Buzz, buzz, buzz—
Countless black insects flew out from beneath his robes, spreading like a dark cloud.
These bugs did not attack the phantoms. Instead, they fluttered aimlessly through the air, some even clinging to the mirrors, emitting a series of unsettling scraping noises with their mandibles.
"Huh?"
Hiding in the shadows, Francesca paused for a moment. "What is this old man doing? Cleaning my mirrors?"
But a second later, her smile vanished.
Zouken closed his eyes, a smug, sinister grin forming on his ugly, aged face.
"Found them."
He raised a withered finger, pointing toward a seemingly empty patch of space to the front left.
"Asuka, the main bodies are over there."
Hearing his words, Asuka did not hesitate. His body moved faster than his thoughts.
The black silhouette left an afterimage in the air as the Nugata in his hand, wrapped in black and red Spiritual Pressure, slashed viciously at the empty void!
Clang—!!
A crisp metallic clash rang out.
Ripples suddenly appeared in the previously empty space.
The young boy, François, stumbled into view. The human-skin book in his hands emitted a protective barrier that barely blocked the strike.
"How is this possible?!" François's face was filled with shock. "How could you see through my ability?"
The Sunken Spiral City does not exist, hence the madness of the world is endless.
This ability could deceive several Servants simultaneously. Without high-ranking Magic Resistance, it was impossible to break free.
How was it seen through so quickly...
"Illusions are, at the end of the day, merely tricks that deceive the senses," Zouken's voice echoed.
"They can deceive the eyes, deceive the ears, and even deceive the brain."
"But..."
Zouken's body suddenly disintegrated, turning into countless squirming worms, before reforming in another location.
"I am truly sorry, but this old man ceased to be a mortal long ago."
This was what made him so terrifying; his lifeform had completely mutated long ago.
Zouken's body was a conglomerate of worms, his consciousness distributed among every single one of them. François's illusions could not deceive an entity that lacked a singular 'brain'.
Against such illusions targeting human senses, Zouken possessed a natural, absolute counter.
"You want to use illusions to simultaneously deceive thousands of independent senses? Hehehe..."
"That is why I say, go train for another five hundred years!"
Before his words even faded, the swarm of worms surged like a tide toward a seemingly empty corner.
François's true body suddenly emerged there.
His expression changed drastically, and he hurriedly flipped open the spellbook, attempting to summon a wall of water to block them.
But he had forgotten that the Makiri family were originally masters of Water Magecraft.
The worms burrowed into the water, rapidly corroding the barrier and lunging straight for his ankles.
"François, watch out!" Francesca screamed in panic, but she soon found herself in trouble as well.
After Francesca's main body was discovered by Zouken's worms, they bit down hard on the hem of her dress and refused to let go.
If it were just a few bug bites, it wouldn't be a big deal, but this provided targeting support for the other harbinger of death.
Seizing the opportunity, Asuka relentlessly pursued her with his blade.
Slash after slash, he continuously tore through the mirror surfaces, closing in on Francesca.
She retreated in a panic, unzipping her abdomen to spew out a black mud-like substance to form a shield.
But Asuka's slashes seemed to share the same origin as her defense, rendering the shield largely ineffective.
The blade strikes fell like a violent storm, tearing through the protection and forcing her to cough up a mouthful of blood.
The twins' weakness was glaringly obvious: while their illusions were powerful, they were severely overspecialized. Once a combatant who countered their illusions closed the distance, they had almost no means of fighting back.
"Damn it, since illusions are useless, we'll crush you head-on!" François roared, the human-skin book in his hands flipping frantically.
Surging magical energy poured from the book, transforming into twisting, whip-like tentacles that lashed viciously at Asuka and Zouken.
"Hmph, a head-on fight?" Asuka sneered, the black markings on his body surfacing once more as the power of an Avenger burned within him.
"Saku!!"
The blade flashed like a net, severing all the tentacles.
Meanwhile, Zouken controlled the swarm from the sidelines, constantly harassing and gnawing at the twins' magical shields. The moment they tried to cast another illusion, the bugs would immediately expose their positions.
The old man and the youth, despite cooperating for the first time, surprisingly exerted immense suppressive pressure.
"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!" François was beaten back repeatedly, his ornate outfit slashed to tatters.
"Francesca! Help me!" he shouted anxiously.
"I am helping!" Francesca was also desperately throwing out various magical potions and curses.
But against Zouken's overwhelming swarm of bugs, these petty tricks couldn't cause any substantial interference to Asuka.
Just as the twins were locked in a bitter struggle, preparing to risk their lives to unleash some high-powered magecraft...
From the distant banks of the Mion River, a holy, majestic golden light—capable of purifying all filth—shot into the sky!
Even from the mansion district several kilometers away, that light was so dazzling that one couldn't look directly at it.
Immediately following was a clear shout that echoed through the heavens:
"Ex—calibur!!!"
Boom—!!!!
A golden torrent pierced the night sky.
It was the full release of an EX-rank Noble Phantasm, the Sword of Promised Victory.
It was the ultimate fantasy, a sliver of the planet's light.
It was the very embodiment of the unfulfilled dreams of all living beings, transcending all space and time.
The holy sword's radiance heavily bombarded the massive Sea Monster in the river, completely evaporating all of its foul and sinister corruption!
"No—!! My precious baby!!" François let out a heart-wrenching scream.
Through their contractual connection, that destructive power instantly rebounded onto François.
Pfft—!!
François violently spat out a large mouthful of blood, the magical shield around his body shattering in an instant.
"Magical energy... my magical energy..."
To his horror, he realized that the majority of the magical energy within his body had been drained in that single moment, and even his Saint Graph was showing signs of instability!
"Can I get a refund now?"
A voice rang out right beside his ear.
Slash—!!
Asuka severed his arm with a single strike, causing the spellbook to drop.
"Urgh—ah!!!"
"François!!" Francesca screamed, reaching out her hand to grab him.
Zouken swung his cane down forcefully, instantly condensing the surrounding swarm into a giant, black demonic hand that tightly grabbed the fleeing Francesca, pinning her firmly in place.
Before the malicious young boy could recover his senses, Asuka's blade shifted direction.
"Die, demon."
In the next second, a line of blood extended from François's left shoulder all the way down to his right abdomen.
Sququelch!
His body slid neatly along that bloody line, splitting perfectly into two halves.
Thud!
François's upper body crashed to the ground, spilling blood and internal organs everywhere, which were quickly devoured by the swarm of bugs.
"Ah... I failed..." Black foam spilled from his mouth, and those eyes full of malice gradually lost their light.
His body began to emit golden particles of light, the sign of a Servant's withdrawal.
"You... you actually dared to kill my François!"
"You dared to ruin my stage! Ruin my fun!"
Bound by the swarm of bugs, Francesca let out a hysterical shriek.
"Stop screaming, you're next," Asuka turned around, raising his blade as he walked toward Francesca.
Since neither of these twins were normal, they had to be eradicated completely.