Fate/Zero: A Different Path

Chapter 14

Wind blows gently along the verdant plain of grass, shadowed by lush green vegetations surrounding them. 

Under the clear blue sky, blades of grasses swayed in their wake as if responding to inquiries of the wind that greet thm

In the background, azure waves lapped against the island's coast, repeating that same natural melody an artistic soul would refer to as the sound of the sea

Repetitive. Beautiful. Like a beating heart living life in it's fullest vigor

A man's eyes roamed across the plain

Everywhere you looks there lies a piece of heaven, more beautifully created than any artists and more detailed than any visage those manmade brush or paints could replicate

Is it no doubt the ideal version of mankind's collective intepretation of paradise lies here.

A place of tranquility, where bodies and souls become indefinite within their immaterial nature of accepting their Origin

The peaceful calm scenery was only broken as a shadow slowly loomed over them

A man moved aimlessly across the meadow. Unlike them, his presence is the sole abstraction in that serenity

Where the light shines, his shadow cast itself into every path he walks on

Where the grass sways, his boots mercilessly crushed them without hesitation

The wind died down. The waves retreated hastily. The flow of time warped and bend around his figure like something beyond their comprehension

One look at him and one would realize that the entire ordeal is wrong. He himself would recognize he did not belong in this place.

His appearance contrast the reality here so much it is actively rejecting him

His heart has been steeled so many time it should have been impossible for him to enter a place as sanctioned as this

Time, however, always have a way with irregularities

The Magus lost in time will only find it to be the truer the closer he gets to his goal

I walked through this ethereal plane, trampling on the grass below me. With my inky black coat swaying in the gentle sunlight, I arrived at the center of the plain, feeling the breezy wind died down around me

Many conjectures formed and coalesced in my head, each considered carefully before discarded with any logical mistake in them as I further observed the scenery around me

The possibility of this being a dream, no matter how lucid, is out of the window the moment I was able to directly feel the wind breezing through my skin

Time Travel is the next lucridous conclusion to be thrown out the garbage. No matter how efficient I am at time Magecraft, there's no way I can replicate a True Magic on my own

So then...where am I?

I closed my eyes and listened to the ambient Mana.

The steady beating of life coursing through this land, pulsing with every second, is the means to which  my location can be determined.

A single irregular pulse sent the Mana back to me. I barricaded all the other noises and further concentrated on rhythmic feeling coming from the ground as my eyes trailed downward in correlation to it's position

This is not Alimango island for sure

Neither is it in Japan, the Mana density here is of a higher level, with a regular interval of six pulses per second coming from flatground.