The air inside the underground worm pit seemed to freeze at that very moment.
What did running forty Magic Circuits at full power actually mean?
To an old monster like Zouken Matou, who had lived for five hundred years, forty Magic Circuits made someone at most a slightly talented junior.
But to Yoru Hayashi, a modern youth who had been a pure Muggle just five minutes ago, it was the equivalent of shoving a twin-turbo V8 engine straight into a beat-up, second-hand Santana!
*Boom!*
With a dull, sonic-boom-like thud under his feet, Yoru Hayashi stomped right through the worm pit’s sickening, flesh-like floor, leaving a shallow crater behind.
Radiating a savage aura that proclaimed he was ready to trade life for life, he charged straight at Zouken Matou.
An elegant battle of mages?
Chanting spells?
To hell with that!
He had died fifteen times to get [Martial Arts Mastery (Rank C)]—he was playing for keeps!
“A mad dog looking for death!” A flash of annoyance glinted in Zouken Matou’s dead-fish eyes.
He was, after all, the helmsman of one of the Three Founding Families, a living fossil who had survived the previous three Holy Grail Wars.
Though he had no idea how this stray kid had broken free from the bounded field, trying to beat an archmage in hand-to-hand combat?
What a hilarious joke!
“Swarm Shield!”
Zouken didn’t even chant an incantation; he merely tapped his withered cane against the ground.
Instantly, hundreds upon thousands of Crest Worms took flight as if injected with adrenaline, writhing and pressing together in front of him.
In the blink of an eye, they condensed into a dark red wall of insects over half a meter thick.
The wall squirmed with mouthparts and carapaces, vile enough to make anyone vomit up yesterday’s dinner just looking at it.
“Become nourishment for my insects!”
“Nourish my ass!”
Yoru Hayashi didn’t even slow down.
Staring at the sickening wall of bugs, a single thought echoed in his mind: *[Pesticide] special effect, activate!*
He slammed his right hand into a fist, pale blue mana surging wildly onto his knuckles—the introductory Reinforcement Magic provided free by the system.
Though rough as an unpolished blank, against absolute violence, it was more than enough.
“Shatter!”
Yoru Hayashi smashed his fist hard into the wall of insects.
At that instant, the terrifying modifier of the [Pesticide] title—”Increases damage against insect-type magecraft by 50%”—demonstrated its completely unreasonable logic.
To these Crest Worms, the mana coating Yoru’s fist was like ten-thousand-percent concentrated pesticide!
A chorus of dense, screeching insect shrieks erupted as the seemingly impenetrable wall was instantly corroded and punched through by Yoru’s fist!
Innumerable worms burst on the spot into pools of green pus.
“What?!” Zouken Matou’s withered old face twitched violently.
He didn’t even have time to make his next move.
Yoru’s fist, dripping with green bug fluid, burst through the wall and grabbed Zouken by the collar of his tattered old kimono.
Eyes locked.
Yoru looked at the mummy-like face right in front of him, his stomach churning, but that didn’t slow his hands for a moment.
“A mage caught at melee range still trying to turret-cast?
Have you been stuck in Bronze rank so long you forgot how to play high-ELO?!” Yoru roared, yanked down hard on the old monster’s collar with his left hand, and cocked his right fist back, launching an unreasonable uppercut straight into Zouken’s shriveled mug.
*Bam!*
The strike landed flush on Zouken’s chin.
Bolstered by Yoru’s reinforced physical strength and C-Rank Martial Arts Mastery, the punch delivered hundreds of pounds of force.
With a crisp *crack*, Zouken’s jaw caved in, spewing a mouthful of yellowed teeth and black blood.
The old monster’s emaciated body was lifted right off the ground by Yoru’s grip.
“This one is for looking so damn ugly and scaring people!”
*Bam!* Another heavy fist slammed directly into Zouken’s eye socket, sinking the hollow socket in by half an inch.
“This one is for the trauma of being eaten alive by bugs earlier!”
*Bam!
Bam!
Bam!*
The subterranean worm pit echoed with the sickening thuds of Yoru’s brutal blows.
No formal moves, no martial arts routines—just pure, unadulterated street brawling, beating the old master to death with wild punches.
In all his five hundred years, Zouken Matou had probably never suffered such a humiliating beatdown.
He was a magus!
No competing in magecraft mastery, no clashing of Mystery—just grabbing him by the collar and slapping his face black and blue!
Where was the prestige of a noble lineage?!
“You…
you vulgar…”
Zouken’s leaking mouth tried frantically to choke out a vile spell.
Several venomous bugs bristling with barbs darted out from his sleeve, biting deep into Yoru’s arm.
Had it been Yoru fifteen deaths ago, he would have let go and rolled around screaming in agony.
But now?
Having experienced being eaten alive by worms fifteen times, his Pain Resistance had long been pushed by the system to a terrifying degree.
He didn’t even flinch.
Leaving the bugs clinging to his forearm, he only tightened his grip on Zouken’s collar.
“Vulgar?
I *am* a brute!
Today, I’m not just going to be vulgar—I’m going to bury your old bones right here!”
Yoru grabbed Zouken by the throat, slammed him brutally onto the floor, and raised his sneaker-clad foot, unleashing a frantic War Stomp onto the old worm’s chest.
*Crack-crack-crack…*
The sound of shattering bones rang out continuously.
Zouken’s decayed body couldn’t withstand such violence; his sternum was reduced almost entirely to powder.
Finally, realizing this physical vessel was completely destroyed—or perhaps because the [Pesticide]-infused mana on Yoru’s fist struck mortal terror into the Crest Worms inside him—Zouken stopped struggling.
A venomous, eerie smile broke across his battered, unrecognizable face.
“Hehehe…
Very good…
To push me this far, you truly are an impressive youth.
However…
a magus’s battle isn’t decided by savage fists…”
As the old monster’s hoarse voice faded, his shattered body deflated like a leaking balloon.
Immediately after, with a wet rip, the human skin tore wide open.
Innumerable writhing insects burst from his facial orifices and chest, spreading like a pool of black tar as they scurried into the dark corners of the pit.
In the air, Zouken’s lingering voice rang like an echo from hell:
“I have memorized the scent of your mana, young braggart…
As long as a single worm lives, Zouken Matou cannot die…
Next time, I will show you true despair…”
Watching the swarms wriggling across the floor and quickly disappearing into the wall cracks, Yoru made no move to give chase.
Naturally, he knew the old bastard wasn’t dead.
As a transmigrator well-versed in Type-Moon lore, he knew full well that Zouken’s true body was a creature called the “brain worm.”
As long as the brain worm survived, the old leech could find a new vessel and revive at full strength anytime.
But did that matter?
Not at all.
At least today, he had vented to his heart’s content!
Not only had he pinned down Type-Moon’s premier old villain and pummeled him, but he had also accomplished his phase-one strategic objective in the process.
“Tch, old trash runs fast.” Disgusted, Yoru shook the green goo off his shoe soles and wiped them vigorously on the leftover ragged kimono.
Only then did he turn around and shift his gaze toward the tiny figure huddled in the corner of the pit.
Tohsaka Sakura—or rather, Matou Sakura now.
The little girl was still clutching her knees tightly, her small frame shivering violently.
Her large, dull, reddish-purple eyes were fixed unblinkingly on Yoru.
To a five- or six-year-old child, today’s events completely surpassed the limits of her comprehension.
First, she had been handed over to this terrifying nightmare realm by her beloved father.
Then a scary old man calling himself her grandfather had tried to throw her into a pit of bugs.
And then…
And then an older brother even more ferocious than the old man had dropped from above, pinning the terrifying elder to the ground and beating him into a pile of bugs.
In her young mind, Yoru’s image had likely become synonymous with an Attack Titan.
Seeing Sakura so terrified, Yoru felt a sharp pang of heartache.
In the original story, Sakura had been forcibly modified by Crest Worms in this godforsaken place for over a decade, enduring unimaginable torment until her personality shattered.
Luckily, the system had transmigrated him right to the moment she was “just adopted.”
Looking at Sakura now, though she was terrified, her clothes were intact, and the surrounding swarms were cowering far away due to Yoru’s rampage, not daring to approach.
Which meant the brain worm hadn’t been implanted yet.
There was still time for everything!
Yoru took a deep breath, quickly reining in his murderous aura.
Forcing what he hoped was a warm, friendly smile, he slowly crouched down.
“Um…
Sakura, right?
Don’t be scared, Big Brother isn’t a bad guy.”
Yoru softened his voice.
Coming from him, however—hands caked in green bug fluids and a face practically screaming “I just murdered someone”—this classic villain line had persuasiveness approaching absolute zero.
Sakura recoiled, pressing herself tighter into the corner, her lips pressed shut.
Yoru scratched his head awkwardly.
“Cough, well…
Back home, there’s a saying: ‘Physical exorcism is the most effective.’ That old guy who looked like a dried-up orange was a big bad villain.
Big Brother already beat him up and chased him away.”
Seeing Sakura still silent, he decided to just go for it.
Why bother explaining big concepts to such a tiny girl?
Just carry her out!
Without hesitation, Yoru stepped forward and scooped her off the cold, damp ground before she could even gasp, holding her securely against his chest.
The little girl was light as a feather, cold to the touch, and shaking constantly.
“Where…
where are you taking me?” Sakura finally squeaked out a whisper thin as a mosquito, her tone tinged with instinctual fear.
Yet strangely, she didn’t struggle.
Because in this strange brother’s arms, there was no reek of disgusting worms—only a comforting warmth.
“Where?
Leaving this cesspool, of course.”
Yoru gave the little girl a gentle bounce in his arms and declared domineeringly, “Starting today, you don’t have to be a Matou, nor do you have to go back to the Tohsaka household.
You’re rolling with me!
You want burgers, you get burgers.
You want Coke, you get Coke.
Big Brother’s taking you to play video games!”
With that, Yoru cradled Sakura with one arm, kicked open the rotting wooden door of the worm pit, and strode toward the stairs leading up.
The instant his foot stepped out of the underground pit…
A crisp mechanical chime exploded in his mind like firecrackers once again.
[Ding!
Congratulations on completing the hidden milestone achievement: [Elder Bully] (Destroyed Zouken Matou’s vessel body).]
[Ding!
Congratulations on successfully preventing the “Matou Sakura Worm Pit Tragedy,” drastically altering the timeline’s direction!]
[Significant plot reversal detected.
Issuing the first high-tier achievement settlement reward—]
Yoru froze in his tracks, his eyes lighting up.
Dying fifteen times had already given him a god-tier start; what kind of insane high-tier reward would altering the world line give him?!
“Bring it on, System!
Serve up the main course!”