Chapter 26: The Hired Killer
A trailer drove through the streets of Fuyuki City. Tohsaka Rin, seated in the special seat at the back, let out a long sigh of relief. They had finally reached a smoother stretch of road.
The riding experience in the special seat was terrible. This was evident from Illya's despairing little face. However, the special seat had one advantage: safety. With Amu and Heracles standing guard, their physiques alone would block any enemy's desire to attack these two Masters once they positioned themselves in front of Tohsaka Rin and Illya.
"Where exactly is Kirei Kotomine?"
Inside the trailer's canopy, Su Xiao was sketching out an electronic map. If nothing went wrong, he could settle his grudge with Stan tonight.
"Underground."
Father Dawn, in the driver's seat, spoke up. Though he wasn't skilled in combat, his tracking ability was top-notch within the Holy Church. In fact, he was a logistics personnel.
"Kirei... I'm sorry. Kirei Kotomine knows us well. We originally thought we knew him too, but it seems that's not the case. It's hard to imagine that someone with such achievements would stoop to such unscrupulous methods."
Father Dawn still wore that lazy expression, as if nothing could pique his interest.
"How are you tracking him?"
"Instinct."
"..."
Su Xiao said nothing, just stared expressionlessly at Father Dawn.
"Hey hey, just kidding. We're almost there. This thing can track Kirei Kotomine's location, unless he takes off the cross on his chest."
Father Dawn held the steering wheel with one hand while reaching into his bosom with the other. Just as Su Xiao thought he was about to pull out some bizarre holy relic, Dawn retrieved a smartphone from his chest. It looked like a fairly smart model.
"A tracker?"
"Of course. How else could I track Kirei Kotomine?"
Father Dawn looked at Su Xiao with surprise. By now, Su Xiao had completely given up any expectations for this priest who carried a smartphone.
"Clergy usually have some aversion to modern tools, including Kirei Kotomine. That makes tracking him easier. The Church naturally knows something about what those two father and son have done in the past, but..."
Bang!
Blood splattered. A bullet pierced through Su Xiao's arm. But before his arm was fully penetrated, he snatched the phone from Father Dawn's hand with lightning speed. The next moment, another bullet appeared out of thin air, shot through Father Dawn's head, and embedded itself into the coupling ring at the back of the canopy.
With a loud clang, the trailer's cab separated from the rear coupling ring, breaking into two sections.
The special seat at the back only felt a slight jolt, but the front cab flipped sideways, rolling twice before crashing into a house by the roadside, leaving shattered glass everywhere.
The headless trailer traveled nearly a hundred meters before stopping. Amu was the first to jump off, quickly running toward the house that had been smashed open.
Inside the house, the trailer cab was wedged sideways into a wall. Su Xiao stood up in the driver's compartment and stepped out through the front windshield, still holding a bloodstained phone.
Su Xiao shook the blood off the phone. Fortunately, it still worked. The screen displayed a crude map with a red dot blinking near the top.
Su Xiao was in a bedroom. On the bed lay a young couple, sitting upright against the headboard, their eyes filled with terror. The bedding was covered in large chunks of concrete debris. The husband had a swollen bump on his forehead, with traces of blood visible.
It was easy to imagine that while this young couple was sleeping, a trailer cab had suddenly crashed into their bedroom. Their shock and confusion must have been immense, especially seeing a headless corpse twitching involuntarily in the driver's compartment.
Su Xiao brushed the dust off his clothes, calmly pushed open the bedroom door, and even closed it behind him. A few seconds after he left, a woman's scream echoed from the bedroom.
Stepping out of the house, Su Xiao scanned the street. He didn't need to think twice—this was the work of the Blood Gate. No other lone contractor would take such a risk to kill a priest, especially one from the Burial Agency.
"Unexpected."
Su Xiao walked down the street, his gaze growing sharper as he looked around. That shot hadn't come from a distance. If it had, his Instinct ability would have warned him in time.
The bullet had appeared out of thin air in front of Father Dawn and then blown his head off.
Five kilometers away, in a basement, a man and two women stood. The man held a heavy sniper rifle. In front of him was a crystal mirror, showing the image of Su Xiao walking down the street.
"Recalibrate the coordinates."
As the man spoke, he pulled the bolt, ejecting a brass casing. A wisp of smoke drifted from it.
Beside him, a short-haired mature woman held a bullet between her fingers. She kissed it gently and murmured something under her breath.
The man took the bullet. Throughout the process, his face remained expressionless. He was less a human and more a machine built for killing—numb, mechanical, cold. His name was Death Sentence, a killer specifically trained by the Blood Gate Adventurers to deal with other contractors.
"I can maintain this for one more shot at most. The distance is too great."
Another long-haired girl spoke, her hands clasped together, her eyes shimmering with colorful light.
"That's enough."
Death Sentence took the bullet from the short-haired woman, loaded it, pulled the bolt, aimed, and targeted Su Xiao in the crystal mirror.
Death Sentence didn't fire immediately. Instead, he drew a tactical knife from his waist and slashed open the artery in his arm. Blood sprayed out.
Unexpectedly, Death Sentence's blood flowed upward, clinging to the heavy sniper rifle.
After thirty seconds, the short-haired woman couldn't bear it anymore and said urgently, "Death Sentence, if you keep bleeding, you'll die first."
"Not enough. Far from enough. He's strong, so..."
With a slash, the tactical knife cut across the short-haired woman's neck. She turned to look at Death Sentence, her eyes blazing with anger.
"Are you an idiot? I've told you dozens of times—if you need blood, notify me in advance, and cut the arm."
The short-haired woman clutched her throat with one hand while pulling out a hemostatic potion with the other. Just a few seconds of blood loss had left her weak, all due to that mystical sniper rifle.
Death Sentence ignored her. He slowly pulled the trigger. With a loud bang, the bullet left the barrel and entered the crystal mirror. That shot wouldn't just be deadly to Su Xiao; even Amu with his shield couldn't withstand it head-on.
At the same time, Su Xiao, walking down the street, suddenly felt his hair stand on end. This wasn't a premonition of danger; it was his Instinct ability warning him. A bullet had already appeared in front of him, just a few centimeters from his brow.
At such close range, Su Xiao had no time to dodge. The bullet embedded itself into his head, exited through the back of his skull, and slammed into the asphalt road behind him with a thud.
Su Xiao kept walking, completely unharmed. Seeing this through the crystal mirror, the pale-faced Death Sentence remained expressionless, but the next moment, he collapsed to the ground. He had lost 90% of his blood. If he weren't a contractor, he would have been dead long ago.
Su Xiao had dodged that devastating bullet thanks to his Dragon Shadow Flash ability. He had paused briefly while penetrating space, causing the bullet to miss him.
The bad news now was that the Blood Gate people had somehow left the barrier, and without Beini noticing. Even worse, they had tracked down Su Xiao's location.