BCloud
patreon
MMMS 9
🕑 Added 2025-03-23 21:38:17 +0000 UTCMatou Zouken wasn't actually dead yet. Despite having his physical body shredded by Kama, the old man was somehow still alive somewhere in the Matou mansion. This made sense since the Matou Zouken who was defeated in the basement was just a collection of bugs clumped together.
The true core of the old monster—the vessel containing his soul, that special brain worm—was still out there. Even an attack from Kama couldn't completely kill this 500-year-old monster unless his actual body was destroyed.
But that didn't mean he was safe. The supposedly immortal Matou Zouken was slowly dying. When Mara descended, she transformed the entire Matou residence into her Demon King castle. The mansion was now essentially inside her body—a gray, lifeless universe that no human could possibly escape from.
With most of his power destroyed, Zouken was now just a dying worm, yet somehow still conscious.
He didn't want to die.
"Oh, oh oh, oh, oh..." His pitiful form rolled around in agony, reduced to nothing more than a squirming piece of rotting flesh.
Even like this, he was still alive.
As he felt himself gradually dissolving, he cursed his fate but clung to existence through sheer stubborn will.
He didn't want to die.
"Oh oh oh oh, oh oh..."
Zouken writhed helplessly on the ground.
But the end was just a matter of time now.
He didn't want to die.
The old magus, now barely more than a scrap of meat, desperately hung onto life despite enduring unbearable suffering.
Even as he decayed to his very last moments, all he had left was regret.
"Oh... oh oh, oh oh oh oh"
Was it the pain of dying, or just pure regret?
He didn't want to die.
If he disappeared now, what would it all have been for?
Five hundred years.
If he died here, then the painful journey he'd endured for five hundred years would amount to absolutely nothing.
"Oh... oh, oh oh oh oh oh oh!"
All he could remember now was pain.
The story he'd told himself for so long—that the once-great Makiri family had been forced from their homeland, drifting to this distant eastern country only to decline because they couldn't adapt to the magical laws of a foreign land.
But that was a lie. If that had really been the reason, he might have found some peace in it. If their bloodline was ending for such simple reasons, maybe he could have accepted extinction with some dignity. But their inability to adapt to Japan wasn't the real problem. External factors like that could never truly destroy the Makiri family.
The truth started three hundred years ago with the ancestor, three hundred years being the natural lifespan of any magus family. The Makiri line began its inevitable decline with Zouken's generation.
That's when the real suffering began, though the old man fought desperately to deny it. The Makiri family had simply stopped progressing during his lifetime. His entire existence as Matou Zouken had been one long, desperate struggle to hide from and resist this simple truth.
He didn't want to die.
He didn't want to die didn't want to die didn't want to die didn't want to die didn't want to die didn't want to die didn't want to die didn't want to die didn't want to die didn't want to die didn't want to die didn't want to die didn't want to die didn't want to die didn't want to die didn't want to die didn't want to die didn't want to die didn't want to die didn't want to die...!!!!
"Oh, oh oh, oh oh oh...!"
Why should he have to die? He hated this decaying flesh. Pain on top of pain. That's all there was—just pain. Five hundred years of nothing but endless pain. Life itself was nothing but pain. So was it really so wrong to seek immortality?
So painful, so unbearably painful, never satisfied, only suffering. How could such a long life possibly just disappear without leaving anything behind? How could someone die in such agony? Looking back at five hundred years, all amounting to dust, simply because he didn't want to die—why, why was that so much to ask for!!!!
Despite the agony of his burning bones, the lump of flesh continued dragging itself across the ground.
What incredible stubbornness.
It shouldn't even be able to move—it didn't even have the basic body parts needed for movement anymore—yet somehow it pushed forward on pure hatred alone.
At this point, it had become nothing but a monster fueled entirely by obsession.
The insect, with only the thought "I need to live" left in its mind, writhed desperately.
"You're quite a disgusting sight right now, Makiri."
Above this abomination that had no right to exist in this world, a voice floated down like that of a messenger from heaven.
"Wh-what?"
Through his fading vision, Makiri could make out the young boy standing there. He stopped his pathetic crawling and looked up at him.
Even as he stared at the boy, he wasn't really seeing him at all. Instead, he saw her—a woman from deep in his memories.
Through the strange compound eyes of the worm, all the world's darkness in his mind transformed into a pure, heavenly white.
That face belonged to a woman who existed only in distant memories.
No matter how much time passed, her image never faded, forever preserved in his heart—the Holy Maiden of the Einzbern family.
Two hundred years ago, she had offered herself as a living sacrifice to construct the Greater Holy Grail. She hadn't aged a single day since then.
"Why do you refuse to die?"
That nostalgic voice...
Her simple question stopped Makiri's tormented thoughts in their tracks.
Why? Why was he so desperate to live?
Why couldn't he find a reason to die?
Even though ending it all would free him from this endless suffering, he still clung desperately to life—but why?
"Oh... oh oh, oh oh oh oh oh."
Then he remembered.
Yes. In the beginning, it had been for something noble.
Makiri Zolgen's dream had only ever been one thing: to eliminate all sins from this world!
But then he learned that sin could never truly be erased, that being human meant being forever bound to sin. When he discovered that humans could never create a true utopia. If humans were limited by their very nature, then the only option was to somehow transcend humanity itself.
The original three who created the Holy Grail system had shared the same wish—to bring about the materialization of all human souls.
For this reason, he had pursued the Holy Grail—to create a world beyond what humans could achieve on their own. Until this miracle was realized, there was no acceptable reason for him to disappear. No matter how many times he failed, even when he knew it was physically impossible, as long as he lived, he would never stop trying.
"...Oh, oh."
That's why he had to survive.
Even if it meant becoming a monster that fed on human lives to continue existing.
Even knowing deep down it was all pointless, he could only keep searching.
Even when there was no reward waiting for him in the future.
"Oh... oh oh, oh...!"
This had been Makiri's original dream.
And compared to that impossible wish, his desperate desire not to die now seemed so small and pathetic!
"It seems you finally remember."
As his vision cleared from the daze, the silver-haired, red-eyed woman in Makiri's mind faded away, changing back to the black-haired, black-eyed young boy standing before him.
"Oh oh, hahaha...!"
Even while dying, the stubborn insect still managed to ask the evil Beast one last question:
"...A world without evil... haha, hahaha, is that even possible?"
Ryuuto looked down at him and answered calmly:
"God is dead."
