The Nasuverse had the Root, the two Counter Forces, the Five True Magicians, and the Twenty-Seven Dead Apostle Ancestors.
Aside from the Root, none of those things were simple.
But in Rowan's view, even if the Counter Forces were outrageous, they were still only that.
One was called Gaia—the consciousness of Earth.
The other was Alaya—the collective unconscious of humanity.
No matter how absurd people made them sound, they were ultimately things born on Earth. Right now, Rowan was indeed no match for them, but once he became strong enough to blow up planets, even the two Counter Forces would have to kneel and beg for mercy.
Of course, before he reached planet-busting level, Rowan was still far from being their opponent, so he had to give them some face. That was why he bothered to negotiate with the two Counter Forces.
He wanted them to send over a powerful Heroic Spirit.
Medea: "..."
Uh, are you sure that was a negotiation and not a threat?
Boom!
The moment Rowan finished speaking, the Heroic Spirit summoning circle erupted with powerful light. If not for the barrier Serie had set up to block it, that light would have shot straight into the sky and been seen by everyone in Fuyuki City.
When the light faded, a tall, imposing man wearing a skull mask, clad in armor, and holding a greatsword stood before Rowan.
A wild and powerful aura swept through all of Ryuudou Temple like a tide.
Yamato instinctively tightened her grip on her kanabo. Her Observation Haki was screaming nonstop.
Danger. Danger. Extremely dangerous!
There was no doubt about it. The man before her was a powerhouse no weaker than her father—perhaps even more terrifying.
"The Old Man of the Mountain answers your call, contractor."
A low voice slowly emerged from beneath the skull mask, deep and steady.
Medea raised an eyebrow. Good grief. She hadn't expected the Counter Force to actually give him that much face and send this Grand Servant over. Wasn't this a little absurd?
But when she remembered that her Master had the ability to travel across countless worlds, Medea suddenly felt that maybe it wasn't that absurd after all.
"Welcome, Hassan of Hassans."
Rowan smiled and extended one hand toward him. "From today onward, I'll call you King Hassan."
"That is acceptable, contractor."
The Old Man of the Mountain—no, King Hassan—nodded slightly and reached out to clasp Rowan's hand.
Rowan shook his hand, then withdrew and said, "The reason I called you here this time isn't to fight the Holy Grail War. I'm mainly asking you to help save a world."
"Save a world? Speak plainly, contractor."
Hearing that his descent this time was not for the Holy Grail War but to save a world, King Hassan became interested.
"How about this? I'll have you read a manga first."
Rowan went back to his own world, brought back the One Piece manga, and handed it to King Hassan.
King Hassan spent some time reading through it, then his gaze swept over Nico Robin, Yamato, Smoothie, and the others.
"As you can see, this is Nico Robin, this is Yamato, and this is Smoothie. They all come from the One Piece world. The world we need to save is the One Piece world."
Rowan raised one finger and said, "Our goal is simple: kill all the Celestial Dragons, destroy the World Government, and twist off Imu's head."
Don't assume King Hassan was some evil figure just because he looked terrifying and belonged to the Assassin class.
That might be true in some other worlds, but in the Fate world, this Grand Assassin was a genuinely noble, taciturn man who abided by the teachings of the Lord.
His destiny was the end of life and the salvation of souls.
As long as one did not stray from that path, this man would be an ally of the righteous.
So when King Hassan understood that his summoning this time was to save a world, his dark eyes released an intense light.
"I shall not refuse, contractor."
"That's great."
Rowan smiled and said, "But the Celestial Dragons aren't simple opponents. The God's Knights are troublesome. So I plan to gather all the Heroic Spirits summoned in this Holy Grail War."
"Instead of fighting a civil war here, it's better to go liberate a world."
King Hassan nodded. He also found the idea reasonable.
Rowan snapped his fingers and said with a smile, "Then let's first go to the church and bring Cu Chulainn back."
King Hassan did not object. He simply tightened his grip on his sword, showing that he was willing to move with Rowan.
Seeing that the mood was right, Rowan opened an air door and strode through.
King Hassan followed closely behind.
The two passed through the air door and, in an instant, arrived at the church.
Inside the church, Kotomine Kirei was praying to the Lord.
Hearing movement behind him, he ended his prayer and slowly turned around, looking at Rowan and King Hassan.
"Welcome. I am Kotomine Kirei, the supervisor of this Holy Grail War."
At this point, Kirei did not yet know Rowan's purpose. He assumed Rowan, like the other Masters, had come to pay respects to him as the Church's supervisor.
"Enough. I'm not here to waste words with you."
Rowan raised a hand and cut off his introduction. "I know exactly what kind of person you are. Gilgamesh has already been killed by me. You're next."
When Kirei heard the name Gilgamesh, his face went blank.
"What are you talking about? Why would you mention that ancient King of Heroes?"
"Nice acting. If I didn't know the plot, I might actually think you were innocent and didn't know anything about Gilgamesh."
Rowan flicked a finger and activated the almost-all-cutting magic.
An invisible slash swept out.
Kirei instantly sensed danger and leapt backward, dodging the slash.
But in the very next second, King Hassan appeared before him.
"The bell has tolled, revealing your fate. Offer up your head, evildoer."
His low voice echoed in Kirei's ears as King Hassan swung his sword.
As a Grand Assassin, King Hassan had seen far too many people. A twisted soul like Kotomine Kirei's could not escape his eyes.
The moment he saw Kirei, he knew this was a pure evildoer.
More than one life had already died by his hand.
Against such a person, King Hassan would naturally show no mercy.
One fierce and effortless slash split Kirei's body in two.
When Kirei hit the ground, he was already two halves.
After he died, Medea appeared and transferred all the Command Spells on Kirei's hand to Rowan.
Rowan immediately used one of them.
"Return, Cu Chulainn."
In the next second, Cu Chulainn, who had been out patrolling, was forcibly summoned back.
"Huh?"
Seeing Kotomine Kirei lying on the floor in two pieces, Cu Chulainn was completely baffled. When he saw the Command Spells on Rowan's hand, he became even more baffled.
Good grief. Had he become a servant of three masters now?
Cu Chulainn scratched his head in frustration, sighed helplessly, and asked, "Hey, bro, can you tell me what exactly happened here?"
"It's simple. I discovered that this guy was secretly sabotaging the Holy Grail War, so while you were away, I came to the church, killed him, and took all his Command Spells."
Cu Chulainn's mouth twitched. "That really is a simple and easy-to-understand answer."
Last time he wasn't around, Bazett got killed by Kirei.
This time, while he was away, Kirei got killed by this guy.
Cu Chulainn couldn't help starting to wonder whether he had been cursed to counter his own Masters.
"So, bro, does that mean you're my Master now?"
"That's right." Rowan nodded.
"Then you're really something, aren't you?"
Cu Chulainn's gaze swept over Medea and King Hassan. "If I'm not mistaken, the two beside you are Heroic Spirits too, right?"
"Correct. This is Caster Medea, and this is Grand Assassin, the Old Man of the Mountain. You can call him King Hassan."
"A Grand Servant? Are you kidding me? Something like that can actually be summoned?"
Cu Chulainn found it unbelievable.
"Of course it can. In a neighboring parallel world, someone even summoned Grand Solomon. Why can't I summon Grand King Hassan? Are you looking down on me?"
Rowan looked at Cu Chulainn with some dissatisfaction.
Cu Chulainn said, "Is this really about looking down on you or not? What I mean is—forget it. Never mind."
He sighed. The person had already been summoned, so saying anything now was pointless.
Still, he was curious about how Rowan had summoned King Hassan.
That was a Grand Servant.
Could it have been through some special summoning method?
"There was no special summoning method. The Counter Force simply gave me face."
Rowan gave Cu Chulainn a sidelong glance and said, "When I summoned, I told the Counter Force to give me face. We're all friends here. If it ever needs anything in the future, I can help it out too."
"I wasn't picky. King Hassan or Scáthach, either one would've been fine."
"Wait."
Cu Chulainn's eyelids started twitching wildly because he had heard a familiar name.
"You were also trying to summon Scáthach?"
Rowan nodded. "That's right. Whether it was King Hassan or Scáthach, either one would have been a powerhouse. Especially Scáthach. Not only is she beautiful, but she's also your teacher. I figured a master-student match would be pretty fun."
"I refuse!!!"
Cu Chulainn shook his head furiously. He had finally graduated from that old hag's hands. He had no desire to run into her again.
That old hag believed in Spartan education, and when she trained her students, she really would strike to kill.
He could already imagine it. After a long-awaited reunion between master and student, that old hag would absolutely be overjoyed, pull out her weapon, and stab him once to celebrate their meeting.
"Thank the gods the one who came this time was King Hassan."
Cu Chulainn said, "If that old hag had really come, I'd rather just kill myself."