Multiverse: Becoming a Giant of Light, Godslayer from the Start

Rin froze as she listened to Kotomine Kirei's twisted monologue. Her mind went completely blank but tears silently streamed down her cheeks. Su Mo frowned, stepping forward with her in tow. That's when they saw it. In the backyard of the Tohsaka estate, Kirei stood cackling with unhinged delight as he looked down at a corpse at his feet.

And the body lying there could only be—

"Father!"

Rin screamed and stumbled forward, rushing to the collapsed figure in red. Just seeing the crimson suit was enough to fill her with dread. She turned the body over and saw the twisted, unbelieving expression frozen on her father's face.

She touched his hand.

Cold.

He had clearly been dead for several minutes already. They had arrived too late. In his chest, a short blade remained embedded—an Azoth dagger. A standard gift that magi often gave to their apprentices as a graduation token. Rin remembered it clearly. This exact dagger had been her father's gift to Kotomine Kirei. And that bastard had used it to murder him.

"——"

The realization filled Rin with rage. Her tear-filled eyes turned to Kirei, who stood nearby, unmoving. It was this man—this traitor—who had killed her father. She wanted nothing more than to tear him apart. But now wasn't the time. She turned back around and dropped to her knees before Su Mo.

"Lord Su Mo, please... I beg you... can you save my father?"

The young girl clung to Su Mo's leg, pleading through choked sobs.

"…"

The power of the Sun could only restore his own life—it could not bring back the dead. Su Mo was about to say just that. But then he looked into her grief-stricken eyes… and hesitated.

"I'll try."

In her hopeful gaze, Su Mo placed his hand over the body and tried. After a few moments, he shook his head.

"The dead... can no longer be rekindled with the fire of life."

"Give him a proper burial."

With that, Su Mo looked up and turned his gaze to Kotomine Kirei. Even he hadn't expected this outcome. Without Gilgamesh's influence, Tohsaka Tokiomi still ended up stabbed in the back by Kirei. By all logic, the Kotomine Kirei of the Fourth War shouldn't have awakened to his twisted nature without Gil's influence. Something must've happened in this timeline—something that prematurely awakened his depravity.

Su Mo hadn't paid much attention to such side details before. He had always focused on winning the Holy Grail War—not on the lives of irrelevant figures like Tohsaka Tokiomi. If not for Sakura's circumstances, he wouldn't have bothered with any of this. In fact, because of what had happened to Sakura, he felt nothing but disgust toward Tokiomi.

Trying to give away his own daughter to another family was one thing. But to not even investigate how the Matou family's magecraft had changed, or the threat posed by Zouken...

It was pure negligence. And even if he claimed "it's improper to pry into another family's magecraft," that was just a cheap excuse—one that proved he had chosen magecraft over his daughter's life. That was not the choice a father should make. Sure, Tokiomi had once pinned hopes on Sakura, just like Rin. But that didn't change the fact that he never once asked what Sakura herself wanted. Imposing his will upon the lives of others—especially his own daughter—was the true hallmark of a cold-blooded magus.

Sakura's suffering was a direct result of Tokiomi prioritizing his ideals over his child. And his arrogance as a "successful" man had blinded him to Kotomine Kirei's descent into darkness. His death couldn't exactly be called just deserts. But it was certainly a consequence of the seeds he had sown.

Su Mo felt no sympathy. Still… looking at Rin's tear-streaked, trembling figure now, begging on her knees—

Even he couldn't just turn a blind eye. He couldn't help but feel that this was too cruel an experience for a child to bear. Sure, it was still better than the original timeline—where Rin not only lost her father but was also taken in and raised by her father's killer.

No matter how much of a failure Tokiomi might have been to Sakura, to Rin, he had always been a proper father. After some thought, Su Mo said, "If you don't mind your father coming back as a zombie, I could technically bring him back in corpse form soon enough."

It would only require one authority over the underworld. Just like how the Marquis of Voban did it. Such resurrected individuals would retain their memories and personality, making them significantly more stable than Dead Apostles.

One could even say it was a different form of immortality. However, upon hearing Su Mo's suggestion, Rin wiped her tears, hesitated for a moment, and then firmly shook her head.

"Thank you, but no."

"Father once said—a magus must carry the pride of a magus."

"Even in death, he must remain elegant and never tarnish the honor of the Tohsaka family."

She was deeply grateful for Su Mo's offer. But Rin couldn't accept a version of her father that returned like that. She knew that her father wouldn't want to return in such a state either. With those words, Rin finally came to terms with the reality of her father's death. Then, she turned her gaze toward Kotomine Kirei, her eyes burning with hatred.

"Why did you do this?!" The young girl's voice rang out with fierce anger. But faced with her accusatory glare, Kirei simply responded with a strange smile.

"Indeed. Why, I wonder?"

"Even now, facing your hatred, I don't feel the slightest trace of guilt."

"Is it because my sense of morality differs from others'? Or is it simply that my mind works differently?"

"In any case, I'm sorry, Rin."

"I don't feel any remorse. Not even a sliver. Only joy." Kirei spoke with startling honesty. Ever since he realized he had been targeted by Su Mo—the so-called god—he had given up on any chance of escape. In these final moments, he chose to show his true self. Ironically, his honesty only served to deepen Rin's fury. If Kirei had given any proper reason—revenge, jealousy, even a warped sense of justice—Rin wouldn't have forgiven him, but she could have at least understood it.

But there was none of that. No motive, no enmity. He had simply done it because it made him feel joy. Not only was there no regret—he actually savored it. Such a being didn't even deserve to be called human.

"You… monster!"

Rin's voice was filled with hatred as she stared him down, trembling with fury. She wanted nothing more than to tear him to shreds. But she was still too small, too powerless. Even with her father's killer right in front of her, she couldn't exact revenge. Just as despair was settling in over her helplessness, she felt a gentle warmth on her head. Like a comforting hand from a father… or a mother.

She looked up. It was Su Mo. He was gently patting her head.

"I'll lend you my strength. Go." His voice was quiet, steady. Rin nodded. She could feel a warm power flowing from Su Mo's palm into her body. It was the blessing of the [Youth]. Her abilities were temporarily elevated to match the level of a Heroic Spirit.

And so…

The little girl clenched her fists, gripping a jewel tightly in her hand. She recalled the feeling of Ishtar's gemstone sorcery. And then, she charged at her father's murderer.

…

…

There's no need to describe the scene of a young girl's revenge in detail. It wasn't the kind of sight one would find satisfying or pleasant. Suffice to say—after avenging her father, Rin still had the responsibility of consoling her mother. Too much had fallen onto the shoulders of this small, young girl.

Fortunately, with Su Mo's help, things went smoother than expected. After leaving behind the promise that Rin could always come to him for help, Su Mo finally departed from the Tohsaka residence and returned to the Matou manor.

To his surprise, waiting for him there weren't just Illyasviel, Irisviel, Sakura, Okita Souji, and Kiyohime—but two unexpected visitors as well. One was the captured Assassin: Jack the Ripper. The other was a silver-haired little girl, about four or five years old, who looked like she had completely given up on life.

Upon questioning, Su Mo learned that Assassin had attempted to sneak in during his absence, hoping to take out Saber and Caster. The idea was to avoid confronting Su Mo—the divine threat head-on—and instead eliminate his Servants, thus disqualifying him as a Master. A clever plan, originally devised by Iskandar the Conqueror.

No matter how strong Su Mo was, if they could bypass him entirely, they might still secure the Holy Grail. The only problem: Iskandar had already been flattened by Ishtar, and this backup plan never got off the ground. Instead, Jack had been sent in to carry it out. Unfortunately for her, she didn't even make it into the manor.

Illyasviel spotted her right away and immediately blasted her with a mana cannon, knocking her unconscious on the spot. Okita and Kiyohime didn't even get a chance to act. The battle was over in a blink.

While interrogating Jack didn't yield much useful intel, they were about to dispose of her when another unexpected guest showed up—this gloomy little girl named Caren. Though not Jack's Master, she had been accompanying her.

When she saw that Jack hadn't returned after being ordered to attack the Matou estate, she realized something had gone wrong. Unable to reach Kotomine Kirei and unwilling to lose this foolish little Assassin who called her "big sister," Caren had mustered her courage and walked straight into enemy territory.

And promptly got captured by Illya. Caren still didn't understand why Illya, whom she'd only met once, was being so polite to her. But given that she was now sitting inside the enemy stronghold, all she could do was wait for the judgment of the so-called "god."

"Huh… Kotomine really had that many Command Spells…"

Glancing at Jack's condition, Su Mo finally understood why the Assassin was still clinging to her spiritual form even after Kirei's death. Clearly, to ensure she completed the mission and took down Saber and Caster, Kirei had burned through multiple Command Spells to pump her full of mana. That excess energy was the only reason she remained anchored to this world. Even with everything that had happened, Jack still had enough mana to last several more days.

The only thing Su Mo couldn't figure out was why Kotomine Kirei would go this far. That man had no particular desire for the Holy Grail—or at least, he wasn't supposed to. So why had he gone to such lengths to eliminate their Servants?

Could it be that he wasn't satisfied with just harvesting joy from Tokiomi Tohsaka's death? Did he intend to extract that same twisted pleasure from Su Mo himself? Was he hoping to see the expression on the "War God's" face as he was caught off guard? Now that the man was dead, Su Mo could only speculate. But that guess was probably right on the mark.