Zouken Matou narrowed his eyes, instinctively sensing danger. Had the brat just called those two blades "Blades of Chaos"?
Even after living for half a millennium, the old magus had never heard of them.
The overwhelming presence radiating from those twin flaming blades far surpassed every divine weapon he had ever known.
And yet, he had never heard of them?
In fact—
Not to mention Zouken Matou, even Shirou himself had no idea where they came from.
"As expected... no matter how much magical energy I pour into them, I can't make the blades ignite."
The blond girl known as the Savior, Ash—Morgan—observed the chained twin blades with bewilderment.
As a Paradise Fae bearing a certain mission, Morgan was not Shirou's equal, but she too possessed an innate affinity with swords and similar weapons.
Yet the strange chained blades Shirou had projected rejected the Paradise Fae.
"Hmph." Morgan pursed her lips unhappily.
"Don't get jealous of a weapon." Shirou smiled wryly.
"Who's jealous?" Morgan glared at him. "Shirou, where did you see these two blades?"
"I don't remember."
"You don't remember?"
"Yeah." The red-haired boy nodded honestly. "I have no impression of where these two blades came from. I don't know when it happened, but they just appeared in the depths of my mind."
Shirou could store every sword prototype he had seen inside his body and reproduce them whenever he needed them.
However, there were also some weapons he had never seen before, yet which seemed to have existed deep within the boy's memories from the very beginning—
These Blades of Chaos were among them.
"I see. You really are strange."
Morgan gave the red-haired boy a long look. "But listen, Shirou. These chained blades still haven't displayed their true power."
Shirou blinked. "Really? I like them a lot. They can perform well in all kinds of battlefield environments. You could say they're the weapon most suited to me, my personal armament."
Morgan shook her head. "This still isn't their true power."
Shirou said dejectedly, "Sorry for being a third-rate magus and a self-taught swordsman. Morgan, you're so strict."
"That's not what I mean! Honestly! Shirou, you're clearly exceptional, yet you're always putting yourself down. I hate that about you."
Morgan sighed, then asked seriously, "Shirou, do you know what a 'god' is?"
"You mean the one from my homeland... the human world?"
"That's right. The beings called 'gods' and 'divinities' in Pan-Human History don't exist on our island of faeries.
"So... in the world of the faeries, the Blades of Chaos can't unleash the true power hidden within them."
Shirou hummed, stroking the blade. "Even so, I'm still choosing them."
Morgan revealed a gentle yet resolute smile.
"I knew you'd say that. That's the Shirou I know."
"—Hiss."
Shirou Amamiya took a deep breath, trying to calm his pounding heart.
How was he supposed to express the emotions boiling within him?
Shirou had thought he would never have another chance to hold these twin blades.
Yet fate, as if playing a prank, seemed unwilling to let him return to an ordinary life.
The pilgrimage, the Autumn War, the decisive battle against the Great Calamity...
Just gripping the hilts was enough to send sealed memories surging into his mind.
In a daze, the aura surrounding Shirou Amamiya changed.
From this moment on, he was no longer a boy obsessed with the peaceful life of a modern city. He had become the King of Knights of the Fae who had unified Britain through absolute power.
An undying flame danced in the boy's pupils, one capable of burning every evil worm to ash.
"Yaaah—!!"
A girl's scream rang out in the workshop.
Sakura Matou, left beside the pit, ran out of strength. Her foot slipped, and she fell in.
While the girl was still in midair, the Incubus Worms at the bottom of the pit seemed to sense that a delicious meal was about to arrive. They emitted shrill cries in unison and writhed like a black mud tide.
The hideous swarm scrambled toward Sakura Matou's landing point, but—
The sound of chains echoed through the underground workshop.
Just as the girl was about to fall into the worms' mouths, a chain suddenly shot out.
It was a Blade of Chaos.
Shirou swung his right arm and cast the curved blade. The chain attached to it wrapped around the girl's waist.
The chained blade, more than ten meters long, was like an extension of his arm.
Precise and swift, it was the embodiment of the Martial Arts Shirou Amamiya had painstakingly honed.
"Sakura."
"Brother Shirou!"
The red-haired boy pulled Sakura Matou back and caught her securely in his arms.
But it did not end there.
Shirou swung his free left arm and fired the other curved blade in the same manner.
The burning blade plunged firmly into the bottom of the pit, killing several Incubus Worms on the spot.
"!"
Zouken Matou seemed to realize something.
His withered face twisted in fear, and he screamed hysterically.
"No! Stop! Brat, stop at once... Do you know how much effort I put into this—"
"All I know is that pests should die."
Shirou Amamiya spoke in a low voice.
A cluster of dancing flames burst from his palm and raced through the chain like a lit fuse. The instant they reached the blade—
Boom—!!
Amid the thunderous explosion, the insect vault Zouken Matou had been so proud of became a sea of infernal flames in an instant.
Crackle, crackle...
The evil Incubus Worms were all burned to ash.
Go Kill Yourself!
Sakura Matou's eyes widened. She was so stunned that she could not say a word.
Was she dreaming?
Everything she had experienced that night was simply too incredible.
No matter how she thought about it, it had to be a nightmare.
And yet, the warmth and gentleness coming from the girl's shoulder, along with Shirou's arm around Sakura, told her that this was not a dream.
Besides... even if it really was only a dream, Sakura Matou thought faintly, it definitely was not a nightmare.
"We're getting out of here."
The boy's whisper interrupted the girl's thoughts.
"Huh? Eek—!"
Sakura Matou cried out because Shirou had scooped up her entire body in his arms—in a princess carry.
Then Shirou sprinted outside without looking back.
"Damn brat! How dare you destroy my... Don't run!"
The old magus widened his bloodshot, furious eyes, then transformed into a swarm of worms and chased after them.
"You ungrateful brat! Do you think you know who took you in?"
Hundreds of years of accumulation had been destroyed in an instant, leaving Zouken Matou filled with nothing but regret.
He had secretly investigated Shirou Amamiya and learned how he had met his grandson.
But he had not taken it seriously.
Even though he knew Shirou was a brat who could not stand evil and hated wickedness with all his heart, he had still kept him in the mansion simply because he found it amusing.
"Brat, do you really want to become a hero of justice that badly?"
Zouken Matou threatened him with utter madness.
"I'll use worms to control your body and have you violate the daughter of the Tohsaka Family! I'll show you what true despair is!"
That pool of Incubus Worms was not only Zouken Matou's source of power, but also the foundation sustaining his body.
After losing his nest, the old magus no longer had enough remaining lifespan to live until the Holy Grail War after the next one, sixty years in the future.
To Zouken Matou, the desire to survive outweighed everything else. That was why he was so enraged that he had lost all reason—
Boom—!!
The passage leading from the workshop to the mansion collapsed amid an explosion.
"Uwaaah!"
Zouken Matou let out a shriek.
Caught off guard, he was completely buried beneath the enormous rubble that fell from above.
This was a trap Shirou Amamiya had prepared in advance. He had buried homemade earthen explosives in the ceiling of the passage.
Demolition Blasting—a high-difficulty blasting technique mainly used to demolish large high-rise buildings.
By destroying a single crucial support pillar in the building's structure, it caused the weight of the building itself to collapse the entire structure inward.
This technique could use the smallest amount of explosives to turn a building into a pile of rubble more efficiently and reliably, making it an art of destruction.
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