2 - I’m a Gladiator Now?

When Shirou came to, he saw the world playing in reverse. He saw the rise and fall of civilizations, people and beasts walking backwards, and the sun and moon were moving so quickly he couldn't keep track.

Then in what felt like a blink of an eye, it stopped, and Shirou found himself in a room with children, who seemed to be of a similar age to him. They all wore rags and, strangely enough, carried weapons with them. Shirou quickly looked at himself and found himself in the same state.

[Aspirant! Welcome to the Nightmare Spell. Prepare for the First Trial…]

When Shirou read those runes, he immediately recalled what his adoptive father, Kiritsugu, told him about the Nightmare Spell, and thought about seeing his own status. Once he did even more runes appeared, which he quickly read through.

***

Name: Shirou

True Name: —

Rank: Aspirant

Soul Core: Dormant

Memories: —

Echoes: —

Attributes: [Mark of Divinity], [Mind of Steel], [Child of Swords], [???].

Aspect: [Abandoned Blade]

Aspect Description: [A blade is defined by their wielder. As you are abandoned, there is nothing that defines you as you are a purposeless blade]

What do I have to do with a blade?

Shirou ignored his aspect description as he believes that there is not much it can help him with, and proceeds to read his attributes.

[Mark Of Divinity]: (You bear a faint scent of divinity, as though someone briefly touched by it once, a long time ago.)

[Mind Of Steel]: (A great weapon is one that does not shatter or rust away, no matter the odds. You are slightly resistant to all mental attacks. You can read the runes of any weapon type memory you lay your eyes upon.)

[Child Of Swords]: (All you have ever known was swords. You are constantly conflicted between whether you are human or a sword. You have an affinity with weapons, that decreases the further away from a sword it is.)

Shirou sighed in relief. He was glad that his attributes, mainly [Mind of Steel] and [Child of Swords], seemed to be much more useful than his aspect. Although, now that he thought about it, are his attributes a result of his aspect? It might not be completely useless then, even if it doesn't do anything on it's own.

As Shirou thought about his runes, a large man opened the door to the room. He then proceeded to grab two of the nearest children, before dragging them away by the arms.

They're resisting, Shirou thought. Even if the kids in here are malnourished, it should be at least slightly difficult to drag two children who are pulling away and punching at you. This brings him to the conclusion that the man is most likely an awakened.

Hopefully he's just an awakened.

Awakened are ranked, in order from weakest to strongest, from Dormant, Awakened, Ascendant, and Transcendent, to Supreme, Sacred, and Divine. The strongest of humans are only at Transcendence, as no one has ever attempted and survived the Fourth Nightmare.

Shirou is not that confident that he can defeat an awakened, but he believes that it is at least possible as long as they are not ascended. As Shirou takes a glance around the room once more, he comes to the realization that these children are most likely taken against their own will, and forced to fight to the death, if the weapons they are carrying are any indication.

In the back of the room near where Shirou was standing, there are racks of many different types of weapons. As he skimmed through them, he is disappointed to find that there is no bow, as he was quite confident in his ability to use one. He has only ever missed a shot once in his time at the archery club at school, although he quit after an arm injury in order to give the other members a chance to participate without being overshadowed by his skill.

Shirou is torn away from his thoughts as he hears the door slamming open. The man threw in a girl who was covered in blood, which he recognized is neither of the children that were dragged away before. Shirou guessed that they are either still fighting or have somehow killed each other at the same time.

The girl who was just thrown into the room had short, wavy black hair. As she stood up with a calculating look on her face as she observed the other children, Shirou noticed that her eyes were of a bright red color.

As Shirou looked at the girl, he noticed something off about her. She did not seem very bothered by how she was treated, as she seemed to act as if nothing that happened mattered. She simply walked into the room, sat at a corner, and did not even bother picking up a weapon from the rack.

She looked up from where she sat, and stared directly at Shirou's eyes. Shirou felt himself slightly shudder as he can tell that she was thinking about the best way to kill him if necessary.

Before Shirou can ponder more on the strange behavior of the girl, he felt someone's hand grab onto his tattered shirt before being roughly dragged outside of the room. He turned around and noticed that he was being dragged out on his own, instead of with another one of those children.

As he was being pulled along he took this chance to analyze the area for anything that may help. There were few windows, but they were not made of glass, but were simply a hole in the wall that was covered by iron bars. Most likely to allow for air circulation. He noticed that there were multiple paths after exiting the room, which supports his theory that multiple battles take place at the same time, in different arenas.

On the way to what Shirou assumed to be an arena for himself to fight in, he noticed a staircase that leads downward. After a few seconds a priest appeared from the staircase. The priest stared at him for a second before smiling, "May you be blessed by the goddess on the battlefield," he turned around after saying those ominous words and started to walk in the opposite direction of where Shirou was being dragged. He turned to the man that was still pulling him.

"Uhm, I could walk if you would prefer that"

The man turned to look at him before scowling, "Right, as if brats like you won't just try to run before you can offer your blade to the War Goddess," the man looked away after replying sarcastically, before continuing to pull him to battle.

"Please be gentle," Shirou muttered, before realizing that what he just said is something Miyu has previously told him is considered weird.

To this day he never figured out why.