In order for the ritual to be performed, they would have to journey to what Niven called a "Ley Line Nexus". Though the 12 holy lands would also suffice, they were all well known and well guarded. Most other nexi were also closely observed by puritanical magisters as well, but one rather famous one was guarded almost exclusively by mere muggles. This nexus was Stonehenge, England. The muggles there did a pretty decent job of defending it, so the puritans saw little need to guard it themselves. This, however, left it open to exploitation by radical magisters like Niven. A few memory charms here, a repulsion spell there, plus a few buddies to defend you while you did your business, and you could do most anything you wanted with it. Oh yes, there's no way those narrow minded puritans wouldn't notice, but that's what underground contacts are for. Over the years Niven had discovered other people sympathetic to his causes, both human and otherwise. And they were more than happy to lend their influence, knowledge, and power to him at his request.

"So Cipher, how is Britain?"
"Too many cameras. I don't like being watched by people itching to arrest me."
"Hahaha! You know they can't see us right?"
"That still doesn't make me feel any better."
"You've said it yourself, so many cameras they may as well not be looking at you at all."
"Yes, well, I said that when there weren't any cameras around…that I knew of anyway."
"Touche."

The car was cloaked and they were in a hurry. It took them hours to get through customs and they had to start the ritual right at sunset. The driver looked like a punk rocker and was taking large swigs from a fifth of vodka. Niven said his name was Jason Sneck. He was obviously drunk, yet his driving skills were absurd even while inebriated. He effortlessly weaved between cars and trucks that had no idea he was even there.

"You cannot hope to stop me ya hopeless slaves!" said Jason. Niven said he was a smuggler he met in bar in the mundus magicus, running various forbidden items like love potions and gender bender pills from the boonies into the cities and diplomatic centers of that world. Though Jesus himself ministered to all, Alex just couldn't see Niven hanging out in the dive bars that he would have had to in order to meet such a person. After many close calls and a hard stop, they had arrived.

"Here we are." He said happily.

Pictures of stonehenge are everywhere on the internet and in libraries, so it's useless to describe it here. The sun was going down and there were 3 other strangely dressed people waiting for them. One was a horned woman with a strange heart like tattoo on her forehead and a thick tail coming out of her rear. She was almost completely flat (likely due to her sarashi), had an average face, and wore a deep blue denim shortskirt. She was also wearing thigh-highs and her forearms were bound in strips of leather with glowing runes inscribed upon them. Other than that, she was totally bare. The other woman was very well endowed yet dressed far more conservatively. She was obviously a kitsune, given her fox ears and multiple tails. The last one looked human, but he couldn't have been more than 15. He wore normal old world civilian clothes and sported a thick set of glasses.

"Just who are these people anyway?"
"The boy is Emiya Itsuki, the fox is Ffion Rose, and the scantly clad one is Inari Mikoto."
"Nice to meet you all, he already told you everything right?"
"Almost everything Aleph." said Emiya.
"Good." said Alex.
"We should get started. Rose, I need you to contract with Cipher. Your irreconcilable personalities should make for an interesting result." Said Niven, smiling.
"Ohhh goody! He's more handsome than what you described Niven. But the question is..." She sauntered over to Alex in a seductive manner. She wore a long sleeved shirt with a gray knee length skirt, black hose, and plain shoes. "What do you think of me?"

There was no denying she was a complete bombshell, even with golden eyes, fox ears and 5 tails flapping around. Hell, those things actually served to make her even more striking.

"You are just as the legends say you ought to be, kitsune."
"Ohhhhh? You're pretty well read aren't you! I love that in a man. Yet there's something a bit...off-putting about you. Think it's a side effect of your little kink?" She pushed her finger against his head.
"Probably, it'd sure explain what's happened to me over the years." he said unphased.

She put her hands on his face and looked into his eyes lustfully as she pushed his head into her breasts.

"You're just too handsome for your age, you know that? Just holding you makes me want to do things." Her eyes and voice were dripping with desire, "Please, let me do something to you..." she slowly moved her hands up his spine and to his cheeks. "Please..." Their faces were beat red. She kissed him deeply. The fact she wasn't human didn't bother him in the slightest. But though he anticipated many things, being propositioned was...

"Pactio!" said a new voice.
Somehow, someone had drawn a magic circle at their feet without him noticing. "Damnit, I let my guard down!" he thought.

It activated, causing a bright flash of light. However, instead of causing a sharp headache, he felt a soothing warmth. Once the light began to subside, she withdrew her soft lips and moist tongue slowly. A children's playing card materialized before them. It showed a picture of him in the middle of an ornate hexagram surrounded by the 12 symbols of the zodiac. Only he wasn't dressed at all like in the picture. He had a determined look on his face and was holding his right hand in front of it. He wore a black shirt and black pants. Over them he was wearing a black sleeveless cossack trimmed in midnight blue. The cossack, however, wasn't complete. The part below his waist only covered his backside... His shins, forearms, and feet were armored in plate the same blue as the cossack was trimmed. Yet his hands were strange. They bore fingerless gloves with jewels on the 'top' that were so black they seemed to drain away the light around them. Not dull, but in no way shiny or reflective, they defied conventional description. There was writing as well, all in latin with a slight decorative flair to the text. Thankfully, Alex had been boning up on the language with Niven's help and could easily read it.

Crimen (Crimson)
Alexander Cipher
Magus Toleratia (Resigned Mage)
Clementia (Compassion)
Occidens (West)
Jovis (Jupiter)
VIII

"Wow! A super rare crimson level artifact! Summon it summon it summon it!" Said Ffion as she jumped up and down excitedly.
"Alright...Adeat!"
Another comforting flash of light engulfed him, putting him in the outfit he saw on the card.
"That's it? Where's the artifact?"
"Why you're wearing it my dear." This was a voice he'd never heard before. Unmistakably British, kind, and deviant. Like it belonged to some kind of restrained pervert.
"Who's there, show yourself!" once more feigning emotions he didn't really feel all that strongly to get what he wanted.
"Down here!" he looked down and saw a small creature who's fur is highly prized for making coats. "Name's Paula. I've never seen an artifact like this one though."
"How do I use it?"
"No idea, I just know that pactio spirits thought it suited you."
"This artifact suits me?"
"Correct. A pactio artifact always reflects the traits and personality of the one possessing it." She said while striking an intellectual pose, "Your artifact, in short, is always very 'you'."
"If they thought that an artifact that does absolutely nothing except put me into a cosplay outfit that is very 'me', then we have a problem." He honestly sounded annoyed.
"Don't worry, it definitely does something. Pactios are never useless." said the horned woman that was now dragging him towards the center of the formation.
"We can't wait to see what it does!" yelled Ffion and Paula in unison, waving at him from the distance.

"Are you ready?" She asked him.
"Just one question, why do you wear such outlandish clothing?"
"Because I think it's practical. Above all else, I must avoid getting hit. Clothing and heavy armor restrict movement." She said in a repressed yet beautiful and elegant tone, much like one would expect of the royalty of legend. It looked like she'd failed to execute on that line of thought a few times though. Now that she was close he could clearly see large scars indicative of sword slashes and at least one that had to be the result of impalement on the uncovered parts of her body. They were in no way ugly to him. Indeed, in some perverse way, they served to augment her beauty. But that didn't change the facts…

"So you don't care that you're leaving very little to the imagination?"
"Not really."
"Are people like you common on your side?"
"Not really, my kind are somewhat uncommon." She paused for a moment, "You know what you risk here. Are you prepared?"
"Of course."
"Alright then." She placed an earbud in his ear and with a sad look on her face blinked out of sight. "I hope you survive Alex."

A magic circle involving 'common' occult symbolism materialized. Crowlian unicursal hexagrams, ruinic letters inscribed within concentric circles, and other such things glowed beneath his feet with a crimson light, it slowly turned to silver. So this is what those two pints of blood and that bucket of tungsten carbide powder were for. Once the circle had expanded to the henges themselves, the circle he was standing in began to spin clockwise. The ruinic letters, however, began to spin counterclockwise. His sense of time was utterly shattered. Seconds, days, years, he could no longer tell, they all bled together. In one instant the ground was solid crimson-silver, the next, the magic circle was totally still. The world lost all rhythm, his senses were in absolute chaos.

"Don't be scared Aleph, I know that your boys on this side got it all wrong, but trust me, they were right about this particular ritual." Another new voiced sounded in his ear.
"Itsuki right? They never made a ritual to instantly turn you from mere mortal to mid level magus, and I read things like 'The Book of the Law' cover to cover." Alex had to struggle to force a perception of time and order on his reeling mind and body.
"I meant the symbols. Niven told me you love questions so I'll answer the one that's probably in your head. You think this won't to do anything, but he's been researching this stuff for decades. It'll work." He said.
"I don't know where I am." He said. The chaos had subsided, but now he felt as though he was on his back in an ocean of waving water, yet he knew damn good and well he was standing upright on solid ground.
"Don't trust your senses, if you break the circle now you're dead. Focus!"
"Ok, I'm focusing."
"You need to..." Static.

The gentile waves turned into a storm of needles. Pain wracked every part of his body. This was just like in the library, only here it wasn't just his head that was throbbing. He felt himself slam into hard ground, he was in the air this whole time? The pain got worse and worse with every second. Every pain receptor in his body was firing at full blast, it was so much that he couldn't even manage to scream. He should have passed out, but something kept him from doing so. Why?

After a few moments the pain stopped, but it was replaced by a pleasant but terrifying sensation. He could feel himself begin to disintegrate, his body was spreading out and scattering to the winds. "I'm sorry." Was the only thought he could call to the forefront of his mind. He was sure this was the end...

And that's the end of Chapter 7. Stay tuned, we ain't nowhere near the end of the story. There's still much more to go, hope you'll stick around.