AN: Hello
This story is based on the ideas presented in the most recent chapters of Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya at the time of writing this, those being an alternate timeline or what have you version of Earth that really went to shit with the Age of Gods never ending and leading to what we have here. there's a whole bunch of background info I've had to come up with for this to work and figuring it out obviously so if its not said by any character why things are the way they are then assume they don't know much about things beyond the history the world has for Remnant.
Otherwise the title is representative of the characters present and this chapter is pretty much just a taster, I'm in the midst of writing the story and where I wanted it to end up still so it's likely to be more than a few months before the next chapter is released.
Also all the Servants are summoned and completely differing times, the farthest summon going back to two whole years before the main characters of RWBY go to Beacon. Which should also be a tell as to how messed up this war already is seeing as the time frame for the summoning is so fucked up.
Chapter Title: Herculean Task
Arc 1: Night of Fate
"Fill, fill, fill, fill, fill...
Repeat every five times...
But destroy each when filled.
――I announce."
The girl with an amazonian physique and the crimson red hair standing over the familiar summoning circle she had spent her life learning about from her mother who taught her everything she needed to know about Magecraft even in its dying state as an artform and way of life. Though she'd never say as much to the older woman lest she catch her ire.
Red command seals on the back of her left hand glowed and thrummed with prana and energy as they responded to the call in the large indoor eastern style forest room where she was performing the ritual that would hopefully summon her a very powerful Servant from a relic that had been in her family for centuries supposedly.
"Yourself is under me, my life is in your sword.
In accordance with the approach of the Holy Grail, if you abide by this feeling, this reason, then answer."
Growing brighter and brighter the circle drawn out in animal blood on the grass thrummed and bellowed a great deal of Prana in such a way that it distorted the air around her creating a fake wind, her scarlet red shoulder cape flowed and whipped around under the pressure of the wild energy as the circle sparked and writhed.
"Here is my oath. I am the one who becomes all the good of the world of the dead, I am the one who lays out all the evil of the world of the dead.
You, seven heavens clad in three words of power, arrive from the ring of deterrence, O keeper of the balance ―!"
Her bright green eyes widened a great deal as a massive surge of magic energy shattered several nearby trees as they cracked and toppled under the pressure, from the smokey mist that had appeared, a ginormous figure arose. It revealed a muscular scarred man of whom wore a grand smile that drew forth an odd sense of pride in the Girl, his hair short and wild though of a similar colour to hers as he planted a hand on the hilt of Kupriotes.
Letting out a boisterous laugh that shook the much smaller girl by comparison, the man finally spoke in his amazing voice that had a natural charisma to it, as though she could feel his otherworldly wisdom.
"So girl, I ask, are you my Master?"
The sixteen year old girl could only stare at the man before her, unable to come to terms with it truly working. She had been skeptical of what her mother had taught her about Servants and a long lost ritual known as the Heaven's Feel ritual where seven magus are chosen by the omnipotent wish granting device referred to as the Holy Grail in reference to a long lost relic of myth and legend. A long time ago her family had once partaken in one though it was far too long ago for much of anyone to remember let alone their be records of it, in fact she remembered how her mother reacted to the seals appearing on her, the older woman had freaked out as she had once had a great deal of interest in the ritual and what it was about.
Leaving her daughter in the position of being as well informed as possible about it as she could.
"I-" the redhead girl stuttered, losing all composure and possible confidence in herself in that moment, finding herself unable to answer the great man's call to adventure.
"Girl, I can see you are my Master, but here you are incapable of answering your own summons of me." his words shook her from her stupor though he continued to speak before she could try to speak again. "I am Iskandar the King of Conquerors! I would gladly join you in fighting for the Grail! Though..." his voice trailed off after bursting with a radiance upon announcing himself. "Do you happen to carry any maps that will guide us in our Conquest of all the lands?"
"A-uh… yes! I do! There's one over there-" she pointed out a large coloured map of Remnant that was hanging off a tree nearby, her mother had put it in the room on the off chance that her Servant wished to see the modern day world.
"Oh, I see… wait-" the enormous man turned back to her after looking over it. "Girl where is Macedonia on this map? Let alone Greece? I can hardly ride home to my loyal subjects and tell them of my great deeds before setting out for more when I cannot even find my homeland on this Map- unless there's another map I need to know about?"
"What's Macedonia and Greece?" she was thoroughly baffled by the King's declamation and questions.
"Girl are you saying you've never heard of Greece? Macedonia?! The greatest country to ever thrive in Human history! What could possibly have happened to cause such a waste of our deeds?" the King mumbled the last part out.
"N-no I'm sorry I don't… um… also my name is Pyrrha Nikos- I'm sorry for my late introduction I was just taken back by you.."
"See there you go! Surely you must know of Greece with a name like that! Girl you're a born and bred Greek without even knowing! I find it even harder to believe now that you're unfamiliar with our Home."
"I'm sorry K-King of C-conquerors-" Pyrrha apologized once more.
"Bah! There's no need Girl. Now tell me where are we situated in this world then? The Grail has seen fit to give me information about the world, but it doesn't tell me where I am- am I too believe this woodland room is a part of your domicile as well then?" His red eyes scanned the fake forest looking over it all, eventually his gaze became skybound looking out into the bright blue sky above through the large skylight.
"R-right! We're currently in Mistral city at my mother's Mansion, she's also here in the house somewhere, though my father is out doing work in Atlas at the moment." She answered fairly easily once she found her footing and looked to her Servant once more wondering how things might turn out if she was to fight in the coming war with such a seemingly powerful Servant.
[The Invincible Girl and the King of Conquerors]
"State your class and Name." The petite white haired girl dressed in a white and purple dress stated firmly, her beady red eyes hurt the soul of the man who stared back as he found it hard to admit himself to her orders after being summoned by the Grail into what seemed to be an entirely different world.
As she glared at him expectantly, like a petulant child he eventually gave in as though he saw something familiar in how she appeared. "Assassin and I don't know my name" it was a lie, but he'd rather not make a mistake like that even with his master, after all she could be connected to someone he dealt a hand to in his life.
The red shroud wearing servant shook the thoughts from his head as he realized his master was going off at him about something, he noticed that her eyes were actually an icey blue rather than the red he had seen initially in them. Was he seeing things? Surely not.
"Assassin!" the girl shrieked at him as he cast a glance her way from having let his eye wonder.
"Yes Master?" he wouldn't admit it to her face but he did find it quite enjoyable the way she pouted angrily at him.
"Good! You're finally listening to me, I called you far too many times for you to finally respond!" his upset Master yelled making him wince.
"Master you only called for me twice and I responded on the second, I hardly ignored you." that only seemed to make the small girl even angrier.
"Weiss." another voice from the other side of the coldly coloured room said calmly garnering the attention of the young lady in front of him.
"Sister! I- Assassin- you!" the confused mistress of his was liable to cause more problems at this rate.
"So you say you know not for who you were then Assassin?" he nodded to the woman as she stepped forward toward them, he made note of the fact that the siblings looked like clones almost with how much alike they were in appearance aside from obvious age difference.
'Almost like the Ei-' his thought was cut off when he was forced to respond to the expectant look now plastered on the woman's face.
"For all I know I'm could be a Hassan, though I have my doubts, I don't have any recollection of being an old man of the mountain or a student there." the older siblings face scrunched up and his masters eyes narrowed as they both seemed to test the word in their mouth.
"Hassan? Should we know of him? Our family has a fairly poor library when it comes to knowledge on the Heaven's Feel ritual and its subsequent Grail Wars, though what little remains of our Magecraft has lent to at least some basic semblance of power for our bloodline."
"Don't worry about it, I remember enough about fighting and my skills at least- Just give it some time Master and I'll likely remember my name if you don't see it in a dream of my past life later on."
"A dream of your past life?" Weiss asked out loud wondering what he meant watching as the girl turned to her unnamed older sister.
"I know nothing of it either Weiss, our family hardly had any research relating to the root and Akashic records. It would be remiss of us not to at least inquire about it though, I'd hardly like for my sister to go into something this grand as this war and not be prepared as possible?" The regal nature of her posture and way of speaking continued to remind the Assassin dressed in the red cloak of his past.
"It's nothing to be worried about unless she sees a particularly horrific part of my past, which I hope she won't. In short it's just a part of our bond strengthening over the course of our contract that allows us to become closer in a manner of speaking." he paused for a moment trying to come up with a good analogy for a child to understand. "Think of it like dream where instead of living through it, it's more like you're watching a movie."
"I understand, thank you for explaining Assassin..." his master's voice trailed off while her eyes wandered about his form taking it all in again. "What kind of weapons do you have? And do you know what your Noble Phantasm is?"
He would gladly accommodate his master in such a matter. "I use a M9 Bayonet just as a normal knife and carry a pistol on my hip, though it only fires one round at a time." motioning to the aforementioned items as he did so.
"I'm of the impression that Heroic Spirits are, even at their weakest, easily a cut above even the strongest magi, am I correct in my assertion of the matter?" the still unnamed sister of his master asked curiously, he guessed she was wondering about his supposed stat ranks.
"That is correct. As for my abilities, I have Chronos Rose, it is my time control magic sublimed into a noble phantasm and my knife, Phantasm Punishment is the embodiment of my origin and is particularly lethal against opponents with magic circuits or those actualizing mysteries"
"Most importantly-" the sister interrupted his master's response which bothered him some. "What are your wishes for the Grail should we win?"
"Should my master claim victory I would see that as wish in itself, as of currently I have no such wish the Grail could give me- until then though I will spend my time and energy serving and protecting my Master and seeing to it that she comes out on top." the woman's eyes narrowed as her brow furrowed like she didn't enjoy the sound of a Servant without a goal, before coming to terms with it nodding and leaving the room so it was just him and his master.
A sigh escaped the blue eyed girl as she fell back onto her bed once she knew for sure her sister was gone. Seeing his master in a tired state he dematerialized himself so that there was less of a strain on her magic circuits due to his being around, he began thinking about scouting his masters home and familiarizing himself with its layout and learning more of where he was situated when her frightened voice brought him back.
"Assassin?" she was worried upon noticing her servant had vanished instantly the moment she had taken her eyes off of him.
Materializing near her sitting on a chair winced slightly she fell back from her kneeling position on the bed with the look of surprise across her face, he could almost hear her heartbeat just by looking at her face.
"Why'd you d-do that!?" she yelled at him.
"Sorry master, you looked tired so I dematerialized so that my upkeep would cause your circuits less strain until you were acclimated to it." she pouted at him once again and he couldn't help but give an awkward smile from under his guise.
He hoped the young girl understood where he was coming from and would let him dismiss himself, while it wasn't exactly exciting work watching a child, this child was the one who brought him forth from the Throne of Heroes or so they'd believe but it wasn't really like he was completely sure of that other part of his summons either.
"You are forgiven Assassin, just be sure to tell me when you dematerialize next time and inform me of what you are doing- I would hate to lose my Servant before the war has even begun." The fifteen going on sixteen year old girl huffed puffing her cheeks out in a way that was fairly cute, even a killer like him had to admit.
"Is there anything else you might want from me Master? If not I'd like to scout out your home to make sure I understand its layout and how to efficiently move about it and such should the need arise, not that it will but as a precaution."
"There is one thing actually before you go to look around..." she seemed shy to ask what she wanted of the man as he sat in the chair across from her idly. "Would you be willing to show me your face? I know it's weird but I'd like to know the face of the one I'm charging with keeping me safe."
His instanced response on reflex would have been a strong and firm refusal out of sheer possibility that she or her family might have once known of him in some capacity, but against his better judgment and a niggling feeling at the back of his mind without thinking the words "That's fine, I'll show you." fell from his lips surprising both him and his master.
Pulling back the red hood and lowering the bandage half-mask he was wearing revealed the dark tanned skin, grey eyes and silvery white short somewhat spiked hair and the general visage of an older man that had seen a lot in his time.
"You… you don't look how I'd expected you to look..." her voice trailed off as she continued to take in the appearance of her Servant, going so far as to stand up and begin walking around him to see it all.
"What were you expecting? With a comment like that I'd like to know what you thought I might look like, Master." the girl froze in her footsteps, face flushing with a slight red tint as she turned away briefly to let it wear away before answering.
"Well you hardly look terrifying or scary for an Assassin, I guess I just thought you might not look so- so young… like you could be my father or maybe older brother." his master's surprise wasn't unexpected but her comment about him being old enough to be a father brought him back to thoughts of his original life.
"If that's all Master I'll be back in half an hour, just remember we have a link you can talk to me through mentally should you need me sooner." Weiss nodded, watched as Assassin pulled his mask back up and pulled his hood over his head before turning away and dematerializing.
He started with finding all the personal and servant quarters to the mansion so that he knew where everyone slept.
[The Snowflake and the Withered Rogue]
He was the King Of Heroes, the first and oldest ever recorded.
Once just a tyrant that ruined the lives of his people, now he was the wise and beloved King of Uruk that commanded a great deal of loyalty, love and admiration from his people from how he ruled and changed his city for the better along with all their lives. He was grateful for their acceptance of him after he came back from the journey to find immortality, yet here was again without his loyal subjects, no Chamberlain or close advisor to help him see to his duties.
He wondered where she was at this moment? He never admitted to her that she was his closest friend, but he was sure she knew as much.
Now though he was summoned as a Servant in a Holy Grail war, what a joke that some human would summon him so that he was to serve them? What Fools they'd find themselves in quite the situation if that was the case.
"So lowly buffoon, you dare summon… me?" his voice trailed off upon seeing the state of the room around him, or rather the lack thereof.
The building he was standing in had been blown up and everything was shattered and destroyed, the corpse of a woman with the command seals of a master imprinted on the back of her left hand. His master had been killed yet there was no sign of when or how unless she had been caught up in whatever destroyed the building, the sight of the woman did cause him some modicum of sadness at the waste of life.
Grail Wars were already problematic enough without the strain of needing to find a new master, if anything he would have settled for that rather than the predicament that he was forced into. Though it was something else that had taken his attention away from the dead form of his Master-
His eyes squinted and brow furrowed.
"The Age of the Gods hasn't ended?" he questioned no one but the air around him.
His mind raced as he searched for the reason behind it, but he couldn't find it. What he did come across was something that intrigued him, a woman with an almost ashen like fair set of skin, white hair and monstrous red eyes with black scleroses quite the opposite of his fair skin, golden hair and red iris'. Of what he was able to see of her she was nothing to worry about a barely half-baked immortal of whom wanted to take over the world.
He honestly thought her a Mongrel to even sully another world that was graced by him, he owned all the treasures in the world there was no exception, but all the same a woman with a sickened mindset like hers was not fit to hold prestige over a hamlet let alone a Kingdom or world. He would have it no other way, should his hand be forced to the King of Heroes would step in and see to it that she'd never live to see the light of Day again. Though that brought up thoughts of the other he had seen, a man in a green suit with grey hair, he looked the part of his physical age but it seemed he was cursed to be immortal both beings reminded him of his Journey to find it himself. Enkidu's death had done a number on his psyche at the time and left him broken, but now he knew he was much more than that.
Gilgamesh knew he needed to get started on building things himself and collecting his own coalition of subjects, not in the same vein as the fools he was privy to the lives of but to show the Mongrel of this Remnant who their True King was.
Spying a familiar red mantle in his ire despite knowing he'd never met the individual made him smile at the prospect of seeing how he would fare against the greatest Conqueror. Alas he had already wasted far too much time lost in idle thought, he was in need of a new mana supply and had no such wish to bring himself down to the level of a dog and eating it from the dead Humans around him, it was another sickening thought to add to a growing pile.
"Farewell Master, I may have not gotten to know you, but I will account for you in my losses in the next survey of my subjects- such as with a woman grand enough to call for me from the Throne." with the parting words to his master as Gilgamesh began walking away he soon came to a realization, while he personally had a distaste for the idea if it meant keeping one like her around then he would not mind it just this once.
At the very least he would send them back to Kur should he have to.
[A Masterless Clairvoyant]
Three months after the summoning of the first three Heroic Spirits for the Holy Grail War, [She] was summoned under the guise of her normal circumstances required for her to appear. What was the great mystery was as to why she had appeared to begin with, for the person who had the fortitude to bring her to this place, time and Era she was easily willing to freely give her name to her master.
After all they met on a snowy night where the full shattered moon hung in sight of all to see, she was confused by the sight of the celestial body being in such a poor shape.
Much to the confusion of her Master she easily fell into a pattern of being a doting older sister to them, it was a natural part of her personality that she'd never shaken and had no intention of changing. Though part of her was fairly natural towards most things and found herself uncaring for a lot, her master had especially found a problem with it.
But [SHIKI] was no stranger to dealing with problematic people or being problematic for others.
"Saber do you know how long we have until the grail war is supposed to begin?" her master asked the short haired Servant dressed in a white Kimono with a blue obi that had a large bow on the back and carried a sheathed Katana that was normally dismissed by the servant unless she required it.
"I do not Master." She answered almost instantly, she wasn't all that fond of the War itself but was prepared to fight in it. "Have you considered contacting The Church again now that you're a registered Master and asking them what they actually know of the time frame surrounding the War?"
"Oh! Your right I should do that, I'll need to… ah! There it is!" [SHIKI] watched as her master searched for his 'Scroll' a weird device that seemed to take the place of the Cell Phone that part of her was used to carrying for calling people.
Under normal circumstances she was sure a Grail War usually lasted one week maybe two, but this was anything but normal so she wasn't waiting with baited breath about this one. More than likely she had her suspicions that things were liable to be as crazy and wild as they could possibly get with something she had noticed along with her summons, much like she was sure a few of the other Servants would notice. After all it was hard not to see a glaring issue like that.
AN: I'm aware of some of the more run-on sentences as well as some issues with perspective tense, you'll just have to bare with it for a few chapters while it settles because it's been a while since I've written from third person.