Chapter 5: My First Servant
The world shifts.
A surge of light and chaos throws Riya through the fabric of space-time, and he crashes into the cold, crumbling remnants of a forgotten workshop. Dust, faded spells, and rusted relics greet him. This is his entry point into the distorted Holy Grail War of Fate/Apocrypha, a war he was never meant to be part of, yet one he is now bound to reshape.
Thanks to Zelretch's intervention, Riya takes the place of Kairi Sisigou, the Red Master who will not reach the battlefield this time.
The workshop is silent until an old man, the original ally of Sisigou, enters. Weathered, suspicious, and carrying the scars of a hundred failed rituals, he eyes Riya with wary interest. Without asking too many questions, he presents a relic—a shard of black steel humming with spiritual weight and ancient malice. It's the kind of artifact that rejects the unworthy, forged by a soul who bent fate into the edge of a blade.
"You're not him," the old magus mutters. "But the Grail chose you. So summon something that won't get you killed."
Later
The summoning begins.
Circles ignite. Mana surges like a wildfire. The relic responds—to Riya's will The world feels like it's cracking at the edges as the ritual Start. There is no Mordred to answer the call. Her soul—along with countless other female Heroic Spirits—is sealed inside Riya. The Grail senses the void and corrects itself.
From the storm of power emerges a man—not divine, not radiant, but sharp. Refined. Dangerous.
Senji Muramasa, the master swordsmith whose body was once borrowed by Shirou Emiya, steps forward. His eyes, calm but cutting, study Riya immediately.
"That relic… was once part of me."
"And you… you reek of divine souls and fate. You shouldn't exist. But you do. How unfortunate for the world, and how unfortunate for you."
He does not bow. He does not pledge fealty. Muramasa acknowledges Riya as his Master with a reluctant nod and a heavy silence. They do not bond with words, only with a mutual recognition that the war ahead will burn, and they will need each other to survive it.
Meanwhile, far across the battlefield, tension brews:
– The Yggdmillennia Masters feel a ripple in magical currents, and one of them whispers: "This wasn't in the predictions."
– The Black Faction prepares its forces.
– Shirou Kotomine, standing in a cathedral turns his gaze toward the Red camp. "An intruder…? No. A deviation."
The war has truly begun.
And Riya?
He's no longer just an outsider.
He's now the wild card that fate itself is watching.