For Kariya Matou, he was finally getting closer to his goal.
When Kariya returned to the Matou household—a place he never wanted to see again—he had two wishes.
He hoped to accomplish two things by participating in the Holy Grail War.
The first, of course, was to save Sakura Matou. The second was...
—To kill that son of a bitch, Tokiomi Tohsaka!
Kariya once had the chance to be with his childhood sweetheart, Aoi Zenjou. But because Kariya knew exactly how disgusting his family's magecraft was, he chose to give up on fighting Tokiomi for his beloved to prevent her from ever entering the worm pit.
He thought she would be happy that way. But in the end, all he got was her expression full of sorrow and the terrible news that "Sakura Tohsaka has joined the Matou family to inherit their magecraft."
There's no need to elaborate on the details. If things had followed the original trajectory, the crest worms would have damaged Kariya's brain, eventually making him even more paranoid than he was now.
He would have slowly conflated "killing Tokiomi" and "winning the Holy Grail War to save Sakura" into a single task, mindlessly targeting Tokiomi.
His decision to fight at the docks this time was actually because he had already started blending these two goals together.
At first, he thought killing Tokiomi's Servant would be great. But after Gilgamesh revealed the Gate of Babylon, Kariya's hope for Berserker shifted from "kill that golden archer" to simply "making Tokiomi lose face."
Of course, Gilgamesh ended up dying at the hands of another Servant. For Kariya, although he didn't manage to humiliate Tokiomi himself, seeing his nemesis lose the chance to win the Holy Grail War was still a good thing.
Seeing something good happen naturally made him want to shout, "Hell yeah!"
However, precisely because Tokiomi's Servant kicked the bucket, Kariya's obsession with Tokiomi waned slightly.
And with his paranoia slightly reduced, Kariya's IQ, which was originally somewhat normal, managed to reclaim the high ground.
Berserker had displayed combat power beyond his expectations during the first encounter with Gilgamesh.
But as a price, the Black Knight's extreme mana consumption led to Kariya being tortured by the crest worms all night long.
He was already weaker than an average magus, and Berserker was one of the classes that demanded the most mana. If he didn't use this energy-guzzling Servant wisely, Kariya felt he would be drained dry and die before he could ever seize the Holy Grail.
"Kariya, hiding at home again today?"
In a shadowy corner of the Matou estate, Kariya's nominal father, Zouken Matou, suddenly manifested.
The old man then addressed Kariya.
"It's been three days since the battle at the docks. You aren't too frightened by Caster's combat power to move, are you?"
"You can't obtain the Holy Grail just by staying at home. If you want to fulfill your wish, you can't keep dawdling like this."
"...Hmph, what's the point of going out now?"
Enduring the constant, severe pain racking his body, Kariya pulled up his hood and sneered.
"Berserker is a Servant that consumes massive amounts of mana. If I waste mana recklessly, even if I go out and defeat one enemy, I might be defeated by the next one that shows up."
"Leaving aside that idiot Rider who shouted his true name. Between the surviving Caster and Saber, one has incredibly formidable one-on-one combat capabilities, and the other has a powerful Noble Phantasm that can slice through the sky. Even for Berserker, the odds against those two aren't high."
"Hoho, it seems you really are inferior to those ordinary magi. But no matter, this old man never held high expectations for you anyway."
Wearing a sinister smile, Zouken Matou sat on the sofa opposite Kariya, speaking as if to mock his own 'child'.
"But forget it. Although you are foolish, I am still your father. Kariya, your desire to fight isn't as strong as it was at the start because Tokiomi Tohsaka's Servant is dead, and you view him as a crippled man now, correct?"
"Don't be in a rush to deny the facts. Listen to me. It's true that Tokiomi's Servant, Archer, is dead, but..."
"That disciple he supposedly fell out with, Kirei Kotomine... the Servant Assassin he summoned for this war was observed by this old man's familiar at the scene last time."
"What...!"
"Assassin's death was faked. So, do you think their falling out was real?"
Zouken didn't continue after dropping that hint.
But now, Kariya leaned back on the sofa, his feet leaving the ground.
And when your feet leave the ground, your clever intellect seizes the high ground.
Assassin didn't die → Kirei Kotomine committed fraud → Kirei might be committing fraud *with* Tokiomi → Tokiomi might make a comeback with Assassin...
Once he reached this conclusion, Kariya felt his fist harden.
"Tokiomi, that bastard... he actually dared to pull such a despicable trick!"
"Yes, exactly. Tokiomi's Servant is dead, but he still has three Command Spells. And since the probability of Kirei obeying him is not small, it's very likely he will rejoin the battle as Assassin's Master."
"Now, do you still feel you can leisurely waste your days here?"
Although he knew the old man in front of him just wanted to see him suffer, Kariya knew even better how much his nominal father craved the Holy Grail.
He wouldn't lie about Holy Grail War intelligence, so...
*BOOM!*
Just as Kariya was thinking about his next move, a loud explosion left him dumbfounded.
Kariya and Zouken watched as the living room door was blown clean off, and two figures slowly walked in from the outside.
Then, they saw the figures clearly.
One was wearing a white mask and a cloak—looking every bit like the Caster who had defeated Archer.
And the other figure...
"Big Brother???"
Outside the living room, Byakuya Matou had already been knocked unconscious and dragged inside.
"Ah, good evening to you both. I came here today mainly to ask for two things."
With absolutely no intention of introducing himself, Aaron calmly stated his demands to the two men.
"First, I'll trouble that brother over there, who's about to kick the bucket, to transfer Berserker's command rights to me. Without the massive mana drain, you should be able to survive the crest worms a bit longer."
"And secondly..."
Zouken, sensing Aaron's killing intent, had naturally already begun preparing his magecraft.
But before he could act, a streak of thunderous light flashed before everyone's eyes, striking Zouken's body directly.
Following the strike, Kariya stared at the corpse on the floor and gulped audibly.
"Y-Y-You... You're Caster?! Berserker! Fully release Noble Phantasm!"
"Ar... Arthur!!!!"
"...Holy shit, are you crazy???"
Watching Lancelot seal his other two Noble Phantasms, Aaron frowned. He tossed the unconscious Byakuya aside and abandoned the idea of taking out the key to [Demon Armor: Incursio].
"That thing burns so much mana, do you want to die?"
"Do you take me for a fool?! The other participants are at my doorstep! You definitely won't let me go! Should I just wait to die without fighting back?"
Hearing Kariya's words, Aaron was struck speechless.
It feels like the logic and IQ of these twisted Fate/Zero characters have improved rapidly. Is it just my imagination?
[Caster, should I... deal with that gentleman here?]
[Forget it, stick to the original plan. I intended to see if we could get the Black Knight to join us, but now... never mind.]
Aaron, who had originally wanted Kariya to hand over Berserker while he figured out a way to solve Kariya's problem, found the situation a bit awkward.
Initially, he thought Kariya wouldn't believe him if he just asked, so he planned to use a forceful attitude.
He didn't expect this bastard, who wasn't decisive enough when trying to humiliate his nemesis Tokiomi, to instantly have Lancelot release a Noble Phantasm that would drain him dry in minutes upon seeing Aaron.
Damn, damn, damn, is my aggro really that high?
Lancelot was worthy of being the First Knight of the Round Table; even after losing his reason, his exquisite martial arts remained ingrained in his body.
Plus, now that Lancelot had released his strongest Noble Phantasm, [Arondight], all his parameters increased by one rank, and his Saving Throw checks doubled...
Okay, those aren't the main points. Especially the Saving Throw check—Aaron still didn't know exactly what kind of check that was.
The key was that because Lancelot had lore regarding dragon slaying, releasing this demonic sword granted him the effect of "dealing massive damage to Dragon-attribute enemies."
This was why Aaron chose not to use [Demon Armor: Incursio] and instead directly used [The King Of Beasts Transformation: Lionelle] to activate his Meta-Morph Factor.
[Spirit Command—Focus, Intuition, Wall, Activate.]
After triggering three Spirit Commands in one breath, Aaron immediately engaged the powerful enemy before him.
And in less than ten moves, he discovered one thing—he was being easily suppressed.
The Berserker class stat boost, the Arondight stat boost, and the Eternal Arms Mastery technique boost... under these multiple buffs, Lancelot's basic attack power had risen to a hair-raising level.
The speed Aaron used to counter Gilgamesh was completely useless against Lancelot's exquisite skill and explosive stats.
It was as if his movements were seen through; Lancelot could dodge his attacks with ease.
Conversely, even after Aaron used the Spirit Commands "Intuition" and "Focus," Lancelot could still dodge most of Aaron's attacks without much difficulty and even find opportunities to strike at Aaron's vitals.
Although Aaron had formed Honkai Beast Carapace around his neck, he didn't want to test his armor against Lancelot's A++ peak strength to see if it could withstand a chop to his single-dog head...
Well, with "Wall" active, it was unlikely to break.
But with these invisible sword strikes, if one didn't cut it, several more might. It was hard to say.
Damn it... this Lancelot counters me hard.
It's a good thing he has no brain. Otherwise, if this continued, I really couldn't guarantee I'd win.
Sigh, I originally planned to use him to train my combat skills.
But now I see that, in a sense, he's like the Three Beasts—not very useful for my training.
The difference is that aside from Liver trying to play toxic blood arts with his own blood, the Three Beasts posed absolutely no threat to me.
But Sir Lancelot... damn it all, if I fight with a "level-grinding" mindset, I might actually get hacked to death.
Sigh, why did it have to end up like this?
After dodging another slash, Aaron immediately jumped back, trying to create distance.
But this time, in Lancelot's judgment, Aaron's movement left a massive opening.
If the experienced head of the Round Table were here, he absolutely would not have chosen to act rashly.
After all, compared to the agile dodging Aaron displayed earlier, this opening was so huge it was incredibly suspicious.
But right now, Byakuya was unconscious, Kariya was dying from his own actions, and Mei was squatting at the door guarding against other enemies—of course, even if she came in, she definitely wouldn't warn the enemy.
In this situation, the completely berserk Lancelot would only judge: "Enemy has an opening," and "Must attack."
So he just A-clicked right in.
And he indeed succeeded in piercing Aaron's body—after all, Aaron didn't have Honkai Beast Carapace protecting every inch of him.
But in that moment, Aaron clamped down on the demonic sword with his muscles before it could be withdrawn, simultaneously grabbing Lancelot's sword arm with his hand.
"Ah, now you can't run. Having technique but lacking experience leads to this kind of state."
[Spirit Command—Valor, Activate.]
"Sigh, holding back to injure you just to strip that guy's Command Spells... I'm not qualified to hold back against you, so sorry about this."
"Whale-Slaying Tyrant Fist!"
.......................