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As a magician who participated in the Holy Grail War, the subsequent handling work had nothing to do with him. Walking on the scorched earth that was previously occupied by the Matou family, Li Mo used magic to enhance his perception and explore the fluctuations of life.
Under the baptism of the Noble Phantasm, the magician has almost no means of resistance. But Matou Zouken's points are all on surviving, and the Matou family has a basement, so it is not impossible for him to survive. He can also place his soul on the engraving worm. When facing natural disasters, the smaller the creature, the more likely it is to survive.
Once, Kiritsugu Emiya used a bomb to directly blow up the Fuyuki Hotel, and Koyanskaya-san's Noble Phantasm is of the same type.
What a pity... I came here for the magic book of the Matou family, right? What a mistake.
The first thing Li Mo thought of when he stepped onto the land of the Matou family. He had previously only wanted to kill with one blow, so he asked Gao Yanskaya to use the treasure. Looking at the shabby house of the Matou family, the "library" would probably not be preserved.
"Old man, won't you come out and see me?"
After the treasure was wiped out, most of the barriers of the Matou family no longer existed, allowing Li Mo to deploy the barrier naturally. Matou Zouken can survive by relying on the seal bugs. If nothing else, let the bugs drill into the ground, and the thick soil will become the best protection.
I just don't know if the engraving worm has the ability to burrow into the ground?
"Young junior, are you worried that I will escape when you open the barrier?"
"Yes, old man. After all, you are willing to turn yourself into a bug to survive. In order to avoid any more trouble, I have no choice but to do this."
Li Mo responded with a smile. In the open space in front of him, dark insects continued to appear and then formed into a group similar to humans.
That is Matou Zouken.
Chapter 152: Death of Matou Zouken
The body will decay before the soul. If you want to live, you need to change your body.
Matou Zouken did just that, he placed his soul on the crested bug, and when his body was damaged, he would replace it with a new one. This is how he spent hundreds of years.
This also means that even if his body dies, he can still survive as a swarm of insects. But without the outer skin, his existence seems extremely terrifying and ugly, enough to make a child stop crying.
"Old man, you can still survive this. You have a strong ability to survive."
"I lost more than half of my body. I am just barely surviving. Oh, is that Rider? So Shinji has already failed? I knew it, but that kid failed too quickly. Was he eliminated in the early stages of the Holy Grail War? Even his own Servant was taken away."
There is no human form, said Matou Zouken, a collection of crested bugs. The essence of sound is vibration. For a magician, losing the body and vocal cords is not a hopeless thing. It is easy to make sounds by other means.
Li Mo looked at the "Matou Zouken" in front of him. The gathering of insects was not static. Although they looked like children of six or seven years old, if you looked closely, you could see that the engraved insects kept falling under the influence of gravity, but new engraved insects climbed to the top.
Disgusting way to live.
"Old man, don't you doubt it? It's Matou Shinji who has surrendered to me?"
"How could that kid be so bold as to attack me? I am his most beloved grandfather."
"Indeed, that young man doesn't look like someone who can accomplish great things. He is very good at bullying the weak, but he only shows cowardice when facing the strong. However, the old man is not going to run away, but is chatting with me here. Is the old man not a person who is waiting to die?"
Li Mo said with a smile, giving people the illusion of being bathed in spring breeze. However, Matou Zouken, who stood opposite him, did not think so.
Are there any kind magicians in this world? Probably, there are, but the magicians that Matou Zouken has seen are all guys who will do anything for their own benefit. According to universal values, magicians are guys who are shot to death if half of them are shot, and there are still some who escape.
What sinister thoughts are hidden behind this gentleness?
Matou Zouken would not gamble with his own life.
He said, "Young man, not only did you open the barrier, but there are two Servants watching me. Even if I want to escape, it will be difficult to do so."
"Can't the old man just use bugs to dig a hole in the ground and escape?"
"Then he was killed by the Servant who dug him into the ground, right?"
"But I think that with the old man's methods, the bugs can be scattered and flee. As long as one bug escapes, can't we survive?"
Bug magic looks extremely disgusting. But we have to admit that this kind of magic has strong survivability. Magician is a profession with very weak survivability. Usually the killing power of a magician is not as good as a gun, but the action is hidden and difficult to detect.
Bug magic is not very afraid of ordinary guns. The body is a shell, and the core is the bugs. How many bugs can one magazine of guns kill?
"Alas, I don't know where you, a magician, came from. But young man, you have a deep misunderstanding of my magic."
"In that case, I won't be polite."
"Wait, there really is no conversation..."
The moment this sentence fell, the seal bugs immediately scattered. Just as there must be a queen in an ant colony, there is a distinction between the primary and secondary seal bugs. After this series of exchanges, Li Mo was looking for the core seal bug of Matou Zouken.
He raised his hand, and the magic power gathered. It turned into something like a cannonball, whoosh whoosh whoosh——
Just like hitting balloons during the Chinese New Year, Li Mo accurately shot down some of the engraved bugs. Without the control of these core bugs, most of the surrounding bugs fell into a state of confusion.
Just like an army without a commander, it became helpless. Li Mo spent some time to kill all the remaining bugs, and then used his perception to see if there were any remaining bugs in the Matou family.
The answer is no, it seems like Zouken Matou is seeking his own death.
Of course, ordinary magi would not doubt it. Because Matou Zouken was forced into a desperate situation. First, the Servant's Noble Phantasm washed the ground. Normal magi could not survive such a saturation attack. Therefore, they would not notice Matou Zouken's fragmentation. Not everyone knows Matou Zouken's way of perception, and the fluctuations of life that they felt before were only the remaining insects.
Li Mo, who knew this, deployed the barrier when Medusa sensed that there was still life, which made Matou Zouken have nowhere to escape. In his weak state, he could not escape under the attention of the two Servants. The last time he appeared in front of him was to see if he could save himself through communication and trade.
As long as the magician reaches the goal, he doesn't care about the process. For them, rooting out the problem is optional. They are creatures who put profit above all else.
However, Li Mo is not a standard magician.
"Did he die just like that? Caster's Master." Medusa asked.
She thought this was too easy. Was it so easy to push down Zouken Matou, the huge mountain that weighed on Matou Sakura?
Li Mo said: "Matou Zouken, of course he is not dead. Rider, have you forgotten the order I gave to Medea?"
Before leaving, Li Mo specifically asked Medea to perform an operation on Matou Sakura. Why was it called an operation instead of a physical examination? Because he knew there was a worm in Matou Sakura's heart.
"Is Sakura going to be okay?"
"It will be fine. I think it's about time. Medea will take care of Zouken Matou's back."
Medusa looked at the young man, all of whom were in her grasp, and asked, "You did this on purpose, didn't you?"
"That's about right. I've thought about the backup plan that Zouken left on Sakura Matou. The resurrection mechanism is that after the main body dies, the backup plan in Sakura Matou's body is activated through some kind of information. The barrier I deployed did feel something breaking through. It was probably a stream of information."
Li Mo was not worried that Matou Zouken would be resurrected. When the other party chose to use the seal bug in Matou Sakura's body to resurrect, he was doomed to fail.
Because he believed in his Caster.
……
……
In Enzoyama, in the "temple" set up by Medea, there is a stone table used as an operating table, and Matou Sakura is lying on it.
"Ms. Matou Sakura, right? Are you and Rider willing to trust my Master?"
The process of Li Mo convincing Rider and Matou Sakura was brief and easy. Even though his own Master gave him a blank check, the other party didn't care.
Just like myself...
Matou Sakura, who was lying on the platform, said, "I just feel that I have no personal interest in him deceiving me. And... I can feel that he is actually very similar to Emiya-senpai. Doesn't Caster also trust his Master?"
"makes sense."
Medea sensed the changes in the "Temple" and said, "Matou Sakura, please be patient for a moment. I want to take something out of your heart."
Taking things out of the body is not difficult for a magician of the Age of Gods.
Scalpel, magic alternative.
Searchlight, magic alternative.
Sterile environment, magic alternative.
Even the subsequent recovery can be done with magic. So-called magic is "reverse magic" that humans can use other means to achieve the same phenomenon. This means that anything that humans can do can be replaced by magic.
Medea took a bug out of Matou Sakura's heart.
She could feel that the bug, which was half the size of a fist, had its own emotions, as if a human soul was hidden inside.
To be precise, it's not just "seemingly", there was already a person inside.
"It's a pretty good method. But it's a bit disgusting, and you're standing against me. Just in case you have other backups, I'll curse you."
Medea used magic to disrupt the opponent's vocalization channels. Then, she used this engraved insect as a medium to curse the individual named "Matou Zouken". This was a cautious approach, and the curse actually had no effect.
The only thing in this world that can prove the existence of Matou Zouken is the bug on Medea's hand.
Then she crushed the engraved insect in her hand to death and cleared the insect's body with fire.
Matou Zouken is dead.
Chapter 153: The Man on the Ruins
As a veteran magus, Matou Zouken's death did not have much impact on either Fuyuki City or the Clock Tower.
Maybe it has an impact on the Matou family.
A magus who has fallen so low that he doesn't even dare to transform into a dead apostle for fear of the reaction of the Holy Church, that's all.
Standing in the Matou family, Li Mo knew that Matou Zouken would definitely die. He was not happy about it, and even had little emotional fluctuation. A magician who should have died one or two hundred years ago, died and died.
At worst, I can give Sakura Matou a little more money as a gift.
But...will the Matou family really hold a banquet because of Matou Zouken's death? His descendants are afraid of him and wish he would die...
Thinking of this, Li Mo couldn't help but smile.
Gao Yanskaya asked. "What is the Master thinking about?"
"Nothing, I was just wondering how much I should give to Miss Matou Sakura in the future."
"Hmm? Have you thought about Sakura's future wedding date?" Medusa asked.
"Rider, shouldn't the Matou family handle the funeral after Matou Zouken dies? I will definitely be blamed on Miss Matou Sakura. Hmm... are the customs in Japan different from ours?"
Is there a tradition of banquets here?
If you don’t know, then don’t think too much about it.
"Let's see what remains of the Matou family first. I was a bit harsh, but it seems the Matou family's magic seals cannot be recovered. Never mind. At most, I can just compensate them with a magic seal."
Li Mo has a magic seal in his hand, which belongs to the Oil King. Although this magic seal has no accumulation and is even incomplete due to the death of the previous owner, it can be used after being repaired by Medea.
——Besides, judging from Matou Sakura's situation, it is still a question whether she will embark on the path of magic.
"Someone is coming. How are you going to deal with it?" Medusa asked.
Among the three people who went out, Medusa was the one responsible for perception. Her perception ability seemed to be better than that of Koyanskaya. But it was also possible that Koyanskaya chose to slack off.
"So, how many people are there in total? Are they ordinary people or Servants? Can Rider tell them apart?"