# Chapter 3: Step
Buzz~
A large swarm of Crest Worms flew about, this was Matou Zouken's true body.
These Crest Worms were ugly in appearance, with slender bodies, sharp wings, and compound eyes on both their heads and backs. Roughly estimating, there were over a hundred Crest Worms in total.
"What's wrong, not continuing to attack?"
Matou Zouken's voice came through, not originating from within the insects, but from all directions.
The Crest Worms weren't slow in flight, and there were quite a few of them. Exterminating all these Crest Worms would be somewhat difficult.
These Crest Worms didn't rush toward Su Xiao, but instead flew toward the basement exit. The reason was simple—although Matou Zouken was the head of one of the three great magic families and had lived for over five hundred years, he knew one truth: a magus going head-to-head with a Servant would never end well, especially against a "Servant" as strong as Su Xiao. Moreover, the Matou family's magecraft wasn't particularly outstanding in offensive capabilities.
Su Xiao's figure flickered as he charged straight toward the swarm. There was no way he would let this old worm leave alive today—the other party knew some of his secrets.
Although Su Xiao wasn't afraid of the other six Servants, it was best not to expose himself if possible.
Dozens of hexagonal energy shields materialized around Su Xiao. As soon as the Counter Shields appeared, he immediately cut off the energy supply. This way, the Counter Shields could leave a one-meter radius around him, though they would only last for one minute.
As Su Xiao charged forward, he also manipulated the Counter Shields to fly toward the swarm of Crest Worms hovering in midair.
Upon noticing dozens of crystalline energy shields flying toward him, Matou Zouken instinctively sensed something was wrong and immediately commanded the insects to scatter in all directions. Unfortunately, it was too late.
Dozens of Counter Shields surrounded the Crest Worms flying in midair. All the shields converged, ultimately forming a diamond-shaped barrier. Although the barrier was pieced together from dozens of Counter Shields, it was constructed extremely tightly.
Boom! Boom!
The large swarm of Crest Worms crashed violently within the Counter Shield barrier. These Crest Worms possessed tremendous strength, causing the barrier to rumble continuously from their impacts.
Unfortunately, the Counter Shields, with a strength of 400 points, were not something a magus like Matou Zouken could break through. Let alone a magus—even a Servant might not be able to breach them.
Realizing they couldn't break through the Counter Shield barrier, the Crest Worms stopped their futile efforts and landed on the inner surface of the barrier. The originally translucent barrier turned a murky gray-black.
All the Crest Worms revealed their dense fangs and began gnawing on the Counter Shields from the inside.
Crack, crack, crack...
The gnawing sounds reached an ear-piercing level. The Matou family's magecraft was water-attribute with absorption properties. The old bastard Matou Zouken intended to absorb the barrier's energy, thereby breaking through the Counter Shields.
Su Xiao took a deep breath, forcefully suppressing the activity of the Cyan Steel Shadow Energy within the Counter Shields, reducing their strength.
The Counter Shield barrier flickered with blue light as dense energy channels appeared on its surface.
Crack, crack, crack...
Small holes began to appear on the Counter Shield barrier's surface. It wouldn't be long before it was completely gnawed through.
Having realized that negotiation was useless and having already exposed his true body, Matou Zouken stopped wasting words. He now wanted to escape from this place. As for subsequent revenge, he had many methods. When it came to schemes and calculations, no one was his match.
Su Xiao had appeared too suddenly, and Su Xiao never listened to his enemies' nonsense. Therefore, Matou Zouken's cunning schemes had no opportunity to be employed.
Crack!
The Counter Shield barrier shattered. With a buzz, a large number of Crest Worms rushed out from within the barrier.
"Unknown Servant, you will be the first sacrifice of this Holy Grail War."
Matou Zouken let out a sinister laugh as the swarm of Crest Worms scattered in all directions, preparing to use their numerical advantage to escape.
"After consuming so much of my Cyan Steel Shadow Energy, you still want to leave?"
Zzzt~
Blue-white electric arcs burst forth from within all the Crest Worms.
"Ahhh!!"
A scream rang out as the magical energy within all the Crest Worms began to repel the Cyan Steel Shadow Energy. The Cyan Steel Shadow Energy revealed its fangs—Devouring Annihilation!
One by one, the Crest Worms exploded. Moments later, over a hundred Crest Worms were completely dead.
"Matou Zouken... is dead?"
Matou Kariya's eyes widened wide, as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing.
"Not that easy."
Su Xiao glanced at the notification from Reincarnation Paradise.
[You have eliminated Matou Zouken (2/5)]
[Because Matou Zouken's true body Crest Worms have not died, Matou Zouken will fall into slumber and recover after 5 natural days.]
That old worm wasn't dead—just sleeping. If he died that easily, he wouldn't be an old monster who had lived for five hundred years.
"Bubu."
Su Xiao looked at Bubu Wang. Bubu Wang sighed, pressed his nose close to the Crest Worm corpses on the ground, sniffed, then walked out of the basement.
Su Xiao followed closely behind. Today, Matou Zouken had to die. It had nothing to do with what he had done in the past—this was personal.
Just when Su Xiao had first arrived in the Holy Grail World, Matou Zouken had attempted to have his Crest Worms invade Su Xiao's body. If not for his strong vigilance, Su Xiao, who hadn't been fully teleported yet, would have likely been ambushed by Matou Zouken.
As long as the strength gap wasn't too great, Su Xiao never put off revenge overnight.
Su Xiao and Bubu Wang rushed out of the basement. It was only then that Su Xiao realized this pitch-black building was the Matou family's castle.
As a magic family that had been passed down for several centuries, the castle they lived in was naturally not small. However, the overall tone of this castle was gloomy, like a castle on the verge of abandonment.
The castle was filled with the stench of insects. What Su Xiao needed to do was simple—kill all the Crest Worms in this castle. He didn't believe Matou Zouken could survive that. The other party's consciousness was in slumber, incapable of even resisting.
After rushing up to the first floor, Bubu Wang tracked the insect stench deep into the castle.
After going around in circles, Bubu Wang found a staircase leading downward at a corner on the first floor.
A wooden door blocked the descending staircase. Su Xiao kicked the wooden door to pieces. Behind the door was a pitch-black room. After the wooden door shattered, moonlight streamed into the room. With Su Xiao's vision, the scene inside the room came into view.
This room had no windows—it was almost completely sealed. Only the staircase under Su Xiao's feet could enter the room.
The entire room was a large pool, about 5 meters by 5 meters. The pool was filled with gray writhing worms, densely packed. These worms had mouths full of sharp teeth, squirming within the pool.
Staggering footsteps came from behind Su Xiao. It was the limping Matou Kariya.
Ignoring Matou Kariya, Su Xiao walked down the steps into the insect-filled pool.
As Su Xiao's footsteps advanced, the Crest Worms in the pool writhed and scattered. They were fleeing.
When Su Xiao reached the center of the pool, there wasn't a single Crest Worm within three meters of him.
"None of these are the true body, huh."
Cyan Steel Shadow Energy surged out from beneath Su Xiao's feet, spreading across the ground like a tide.
Squeal~
The Crest Worms let out screams. Whenever they were touched by the Cyan Steel Shadow Energy, their bodies were like snow meeting a hot iron.
Pop, pop, pop...
Every Crest Worm that touched the Cyan Steel Shadow Energy exploded. For these semi-energy-based Crest Worms, Cyan Steel Shadow Energy was practically a natural enemy.
As the Cyan Steel Shadow Energy swept through, over a thousand Crest Worms in the pool all died.
"Huh?"
A weak female voice came through. A completely naked little girl stood up in the insect pool. Amidst the broken corpses of the Crest Worms, this purple-haired little girl's fair body was especially conspicuous.
Su Xiao walked forward. The purple-haired little girl raised her head. Her eyes, which should have been innocent and naive, were instead dull and lifeless.
The little girl was named Matou Sakura. She should have been called Tohsaka Sakura. Unfortunately, she had encountered a father who was a disaster for his daughter—Tohsaka Tokiomi.
Tohsaka Tokiomi was a qualified magus, but he wasn't a good father. In Matou Kariya's words, it was all Tokiomi's fault.
In Su Xiao's view, this statement was completely unreasonable. He didn't know whether Tohsaka Tokiomi was at fault, but he knew one thing—all misfortune was caused by the party's lack of ability. Whether it was killing or protecting, one's own strength had to be sufficient.
Want to protect Sakura? Just kill that old worm. Childhood friend stolen? Just kill Tohsaka Tokiomi.
"Big brother, are you going to kill me?"
Matou Sakura looked up at Su Xiao, one small hand pressed against her flat chest.
"Yeah."
Su Xiao reached his left hand toward Matou Sakura. A desperate roar came from behind.
"Stop!"
Matou Kariya lunged forward, no longer caring about the gap in their strength.
"Ugh~"
Matou Sakura, who had been resigned to death, let out a dry heave, rolled her eyes, looking somewhat adorably dazed. From her mouth, she actually spat out a strangely shaped insect.
This insect was entirely blood-red, with a round head. As soon as this slender-bodied insect left Matou Sakura's mouth, it rushed toward the room's only exit.
"Grandfather?"
Sakura tilted her head, looking at the insect on the ground. She raised her little foot to step on it. This was Matou Zouken's true body.
With a soft thud, her fair little foot stepped on empty air.
Just as that insect escaped to beside Su Xiao's foot, he raised his foot and crushed the insect with a single step.
[You have eliminated Matou Zouken (4/5)]
[Because Matou Zouken's true body Crest Worms have not died, Matou Zouken will fall into slumber and recover after 64 natural days.]