66 The Servants

As the bright red light of the summoning circles illuminates the night, it enshroudes six standing figures that were previously not there. As the light diminishes and the figures can now be seen clearly, one steps forward and speaks.

"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings. Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair! Now, which amongst you has called upon me?" speaks Ozymandias.

"That would be me." I reply as I step towards him as I inspect him.

Ozymandias wears golden armor that covers parts of his torso area as well as his arms and hips. His chest and stomach area are mostly exposed, revealing his abdominal musculature. His outfit also includes a white cape that runs down to his knees with about a half-dozen end tassels. His legs, neck and arms are dressed in black cloth. While the neck and arm cloth is form fitting, the cloth over his legs is baggy. He holds a striped dark blue and gold hook staff longer than the length of his body. Ozymandias has short, straight black hair that sometimes stands up in a handful of spiky points. Standing at around five feet nine inches with brown skin, black hair that stands in a handful of spiky points, eyes like the sun, and an arrogant aura, Ozymandias seems to radiate a presence befitting of a King.

"Oh?" he answers as he also inspects me. "This presence... Would you happen to be the pharaoh from this era? It is not possible for one other than a pharaoh to be the sun. Therefore, you must be a pharaoh."

"Pharaoh?" I repeat with a raised eyebrow. "No, I am not a pharaoh. This era is not governed by any form of monarchy, pharaoh or otherwise."

"Ahhh, that is correct. According to the knowledge from the Grail, monarchy has fallen out of favor." he replies as he takes a closer look at my face. "Regardless, you must be someone of the highest worth, for it is the only the highest station that is reserved for one of the sun. Say… Would you happen to be of my direct bloodline? For while the resemblance is miniscule, it can still be seen clearly."

"My name is Ambrosius Malphas, and I am a descendant of Romulus-Quirinus." I say as I introduce myself.

"A child of Roma. Yet you do not deny being my descendant. Nevertheless, it does not matter." he replies. "Roma is Egypt, and Egypt is Roma therefore, you are a child of both. You are pharaoh, but you are also Roma. As expected of my bloodline, to not only integrate itself with Roma's bloodline, but also survive for millennials."

"Of course." I answer him, not bothering to correct him. After all, he could be correct, and I would never know.

Turning to the remaining servants, I notice them paying close attention to our conversation along with their masters. The only ones not paying attention are Mordred, Morgan, and Scathach who are currently conversing. They must have erected a bounded field around themselves since I cannot hear them.

"Now,-" I say as I address the servants. "-introduce yourselves."

"Yo old man, long time no see!" exclaims a familiar voice as a male figure steps out from behind a female one.

"Setanta." I say in exasperation. "I see that death has not curbed your boisterous attitude, nor has it taught you manners."

"What can I say, it feels good to see you and teacher again." he replies with a shrug. "Anyway, since we're doing introductions, I'm Setanta but you guys can call me Cu Chulainn and I'm the Lancer."

Looking him over, I can see that he looks exactly like his Fate/Stay Night counterpart. He is a handsome man with dark blue hair which he wears in a rat tail and red eyes. He wears full body tights which match the blue color of his hair. Runic protections over his outfit tells me that he may have his runic suite as a skill or noble phantasms. He wears silver pauldrons over his shoulders, a plate over his lower abs, and silver earrings that match the ones his master, Bazett, wears.

"I shall go next then." says an old masculine voice bringing my attention to a bowing old man. "My name is Li Shuwen of the assassin class. With no spear, I'm just an elder. However, I am still capable of attending to my duty. I will be in your care."

Li Shuwen is an elderly man who stands at five feet four inches. He has short gray hair, he wears tan coloured Chinese clothing, a fur long coat over his shoulders, and black sunglasses over his eyes.

"My name is Mordred Pendragon from the saber class." says Mordred as she finishes her conversation and steps forward and nods towards me. "Father, it is good to see you again."

'Is this the daughter that you wish to revive?' asks Romulus in my mind. 'With that said… Why is she so cold towards you? Did you offend her somehow? Or… Ah, this is a tsundere.'

'Indeed, my daughter is a tsundere when she finds herself amongst her peers.' I reply. 'Still, there will be time later to spend with her.'

Choosing not to embarrass her in front of her fellow heroes, I follow suite and nod towards her in greeting before turning to the berserker of the group.

Standing at six feet tall with bulging muscles, indigo short hair, black sclera, and red irises, he sports an intimidating figure. He wears gold and black armor over his chest with a short sleeved black shirt under. Attached to the armor is a red cape. He wears a black and gold skirt that stops just over his mid thigh showing the gold bands wrapped around them. On his legs he wears black greaves that stop right on his calves, and black and gold sandals on his feet. His hands are covered by glack fingerless gloves that cover his entire forearm.

"I… am Caligula. Third emperor… of… Rome." he answers through his madness as it seems to lessen simply due to his close proximity to me.

With a nod to him I turn towards the remaining servant, our caster. Instead of introducing herself however, she seems content to just stand there. Turning to her master, Sakura, I can tell by her absent mind that she is conversing with her servant whom I recognize as Medea.

Like her canon counterpart in Fate/Stay Night, Medea's appearance is much like a witch that would be seen in a fairy tale. She wears a bluish-purple dress that completely covers her body. Over that she wears a hooded black and bluish-purple cloak. On her feet she wears black shoes and black gloves cover her hands.

After a few seconds, Sakura seems to have won their arguments as Caster introduces herself.

"I am Medea of Colchis, but you may call me Caster." She introduces before astralizing.

"It is currently late." I say as I address everyone. "We shall reconvene sometime after noon tomorrow. Take the time to acquaint yourselves with your partner."

With that said I make my way towards my study with Ozymandias following next to me.

"Will you not stay to converse with your child?" he asks. "I do believe that it has been centuries since you have since seen her."

"I would love nothing more than to spend time with her." I answer him. "However, her mother deserves to spend the time with her. She has been awaiting this moment for centuries, and was far more devastated by her death than I was. I will not rob her of it."

"That is reasonable. Were Nerfertari and I in such a position, my actions would very much be the same. Though if Mordred truly is your daughter, that answers many questions as well as raising many more." he replies. "How is it that you have survived this long without the ravages of time decaying your body and soul?"

"Sometime during my early twenties, I managed to learn how to apply the Heaven's Feel magic in my magecraft. Not enough to achieve it, yet a substantial amount regardless. Using my expertise on runic magecraft, I crafted a rune suit that negates the effects of time upon my body and my soul." I tell him as we reach my study and walk in.

"Oh?" he replies as he makes himself comfortable on one of my couches while I sit on a chair. "That is quite the achievement. As expected of one from my direct bloodline. Now tell me, what is your plan of action concerning this campaign. As a pharaoh you must know how to properly smite those who raise their blades against you, and how to coordinate your subjects."

"I must first identify the opposition." I answer.

"And how do you plan on doing that?" he asks. "Perhaps you have spies situated in the camp of the enemy?"

"Unfortunately no, I do not. The Yggdmillennia family employs homunculi for every station that cannot be taken care of by their own magus. The homunculi are made in their headquarters and never leave the premises." I inform him. "I do however have other means of accomplishing my task."

"Divination perhaps?" he wonders.

"Clairvoyance actually." I answer him. "My mother was a daughter of Apollo, the god of prophecies. As such I was blessed with a limited form of clairvoyance which allows me to see into the past, or present, as long as the topic of my search is somehow linked to me."

"Ahhh. Due to your opponents also being part of this Holy Grail War, they are linked to you. As such, allowing you to see their summoning." he says. "Truly ingenious."

"Indeed." I answer. "Now I must focus, for I have not fully mastered this yet. At least not yet to the extent that I wish."

"Very well." replies Ozymandias.

Closing my eyes I slow my breathing down, relax my muscles, and bring myself near a sleep like state without actually falling asleep. Soon enough I feel the floating affect that I have come to associate with my clairvoyance. Soon enough the darkness from my closed eyes is replaced with the view of countless paths coming from my body and leading elsewhere, and many tugging feelings in my stomach that pull me those specific directions. The tugging feelings are the links to everything that is connected to me, the stronger the tugging, the stronger, or more recent, the connection. The majority of the sensations lead to England, Ireland, and Italy due to my identity as a Roman demi-god.

I ignore the stronger sensations coming from the castle and the Clock Tower, instead I turn my attention in the direction of Wallachia. Unsurprisingly, while the pulling from there is much less, it is also the strongest. Considering the fact that the Grail War is the most recent and important event in my life, that is to be expected.

As I grab onto the pulling sensation and follow it, the world around me blurs as I find myself over the Yggdmillennia castle. Focusing on the castle, I am met with countless scenes from when the Grail was first brought there to now. It takes me a few minutes of perusing, but eventually I do find the scene that I am searching for, the summoning.

Watching the light die down, I am able to clearly see the servants of my enemies. The first that catches my eyes is easily recognisable as Gilgamesh in the Archer Class.

Gilgamesh is a dignified man with golden hair standing up like a blazing flame. His face can be described as handsome, and his eyes, crimson like blood, are visibly not those of a human. While my eyes are also of the same crimson quality, his seem far more inhuma and give off a mysterious radiance that makes people wither. He wears golden armor with blue accents that fully covers his body, and golden earrings.

The second servant that I recognise is Karna of the Lancer class. Karna has pale skin, long messy white hair that is nearly translucent, and teal eyes that gives piercing glares. He wears body armor and earrings that are a brilliant gold. The rest of his outfit is form fitting black material. His outfit also includes a spiked choker, red gem on his chest inlaid in a golden circle, shoulder armor with long spikes, a revealing of his chest which has a red gem and gold stones that are inlaid, and a flaming cape.

The next servant is their Rider, Achilles. Simply from his appearance, one can see that Achilles is a great hero, one who would be admired by any man or woman, young or old. While his face is pleasing to the eyes, he has the eyes of a raptor, a strong and firm build, and the lack of any appearance of crudeness. Rider has spiky green hair that stands up except for a single bang that hangs over the left side of his face, wears a chest piece of silver armor that features a bird, and orange cloth is wrapped loosely around his body. On the lower half of his body he wears black trousers, and knee length armored boots.

Their Caster is also easy to recognise as Circe. She is a young woman with long pink hair, blue-green eyes and fair skin. Notably, her ears are pointed, giving her an elf-life appearance. She wears a golden tiara, a light tunic with a short skirt, and gladiator sandals.

The final servant that I recognise is one that I very much wish to send to the depths of Tartarus. Luckily, or rather unluckily for him, Medea will most likely have a worse punishment for him, Jason of the Argonauts the Saber of Black. Jason has the appearance of a young man with blond hair, he stands at five feet nine inches tall and has green eyes. He wears a black chest piece that leaves his chiseled abdomen open to see and also covers his crotch, golden pauldrons on his shoulders, a golden necklace along with golden earrings. On his arms he has one golden band wrapped around each bicep, golden vambraces that cover his forearm with black fingerless gloves under that also cover his entire forearm. On his legs he wears a green cloth around his waist that covers the back of his thighs and is being held up by a black and gold belt. Under he wears white pants that do not even cover his inner thigh and crotch, and are tucked into golden knee high boots that are reminiscent of pirate boots.

Turning my eyes away from the idiotic and cowardly servant, I study the last one, Berserker, in hopes of determining his identity. However no matter how much I study him, I cannot remember ever encountering him in any of the source materials. Then again, I am more knowledgeable when it comes to the main Fate routes such as Stay Night, Unlimited Blade Works, and Heaven's Feel. Apocrypha was only a passing interest, and I know the bare minimum of Grand Order.

Berserker stands at six feet two inches, has blond hair, pale white skin, and wears sunglasses with a pink tint to them over his eyes. He wears a white button up shirt that is only closed at halfway. Long black pants cover his legs held up by a golden belt with the word GOLD written on the buckle, a chain is connected to the belt loop, and white shoes on his feet. Around his neck he wears golden necklaces, has golden bracelets and a watch around his wrists, and gold rings on his fingers.

Having memorised the identities of the servants that I recognise, and the appearance of Berserker, I let go of the sensation and return to my previous location. Once there, I slowly bring myself back to normal consciousness.

"Well?" asks Ozymandias as he notices me return to the normal world. "Who shall we face in this campaign?"

"Our greatest adversary shall be the King of Heroes himself, Gilgamesh." I inform him.

"The King of Heroes himself. How interesting." replies Ozymandias.

"Can you defeat him?" I ask.

"Of course I can. Although he will be an opponent worthy of respect, there is no limit to the pharaoh's power!" exclaims Ozymandias. "All of creation under heaven is within my grasp, even victory against the King of Heroes!"

"Very well. Other than Gilgamesh, we will have to worry about Karna, Achilles, their Berserker, and Circe." I tell him. "I am confident that Setanta can face Achilles head on. Who would win however is up for debate. Arjuna and Karna will naturally be facing each other, and Medea should be able to easily face Circe."

"What are you basing your predictions on?" asks Ozymandias.

"The greatest advantage that we possess, the masters." I answer. "Unlike the Yggdmillennia family, every single master inhabiting this castle can face mid-tier servants and win easily. While it is not enough to single handedly defeat the summoned servants, it will be enough to tip the scales in our favor considering the fact that the servants on both sides are about equal to each other."

"I presume that you can face a high-tier servant yourself?" he asks.

"Naturally." I answer him.

"As expected of a pharaoh." he replies.