Alpha had said something about a great war between seven sides being about to rage and that they would take care of it. He guessed the seven of them were having a fight between themselves. Or maybe a party they didn't want to invite him to.

But he had other things to do, had found something else to do.

The book before him had been written in red ink, which was almost like writing in blood and therefore dark and mysterious. It had been written about magic, and there had been a ton of cool technical terms he'd flicked over and ignored.

Because even if it wasn't going to work, he wanted to try it out. Cid cut his own hand to let the blood run free and spent the last ten minutes painting the floor in front of him in blood. And now he sat half expecting it to be a dud as he chanted his way through it.

Except the light that came was not normal. Filtered free of anything except the circle and he knew it wasn't his own magic running its course. As the room itself sparked with an ethereal glow, as reality seemed to distort around him.

He smiled.

When it finally cleared an old friend was standing before his eyes. A bemused expression on her face as she spoke. "It seems you are such a terror that you have summoned me as a Caster class servant. To have summoned."

"Violet." He cut her off and nodded his head. "That's the name I already gave you in the Sanctum and I really can't be bothered to remember another one for you."

Violet paused at that. "We have met already?"

He nodded along. "Of course we did so when I blew up the Sanctum and released you from it. So don't worry I already know everything there is to know." Well except all the bits he hadn't bothered to pay attention to at least.

Violet nodded her head as she came to terms with it. "And you are fine with my identity and that we will be standing on the same side of this war?"

"We're friends."

She nodded lost in contemplation for a moment. "You will need to stand possibly against six heroes at once ready to stare them down without flinching."

He stood taller than ever. "A legendary hero classic is it, hiding my name from the world without a second thought." He placed a hand on her shoulder and grinned. "I am the Knight class servant the Black Knight. He who bears no standard into battle, a mysterious figure shrouded in myth. His weapons, skills and motives may be unknown but none can deny that he is clearly the strongest servant you could have possibly summoned."

Violet nodded her head in bemusement. "You do realise that everyone summoned in this war will be a hero of legend, the strongest monsters the world has ever known."

He grinned. "Well, your real body already decided I was strong enough to match her in single combat, and I'm eager to back that up with experience so you can just leave all the fighting to me and I'll show them a war worth remembering."

It was going to be so much fun.

Iris stood on the threshold. She had asked her father for his backing to the Crimson Order, to root out the Cult of Diabolos.

He had refused.

She had gathered the first few members still into her own Crimson Order. And now Glen was dead after her first mission had failed and the very existence of her attempt to root out the corruption stood in jeopardy.

It was only through victory that such a shame be washed away. And in her attempt to achieve it she found herself here. The sword, said to have once belonged to a great hero, an artifact of unfathomable power and the strange circle that surrounded it.

It was said to never take it out unless facing a threat to the existence of Midgar itself. But this was her moment of greatest need and so she stepped through it without hesitation.

Light spilled up around her, the circle taking a life of its own as she felt it pull upon her own magic.

An impossibly beautiful elf stood in the most ornate emerald armour she'd ever seen as it faded. Long flowing golden hair and a fierce expression even as she reached out and took a sword identical to the one on the altar into her hand. "I am Servant Saber my master, and perhaps the strongest servant that might be summoned in this war, for as long as Diabolos has not been summoned there is none who are my superior in combat."

Power was what it had come down to.

And all she had was knowledge. Knowledge of his appearances, knowledge of how he operated and even knowledge of his whereabouts. None of it made a difference without power as she scratched another scrap of paper from a newspaper onto the board in front of her.

Because all of that knowledge would do nothing when it came face to face with his overwhelming power, and he killed her just like he had killed her mother and father.

So Sherry had gone searching in ancient books, for ways to turn knowledge into power. The circle complete on her floor amidst the darkened room even as she spilled the tiniest drop of blood on it in the name of revenge.

She hoped the catalyst she'd brought would be enough. Tied as it was to his name, though even if it were not perhaps there was no one else who could be summoned in this place.

The chant was short and easy to remember taking but a few minutes to work her way through as the room itself around her glowed in the darkness.

From the mists a man stood even as a dozen whirring automatons sprung out into life behind him. "I see you are my master, I am Servant Archer. I would introduce myself but…"

She nodded in quiet acquiescence. "The city itself still bears your name, so who else could you be."

He grinned in response. "Good at least I have a master smart enough to pull answers from incomplete information, then first things first I guess it is time, to reopen my old laboratories."

Lord Laugus had returned to the world.

Orianna was not a country of knights.

But it was a country of stories, legends told and put to song over the ages. From the very first moment it had appeared Rose knew what the symbol on her hand meant.

A hero noble and pure as her heart was. Not to love, for Rose already had Cid for that but to stand as a bulwark against the darkness, a guide as they walked through the path of light.

A second voice in front of her father when she told him finally.

For she was but one sword on the side of good, and Orianna had long turned its back on the path of justice. Had lain idle as bandits had grown bold even to the point of daring to attack her carriage in her childhood. There was a need for action and while she knew the hero she would like to summon.

The Stylish Bandit Slayer in all his glory.

Even a lesser hero would be enough. To have one more knight to stand as her advisor and to hold a sword beside her.

The circle glowed before her eyes. A soft radiant light that filled the world with warmth encasing her in its glow.

A lance rose amidst the darkness, flowing golden hair and golden armour rising up beside it. "Lilli the hero of the lance arrives to hear your call. That we may be the salvation for all those who are suffering."

Blood was perhaps the most useful catalyst of any. Blood to call to her nature, blood as power offered freely, blood running as crimson as his name through these halls. She would not be the Queen he had vowed to serve, but then he did not want that Queen.

But a better one. A worthier one.

One willing to wreak havoc and devastation against the humans and restore the rightful rule of vampires over their livestock once more.

From the blood she stepped forth, cascading red hair framing a face so perfect and exquisite there could be no doubt even as he knelt. Eyes dimmed in madness and bloodlust that suited her ever so much more than innocence ever had.

"Queen Elizabeth it has been long since you last stepped atop this world. But now that you have been made perfect it is time for us to show the world your power once again."

Crimson raised his right arm…

He raised the stump of his right arm even as blood spurted from it. Mind unable to catch up as he stared in helpless horror at the scene before him.

The voice of another man calmy ringing out. "I command you to return to your sanity."

In an instant the madness left her eyes, the blood recoiling away as her own magic asserted its primacy over his own and the ocean of blood was flung away in all directions. The man holding his arm moved forward once again, still holding his command seals. "I order thee Elizabeth to thirst for blood no more."

The words accompanied by the simplest of forehead flicks as even her hunger seemed to drain from her eyes.

"That should not be a command you can give." The tone in her voice seemed almost petulant to him, not angry at the violation.

"But I can, for I know much about this world. And there is plenty of time for I would like to give an offer of alliance. Between my side and your own." The figure clad in black grinned. "Well while your current Master seems to hate me, I have a better one that you would know better than any other waiting for us outside. Was it not your wish that humans and vampires could work together, know that this human offers you his hand that we might try."

She frowned in response to that. "You know me, even though I have never met you."

"That is also true. But first the most important part of any alliance." The man stood as a towering imposing figure over the tiny blood queen.

"I gift thee a millet dumpling."

Annerose Nichtsehen stood on a rooftop looking over the city of Midgar. "I would think here there is no one who could be your equal." The strongest servant she could imagine made flesh once again.

The knight before her grinned. "That is true, and once I unleash my trump card all will know that they may only run before me. But that is why we must stay hidden at this time. For the very mention of my name will cause all six of the others to join hands against me."

"Therein lies the only possible hope of us being defeated and thus I urge you a moments patience. That by the time they realise my coming there will not be enough of them left to stand against me."

"I know as a knight you may wish to charge forward, but as a King I am to know the right way to advance in the case of war."