So you've got magic circles?
I bestow upon you a string of C4, bang bang bang
So you even turned the hallway into a passage to another world?
I bestow upon you a string of C4, bang bang bang
So you also set up a bunch of evil spirits as guards?
I bestow upon you a string of C4, bang bang bang
Wow, Director Kayneth, your magecraft workshop just blew up.
Kiritsugu Emiya quietly watched the building collapse into a sea of flames, then pulled out the phone in his pocket. "Maiya, withdraw." That's right—this guy who fights with technology in a way that's completely unlike a magus is Kiritsugu Emiya himself.
What? Didn't Kiritsugu team up with Director Kayneth earlier to deal with Meruem? Why is he attacking Kayneth now?
Sorry, but in Kiritsugu Emiya's eyes, there are no allies. If he thinks it's necessary, he will choose to attack you.
Of course, Kiritsugu's first target originally really was Meruem—he just lost him. Yeah, Meruem can fly, Kiritsugu can't. Meruem flies really high, and Kiritsugu can't track him. And he just so happened to spot Director Kayneth's shiny, lard-slick head.
So...
He blew it up.
A living example of "haha, dumbass—grandpa can fly."
So this story tells us: if you can't fly, what's the difference between you and a salted fish?
Of course, this story also tells us: don't keep smearing lard on your head for no reason. It's annoying to look at.
You think that's the end?
The one courting death wasn't just Director Kayneth—there was Kiritsugu PAPA too. Who told him to keep sending familiars to spy on Mapo Priest (Kirei Kotomine) living his pleasurable ♂ life—and not just spying, but filming too, with a miniature camera tied to the familiar's leg.
That's really the kind of thing where an aunt can endure it but an uncle can't, so Mapo Priest followed the principle of "you, Kiritsugu, secretly filmed my pleasurable ♂ life, so I'm going to beat up your mistress," and—
Kirei Kotomine met Maiya Hisau head-on ♂ in the parking lot near the destroyed high-rise.
That's where you really see the gap between magi and normal people.
No matter how elite you are among ordinary human assassins, no matter how many magi you've killed before—once a magus finds you and decides to go head-on with you, no amount of high tech will matter.
Unless your tech level exceeds magecraft and rises into actual sci-fi territory, you might as well go wash up and go to bed.
They traded one move—barely even counts as trading moves—and Maiya Hisau had one of her hands ruined by Mapo. "Hmph, let me teach you a lesson." Mapo's strength is absolutely top-tier among top-tier; Maiya Hisau has zero chance of winning against him.
Especially at this close range. Maiya kept firing dual pistols, but Mapo dodged them with ease. Forget hurting Mapo—she couldn't even slow him down.
Maiya clicked her tongue and threw a smoke grenade at Mapo, then fled toward another part of the building.
She knew very clearly: if she faced Mapo head-on, there was only death.
"You think this little smoke can block my sight? Naive." Holding Black Keys, Mapo easily cut through the smoke screen and swung at Maiya Hisau.
If it hit, Maiya Hisau would die for sure.
Block—what happened wasn't the imagined scene of her being cut down. Instead, Mapo flicked his right hand to the side, and a bullet embedded itself firmly into the Black Key in his hand.
A sniper rifle.
It didn't hurt Mapo at all, but Maiya Hisau used that opening to get away.
After one shot, the other side vanished without a trace.
"Whatever. As long as I know that the woman beside that SABER has backup, that's enough. Just as I expected..." Mapo didn't choose to chase. Instead, he showed a faint, mocking smile.
"Yesterday, several unrecognizable corpses were found at XXX residence and XXX building in Fuyuki City. According to our reporter's findings... the above were done by the previous Fuyuki City serial killer. Only adult bodies were found in each household, while all children are missing. According to security guards at the scene, the culprit was a man wearing strange armor. Suspected mental patient. Please stay alert. If you see a suspicious person matching this description, please call the police immediately. This has been our station's investigation."
Early in the morning, the TV kept broadcasting news about a hotel being blown up and about adults in multiple households being brutally murdered, with children missing.
"Hotel destroyed? That was probably Kiritsugu, right? But the kid thing is still the Ryuunosuke combo? Weird. If Bluebeard isn't in the CASTER class, what does he need so many kids for?" Meruem thought after seeing these two news stories, after he finished preparing Sakura's breakfast.
Good thing Kiritsugu didn't find me yesterday, or else the one getting attacked would've been the Matou residence. No, wait—since Irisviel has seen me and Sakura before, Kiritsugu should be able to find this place easily. There really was a time when a familiar tried to intrude into the Matou residence, but got blocked by the barrier.
So what exactly is Kiritsugu thinking? He's not the type to go easy just because the other side's Master is a little girl.
"Well, when soldiers come, we block them; when water comes, we dam it. Besides, I've got this." Meruem waved his hand, and the TV displayed a different scene.
It was the scene of Kiritsugu supporting the injured Maiya Hisau as he treated her.
Speaking of Maiya Hisau—rather than a mistress, you could say she's Kiritsugu's real main woman, just without the official status, since Kiritsugu didn't marry her. But Kiritsugu's feelings for her should be far deeper than for Irisviel. Even so, using Irisviel and Maiya Hisau to threaten Kiritsugu Emiya wouldn't make him compromise.
A bat familiar carrying a miniature camera? Mine is a micro insect reconnaissance drone.
If we're comparing high-end black tech, sure, Meruem can't summon stronger robots, but pulling off these little support tricks is no problem.
Then the footage switched again. At the wreckage site where the hotel building was destroyed, a group of officers surrounded a massive drop of mercury.
"So that's Volumen Hydrargyrum. Not bad—a cute little toy." Meruem just tossed out that comment and didn't pay it any more attention. The gap in power level was simply too huge.
Volumen Hydrargyrum can block C4's blast damage and a building's collapse, but... in the Hunter world, even Uvogin can get hit by missiles without taking a scratch. A handgun hitting a Nen user does about as much damage as a BB pellet; even a sniper rifle is basically just a BB pellet upgraded to a slingshot.
So do you really think Meruem would care about a Mystic Code like that?
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