Night had grown deep.
A waning moon hung high above Fuyuki City, casting a cold, pale light that stretched the shadows of the buildings into long, eerie shapes.
Seiji Fujiwara slipped out of Tohsaka Manor without a sound.
He didn't alert a soul.
With the system's assistance, these mundane magical traps looked, to his eyes, like a child's scribbles, riddled with holes. He could see every node of mana flowing through the wards and slip past them with ease.
He moved through the sleeping city like a real ghost.
His destination was that place reeking of decay and ill omen: Matou Manor.
His "chance encounter" with Sakura Matou that afternoon had only been the appetizer.
Tonight, the one he was going to meet was the old monster that had been lurking in the shadows of this city for five hundred years.
Zouken Matou.
When Seiji stood outside the high walls of Matou Manor, a nauseating stench, a mix of rotting flesh and mana, hit him in the face.
[Warning! Highly concentrated source of polluted mana detected!]
[Warning! A large-scale biological magecraft nest (Worm Pit) exists beneath the residence. It is eroding the local Spiritual Veins!]
"What a... lovely place."
A strange smile spread across Seiji's face, equal parts disgust and excitement.
He didn't use the gate. Like a shadow, he passed straight through the "watch net" woven from countless tiny familiars and landed silently in the courtyard.
The garden was deathly quiet. Weeds had overgrown everything; the stone lanterns were caked with moss. Every detail spoke of decline.
But Seiji could "hear" it.
From the depths underground came a sound like a rising tide, the writhing of countless worms, enough to make the scalp crawl.
He didn't hesitate for a second. He walked straight toward the freestanding Japanese-style storehouse that gave off the thickest stench of all.
That was the entrance to hell.
He pushed open the heavy, half-rotted wooden door of the storehouse.
An even thicker stench, mixed with the dank, earthy smell of wet soil, wrapped around him at once.
At the center of the storehouse was an opening that led underground, a black pit with no visible bottom. Countless phosphorescent worms crawled in and out around its edge.
Seiji descended the slick stairs of packed earth, one step at a time.
Below was an enormous underground space, like an ants' nest.
And what he saw was enough to break any sane mind on the spot.
On the walls, on the ground, on the ceiling.
Everywhere he looked, there were worms.
Worms of every kind and grotesque shape, packed densely together, squirming, overlapping, forming a living tableau of hell painted in the word "revolting."
And at the center of the sea of worms,
a stooped old man in a kimono, his face covered in corpse spots, stood with his back to Seiji, leaning on a cane.
"Heh heh heh... what a rare guest."
The old man didn't turn around, but his voice rasped like sandpaper, harsh and grating. "For the Lord of the Clock Tower to lower himself and come to this old man's filthy worm cellar... to what do I owe the honor?"
He had clearly mistaken Seiji for Waver.
"You've got the wrong man."
Seiji's voice rang out clearly in the cavernous Worm Pit. "I'm not Waver Velvet."
"Oh?" Zouken Matou slowly turned around.
That face could no longer be called a "human" face. It was a horrifying mask forcibly stitched together from countless tiny, ceaselessly squirming worms.
"A snot-nosed brat?"
His worm-formed eyes looked Seiji over, and a hoarse, mocking laugh came from his throat.
"Who gave you the guts to walk into Matou territory alone?"
"No one gave me the guts."
There wasn't a trace of fear on Seiji's face. He stepped forward, one pace at a time, until he was less than three meters from Zouken Matou, then stopped.
He looked at the worm-built monster before him and smiled. "Zouken Matou. A great magus who's lived for five hundred years. In pursuit of immortality, you offered up your own body and soul to these disgusting worms."
"You... who are you?!" Zouken's laughter cut off. For the first time, a grave expression crossed the face of worms. The vast, defiled mana around him began to surge, and the worms around him grew restless.
This brat in front of him actually knew his true name.
"I'm someone who can bring you... 'hope.'"
Seiji extended a single finger.
A small, faint, but utterly pure pulse of mana lit up at its tip.
He flicked the little orb gently toward a Crest Worm at his feet.
A sharp hiss.
There was no violent explosion, no blinding flash.
The moment that Crest Worm came into contact with the mana, it was "purified," like a block of ice doused with concentrated sulfuric acid.
Not even a trace of ash was left.
The worm-formed eyeballs of Zouken Matou contracted sharply. The mana surging around him froze in an instant.
He saw it clearly.
That was not destruction.
That was... "conceptual erasure."
A power that wiped away even the trace of existence, right down to its Root. Such a power... let alone him, even a user of True Magic might not be able to manage it.
"You... what is it you want?" For the first time, a note of wariness entered Zouken's voice.
"I want to make a deal with you."
A smile spread across Seiji's face, devilish and full of temptation.
"I know that body of Sakura Matou's is about to break under what you've been doing to it. She may be the perfect 'Holy Grail' vessel, but her soul is resisting you. Her own self-awareness is the biggest 'impurity' in your plan."
"I can help you 'purify' her."
"I can wipe away the 'impurities' in her soul that don't belong to you. Her longing for her sister, her attachment to the past, her fear of you... I can turn her into the most perfect, the most pristine doll, one that obeys only your commands."
"What do you want?" Zouken's voice turned hoarse and urgent. He was tempted. Nothing could tempt him more than the offer Seiji had just laid out.
"It's very simple."
Seiji's smile grew brighter.
"In this Holy Grail War, at the most crucial moment, I need you... and your 'granddaughter' to obey one command of mine."
"Just one... small command."
The Worm Pit fell into a deathly silence. All that remained was the sound of countless worms writhing.
Zouken was weighing it. He couldn't see through the young man before him. His power was strange and overwhelming, yet the condition he proposed was unbelievably simple. There had to be an enormous trap hidden behind it.
But... the temptation was too great.
A perfect Grail vessel that wouldn't resist. That alone was enough to grant him the dream he had chased for so long.
After a long while.
Zouken's hoarse voice, as if rising from the depths of hell, spoke again.
"...Deal."
...
...
Morning sunlight poured through the ornate stained-glass windows of Tohsaka Manor, scattering colorful patches across the floor.
Rin Tohsaka stood in her family's underground Workshop, a magic circle already prepared in front of her.
Her heart was pounding violently, beyond her control.
Excitement. Tension. And a thread of fear toward the unknown.
Today was the day of destiny, the day she would summon her Servant.
As the heir of the Tohsaka family, she had been preparing for this day for ten years.
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