Zouken was not yet dead.
The old man, whose body should have been destroyed by Kama, was still alive somewhere in the Matou Residence.
That was to be expected.
The Zouken defeated in the basement was merely an aggregation of insects.
The old monster’s true core, the brain worm that served as the vessel for his Soul, still existed in the world.
Even a Devil King’s anti-Soul attack could not completely kill this 500-year-old monster without destroying its main body.
However—
The immortal Zouken was slowly dying.
The moment Mara descended, the Matou Residence was transformed into her Devil King’s castle.
This was inside her body, a Universe of ashes from which Mortals could never escape.
Although Zouken once believed that Sakura’s placenta could give birth to excellent offspring, he never imagined that the girl’s womb could become Universe-sized.
Most of its power destroyed, Zouken’s body was now just a dying worm, but it still retained consciousness.
It didn’t want to die yet—
“Oh, oh, oh, oh…”
Its agonizing, writhing form was nothing more than a moving piece of decaying flesh.
Even so, it was still alive.
Cursing its gradual dissolution, it clung to existence through its sheer obsession.
It didn’t want to die yet—
“Oh oh oh oh, oh oh…”
Zouken squirmed on the ground.
But extinction was only a matter of time.
It didn’t want to die yet—
The old Magician, now a mere mass of flesh, was still clinging to life despite extreme pain.
It would end like this, rotting away to the very last, with regrets.
“Oh… oh oh, oh oh oh oh”
Was it the pain of dying, or was it regret?
It didn’t want to die yet—
If it disappeared here, what more could it achieve?
Five hundred years.
A journey of suffering that lasted five hundred years, if it died, everything would be in vain.
“Oh… oh, oh oh oh oh oh oh!”
All it could recall was pain.
Makiri’s long-held wish.
Driven from its homeland, it drifted to this far eastern land, a famous Demonic Path family that declined because it could not integrate with the foreign Law.
But that was false.
If it were truly so, then there would be hope.
If the Bloodline were severed for that reason, perhaps it could calmly accept extinction.
Such external factors could not end the Makiri family.
Three hundred years had passed since the ancestor, the seeker, began, and three hundred years was the limit for a Magician family.
The Magician named Makiri began to decline in Zouken’s generation.
The pain began then, and the old man could only deny it.
The Makiri Family had reached a dead end in his generation—
Zouken’s entire life was spent desperately concealing and resisting this fact.
He didn’t want to die yet.
He didn’t want to die, he didn’t want to die, he didn’t want to die, he didn’t want to die, he didn’t want to die, he didn’t want to die, he didn’t want to die, he didn’t want to die, he didn’t want to die, he didn’t want to die, he didn’t want to die, he didn’t want to die, he didn’t want to die, he didn’t want to die, he didn’t want to die, he didn’t want to die, he didn’t want to die, he didn’t want to die, he didn’t want to die, he didn’t want to die…!!!
“Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh…!”
That’s right, there was no reason to die.
He hated this decaying Physical Body.
The pain, the pain.
In short, it was just pain.
For five hundred years, there was only pain.
His life was nothing but pain.
Therefore, was it wrong to seek eternity?
It hurt so much, so much, and the inability to be satisfied only brought more pain.
How could such a long life disappear without leaving a trace?
How could he die so painfully?
Looking back at five hundred years, it was like dust.
He just didn’t want to die, so why, why was it so difficult—!!!!
Despite the bone-burning pain, the lump of flesh still crawled on the ground.
What an obsession this was.
It should have been immobile, no, it didn’t even have the ability to move, yet it moved forward solely by resentment.
It was already a monster that was an Incarnation of pure obsession.
The insect, with only the thought of “wanting to live” remaining in its mind, writhed.
“—How ugly this is, Makiri.”
Above this abomination that could not exist in this world, an ethereal voice like that of a heaven’s cup messenger came.
“Wha—what?”
In his swaying vision, the infant born from the Holy Grail filled with filth stood there.
Makiri stopped moving and looked up at the young boy.
He wasn’t looking at him, but at her.
In the insect’s bizarre compound eyes, the dark negative Holy Grail turned into a pure white heaven’s cup.
That was a face from a distant memory.
No matter how time passed, it never faded, remaining in his heart—the golden Saintess of the Einzbern Family.
Two hundred years ago, to construct the great holy grail, she sacrificed herself as a living offering, a sibling of the heaven’s cup.
From that day on, she hadn’t aged a bit.
“Answer me, my enemy. Why do you refuse to die?”
A single, nostalgic voice rose.
The simple question brought Makiri’s tormented thoughts to a halt.
Why, why didn’t he want to die?
Why was there no reason to die?
If he just ended it, he could be freed from the pain, yet he still suffered, clinging to life, why was that?
“Oh… oh, oh, oh, oh.”
He remembered.
That’s right.
Initially, it was for a noble purpose.
Indeed, Makiri Zouken’s dream was but one: to abolish all evil in this world!
Then he learned that evil could not be eradicated, and as a human, he could not be separated from evil.
He learned that humans could not envision the appearance of Avalon.
If humans had limits, then the only option was to transcend humanity.
The original three who established the Holy Grail System made the same wish—the materialization of all human Souls.
For this, they sought the Holy Grail, to achieve a world beyond human capability.
Until the miracle was realized, there was no reason to disappear.
No matter how many times he was defeated, even if he realized that it couldn’t be achieved with a Physical Body, as long as he was alive, he would never give up.
“…Oh, oh.”
Therefore, he had to survive.
Even if he became a monster that lived by devouring human lives.
Even if he knew it was meaningless, he could only keep seeking.
Even if there was no reward in the future ahead.
“Oh… oh, oh…!!!”
This was Makiri’s original wish.
Compared to the unfulfillable wish, the desire not to die seemed too insignificant!
“It seems you’ve remembered.”
In a daze, the silver-haired, red-eyed woman in Makiri’s eyes reverted to the black-haired, black-eyed infant.
“Oh, oh, hahahaha…!”
The dying poisonous insect still stubbornly asked the evil beast.
“…A world without evil… Haha, hahahaha, can it be realized?”
Rhodes calmly answered him thus.
“God is dead.”