After separating from Hoshikatsu, Emiya Kiritsugu walked towards the other end of the castle alone.

Among the "visitors" in that direction tonight, he must be the weakest, but also the one with the worst nature.

"Kotomine Kirei, the most evil priest at the end of the century.

His goal has never been the Holy Grail, but in the process of pursuing the Holy Grail, he can see how many people are struggling for their long-cherished wish."

This is the true historical evaluation of Kotomine Kirei that Emiya Kiritsugu received from Hoshikatsu.

"In short, you are a human being who is exactly the opposite of you, Mr. Kiritsugu."

This was a personal comment that Hoshikatsu later added. However, this subjective comment made Emiya Kiritsugu feel more vivid and realistic.

"A human...?"

The moment Emiya Kiritsugu saw the real person now, he vaguely understood why Hoshikatsu used such awkward words.

Standing far away in an open space in the forest, a sturdy man wearing a black priest's robe and holding three black keys in each hand is alerting the surrounding environment. Presumably, as Assassin's master, he has passed Assassin.

You must have known about Emiya Kiritsugu's approach.

The man dressed in pure black seemed to have holes all over his body, but after careful analysis, there were almost no holes that could really kill him with a single blow.

Although there were some preconceived suspicions, Emiya Kiritsugu could confirm the first impression of "difficult to deal with" when he first saw this man.

【Bang】

Emiya Kiritsugu had no time to hesitate, raised his hand and took aim, firing an armor-piercing bullet.

Now that he discovered that Kotomine Kirei was already on the alert, hiding had lost its meaning. After all, when it came to hiding, no one could compare to Assassin, a servant of this agency.

Whether it was due to his quick reaction or natural instinct, Kirei Kotomine reacted the moment Emiya Kiritsugu fired, twisted his body to the left and rear, and parried the black key in front of him.

And at the same time, he used his few magical powers to strengthen his physical fitness and surface defense.

But even so, the sudden blow in the darkness made him feel a little uncomfortable.

The body took two or three steps back visibly, two of the six black keys fell off, and a trace of blood fell from the arm to the ground.

However, Kotomine Kirei did not care about these injuries at all, and waved his hand to throw the remaining black keys in the direction of the bullet.

As a weapon that appeared in modern times, bullets are extremely powerful, but their trajectory is very straightforward and traceable.

However, of course, no creature in front of the black key was stabbed.

Emiya Kiritsugu, who knew in advance that firing would reveal his position, had already started moving at the moment of firing.

And he was also waiting for the moment when Kotomine Kirei threw out the black key in his hand.

【Da da da, da da da】

Emiya Kiritsugu put away the heavyweight large-caliber single-shot pistol with a limited reload speed, and replaced it with a submachine pistol with an extremely fast firing rate and a huge ammunition capacity. While moving quickly through the forest, he moved towards Kotomine in an irregular manner.

Kirei shoots!

But now, Kotomine Kirei, who had temporarily lost his parry weapon, could only raise his hands to protect his weakest part, his face above the neck.

In this way, Kotomine Kirei, who was hit by such an almost irregular and intermittent attack, could not take advantage of the attack to take out the new black key from his arms, nor could he hide in the dark and attack without caring.

while moving at high speed.

But Emiya Kiritsugu could take advantage of this time to exchange bullets for a large-caliber pistol with one hand!

As long as the bullets from the large-caliber pistol arrive, Kotomine Kirei, who does not have the Black Key as a parry weapon, will be difficult to defend against the bullets from Kotomine Kirei with his body that has been trained to the extreme and the magic power that has only been trained for two years.

The ruthlessness of metal and gunpowder penetrated.

Attacks hidden in the dark, first attacks, metal and gunpowder that flowed like a continuous storm were the advantages that Emiya Kiritsugu had.

In order to prevent this advantage from disappearing, Emiya Kiritsugu will never stop moving at high speed and let Assassin, who is hiding in the dark, confirm his position, and will never take the initiative to approach Kotomine Kirei to give it a try.

Teach the agent the physical skills... In this way, his victory will be within his grasp.

but……

"Sure enough, you have no intention of confronting me head-on?"

Kotomine Kirei, who had been silent from the beginning until now, finally spoke under the baptism of the metal storm.

But at this moment, Emiya Kiritsugu's several seconds of reloading time finally came to an end.

【Bang】

A loud noise came to Kotomine Kirei with a huge impact.

Without enough magic power, he did not have the ability to withstand this blow head-on...

However, there are other existences.

A humanoid object wearing a skull mask stood in front of Emiya Kiritsugu and took the hit from the armor-piercing projectile.

And take advantage of this submachine pistol to change into a single-shot pistol, and the single-shot pistol is changed into the neutral position of the submachine pistol.

Kotomine Kirei stepped on the ground, stirred up the scattered soil, and threw his body out.

Rolling like a donkey, Kotomine Kirei quickly penetrated into the shadows of the forest. Even if Emiya Kiritsugu wanted to pursue again, he could only chase after Kotomine Kirei who was running at high speed and start a rear-end collision for him.

of smoke and dust.

In an instant, the situation was reversed by Kotomine Kirei!

There is no need to waste bullets that cannot hit anyone. Even the bullets of a large number of submachine pistols are not unlimited.

But in the next moment, Emiya Kiritsugu's attention was attracted by the "thing" left by Kotomine Kirei on the ground after fleeing into the darkness.

It was a petite girl in white with a big hole in her chest, with a lot of air coming out and little air coming in. She looked less than ten years old, but the expression on her face now looked particularly painful and sad...

Although the girl in white is indeed wearing the iconic skull mask of Hassan of all appearances. However, no matter how you look at it, you can't tell that such a little girl is a professional killer in the dark night.

At this time, the information from the Star about Assassin in this Holy Grail War appeared in Emiya Kiritsugu's mind.

[Hasan, the Hundred-Faced One, splits into various servants with multiple personalities with different personalities. Use the Noble Phantasm to transform each of these personalities into physical heroic spirits, so that each personality can exist independently and complete the process.

Individuals with different tasks...Of course, among these personalities there are also disguised personalities used for combat and assassination.】

The moment he saw the little girl in the white dress, Emiya Kiritsugu frowned, and then in the next moment he raised the submachine pistol that he had put down again.

【Da da da】

After three submachine gun bullets instantly understood the life of the dying little girl Hassan, Emiya Kiritsugu once again activated his own high-speed movement method using [Inherent Time Control].

This was the most appropriate method to prevent himself from being surrounded by a large number of professional assassins with super agility.

Of course, if Kotomine Kirei could be killed with a long-range sniper, Emiya Kiritsugu would not want to face him head-on, but unfortunately the conditions at night did not allow it.

However, something that you will definitely encounter as long as you are not sniping from a very long distance happened at this time.

On the route of Emiya Kiritsugu's advance, and in each of the three directions, there was a Hassan holding a murder weapon blocking them.

Sure enough, because of the pause in aiming for only a few breaths, Hassan near Emiya Kiritsugu reacted and blocked his path.

"Three people?"

However, this is not a big problem...

【Inherent time control triple speed!】

The pace under his feet suddenly accelerated, surpassing human reaction speed and movement trajectory. Emiya Kiritsugu had no intention of changing direction and rushed straight towards Hassan in the center of the route!

Hassan also raised his sword to kill without any hesitation, but at this moment, Emiya Kiritsugu, who was already close at hand, faced his scimitar and raised the black pistol...

[The number of Assassins is indeed large, but it is not infinite. And because of its large number, the strength of each individual is limited. It can almost be said that a slightly stronger human magician can bully a lone Hassan.

】

"Hoo, ho, ho... It seems that what Saber said is indeed correct."

Emiya Kiritsugu leaned against a big tree and stopped to take a breath.

Looking at the three unknown Hassan whose names he had just killed using the spirit-possessed bullet clip [for use against spirits] provided by the Einzbern family, Emiya Kiritsugu faintly admired them.

The star moment.

Even if they are highly skilled, in this era they still use weapons such as scimitars and daggers, and do not have any decent skills or treasures. They are still unable to withstand the power of long-range bullets and grenades that have been specialized in alchemy.

However, even though he said these words and finally won the battle, there was no joy in his tone.

Because now, Emiya Kiritsugu can truly feel that dozens of Hassan have surrounded him...

"Emiya Kiritsugu, we have finally met... But you are really disappointing me now. You have completely failed to live up to my expectations for you."

Kotomine Kirei's voice came from the gathered Hassan group, and his tone did not hide his disappointment at all.

He originally thought that Emiya Kiritsugu would be a person like him, and might know what he longed for.

But now Kotomine Kirei understands, or should have understood as early as when he saw the image in the photo, that Emiya Kiritsugu is completely different from himself.

Judging from the choice he just made, there was definitely some reason in his heart that prompted him to make that choice.

And he, at least, would not make the same choice as Emiya Kiritsugu just now...that kind of incomprehensible choice.

"...Do you regret it?" Kotomine Kirei asked calmly:

"If you don't stop at that time, you might really be able to fool Assassin as a servant as a human being.
To be continued...