Chapter 59

Reclining on the hard wooden benches of the chapel, Gilgamesh sipped the dark wine from the golden cup slowly, savouring the rich taste that spread across his tongue with the red liquid that flowed into his mouth.

"It seems that the final Servant has been summoned."

Kirei's voice rang across the silent chapel, the chessboard that served as the notification for the summoning of Servants lighting up as the Saber piece turned from dull black to silver, the surface glinting under the soft yellow light from the circular chandelier hanging from the ceiling.

Gilgamesh took another moment to sip his wine.

"Is that so? It seems that the assembly of mongrels is complete then. I look forward to seeing the show."

Gilgamesh directed his red eyes to Kirei's back.

"You are free to do anything you wish, as long as it proves to be entertaining."

Kirei kept his gaze on the board as he asked the golden king a question.

"During her scouting missions Lancer noticed that there was an uncanny resemblance between all the other Servants, including herself. The only exception was the red Archer that she fought at the school. Would you happen to know anything about this, your Highness?"

Gilgamesh rocked the wine in his cup, swirling it in circles as the liquid went round and round in circles.

"Who knows? Perhaps the Grail has acquired another new quirk. Regardless, this war will be an interesting one, and you will surely have a place to play in it, Kotomine Kirei."

Kotomine Kirei lowered his head in thought. Perhaps now would be a good time to pay his protege a visit, since she had just summoned her own Servant.

His lips curved into a smile at the thought of the expression she'd wear if he showed up on her doorstep announced.

Far off in a distant alley, a woman collapsed onto the ground as worms burrowed through her pale skin and into the flesh below, their pointed teeth ringing the open hole that barely qualified as a mouth chewing through the soft meat at a prodigious rate, the white skin swelling up with their bodies as they squeezed under her skin and squirmed to and fro into the soft organs of their host, consuming the material as energy. The woman's expression never changed as they ate through her, a permanent expression of pure ecstasy etched on it. Her eyes were rolled into the back of her head, the corners of her lips upturned as drool leaked from the left side of her mouth to drip onto the ground, her neck lolling against the brick wall behind her as snot dribbled out, while tears fell in a steady stream from her eyes. Occasionally, she would let out a soft moan that barely rose above the sickening squelching noises of her body being consumed.

The mental energy created after a normal human female was sexually stimulated wasn't much, but Zouken needed all the energy he could get, since most of his familiars and the energy stored in them were destroyed when Rider had "cleaned" the house. The basement was now in ruins, flooded and unusable, with only the emergency stashes of worms he had scattered across the city surviving, and even those were slowly being hunted down through after Rider had picked up the "scent" of his magecraft from the Book of False Attendant, which was composed of the same Lust Worms that were currently devouring the woman, allowing Rider to track down the hidden worms one by one. Still, she was unable to find them all, given how large the city was, and how well he had hidden them. In addition, she was unable to remove the worms in her own Master's body as well, since they were in a, to put it lightly, delicate position.

Hence, he was on a hunting spree almost every night ever since Rider had been summoned, stockpiling magical energy as much as he could, so he had ordered the worms to consume even the flesh, even with how little mana it provided in terms of efficiency. He had even begun hunting males as well, despite the difference in the amount he could absorb from them when compared to females, because he couldn't afford to be picky about his targets any longer. The missing people count was rising steadily, and it was getting more and more difficult to find prey with less people out at night, and more police on the prowl. If anything, he didn't want to attract the attention of the police either, so he was forced to lay low and pick people that would be easily missed.

Thankfully, most of his Blood Worms had survived intact, the anchor of his soul to the world remaining, saving him the trouble of regenerating an entire body and all his Crest Worms from the sole Blood Worm in Sakura's chest, a backup he had planned for the worst-case scenario.

Suddenly, he felt a disturbance in the worms.

The leylines near the Greater Grail had activated, the force created alerting his worms planted in the soil near its location. Without a doubt, the last Servant had been summoned.

"Hoho, so the war has finally begun…"

For now, he would watch from the shadows and wait for an opportunity to arise. Biding his strength was the only choice for now, and there was sure to be chaos on the battlefield when the Masters clashed against each other, chaos which he could take advantage of and turn to his benefit.

"Hmmm, I wonder if I could take control of a Servant, hehe."

His worms continued feasting on the woman as his body dissipated into worms that fell into the sewers through a nearby manhole, the swarm of wriggling bodies pushing along the concrete and leaving behind a trail of slime as they went to the next prey.

Within the Grail, the slumbering god continued dreaming of the day when it would be born to dye the world crimson, while the sliver of consciousness with sufficient willpower to act contemplated it's handiwork.

"This should be effective in the next few days, probably."

This was probably the hardest Angra Mainyu had ever worked, either in life or during his time as a Servant. Though the being that was doing this wasn't exactly Angra Mainyu the Servant or Angra Mainyu the human either. Wiping the nonexistent sweat off of his brow, he triggered the latent systems in the Grail that he had been suppressing beforehand. With this, if it worked, there was a possibility he could meddle in the war directly as well, and exact revenge against Saber and that idiot Kiritsugu's son earlier than expected.

"Heh, this should be the perfect tool to destroy them all."