Re:Interdimensional Mercenary

Archer or Emiya Shirou. He was once an innocent child that wished to become a Hero of Justice. It was indeed just an innocent wish that no one would bat an eye on and would support. However, that wish has no place in human society.

Reality is after all, not all sunshine and rainbows.

Following that innocent wish, he eventually participated in a Holy Grail War. Where he finally received the power that will be the instrument to fulfill his wish.

The young Emiya met his future self who had already reached the end of his journey and there he awakened his power, the reality marble Unlimited Blade Work.

Unlimited Blade Work is in short a magical forge that can forge an endless number of weapons. A materialization of his soul, his ideal and his identity. The future Hero of Justice, Emiya Shirou.

However, that wish remained just a pipe dream even after he awakened his power. After all, it is not an ability a mortal should have.

To forge a simple weapon is the best he could do without doing any lasting damage to his body. But anything within the realm of Noble Phantasm, simply Tracing them would slowly kill his own body as he is using power beyond his own limit. The more powerful the weapon is, the higher the toll his body will have to bear. His skin eventually darkened, his hair turned white and his eyes turned into the color of steel. Slowly but surely, he is walking down the very path his future self, Counter Guardian Emiya did.

It was at the crossroads of his life where he was trying to save hundreds from a calamity. Incapable of saving them even at the price of his life, Alaya appeared before his desperate self with a contract. The contract that will turn him into a Counter Guardian, an existence normally reserved only to the greatest of heroes to be the 'Protector of Balance'. An existence that might sound like a Hero of Justice that Emiya envisioned. But in truth are 'Cleaners', an indiscriminate killer that will eliminate all the possible causes of a potentially End of Humanity event. Those causes are killed indiscriminately whether they are innocent or not, infants or old dying men. They will eliminate all those cancerous cells before they can mature into a tumor.

It was those endless and senseless slaughter that eventually broke his mind and will and then Emiya became the same Emiya that he once met at the Holy Grail War. A broken man, chained by his contract to the Will of Humanity to forever serve as its tool.

For that reason, when Emiya fell asleep in order to dig further into Adam's life, he felt jealous. Adam is like a copy of him, a nobody selected by a whim of a higher being, offered a contract and power to serve their will. But there is where the similarities end.

Where Emiya failed and became a broken man by the weight of his ideal, Adam succeeded while fighting even terrible foes that like Daemons, Dark Gods, horrific Xenos, the Immortality Necrons and the voracious Tyranids swarms that consuming anything and everything in its path, devouring worlds and solar systems like nothing.

Their glaring difference is the will. What sets them apart is Adam has an Indomitable Will. Even as he has to toil patiently for tens of thousands of years, he did with an unwavering spirit.

Even as he faced overwhelming odds that made his greater peers flee in fear and terror, he stood his ground and reached for a weapon to fight.

Even as his body mutilated, tore apart and devoured. His face is unflinching, his eyes are unwavering and his body fights and kills until his dying breath. Then his corpse resurrect and once more, he reaches for his blade and repeat and repeat and repeat until there's nothing more but a mountain of corpse and ocean of blood as he will stood defiantly against his foe. Waging lone and bitter wars until he crushed everything in his path by his foot. Nothing is ever impossible. As he will make the impossible possible even if he has to defy fate itself.

Meanwhile for Emiya, he realized what the younger him said is true. It's his spirit that has been beaten, shattered and crushed. That's why he failed. The same words he gave his future self and look how it ended, his spirit too is beaten, shattered and crushed just like his then future self. Repeating the same endless cycle. Has only his spirit remain strong and his will remain unbreakable. Perhaps, he too could achieve his own wish. To make the impossible possible.

———

Waking up from his sleep, Emiya felt refreshed. Perhaps what he saw in his dream had untied the knot in his heart.

"To make the impossible possible, huh?"

Had it been before he saw the deed his Master had done, he might have laughed at it and called that person unrealistic. But there it is, Adam who achieved exactly that. While he struggles to even save a world, Adam saves tens of thousands of not more worlds.

Taking a deep breath and exhaling. Emiya walks out his room with a renewed determination and will as he heads for the cafeteria to begin the breakfast preparation.

———

Around 7 AM in the morning where the morning meal is served, Cu entered the cafeteria and grabbed his serving and sat down to eat.

Cu shares a table with the Servants, which at that time is only Saber, drinks a cup of coke served in a teacup while waiting for someone.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Saber. Here is your meal, the extra large hamburger and fries."

"Ah, thank you, Archer." Saber replied.

Cu sensed something was wrong with Archer's voice. It sounded too cheerful for the usual emo and nihilistic Archer. He prepared his verbal jab as usual, wanting to mock him that he is better in the kitchen than fighting on the frontline.

But then, Cu saw Archer's expression. A genuine uplifting smile that looks too sincere.

"Pfffttt! Peh! Peh!" Cu spit all his drink on Saber's face who immediately darkened and released a dark aura.

Cu immediately flip the table and grab Archer by his collar and shouted, "Who the fuck are you! Where is that bastard, Archer!" Then he turned to others and said, "Call Adam immediately! I think Archer had been possessed by a demon!"

"Lancer, calm down first!" Archer said with a confused look, trying to diffuse the situation but instead, he only further aggravating it.

"Calm down? Are you telling me to calm down instead of mocking me?" Cu loosen his grip and his expression is that of disbelief. Like his reality had been shattered into a million pieces.

"That usually bitter and snarky bastard actually telling me to calm down? Ha… hahaha! I must've been dreaming… No, this is a nightmare! The world is ending!" Cu went into a bout of delirium while someone in the crowd said that Cu isn't wrong, the world is indeed ending with the whole Incineration of Humanity deal.

In Cu's mind, the transformation on Archer is like seeing a devil one day and the next day the devil suddenly turned into an angel. His world view was flipped upside down.

A moment later, Adam arrived with a sigh and ordered someone to send Cu to the infirmary to be checked up by Romani while he stayed here to prevent Saber from unleashing her Noble Phantasm over her ruined meal which Adam fix by bending the reality to rewind the time for a bit.

"What am I now? A babysitter?" Adam has to sit down and take a few deep breaths to calm his nerves.

———

After the brief interruption earlier, Adam returned to Da Vinci's workshop. A place he rather not tread into unless absolutely necessary because he has a feeling that Da Vinci would, quite likely, lock him up and cut him open to see how he ticks. It also didn't help that she is openly eyeing him like a lion staring at a piece of juicy meat.

But, for the sake of a task he recently received to revive Olga Marie. He has to tread into this dreaded place. Not without a bolter on his hip in case she dares to try anything funny.

"Interesting. So, you are saying that this… Soulstone is a psycho-receptive material that can act like a beacon to guide the soul back inside when the bonded soul breaks free from their physical vessel by acting as a substitute?" Da Vinci asked while busily tinkering and studying the crystal that had a naked and miniature Olga floating inside in a fetal position.

"Yes. Exactly as you just described." Adam nods.

"I see. If that's the case. That changes everything." She said the band put down the Soulstone on her workbench and turned to face Adam.

"How so?" He inquired.

"Well, if the function of the Soulstone is exactly as you described. Then, if I constructed a puppet body instead of creating a body to house her soul. Wouldn't she have functionally an Immortality? Of course, it is under the assumption that the Soulstone is not damaged." Da Vinci explained.

"It does not stop there. Because I didn't need to recreate a body that had to be 100% compatible with her soul with some margin of error thanks to the Soulstone acting as a bridge between her physical body and her spiritual body. I can, in theory, make some changes to her body within the limit of the error margin. Like for example, making her a body that possesses the aptitude to be a Master and Rayshift which she lacked."

Da Vinci continues to blabber a lot more complicated and unknown terms of the Moonlit side of this world. Most of them just pass through his head without him grasping their meaning.

To be completely honest, Adam didn't care as long as at the end of the day, Olga is revived and he gets paid his Points. That's all he cares about.

"Well, you seem to be the expert here. So, I leave everything in your capable hand, Miss Da Vinci." The automated reply from his countless years of experience dealing with people like the politicians and the Mechanicum blurted out from his mouth before his mind even registered what he said.

"My, you seem to always know how to give an answer that would make anyone my heart race in excitement. Rest assured, the Beautiful and Genius Da Vinci-chan never disappoint." Da Vinci proudly said before she looked at the untouched cup of tea.

"Do you not like tea? I'm sorry. It's rare to ever have any guest in my workshop. So, I never thought of stocking up on good leaves." She sighed and took away the cup, offering to prepare another one for him which uses proper tea leaves instead of the one made with tea bags.

"No, that is unnecessary, Miss Da Vinci. Since we are done here, I still have other things to do." Adam swiftly declined much to Da Vinci's disappointment as Adam left and headed straight to the infirmary.

———

Ten minutes later, in the infirmary.

"Unfortunately, Adam. There's nothing I can do as a doctor." Romani said with his voice filled with exasperation and sense of helplessness.

"Dr Romani! Are you telling me to give up on Lancer just like that?" Adam tapped the table which felt like a heavy slam.

"But there is really nothing I can do. Servants are not truly human even if they look like one. They are basically just a soul given form with Mana. If healing magecraft has no effect then unfortunately, there's nothing I could do." Romani explained while trying to calm Adam down.

"Is there really nothing that can be done to save Cu?" Adam asked while ignoring the muffled screams and struggling behind the curtain next to them where Cu was restrained to the bed like a violent mental asylum patient.

"There is none because he isn't sick or insane. At least that is the result of the check up."

"But, if he isn't crazy then why did he react violently when he sees Archer?" Adam asks for a clarification.

"That's… I have no clue. But the point is. There's nothing wrong with his body or head. He just had a mild case of delirium and for now, I can only recommend banning him from consuming any alcohol and see if his situation would improve."

"Hey! What's with banning me from drinking alcohol! I'm telling you all, that bastard Archer is possessed! There's a demon inside him and I swear in the name of All Father Odin, I'm not crazy!"

"Hey! Hey!! Don't ignor— Mmh!"

"Yeah… how about I administer some tranquilizer and antipsychotic for now?" Romani changed his mind immediately after Adam put back the restraints Cu managed to take off while being fully restrained with restraints made for Servant in mind.

"That will work for now." Adam nods and leaves Cu in Romani's hand.

Exiting the infirmary, Adam thinks about his next action.

"Right. Next stop is Archer… He should still be at the cafeteria."

———

In the cafeteria, when Adam arrived. Ritsuko was sitting on the dining tables watching Mash who is grooming Sif with a brush and surprisingly Sif allowed it. She usually dislikes someone that isn't him doing that for her. Even Alina.

"Adam senpai." Ritsuko greeted when she saw Adam walking into the cafeteria. Mash, Fou and Sif too in their own way.

"Is Archer still in the kitchen?" Adam asked after nodding to their greetings.

"Archer? Yeah. He is still at the back, preparing for lunch and dinner." Ritsuko said while pointing at the kitchen on the backside of the cafeteria.

"Alright. Thanks." Adam thanked for the answer and proceeded to head to the back of the cafeteria without a pause.

Once at the kitchen, Adam saw Archer humming while wrapping a marinated meat while wearing a white apron.

"Archer…" Adam mutters while taking a good look at Archer and definitely notices something is different about Archer but he isn't quite sure either because he only met Archer for over a day.

"Hmn? Ah, Master. Is there anything I could help?"

"We need to talk about something." Adam said and closed the door behind him.

"Is it about my changes? Well, I figure Lancer is spooked by that. But I never expected he would react that badly." Archer chucked.

"So, are you aware?" Adam sighed with relief.

"Indeed so. It seems that I managed to come to terms with my past thanks to you, Master." Archer said while carrying the container with the marinated meat into the large industrial sized fridge.

"Me? How so?" Adam was confused how he helped Archer.

"Ah, you aren't someone from this world. So, you didn't know. But a Master and Servant can view each other's memories through a process called dream cycle." Archer said which shocked Adam a little but then realized maybe that's why his dream was odd last night. "Well, let's just say that after seeing your past. I finally came to terms with my failure and was able to leave it behind to pursue my own wish."

Hearing this, Adam is relieved Archer isn't possessed or anything.

"Well, if that's the case. Then it's good. However, please go explain that to Cu before he goes insane." Adam sighed again. The Servant's behavior is too unpredictable and he is like the only few adults here who have to deal with them like right now, dealing with Archer's almost 'harmless' prank.

"Will do, Master. But after I am done with the preparation for lunch." Archer replied.

Adam hummed and left Archer to his task while he walked out and called for Sif as he returned to his room and continued meditating since that is the best thing he can do to spend his free time.

—————