Right before the energy in his hand could strike the old man, the corner of Ritsuka's eye caught the silhouette of Sakura standing stiffly right behind Zouken. Realizing that the little girl was directly in the path of his attack, Ritsuka gritted his teeth and forcefully redirected the swing of his arm sharply upwards!
KABOOOM!!!
The blast of energy that hadn't yet fully manifested into a sword exploded into the air. The massive attack blasted through the roof, destroyed the porch's support pillars, and blew apart the second floor of the Matou residence, sending its debris flying into the sky.
Amidst the rain of dust and wood splinters, Ritsuka looked back and shouted a command.
"Mash! Assassin! Get everyone inside this house out of here, right now!" Ritsuka ordered without caring about their status as Rikka's Servants. "Mash, take Rikka away and secure the perimeter!"
Hearing Ritsuka's undeniable command, Mash acted instantly without hesitation. She scooped up Rikka's body and leaped backward, far away from the reach of the Matou family grounds. Meanwhile, the dark shadow of Assassin EMIYA dashed through the billowing dust with lightning speed, infiltrating the hallways of the cursed house to carry out the rescue mission.
Seeing the chaos unfolding on his porch, Zouken took a step back.
However, there was not the slightest hint of panic on his wrinkled face. Instead, the corners of his lips pulled up to form an incredibly disgusting, demonic smile.
"Hee hee hee... How brave of you to cause a ruckus in the Matou residence," Zouken chuckled with his hoarse, dragging voice. He slowly raised his wooden cane. "You must pay for your insolence with a very steep price, Boy."
THUD!
The tip of the wooden cane struck hard against the floor. Instantly, a dense magic formation circle spread out from beneath his feet, expanding rapidly like a spider's web until it touched the ground Ritsuka was standing on.
In the blink of an eye, the air around them turned extremely putrid. From the crevices of the shattered wood, from beneath the soil of the yard, and from within the dark shadows, thousands of winged parasite worms and fleshy magical insects crawled out. The sound of their slimy bodies rubbing together and the noisy flapping of their wings created a horrifying buzz that made one's hair stand on end.
That writhing sea of nightmares surrounded Ritsuka from all directions, cutting off all his escape routes.
"Eat him," Zouken commanded briefly, his eyes glinting cruelly.
Responding to their master's order, the sea of disgusting creatures instantly crawled and leaped viciously toward Ritsuka.
However, the young man simply stood indifferently. The golden glow of light that had initially been manifesting in his right hand abruptly stopped solidifying.
"Forgive me, Arthur," Ritsuka muttered softly. "I refuse to use your holy sword in a place this filthy and putrid."
Instantly, those holy light particles dimmed and vanished completely. In its place, a terrifying anomaly occurred. Ritsuka's emerald eyes suddenly faded, replaced by blazing gold that was incredibly cold and emotionless.
Along with that change, a new flow of mana exploded from within his soul—in the form of dark purple energy particles that were extremely dense. The energy swirled fiercely and gathered in his left hand. The density of that prana was incredibly massive, suffocating the air, and radiating a terror that seemed capable of devouring all forms of life. Ritsuka's expression turned as cold as ice, without leaving a single trace of human empathy.
Thousands of curse-bearing parasitic insects leaping toward him were now only a few centimeters away from his face. Yet, right before those filthy creatures could attach to his skin...
SWOOSH!
They evaporated instantly! The magic worms burned and crumbled into ash in the blink of an eye, as if they had just crashed into an invisible glass wall as hot as magma.
Ritsuka didn't even need to move a single finger; he merely stood frozen, staring blankly at the sea of insects that continuously melted and perished into dust upon trying to attack him.
Across the room, Zouken Matou's eyes widened. His hunched body reflexively staggered backward, trembling as his survival instincts screamed in terror.
"W-what...?! Impossible!" Zouken exclaimed in panic, pointing his cane with a shaking hand. His arrogance was utterly shattered, leaving nothing behind. "What kind of insane energy is this?! Why is its aura so dense and terrifying...?! Who... who are you, really, Brat?!"
Without uttering a single word, Ritsuka raised his left hand straight toward Zouken. The dark, dense prana particles swirled at an unnatural speed, compressing into a highly blinding orb of purple light. Within seconds, that annihilating pillar of energy shot forward, piercing the air straight toward its target.
KABOOOM!!!
The pure attack of compressed prana struck Zouken head-on.
Because the destructive power of that energy was so immense, the explosion instantly blew a hole straight through the thick walls, the floors, and the foundation pillars of the Matou residence in a straight line.
A tunnel of destruction was perfectly formed, piercing all the way to the end of the building and revealing the view outside.
Thick dust billowed, covering the now half-destroyed room. Ritsuka stared coldly with his golden eyes at the epicenter of the explosion.
There was no human corpse there. All that remained was a pile of magic worm carcasses and charred insects still emitting smoke. The age-faking old man's body had been utterly destroyed, dissolving into a sea of parasites. But Ritsuka knew the nature of this particular demon very well. It wasn't over yet; the real Zouken Matou had survived and was hiding like a coward somewhere inside this residence.
"I know you're still alive, Zouken!" Ritsuka shouted, his voice booming, filled with blood-freezing anger. "I will not let you escape today!"
The young man began to step forward, walking slowly through the shadows of the Matou residence.
TAP... TAP...
Every step he took radiated waves of lethal energy. His footing left a trail of destruction; the wooden planks his shoes touched instantly burned into black ash, while the ground beneath him cracked and boiled. The air felt heavy because all the life energy around Ritsuka's body was forcefully sucked away and annihilated, like a walking domain of death.
Despite his raging anger, Ritsuka still maintained his sanity. He intentionally restrained the range of his destructive aura so that it only surrounded a radius of a few meters around his body.
He did not let the storm of energy swallow the entire area, deliberately giving space and time for Assassin EMIYA, who was currently still darting through the other wings of the building—evacuating the innocent servants and Matou family members away from the radius of this battle.
In the corner of a dark hallway, a curly blue-haired little boy pressed his small body against the wall, trying to blend into the shadows.
Initially, curiosity had brought him down to the first floor after hearing the commotion. But the sight that greeted him was the destruction of his grandfather and a giant gaping hole in the wall of his house. Now, the boy covered his own mouth with both hands, holding his breath as hard as he could so his sobs wouldn't be heard by the destroying figure.
His body trembled uncontrollably. His ears caught the sound of footsteps growing closer.
CLANG... CLANG...
The boy was absolutely certain the figure who had destroyed his house earlier was only wearing ordinary shoes. Yet for some reason, every step that echoed in his ears sounded like the heavy, deadly stomp of iron armor boots. Haunted by suffocating terror, the boy gathered his courage to peek his head slightly out from behind the wall.
And it was then that his heart seemed to stop beating.
Right near him, the figure stood staring at him. But in the eyes of the terror-flooded boy, Ritsuka's appearance did not look human in the slightest.
Black and red curse lines crept wildly across his cheeks. His rows of teeth were sharply pointed like a wild predator's. His golden eyes glowed in the dark with strange 'X'-shaped pupils.
Not only that, but the figure's arms were encased in pitch-black demonic armor, while a pair of membranous wings, like those of a giant bat, stretched out terrifyingly from his back. The monster's mouth was slightly agape, exhaling hot steam that hissed in the cold air.
The monster's eyes locked onto his gaze.
"Eh? A little kid? In a place like this?"
The sudden voice of confusion seemed to shatter the illusion in the boy's head. He blinked his eyes rapidly. Instantly, the curse lines, demonic wings, and horrifying eyes vanished without a trace. The figure before him reverted to an ordinary teenage boy looking at him with a bewildered expression.
Ritsuka stared at the blue-haired boy. The child's face was deathly pale, tears streamed heavily down his cheeks, his body was trembling violently, and slowly... the smell of urine arose, accompanied by a puddle of liquid dripping from the boy's shorts.
"Whoa, whoa! It's okay, kid! No need to be afraid, Big Brother is here. You're safe now," Ritsuka said with a warm smile and an incredibly gentle tone, trying to comfort him. He was completely unaware—or more accurately, completely insensitive—to the fact that he himself was the monster who had just made the kid wet his pants.
Seeing the kid still frozen in shock, Ritsuka turned toward the shadows in the corner of the ceiling. "Assassin! Take this kid outside with the others! I will raze this entire filthy place to the ground after ensuring there's no one left!" he commanded firmly.
Right after Ritsuka finished his sentence, the blue-haired boy's body suddenly went limp and collapsed.
"Wow... you're really rough, Assassin. He's just a little kid, you know," Ritsuka chided with a slight sweatdrop, realizing his dark-cloaked Servant had just struck the back of Shinji's neck to knock him out.
EMIYA did not answer at all. Like a mute shadow, he simply hoisted the unconscious boy's body over his shoulder and dashed away, disappearing into the darkness to join Mash and the others.
Now, Ritsuka was truly alone. He turned back to look at the remains of the Matou residence ruins. Realizing there were no more civilians or innocent people in the area, a cynical smile bloomed on his face. The young man finally released the suppression on his power, letting his dark purple aura expand rapidly, sweeping across the entire foundation of the building like a deadly radar.
"Hahaha! Come on, Zouken! Come out of your hiding place! I know you're still sneaking around in there!" Ritsuka taunted loudly.
"AAARRRGGGHHH!!!"
Suddenly, a hoarse and raspy scream echoed. But the sound didn't come from the remains of the ruins on the upper floor; rather, it seeped up from beneath the soles of his shoes. Ritsuka's expanding prana radiation had apparently succeeded in roasting some of Zouken's worms hiding underground.
Ritsuka lowered his gaze. "Oh... looks like there's a secret basement hidden down here, huh?" he muttered with a sharp smirk.
Without further ado, he aimed his palm at the wooden floor beneath him.
KABOOOM!!!
A blast of prana shot out, instantly destroying the floor and creating a gaping hole that connected to the bottom of the basement. Without the slightest hesitation, Ritsuka jumped through the hole and landed smoothly in the dark depths.
The sight that welcomed him down there truly defined the word 'hell'. The entire floor, walls, and ceiling of the room were covered by a sea of writhing, slimy worms and insects hissing in hunger.
However, the fangs of the room's despair did not apply to Ritsuka at all.
Right where the young man stood, the area became a death zone for the insects. Hundreds of worms that tried to approach him were instantly scorched and vaporized into black ash before they could even touch his shoes, leaving a perfect circle of clean, safe space around him.
Ritsuka swept his cold, golden gaze around. His eyes immediately locked onto a mound of worms resembling a small hill in the corner of the room.
From behind that pile of intertwining, disgusting parasites, Zouken Matou's wrinkled face slowly peeked out. But this time, the old man's demonic smile had completely vanished.
"You... Monster Brat...!" Zouken growled, his voice trembling violently with panic. "Where... where exactly did you get such nonsensical power like this?!"
Ritsuka stared at the mound of worms with a piercing, cynical smile.
"I'll show you," Ritsuka said mockingly.
The young man then raised one hand, making a highly condescending gesture. He wiggled his fingers slowly, challenging and provoking the old man. "Come on. Come here. Try to touch me if you're so curious."
Zouken glared sharply with utmost caution. His survival instincts screamed, but as a magus who had lived for hundreds of years, his obsession and greed for a new 'Mystery' clouded his sanity. Driven by curiosity, the old man crawled forward and reached out his wrinkled hand, intending to touch Ritsuka's palm to analyze the energy.
However, just as his skin was a few millimeters away from the young man's hand... creeping heat began to scorch his fingers!
Realizing it was a trap, Zouken's eyes widened. He panicked and hastily pulled his hand back.
Unfortunately, he was too late.
With lightning-fast reflexes, Ritsuka's hand shot out and gripped Zouken's wrist tightly. Ritsuka instantly jerked and forcefully pulled the hunched old man's body toward him.
"You can't even touch me, because your true form is nothing but a bunch of disgusting worms!" Ritsuka roared right in Zouken's face.
THWACK!
Ritsuka's right fist landed squarely on the old man's solar plexus.
"U-Ugh...!" Zouken's eyes nearly bulged out. Due to the devastating impact of the prana, he coughed violently—instead of red blood, the old man vomited thick black liquid and fragments of charred worm carcasses from his mouth.
Zouken's body was nearly thrown backward by the momentum of the punch, but Ritsuka did not release his grip.
"THIS ISN'T OVER YET!" Ritsuka shouted in fury.
He yanked the frail body back toward him, using him as a living punching bag, and unleashed a relentless, brutal barrage of punches to Zouken's chest and face.
THWACK! SMACK! CRACK!
Zouken screamed hysterically. Every fist Ritsuka landed on his body not only crushed his bones but also injected destructive energy that burned the thousands of worms inside his body from the inside out into ash.
His suffering only intensified because Ritsuka's grip on his wrist felt like a chain shackle dipped in boiling magma—roasting the old man alive without giving him even the slightest opening to escape!
BAM!
With one powerful kick, Ritsuka sent the hunched body flying until it was firmly embedded into the stone wall of the basement.
"Alright, playtime is over," Ritsuka said coldly.
The young man raised his left hand into the air. The dark prana swirling around him instantly solidified, forming an orb of black energy. Slowly, the orb elongated and manifested into a pitch-black sword blade adorned with blazing blood-red lines.
"Oh... the shape really is exactly like Salter's sword," Ritsuka muttered, slightly amazed as he stared at the cursed sword in his hand.
Across the room, Zouken, whose body was still embedded in the wall, stared at the weapon with shrinking pupils. His magus instincts screamed danger alarms. The aura of death emanating from the blade was so dense that it made the remaining worms in his body writhe in terror.
"W-what... what kind of sword is that?!" Zouken babbled with trembling lips.
"Insects like you don't deserve to know," Ritsuka replied, smiling dismissively.
The young man slowly raised the black sword high above his head. Incredibly massive dark energy began to be sucked in and gathered on the blade, creating a vortex of wind that destroyed the entire room.
"I just have to shout that woman's name to use it, right...?" Ritsuka mumbled softly, suddenly grimacing awkwardly. "Ugh... let's just hope she doesn't hear me shouting her name from here. Let's hope she doesn't show up here, Manaka is already a problem, let alone her."
"W-what are you trying to do, Brat?!" Zouken screamed hysterically, sensing the massive energy fluctuation.
"To level this filthy nest to the ground, of course," Ritsuka answered casually.
"Fool! You won't be able to kill me! Even if you destroy this entire workshop, I won't die!" Zouken shouted in a panic.
Ritsuka returned the old man's gaze with golden eyes. An incredibly terrifying faint smile once again carved its way onto the young man's face.
"Yes... I am very well aware of that," Ritsuka said, showing that he knew the secret of Zouken's main worm. "Don't worry. I will hunt down and burn every remaining piece of you out there. Every single parasite... without exception."
Before Zouken could process Ritsuka's words, Ritsuka swung the black sword down with all his might.
"EX... CALIBUR MORGAN!!!"
KABOOOM!!!
A pillar of reddish-black light erupted from the sword's swing, sweeping cleanly through the mounds of worms, annihilating Zouken Matou, and swallowing the entire basement in a sea of destruction!