Shirou sat at the table in the dining room besides the newest visitor to his house, the vice director of the Clocktower, Lorelei Barthomeloi. She sipped her tea calmly her posture showing none of the fear and terror that her voice had displayed when she fought Primate Murder. Still her hand trembled almost imperceptibly, a testament to the fact that of the four gathered there she was the only one that qualified as fully human and therefore the most affected by the Beasts' aura. Nine entered the room with two more cups and the vice director barely glanced at him. She had been a bit on edge upon arriving in his house unexpectedly but after she had met Nine and Shirou had shared the story of how he had originally acquired him she seemed to loosen up and even managed to favour him with a smile.

The two of them were currently sitting and waiting for the rest of the group to return. Shirou had earlier offered the use of his workshop to attempt to resummons her servant. While she accepted the offer and then proceeded to do a perfect summon without the use of his guidebook no servant had responded to the offer which confirmed their current theory that all other servant slots were currently full.

Suddenly a disturbance pinged his bounded field and Shirou's focused on it trying to decipher the signature. After a moment he recognized it and with a slight emission of prana lowered the bounded fields. "We're about to have company," he said to the woman next to him. "Don't worry they are both Masters and friends."

Lorelei merely glanced at him before inclining her head in a gesture of acceptance. The next moment Arcueid entered the room swiftly followed by Satsuki. The two girls sat at the table opposite them, visibly eying up the Barthomeloi head and causing the male to female ratio to once again take a dip. "How did it go," Shirou said to the two newcomers. "Find anything out.'

Satsuki relayed what she had heard from Merem with Arcueid adding one or two points as she went. The Magician and the Magus listened intently even though there was an almost imperceptible wince on Shirou's face at the mention of the other red-headed Aozaki. When the full tale had been relayed Shirou sat back in his chair, looking visibly stressed. "That is not good," he said shaking his head. "Assuming the entire side is composed of the DAA then that means we have fourteen combatants of beyond human capabilities." He winced. "In particular those are not the weakest Dead Apostle Ancestors by far and they will have most likely aimed for the strongest servants."

"Achilles is the only one I have met so far that I can identify," he continued. "The other one I had difficulty understanding name and origin. From what I've seen he had the ability to create degraded copies of Noble Phantasm's using an unidentified branch of projection."

"Furthermore, Achilles seems to be invulnerable under certain conditions," Lorelei interjected. "Despite landing blows on him by rapier was unable to penetrate his skin. However both you and your servant were able to wound him. Do you have any clues as to why that was?"

Shirou shrugged his shoulders. "None, but I will try to kill him in the next fight," he said. "I'm not a fan of letting opponents escape and he's done so twice."

"What exactly happened Shirou," Arcueid asked. "And where's your servant."

"Well my servant is…" Shirou paused for a moment. "Here," he said with a note of weariness in his voice due to the thought of the imminent meeting.

"Such a thoughtless man," the musical voice rang out through the room. "Really I grace you with my beauty and you refuse it. I save your life multiple times during the night and you still look at me with those eyes. Oh, why must I always desire the most obstinate men?"

The woman that had entered the room possessed a stunning beauty. She stood at around 1.7 metres but her imposing presence made her feel much taller. Her eyes were bright red and they along with her smile contained an alluring mischief dashed with just a hint of cruelty. Her skin contained the slightest hint of bronze and her hair was jet black with the occasional strand of red that glinted alluringly. Her body was perfectly proportioned with not a hint of wasted fat and yet she couldn't also be called slender. Lastly her breasts were a B-cup that despite being of no spectacular size was emphasised by the way she posed and the scanty outfit that she wore, a mere loincloth combined with a top that only covered the essentials and nothing else but jewellery.

The woman that had entered the room radiated both sex and danger and it was such a potent combination that she somehow managed to get both Satsuki and, to Shirou's surprise Lorelei, to blush.

"I am truly thankful for your help, don't get me wrong," Shirou admitted. "But not a day goes by when I look at your manifestation of beauty skill and am fucking glad I sealed it." He took another sip of his tea. "I fear that if I hadn't we would be having the Holy Grail orgy."

Ishtar pouted and Shirou had to physically restrain himself from comforting her. Arcueid didn't have as much willpower. "Don't worry Rider," she said hugging the Babylonian goddess. "One day we'll make your true feelings reach Shirou."

Rider hugged the last remaining True Ancestor back and then Shirou noticed that her hands were going lower down Arcueid's back.

"Rider," he said seriously in an attempt to break off her line off thought. "What did you think about the Giant Wolf?"

Rider paused in her planned molesting breaking off the hug and letting the True Ancestor get back to her seat. "Very strong," she admitted. "It took a lot of my arrows like they were nothing." She suddenly puffed out her chest. "But I managed to stab out its eye. That creature will know not to mess with my glory." Suddenly she smiled. "And if the mongrel refuses to learn its lesson then I could always show it the power of a True Phantasmal Beast."

"Forbidden," Shirou interjected quickly. "You as good as admitted you cannot control it. There is absolutely no way I'm letting you summon that walking atrocity. Besides I'm about ninety percent sure I don't have the mana to do so, and I refuse to resort to jewelcraft."

"There's no need to be so unpleasant," the goddess stated. "It was just a suggestion, but if it makes you feel so uncomfortable we'll do it your way. You do have a plan correct."

"Indeed," Shirou said. Turning to Lorelei, he confirmed with her. "Your servant was Romulus right?"

"Yes," he was Lorelei confirmed with no remaining trace of bitterness in her voice.

"Then am I right in assuming that tree that he summoned had something to do with the roman civilisation. Some metaphor for the people of Rome."

Lorelei scrutinized him and nodded her head. "Yeah, that's not going to work," Shirou said. "Primate Murder has an advantage against humans. That means any human created or wielded Noble Phantasm will be all but useless against it. Only divine weapons or beings that are not part of the Human Race will be able to affect the creature to any significant amount." Shirou took another sip of his tea. "Romulus for all his power was a human heroic spirit. This allowed him to fight the Beast but not significantly harm it. However someone like Arcueid or my servant would not be disadvantaged at all."

"What about his regeneration?" Lorelei asked. "Do you know a way to overcome that?"

Shirou nodded. "A bounded field," he replied. "To be specific one that has the sole purpose of cutting the Beast off from Gaia." He turned towards Satsuki, "How's your reality marble?" he asked. "Can you manifest it into the world yet?"

Satsuki opened her mouth to state that her reality marble was not able to be manifested when her mouth closed. A sudden bout of confidence seized her and the words that she was going to say were snatched and replaced. "Don't worry," she said with that bout of renewed confidence. "When we face Primate Murder I will be able to seal him off from the world."

Shirou nodded at her trusting in her abilities. "Lastly," he said. "Even taking into account his overwhelming power and speed, the thing that makes the Beast so deadly is his way of actualizing miracles," he turned to see Lorelei nodding along with him. "You noticed it also?" he inquired of her.

"Wishcraft," the vice director said. "It is the domain of Demons which only the Einzberns have ever entered as magi. As long as that Beast has prana there is no limit to the miracles it can enact."

"Yeah," Shirou admitted, "I would like to put off Primate Murder until we consolidate our power. I vote that we go after softer targets first. The Ancestors are not known for their teamwork after all. If we can take out those that are on the fringes then we have a chance to reduce their power before we are forced to take on the White Wolf."

Those around the table nodded in agreement. "I'm going to get some rest, "Arcueid said. "Tomorrow afternoon I'm going to track down the fifth magician since Shiki knew her personally, he can point her out for me."

"Yeah, I'll turn in as well," Satsuki said as she started to head out.

"Wait," Shirou said halting her in her tracks. "Stay with us in the house," he continued. "It is unbelievably deadly out there right now and if you step outside it is likely you will be tracked down and killed by at least one of the ancestors. I can guarantee you that the protections around this house are among the best in the world. Even Brunestud's monster would not be able to gain access to this place." He took a breath. "I will try to track down Rin and the last master tomorrow and move everybody here behind the defences."

Satsuki nodded in assent, but it was a grudging nod to which she did not look happy. Once she left the room Shirou turned towards the last remaining member of the group. "I'm also offering you sanctuary," he said to the expressionless face of Lorelei. "I will even allow you to bring over other members of the Clocktower if necessary. This is not the time to ignore any possible help. But if I even hear of enforcers being sent after that girl for the 'crime' of possessing a Reality Marble I will turn the Clocktower into a sinkhole."

"I will graciously ignore your threats," the brown-haired magus bit back just as forcefully. "But I will remind you that the Clocktower does not assign sealing designations to independent magi." The magus finished off her tea and placed the teacup down where it was immediately picked up by Nine. "While I noticed the girl was not human, the fact that the True Ancestor abides by her indicates that she is not likely to go after humans any time soon. I dislike Reality Marbles because their owners are either monsters or lunatics. As long as she doesn't become either I have no time for a simple magus from the orient."

The woman stood up. "I have my own base that I established upon coming here. While I believe it would be best to maintain friendly relations I will be bringing a large number of specialised apostle hunters that this house is not equipped to handle."

At this the woman nodded to him and left the room with not even a goodbye.

"Wow, somebody needs to get laid," the voice of his servant came from behind him and he felt her hands on his shoulders working the muscles.

"No seduction Ishtar," Shirou called out reluctantly despite current his enjoyment of the massage. "I'm going to take a nap; we'll retrieve the Tohsaka tomorrow."

xxx

Ishtar retrieved her crown from the gatekeeper and placed it upon her head. The land around her was paved with black obsidian and the air was heavy and stale around her. Multitudes of terrifying flickered in the shadows that displayed themselves in the corners of her eyes and the lamentations of the dead were echoed pitifully in the great goddess's ears. In front of Ishtar was a young man with golden locks that possessed impressive beauty. Even Ishtar despite the situation felt somewhat jealous at the looks possessed by the boy in front of her. As she continued walking and following the boy a bolt of light displayed itself illuminating the cave and the surface world. Ishtar found herself moving at a greater speed subconsciously. As she stepped out of the mouth of the cave she felt the land beneath her change. From the feeling of death, the land began to reawaken and the air came alive again. The dirges of the dead faded into the distance.

"Good to see you back in the land of the living Inanna," the masculine voice rang out to the side of Ishtar and she turned around to see a man laying against the rocks.

The goddess smiled at the man who gave only a weak smile in response. "Thank you for helping me," she replied to the man.

"You took the entire authority of fertility down to the underworld Inanna," the man replied looking weary. "You could have ended all life on earth. I thought you told me you weren't going to cause any more catastrophes after the last incident."

"Well as long as you're always there to fix things up I'll be okay," the young goddess laughed.

The man shook his head. "Look at the bad example you're giving to the young Inanna." He turned towards the golden-haired young man. "Take note of this exhibit child. Women like this will ruin you."

The scene faded to black as Ishtar pouted and the golden haired young man snickered.

xxx

Shirou hopped the closed gate of Homuhara academy with the utmost of stealth. He had technically been committing truancy the past few days and while he had enough money that he didn't need to work he still didn't want to deal with Taiga. She had always insisted that he stay in school and work hard despite his absolute disdain for the Japanese schooling system.

Whistling Shirou walked through the doors placing the concept of concealment lightly around himself causing him not to be noticed by any patrolling teachers. Peeking in the corners as he went he looked to find the classroom that Rin was in. He noticed his command seals tingle indicating the presence of a nearby master and after a bit of extra searching he found herself in the classroom dutifully taking notes while listening to the science lecture of some or other teacher. Shirou had never met him, so he didn't know his name.

Dropping his spell of concealment he boldly strolled into the classroom, all of the heads immediately turning towards him as he did so. As the teacher turned to ask him something Shirou pulled out a device from his pocket quickly that looked like a silver ridged tube. "Can everybody please look at the memory manipulating device," he said.

A flash of white light later and there was a vacant dazed look in the eyes of all the students of the classroom except Rin who was just staring at him in disbelief. "All right," Shirou said. "Continue having your standard school day learning rote facts that will in no way help our fucking awful economy. Rin didn't come to school today; she's had to take the week off due to an overseas appointment. Goodbye everybody. Come on Rin we need to go," he said talking now to his pigtailed associate.

"You just used magecraft," Rin said slowly as if she couldn't believe it.

"And nobody will remember it," Shirou asserted. "But this war has just gotten a lot more dangerous. If we're not careful it could lead to the destruction of Fuyuki."

Rin looked as if she wanted to further ream him out but the thought of both the city she "owned" and the deaths of the people living in it caused her to bite down her retort.

"Fine," she said glaring at Inke. Packing up her bags she slung it over her shoulder and followed the impatient Magician down the hallway.

"Are you sure that device is safe," Rin asked as they both walked down the hallways.

"Yeah it should be safe," Shirou said. "Tested it on mice, then cats, then dogs then a particularly belligerent tiger and then I tried it on people," Shirou said winking at Rin as if he had just told a joke.

"So you just go around performing magecraft and making people forget," Rin said.

"Actually I've only used it on one person so far and that was by her request," Shirou shook his head. He had offered to teach Yukika magic as she had a decent amount of circuits but the quiet girl had politely but firmly refused and requested that Shirou remove her memories as he offered so she didn't accidentally let slip. Shirou was quite impressed with her dedication to normalcy and he had imparted a concept of luck onto the girl as he had wiped her memories. Last thing he had heard was that her family's situation had improved and he felt rather smugly proud of himself for that.

Both of them left the school gates that Shirou opened by jiggling the lock with water. Walking forward he froze.

Rin's servant materialized beside her much to her surprise as he did so. "We're being watched," he said.

"Don't materialize out here," Rin said. "There's no way that they will attack us in the daytime. It would jeopardize the secrecy of the twilight world."

"I'm not so sure," Shirou said as he watched a figure that approached. "He sharpened his eyesight to try and gain any insight into the looks and abilities of the sudden opponent."

Suddenly and without warning the world shifted and Rin and Shirou as well as their servants found themselves standing in a large courtyard under a sunny blue sky facing a humongous temple that stretched to the sky and as far as the eyes could see.

"Teleportation," Rin said amazed at the demonstration of power that seemed to be akin to the second magic.

"Wrong," Shirou corrected her gently. "This is an enemy reality marble. We are fighting inside the opponent's territory."

Rin turned to talk to Shirou and was cut off as the earth shook. Again it shook and both Magus and Magician seemed to come to the same conclusion at once. Shirou stepped forward and Rin dashed backwards. Gawain materialised next to Shirou giving him a nod as he did so. Ishtar appeared the magus, startling her slightly, and drew her bow pointing it at the entrance to the temple.

The temple doors creaked open and through the massive entrance a familiar creature stepped. A human face that sat atop a lion's body that was the size of Primate Murder even if it possessed nowhere close to the potency. In addition the beast was covered with flames and despite the distance between them it was akin to standing in a furnace.

"So," Shirou began. "I think we can safely assume this servant is Egyptian." He scrutinized the flaming Phantasmal Beast that stood at the entrance of the temple. "Think it wants to ask us riddles?"

Author Note: Do you know I never know precisely what to say in this short Blurb. I suppose I should just thank people for all the reviews I've gotten and for helping me to improve my story.

Guest Yes it is. I haven't established Shiki (girl shiki) as a character in this story and I really don't want to write her.

Celestial Brush No command seals used on him yet but he is even less free than if they were. Aoko is described as a cheerful, truthful person that follows through on all she undertakes and regrets nothing. She also causes massive destruction wherever she goes. She was the catalyst for summoning Kiyohime. Believe me, they're compatible.

Archleone Yeah, my worry about the grail war was that too much was going to go on and I would lose people. The trick I've found is to do it like you would eat an elephant. One bite at a time. I despise the process of Deus Ex Machina and I prefer to leave hints and foreshadowing about a persons abilities. I will try not to lose you but I can safely say that the story still has a bit of escalation to go before the climax. Both teams are incredibly strong, if this was a standard grail war without those participants the Ancestors would sweep it but now their opponents chances increased to 'not impossible'.

Lastly the servant that she was talking to was Kiyohime. I'm genuinely not sure why you think it's Tamamo but I'm finding it hilariously ironic that the one time I actually straight out mention the servant's name people still don't get the right one. Sorry but you made me smile.