In a Fit of Rage

"When the thousand years were over, Satan would be released from his prison and go forth to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth—Gog and Magog—to gather them for battle. Their number was like the sand of the sea."

Little Devil Lu Mingze stood on the rooftop of a tall building in the complex, gazing at the flames rising in the distance as he softly chanted, a small glass of Bordeaux in hand.

As the mastermind who had orchestrated this war from beginning to end, Lu Mingze naturally wanted to appear in person and observe carefully before the grand finale began.

He had been watching from here ever since Shirou Emiya unleashed his first projected weapon and used "Fantasy Collapse."

"What an interesting method. The alchemical path of 'Conceptual Armament' is for alchemists to forge abstract concepts, melt them down, reorganize them, and turn them into weapons of incomparably condensed, unified existence."

"But he did the opposite, releasing that process in reverse... No, he injected elements to disrupt the precise overall structure of the Conceptual Armament. By affecting the whole through a part, he created massive elemental chaos like a domino effect, directly releasing countless condensed concepts in the form of an explosion—"

Lu Mingze stood on the rooftop, looking into the distance and babbling into the evening wind, completely ignoring the fact that the shut-in girl on the other end of the call could not understand a word.

Su Enxi's helpless voice came through the receiver.

"Boss, how about finding someone else to chat with?... You admire our Hero Emiya so much. Why not go meet him in person and praise him a little?"

Even if he talked her ears off, alchemy was like mathematics—if she did not understand it, she did not understand it!

Su Enxi grumbled inwardly, then realized halfway through that something was wrong. Her Word Spirit was "Heavenly Evolution"; to her, mathematics was far easier than this alchemy nonsense!

"Nope, Enxi. That would not be appropriate."

"Why?" Su Enxi thought that the tasks he assigned seemed to revolve around Emiya all day long.

"This script is completely different," Lu Mingze said. His playful expression abruptly vanished, and he spoke in an eerie, cryptic tone, as though reciting the hazy fate of the future.

"The storm of a new era has arrived. The immense Fate Power he carries will ultimately bring salvation to the world. Just as after the final Judgment Day, the saved believers will cry Hallelujah and ascend to the eternal kingdom of heaven."

"But before salvation comes, Satan will also be released from his cage. The evil within human hearts will awaken a storm of worldly greed and a great war among the nations of the earth. We may be the hands pushing the storm from behind the curtain, but we absolutely cannot be the first to throw ourselves into it."

"..."

Here it came again.

Su Enxi thought to herself that this feeling of saying something while seeming to say nothing was proof that their riddle-speaking boss had returned. Now this was more like it.

"...Oh! My shrewd and wise boss, where should our sword point now?"

Su Enxi cleared her throat, instantly lowering her voice as she put on an act of being deeply immersed in the drama.

Since he did not intend to meet Hero Emiya yet but still wanted to continue directing things from behind the scenes, he surely had plans for what came next, right?

In response, Lu Mingze merely snapped his fingers. "Enxi, you're in charge of commanding the blockade forces around Chen Family Manor, right?"

"Ah, yes. That Wa Lord from the Zhou Family dumped command of all the aristocratic family personnel here onto me."

Su Enxi had not originally been assigned this job. She could have comfortably lain around drinking and sleeping on the sofa, but at the critical moment, her old partner Jiu De Mayi had stabbed her in the back.

So in a fit of rage... she got angry for a moment.

Because she realized there did not seem to be much for her to do in commanding this place.

All she had to do was have people surround the manor and make it impossible for the Chen Family to escape even with wings. How hard could that be? What work could it possibly add for her?

She had even prepared a huge bucket of popcorn and was eagerly waiting to watch the Chen Family implode from within—namely, the grand spectacle of "a loving father and a filial daughter."

"By my estimate, the Chen Family Eldest Miss should have found an opportunity to act by now."

"Really? Let me see... Holy crap, that girl was decisive! She launched a surprise attack from behind and stabbed her middle-aged father right through the heart! The Ancient Dragon Serum really is extraordinary. The bodyguard team could not react at all—everyone was stunned!"

Su Enxi immediately began providing live commentary, shouting excitedly while stuffing popcorn into her mouth.

"Wow, that middle-aged father actually refuses to leave the stage so easily. He's spraying blood while turning around to curse his daughter for daring to... Eh, wait, why did he collapse after only half a sentence?"

Su Enxi's hand froze in midair with popcorn still in it.

Hey, you're the Chen Family Head, aren't you?! How could you be like some ordinary cannon-fodder villain, unable to take even one stab through the heart?

At least use your hybrid physique to pull yourself together and roar something like, "How dare you assassinate the family head and murder your own father! I, the Chen Family, have no unfilial daughter like Chen Motong! Men, kill her!"... That would be a more reasonable development, right?

"Don't worry, Enxi. The story is still far from over!"

Lu Mingze sounded utterly confident. "Chen Motong's plot of resisting her brutal father still needs a few twists and turns."

"W-what twists?"

Su Enxi suddenly became alert. Could it be... another job for her?

"Go, Enxi. Let us continue this loving father and filial daughter drama... all the way to its final ending."

Chen Family Manor.

The moment Father Chen fell, the bodyguards were stunned.

Having always been responsible for protecting the family head, they had never imagined that he might be assassinated by the daughter he valued most. Besides, with Nono's astonishing speed just now, they probably would not have been able to react anyway.

The Gattuso personnel secretly assigned to protect Nono were also stunned.

Their superiors had instructed them to protect Nono only, not any other members of the Chen Family, and not to clash with the other aristocratic families of Shenzhou.

But how were they supposed to handle a conflict between Nono and the Chen Family's own people?

The Chen Family had only just established a friendly cooperative relationship with Gattuso. If Nono came into conflict with Chen Family armed personnel enraged by their family head's death, should they intervene?

And if they intervened and protected Nono, but the cooperative relationship fell apart as a result and the marriage alliance between the Chen Family and Gattuso was ruined, could they bear that responsibility?

At that thought, the Gattuso personnel broke out in cold sweat. No, they had to contact acting family head Lord Frost immediately!

Ever since using the Ancient Dragon Serum, Nono had felt explosive power erupt from within her body. At the same time, distant memories that seemed to originate from the depths of her soul surfaced in chaotic flashes.

Sometimes she saw herself as a priestess dancing like a pure white elf. Sometimes she saw herself seated atop a noble grand carriage carried by hundreds of people, gazing toward the end of the horizon. Sometimes she saw a great black dragon roaring at her as she was pinned down by the Sky-Propping Bronze Pillar, its enormous, ferocious face furious and sorrowful...

But the moment she saw Father Chen, she forcibly suppressed all of them. Hatred surged wildly under the influence of the savage dragon blood, replacing everything else.

Thanks to @Walking in Sunlight @One Day @Nighttime Bald Baron for the monthly tickets!