Night.
The trees rustled, trembling at the presence of something.
The faintly glowing moon hung high in the night sky.
Long ago,
a famous person once said:
"The weak will never be worthy of standing among those at the top, and those at the top will never be weak."
At that moment, Xia completely agreed with those words.
Whoosh!
Shirou flew past Xia's nose. He quickly wrapped both arms around his head and curled up, spreading out the impact as he crashed into the wall. Even so, the force of the collision made him grit his teeth in pain.
Cold sweat trickled down Xia's temple...
The crescent moon hanging in the sky gave off a cold radiance.
Thin clouds drifted quietly across the heavens...
Inside the Emiya Residence's storehouse,
Xia's black eyes stared fixedly at the strange person before him.
The guy had a cocky shock of blue hair that stood straight up, an earring in one ear, and blue light armor. He held a crimson spear and slowly approached Xia, his figure backlit by the moon.
"Honestly... that black-haired kid over there is really unlucky to have gotten dragged into this. But it can't be helped. Since you've both seen my true form, the rules say I have to kill you. The red-haired brat over there has already been killed by me once... so how exactly did you come back to life?
"Ah, whatever. It doesn't matter how you came back."
The man holding the spear pointed its red tip at Xia's brow, staring at him with a cold expression.
"Any last words? Consider it my final act of mercy."
Faced with the arrogant question from the man in blue armor, Xia was filled with anger and resentment! He was angry that he was always so unlucky! Why couldn't heaven let him live an ordinary, peaceful life? If it had let him have one, why did it have to destroy it with its own hands?! And he resented the fact that he had lost the ability to protect himself! To gain a new life, Xia had dug out the source of his magical power—his heart—with his own hands, then sealed it away in an uninhabited ruin. His heart now ran on a substitute he had fashioned from magical energy. (Though the Evil Power could be controlled with ease, as the root of all evil it still brought misfortune to those around it. See a certain unlucky guy from A Certain Magical Index for reference.)
"Y-You bastard! Don't you dare go after Xia! Cough, cough... This has... cough... nothing to do with him!" Nearby, Shirou struggled to his feet, clutching his chest as he shouted at Lancer. But the heavy blow to his chest made it impossible for him to speak clearly.
"...You've really made me curious, red-haired brat. I meant to kick your ribs clean in just now. Even if I didn't break every one, there's no way you should be back on your feet so soon!"
Confronted by Shirou's seemingly unkillable body, Lancer wore a troubled expression for the first time in front of them.
As a proud Heroic Spirit, having to kill the same person twice in one day was humiliating enough. Now he was facing Shirou, whose body seemed completely unaffected by his attacks. The humiliation was even worse!
Lancer casually swung his spear, walked around Xia, and headed toward Shirou.
"I've changed my mind... Before I kill the black-haired brat, I'd better make sure you're dead. After all... I don't want to have to kill you a third time."
With that, Lancer instantly kicked up a gust of wind!
"Damn it! Hey! Wait—?!" Seeing the gust about to sweep toward his good friend, Xia shouted, trying to stop him.
But before he could finish, Xia suddenly felt his heartbeat grow louder!
Thump, thump! His heart pounded violently, sending powerful vibrations through him.
"Ugh...!" The sudden surge in pressure from his heart made Xia clutch his chest and groan in pain.
Amid the sudden gust, Lancer lunged toward Shirou's head, wreathed in an eerie red glow. Faced with the rapidly approaching light, Shirou quickly raised the reinforced iron pipe in his hand.
With a sharp crack, the reinforced pipe was pierced clean through by the spear. But the pipe's sudden swing knocked the thrust slightly off course. Shirou narrowly escaped death, and the spear only pierced his left arm.
"Guh!" A cold, piercing pain shot through his left arm. Shirou clenched his teeth, enduring the agony.
Then, under Lancer's astonished gaze, Shirou used his still-intact right hand to grip the spear embedded in his left shoulder.
"R-Run... Xia!" Like a hero making a noble sacrifice, Shirou endured the pain and called out to Xia.
But Shirou's heroic moment lasted only a few seconds. Lancer gave his spear a slight shake, knocking Shirou's right hand away, then casually swung the shaft and flung him aside, spear and all.
"Gah!" As Shirou hit the ground, blood surged from his throat and sprayed across the floor.
Watching it all unfold, Xia bit his lip in anger and said nothing.
He was already enduring no small amount of trouble of his own.
His black eyes remained fixed on the blue-clad lancer, filled with boundless fury.
"Hmm?" Sensing the uncomfortable stare behind him, Lancer slowly turned around. With an amused look, he rested one hand under his chin and gazed down at Xia, who was sprawled on the floor.
"Kid, worried your friend's about to die?" Lancer said with a crooked smile.
"Hmph! You stray dog! Save your pathetic barking!" At the sight of Lancer's smug expression, and thinking of the happy life he had finally managed to attain, Xia snapped without even thinking.
"Huh?! ...You've got guts! That can be your last words before your trip to hell!" At the words "stray dog," Lancer's expression clearly changed. In the next moment, his handsome face twisted into a snarl, and he thrust his spear at Xia!
"Who's afraid of you?!" Faced with the spear hurtling toward him, Xia slammed his right hand against the ground. A complex magic circle suddenly appeared beneath Lancer's feet, then instantly transformed into a brilliant red light that swallowed him whole.
"Preliminary Magecraft: Cross-Shaped Stone Prison!"
Although Xia had lost his greatest power, the Evil Power, he still remembered the techniques and experiences he had gained in battles against magi during the early days of his awakening. He managed to dredge up a spell from his memories that didn't take too long to cast and was quite practical.
As soon as Xia saw Lancer caught in the magic circle, he hurriedly struggled to his feet and rushed toward Shirou.
"Shirou! Are you all right?!" Seeing Shirou's body tremble uncontrollably, Xia asked anxiously.
"Cough, cough... Cough, cough, cough!!! I-I'm... fine... Cough, cough!!" Shirou's pale face, rapid breathing, and sunken eyes all told Xia that his condition was nowhere near as good as he claimed.
Damn it! Did a broken rib pierce his lung?! And just when I can't do anything to treat him... That little trick can only hold that guy for a few minutes at most. Maybe even...
BOOM!!! A tremendous explosion interrupted Xia's thoughts.
"Damn brat! You actually let a mere magus trick me! You're not getting out of this alive!!" The enraged lancer burst out of the explosion's smoke! His scarlet eyes looked even more eerie than before.
"Damn it! Are you a monster?! That magic circle could hold even a great magus for a while!" Terrified by Lancer's overwhelming strength, Xia hurriedly pulled up the badly wounded Shirou and tried to run for the door.
Thump, thump!
His heart pounded violently again, as if something were about to burst out.
Ugh... Not again?! Xia grimaced in pain, forcing himself to bear the discomfort as he started toward the door.
And somewhere neither Xia nor Lancer noticed, a faint green light suddenly flickered.
"Do you really think you can get away?!" Lancer chased after them. With a single leap, he caught up to Xia and Shirou. The spear in his hand turned into a crimson shooting star and lunged toward Xia's back.
"Look out!" The overwhelming sense of imminent death made Xia's pupils contract. He shoved Shirou away and twisted his own body aside, barely dodging Lancer's thrust.
Thump!
Thump!
Two heavy thuds rang out as they hit the ground. Shirou grimaced, clutching his side and rolling in pain. The shove had driven the bone fragments even deeper!
Xia, meanwhile, rolled to his feet as soon as he landed and turned to face his formidable enemy.
In an instant, the situation had returned to how it was before.
Shirou lay off to one side, seemingly gravely wounded and near death; Xia knelt on one knee, on guard; and Lancer stood some distance in front of them.
Drip...
A crisp sound rang out in the empty storehouse as a drop of blood slid from Xia's forehead and fell to the ground.
Swoosh!
The drop of blood had barely splashed against the floor when it was absorbed at once—as if the ground were some kind of living creature.
And in the spot where that faint green light had flickered, a vast current of magical energy suddenly surged upward!
The magic circle that had glimmered with a faint green light suddenly flared to life, supported by the immense flow of magical energy!
At that very moment, Xia, who had been watching the enemy before him, suddenly felt his heart clench again!
"Ugh! My heart...?!" Xia clutched the left side of his chest with his right hand, his wide black eyes filled with disbelief.
That was right: the source of magical energy, the heart Xia had personally sealed away, had broken through its seal and returned to his body on its own! It rapidly began to grow stronger!
Drawn by the sudden eruption of magical energy, Lancer glanced intently at the magic circle—clearly one that appeared only when summoning a Heroic Spirit—then looked back at Xia's pained expression. He seemed to realize something and nodded.
Then, without a moment's hesitation, he charged at Xia with his spear.
"I never thought you'd be the last Master! Now you won't die for nothing, kid!!!" Lancer sneered as he rapidly thrust his spear toward Xia's heart!
Thump, thump, thump, thump!! Xia's heart pounded violently, beating three hundred times a second. The immense pressure left him unable even to look at Lancer.
What is this almost brain-shattering exhilaration?!
Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump!!!
What is this frenzied emotion that feels like it could drive me mad?!
Thump, thump, thump!!!
Who?! Who's here?!
Thump, thump, thump!!
Who is it?! Who could make even my soul roar?!
Thump, thump! Thump, thump! Thump, thump!
An explosive burst of blue light, a crimson spear thrusting toward him at blinding speed, and a scream that felt as if it would shatter his soul—
Thump! Xia's heart, beating nearly a thousand times a second, suddenly stopped!
"Haah!" Xia's beautiful eyes flew open. The sensation was like coming to a sudden halt in the middle of a sprint. For nearly two seconds, he couldn't even feel his own body.
Whoosh!
?!
Clang!
A brief clash of metal.
Two figures, one blue and one cyan, flashed past each other.
In the two seconds when Xia couldn't feel his own body, what was hailed as "a reunion written in fate" had already come to pass...
"Is that... Xia?"
-------------------OVER-------------------------------------------
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