Chapter 1644: Mutual Scheming

With things having developed to this point, Su Xiao wasn’t surprised. Blood Gate was, after all, a large Adventure Group, one that dominated the Fourth Tier. There’s no way they wouldn’t have a few tricks.

Su Xiao glanced at Rin Tohsaka, Illya, and the others in the distance, thinking about which step had gone wrong. Very soon, his gaze settled on Illya.

The chance that A Mu and Rin Tohsaka had been tracked was low, so the problem was most likely on Illya. One possibility was that, before Su Xiao went to the Einzbern family castle, Blood Gate’s people had already arrived there ahead of time and planted a coordinate on Illya.

Thinking of this, Su Xiao quickly closed in with Rin Tohsaka and the others. On the way, he put that phone into the Team Storage Space.

Right after linking up with Rin Tohsaka, Su Xiao began sensing whether there was some kind of coordinate on Illya, but he wasn’t a perception type, and couldn’t detect anything abnormal.

Su Xiao wasn’t disappointed. Instead, he led everyone toward the center of Fuyuki City, moving quickly through the streets—the final battle had started ahead of schedule.

While Su Xiao’s side was rushing toward Fuyuki City’s Central District, inside the Barrier in the unfinished building out on the outskirts, a Contractor was sitting on a metal chair with his eyes closed. His body was covered in leads that stabbed deep into his flesh.

“Leader, they’re heading toward Fuyuki City’s Central District.”

The Contractor covered in wires spoke, transmitting this crucial piece of intel directly to Stan. At that moment, Stan was near Fuyuki City’s Central District.

Through special channels, Stan had learned that The Church had already dispatched people. That confirmed for him that Su Xiao now understood what their team’s Main Task was. This was a situation bordering on despair.

Stan didn’t despair. He immediately ordered an assassination squad to quietly leave the Barrier, intending for that squad to find a way to pin Su Xiao down. They were to delay him for as long as possible, because Blood Gate already had Kirei Kotomine’s coordinates. Now it was a competition of speed—whoever reached him first would win.

After receiving the news that Su Xiao was heading for the Central District, Stan’s steps faltered. Kirei Kotomine’s position was at the edge of Fuyuki City, yet Su Xiao’s direction of movement was clearly a straight charge toward them.

Su Xiao’s move genuinely puzzled Stan. He knew exactly how difficult Su Xiao was to deal with. This kind of reckless behavior meant either Su Xiao was consumed by rage and had lost his Reason, or he had some other plan.

“Stan, what do we do? He’s charging straight at us. Should we gather everyone and wipe him out?”

Naloi spoke as he drew a hand across his throat. Stan said nothing, because he knew any wrong decision now could lead to utter ruin.

“You and Old Smoker stay back and block him.”

“No problem.”

Naloi stopped immediately. Old Smoker at his side, however, hesitated. Iron Rat’s miserably gruesome death was still fresh in his mind.

“Leader, he’s close now. At most one kilometer. Nine hundred meters, seven hundred, five hundred—he stopped.”

“Hm? Stopped?”

Stan paused for a moment, his thoughts racing, then suddenly roared at Naloi and Old Smoker.

“Move. Get to the coordinate at top speed.”

“We’re not blocking Bai Ye anymore?”

“It already… doesn’t mean anything.”

Stan leapt onto the roof of a private residence, jumping quickly between the low buildings. Naloi and Old Smoker didn’t know what was going on, but they still chose to follow.

In a dark alley under the night sky, a black-and-white figure was sprinting flat out. Judging from that swaggy drifting move it pulled when turning the corner, who else could it be but Bubu Wang.

Right now Bubu Wang was running for its life, even burning the energy it usually saved for wrecking houses. It had a phone clamped in its jaws—the very phone belonging to Priest Dao En, the one Blood Gate’s Adventure Group had originally wanted to destroy, but failed to.

The reason Blood Gate had been able to locate Su Xiao was indeed because they had set a coordinate on Illya. It wasn’t that they had foreknowledge, but that they had taken precautions in advance, and incidentally kept tabs on this Master’s movements.

After Su Xiao arrived at the Einzbern castle, Stan and the others received the news. When they learned Su Xiao was going to contact the Magician Association to report Kirei Kotomine, both Stan and Naloi guessed that Su Xiao had figured out their Main Task.

Once Su Xiao’s report went through, Stan felt that method was pretty good as well. But he knew his own movements were under surveillance, so the suggestion was put forward by Naloi. Although the husband and wife weren’t exactly harmonious, their acting skills were decent. As a result, Bubu Wang didn’t notice anything off. When Stan contacted the Magician Association, he conveniently reported Su Xiao too, though that didn’t have much effect.

What happened after that was simple. Priest Dao En arrived, and the moment he took out that phone, his Life was destined to come to an end.

Blood Gate’s first shot had been aimed at destroying that phone, but at the same instant Priest Dao En produced it, Su Xiao, out of caution, snatched it from his hand. It wasn’t that he had foreknowledge of the bullet; he had already intended to grab the phone anyway, and so he was one step faster than the bullet.

This series of events proved that Blood Gate did indeed have the qualifications to dominate the Fourth Tier. In the early stage of the Holy Grail World, they had been somewhat stunned by Su Xiao’s onslaught, but once they recovered, this team-machine started running at full speed.

Right now, both sides had coordinates. Whoever reached the coordinate first and seized or killed Kirei Kotomine would be the winner.

A few minutes ago, Su Xiao’s direct charge toward Stan’s trio had really caught them off guard, because instead of heading for the coordinate, Su Xiao had rushed in the opposite direction.

Su Xiao was deliberately drawing their attention, afraid they wouldn’t notice him, and even brought along Illya, this “mole”—or rather, Illya herself had no idea she was a mole.

Su Xiao was doing this to buy time for Bubu Wang. Everything happening now had unfolded within just a few minutes. Rin Tohsaka and Illya were both completely bewildered, standing in the pitch-black alley—two Meng Mei silently questioning: Who am I, where am I, and who just attacked us?

After sprinting a few steps, Su Xiao leapt high into the air. His fingers hooked like claws into the outer wall of a tall building, and he climbed upward at extreme Speed.

At the fastest possible pace, he set up Duke of Extinction on the rooftop, then activated the thermal sensing device. After a quick search, he locked onto three rapidly moving red dots one kilometer away.

Boom, boom, boom…

Su Xiao began raining fire indiscriminately on Stan’s trio. Whether he could hit them didn’t matter as much right now; holding them back was what mattered.

Stan’s figure, leaping swiftly between the houses, suddenly faltered as a bullet blasted into the ground five meters beside him.

Stan and the other two gritted their teeth and forced their way through Duke of Extinction’s barrage toward the West side of Fuyuki City, but Duke of Extinction was not something you could just shrug off. The three of them were noticeably slowed.

After a round of wild bombardment, the three finally rushed out of Duke of Extinction’s maximum range and vanished into the night. At the next instant, Su Xiao suddenly disappeared from the rooftop as well, his whereabouts unknown.

On the outskirts of Fuyuki City, the Barrier in a cluster of unfinished buildings opened. More than a hundred Contractors burst out from within. The sight was spectacular. They were all charging in the same direction—rushing to the West side of Fuyuki City.