“!”

Kotomine Kirei, who had just infiltrated the temple from the woods next to the stairs, was first stunned when he saw Hikigaya Hachiman behind him. He immediately shot several Black Keys at him, while simultaneously charging toward him.

“Close-quarters combat?”

For the first time since arriving in this world, Hikigaya Hachiman encountered an enemy who chose close combat rather than standing still and casting magecraft.

While feeling surprised, an inexplicable sense of excitement arose in his heart.

“Clang! Clang! Clang…”

The Demon-Slayer Blade instantly appeared in his right hand. After batting away all the incoming Black Keys, Hikigaya Hachiman looked up at Kotomine Kirei, only to find that the opponent had already rushed forward, less than a meter in front of him, bending down and preparing to attack his lower body.

“So fast…”

Completely unlike the slow-moving magi he had encountered before, Kotomine Kirei’s movements were agile, and his attacks were deadly!

Several Black Keys in his hand stabbed straight towards Hikigaya Hachiman’s lower abdomen, while simultaneously, the Black Key in his other hand was aimed at Hikigaya Hachiman’s neck.

No matter which attack Hikigaya Hachiman chose to block, if the other side’s attack landed, it would definitely inflict fatal damage to the fragile human body!

However, Hikigaya Hachiman was not one of the magi Kotomine Kirei had encountered before. Retreating with his right foot, Hikigaya Hachiman swiftly dodged the Black Key thrusting towards his abdomen by turning sideways. At the same time, in his right-hand the Demon-Slayer Blade collided with the Black Key targeting his neck. The immense force traveled rapidly along the Black Key to Kotomine Kirei’s arm, instantly numbing it and causing him to involuntarily drop the key he was holding.

Seeing that the enemy’s weapon in one hand was disarmed, Hikigaya Hachiman immediately lowered the Demon-Slayer Blade to tangle with Kotomine Kirei’s other hand, which was about to withdraw. Simultaneously, prana accumulated in his free left hand. After a delay of a fraction of a second, a powerful Spiritual Stream shot out from his left hand, instantly blasting Kotomine Kirei away!

“I was careless…”

Blasted away by the Spiritual Stream, Kotomine Kirei, whose body was unharmed, instantly rebounded into a standing position with a kip-up when he landed.

He slightly bent his fingers, and several more Black Keys instantly appeared in his hand.

While keeping a cautious distance from Hikigaya Hachiman, Kotomine Kirei looked gravely at his right arm.

Upon it, the original 11 Command Spells inherited from his father, the two transferred from his teacher, plus his own three, totaling 16 Spells, were now reduced to only 14!

“What terrifying power… Even using a Command Spell to negate the damage, one strike required two?”

On the other side, Hikigaya Hachiman was far more surprised than Kotomine Kirei.

The Spiritual Stream Technique, a skill he had obtained almost immediately, should, with his current level of spiritual power (prana) having increased countless times, cause considerable damage if it directly hit a Servant. Yet, Kotomine Kirei, who took a full blow at close range, was completely fine!

“I must finish this quickly!”

Glancing at Sakura, who had dragged Irisviel and hidden in the house since their battle began, Hikigaya Hachiman decisively flashed forward, initiating the offensive.

“Here he comes!”

As Hikigaya Hachiman actively attacked, Kotomine Kirei, having already determined in their previous exchange that his physical strength was inferior, immediately changed his offensive strategy, intending to rely on his martial arts honed through years of combat to cope.

“Sun Breathing—Waltz!”

Taking a deep breath, Hikigaya Hachiman entered the state of the Breathing Technique.

Instantly, his movement speed doubled.

“He was holding back?!”

Kotomine Kirei, who was ready to handle the attack, saw Hikigaya Hachiman’s figure suddenly surge in speed. His pupils instantly contracted, and a Command Spell on his arm was consumed immediately to enhance his physical capabilities.

The moment Hikigaya Hachiman lunged in front of Kotomine Kirei, the latter suddenly bent low, dodging Hikigaya Hachiman’s sweeping strike.

However, Hikigaya Hachiman’s attack did not end there!

The Waltz strike failed. Seeing Kotomine Kirei’s body almost parallel to the ground, Hikigaya Hachiman twisted his body, forcibly turning around in mid-air.

“Sun Breathing—Setting Sun Reverse!”

To Kotomine Kirei’s incredible astonishment, after the sweep, Hikigaya Hachiman instantly turned around for a completely inexplicable reason and launched another attack.

Shocked, helpless, but unwilling to fall so easily, Kotomine Kirei consumed another Command Spell. Instantly, his body, at an equally unbelievable angle, almost scraped past the edge of the Demon-Slayer Blade, flipping and dodging the attack.

Successfully evading Hikigaya Hachiman’s two consecutive strikes, Kotomine Kirei quickly straightened up and kicked out at Hikigaya Hachiman, who was still mid-air.

Using the momentum of Kotomine Kirei’s kick, Hikigaya Hachiman returned to his original position and, without any pause, charged forward again.

Kotomine Kirei showed no hesitation either. After using prana enhancement to throw four Black Keys, he held a Black Key in each hand and rushed up to meet him…

While the fight inside Ryūdō Temple was raging intensely, at the foot of the mountain, the battle between Gilgamesh, Karna, and Artoria had also entered a white-hot phase.

Upon realizing that a mere rain of Noble Phantasms could not cause any substantial damage to the two, Gilgamesh no longer only attacked from above.

The sky, the ground—any direction around Karna and Artoria could instantly erupt with a golden wall of light, from which several top-tier Noble Phantasms would shoot out!

“Saber, cover me…”

Karna still maintained his indifferent expression.

Looking at the sky full of golden walls of light, he did not panic, but rather seemed eager to take the initiative to attack.

“Lancer, are you serious?”

Swinging her sword to block an incoming spear, Artoria instantly thought Karna had gone mad when she heard him!

It was already their limit just to block the attacks; now Karna wanted to actively attack…

Even if he had defensive Noble Phantasms, he would surely fall under the rain of Noble Phantasms, wouldn’t he?

“Of course, I never lie…”

As if ignoring the expression on Artoria’s face, Karna stated the fact of his impending active attack in a declarative tone.

“Fine, I’ll go with you too…”

Seeing that Karna was determined, Artoria could only choose to be reckless alongside him.

After all, if Karna hadn’t diverted a considerable amount of the Noble Phantasms earlier, she would have already failed and withdrawn.

“Then, my thanks.”

Karna did not refuse Artoria’s offer to accompany him, though he did not think Artoria would be able to rush all the way to Gilgamesh’s front…

“Ugh…”

Hikigaya Hachiman was grappling with the nimble Kotomine Kirei. After the first two strikes established that Kirei was no match for him head-on, the latter had continuously employed flexible footwork, attempting to deplete Hachiman’s stamina and wait for an opening caused by a mistake.

Hikigaya Hachiman was aware of this, but was frustrated by the enemy’s ability to constantly slip away like an eel at crucial moments, forcing him to maintain a high-frequency combat style, trying to catch the opponent’s error.

But suddenly, the prana in his body instantly evaporated by more than half again!

On the other side, Kotomine Kirei, who was mid-movement, also frowned.

“Has a new change occurred on Karna’s side?”

With more than half of the prana in his body suddenly gone, and considering that this might happen again, Hikigaya Hachiman decided to use his trump card directly!

The vast Inari Divinity instantly erupted from his body. The light emitted just by its manifestation briefly blinded Kotomine Kirei.

“Bad move!”

Kotomine Kirei, whose prana had also been suddenly drained, saw a flash of white light in front of him and instantly realized he couldn’t see anything. He rapidly retreated, while three of the remaining 9 Command Spells on his arm instantly vanished.

One was used to instantly repair his body, restore his sight, and replenish the lost prana, and the other two formed a thick prana shield in front of him to block any attack Hikigaya Hachiman might launch in that instant.

The booming sound in his ears proved the correctness of Kotomine Kirei’s decision.

After transforming into his masked form again, Hikigaya Hachiman swung the divinity towards Kotomine Kirei without hesitation.

But this assured strike was once again blocked by Kotomine Kirei.

Furthermore, seeing Kotomine Kirei retreat towards the building, Hikigaya Hachiman instantly pursued, wanting to prevent the opponent from escaping into the room where Sakura and Irisviel were hiding.

“Does he have something he cares about inside the house?”

Observing the anxiety unconsciously showing on Hikigaya Hachiman’s face due to concern for Sakura’s safety, Kotomine Kirei instantly guessed that there was a ‘tool’ behind him that could threaten Hikigaya Hachiman.

Recalling the little girl who was always kept by Hikigaya Hachiman’s side but hadn’t appeared today, Kotomine Kirei’s face showed a trace of realization.

Throwing out a few Black Keys, which served as a minimal impediment to Hikigaya Hachiman’s speed, Kotomine Kirei turned and rushed into the interior of the building.

Stepping into the dimly lit room, Kotomine Kirei’s eyes met a room that looked quite messy.

Without any hesitation, upon discovering that the target was not in the room before him, Kotomine Kirei immediately rushed toward the next room.

But suddenly, a huge sense of danger came from behind.

Without any hesitation, Kotomine Kirei tumbled to the side, dodging the Spiritual Stream incoming from behind.

Feeling the violent prana graze his back, Kotomine Kirei did not look back but instead charged directly into the fragile wall in front of him.

The wall dividing the space, made of paper and wood, shattered instantly.

Only then did Kotomine Kirei look back and glance at Hikigaya Hachiman, who, like Gilgamesh, resembled a golden light bulb.

‘He got stronger…’

Instantly determining that Hikigaya Hachiman’s power had increased significantly due to the transformation, and realizing that a direct confrontation was impossible, Kotomine Kirei began scanning the room he had just entered, continuing to search for Sakura’s whereabouts.

Soon, a noticeable drag mark on the floor caught his attention.

“She just passed through?”

The mark on the floor was fresh. Kotomine Kirei immediately confirmed that Sakura had just passed through this room, and she seemed to have dragged something much larger than herself.

Kotomine Kirei was not interested in what Sakura carried away. After determining the direction Sakura left, he immediately pursued her.

Midway, Hikigaya Hachiman’s attack struck again. Sensing that the opponent’s speed was already faster than his own, Kotomine Kirei consumed another Command Spell to boost his body.

In Hikigaya Hachiman’s helpless and frustrated gaze, Kotomine Kirei, who was less than half a meter away from him, once again widened the distance…

“Only 5 Command Spells are left. If I fail to capture the target before they are consumed, this mission will be a complete failure…”

Kotomine Kirei pursued along the path Sakura had taken, calculating the situation on the battlefield in his mind.

Since a moment ago, the speed at which Gilgamesh consumed his prana had been continuously increasing.

Although Gilgamesh said nothing, he must have been finding it difficult to cope with both Karna and Artoria simultaneously.

‘If I collapse here too…’

Thinking of the lack of anticipated advantage on Gilgamesh’s side, a bad feeling surfaced in Kotomine Kirei’s heart.

But looking at the slight light visible outside the door in front of him, he instantly suppressed that feeling.

Based on the intelligence gathered, if he captured that little girl, Hikigaya Hachiman would definitely hesitate to act!

Thinking this, Kotomine Kirei brutally slashed the paper door in front of him with a Black Key and rushed out.

“Back here?”

Rushing out of the paper door, Kotomine Kirei was surprised to find himself back in the courtyard where he had started.

“She’s taking a roundabout route!”

Kotomine Kirei instantly figured out Sakura’s plan and began scanning the surroundings of the courtyard. However, looking around, apart from a woman lying down nearby, facing away from him, who appeared to have fainted, he saw no sign of Sakura.

“Where did she go?”

Kotomine Kirei, who was confident in his tracking skills, was sure he hadn’t lost the trail.

But if Sakura was nowhere to be found in the open courtyard…

“Is she there?”

Kotomine Kirei looked toward Irisviel on the ground.

If it were a child, hiding in the arms of the woman on the ground, utilizing the visual blind spot, she indeed wouldn’t have been seen by him…

Putting away the extra Black Keys in his hand, Kotomine Kirei kept only one and walked toward Irisviel.

However, circling to the other side of Irisviel, Kotomine Kirei found that Irisviel’s arms were empty. His target was not here…

“…….”

Failing to catch his desired target, Kotomine Kirei’s expression was grim.

Especially when Irisviel, whom he thought was unconscious, suddenly opened her eyes, which were clear and revealed a look of mockery as she stared at him, a surge of anger instantly rose in his usually placid heart!

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Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep