A momentary glance at Sakura, and he wished he hadn't. The last of the light in her eyes had long faded into darkness. The remains of her broken expression from earlier was now just a blank stare with her head tilted to the side.
"… … Huh… … Is that so…?"
Kariya waited for something else, anything more to say. But Sakura said nothing. She just continued to stare at him amidst the swarm that now made to suck away the last of her drying tears. Her lifeless pupils didn't move. There was no sound of crying. The little girl seemingly felt nothing as he admitted the murder of her father.
But while Sakura deflated to nihilism, her 'grandfather' was the opposite.
"Haha… Hahahahah… HAHAHA!" All the worms in the basement squirmed and cried. It was as if they were moved with ecstasy as Zouken laughed.
Kariya couldn't help but growl. "What's so funny, you bastard?"
"You, boy!" The flesh doll's mirth was palpable as it was abhorrent. Several of the worms fell off, seemingly unable to maintain his form as he shuddered with stifled chuckles. "KillingTokiomi? On your own? Kariya, do you take me for a fool?"
"Considering someone as capable as you can't tell the truth for yourself, then yeah. Maybe I should take you for a fool, Zouken."
"Hrrrm?" the meat mannequin stopped chortling and stared at him. Many eyes bore into his only working one. "What was that, you brat?"
Kariya couldn't help but smirk at the old man's annoyance.
He knew he was a coward. Zouken knew he knew he was a coward. He never had the confidence to confess to Aoi. He never had the confidence to stand up to Tokiomi. He never had the guts to go against his father, not including the time he chose to run away from the Matou family.
Yes. Matou Kariya was a cowardly worm. One who could do nothing but squirm in fear of his betters. But he wouldn't be denied his one victory. A boy and his Servant, a pair who'd done far more than he could ever ask for in his state, had asserted as much already. No matter what Zouken said, no matter what anyone said, he knew he won at least once.
"Tohsaka Tokiomi is dead. Blown to pieces alongside his student, the priest, and one more in the Church. You at least heard that much, haven't you? Or have all your insects been cowering in fear since being assaulted by Caster?"
Goading the man who made his childhood an unbearable hell, he noted the tell-tale signs of frustration. Although inhuman beyond understanding, teeth grit tightly, gazes on him narrowed. Any and all worms that actively moved Zouken's form squirmed with irritation at Kariya's words, proving to the cripple that his father was indeed just like him. Beaten and afraid. Knockdown a peg by the unexpected. Just as much of a fuck-up as he.
Kariya couldn't help himself. So much so that Zouken took note of it. "What are you smiling about, brat?"
"Hmph. It's nothing," he scoffed with heavy sarcasm. "While you were hiding in your hellhole, I had Berserker best Archer! Now both Tokiomi and his Servant are six feet under. Of course, it came at a cost. But now, here I stand with proof that I'm still very much in this fight. You can think whatever you want, but I'm not done yet! I joined this war because you promised you'd lay your filthy hands off Sakura."
He tried to meet the girl's eyes, but all he got was a blank stare. The shock must've still been taking its toll on her. No matter. Glaring the monstrosity down, Kariya dared take a step forward.
"Well, I'm winning! And now I see you going back on your promise. Mind explaining yourself, Zouken?!"
The worm monster didn't reply immediately. For a brief silence, the thing masquerading as his 'father' simply stared back at him. He was watching, waiting to see if this bravado would break. However, Kariya wasn't weak-willed to falter twice.
"My, my… Who knew that the same larvae that fled the hive would actually mature? You'd run away without so much as a backbone. Now I see you still have a spirit… one that needs breaking. Kariya, my son, you actually managed to do me proud!"
Kariya couldn't believe what he was hearing. And likely Byakuya as well. Their old man was never one for praises. He was just a sadistic and cruel monster. Hearing what sounded like a sincere compliment not only sounded out of character. It was more than a little creepy coming from this… monstrosity.
It wasn't enough to distract him from the fact the elder evaded his questions again though. Yet, it seems Zouken was going to be insistent on avoiding answering him about anything.
"My, oh my… This makes me almost want to see if you can actually win, my son…" The air shifted as the flesh of the biomass monster rippled. Zouken continued as his body started shifting. "But the situation's changed, Kariya."
"What?"
"You're correct… After Caster's attack, I realized that I can't continue with things as they are. That night was the closest I came to death in the last century. I can't risk anything like that again lest I vanish entirely. Fortunately, I've already accelerated the ritual. Heheh…"
"HYA! AAAAAAAAAAGGHHHHHHH!"
Right as he said it, a scream broke the quiet and echoed throughout the basement walls. All eyes turned to see the girl writhing in pain as more than a dozen bugs began stinging and biting her limbs' bare skin, as well as the parts of her unseen.
"Oy! You promised me you'd free Sakura!" Kariya bellowed at the beast, nearly running up to deck the thing in the denture-ridden face if he hadn't been held back by the collar by an unamused Avenger. "You bastard! What the fuck are you doing to her?! ZOUKEN!"
"Believe me, Kariya. I wish the situation was different. But my hand was forced by that deranged Caster you failed to kill at the start. Because he ate away at a majority of my reserves, I need all the mana I can get to ensure I will survive. Of course, that's not what Sakura is for, so you can relax your mind, brat."
"What the fuck does that mean?!" He didn't care if he was torn to shreds. So long as he stopped whatever the hell he was doing to her, he didn't mind being swarmed. "Let her go, you bastard!"
"Haaah… Always the impatient and inconsiderate." Grumbled the worm monster as its eyes all stared into his pitifully. "No wonder the girl from the Zenjou never liked you."
"Bastard! Leave Aoi out of this!"
"But it's the truth, no? I never said I was hurting the girl purposefully. It wouldn't do me any good to inhabit a damaged vessel."
The mention of it had Kariya's eye sharpening. "You… you lying piece of shit! You said you wouldn't hurt her ever—!"
"Heh… Why so surprised, my son? Of course, I lied… It's as if you don't know your own father…" And yet again, despite the anger and fury of his that returned to the fore, he was mocked with a hearty, echoing chuckle. "Even now, she only suffers because her body has yet to fully accept the special Crest worms I designed just for her… Don't worry. She'll adapt as she did when she took your place in the pit. It may even be far easier on her if we do it this early…"
If it was as he said, Kariya didn't buy the bullshit. His rash treatment had him in the pit days on end, his mind tortured to madness only to get used to them inhabiting his body, much less actually be able to control them. Minutes, hours, entire nights of them going in and out of every orifice. If they were all clogged, the bugs would bore are holes and seal them up themselves, sewing their mushy bodies under his skin with ease.
It broke him as any man would've been broken, reliving their trauma and more over and over and over and over and over…
But the things the parasites were doing to Sakura were far more extreme. Not only were they punching holes in her, instead of just crawling in, but they were also injecting things into her veins while some explored and crawled over her body, trying to find ways to enter her aside from just tearing a hole in her belly. The only reason why she stopped screaming was that one of the damned worms, one far larger than he'd ever had the displeasure of feeding, had all but escaped down her throat already.
"That being said… transferring myself into a body that small… it would take time… That is unless I had an abundant mana source…" The monster then glanced at the Servant holding his son back. Avenger had remained silent all this time, trying not to garner attention. But it seems she was Zouken's target from the start. "Hrrrm… Quite tame compared to Berserker… But it's a shame, your contracting with her dooms her all the same…"
Squelching noises alerted Kariya to the sudden movement behind them all. Fleshy appendages with a nearly two-dozen insect swarm gathered at the exit, slamming the door shut and guarding the only exit out of the place.
Zouken had trapped them with him.
"W—what are you doing, father—GUHO!" THUD
Something slammed against the wall as the meat-insect tendrils returned to their owner's, to Zouken's monster form. The apparent toothy smile of his eye-riddled maw told Kariya enough of what answer he had for Byakuya. "Be silent and behave, Byakuya. Do the only thing you're capable of and obey me!"
"Tch." Hearing her tongue click as Avenger placed a hand on the hilt of her katana had Kariya freezing in place. Sparing her a glance, she returned it with an annoyed one that Kariya couldn't help but sweat buckets over. His older brother aside, Sakura still remained in Zouken's grasp. She couldn't attack him. Not right now.
Thinking fast, he tried to stall. "What are you doing, Zouken?!"
"As I said I need more mana. Sakura is to be my vessel, so of course, I can't end her here. But… even if I consumed your brother, it wouldn't be enough. And there's nothing to say of you, a walking corpse, either. Yet… your new Servant might work." The thing seemed to lick its entire face instead of just its lips as he said it. "I never eaten Servants before, but being raw concentrations of mana given form, it should work."
"You…" The implication that Zouken never meant to see their deal through had Kariya cursing his naivety. But more than that, he saw the act to follow as nothing short of reckless madness coming from a monster desperate for his own survival. "You're insane!"
"Stay still, Kariya. For your hard work, I will grant you a swift death. Think of this as my first and last fatherly act!"
The room shook as a thousand insect-meshed tendrils and teeth riddled tentacles erupted out of the ground. Most climbed up to the ceiling, effectively covering the whole room with walls of flesh. Every ten meters or so, there was a pulsating boil or fleshy bubble that started throbbing with life whilst more of the meat walls sprouted tentacles and insects alike.
As if it was an attempt to imitate Caster's monstrosities, maybe improve upon them, the elder wraith that was once Matou Zouken summoned all he had to trap and pummel a Servant to death, his own sons, be damned.
Kariya should've expected this. He knew his end was what would come about even if he'd been lucky enough to be the victor of an impossible war. But to finally see his old man turn his back away from him in full… Kariya found it easier to harden his heart and swallowed his fear.
Even as he was faced with his lifelong tormenter, surrounded by the monster's horrible creations, he wouldn't falter anymore. Not when Zouken had finally revealed the monster he'd been all this time.
Not his father. Just an abomination pretending to be one. 'Huh… Seems… all I needed… was to see him for what he was…'
"What's the matter, my son? Do I scare you?"
People fear what they don't understand. But with the truth now before him, baring its fangs on full display, he need not fear the man anymore.
And besides, if Matou Zouken thought this reveal would be enough to frighten him into submission like the little boy he'd been before, he was damn wrong.
"I think it's about time. Don't you, little husk?" Just as Kariya turned to face the calm, perhaps even excited, redhead, he was met with the sight of a devilish smile. Katana in hand, Avenger directed her blade towards the apparent head of the basement beast. "Well? I'm waiting for your call, Matou Kariya."
That she said his name in full had him nodding calmly in return. Never had he once been this level-headed in a fight. But in the face of his final foe, he easily raised his weak and deadened arm towards what used to be the head of his family. Pulling back his tattered jersey's sleeves, the dark crimson shine of Command Seals had Zouken's attention.
"Struggling to the very end? Good! Show me how much you've grown, my spawn!"
He didn't bother entertaining his 'father' with a response further. Instead, he whispered to the Servant not his own. "I leave Sakura to you."
"Hmph." The raised katana was doused in hellfire. The woman's attention was directed to the girl. "Then, your father's all yours."
"Getting cocky, are we? Your opponent is over here!"
At the monster's deafening screech, many of the tentacle pustules of his tentacles exploded. Swarms upon swarms of ravenous, bloodthirsty insects escaped their meat hives as they charged their position. But Kariya ignored him to utter a command that consumed one of his seals in a flash.
"With this Command Seal, I order you. Destroy Zouken! Use all you have! Leave nothing of him behind! Come! Berserker!"
When space before him rippled with bloody crimson light, every tentacle on Zouken's being shifted nervously. When the air in front of him was filled in by a black figure, the mannequin monster's eyes all widened with shock and maybe even fear. When the cloud of darkness receded off of the black knight, a gleaming black blade shining in his hand, the monster of insects screeched.
"You… you bastard! You said you lost him!"
"Well… I lied." Levelling his gaze from behind the maddened Berserker, Kariya gave a final smile to his father. "What can I say? 'Like father, like son?'"
Anger was the first he felt from all around when the entire swarm bellowed and shrieked. Bloodlust came after when seven or so tentacles spouting from the walls, stingers at their tips, lunged at him.
But just as they were about to hit.
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" BOOM
Two explosions rocked the basement. The first was the booming howl of the black knight. With his demonic blade drawn, a mere swing was all it took to sever and rend the meaty tendrils to ribbons. Kariya didn't even register what cut them from this distance. All he saw was a quick swing, a bluish light, and the death of Zouken's first attack in the hands of Berserker's blade.
But the second explosion was the real kicker. A loud thud followed by the cracking basement floor caused Zouken's form to sink beneath his flesh roots by about a meter or so. "What the—?!"
Distracted, Zouken's swarm was held back. The surprise of losing his footing in the pit had his entire mass of flesh and bug swarms in a confused frenzy. It was a given, considering that the hellhole he'd furnished as his magecraft workshop for centuries had quite suddenly been destroyed from below. Another explosion rocked the earth beneath him, this time causing part of the ceiling to crack and fall atop his insect mass, catching a number of bugs, pustules, and tendrils in the way.
"Why so surprised, father?" Kariya asked, seemingly losing concentration now that Berserker was draining him of mana far faster than the usual rate. "Did you really think I wouldn't ever come back with the intention to bury you and your shitty legacy? Heh. But then you were never much of a parent. Of course, you wouldn't understand… inhuman freak!"
"KARIYAAAAA!"
"KILL HIM, BERSERKER!"
"RYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"
Maddened howls echoed throughout the Matou residence underground as it all devolved into a scene straight out of a horror flick.