Allowed to Leave the Matou Family

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Just as Noah and Rider faced Lancer's probing, changes were also quietly taking place elsewhere in Fuyuki City.

Within the Matou Family's dark worm pit, Zouken Matou stared fixedly at the scene inside with his horrifying, skull-like eyes. The hand gripping his cane had been trembling the entire time.

"Clang—!"

In that dark trough, covered in disgusting Crest Worms, brilliant golden light flashed continuously, as though it intended to dispel all the darkness and evil here. Like a miniature sun, it was exceptionally dazzling.

Within that radiant light, Sakura Matou hugged her knees and curled up in a corner, burying her head deeply between them. Her entire body seemed to be enclosed within a protective barrier made of crystalline, dazzling golden light.

Only the corner where Sakura Matou sat was the sole open space in the entire pit.

The reason was that, outside the barrier protecting Sakura Matou, palm-sized, revolting worms had piled up in heaps. Like ants, they kept trying to burrow through the barrier, yet it was as if they had been completely blocked. Not a single one could get inside.

Seeing this, even Zouken Matou's body began to tremble.

"Why?!"

This was what enraged and bewildered Zouken Matou the most.

A few days ago, the power that had protected Sakura Matou for over ten years had clearly been almost exhausted. Zouken Matou was certain he had not misread it.

After all, in order to drain that power and forcibly transform Sakura Matou, Zouken Matou had spent the past ten years attacking her in disguised ways. He had even driven her into the worm pit every day, using constant attacks to trigger that power's protection of Sakura Matou, hoping to