Against the backdrop of the full moon stood a slender figure: a girl in shining knightly armor. Her skin was soft and snow-white, her golden hair fell to her shoulders, and her emerald-green eyes complemented a lovely face that needed no adornment. She was petite.
Her hair was pinned up with a blue ribbon, making her appear gentle, dignified, and graceful.
This girl was Artoria Pendragon.
In life, she had been King Arthur of ancient British legend.
During the Fourth and Fifth Holy Grail Wars, she had repeatedly been summoned into the modern world as a Saber-class Servant to participate in the Holy Grail War.
When the Fourth Holy Grail War broke out, Kiritsugu Emiya, the Einzbern family's live-in son-in-law, received Avalon, a Holy Relic newly excavated in Cornwall and bestowed by the current head of Einzbern. After setting up the Magic Circle, Kiritsugu used Avalon as a catalyst and successfully summoned the legendary King Arthur as his Servant.
In 2004, ten years after the Fourth Holy Grail War, the Fifth Holy Grail War suddenly broke out, defying the original pattern of occurring once every sixty years.
After Artoria sensed the light of the summoning at Camlann, her hope of obtaining the Holy Grail reignited. Shirou Emiya had been the sole survivor saved by the despairing Kiritsugu Emiya when Fuyuki City was destroyed ten years ago. Kiritsugu adopted him, and he lived in the Emiya residence in Fuyuki City. Kiritsugu had also implanted Avalon, the legendary Noble Phantasm of King Arthur, into Shirou's body.
It was precisely because of the Avalon within Shirou, acting as a Holy Relic and resonating with the Magic Circle Kiritsugu had set up in the Emiya residence's storehouse ten years earlier, that Artoria could once again be summoned here as Artoria.
However, because this summoning