278 Iskandar's dream

"I came here to ask you both, will you help me defend the universe, the world, my family?"

That's right.

Drako had come to the McKenzie home to try to recruit Rider, and Waver was also a good choice to add to his group.

Why was Waver a good choice? That's what many may be wondering.

Out of pure curiosity, Drako had decided to use [Inspect Status] on Waver. To his surprise, something had happened that Drako had already experienced with an object.

[Record of a Servant with this human's characteristics found]

Just as with the Nemean Lion's pelt that Aphrodite had given him, the system had detected a Servant's records with Waver's characteristics.

This meant that, when it came to turning Waver into a Servant, he would not follow the same process as Kuroka or Zoë.

When Drako turned the two girls into Servants, they gained the default parameters of their respective classes. With Waver, it would be different since there were already records of Waver as a Servant. The system would take those parameters and implement them in Waver. Not only that, but he would also gain all his Skills and Noble Phantasms.

This was all that the system had been explaining to Drako while Rider and Waver were discussing.

In a single moment, the plans Drako had made for the Nasuverse had received a big change.

His main goal in arriving at the place where Waver was residing was to invite Rider to join him since he was the only Servant Drako was willing to ally within this Fourth Holy Grail War. The others were nothing more than experience to level up and gain personal strength.

But now that he knew of this possibility, a new possibility had appeared in front of Drako. Perhaps there were more people in the Nasuverse like Waver, with their own Servant record.

Shirou Emiya was a clear example of this. With Waver's example, Drako could turn Shirou into a Servant and give him the characteristics of Archer EMIYA.

If, for example, Irisviel also has a Servant record in the system, then turning her into one would be much more profitable than Drako thought. Who knows, maybe Sakura and Rin have their own Servant records.

That being the case, Drako had already figured out what he could do in the 10-year gap between the fourth and fifth war.

"I see; you're asking us to abandon Holy Grail and ally with you to deal with this outside enemy."

Rider put his hand to his chin and ducked his head as he thought.

Drako knew of Iskandar's directness. He didn't tend to overthink things, so the answer he was going to give him was the final one.

Iskandar raised his head, and through his eyes full of ambition and determination Drako received the answer.

"I see..."

The negotiations had failed. No, there was no chance to negotiate in the first place.

"My dream is to reign over all the land at least once. That's right, I don't care about Holy Grail. However, I cannot let go of my dream. Because this one is not mine alone. I owe it to my subordinates, those who followed me across unknown lands, facing fearsome enemies, only to find Okeanos. If I were to start working for you, I would be betraying everything I stand for."

Alexander the Great, Iskandar, it didn't matter what the name was. The Conqueror King was a person worthy of Drako shutting up and listening to what he had to say. He was an idiot, but he was also a wise man. The experience he had was no match for Drako's.

Drako couldn't be mad at him for not taking him up on his offer, even if Iskandar knew that the future of humanity was at stake. Rider had on his back the hopes of thousands of soldiers who had fought alongside him. They were his family, and Rider wasn't going to abandon his family even if it meant the others would die.

Drako wouldn't either, so he could only nod his head at Rider's words.

Waver watched in amazement as these two great powers smiled at each other, knowing they were enemies. Since Rider had rejected Drako, they were destined to face each other.

At that exact moment, boom! A deafening explosion reverberated in Waver's ears.

No, to be specific, it was not a sound but an auditory stimulus. It directly attacked the sensitive nerves of a Waver magus - in other words, a magical impulse.

"So that's the method they use to summon magicians. If I wasn't here, I wouldn't have detected anything."

Drako muttered as he looked to the east, the place from which the magic impulse had been launched.

With a frown, Drako watched as a layer of smoke dispersed into the clear sky. Although the cloud pattern looked like those clouds formed by fireworks, the flashing glow did not look like any fireworks.

Even though Drako could clearly see the smoke, people could not see it outside of magicians since it had been formed from magic. The same went for the noise. To a normal person, this would be nothing but the normal noise of fireworks.

"That location... That's where the Fuyuki Church is, right?"

As one of the Masters participating in the Holy Grail War, Waver possessed at least the essential knowledge. So he immediately understood the meaning behind the sign.

As the overseer of the war, the Holy Church would trigger that signal whenever there was something crucial to report to the Masters. This is the most appropriate method to inform the Masters, since the Holy Church would have no idea where they would be.

"Would it be something related to us?"

Waver struggled to find the best answer to Rider's question.

"I couldn't say it's completely unrelated to us. How should I put it..."

In fact, Waver did not announce his identity as Master to the Holy Church.

As long as his Servant is in the land of Fuyuki, naturally, his position as Master would be established. So there was nothing to urge him to do things under the Church's approval - that was what Waver decided. After all, he had obtained the holy relic through unscrupulous methods. If he did something else strange, wouldn't he be getting into more trouble?

However, it would be unsafe to ignore the consensus called by the Fuyuki Church. A meeting for all Masters called by the supervising Holy Church, what emergency could it be? Usually, it would be something related to the amendment of rules, addition of new conditions... Besides, it could announce some new information.

This information could be the key point for the battles from now on. From the current situation, it would be better if you listen to the supervisor's suggestions. And in case they were specific regulations that would restrict them, when the time comes, all he would have to do would be to ignore them.

"It is related to my presence. The Church and Tohsaka Tokiomi have grown tired of my interference in the ritual. They are going to launch a war against me."

Drako said unscrupulously. He had no doubt why they were summoning the Masters.

Originally, that call was to finish off Caster. Since Caster was already dead, the next nuisance for Tokiomi was none other than the variable named Drako. Probably, they had found the remains of Ouryuu that Drako hadn't bothered to clean up, so they were going to use it as an excuse to unite the Masters against Drako.

"Rider, Waver Velvet, the next time we meet, it will be as enemies. It's been a pleasure talking to you."

Drako got up and left without waiting for Waver and Rider to be able to say anything. Now that he was sure Tohsaka had him in his sights, he wanted to say that they probably already knew where he resided.

It was time to make preparations for what was coming.

............

I'm back! :)