Is a "sword" a euphuism? (BL)

"Do you like it? I couldn't find a proper bull, but I think this solution works better with local ambiance."

Nailed above the altar in the center of the nave in the blasphemous parody of the crucifixion of Jesus was a naked man. Each of his hands was pierced by a pitch-black nail that radiated potent cursed energy. Black veins spread from those nails, first to the torso, then to legs and genitals, and neck and face ending just above the eyes in what seemed to be a mockery of the crown. His lips were sewn shut, with oily black thread.

Even mutilated like this he was still so inhumanly beautiful. His golden hair glimmered in the macabre orange light that shone from the stained glass windows.

Archer recognized that he was in the church. A familiar one at that. Church of that was cared for by the mediator of this Holy Grail War. Rin had brought them both there to register them once the Holy Grail War had started. That was almost a year after the original summoning. Like the other two founding families, Tohsaka had methods to game the system.

He was standing near the entrance.

But how did he get here? 

Mere seconds ago he was patrolling near Emiya's residence. Then mere moments later he was here in this desecrated church.

Spatial translocation. Something that according to his knowledge was close to the domain of True Magic.

Perhaps he should not have left. The patrol was just the excuse. He needed to clear his head. Watching his Master and his younger self interact was… unpleasant. 

But now was not the time for such thoughts. He readied himself for battle, summoned his twin blades, and looked for the enemy.

It was easy to find a second person in a despoiled church. The speaker had made no effort to conceal himself. Standing near the left of the two doors on the same side of the room as the altar, the speaker figure was covered in voluminous black robes and his face was concealed in shadows cast by his hood. If he was disturbed by Archer's actions he showed no sign of it. He just continued speaking as he was discussing a piece of art...

"Son of God suffers to redeem sins of Man. And Men have so many sins. Of course, he is the son of a goddess, rather than a god. And while a connection from Anu to El, El to Yahweh, could be constructed, a similar path to Rimat-Ninsun is much more tentative. But one works with materials one has on hand. On the other hand, Gilgamesh is also the Wedge of Heavens. The bridge between mortal and divine, even he rejected that purpose. What do you think?"

And with those words, he tossed back the hood of his robes and Archer could finally see his face. It was a familiar face. Older and infected with inhuman beauty in a way similar to the man on the cross. But still recognizable.

"Rin…" he gasped. But Archer could see that something was very wrong with his version of Rin. Perhaps it was Rin's eyes. They felt hollow, flat. Or was it perhaps his presence? It was for Archer to sense this, for the air in this church smelt heavily of ash and curses, but who stood before him was no human but a Servant.

"It had been too long since anyone called me by that name. It's quite nostalgic to hear from your lips." Rim smiled. It was a kind, happy smile, but it didn't reach his eyes.

"What happened to you?" Archer had to ask. He would regret asking, but he had to know. What could turn Rin into this, this mockery of him?

"It is a common saying to be Magus is to walk with death. But what often remains unsaid is that the path to Root is only wide enough for one. Being so alone even death can become a treasured companion. But in time even the dearest companion can become so tiresome."

"I see. You have squandered your inheritance and had to find a day job, writing text for fortune cookies." Archer could not resist. The only appropriate response for such vague nonsense spoken by the enemy was sarcasm.

But this future version of Rin was not offended. Other Servant laughed and said, "Well, I suppose I deserve that. Well, for old times' sake, I will try to explain as much as you can understand. But first I must ask a question. What did you think would happen once you kill your younger self?"

"I would cease to exist," Archer replied with absolute certainty because he did not dare to doubt. When a single thread descended to personal hell, he grabbed it. In such a case, one did not think of a spider on the other side. 

"You sound so certain. I didn't expect you to expand Emiya's study of Time in such an esoteric direction," the cloaked mage replied and took a pose similar to one when he was correcting an error in Archer's younger self's magecraft education, "But think a bit more about what you would be doing. You are deleting information from the Ring of Deterrence. Information is energy. That is the basic principle behind any form of divination. Someone who uses psychometry as much as you do should understand that much at least. Do you see where I am going with this?" 

Archer unfortunately did. So all of this was not an opportunity to escape his hell. He was being just spent, a demolition charge placed in the proper place.

Nice retirement package.

Just what he asked. 

Except as before, the devil was in details. 

He was afraid to know but still had to ask, "How much?"

"Enough to annihilate the Greater Grail, and all of Japan. There was exactly one survivor. Me. Death of a nation and birth of Sorcerer. I don't have to tell you what that looked like."

No, he did not. Before his death, Archer had confronted many Mages seeking shortcuts to the Root, at the cost of others.

Afterward even more. 

People in general were willing to do terrible things for power. Magi just had more options. 

The sole deterrent, it seemed, was the absence of public confirmation about the legitimacy of such paths.

Without it, the number of wicked would swell beyond counting. 

"But I have been monopolizing your time," the wisted version Rin said, "I am not the only one looking forward to a reunion."

The ashen scent of curses grew stronger. Guided by instinct from countless battlefields Archer jumped back. Just in time to avoid a body dropping from the ceiling.

It was the size and shape of a human child, twisted, and burned. Its arms were like sticks, its hand claws, and its body was too damaged for Archer to be able to discern its gender.

"Join us," it rasped, "Save us."

It was soon joined by others similar to it. Some also fell from above, others crawled from under the pews. Until Archer was surrounded.

They reached with their stick-like arms towards him, alamo like they were pleading. 

"Join us. Save us." The multitude of their voices formed a mad choir. They steered the memories Archer had buried deep.

Ever so slowly they approached him, tightening the circle around him. They looked utterly pitiful but Archer's battle instincts screamed of danger. Yet he found himself unwilling to make a first strike. 

Was it because they reminded him of that day? Or perhaps it was something more nebulous, a hunch that striking them was a bad idea?

They were almost touching him. He was out of time.

"Duck!" a regal female voice ordered.

Archer obeyed quickly, dropping to the ground. A sudden and powerful gust of wind tossed twisted children in all directions. 

"Here, come here!" Archer heard someone call to him.

He turned his head and saw that he was no longer without allies in the defiled church. Two more have appeared in the church.

Saber, and his foolish younger self.

"Where is Rin?" Archer asked as soon he reached them. He had to know. Because there was a future version of his Master here. What if…

"He is holding the path open," his younger self answered.

"That is useful information. In thanks, you may die quickly. Although if you step aside I may spare your lives," a future version of Rin interrupted. The winds seemed to have done him no damage.

"Who are you? What do you want?" the fool asked.

Archer began to explain, "This is a future version of Rin. Who is a Servant for some strange reason."

"A Caster to be precise. And it is not strange. It was something Toshakas had worked on for generations," a twisted version of Rin lectured, "And it would have been ready for this Holly Glain War if only my father was not killed by a treacherous apprentice." 

"And what he wants is private between the two of us. I didn't need your help." Archer said.

"That is where you are wrong," Caster interjected, "Dealing with you, like with him," and with that, he pointed at the naked man on a cross," is just a pleasant diversion. Repaying old debts. A side quest if you will. Because when I kill my younger self my existence will too come to an end."

"Why!?" the fool exclaimed, sounding distressed. Archer had forgotten how naive he was at this age. It was an unwelcome reminder. 

"I will try to explain in a way you can understand. In order to prevent future calamity the existence of Rin Tohsaka must be erased. By killing him by my own hands I will create a temporal paradox. Do not worry Archer. I know how to put energy released to good use. I will cause no nation-ending explosion Although I suppose in the end it wouldn't really matter anyway. So will you let me pass in peace?" 

"No," Shirou said firmly. "Not if you're going to hurt Rin."

"Even if it would save many?"

"No. Everyone deserves to be saved. Sacrificing Rin is not the answer. If you are serious about saving people, why don't join us? Together we may find a way to save those you wish to save, without hiring Rin."

"How idealistic. How naive. If you want to kill him now is time Archer. We are far from any populated area." 

Because Shirou's face was also his face, it was easy for Archer to read it. A slight widening of eyes, expression. Surprise, a touch of fear, and a bit of guilt. Even if Archer still disliked the younger man, he felt almost no murderous impulses. That more than anything had proven in his mind that Caster's supposition was right. They were not within the reach of the Greater Grail.

"And it would leave you an open path to Rin."

"I don't deny that it would work for me. But why should that matter to you? You would get exactly what you wanted. Peace."

"No."

"Your expression. So determined, and yet so resigned. It made me think a bit of a priest with your face I had encountered in my travels. He too wanted to bring salvation. He had the right idea, but his execution was limited, and thus doomed to failure. I had helped him a little, a trivial thing, getting rid of a single homunculus. I sometimes still wonder what face he made at the end. I imagine that it would be like yours now." 

Caster then turned his attention towards Saber.

"I suppose it's my turn now," she said. Her tone was mostly resigned. Like she was doing, a boring but necessary chore.

"Frankly I have no idea how to go about that. I could try to appeal to your pragmatism, letting me kill Rin is a quick way for you to lose two competitors in this event, but your pride as a knight would not let you betray your master. So I won't waste effort on a futile task."

"Wiser than many I had faced," she replied and the battle began.

The twisted children interposed between them and Caster.

"Save us. Join us."

Caster's robe was torn away by now revealing artificial wings attached to his back. That pair of wings were made of precious metal with gleaming feathers in a riot of colors. What Caster wore under his robes was best not mentioned in polite society. The outfit was made of gold chains and almost see-through white silk, it covered very little.

The destruction of the robe revealed one more thing. There was a snake with gems for scales wound on Caster's right forearm. It slithered into Caster's hand, he willed it as a wand.

Archer threw his twin swords at the Caster. Saber charged. Shirou tried to follow, but Archer grabbed him by the collar.

"You lack Magic Resistance, fool."

Caster intercepted the flying swords of two of his feathers. One turned into a gust of wind, and the other into a torrent of water.

Saber's charge reached the twisted children. As she tore into them with her sword, they turned into ash wailing pitifully.

"Save us. Join us."

Yet, as many she killed, new ones replaced them. And another feather, another gust of wind tossing her back.

"Are you all right?" Shirou asked.

"I can fight," she replied and then winced. Archer saw that black lines had appeared on her previously pristine armor. They smelled like curses. He was right to avoid them. Saber Magic Resistance was A Rank, and if his suspicions were right, both he and Shirou would be especially vulnerable to them. 

"I think I saw where new ones are coming from. Can you deal with Caster alone until I and your Master and I deal with the source." He didn't need Shirou but was a bit unwilling to leave him to his own devices. The fool would probably have tried to help Saber, or something equally insanely stupid.

Saber hesitated for a brief moment, probably weighing what would be safer for her Master, then agreed, "Go. I will open a path for you. Don't make me regret trusting you."

A second gust of wind and the path to one of the doors on the side was opened.

They both ran to it.

Three feathers. Fire, wind, and poison. 

"Rho Aias."

A petal-like shield interposed between two of them and three deadly bolts. Archer could almost feel them on his own flesh, the shocking flame, flaying wind, and corrosive venom. 

But the fake shield of Aias held, like the real one held against Hector's javelin. 

And then they were through the door.

"I am not stupid," Shirou said as they descended. That had to slow down, for the staircase was trapped.

"That's debatable," Archer countered as he disabled another trap. He had some experience with invading Magi's private space.

And even though Caster was very skilled, it was obvious that he placed this one in a hurry. The main component of the traps were feathers, like the ones on the Caster's wings. Now that he could examine one from up close Archer could see that they were not organic.

They were gems, masterfully carved into feathers, full of magical energy. Well, it was to be expected. Cater was a version of Rin, so he practiced the same Arts.

"From what Rin, Caster, whatever, said about temporal paradox," the red-haired boy said, gulped, and finished with "You are my future self." 

"Yes." Archer replied, and they were interrupted by a new batch of twisted children, "Stay back!"

They were easy to dispatch, but each death inflicted a new curse on Archer.

A cry of pain. Archer turned and saw his younger self cradling his right hand. There were black lines on it.

"I said to say back," Archer growled.

"You needed help."

"No, I did not. Think, you fool. You are human, a few more, and those curses would kill you. And then Saber would disappear. And Caster would have a clear path to Rin. Do you want that?" 

"No, but…"

"Why am I wasting time," Archer said more to himself than to his younger self. That was confusing in his own thoughts. "If you absolutely cannot resist meddling, don't kill those things. Just push them back."

Sharp burning pain. Archer winced. Perhaps he should take that advice himself.

Leaving the red-haired fool behind he marched through the door the twisted children had entered from.

The overpowering aroma of cursed ashes mingled with the metallic tang of blood

Before them was a room that held two rows of wooden coffins on each side. On each coffin was attached a silver chain. Following the chains, Archer could see a winged figure on the far side of the room. 

No, those were not wings. It was a man, his back was flayed. Skin from the man's back was spread in the image of a pair of wings, and chains were attached to the skin. His arms and legs were broken and twisted. He was hanging by those very chains.

Archer recognized him, even mutilated like on sight. He was the priest in charge of this church and the moderator of this Holy Grail War, Kotomine Kirei.

"Come closer," the priest said. Even if he was obviously in pain his voice was clear. "We don't have much time."

The ash floated into the room and flew into the coffins.

Archer heard a gasp at his side. With a quick glance, he saw that the fool boy had also come in.

He and the foolish boy approached the priest. As he walked towards the priest he saw more detail. The priest was naked, but his genitals were brutally removed. Blood still dripped from the priest's mutilated crouch. 

The black line crawled from the coffins, onto the chains, into the priest's flayed skin, and polled into his stomach.

There was an inscription carved onto the wall behind the priest, just a little above his head. It had been carved with a bloody dagger, the same dagger that used to flay the priest's back. Archer knew that because the dagger that was used to write was planted right next to it, and it had an interesting history.

Most interesting was what was lacking in it. That was no ordinary dagger. It was an Azoth Blade, a common Mystical Code created by Tohsaka Tokimi, Rin's father, and given to Kotomine Kirei, his apprentice, as a gift at completing his training. And Kerei passed it on.

To whom he could not see. Any information on the next owner was missing. 

There were ways of blocking psychometry. Some would even work on Archer. But this phenomenon he had encountered.

Rin left no records on the objects he wielded, as far Archer could tell. Whether that was a spell or part of Rin's nature, Archer didn't ask. Although he considered himself a spellcaster, he knew enough of Magi to know that such a question would be both unwelcome, and unlikely to be answered. 

The inscription carved on the wall read: To him ascribe all sin.

"Did Rin really do all of this to you?" Shirou said, disbelief evident in his voice. But then Shirou was just acquainted with Rin's public persona at school, Archer knew. These mutilations had markings of ritual.

To him ascribe all sin.

Azazel then. For those who knew how to use them, angels were potent symbols in magecraft. Due to cultural proliferation, many people believed in angels, even if they were not strictly of Abrahamic faiths. Also, angels were flexible symbols, for there was an angel for almost everything, with fallen angels covering more malevolent purposes. 

"How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child," the mutilated priest's voice interrupted Archer's stream of thoughts. He sounded way too calm for someone who should be in absolute agony.

"It is no less than you deserve. The same knife he used to flay you, is the knife you killed Rin's father with," Archer commented while trying to remember what he knew about Azazel. Something about goats? Not relevant. Father of Nephilim, who would later become demons? That fit, except the priest, was ritually castrated. Wait. Was the priest's stomach growing bigger? 

"If you knew what Tokimi had planned for his children, you would know that I did him a favor. Or do you prefer the Caster upstairs?"

"What do you mean?" Shirou asked, but Archer was paying less attention to what they were saying. He was looking at curses called in the priest's abdomen.

"Tokimi was a true magus. Cold and cruel. Willing to use his…"

Archer saw an imprint of a hand pushing from the inside of the priest's naked belly and knew that he was almost out of time.

With a single strike of a sword red knight cut the priest's bulging stomach. Blood and ash gushed from the wound. 

Curse energy burned through him. It was like he had just killed more than a score of the twisted children. It burned like acid, like fire. For a moment he was a child again, lost in a sea of flames. 

He was right. This curse was familiar to him.

"Archer!?" the boy exclaimed.

"He is the source," he grunted an explanation, "and he was stalling us."

"Rin is the child I have raised. It's only natural that I want to help him with goals," the priest's calm voice interrupted. In a surprise, Archer looked at him. There was no wound on his stomach. "Did you think that would be that easy? You should have more faith in Rin's skills."

To him ascribe all sin.

Not a goat. Scapegoat.

Enough to annihilate the Greater Grail, and all of Japan.

Why was the Greater Grail such a threat? The curses brought back painful memories that he had forgotten.

A malevolence that was too familiar.

"Those coffins," Archer said, formulating a terrible idea. Rather to create a curse, Caster could have been using one that was already there. "Do they contain remains of victims of that fire that ended the previous Holy Grail War?"

"Not the remains. Survivors. I had thought that they were beyond any pain, but I did not count on Rin being so talented. I have raised such a bright young man."

As the priest was talking Archer could see that once again the curse energy was gathering in the priest's stomach in a mockery of pregnancy.

Archer didn't think that he could endure another set of curses

But still, he had found the true source. He was not sure of all details, but he could see a bit of how the spell was constructed.

"But I was the only survivor. No you mean other children from the hospital. Those who had lost their homes and parents in that fire. Don't tell that Caster had gathered them?"

"No. One who gathered them was me. Or better said they were given to me. After all, this church also functions as an orphanage. If you had not been taken by Emiya Kiritsugu, you would have been one of them. Your siblings are in pain, why don't you comfort them?" 

But Azazel didn't really fit. Then he remembered. Another magus who had created calamity. 

Church doctrine was that all other gods were fallen angels in disguise. So it was possible to use fallen angels to access other mythologies as a Foundation. Now he had to remember which male god had gotten pregnant.

Zeus? No, it didn't fit.

Loki. He had birthed monsters. And there was a connotation with fire.

"Siblings?"

"By whatever means, you all survived that living hell. Even if you have no blood relations, I believe the connection is close to that of brothers and sisters… am I wrong?"

"No."

"Then be sure to greet them with joy. For once they are ready to be born."

Archer was out of time. Loki. What did he have that would work on Loki?

"You are right. They are asking to be saved," Shirou said, voice firm. He reached with his hand towards the priest's swollen stomach.

Archer moved to intercept but he was too slow. He spent too much time and attention trying to unravel the mystery. 

A twisted burned hand burst from the priest and grabbed Shirou's outstretched hand.

Black lines began to spread all over the boy.

Archer moved to cut the hand, but before he could there was a flash of golden light.

When Archer could see again, the chains were broken and both Kirei and Shirou were on the ground. Priest was lying in an ever-growing pool of blood.

Archer could no longer feel the curses that had been inflicted on him. 

Even though the boy was unconscious, the fool was smiling. Archer picked him up and ran upstairs leaving the dying priest behind. 

When he reentered the nave of the church he had a sight to see. The man who had been crucified was free and no longer naked. He was clad in golden armor.

While Caster's wings were broken 

"And how long do you think you can hold me, o great king?" Caster mocked, uncaring of the chains that bound him, "Not enough to breach my defenses, I think. You should have stayed naked. Now that you are no longer powered by forsaken children you no longer have magical energy to waste." 

"Your companions have returned, woman," declared Gilgamesh, now liberated and exuding absolute arrogance. "Take them and leave. This is the mercy I extend for your services. Do not expect further kindness."