C311

"Be full. Be full. Be full."

"Your body lives under my command, and my fate rests on your sword."

"To the call of the Holy Grail—if you wish to obey this principle—and to my summons…"

A low-pitched incantation echoed through the dark house. Beneath it, the underground magic circle responded, gradually glowing under the influence of magic power. Light from the circle spilled into the dim room, illuminating the surroundings. Two others stood in the distance, silently watching.

As the final syllable was spoken, the magic circle flared. A brilliant ray of light burst from its center, forcing the three people present to shield their eyes.

When the glow finally subsided, the purple-haired girl at the center lowered her hands from her face and opened her eyes to inspect the result.

"…How…?"

She stared in disbelief. Two figures now stood within the magic circle.

On the left was a tall, mature woman with long, purple hair. She wore a blindfold and held a short sword attached to a chain. Her striking figure and cool, distant aura instantly caught the girl's eye—but soon, her gaze shifted to the other figure.

A man dressed in modern, casual clothes stood beside the woman. His golden hair and regal bearing gave him an unearthly quality. Something about his appearance and presence tugged at her senses—it was as if his very existence radiated a subtle magic that made it impossible to look away.

"Why… are there two Servants? Sakura, the summoning should've been correct, right?"

An old man's voice interrupted her thoughts. He slowly descended the stairs, the thud of his cane echoing through the room with each step. Though slow, his presence was chilling.

Sakura Matou flinched unconsciously at the sound, then quickly responded.

"Yes, Grandfather. The summoning ritual was performed properly. I don't know why two Servants appeared. And… I have three extra Command Spells. They weren't there before."

She held out her hands. Each now bore three Command Spells—where before, one hand had been completely bare.

Matou Zouken, the old man, approached her and let out a raspy laugh.

"Hmph. Something must have gone awry with the summoning. But no matter… It might work in our favor. An extra Servant opens up many possibilities. For the Matou family, this is a welcome surprise."

"Grandfather," said a voice from behind. "According to the plan… are those Servants meant for me? Are both of them mine?"

Matou Shinji's face lit up with unrestrained excitement. His eyes gleamed as he stared at the two figures in the circle.

"That's right! With two Servants, I'm easily the strongest Master in this war! Heh… Hehehehe… Hahaha! This time, I'll win the Holy Grail for sure!"

Sakura hesitated before speaking. "Grandfather… I can feel a connection with Rider. But the other one… it's strange. I don't feel any bond—it's not like a Servant at all. Brother, please don't approach them just yet."

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Shinji snapped. "They're my Servants! Don't get ahead of yourself just because you performed the summoning. You're just a mana battery! I'm the true Master of the Matou family!"

His voice twisted with scorn. To him, Matou Sakura was nothing more than a vessel for magic—a tool. Even though she'd studied magecraft for years, within the Matou household, she was the lowest in status. Shinji could torment or insult her freely—no one ever stopped him.

Sakura shrank back half a step, her face pale, but said nothing.

Shinji sneered and stepped toward the magic circle, calling out mockingly.

"Hey! Hello?! Can't you two speak? At least introduce yourselves—your names, your legends, your abilities! You're my Servants now, got it? Let's not waste time. Start with you! Don't play dumb!"

BOOM!

Matou Shinji hadn't even finished speaking when a hand suddenly wrapped around his neck and lifted him into the air.

The abrupt change left Matou Sakura and Matou Zouken stunned. Even Rider, still standing in the magic circle, turned her head slightly.

"You're really noisy."

That was the last sentence Matou Shinji heard. Then came the sharp crack of breaking bones, and his world tilted violently—his neck twisted at an unnatural ninety degrees.

The Holy Grail War is a ritual created by mages to reach the Root.

Centuries ago, the three founding families of Fuyuki—Einzbern, Tohsaka, and Matou—joined forces to develop the Holy Grail System, a method of summoning Heroic Spirits to fight on their behalf.

The Einzbern family contributed the Holy Grail itself. The Tohsaka family provided access to the city's leyline magic. The Matou family devised the Command Seals, the system that binds Servants to their Masters.

The Root—formally called Akasha or the Swirl of the Root—is the origin of all things: cause and effect, all phenomena, the very truth that magi devote their lives to pursue.

The Holy Grail War is the embodiment of that pursuit. A smaller, artificial Grail is used to summon seven Heroic Spirits. These Servants are bound to their Masters via Command Seals. The Servants fight until only one remains, and that victorious pair earns the right to access the Holy Grail's accumulated power—and, potentially, reach the Root.

This was to be the Fifth Holy Grail War.

Normally, sixty years would pass between Grail Wars, allowing the leylines of Fuyuki to recover enough mana to sustain the ritual. However, due to unforeseen events in the Fourth Holy Grail War, the fifth began just ten years later.

Yet Kain was puzzled—deeply so.

How had he arrived in this world as a Servant?

After returning from previous world, his trading system had resumed its usual function: scanning and identifying new worlds for conquest or trade. Normally, a world would be selected after several months, with clear system prompts. This time, the gap was short—too short. And there was no system prompt at all.

Still, Kain had confidence in his power. Few could truly pose a threat to him. With Kamui Hollow, even against unknown enemies or strange worlds, he could always escape if things went wrong.

Worst-case scenario, he'd simply abandon the opportunity and wait for the next world.

But then—something went wrong during the transfer.

His soul left his body. That part was clear. His understanding of magic was strong enough to recognize it. But after that… there was nothing. No time, no sensation—until he suddenly awoke, standing in a glowing summoning circle beside a long-haired woman dressed in purple.

A surge of unease struck him.

Unknown variables. Lost strength. Something was clearly wrong.

The moment he regained awareness, Kain instinctively assessed his condition. While Kamui Hollow was still accessible, it now demanded far more energy to use. His chakra and magic circuits were gone—replaced by a different kind of energy entirely.

This energy wasn't his. It was being supplied—from the purple-haired girl standing in front of him.

He could feel it: a thin connection between them. She was now his Master.

It didn't take long for Kain to realize where he was.

The woman beside him was Rider. The girl who had summoned him—Matou Sakura. The arrogant youth in the room was Matou Shinji, and the rancid old man with a grotesque presence was Matou Zouken, one of the original founders of the Grail War.

Zouken, Kain knew, was no longer human. His current form was a writhing mass of insects in a humanoid shell—disgusting and decayed, constantly leaking a putrid stench. Kain's enhanced senses found it nauseating.

And then there was Matou Shinji—talking endlessly in Kain's ear. His arrogant tone, his entitled behavior, the way he looked at Sakura. Kain rarely got angry these days; his strength had long since surpassed the point of feeling threatened. But Shinji's voice… it grated on his nerves.

So, without a second thought, he snapped Shinji's neck—like squashing a fly.

Crack.

Snap.

It was over in an instant.

Afterward, Kain lifted his hands and tested elementalization. He sighed in relief. His powers still existed: lightning, fire, and even limited intangibility. Though everything now required mana, and the supply was thinner than he preferred, he wasn't completely weakened.

Still, the difference was clear. Compared to the godlike strength he once wielded, even moving mountains had been a simple task. Now, as a Servant, he was bound—limited.

And the stench in the room remained unbearable.

"Sakura, bind him with a Command Seal."

Zouken's raspy voice broke the silence.

Matou Zouken immediately gave an order to Matou Sakura. From the moment Matou Shinji died, he sensed that something was wrong. Now, seeing Kain's hands transformed—one into crackling lightning, the other wreathed in flame—he was certain: this was no ordinary Servant. That must be a Noble Phantasm, he concluded instantly.

Even more concerning was how the Servant had looked at him earlier—three times—each glance filled with unmistakable disgust and hostility. After centuries of life, Zouken had developed a sharp intuition for such things. He knew danger when he saw it.

Servants like this had appeared in previous wars. The right move was clear—bind them immediately with a Command Seal.

Crack!

A sudden flash of lightning erupted, and in the blink of an eye, Kain appeared right in front of Matou Zouken.

"Who exactly were you planning to bind with a Command Seal?" he asked coldly.

Before Zouken could react, Kain's hand closed around his throat, lifting the filthy old man into the air—just as he had done with Matou Shinji. But this time, flames ignited around Kain's hand—Fiendfire—its relentless heat licking at the rotting flesh.

"Uaaahhh!!" Zouken screamed.

Relentless fire like Fiendfire could burn through anything. Even a creature like Matou Zouken—a colony of parasitic worms masquerading as a man—was vulnerable to this cursed blaze.

Crackle! Snap!

Zouken's body instantly broke apart into a swarm of hundreds of thousands of writhing insects, attempting to escape in every direction. But Kain had anticipated this.

In a flash, he sealed every exit with Dievil Flame—flames climbing the walls, spreading over the floor and ceiling, creating a fiery prison. Every surface except where Matou Sakura and Rider stood was now engulfed in searing magical fire.

Matou Zouken's insects were trapped—no escape.

They burned one by one, shrieking.

"I'm not going to die! I won't die!" his voice echoed from within the writhing swarm.

But Kain merely snorted.

"It doesn't matter whether you die or not, you disgusting thing."

And with a final gesture, he extinguished the fire. The room fell silent—every last worm reduced to ash.

Rider, still inside the summoning circle, had been poised to act at one point. The sheer power of the flames had startled her. She had feared that her Master might've summoned a Servant beyond control. But now that the flames had spared Sakura and subsided, she cautiously relaxed.

Two Servants for one Master was irregular—but Rider wasn't ready to call him an enemy. Not yet.

"You should have some understanding of the Holy Grail War and modern knowledge, Rider."

Kain spoke calmly as he walked toward the unconscious Matou Sakura.

Though her mana reserves were small, Sakura was his current source of magical energy. At the very least, she had to survive until Kain found a way to stabilize this world—or recover his original body.

Rider nodded slightly.

"I know the basics. After being summoned, Servants naturally receive some knowledge of the era."

"Then take care of the Master. I have other matters to handle."

Kain knelt beside Sakura, placing a hand gently on her chest. A pulse of electromagnetic energy flowed from his fingers—scanning her internals. Almost immediately, he sensed something vile.

There was a foreign life force inside her. Something disgusting. Something wrong.

Without hesitation, Kain plunged his hand directly into her chest.

Puh!

Sakura groaned in pain, her body arching as blood welled from the wound. Her brow furrowed tightly, and Rider, alarmed, stepped forward.

"What are you doing—" she began.

But her words caught in her throat as she saw what Kain pulled out.

A grotesque worm, writhing and screeching in his hand.

"Let go of me! Let me go!" it shrieked.

"I'm the head of the Matou family! I command this Holy Grail War! I alone can claim the Grail—let me go!"

This was no ordinary insect.

It was the core worm Matou Zouken had implanted in Sakura—a parasite capable of influencing her thoughts and actions, forcing her to obey. Zouken had spent years preparing for this war, even embedding a fragment of the Lesser Grail into her body in a bid to hijack the Holy Grail's power for himself.

Boom!

Kain's hand erupted in fire. The parasitic worm writhed and screamed, then gradually turned to ash.

When the last trace of Zouken was gone, Kain looked at Rider again.

"I'll check the rest of the house. Take care of the Master."

With that, he left the room.

He had a few priorities:

Scour the Matou residence for any remaining bugs. Search their archives for useful grimoires or magical texts.

This was the house of one of the Three Founding Families, after all. There had to be something of value here.

Kain himself didn't hate insects—after all, they were essential for nature. But the likes of Matou Zouken?

Such filth had no place in this world. It needed to be wiped out—completely.

…

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