"Silver and iron to the origin. Stone and the archduke of contracts to the cornerstone.
The ancestor is my great master Schweinorg!"
How does he even remember such a convoluted incantation without even understanding the obscure mystical significance of the things he's saying, you ask?
"The alighted wind becomes a wall.
The gates in the four directions close, coming from the Crown, the three-forked road that leads to the kingdom rotate."
Even after all the betrayal, battle, and other strange experiences he has gone through, Naofumi Iwatani was, and still is, an otaku at heart. Just like a foreigner knows an anime opening's lyrics by heart without really understanding them, he also remembers the Servant summoning incantation.
"Shut (fill). Shut (fill). Shut (fill). Shut (fill). Shut (fill).
Repeat every five times.
Simply, shatter once filled."
The Shield Hero was dismayed that the ritual circle remained inert even after calling out to the dimension-travelling vampire, but he soldiered on. Though he wouldn't admit it, the potential of meeting a legendary hero was enough that even his jaded self got excited enough to power through this, even if it may just end up as another cringeworthy event to bury in the recesses of his memory. Worst comes to worst, he'll have to bribe Raphtalia with something to pretend it never happened.
"I hereby announce!
Your self is under me, my fate(doom) is in your sword.
In accordance with the beckoning of the…"
Naofumi faltered, belatedly realizing that there was no such thing as a Grail in this world. Improvising, he used the other supposedly divine item in his possession as subject of the chant.
"...Holy Shield, if you abide by this feeling, this reason, then answer!"
The Holy Shield's gem blinked in alarm as it suddenly felt huge amounts of magical energy channeled through it. It vibrated and sent notification alerts to its wielder, trying to catch his attention to make him stop and leave it out of whatever unknown ritual its wielder was trying to enact, but they went completely ignored as Naofumi's attention was completely captivated by the fact that the mockery of a ritual circle finally lit up in full force.
"An oath shall be sworn here!
I shall attain all virtues of all of Heaven; I shall have dominion over all evils of all of Hell!
You, seven heavens clad in three words of power, arrive from the ring of deterrence, O keeper of the balance!"
And as he finished uttering the last words of the chant, his and his companion's world flashed white.
~~o0o~~
"Naofumi-sama, are you sure this will work?" Raphtalia asked uneasily as the hero examined his handiwork, a six-pointed star within a circle drawn with monster blood, of which there was still a quarter-full bucket sitting by his side.
It had occurred to Naofumi a short while after the Filolial he'd named Filo hatched from the egg he got at the slaver's Monster Lottery.
The bird was growing frighteningly fast and would quickly become a useful member of his little group in spite of the cost he's paying in the amount of food the totally-not-chocobo was inhaling.
But...was this going to be enough?
The waves were only going to get harder, the other heroes did not appear to be getting any more tolerable nor competent, and he was still a hated man in this damn country.
"No, not really," he bluntly replied, "With my luck, it's more than likely that there is no version of Earth out there where the Moonlit World is real. But we have nothing to lose if it fails, and everything to gain if it works. Not that I don't trust you or think you're not strong enough - you've come a long, long way from the sickly little girl you were and there's no one else in this world in whose hands I would trust my life into," Naofumi went on, not noticing the girl's reddened cheeks.
"But there are only two of us-" at this, an annoyed chirp resounded from the ground, making him roll his eyes, "Okay, three, so I'm not so foolish as to believe we can save this world with this little people, and we have no luxury of waiting until Motoyasu and the others pull their heads out of their asses."
The tanuki girl sighed at Naofumi's crass choice of words, but couldn't refute any of them.
The hero himself was rue to admit, but two and a half party members was far from ideal. Someone else to depend on, an extra pair of hands was something they could really use. The earlier encounter with the Big Frog when their actions were completely out of synch came to the forefront of his mind. He didn't want to imagine what would've happened to Raphtalia had it been a more dangerous monster...
Another reason for what he was doing was that he didn't want to experience the way Raphtalia had been taken away from him ever again. He couldn't help but wonder if things would've turned out differently back at the banquet had there been backup. Naofumi was hard to kill, sure, but having another party member to depend on should something happen to Raphtalia or himself (though mostly himself - it would be a cold day in hell before he would let anything happen to Raphtalia) would do wonders for his peace of mind.
But it wasn't that simple.
Even with his recent success selling medicine, they could hardly afford another party member living off him. They weren't all that far off from living hand-to-mouth, to be honest. And this was without taking into account his trust issues.
That's why a Servant would be perfect for his purposes.
Even if he summoned a difficult Servant it would be something he could solve with the threat of a Command Sigil, and since they would subsist off his MP and needed neither food nor sleep, he could both save expenses and get someone to depend on for night watch on top of the potential firepower of a legendary hero to compensate for his lack of an ability to attack and to help Raphtalia.
Seeing there was nothing else he could remember that was needed for the ritual, the Shield Hero raised a hand towards the circle and began chanting.
~~o0o~~
And then came the tell-tale phrase.
"Servant Archer. At your summons, I have come forth. I ask of you, are you my Master?"
Confusion set in the moment the wind buffet and light abated.
Before him stood a girl in late teens with dark skin, white hair and amber eyes, in red and black armor.
Is...is this EMIYA's little sister or something?
"Who are you?"
