27 Chapter 26: Steel vs Flame

Pandora had been the one who informed Shirou that Prometheus was manifesting as a Heretic God. She had also told Shirou something that shocked him.

Prometheus asked her to contact the strongest of the current Campione to meet him at the exact time and place he would manifest.

That was unheard of for most Heretic Gods, but Prometheus. Prometheus had manifested only once before, shortly after the birth of the 10th Campione ever. But there was one other significant event that occurred in the same time frame, roughly three months after Prometheus manifested.

The King of the End's first "peacekeeping" trip around the globe.

Prometheus had asked the same thing of Pandora then, although Pandora never learned what Prometheus told the Campione she directed to him. Prometheus had been defeated by the King of the End just before he had gone to kill the Campione of that era and had not been heard from since.

At least until then.

The idea of refusing had never entered Shirou's mind for even a second. Prometheus hadn't needed to inform anyone of his arrival, apparently he somehow maintained complete control when he had last manifested, not rampaging even the slightest bit, and the only reason he had ever manifested was the King of the End. Not answering his request was unthinkable, with not even a Campione being idiotic enough to refuse.

The location had been at the coastline near Marathon in Greece. The time had been early in the morning, well before dawn.

Shirou witnessed Prometheus's manifestation and was greatly impressed by the sight. What Shirou had learned after, however, chilled him to the bone.

The first things that had occurred were more or less harmless. Prometheus explain that due to his existence as Prometheus and Lucifer of the Bible, he could be descried as a God of Rebels, thus the madness of Heretic Gods would never affect him. That he had predicted the King of the End and tried to warn the strongest Campione of the era of the coming threat and what would happened if he failed to defeat him. But the Campione refused to listen and the King of the End became the god who slays Campione, guaranteeing the defeat of every Campione he had encountered since.

What followed wasn't as harmless. Due to the fact that the authority [Fellowship of the King] had "bound" the King of the End for any length of time at all while in my possession, the guarantee of victory against Campione would not affect me, which given that he would appear in the world shortly, was a very good thing. Prometheus said he foresaw the King of the End being revived by two women, one carrying a lance, the other a chalice.

Shirou had only one pair of suspects, although he was surprised that Lancelot is actually a woman under the armor.

What was told next was knowledge that would shake the world if it was known.

The first was the fact that the number of Heretic Gods per year was increasing, it wasn't in their heads. The tales of gods were widespread on an unheard of scale, increasing the rate at which gods gain power and the rate which they anger at the unflattering parts of their myths. Unless society regresses, the number of Heretic Gods per year would only rise, and with it the destruction they cause.

The second is the knowledge of original authorities of each type. This explained why the anti-Campione authority of the King of the End is so powerful. Granted, it is the only anti-Campione authority in existence, but it is still the first authority of its kind.

The last piece of knowledge was that Prometheus helped Pandora make the Campione system, although he wasn't involved to the same degree as Pandora.

Due to this fact he tried to resist against the King of the End, but the fusion with Lucifer, a "Demon Lord", would make any direct resistance by him against the King of the End useless. In order to try to affect events this time around, he wanted to fight me. If Shirou was able to defeat him, Shirou would be granted the original authority of fire. Prometheus hoped that the authority would help, if Shirou was unable to prevent the King of the End's revival.

The fight was far more challenging than anything Shirou had encountered since Gilgamesh. Shirou eventually won, and Prometheus wished him luck before returning to the Netherworld, defeated.

When Shirou told his court what Prometheus had told him, they hadn't taken it well. They had become incredibly close over the years, and the idea that they could be losing two of them in the near future causing the others to near a berserk state. The hint that Prometheus gave them about Lancelot's identity had lead to the conclusion that Lancelot was one of the three queens of the Amazons in Greek mythology. They'd been unable to figure out which one though. Only two things had surpassed their priority regarding Guinevere and Lancelot du Lac: the prophecy of eternal night and the Campione Aisha.

It was shortly after Prometheus that they had been informed of the prophecy of eternal night. Due to the more frantic nature of the prophecy, Rin was about to leave to take possession of the Gorgonian so that they could handle it when they learned that Erica Blandelli had managed to get it entrusted to Godou.

The only reason that Aisha was a higher priority than the Divine Ancestor/Heretic God duo was because stopping them served no purpose if Aisha actions rewrote how things had gone.

Shirou's unpleasant dream ended when the pilot informed them that they were about to land in Rabat.

Shirou turned to Rin and spoke in a voice that clearly transmitted the focus that currently occupied his thoughts, "let's begin."