(Please subscribe! Please vote with your monthly tickets!)
(Many thanks to 'Lonely Lactic Acid Lord,' 'Invincible Origin,' 'Wuma Cijian,' 'Pokémon,' and 'Hei Tianchu' for their rewards!)
"Gurgle... gurgle..."
Amid sounds like something squirming, the massive lump of flesh at the center of the lake throbbed over and over.
With every throb, the enormous mass of flesh visibly swelled another size, continuing to grow larger and looking utterly disgusting.
Yet above that revolting mass of flesh, beneath the pitch-black hollow—in the space between the hole suspended in midair and the flesh below—Zouken Matou, reduced to nothing but a head, floated amidst a swarm of insects. Staring at the Black Mud pouring down like a waterfall, he let out an unbearably shrill, grating laugh.
"After five hundred years of waiting, This Old Woman has finally waited for this day."
Hearing Zouken Matou's unpleasant laughter, Saber wore a solemn expression, while Rin Tohsaka displayed undisguised disgust.
"Zouken Matou, what exactly is your goal?"
"My goal?" Zouken Matou turned around—or rather, the head floating in midair turned around—and looked down at Rin Tohsaka. "Well, at this point, there's no harm in telling you, little girl of the Tohsaka Family. My goal is to attain eternal youth and immortality!"
"Eternal youth and immortality?" Rin Tohsaka's gaze toward Zouken Matou became scornful. "You sought the Holy Grail for that?"
Rin Tohsaka's contempt was only natural.
After all, for magi, immortality was never the primary goal.
Only reaching the Root was a magus's sole objective.
Before that goal, anything could be discarded.
Including life.
What magi feared most was not losing their lives, but being unable to continue researching magecraft and reach their final destination—the Root.
If Zouken Matou had pursued immortality so that he could continue studying magecraft and reach the Root, then it would have