The various fictional worlds, characters and elements that are written about in this fanfiction belong to their various creators, who I'm too lazy to list. This is purely a fan work and not intended to generate any sort of profit. I know that if it does a fair number of bloodthirsty lawyers are likely to make my life miserable. As always constructive criticism is welcome and flames will be ignored.

On an unrelated note I would like to ask that my readers for God Slaying Blade Works please not use the reviews section as a sort of substitute forum. I fully acknowledge that all my readers have the right to review, so long as they observe common courtesy and civility, and I will welcome all constructive criticism. However I think posting messages to one another about your disagreements is perhaps going slightly too far.

SPOILERS.

Hah, I've done it. I've written a scene where the main character handles female undergarments and doesn't cause a big mess. Not only that I also came up with a believable reason why this should be!

Just to clarify; Alex does not have Discernment of the Poor or anything like that. Charisma is defined as one's ability to command an army and I'd guess that one of the necessary parts of doing so would be being able to read the mood of an army and being able to catch subtle cues as to their general disposition. I am working on the basis that such a talent would translate to also being able to read individuals, at least to some degree.

It should also be noted that unlike in the canon Alex hasn't been unconscious for several days and Louise hasn't had to use most of her money to purchase a hideously expensive medicine for him, as a result she's got a bit more money to throw about than in the original story.

I am well aware that there is nothing in the canon that hints at the different elements effecting Louise's explosions, but my thought was something like this. The reason that Louise was never able to cast any spell properly was that none of the spells she tried were the correct element for her. However I feel that even if that was the case then the element that she was trying to use would at least have some influence on the resulting explosion.

Chapter 4: Developments

All in all Alex felt that he'd managed to spend the last couple of days well, if not as productively as he would have liked.

It had been two days since the duel with Guiche and in that time Alex had been doing his best to make the most of his time. The problem was that he hadn't been entirely successful.

After learning about the unlocking conditions for the various items within his book he had been eager to try to unlock them. Unfortunately after an afternoon of careful contemplation he realized that he had no idea as to what the conditions for the other items might be. The prerequisite to unlock everyday clothing had been to take all his clothes off, fairly simple and logical from a certain point of view. If that was the case then what might be the condition for, say, his ipod? Did he have to learn music? Since it had quite a few audio books then maybe he had to read some books? There were simply too many possibilities.

It was the same with the weapons he'd gained; he had no idea how to unlock them. At the end of the day he simply didn't have enough information to work with.

Aside from that he'd been somewhat distracted by the sudden celebrity status that he'd suddenly gained with the serving staff of the school. If he had thought that the admiration that Siesta had directed at him had been unsettling then he'd found the veritable hero's welcome that he'd received in the kitchen to be flat out shocking. He'd been intellectually aware that Saito had been able to win their hearts with his own victory over Guiche, but it hadn't really occurred to him that the same thing could happen to him. It was a bad habit that he was going to have to work on.

It seemed that even his assertion to being magically empowered hadn't prevented him from being named 'Our Sword' by Marteau the head cook just as Saito had originally been. While being provided with fresh baked bread and positively sumptuous stew for each of his meals had been pleasant he'd found the apparent hero worship to be a bit . . . disquieting.

To offset his feeling of taking advantage of them he'd begun to lend a hand in the kitchen when he had some spare time. Since he wasn't accompanying Louise to her lessons he'd found that after he'd finished learning his way around the academy that he had a fair bit of time on his hands. Having gone to the kitchen to see if he could find someone to talk to and seeing that they seemed to be a bit overworked he'd offered his aid. In the end he'd been assigned to monitor a set of large cooking bowls filled with stew.

To his relief the head cook hadn't been quite as affectionate to him as he had been to the original main character. Maybe it was Alex's slightly more intimidating figure, but for whatever reasons the red haired young man was happy that he didn't have to worry about Marteau trying to kiss his forehead.

Aside from that his friendship with Siesta seemed to be going fairly well. Honestly her clearly high regard for him still left him feeling a bit shy and awkward, though fortunately the Charisma skill that he'd received from Rider helped him keep his unease hidden. In all truth he didn't have any problem spending time with the pretty maid, she was bright, cheerful and had an excellent work ethic that he found himself admiring. He also found himself feeling irritated that the society in which she lived limited her options. Granted she didn't seem to have any sort of problem with her current job as a maid, but he knew from both the books and the anime that her position was subject to the whims of any nobility that might take a liking to her.

Well, for the time being there wasn't too much that he could do about it. With any luck, and if the plan he was slowly putting together worked, then he'd be in a much better position to offer her whatever aid she might need.

All that aside his only other notable achievement had been that he had also made some headway in befriending the familiars of Tabitha and Kirche. In all truth though that had been more of a pleasure than a chore. He was well aware that Sylphid was actually far more intelligent than she let on and actually had a rather adorable childlike personality. Flame on the other hand might be as animalistic as his appearance indicated, but Alex had found that once you got past the fact that he was a fire endowed lizard the size of a tiger he was actually rather like a big puppy.

Both of the familiars had been won over by the food that the kitchen had let the new Gandálfr take to feed them. As it turned out Sylphid was pretty much omnivorous while Flame had fondness for meats and, surprisingly, toasted bread.

And that was what he was doing at the moment. Right now all the students were in class and had left their familiars behind. Unlike Saito Louise wasn't dragging Alex to lessons with her, mainly because the one time she had tried they'd found that his sitting next to her ended up with him looming over her in a rather disquieting manner. Consequently the pseudo Rider had a fair bit of time to spend with the other familiars

"Righto Flame, let's see what you've got."

With a happy 'Geeeeooooww' noise the large red lizard threw itself at the big red head in a sort of enthusiastic belly flop.

Alex was a pretty big guy and he might possess the enormous strength of a Servant, the problem was that even if that was the case it didn't mean that he could be impacted by something about as heavy as an affectionate tiger and not be staggered. To add to this Flame took the opportunity to wrap his stubby limbs around his playmate causing the red haired young man to further lose his balance.

The end result was that the big red lizard bore Alex to the ground croaking happily the entire way.

It seemed that salamanders like the familiar enjoyed a sort of playful wrestling, maybe as some sort of group bonding exercise or to establish some sort of pecking order amongst themselves. Whatever the case may be the young Gandálfr had accidentally stumbled across the fact just yesterday while he'd been petting the big lizard. He'd been scratching the back of Flame's eye crests, a place that the salamander couldn't reach and really liked getting scratched if the happy croaking was anything to go by. Anyway Kirche's familiar had pushed against his hand trying to get some more contact and, mainly as play, Alex had pushed back. Flame had enthusiastically pushed back so forcefully that the self named Summon would have thought him angry if not for the croaking that was his equivalent of a purr.

Long story short the pair of them had entered into a good natured shoving match that had devolved into play fighting. The whole thing had come to an end when Sylphid had come over and picked up Alex with her jaws and pinned Flame under one foot. The new Gandálfr had laughingly announced that 'team red' had fallen to 'team blue' and promised the dragon extra food the next day as a prize. If the trills that the hiding rhyme dragon gave were any indication then she had no particular problem with that outcome.

So here he was again mock fighting with the big red lizard.

"Ha, I've got you now!"

With some effort Alex was able to use his enhanced strength to bodily pick up the tiger sized reptile and lifted him over his head. Had his playfellow been a human then there wouldn't have been much he could have done about it and he could have claimed victory, however Flame wasn't a human and so had some advantages.

As the salamander writhed about in his grip Alex was so focussed on keeping his captive aloft that he was caught completely by surprise when the flaming end of his tail caught him across the back of the head and sent him stumbling forwards.

After a little tentative testing the pseudo Rider had learnt that the fires at the end of Flame's tail were actually illusionary. Certainly they were warm, almost uncomfortably so, but they couldn't cause burns or set things on fire. When he thought about it it made sense, if that hadn't been the case then it was unlikely that Kirche would have been able to keep her familiar in her room without worrying about setting the place on fire.

Because of that Alex didn't suffer any burns, but he did get blinded by the none burning flame suddenly in his eyes and lose his balance and topple over when the salamander wriggled free and came down on top of him.

"Oh, Mr Iskander are you alright?"

His response was somewhat muffled due to the large reptile that was now triumphantly sitting on him and croaking somewhat smugly to itself. With a heave the red haired young man pushed the familiar off him and sat up.

"Ah, hello Siesta. What's up?"

"Err, what were you doing? Were you and Miss Kirche's familiar having a disagreement?"

"Me and this big guy?" Alex asked as he reached out to scratch the salamander behind its crest again causing its croaking to take on a crooning note, "Nah, we were just having a little fun. I think that salamanders like a little rough and tumble and I'm the only fellow that will play with him apart from Sylphid."

Seeing that the maid was carrying a big basket of laundry Alex gave Flame a pat on the head and then stood up.

"Would you like a hand with that? I'm free at the moment so is there anything I can do to help?"

"Well, I do have to pick up another load before I start on washing them," Siesta admitted, "Are you sure you don't mind?"

"It's no trouble at all." He assured her as he reached out and took the large wicker basket out of her arms. In his hands the basket that had been burdensome to her sat much more easily.

"So . . . how has Miss Vallière been treating you?" The maid asked, probably as a way of starting a conversation.

"About as well as can be expected I guess," Alex answered with a somewhat pained smile on his face, "I still haven't been able to get a room for myself since as a 'familiar' I'm apparently not entitled to my own accommodations so I'm still having to camp out on my little Summoner's floor. Still, at least she was able to get me a proper bedroll after I told her I didn't quite think straw made for a decent mattress."

"Is-is it really appropriate for you to be sleeping in the same room as Miss Vallière?"

"I assure you that I have been a perfect gentleman," Alex promised her as he leaned down so that Siesta could place another basket on top of the one he already carried, "So unless Louise harbours dark plans to catch me unawares and ravish me against my will there should be no untoward conduct between us."

That drew a giggle from his companion, he could understand why. The image of the tiny Louise lustily assaulting him, someone so much bigger and stronger, was absolutely ridiculous.

"Um . . . do you have a lover Mr Iskander? Back in your homeland I mean."

That caught him a bit flat footed, glancing to the side the new Gandálfr saw that Siesta was blushing slightly and steadfastly not looking at him.

"Not really," he admitted as he leaned down so that a third basket could be added to the growing stack that he was carrying. "I was in a . . . relationship for a couple of years and it looked like it might have been leading to something more permanent. But . . . well, things happened, things I don't really want to talk about. By the end of it everyone was hurt and things had been said and done that couldn't be taken back, both by her and by me. We didn't part on good terms and there were lots of jagged edges left lying around afterwards. Since then I really haven't felt ready to even think of trying again y'know?"

"I-I'm sorry I pried."

"Don't worry about it; I suppose talking about it is part of the healing process. Or was it laughing about it? Huh, it's been so long since I studied them I can't remember those old psychology books I read."

"Psy-cholomy?" Even as Siesta placed a fourth basket in his arms he could see her face crease rather cutely in confusion.

"Psychology is the art of understanding the heart and mind and helping them both to heal and function," Alex explained even as he began to mentally work out how to explain the subject in terms that his friend would understand. "For example it's like understanding why a person possesses a paralysing fear of something harmless such as the dark or small spaces. Such fears are normally rooted in something that happened to them such as being caught in a confined space they couldn't escape or having something terrible happen to them in the dark. Once one understands these connections then-"

-()-

In the end his amateur explanation of the fine art of the mind healer managed to nicely cover the time it took to collect another two baskets and to cart them all to the courtyard where they were to be washed. Yesterday the red haired young man had tried to help with the washing, but found that both due to his enhanced strength and his own lack of skill he ended up destroying the clothes he tried to wash. After the third ruined shirt Siesta had kindly but firmly told him that he was never going to even try to wash another sock as long as she had anything to say about it.

"-the end it's partly about helping one know oneself better." He concluded as he finished sorting out the clothes.

"Errr, Mr Iskander, don't you mind doing that?"

Siesta's somewhat embarrassed question brought him back to the matter at hand, namely the fact that he was unthinkingly sorting the female undergarments into two piles of light and dark colours.

"Ah. Sorry about that. Back when I was still living with my family one of my chores was to be in charge of the laundry, and since I have an older and a younger sister . . ."

He left it at that and was glad to see the maid nod her head in understanding.

Honestly he was rather grateful for her understanding. In too many anime it was a common gag that as soon as a male character somehow got hold of some female undergarments general pandemonium would ensue due to either their own shyness or lechery or from some female character coming across them at just the wrong moment. While Alex could appreciate sexy lingerie on an attractive female as much as the next guy he supposed years of hanging up his family's underwear to dry had inured him to them somewhat.

Still, rather eager to change the subject Alex mentally cast around for something else to say.

"You know . . . you don't have to call me 'Mister' it'd be fine for you just to call me by name."

"Well, thank you . . . Iskander. Normally I have to do several trips in order to get all the baskets, with your help I've been able to do them all in one go and that'll save me lots of time."

"Glad to be able to help." the pseudo Rider grinned as he stood up and leaned against a wall.

Idly he noted that the crimson and golden furred mantle that he wore felt oddly comfortable to wear even though it wasn't like any kind of clothing that he'd worn in the past. Despite having regained his casual clothes Alex had elected to continue to wear the garb which he had arrived in since he wished to keep his ability to suddenly change what he was wearing a secret.

"-skander?! Where are you? Iskander?!"

The loud voice of his Summoner broke into his thoughts as she came round the corner that led into the courtyard where he and Siesta were. It was obvious that she had just left her lessons because she was still carrying her books rather than having returned them to her room.

"Oh, hello Louise. What brings you here?"

"I was looking for you of course. Why weren't you waiting for me outside the classroom? As my fami-" Her eyes suddenly widened and her tirade cut off, only to start again a moment later. "As my Summon you should have been ready to help me as soon as I was finished with my studies."

The small girl was trying to project an air of confidence and superiority, however small tells in her posture and movements gave away her nervousness. Alex had always been decent at picking up on such hints, but since his acquiring the Charisma skill he'd found the talent had improved. That had come as something of a surprise since to the best of his knowledge that hadn't been how the skill worked in the various Fate series, still he had no intention of questioning good fortune too much.

"My thanks for using the correct form of address my Summoner," He began, his voice warm but as firm as he could make it, "But we have talked of this. I am neither a hawk to perch on your wrist nor a dog to follow at your heel, I shall not simply wait at the door to your classroom for you without any reason save that you might want to converse with me."

"B-B-But," The expression upon his Summoner's face was a curious mix of irritation, embarrassment and a couple of other emotions that the dimensionally displaced young man couldn't place, "But I was hoping that you could . . . you know?"

"That I could . . . what?" Alex asked in honest confusion.

"You know . . . that thing you promised to help me with. Don't make me ask, it's embarrassing."

He blinked, then made the connection. Ah, she was asking for help with her magic? Well he could see that, he had been emphatic about his belief that she had potential and some of his words could be taken as allusions to being able to help her reach it. He admittedly did have some ideas in that regard, but he would have preferred to have had some more time to work on them before putting them into practice.

Oh well, no time like the present.

"I understand," he said with a nod of his head, "We'll need to go somewhere private, but I think what I've come up with should more than satisfy you."

"Good!" Alex found himself to be somewhat surprised by the sheer vehemence of that single word, then her expression turned somewhat vulnerable, "I need this. I need it!"

The new Gandálfr was trying to think of something suitably supportive to say when he became aware of a loud gasping noise coming from behind him. Turning he saw that Siesta had both her hands pressed to her mouth and was flushing scarlet.

"Siesta? What's wrong?"

The questions came out with definite concern given that the expression on her face was one of clear shock.

"You . . . and Miss Vallière . . . I-I had no idea that you'd become so-so close . . ."

For a moment Alex could only stand there in confusion and wonder what she was talking about, then he mentally reviewed the short exchange that he'd just had with Louise and the metaphorical penny dropped. Yes, when heard out of context it was quite likely that what they'd said could be misconstrued to have more . . . amorous meanings than it actually did. Indeed, it made it sound like she did intend to ravish him after all.

It took all his mental discipline not to blush and stammer out the first denial that came to mind. He had to be rational about this, he had-

"IT'S NOT LIKE THAT!"

Ah, it seemed that his small Summoner had also come to the same conclusion he had, however unlike him she wasn't making any attempt to reign in her panicked embarrassment.

"I-I'm sorry Miss Vallière, I-I know it's none of my business. I'll j-just-"

Faced with an apparently angry noble the maid was trying to do the smart thing and get out of the local area. However both her retreat and her stuttered apology were cut off as Alex laid a firm but gentle hand on her shoulder.

"I think there's been a misunderstanding here Siesta, my Summoner was asking for me to aid her in getting a handle on her magic, not anything . . . untoward. I perfectly understand how you could have misunderstood what we said; our choice of words was a bit on the unfortunate side."

Turning to Louise he did his best to smile confidently despite him still feeling more than a bit off balance.

"I have some idea as to what we can do to learn a bit more about what's going on with your magic. Let's first drop off your books at your room then we can stop by the kitchen for a few supplies. Once we're done there we'll head out somewhere nearby to work through a few of my ideas and see how they turn out."

"What . . . now?"

Louise seemed to be a bit taken aback by his decision to have at the task immediately, so much so that her earlier embarrassment seemed to have been forgotten.

"Why not? I've got some ideas and you seem to be eager enough. Let's go for it."

"Oh . . . Alright."

-()-

In the end Siesta was able to head to the kitchen and get the things they needed while Alex and Louise dropped her things off at her room. She was waiting for them at the main gate out of the Academy with the items that the red haired young man had requested.

"Here you are Iskander," she said as she handed each of the items to him in turn, "A large water skin, an old pot that we were planning to get rid of, an old butcher's cleaver and a haunch of uncooked beef."

A look of slight worry overtook her as she cast her eyes at the last item.

"Mr Marteau was able to get it for me, but he says he'll need to charge it to Miss Vallière since it's too big to simply overlook."

"I can cover it easily," His little Summoner declared, "But are you sure we need it Iskander?"

"Definitely!" He answered with a sharp nod of his head, "For this to work we're going to need as large a piece of meat as we can take with us."

In his head the plan was coming together. The basic problem was how to help Louise without revealing to her that he knew her Element and that it was the reason that her spells weren't working. The simple fact was that right now there wasn't enough of a bond of trust between them for her to believe him if he told her the truth. If he were to do so right now then her reactions could range from simple disbelief to her dismissing him in a fit of outrage to her declaring him a heretic and trying to have him executed. All in all those were situations that he was trying to avoid.

Still he had to do something to help her, and that had been where this plan had sprung from.

First though . . .

"So where shall we go for . . . whatever you have planned?"

A quick glance around showed that while the academy was situated in a valley there were still some woods fairly close by.

"Over there, it's far enough away to grant us some privacy and also far off enough that the explosions won't disturb anyone."

Louise followed his stare and narrowed her eyes as she mentally evaluated how long it would take to get there.

"We'll need to go by horse if we want to be able to get there and back with any time to spare. There should be a few mounts in the stables that we can use. Although I'm not sure if any of the horses will be big enough for you to ride, they're meant for students and staff after all. And if any of them can't carry a knight in armour then I don't think they could carry you."

And that nicely brought up a thought that Alex had been mulling over ever since the duel with Guiche.

Right now his Summoner only had the vaguest idea of what he was truly capable of. Sure she was aware that he was stronger and faster than even a man of his clearly excellent condition should be capable of, but even then she didn't know the full extent of what he could do. Up until now he'd been secretive because he had wanted to keep as many of his options open as he could, but if he wanted her to trust him he'd need to first offer her some of his own trust.

Glancing back he saw that Siesta hadn't left yet, instead she was standing at the gates watching them, probably planning to wave them goodbye when they left or something like that. After thinking it over for a second he raised one arm and waved her over.

She'd been there when he had explained his largely made up status and abilities to Louise, and quite frankly out of all the people he'd interacted with since arriving in this strange world she was the one that he considered closest to being a friend. It somehow felt right to include her in this.

"There will be no need for horses my little lady," he told the pink haired girl, "I think that it's time for me to show you a bit more of what your Summon can do."

Taking one more look around to make sure there weren't any casual eavesdroppers listening in Alex strode a short way from the academy's wall as he spoke to the two young women that were following him.

"There are many kinds of human Summons, but the kind that are relevant to what I'm about to show you are those known by the misleadingly simple title of Servants.

"Make no mistake despite the simple title Servants are among the deadliest of all human Summons that exist. They are the mightiest swordsmen that defeat dragons, they are the sharpest archers that always strike their mark, they are the greatest mages that level entire cities. Servants are regarded as some of the most desirable Summons that can be gained.

"Now Servant Summons are divided into several 'Classes' that designate their abilities and styles. Those are Saber, Archer, Lancer, Rider, Berserker, Caster and Assassin. There are also unconventional Classes such as Avenger, Saver, Launcher and Player, but those are extremely rare and regarded as somewhat unstable compared to the prime seven classes."

They were a fair distance out in the fields now and a goodly way from the main road that led to the academy. Alex was well aware that it was entirely possible that the Headmaster and Colbert were observing him using magic. If his memory served him right then at this point they were aware that he was a Gandálfr, but were keeping it to themselves and observing him. Well, both of them were decent enough, as long as one overlooked their more glaring personal flaws, so if they saw what he had planned he was okay with it.

"Now Servants are all extremely skilled in their chosen areas," He continued as he came to a halt. Both the girls were still following him with looks of interest on their faces and Louise didn't seem to have a problem with Siesta being there. "However it is not merely their skills that make them so formidable and sought after. Every Servant has at least one Noble Phantasm, and it is these that are the trump cards that place Servants in a league of their own.

"Noble Phantasms are weapons or abilities that are part of a hero's legend, like a hero that has gained skin that no sword can cut or a spear that never misses its target. Servants take such legends and elevate them from mere stories into true crystallized miracles that can actually do what the legends say.

"Of course they can't do this alone, and that is where the Summoner comes in. As the Servant partakes of their Summoner's magic so does the Noble Phantasm partake of the Servant's magic in turn. As such it is only when partnered with a Summoner that a Servant can use their power to its full potential.

"Now you're probably wondering why I'm telling you this, the reason is that it's directly related to me.

"Under normal circumstances I wouldn't be qualified to play the part of a Servant, meaning that normally if I was a Summon I would be of the Knight type or maybe a Pactio. However you've managed to summon me as TWO classes Louise and one of them was the Servant Class of Rider. And that means that I've gained a Noble Phantasm suitable to that Class."

Okay this was what he'd been planning to show them. If he wanted his Summoner to . . . trust? Respect? Admire? He wasn't quite sure how he wanted the relationship to go; if all three emotions could be reached it would probably be best. And regardless of which he was aiming for it would probably do her fragile ego some good if she was aware of just how powerful he could be.

Taking several steps away from the pair of young women while gesturing for them to stay where they were Alex drew the sword from his belt and lifted his arm to swing the blade at the empty air. As before he could feel the power in him, a barely restrained force that eagerly waited for the chance to manifest itself. He could feel it running up his arm and surging into the sword that he held, just waiting for him to bring the blade down so that it could take that last step.

"This is the Noble Phantasm of the Rider Iskander Mest Babylon; the Gordius Wheel!"

With a single swing of his sword he cut at the air in front of him.

The results were all he could have wished for and more.

It was as though the sword stroke had travelled forward and cut a tear in the very fabric of space. For an instant the tear just hung there, in bold defiance of conventional reason, then blue lightning crackled along its edges. The bolts multiplied at a ferocious rate as though they were feeding and strengthening one another. In the space of only a few heartbeats they had gone from running along the edge of the tear to being a huge seething halo of electric energy around its rim.

"Wha-"

Whatever Louise's question might have been was cut of as the tear suddenly contracted and the lightning halo was released in a single huge and blinding bolt of force. The thunderbolt struck the ground with such force that the force of its impact knocked both girls off their feet and threw up a huge cloud of dust. Alex, being larger, heavier and more prepared for what was to come, remained on his feet and simply turned to the side so he could look at both the girls as well as the spot where the lightning had stuck.

"WHAT WAS . . . that . . . Is . . . kan . . . der?"

The tiny future Void mage had leapt to her feet and begun to yell at her Summon, but the volume and displeasure of her voice trailed off as she saw what was being revealed by the settling cloud of dust.

It was a chariot, at least technically. To those that looked at it one could say that the name was as fitting as calling a great and proud lion a cat, technically correct but nowhere near to the reality.

He'd seen pictures of it on the internet and had watched the Fate Zero episodes online, but to see it in reality, now that was something completely different.

It was, in a word, magnificent. The two huge wheels, the rotating spikes, the great blades on the sides, the brilliant red and blue harnesses of the bulls and of course the bulls themselves. Oh, how to describe those creatures.

Though mainly a town-dwelling guy Alex's hometown wasn't too far away from the more rural areas of the country and during the summer he sometimes took long walks out through the farmlands via the public footpaths. Given that cattle were in a fair number of the fields that he'd passed he could confidently say that he was more familiar with what a real bull looked like than most would be.

The great creatures that were yoked to the chariot didn't so much look like real bulls as they did the idea of bulls. Real bulls didn't have such obviously bulging muscles or such elegantly curving horns. They also weren't so large or broad. And above all else real bulls didn't have crackling lightning arcing about their hooves.

The new Gandálfr gazed at the great vehicle before him and exerted every ounce of his will to remain composed, however beneath his stoic exterior he was to all intents and purposes dancing with glee.

It was here, it was really here. Gordius Wheel, the Wheel of Heaven's Authority, the principle Noble Phantasm of his favourite Servant and an Anti-Army weapon able to reduce huge parts of cities to scorched rumble in less than an hour.

And it was his.

He could feel the connection, feel it with an absolute certainty that he couldn't have totally described if someone had paid him a fortune to do so. He just knew that he could ride this chariot, that the bulls would obey his commands and that the powers of the Noble Phantasm would answer his call.

"I . . . Iskander, w-what is that?"

Siesta seemed to be the first to recover the power of speech after seeing just what it was that had appeared before them. The maid had been knocked onto her rump by the shockwave of the chariot's summoning and was now sitting in a rather undignified position, but right now that seemed to be the last thing on her mind. Instead she was staring wide eyed at the Noble Phantasm as arcs of lightning still sparked off it.

"As a Rider I must have some form of vehicle, mount or charger, this is mine. Magnificent is it not?"

The pseudo Servant took great satisfaction in the looks of awe that were now plastered upon the faces of both the young women before him.

"I told you that the power of the Summon reflected the power of the Summoner Louise, do you still doubt my words that you hold great potential within you?"

His pink haired Summoner could only shake her head wordlessly in reply even as she was unable to tear her eyes away from the mighty vehicle of battle that now stood before her.

"Very well then," Alex declared as he sheathed his sword and stepped towards the chariot, "We should be on our way now."

In response to his words Louise took an uncertain step towards the Noble Phantasm, but Siesta instead shook her head.

"I-I've still got work to do, I can't just leave it or there will be questions about what I've been doing."

The red haired young man frowned at that.

"Could you not simply explain that you were aiding one of the students with their research?"

"It's . . . frowned upon for the staff to get involved with the students, there have been . . . incidents in the past and I don't want rumours to get started."

He blinked at that, then his mind connected the dots. If Siesta were to disappear for some length of time and then return claiming that she'd spent it with him and Louise then there was a chance that unsavoury rumours might get started about what they had been up to. Most likely the staff wouldn't lend much credence to such suggestions since both he and Siesta were both well liked by those that tended to the duties of the academy. However if such talk were to be heard by the management then there was a chance that the maid might lose her post.

That brought a frown to his face. In the future of the series Siesta had been a sort of fixture and had retained her position despite having been involved in several of Saito's misadventures. He supposed that by that point the maid had become more secure in her position due to effectively having become the personal maid to Louise and her familiar. Right now though she had no such security.

Seeing Alex somewhat reluctantly nod his head Siesta flashed him a grateful smile.

"You can tell me about how you're going to help Miss Vallière later when you get back," She told him, "I look forwards to finding out what you have in mind."

With a quick bow to the young noble the maid turned and started to make her way back towards the school. However Alex noted that even as she did so she cast frequent glances at them over her shoulder.

"Well, are you going to join me Louise?"

He tried to say it as nonchalantly as possible as he stepped onto the chariot and took the reins in hand.

"W-What? W-We're going in that?! B-But wouldn't horses be faster? It's magnificent but those bulls can't go as fast as horses . . . can they?"

Reaching out the young pseudo Servant lightly grasped her wrist and pulled her onto his Noble Phantasm in a gentler imitation of Rider's action to his own Master in the opening credits of the Fate Zero anime.

"You don't think that a mystic vehicle of this calibre would be so simply analysed do you? Let me show you part of what it's capable of."

Alex had never in his entire life properly ridden any animal, the one time he'd been on a horse's back had been more of a case of him simply sitting there and trying not to fall off as the animal was led along by someone else. It had taken him four weeks and quite a number of scrapes and bruises before he'd learnt to properly ride a bike and he'd nearly crashed his driving instructor's car more than four times before he finally learnt how to drive with any level of competence.

All in all Alex might have talent in a number of areas, but when it came to riding any sort of vehicle or mount he was well aware that he had all the natural aptitude of an unconscious baboon.

Which was why he couldn't help but grin like a jack'o lantern when he found that the correct way to stand in the chariot, the right way to hold the reins, the best way to direct the bulls, it was all right there in his mind as clear and natural as was the knowledge of his own name. And it wasn't just this mode of riding either, he could ride horses, camels, elephants, griffins, manticors, hell if he wanted to he was sure he could probably fly a jumbo jet.

This was A+ rank Riding? This was definitely something he could get used to.

With his small Summoner now grasping the edge of the chariot's rim and peering out over it like a child over a kitchen top he decided that now was as good a chance as any to start. With one flick of the long leather reins in his hands the bulls were moving and the Gordius Wheel was rumbling forwards. At first its movements were slow, but the bulls quickly picked up speed and before long they were charging along as fast as a galloping horse.

"Th-This is quite fast," admitted Louise as she held onto the edge and tried to maintain a calm demeanour. "L-Like this we should reach the woods in just a few minutes."

"Oh?" Had anyone been in a position to look at his face they would have seen the new Gandálfr's smile widen until it showed his teeth in a slightly predatory fashion, "Then what if I do this?"

Once more he cracked the reins that he held, but this time he felt a definite surge of something flow from himself to the chariot he was riding and the bulls that were pulling it. The sensation was slightly similar to the tiny drain that he'd felt when he used his new ability to shift clothes, the difference being that this time the feeling was sharper, more noticeable.

The drain stopped almost as soon as it began, just a single sharp shot rather than a continuous drain. He could feel that a portion of the reserves of what he guessed was his Mana pool was gone, but it was only a small portion of it and already he could feel it being refilled.

All thoughts of that were banished from his mind though as he saw what his Noble Phantasm was doing.

As easily as though driving along a concrete road both bulls and the chariot were now running upon empty air. Even as the vehicle and the beasts pulling it rose into the sky their speed increased until the woods that had previously been still far off were now drawing near at a fast clip.

"Wh-Wh-Wh-WH-WHAT IS THIS?!"

Louise's shrill scream of both fear and confusion ripped through the air even as the flying chariot angled itself towards the ground and began to thunder down like a descending comet. On seeing the grass covered ground rushing to meet them at such terrifying speed the youngest of the Vallière sisters had only time for one wordless scream of inarticulate fear before she ducked behind the scant shelter offered by the side of the chariot.

With a thunderous thud the wheels of the Noble Phantasm struck the ground and both the hooves of the beasts and the wheels of the vehicle trod groves into the grass as they slowly bled off speed and came to a rest at the edge of the wooded area that Alex had pointed out only a few minutes before.

"We have arrived my Summoner, you can get up now, there's nothing to be afraid of."

Once more the young man was doing his best to be as nonchalant as possible when in truth what he really wanted to do was break out into gleeful, and slightly hysterical laughter if he was being honest with himself, laughter while literally dancing for joy. As far as he was concerned that had been awesome beyond words, more fun than even the most sophisticated rollercoaster he'd ever been on. Right now he dearly would have loved to simply leap back into the chariot and take it through the craziest manoeuvres he could think of simply to experience the rush of it. However he ruthlessly suppressed the urge to do so.

Right now he had to present a suitably calm and casual air to the future Void mage.

"Wh-Why didn't you tell me it could fly?!"

The demanding question was practically snarled at him as the pink haired young girl staggered out of the chariot on wobbly legs.

"I thought it might be more interesting to simply show you." Alex answered with a completely straight face.

"You . . . You . . ." words seemed to fail Louise as she glared at him as though she could force him to spontaneously combust by sheer force of will if she tried hard enough. "I've never ridden anything so terrifying in my life . . . and I've ridden on griffins."

"Well Louise, I can hardly be held at fault for the fact that up until this point all your rides have been so tepid."

His small Summoner simply goggled at him in speechless disbelief.

"Anyway, there's no time to waste on that. Let's get started on finding a suitable spot for my ideas."

Turning away from her the pseudo Rider strode into the woods.

"Hey, hold on!" Louise called behind him as she dashed to catch up, "Hey you big lummox, wait for me!"

-()-

It didn't take them long to find what he was hoping for, a large clearing surrounded by trees and with a nice open space right in the middle. There were even a couple of recently felled trees that could easily be modified to serve his purpose.

"Yes," he said to both Louise and the world in general, "This will be just perfect."

"So . . . what will we do now?"

"Hold on a moment, I've just got to get a couple of things ready."

As he spoke Alex walked over to the downed trees as he drew his sword. Backed by the enhanced strength that had been endowed upon him it was only the work of a few seconds for him to strip of the branches and chop the relatively thin trunk into a number of evenly sized logs. Sheathing his swords and picking up a log in each hand he turned back to his Summoner.

"Now I said that I believed that you had potential and when I said that I spoke the truth. You've asked me for help and I'll be honest, I'm no mage and so I haven't got that much of a clear idea of how to help you."

Seeing Louise's shoulders slump he dropped one log and held up a hand to forestall her.

"However . . . I do possess some knowledge of how other mages have trained in the past as well as some knowledge that we might be able to apply in this situation."

Well, that might have been stretching the truth a bit. Still he had watched a number of anime where the main characters went through bizarre or absurd training in order to achieve their ends. In addition to that he had his own basic knowledge of scientific testing and investigation, surely with a little imagination both could be used in this case.

It had been that line of thought that had led to his current plan, and as far as he could see it was the best that he could do for now without revealing that he was aware of his Summoner's true elemental affinity.

"What we are going to use is called scientific investigation, and we are going to employ it to expand our knowledge of just what your magic is capable of."

"It makes explosions," Louise's voice sounded morose and also slightly petulant, "What else do I need to know?"

"Are the explosions caused by wind spells larger than those caused by earth spells? How far away can you create an explosion? Can you deliberately make an explosion larger? Can you make it smaller? Do all spells of an element cause the same kinds of explosion or would a transmutation spell make a bigger one than a repair spell? Can you make the explosions louder if you want to? Can you vary how much smoke do they produce?"

In the face of the sudden onslaught of questions the pink haired young mage could only stand there with her mouth hanging open.

"You see? You don't know, and if you don't have the answers to those questions then how can you advance? Well today we will take the first steps to dispelling our ignorance and shedding light upon your hidden potential!"

That last bit came out as a forceful declaration, but somehow the enthusiasm behind it proved infectious because a sort of determined smile found its way onto Louise's face.

Thank you B rank Charisma.

Reaching down with his free hand he picked up a stone off the forest floor, one about the size of a small apple. With a nod to himself he carried it and the log he held in his other hand out into the clearing until he stood more or less in the middle. Once there he placed the log so it was standing upright and then balanced the stone on top of it. He then made his way back to the chariot and pulled out a blank parchment and a quill pen. Granted he'd have preferred to have a common biro, but at least the quill had been spelled to not need to be constantly dipped in an ink pot.

"Okay Louise, try to transmute that stone from as far away as you can."

"You . . . you normally need to be close to the thing that you're transmuting though." Louise protested.

"Do you want to be close when it explodes? I don't think you can afford to total too many more uniforms you know."

Unable to think of a protest to her Summon's rebuttal the pink haired mage drew her wand and pointed it at the rock.

"Rel. In. Yan."

The results were pretty much what Alex had been expecting, the rock glowed briefly with a bright light, then it exploded as though someone had replaced it with a stick of TNT. As the explosion went off he was careful to step in front of his small Summoner so as to protect her from any flying debris, though as it turned out the move was unnecessary.

"Well, you see? That's how all my spells turn out."

Glancing down he saw that Louise's earlier enthusiasm had disappeared in the face of her usual disastrous result. Fortunately he had a plan as to how to re-engage her interest.

"Yes, and it's quite interesting. Do you see there? Even though there has been a powerful blast and lots of smoke there is no actual sign of any burning. Also take a note of the actual shape that the blast produced, the log that the stone was on is still standing and is itself only slightly damaged while the area around it is pretty much devastated."

As he made each of his observations Alex was careful to make large and eye catching gestures that drew the attention of his audience and seemed to heighten his own enthusiasm. It appeared to be working because the future Void mage was now not looking so much depressed as she was surprised. Now he just had to keep it up.

"I can think of a number of uses for such an effect, granted you'd need a bit more control, but there's definitely some use to be had from such."

"It . . . could be useful?" Louise sounded honestly surprised at the idea that the result of one of her faulty spells could be of value. "How?"

"Well . . . let's say that someone of importance has been taken hostage, say . . . a princess," Alex was well aware that the Princess of Tristain was someone to whom Louise was totally loyal. This worked to his advantage now as at the mention of her being in danger his small Summoner's full attention snapped onto him like the sights of some sort of weapon. Good, he had her attention now to see if he could make use of it. "Her captors are holding her at wand point and if anyone moves against them then they will slay her. With a spell effect like yours you could cast it upon something that the princess is wearing such as a fan that she might be holding or something like that. The blast, if you can control it properly, would let you blast away all of the hostage takers while only dealing light damage to the princess's dress.

"Just imagine," he continued, his tone becoming honeyed and compelling, "You would have saved the princess from certain doom when no others could. Don't you think that's something useful?"

Louise's answering nods of agreement were so rapid and enthusiastic that Alex was genuinely concerned that she might hurt her neck.

"Right then, on to the next experiment." He declared as he reached back into his chariot once more, this time drawing out the large old pot and the water skin.

Making his way over to where the log had fallen over he righted it once more then placed the pot on top of it like he had the stone before. As soon as he was sure that it was properly balanced the red haired young man lifted up the water skin and poured its contents into the pot until it was full.

"Right then," he said as he made his way back to the side of his Summoner, "This time I want you to cast a spell on the water in the pot. Make sure it's a water spell, but apart from that it doesn't matter if you try to move the water or change its colour, just so long as it's a water element spell."

With a nod Louise turned to the pot and raised her wand.

-()-

Well, that had been interesting.

Alex reached down and gently picked up his sleeping Summoner as his Noble Phantasm faded away behind him in response to his will.

It had been a long day. After the experiment with the water and the pot had been a basic air spell cast at the same general area as the first two spells, then a fire spell at the log that had somehow still survived. Once that was over they'd moved onto seeing what effect casting spells on the haunch of beef that they'd brought along. The beef had held up to three such experiments without falling apart, but in the end it had been the young Vallière's attempt to cast a healing spell upon it that had caused the haunch to melt into an unrecognizable mess of liquefied meat. After that they'd moved on to seeing what effects her attempts at a sharpening spell would have on the old knife Alex had brought for testing.

Well, at least that had shown that if ever Louise was in a position where someone was threatening her with a weapon then the only thing she needed to do in order to reduce it to little more than a blunt slab was to try and sharpen it.

However as the experiments had continued and her Summon had pointed out various practical applications for each resulting explosion Louise had grown more and more enthusiastic. He supposed it was understandable since this was pretty much the first time that someone had had anything positive to say about the unfortunate results of every spell she cast. The fact that Alex always used either saving the princess or smiting her enemies as an example of how the explosions could be of any use also went a long way towards her motivation.

Of course the range of his experiments had been limited by the resources available to him, for example he hadn't been able to conduct any more tests into water spells after Louise blasted the pot into useless scrap metal. However he'd managed to get plenty of data before that and even after all the things he'd brought with him had been reduced to debris there had still been plenty of stones and wood to work with.

Enthused by finally seeing some sort of results in regards to her magic his pink haired Summoner had continued to cast one spell after another at branches and stones following his directions of just what she should be trying to achieve. The end result had been that what he'd originally planned to be only a single hour of experimentation had turned into just over three hours of near constant casting. That had in turn led to Louise nodding off in exhaustion during their return trip to the academy.

Still, all in all the pseudo Servant thought that things had turned out pretty well.

This little excursion had definitely helped establish his credentials with Louise as well as build the beginnings of a bond between them. In the 'canon' storyline Saito and Louise had started to show signs of attraction and friendship pretty early on, though her tsundere tendencies and his lecherous streak always seemed to derail any progress that was made. The relationship that he hoped to build was more of a friend/teacher one rather than any sort of romantic bond because, in all honesty, she wasn't his type even if he had been looking for romance at this time.

With a shake of his head he dismissed such thoughts for now and turned his mind back to the results of their research today.

One thing that he'd been very interested to discover was that while any attempt by Louise to use any of the elements invariably produced an explosion those explosions weren't just random, there was a definite correlation between them and the type of element used. For example attempts to use earth resulted in 'hollow' explosions, blasts that radiate outwards but left an almost untouched centre. On the other hand if Louise tied to use water magic to move the contents of the liquid in the pot the result always seemed to be an explosion that went straight up rather than to the sides. Of course water had been the element that they'd been able to practice the least

Wind spells had been interesting in the explosions they produced were the noisiest and the smokiest, but at the same time were the weakest in terms of general force. Fire on the other hand produced the most powerful explosions, but the results were unstable, one time the explosion might be strong enough to reduce the targeted log to tiny splinters, then the next time the explosion might barely knock the log over.

Alex had a theory about that, one that he'd developed after carefully examining the various blasted logs. He suspected that the explosions that resulted from fire spells weren't as simple as they first appeared to be; rather they were actually implosion/explosions. It was the only way that he could explain how some of the targets were not only blasted apart but also crushed at the same time. It also went some way to explaining the unreliable power output of the explosions, after all if the implosion wasn't suitably balanced then the energy would end up working against itself rather than producing an explosion afterwards.

All in all he could already see a number of ways in which the results they had found could be of some use. One example would be for her to cast a spell of water at the feet of her target and then letting the upwards blast send them flying.

"Heh, Dill Brand." Alex muttered to himself as he remembered those old Slayers cartoons that he'd been so fond of back when he was twelve. Back then there hadn't been too many anime series available in full in the UK, so he'd had to get the box set shipped over from America and then had to buy a special multi-region capable DVD player. In the end the first Slayers season had been the first complete anime that he'd ever owned, and as such held a special place in his heart.

Hmmm, flat chest, quick temper, propensity for explosions . . . was it just him or did his little Summoner possess more than a few similarities to Lina Inverse? Now that was a thought both interesting and worrisome. On the one hand it would be cool if she could start throwing around explosions left and right with deadly accuracy and competency. Alternately he was pretty sure that if she figured out how to duplicate a Dragon Slave then C rank Magic Resistance wasn't going to be enough to save him.

Still it was an amusing thought; Louise Vallière, the natural enemy of all living things . . . and possibly some undead ones as well if he remembered the canon correctly.

"Mmmya."

The wordless mumblings of the small girl in his arms brought the new Gandálfr out of his musings and back to the situation at hand. He was now at the main gates of the academy and the sun was just starting to go down. He planned to first make his way to Louise's room, rouse her from her sleep so she could go to bed, then he'd make his way to the kitchens to meet up with Siesta, get a bite to eat and catch her up on what had happened today.

Had he been paying a bit more attention he would have noticed that the thin scar lines on the back of his right hand that made up the form of an open book were now glowing with a soft white light.