The avalanche of information and the overturning of everything he knew left him dizzy. For a moment he couldn't even speak, staring blankly at the hunched figure ahead with eyes mixed with shock, doubt, and self-denial.
Matou Zouken, meanwhile, sank into an even deeper, wordless storm.
"Makiri Zolgen abolish all evil soul materialization"
Those phrases echoed like incantations in the depths of a mind packed with worm hives and obsession. Five hundred years of fragments surged up in chaos: the ice-bound Einzbern castle; the young, fervent face of Nagato Tohsaka; Justeaze's eyespure as snow and yet hollow; the smoke of betrayal rising from the first Grail War's failure and the silhouette of a black-haired youth in his homeland's sunset, swearing to erase every pain in the world.
"Who am I?"
A voice so faint it barely existed rang in the depths of his soul.
"Am I Makiri Zolgen a seeker who pursued immortality for the sake of an ideal? Or Matou Zoukenan ugly monster who plunders only to keep crawling on, long since forgetting his original purpose?"
The chasm between ideal and reality. The brutal contrast between a noble beginning and a fallen present. The shame and rage of being laid bare by an outsider. The madness piled up over endless years
All of it boiled like venom inside his inhuman shellreacting, swelling!
"No!!!"
A shrill, twisted screamnothing like a human voiceripped from Matou Zouken's throat.
He raised his head. On that bark-dry face, every wrinkle contorted into madness. His muddy eyes were shot through with blood; the sly malice and scheming were gone, replaced only by a hysterical lust for chaos and destruction.
"Nonsense! All of it nonsense!"
"I am Matou Zouken! Head of the Matou! A magus who seeks the Grail!"
"Makiri? Ideals? Lies, all of them!"
"It's youit's you who stand in my way! Keeping me from immortality! Keeping me from the Root!!"
He had snapped. The truth of history and the charges of the present smashed the last shell of self-deception, exposing the rotten core withinnothing left but obsession and the animal urge to survive. He couldn't accept it, couldn't think. He had only the most extreme response left: obliterate everything before himerase the sources of this agony and conflict.
"Tokiomi! This is all your fault! You brought this trouble here!"
Zouken suddenly swung his twisted fury toward the nearest targetTokiomi Tohsaka, still reeling.
The sudden shriek and accusation jolted Tokiomi back to himselfbut before he could react, it happened.
The hunched figure moved like a specter, faster than thought. The warped cane in his hand ceased to be a support and became a killing weapon. Its tip flared with a dark, ominous light; with a whistling hiss like a viper striking, it drove from behind straight toward Tokiomi's heart.
"Pch!"
The dull, wet sound of metal punching through flesh and bone rang out, jarringly clear in the dead-silent morning.
Tokiomi's body went rigid. Disbelieving, he lowered his head to the blood-slick cane tip protruding from his chest. Pain flooded him in a wavebut the greater wound was the betrayal by the "ally" he had trusted.
"Hhhh"
He opened his mouth to speak, but only a leaking, airless rasp came out. Blood gushed from the wound, spraying from both chest and back, soaking his crisp suit in scarlet. Inch by inch, he forced his head to turn, staring at the crazed, contorted old face behind himeyes filled with utter shock, fury, and a glimmer of awakening that came far too late.
"You Zouken you"
Before he could finish, the light in his eyes dimmed.
Tokiomi Tohsakawho had spent his life pursuing magus honor and abiding by family law, yet made a fatal mistake at this momentdied with endless regret and unwillingness. His body pitched forward and hit the cold, damp ground with a thud, kicking up a faint puff of dust. His eyes were wide open, fixed on the gray skyas if questioning the injustice of fate, as if condemning his own follyunable to rest in peace.
"Ah!!!"
The sudden, bloody brutality of it made Rin and Sakura scream in terror at the same time.
Rin had been bitterly disappointed in her fatherangry, evenbut he was still her father. She had never imagined she would watch him die so horrifically right before her eyes.
The scarlet of the blood and the swift fading of life slammed into her senses, shattering her composure. Her face drained white as paper; her body shook uncontrollably. Instinctively, she clutched Sakura tighter, as if she could draw even a shred of safety from it.
As for Sakura, she was frightened out of her wits.
Chapter 979: Dead! Dead!
Her father's brutal death, Matou Zouken's mad, demonlike visage for the five-year-old Sakura Tohsaka, it was a waking nightmare.
She buried her face in her sister's arms, sobs and whimpers escaping like a frightened animal. Her small body shook like a leaf in the wind, on the verge of fainting.
"Heh hahahaha the nuisance is gone!"
Matou Zouken yanked his blood-stained cane free. Staring at Tokiomi Tohsaka's body on the ground, he let out a deranged, skin-crawling laugh.
Then his crazed gaze snapped to Rei Aoand to the sisters behind himlike a venomous curse.
"And you!"
"You've learned secrets you shouldn't know. Diebecome food for the swarm!"
"Your flesh and souls will be the stepping stones to my eternity!"
He flung his arms wide. His old, voluminous kimono billowed and snapped though there was no wind.
The next instant, a hair-raising scene unfolded.
Rustle buzz buzz buzz
From his wide sleeves, from the hem of his robe, even from the creases of his withered skin, countless black specks poured out like a burst dam of midnight tidean unending flood of crest worms.
They were myriad in size and hideous in form: writhing, beating their wings, chittering in a dense, teeth-setting hum, merging into a suffocating tide reeking of blood and rotten magecraft.
Like a black storm of death, the swarm swept toward Rei Aoand toward Rin and Sakura behind him. Where it passed, even the paving stones pitted and corroded. The very fog in the air seemed stained an ominous dark.
This was the essence of the evil power Matou Zouken had hoarded for centuries, a horror that could corrode flesh and gnaw at souls.
"Big sis!"
Sakura cried out in terror, squeezing her eyes shut, too scared to look.
Rin was just as terrified, her face chalk white. But she still forced her eyes open, glaring at the surging swarm while clutching her sister even tighter. She knew their only hope stood before themRei Ao.
Facing that monstrous tide, Rei Ao's expression did not change. He didn't so much as take a guard stance or step aside. He simply stood there, the calm eye of the storm.
His gaze, steady and unreadable, took in the onrushing hordeand the twisted thing behind it, no longer human, a living hive at its core. A faint pity flickered in his eyes, but more than that, a cool disgustas if at filth to be cleaned away.
At the very instant the reeking tide of death was about to swallow the three of them, Rei Ao finally moved.
He merely lifted his right hand.
Snap.
A clear finger-snap rang from his fingertipsso light, yet it tugged on some primal, blazing law of the world.
BOOM!!!
Centered on Rei Ao, a fire of indescribable color and heat bloomed out of nothing.
It was no ordinary flame. It shone a deep, immaculate, true-crimson. It did not roar or lash about like common fire; it spread in a silent, sacred, imperious calm.
Where the fire passed, even the "impurities" of space seemed to be scoured clean. The countless horrors that could corrode steel and devour soulsat the barest touch of that true-crimson firethey didn't even have time to writhe or scream. Every last worm vaporized like snow under a summer sun, vanishing without a trace.
Not burning. Not charring.
Erasedat the level of existence itself.
The true-crimson fire kept spreading. It looked slow, but in truth it outran time and space, overtaking Matou Zoukenwho had tried to recoil, abject terror finally breaking through his eyes.
"No! What is this power?! Impossible!!"
His final howl was despair. He mustered all the magecraft and all the insect defenses he hadbut before that fire, every resistance was laughable and futile.
The flame moved like a living thing, wrapping his twisted shell with a gentle inevitability. There was no agony of burningonly an absolute, undeniable force of purification.
Within the fire, the body that had scraped by for five centuries began to crumble like a sand sculpture, then drift away. Not just the bodythe soul stuffed with obsession and warped beyond recognition.
Whatever remnant of "Makiri Zolgen" persisted, whatever madness and filth "Matou Zouken" had amassedeverything was cleansed in the true-crimson blaze, reduced to fundamental particles and returned to nothing.
Five hundred years of obsession, sin, struggle, and decay ended with a single crisp snap and a field of silent, crimson fire. No trace remainedas if no one named "Makiri Zolgen" or "Matou Zouken" had ever existed.
The flames guttered out as abruptly as they had appeared. The space before the Matou manor fell quiet again. Even the heavy fog seemed thinned by that purifying force. The suffocating swarm and the crazed old man were gone.
All that remained was Tokiomi Tohsaka's body on the ground, the Tohsaka sisters locked together and shaking, and Rei Ao standing there, robes still.
It had all happened too fast. From Zouken's sudden murder, to the surging swarm, to Rei Ao erasing everything with a snapbarely a dozen seconds. But for the two little girls it felt like a centuryand it changed their lives forever.
It also ended a tragedy five hundred years in the making.
Rin and Sakura stared blankly at the empty street, then at Rei Ao's calm back. Their minds went white, suspended between the extremity of terror and the whiplash of sudden safety.
~~~
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Chapter 980: Aoi Tohsaka's Shocked...
"Sigh."
Rei Ao let out a quiet breath, his gaze dropping to Tokiomi Tohsaka's body on the ground. He walked over.
"Foolish and stubborn as he was, he was still their father. Dust to dust, ashes to ashes."
He raised his hand again. A faint, equally pure true-crimson flame fell upon Tokiomi's body. The fire wrapped the corpse. There was no stench, no smokeonly a silent burn. In moments, Tokiomi's remains became a pinch of pristine, flawless white ash, which the cool morning breeze lifted and scattered into the soil of Fuyuki.
By then, aside from a few signs of struggle and a dark red stain on Tokiomi's suit, there was nothing at the Matou manor gate to suggest the fierce clash that had just decided several lives.
Rei Ao turned to Rin and Sakura Tohsaka, still clinging to each other, faces chalk white. The cold severity on his face ebbed, replaced by warmth and pity. He stepped up, crouched so his eyes were level with theirs, and spoke as gently as he could:
"All right. It's over."
"The threat is gone. That old monster will never hurt anyone again."
There was a strange, soothing steadiness in his voice. The girls' thundering hearts slowly calmed.
Rin looked up into Rei Ao's calm blue eyes, then down at her sisterstill trembling in her arms, though the sobbing had quieted.
"Mm"
Her nose stung. Big tears finally spilled overgrief for her father, relief at surviving, gratitude to Rei Ao, and a haze about what came next.
"Group Owner Rei Ao"
She choked on the words, barely able to speak.
Sakura timidly lifted her head from her sister's embrace, violet eyes red and swollen like a startled rabbit's, sneaking glances at the handsome "big brother" who'd saved them.
Rei Ao reached out and gently ruffled both girls' hair. He smiled. "Don't be afraid. It's over."
"As long as I'm here, I won't let anyone hurt you again. Let's get out of here first."
His gaze slid over the manor's lingering gloom; something thoughtful flickered in his eyes. The traces of Makiri Zolgen had been erased, but the system of the Holy Grail War remained. The shadow over Fuyuki hadn't fully lifted. Those matters could wait.
For now, the priority was to steady two girls who'd just been through a profound traumaand to consider how best to use the world-gateway that had opened.
Morning light finally burned the haze off Fuyuki's sky. Golden sun spilled across the streets, but it couldn't fully warm the fear— and grief-soaked hearts of Rin and Sakura. The brief, bloody clash at the Matou gate had seared itself into their memories.
Rei Ao looked at the two girls huddled together like frightened birds and sighed inwardly. He crouched again, his iridescent eyes holding a quiet, consoling power.
"It's normal to be afraid," he said softly, like snowmelt in spring. "Seeing something like that is far too heavy for you."
"If you need to cry, cry. It's okay. I'm here."
The words broke whatever brittle wall they'd been holding up. Rin's tears surged again, though she refused to sob aloud, shoulders trembling in silence. Sakura finally wailed, pouring out all her fear and hurt, her small body hitching with each breath.
Rei Ao didn't say more. He simply stayed with themone hand gently patting Rin's back, the other smoothing Sakura's soft hair. He used no forced mind-calming. He let their emotions run and empty out. Some wounds must be released before they can start to heal.
After a long while the sobs faded to faint sniffles. Rin scrubbed at her eyes with her sleeve and lifted her head. Her eyes were puffy, but some of her usual resolve had returned.
She looked at Rei Ao, her voice still thick with tears but earnest. "Rei Rei Ao-nii, thank you. If it weren't for you, Sakura would have"
"No need to thank me. This was our deal," Rei Ao answered gently. "Now, you need to go home. Your mother has to know what happened."
At the mention of Aoi Tohsaka, both girls' expressions dimmed. How were they supposed to explain their father's death?
In the Tohsaka home's quiet, old-fashioned living room, Aoi sat in a daze before a breakfast gone cold. Tear tracks stained her cheeks; her eyes were empty. She was clearly still trapped in the rift that had opened in their family that morning.
When she saw a stranger bringing Rin and Sakura back unharmed, she jolted to her feet, a flare of hope in her eyes. But noticing there were only three of themand the girls' blotchy, tear-streaked facesher heart sank again.
"Rin? Sakura? And this is?"
Her voice trembled as she looked at Rei Aoan extraordinary yet unfamiliar young man. Who was he?
