*Boom—!!!*
Without even looking back, Byakuya sensed the movement and drove his elbow backward.
The erupting force pulverized the armored, metallic-shelled giant insect into dust instantly.
Then, with a series of rapid flicks of his wrist, he launched steel balls that systematically sniped the spider-like giant insects emerging from the left and right walls.
As for the tide of various insects swarming from all directions, they collapsed in heaps a meter or two away from him, crushed by his Protective Qi.
“Such skill…”
Zouken tapped his wooden cane on the ground, signaling the insects to slow their assault.
“I take back what I said.
If you are willing to join hands with me, given my knowledge of *that thing* and my preparations over the years, I can guarantee—with absolute certainty—that you will obtain the aptitude to study magecraft within a year, without needing Crest Worms implanted in your body.”
“No thanks,” Byakuya refused flatly.
“If you’re talking about the thing the three families cooked up over a hundred years ago, that’s already part of my plan.”
“Is that so?
I see.”
Now understanding why he had been targeted, Zouken nodded.
His body suddenly dissolved into a swarm of monsters with sharp mouthparts, spiked legs, and blade-like wings vibrating at high frequencies.
They descended upon Byakuya like a black cloud.
These were the carnivorous familiars known as Wing-blade Insects.
Naturally ferocious and specially bred over generations, a swarm of them could devour large prey, such as cattle or sheep, in an instant.
As the cloud of Wing-blade Insects pounced, the other insects stopped holding back and launched a coordinated attack.
Meanwhile, in a corner of the room, a tiny insect no larger than a pinky finger—the one carrying Zouken Matou’s consciousness—used the chaos as cover to dive quickly into the sprawling network of insect tunnels underground.
As an experienced magus, Zouken had realized the moment the intruder stomped the ground and obliterated his vanguard that this was not an enemy he could handle in his current state.
Therefore, whether it was the first wave of carefully bred giant war-bugs or the subsequent swarm of Wing-blade Insects and Crest Worms, the purpose was the same: to make the opponent believe that he had exhausted every resource at his disposal.
And in truth, he practically had.
A Mage’s Workshop situated upon one of the nodes of the Fuyuki Leyline, continuously refined since he first settled in Fuyuki over a century ago; tens of thousands of insect familiars with functions spanning attack, defense, and reconnaissance; and the vast library and secular assets of the Matou family that the victor could seize for themselves—this was essentially the entirety of Zouken Matou’s foundation as a magus.
His true purpose in discarding everything was the hope that his opponent would believe “Zouken Matou” had truly perished in battle.
This would allow him to slip from the public eye into the shadows, waiting for the perfect opportunity to…
*Boom!*
The ground shattered, and the insect tunnels collapsed.
The sudden, unexpected attack interrupted Zouken Matou’s train of thought.
He looked back in disbelief.
“Impossible…
this is a mutation I achieved only after cultivating millions of samples.
Even the detection barriers of the Clock Tower should—”
He stopped mid-sentence, speechless.
Though he had never tested it, he possessed absolute confidence in the insect he currently inhabited.
He believed that even if he took a stroll through the Clock Tower, he would be perceived as a common insect rather than a familiar.
To the perception of an ordinary magus, his presence should have been entirely undetectable.
Yet, the enemy who had driven him into a dead end this time was not a magus at all, but something he had rarely encountered in the past: a martial arts grandmaster who had honed his skills to the absolute pinnacle of perfection.
A second later.
*Boom—!*
A gust of wind from a single punch swept past, and the consciousness of the magus known as Zouken Matou vanished completely.
…
“He really just died like that?”
In the state of Unity of Heaven and Man, Byakuya could clearly sense that once that eccentric insect—which had tried to flee rather than attack—was eliminated, Zouken Matou’s five-hundred-year obsession had come to an abrupt end.
Byakuya let out a soft sound of surprise.
‘I thought that was just a smoke screen to distract me, but it actually was your last hope?’
Looking around, he saw countless insects pouring out from dense holes in the ground, walls, and ceiling.
Frowning, Byakuya realized that at his current pace, it would take fifteen to twenty minutes to clear them all.
After a moment of preparation, he opened his mouth—
“ROAR!!!”
A sonic wave, like the roar of a lion, erupted.
Within a radius of several hundred meters, humans and animals like cats or dogs felt only a momentary ringing in their ears.
However, every insect within that range—whether they were Zouken’s bred familiars or natural creatures—died instantly.
Checking the results of his shout through the perception granted by the Unity of Heaven and Man, Byakuya nodded with satisfaction.
He turned to the little girl beside him.
“Your new grandfather has been beaten to death.
Do you have any plans for what comes next?”
“?”
The little girl looked up blankly, meeting Byakuya’s gaze.
“You don’t understand?”
Byakuya raised an eyebrow.
“A significant reason your father sent you to the Matou family was likely so you could inherit the Matou’s magical arts, right?
Unfortunately, the only magus in the Matou family who could teach you is lying right there.”
He gestured toward the insect-form Zouken, whose spirit had been erased by the intent contained within Byakuya’s punch, and asked again, “So, what do you plan to do?
Stay in this new home, or go back to your previous one?”
“…I can’t go back.”
The mention of her past brought a sudden wave of sadness, and the little girl’s eyes filled with tears in an instant.
“…True.”
Byakuya nodded slightly.
Setting aside the fact that the girl had already been formally adopted from the Tohsaka family into the Matou family, there was a deeper issue.
Her biological father, Tokiomi Tohsaka, had sent her away precisely because her aptitude had exceeded the limit of someone who could live in the Tohsaka house as a non-crest heir.
Even with Zouken Matou gone, it was unlikely Tokiomi Tohsaka would consider taking her back.
To prevent her from being discovered by the Mage’s Association and ended up preserved in formalin under the name of a “Sealing Designation,” there would inevitably come a day when he would send her away a second time.
“Then stay with the Matous for now,” Byakuya suggested.
“Although Zouken Matou’s magical arts are effectively extinct, the ‘Matou’ name still exists.
Furthermore, the Matou library should contain books related to the Matou—or rather, the Zolgen family.
If we claim you are the heir to the Matou family, no one can argue against it.
With the support of the ‘Tohsakas,’ the Mage’s Association likely won’t do anything to you even if they discover your aptitude.”
“And what about you, big brother?” asked the little girl.
She didn’t quite understand the intricacies of the situation, but she could tell that staying with the Matous was good for her.
“For the next year or so, I’ll probably be staying here as well.”
Byakuya took off his glove and showed her the mark on the back of his hand.
“This appeared on my hand a few years ago after I killed a certain murderer.
Does it look familiar?”
“Um…
Father, that man…
and the disciple he took in the year before last both have something similar,” the little girl replied, nodding hesitantly.
“Exactly.
So, before this thing officially comes into play, I need to do a bit of preparation.
As it happens, the Matou library contains things I want.
That’s why I decided to pay a visit today.”
Putting his glove back on, Byakuya thought for a moment, then crouched down and held out his hand to the girl.
“I almost forgot, I haven’t introduced myself…
My name is Byakuya.”
“I’m Sakura Matou.”
The little girl placed her hand in Byakuya’s palm.