The Twisted Matou Family

Boom!

Boom!

Explosions rang out one after another. Medusa sat beside the purple-haired girl, shielding her beneath her body. The violent tremors overhead and the dirt raining down constantly reminded them that, at this very moment, the Matou Family mansion was likely suffering some kind of devastating attack.

The "young family head" they had deliberately left upstairs had probably already been reduced to a pile of mangled flesh.

Medusa only hoped those people would leave after seeing the blood and gore.

The woman sitting deeper underground knew very well that Reincarnators could clearly see through their panels whom they had killed.

One Shinji Matou simply could not satisfy that beast.

Based on the intelligence Rider Medusa had brought back and the information Chizha had sent before the final battle began, there was no doubt that Mercenary Tao had entered this world. More than likely, he had become the class that should have been the least threatening, yet was now the most dangerous—Assassin.

Among all the classes, Assassin received very little boost in class combat. Thus, most Servants of this class found it difficult to confront other classes head-on.

They could only rely on Presence Concealment to hide themselves, gather intelligence, or assassinate Masters. If they encountered a powerful Servant directly, they could easily be killed.

But with someone like Mercenary Tao becoming Assassin, things became extremely troublesome.

The woman codenamed Man-eating Flower knew Chizha and Phantom Dragon’s strength. Working together, the pair possessed strength close to the upper ranks below Fierce-tier. Even against ordinary Servants in this world, they should have been able to preserve their lives.

Yet against Mercenary Tao, both had died. Even Medusa, racing over at top speed, had failed to save them in time.

Furthermore, according to Medusa, Mercenary Tao was incredibly fast—not much slower than her even with Rider’s Class Correction.

A top-tier Martial Artist with speed comparable to Rider’s…

Just thinking of such an enemy made Man-eating Flower’s brow ache. As a spellcaster, she hated speed-type Reincarnators the most.

Man-eating Flower shifted her gaze to Sakura Matou, hesitating over whether to take the risk of finding the worm Matou Zouken had hidden against Sakura’s heart.

The Man-eating Flower Team had entered this world before. This time, they had chosen to join the Matou faction because, among the possible outcomes of the Fifth Holy Grail War, she believed only the Heaven’s Feel Route—Sakura’s route—came closest to opening the Root.

Thus, after joining the Matou Family faction, they had immediately used her abilities and the Reincarnators’ foreknowledge. Phantom Dragon and Chizha launched a preemptive ambush and directly killed Matou Zouken’s physical body.

But whether through the Space Panel or their understanding of the plot, they all knew that Matou Zouken was not dead. He had most likely transformed into a worm and hidden somewhere within the mansion.

After Chizha and Phantom Dragon died, she made a decisive call. She immediately brought Medusa, Sakura Matou, North of Mohe, and the remaining members underground, setting up a barrier.

She wanted to use Mercenary Tao to destroy Matou Zouken’s other trump cards and methods. If Matou Zouken was still alive, then he was most likely hiding against Sakura Matou’s heart.

Whether she killed him herself or had Mercenary Tao kill him, either outcome was acceptable.

"At a time like this, you still want to kill this old man?"

A voice suddenly rang out. Countless worms crawled out from beneath the cavern floor. North of Mohe immediately rose to his feet and extended his right hand. A hollow opened in his palm, and flames ignited within it.

He was a mechanically enhanced Reincarnator, making him particularly well-suited to dealing with someone like Matou Zouken, who played with worms and crest magecraft.

The worms seemed to pause as well. Only after Man-eating Flower raised a hand to stop North of Mohe did Matou Zouken slowly take human form again amid the mass of gathered worms.

Only the shape of a human remained; there was no skin. The constantly writhing crest worms filled Man-eating Flower with deep-rooted disgust.

She disliked this worm whose mind had long since been twisted by age. Makiri Zolgen, the Idealist who had wanted to eliminate all the world’s evils and had radiated brilliance, had completely perished with the passage of time.

All that remained was a disgusting worm that had put the cart before the horse and would stop at nothing to survive.

In her eyes, someone like him was even more disgusting than Shimura Danzō from the Naruto World, who spouted grand ambitions without substance.

She made no effort to conceal her disgust, and Matou Zouken could sense it. But he did not care. These people had seized control of Sakura, killed his unworthy grandson Shinji, and destroyed his body.

According to his spies, the Tohsaka Family and Kiritsugu Emiya’s adopted son had both successfully summoned Servants. In this Holy Grail War, he was already at an overwhelming disadvantage.

If he wanted to reverse the situation, he could only cooperate with these people.

"Even if you kill this old man, with your abilities, you cannot possibly win, can you?"

"Heh. Though I do not know how you learned of the alterations this old man made to Sakura, even with a fragment of the Greater Grail, Sakura’s qualifications as a Lesser Grail may not surpass that girl from the Einzbern Family…"

"Your plan to kill that girl has already failed, has it not…"

Although Man-eating Flower despised Matou Zouken, she had to admit that what he said was indeed true. Especially after Phantom Dragon and Chizha had both died, she was a spellcaster while North of Mohe was mechanically enhanced. It was difficult for them to carry out assassination missions.

Especially when they knew that Mercenary Tao was at Illya’s side.

If Illya remained unharmed, then based on her knowledge, Man-eating Flower truly could not be certain whether she could make Sakura into the Lesser Grail and steer the plot toward the Heaven’s Cup route.

This old worm might not be much in combat, but as a magus who had lived for more than two hundred years, his understanding of the Holy Grail War was beyond comparison with Reincarnators like them.

Moreover, as one of the founders of Fuyuki City’s Holy Grail War, Matou Zouken could use the Greater Grail to perform certain "backdoor" operations.

For example… summoning additional Heroic Spirit Servants once more to bolster their combat strength.

The mass of worms Matou Zouken had transformed into twisted as it approached them, already entering the light beneath the barrier. Medusa stood in front of Sakura. She could sense that these worms harbored a certain greed toward her Master.

At that moment, Sakura Matou slowly opened her eyes, confusion still lingering within them.

Man-eating Flower frowned and swept a hand before Sakura Matou’s eyes. Sakura Matou immediately fell back into a deep sleep.

She returned once again to that familiar school and saw the boy clearing the bar again and again. The vitality and youthful energy of his life filled her with envy.

Like a flower in a dark swamp, she wanted to poke her head out and greedily seek that ray of sunlight.

But the next moment, a red-clad girl with black twin-tails appeared before the boy. The two chatted happily, their manner intimate.

Sakura Matou’s dream world turned dark once again.

She did not understand why this world always had to take everything from her. Even her sister, who had already enjoyed everything the Tohsaka Family had to offer, still had to take away this final ray of light.

An aura of darkness continuously spread from Sakura Matou’s body.

Matou Zouken noticed this, and a certain relief entered his voice.

"The progress is still a little too early. If Sakura falls into darkness at a time like this…"

His implication was clear. Man-eating Flower thought for a moment, then once again brushed a hand over Sakura Matou’s forehead. Sakura Matou’s expression gradually relaxed.

Medusa watched this unfold, and the hand holding her Master twitched.

These people… even while protecting this pitiful girl, they still have not forgotten to squeeze out every last bit of her value.

Truly… disgusting.

White Face tilted her head as she listened to some news, then smiled. She looked at the ancient scroll in her hand before rising to her feet and saying to Gilgamesh,

"We need to go help our adorable allies… We cannot let that beast destroy everything before the plan begins…"

Gilgamesh increasingly felt that "Kirei Kotomine" had changed somehow today. It seemed she had suddenly found some kind of pursuit?

He scrutinized her with an indifferent gaze. White Face also noticed Golden Flash’s sharpness. She rubbed her brow. Plot Characters with divinity were indeed troublesome. If not for the final outcome, she should have used that item on Golden Flash instead.

Her expression returned to cold indifference. She walked out of the church, preparing to save those people and, while she was at it, plant the foundation of the Human Instrumentality Project into Fuyuki City’s ley lines.