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Matou Zouken, originally named Makiri Zolgen, was also a great magus with grand ambitions five hundred years ago.
His greatest wish was to save humanity.
He believed that the reason humanity had to endure suffering was entirely because the human body was restricted by material existence. To save humanity, the only solution was the large-scale application of the Third Magic, allowing humanity to achieve collective ascension.
Thus, he began researching methods to enable humanity to reach the Swirl of the Root on a massive scale.
Through his efforts, he discovered a phenomenon that repeatedly occurred throughout the world's history.
That is, every time a great disaster was imminent, heroes from human history would be resurrected through special means to save the world.
Furthermore, the number was always fixed at seven.
Later, through continuous and deep investigation, he finally figured out the internal mechanisms by which this operated.
In this world, there exists one Root, two Counter Forces, and the Five Magics.
The Root, naturally, is the Swirl of the Root—the origin point of all things.
The two Counter Forces: one is Gaia, which refers to the consciousness of the entire planet.
The other is Alaya, which refers to the consciousness of primates, or in other words, the collective consciousness of all humanity.
The Five Magics refer to five types of True Magic that can lead to the Swirl of the Root.
The First Magic: The oldest Magic, the Denial of Nothingness, also known as Creation Magic.
It is creation from absolute nothingness; one could say it is the Magic responsible for creating worlds.
The Second Magic: The Operation of Parallel Worlds, a Magic that allows one to freely travel between and interfere with various parallel space-times.
The Third Magic: Heaven's Feel, the Materialization of the Soul. It is a Magic that grants immortality and eternal life, realizing the materialization of the soul.
The Fourth Magic: Unknown. There are currently no relevant records of it; it is only known that the corresponding Magus still seems to exist.
The Fifth Magic: Time Travel and Destruction. It allows one to travel freely to the past and future. Even those who are already dead can be resurrected by reversing time.
Simultaneously, it can destroy any object in existence.
According to the rules of the world, for each of these Five Magics, only one corresponding inheritor can exist at any given time.
Therefore, as long as the previous Magus is still alive, no one else can learn or use these Five Magics.
The principle behind the heroes' resurrection is that Alaya, the collective consciousness of humanity, created the Throne of Heroes, which is a construct made of Aether.
Then, it allows the Throne to perfectly imitate a specific hero's data based on the information from the Akashic Records.
In this way, from the perspective of the physical world, it appears exactly as if the hero has been resurrected.
After discovering this principle, Makiri Zolgen located the workshop of the Third Magus and met the matriarch of the Einzbern family, Justeaze.
The two of them hit it off immediately and began to artificially imitate this phenomenon, which led to the creation of the prototype for the Holy Grail War.
Unfortunately, Justeaze was merely a homunculus created by the students of the Third Magus. They had used their missing teacher, the Third Magus, as the template for her creation.
Although she could barely manage to use the Third Magic, a single casting required several years to activate, which was utterly incomparable to the original Third Magus who could cast it instantly at will.
Therefore, Makiri Zolgen came to Japan, changed his name to Matou Zouken, and located the Tohsaka family, who possessed an exceptionally powerful ley line.
Using the enticement that the Holy Grail War provided a path to the Root, he convinced the Tohsaka family to join his endeavor. They provided the spiritual power from the ley line to Justeaze, and together they created the Greater Grail.
Then, using the premise that the victor of the Holy Grail War could have any wish granted, he deceived seven magi into participating in the war ritual.
In the First Holy Grail War, because there were no Command Spells, the summoned Heroic Spirits didn't give a damn about their Masters. After a chaotic free-for-all battle, the Holy Grail was directly destroyed, and the ritual ended in failure.
To initiate the Second Holy Grail War, they had to wait sixty years. Matou Zouken, concerned about his remaining lifespan, used Crest Worms to transform his body into a colony of insects, thereby extending his life.
However, what he did not expect was that after this transformation, he was influenced by the Crest Worms. His mind gradually deteriorated, he completely forgot his original noble intentions, and he lost his humanity.
By now, the only thing remaining within his heart was the singular, driving obsession for immortality.
"The Five Magics... It seems that after things are concluded here, I can pay a visit to the Clock Tower."
Matou Zouken, an old relic possessing five hundred years of memories, had allowed George to understand not only the fundamental principles of the Holy Grail War, but also the specific details of all five Wars.
He also gained a much more detailed understanding of the True Magic of this world.
He not only intended to go to the Root, but he also wanted to learn all Five Magics before doing so.
The First Magic, creation, was precisely what he was already doing every day: perfecting his own small world. Perhaps if he learned the First Magic, his small world could be completed instantly.
The Second Magic, the Operation of Parallel Worlds, allowed for free travel between parallel worlds. This Magic would also be extremely useful to him.
Currently, when he traveled to the various parallel universes within Marvel, he still had to rely on the power of the Vishanti's spatial magic, and furthermore, he had to establish coordinates in advance.
If he learned the Second Magic, he could rely on his own power to travel freely between parallel universes, no longer subject to any limitations.
Perhaps in the future, after improving and sublimating the Magic, he could even use it to traverse the various worlds where his avatars were located.
The Third Magic, Heaven's Feel. Now that he thoroughly understood the Holy Grail system, given his own level of magecraft, he was highly confident he could master it.
Although he did not know what the Fourth Magic was, seeing as it was on the same level as the others, he estimated it wouldn't be anything bad.
The Fifth Magic involved time. After learning it, his mastery over time magic would increase dramatically, and the destructive power of his offensive magic would also be significantly enhanced.
"Snap!"
George reached out and released his control over Matou Sakura and Medusa.
Simultaneously, he transferred some of Matou Zouken's memories regarding the plan to seize Matou Sakura's body over to her.
"You already know the truth. The conditions I offered are still valid. Make your choice."
"I accept your terms."
With almost no hesitation, Matou Sakura gave her answer.
She fundamentally did not care about magecraft, she did not care about the Holy Grail War, and she certainly did not care about the honor of the Matou family.
The only thing she cared about in her heart was Emiya Shirou. She just wanted to be the most ordinary girl possible and build a happy, normal family.
Before she turned five, she was still a pure and innocent little girl, living a happy life with a wonderful family.
But ever since she was given to the Matou family by her father after she turned five, everything wonderful in her life shattered completely.
Every day, she was thrown into the worm pit, which was filled to the brim with Crest Worms that violated her. It was a living hell, worse than death. She would desperately cry out for her parents, but no one ever answered her calls.
She finally managed to learn all of the family's magecraft and had even found the person she truly loved, only to then be violated by her adoptive older brother, who shared no blood with her.
If it weren't for her inherently kind nature, she would have long since fallen into darkness.
"Then let's begin. Don't worry, I will not tell Emiya Shirou about what happened to you."
George opened his mouth and unleashed a breath of dragon fire, instantly incinerating Matou Zouken into fine ash. Immediately after, he reached out his hand and extracted the colony of Crest Worms and the Lesser Grail fragment from within Matou Sakura's body.
After completing all this, he finally transferred the Command Spells for the "Knight" Medusa to himself.
Through Matou Zouken's memories, he knew that Matou Sakura was also a pitiful child.
However, now that he had killed Matou Zouken and Matou Shinji, Matou Sakura was the sole heir to the Matou family. She would inherit all of its wealth, and there was no one left who knew about her past.
Her future, he presumed, would not be a bad one.
(End of this chapter)