[Fuyuki City, Matou Residence]
Matou Zouken dragged his burning body, crawling in a wretched state across the smooth floor.
The instant he looked directly at that figure, his eyes were completely burned away. Yet even so, at this moment, his vision was still filled with dazzling radiance.
At the end of that radiance was a longsword, floating before a gate of heaven burning with karmic fire.
"As long as I can reach there… as long as I reach that place...", Matou Zouken used all his strength to crawl in that direction.
Matou Zouken was the previous head of the Matou family, the true controller of this household. He was an elder with an extremely strange appearance. Bald, his limbs shriveled like a mummy, his hunched back making him appear even smaller, and from his sunken eye sockets often flashed a sharp gleam.
Cunning, cruel. Obsessed with survival to an abnormal degree, willing to exploit and sacrifice others to extend his own life, truly a beast in human skin. Skilled at pushing others with sweet words to gradually approach his goal.
His original name was Makiri Zolgen, a magus from five hundred years ago, once a man with grand ambitions. But that ideal had long since vanished from Matou Zouken's spirit.
He hated his gradually rotting soul and decaying body, yet did not want to die leaving nothing behind. Over time, this twisted into an obsession. He transformed himself into worms, parasitizing others in order to prolong his life.
Pitiful, detestable... After seeing Matou Zouken's entire life through [Clairvoyance], Emiya could only give such an evaluation.
Like a slug, Matou Zouken struggled forward across the floor. His dry skin split open again and again, burning worms shrieking as they flew out, only to vanish into nothingness the moment they touched air, leaving not even ash behind.
"Sigh!"
A sigh came to Matou Zouken's ears.
A calm, indifferent sigh. Yet like a heavenly spear falling from nine skies above, it pinned the insects dead before the heavenly gate, unable to move even a fraction further.
At the end of his vision, that longsword whose hilt resembled a scale slowly swung down.
The sword's name was [Judgement of Justice].
"Ah!", Something within Matou Zouken's spirit changed.
Makiri Zolgen: "So, that's how it is..."
The original Makiri Zolgen had been a magus who devoted his life to eradicating all evil in this world and within humanity.
Because a human's short lifespan was not nearly enough to fulfill this vow, Makiri decided to extend his life with magecraft, so that his descendants would inherit the will never to abandon their goal, no matter how difficult.
But as the long years passed, his soul gradually wore away, and with the pain of that erosion, his will and memories were forgotten or distorted. Means and purpose were inverted, and he became a villain who pursued only immortality.
"Truly... laughable," Makiri Zolgen whispered in self-mockery, then willingly embraced the blade of [Judgement of Justice].
Amid the blazing divine fire, Makiri Zolgen returned to nothingness.
At least, in the final moment of life, he regained his memory and true name.
"AAAAAHHHHH!", Matou Byakuya and Matou Shinji both let out agonized howls.
At the instant Makiri Zolgen was slain by [Judgement of Justice], the crest worms Matou Zouken had planted in their hearts ignited on their own.
However, they only endured a brief moment of pain, and did not die.
"I… I'm still alive...", After a long while, Matou Byakuya opened his mouth and weakly spoke.
His eyes could still see, his spine was unbroken. As if everything just now had been a dream.
Yet Matou Zouken, Sakura, and the worms within their hearts had truly disappeared.
Matou Byakuya and Matou Shinji looked at each other in shock.
"Leave Fuyuki. Do not come back. And never use the surname 'Matou' again," A cold voice echoed in their hearts, unhurried, without joy or sorrow, yet like the seal of a god, engraving the command upon their very souls.
"Do as you will."
———
[Seven Days Later]
"This world does have quite a few things worth caring about," On the plane returning to Fuyuki, Emiya leaned against the window, gazing at the clouds colored by sunlight, silently thinking.
After killing Makiri Zolgen, Emiya went with Sakura to Europe, entrusting her to be raised by the Edelfelt family.
The Edelfelts were a prestigious magical lineage in Finland. About sixty years ago, the twin sisters who were heads of the family participated in the Third Holy Grail War in Fuyuki.
The sisters built a Western-style mansion near the forest and lived there. But later, because of personal conflicts, they quarreled, unable even to endure breathing the same air. In the end, the elder sister returned to Finland, while the younger married into the Tohsaka family.
Tohsaka Tokiomi's mother, and the grandmother of Rin and Emiya Sakura, was that Edelfelt head.
Because Sakura carried Edelfelt blood and possessed miraculous magical talent, the Edelfelt family gladly accepted her.
Unlike the Tohsaka, whose history was brief and foundation shallow, the Edelfelts had witnessed the decline and fall of countless mage families across a thousand years, and their treasury of magic crests contained far more than just their own lineage.
The Edelfelt family's ways were also not bad. Though somewhat aristocratic and proud, among mage families they were already one of the better kinds. Mainly, of course, because Emiya had looked into the future with [Clairvoyance].
After arranging Sakura, Emiya returned to Fuyuki. But before him, more magi had already flown in from Europe to this remote little city.
When he entered this world from the Imaginary Sea, Emiya hadn't thought too much, directly using "Counter Projection." Unexpectedly, the Counter Force here was extremely sensitive.
The very instant he arrived, the Counter Force marked him as a "Threat to the World (Ultimate One)."
If not for his quick reaction, suppressing his presence in just three seconds, the overreacting Counter Force might have directly activated the summoning of the seven Grand Servants.
Now, the Counter Force probably no longer saw him as an "Ultimate One."
At most, just a "Beast," a "Threat to Humanity."
But even so, as a dangerous "Outsider," Emiya was still under the Counter Force's watch.
The Clock Tower's intense response was one sign of this.
Department of Mineralogy head, Kenneth El-Melloi Archibald;
Department of Astrology head, Marisbury Animusphere;
Department of Spirit Evocation head, Luviaus Nazelai Ulyphis, three of the twelve Lords of the Clock Tower, the governing body of the Mage's Association. They, as powers outside the "Founding Families," were about to head to Fuyuki.
Kenneth would participate as the official representative of the Association, while the other two came as individuals.
Department of Law head, one of the ruling Lords of the Association, Lorelei Barthomeloi, famed as the "Pinnacle of Modern Magi (the Queen)," negotiated with the Einzbern family of the "Founding Three," entering the war as an external ally, and obtained Master rights from them.
The Matou family's Command Seals appeared on Sakura's body. Even though she had only borne the name "Matou" for less than half an hour, the Grail decisively chose her, completely ignoring Byakuya and Shinji.
Before sending Sakura to the Edelfelts, Emiya transferred the Command Seals onto himself.
At Sakura's age, it was far too early for her to join a Holy Grail War.
So now, among the Founding Three, only Tohsaka Tokiomi remained as a participating head.
The Mage's Association had a total of four Lords, each at the rank of "Brand," joining the Holy Grail War.
In truth, the Association had long known of the Holy Grail War's existence, but had never taken it seriously. This time, however, the incident of "Divine Descent" shocked them greatly.
In particular, the Dean of the Department of Modern Magecraft, Dr. Heartless, personally acted, using numerous Mystic Eyes to observe and confirmed that in those three seconds of "Divine Descent," across the entire world, localized "reversions" occurred.
Simply put, for those three seconds, certain regions of the world reverted to the Age of Gods, or even older eras.
Though due to the briefness, the effects were nearly nil, and modern traits soon re-covered everything, the traces remained.
A reversion to the Age of Gods, this alone was enough to stir every magus' nerves.
Moreover, among the four Lords participating, Kenneth had originally intended to summon Rider using a relic, but it was stolen by his student, Waver Velvet.
Waver, who had stolen the relic, a fragment of the cloak of "King of Conquerors" Iskandar, vanished from the Clock Tower, likely heading to Fuyuki.
Counting Waver, five of the seven participants in this Holy Grail War came from the Clock Tower.
———
Because of the chain of unexpected events, Tohsaka Tokiomi could no longer maintain his elegant composure.
First was the mishap in Sakura's adoption. For unknown reasons, the Matou family's true controller, Zouken, suddenly perished, leaving no corpse, and Sakura disappeared.
Byakuya and Shinji were terrified. Overnight, they packed up all the Matou family's portable wealth and fled Fuyuki.
Now, they had already changed their surname to the inconspicuous "Satou." The only one still bearing the Matou name was the second son, Kariya, who had long since left the family and never inherited any magical ability.
Thus, one of the Three Families, the Matou with its centuries of history, had effectively fallen.
Whether or not the Matou perished, Tokiomi did not care much. Unlike the thriving Tohsaka, the Matou had long been in decline, each generation weaker than the last.
Seeing their fall, at most, he felt some faint pity for a similar house. What truly troubled him was, 'Where has Sakura gone?'
'How could such a big child just vanish?'
His wife, Aoi, wept daily, while Tokiomi himself was anguished.
Not only Sakura's matter, but the coming Holy Grail War also changed unexpectedly.
For this Holy Grail War, Tokiomi had been almost certain of victory, for he held two trump cards.
The first was a relic that could summon the strongest Servant. The second was his close friend Kotomine Risei and student Kotomine Kirei.
Risei was a priest of the Eighth Sacrament of the Holy Church, and the overseer of the War. Kirei was a chosen Master.
Three years before the Fourth Holy Grail War began, Kirei was selected by the Grail. Through his father's introduction, he became Tokiomi's student, learning magecraft and knowledge.
Through Risei, Tokiomi could learn the details and movements of every Master, gaining an intelligence advantage.
While hiding Kirei's Command Seals, he arranged for him to appear as his disciple.
Tokiomi planned to stage a split, but secretly command Kirei to eliminate the other Masters.
With the overseer and a secret ally, he believed his victory was practically guaranteed.
But he could never have expected that four mighty dragons from the Clock Tower would descend, suffocating his local authority.
The Lords of the Clock Tower, each one far above Tokiomi in status, four of them had come at once.
There was Kenneth, the most brilliant genius of the younger generation, and Lorelei Barthomeloi, the "Queen" herself, a legendary figure.
The Mage's Association's attention to this War far exceeded expectations. With four Lords watching, Risei could no longer favor his friend.
Moreover, the relationship between Kirei and Risei was exposed. For "fairness," the Association denied Kirei's qualification, transferring his Command Seals to Lord Marisbury Animusphere.
In an instant, Tokiomi's hand was reduced to only the relic capable of summoning the strongest Servant.
But with the Lords' family heritages, even if they could not find stronger relics, they surely could produce items of equal grade to the one Tokiomi had prepared.
And Tokiomi could not hope that these Lords had come merely to amuse themselves. If they grew serious, who knew what treasures they might bring from their family vaults?
The descent of a "Divine Spirit" had completely overturned the script of the Holy Grail War.
In truth, neither Tokiomi nor the Lords had realized the deeper change.
Though the ritual was interrupted at the start and not a single Servant summoned, the Counter Force had indeed initiated a "True Heroic Spirit Summoning."
Now, the summoning the Masters in Fuyuki were about to perform would be a continuation of that ritual.
The "Divine Spirit's" aura had been restrained, so the Counter Force would not nervously throw down seven Grand Classes.
But its gaze still remained fixed on Emiya.
To this, Emiya's thought was, "If so, then perhaps... I'll use it in that place..."
He had no interest in Fuyuki's Holy Grail War. Neither the "Grail" nor the ritual of the "Third Magic" held any attraction for him.
The purpose of "Counter Projection" into this world was only to save Sakura once.
As for staying here now, it was merely to anchor his humanity by looking back at the past.
As for "Servants"... to watch those heroes recorded in the "Inscription of Stars" and "Throne of Heroes" fight for their wishes and the magi's desires, such things, in Emiya's eyes, were not very interesting.
He raised his right hand. On the fair back of it were engraved three deep crimson Command Seals.
"Better to let the 'heroes' go where they belong," Emiya thought calmly.
Compared to the stage built by magi, those Heroic Spirits who carved their names into human history would surely prefer to create true heroic epics.
And even if he felt some hesitation to return, that place, he had to go back at least once.
That world at the edge of its end... the world where his sister, Emiya Miyu, lived.
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T/N: As you all already know my 2nd Account(Ambitious_Guy) is susp*nded, due to obvious reasons. But, the novels in it are still on the platform. Due to which I can't repost them on my new account(Ambi_Guy). Because everytime I try, the book just gets blocked because of 'Spamming'. So, those novels will now be exclusively available on ScribdleHub. For more details and novels please check announcement on Discord (discord.gg/bYAfGyp98y).
Another thing, from now I will post my new novels via 2nd Account(Ambitious_Guy_2) that used to be my 2nd Patreon(ZenonTL). It has some good fanfics and novels, you can try.
I am afraid of getting another block or susp*nsion so I am not saying more and censoring any trigger words.
[P.S: There is a new EMIYA novel there as well.]
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