"So…. You're saying that by using this summoning circle, I can summon another servant to fight for me in the Grail war?" Shirou had to ask, earning a nod of acceptance from the elf like woman.
"Yes, with your prana capacity and the Denial Of Nothingness," he idly moaned that it wasn't what she said it was before she continued, completely ignoring his complaints, "you could probably maintain over a hundred servants at full power without the help of the Grail, let alone with it."
"But why am I summoning another one?" he couldn't stop himself from asking, earning a small smirk off the Magus from the age of Gods.
"You want to ensure the safety of everyone correct?" he nodded, they had already gone over his goals after all, "then think of it this way, the more servants you have, the easier it will be to protect everyone."
"Hmm… so, what is your goal for the Grail anyway?" he decided to ask, she hadn't told him about that yet but the smirk that graced her face told him he probably didn't want to ask anymore.
"Right now… nothing," he blinked, he had not expected that after all, "my goal doesn't require the Grail anymore… since I just want to live a life where I am not constantly getting screwed over by the Gods… where I can fall in love naturally instead of because Aphrodite forced me to."
Shirou couldn't stop himself from frowning at that before asking what was on his mind.
"But why don't you need it anymore?" he felt himself flushing as she stared at him blankly.
"You can support over a hundred Servants without the Grail… as long as you stay alive I can live a life free of the God's," she stated bluntly, who knows, with the Denial of Nothingness you might even be capable of making me a new body that will allow me to live even after you've kicked the bucket, so to speak."
Shirou didn't know what to feel about that statement, well, outside of his irritation that she was still insisting he could use the Denial of Nothingness.
"So now, let's get this summoning over with," and with that, Shirou proceeded to start the ritual to summon a second servant.
XXX XXX XXX
Medea had to blink in surprise at what she had just seen.
She had NOT expected there to be TWO summoning circles in the shed.
"Servant Saber/Assassin, I ask of you, are you…" the two servants spoke simultaneously before turning to face each other and then her.
"What is going on here?!" the one that introduced herself as Saber cried out, obviously unhappy with the situation at hand.
"Are you the mage… that summoned me… to attain the Holy Grail?" Assassin however simply continued with her original question while facing Shirou.
"Uh… that's an awkward question to answer," that seemed to give the Assassin pause, "I did summon you but I don't really care about the Grail."
"Would one of you please explain to me exactly what is going on right now?" Saber asked with a twitching eyebrow and Caster couldn't stop herself from looking at the servant of the sword.
It was a girl, that much was for certain, what with her short stature and lithe body, along with the silky smooth blonde hair and steel armour with a blue dress underneath it… though what immediately caught her attention was the sword, or rather, how it was enveloped by a powerful current of wind that rendered it invisible.
The assassin however was clearly different, though definitely a girl as well… Medea found herself wondering just what sort of play in fate had resulted in her master getting three servants of the opposite gender for the war.
Assassin was clearly young as well, though her voice was far more… empty, it was the voice of someone that had only one purpose in life. Outside of that, there wasn't much she could say about the girl, she was dressed in a long black, hooded cloak that hid her face in shadow and that was it.
Though something told her, she shouldn't underestimate this assassin even if they weren't wearing the traditional skull mask.
"You do not care about the Grail?" the Assassin asked, completely ignoring Saber's question but earning a nod of confirmation from her master, "then you do not mind… if I destroy it?"
"WHAT!" the witch of Colchis nearly had to cover her ears upon hearing Saber's cry of disbelief, "what do you mean destroy it?!"
"Our God most-compassionate, has no chalice," and then her left arm shot towards the Saber.
"STOP!" and then she stopped, as one of the nine command seals that littered the young boy glowed brightly, "I don't want any of you killing each other!"
"She is a heretic… heretic's must die," Medea found herself gulping nervously at that, she hadn't thought her master would summon something like that… would summon a Zealot.
"No, no killing people… full stop," he added clearly unhappy with her definition of what was an acceptable reason to kill someone.
"You… are the master of both of us?" Saber seemed shocked at that revelation, "I thought…"
"I am not a participant in this war… I am just the Caster," she admitted with an air of smugness.
Then Saber seemed to grow even angrier.
"You… you are supporting three servants?" she practically growled out, earning a nod of confirmation from the red headed teen, "JUST HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE YOU KILLING TO DO THIS?!"
"None," Caster decided t interrupt personally, "he is a True Magician and has a prana capacity great enough to support over a hundred of us at full power without a Grail… and if he ever gets low, he can just make more prana out of nothing."
"H-he isn't harming anyone to support us all?" Saber definitely seemed shocked at that revelation.
"That is correct… he is only even willing to participate because he wants to save as many lives as he can," she really didn't understand the boy, but then again, he was a True Magician, you weren't supposed to understand them.
"Why?" Assassin spoke with clear distaste in her tone, "why save heretics?"
"Ah… it's a stupid reason really," her master was definitely getting annoying with how he seemed to constantly downplay everything about himself.
"Tell me," Assassin seemed far more interested in her master than whatever conversation was happening between her and Saber.
"Well… I promised my dad I would become a superhero and prove that you can save everyone," she had to admit, he was right about it being a stupid reason, "so I want to save everyone to prove that our dream isn't a waste of time… I know it is a foolish dream and that I'll probably never succeed… but I'm not going to just give up, I'm going to keep trying to save everyone I can even if it is an impossible dream."
Silence reigned after that and Medea decided that her previous thoughts on his dream were wrong.
He wasn't stupid, he was an idealist that chose to keep chasing his dream even knowing it was impossible.
That was worthy of at least some respect.
Not much, but some.
"I see…" the voice was just the same as before and the Greek witch found herself wondering if she was going to have to save her master from a homicidal Servant, "we're the same."
That made her stall.
"What do you mean?" Shirou asked in curiosity.
"An impossible dream… by destroying the Grail I can prove my faith," the black cloaked girl said quietly, "I am Servant Assassin… my order called me Zealot… I am yours to command… master."
"Wait!" Saber was clearly not finished, "unlike you, I have a use for the Grail, I cannot allow you to destroy it."
"Oh be quiet," she couldn't stop herself from making that command, "master has more prana than that lousy Grail, if you have any wish then he could probably use Alchemy to make it work without resorting to the Grail."
"The Grail is a very valuable Christian artefact and," she didn't get a chance to finish before Shirou cut her off.
"Christian? I thought it was a Celtic myth that was stolen by the Christians?" the red head asked with confusion in his tone.
"I... I don't know?" she seemed awfully embarrassed at that, "it could be either… all I know is that it is real."
"Of course it is real, we're supposed to be fighting in a war for it," Caster couldn't stop herself from pointing out.
"So… uh… Saber, Caster, Assassin… are you hungry?" and with that said, Caster found herself growing giddy.
And to think, she'd only eaten one meal by him so far.
She wasn't going to turn down any offer he made after that.
XXX XXX XXX
Kotomine Kirei was annoyed.
He knew that all the servants had been summoned but he hadn't had the final participants report in yet so he didn't know who they were.
It would've been so much easier to kill them if he didn't have to hunt them down first.
"Lancer," he called out, using his stolen Command Seals to order the Blue Clad Knight around… sure he wasn't actually using them, there were much better uses for them than making a dog sit, "patrol the city and find the masters of Saber, Caster and Assassin… if your noble phantasm fails, then retreat, that is an order."
"Tch," he knew that Lancer hated that order, he was a battle nut after all and probably hoped he could get a good fight in that night… he just hoped the blue clad warrior wouldn't run into Berserker again… it had taken a lot to get him to retreat and he had almost lost a useful pawn.
"Go," and with that, the spearman vanished to seek out the scent of blood.
Hopefully, tonight would be a good night and he would get rid of an enemy master without any difficulty.
And with that he returned to his office, to listen to all the most embarrassing confessions he had recorded in the booth.
Sometimes things just went too slow for his liking.
XXX XXX XXX
Saber didn't know what to think as she sat at the table, eating what was probably the greatest meal she had ever had the pleasure of tasting.
However her attention was focused not on the food that deserved it, but the conversation between her new master and Caster.
"So you're saying that if you can hit any servant with that little dagger, I can steal their contracts and gain more servants?" the red headed boy asked clearly, earning a nod off the purple robed woman.
"That is correct master, if you were anyone else then I would advise against trying to take anymore servants… but with your prana capacity and aim for the war… I think it is the best option for you to choose."
She didn't know what to think of her master, he was working towards saving even the Servants, completely ignoring the fact that they were fight FOR THE BLOODY GRAIL!
Well… she took it back, Caster didn't care about the Grail and Assassin wanted to DESTROY IT!
She took a deep breath.
She wouldn't let it get to her.
She would just have to wait patiently and perhaps her master would actually prove to be capable of granting her wish with Alchemy… but she couldn't just sit back and do nothing while some Zealot tried to destroy the Holy Grail.
"Seconds… please," Assassin's words cut through her thoughts as she realised, she had also finished her dish.
"Coming right up," and with that, the boy took the empty plates to the kitchen and refilled them using his True Magic.
Honestly, using such a powerful ability for such a mundane chore was ridiculous.
"SHIROU!" she jumped along with the other two servants as something charged into the dining room before freezing.
She stood with her armour on, her invisible sword in hand.
Caster stood with her robes covering her frame and fire dancing in her hands.
… And Assassin… currently had a massive, fleshy, deformed arm twisting behind her.
And the intruder was staring in clear shock.
"Everyone, stand down," she heard Shirou say from his place in the kitchen, "it's only my legal Guardian."
"Understood master," and with that, all three of them put their weapons away.
"Master?" the brown haired woman muttered before falling down in a dead faint.
Her last words were…
"S&M… and Cosplay?"