The courtyard of the Tohsaka residence now looked like a tiny, surreal mythic stage.
The moonlight was still cold and clear,
but when it fell on these very unusual "attendees," it reflected completely different colors and glows.
The "Three Kings Conference" that the King of Conquerors, Iskandar, had originally envisioned
had, after one surprise appearance after another, completely twisted into a bizarre gathering:
three kings (the Oldest King, Gilgamesh; the King of Conquerors, Iskandar; and the King of Knights, Artoria), two goddesses (the Venusian goddess Ishtar and the Underworld goddess Ereshkigal), and one man of utterly unfathomable identity—Rei Ao.
Iskandar stroked his red, curly beard.
For the first time, a clear look of confusion appeared on his bold, hearty face.
His eyes, always burning with the desire to conquer, swept over Gilgamesh,
then shifted to the two "goddesses" on the treetop, whose faces were similar yet whose auras were entirely different.
"Hold on, hold on!" he boomed.
"Now this really has this king confused!"
"The golden Archer, and you two… ladies up there in the tree?"
"By the rules of the Holy Grail War, among the seven Servant classes, there should only be one Archer."
"So which of you is the real Archer?"
"Or is one of you actually that elusive Assassin?"
He paused, his eyes sweeping over Ishtar and Ereshkigal once more, his tone full of disbelief.
"And no matter how I look at it, none of you seem like you'd be just a single Servant."
"What is going on here?"
"Don't tell me this Holy Grail War somehow has an extra Servant?"
Rei Ao, sitting at the table, couldn't help but chuckle when he heard that.
He lazily swirled the wineglass that had somehow been refilled again at some point, the liquor inside rippling with an amber sheen under the moonlight.
"King of Conquerors, your confusion is perfectly reasonable."
"After all, the current situation really has gone beyond the usual 'rules.'"
He set his glass down and pointed toward the two goddesses perched on the branches.
"Ishtar and Ereshkigal—broadly speaking, in terms of class, both of them can be categorized as 'Archer.'"
"What?! Two Archers?"
Waver couldn't help crying out, his already pale face turning even whiter.
This completely violated the basic Holy Grail War theory he knew.
"That's right," Rei Ao nodded, speaking in a calm, matter-of-fact tone, as if stating the most ordinary thing in the world.
"They were summoned 'together' in a special way. You can think of it as… a dual manifestation of the same spiritual origin."
He gave a brief explanation, but didn't go into the details.
"And as for Assassin…"
Before Rei Ao could finish—
The air in the shadows behind him rippled like water.
A tall, shapely woman in a tight purple bodysuit, with a black blindfold covering her eyes, seemed to condense out of the darkness itself and silently appeared behind Rei Ao's chair.
Her long purple hair swayed gently as if it were alive.
A cold, dangerous aura radiated from her.
It was Medusa, summoned under the Assassin class.
"Uwah!"
Waver was so startled by her silent appearance that he jumped straight up.
He dove behind Iskandar's massive frame, only half his head peeking out
as he stared in terror at yet another newly appeared Servant.
"A-Another Servant? H-How many Servants are there in this war?!"
His mind was completely overwhelmed.
The confusion on Iskandar's face was replaced by seriousness.
His thick eyebrows knit together.
He looked at Medusa standing silently behind Rei Ao, then at the two goddesses on the tree branch, then at the arrogant golden Archer opposite them and the Saber standing with sword in hand.
"Kid, if I count this right… just on your side alone, there are already four Servants?"
"Saber, two Archer goddesses, and this… Assassin?"
He looked at Medusa.
Medusa didn't answer—she simply stood there in silence, like Rei Ao's most loyal shadow.
Rei Ao smiled, which was as good as acknowledging Iskandar's assessment.
"For now, you can think of it that way."
Iskandar took a deep breath, his huge hand rubbing his chin as his gaze sharpened.
"So, the seven known Servant classes: Lancer, Berserker, Caster (already out), Saber (Artoria), Rider (this king), Assassin (Medusa), and Archer…"
His eyes finally settled on Gilgamesh.
"If those two goddesses from the Age of Gods are a special 'twin Archer' case…"
"Then you, golden one—what exactly are you?"
"Because it looks like all seven classes are already filled!"
He had put into words the question that was also nagging at Waver's heart.
All eyes focused on Gilgamesh.
Under everyone's gaze, Gilgamesh simply let out a derisive snort full of superiority.
"Hmph. Mongrels have no right to interrogate this king."
He clearly couldn't even be bothered to answer the question.
At that moment, Rei Ao spoke slowly, his voice calm but carrying the weight of someone who had already grasped the truth.
"Him?"
"He isn't a Servant summoned through the proper Holy Grail ritual."
"He's a 'Wrong Servant'—a defective Archer."
"A… Wrong Servant?!"
Iskandar froze for a moment.
Waver's eyes went even wider.
As a student of the Clock Tower, he had a solid understanding of magical theory and the Holy Grail system.
The concept of a "Wrong Servant" completely shattered his preconceptions.
"That's right," Rei Ao continued.
"For some unknown reason, the Grail system itself glitched—or sprung a leak, so to speak—causing a Heroic Spirit who shouldn't have manifested in this war, or under a normal class, to be forcibly summoned in a distorted form."
"This oldest King of Heroes, Gilgamesh, is exactly such an 'error.'"
"His very existence is proof that the rules of this Holy Grail War are abnormal."