When Takumi saw that the old bug had actually frightened Sakura, how could he bear it? He immediately raised his hand and activated his elemental power.
A terrifying golden flame spurted out, instantly covering the entire basement, including Matou Zouken above. The terrifying high temperature even melted the walls and burned the bugs hidden in the wall cavities to ashes. At the same time, it burned through the ceiling of the basement, and a huge pillar of fire rose into the sky from the Matou estate.
Naturally, Matou Zouken was burned to ashes immediately.
This was no ordinary fire element, but a purifying holy flame enchanted with sacred attributes. It possessed strong magic resistance and penetration effects. It also featured special attack and critical hit properties specifically for dealing with evil attributes, doubling its effectiveness. The old bug, who used sorcery to survive, was naturally considered evil and was completely consumed by the holy flame without any resistance.
But obviously, the old bug with the ultimate survival ability did not die so easily. Even the Matou Zouken who had appeared in front of Takumi was not the real body of the old insect, but just a puppet body made of empty shells piled up by others.
Takumi noticed this as well and couldn't help but frown slightly: "Tsk, a cunning cockroach."
Immediately, he took Sakura up into the air and returned to the ground, scanning every corner of the Matou household. Every time he glanced at a place, the holy flame swept over it, purifying everything on a physical level.
Then, the voice of Matou Zouken echoed from all around the Matou estate.
"Wait! Who are you? I do not remember ever offending you!" Seeing that Takumi was intent on killing him, Matou Zouken immediately gave up on fighting and tried to reason.
Takumi raised his eyebrows: "Do you want to buy time? It's useless. A one-kilometer radius has been covered by my barrier; you cannot escape."
He didn't believe that Matou Zouken, who cherished his life so much, would prioritize negotiations over his own survival. The reason the old man spoke was merely to delay for time and take the opportunity to flee.
But this was exactly as Takumi expected. He had made up his mind to destroy this old bug before even arriving. As early as the moment he entered the Type-Moon World, he had already set up a barrier to block the surrounding area. No matter what methods Matou Zouken used, he would not be able to escape death today.
"When did you...?! Damn it!"
Matou Zouken, hiding in the dark, also discovered this and could not help but be horrified.
"Is it over there?"
At the same time, the barrier Takumi set was touched, and he sensed the location of Matou Zouken in an instant. He teleported over and used a magical hand to pull the insect body of Matou Zouken out from where it was hiding underground.
"No! I cannot die yet! My long-cherished wish has not been fulfilled yet, please forgive me!"
The ugly insect squirmed and struggled, its mouthparts opening and closing as it produced the voice of Matou Zouken, begging for mercy in horror.
"I will give you whatever you want! I only ask you to spare my life!"
When the old bug saw that Takumi didn't kill him immediately, he thought he had a chance of survival. But he didn't know that the only reason Takumi hesitated was to let Sakura see him die with her own eyes. Of course, it was also to ensure the old bug had no backups left.
So, Takumi used a soul-searching technique. As it turned out, the old man really did have hidden backups.
He had arranged two altars in hidden corners of Fuyuki City, each containing a trace of his true spirit. As long as the main body died, one of the altars would activate to resurrect him with that trace of spirit. This was somewhat similar to Orochimaru's cursed seal or Voldemort's Horcruxes. By creating a small piece of the soul as a backup, the spirit could be nourished and strengthened once the main body died, allowing him to return online. The idea was clever and could easily paralyze an enemy's vigilance.
But once discovered, dealing with it was easy. Takumi casually activated his elemental power, and two thunderbolts struck the two altars, destroying them instantly. At the same time, the two true spirits within the altars were wiped out.
"No! You cannot do that!"
The old bug realized that Takumi had destroyed his fallback plan and immediately became even more panicked. He wanted to say more, but Takumi didn't give him the chance. He summoned the holy flame, which instantly burned the creature to ashes. Even the soul was not spared, ensuring no possibility of resurgence.
A legendary magus, an old monster who had lived for hundreds of years, vanished from this world without even having time to scream.
"Okay, Sakura, I've eliminated that bad man, so you don't have to be afraid anymore." Takumi looked down at Sakura, who was still in his arms, and comforted her softly.
Sakura nodded: "Well, with my brother here, I am not afraid."
She had witnessed the entire process. When the old insect began to beg for mercy, her fear began to fade. Now that she saw he was completely eliminated, she felt relieved, and the psychological shadows of her past began to dissipate quickly.
Seeing this, Takumi felt relieved as well. Then, he took Sakura for a walk around Fuyuki City. The reason he didn't go to the Tohsaka house immediately was that the little girl had not fully calmed down yet. Secondly, Sakura needed to be mentally prepared. Takumi was in no hurry; he had plenty of time.
Moreover, this gave him time to deal with the current situation, such as the task triggered by the system.
The moment he arrived in the Type-Moon World, the system tasks were triggered. Currently, there were only two tasks, one of which was to eliminate Matou Zouken. Takumi only realized this after the deed was done, as the old bug had jumped out to seek his own death before Takumi could even check the menu.
The reward for this task was quite good: a system version of the King's Treasure. It was just the vault itself, empty inside, requiring Takumi to fill it with treasures himself. Its function was excellent and differed from the original version by being overall stronger.
For example, the original version of the King's Treasure provides a strengthening effect to collected treasures based on the strongest item within it. However, the strongest item itself receives no boost.
In Takumi's system version, the situation is different. Not only does it provide a strengthening effect to all collected items—including the strongest one—but this effect can continue to accumulate and snowball. The better the collection and the greater the number of items, the stronger the overall enhancement becomes. This is essentially unlimited; as the collection grows, the snowball effect gets stronger.
There is one catch: the strengthening effect is a fixed value applied uniformly to all items. An originally weak item might become dozens of times stronger. If an item is already a powerful artifact, the boost might not be as obvious. But even so, it is much more powerful than the original, and the key is that there is no upper limit. As long as he continues to collect treasures, he can stack the strengthening effects.
Best of all, this is effectively free. It just requires collecting treasures. Another point is that this version of the King's Treasure includes an automatic repair function and refreshes consumption. If items are damaged during use, they are restored to their original state once returned to the vault. Even disposable items or consumables can be refreshed after use.
This function is incredible. It means Takumi never has to worry about running out of supplies. Even if things are blown to pieces, they will return. He can even "borrow" treasures from others, record them in the King's Treasure, and then return the original. Once the treasure is "consumed" or damaged in his record, a copy will refresh on his side, effectively making it his.
When Takumi saw this system version of the King's Treasure, he immediately fell in love with it. After binding it, he placed his universal instrument inside. Upon taking the instrument out again, Takumi could feel it had become about twenty to thirty percent stronger. Considering the universal instrument was already a high-tier artifact strengthened by the system, this was a massive boost.
"It's one thing to have a great all-purpose appliance, but this version of the King's Treasure is truly impressive."
Then, Takumi used his power to create an ordinary eight-sided Han sword and put it in the vault. After it was strengthened, he took it out to inspect it.
"Good guy! This must be as strong as an A-Rank Noble Phantasm, or at least equal to weapons forged by Hephaestus."
Takumi was shocked. A mediocre piece of iron had been transformed into a magical weapon! What if he used weapons that were already top-tier? If he strengthened the equipment of the girls in Dimensional City or the biological armor of his companions, wouldn't they all become divine-tier gear?
"Hiss! This is really something."
Takumi was stunned by the actual effect. With this, the armament strength of Dimensional City would see a massive improvement. It was, without a doubt, another powerful cheat.
Takumi felt great about the new acquisition. Then he looked at the remaining mission. The content was to purify the evil in this world, and the reward was actually the Hall of Heroes!
When he saw this reward, Takumi's breathing quickened. The Hall of Heroes! While he didn't know if this was the exact same Throne of Heroes from the Type-Moon World or if it contained those specific heroic spirits, the name alone suggested its function. It was definitely related to life-saving—not just for one person, but for a whole group.
Takumi didn't lack much at the moment, but a reliable means of saving lives was his priority. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been so cautious about the power levels in worlds like the Forbidden World. If there were a guaranteed way to save lives, he could explore other worlds with much less risk. For Dimensional City, the biggest obstacle to expansion wasn't a lack of strength, but the lack of an absolute safety net.
"This reward must be won!"
Takumi made up his mind. No matter how troublesome, he had to get it. However, this matter could not be rushed. The requirement was to purify the evil of this world, which was currently waiting inside the Greater Grail. It couldn't get out, and Takumi wasn't sure how to get in. It couldn't be touched, let alone purified yet.
"We still have to wait for the Holy Grail War, which is a bit of a hassle."
According to the original story, Sakura was adopted into the Matou family one year before the Fourth Holy Grail War. It had been about a month since she arrived at the Dimensional City through the gate. In other words, there was still nearly a year before the war began.
"This is taking too long. I need to find a way to speed it up."
Takumi didn't plan to wait an entire year. In that time, Dimensional City might develop to the point where it didn't even need the Hall of Heroes anymore. As for how to speed it up? He hadn't decided yet. He couldn't just leave Sakura here and cut the time anchor, as he didn't know the time flow ratio between his world and this one. Besides, he wouldn't leave Sakura alone for a year, and she wouldn't want that either. So that option was out.
The simplest way would be to manually replenish the magic power of the Greater Grail. The Grail's activation requires a massive amount of magic power, enough to fill a spiritual vein over sixty years. But magic power was the thing Takumi lacked least. Even sixty years worth of energy could be supplied in a short time if he used several infinite magic furnaces.
"If I use this method, I will inevitably have to contact the Tohsaka family."
To manually charge the Greater Grail would be a major event, and Tohsaka Tokiomi would certainly notice. As a manager of Fuyuki City and one of the founding families, Tokiomi would come to negotiate. Such contact was unavoidable.
While Tokiomi was a bit of a nuisance to Takumi, the real issue was Sakura. The relationship between Sakura and Tokiomi would largely determine Takumi's own attitude. Judging from Sakura's reaction, she was clearly resentful. Even if they visited, the relationship would likely be very stiff.
Takumi didn't care what happened to Tokiomi, but he didn't want Sakura to be upset or for it to hurt his bond with her. He looked at Sakura, who was staring blankly at the familiar streets of Fuyuki, and asked softly, "Are you still worried?"
"Well, sort of," Sakura nodded.
"What are you worried about? Tell me, and I'll help you figure it out."
"This..." Sakura frowned, not knowing how to put it into words.
"Are you worried? Or are you afraid?"
"Emmm... both."
Takumi nodded, getting the answer he needed. Sakura was afraid, which meant she was resistant to Tokiomi. Even if Tokiomi tried to comfort or persuade her, the gap between them would remain. Knowing this, Takumi prepared himself for how to deal with the Tohsaka head.
He smiled at Sakura and said, "Even if I am here, are you still afraid?" He rubbed her head to comfort her.
"Then I am not afraid." Sakura immediately replied. As long as Takumi was there, she wasn't afraid of anything.