FATE: Target of Grand Master

A red light shot out from the middle-aged man's hand and instantly entered the body of Hassan, the cursed arm beside him.

Upon hearing the middle-aged man's words, everyone present had only one thought: this man has gone mad.

Even Hassan, the Cursed Arm Servant of Matou Zōken, looked at his Master in disbelief.

However, the command spell had already been released and the order had been given, and no matter how unwilling Hassan was, his body involuntarily rushed towards the black mud.

"what!"

Hassan, the Cursed Arm, collided head-on with the black mud and was naturally corroded by it.

The curse, known as "all the evils of this world," is something that even a Servant cannot withstand.

The immense pain nearly made Hassan of the Cursed Arm faint, but the Command Seal commanded him to lunge at the second lump of black mud like a puppet on a string.

"what!"

Hassan's screams rang out again, but his breath had clearly weakened.

Hassan's spirit origin was already showing signs of collapse, but Matou Ryouken showed no mercy to his Servant.

He once again manipulated the middle-aged man to use a Command Spell: "In the name of the Command Spell, I command you, Assassin, absorb all the black mud and bring it to me. You shall not die until then."

"what!"

All that could come out of his throat was a roar like that of a wild beast.

With the blessing of the two-stroke command spell, Hassan of the Cursed Arm absorbed the remaining three streams of black mud.

"Lancer, quickly pierce that man's heart!"

Xia Yan wouldn't just stand by and watch the enemy act.

The blue-clad spearman instantly appeared in front of the middle-aged man and pierced his heart with a single spear thrust.

The poor man collapsed to the ground like a kite with a broken string.

"Lancer, get out of the way!"

Xia Yan's reminder made Cú Chulainn avoid Hassan, the cursed arm who was ordered to bring the black mud to Matou's dirty inkstone, in accordance with the Command Spell.

The black mud not only corroded Hassan's cloak, bandages, and skull mask, but also left a black-red curse on his body.

At this moment, Hassan of the Cursed Arm had lost all consciousness, and his body, contaminated by the black mud, was laid bare before everyone.

With Hassan's Cursed Arm Spirit Origin, it was impossible for him to absorb all the black mud, and a large amount of black mud dripped onto the middle-aged man's corpse.

"cut."

Although they had fought as enemies, Cú Chulainn still couldn't bear to see his Servants being humiliated like this.

He walked up to Hassan the Cursed Wrist and pierced his heart with his gun.

The black mud entered the middle-aged man's body through the wound on his heart, sensing a strong craving.

"Come here, I'm here! I want to live, I don't want to die like this! I'll give anything for it, whatever you want, I'll give you!"

The black mud gradually converged towards a small worm wrapped around the middle-aged man's heart. The consciousness of the black mud, or rather, the consciousness of the follower Angora Manu, became interested in Matou Ryouken's five-hundred-year obsession.

The life of Matou Ryogen emerges in Angolan Manuel's consciousness. The young man, who held the ideal of eradicating all evil, gradually decayed his soul over the course of five hundred years, becoming a cunning and cruel fellow who only wanted to survive.

In the end, he lived out the very thing he hated and vowed to eradicate in his youth, perfectly embodying all the evil in this world.

The flow of the black mud began to accelerate. Not only the black mud dripping onto the middle-aged man's corpse, but also the black mud that had originally corroded Hassan's Cursed Arm was converging towards Matou Ryouken through the contract between the Servant and the Master.

Suddenly, an ominous magical power erupted from the middle-aged man's corpse.

Cú Chulainn was somewhat surprised; this person had clearly been stabbed to death by him, so how could he still generate magic?

Just as Cú Chulainn was about to launch another attack, Sakura, who had just woken up, suddenly shouted, "Lancer, don't go over there!"

Cú Chulainn quickly stepped onto the ground and then retreated rapidly to stand in front of Xia Yan.

"As expected of the former host of the Black Mud, you sensed the same aura emanating from me?"

The middle-aged man's corpse slowly stood up, and a large number of insects swarmed out from his skin and then invaded from other parts of his body.

In no time, the middle-aged man's body was devoured, leaving not a trace.

However, the ominous magic only intensified.

Countless insects gathered from the sky and the ground, eventually coalescing into a blue-haired youth with two tufts of hair on his forehead.

"Ah! This young body, this boundless magic, hehehehe, hahahaha!"

The young man laughed wildly, oblivious to everyone else around him.

No one present knew who the person in front of them was, except for Xia Yan.

"Machiri Zolgen!"

Hearing someone call out his name from his youth, Matou Ryogen was quite surprised. Could it be that this young man also had someone from his past who knew him hidden inside him?

"Wait a minute! This name sounds familiar. Machiri Zolgen, isn't that the person who created the Holy Grail War Command Seals system? He lived more than 200 years ago."

Rin finally remembered that she had seen this name in the family's records.

"Hehehe. That's all in the past. I am now Matou Ryouken, Matou Ryouken with a young body."

Even with a younger body, Matou Ryogen still couldn't shake off his reputation for looking old.

"Grandpa, no, Matou Ryouken." Sakura looked at Matou Ryouken and continued, "Now that you have obtained the young body you wanted, and your Servant is dead, there is no reason for you to continue participating in the Holy Grail War."

"Sakura, are you joking? Even this body is not eternal. To achieve immortality, I must use the Holy Grail."

"In other words, you are still our enemy. Lancer, make your move!"

"Archer, let's go too!"

"Saber!"

Xia Yan, Lin, and Shirou each ordered their respective Servants to attack.

"Hehehe, even if I were arrogant before, I wouldn't have been confident enough to deal with three Servants at the same time. But fortunately, I have an unbelievable amount of magic power now, so I'll just play around with you for now."

With a wave of his hand, Matou Ryouken summoned several enormous insect-like monsters that appeared in front of him.

The flying winged insects, the hard beetles, the crawling spiders, the wriggling maggots—each one was as big as five or six people.

These insects themselves are not difficult for Servants to deal with, but the trouble lies in the fact that Matou Ryouken has set up an effect where they explode when they die. In addition to the power of the explosion itself, some black mud will also be ejected.

All three Servants were stained with some black mud during the battle. Although they immediately shook it off, they all felt as if some of their magic power had been drained away.

The effect of Matou Ryouken's black mud is somewhat different from that of Sakura in the Heaven's Feel route. The fundamental reason is that the two have different magical properties.

Sakura's own magical attribute is Imaginary Number, and with the modifications made by the Matou family, she has the dual attributes of Water and Imaginary Number. Not only can she move around by using Imaginary Number stealth, but she can also absorb various Servants and store them in the Imaginary Number space.

Matou Ryouken only has the water attribute, so his black mud effect doesn't have the rapid movement and containment of the imaginary number, but it has a stronger absorption ability than Sakura.

In combat, this is most directly manifested in the direct absorption of the opponent's magic power.

The three Servants were immediately plunged into a fierce battle.

After the previous continuous battles, the Servants' mana was already quite depleted, and now, with Matou Ryouken constantly absorbing it during the battle, they no longer have enough mana to unleash their Noble Phantasms.

"Sakura, let me go too," Medusa said.

"No, Rider, you don't have a Master right now, and your mana supply has been cut off. Don't take the risk," Sakura immediately objected.

"But if this continues, none of us will be able to leave here."

Medusa gently stroked Sakura's head and said tenderly, "Sakura, you are actually very strong. And you already have seniors and friends who care about you. Even without me, you can live a good life."

"wait..."

Before Sakura could finish speaking, Rider gently knocked her unconscious and then handed her over to Xia Yan.

Xia Yan, who was originally hesitating about whether to use Command Seals while observing the battle situation, understood Medusa's thoughts when she saw Medusa hand over the stunned Sakura to her.

Xia Yan was overwhelmed with emotions, but in the end, he only managed to say two words to Medusa: "Thank you."

Medusa smiled slightly, and her magic increased dramatically.

Xia Yan immediately shouted to Rin and Shirou beside him, "Rider, cover our retreat! Let's go!"

Shirou wanted to say something more, but Rin took him away without hesitation. The three Masters, along with Sakura, quickly left Ryudouji Temple with the help of their respective Servants.

"Rider, I didn't expect you to volunteer to stay behind and cover the rear."

Matou Ryouken stood with his hands in his pockets, looking relaxed.

"Your and Sakura's mana supply has been cut off, hasn't it? I happen to be a Master who needs a Servant. How about we team up? I can grant your wish."

Medusa's magic power continued to rise wildly, and she even used the magic power that sustained her spirit foundation in her next attack.

"Matou Tsurugen, my wish is for you to die! Noble Phantasm! The Reins of the Hero!"

The last thing Xia Yan saw when he turned around was a white flash of light that crashed into Matou Ryouken like a meteor.