Chapter Three: Maidens of faith. She's a He!?

Hi everyone! I'm once again back with a new chapter. Today, the final members of the "early" ORC will summon their servants. Before I start though, I'm currently debating on weather or not I'm gonna have the ORC's resident Assassin, Jack, be partly aware of the fourth wall. Tell me what you think in a review, if you wish. Alright, enough of me rambling, let's get on with the show!

(Jack): Yeah! Let it rip!

(Me): Jack!? Where did you come from!?

(Jack): Real world, Fate, chronologically speaking, or in terms of animation? 1888 London, Fate/Grand Order, Fate/Apocrypha.

(Me): *frustrated groan* whatever, enough talk, let's start already!

(Jack): Wait! Shouldn't we give response on some of the reviews?

(Me): I can't believe I'm saying this, but you're right Jack. But which one should we start with? Any suggestions Jack?

(Jack): Not really. Atalante?

(Atalante): Maybe we should clarify things about us Servants, but I think we can cover that later. I found out that our reviewers have figured out that our "mysterious" servant is none other than Mordred "Never-call-her-a-woman" Pendragon. How are you taking this Arturia?

(Arturia): Personally, I look forward to meeting Mordred. She always loved to make every situation we were in into a semi-friendly competition. The same for our soon to be teammates, who'll be appearing in this chapter.

(Atalante): May I ask who?

(Me): Alright everyone, that's enough! I'm not sure I should say this, but you may not like one of them at first, Atalante.

(Atalante): TELL ME WHO IT IS BEFORE I SHOT YOU IN THE ASS!

(Frankenstein): *annoyed growl*.

(Jack): We agree with Franky, let's get on with the chapter already!

AoG: JtR

Being one of the two members of the ORC without a Servant made Issei both jealous and very frustrated. He eventually ran out of patience and simply just took one of the two remaining cards, not really checking which one he took. It was a Rider-card. Its symbol was a large lance with a pair of bird-wings. Eagle-wings to be exact.

After following through the standard summoning-procedure, the Servant started to make their entrance. This time a spell book appeared upon the card, which started flipping through the pages at a very rapid pace, with multiple pages being "torn out", forming a small tornado of magical pages, all of them shining off a golden light. After a few seconds, the pages scattered, revealing the apparently female servant. She had long pink hair in a braided ponytail. When her gaze met Issei's she smiled and snickered for some reason, most likely knowing that she would eventually reveal something funny. Finding Issei's genuinely confused face hilarious, she burst out laughing. When she finally calmed herself down, she introduced herself.

"Hey there." She started. "The name's Astolfo. Rider-class Servant. One of the twelve Paladins of Charlemagne. And as of now, your servant. Shall we proceed to make our contract official?" She asked in heavy undertones of pride in her words. Instead of letting Issei say anything, all she needed was to see his look of determination in his eyes. "I'll take that as a yes." With that, her mark burned into its place on issei's right hand. The mark was a blowing horn with a pair of wings attached to either side of it. When Issei had stopped screaming, he made eye contact with her.

"What's its name? Your mark, what's its name?"

"The Wings of Hope. That's its name."

"Good to know. Good night." Said Issei as he collapsed out of fatigue and being drained of magic. On the floor. Needless to say, never summon a servant in the middle of the night after a long day of exhausting training. That made Astolfo sweet drop at her new master.

"Moron." She exclaimed quietly before carrying him to the sofa and left him there to sleep. She decided that she should follow her masters example. She went to sleep as well.

AoG: JtR

The sun was currently rising, the Gremory-mansion was having a relatively peaceful morning. Until the members of the ORC who wasn't Issei made their by the living room, spotting Issei on the sofa, with a stranger leaning against the sofa on the floor, asleep. Needless to say, the stranger and Issei received a rude awakening.

"ISSEI! Who's the stranger!" Shouted Rias. She then noticed the mark on Issei's hand, the stranger was his servant, a female one if appearances were anything to go on. The servants, who was with their masters, spotted their new comrade, when they did Jack couldn't help but to snicker.

"We can't wait to see how Issei reacts when he find out that his servant isn't a she, but a he!" Thought Jack before she started laughing, loudly, with only the other servants understanding what she was laughing at.

"Care to fill the rest of us in on the joke Jack?" Asked Rias.

"Nope!" Exclaimed Jack, just in time as Astolfo woke. With a yawn, he noticed the large group of people and servants.

"Bonjour! The name's Astolfo. And who might you guys be?" Asked Astolfo. (A/N: Astolfo is originally from the French literary work, Matter of France. As a result, I'll have it that Astolfo will occasionally use a French word, like saying "Bonjour" instead of "Hello" and similar phrases. Imagine him speaking (if you want) with a French accent.)

"Oh a polite one. My name is Rias Gremory, and I, like your master, am a devil. Your master also happens to be my servant." Said Rias. "I hope that we'll get along."

"The feeling's mutual, boss." Said Astolfo somewhat jokingly as he made a an "anything-but-serious" salute.

AoG: JtR

The members of the ORC, specifically Issei and Rias, were currently trying to not only get a good measure of his power in terms of destructiveness, but also increase it. With Asia, Astolfo and Jack watching from the sidelines. Asia being there in case the need for healing arose, while the Servants were there for entertainment, hence why they had snacks and drinks with them. Jack having a bucket of popcorn she shared with Asia, while Astolfo had a bag of chips. Issei was at the moment quite exhausted, but that was to be expected considering how long he'd been at it. Which had been hours. So when he nearly collapsed out of exhaustion, Jack couldn't help but to comment, much to his dismay.

"Well, you know what they say: "No guts, no gory"." At that she laughed, hard. Needless to say, she was the only one laughing. While Jack was busy laughing so hard she couldn't breath, Asia made her way to Issei to help him, however just a few meters away from him she tripped, over nothing. When she hit the ground, something fell out of her pocket. A Servant-summoning-card. It's picture had a lance/spear with a flag, with a christian cross on it, attached to it. The lance/spear also had a set of scales attached to it, just below the flag. The card also had the letters J.d'A below the picture. This caught everyone's attention, especially Astolfo's for some reason.

"Hey Asia." said Astolfo, catching her attention as he picked up the card. "How long have you had this?"

"Uhm… most of my life. Why do you ask? Is it something special about it?" Answered a very confused Asia.

"This is a Servant-summoning-card." replied Astolfo, making Asias eyes widen and catching the attention of Jack and the other devils nearby. "And it contains one of the rarest kind of Servants around. A Ruler, and if my guess on who it is is correct, your predecessor."

"Predecessor?"

"The original wielder of Twilight Healing."

"Woah! Now I really want to do it."

"Then what's stopping you!?"

AoG: JtR

Asia followed the standard procedure of summoning a Servant. Charge the card with magical energy and throw it. When the card hit the ground, a blinding golden light filled Asia's vision. An illusion. When Asia eventually regained her vision, she was standing on a battlefield and at the top of a hill in front of her was something she recognized. The flagged lance/spear. The flag waving in the wind. Then she suddenly heard footsteps from behind the hill. When the owner of the footsteps finally reached the top of the hill, Asia's jaw dropped.

The person on the top of the hill was a woman. Dressed in a dark blue armored coat. She had long blonde hair in a braided ponytail. Asia knew who this person was. Jeanne d'Arc, a holy maiden and if what Astolfo said was true, the original wielder of Twilight Healing. When Jeanne eventually noticed Asia, she grabbed her lance/spear (seriously would someone tell me what her weapon is classified as!?), the flag somehow rolling itself around the shaft, as she started to approach the younger girl. When she spoke, her voice held an unimaginable level of authority and resolve.

"My name is Jeanne d'Arc, a Ruler-class Servant. My I know the name of my summoner?" Asked Jeanne, finishing just a few meters away from Asia.

"Asia Argento. It's a great honor to not only meet but also summon you."

"An excommunicated nun huh?" Thought Jeanne. "Very well then. Now that our introduction is finished, I'll have to ask you," when Jeanne finished speaking, she started to swing and twirl her lance around, showing off her great proficiency with the weapon. And she was done showing off she impaled the ground with her weapon, releasing the flag wrapped around it. "Shall we seal our contract?" Asia couldn't help but stare in awe. She eventually regained her senses and answered.

"Yes. Let us seal our contract, and again it's a great honor." Said Asia as she extended her hand out. Which Jeanne gladly took.

"Brace yourself, this is gonna hurt." And with that, Jeanne's mark, The Scales of Faith, burned itself in place on Asia's right hand. When Asia eventually got up, she had only one thing to say.

"I know I don't have to but I'll say it again, it's a great honor to be your master."

"Please, the honor is mine to be your servant."

AoG: JtR

During the last few days of training, most of the members of the ORC and their servants accepted their two latest additions. The devils were very shocked when it was revealed that Astolfo was actually male and not female like the devils had thought before. Jack found that moment hilarious and as a result laughed very hard for three straight hours. They all noticed the tension between Jeanne and Atalante. In the end, while they didn't reveal what it was about, the two of them came to an agreement, NEVER bring it up and no one will die.

By the time the day of the rating game came around, a mutual agreement between the masters and servants were formed that the servants would not participate in the rating game. Despite not liking the situation, the servants agreed to it on one condition, they got to at least watch it. Needless to say, everyone who was gonna participating agreed. Leading up to why Jack was running off… somewhere shouting:

"We'll grab some popcorn!" Needless to say, most of them were excited.

"OH COME ON! A CLIFFHANGER!? WE HATE THOSE!"

AoG: JtR

(Me): Alright! That's another chapter done. Now onto the questions…*trails off*. Uhm, you okay Atalante?

(Atalante): *mutters something among the lines of "child-murderer* oh right of course I am! Why wouldn't I be?

(Me): You muttered something among the lines of "child-murderer".

(Atalante): …

(Me): Are you still upset about what happened in Romania, which involved Jack and Jeanne?

(Atalante): Alright, you got me. Yes.

(Astolfo): Uhm… am I interrupting something? I thought this section was where we answered a select few of the questions reviewers send us, not where we argue. By the way, Jack has run out of popcorn again.

(Jeanne): I think we're getting off topic. *sweat drops realizing that no one is listening* Anyway… it seems we're on our own, Arturia. Care to give the readers a rundown on us servants?

(Arturia): Should I start with the not-so-obvious lack of command-seals, how Alias001 incorporated us into the DxD-verse, or the servant-summoning-cards?

(Jeanne): The cards maybe? I think the first one is better explained in later context, and the other is something readers learn over time.

(Arturia): Okay then. Every card is unique, just like the Servant it contains. There are tons of cards all over the worlds, but they're very hard to find. Like us servants, the quality of the servant in the cards varies. And if I remember correctly, servants of the Saber-, Ruler- and Avenger-class are the rarest among the cards. Did I get that right, Jeanne?

(Jeanne): Egh. Close enough. *sniffs the air* Does it smell like something just got burned, or is it just me?

(Arturia): It's not just you. Hey Frankenstein! Did Jack try to prank you again?

(Frankenstein): *irritated growl*

(Arturia): I'll take that as a yes. Good bye for now, readers.

(Frankenstein): *somewhat more cheerful growl while waving goodbye*

(Jack): Next time: Noble Party Crash!