Tokiomi continued to speak, "She possesses excellent Magic Circuits. Only by being adopted into the Matou family will she have the opportunity to inherit their magecraft and reach the Root."
"This is the best choice I could make for her as a father."
"What! You bastard, you actually call that kind of life happiness?!" Kariya was absolutely furious.
"Do you have any idea what kind of life she lives in the Matou family?! Do you know how that old worm treats her?!"
"Is becoming a magus really that important?! Enough to make someone abandon their humanity?!"
Tokiomi frowned, seemingly completely unable to understand why Kariya Matou was so angry.
'He was the one who abandoned the Matou family's magical heritage, so what is he making a fuss about now...'
He simply wiped his mystic code walking stick and said earnestly, "This is the destiny of a magus family. Even if I fail, there is still Rin. If Rin fails, there is still Sakura..."
"My bloodline will one day reach the Root..."
"Lunatic! You're completely delusional!!" Kariya trembled with rage, the worms inside his body going berserk.
He raised his hand, and countless hideous flying insects surged from his sleeves and collar, forming a black cloud of bugs that floated beside him.
"I'll kill you! I'll kill Zouken! I'll kill all of you!"
Tokiomi sighed and raised his ruby-tipped walking stick.
The jewel at the tip of the staff radiated a searing light.
"It seems I've wasted my breath... You truly cannot comprehend the nobility of magecraft."
"Although it was because you abandoned the Matou family's heritage that Sakura had the chance to be adopted, and I should be thanking you..."
"But looking at it now, I have no choice but to eliminate you."
Boom!
A blazing fireball shot from the walking stick, hurtling toward Kariya with intense heat.
"It won't be... that easy to kill me!!"
Kariya roared, the magical energy within him surging wildly.
The swarm of bugs responded, charging fearlessly toward the fireball!
Hiss—!
Flames clashed with the insect swarm, emitting the sound of scorching flesh.
Most of the bugs were instantly reduced to ashes, but they successfully halted the fireball's advance.
"How unsightly..."
Tokiomi didn't even need to wave his staff; the swarm couldn't even breach the Bounded Field around him before turning to ash.
This was a battle with almost no suspense.
One was a powerful magus with profound foundations and ample preparation.
The other was a Master who had turned his back on magecraft for years, relying on Crest Worms for a quick boost in power.
But Kariya kept holding on.
He used the bugs to build a defense and his own body to endure the shockwaves. He was knocked down time and time again, only to struggle back to his feet.
Because he knew he couldn't lose to him here!
He still had to save Sakura.
He still had to see that child smile under the sun.
"Tokiomi—!!!"
Kariya let out a beastly roar, driving his swarm of bugs as he charged toward that lofty figure.
On the riverbank battlefield.
The battle between Asuka and Diarmuid had also entered its final stage.
"Haa!"
Diarmuid parried Asuka's slash, panting heavily, several new wounds adorning his body.
"Are you distracted, Spearman?"
Asuka noticed Diarmuid's agitation, and the attacks from his blade grew even more fierce.
"I don't understand. How did your wounds heal?"
He was referring to their previous battle, where his Gae Buidhe had clearly pierced Asuka, inflicting unhealable wounds.
Yet now, the man was completely unaffected!
"Oh, you mean that." Asuka brought his sword down on the dual spears again, constantly applying pressure. "Those malicious thoughts were uncomfortable, but they took your curse away with them. I suppose they did some good after all."
"Inconceivable." Diarmuid locked weapons with his opponent in disbelief, but under Asuka's overwhelming Strength, he was pushed into an increasingly desperate position, the tip of the blade pressing right against his shoulder!
Suddenly, Asuka's brow twitched.
Through the connection of their contract, he could feel extremely violent and chaotic fluctuations in magical energy.
'She's fighting.'
'And it's an incredibly difficult battle.'
'Was she found by another Master?'
"...Let's end this quickly."
Asuka scoffed coldly, unleashing the full might of his Zanpakuto, causing Diarmuid's brow to twitch wildly!
He was actually going to detonate his power at point-blank range! Releasing his Noble Phantasm!
"Roar!!"
"Not good!"
A turbulent stream of black and red energy erupted right against Diarmuid's twin spears! It exploded into an unstoppable slash of Spiritual Pressure!
Even if Gae Dearg could nullify magical effects, it couldn't completely withstand the explosive assault of A++ rank Strength at such close range!
Boom—Crack!!
Amidst a deafening roar, Diarmuid's Gae Dearg was forcefully snapped in two!
And without Gae Dearg's suppression, Nugata's ability to absorb magical energy would no longer be restricted!
"It seems without the threat of your Noble Phantasm, your attacks are nothing special."
Asuka flicked his Zanpakuto and spoke calmly, "By the way, when Heroic Spirits die, do they return to their original world?"
Diarmuid staggered back several steps, looking at the short spear in his hand with a bitter smile. "What? Homesick?"
"Not exactly. I just hope you don't reincarnate in Rukongai."
Fierce winds howled, tearing through the night sky.
Above Fuyuki City, an aerial battle far beyond human comprehension was unfolding.
"Mad dog! How dare you soil my glorious vessel with that filthy water!"
Gilgamesh currently sat on the throne of his golden Vimana, weaving rapidly through the clouds, the flames of fury burning in his crimson eyes.
The Gate of Babylon spread like the wings of a phoenix, pouring countless Noble Phantasms backward like a golden meteor shower.
Relentlessly pursuing him was the Berserker, wreathed in black aura and wearing a bone mask.
What Gilgamesh couldn't understand was how this Servant was flying through the sky with his physical body. Could it be his Noble Phantasm's ability?
An ordinary Heroic Spirit would have long become a sitting duck before an aerial fortress like Vimana, which came with its own interception system.
But this Berserker was different. He stepped on the void, every stride creating visible ripples of magical energy in the air, as if using the atmosphere itself as a springboard.
"...!!"
With an indistinct, guttural roar, the Berserker swung the trident in his hands.
Corrupted by his Madness Enhancement and the malicious black mud, a surging torrent of black water roared from the dark halberd, forcibly gathering the free water molecules and magical energy in the atmosphere.
A pitch-black water tornado, thrashing like a flood dragon, materialized out of thin air. It violently crashed through Gilgamesh's barrage of Noble Phantasms and lunged straight for the Vimana!
Rumble—!!!
A massive explosion detonated two thousand meters in the air.
The golden radiance of magical energy clashed with the black torrent of Spiritual Pressure, generating a shockwave that instantly scattered the storm clouds for miles around.
The commotion from this strike was simply too massive—so massive that even the concealment Bounded Fields meticulously set up by the Holy Church couldn't hide it.
On the ground in Fuyuki City, countless citizens looked up in astonishment, witnessing an anomaly that looked like a myth descending upon the night sky.
A golden meteor and a black storm clashed madly under the moonlight, every collision accompanied by a thunderous boom!
"Report! Unidentified high-energy reactions detected above Fuyuki City! Radar shows two high-speed flying objects engaged in combat!"
"Are they fighter jets? No... there are no thermal signatures! How is this possible?!"
In a nearby Air Self-Defense Force radar station, alarms blared across the hall.
The radar operator stared at the two blips on the screen that defied the laws of physics, cold sweat soaking his back.
And at the center of this highly conspicuous high-altitude battlefield, Gilgamesh's patience finally ran out.
"A mere beast dares to subject me to the humiliation of being gawked at by mongrels..."
The King of Heroes rose from his throne, and the ripples of the treasury behind him expanded several times over.
"Since you want to fly so badly, I shall turn this sky into your graveyard! Fall to the earth, mongrel!"
An even denser storm of Noble Phantasms, carrying an aura that sought to destroy everything, attempted to completely swallow the Berserker's figure.
Yet, beneath that bone mask, the corners of his opponent's mouth actually curled up slightly.