In fact, Zhou Yuxuan's permits were specifically meant for dealing with unaware "Muggles," so that no one would violate the principle of concealment.
Emiya had found it troublesome when he got them. If it had been a family of magi, they could have simply set up an enchantment that suggested "drive away ordinary people." Why run around manually dispersing civilians?
Yet Zhou Yuxuan said it normally would not matter if ordinary people entered. After all, no one would dig three feet into the ground beside an abandoned district of unfinished buildings just to search for ruins. But this was too sensitive a time, and Zhou Yuxuan felt it was necessary to stop them and take a look.
Thus, Old Tang stood guard at a distant vantage point with a gun. Zhou Yuxuan intercepted the front vehicle, while Emiya handled the one behind it.
"Why can the car in front go through, but ours can't?" Su Xiaoqiang still refused to give up, her flickering little eyes practically saying, You must be hiding some secret.
"No, the one in front can't pass either. Someone is already intercepting it."
Shirou Emiya sidestepped and blocked Su Xiaoqiang from craning her head around.
Suddenly, a loud bang came from the vehicle ahead, followed by the sharp sound of shattering glass.
"What's going on?" Su Xiaoqiang asked. "Is this something you archaeologists handle too?"
Shirou Emiya abruptly turned his head and saw Old Tang pulling out his gun and shouting, "Brother, get over here and help! These people are insane! They're trying to transport a whole truckload of monsters into the ruins!"
"What monsters?!"
"Death Servants—out-of-control Dragon Blood Monsters!" In the distance, Zhou Yuxuan raised his Alchemy Gun and fired a spread of shots. "They refused to negotiate and woke the frozen Death Servants hidden in the truck!"
That day, Su Xiaoqiang paid a soul-shaking price for her inexplicable curiosity.
Before her eyes, the vehicle's windows shattered again. A burst of orange flame suddenly exploded in front of it, as though someone had thrown a napalm bomb. Two burly adult men climbed out of the car. One muttered under his breath, and then something supernatural happened—
Several invisible masses of air condensed, then exploded with a thunderous boom the next instant, blasting countless fragments from the concrete road.
At the farthest end, a young man with drooping eyebrows held an HK416A5 and fired in a "relatively normal" manner. On the other side, the lean young man charged straight ahead. Before him was a heavy sword like a door panel, while his other hand held a strange, massive gun that spat out a crackling barrage of pellets. As he moved, countless streams of iron sand and fragments of rebar swept up from the ground around him.
Crack!
Su Xiaoqiang's worldview shattered.
Superpowers? Spells?
As her mind reeled, claws pierced through the transport truck. The metal plating was effortlessly torn open by inhuman strength, and hideous monsters covered in blackish-blue scales crawled out.
The dull scales on their bodies reflected a cold metallic gleam. Their faces were either stern or savage, their limbs long and twisted, and their lower bodies resembled mutated giant serpents.
Their eyes glowed gold, bright or dim, like pairs of grim Death God lanterns in the deep night. Someone in the distance opened fire fiercely, but most bullets could only bounce off their scales in tiny sparks...
Then, as if a freezing terror had risen from the depths of her bloodline, Su Xiaoqiang trembled in both body and soul. At last, she understood the helpless ordinary people in disaster and horror films—
The "Little Heavenly Maiden," born beneath the halos of wealth, fame, beauty, and everything else, was no more than an ordinary girl powerless to resist when faced with approaching death.
At that moment, Shirou Emiya—the only person she knew on that battlefield shrouded in mortal danger—had already rushed forward. His Alchemical Tachi clashed in midair with the sharp claws extended by the first serpentine Death Servant, producing dazzling sparks.
Whoosh!
Su Xiaoqiang's vision blurred. Patterns lit up across Shirou's legs as he suddenly accelerated. In an instant, he crossed paths with the Death Servant and turned. The tachi hidden in his other hand swept from its blind spot in a bright, beautiful arc, sending black blood flying. The blade sliced through the Death Servant's spine and severed its nerve cluster, causing it to collapse helplessly as though its upper body had been paralyzed... The movement was so beautiful that she nearly applauded in amazement. It was far more impressive than the special-effects-filled action in movies.
Boom!
The rear door was violently ripped open. An arm more than twice as thick lunged out of the darkness. Before Su Xiaoqiang could warn him, Shirou swung his blade backward as though he had eyes in the back of his head, blocking the claws.
A roar immediately came from the darkness. The arm exerted mad force, preventing Shirou from advancing even an inch. At the same time, the metal roof was smashed apart, and a pitch-black serpentine figure rose upright—a towering Death Servant more than five meters long!
The serpentine Death Servant stood on powerful lower-body muscles, its heavy body bending down upon him. Its shadow covered Shirou's entire body. The Death Servant shrieked, and the foul slime between its teeth was nauseating. Just then, Old Tang's covering fire arrived in time. M995 armor-piercing rounds densely struck its back, making the Death Servant cry out in pain and loosen its grip.
Seizing the chance, Shirou reversed his blade and drove it hard into the Death Servant's neck. Then his leg muscles tensed. He planted a foot on the creature's body and leaped into the air, using his body to spin the blade more than 180 degrees. As he flipped and landed on the Death Servant's back, its hideous head was completely severed.
Watching the Death Servant's lower body remain active, twitching meaninglessly like a reflex, Shirou felt the situation's strangeness and a chill in his heart.
These creatures called Death Servants, monsters born from rampaging dragon blood, clearly revealed a craving for slaughter and fresh flesh. It reminded him of Akiha Tohno's "Red Lord" state in Tsukihime, when she fell into Inversion Impulse. Not only did her emotions become pathological, but she also became deeply addicted to killing and drinking blood.
But Red Lord had at least retained a human form. These Death Servants, however, had undergone bodily mutations with varying degrees of serpentine characteristics. Was that unique to those mixed with dragon blood, or was it a physical mutation caused by Inversion Impulse deepening further...?
Suppressing his thoughts, Shirou was about to continue fighting bravely when a scream suddenly rang out behind him.
He turned and saw Su Xiaoqiang trembling, unable to move from where she stood. A blackish-blue claw had tightly seized one of her calves. The Death Servant that had been forced into "upper-body paralysis" had actually slipped away from the fight and crawled close to the ordinary people using its only movable forearm... It truly knew how to bully the weak and fear the strong.
Uncle Li beside Su Xiaoqiang clearly had not been scared out of his wits, but compared to even an injured Death Servant, he was far too weak. He furiously kicked the Death Servant in the head, yet could not budge the rock-hard beast.
"Move!"
Su Xiaoqiang heard Shirou shout in their direction.
How the hell am I supposed to move when I'm being grabbed... Su Xiaoqiang was about to speak when she realized Shirou was talking to Uncle Li. Uncle Li understood at once and retreated. Then Su Xiaoqiang heard a sharp explosive crack in the air—
Two flashes of light struck the Death Servant's rear skull and neck, pinning it hard to the ground. Looking closely, they were two arrows!
The strength drained from the Death Servant's arm. After Su Xiaoqiang broke free, she looked up and saw Shirou Emiya standing heroically with a bow raised. In that hazy moment, he seemed like a brilliant splash of color against deep black ink. So similar... too similar... Like an invincible hero from a movie, majestic and triumphant, with a handsome and gentle face—only lacking seven-colored clouds beneath his feet as he arrived before her to the gaze of all mankind...
But in reality, there was no gentleness on that face, only urgency. He shouted, "Go! Drive away!"
Su Xiaoqiang saw several dark figures emerge. Those monsters had completely surrounded Shirou, as though hunting some rare prey. The emotions bottled up in her heart were instantly replaced by fury shooting straight to her head, as if a voice in her mind was roaring, I, the Little Heavenly Maiden, am no coward who abandons her savior and runs for her life! If we leave, we leave honorably, with everyone together...
But Uncle Li could see that the situation had become exceedingly critical. Staying would only hold them back. Without giving her any choice, he forcibly shoved her into the car. The Audi started in reverse and quickly retreated into the distance.
Strapped into her seat belt, Su Xiaoqiang could only watch as Shirou Emiya was swallowed by those pitch-black monsters and disappeared from sight.
Before you continue