Chapter 737: Heroic Spirits Gather (Fifth update, extra update for debt repayment)

The scene shifted from a "friendly" negotiation to a direct confrontation.

"Am I wrong to say that knights are equivalent to fools? Knightly virtues seem noble and glamorous, but they are actually self-contradictory. How can one show mercy while heroically slaughtering enemies? How can one be humble while being honest and outspoken? These virtues are merely tools used by those in high positions of power to bind the strong. Some of these virtues are indeed good, but where did the word 'knight' come from? Was it a title bestowed by some clever king?"

Su Xiao was smiling. If he could enrage Saber, the possibility of the two sides meeting would be even greater.

"For example, a knight protects a princess. While protecting her, the princess is likely to have her heart stirred and develop feelings for the knight. But don't forget, the princess ultimately marries another prince, not the knight."

"You might be right, but that is no reason for you to kill for pleasure." Saber was not stupid; she knew Su Xiao was trying to provoke her, so she did not speak again.

Killing for pleasure? Had he said that? Su Xiao thought for a moment. He seemed to have said that while spouting nonsense earlier. As expected, Saber would not be easily provoked.

"This is what you call cooperation? If this is the case, then there is no possibility of us working together."

Emiya Kiritsugu picked up the phone; he had already heard that Su Xiao had no intention of cooperating.

"There once was, but as for now... you took too long to consider, Emiya Kiritsugu."

Su Xiao hung up the phone. According to his plan, this call should have rung a day ago. He had already left Emiya Kiritsugu time to consider, but unfortunately, the other party took too long, and there was no longer any possibility of cooperation between the two sides.

In the bedroom, Su Xiao crushed the phone in his hand.

"Then... let the Holy Grail War continue. I wonder how many Heroic Spirits are still alive."

Su Xiao was already prepared to continue participating in the Holy Grail War. If he wanted to complete the main quest—that is, to touch the Holy Grail—he first had to make the Holy Grail descend.

As the Holy Grail War stood now, two more conditions needed to be met for the Holy Grail to descend.

First was the vessel. The vessel already existed: Emiya Kiritsugu's wife, Irisviel, that beautiful young woman. She was a homunculus, the vessel prepared by the Einzbern family for the Holy Grail's descent.

The Einzbern family appeared upright on the surface, but they were actually a family of old schemers. First, they used Irisviel to get Emiya Kiritsugu into the Einzbern family to become a son-in-law, and then they let Emiya Kiritsugu participate in the Holy Grail War on their behalf. In this way, Irisviel was both the vessel and the person used to represent the Einzbern family in the Holy Grail War. It could be said to be killing two birds with one stone.

Although it sounded a bit harsh, that was exactly what the Einzbern family did, calling it trust in Emiya Kiritsugu.

As for the second condition for the Holy Grail's descent, it was to "fill it up" with the souls of Heroic Spirits. In other words, the more Heroic Spirits died, the closer the Holy Grail was to descending.

What Su Xiao needed to do was find other Heroic Spirits and then eliminate them. If time permitted, he could also wait for those Heroic Spirits to kill each other.

The Devouring Core could devour Heroic Spirit energy, so Su Xiao would not just watch the show; he had to participate in it. His Qing Gang Ying ability was about to be upgraded to Lv. 20, at which point his strength would increase. Perhaps the Qing Ying Wang could awaken? Of course, that possibility was slim.

That night, Su Xiao did not take action but instead had a comfortable sleep to recharge his energy. He had previously experienced many high-intensity battles and hadn't closed his eyes for two days and two nights. Being able to persist until now was not only due to his powerful body but also his sufficiently strong willpower.

The next day at noon.

Sunlight shone into the bedroom through the gaps in the curtains. Su Xiao was leaning against the head of the bed, holding a tablet computer. He wasn't playing games; he was checking the recent news in Fuyuki City.

"No riots, no large-scale destruction, only a large number of missing children. Interesting."

From this information, it could be seen that the other Heroic Spirits shouldn't have clashed in the past two days. The commotion of a battle between Heroic Spirits was not small; even with the cover of the Holy Church, it would leave traces, and the news would report things like accidental fires in certain places.

As for the case of the large number of missing children, based on information from the original work, Su Xiao guessed it was done by the Caster faction. The Master and Heroic Spirit of the Caster faction were very strange; their goal was not the Holy Grail, but rather killing people everywhere and searching for Saint Joan of Arc. Joan of Arc had the possibility of becoming a Heroic Spirit, but she did not appear in this Holy Grail War.

Although there were no clues, Su Xiao did not believe those Masters and Heroic Spirits would remain calm forever. He just had to wait now.

For the entire day, Su Xiao did not go out, but instead played poker with Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang and Matou Sakura in the house. It was unlikely for Heroic Spirits to fight during the day, as that would cause huge riots; they usually fought at night.

Around 7:00 that night, Su Xiao was performing routine maintenance on Zhan Long Shan when a magical fluctuation appeared nearby, and it was getting closer.

Swoosh~

A chariot sped through the air. Su Xiao rushed to the window in a few steps and looked at the chariot in the distance. It was a carriage, or more accurately, a Noble Phantasm of a Heroic Spirit.

"Conqueror King, the Rider faction, huh."

Sheathing Zhan Long Shan, Su Xiao opened the window and jumped out of the room.

"Xiang Bubu, stop sleeping, time to work."

Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang's ears twitched on the sofa. It jumped off the sofa, grabbed the bewildered Matou Sakura, and rushed out the window. Matou Kariya, covered in black smoke, followed closely behind.

Su Xiao sped through the night, following the chariot in the sky from afar. With his Agility attribute, keeping up with the chariot on foot was no problem.

On the outskirts of Fuyuki City, inside an abandoned factory.

Boom.

Mud and rocks splashed. A pitch-black figure flew out of the factory area, crashed through a wall, and rolled a few times on the nearby road before stopping.

This is Hassan-i-Sabbah (Hundred Faces), the Assassin among the seven Heroic Spirits; his gender is unknown, and his abilities are somewhat peculiar.

Hassan-i-Sabbah (Hundred Faces)'s combat ability was not top-tier, and he suffered from a mental disorder with multiple personalities. This did not become his weakness; instead, it became his ability.

Because of his multiple personalities, Hassan-i-Sabbah (Hundred Faces) could separate different personalities independently and allow those personalities to obtain physical bodies. This was no longer as simple as a clone; it was a split.

Hassan-i-Sabbah (Hundred Faces) could split into a total of 80 personalities, each with an independent consciousness and body, capable of acting alone. This ability had a weakness: if he chose to split, his total magical power remained unchanged. In other words, the more he split, the weaker the individual strength became.

If fighting against other Heroic Spirits, choosing to split was not a wise decision, for example, right now.

The one fighting Hassan-i-Sabbah (Hundred Faces) was Saber. The cause was simple: Hassan-i-Sabbah (Hundred Faces) came to assassinate Saber's proxy Master, Irisviel, who was Emiya Kiritsugu's wife. Saber's Instinct sensed something wrong and stopped Hassan-i-Sabbah (Hundred Faces), who had almost succeeded. Helpless, Hassan-i-Sabbah (Hundred Faces) had no choice but to fight Saber.

Wearing battle armor and holding a transparent holy sword, Saber walked out from the hole in the wall. Naturally, she would not go easy on a Heroic Spirit who tried to assassinate her Master.

"Shameless villain, to actually try to use despicable means to assassinate my Master..." Before Saber could finish speaking, the roar of a chariot came from the high sky in the distance.

"Slow down~ I'm going to throw up."

The chariot landed, and a crying shout came from it. It was the Conqueror King's Master, Waver Velvet. This kid had a fair complexion and a weak voice. Standing next to the big and tall Conqueror King, he looked like a "Queen" no matter how you looked at it. Although he was male, there was a saying: if someone is this cute, they are of course a boy.

"Don't mind these small things. It's really lively today."

Conqueror King Iskandar wore a red cloak, his hair was full red, and even his beard was wine-red. He gave people a feeling of being rugged and grand. Of course, this guy had the potential to be a blockhead.

The Conqueror King's strength was very strong. If ranking the strength of the seven Heroic Spirits, he could rank in the top few. His strength did not lie in individual power, but in group warfare, the surging tide of people.

"Saber, Assassin, your relentless fighting is wonderful."

Conqueror King Iskandar gave a thumbs up. At this moment, Saber (Artoria) and Assassin (Hundred Faces) were already stunned. They didn't know what this guy was trying to do. Participate in the battle? It didn't look like it.

"However... the Heroic Spirits attracted by this battle are definitely not just me. Those cowards who are still hiding their heads and showing their tails, when fighting you, they will inevitably suffer the humiliation of me, Conqueror King Iskandar."

The "blockhead" was worthy of being a blockhead; he provoked the other Heroic Spirits present as soon as he appeared.

Su Xiao, who was observing the situation not far away, didn't care. He prepared to wait quietly for the situation to develop. Too many Heroic Spirits were gathered now. Rather than saying it was going to be a chaotic battle, it was better to say the Heroic Spirits were formally declaring war on each other.

Su Xiao didn't care, but other Heroic Spirits cared about the Conqueror King's provocation, such as a very arrogant Heroic Spirit.

Golden light spots emerged, and a Heroic Spirit in full golden armor appeared. He stood on a street lamp by the road, looking down at the crowd below. That gaze seemed to be looking at a group of ants. Although there were multiple Heroic Spirits below, he was calm and composed.

It was the Heroic King Gilgamesh. He looked down at the Heroic Spirits present and said arrogantly: "Rats who call themselves kings behind my back."

"That really hurts my heart. I, Iskandar, am the world-famous and unique Conqueror King..."

"Ridiculous."

"Golden Flash" Gilgamesh interrupted the Conqueror King's words.

"The only Heroic Spirit who can be called a king is me, in heaven and on earth. The others are just making up the numbers..."

"Tokiomi!!"

A roar came. Matou Kariya, covered in black smoke, stood by the road, looking up at the Heroic King. He didn't know how he sensed that the Heroic King was Tohsaka Tokiomi's Heroic Spirit.

"Hm?"

The Heroic King frowned slightly and looked at Matou Kariya.

"You mad dog, who allowed you to look at me!"

Circles of golden spatial ripples appeared behind the Heroic King, and several Noble Phantasms poked out from the golden spatial ripples, revealing their tips. These Noble Phantasms were not high-ranked; the Heroic King would not use his full strength as soon as he made a move. Although he was arrogant, he was not brainless.

"Roar!"

Responding to the Heroic King was a roar.

"Use your death to please me, mad dog."

Swoosh~

Several Noble Phantasms shot out, extremely fast, stabbing straight at Matou Kariya. With Matou Kariya's strength, facing this kind of attack, he would be dead or crippled.

Clang.

A pale blue blade light cut through the night sky, and those few low-ranked Noble Phantasms were directly cut off, turning into light particles and dissipating.

"Looking at you, is there a fee? The golden one."

Su Xiao stood on a wall not far away. The night wind blew, and the hem of his black windbreaker fluttered loudly.

"And which mongrel are you?"

The Heroic King raised his chin slightly. His Noble Phantasms were destroyed; although they were just ordinary Noble Phantasms, it still made him very unhappy.

"You just... used the word mongrel, right."

The smile on Su Xiao's face disappeared, and a sharp and ferocious aura spread out.

"This is not good."

The Conqueror King blocked in front of his Master, Waver. Waver was so scared by this aura that his legs were trembling. Saber, not far away, made a dash to stand in front of Irisviel, protecting her.

"I'm talking about you, mongrel."

Although the Heroic King felt that Su Xiao's aura was terrifying, his expression didn't change much.

"Me? According to the current situation, I am a 'Heroic Spirit'. In my 'previous life', I was a human, and your aura... has the taste of a false god, and also human characteristics. God + human mix, who is the real mongrel?"

Su Xiao usually didn't actively look for trouble, but when faced with a direct provocation, he never backed down.

"No more words."

The golden spatial ripples behind the Heroic King increased. Dense and numerous, at least dozens of them.

"My thoughts exactly. Your Noble Phantasms are not bad, especially the blade-type ones."

Su Xiao slowly drew Zhan Long Shan from his waist. If it were a long-range battle, he would not be the Heroic King's opponent, but if he could get close, with the opponent's B-rank Strength, B-rank Endurance, and B-rank Agility, if he didn't hack the opponent until they doubted their life, he would immediately find a piece of tofu and crash into it. As for the opponent's Sword of Rupture, with Su Xiao's slashing speed, plus the Heroic King's arrogant personality, it was highly likely he would be hacked to death by Su Xiao before he could even take it out. ===== CHAPTER 738 =====