For his ideal, Makiri Zolgen gave everything.
Yet "materializing the soul" is one of the five Grand Rituals that reach the Root—a miracle among miracles. By his power alone, he could labor a lifetime and still never touch it.
To behold his dream realized with his own eyes, he set foot on a crooked path.
He devised an insect-based magecraft to prolong life, fusing his body with crest worms. By endlessly devouring the life force of his descendants and swapping bodies, he has scraped by to this day in a grotesque parody of survival.
One of the key methods he used to continue living was seizing a suitable descendant's body.
"For example, the shell you see before you—Matou Zouken—who knows how many generations of hosts have already been corroded and taken over."
Rei Ao's words offered a chilling explanation for the inhuman form and eerie aura surrounding Matou Zouken.
The color drained slightly from Tokiomi Tohsaka's face. For the first time, his gaze toward Matou carried scrutiny—and fear.
"Yet the long years did not bring wisdom; they became the cruelest punishment."
Rei Ao's tone held a trace of pity, but more of ice.
Five hundred years of waiting and struggle. Watching the ugliness of human nature cycle through history again and again. The original ideal was worn down and twisted by endless time.
The "Makiri Zolgen" of today—or rather, Matou Zouken—no longer has the soul of a man who dreamed of saving humanity. He has become a hollow, distorted monster, filled only with the urge to keep living and to fulfill his obsession.
He still pursues soul materialization, but the purpose has long since curdled—perhaps now it's only to perpetuate his own repulsive existence.
Rei Ao paused, his eyes flicking over the darkening face of Matou Zouken and the wavering look in Tokiomi's.
Then he dropped another bombshell.
"And the Holy Grail War—the very thing you'd sacrifice blood ties to join and uphold—its beginning was designed by Makiri Zolgen himself."
"What?!"
Tokiomi cried out. The Holy Grail War was the great rite founded by the Three Families—that's etched into the Tohsaka family precepts! How could it be designed by Matou alone?
"Hard to believe?"
Rei Ao spoke evenly.
Roughly two hundred years ago, clutching his last hope of realizing his ideal, Makiri Zolgen visited the artificial homestead in the frozen north built by the disciples of the Third Magician—the Einzbern.
"Einzbern…"
Tokiomi murmured. That much was established fact.
The Heroic Spirit summoning system comes from the Clock Tower's magecraft. And the Einzbern are the heirs of alchemists who once achieved the Third Magic—materialization of the soul. They possessed vast homunculus technology and a colossal magical core.
Makiri Zolgen believed that by combining the Einzbern system (the Grail) with the Heroic Spirit summoning rites, it might be possible to reproduce a miracle and achieve his "impossible" dream.
"That was the true beginning of the Holy Grail War."
"After that, he found the steward of Fuyuki's leylines at the time—your ancestor, Nagato Tohsaka—and the Einzbern homunculus known as the Holy Maiden of Winter, Justeaze Lizrich von Einzbern."
"The three joined forces and, here in Fuyuki where the leylines converge, constructed the grand ritual system named the 'Heaven's Cup.'"
"From then on, Einzbern, Tohsaka, and Makiri (Matou) were called the founding Three Families."
This dust-covered history flowed from Rei Ao's lips with an undeniable ring of truth.
Tokiomi's breathing quickened. The details lined up, faintly but unmistakably, with the vague accounts in his family's secret texts.
"And the irony is…"
Rei Ao's voice turned cutting.
"On the eve of completion, the so-called founding families began killing one another out of the selfish desire to monopolize the results."
"Add in various limitations and accidents of the era, and that first ritual ended in total failure."
"That is what later generations call the 'First Holy Grail War'—an unknown, ugly farce."
Only after learning from failure did the Three Families sit down and grudgingly refine the rules of the Holy Grail War. Among them, Makiri Zolgen took charge of designing and creating the Command Seal system.
"I'm sure you know the binding power Command Seals exert on Master and Servant—and the vast magic they contain."
Rei Ao's tale ended.
Silence fell.
Rin and Sakura couldn't follow the intricacies, but cold sweat had already soaked the back of Tokiomi's shirt. The morning fog seemed to thicken. The Matou manor's sinister silhouette loomed in and out of the mist like a silent behemoth swallowing every sound.
Tokiomi stood where he was, pale and slightly unsteady, as if struck by a great blow. The glory of the Three Families he had always revered, the greatness of the Holy Grail War—were their origins truly so sordid and self-serving? And his long-respected ally Matou Zouken—was his true face that of a five-hundred-year-old, twisted, dangerous monster?
Had he… really been wrong?
At some point, Matou Zouken had emerged from his stupor. Head lowered, his expression hid in shadow; only the bony fingers gripping his cane trembled with the force that betrayed how far he was from calm. Centuries of deception had been stripped away in an instant. His contorted soul bled menace into the air.
Rin held her sister tight, looking at Rei Ao with gratitude and reliance. He had arrived at her most desperate moment. He had spoken the truth she could not prove. He had used irrefutable words to hammer at her father's stubborn wall.
He was her savior.
~~~
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