Rider's body suddenly tensed. She immediately turned toward the corner of the room.
A shadow twisted and quietly condensed into a solid form.
The moment she saw this woman, Sakura's beautiful eyes froze for an instant.
Then her gaze darkened slightly as she spoke in a cold tone,."Heh! Another Servant from Britain…"
"Another one?"
In the backyard of the Matou residence, when she heard the annoyed complaint from "Sakura," the British Ruler tilted her head slightly. Interest flashed through her bright eyes.
She quickly asked, "From the sound of it, more than one British Servant has already been summoned?"
"Even though I'm a Ruler, I can't use 'True Name Discernment' before meeting the other side, can you just tell me directly?"
Sakura replied coldly, "Before asking someone else questions, shouldn't you introduce yourself first, Miss Referee?"
"You should know me already, right? We met once during the last Holy Grail War."
As the woman spoke, she casually removed the black cloak draped over her shoulders.
Hidden beneath the cloak was a face beautiful beyond compare.
She wore an extremely luxurious court dress. Her silver hair flowed like a waterfall, and the cold wind moved through her hair, adding a bit of laziness to her cool temperament.
The woman slowly walked toward Sakura's room, her tone filled with arrogance and disdain.
"If I'm not mistaken, there should be a young Beast hiding inside your body."
Sakura said nothing.
The woman's every movement carried elegance and calmness as she continued speaking on her own.
"No… I should say, the one controlling this shell right now is that Beast, correct?"
"How did you find me?", Sakura finally spoke.
Compared to her former weak self, her current voice was filled with coldness, even colder than the snow outside.
At the same time, in the darkness behind Sakura, the faint buzzing of insects could be heard. The dense noise made people feel a chill crawl over their skin.
"Then you should ask yourself that."
A mocking smile appeared on the silver-haired woman's lips.
"If you're so eager to reveal your tail, then naturally people will notice."
If "Sakura" hadn't just used the desire worms and spread a barrier across all of Fuyuki by using human emotions as a medium, she probably wouldn't have noticed Sakura's abnormality so quickly, nor would she have come to the Matou residence herself.
From the moment Sakura's "desire crystals" appeared throughout Fuyuki, the woman had already sensed her existence.
Then, by using indexing magecraft, she could reverse-calculate the other party's location.
"Sakura" paused for a moment, then quickly seemed to understand something and softly said, "I see… mages from the Age of Gods really are powerful. No wonder everyone is curious about and longs for 'Age of Gods magecraft.'"
Sakura folded her hands before her lower abdomen and gently looked at the mysterious Ruler before her.
"If I remember correctly, you should be Alvin's lover, right?"
"Lover? That's quite an old word."
The woman looked up at the falling snow in the sky.
"Do you like Alvin?"
She seemed completely unaware that magecraft had already formed beneath Sakura's feet. She looked as though she were casually chatting with an old friend, her expression remaining cold and proud the entire time.
In truth, she did have the right to be proud. Back then, even against the legendary Merlin, during the long years after Alvin's "death," she had hunted him down more than once and even imprisoned him inside the "Tower" for a period of time.
This time, when she sensed the summons from the "World," she initially had no intention of accepting it.
However, at that moment, a voice in the dark told her a name.
Alvin.
Only after confirming that the location was the Fifth Holy Grail War in Fuyuki did she reluctantly accept the summoning.
And she descended upon Fuyuki as a Ruler to maintain the order of the Holy Grail War, Morgan le Fay.
Sakura's gaze remained gentle, though red Beast-like patterns had already begun climbing across her skin.
"My feelings toward Senpai are complicated. If you insist on calling it love, that's not wrong, but I just feel safe when he's beside me. That's all."
At this point, traces of magical energy had already formed beneath both of them, and the snow on the ground had gradually melted.
Although it looked like idle conversation, both sides were actually carefully observing each other. Whoever moved first at this moment might expose an opening.
"Miss Morgan… when it comes to loving Senpai, I'm different from you," Sakura softly said.
Translated simply, what she meant was probably: my relationship with Alvin is pure love, while you're NTR trash.
An ordinary person would probably have broken down after hearing that, but Morgan's stunning face instead bloomed into a smile, especially bright in the darkness.
"We are indeed different. Miss Matou likes him but is afraid of being rejected, so you go in circles and claim your love for him is special."
"And me—"
Morgan raised her right hand and watched a snowflake gently land in her pale palm as she looked directly into Sakura's eyes.
"When I was fucking him in bed, you probably still couldn't even walk yet, Miss Matou."
Sakura's pupils suddenly contracted.
In an instant, countless scenes flashed through her mind.
Images of a young boy buried in Morgan le Fay's embrace, immersed in her warm arms, scenes of them kissing, and even more intimate moments, flashed through Sakura's mind like a slideshow.
Thump! Thump!
At that moment, Sakura's soul shook, and her beautiful eyes became much darker.
"This bitch—"
"Sakura," or rather, the Beast currently controlling her body, gritted her teeth in anger and coldly said, "Don't fall for it, she's provoking you on purpose!"
A pleased smile curved at Morgan's lips.
Back then, she always suffered losses against Artoria, since her younger sister had become Alvin's lover before she did.
But now… Artoria wasn't here, so she was the legal wife.
Although bullying a little girl wasn't very nice, this feeling really was strangely satisfying.
Buzz!
At that moment, an overwhelming swarm of "desire worms" surged toward Morgan in the backyard from behind Sakura.
Each desire worm contained magical energy beyond that of ordinary magi, and their abdomens rapidly swelled.
"Self-destruction?"
Morgan calmly watched the scene and slowly raised both hands into an inverted triangle gesture.
"I never thought that in just ten years, you'd become such a pitiful insect… if he knew, he'd probably be disappointed."
"So before that happens, let me deal with you first—"
"Tower of Watery Reflection!"
Unlike the "Water Mirror" Rin used before, Morgan's magecraft was clearly far stronger. The moment magical energy burst forth, the "Tower of Forbidden Seclusion," which imprisoned everything within imaginary space, descended from the sky.
———
Wind and snow slammed against the glass windows, producing a howl like demons crying.
Inside the house, the firewood in the fireplace crackled.
The hall fell into a strange silence.
Alvin stood frozen in place. Looking down at the girl in his arms, even someone as "battle-tested" as him felt at a loss right now.
'No… why did things suddenly turn into this?'
Not long ago, he and Rin had still been talking about Sakura… yet before long, things had become like this.
At that moment, Alvin's mind started spinning rapidly.
Rin's pretty face was right in front of him. The breath leaving her lips carried a unique fragrance. Her soft body pressed tightly against him, and he could even feel her rising body temperature and the smooth touch of her pale skin.
Even though he was a Heroic Spirit, that didn't mean Alvin was a saint. At the very least, he wasn't calm enough to stay unaffected in this situation.
Alvin subconsciously lowered his head. Rin was also looking up at him. Inside her blue eyes, faint pink light seemed to spread, and even her pale skin carried a slight pink tint.
Her lips looked moist, bright, and tempting.
The distance between them slowly closed, to the point where they could clearly feel each other's breathing on their faces.
One of Alvin's arms wrapped around the girl's soft waist, while the other slowly moved upward along her body.
Just as he undid the first button at her collar, he suddenly heard the sharp sound of wings flapping beside his ear.
He looked toward the sound.
Outside the window, a crest worm covered in complicated patterns silently flew past.
"Desire worms?"
He froze for a moment, as though realizing something, then immediately looked toward the distant sky.
At some point, pink pillars of light had begun descending beneath the night sky, and within the backyard of the Tohsaka residence, a special pink magical energy was also quietly spreading.
Looking at it now, this thing should be the "culprit" affecting Rin?
At that moment, realization appeared in Alvin's eyes.
On the very first night after Rin summoned him, he had already seen the special creatures known as "crest worms" inside the Tohsaka residence.
Thinking about it now, there was probably more than one crest worm in the Tohsaka residence. Sakura had long ago set up a special magecraft called the "Desire Barrier" throughout different locations, and the Tohsaka residence was also inside the barrier's range.
Thinking of this, he picked Rin up in his arms and quickly rushed out into the backyard from the entrance hall.
As he approached the pink pillar of light in the backyard, he saw countless desire worms surrounding it like moths, while inside the pillar stood a pink crystal.
Just from one glance, Alvin felt a strong emotion rush toward him.
It was a special crystal currently "absorbing" the "desires" between couples as nourishment.
"Nii-chan!"
At that moment, a clear and pleasant voice suddenly came from outside the yard.
Alvin turned toward the sound and saw the silver-haired, red-eyed little girl in a white dress standing outside the yard at some unknown time.
Behind Illya, the white-haired mage also silently appeared.
"Why are you here… are you okay?"
Looking at the silver-haired girl who pushed open the gate and hurried inside, Alvin couldn't help asking.
"Caster noticed the magical barrier covering the city earlier. I was worried about you guys, so I came to check."
Illya paused, then continued, "The condition for this thing to work is having feelings of 'love' toward someone… my essence is a doll rather than a human, so it doesn't affect me."
After speaking, she quietly glanced at Rin in Alvin's arms and muttered, "But that might not necessarily be a good thing…"
Alvin didn't have time to think about the meaning behind Illya's words. His attention quickly shifted to the pink crystal.
"Since this barrier is formed through this thing, then if we destroy it, the barrier around the Tohsaka residence should disappear too, right?"
Illya lightly shook her head.
"If it were that simple, things would be easier… but Caster already tried earlier. It's far harder than expected. Directly destroying it with brute force probably won't work?"
Before she finished speaking, Alvin had already placed Rin beside Illya, then threw a punch toward the desire crystal ahead.
Clang!
A sound like metal being struck rang out. Alvin's fist seemed to glow with starlight, and the moment it hit the desire crystal, a violent impact exploded outward.
This kind of power was absurdly unreasonable. Just the magical energy spilling out was enough to shock people. Even Merlin stared in disbelief.
"Has this guy's physical strength increased again? Even Vortigern back then wasn't this ridiculous, right?"
Thank goodness this was a special situation. If they really had to fight Alvin head-on… taking a punch like that would probably cost half their life.
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