Chapter Eighty-Seven: It Is All Shigenori's Fault!

A monster. That was the only thought in Tohsaka Tokiomi’s mind.

Within the arts of magecraft, there were many who remade their own bodies into something unrecognizable, but none of them possessed such an inborn, seamless monstrosity as Matou Kariya.

It was as though from the moment he was born, he had already been a beast of scales, a creature that combined the traits of lizard and dragon.

“You must have summoned Berserker, so why have you ended up like this? Did you ally yourself with the Master of Caster?”

Only a hero from the ancient past could possibly possess a technique that lay so utterly beyond modern understanding.

And then, in a cold, detached tone, Tokiomi rendered his judgment.

“Foolish. Having already resolved to throw yourself into battle, and yet still bound by superfluous emotion.”

Seeing Kariya’s silent acquiescence, Tokiomi shook his head in disdain.

Ever since childhood, Tokiomi had understood that he was not especially gifted. And so, in order to step onto this path, in order to preserve the Tohsaka line, he had always followed the house precepts and done what was most correct.

From inheriting the legacy of his predecessors, to becoming the undisputed head of the family; from arranging the succession, to becoming a mage who, like a moth flying into flame, cast himself toward the Root and abandoned all needless attachments.

To a man with clear goals such as Tohsaka Tokiomi, Kariya’s posture was ugly beyond measure.

As the heir of a mage family, he had cast aside the family business without restraint; in the end, because he did not wish to drag Aoi into the world of magecraft, he had even abandoned the duty of producing the next heir for the family. Left at the mercy of excess feeling, drifting through life without purpose—such a man was exactly the sort Tokiomi despised most.

Tokiomi also knew that he, too, held ordinary human feelings toward his family: the loving father, the proper husband—these were all his outward faces.

But as a mage, one must learn to distinguish the greater from the lesser. Compared to the Root, these things were insignificant.

As a mage, one should not be swayed by common human sentiment.

“Fortunately, it was not you who taught the Matou household. Otherwise I would truly worry for Sakura’s future. Swayed by needless emotion, lacking even basic reason—you are not qualified to walk the path of magecraft.”

“Though you are one of the Three Founding Families, you were content to become another’s pawn before the outsider had even been eradicated. As expected, you have fallen.”

“I have fallen?”

Kariya’s body shuddered as he looked at the arrogance and mockery on Tokiomi’s face.

For some reason, Tokiomi, whom in the past he could scarcely bear to look at without feeling ashamed of himself, now seemed absurdly comical.

Perhaps it was because the man’s pristine red suit was now stained filthy by the ground from his recent tumble. Or perhaps it was the hard, false bravado on his face as he was steadily driven back by the swarm of insects infected with Kariya’s magical energy.

The towering image Tokiomi had always projected began to crumble, and then Kariya burst into wild laughter.

“That’s right, I have fallen! And all of it is because of you!”

He had given up his beloved daughter. He had given up the future he had once imagined. What now sustained Matou Kariya’s heart was only his unyielding hatred.

“Everything is your fault, Tohsaka Tokiomi!”

A bestial growl burst from Kariya’s throat as he roared and charged at Tokiomi.

“Damn it.”

Tokiomi cursed under his breath. In the next instant, a defensive array again unfolded from the ruby atop his staff. This time, however, he did not chant to spread it outward in attack, but kept it tightly around himself, while drawing out several gemstones and releasing the magic within them.

Gemstones housing elemental spirits could be used as one-use mystic codes by infusing them with magical energy—powerful and efficient, the drawback being that once spent, the gemstone container itself would shatter. This was also the fundamental reason the Tohsaka magi were so often short of money.

Still, the effect was undeniably clear: a glittering barrier of magical energy, wrapped in flame, withstood the entire swarm of insects.

He had not expected that facing an enemy like Matou Kariya would force him to waste precious gemstones. If he had known, perhaps it would have been easier with Kirei supporting him from the side. Thinking of his already-drained purse, Tokiomi felt a pang of embarrassment.

But at this moment, he could not take back anything he had said. To remain elegant at all times—that was the house precept he had upheld all his life.

Yet in the next instant, despite his desperate effort to maintain composure, Tokiomi’s face could not help but distort.

Boom—!!

The twin barrier of flame and gemstone actually began to tremble.

Without using magecraft, without calling forth the insect swarm, Matou Kariya simply stood before the barrier, raised his hand, and brought it down without hesitation.

It was a monstrous claw, with no visible flesh, an unnatural thing in which skin and bone had fused together. Only the raised undulations of crawling insects proved it had not yet lost all vigor.

And yet the defense formed by Tokiomi’s proud ancestral spell trembled beneath sheer force alone.

“With power like that, there’s no need for pointless fighting. Matou Kariya, you are also one of the Three Families, and Sakura is your successor. For the sake of our family’s long-cherished wish, reconciliation with me is your best choice!”

Seeing this, Tokiomi’s brows knitted even tighter, and he made the first move to yield. But that lofty tone only enraged Kariya further.

“Reconciliation? At a time like this, are you making a joke?”

Kariya sneered and, ignoring him entirely, clenched his fist again.

Then, with blow after blow, before Tokiomi’s disbelieving eyes, the barrier shattered with a deafening crash.

With no time to spare, Tokiomi flung out two slab-like rubies and intoned the spell, releasing the magical energy sealed within them.

Scorching, dry gale became a pure shockwave that rushed toward Kariya, tearing scales from his face and driving into his flesh—but he still seemed not to notice, advancing step by step against the wind toward Tokiomi. Then, the instant the gale died away, he suddenly spat a blazing fireball from his mouth!

Caught off guard by the attack, Tokiomi could only trigger the magic within a gemstone before being struck, reinforcing himself with all his strength. Even so, he was still blown into a miserable state.

“How is this possible? You were only a half-baked amateur before!”

To see the fruits of all his half-life’s efforts shattered so easily by Matou Kariya, Tokiomi’s ever-present air of composure was completely torn apart as he lay on the ground. What now appeared on his face was hatred, indignation, and a trace of something even he had not noticed—envy.

But under a gaze far keener than that of an ordinary man, Kariya caught it perfectly.

“Haha!”

He laughed out loud, the sound bleak and strange, yet filled with a liberating ecstasy.

“At last... I finally got to see it. I’ve always wanted to see that expression on your face. That expression of jealousy!”

“Die, Tohsaka Tokiomi!”

Just as Kariya intended to press the advantage and finish it in one go, he suddenly found his movements arrested.

“You call that a half-baked amateur? Don’t be absurd!”

Having suffered repeated setbacks at the hands of the person he despised, Tokiomi could no longer care about elegance. He snatched up the cane beside him and swept it once.

From the jeweled sculptures scattered throughout the garden, chains burst forth, binding Kariya’s body.

“You know nothing of the rule forbidding intrusion into a magus’s workshop, and how could an ignorant fool like you possibly understand it!”

Tokiomi slowly stood and said coldly,

“If not for the alteration borrowed from Caster, someone like you would not even be qualified to see an activated workshop.”

His hand slid down to grasp the end of the staff, and from the ruby at its head erupted flames like dragon’s breath. Yet the scarlet fire did not explode outward; instead it condensed like a pillar of light, refusing to disperse.

Tokiomi carried that dangerous blade of fire forward step by step and thrust it through Kariya’s abdomen.

But where the fiery sword pierced, there were no entrails, no flesh—only a beehive-like nest of insects.

“Truly a monster. It seems only by piercing your heart can I kill you completely.”

Tokiomi lifted his head, drew out the blade of flame, and stabbed again at Kariya. Yet even now, there was no sign of surrender on Kariya’s face.

One of his arms began to wither, while the other swelled grotesquely; clearly, by shifting the insects within his body, Kariya was trying to grant himself greater power.

But Tokiomi snorted at this. “Idiot. The Tohsaka workshop techniques are the best in Fuyuki!”

Then he raised the blade of fire and, without hesitation, drove it toward Kariya’s heart!

But at that very moment, the sound of chains breaking suddenly rang out, and the fiery blade that had already pierced Kariya’s chest was seized by him with fearless hands!

The scorching sword left charred marks even on Kariya’s scale-covered hand, and insect corpses kept falling from it. Still, the two men had entered a deadlock, like gunfighters standing face to face at high noon.

“Even if you cling to the blade like that, all you’ll do is trap yourself between advance and retreat. Why must you still cling to life here?”

Having been forced back again and again, Tokiomi finally lost his composure, abandoning his lofty demeanor and roaring in anger.

But Kariya merely spat out a mouthful of blood and rasped,

“Are you going to push it in?”

“Of course I am!”

Gripping the staff with both hands, Tokiomi used all his strength to force the blade in another inch.

“Sto... stop, don’t push it any farther, or... or someone will die!”

“I will not stop! Only by grinding your heart to pieces can I wash away today’s shame!”

At such a critical moment, how could he falter?

Tokiomi once again squeezed his own magical source dry, preparing to end Matou Kariya’s life once and for all. But the next instant, as he focused on drawing out magical power, an even more terrifying pull came surging in.

No... what is Archer doing!

And Kirei— the magical furnace should already have responded. It should be shifting from normal operation into full-output supply!

That familiar sensation let Tokiomi instantly grasp the situation, but with his magical energy being siphoned away, his body no longer had the strength to continue the stalemate.

In the end, he could only stagger back several steps and watch as the fiery sword that had reached Kariya’s heart was slowly drawn out by its owner.

“It doesn’t matter... There are still three chains. As long as I put some distance between us, return to the workshop, and activate the barrier, I can deal with him.”

Tokiomi braced himself unsteadily and slowly retreated toward the mansion behind him. But his eyes suddenly went vacant.

After pulling out the fiery sword, Kariya did not throw it away. Instead, he drew it deep into his own body.

Seeing the astonishment on Tokiomi’s face, Kariya broke into a feverish smile.

“That’s why I told you not to push it any farther. Thanks for providing so much energy on your own; it makes welcoming the end much easier. Tokiomi, let us go to hell together.”

No matter how shocked or flustered Tokiomi was, a terrible change was indeed taking place in Kariya’s body.

A blinding scarlet radiance flickered over him, and flames from some unknown source gushed out of Matou Kariya’s body, igniting him into a human torch.

The deadly heat spread without cease, melting the ground and distorting the air. A magma-like liquid began to flow outward from Kariya’s body, with him at the center.

In the next instant, the searing flames became a monstrous wave and swept everything away.

When all had settled, amid a field of ash, the battered Tokiomi slowly crawled out, staring numbly at the world around him.

More than half of the Tohsaka residence had been blown into ruins by Kariya’s self-detonation. Precise tools, antiques, and fragments of paintings were scattered everywhere, and the barrier had been left in tatters.

Many of the remaining structures were still burning. It was a dreadful sight, likely the result of secondary damage caused when the magical furnace was destroyed in the blast.

“The magical furnace? Kirei, just what was he trying to do!”

Tokiomi’s gaze turned grave at once. At the critical moment, the furnace had not been activated, nearly costing him his life—yet in the true depths of despair, it had activated, allowing him to trigger the last gemstone on his person and survive by sheer luck.

But he felt no joy at surviving against the odds. The Tohsaka family had been ruined, and even the magical furnace set up with borrowed money had been blown apart. One could already imagine the hardship awaiting the next generation.

And with his angry voice came the sound of light footsteps, slowly approaching.

Kirei Kotomine, unscathed, held the sharp short sword in his hand. Narrowing his eyes, he sincerely despised himself in his heart, yet the corners of his mouth, dragged by emotions from the depths of his being, still gradually spread open into a genuine smile.

Kotomine Kirei, you are a beast. You should go to hell, be cut to pieces a thousand times over, be hated by the world.

But it does not matter. This sin will be redeemed in the end, and someone like me will have a place to stand.

So long as I follow him, this resolve, this happiness, will one day descend upon the world.

So I need only quietly feel this moment.

At this instant, he was living in the most wonderful moment.

Kirei slowly raised the blade and, looking at Tokiomi, delivered his verdict in a voice brimming with madness.

“Master, it is time to depart.”

“Kirei... I truly underestimated you.”

Even in the face of such a dangerous situation, Tokiomi still forced himself to remain calm.

“I do not know why you did this, but from the very beginning, you were doomed to lose, because as a support servant, the only servant you possess is Assassin.”

Tokiomi slowly raised his hand and gave the command.

“With the Command Spell as my warrant—Hero King, come and shelter your servant!”

In the next instant, Gilgamesh, likewise covered in wounds and missing one arm, appeared out of thin air and, under Tokiomi’s disbelieving gaze, coughed up blood in a sorry state.