Chapter 77 - Dying Counterattack

A huge explosion of light ensued one could see the massive circular dome of light from miles away, the already frightened mortal residents of star city were even more hysterical while their magician counterparts grew more solemn as they felt the intensity of the battles which had ensued in such a short while, they all hid more thoroughly in their abode and put all on defences just silently hoping this war would end as soon as possible.

At the site of the explosion in the place of a street of houses now stood a huge crater, dead in the middle of the crater was a heavily burnt figure that was breathing heavily showing signs of being alive despite the grievous burns and intense injuries.

"I never expected with so much preparation I was still found and almost killed, if not for my backhand on the assassin I would probably be turned to ashes" the figure muttered to itself.

Apart from controlling and influencing the assassin mind Roma had inscribed some spells on the assassin which would allow him to swallow the assassin's origin and life force if need be this would also include the assassin's qualification as a participant in the holy grail war, this was to allow him to be in control of when the holy grail war was to end if other summons has been eliminated and the war was about to be terminated early.

it was just a habitual action that Roma never expected to use but he never expected it would be what saved his life.

Before participating in the war Roma had changed his face and body both magically and surgically, even his fingerprints were also altered before he entered star city hoping to be picked to participate in the Holy grail war but somehow his brother had still found him and designed such a lore that almost erased him from existence.

In fact, he knew he couldn't hide from his brother for long but he never expected his movements to be marked so accurately and the attack performed at the key moment of the ritual when he would be unable to run away, after all for a master mage like him proficient in shadow and space magic as long as he was prepared there was no killing he could not escape from.

The painstaking ritual he had designed had been destroyed, the only reason he came to star city was not to win the holy grail but to use the special environment during the battle to create his own Grand Magic that would take him to the roots but unfortunately, this had all been destroyed by his paranoid brother.

" *Cough cough* damn it, I need to leave here and heal", Roma growled while feeling the weakness of his body he didn't know why he just instinctively felt unsafe.

As he took a step from his current position a hole appeared in his chest and a projectile shot out of his back, Roma first noticed the hole before he heard the loud 'bang' it was the sound of a gun having gone off.

The attack came out of nowhere and the bullet somehow appeared instantaneously at the right position, feeling the puncture in his heart and the transparent hole leading to his back Roma was frightened, he tried activation some preset magic to save his life but he was horrified to find that with the use of magic his body started petrifying rapidly, the cold grip of death overshadowed him, with the last of his strength he looked into the distance towards where the gunshot sound had originated from before he then turned to stone which was then scattered to ashes by the cool night wind.

Ruth had been out searching for other participants when the giant had appeared, the rider's gift turned out to be useless as the remaining individuals in the war were hidden pretty deep, it took a while before she finally noticed a priest and a weird sack clothed figure in the suburbs heading towards somewhere, Ruth decided to follow them, with the weird combination and the calm look in their faces Ruth could guess they were participants in the holy grail.

Ruth didn't think about getting close to the area where the battle between the giant and an unknown figure was located, she knew with the amount of destruction caused by the battle she would not be an opponent for either party that survived plus with the amount of building being destroyed every moment it was not an ideal place for a sniper.

Ruth had been watching the inexplicable battle way before the explosion occurred, she had been stationed some miles away watching through the scope of her sniper gun as the priest and his summon stood in front of an empty bungalow when she activated a trace of her space abilities she could see perceive there was another space in the position of the bungalow but she could not perceive what was happening inside, but since the priest and his summons were standing there so confident she decided to wait to see what would happen.

Sure enough, some minutes later the priest suddenly dissipated into particles of light, then his summons who was still present suddenly attacked the empty space with his glowing spear, the next thing she knew a huge explosion had occurred.

Ruth was stunned the blinding light stung her peeping eyes, by the time her sight recovered her stigmata vibrated signifying another contestant was out, Ruth put her eyes on the scope again trying to find the surviving participant her stigmata only vibrated once and she was sure the battle of this scale was between at least two participants, not two aboriginals.

Sure enough, she found in the crater there was an injured figure breathing heavily, in the spirit of not leaving anything to chance she used a rare lethal bullet designed by the rider and gently pulled the trigger while using her space power to open a small wormhole that sent the bullet straight to the heart of the target.

"success" she smiled smugly as she witnessed the bullet emerge from the bloodied back of the target but soon her smiled was swept off her face as she saw the target stare in her direction before turning to ashes, Ruth felt a profound sense of danger when the target looked in her direction, the next moment immediately after the figure turned to dust Ruth screamed in pain as she spat out copious amounts of her blood.