The Last Rising Sun

They approach him because he is the only one who can see and hear them. His eyes are not just a dojutsu he got as an inheritance from his family. Their origin is something that comes from this world. A person from this world traveled to the Shinobi world and left his descendants there, resulting in the existence of the Asahi clan and, consequently, the existence of Asahi Toru. His eyes go beyond seeing the end of things, they are a gateway to many possibilities; an abysmal power that has remained hidden since the ancient age of the gods.

He is seeing them directly. While others see white butterflies illuminating this dark forest, Toru sees hundreds of people in the infinite ocean of blood displayed inside his mind.

'This is really a problem...'

It's not that he can't against this, it's about the time they have to overcome this adversity. Also, Toru looked to his side: he saw the frightened girl trying not to look at what is hovering above her at the moment. From his eyes he can see that the souls are taking advantage of Gray's weakness. They saw the fear in her and decided to attack, and she is taking the psychological damage that comes with it.

Toru never knew why he always saw the same ocean of blood, he never understood that, but somehow this worked for him at this very moment.

They were people made of the ocean's blood swarming around Gray, grabbing her by the arms and legs and forcing her to open her eyes.

"Boring..."

He whispered. He walked over to Gray and held out his hand.

"Hey, can you hear me? Look me in the eyes."

Gray was still scared, but when she heard Assassin's voice with that distinctive accent, she looked up. Her eyes widened as she noticed the presence of that servant in all this chaos. It was him, surrounded by all those souls without even feeling affected.

Seeing him there, seeing him reaching out to help her, she doubted whether she should accept.

He is like them. He too is a ghost whose emotions are heavier and more burdensome than anyone else's and she could feel that clearly. A sadness that surpasses the hatred of all the other ghosts present. That made it so she could only see him after making eye contact.

There was nothing but the two of them in this scene anymore. He was a ghost whose emotions outweighed everyone else's and that was enough for her to no longer be able to see anyone else.

"I'm a ghost too."

He said as he saw that Gray was only afraid of these entities. Thus he lowered his hand and looked her straight in the eyes, as that shadowy dog came running up, but for both of them it was as if the world was in slow motion, with no one being able to interfere between the two.

"Are you afraid of me too?"

Gray was speechless. She couldn't answer that. She wasn't just feeling fear, she was feeling a sadness that surpasses that fear. Something that's bringing tears to her eyes. But it wasn't just the sadness of the ghost in front of her, it was also the sadness that deep down she kept to herself.

"You... you are very weak..."

She already knew that even if Assassin told her so.

"You start crying in the middle of a fight. Lives are at stake. Knowing that, why do you take the time to cry?"

Clang! He swung his nimble hands with both daggers and blocked the beast's fangs driving it back.

"If you have time to cry..."

He looked at Seigen and the beast with a slight frown.

"You'll have time to fight too, won't you? If you decide to stay crying in such a pathetic way... let me tell you that that, for the first time since I was summoned here, makes me angry."

He looked at her again, but Gray couldn't feel that anger Assassin speaks of because that sadness remained the same.

"If you are so afraid of these harmless souls, then destroy them all and don't leave a single one standing."

The way to overcome a fear is to face it, but if anyone here was able to know the history of this servant, they would realize that everything this guy says is nothing more than the delusions of the most hypocritical and selfish person that can ever exist. However, those words somehow touched Gray's heart.

"If it scares you that much, then let me help you with this, because having to wait for you to do it yourself is a bummer."

So Toru walked toward Seigen. His eyes looked at death, but something else was also going on. The magus present could see that this Assassin was going to use one of the most basic magecrafts.

Sakura witnessed it and, in her own words, what she was seeing was something beyond a basic magecraft.

-By Sakura-

Toru walked relaxed towards Seigen, but as he approached something strange happened. It was a blood red mist that began to emanate from under Toru's feet. The mist slowly began to spread all over the ground and even reached where we were.

"What is this, what are you doing, why aren't the angels attacking you!"

Seigen shouted in desperation, but Toru ignored him. He extended his right dagger forward and, in the same dull voice as always, said:

"You thought you could torture me by using my past against me, but that's funny in a way. I've already been tortured using my past many times. You can't make me suffer anymore if I'm used to it after all."

'Your past?'

I wondered when I heard him say that. I don't know Toru's past, I don't know his weaknesses or his strengths. I don't know Asahi Toru and yet I dare say I love him. Seeing him offering his help to Gray, somehow I felt... no, I don't know... I don't know how I felt at that moment. I just felt something deep in my heart, something I don't know.

And he says he's been made to suffer with his past.

What kind of past did you have Toru?

***

Everything went completely black as the fog spread throughout the castle. Soon everyone felt a strange liquid under their feet. As they looked, they realized that it was a mysterious ocean of blood that stretched across.

Waver had no reaction to it unlike the others, who were puzzled by this, coming to believe that this was this spirit's Noble Phantasm, but that was not so. It was a simple Bounded Field created by someone who adapts to all sorts of situations.

"What is that?"

Luvia asked. The elder Orlocke in her young body frowned.

"Gray..."

Add...

"Fufufufu... This brat is very dangerous... Hahahahaha!"

He started laughing at the sight of him. From the ocean of blood, hundreds of thousands of human figures made of that same blood began to emerge. Men, women, children, old people... All of them looking at the Assassin.

"Gray... never walk away from that guy. This guy is perfect for you..."

"Huh? What?"

For a moment she forgot where they were because of what Add said, but then she realized that what was currently surrounding everyone were thousands of human souls stretched out to infinity.

"So this is why he's an Assassin..."

Waver said thinking that this boy was no different from Geryon Ashbourne. With that in mind, thinking that everyone here doesn't know what the hell is going on except for Toru, he said:

"The owner of this castle had a son..."

As the blood moved under his feet and hundreds of voices began to whisper unintelligible words, he lit a cigar and sighed out a small cloud of smoke.

"His wife died soon after from illness and years later his son followed her in death. Shattered, Ashbourne went mad and thought to bring them both back. The beast you see at this moment is the mother and the one who dwells inside Seigen's body is Glannid Ashbourne, the son of the owner of this castle."

Toru had already given him the proof of that, such as a list of names where Seigen appeared as Geryon's last client. Also that this yamabushi's alibi during Hishiri's death didn't match due to the fact that, if it was Geryon's son, the castle staff would gladly help him by giving a false alibi, which was also backed up with more evidence.

"Such a simple mystery. Funny not to have solved it on the first day, but this servant managed it!"

Flue said. Luvia on her side just watched Toru curiously, thinking about something that somehow made her feel puzzled.

"You taught him magecraft, didn't you?"

Waver nodded.

"I taught him a few things, but only what suited him best."

And this Bounded Field was the result.

"Gray!"

Toru said. She stood up and looked at him in confusion.

"Waver told me what your final attack is. Let's use it and pulverize everything in front of it. I would use my Noble Phantasm, but if I did, everyone would die due to the destruction."

Gray wasn't sure, but when Toru slammed his daggers into the beast's fangs a second time to drive it back, she understood that she shouldn't hesitate even if she was afraid. Though she immediately felt embarrassed when Toru suddenly approached her and grabbed her hand.

"If what I know about you is correct, you'll need fuel for your weapon."

So, in a strange turn of events, as the beast roared for them both to fall into the illusion, Toru pulled her tightly to his body and grabbed her waist. He looked into her eyes with his shigan and, in a heavy whisper that sent shivers down Gray's spine, said:

"Shimikomaseru..."

Embarrassed, Gray tried to do something about it, but when Toru whispered, it faded away as a kind of black mist entered her body a second after the beast's roar hit her. At that she felt a sharp pain in her chest, but then she realized that something had changed in herself. Somehow she felt familiar with this place full of blood and all the bloody souls looking at her. It was a warm feeling, but one that somehow made her feel nostalgic and depressed.

In turn, after seeing what Toru did, Sakura's gaze went dull. With that haze covering everything, she clenched her fists and ducked her gaze.

"Do it..."

Toru said inside Gray's mind whose voice echoed. Followed by that, Add's voice said something with a strange robotic tone.

[Pseudo-intelligence disabled. Initiating the release of the second seal].

Gray, hearing this, for a moment was frightened. She felt magic that didn't belong to her flowing through her feet spreading to the surroundings, covering the whole area and filling it with this strange scene. Covered by the ocean of blood, with souls whispering and provoking a deep fear in her, but with a strange impulse compelling her to fight, she closed her eyes and clenched her hands on her scythe.

Sensing that something was not right after Gray resisted the power of the roar, the beast and Seigen became desperate and began to attack at the same time. The beast lunged forward with fangs ready to crush Gray, while Seigen used his magic and summoned hundreds of explosions around the girl, but she only lowered her gaze and closed her eyes.

'Can you give me hope that I won't fail?'

Toru replied coldly.

'Hope...? I don't think so.... It's been a long time since I can't remember the meaning of that word'"

"I see."

She said swinging the scythe and cutting off all the explosions. The beast appeared through all the smoke that formed, but she raised the scythe with great speed and split the beast in half, which regenerated as if its body was made of dust and attacked again, but this time Gray hit it with the opposite side of the scythe's blade, sending it flying away in front of Seigen.

Taking advantage of this, she ran all over the ocean of blood slicing through the bloody souls. She moved at great speeds, breaking the sound barrier inside the Bounded Field.

The voices of the bloody souls cheered something at that moment, something that everyone heard. A single word... [Monster], but Gray decided she wouldn't pay attention to that at the moment, as the robotic voice of her scythe spoke again.

[Energy levels and harvesting quota reached.]

Seeing through Gray's eyes, imbued in this girl's body and offering her his power for a short period of time, he thought:

'It's over.'

Seigen then attacked with a massive bombardment, but this didn't work on Gray, who mowed everything down as if it was nothing. Her gaze became strangely captivating with a cold expression on her face, the same expression and face that the King of Knights used to have in the past. From her lips came a pair of words that began her final attack.

"Gray..."

The scythe began to glow.

"Rave..."

Waver braced himself for what was coming.

"Crave... Deprave..."

She removed her cloak and the blood under her feet began to disturb. A strong wave of wind pushed everyone hard. A horrible shudder was distributed among everyone at the power beginning to charge in that scythe, which she grasped with one hand. Like a liquid metal, instead of holding like a scythe or a talking cube, this one deformed stretching upwards into different glowing thick threads, with an intense light that blinded everyone.

"Grave me..."

Sakura witnessed this power.

She is the spitting image of the King of Knights. She was born with the burden of becoming someone she is not, and now she carries all those responsibilities. That was something Waver explained to everyone.

She is not only Gray, the country girl who takes care of a graveyard.

She is the incarnation of King Arthur....

"Grave for you..."

She is also a hero from the past....

...

[Sacred spear released]

A weapon that shines to the ends of the world. A weapon that Arthur Pendragon himself used. A powerful tool bestowed by the world sealed in the mystical code that was inherited to this girl.

"You... how did you get that spear!"

A shining medieval spear; a weapon of the World....

A spear that was formed from pure light in Gray's hand, which pointed at Seigen with that same coldness on her face. The name of that weapon...

"Rhongomyniad..."

And a powerful light that pierced through all the darkness formed like a gigantic pillar of light, a pure beam that shattered the darkness next to Toru's Bounded Field, taking Seigen and the shadowy beast with it as well.

All that darkness that formed had shattered like glass, at the same time again showing the castle being pierced by the power of the light beam, which spread up to the sky illuminating the darkness of the night.

'Too much power...'

Toru said inside Gray's mind. Thus the light quickly went out after destroying much of the castle and forest, which immediately brought with it the disturbing gloom of this night.

That ocean of blood was again buried in Toru's memories, and Gray, after her spear turned back into that talking cube immediately after she launched her attack, felt exhausted and fell to her knees. Her eyes closed full of exhaustion and she fell face first onto the ground, fainting in the end.

Toru appeared after that shrouded in his mystery, as if he was born out of the strange black mist that came out of Gray's body.

"What I learned from you worked to perfection. You are a good teacher, Lord El-Melloi."

At Toru's words, the elder Orlocke in his young body advanced aimlessly towards the center of destruction. Toru looked at him after that.

"The worst thing about a betrayal is that it never comes from an enemy, don't you think?"

"I know... it was my mistake."

Orlocke went silent after saying that. Toru had noticed that. Glannid's father wasn't Geryon, it was that old man who looked regretful approaching the destroyed castle. His reason for believing that was that this young version of Orlocke looked exactly like the boy in the pictures in Geryon's lab. But that doesn't matter in the end.

This mystery is solved.

"So you're a good teacher, good enough to make your student create such a particular Bounded Field..."

Luvia approached Toru and could simply think of how magnificent and beneficial the presence of this servant would be in her family, but since the owner of this dog is Sakura, it was a pity that she couldn't get something so valuable for herself.

Waver responded to the above:

"I'm not that good."

"If anything you should become my mentor. I could learn a lot from you"

"Do whatever you want"

"I'm here too, you know?"

Toru said. So he lifted Gray in his arms and sighed tiredly.

For Sakura to see Toru carrying Gray so casually made that annoying feeling grow in her chest, but she denied to then approach him and congratulate him on his good job.

"You did well. It was a good fight."

Toru just nodded his head.

"Sakura...?"

Waver stopped his conversation to approach Sakura. He looked worried.

"What's wrong, why are you looking at me like that?"

Realizing that everyone was looking at her, she felt some sort of warm liquid sliding down her nose. Reaching up and touching her face with her finger, she saw that what was coming out of her nose was blood. At that, a horrible dizziness together with an unbearable headache attacked her, which in just two seconds led her to faint.

Toru wasn't going to say anything, not for now, but what his shigan saw in Sakura's body was something that is slowly killing her....

To be continued...