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Chapter 41 Matou Sakura

puff!

As the sword blade pierced through Matou Kariya's throat, the high temperature released by the lightsaber burned Matou Kariya's brain senses on the spot.

His eyes gradually became dull until his vitality completely dissipated.

Fan Yu retracted his lightsaber, his expression calm.

He has no hatred towards Matou Kariya, and when the other party talks about protecting Zenjo Aoi and his daughter, at certain times their positions might even be the same.

From the information he displayed, Matou Kariya was a pure being, whether he was a pure altruist or a pitiful soul desperate to impress someone with unrequited love. Even the worms wriggling within him hinted at being manipulated and manipulated by some magus.

however……

Fighting is fighting.

It does not distinguish between the innocent and the cunning, the strong and the weak, or the righteous and the evil. Therefore, no matter how many reasons you have, they are useless.

When the other party met, he called on his servants to attack him and Medea, and the two sides were already in a situation of life and death.

Fan Yu glanced in both directions and said, "What a pity! The allies he had been waiting for never showed up..."

Hercules beside him glanced at Matou Kariya. After the Master completely lost his life, he gradually became unable to maintain his physical form for a while, and his body gradually turned into a spirit and dissipated.

His figure gradually disappeared in Medea's confinement barrier, until his head also disappeared.

Suddenly, a wriggling sensation could be heard from the veins of Matou Kariya's corpse lying on the ground. Fan Yu looked over and saw the insects crawling out from the wound in Matou Kariya's heart. They were densely packed, all with magical runes engraved on their backs, and they were moving in the same direction.

"Is this insect magic?" Medea came over and paused when she saw the carved insects wriggling on the ground.

Fan Yu: "Do you know him?"

"I'm not familiar with modern magic, but the principle is probably similar. Magical seals are implanted into insects and nurtured, slowly developing into a controllable 'familiar,' and the insect's abilities can be shared with the magician.

In some extreme cases, some even directly transform their lives into insects, endowing them with consciousness in exchange for longevity and the ability to be difficult to kill. "Medea explained carefully," she explained.

"So that's how it is." Fan Yu nodded, and something extended from his palm.

A magical spell emerged from the gloves, then transformed into a ball of fire called [Destruction] and dropped to the ground.

The flames that could burn all matter wrapped up the wriggling insects. Burned by the high-temperature flames, the insects made noisy chirping noises, and then were burned by the flames and turned into a ball of ashes.

Medea: “…”

"They are actually still very valuable for research," she added tactfully.

Fan Yu couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the witch beside him: "You're too late, Caster."

However, just as the two were talking.

Suddenly, they heard something unusual happening on the other side. After Hercules' heroic spirit disappeared, the room was filled with a layer of tranquility, so the sound became very clear in the ears of Fan Yu and Medea.

At the place where Fan Yu had previously cut off the Command Seal arm of Matou Kariya, several tiny insects dug a hole of about ten centimeters from the ground and placed it there.

And the severed Command Seal arm had disappeared.

Medea stared at the scene, frowning. "These bugs are just attracting our attention, but that one is the real factor. It seems this bug magician is the master behind Berserker's actions."

She had seen Matou Kariya's appearance before, and it could be said that it was a characteristic of someone whose vitality had been drained by magic, but judging by the situation when the crest worms crawled out after the other party's death, it was clear that there was someone directing it behind the scenes.

"We've been tricked, Master." Medea said delicately.

Fan Yu's face showed no concern at all. "Relying on such low-level means means that the other party doesn't dare to confront us. This is their territory. The monk can escape, but the temple cannot."

Medea thought for a moment, "Then..."

Fan Yu's gaze turned to the staircase leading down ahead: "Magicians all have their own research, let's go underground and take a look first!"

……

Tens of minutes later.

When Fan Yu and Medea came to the underground, they saw a scene that surprised them.

In the dark and damp basement, the dim light was blown by the light in the corridor, and the shadows on the wall were swaying...

The air was filled with magic and a foul smell, and in the corners, bugs with magic symbols engraved on them made chirping sounds. They were even denser than above, almost filling the entire basement and walls.

If someone with trypophobia comes here, they might be scared to the point of losing consciousness on the spot.

However, in such a dark and twisted environment, a girl in a little white dress stood in front of Fan Yu.

Her pupils lacked the brightness of an ordinary child's. Instead, her calm pupils seemed to hide... indifference.

And her hands were holding a broken arm.

It was exactly Matou Kariya's arm, but the Berserker's Command Seal on the back of its hand had disappeared. Instead, scarlet marks of the Command Seal appeared on the back of the slender hand of the little girl holding the arm.

Medea saw this scene and hesitated: "This..."

Fan Yu and Medea looked at each other and both realized the sinister intentions of the mastermind behind the scenes.

The person who could hide the battle from them for a short time and move Matou Kariya's arm silently could only be someone who was very familiar with the terrain here. She didn't look like the little girl in front of them at all.

"Master, it looks like it's the bug magician." Medea said.

Fan Yu hummed, "According to my understanding, it's a person named Matou Zouken. From the information I learned from Tōsaka Tokiomi's residence, that old man participated in the last Holy Grail War."

Medea: "I see. It's no surprise that a magus who survived the Holy Grail War would do such a despicable thing."

Fan Yu hummed, then lowered his head to look at the little girl in front of him who was looking at him: "Are you... Tosaka Sakura (Matou Sakura)?"

Matou Sakura looked at the other person in confusion: "?"

"Did anyone instruct you to do this?"

Matou Sakura hummed crisply, "Grandpa said so. If I transfer this, Grandpa and I won't die..."

Chapter 42 Activation

She responded in a very childish and emotionless voice, as if she was talking about something that had nothing to do with her.

Fan Yu: "..."

"It seems that he heard all the conversations with Matou Kariya before. Matou Zouken is really cunning." Medea said.

Medea: "So... what should we do?"

"He seemed to think he could escape." Fan Yu slowly stretched out his hand and took out a piece of ember from his pocket.

Those were the ashes left over from burning the crest worms before reaching the underground magic workshop.

As Fan Yu scattered the ashes in his hand, a cloud of black smoke and dust filled the air. Then, a layer of green vortex formed in Fan Yu's palm, which instantly stretched into an arrowhead, anchoring the remaining ashes of the engraved insect.

With a "whoosh" sound——

The energy arrow shot out in an instant, penetrating through the workshop to the outside.

"Caster!" Fan Yu called out in a low voice.

Without needing any detailed instructions, Medea began chanting the high-speed divine language and unleashing tracking magic. A purple light, combined with the ember particles, drifted off into the distance.

The hunting energy arrows swept along the floating particles.

"Follow the traces of the engraved bugs, my magic will find them. And the Master's [Hunting Patrol]..." Medea said slowly.

If I remember correctly, the power of the patrol is a very direct pursuit power, which is very suitable for the class like Assassin in the Holy Grail War.

"The rest will be completed by the technique."

Fan Yu withdrew his gaze and immediately put his gaze back on Sakura Matou in front of him. He lowered his head and handed the necklace he had obtained from Zenjo Aoi to her.

"..." There was no reaction on Ying's face, and she even showed a hint of confusion.

Fan Yu seemed quite surprised by this situation. "This is your mother's pendant. She asked me to give it to you. But it seems that you don't know it anymore."

Matou Sakura was stunned: "Mother?"

Although she could still recall her mother's appearance in her memory, it seemed that a long time had passed. Her father had sent her here, and she had experienced loneliness, fear, cries for help, despair... It seemed that she no longer needed those unnecessary relationships.

"The process was a bit tortuous..." Fan Yu looked at Sakura Matou in front of him.

The expression on the little girl's face clearly showed the indifference and self-isolation of someone who had experienced the dark side too early.

"However, I'm just a messenger. The agreement will be fulfilled once the things are delivered to me." Fan Yu said lightly.

Regardless of whether Matou Sakura accepted it or not, he still stuffed the pendant into her hand. But as he handed it to her, a layer of light like the sun emblem appeared on the back of Fan Yu's right hand. Accompanied by a distortion of space, the luminous body could be vaguely seen converging towards the pendant, and then quickly disappeared.

Medea, who was standing by, keenly noticed this scene, and there was a hint of confusion in her eyes.

"Let's go, Caster." Fan Yu said.

Medea glanced at her master strangely. Although he spoke cold words, the means he had just left behind were actually a protective measure.

Moreover, during this period of time, her master would not choose to use energy objects like [Star Core] as a trump card most of the time, even for the mother and daughter, including her.

Medea then looked down at the little girl in front of her and used her magic to try to detect her. Suddenly, a frown formed between her brows. "Master, there are some unusual magical fluctuations on this child's body."

Fan Yu: "Oh?"

"..." Medea glanced suspiciously at her Master. He had just used the power of the Star Core to insure the pendant, so Medea wasn't sure if the Master truly didn't know what was happening inside the little girl, or if he was deliberately playing the role of a cold, impersonal adult in front of the child.

However, she didn't try to guess what the other person was thinking, and asked directly, "She has traces of that Matou Zouken's magic on her body. No, to be more precise, traces of the Crest Bug we just encountered."

When Matou Sakura heard this, she subconsciously took a few steps back: "..."

"Your physique is being transformed, and as time goes by, your body will gradually adapt to the insects until you become dependent on them and can no longer live without them." Medea did not treat Sakura Matou as a child, and directly told her true situation at the moment.

Although Medea felt disgusted by the insect magician's methods, she had to admit that it was a very effective method. Considering the parasitic conditions of insects, it was indeed more reasonable to parasitize a harmless creature with magician qualifications but lacking protection.

Matou Sakura's face remained indifferent to Medea's explanation. She had no expectations for what was to come, so she had no idea whether she would adapt to the bugs or anything else.

"Do you have any way to eliminate it?" Fan Yu asked.

Medea glanced at her Master strangely again and slowly said, "I can, but it will cause some harm to the child. On the contrary, your methods are very suitable, such as your golden lightsaber..."

Hearing her words, Fan Yu immediately realized that Medea was referring to the power with the destiny of [destruction] that he had studied for him.

"Since we can destroy Hercules' defenses, then destroying the parasites in this child's body will probably only take a moment. The only question is whether the flames will consume her along with them.

"But I've already got some clues on this, and I shouldn't have any problem resisting the Master's fire for a short period of time," said Medea.

Fan Yu held his chin and looked at Matou Sakura. Medea's methods were quite dangerous for this child.

But Fan Yu could not see a trace of fear or fluctuation on the other person's face. He glanced at the pendant in the other person's hand and asked, "What do you think?"

Matou Sakura was stunned for a moment: "..."

After arriving at the Matou household, it seemed like no one had ever asked her what she thought.

Whether it was his father choosing Rin as his successor and bringing him here, or his grandfather throwing him into the insect nest—

And Uncle Kariya said something inexplicable about wanting to save him.

Faced with the question, Sakura Matou didn't know how to respond for a moment. She was like a puppet that had been neglected for a long time and was in a stiff state after being wound up again.

"How?" Fan Yu asked again.

After hearing this, Sakura Matou was awakened from her dazed state and subconsciously nodded as usual.

Chapter 43 Capturing 'Matou Sakura'

"Very good." Fan Yu praised the girl and patted her little head to reassure her.

Matou Sakura's body trembled like a frightened little rabbit when it was touched. As the large hand, unable to break free from her head, continued to caress her until her hair was ruffled, she didn't dare to move an inch.

However, her initial resistance and astonishment gradually calmed down.

A wisp of spiritual wave appeared in the darkness, as if it was worried about its Master's imminent appearance. However, it was completely blocked by the girl's resistance.

"You need to be a little stronger, Ying. Don't be afraid of the flames later, it will burn away the fear and despair in your heart. And..." Fan Yu whispered softly to Ying, but a flame had already begun to brew at his fingertips.

Just like many doctors deliberately deceive children when giving them injections, Fan Yu did the same.

As Ying raised her head, subconsciously curious about what was to come, Fan Yu exchanged glances with Medea beside him. After she nodded to indicate she was ready, flames from his large palm instantly pulsed and surged towards Ying's entire body.

Engulfed in flames for a moment, Sakura's eyes reflected bright flames.

In this dark underground insect nest, her vision was filled with a single, all-consuming flame. This flame frightened her, and the insects within her body began to squirm restlessly, a reaction that caused Sakura to feel pain.

This flame seems to be not just a fire that eradicates the outside, but also a power that can corrode the inside of the body and even eliminate spiritual pollution.

The flames continued to burn, and were about to burn Matou Sakura's hair. A faint golden light began to cover her body and even her inside.