Beta read by Paragon of Awesomeness

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-Kuoh-

Rias Gremory was, to put it simply, bewildered.

Twelve days ago, her life had been perfectly normal. Well, as normal as things could get for a young, beautiful, and — if she may say so — incredibly sexy female Devil living a double life as a simple high school student could get. That same young and beautiful Devil also just so happened to be the younger sister of the strongest Devil in history whose best friend also happened to have a Maou as a sister.

Aside from school activities, she either spent her time completing contracts from her customers while spending time with the members of her peerage. 

All in all, an average day.

But then just as school came to an end for the day, she and her peerage gathered in the old school building for "club activities". A request was left on her desk, making her wonder if this was another Stray request. She read the paper and discovered that it pertained to a certain magical signature present in Kuoh for the last few days, and the location. This magical activity had apparently arisen in an abandoned warehouse near Kuoh's docks. 

"This is… weird." She murmured to herself, staring at the building she'd just teleported to, accompanied by her childhood friend and Queen, Himejima Akeno, alongside her only Knight, Kiba Yuuto, and lone Rook, Tōjo Koneko. "The report of an unusual burst of magic in the area said that it started a few days ago, but this doesn't look like something a Stray would do."

Koneko's nose scrunched up, a frown emerging on her face. "It stinks, something died inside." 

"It certainly looks like the lair of a Stray. Be careful, Buchou." 

Rias nodded at Yuuto's words, and the group carefully went inside the building, looking around for any traps or potential sneak attacks from whatever monster inhabited the place. Yet nothing happened and surprisingly, what they found wasn't a Stray at all.

The place was dimly lit with a single flickering light bulb, though their Devil nature allowed the group to see their surroundings as if the sun was at its peak.

What they found inside were walls covered with some weird writing and hundreds of magic circles carved inside the metal itself. All connected to a giant magic circle in the middle, written in a language no one in the group could make head or tail of.

"This is… disturbing." Even Akeno was disturbed by the sight. "Look, there is someone over there!"

In the middle of it all, was a body garbed in red robes. They could see this person had died long ago with the stench of rot and decay. Though another disturbing sight was how emaciated the person looked before his death — nothing but skin and bones. 

"That's a mage robe, what's one doing in Kuoh without either my or Sona's permission?" Rias sighed in frustration, Kuoh was a shared territory belonging to the Sitri and Gremory, for anyone to enter the place would need to notify the owners. And in certain cases, even for permission whether they could stay or not. So having this person here without her knowing proved that this was a rogue mage. Curious about his death, she went to check her body and stepped over the magic circles — much to the others' shock.

"Buchou!" Yuuto shouted, noticing the area light up with the circles coming to life. 

"Ah!" Rias screamed in pain, and with no warning whatsoever, she started feeling a burning pain in her left hand. Panic spread amongst the group and herself, everyone wondering if she had been cursed or attacked by some sort of latent magic in the circle that their King had awakened. They quickly retreated from the area, Akeno launching a powerful lightning strike to damage the circle and interrupt whatever spell had taken effect — but it was already too late. The entire warehouse started to become overloaded with magic and the area started to break down till it exploded.

Everyone was safe, having flown a great distance away until they were on the opposite side of the port. The explosion itself wasn't violent, just strong enough to have the walls of the warehouse crumble without even damaging any of the nearby buildings.

A minute later the ache in her hand faded, and a mark became clearly visible on the skin instead, bearing great resemblance to the Gremory crest but divided into three sections with a half circle around it, and a serpentine creature circling the entire symbol.

"What is this? It's not coming off!" Rias exclaimed, instinctively coating her hand in her Power of Destruction, but the symbol remained.

Confused and just a little bit frightened by this sudden phenomenon, she and Akeno immediately set about determining the reason for this mark appearing on her body the way it had, as well as what it might mean. They quickly were able to find out that each section of the mark contained magic and a rather astounding amount of it, but it was dormant and no matter what Rias tried she was unable to use it. 

This further threw them out of the loop as it put into question what that mage was planning on doing. Was he experimenting on a way to stockpile magic for later use? 

Eventually, after three days without any progress, she reluctantly set aside her monumental pride, and sent a message to her mother, Venelana, to give to her father, explaining the situation and asking for his help. She figured that since the mysterious mark was shaped like the Gremory family crest, it would make sense that the lord of House Gremory might know something about it.

As they waited for her parents' reply, Rias and the rest of her peerage had been more than a little surprised when instead of sending a message, her overprotective father teleported right into the ORC's club room not even ten minutes later along with her overprotective brother, and they both immediately began bombarding Rias with questions as to who or what had "violated her body."

Although in hindsight, Rias realized that she really should have seen that coming.

After her father and older brother finally calmed down, thanks in no small part to Grayfia and Venelana arriving and pulling none-too-softly on their respective husband's cheeks, her father had examined the mark personally for several minutes, and a few theories were thrown in the air but none were conclusive. But these two definitely knew something, as both even left the room to continue their discussion in private. Why they didn't want her to hear it was a mystery she found to be unfair. It was obviously a serious matter as she'd never seen them with such a grave expression. They didn't elaborate much though and just told her to not look into the matter too much and to never show her mark to anyone.

Fortunately, she came up with her own idea with the help of Sona, both speculating that the magic within had something to do with the sort of contract made with a familiar. 

They weren't able to determine what type of creature it could have been, but it could possibly turn out to be a powerful kind of familiar. After all, why else would so much magic be needed just to secure the contract? Every hour a large chunk of her magic would slowly slip inside the mark, forcing her to take breaks as she wasn't sure if the rate of absorption would increase with time. Sona advised her to let her system get used to it first before going on any other Stray-related missions, or at least until she got the familiar.

'No wonder that mage died; I was born with exceptional magical reserves as a Devil with our enhanced recovery while he was only human.' she thought, shivering at finally knowing the reason behind the mage's shriveled corpse. He had basically been sucked dry of all his magic to the point of death by attempting a spell he didn't have the reserves to actually provide sufficient power for.

And so with this information in mind, it had been with no small amount of anticipation that when the next full moon came, Rias had instantly teleported to the Familiar Forest with her peerage in tow.

'I can't wait to see what kind of familiar I'll get!' Rias thought gleefully. 'Just wait until I show it to Sona. Oh, I am going to lord this over her every chance I get. Ha! Nothing she has will be able to compare to what I'll have by the end of tonight!'

When they encountered the Familiar Master Zatouji and requested his help though, Rias was in for yet another surprise.

For starters, when Rias showed him the mark, the man had actually commented on how familiar it looked to him, when she mentioned that it was possibly connected to a powerful creature he fainted. When Akeno had brought him out of it via some improvised defibrillation with her lightning powers, he had immediately started rambling about the mark and screaming about how he finally remembered where he saw it.

"Years ago, a young mage somehow found his way here. He came to seek my aid, not to get a familiar, but to study the experiments and notes of another ancient mage from many centuries ago. Yes, I remember it clearly, that symbol!" He pointed at Rias' hand. "That's what we uncovered from the scraps, though it didn't have the Gremory symbol and looked far different… In fact, it looked more like a spear. Oh well, he must have changed it somehow. C'mon lads, I think I still have some of the notes he left behind somewhere in my crib."

Zatouji took the young group of Devils to his home and gone digging through a mountain of ancient-looking books and scrolls until he emerged with a few dusty books that would rip at the slightest touch which he handed to Rias; one had a picture of a magic circle, but of a design that she had never seen before; the others were just notebooks filled with endless notes from an ancient language to modern English, Latin, and Greek.

The Familiar Master then informed Rias that from what little he could remember, this was indeed supposed to be some sort of summoning spell which they never got to make it work in the past. He had deemed it a failure and abandoned the project, as no creature in the forest ever correlated to such a spell. He advised Rias to tread carefully, for it could easily be possible for the spell to summon a deadly monster that could easily kill her. 

He also noted that for it to work, Rias would need to draw a specific circle of which he had forgotten the exact design and materials needed to create it in the first place. 

She nearly lost all hope until Akeno mentioned how they could revisit the burned Warehouse and study what remained of the circle. If lucky, they could even restore it. 

Zatouji also handed Rias an old tattered paper with a few chants on them. Mentioning how these were the words that would activate the spell, something which never worked for them back then but hoped to work for the heiress.

Rias thanked the Familiar Master for the information, but before she left she asked him what kind of familiar she would summon. The answer he gave was… not what she had expected.

"I'm afraid I simply don't know, Lady Rias. The practice of contracting familiars is almost as old as magic itself, but until now, the stories about familiars that involve marks like the one you now possess have never truly been documented. The fact of the matter is I have absolutely no idea what kind of familiar you will summon, as no one in history ever has."

After they left the forest, the man suddenly remembered a small detail he forgot to mention to Rias.

"Ah, I should have told them that in order to ensure that the familiar she summons will be as powerful as possible, she should perform the ritual in a location where the magical energy was naturally strong, and at the time of day or night when her own magic was also at its strongest… meh." It wasn't an important detail, he was sure she would manage regardless.

{Break}

After arriving back at the clubhouse, Akeno and some of Sona's peerage members whose expertise lies in magic went to the warehouse to recover as much info they could about the magic circle. It took another few days for them to collect enough information from the wreckage to recreate a mostly similar circle with a few alterations for the missing parts and using the notes given by the Familiar Master to gather the needed materials, liquid platinum being one of them — something that took a few days to acquire.

Then after classes ended the next day, they cleared out the room in which they always met after school, the Occult Research Club, and then they drew the circle depicted on the paper they had been given, with a perfect diameter of six feet.

Despite its rather plain appearance, Kuoh Academy was actually built right on top of a large number of ley lines, making the old schoolhouse the ideal place for the summoning ritual. After that, it was simply a matter of waiting until no one was present in school. So as the sun set on the horizon and the last student left, it was finally time, the young heiress of the House of Gremory raised her left hand, and began the incantation that she memorized from the notes and books.

"For the element silver and iron, the foundation stone and the Archduke of Pacts, and for the great mistress, Lilith.

Raise a wall against the wind and close the gate in four directions.

Come forth from the Crown and follow the forked road leading to the Kingdom."

Nothing happened, but Rias continued, undeterred. They'd followed all of the Familiar Master's instructions perfectly. She knew that this would work… at least she hoped.

"Fill, fill, fill, fill, fill.

Repeat five times, but when each is filled, destroy it."

The circle began to faintly glow blue. Rias felt the excitement that had been building up in her for days begin to rise, but she managed to suppress it enough and continue reciting the chant, lest she screws up the ritual. And as she kept speaking, the circle grew brighter and brighter whilst the mark on her hand started to grow warmer.

"Heed my words.

My will creates your body, and your sword creates my destiny.

If you abide by this feeling and obey my will and reason, then answer my summoning.

I hereby swear that I shall be all the good in the world,

That I shall defeat all evil in the world."

This certainly didn't sound like any familiar summoning process she was familiar with. But given how this was a spell from a long-forgotten age, she held high hopes for something amazing and powerful to come forth from it.

By this point, the amount of raw mana that had gathered in the circle was staggering to behold and was glowing so brightly that the rest of her peerage had shielded their eyes or looked away, and it also generated a fierce wind. But Rias forced herself to finish as she stared at the center of the circle and shouted the final line.

"Seven realms clad in the great words of power, come forth from the circle of binding, Guardian of Scales!"

The moment the final syllable left her lips, all the power that had been accumulating mere meters in front of her condensed into a single spot, shining more brightly than the sun before it disappeared.

"..."

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Nothing happened, everything remained the same with the circle having gone dim before turning into dust.

"No… this can't be." Rias couldn't believe it, was this truly a failure? Everyone's effort went down the drain for a mere light show?

Akeno put her hands on her King's shoulder.

"Don't think too much about it, we tried our best—!" Crash!

Akeno couldn't even finish her words before something came crashing from the top of the roof onto the floor next to them, wooden debris flew everywhere making everyone gasp at a possible enemy attack. The impact nearly broke the floor as well, but the building was sturdy enough to handle it.

"W-What is it?" 

"An attack!"

"Buchou, Akeno-san, get behind me!" Kiba exclaimed.

As Rias and the rest of her peerage coughed from the cloud of dust that had been kicked up, a voice, clear, strong, and distinctly masculine, sounded in front of her.

"Ugh, not again…"

A man? 

"Yuuto, wait!" Rias shouted, watching her Knight get ready to use his sword, but this scenario didn't feel like a surprise attack or anything like that — so she wanted to assess the situation first.

Whoever this person was, he continued to speak. "Well now, what have we here? It seems that I've been summoned by a peculiar little Master."

Rias' eyes widened as the words reached her ears, and when she looked back to what remained of the summoning circle, she saw a humanoid figure through the dust.

'Tall.'

That was the first word that came to mind as she laid eyes on the newcomer for the first time. And he was tall. Rias herself stood at a reasonable height of 5'8" but the man in front of her had to be at least 6'1".

As the dust settled, the young Devil was able to get a better view of this man, and she found him to have an appearance that was quite exotic.

Tan skin, white hair, eyes the color of steel, and a figure that seemed to be made up entirely of corded muscle. He wore black form-fitting armor on his chest that seemed to actually show off his abs even though it was covering them, along with a red shroud that made her shake from fear — she could tell it had holy properties. And his face… she wouldn't lie, but it was very sharp, with a hawkish nose and a defined jawline and cheekbones. All in all, he was quite the handsome man.

'Yes, he's very… exotic to say the least.' Rias thought with a tiny blush. 'Wait, he said he'd been summoned, does that mean…'

Looking the man in the eye, Rias gathered her wits and stepped forward. "Going by your words just now about being summoned, I assume that you are my new familiar?"

The man responded by raising an eyebrow quizzically and then smirked. "I suppose if you were to put it crudely, then yes, I am a familiar. I assume then that you are my Master? Sorry about your roof, but then again I don't… usually get summoned high up in the middle of the sky."

"Indeed I am, but just what do you mean by 'crudely'?" Rias demanded with a furrowed brow, while also wondering about that last comment of his.

"What you say is true, Master: I am a… familiar of sorts, and I am also contracted to you." the man stated as though he were explaining something simple to someone who should already know about it, but didn't. "But based on how you greeted me, it's clear you don't realize just what kind of familiar I am."

"Enlighten me then."

At this, the man nodded respectfully, though Rias was certain she saw him smirk again during the few seconds his face was down. "As you wish, Master. Understand that this conversation will not be a short one, so I suggest that you sit down." He gazed at the group behind. "The others as well if they intend to stay and listen."

Taking his advice, the members of the Occult Research Club put the carpets and furniture back where they had been before they drew the summoning circle and took their respective seats, with Rias at her desk, Yuuto and Akeno seated on the couch to her left, and Koneko sitting on the couch to her right. Rias' new familiar remained standing in the center of the room across from Rias, his attention primarily focused on the young Devil who had summoned him, and begun his explanation.

"As I am sure you are already aware, Master, normal familiars are various animals or supernatural creatures or Phantasms that are magically bound to serve the one they are contracted to. While these creatures often vary in terms of strength as well as the types of services they can provide – be it spying, carrying messages, or assisting in combat – one thing that they all have in common is that they are weaker than the person they are contracted to. This is because no matter how strong a being may be, they cannot bind a familiar to them if it is stronger than they themselves are, and attempting to do so is akin to suicide."

Rias nodded in agreement and gestured for him to continue.

"However Master, every rule has its exceptions, and with the right tools and preparations, this can be done. In fact, you've already done it."

Wide eyes were tonight's theme for the Occult Research Club as the idea that their Buchou had actually contracted a familiar that was stronger than she was crossed their minds. But before anyone had a chance to say something, the strange man announced "Congratulations are in order, Master. You have successfully summoned a Servant." 

Instead of clearing things up, his words only further served to confuse the bunch. 

"Servant? What do you mean by that?" Yuuto asked, speaking for the first time since the summoning ritual had begun.

The white-haired man sighed, almost as if he was disappointed in their inability to understand the situation.

"Well, if I had to put it into a single sentence, you could say that 'Servant' is the title given to human familiars, which just so happen to be the most powerful type of familiars. In more detailed terms though, I am a Heroic Spirit; a hero from another time who has become so famous and accomplished deeds so legendary, that after my death I ascended to a level of existence that borders on that of the divine. Rather than my soul going into the cycle of reincarnation, it instead ascended to the Throne of Heroes."

Heroic Spirit? Throne of Heroes? All of these terms were just so unfamiliar and new to everyone in the room.

"The summoning ritual you just performed was one intended to call forth a Heroic Spirit's soul with the intent of making it your familiar. However one of the problems with this is that calling the soul of even a normal human back from the clutches of death, let alone that of a Heroic Spirit, is True Magic. To compensate for the sheer impossibility of this, instead of trying to summon the entire Heroic Spirit, the ritual gathers as much of the Heroic Spirit's power as it can, which is then placed in a container modeled after the very body that the Heroic Spirit had during the prime of their life, and that container is known as a Servant."

Rias couldn't believe what she was hearing. 

'I… I summoned a hero from another age, and I contracted him as my familiar? …YES! Suck it, Sona! Nothing she has can top this! NOTHING!'

It took every ounce of self-control Rias had to not jump on top of her desk and start cheering, and even then she was unable to stop a smile from pulling at her cheeks or prevent her eyes from glinting greedily.

If her new familiar 'No, Servant,' saw her reaction, he didn't comment on it and continued his explanation.

"Now, since the container can only hold a fraction of the Heroic Spirit's power, it makes sense that the Master would want to guarantee that certain elements of their power made it in that they would want in their Servant, would it not? This is where the Servant classes come into play, of which there are a total of seven; Archer, the Servant of the Bow; Saber, the Servant of the Sword; Lancer, the Servant of the Spear; Rider, the Servant of the Mount; Caster, the Servant of the Spell; Assassin, the Servant of Murder; and Berserker, the Servant of Madness. I have been summoned as a Servant of the Archer class, which typically specializes in long-range combat and independent operations."

"I see," Rias murmured half to herself. She wondered what kind of specializations the other classes might have, and made a mental note to ask him about them some other time. For now, though her Servant already had more than enough to explain to make sure his Master understood the situation she was in, and besides, there was another question she wanted to ask. "So tell me, which Heroic Spirit are you? I like to know my servants, Heroic and otherwise."

The man frowned a bit, looking at the hole in the ceiling before shaking his head.

"I'm afraid I can't do that."

"Eh, why is that?" 

The Servant grimaced before he replied. "I apologize, Master, but it would seem like you didn't properly summon me. This could either be due to the process or you having not summoned me at the time when your magic is at its peak, but this mistake has jumbled my memories a bit. It is for those reasons that I request that so long as I am your Servant, you refer to me simply as Archer, the name of my class. At least, until my memories return to me, and only then will I be able to properly introduce myself."

The members of the Occult Research Club gave the Heroic Spirit a collective sigh, somewhat disappointed that things didn't go smoothly and that they managed to mess up. Now because of their actions, they summoned someone who was suffering from memory loss. They looked at him in sympathy, hoping that he would get well soon.

"Very well Archer," Rias said. "This was an error on my part and I would like to formally apologize. I will respect your wish to be called Archer and so will the rest."

The newly christened Archer bowed his head in thanks. "Very good Master. Now, moving on to a different matter… Normally I wouldn't ask this, but since you were unaware that you were summoning a Servant, I have to do so; do you realize the significance of what you bear on your left hand?"

Looking at her left hand, the Gremory heiress realized that the strange mark that had appeared on her left hand and set this whole thing in motion, rather than being used up in the ritual to summon Archer, was actually still there. But while before it had been a dull color, like that of dried blood, it was now a vibrant crimson, much like her hair. "You're talking about this mark?" Rias asked, holding up her hand for Archer to see.

The Servant nodded in confirmation. "Yes. That mark is proof of the pact that you and I share. And more importantly, they signify your status as the Master of the said pact. I already mentioned that in the end, Servants are basically extremely powerful familiars, ones that are almost always many times stronger than their Master. Therefore it shouldn't come as that big of a surprise that it is not unheard of for a Servant to kill their Master if they ever grow displeased with them."

At these words, Koneko tensed up as she glared at Archer and fiercely declared "If you ever try to hurt Buchou, I'll kill you."

"Ara ara," Akeno said in a manner that Rias was all too familiar with. "Look at you, Koneko-chan, so eager to defend your beloved Buchou. How adorable." Despite the teasing manner in which she spoke though, Rias could feel Akeno gathering her power, and Yuuto's hand was drifting toward his sword.

Raising her hand, the President of the Occult Research Club intervened before things had a chance to escalate. "There's no need for hostilities, everyone. Archer is merely informing us of all of the details regarding my pact with him. Now Archer, from the way you were phrasing your words, I'm guessing that this mark on my left hand is some sort of trump card to ensure my authority?"

Archer nodded approvingly. "Very astute of you, Master. Those marks are called Command Seals, and they are tools to help guarantee the authority of the Master over their Servant. By invoking the Command Seals, a Master is able to compel their Servant's obedience a grand total of three times. By using the Command Seals, you could order me to do just about anything, and I would carry out that order immediately whether I wanted to or not. In fact, if you felt like it, you could order me to commit suicide right here and now, and there would be nothing I could do once the command was given."

The Master gasped at the very thought of giving her Servant such a cruel and horrific order, and looked at the Command Seals on her hand with newfound fear; fear of what a less merciful Master might use them for. It was true that in Devil society, a King held a considerable amount of authority over the members of their peerage, but these Command Seals… they went far beyond that.

"Archer, I swear on my honor as a Gremory and as your Master, I will never use a Command Seal on you!"

To her surprise, Archer just chuckled. "While I appreciate the thought, there's no need for such extremes, Master. And I wouldn't go disregarding the power of the Command Seals if I were you, as they do have their uses. For example, I am incapable of any kind of teleportation. But if you used a Command Seal ordering me to go to a specific location immediately, the laws of time and space themselves would bend to send me to said location, no matter how far away I was. Also, if you used one ordering me to carry out a certain task, such as 'destroy the enemy in front of you' and I agreed with and supported your intentions, every aspect of my power would be greatly increased as I fulfilled that order."

"Well that's certainly interesting, and it also seems pretty handy for when you're in a pinch," Yuuto noted. "But that can't be all there is to it, there has to be some sort of catch."

"Indeed there is," Archer confirmed. "While the Command Seals are the crystallization of magic powerful enough to compel even a Heroic Spirit, they only contain so much power. If my Master were to use one ordering me to completely obey her every command, the Command Seal's power would be spread out accordingly, drastically decreasing its effectiveness. At most I would probably feel a sort of compulsion to obey her, like a little voice in my head nagging me to agree with her and do what she says. It would be annoying, but ultimately I could ignore it." Turning back to his Master, Archer went on to advise her that if Rias ever did feel the need to use her Seals, she should keep in mind to avoid giving orders that were vague or broad.

"As for the most important 'catch' as you put it," he said, turning back to Yuuto, "that is something that I believe I already mentioned; my Master has three Command Seals, no more, no less. And if she uses up all three, our contract disappears with them."

"In that case, I'll do my very best to make sure I don't ever have to use them." Even though Rias said these words with a smile, she had a serious look in her eyes. A look that told Archer that she was starting to truly understand what it meant to be a Master, and also that unless the situation was dire, she wouldn't even consider using those Seals, as she now realized how precious they were.

"Glad to hear it. Now Master," the Servant said, changing topics, "unless you have any more questions, I would like to ask a few of my own."

"I can't think of one at the moment. Does anyone else have any?" The other Devils in the room answered no. "In that case, go right ahead, Archer."

"Right. Well to start, would I be correct in assuming that none of you are human?" Archer asked, looking at all of them as though he was assessing them. "There is an aura of magic around you… it's hard to put it into words but it definitely isn't something human."

"You are correct, Archer. We are all Devils."

This time it was Archer's turn to be surprised. "Devils? I didn't know my Master would have a knack for jokes," he muttered with raised eyebrows, though Rias insisted. 

"I'm not lying, here is the proof." 

All at once, black bat-like wings unfolded behind their backs, and the shock quickly went away as the Servant adapted to his situation. "Well, that's a new one. I've never had a Devil for a Master before or any sort of non-human for that matter. Although that would explain the massive amount of Magical Energy I can feel coming from you."

His Master smirked. "But of course, I am a Gremory after all."

Archer blinked. "Wait, Gremory? As in the Duke of Hell who commands twenty-six legions of demons, and has absolute knowledge of all treasures, past, present, and future? The same Gremory who is also known for acquiring the love of many women, be they young or old, but he mostly goes after maidens?"

The redhead unconsciously puffed her chest in pride.

"The very same. Unfortunately, though, the original Lord Gremory, who was actually a woman and not a man, died thousands of years ago in the Great War along with the vast majority of her followers." Rias explained. "However I am descended from her."

Akeno giggled. "Ara ara. You sure know your history, Archer-kun."

"The Throne of Heroes is directly connected to part of the Akashic Records, and every Heroic Spirit has at least a basic understanding of all the legends recorded within them," Archer replied, briefly breaking eye contact with his Master to speak to Akeno. "Now if I may ask, what are you all doing here in the human world? I was under the impression that your kind had, for the most part, left the realm of mortals after the Age of the Gods ended, along with all the other creatures of legend."

Rias blinked. "Ended? Left? What are you talking about Archer? I'll admit, many of the old powers that once ruled the human world have withdrawn for the most part, but we Devils and all the other magical races still come here rather frequently. As for why we do it, it may be to catch up on everyday human life so we can blend in, do business with humans who request our services, or even just take a vacation."

The confusion that Archer was feeling was now greater than ever, along with a sense of increasing shock. "But that can't be… the Age of the Gods was brought to an end by Gilgamesh more than four thousand years ago, and even though many new ones were born afterward, they all died by the time the Roman Empire collapsed. This has been confirmed by all three branches of the Mages Association and the Holy Church for centuries!" 

Wait… Unless… 

"Master," the Heroic Spirit cautiously asked, "Are you familiar with the entities Gaia and Alaya?"

Rias tilted her head to the side, curious as to why her Servant would suddenly ask that. "Gaia? Do you mean from the Greek legends? Well, I've heard about her of course, but I can't say I've ever met her. As for the second one, Alaya, I've never so much as heard that name in my life."

As Archer's eyes widened even further, Rias confusion was replaced with worry. "Archer? What's wrong?"

"It… it seems I was mistaken about a few things, Master." the Servant began. "Not only am I from another time, but if my suspicions are correct, I am also from another world."

The Occult Research Club was stunned as these words left the Servant's lips, but in just a few seconds Akeno managed to cover up her surprise with amusement. "Ara ara, this is certainly a surprise. Archer-kun is really an alien!" Everyone else in the room either sighed or rolled their eyes at this.

"To clarify," Archer muttered with his left eyebrow giving a single twitch, "at the moment it seems that this plane of existence which you all live in is a world parallel to my own, but one in which the Age of the Gods never came to an end, or at the very least that end has not yet come, and creatures such as Devils like yourselves still walk the Earth.

"And that's just one of the differences." the Servant of the Bow pointed out, mentally groaning as he felt the number of questions he had suddenly multiplied.

After a very long discussion, the Servant now had at least a basic understanding of this strange new world he'd been thrown into.

One of the most important facts was that human society and history in this world were somehow perfectly identical to that of his own. As far as anyone could tell, the only differences were of the mythic variety, namely that gods, dragons, Angels, Devils, and many other Phantasmal Species were still alive and present in the world. 

Fortunately, Archer also found that this world also had all the same legends, so at least his knowledge of all the different legends about these creatures could still prove to be useful to him.

The Heroic Spirit was also pleasantly surprised to discover that the Devils of this world had — while not necessarily good — much less malevolent intentions toward humans than the legends about them described, at least according to his Master and her peerage.

His Master had confessed that much to her shame, before the Great War, Devils were indeed the monsters that stole the souls of humans just as the Bible proclaimed. After the war though, the Devils, Angels, and Fallen Angels had all suffered casualties that were beyond staggering. In fact, they'd all been on the brink of extinction. So in order to keep themselves alive, these three races had been forced to call a ceasefire of sorts, and turn to humans and start recruiting those they found to be both willing and worthy into their own ranks as a way to replenish their numbers. And in order to improve their "publicity" the rulers of Hell changed their policy regarding the treatment of mortals to a much more mutually beneficial one.

"Of course, that didn't exactly go over very well with some of the more, shall we say, traditional Devils, and we went through a nasty civil war that eventually resulted in the old faction being driven out along with all four Satans, and my older brother Sirzechs taking the mantle of Lucifer."

"Hmm, this is quite a lot to take in," Archer murmured as he mulled numerous facts over in his head. "Not only do I find myself in a completely new world, I even find myself contracted to a Devil, only to discover that apparently, they have cast aside many of their more evil habits."

What could have caused such a thing? How could she have summoned him from an entirely different reality? That was impossible, even if she possessed near unlimited access to Magical Energy and the ability to use True Magic — it would have still been impossible. Yet here he was, summoned as an Archer without any issues.

'I'll have to take some time to learn more and find out just how this is possible.'

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. 

"In the end though, all that really matters is that I am a Servant that has been summoned, and you are my Master. Provided that everything that you have told me so far about this world is true, at the present time I see no reason why I would dislike being your Servant."

"I am glad to hear it," Rias replied, pleased that her new Servant had no issues with her being a Devil, even though he was a hero.

"Now then Master, there is one final bit of business we must take care of. I must ask you to stand for this part." Archer said as he approached the Gremory heiress. She quickly complied with his request though, and a minute later the two were standing a meter apart from one another, which was followed by Archer placing his fist over his heart as he solemnly bowed his head.

"By your summons, I have come. From this moment forth, your fate is my fate. My victory is your victory. Your desire is my purpose. This is the vow offered by the Servant Archer, who pledges to always remain by your side, my Master."

Rias was momentarily stunned by the formality that her Servant was suddenly showing before her own self-discipline reasserted itself as she gracefully gave her response. "I accept your pledge and your vow, Archer. By my name as Rias of the House of Gremory, I swear on my honor that I will strive to be a Master worthy of such a fine Servant." As she finished speaking, Rias realized that during the entire time, she'd spoken with him, she had never actually told Archer her given name until just now.

"And with that, the pact is sealed." Archer declared as he straightened his back. "Now unless there is anything else, I think it is time we all retired for the night. I take it you all have school after all, and it would be remiss of you to miss your classes simply because you were busy conversing with a Heroic Spirit all night," he said in his familiar confident, amusement in his tone.

Koneko narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "How do you know we have school?"

"Because you're all wearing school uniforms?" Archer guessed rhetorically with a raised eyebrow.

"No, Koneko-chan's right. Even if your legend took place relatively recently in your world's history, I doubt your society had public schools with regular uniforms, Archer." Kiba pointed out.

"A fair point," Archer admitted. "However, even if this is a different plane of existence, we've been able to establish that the current human civilization of this world is identical to that of my own. As for how I know about this era's culture and customs, and the fact that you all have school, my memories aren't so jumbled that I forgot about everything."

"Well isn't that interesting?" Akeno said, hiding her mouth with her hand.

"Enough," Rias said authoritatively but not unkindly. "Archer is right; we all have our classes tomorrow, and it will reflect poorly on us if we neglected our responsibilities as students of Kuoh Academy because we were all too tired from staying up late." Not to mention that Sona would never let Rias hear the end of it if she was tardy. "Go home and get a good night's sleep. We'll meet back here tomorrow after class. Archer, you can come with me to my house."

"Uh… we should probably fix the ceiling. Would be a nightmare if it started raining." Kiba pointed out, followed by Akeno and Koneko doing a quick fix up with magic and a few wooden planks.

{Break}

With their President calling it a night, the members of the Occult Research Club said their goodbyes, and Rias Gremory activated a teleportation circle to her home beneath her feet and activated it once Archer stepped in.

The Master and Servant duo emerged from the second teleportation circle that had appeared in the former's bedroom, which contained a large, western-style bed with four posts. Rias approached her bed, but stopped and looked back at her Servant.

"Archer, could I ask a favor of you?"

"You don't need to bother with such niceties when addressing me, Master." the Servant stated. "What do you require?"

"Well you see, the thing is…the house has no other bed prepared for now." Rias attempted to articulate, but she couldn't prevent an embarrassed flush from appearing on her cheeks at what she was about to ask. Damnit, it wasn't like her to get flustered like this, but Rias just couldn't help herself. Why did her Servant have to be so damn handsome? "I tend to get a little grabby when I sleep, and so I was wondering… if you wouldn't mind…" she forced herself to blurt out the rest. "If you wouldn't mind sleeping in my bed with me tonight!"

And so the Servant of the Bow received yet another surprise that night. "You… want to use me as a body pillow, Master?"

The blush on his Master's cheeks grew, and she imperiously turned her head away with her nose in the air. "As I said, I tend to hold anything close by while I'm asleep, and you… and I don't want you to freak out if I suddenly come close to you. Y-You don't have to sleep with me, I-I can get another bed ready if you want to."

Archer blinked three times as he stared at her before giving an amused snort, which earned him a fierce glare.

"My apologies, Master." Archer quickly said as he recomposed himself. He knew better than to make fun of a woman when she was being sincere and opening herself up to him. Doing so only resulted in pain on both sides – emotionally for the woman, and physically for the man. "And as for your 'grabbing habits', I don't mind it. This isn't the weirdest thing I've done in my life… I think. Then again, I would like to remind you that I'm a Servant, we don't usually require sleep since I'm getting a constant stream of Magical Energy from you to keep me going. I can pass time on the roof until morning arrives."

She vehemently shook her head, "No! As your Master I can't have you skip out on sleep like that. Even if you don't need it, I find sleep to be important to everyone. I won't feel comfortable knowing that while I'm sleeping here, someone is waiting for me the entire time."

In the end, Archer relented and agreed with her.

"Good." the Master replied as she started undressing, only for her Servant to speak up again.

"Master, would you like me to leave the room while you change?"

"There's not really any point." she shrugged. "I can't sleep unless I'm naked, so you're going to see everything anyway. And in case the thought crossed your mind, you don't have to worry about feeling like some sort of pedophile; I'm eighteen. Now could you please remove that holy shroud you're wearing? I'm unable to touch anything that has ties to the leader of Heaven without it hurting me in some way. And take off that armor too, it isn't suitable for sleeping… and that shroud is dangerous for me."

"I see…" Archer couldn't help but grow silent. 'It seems my Master is quite the little pervert.' 

Oh well, it was far from the first time he'd seen a naked woman or slept in the same bed as one. It was hardly a novel experience for him, even if his current Master was easily one of the most… developed women he'd encountered in his existence. Granted the last one had a more fierce personality than anything else.

As Rias stripped off the last of her clothes, she felt a small disturbance of magic come from Archer, and when she looked back at her Servant she saw that the articles of clothing she had just mentioned, as well as Archer's boots, had vanished without a trace, and her Servant was now only clad in his black trousers. Rias' blush instantly returned to full force as Archer's upper body was exposed to her. She took in the sight of his strong arms, his impressive abs, his muscular chest… pa!

'Focus!' Rias slapped herself, earning an inquisitive glance from her Servant. 

"I-I was surprised you could change clothes… like… that." As she spoke though, his top was covered by a simple shirt. 

"Ah, are you perhaps disappointed that I wore a shirt, Master? I can go topless if that's what you want." He said with a wide smirk. "I am your loyal Servant, after all. Your wishes are my command and I honestly don't care for such little things. Then again, I never met someone so forward, we did only meet a few hours ago."

"..."

Rias was speechless, she wanted to tell him she did want that but was afraid of coming off as too direct! Would he feel uncomfortable? She didn't want him to regret having a Master like her if she forced him to take off his clothes when sleeping!

"You… You can keep it on if you want. But if you feel uncomfortable with it then I don't mind it if you take it off." She whispered, unable to look him in the eyes. 

Arched chuckled, finding her awkward whispers very funny and cute. She obviously wanted him to disrobe but since this was their first meeting, he preferred having something on. He sat on the bed, staying like that for a few minutes, feeling the foreign sensation of a bed. Beings like him didn't need sleep anymore, so going through such an experience was weird, to say the least. He laid down on the bed, having his head rest against a pillow. The Servant lifted the bed's covers and pulled it over both of them, and shortly after his Master did the same on the other side. 

He saw Rias' hesitating, probably overthinking things about whether to hold him or not — so he made the move first. Having some past experience, he knew how to handle this situation.

The younger of the pair then felt one of her Servant's strong arms reach behind her neck and act as a pillow. She instinctively wrapped herself around his waist and pulled herself closer to him. As Rias hummed happily from the embrace and laid her head on his shoulder, she focused on the feel of Archer's body and the feeling that Archer himself gave off; his strong muscles; his warmth; his gentle, protective touch. She experienced all these things and more, with one final thought occupying her mind before she drifted off to sleep.

'I was right, he's warm… and comfortable.'

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The next 5 chapters of Snafu, Harry Potter and my 3 other Fate fics (Fate Coiling Sword with 3 chapters, A Fake Familiar Reborn with 3 chapters and To love a sword having 4 chapters) are already available on my P@treon. With 4 more Broly chapters at /NimtheWriter. Also, I post monthly commissioned arts on each story, already posted a few on an Archer's Promise, Broly and Snafu.