I'm Shenji, what are you doing?

The world is burning.

This is of course just a metaphor.

But at this time, in the eyes of the four people in the mountains outside Fuyuki City, the world was burning, as if the end was coming.

The rolling flames swallowed up the surrounding trees like a tsunami, devouring the wooden house in the center, endlessly, never ending.

Burn, burn, burn.

The feast of flames dyed the night sky fiery red for a long time, leaving only one color in the whole world.

No, that's not the case.

Although it looks inconspicuous and difficult to detect, there is indeed a slightly different color in the center of the world of flames.

Black, thick black, deeper than night.

No matter how the flames attack, it is always black that cannot be swallowed up.

When the fire slowed down slightly, the black area immediately began to expand outward.

It's like a black waterfall or the rushing torrent of Weiyuan River.

The muddy water splashed and surged forward, causing flames to stop wherever it passed. It was more effective than the fire extinguisher in the hands of professional firefighters.

In the center of the darkness, three tall figures in black clothes stood up straight. Their gloomy eyes penetrated the blockage of the sea of ​​​​fire and shined directly on the faces of three of the four people at the edge of the sea of ​​​​fire.

One look corresponds to one person.

"Your fire cannot defeat my 'chaos'."

Nero Kaos, the owner of "Chaos", said to the old man with white beard and hair.

"Hand over the command spell."

Roa, who stood at the forefront of the "chaos" turbid current, stared at Shirou behind the old man.

"Surrender, two ceremonies."

Standing behind the turbid current, Araya Soren's goal remains the same, the woman who is next to death and connected to the "root".

"W-can't you defeat them even with this?"

The young Shirou, who was still underage and had not officially entered society, shuddered involuntarily.

The old man remained calm and analyzed calmly: "Well, it seems that the other party's 'chaos' is a genuine thing, and it is not something that my furnace fire can swallow."

"If flames don't work, just use a knife." Shiki said, assuming the stance of Iai, "Old man, help me open the way. As long as I can get close, I can kill them."

"It's possible, but I don't think you can succeed." The old man shook his head slowly. "The enemy is very aware of your abilities. The previous attack was obviously to limit your performance. I'm afraid what they are doing now is also arranged to lure you. Trap – you do this, exactly what they want.”

"Well, grandpa is right." The little girl who was most closely protected by the old man, Shirou, and Shiki said, "Mom has no chance of winning. There seems to be something hidden near the three bad guys. It feels more dangerous to me than my mother’s eyes and grandpa’s knife.”

"Then, what should we do?" Shirou panicked.

Recent events have been pushing his nerves to their limits. He was born into a long-established family of swordsmiths. The elders in the family, including his father, are all swordsmiths and have been passed down to him for twenty-seven generations. He started learning to forge swords at the age of seven, and when he was seventeen, he was successful in his studies. He was given a trial by his father in accordance with the family tradition and asked to independently forge a famous sword.

So he left his hometown of Ise alone and returned to Fuyuki, where he lived as a child. He settled in a cottage in a deserted mountain and devoted himself to forging swords.

That's when the accident happened.

One day, he accidentally injured his hand while forging. After blood dripped into the forging furnace, the furnace glowed brightly and exploded.

When he recovered from the impact of the explosion, an old man appeared in the place where the forging furnace was, and he was commenting on the semi-finished product he had made.

The temperature was not enough, the force was uneven, the number of forgings was insufficient, and there were problems with the materials—the work that he was originally quite satisfied with was completely useless.

Shirou, who was young and energetic and had been bombed for no apparent reason, was furious at that time and started arguing with the old man. He also reported his name as the "Twenty-seventh Generation Thousand Son Muramasa", hoping to use his family's history to increase his reputation. own weight.

Unexpectedly, it didn't matter if he didn't sign up. Once he signed up, the old man became angry and knocked Shirou to the ground with a half-finished knife blade.

"Why did you hit me?" Shirou asked.

"Do you know who I am?" The old man squatted in front of him and asked with a cold face.

"I don't know." The stunned Shirou shook his head instinctively.

"The name you used originally belonged to me, old man. Your standards are so poor, but you still dare to use the name Qianzi Muramasa. Do you think I am qualified to beat you?"

Of course Shirou didn't believe what the old man said. The original Qianzi Village was from the Warring States Period, so how could they still be alive?

The old man who calls himself Senko Muramasa says that he is dead, but celebrities like himself will become heroic spirits after death, and sometimes come to the world in special ways. Then he explained the Holy Grail War, the concepts of Master and Servant to Shirou - looking at his stupid look and the weird summoning method just now, you knew that it was purely an accident that he summoned him.

Shirou was confused again. Qianzi Village was able to forge the legendary "Demon Sword Muramasa" in that year, so the family it created could not be just an ordinary family. Shirou has seen a lot of mysteries over the years as his father made knives for various families in Japan. But the mythical existence of Heroic Spirits, Servants, and the Holy Grail was still far beyond his imagination. Even though the old man pointed out that he had read the job description, parameters, real name, etc. through the master-slave contract, he still found it difficult to accept it.

Of course, in the end, Shirou accepted the reality, because the old man used a method unique to swordsmiths - he made Shirou's semi-finished knife embryo into a knife on the spot. It only took less than half an hour to create a work that even Shirou's father, the 26th Senko Muramasa, could not match.

Throwing the knife in front of Shirou, the old man asked, "Do you want to learn?"

"Yes, of course I do." Shirou nodded hastily. He really loved the profession of swordsmith.

The old man twirled his beard and smiled: "My level is not good, but my attitude is not bad - for the sake of your sincerity, kneel down and become my disciple."

"Huh?" The sudden surprise made Shirou confused for the third time.

The old man frowned: "Why, you don't want to?"

"Yes, of course I am willing. But, according to your seniority, you should be my ancestor, so..."

"According to your status, you are still an old master. There is no need to care about these boring things - if you want to, just kneel down and become your disciple. If you don't, just get out."

At this point, Shirou didn't know what to say and immediately knelt down and kowtowed respectfully.

"Master, please accept my disciple's bow."

"Okay, from today on, you are Lao Chan's disciple." The old man's style is as straightforward as the sword he forged. "Although I don't know how much time I have, Lao Chan will try his best to teach you everything I know and learn as much as I can. It depends on your ability, start with the most basic material selection and go to the warehouse."

"Yes, Master."

As a result, the old man and the young man began to practice forging in full swing day and night.