Mystogan did not like being confused. His ability to keep his lid on and stay partial to many things was something he was proud of. It was something his father, a king, had hammered into the prince's skull since a young age - before his father went insane, of course. Few things made him upset or bothered.

Being confused was one of those things.

Ever since he came from Edolas, another dimension, to Earthland, he'd been traveling the world and experiencing many things. Mystogan understood he didn't know everything, and that nothing was too out of the ordinary.

Arturia Dreyar and the newcomer, a man named Bedivere, was out of the ordinary. Nothing about the entire scenario made sense and that confused Mysogan - which made him slightly upset.

He kept his lid on only because he trusted Arturia. Everyone in Fairy Tail trusted her with their lives. Realizing that Arturia was almost a perfect human being seemed to be a right of passage in Fairy Tail, as she humbly proved her superiority in a variety of ways.

For him, it was when he caught glimpse of her sword. He had coincidentally been in the guild when a member named Jet barged in screaming that a mission went sideways. Everyone had been asleep, and since he was the cause of everyone's slumber, he volunteered to assist them.

Apparently team Shadow Gear, a three man cell, had been on a mission with Arturia before she was a household name. It was an extermination mission to dispatch some strange snake demons that came from the hills. The demons were the offspring of a Book of Zeref. The fact that the demon could birth hundreds of giant snakes wasn't even the worst part, every snake had venom so powerful it could kill trees (a member of Shadowgear used plant magic, so it was easy to confirm).

When he arrived the two remaining members of Shadow Gear were in a village, nursing their wounds. One was exhausted from continuous use of magic and the other had been grazed by one of the snake's fang and was in critical condition. They told him that Arturia had stayed behind to hold the monsters off, and Mystogan was almost certain that the knight had fallen.

But when he went to the hills Arturia was still fighting - days later. Despite the constant swarm of poisonous monsters that didn't allow her a single minute to rest, Arturia had cleaved her way all the way to the demon's mountain lair. Mystogan joined the fight against the Book of Zeref and its hundreds of offspring, but he knew it was a losing fight.

Until the magic making Arturia's sword vanished and she raised her blade.

Excalibur, she called, and in its light Mystogan saw a dream.

The entire mountain, every single demon and any doubt Mystogan had about Fairy Tail and Arturia were destroyed that day. That day turned him into a believer - miracles did happen.

He trusted Arturia, which was why he instantly came to her defense when the Garou Knights doubted her.

Not that Mystogan really blamed the Garou Knights for being skeptical - they just didn't realize the wonder of Arturia Pendragon yet. The newcomers did attack, and some of those arrows were aimed too close to the princess for comfort, but if Arturia trusted the man named Bedivere then Mystogan would too.

After Bedivere bowed and called Arturia my leige of all things, the two were quick to stop any more conflict from happening. Bedivere had quickly ordered his men to stand down, and spent the better part of ten minutes bowing and profusely apologizing for almost causing his king harm. The Garou Knights didn't want to stand down, but a few glares from a Pendragon shut down any protests.

Injuries from the small squabble were practically non-existent as well. One of the soldiers got a large cut from Kama's scythe, but it looked much worse than it actually was. He'd end up with a scar, but nothing crippled except possible his pride - not that Mystogan particularly cared.

Hisui, the only official royalty present, was thoroughly confused, which was the case with every one not blonde it seemed.

"Arturia, why is he calling you that?" Fiore's princess asked.

"We have... history together," Arturia said, which would have made Mystogan scoff if he was a lesser man. Arturia sighed at Hisui's look, realizing that her explanation wasn't going to cut it. "Sir Bedivere has never proven me wrong before," she added, "he won't cause any harm to me. In fact, I trust him with my life."

"Your words honor me, my lord," Bedivere said.

"That doesn't answer her question," he noted, admittedly in an uncharacteristic fashion. He was just a little annoyed about being so out of the loop.

"Because she is the once and future king!" Bedivere exclaimed, looking amused at the look of exasperation on Arturia's face.

When they arrived at the camp, Arturia marveled at the size of it. Amassing a group of soldiers nearly five hundred strong (by the looks of it) was difficult back in her old life. But in this world? Joining a guild and becoming family with them was considered part of the life a person could live in Earthland.

She knew here were corporation guilds that hired thousands, but quality and loyalty was always an issue with the idea. Usually young, unproven mages entered corporation guilds to gain access to missions and resources in order to build their reputation. Once they gained a good enough reputation to get invitations from a guild they otherwise would have never gotten in to, they leave and never turned back. Usually, if a guild had more than a hundred members, they were part of that model.

This wasn't the case. As they walked into the camp, Arturia could easily notice that every soldier were obviously veterans of their craft. None of them looked green. No wet behind the ear mages were part of an army that the great Bedivere was apart of. Even with her limited sensing abilities, she could sense how large the congregation of magic was even for a group so large.

Which made the interior of the camp shocking. Once they broke through the perimeter defenses, the scene went from impressive to surprising. A large amount of grizzled, powerful looking mages were scattered all around injured. Doctors and injured soldiers wandered around the camp busily, all trying to help other soldiers in need.

Her strategical intuition was confident that Bedivere was a member of a top quality army, and that perplexing since something absolutely ransacked it.

Members of the army eyed them warily, but being in Bedivere's company seemed to keep them calm. Numbers of soldiers came to Bedivere as they walked through the camp, each reporting information to him about everything. Injury reports, the path of travel, the supply of rations, the weather forecast... her former knight had busied himself in this new world.

"These guys have been through the wringer," Kamika noted, an almost apologetic expression on her face.

"'Tis the case, unfortunately," Bedivere replied with a sigh.

"Were you attacked by Rome?" Kama asked.

A dry laugh came from Bedivere. "No no... much more embarrassing than that." He caught note of the curious expression they had. "To be completely forwards with you, I'm not quite sure what attacked us. Our commanding officer will know more than I do."

He led them to a larger, less injured soldier ridden, tent.

"Arturia and Princess Hisui can enter, the others are not permitted," he told them.

Neppa took a step towards him. "Now wait right there -"

"Neppa," Arcadios warned, making the large man stop before something went wrong. "Sir Bedivere, are you sure that not even I can accompany you as King Toma's head knight?"

"I... I suppose that would be alright." Bedivere gave the Garou Knights and Mystogan a friendly smile. "If you take a left and take another left once you get to a red tent, you'll find the commons. There you'll find food and a place to cool down. I've instructed my men to spread the word of your arrival, they'll treat you like you're one of us."

The Knights seemed hesitant to leave in unfamiliar territory, but Arcadios reassured them with a nod.

"After you, my lord," Bedivere told her and opened the tent, stopping Arcadios and Hisui. "My commander would like to talk to Sir Pendragon privately for a few moments..."

Inside was a setup she was quite familiar with. The walls of the tent was riddles with maps, all covered in writing and diagrams that showed different paths strategies, there were communication lacrima (which were like those phone things Shirou had) all around, and in the middle of the tent there was a large table with another map laid across it.

"King Arthur!" a feminine voice cried, and Arturia was blindsided by a flash.

Arturia felt the breath leave her as she was engulfed in a bear hug. Bedivere offered her a weak smile from the side as she struggled to break the vice grip. Eventually she was let down and stared at the perpetrator.

She was... beautiful, extremely beautiful. A well endowed woman with red hair and blue eyes that were staring at her warmly. What really drew Arturia's attention was the golden crown on her head and the white cape she wore - royalty, perhaps?

"How are you, Arthur, or Arturia! How were your travels? Was it tiring? Surely you're hungry, right? Would you like a galette? I make an amazing galette that I'm sure you'll enjoy!"

Arturia gulped at the doting she was receiving, and ignored the pangs of hunger she had just at the mention of food.

"I am doing fine. Our journey has not been too taxing, but I would enjoy a gallete, Queen..." Aturia could only assume she was a queen with such a crown.

"Boudica!" the redhead answered cheerily, pulling out a phenomenal smelling basket filled with pastries that Arturia hadn't noticed. "I have peach galettes, blueberry, walnut, apple... here! Take as many as you like!"

Arturia found herself looking back and forth from the basket filled with pastries that was shoved into her hands and the women who claimed she was the Boudica, a legendary queen of the Iceni tribe who rallied Britannia against the Roman empire, only to lose. Boudica had died centuries before Arturia drew Caliburn, but she still knew of the tale. Boudica's legend was known enough for her to become a heroic spirit, it seemed, which was the only explanation of why she was here and happily passing out french cuisine

Arturia bowed. "An honor to meet you, Queen Boudica."

"I should be bowing to you, King Arthur," Boudica replied, giving a bow of her own. "You are the one who protected Brittania - something I could not do."

"I disagree," she rebuked, drawing a surprised look from Boudica. " I failed Brittania with my lack of vision."

"You're so hard on yourself, Arthur. You were truly a great king. Every spirit from the throne of heroes knows of your legend. Your story is one of the greatest across our old world."

"Entering the throne of heroes means that one did not accomplish what they wished to," Arturia said as she set down the basket of pastries. "Name a hero from the throne who actually had a happy ending - a handful at most."

Boudica pursed her lips and stared at Arturia deeply, before sighing slightly. "Both Kay and Gareth said you had a guilt complex, but I really didn't expect it to be that bad," she chuckled at the look of shock on Arturia's face, "come on Arthur, you're not a king anymore. We're in a completely new world! Let go of that cynicism you needed to run a kingdom."

"Kay?" she echoed, thinking of her foster brother she had long forgotten about.

Boudica's grin grew. "Gareth too. Not just them as well - Tristan, Lancelot, Galahad, Agravain, Bors, Gawain, Palamedes and Percival have all been blessed with a chance of a new adventure - of course you've reacquainted with Bedivere."

"All of them..." she muttered, her head spinning, "how? How are eleven knights brought here? How are you even here?" She started to snack on a galette despite being thoroughly confused.

"Well, I imagine in a similar fashion to you, Sir Arthur. After the Grail was destroyed the throne was in shambles. I'm not completely sure how, but I woke up in Caelum along with everyone else in our guild."

Some of Britannia's greatest heroes randomly finding themselves in a new world?

There was only one explanation. Boudica may not know how, but Arturia had her own guesses.

It had to be Ankhseram.

Awestruck, starstruck, fear stricken. Avenger didn't know. The entire day from the second he set out from Grimoire Heart was suddenly a blur. So much had happened, so much he would have never expected. He was confused. More confused, angry and scared than he ever felt since arriving at Earthland. To him, it was probably up there with the Fifth Holy Grail War and the Fuyuki Fire.

Being escorted from fighting one of Rome's most infamous emperors to a meeting with the Hannibal of Carthage. His guide was also a tree sized man who was also had an infamous history - Spartacus.

It was like a bastardized version of the Holy Grail War, but this time there wasn't any rules.

"This city is so beautiful," Zash said as they walked through Stella's capital city. Avenger found it hard to agree with the state the hanging city was in, absolute chaos from the war knocking on its doorsteps. The people looked scared - the entire city radiated with fear. Whatever beauty Zash saw in it Avenger couldn't see.

"We fight to defend the beauty," Zash clarified. "Stella has a history and culture that can't be destroyed no matter how hard Rome tries."

Zash's devotion and love for his home was admirable. They were faced with a threat that this world had never experienced before and could still look on the bright side. Avenger had trouble seeing greener pastures since he was the one who became Caligula's punching bag.

When they made it close to the castle Avenger instantly noted the lack of disarray. The water was tranquil and not even a single blade of grass seemed out of place - which must have been due to the large group of gardeners tending to the area. None of the gardeners or employees of the castle seemed happy. Fear was everywhere.

"In here," Zash ushered him into a large war room. In there was three men - actually two men and a boy. A rather portly man with a crown waved them towards him the second they entered, the boy seemed shy.

"My lord," Zash bowed, "we have returned from patrol."

"And who is this?" the other man, an old man with completely tattered clothes and a brown cloak, asked. The man looked like he was in his sixties to seventies, but with a certain spryness that reminded him of Zeltrech - scarily. There was also a black cloth tied around his head and over his right eye.

"He fought off Caligula," Zash said.

The old man looked at him with a calculative gleam. Avenger didn't move.

"Who're you?" the man spoke after a few moments.

"Avenger," he replied automatically.

The man's face broke as he cackled wildly. "Another one joins the battle," he rejoiced, "one look at your get up and I could tell you're not from around here, boy. Now what are you doing in my war?" He reached over to a table and grabbed a bowl of raspberries, shoveling them into his mouth before grimacing. "These are too bitter!" he threw the entire bowl to the ground. "Get me better ones!"

"You're Hannibal?" Avenger couldn't believe it.

"So what?" Hannibal rolled his eyes. "Avenger my tail! What's your actual name, boy!"

"Shirou. Emiya Shirou." It felt good to say his name again.

Hannibal blew a raspberry at him, "Never heard of you... geez. You best be one of those spirits who give themselves a new name or you're gonna be useless to me. No spirit from your area can deal with Rome."

"I'm just Shirou," Avenger said, "but I've been summoned as Avenger. I made it to the throne of heroes fair and square - I even won a holy grail war with Gilgamesh, Heracles and King Arthur." He didn't want to boast, but being summoned as and Avenger added a spiteful edge to him that Hannibal's comments brought out.

"And did all your dreams come true?" Hannibal laughed mockingly at the look on his face. "I see! Boy none of the heroes I know have a master - you're a first! ironic since you won the worthless cup."

"I've noticed," he said dryly.

Hannibal was handed another bowl of raspberries and sat down on the table, dangling his feet. "Get out of here you two," he pointed at the the king and prince and then to the door, "you buggers aren't gonna win this war, so scram!"

Surprisingly the regular humans looked used to Hannibal's attitude and left quietly despite the fact Hannibal so disrespectfully told the king to sod off. Well, if Hannibal was the general the stories made him out to be, it was the price to pay for genius.

"Now that the royal idiot is gone," Hannibal started now that there were only heroic spirits in the room, "why are you here, Emiya? There's other spirits out there, but they're usually spawned in numbers and travel in packs - forming those guilds this world is so fond of. Seeing a spirit on his own is rare, let alone one stupid enough to waltz into a warzone. Either you're as dull as Spartacus over there or that master of yours is a real bitch."

Spartacus, ironically, didn't seem to pick up the insult.

"Honestly it's a little bit of both. My..." Avenger loathed to admit it, "guild master doesn't like Rome and sent me to assist."

"Nobody likes Rome, but to stand against it means the dislike runs deeper. Is your master a hero too?"

"No, he just realizes that Rome isn't going to stop with Stella." His intelligence stats were too high for him to walk in and casually and mention that he knew about Stella's superweapon. If he was to retrieve it he'd have to plan for the perfect moment - however long that took.

"Anyone with half a brain knows that. Those pretentious bastards think that Rome owns everything and they just had to win it back. Cancer... that's what they are." Hannibal smirked. "Seeing the look on those self righteous bastards whenever I beat their army makes my entire damn year. If you just want to fight then you joined the wrong side. I play to win."

"I've always been an underdog myself," he admitted. "Rome's arrogance will be their downfall - its happened before."

"It will, but not without a an outside force. They've gotten better and won't implode again." Hannibal practically growled. "Not only is there Caligula and Nero... they have that bastard Scipio, Julius Ceasar and the founder of Rome itself. They got Caesar and his silver tongue watching their home with the wolf spawn, while the other three go out and conquer."

The situation was worse than he thought. Five heroic spirits compared to three. They're tales were debatebly on Cu Chulains level, and Avenger remembered the dog of war well enough to be wary.

Not even that... there was the wolf spawn. If his hunch was right, then Rome was even more powerful than he assumed. Nero, Julius Ceasar and Scipio were figures great enough to have stories about them. They were revered as legends by many.

And then there was someone who Nero, Julius Ceasar and Scipio revered as a legend. A hero among heroes.

Hannibal chuckled at the look on his face. "Still want to be an underdog now?" he asked, amused. "Cause if you just came here to fight you're better off joining Rome and standing a chance."

What a master he had... making him jump into a situation like this.

"Where's the fun in that?"

Spartacus laughed loudly and slapped him on the back, almost making him fall over.

"That's the spirit!" Spartacus praised. "You notice that there's still a fire in his eyes, right Hannibal? As long as he has heart I'll fight alongside him."

"If that's what you wish, but," Hannibal's eyes narrowed, "the fire seems to be dimming? Tell me, boy. Why did you become a heroic spirit? The look in you eyes... there's a fire but any day it's gonna go out. Why?"

Completely caught off guard, Avenger hesitated.

Hannibal nodded. Avenger's hesitance was enough of an answer for him. "If you didn't want to come here then you're best bet is to leave this place and make your master waste his command seals. There's no point in having someone else ruin your new chance in this world by sending you to war."

"Why are you here then?" Avenger countered, looking for a way around the topic.

"Cause I want to!" Hannibal grinned. "I wasn't even a heroic spirit, but when I heard Scipio became one I reconsidered. Soon after the grail was destroyed and I ended up here. The second I heard Rome was back with Scipio as a general - I found my calling."

"You just want to fight?"

"No! I don't just want to fight... I want to fight Scorpio! There's a difference!"

Avenger couldn't see the difference.

After accepting that Boudica was a childish young woman, thrusted into a difficult position of leadership as a young woman and strangely addicted to a french delicacy of all things... conversation was actually rather easy, Arturia realized.

Queen to King. Ruler to ruler. Boudica understood her better than anyone else had... except her former master, perhaps.

"Your men," Arturia spoke, "what happened to them?

Boudica's childish expression and revealed the hardened look of a commander who had been thrown into war. "Many were injured in a battle almost a fortnight ago. We have been actively transporting some home, but there are still more that have yet to return. Until then we camp here and wait for reinforcements for our attack of Rome."

"Rome? You're going after them?" Arturia was astonished, she had only recently heard of them after returning from her long mission, but tales of it's prowess was starting to grow - and she was quite familiar with the name.

Indeed we are," Boudica said with a nod. "Rome was a blight on our old world, and is now trying to corrupt this one." Hatred burned in the queen's eyes. "They shall not subjugate this world."

It was to be expected. Boudica's rise and subsequent demise was built around fighting the oppression of Rome. According to legend she made a vow to the Goddess of Victory, Andraste, that she would have vengeance on the Romans no matter what. It was probably as if someone told her Kirie Kotomine and Gilgamesh were in the next town over - she'd do everything to destroy them.

"Did Rome attack your men?" They were told that their path was clear of any Rome forces for miles.

Boudica shook her head. "No... it would help my pride if we were defeated by an army of soldiers, but that is not the case. Our numbers were in thousands, and yet were completely outmatched and devastated... by a single person. No... saying that was a person is too far. A monster - an alien. Not human. It couldn't be human with power like that."

"A single being so powerful? Is it from the throne?"

"I believe so. The warrior did not speak once as she slew hundreds of my men and injured thousands more, but I fear I know who it might be." Arturia was listening intently. Boudica had a haunted look on her face, like she had seen a ghost. "During the battle, Bedivere and I were both in combat with her - it - and the only thing that it said was that it acknowledged our strength. I asked it who it was... what it was, and what it wanted."

"What did it say?"

"I shall call it a she for the sake of our conversation, but I cannot stress it enough Arturia, I do not think it is a being born of man. She said that she was going to Rome, and that she was going to kill every Roman alive like she should've last time. We were just in the way and she felt like fighting us."

Picking a fight with an army simply because you wanted to? And winning? Arturia shifted uncomfortably. That was something Iskander would do, or Gilgamesh, or even Heracles. To even think that a hero of that caliber was heading to Rome... Stella was to be avoided, especially with the Princess with her.

"As for her name?" Boudica continued. "She did not give us her real name, she said names were meaningless. Instead she gave us a title that described her far beter than any name could."

"What?"

"The Scourge of God."

Authors note: Spoiler alert... Shirou is going to have a bad couple of days.

Imperial Privileged was misused last chapter, but can we just agree that Nero is simply badass and can probably do that?

EDIT: writing this story has been difficult, if anyone is interested in being a beta or a soundboard so mistakes like imperial privilege does happen, please PM.

Also in regards to Erza Versus Shirou, Shirou was holding back when they fought. He just wanted to hold them off. If they ever do battle again, we all know the obvious winner, by a long shot, would be -