56 Hyakki

"Whelp, I think I got it right." I said as I inspected the carved spell circle on the floor.

My name is Geto Suguru, or at least it is now. A somewhat popular student at Homurahara academy by day and a client of a multiversal slavery company by day and night.

Long story short, I did something... less than smart and ended up dead. After that, I was offered a new life by the company in exchange of doing one mission for them. Though it was less of a mission and more of a challenge. The challenge?

Win the fifth Holy Grail War.

I am quite proud to admit that my panic attack lasted only for ten minutes, most others who would go to Nasuverse would have taken far longer. But the panic attack returned after I read the the rules of the challenge.

Rule numero uno: I can't summon a servant like the other people in the Nasuverse. I have to buy the servant I would summon from the catalog with my own credits.

Rule numero due: I can capture only one master before slash during the Holy Grail War. Their servant would automatically get captured as well but I can not capture any other masters until the Grail War is over.

Rule numero tre: A servant can only be captured if they form a contract with me or if they are defeated by either me or one of my servants.

Rule numero quattro: Grail War will end only if at least six servants or dead or captured by me.

Those were enough to send anyone, who knew how bad a Grail War could be, to the mother of all panic attacks.

That one I had needed twenty minutes to snap out of it.

It was bit of a letdown. Mostly because I had been planning to purchase an assassin with ridiculous presence concealment and have them just stamp anyone of interest before taking refugee in a basement for the next three days. Unfortunately, that was no longer an option.

So since I would have to join the war, I decided to get myself a strong servant and abilities of a very powerful character along with a template of Solomon the grand caster himself!

I had also gotten both copies of information and trace defenses since otherwise the World, and by world I mean Gaia and Alaya, would definitely take notice of me. Which would mean 'bye bye' for the little old me.

"Whelp, let's get to it." I said with a smile as I rose from my crouching position. Technically, I could just use the app to call the servant I had bought to my side with zero theatrics but... this was more fun.

It was also something people might notice meaning gotta deal with that first. So I put my hand in front of my face and raised my index and middle fingers.

"Emerge from the darkness, blacker than darkness. Purify that which is impure." And then the whole room around me was covered in a black, transparent matter. No one would sense what I was doing now.

"Let silver and steel be the essence. Let stone and the archduke of contracts be the foundation." As I kept chanting, the circle on the ground started to shine with a white light.

It was... incredible. I had played some fgo before and had been the victim of Gacha many times as I tried summoning servants. The feeling I had gotten when I had once ended up summoning a five star with one ticket right before getting another five star in the ten roll...

"From the Seventh Heaven, attended to by three great words of power."

...it was nothing compared to this!

"Come forth from the ring of restraints, Protector of the Holy Balance!" And then with a final glow of red from the circle, my servant appeared before me.

Red hair in the shade of freshly spilt blood, legs that seemed to go on for miles; covered in black armor connected to heeled knee high boots. Armor that showed nothing but yet also left nothing for imagination. Finally a cape in the shame shade of red as her hair.

She was beautiful.

"Servant, Avenger. I am the Demon King of the Sixth Heaven, Hajun, Oda Nobunaga. I ask of you, are you my master?"

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"I swear here that you have my undying loyalty, master!" Nobunaga yelled as she bit down on her burrito. It was kind of like a hosomaki sushi except the wrapping was made out of something like bread instead of nori and the ingredients were more meat based instead of fish. She had never eaten something like it before and she adored new things. And her master had just promised her that if they won the war, they would go on an adventure throughout the multiverse where they could see new things every day!

Best! Master! Ever!

"So, any plans to win the Holy Grail without letting the giant mass of curses created by the Avenger before me destroy the world?" She asked before taking another bite, she wondered what other kinds of food she'd get to eat during this war.

"Hmm, there is someone we need to get before the war starts. Then if we have enough time, I would like to take one of the masters out of the competition before it starts." He said with a thoughtful look. Nobunaga liked it, she disliked people who didn't believe in themselves. The fact that her master already had the beginnings of a plan and willing to act upon them spoke well of him.

"I guess I should have expected this much, you do have the knowledge of the future after all." She said with a shake of her head, she didn't exactly liked the thought of knowing the future; it reminded her too much of those stinking gods. But she couldn't deny it's usefulness.

"Hmm, yeah, you might want to forget that." He said with a shrug, making her look at him with confusion.

"Universal calibration, that is something that may have changed anything from genders to even the servants who will be summoned. So while I do have a rough idea about it, I don't know the future." He said with a smile.

This... this made things even better! A daring man indeed! Her master was getting better and better every second.

"Now then." Before she could say anything, Suguru rose from his seat and some sort of eel like creature came out of his hand and circled around him before settling on his shoulders like some sort of scarf.

"Let's go pay a visit to old man Zouken."