Matou residence.
Matou Sakura walked heavily, her footsteps echoing, toward the entrance.
The hem of her elegant kimono brushed over the dusty wooden floor.
She leaned against the doorframe and slowly slid down to sit, her fingertips unconsciously touching her full chest.
Seductive, sweet breaths echoed.
She tried to steady her emotions.
The white mist she exhaled condensed into ice crystals in the air, fragmenting the twisted reflection of the withered trees in the courtyard.
"Sakura... are you really okay?"
Rider knelt on one knee beside Matou Sakura.
Her purple long hair cascaded like a waterfall. The usually expressionless Servant now had furrowed brows, her face full of worry.
Hearing this, the latter buried her face in her sleeve, replying in a muffled voice, "I'm fine. I just need a little rest..."
On her body, the dark red patterns symbolizing a "Beast" were resonating with the Greater Grail deep in Ryūdō Temple, the fragments of the Greater Grail contaminated by the Tide of Chaos, constantly transferring "power" into her body at every moment.
The Beast of Desire...
This was the special entity born during the previous Holy Grail War, already lurking within Matou Sakura's body back then.
But the Beast of Desire had been too weak at that time.
Only after years of drawing power from the contaminated Greater Grail had it gradually grown stronger..so much so that until now, when it possessed the power of half a Beast.
Similarly, it was now influencing Matou Sakura's will...
Many times when she couldn't control her desires, it was because of this Beast inside her body.
Matou Sakura supported herself against the wall and slowly stood, turning to Rider beside her. "Has Sister and the others gone back?"
Rider nodded silently.
"I've confirmed that Tohsaka Rin has returned."
Sakura's eyes softened a little as she murmured, "That's good... If they had stayed at Ryūdō Temple, I'd have been troubled."
Hearing her words, Rider hesitated slightly before saying quietly, "Actually, even with Assassin and Caster there, we had ways to destroy the remaining purification bounded fields completely."
"But that would have meant fighting Senpai... If he discovered my true appearance, he'd probably be very disappointed, right?"
Matou Sakura lowered her eyelids. Beneath the collar of her kimono, a glimpse of snowy skin was faintly visible. She murmured, "If possible... I don't want him to find out yet."
Rider remained silent.
In fact, her understanding of this Master wasn't deep.
After all, before summoning Rider, Matou Sakura had already fused with the "Beast."
She had simply kept this secret hidden, quietly accumulating power through the contaminated Greater Grail.
In the previous Holy Grail War, the Greater Grail's ability to regenerate after destruction wasn't really Sakura's power...it was the ability of the other "personality" within her.
The mixing of the "black mud" inside the Greater Grail with the "Tide of Chaos" had begun back then as well.
"What are your plans next?"
Rider suddenly asked.
"The other side already knows our goal is the Greater Grail.
Getting into Ryūdō Temple again from now on will probably be difficult."
Matou Sakura's brows and eyes softened as she murmured, "But there will always be a way... Withdraw for now. I want to be alone for a while."
Rider bowed her head slightly as figure turned into purple spirit particles and quietly vanished from the entrance.
Sakura tilted her head back slightly, gazing at the deep snowy night outside the window.
Shadows crept across the girl's fair cheeks.
She stared through the glass at the fragile face reflected in the window. Then her fingertips lightly touched the edge of her collar, gently pulling the fabric down a little.
Her proud, full chest was profoundly alluring.
On that tender skin, faint pink-purple flowers seemed to pulse like living things, nestled right between the two voluptuous mounds.
That was a symbiotic entity far more dangerous than the crest worms Matou Zouken had once implanted in her....a special existence born from manifested desire.
—Beast.
Matou Sakura turned and walked into the room, casually drawing the curtains.
Then she lazily lay down on the soft bed, slowly closing her eyes.
"If you really want to have him... there's actually a very simple way."
At that moment, a voice suddenly sounded in her mind.
A flying insect flapped its wings and quietly entered the room.
—A crest worm.
More accurately, it was a "lust worm" evolved through the power of the Beast of Desire.
The insect's tail secreted a pink fluid.
Once touched, even a Servant would feel an irresistible impulse to obey Matou Sakura absolutely.
The girl quietly opened her eyes.
Watching the insect fly straight into the room, a constant throb suddenly surged through her body as shr pressed her lips tightly together, unconsciously gripping the corner of her kimono.
Her knuckles whitened from the force.
"No... I absolutely can't make a move on him now..."
If Alvin discovered it, their relationship would never be the same again.
And... what she wanted was the real thing, not false affection born from coercion.
The process might be difficult, but she'd already waited so many years.
Could she really not hold out for just a few more days?
With that thought, the girl lightly bit her lip.
Her fingertips touched her chest as she gently untied the thin ribbon at her waist..the kimono slipped lightly to the floor.
"Alvin...Alvin.."
Gradually, only the soft, emotionally suppressed breaths, with irresistible murmurs echoed throughout the room.
...
Because of the special bounded field in the room, not a single sound leaked out.
But similarly, the girl inside the room remained completely unaware of the abnormality in the Matou house tonight.
Not knowing that at this moment, a figure was moving through the darkness.
He silently entered the Matou esidence without triggering even a single detection bounded field.
—Guardian of the Night EX.
This was Alvin's unique authority as an Assassin.
When activated, even Servants with the sharpest perception couldn't detect his presence.
Right now, the young was strolling toward the insect warehouse as casually as if it were his own backyard.
When he saw the warehouse during the day, Alvin had already felt an indescribable sense of unease.
Tonight's events had only deepened his suspicions.
Without a doubt, the insect wing he saw near Ryūdō Temple was indeed from a crest worm...only its wing patterns seemed more special, somewhat resembling the one contaminated by the "Tide of Chaos" he saw in the Tohsaka courtyard.
But logically, Matou Zouken was already dead...
So who was modifying crest worms?
No matter what, he'd know once he checked the insect warehouse.
Alvin gathered his thoughts and soon arrived at a spacious little courtyard in the Matou house.
The courtyard clearly hadn't been visited in a long time.
Weeds grew wildly, nearly reaching waist height.
Amid the overgrown weeds ahead, a rusted iron door to an underground warehouse was faintly visible.
—The insect warehouse.
Alvin held his breath.
His black robes seemed to blend perfectly with the night as he stepped through the weed-choked courtyard and slowly pushed open the warehouse door.
Creak...
A mournful groan of the iron door echoed in the depths of the night.
When Alvin looked up, he was immediately shocked by the sight before him.
It was an endless sea of insects covering the entire warehouse.
Some had already grown wings, while others writhed on the ground.
In addition, tens of thousands of insect eggs clung to the walls everywhere.
At that moment, Alvin's brain raced, recalling everything from the past few days.
Then a question surfaced in his mind: Who exactly had bred so many crest worms?
This scene...enough to make someone with trypophobia faint on the spot, was probably even more exaggerated than when Matou Zouken was alive.
And... these crest worms were clearly different from what he knew.
They seemed to have undergone some special mutation.
The only thing Alvin was relieved about was that he didn't detect any traces of "black mud" in these crest worms' bodies.
If all these crest worms had mutated through black mud... that would be truly troublesome.
After all, black mud was something ordinary people absolutely couldn't touch.
If so many crest worms flew into the city and scattered black mud everywhere... the consequences would be unimaginable.
Looking at everything before him, Alvin's eyes flickered and his mind began to turn actively.
If he remembered correctly, Sakura had said just today that the warehouse only kept a few crest worms for studying Matou Zouken's magecraft from when he was alive.
Then the question was—
Did Matou Sakura know the secret of the insect warehouse?