The Matou Family

Beneath Matou Zouken's calm tone churned murderous intent. He would not allow anything to go wrong with the thing he had pursued for so many years.

At Zouken's command, the mindless worms surged forward again.

This time, however, Kayneth didn't just sit back and wait for death. The mercury armament beside him transformed into blades and began slicing apart the attacking worms one by one.

But even the sharpest attacks left openings, and the mercury armament had its limits. Several worms slipped through during the blades' assault and darted toward Wang Xiaoming's group.

As the worms raced toward them, Medea made her move—

Magic circles flashed into view. The few worms were struck by magic bullets and reduced to dust.

"So you have backup?"

Matou Zouken's expression darkened. He'd assumed a few ignorant underlings had come looking for trouble, but now it was clear these people had come prepared.

That meant going head-to-head with them would be foolish.

A trace of retreat stirred in Matou Zouken's heart.

But—

"How is this possible?!"

Matou Zouken suddenly realized that he couldn't sense anything beyond the room, as if a barrier had been placed around it.

"You finally noticed?"

Seeing Zouken's expression change, Wang Xiaoming guessed that he'd realized they had set something up.

"It was you—"

Matou Zouken stared at Wang Xiaoming, his face dark.

"How could I not make extra preparations when facing an old monster who's lived for five hundred years?"

This had been the strategy everyone had agreed on: Kayneth would face the enemy head-on, while Medea secretly set up a barrier to seal off the area. Wang Xiaoming had to talk Kayneth around, but at least he'd accepted the plan.

There was no choice.

They had to wipe out the Old Worm completely!

Wang Xiaoming's answer sent Matou Zouken into a full-blown rage. The worms in the nest no longer held back, and a black tide began crashing against Kayneth's defenses.

"&—"

Unintelligible words spilled from Medea's lips. The next instant, dozens of magic bullets shot from the magic circles and pounded into the sea of worms.

With Medea's precise control, not a single blast overlapped another. The worms shrieked as the barrage struck, then crumbled to dust.

With Medea's fire support, the pressure on Kayneth's side eased sharply.

Seizing the opportunity—

"Scalp!" (Slash)

At Kayneth's command, the mercury armament cleaved toward Matou Zouken amid the swarm.

Squelch!

As the mercury blade swung down, Matou Zouken was split in two. But not a drop of blood seeped from the wound. Looking closer, the cut was filled with writhing worms!

"Abomination!"

Kayneth's face turned ashen at the repulsive sight. He pulled Sola behind him.

"Heh—not bad."

A hoarse laugh echoed through the chamber.

Matou Zouken's two "halves" fell into the swarm and disappeared. In their place, a plume of black mist rose from where the "corpse" had been.

"Can you do anything about that?"

Wang Xiaoming turned to ask Medea.

"..."

Medea didn't answer. She simply pointed at the cloud.

As if drawn by an invisible force, the black mist began gathering toward her.

At last—

"Is this the Old Worm's soul?"

Wang Xiaoming curiously examined the "marble" in Medea's hand. Black mist churned inside it, and he could just make out Matou Zouken's shriveled face.

It reminded him of the glass marbles he'd played with as a child.

"What do you want? Let me go, and we can work this out!"

Apparently, Matou Zouken hadn't expected Wang Xiaoming's group to have a way to restrain souls. His expression was terrified.

"Heh..."

Looking at Matou Zouken trapped inside the marble, Wang Xiaoming suddenly sneered.

"Your acting's pretty good for an old worm. Tell me, who's carrying the Brain Worm?

Matou Kariya or Matou Sakura?"

At Wang Xiaoming's question, Matou Zouken—the great mage who had lived for five hundred years—showed an emotion he had never felt before: despair.

Sorry, this is a little late. Orz

I'm really sorry.

The Matou Family

What is a mage?

Each one walks a path beyond that of ordinary people. That is what it means to be a mage.

Two hundred years ago, seeking to evade the Church, which openly opposed mages at the time, a group of Westerners set foot in Japan, a land the Church had yet to reach, to hide from its eyes. They were made up of two families, each led by a different sex: a woman named Justeaze Lizrich von Einzbern, and a man named Makiri Zolgen. They found Zelretch's apprentice, Japan's most renowned mage and head of the Tohsaka family, which controlled Fuyuki's ley lines: Nagato Tohsaka. The three hit it off and decided to create the Holy Grail to fulfill their respective wishes.

The Tohsaka family provided the ley lines, the Makiri Zolgen family was responsible for creating familiars—the Servants—and the head of the Einzbern family, who designed the Holy Grail War system, was Justeaze, later known as the Saint of Winter. She even offered herself up, sacrificing her life and erasing her personality to become the Greater Grail's core.

But after they had worked together and paid a tremendous price to create the Holy Grail, the three families were stunned to discover that it could grant only one wish.

Conflict arose, and former allies became enemies. Thus began the Holy Grail War, held once every sixty years.

After the Holy Grail War was established, the Einzbern Family returned to their homeland. But Makiri Zolgen, who had fallen in love with the Saint of Winter, chose to remain in Japan with his family.

The Zolgen clan assimilated into Fuyuki and adopted Makiri as their new surname—Matou—and the family line continued. Zolgen became Matou Zouken. But the family failed to adapt to its new environment. With each generation, the Matou mages grew weaker, their Magic Circuits dwindled, and the inheritance of their Magic Crest came to an end. The Makiri bloodline was beginning to fade in his generation, and he spent his life fighting that fate.

The result of that struggle was his involvement in designing the Holy Grail War system. His goal was to use the Third Magic, "Materialization of the Soul," to evolve the human race. When he realized that he could no longer achieve this wish himself, he decided to extend his life through magecraft, hoping his descendants would inherit the conviction to pursue their wishes no matter how difficult.

But as the years wore on, his soul gradually deteriorated, bringing with it intense pain. This was no longer something that could be solved by saying it was "someone's fault." No matter how strong a person's spirit, they couldn't endure it forever. The pain and fear of death gradually drove him mad, until all that remained was the obsession with "not wanting to die."

He used magecraft to turn himself into something inhuman that could mimic a human. His body was a mass of worms, and the worms operated his human functions. His original body had perished long ago. When his current body decayed or wore out, he could use another person's flesh as a substitute and revive himself.

That was how Matou Zouken continued to survive, endlessly taking over other people's bodies.

But even this magecraft had its limits. In theory, he had escaped the restrictions of his genes: with only one person's worth of flesh, he could shape himself into any form, like clay. In practice, though, he remained bound by his soul's memories. Zouken couldn't take a form that wasn't his own.

His entire life had been one long struggle to hide and resist: that was all there was to Matou Zouken.

After hearing Wang Xiaoming recount these little-known secrets about the Holy Grail, everyone looked at the mass of black mist in Medea's hand and remembered the decaying old man they had just encountered.

"To live on with such an obsession, becoming neither human nor ghost... How pathetic!"

Kayneth glanced at Matou Zouken's restrained soul and judged it with contempt.

"Since the Old Worm can't pull any more tricks, let's go see how things are going outside."

Wang Xiaoming turned his attention away from the marble and addressed the others.

The rest of the group didn't want to spend another second in that disgusting room either. They quickly headed out of the chamber.

Just as Wang Xiaoming, who was bringing up the rear, was about to leave, he called Medea over. After they exchanged a few words in low voices, Medea, standing in the doorway, raised her hand and fired several magic bullets at the chamber's ceiling supports.

Boom—

The supports took the hits and could no longer bear the ceiling's weight. It cracked, and countless chunks of stone came crashing down into the pit. The mindless worms instinctively struggled in a frenzy, but it was no use.

As the rubble gradually filled the nest, the worms were crushed into pulp. The entire chamber collapsed.

With the chamber's collapse, Matou Zouken's centuries of work were completely destroyed!

"Who are you?"

A man suddenly appeared in front of Wang Xiaoming's group as they came out of the chamber.

He wore a hooded sweatshirt with the hood pulled up, and even his steps were unsteady.

"Matou Kariya, Berserker's Master, right?"

Wang Xiaoming stopped Kayneth with a glance and stepped forward to address the man.

"..."

"Don't panic. We mean you no harm."

Seeing Matou Kariya's wary expression, Wang Xiaoming held out both hands and pressed them down, signaling him to calm down.

"Lancer outside is one of your people too, isn't he? What exactly are you here for?"

Matou Kariya was ready to summon Berserker at any moment. If the other side made a wrong move, the black, frenzied Servant would appear right then and there.

Even if it cost him his life—

He had to protect Sakura.

Wang Xiaoming hadn't expected Matou Kariya to believe him right away. He signaled Medea to take out Matou Zouken's restrained soul.

"Kariya, hurry and have Berserker kill them all, or that child Sakura—"

The instant he saw Matou Kariya, the black mist roiled violently. Matou Zouken's hoarse voice reached everyone's ears.

But before the Old Worm could finish, Medea silenced him with magecraft, and the churning black mist settled once more.

"What is that?!"

Matou Kariya looked at the marble in Medea's hand and asked without thinking. There was a faint, barely perceptible hope in his voice.

"As you can see, it's that Old Worm Matou Zouken's soul. If you don't believe me, you can go check the basement, though I doubt you'll find anything now."

Hearing Wang Xiaoming's answer, Matou Kariya didn't bother with anything else. He shoved past Wang Xiaoming and staggered toward the place that had once been Matou Zouken's lair.

"Why keep someone so ill-mannered around?"

Kayneth looked at Wang Xiaoming in displeasure, clearly wanting an explanation. As a firm believer in aristocratic principles, he couldn't stand such a boor.

"Because he's still useful."

Wang Xiaoming didn't want to explain any further.

But speaking of which—

"Why are you looking at me?"

Kayneth shifted uncomfortably under Wang Xiaoming's stare and asked.

"You two... might be surprised to find you have a lot to talk about."

Wang Xiaoming looked away from Kayneth and grinned.

After all, they were both hopeless romantics...

"Don't be ridiculous. He's just a commoner."

Kayneth scoffed at Wang Xiaoming's words.

"Just wait and see~~"

Wang Xiaoming grinned mischievously.

"Thank you so much!"

After seeing the collapsed chamber with his own eyes, Matou Kariya returned to the group and bowed deeply to Wang Xiaoming and the others.