Reincarnation Paradise Park-Chapter 747 - 57: The Honor of the Heroic Spirit
A blue sports car sped through the streets of Fuyuki City, although it was late at night, the car was severely over-speeding.
Su Xiao sat in the driver’s seat of the sports car, with Sakura Matou in the passenger seat, while Bubu Wang was responsible for locating Matou Gan Ye.
Su Xiao floored the accelerator, the speedometer hit its limit, truly a lightning-fast speed.
Screech～
The sports car drifted around a corner, Su Xiao remained calm, but Sakura Matou in the passenger seat was pressed against the car door, her face deathly pale.
The tires skidded on the asphalt road, a burnt smell filled the street.
With a sharp screech, the car came to a sudden stop in front of the central church. Su Xiao pulled Sakura Matou out of the car; at this point, she was completely ’out of it.’
Su Xiao grabbed Sakura Matou with his left hand and held Dragon Slash in his right, walking slowly towards the church entrance.
The church doors were half-open, and as the night wind blew, a few newspapers flew up, making the nighttime Fuyuki City seem somewhat desolate.
Su Xiao stood at the church entrance, looking inside through the half-open door.
The inside of the church looked as if it had been hit by a tornado, with originally orderly pews scattered around in disarray, wood shavings all over the place.
The lingering magic power in the church air indicated that a battle had occurred not long ago. Though the fight seemed intense, the destruction appeared somewhat deliberate, as if someone wanted to cover up the scene’s condition.
Su Xiao entered the church, the heavy scent of blood assaulted his senses, and following the scent, he saw a half body lying on the ground - two legs and half an abdomen. From the attire, it appeared to be the lower part of the Old Priest’s body.
A human-wide trail of blood stained the carpet, with intestines scattered within it. The Old Priest might have been bisected but crawled quite a distance with his upper body.
Following the bloodstains, Su Xiao found the Old Priest’s upper body in a room on the church’s inner side.
The Old Priest lay on his back on the ground, eyes closed, holding a glass bottle with some white powder inside; there was also white powder at the corner of his mouth, indicating he ingested it.
Just when Su Xiao thought the Old Priest was dead, the Old Priest’s eyes slowly opened, almost like a corpse rising.
"You... arrived."
The Old Priest’s voice was weak, his pupils dull and lifeless. Su Xiao crouched down, pressing his hand on the Old Priest’s chest; there was no heartbeat.
"Who are you?"
Su Xiao’s tone was unfriendly. Clearly, the Old Priest should have been dead with such a bisection and blood loss; survival was almost impossible.
"It’s me, don’t doubt, I used this thing; it allowed me to hold on until you came. I have some words to tell you."
The Old Priest lifted his hand, handing the glass bottle to Su Xiao.
[Dead Cultist Bone Powder]
Origin: Fate/Zero·Holy Church
Quality: Dark Purple
Type: Consumable (used)
Effect 1: Consuming it accelerates the necrosis of bodily functions. Once fully necrotic, consciousness remains in the necrotic body for 30 minutes without dissipating.
Rating: 213
Description: A powerful ’life-extending’ item, provided you can return to Reincarnation Paradise within half an hour; otherwise, only death awaits you.
Exchange Price: 360 points at Holy Church
...
Su Xiao had seen this item while exchanging goods with the Old Priest before.
To a Lone Ranger like him, this item’s significance was minimal, but adventure groups loved purchasing it, allowing a member on the verge of death to temporarily keep their consciousness and regain a life if they earned a return qualification within half an hour.
"The bone powder is losing its effect; you’ve arrived just in time, Bai Ye."
The Old Priest learned the name Bai Ye through Su Xiao when signing the ’Self-compulsion Certificate.’
"Priest, who did it?"
Although Su Xiao had already thought of several suspects, he needed the Old Priest to confirm verbally.
"It’s nothing, just a ’demon.’
The Old Priest turned his head, showing only sorrow in his eyes. Grief beyond despair.
"Bai Ye, you’re a Heroic Spirit, right? Though you feel like a modern person to me."
"I am."
"I thought so; how could a magician kill Xius and then flatten Liu Dong Temple?"
White lines appeared on the Old Priest’s skin, and his body began to turn into dust.
"All the other Heroic Spirits appeared, so that means you’re Berserker? Unbelievable, I actually worked with Berserker for so long."
The Old Priest raised his arm.
"Pull up my sleeve; I have a gift for you."
Su Xiao pulled up the Old Priest’s sleeve, revealing a muscular arm. Originally, it had many command seals gathered from previous Holy Grail Wars and stored by the Holy Church with the Old Priest.
But now, the Old Priest’s arm was bare, with the command seals taken away.
"Was it Kenneth’s doing? No, he’s already lost a Heroic Spirit and should have withdrawn from the Holy Grail War."
Su Xiao couldn’t figure out who killed the Old Priest and took the command seals from his arm. Could it have been the Old Priest’s son, Kirei Kotomine? That didn’t seem likely; the Holy Grail War had just begun, and the other party shouldn’t have awakened to the kind of personality that found joy in others’ misfortunes.
But Kirei Kotomine wasn’t without suspicion either; during Su Xiao’s battle with Hundred Faces, he could have used the command seals to forcibly summon Hundred Faces away, escaping Su Xiao’s pursuit.
What was Kirei Kotomine doing at that time? Was he so busy that he didn’t even have time to use a command seal to summon a Heroic Spirit? Or did he simply not care about the Servant Hundred Faces’ life or death, even hoping for Hundreds of Faces’ death, so that others wouldn’t pay attention to him, allowing him to successfully hide.
"All taken away..."
The Old Priest sighed.
"A pity, I wanted to give your Master a few, to increase your advantage; command seals are not just for controlling Heroic Spirits; if used correctly, they can be weapons as well."
The Old Priest looked at Sakura Matou, mistakenly thinking she was Su Xiao’s Master. He’d seen this young girl before; she was originally the Tosaka family’s daughter, later sent to Matou House. With that old worm’s ability, turning this girl into a Master wasn’t difficult.
"It’s alright. Besides, this thing can’t control my actions, Priest. Do you seek revenge?"
"No, it’s no longer important. What Holy Grail War, it’s a mistake, spawned from magicians’ greed. They summon those heroes to fight one another, absurdly using human nature to insult those departed Heroic Spirits, denying them peace; it will surely meet retribution one day."
The Old Priest was right; magicians summon Heroic Spirits, using them as tools to battle each other, subjecting the past Heroic Spirits to the taste of resentment and failure.
"Bai Ye, promise me, don’t let those greedy magicians succeed; let them face proper punishment. You were right before; I shouldn’t have pursued the Grail."
The Old Priest laughed, his expression fierce and terrifying.
"Alright, Priest."
As Su Xiao’s words fell, the Old Priest’s body began to turn into dust, as 30 minutes had passed.
"Ultimately, I found I couldn’t understand you, my..."
The upper half of the Old Priest’s body scattered into the air, his last words likely not meant for Su Xiao but someone else.
Just as the Old Priest’s body dissipated, a prompt from Reincarnation Paradise suddenly appeared.
[Tip: Hunter triggered a hidden task: Glory of the Heroic Spirit, accept or not.]
Su Xiao furrowed his brows. The Old Priest’s death triggered a hidden mission. After a brief hesitation, he chose to accept the hidden mission.
[Checking...]
[Hidden mission in conflict with the main mission.]
[Settling tier position, hidden task tier higher than main mission.]
[Checking current main mission completion rate, Hunter killed three Heroic Spirits, personal main mission contribution over 90%, main mission determined completed.]
[Tip: Main task · Heaven’s Cup has been completed.]
[You’ve gained 6 attribute points.]
[You’ve gained 5000 Paradise coins.]
[Time remaining in this Derivative World, five minutes.]
[Tip: Hidden mission incomplete; Derivative World stay time extended.]
[Hidden Task: Glory of the Heroic Spirit]
Difficulty Level: Lv.20
Mission Objective: Destroy all command seals held by Masters or kill all Masters until the command seal count reaches zero; current surviving Masters: 6, remaining command seals 41.
Mission Information: Dust to dust, ashes to ashes, from whence it came, thence it returns.
Mission Deadline: 45 hours
Mission Reward: Can increase any chosen skill level by +1 (ignores the upper limit).
Mission Penalty: Black Abyss Prison detention for one hour.
Mission Temporary Skill: Large-Scale Detection (active), can randomly detect the location of a Master, effect lasts for 10 minutes, can be used twice.
...
