Fate/Apocrypha volume 2

Fate/Apocrypha volume 2 (Chapter 1)

Chapter 1

Staggering, he tried to stand up, and his hand touched the surface of cool and rough rock. Before he could ask himself where he was, he sensed the presence of something in front of him and felt himself gripped by a chill.

Something was breathing nearby. But why were those breaths showering his entire body?

…It was because the [something] that appeared to be in front of him was absurdly huge. Filled with rage and wickedness, it was lying in wait to eat him.

His own breathing became erratic. He wanted to run away, immediately run away at fully speed; he had to run away, run away, run away. However, his body couldn’t move, as if it were tied down to his shadow. Cold and unpleasant drops of sweat dripped down his entire body like slugs.

—Cold.

His heart was frozen in fear. And yet, heat shook throughout his body. Did that mean that the thing right in front of him was something more ferocious than any kind of flame?

The air he inhaled was like poison, and exhaling it was accompanied by pain. However, the thing in front of him never tried to lay a hand on him.

Without appearing or calling out, the thing sluggishly turned in another direction. It was neither running away nor leaving. It had simply drawn its huge body back inside.

There was only one sentence that the thing communicated to him.

Don’t forget. Those words engraved themselves on his skin like a tattoo.

—This is neither a dream nor reality. This is the threshold world on the border between dreams and reality.

Never forget this thing, for you will meet it again soon.\

Thus, with a pain in his chest that felt as if needles had been stabbed into him, and with the feeling of his blood burning as if on fire—he awoke.

Frozen air, frozen silence. The forest was simply dark and silent. Rider of Black, Astolfo, who had been emotionally sobbing just earlier, finally stood up.

He pulled up the fallen homunculus. His stature, which should have been slightly smaller or about the same as Rider’s, had grown considerably. It appeared that, due to taking in the heart of Saber of Black—of Siegfried, his body had undergone a radical transformation.

Still unable to believe it, the homunculus clenched and unclenched his hands again and again. The dull pain he felt when his heart was ruptured still remained, but it had already been reduced to a level that wouldn’t impeded him.

“It seems that Saber’s heart is functioning properly.”

Rider nodded, appearing impressed. The homunculus put his hand against his heart, and indeed felt a strong pulse from it. Blood so hot that it made him sweat flowed throughout his entire body.

“Yeah—”

The homunculus felt slightly moved as he spoke without experiencing pain. To think that inhaling and exhaling could be so comfortable!

Somewhat excited, he surveyed his surroundings until his attention was caught by a tree.

The homunculus adjusted his breathing and activated his Magic Circuits. He gently placed his hands on the tree, confirmed the tree’s material properties, and then released his prana to destroy it. The tree easily broke like a twig, but the homunculus’ body magnificently endured the force of operating his Magic Circuits.

Watching him, Rider nodded in a somewhat lonely manner.

“…Yeah. Like this, you’ll probably be okay by yourself from here on. Since Saber died, someone has to go back and explain what happened right away, or things will become complicated.”