When Servants Appeared
A pitch-black hole suddenly tore open amid the dense storm clouds overhead. A massive black chimera with three beast heads crawled out from within. Its three heads were a Lion Head, a goat's head, and a snake's head. After surveying its surroundings, it leaped from the opening and landed on the road before the school gates, shattering the concrete beneath its feet.
The enormous Lion Head swept its gaze across the area, its roar like thunder and its breath howling like a gale.
Red light glowed in the black goat's eyes, while its tail was a four- or five-meter-long python's head. This enormous pitch-black creature stood over two meters tall at the shoulder. It looked exactly like the hybrid monster Chimera from Greek legend.
"What the hell is going on?! This is already at the level of a Phantasmal Beast, isn't it? Why would a monster of this level appear in this world?!" Shirou stared at the creature in shock. A brave warrior among humans might be able to fight lions and tigers, but anyone would hesitate before a monster of this scale.
"Senpai, this Chimera is already no weaker than an ordinary Servant," Mash said.
"Mash, since I can't become Emiya, have you thought of any other guaranteed way to win?" Shirou asked with a bitter smile.
"Unfortunately, no, Senpai! This is a formidable enemy. Please prepare yourself. This will be a hard battle," Mash said, shaking her head.
The monster raised its tail high, and the snake head atop it rose above the roadside trees. With one glance, it could see over the school's imposing three-meter-high walls.
At that instant, a faintly glowing arrow flew in and pierced the snake head's emerald vertical pupil.
Amber light flashed in Shirou's eyes. He lowered the arm holding his bow and said helplessly yet firmly, "Then I can only force my way through."
"Hisssah!!!" The snake head, with an arrow lodged in its eye, let out a pained wail. It recoiled beyond the school gates, twisting its body and smashing into a roadside tree. The tree snapped under the tremendous force.
The other two beast heads seemed completely enraged and let out furious roars. The goat head spewed scorching flames, and wherever it passed, even a single spark was enough to set the roadside flowerbeds ablaze. The flames spread, burning the trees nearby and sending thick black smoke into the air.
If those flames reached the wooden buildings, a massive fire would break out in minutes.
"Mash! Think of something!" Shirou urged when he saw the thick smoke, turning toward Mash, who was still tapping on her phone.
"Please stay calm, Senpai. This is an alternate space, so reality has not been harmed. I'm contacting Da Vinci right now."
By then, the massive flame-spewing monster had locked onto Shirou and Mash. Stomping across the ground, it charged toward the school gates and was about to rush inside.
"But the monster clearly isn't planning to wait for us!" Shirou fired another arrow.
The Chimera instantly sensed danger, halted, and shut its eyes.
This time, the arrow struck the Lion Head's eyelid. The wooden shaft snapped outright, causing no damage whatsoever.
"Its resistance to magecraft is so high. As expected, once it's on guard, ordinary Reinforcement Magic won't work anymore?" Shirou put away his bow helplessly.
Shirou took off his school uniform jacket, found a long wooden pole, tied the jacket to it as a flag, and walked toward the monster.
He had to keep the monster occupied. But magecraft did not exist in this world, nor did he possess Magic Circuits. Relying only on the Magic Eye he had accidentally acquired in his previous life, he could barely use Reinforcement Magic a few times a day. He could not project a Noble Phantasm capable of fighting a Phantasmal Beast.
A high-ranking Phantasmal Beast like a Chimera was a powerful creature possessing Mystery on the same level as a Servant.
Shirou slowly and arduously walked forward. It was a long-lost battle, a feeling he had not experienced since coming to this world. His body trembled instinctively, his heartbeat accelerated, and every reaction in his body told him that this monster was not something human strength could overcome.
At the same time, the will buried deep within his soul—the will to fight for something—gradually awakened beneath that pressure.
The pitch-black three-headed monster noticed the Youth rushing to the school gates. Feeling the pain radiating from its snake eye, the remaining five eyes filled with fury. The snake head flicked its tongue, the goat head shrieked, and the lion head roared as it suddenly leaped at him.
Shirou hurriedly threw the bamboo pole wrapped in his school uniform jacket at the monster, disrupting its vision, then jumped to one side inside the school gates.
He narrowly evaded the pounce. The monster charged past him, smashing the school gate wall behind him into pieces and sending it tilting inward.
That terrifying force... if he had not dodged just now, even if he had not been slapped to death, being rammed into the wall would have flattened him into pulp.
His heart pounded violently, his blood boiled, and after a roar filled his mind, the survival instinct buried in his body seemed to awaken. Yet strangely, it allowed him to face the situation more calmly. This feeling was truly nostalgic.
In both his lives, the first time he had felt this way was on the night Lancer Cú Chulainn had hunted him down.
Back then, he could still summon the Servant Saber to save himself.
But this world was an ordinary everyday world. There was no Holy Grail, nor was there a Holy Grail War!
"Shirou-senpai! I found a way!" At that moment, the pink-haired girl in the school raised her phone and shouted as she ran toward him.
The Chimera's goat head turned its gaze toward Mash and opened its mouth, forming a high-temperature fireball within.
"Mash! Watch out!" Shirou rolled across the ground, picked up a chunk of broken stone, and with a flash in his eyes, threw it at the monster's head with all his strength.
The stone enhanced by Reinforcement Magic pierced the goat head's right eye like a sharp knife. Blood flowed out, and the monster roared in pain as the fireball in its mouth dissipated.
The enraged Chimera twisted the snake head behind it and lashed it at the Youth like a whip.
Shirou could no longer evade. He could only watch helplessly as the python opened its jaws and lunged at him.
In that instant, everything slowed like a dying man's final visions. The enormous maw, filled with long pointed fangs, opened wider and wider, seemingly intending to swallow him starting from his head. As the snake mouth drew closer, the only air reaching his nose was the nauseating stench from the python's mouth.
Then a flash of white light streaked past. A purple figure holding a massive shield slammed the snake head aside, producing a resounding clang like a giant hammer striking a steel plate.
"Senpai! There's one last method! Open your phone, now!" Mash shouted as she stood before the monster with a shield larger than herself.
"My phone? This isn't the time to play games!" Shirou snapped at the junior who invited him to play games every day.
"Shirou-senpai! Stop complaining and open the game! Da Vinci has already modified your system. Find the Servant with the glowing frame in the interface and summon a Servant to possess you for battle!" Mash shouted, holding up her great shield against the monster's claws as heavy impacts rang out.
"Summon a Servant? Possession? I don't really understand, but all right! I just need to do as you say, right?"
Shirou chose to trust his junior. This was no time to hesitate. He would just give it a try!
Shirou tapped the FGO game icon. The mobile game, which had previously loaded slowly, instantly entered the system with a light tap. The interface had also changed from before.
With one glance at the icons, he saw that although there were over ten Servants, only two icons were lit.
No need to hesitate. He tapped the silver-haired one. The golden frame clearly looked much stronger.
His phone displayed: Insufficient compatibility. Unable to summon.
"Damn it!" Shirou reached for the other one, a bronze-framed reddish-brown-haired man whose face resembled a member of the famous idol boy band "Sekko Boys."
The phone instantly emitted a dazzling pillar of white light that expanded continuously, engulfing the Youth in radiance.
--Compatibility: 60%
--Servant Possession process initiated
--Spirit Core insertion
--Inserting necessary information: Servant biography, Noble Phantasm, and more
--Initiating Class-specific ability assignment
--Possession summoning complete
--Servant Class: Rider. Manifesting!
A brown-haired man in armor and a white cape appeared in Shirou's mind. He transformed into a sphere of white light and flew into the Youth's chest like a soul possessing a body.
A Female Support friend
Within the dazzling pillar of white light, the Youth's body was strengthened in that instant, and his soul was elevated. A portion of the memories of a heroic figure from religious legend appeared in his mind, along with that hero's fighting methods and experience.
This was the Servant Possession System developed by the all-powerful genius Da Vinci, based on the principles of Divine Possession.
Though the state was incomplete, its power had already surpassed the limits of humanity in every aspect, even exceeding the ordinary Mages of his previous life.
The Servant possessing the Youth had once been a cavalry officer in Ancient Rome at the end of the third century AD. Even in this world, tales of him remained: how he confronted the Roman Emperor for his faith, protected the weak, and slew an evil dragon to save a Princess.
With Da Vinci's help, the Servants connected to Chaldea had completed possession summoning with Masters from another world. They had possessed their Masters' bodies and manifested in this world.
At that moment, Shirou felt the powerful strength hidden within his body. He had gained the Servant's combat experience and abilities, yet control of his body still remained his.
Shirou learned that the Servant possessing him was the world-famous hero Saint George! The dragon slayer who struck down an evil dragon with his lance and severed its head with the holy sword, one of Christianity's most renowned seven brave warriors.
He drew the holy sword Ascalon from his waist and pointed it at the wicked black monster, the Chimera.
He had no way to stop accidents like car crashes or gas explosions, but he absolutely could not stand by and ignore the monster before him that brought destruction into the world.
Shirou knew that he was nowhere near as great as Saint George had been in life, nor did he possess Saint George's unwavering faith in God. But at this moment, the Servant and the Youth shared the same purpose: to slay the evil beast and protect this world's peace and happiness.
Saint George answered the Youth's summons because of that conviction to protect humanity.
And the Youth would use this power to protect everything in this world!
"Waaaah!!!" The Youth charged at the Chimera without hesitation. He was brimming with confidence. A Great Hero who could even slay dragons should naturally have no trouble dealing with a first-rate Chimera.
"Roaaaargh!!!" The monster also roared as its snake-headed tail swept at Shirou.
Shirou showed no fear whatsoever. He gripped the holy sword Ascalon in both hands, leaped high into the air, and brought it down on the snake head with the force of a single decisive strike.
But when the blade touched the snake head, its unstoppable momentum was somehow blocked. Beyond the Chimera's hard scales, there seemed to be some rule suppressing his magical energy and nullifying most of the damage.
When the blade struck the snake head, it was like a rusty dull iron sword hitting refined steel. This monster defied reason. It seemed to have undergone some kind of mutation.
Shirou's hands went numb from the tremendous force. Gritting his teeth, he knocked the snake head aside, reversed his blade, and slashed at the Chimera's lion body.
The blade of the Noble Phantasm Ascalon merely tore through the Chimera's fur, leaving a wound. Blood flowed from the monster, but its muscles and bones remained intact. The monster let out a furious roar of pain.
A rule that should not have existed in this world was suppressing him now.
The python behind the Chimera bared its fangs and bit at him. Shirou hurriedly jumped backward to evade.
Fortunately, the Servant on him excelled at defense. He raised his sword to block the python tail's attack, but the force behind it drove him back again and again.
The Chimera's goat head, now left with only one eye, spat a fireball.
Mash leaped up with her shield and smashed out the Chimera's fireball. She shouted at the Youth.
"Stay calm, Shirou-senpai! This mutated Chimera was transformed into an Assassin class for unknown reasons. The Servant on you is Rider class. Teacher Qiao was never a Servant who excelled at offense to begin with, and he's only two-star..."
Shirou attacked again, but the wound he cut with all his strength was still far too shallow. It did not damage the monster's muscles or bones at all. Instead, it thoroughly enraged the three-headed Chimera.
The Chimera's enormous lion claw came crashing down. Shirou hurriedly raised his sword and blocked its strike once more, but the tremendous force knocked him back. The soles of his iron boots scraped the ground as he slid more than ten steps away.
"Why does even a monster like this have a Class? And how does a monster that charges around like this resemble an Assassin class?! Even if it doesn't hide, it should at least stay put and guard a gate properly!" Shirou roared in frustration.
"An assassination without witnesses is a perfect assassination! That's what a Grand Class Servant senior once said! An Assassin with three red cards and unstoppable attacks is the essence of Assassin class! What's the point of Presence Concealment?! A true Assassin charges in head-on and unleashes everything!" The pink-haired girl in her purple bodysuit got fired up over something completely bizarre, speaking with an excited expression.
"Mash, you little eggplant! Is this the time to praise the monster?!" Shirou shouted.
He wanted to use a skill on himself as he would in the game, granting himself a buff that increased resistance to mental abnormalities. But since he was not a believer, he had received no such enhancement.
The jet-black Chimera seemed to have mutated in some way. The strength it displayed was far too great. It was no longer an ordinary oversized Demonic Beast but had reached the level of a Phantasmal Beast.
Everywhere it passed was left damaged. Walls shattered and lost chunks from its impacts, while trees snapped in half and crashed down with a single sweep.
"Shirou-senpai! With our attack power, it'll be difficult to kill this monster!" Mash said.
"Then what are we supposed to do?!" Shirou jumped backward to evade another attack. This time, the Chimera's claws merely grazed the armor on his chest, yet tore a long gash through it, making his hair stand on end.
"Find a powerful friend Support quickly! I'll buy you time! The Shield of Determination!" Mash shouted, pouring magical energy into her cross-shaped shield. It shone with white light as she charged forward and slammed into the Chimera.
"Support?!" Shirou thought of his phone and saw what looked like a three-dimensional battle interface. On the far left was the pink-haired shield girl, while the second was an armored Youth.
There was a Support option farther to the right. He tapped it, and sure enough, a row of Friends who looked incredibly strong appeared. Their levels were dozens higher than his.
Mr. Aipan's Snow Cat? Level 138? The Servant was max level, and beyond the stars, it even displayed a Holy Grail, just like his Saint George.
Whatever! You're the one!
Shirou pressed the Support button!
The phone emitted another intense white light that shot straight into the sky.
Then a samurai girl wearing strange armor jumped out of the white light.
"What's going on?! I was clearly just..." The girl adjusted her posture in midair. With agile movements, she landed lightly on one knee, instinctively using her long sleeves to cover herself.
Seeing the scene around her, her mind went blank. Only after sorting through the sudden flood of information did she finally calm down.
The girl's long black hair was tied high into a ponytail that hung behind her. Her bangs were evenly parted down the middle, framing a delicate and lovely face. Her eyes were cold yet valiant. She surveyed her surroundings, seemingly searching for the culprit who had brought her here.
Shirou felt that this suddenly appearing girl from the sky looked familiar. Looking closely at her beautiful face, slender figure, and icy demeanor, wasn't she Yukino Yukinoshita, the girl from his school club? Why had she jumped out of his phone?
But he had clearly selected Mr. Aipan's Snow Cat? Wait... Snow Cat?
Shirou stared at the girl in shock, realizing that he might have accidentally discovered a shocking secret that could get him silenced forever.
Upgraded Projection Magecraft
Inside the school grounds, the Youth stared blankly at the girl, unsure what to say for a moment.
The girl also recognized him. Seeing that he, like her, wore exquisitely crafted strange clothing that one would only see on a theater stage, she could not imagine that he had nothing to do with this matter.
"Shirou, please explain what exactly is going on?" The girl's gaze turned cold as she looked at him, placing particular emphasis on the word "Shirou."
Shirou, who knew the girl well, understood that although she wore no expression now, she was actually extremely angry. Her icy gaze carried an inexplicable pressure.
Weren't we friends from the same club? Why was she suddenly calling me Shirou so coldly? It felt so distant.
"Ah, Yukino, this isn't the time to talk!" Shirou decisively turned away, raised his sword, and pointed it at the Chimera ahead, which was roaring and launching frenzied attacks.
Before you continue