Chapter 19: Chapter 19

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(General P.O.V)

Death.

What is it?

Is it simply the absence of life? Or is there more to it than meets the eye? Could death not be the absence but rather the evolution of life? A sort of transition into a different state of being.

Ash didn't know. Despite dying over 20 times, he could not claim to be an expert on it. As things stood, Ash was still as clueless about death as the first time he died.

One thing he didn't understand though was why he was so terrified of it. He wasn't alone in his fear, mind you. So what had to be the cause? Why did everyone hold onto life so fervently? Ash wished he had the answers.

All he hoped and wished for was meaning. Meaning in his death. That it had served it's purpose. He was also hopeful on what came after. He was expectant that maybe his father would be waiting for him with open arms. He was hopeful...

So he opened his eyes.

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You. Are. Dead

Would you like to exchange 100 temporal units for 1 Loop?

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Okay...what the hell is this deus x Machina bullshit? He was supposed to be dead. Gone. Un-alive, not alive but dead. He felt cheated. The desperation and fear he had felt at his last moments...yet those last moments turned out to not really be his last.

But even as he complained, Ash was happy. In a way. He was happy because he got a redo. One final try that he desperately needed. He could use this to make things right. Now that there was a light at the end of the tunnel, Ash wanted to live. He wanted to live sooo badly, that his terror of death had come back in full force.

This time, he would do things differently. He only had to make sure that Shiro got to the workshop. If the red haired mage could manage to summon Artoria then it was almost guaranteed that they would survive. Ash only had to make sure they made it past Lancer, then he would come up with a plan to deal with Rider and Shinji.

He would have hoped to peacefully deal with Lancer but the situation did not permit it. Ah! who was he kidding? Fuck Lancer, Ash was happy he was going to kill him after the numerous deaths he had had to go through because of him.

A normal human against a servant? Some magi somewhere was laughing at the notion. But Ash had done it once, though it was mostly luck. So he could do it again. However he needed to be careful. Luck didn't always have his back. Otherwise he would not have been uprooted from his life and thrown into the time loops where death was guaranteed.

So Ash stayed in that state of non being, going over every single scenario, every single strategy he could think of... Lancer's chain moves, Rider's tells (though that was a blank page) and finally when he thought of himself as ready enough, he turned to the text box.

He could only perceive its dimensions and everything contained within it, anything past that was a blank void. Like when you close one of your eyes. That eye perceives nothing. Not even darkness.

Ash metaphysically pressed on the yes tab on the text box and his surroundings, predictably changed. The first thing he saw was another text box.

Loops remaining 1/1.

He breathed out as he got up from the crouch he was in. Looking around, Ash sighed in relief at seeing he was back. Then he chided himself for almost getting lost in the feeling. He had work to do. He had to repeat everything he had done on the last loop on this one. At least up until Lancer was not a threat anymore.

Everything went as it should have. Shiro and Ash stood together against the force of nature that was Cú Chullain. They endured his relentless attacks. Lancer was caught by surprise at how Ash was reading all of his moves perfectly.

Every strike that Lancer lashed out was deflected or dodged. The worst part was that Ash was not even going faster than him. Infact, due to the strange magecraft he possessed, moving quickly was not an easy feat, or so Lancer thought.

And then Lancer found out that he underestimated Ash's resolve. The teen had risked taking a blow to his left side to get closer to Lancer. A flash was all Lancer saw. With it came an uncomfortable heat and the last thought on the Servant's mind was that he was dying...killed by a human no less.

The second that Lancer died, Ash turned to Shiro, wrapped his hands around his torso and told him,

"Hold on."

Then he was off, flying out of the house and towards the workshop in the fastest speed possible. All the while the red haired boy was protesting at the sudden jerking motion.

They broke through the wooden walls of the workshop and Ash pulled himself up before pushing Shiro towards the white magical circles constructed on the ground. Shiro, tripped on a few boxes and fell before getting up hurriedly with anger on his face.

"What the hell is your..."

The red haired boy begun only to be harshly interrupted.

"Stop talking Shiro! You need to summon your servant or we're both dead!"

Shiro blinked his eyes owlishly at him.

"Whaa..."

There was no time! Ash thought, thinking that he could hear their enemies closing in on them. Maybe he should have just held on to Shiro and flew away from the scene. The reason he hadn't done that was the forcefield set up around the Emiya and Fujimura compound.

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Not to mention, Ash was not confident in the ring's capability to carry both him and Shiro on a sustained flight. He had no idea how this all worked.

He spared one last glance at the entrance to the workshop and then scrambled over to where Shiro was. The other boy tried to back away but Ash's palm on his shoulder stopped him.

"I know this is all too much but you need to listen to me, okay?"

Shiro looked into his eyes and gave a curt nod.

"Hold out your hand..."

Shiro complied.

The tip of Ash's finger hardened and he used it to slice a wound in Shiro's palm. Shiro surprisingly waited for Ash to explain his actions.

"Use your blood to summon your servant."

Ash told him while getting up and facing the entrance. He activated his Quirk on the rest of his body.

There was a thump.

"How?! How do I summon one!"

Shiro questioned, placing his hand onto the circle.

"Focus on a desire. A wish that cannot be granted through normal means. Picture the outcome. You, standing above the rest as you implore the holy grail to fullfil it's purpose by making your vision come true. If your wish is strong enough, then you will be able to summon your servant."

The words left Ash's mouth without thinking.

All his focus was on the door. His senses were capturing the slightest of things. There was no way anything was getting past him.

That confidence was shattered when the door exploded with a shower of wood chips and dust. Two long nails speared right through, one aimed for each of them. They were too fast! Ash only had the ability to lean away slightly to the side and watch as the one targeting his head sailed right by his restored ear.

He grabbed onto the chain with his free hand and tried to grab the other chain with the nail going for Shiro but failed. The whole thing was happening too quickly. His heart skipped a beat. There was no way Shiro could...

An explosion of light, sound and mana threw everything away that was close to the magic circle. Ash shrunk onto himself into the shape of a bolder. He felt his body blast through the workshop into the yard from the force of the push. Rolling to his feet, Ash had a wide smile on his face.

Rider landed next to him but ignored him in favor of the girl dressed in a royal blue armor who had walked out of the destroyed workshop. She had on huge gauntlets on her wrists that covered her entire forearms. She was shorter than Ash yet the air of confidence around her was kingly.

She had the bearing of a king but the eyes of a warrior.

Artoria brandished her invisible weapon towards the enemy. Her eyes had briefly passed over Ash but seeing the lack of any obvious command seals, it was clear that he wasn't Rider's master. Still, that only meant she kept a less critical eye on him. Anyone except for her was a danger to her master. And danger was meant to be handled with extreme impunity.

Saber cleared her throat. It was customary to approach any fight with honor.

"From the way you handle those chains, you must be Rider."

'Saber is cute as fuck.' Ash found himself thinking.

Apparently, Rider did not share that sentiment as without much Ado, she attacked. She was like lightning. Moving across the open ground faster than his eyes could follow. She pulled back her chains and threw them towards Saber with deadly precision.

Clang! Bang! Tang! Ding! Bam!

The nails were smacked away by the invisible weapon in Saber's hand as easily as they came at her. Ash was finally seeing a servant vs servant battle happening before him and it was unimaginably incredible.

Rider was like a tornado, darting in and out and hitting or at least trying to hit, Artoria from every other angle. Saber was like an unyielding mountain. She endured the attacks with ease. Never moving from her position.

Rider jumped away. Both servants eyed each other.

"Why are you suddenly so shy?"

Saber mocked Rider. The other stayed silent.

"Fine, it you will not attack, then I will!"

Saber then moved.

Ash understood why the Saber class was considered to be the strongest.

Artoria was a beast.

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