Chapter 106

Flat juggled the worm in his hands, unperturbed by the sideway glances El-Melloi gave him, or the gaze of Gray on the thing. It was downright repulsive, with slime dripping off it onto the car floor, and the tail twitching every now and then, yet Flat was inspecting it like it was a piece of bread.

"I can't believe that someone would actually do something like this to prolong their life though. It's so...painful."

El-Melloi kept his hands on the steering wheel, but his mind pondered what Flat had told him about Zouken, the founder of the Fuyuki Holy Grail War. He had grilled his former student when they got into the car, and had received a flood of information from Flat.

The fact that Matou Zouken, one of the three original founders of the Fuyuki Holy Grail War was still alive, wasn't that surprising in and of itself. Magi could extend their lives beyond the human norm with some effort, all in pursuit of giving themselves more time to reach the Root. Some of them transferred themselves to a younger human body, some used puppet bodies as substitute bodies, some bound their soul and consciousness to objects to preserve themselves. There were many ways to achieve a prolonged life, with some more successful than the rest. Incidentally, many such attempts led to the accidental creation of Dead Apostles, since most Dead Apostles did indeed enjoy the benefit of an extended lifespan, which many magi sought to replicate. Sealing Designations of those delving into immortality or already achieved some measure of success in that field were also common.

In comparison to some cases he knew of, Zouken's method could be said to be tame, though of course it wasn't something that any ordinary magus could achieve either.

-centuries ago-

In a dark cave beneath the mountain the locals called Mount. Enzo, four people stood in the lightless cavern, the only glow coming from the glowing balls of light hovering behind the party. Multi-layered Crests were carved on bare rock over fifty meters in radius. Like a large observatory, rotating by itself in the deserts of Arizona, geometrical figures turning in place. A normal person would call it a spider's web.

Without a word, the woman dressed in an elegant, pure white ritualistic dress with a white crown to top it all off walked toward the stone table in the center of the giant circle, lying on top of the cold stone surface, her face turned towards the ceiling. The man with unruly blue hair tightened his hands into a fist, but he could say nothing. The two other men besides him watched on calmly, though the oldest among them noticed his reaction.

Lizleihi Justeaze von Einzbern.

A magus that devised the entire system, also one called the Winter Saint.

"Heaven's Dress, descend."

The words spilled from the dainty lips of the woman lying on the table. The old man walked towards her as a stone column descended from the ceiling onto the table, inexorably bearing down on her body.

*krCh*

Without her will, the Holy Grail would be just that, a Holy Grail. A mere wish-bringer, incapable of reenacting the ancient sorcery, Heaven's Feel. In other words, a big lump of energy.

Putting a veiny hand into the coat, the white haired man withdrew a small, curiously shaped crystal dagger that shone with the multicolored rainbow within its white blade.

"I, Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg, witness the start of the Greater Holy Grail."

For a moment, radiant energy pulsed from the ritualistic dagger, dazzling the room with rainbows.

Despite the eye-catching display, Zouken was unable to find any beauty in it, his eyes locked on the stone column now connected to the stone table, blood dripping from it and flowing into the Crests to complete the ritual.

Using his insectoid familiars as the foundation, he altered his body to transcend the limits of the human flesh, going beyond his mortality that was inhibiting his ambitions. Prior to the sacrifice of Justeaze for the formation of the Greater Grail system, he was already older than what was humanly possible, while also maintaining a youthful appearance to boot. The problem was that his way of maintaining his youthfulness was simply a slowing of the natural aging process that came with the human body. It wasn't that he didn't age, but simply that it took much longer for him to reach old age. His body would still eventually grow older until it failed him, his death to old age not impossible, but a definite occurrence in the far future.

Although it would still let him live for three centuries at the very least, Zouken refused to let himself die. Unknown to anyone other than himself, he was never able to recover from the shock of seeing Justeaze sacrifice herself. The moment her body was implemented into the system, letting her blood flow into the circle and connect the circuits, his heart broke. Clenching his teeth, he swore to himself that he would live until he saw the completion of their dream, when the Grail was filled and the gate to the Root opened, when they could perform the Third Magic.

Originally, he had the dream of creating a utopia. A world free of the suffering that filled human society. All hatred, sadness, grief, anger, he wanted to make it all disappear, but in the end he found it to be impossible. With the limits imposed by the human body, doing such a thing couldn't be achieved, and he would never reach the paradise he wanted if he stayed human. In the end, he came to the conclusion that he needed to reach outside the limits of humanity, to the infinity of the soul. Reaching the Swirl of the Root, obtaining all knowledge and everything that existed in creation, it was all so that he could abandon humanity and create the paradise he dreamed of. It was only ever the means, instead of being an end, in and of itself.

Yet, he was judged to be fundamentally evil by Zelretch, and as Juzteaze had no successor, the basic blueprints of the Jewelled Sword were given to Nagato and his family. Why the Second Magician judged him to be so was never explained, but it could be perhaps due to what the man had seen in many worlds, his witnessing of the end of those that sought the 'ideal utopia', for Zouken was not alone in such a fruitless endeavour.

When he finally began to show his age, he decided to abandon his flesh and become a Wraith that tampered with the world through his insectoid familiars, losing the ability to degenerate physically. However, years of frustration at being unable to obtain the Holy Grail, and the deterioration of both his physical body, the insects, and soul, resulted in the loss of his memory, emotions and motivation. All that was left at this point was an abnormal obsession with immortality, and a vague memory of a woman in white.

Not to say that he had completely forgotten Justeaze, or that he had gone senile, but in any case he had lost sight of original goal, and was instead completely preoccupied with gaining immortality at this point. The means became confused for the ends, the dreams of utopia vanishing into the depths of mind.

Flat couldn't immediately gain that much information of course, but he could roughly tell how Zouken was bound to the insect familiars as his body in the material realm, and knew that only an attack that directly targeted the soul would work. He wondered whether he could pull off something like that, putting his hand to his chin as he thought about ways to get past his pseudo-immortality.

It wasn't long before they reached the gates of the Edelfelt mansion, and the moment the ruins greeted their eyes, they rushed out of the car and went through the gates, abandoning the car on the sidewalk. They could sense the lack of Bounded Fields, and Flat brushed the remains of the familiars behind the tightly packed hedgewalls with a gust of wind so that no one could see them from the gaps in the gate.

Below their feet, they could sense magic being used, ripples of mana reaching them even penetrating through the meters of dirt that separated them from the underground complex. There was definitely a Servant, or a Servant-level being down below, with such presence being impossible to mask.

"Assassin, let's head down!"

Rushing forward, Gray entered the stairs, with El-Melloi and Flat hot on her heels.