Chapter 62: Interlocking Rings
Su Xiao began to adjust his state, first closing his eyes and taking deep breaths to ensure sufficient oxygen content in his blood. If he missed this opportunity, he would have to fight his way into the Einzbern family castle and engage Saber in direct combat.
There were even stronger enemies waiting for Su Xiao. A frontal confrontation with Saber now would be unwise.
Su Xiao leaned his head toward the scope of the Spider Empress, having fully adjusted his state.
Above the castle, the Apostle's Eye, made entirely of rare metal, floated upward. The main material of the Apostle's Eye was Ramir Alloy. Ramir Alloy's strength was not exceptional, even inferior to refined steel, but it had strong adaptability—like a chameleon among metals, it could blend with the aura of most objects. Precisely because of this, mining and extracting Ramir metal was extremely difficult, making this metal incredibly expensive.
Hum~
The Apostle's Eye emitted a pulse. Almost instantly, this pulse swept across the entire castle.
Su Xiao's mental energy had already linked with the Apostle's Eye. After the pulse was released, the Einzbern family castle in his vision became semi-transparent, revealing dozens of red humanoid figures inside.
Beep. Beep, beep...
Red light flickered on the Apostle's Eye as it rapidly pinpointed which red figure was Emiya Kiritsugu.
Just as the Apostle's Eye released its wave, on the first floor of the castle, Saber, who was chatting with the proxy Master Irisviel, tensed up, her pupils slowly contracting.
Boom!
Mana surged wildly around Saber. A battle dress + battle skirt materialized, the invisible sword "Excalibur" appeared in her hand, her golden hair fluttering, her heroic bearing striking.
"Saber?"
The beautiful young woman Irisviel, who was drinking black tea, was stunned. Due to Saber's mana release, her silver long hair was blown back.
Without a word, Saber directly picked up Irisviel. The marble floor beneath her feet developed fine cracks. Saber's figure flickered, and with a bang, she rushed toward the third floor of the castle—the location of her Master, Emiya Kiritsugu.
At that moment, Emiya Kiritsugu was discussing something with his female assistant. Although Kiritsugu was a Master, his combat instincts were not weak.
"Something's wrong."
Having experienced modern battlefields, Kiritsugu immediately sensed that a sniper had him in their sights. He lunged toward a load-bearing wall nearby. Load-bearing walls were thicker than ordinary walls, and the concrete had been vibration-treated, making them more than ten times stronger than regular walls, with excellent bulletproof performance.
After Kiritsugu dove behind the load-bearing wall, the feeling of being locked onto didn't disappear—it only grew stronger.
Kiritsugu's female assistant was no ordinary person either. To become Kiritsugu's assistant in the Holy Grail War, her strength was evident. She immediately grabbed the briefcase on the table, which contained a sniper rifle disassembled into three sections.
"I command by the power of the Command Seal..."
Kiritsugu wanted to use a Command Seal to forcibly summon Saber, but it was too late. The enemy wouldn't give him that chance.
With a crackling sound, concrete debris flew everywhere. A hole the size of a bucket burst open in the load-bearing wall in front of Kiritsugu, and a grotesquely large bullet shot straight toward his head.
"Time Alter: Triple Accel."
Kiritsugu directly used his strongest ability, Time Alter—a magecraft related to time manipulation that the Emiya family had explored for generations.
Kiritsugu's blood flow accelerated, and the hemoglobin in his body burned at high speed.
The large-caliber sniper bullet flew before Kiritsugu. This should have been a guaranteed hit, but Kiritsugu twisted his body with all his might, moving so fast that afterimages appeared. This wasn't the speed of his physical body—it was the power of time.
Pfft.
Blood splattered. The large-caliber bullet pierced the ground behind Kiritsugu, shot out from another outer wall of the castle, and finally embedded into the mountain rocks behind the castle, leaving a smoking bullet hole.
Drip, drop. Blood dripped from Kiritsugu's cheek. Although he had used Time Alter: Triple Accel, he was only an Servant's Master, lacking the physical resilience of a Servant.
The cheek below Kiritsugu's ear had been torn away, exposing his white teeth. A small part of his lip had been blown off.
Kiritsugu hadn't been directly hit by the Spider Empress's bullet—only grazed. Even so, he was seriously injured. If the bullet had directly struck his head, he would already be a headless corpse.
The effect of Time Alter: Triple Accel faded. Before Kiritsugu could catch his breath, the concrete wall in front of him exploded again, and another bullet pierced through toward him.
At this point, Kiritsugu's mind was groggy, caused by the shockwave from the first bullet. He desperately wanted to use a Command Seal, but unfortunately, using a Command Seal took time. The mana of a Command Seal wasn't his own; a Command Seal was like a "gun"—to fire it, you first needed to pull the trigger. Now, he couldn't even touch the "gun," let alone pull the trigger. He could only use his own mana to survive.
"Time Alter: Quadruple Accel."
Kiritsugu ignored the strain on his body. Whether he could survive the unknown enemy's sniping was uncertain, let alone worrying about overexertion.
Kiritsugu's personal time flow accelerated. The second bullet was aimed at his calf. He immediately lifted his leg, trying to dodge it.
When the large-caliber bullet reached Kiritsugu, its tail opened up metal fins, and the bullet's speed plummeted. This confused Kiritsugu while making his hair stand on end.
Clang!
The bullet suddenly exploded. A piercing sonic wave spread out. When Kiritsugu's body came into contact with this sonic wave, the water molecules inside him became the best medium for sound transmission.
A buzzing sound filled Kiritsugu's ears. His world spun, and everything in his vision became blurred.
At this moment, Kiritsugu was still maintaining Time Alter: Quadruple Accel. In his vision, a third hole appeared in the load-bearing wall in front of him, and a bullet covered in patterns shot toward his face.
Kiritsugu tried to dodge the bullet using his Quadruple Accel state, but his entire body felt as heavy as lead—the effect of the second special ammunition, a stun round.
Bang! The door to Kiritsugu's room was shattered, wood splinters flying. Saber, carrying Irisviel on her shoulder, felt warm liquid splash onto her face, followed by a thick smell of blood.
Thud. A body with its upper half blown apart fell to the ground. Within a few meters around the corpse, blood and organ fragments were splattered everywhere.
Warm chunks of flesh slid down the cheek of the beautiful young woman Irisviel, landing with a wet plop on the floor.
Swoosh~
Another bullet flew in, still piercing through the wall.
With a crackling sound, Kiritsugu's lower body was blown apart. This was the destructive effect of the Spider Empress—both bloody and possessing a brutal beauty.
The female assistant stared blankly at the gore in the room. The assembled sniper rifle slipped from her hands, tears streaming down her cheeks.
The room, filled with the pungent smell of blood, fell into dead silence. The beautiful young woman Irisviel's mouth hung wide open, her eyes bulging to their limit.
"Ah!!"
Irisviel let out a scream, unable to believe what she was seeing.
Saber lowered her head. The mana from her Master was cut off. Although the proxy Master Irisviel was present, she wasn't one of the seven Masters. With the true Master Emiya Kiritsugu dead, Saber would soon dissipate.
"Is this how it ends?"
Saber tightened her grip on Excalibur. She turned her head toward a certain direction outside the window—that was where the bullets had come from.
Just then, her Instinct issued a warning. A scene appeared in her mind: 0.5 seconds later, a bullet would pierce the glass window and shatter Irisviel beside her.
Saber swung Excalibur forward. A high-speed bullet was split in two, the halves embedding into the ground and disappearing.
Boom!
The collision of bullet and sword produced a sonic boom. Saber's feet plowed the ground as she was pushed back a great distance, her palm slightly numb.
"Despicable!"
Saber's emerald-green eyes were filled with helplessness. The enemy's intention was clear: if she chose to pursue, Irisviel would die.
"Saber, don't worry about me. Go find where the enemy is, go now!"
Irisviel, her face covered in tears, was emotionally broken.
"..."
Saber remained silent, standing protectively in front of Irisviel.
"Go avenge Kiritsugu..."
"I'm sorry, I can't do that. I can't watch you die. You are my Master's wife."
Hearing Saber's words, Irisviel fell to her knees and wept bitterly. Sniping enemies was a tactic Emiya Kiritsugu often used, but today, he had died at the hands of a stronger sniper.