Lord of Swords by Slim A Lou Prime (Percy JacksonxFate)

Latest update:December 15, 2023

Summary:Shirou knew his one goal in life was impossible. He knew he could not reach his love without help, without its help, but to have its help meant he would still never reach his love. So as he lay there dying he thought of his love, her green eyes, her blond hair, and her wonderful smile. luckily for him, someone else was watching him and thought that they looked quite nice together.

Link:https://m.fanfiction.net/s/13899843/1/Lord-of-Swords

Word count:93k

Chapters:13

"Hey... Hey... over here. Come here." A notice that was not Slim A Lou Prime's voice came from the shadows of the Archives. The figure was wearing brown duster with a cowboy hat. His head was down to hide his face. "You don't know me but I have something for you. you see the Captain has this story that he posted as a part of another story that really had nothing to do with the Fate universe. I was contracted by a few of the others to sneak into the Captain's room and access his mainframe and put the story on the Fate tab so that people like you who know about Fate can have a look at it."

"There goal is to get the Captain to take this story seriously and keep working on it. As it stands the Captain is only working on the story when he feels like it but the rest of the crew theories that if people were to support the idea the Captain will have to take the story more seriously. Only you the readers have that power, so this story lives or dies depending on you in the coming days before the Captain takes notice."

The figure holds the holovid to the reader. "Is up to you."

Shirou felt his body begin to give out. His battered and bloody body forced him to his knees as his wounds caught up with him. Before him, the slain bodies of both monsters and humans alike. The humans in various forms of disembowelment and torn limbs. The monsters, now turned pin cushions, with the numerus swords stabbed into their bodies. Other monsters had been killed by other mages or normal people using magically modified weapons.

He felt a presence approach him. He knew full well it was no human.

Alaya, the will of Mankind's survival once again came to him. It had approached him many times throughout his life. It was always when he could not overcome some obstacle, he entered to become a hero and meet with his love again. Each time it would come to him offering him the power to overcome his obstacles and each time he refused it. For this power had a cost, a price he was not willing to pay. He would reach Avalon on his own abilities.

But now, his body was giving out and he knew that he had not reached Avalon… his love. He slightly apologized to his Saber for failing to meet her. The will of Mankind's survival kneeled down beside him, choosing to take on a form very similar to his love. He hated when it started doing that to try and sway him.

"It is time to embrace your destiny." Alaya whispered to him. Shirou could feel the energy, the power sitting right outside his body waiting for him to invite it in.

The dying man did his best to straighten himself to clear his airway of the blood filling up his lungs. "I die… a freeman… even if I failed her."

"You will never see her again as you are now." It countered.

"I will never see… her again if I accept your contract." Shirou shot back. "Now… leave me… I want my last thoughts to be of her."

"I will not allow you to die, Shirou Emiya. You should know this by now."

Suddenly Shirou's body began to warp up, but he was not being healed. He could still feel every cut on his body. It was almost as if someone was hugging him, it felt so nice compared to the pain of his wounds. His eyes began to grow heavy and something was yelling but he did not know what. In the next moment his eyes shut and the world was dark.

A woman moved through the streets and back alleys of London. Much of the woman's features were covered by a cloak and a somewhat low hanging veil. She was moving with haste as she knew she did not have much time until she was found missing. The others would wonder where she had ran off to, and she could not risk the others learning of her activities.

She was incredibly lucky that the object warped in a soft fabric was being quiet. Even now the woman could feel the Earth Mother reaching out to it. However, the woman used a rune that she had crafted to help keep him hidden from her world. While the Earth Mother knew it existed, she could not find it.

The woman could come to a hotel, the staff did not notice the woman as she had used her abilities to keep her from their sight. She made her way over to the elevator and pushed one of the buttons on the side. The doors soon closed and she felt herself being lifted higher into the building.

Moments later the door opened again allowing the woman to continue on her way. Down a hallway she flew before she came to a door. She bawled her fist and began banging on the door with an unnatural strength. Seconds passed and the door opened slowly. A man peaked his head through the opening to get a better look at the woman standing there.

Not letting the man get a word in, the woman pushed open the door knocking the man down, before shutting the door behind her. The man obviously a little pissed about having a woman barge in his room without explanation stood up and got ready to give the woman an earful but his words died in his throat when the woman removed her veil allowing her red hair to fall out and her green eyes to meet his golden-brown eyes.

His lips started to tremble remembering the threat the woman made to him some time ago. Needless to say, he was now fearing that she was here to make good on her theat. He was sure he had abided by her conditions to the letter.

"Mike," The woman began taking on a gentle tone. "I know that when we last departed, I made a few… oaths. But I assure you I am not here to collect on them, as you have heeded my words to you. However, there is something I must give you."

She undid the cloth hiding the object she was holding. The man's eyes went wide to see that the woman had a baby with her. A baby with eyes like his and hair like the woman's.

"He is yours." The woman said as a matter of fact. "As this child's existence is largely due to my lack of discipline, I have used some of my connections to speed along your citizenship to the Americas as well as his. You will be given a monthly sum to help you raise him. A plane ticket has been booked for you and your son, you leave tomorrow." She paused for a moment. "Do not tell him of me, say whatever words you must but he must not seek me out. I don't care if you make him hate me, but he must never look for me. Am I clear?"

The man still flabbergasted and only managed a weak nod.

"Good." She said handing the child off to Mike before leaving.

The woman re-adjusted her veil then opened the door to leave, but as she did she stopped and turned her head to look back. "His name is Shirou, do not remove the rune from around his neck and I expect you to raise a proper young man."

With that the woman turned and exited the hotel room.

*Twelve years later*

Shirou, or Shirou Donovan as he was called now, sat in his room meditating. He was in the process of activating his magical circuits. He had been waiting for the moment when his body was strong enough to handle the mana in the air around him. Oddly enough there was enough mana in the world air like during the times of the age of the gods. Such a thing confused him greatly when he began to feel the mana around him once more.

As he was now his father, named Mike Donovan, kept a close eye on him. Making it nearly impossible to truly explore the moonlit world. He was not the worrying sort, but he still made sure Shirou was safe whenever possible. Speaking of his father he came to find out he was Irish, and by extension so he was too now, born and raised in Ireland. However, he had been in the final process of immigrating to the United States when Shirou was born. Somehow, he was able to make Shirou a United States citizen, though he did not know how.

He did ask why he named him Shirou, not that he was complaining to retain his original name, but it was suspicious that his father would name him the same as his previous life. As it turns out his grandmother was Japanese woman who fell in love and married an Irish man when he was visiting Japan on business. The name popped into his head when he was thinking of names after his mother dropped him off. He also noted that he had little more from his Japanese side than his Irish side, leading to him naming him Shirou.

Then there was the next bit of surprising information. While still dormant, Shirou was still able to make an estimate of just how many circuits he had now. As of now he guessed he had around over two-hundred high quality magic circuits. In his past life he had only twenty-seven low quality magic circuits, to think that he had so many now. It was almost scary how much he had now. Even Rin, a prodigy magus, only had forty.

There were a few weapons in his Unlimited Blade Works that he could not make use of. Those weapons generally being divine in origin or outside his ability to understand. Now with these circuits could he wield those weapons he couldn't have before? His thoughts drifted to the weapon used by his love. Before he could only barely create it outside of his Reality Marble, even when within it most of his mana went towards maintaining it that he couldn't draw out its true power.

However, all this amounted to was one question. If he had this many magic circuits then what was he now? As far as he knew the average mage had around twenty magic circuits, and of often poor quality. It was very possible that since the Age of The Gods had not ended that the average magic circuit count went up, but he would not have imagined it would have gone up to such a high degree. No, it was him. Something was different with him. He could feel it.

The hammer pulled back, before it shot forward.

Shirou took a sharp intake of breath as he carefully drew mana into his magical circuits. He made sure not to rush anything like he did in his old life. He would not run the risk of rushing his circuits activation, damaging them in the process like he had before. Once he felt them start to react a little to the mana he stopped. His circuits had enough mana to begin the process of awakening, now all he had to do was wait for them to fully awaken on their own.

Although he would be lying if he said he was not eager to have his Unlimited Blade Works again. Having all those weapons at his call was a good feeling. If he ever needed to help someone, he knew that he would have the right weapon for the job. There was also the small concern about the moonlit world. During his new life he could have sworn he spotted a few monsters belonging to the moonlit world.

One time when he was with his father in the park, he spotted what had seemed to be a harpy flying overhead. Lucky it had not seemed to notice him and kept flying on but that would not be the last monster he spotted. A few days later he found a one-eyed man staring off into a crowd of people before walking off again.

He wanted to have access to his weapon if one of them decided to attack him and his father. The idea of losing another parent did not still with him. Shirou was tired of losing people close to him.

Speaking of parents Shirou did have some questions about his mother, however whenever he asked about her his father would always avoid the question or give a vague answer about her with some form of indication that she could not raise him for some reason. It occurred to Shirou that he might have been born from a moment of lust from his mother and father. She wanted nothing to do with him and left him in his father's care. He supposed he was glad that his father took it upon himself to raise him and not drop him off at some orphanage.

However, despite his father being vague about his mother he had a feeling she might have been a part of the moonlit world given the rune around his neck. In his previous life he learned the use of rune magic to make up for his lackluster skills as a magnus. Most of the magic involving runes came from the world around him with the rune being the catalyst for harnessing these magics. A perfect type of magic to learn for someone with limited magic ability. The rune itself was a "ᛉ" or an algiz rune generally meaning protection or a higher self.

Shirou stood up and started to make his way downstairs. He still had a few years before he could truly dive back into the moonlit world. All he had to do was be patient.

*Three Years later*

Shirou was in the process of storing all of his school books in his locker. His last class of the day had ended, and it was time to return home. He had to admit though school was much easier when he had already learned it, but as it turns out Japanese and American schools went about teaching their students a bit differently, so it was not entirely a cake walk for him. If anything, he was glad that English was a required course in Japan. He was also glad that he learned a few other languages throughout his past life. Latin, German, and French had its usages from time to time. Latin easily came in handy when reading ancient texts.

Speaking of school, he made sure he would be flying underneath the radar. The first day of school he found a few senior girls looking at him with some level of lust in their eyes. Normally he would ignore such things as there was only room for one woman in his heart. However, he did not even want them to make the attempt so he created another rune that would make himself harder to notice. To everyone who did not have some from of magic aptitude they would see him as just another face in the crowd. Though it was not strong enough that it would hide him from people looking for him, such as a teacher wishing to speak with him or such.

With his rune in place, he enjoyed a peaceful school life. Not being one of the "popular" kids nor being one of the kids others looked down on for one reason or another. Though he did go out of his way to make those kids feel welcome at the school, even if they were his academic seniors. As it turned out his self-fulfillment had not changed since his rebirth, something he was completely fine with. Of course this also led him to helping the teachers whenever he could.

Unlike in Japan, American students did not have to help maintain the classroom. Instead, the teachers would sometimes hire students as part of the work program to help their parents with school tuition instead of being paid with money. Shirou of course was happy to help for free but it was a part of school policy to have the student compensated for their work. Though he could only work for one teacher.

One thing he did take notice of the more frequent appearance of phantasmal beasts was. Most of the time they wore a human disguise but Shirou learned quickly that these monsters still acted like their phantasmal selves. Anyone who looked closely enough could tell they were acting off by human standards, if it was not their walk, it was their talk, or it was the look they gave people passing them by. It almost reminded him of a certain blonde and red eyed bastard who shall not be named.

"Hey Shirou!" A female voice called quickly approaching.

A tired smile came to his face as he recognized the voice. He turned his head towards the voice and completed his full smile.

"Hello Sadie." He greeted in return.

The brown-eyed and black-haired girl stopped just in front of him, giving him a cozy little smile. She was two years his senior but given how he was no longer in Japan he didn't call her senpai. Though she did try to get him to do it a few times as she was a fan of Japanese animation. Honestly, Sadie reminded him of Taiga, with a seemingly unlimited supply of energy and cheery disposition. That cozy smile also meant another thing.

"So, have any more dreams about your girlfriend?" She asked, maintaining the cozy smile.

Sadie expressed some interest in dating; he politely declined saying that he was already taken. When she asked who he was with he was forced to make something up on the spot. This led to his dreams about a woman who he loved and she him. This story seemed to sweep through the school like wildfire, especially with the female students. In truth it was his only claim to fame in the school he had failed to avoid.

Even in this new world with the chances of getting to Avalon were low he was not about to give up trying. He would never stop trying. He would see her again one day.

"Not this time." He answered her. "But I'm sure I will see her again."

"Oh, stop Shirou, you're making me jealous!" She demanded playfully hitting him on the shoulder. "You better find her soon because I don't know how long I can hold myself back."

Shirou maintained his smile. "I will be sure to speed things up to alleviate your temptation."

She stepped past him tapping his nose with her finger as she went by. "You better. See ya lover boy!"

Shirou waved goodbye before turning back to his locker and closing it. With school out for the day it was time for him to return home. However, there were still things yet to do before he truly went home. After all there were phantasmal beasts to slay and his magic circuits were fully awakened.

Shirou immediately started towards his workshop upon exiting school grounds. His workshop towards the more industrial section of New York. He figured if any magic tinkering got explosive then having it happen in the industrial section of the city would draw less attention. He was fortunate to have an allowance from his father, a healthy allowance that allowed him to put that money to work. Such as a contract with an armor manufacturer.

During his time humanity was able to manufacture a new armor that was far greater than anything they had made before. The black armor he wore could stop a bullet on its own, with his reinforcement magic it granted him protection unlike any other armor at the time. However, one of the problems with the armor was the material needed to produce such armor had yet to be discovered. To justify miners mining for such mysterious armor components he needed proof of concept.

Luckily for him his magecraft once again stepped in to assist him. With it Shirou was able to recreate his armor and have it run against these manufactures tests. It held up for as long as he promised it would warrant a reason to invest in such a product. Some time later they found the new material needed and had a primitive variation of his armor. It held up rather well to the same tests as well as secured him his contract.

With this money now steadily flowing in it allowed him to build a workshop for himself. As well as maintain a guise that he used the workshop to improve the product he learned to craft. This also afforded him a supply of the material needed to allow him to create a true version of his old armor. The same armor the Archer servant used during the Fifth Holy Grail War.

Though he was not the one to guess at the Archer servant's Identity. When he visited Rin sometime after the war in his new armor, she noted that he looked like her Archer. It was a little hard to believe that Archer was him from the future. However, it was not impossible.

Though he lacked his Holy Shroud, Shirou could replicate it with his magecraft. Once he donned his armor he projected his Holy Shroud over his body. Unlike his supposed Archer self Shirou's right arm was uncovered by the shroud and instead hid his face slightly along with covering his left arm more. His waist section and legs were covered much like his supposed archer self.

Shirou exited his shop before he reinforced his legs allowing him to jump up to the nearby rooftop. It was time to see how far he came along with his magecraft. He had about two hours before his father would start to worry. He would be back by then.

Upon Mount Olympus the Greek gods were gathered to discuss recent events in their territory. The king of the gods was noticeable in a good mood having a smile plastered across his face throughout the meeting. The king's wife Hera looked at his smile with mistrust given her husband's tendencies to sleep with mortal women behind her back. It was possible that he had just finished doing just that.

As the number of gods yet to give their report decreased Zeus' smile only got bigger. Something us up, Hera knew it. As the time came for Artemis to give her report the black haired god spoke before the goddess of the hunt could.

"Artemis, I have noticed that the number of monsters in New York has fallen significantly." Zeus beamed at his somewhat surprised daughter. "Your hunt has stepped up their game with these most recent developments. Pass along my congratulations to your hunters."

Before the hunt goddess could speak, Athena the goddess of wisdom, began after.

"I agree, you and your followers have thinned the monster's numbers so much one might think that there was a protective barrier around the mortal city." Athena praised her fellow goddess.

"That's true sister!" Apollo called from his throne. "You should have told me you were stepping up your hunt. I would have worked extra hard too, but to leave me behind. What a horrible and cruel younger sister I have."

Before anyone else could get any other words in, Artemis spoke up. "First of all, I am older than you brother. Second, father, my hunt has been busy tracking a large pack of hellhounds for a few months now. We have not been close enough to New York to make such a noticeable change in the monster's local population."

"So you mean to say someone else has been killing a bunch of monsters in the mortal city." Ares summarized sounding slightly more interested than he had before.

"I have been in and out of New York for a while now and I have not noticed anyone wiping out monsters at the speeds you are suggesting father." Hermes added. "I mean I think I would have noticed if some person was running around wiping out monsters. It's a little hard to miss."

"That's not necessarily true." Apollo countered thoughtfully. "Let's assume for a moment that this person is a demigod or at least a clear sided mortal with means of killing monsters. If this person was one of my children then they would most likely be using a bow. Meaning they would take out monsters from a distance without making much noise. If this person is one of Ares' kids then they might have fought them at a close range making more noise and tire themselves out. Meaning that if this person is fighting a long range, then they are very skilled or ambushing their targets. So to find this person-

"No." Zeus interrupted. Apollo looked at his father confused. "If this person, mortal or demigod, is choosing to hunt monsters until he or she dies then I say let them do as such. At this moment I have no reason to believe this person is a threat to us and as such should be left alone."

"But father, surely this person warrants some form of investigation." Athena reasoned almost sound desperate.

"I will have none of it!" Zeus proclaimed standing from his throne. "By my order as King I am forbidding any and all investigations into this person until I deem otherwise! If you happen to come across this person then you're to take no hostile action against this person until they act first!"

The gathered gods were shocked. Never before had they been ordered to stay away from an unknown variable. It was unlike Zeus to order them away from someone that could pose a threat to them. Normally he would demand to know who this person was and if none knew then he would order them to find them. Hera knew this most of all, leading her once again to believe that he knew just who this person was but didn't want any one of them to find out about them.

Hera was not about to let this matter go. No, she would find this person and if they turned out to be another bastard of her unfaithful husband then she would see them suffer. This she promised herself. As the meeting began to wind down, Hera teleported away from the meeting only to reappear in the mortal city below mount Olympus. She would find this person soon enough.

Shirou stood atop one of the few taller buildings in downtown New York, not at the level of a skyscraper but still tall. From here and with the use of Hawkeye he was able to snipe just about any monster clearly within a four mile radius as long as he had line of sight. Shirou had been up here for an hour, with an hour left before he had to return. Since then he had only two phantasmal monster kills, two harpys to be precise, to show for his vigilance. He remembered his outings being more busy since he began, in a single night he spotted and killed upwards to fifty monsters. Now he has been doing this for a month. He was bringing to wonder if the monsters he killed were beginning to learn something was wiping them out and were starting to stay clear of New York.

There was also the odd matter of how they died. When killed with one of his normal traced arrows they simply turned into a kind of golden dust. On occasion something was left behind with the dust but more times than not it was useless pieces of the monsters, a horn or tooth more times than not. A normal magus might find use with such items but for Shirou they were useless. Shirou often spent down time wondering why these monsters died as they did. In truth he had yet to engage a monster in melee range, opting to stay at long range with his bow. He departed with the idea of engaging them in close range but given the number of monsters it was easier for him to knock an arrow, kill a monster, then begin searching for another.

It was honest moonlit work but with no bounties or something like a Mage's Association to give a reward for said bounties meant that it was a thankless job. Though such a thing did not bother Shirou, knowing that there were a few less monsters to cause trouble for normal humans or anyone else was all the thanks he needed. Besides it was a way to test himself and hone his craft.

He checked his phone for the time…

'twenty minutes to Six.' He thought to himself, placing his phone back in his pocket. 'Suppose I should turn in early if it's going to be like this.'

Just as he got ready to return to his workshop he spotted something from the corner of his eye. On instinct he shot to it, enhancing his eyes to get a better view.

'Four children, no three children and one phantasmal beast, a Satyr if I'm not mistaken.' Shirou thought, jumping over to a nearby building to get a closer look. They were moving away from him at the moment and would be out of his range soon. 'Two girls, two males, including the satyr. They look young, and afraid.'

Along the way the red clad archer debated with himself on whether or not that satyr was a threat or not. While not considered to be among the more deadly and malicious of phantasmal beasts, they were still not what one would consider saintly, as they often were depicted masturbating in mythology as well as being know to rape woman as woman tended to be repulsed by their appearance. From the age of this one and the scared look on its face he guessed that it was not planning on doing anything to those two girls… at the moment at least. While the satyr did raise enough concern to warrant a quick status check on the three children just to be sure, the fact that they seemed to be running from something warranted something more than just a simple check up.

As far as Shirou had seen most monsters did not seem to pay normal humans much mind. Choosing to ignore them almost entirely. Given that they were running away from something with a moonlit world creature in tow most likely meant that they were running from something dangerous.

As the group was across the river, heading towards the more rural areas of Long Island, Shirou was forced to make his way down towards the bridge connecting the two landmasses. Even with his reinforcements he was well aware he could not make the jump over the river. Given how he was in his armor he was forced to run on the bridge's supports and pray that he was moving fast enough that no one would spot him. Lucky he made it across without hearing any clear signs that he had been spotted.

By the time he made it across Shirou had lost sight of the group. Growling Shirou looked around for another tall building, though Brooklyn had less taller buildings and more buildings around the same height. However, there was a building still under construction that would work. The archer quickly made his way over to the building and made his way up its framework, using his reinforced upper body strength to pull himself up a few stories at a time. As soon as he reached the top of what was built he began to search the area for the group again. He reinforced his ears to try and help with the search, though the bustle of the city was not helping him find them.

By happenstance Shirou's eyes came across the group and they were indeed in trouble. A cyclops had found them and was holding a girl with black hair and electric blue eyes in his clutches. Shirou traced his black bow, followed by a standard arrow. Shirou took aim, and let loose. In a moment the arrow had shot towards its target before embedding itself in the monster's only eye.

The monster let out a loud painful scream as its only eye had an arrow sticking out of it. Not allowing the monsters a chance to try anything else Shirou had already nocked another arrow and fired it. The next few arrows found their mark in the cyclops' pressure points along its legs and the arm that held the girl. With another roar of pain the cyclops fell hitting the ground with an earth shaking crash. Its hand opened up, allowing the black haired girl to get out and away from the danger.

With the girl safely away from the cyclops, Shirou traced a heavier arrow, one that would pierce deep into the monster's hide. The weight of the arrow forced Shirou to take a more careful aim at the monster before letting loose the heavier arrow. Like before the arrow shot towards its target once again finding its mark in the monster's heart. The cyclops let out a dying gasp as the heavy arrow slammed into its body, and like the other monsters it began to turn into a fine golden dust.

The group began to look around in a vain attempt to see where the arrows had come from, however without enhanced vision Shirou was little more than a distant figure on top of a building. The eldest looking of the group, a blonde haired boy, looked towards the building in which Shirou stood. However, Shirou had a feeling that the boy was simply looking at the only possible location where the arrows came from as their were no buildings high enough to give a clear line of sight without standing on the surrounding buildings.

The happy moment was short lived however as Shirou saw the satyr call out to the others, clearly alarmed. It did not take him long to see why he was so alarmed. Around them an alarming amount of phantasmal beasts were converging on their location. Some among them Shirou did not recognize but one thing was for certain; this group would not survive without some assistance.

Just as Shirou was about to launch a barrage of arrows he was suddenly alerted to something else. His Workshop's boundary force barrier had been triggered. Someone was very close to his workshop, uncomfortably close. Shirou hesitated, he needed to check on his workshop and make sure whoever came too close did not find it. At the same time he needed to help these people before they were all killed.

Cursing himself, Shirou reinforced his arms. With incredible speed and precision Shirou had shot a column's worth of arrows in the air in a matter of seconds. Each arrow found its mark in a phantasmal beasts' body. The smaller of the monsters died in one shot while larger monsters were slowed down.

Shirou dismissed his bow and began to quickly make his way down the building he was standing on. He had done all he could for the group given the situation, he did not take the time to truly check his shots but from the quick glance he gave them before he started to make his way down, he guessed he had killed about a few dozen phantasmal beasts and slowed down a dozen more. He also saw the group were making their way out of the area through a small opening in the phantasmal beasts' attack. He hoped that they would make it out alright but even he had obligations to attend to.

Shirou moved as quickly as he could towards his Workshop using his reinforcement magecraft to his absolute limit just to get as much speed out of his legs as possible. It took him about thirty-five minutes to get to his workshop. Once he arrived he began to scan the area for the source of the disturbance. Yet he could not seem to find it.

"Trace on." Shirou chanted as he traced his favored weapons, Kanshou and Bakuya.

The married blades appeared in his hands as he entered the premises. His senses were on high alert and his head was on a swivel. He tried to smell the intruder but whatever they were using was keeping them hidden from his senses. It couldn't have been magic based as he would have smelled it.

Seeing as the main part of the building was clear, Shirou moved towards his Workshop's entrance. The door was as he left it and it had not been disturbed. Shirou turned to do one more quick scan of the building but found nothing. With that Shirou dismissed his swords and entered his workshop. He began to remove his armor and store in it a nearby locker before he put on his normal clothes again.

Shirou decided that it would be best to add an alarm to the boundary force barrier around the workshop itself. If the alarm came from some animal wandering the property then it would be better to have an alarm just in case the intruder had truly found his workshop. With his normal clothes back on his body Shirou exited the workshop and began to make his way home. It so happened that his phone began to ring as he exited his workshop.

It was his father, and he was less than pleased with Shirou. Though he supposed a good home cooked dinner would change that.

Medusa sighed as the last person exited her Emporium, the day was coming to a close. If it was not the annoying mortals she had to deal with, it was her hair squirming around in her head dress. She knew they did not like being contained but it was the only way she could do business without turning her customers into stone. She was always glad when the last one left as it allowed her to remove her head dress to allow her snakes freedom.

She was also rather glad to remove her veil as even with her enhanced vision it was still annoying to work around the emporium with it on. Seeing as she was not expecting anyone else to come into today she took the time to begin running inventory as well as her earnings for the day. It was a boring and lengthy process but it helped pass the time. The mortals and their damned regulations were a pain to deal with, a part of her wish for the olden days where you only had to pay a tax then one could get on with their work. Though she supposed that was just how the mortals were, two steps forward then trip over their own untied shoelaces.

Medusa's hand suddenly shot out and gripped the counter as her vision became shaky and her balance was lost for a moment. She had been having a slew of these dizzy attacks for fifteen years now and no matter what she did she could not get these attacks to go away. The dizziness often came with feelings of bloatedness, even with her slim body. Medusa was not the only one affected though, her snakes would fall slack as if they were normal hair again.

Her mood also seems to be affected by these attacks. When she was working she would treat each mortal that did business with her with a sort of fake positive attitude, but ever since this began happening her fake positive attitude began to become less fake and more of a switch. Like she would suddenly have a reason to be happy. That was not all as she had not turned a single mortal to stone since, she went as far as to smash some of her more beautiful statues in a fit of sudden anger.

This all seemed to begin after the night fifteen years ago when a massive storm, followed by a small earthquake, appeared. She had first assumed that the gods had found her and were about to destroy her but it passed soon after. However, she did remember having a feeling that something powerful was watching her. The earthquake had grown in intensity for a short moment, knocking her to the ground. In that moment she felt like something had been shoved into her body, like she had been knocked over by another person slamming into her.

Whatever the reason maybe, Medusa needed to figure this out.

Link:https://m.fanfiction.net/s/13899843/2/Lord-of-Swords