Chapter 39: The Death of Matou Zouken, The Contract with Minamoto no Raikou
"Makiri Zolgen."
Zouken murmured the name he had long forgotten, along with memories he had almost completely lost. "Makiri Zolgen." Tears streamed down his face. At this moment, in this world full of madness and sin, a hell of malice that would drive even the strongest-willed person insane in a second, Zouken felt his soul was exceptionally calm. He cried, and he laughed. The memories of his youth flashed clearly in his mind.
"Yes, I am Makiri Zolgen. My wish was to abolish all evil, to extinguish the 'karma' that humanity harbors. How did I become this monster?" Zouken laughed self-deprecatingly. He walked over to the boy sitting alone at the center of hell and sat down beside him.
"Thank you, child." Zouken knew very well. If the boy hadn't specifically protected his soul, the moment he arrived in this world and heard the wails of billions of souls filled with malice, his own soul would have instantly collapsed. "And I'm sorry."
"I have no interest in your sins or your wishes," Lin Jiuan said, glancing at him once before returning his gaze to the sky. "You were the one who wanted to come in. As the first guest here, I'm just sharing this world with you before you die."
To voluntarily enter the world of a 'Beast'? Lin Jiuan had never seen anything so ridiculous and foolish, but Zouken had done it. So how could he not grant his wish?
Zouken was silent. Indeed. There were too many sins and karmas here. His own transgressions, though disgusting, were not among the most anti-human in this vast sea of evil. With just a cursory glance, he had seen numerous sins that made him want to completely exterminate the sinful species of 'humanity'.
"What do you think of humanity?" Zouken suddenly asked.
"What?" Lin Jiuan finally looked away from the sky and at Zouken, who was staring at him. "A last-minute crisis of conscience? Want to eliminate me, this monster, for the sake of humanity?"
"Yes." Zouken gave a self-deprecating laugh and admitted honestly, "You are less of a monster than I. But you have more potential than anyone to become one." Living in such a world, a life built on so much malice that made one want to destroy everything... Zouken couldn't understand how he still maintained a human form. He was even more terrified that he could, at any moment, under this extreme malice, give birth to the idea of destroying humanity. If that were possible... he wanted to atone, to atone for everything he had done.
"First, you can't kill me. Second, this malice doesn't affect me as much as it affects you. It's annoying, yes, but isn't that what all life is like? Even if I destroyed humanity, after countless years, this planet would still give birth to life, to species like humans. As long as there is life, there will be desire. As long as there is desire, there will be justice and evil, light and darkness, merits and virtues, sins and karma. And finally, I am also human. At least, I think I am. And no matter what, I hate the idea of living in a world without humans."
Lin Jiuan slowly opened his eyes. The first thing he did was look at the sky. It was overcast. But it was infinitely better than the blood-red sky there.
Zouken was dead. By entering that place, there was no way he could have survived. Lin Jiuan had the power to save him, but he wasn't interested. Even if he had become a normal person in there, he still wasn't interested. He wasn't one for that weird trope where the villain does evil for a lifetime, suddenly has a moment of clarity, and everyone has to forgive them.
However, in the end, he had gained some unexpected benefits. The old man had given him all his centuries of magical knowledge, including the Makiri family's techniques for creating familiars, the method for restraining a Servant with a Command Spell, and the Matou family's use of water- and absorption-attribute magecraft. Though he could have obtained all this with his Devouring Authority, he generally disliked using it to devour memories, as it would also absorb the sins and karma from those memories. He didn't have that much confidence in his own willpower.
"Jiuan." Sola-Ui's call brought him back to his senses. He looked at them and noticed Raikou. With Zouken's death, she had lost her Master and her body was now translucent, as if she could return to the Grail at any moment. She was staring blankly at the brightly lit Fuyuki City down the mountain.
"Minamoto no Raikou."
Raikou turned to look at him, her eyes somewhat evasive. Lin Jiuan walked up to her and asked, "Do you want to become my Servant?"
Raikou was stunned, her beautiful eyes wide with disbelief. Her cherry lips trembled as she asked, "Me? Are you... willing to form a contract with a hopeless woman like me?"
"Hm?" Lin Jiuan tilted his head and, after a moment of serious thought, scratched his hair. "If you put it that way, I'm not a good person either. In fact, I'm much more hopeless than you. The question is, are you willing to form a contract with a great evil villain like me?"
Raikou stared blankly at Lin Jiuan's bright, sunny smile. Her mouth opened, but no words came out. Finally, two lines of clear tears streamed from her beautiful eyes, and she nodded heavily. "I am willing!"
[Ding! Congratulations, Host. You have successfully caused 'Minamoto no Raikou' to enter the 'Initial Fallen' state. Reward acquired: 'Eternal Arms Mastery'.]
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