Fate/Grand Order: the Path of a Sword

Chapter 3: Flame Contaminated City: Fuyuki (Part 2)

Ruin. Everything Yuto saw could be described with that single word. Flames as far as the eye and corpses everywhere. Only the skeletons of the buildings remained, and demonic creatures infested the city.

Yuto, from the top of a broken window and hiding his presence from the demons, watched with disgust all this and could already say what was the cause of such a ruin. The Holy Grail had erupted again, but this time no one survived. Everyone was either dead or petrified by the statues that adorned the city streets.

"As I waited for you to regain consciousness, I took care of defeating all the monsters that were in this building," Saber said. As a master, Yuto approved that course of action also because he could say that Saber had not released his Noble Phantasm.

Saber was the servant who had manifested when Yuto had reached F Point F Singularity. Somehow, Yuto had carried out the Rayshift successfully and had landed in Fuyuki in the year 2004, the same year that the Fifth Holy Grail War took place.

At first Yuto was sceptical that Saber was his servant but then he noticed that command seals had appeared on his right hand. They indicated that there was a contract between the Summoner and the Heroic Spirit. They symbolized the authority of the master who could have three spells to give absolute orders that the servant could not disobey.

"However, an enemy created me some difficulties," Saber added.

Yuto turned to the Heroic Spirit of the Sword. "I am amazed," he said surprised, "Saber Class Servants are considered the strongest ones"

"It's a common belief, but it's not a written rule," Saber cynically criticized that thought, "who attacked me was a servant."

Yuto was surprised. He doubted there was anyone else alive outside of him. He wasn't even sure that Ritsuka, Mashu, and Olga survived the flames created after the explosion.

In this case, the Servant who attacked Saber must have consumed a large amount of human souls or had found another source of magical energy to avoid disappearing.

"Did you find out what class it was?" Yuto asked, suspicious that it was the Saber or Archer who were summoned for that war. He was almost sure he knew their true identities and he wanted to avoid facing them without a plan.

"He acted in the shadows, so I would say he was an Assassin," Saber carefully reflected, "and he tried to kill me using his cursed arm."

"Shadow... arm..." Yuto touched his chin in reflection before understanding his identity and sighing relieved that Saber had not been killed, "did you sure he was dead before you came back here?"

"My sword pierced his Spiritual Core," Saber replied, "I saw him vanish with my own eyes."

The fact that Assassin had been defeated did not make Yuto feel better. He was almost certain that there were other Servants running around the city. The thing that worried him the most was that they had remained in the current era even without a master.

"If I may, I'd like to ask what's going on here?" Saber had no idea how such a ruin was possible. In fact, the massacre perpetrated during the Mordred's uprising was nothing compared to what he had before his eyes this time.

Yuto crouched and picked up the scorched paper. Reading the date, he knew what was going on. "It seems that something altered history," he began as his gaze returned to observe the street below the building, " we are in Fuyuki in the year 2004, that is the year in which the Fifth Holy Grail War was held."

Yuto was sure that someone or something had distorted the history. He was born in Fuyuki long after the ritual ended, and his parents were the Saber Class Servant of that war and her master. But he would have kept Saber in the dark for the time being.