." She steps back and gives him a smile. "Besides, once you are out you can use the pamphlet I gave you to call for my peerage. Focus on the name 'Akeno' and say something you truly wish and she will appear."

"Greamory-san-" She gave him no time to question her taking flight. She kinda prefered when he called her Rias. "WAIT!"

There wasn't much space but she charged, leaving Shirou behind and attacking the giant rat. Once their leader was down the small ones tried to get her, making a tower of small bodies, now she was sure the stray was controlling them at a distance. She still is not sure how he was doing all that but he was.

Killing the small ones she advances, if the rats were being directly controlled then there was a chance the stray could see her using them and in that case she can both serve as a distraction for the other red head while trying to escape.

Finding another cluster of rats she didn't hesitate to incinerate them, moving through the sewer she is looking for an exit while killing any rat and making as much noise as possible.

Her movements were erratic and from time to time she tried to hit the roof to no effect, the boundary field going farther than she thought. That kept going for a few minutes until Rias got fed up with the rat assault, unleashed her power to get some space and picked a random direction.

One way or another she had no plans on dying in a- she hits something, hard. Falling on the ground she looked up, there was another barrier in front of her, this one practically exuding energy.

"No place to run now little Gremory." She turned around to the stray voice, it was coming from one of the giant rats with more of them showing up. "You were dead the moment you entered my territory, now you-"

She blasted that rat to oblivion. "I am not interested. If you want to kill me," Rias was ready to make her stand with all her power, "you better bring MORE!." With a roar she releases her power once again, the rats around her being destroyed. "Uff."

"You said more?" She shivered when the voice came again, more rats pouring in followed by their giant peers. "I have been in this town for years, taking my time, building my army! Before I could call hundreds of rats! NOW THEY ARE MILLIONS!"

Rias knew that wasn't an empty boast, she also knew that she had no choice but to fight. Charging her power once again she aimed at the giants, in her mind the most dangerous ones.

That was a mistake, the smaller ones rushed to her, their safety and any survival instinct removed by their master.

Rias only noticed them once they were already on her leg, scratching and biting insensately. She panics and begins to fly again with some trying to hold her. "GET AWAY FROM ME!"

Using the Power of Destruction on herself was stupid but she instintivale used fire instead, burning her leg a bit but getting rid of some rats for only one of the bigger ones to drop from the celling on her.

She didn't see when the claw hit her but the fear made her unleash another blast of power, this time her back was bleeding and she felt a lot of pain.

But there was no time to rest, more rats were coming and she had still one option left. "Millions you say? Then, by the time I am done, Fuyuki will be clear of rats."

…

The moment that Rias flew away Shirou bolted, not to look for an exit but to go back to the stray by the same path they escaped previously.

Shirou had no intentions of letting the girl risk her life alone, that was unacceptable but if she didn't want his help and he can't follow her since she can fly the best choice he could see was to take out the mastermind.

He reached the passage quickly and saw that it was still closed but that was fine, Shirou had a thing that many didn't have, his magecraft. "Trace on!" On his hand appeared a sword, it was a simple katana of his creation and it didn't have a name to be called by but it was enough.

It was just a copy, a fake but he was the maker of the original, that was his specialty as a magus. Where others focus on the path to the root Shirou just makes tools and because of his origin and element, both sword, much both his parents, the maids and even his sister's shock, his focus was on the way of the blade.

It was for that reason he practiced kendo, to approach himself more on how to use a sword to reach… something. He has no goal for his magecraft yet but he likes to make swords, to fix things and to help people, it was just his nature.