The stench and viscous magical power that assaulted them nearly made Leo suffocate instantly.
Even through Medea's purification barrier, the nauseating aura born from countless twisted, rotting, and copulating lives stubbornly assaulted his senses.
The sight before him was more visceral and shocking than any horror film. Everything in sight—walls, floor, ceiling—was covered in a thick layer of writhing imprint insects.
They overlapped and crawled over each other, emitting faint, dense "rustling" sounds that merged into an unsettling noise that disturbed the mind.
On this "carpet" composed of living things, one could still see the remains of some already rotted and blackened creatures of unknown origin.
'This is... the Matou family's magic...'
Leo forcibly suppressed the nausea churning in his stomach, his gaze piercing through the writhing sea of insects toward the deepest part of the cavern.
"Medea, move!" His voice was cold and resolute. "Clear a path and bring her out!"
"With pleasure, Master!"
Medea's face was filled with unconcealed abhorrence.
For this divine-age magus, such magic that desecrated life and twisted souls was absolutely intolerable ugliness.
She hovered in mid-air, her purple skirt fluttering gently in the current of filthy magical power, yet not a speck of dust clung to her.
Without chanting any incantation, she simply raised her hand once more.
This time, what coalesced in her palm was not a single volley of magic bullets, but a far denser, far more violent barrage of magical power!
"Repent for your ugliness!"
Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh—!!!
Purple light rained down like a downpour, carrying sacred purifying power, crashing violently into the writhing sea of insects.
There were no violent explosions, only the "pop pop" sounds of insects being instantly vaporized and burned to ash.
Wherever the light bullets reached, the insect swarms melted away like butter touched by a hot iron, bursting into clouds of green, foul-smelling liquid that was completely evaporated by the subsequent torrent of magical power in the next instant.
Medea moved her arms with elegance, and the purple rain of death, as if possessed of its own will, carved a straight, clean path through the insect sea, extending precisely toward the depths of the cavern.
Soon, at the end of the path, a curled-up figure appeared before them.
It was Matou Sakura.
She lay naked on a relatively "clean" pile of insects, her purple hair scattered in disarray, her eyes tightly closed, her beautiful face devoid of all color, as if she had already lost all signs of life.
What made Leo's heart sink even more was that he could see smaller, semi-transparent insects constantly burrowing in and out of the openings in her body. It was as if she was no longer a human being, but merely a "nest" for these insects to inhabit.
"..."
Medea fell silent.
She simply extended her hand, using gentle magical power to slowly lift the unconscious Matou Sakura from the insect pile, suspending her in mid-air before them.
Looking at the girl's defenseless, scarred body, Medea's brows furrowed slightly.
Snap.
She snapped her fingers crisply.
A pristine white cloth appeared from nowhere, moving as if possessed of its own life, gently draping itself over Matou Sakura's body, perfectly concealing the private areas of her chest and between her legs, leaving only her slender limbs and pale face exposed.
This subtle gesture, in this hellish scene, was like a clear spring, revealing the unknown gentleness and kindness hidden deep within this witch's heart.
"Let's go, Master!"
After rescuing her, Medea had no intention of lingering.
She grabbed Leo's arm, another surge of magical power supporting the unconscious Sakura, and the three of them transformed into a streak of light, instantly rushing out of this nauseating basement, out of that sinister mansion, and back onto the quiet, cold streets outside.
Having left that filthy place, the fresh night breeze brushed against his face, and Leo's taut nerves finally relaxed somewhat.
"Master," Medea's voice pulled his thoughts back. She looked at Sakura, still unconscious and floating beside them, and asked with a grave expression, "This girl... what should we do with her?"
"She is Rider's Master, and within her body... there dwells something extremely terrible—an incomplete 'Holy Grail.'"
Leo gazed at Sakura's pale face, his thoughts churning.
The Black Grail... Rider's Master... these identities made her situation incredibly complex.
"Medea," Leo pondered for a moment, then looked up at her, asking with a glimmer of hope, "your Noble Phantasm, [Palingenesia]—can it... heal her?"
"I mean, completely restore her body to the state before those insects modified her."
In his memory, Medea's Noble Phantasm was a healing artifact on the level of causality manipulation, capable of curing almost any wound caused by magic.
However, Medea slowly shook her head, a hint of regret and gravity flowing through her purple eyes.
"I'm afraid not, Master."
She rejected Leo's idea and provided a professional explanation: "The essence of my Noble Phantasm is 'returning all ailments to their origin.' For injuries, contracts, and curses caused by magic, it can eliminate their causality and restore them to an 'undone' state. But..."
Her gaze fell upon Sakura's lower abdomen, as if she could see through the white cloth to the imprint insects tangled within, intertwined with the girl's flesh, magical circuits, and even her soul.
"This girl's situation is no longer a matter of simple 'injury.'"
"She has been continuously modified by those disgusting insects since early childhood for nearly ten years."
"Those imprint insects are no longer external 'sources of harm'—they have become part of her body, highly integrated with her magical circuits and life cycle system. One could even say they are part of her."
Medea's voice grew increasingly grave: "Forcibly using my Noble Phantasm to 'repair' her would be equivalent to denying her very 'existence' over these ten years."
"The result would not be healing, but the complete erasure of her life along with everything else."
"My Noble Phantasm can repair a broken work of art, but it cannot turn a ceramic that has already been fired and hardened back into its original clay."
Hearing her explanation, Leo's last glimmer of hope shattered.
The situation was far more intractable than he had imagined.
"Then... there's no other way?"
"There is," Medea gave an answer, yet it sounded like she was stating an even more difficult objective. "To achieve a miracle of this 'reversing existence' level, I'm afraid only one thing could do it—the legendary omnipotent wish-granting machine, the Holy Grail."
The Holy Grail...
After going in circles, the final answer still came back to the core of this Holy Grail War.
Just as he was lost in thought, Medea suddenly stiffened, her head snapping up to gaze toward a direction in the city.
"Master, please make a decision quickly!"
Her tone became urgent. "The commotion we caused at the Matou residence was too great—we've already alerted her Servant! Rider... is heading this way at high speed! We must leave immediately!"
Rider... Medusa!
Leo's heart tightened.
Encountering her face-to-face on the street while carrying her Master would be one of the worst possible scenarios.
He looked at the unconscious Sakura in his arms, then at the direction from which Rider was approaching, his mind racing.
Fight? Flee?
If he took Sakura with him, he would inevitably be locked in a death struggle with Rider.
But if he left her here, she would either be brought back to that hell by the arriving Rider, or be targeted by other forces who got wind of this.
Neither outcome was something he wanted to see.
Time no longer allowed him to hesitate further.
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