"Are you my master?" The transcendent beauty looked at the young man before her. With white hair, red eyes and brown skin, she excluded an aura of regality and power. "I repeat, are you my master?"
"Oh fuck me." The young man groaned, even as the red command seals appeared on the back of his hand. "I really don't want to deal with this."
"The Final Holy Grail War?" Damien Hei, a mage from the Hei family, was sipping a mug of tea. He had short black hair and hazel eyes that burned with a fire which was at odds with his emotionless face. "Sounds dangerous."
"It is." Hayate Mitsunari, a representative from the Clock Tower, placed a single sheet of paper on the table. "You have been chosen as one of the numerous warriors that will participate in this battle."
"Have I?" Damien placed his mug on the table. "That's unfortunate to hear."
"Your family has already prepared the catalyst for your Servant." Hayate tapped the chrome briefcase on the floor. "I am led to understand that this material will allow for the summoning of a top-level servant."
"I see." Damien looked at the case as if it was a deadly weapon. "I don't have a choice to I?"
"Not really no."
"What a pain." Damien reached over and took the case. It was light. "How many masters are involved in this conflict?"
"A huge number from across the globe." Hayate replied. "I would expect hundreds, if not thousands, of potential masters."
"…and where will this war occur?" Damien knew the destruction that a handful of servants could cause. Thousands of servants warring…Damien couldn't even imagine the scale of death that would cause.
"The entire world."
"What."
"The Grail has split itself amongst the many masters of this world. Only the one who manages to obtain all the pieces can summon it."
"So you're telling me that for this war to end…I need to kill every single master on the planet?"
"Correct."
"Alternatively, I can wait until all the other masters kill each other and then swoop in to pick up the pieces."
"That is a viable strategy. However, those masters that obtain pieces of the Grail will find their Mana reserves greatly expanded. Thus, their servants will become stronger as well."
"Fuck." Damien rubbed his head. "This war really is something else than."
"It is a war unlike any in the history of Holy Grail Wars." Hayate stood up and brushed himself off. "I wish you luck, Damien Hei. May fortune favor you."
"I'll need it."
Damien shut the door behind him as he stepped into his room. His flat mate, Vergil, was still out. Letting out a sigh, Damien dropped the briefcase on his table before throwing himself onto his bed.
While his family was based in the Far East, Damien was currently in the United Kingdom. He had come to Britain with the intention of furthering his research into non-Asian myths and legends. His family's magecraft was based on a complex system that used the four cardinal directions and five elements to utilize spirits.
For certain reasons, Damien was completely incapable of utilizing said magic. Thus, he had come to the West to find an alternative magecraft that he could use.
"And yet, I'm dragged into this troublesome conflict." Damien muttered, looking at the pure white ceiling above his bed. "What a pain."
After a couple of minutes, Damien forced himself up. He hadn't eaten since lunch, and Vergil would probably devour everything in the fridge if Damien let him.
Plus, he wanted to have a full stomach before he did the summoning ceremony.
Dragging himself to the kitchen, Damien opened the fridge and took out a few ingredients. Flicking the kettle on, he busied himself for twenty minutes.
"Done." Damien murmured, placing the finished bowl of fried noodles with pork, eggs and vegetables on the kitchen table. "This looks tasty."
As he begun eating, Damien's thought wandered to the mysterious catalyst that his family had sent him. While Hayate had mentioned that it was an item related to a 'Top-class Servant', Damien questioned the authenticity of his statement. He remembered learning about said classification during a family lecture some time ago.
"A top-class Servant refers to those Heroic Spirits that stand at the pinnacle of existence." The tutor, a long-time scholar and researcher into the Holy Grail, had drawn several symbols onto the white board. "Now, Mr. Hei, can you name a few examples?"
"Gilgamesh, Iskander, Jeanne of Arc." Damien Hei rattled the names off mechanically.
"Good. These individuals left significant marks on history, and thus obtained power and recognition beyond all others. If you were to enter a Holy Grail War, it would be in your best interests to avoid fighting such Servants without prior planning."
"I doubt we have materials capable of summoning those Heroic Spirits." Damien placed his empty bowl in the sink, before returning to his room. "But who knows. Maybe the family had something squirreled away."
Flipping the latches, Damien carefully opened the case. Inside, encased in a velvet mold, was a broken hilt.
"…what." Damien picked the object up and examined it carefully. The hilt was rusted, with specs of dried mud visible on the iron. It was most definitely not the weapon of some legendary sovereign or renowned warrior. "This is underwhelming."
Closing his eyes, Damien ran his mana through the material. Nothing. He couldn't even sense the tiniest trace of abnormality in the hilt. It truly was just a rusted remnant of a blade.
"...huh." Damien let out a sigh and placed the material on the table. "This doesn't seem good."
"Hey, I'm home!" Vergil's voice echoed, just as the apartment door slammed shut. "Where are you?"
"In my room!" Damien yelled. A few seconds later, Damien's bedroom door burst open.
Vergil Singer was a tall brown haired man the same age as Damien. He had piercing blue eyes and a perpetual smirk. A mage from the Singer family of Canada, Vergil had renounced his magical background to study sciences instead. Hence, while he possessed magical circuits, he had received zero training as a mage.
"What's up?" Vergil asked, leaning against the doorway. "Anything interesting happen?"
"I've been made a participant in a massive, global-scale Holy Grail War." Damien's tone was nonchalant. "It's very likely that the apocalypse will occur so you might want to start stocking up on supplies."
"Really?" Vergil, despite having no formal training as a mage, was privy to the existence and rules of the Holy Grail War. "That's pretty dope."
"I guess." Damien picked up the worn hilt from his table. "I was given this material to summon a supposed 'Top-level Servant', but as far as I can tell this is just a piece of an old sword."
"It does look like it, not going to lie." Vergil swiped the material from Damien's hand and gave it a cursory look over. "But then again, [Fragments of the Round Table] don't really look like much either."
"That's fair. But I'm sure that those would at least possess some magical energy. This thing is completely devoid of mana."
"Really?" Vergil rubbed his hand over the blade. "I can feel something."
"What?"
"Yeah. Some sort of heat? I get the feeling that this sword was used a lot."
"This isn't your psychometry bullshit is it?" Damien grabbed the fragment from Vergil's hands. "We both know that sort of skill is a myth."
"Maybe." Vergil shrugged. "But I did feel something."
"I'm thankful for your attempts to cheer me up." Damien placed the sword hilt on his desk. "There's a very real chance I'm going to die in the next few months, especially if I summon some dud Servant. Also, it may be best if I move out, since I wouldn't put it past some crazy Master to blow the entire apartment to bits with a long-range attack."
"It's cool." Vergil waved off Damien's concerns. "I'm not worried about dying."
"You really should be."
"But I'm not." Vergil patted Damien's shoulder. "Look, I'm curious to see a Holy Grail War up close, and what better way than to be right there next to a Master? Times, if shit really goes down, I can always run back to Canada."
"…I'm not going to change your mind, am I?"
"Nope. You can let out your sigh of exasperation now."
"Fine." Damien let out a sigh. "Well, I better get around to doing the summoning ceremony."
"Yup." Vergil took a step towards the door. "I'll cook something for you and your Servant. Best to make a good impression. I advise using the garden."
With that said, Vergil left the room, slamming the door behind him.
"What a pain." Damien grabbed the hilt off the table, as well as a few other pieces of magical equipment. Having gotten the necessary items, Damien exited the room and walked down the hall towards the garden. "Let's get this over with."
The garden of Damien and Vergil's apartment was small, as expected from a student's house. It had a small herb garden that Vergil maintained with incredible care, as well as a small lawn for when Damien felt like snoozing in the sun's rays.
That lawn was currently covered in chicken blood; a dangerous looking magical circle having been drawn on top of the grass. At the centre of the circle, the hilt of the blade had been placed.
"Hmm…" Damien flipped through his notebook. "Where did I write the summoning aria…"
"You alright bud?" Vergil called from the kitchen window, which faced out onto the garden.
"Yeah, I'm just trying to find the bloody incantation." Damien continued flipping for a few seconds, before pausing. "Ah, here we go!"
Clearing his throat, Damien begun to recite the words from the book.
The air begun to shiver as the words of power drew mana from the world. The crimson lines of the circle begun to glow while the worn hilt begun to vibrate.
When Damien finished the last line, a blast of light exploded from the ground, blinding him.
"MY EYES!" Damien yelled, stumbling back and falling onto the grass. "DAMN THAT STINGS!"
"Woah!" Vergil yelled, rushing out of the apartment. "What was that!?"
"Bloody kickback from the summoning ceremony." Damien rubbed his eyes. "Can you see what happened-" Sensing some movement, Damien immediately shifted himself to the left.
A moment later, he felt something brush past his ear and impale itself in the ground next to him. A warm liquid ran down his neck.
"…Vergil." Damien spoke slowly. "Did someone just try to stab me?"
"…yes." Vergil's voice was very high pitched. "You may want to open your eyes."
"Still seeing lights." Damien could still feel the blade against his necks. It was hot, almost painfully so. "What does my Servant look like-"
"Are you my master?" A woman's voice interrupted Damien. It was a soft voice that possessed an immense hardness and authority beyond anything Damien had ever heard. "I repeat, are you my master?"
Damien's response was to blink away the remnants of his blindness. Finally regaining his vision, Damien Hei took his first look at his partner in the grueling war that was to follow.
"Another Master has summoned their Servant."
For the world-scale Holy Grail War, a much larger monitoring system had become necessary. The Laplace Organization, consisting of thousands of mages and invigilators, had branches on every major continent. It also had a central headquarters in Antarctica, from which all information could be analyzed and viewed.
"Is that so?" Janice Harbinger, one of the Seven Sages who made up the central command of Laplace, tilted her head. "Who is it?"
"Damien Hei of the Hei Family." The aide replied. "He has completed the summoning ritual in Glenrothes, Scotland."
"Hei? That means he summoned…" Janice suddenly begun laughing. It was an unnatural laugh, one that made those who heard it shiver in fear. "This is good! This is very good!"
"Ma'am?"
"If that Servant is there, then that makes seven top-class Servants in Britain. But Scotland is her territory. She's already killed off several other Servants who materialized there." Janice's eyes widened as a massive grin covered her face. "And with Hei's Servant's ability, there is no doubt that she will go on the offensive. "
"By her, you don't mean-"
"Yes, that peerless Servant. The one considered to be a top contender for victory in this war." Janice leaned back in her chair. "Soon, a battle between some of history's greatest heroes will unfold in Scotland."
"Master." The red-haired woman with burning red eyes gently poked the dozing girl. She was dressed in a black and dark red raiment. On her back, a single blood colored spear was strapped securely. "An enemy has appeared."
"Mmm…another one?" The young girl with blonde hair and blue eyes rubbed her eyes. "Can you not deal with this yourself?"
"This Servant is different." The girl's Servant, known as Lancer, replied. "My Clairvoyance tells me that this is a much stronger opponent than the others. I require your aid."
"I see." The girl sat up and stretched her arms. "But do you see victory?"
"I do not see defeat."
"Good." The girl lightly sprung to her feet. "Then let us be off Lancer. We have a war to win."
A super large Holy Grail War has now begun! Don't expect any masters to show up, but the Servant personalities will be the same as in the Nasuverse (minus Carnival Phantasm of course).
Review what you think! (Also feel free to guess who Damien's servant is. I'd say the same for the other Master's servant, but its pretty obvious who her Servant is (I think).
Seeya!
Ferris.
