"Puchi…"
The playing card reinforced with [Ken] pierced through flesh and sinew like a razor-sharp dagger, driving viciously into Roy's heart!
The silver-haired boy stared at Hisoka in "disbelief." His raised fist came crashing down, but Hisoka tilted his head with a wicked grin and easily dodged it. In the end, the punch only traced a shallow arc before dropping limply to his side…
"Ugh… pff…" A mouthful of blood burst from Roy's lips, soaking Hisoka's shoulder.
The magician let out a satisfied moan. "Ah~" Half his hand was buried in Roy's chest, gripping the card lodged inside him. Never in his life had he felt this exhilarated…
He threw his head back, covering his face with one hand. His shoulders trembled as he suppressed a low laugh, which gradually swelled louder and louder until he completely let loose… Then his wrist twisted, brutally shredding Roy's heart!
"Ugh… pff…" Another mouthful of blood sprayed out, splattering across Hisoka's face.
Having finally avenged himself, the red-haired youth was in high spirits. Leaning close to Roy's ear, he blew softly against his earlobe and whispered, "So this… is magic…"
"Magic that can deceive the eyes… and blind everyone to the truth…"
"You're despicable!"
"Thanks for the compliment. In battle, you use every trick you can!"
"Is that so?" Blood stained the corner of Roy's lips. Clinging to his last breath, he slowly lifted his head and looked at Hisoka with calm eyes. "I don't believe you. Unless…"
"You look me in the eye!"
Hisoka raised his head—and froze.
A streak of crimson slowly crept into Roy's eyes. Three pitch-black tomoe began to spin in eerie silence, and in an instant, Hisoka was dragged straight into them!
In that dazed moment, it was as if he saw a crow. With a harsh caw—"Kaw!"—it beat its wings and cast down a single black feather…
[Sharingan], activate!
[Genjutsu: Infinite Void]!
Everything before his eyes shattered like bubbles with a soft pop.
There was no "severed arm," no "playing card," no imagined heart skewered through the chest. When the "illusion" dissolved and "reality" revealed itself… Roy was completely unharmed.
In truth, from the very moment Hisoka struggled up from the garbage pile, Roy had already gone along with the plan, pretending to be fooled by [Texture Surprise]. But in silence, he had activated the Sharingan ahead of time and planted a seed of [Genjutsu] in Hisoka's mind!
"Thump…"
Sinking, sinking, sinking deeper into stillness…
In that hazy chaos, an entire [Demon Slayer world] poured into Hisoka's mind.
It was as if the boy had suddenly fallen into an abyss, like someone drowning, unable to stop himself from sinking lower and lower and lower…
He saw birds. He saw fish and insects. He saw wisteria blossoms. He saw a vibrant new world utterly unlike the Hunter world. At last, he hit bottom. He crashed into a side courtyard filled with the scent of wisteria, and when he looked up again, he found himself surrounded.
All around him stood swordsmen of every build, outfit, and appearance, each one gripping a Nichirin Blade.
"Praise the sun."
The tallest among them—a monk who was clearly blind, yet whose tears flowed endlessly—softly murmured a Buddhist prayer…
"Klang—!"
A crimson blade ignited with blazing flames, fiercer even than Kastro's attacks, flashed before Hisoka's eyes. Then came a hearty shout:
"This man stands against the Master. Why not just cut him down!"
And with that, after Kyojuro Rengoku was the first to draw his sword, Tengen Uzui, Muichiro Tokito, Sanemi Shinazugawa, and the others all unsheathed their blades and closed in…
In a single instant,
Hisoka was swallowed by a flood of reddish-brown sword aura—
and beheaded.
"Tremble…"
His body shook uncontrollably.
Meteor City. In the pale church courtyard…
The moment Hisoka—still trapped in the genjutsu—finished regenerating his severed arm and stood back in front of Roy, he abruptly stopped moving.
That wild, arrogant red hair of his, which always seemed to blaze toward the heavens, suddenly collapsed as though it had encountered something truly terrifying. And that collapse was like a signal to the rest of his body. From head to toe, he began to shake uncontrollably… trembling like a leaf…
The spectators waiting for him to make a move—Chrollo, Pakunoda, Shalnark, Uvogin, Nobunaga, and the rest—exchanged puzzled looks. Nearby, someone whispered in confusion, "Weird… why did he suddenly stop moving?"
The younger ones shifted their gaze to Roy, who calmly walked past Hisoka, still standing there in a daze, trapped within [Infinite Void].
The silver-haired boy looked like a river of starlight spilling down. The divine robe draped over him remained immaculate, untouched by even a speck of dust.
He passed by Hisoka in utter silence, brushing past his shoulder. At one moment, he pinched off a strand of moonlight and shaped it into a blade. Then, with a gentle flick behind him…
The moonlight softly swept across Hisoka's neck.
And then…
The magician's head slipped cleanly from his shoulders—just as it had in the illusion.
"Thunk."
It hit the ground.
"Gulu gulu gulu…"
His head rolled like a watermelon until it came to a stop at Roy's feet.
Hisoka's narrow eyes were wide open, staring fixedly at the boy, as if asking:
Why?
Roy stopped at just the right moment. He raised his eyes toward a projection perched on his shoulder—the Champion Owl, the image of the champion owl taking wing and soaring into the sky. Through the karmic line connecting him to Hisoka, Roy heard that soft puff—as both head and body, just like Guzman before him, transformed into a ragged doll with its head cut off…
Without sorrow or joy, Roy said calmly:
"Because your illusion is only an illusion. But mine… if I want it to be real, it becomes real. If I want it false, it becomes false."
He lifted his foot and brought it down.
The doll that had died in Hisoka's place was instantly crushed into fragments beneath Roy's heel…
Then, all at once, fire rose and swallowed the remains whole.
Grasping that karmic thread, Roy looked through the projection of the Champion Owl and met the gaze of several people in the Kakin Empire.
Silently, he said:
"[Targeted Tracking Art], go!"
Kakin Empire. First Prince Benjamin's palace.
Before a massive screen as clear as a water mirror, old brigade commander Grant, Guzman, Benjamin on his throne, and all his private soldiers fell into a strange silence.
Only—
Tap… tap…
The soft sound of Benjamin lightly drumming his fingers against the armrest echoed through the hall. In that dazed quiet, it sounded like heavy hammer blows, leaving Grant and the others completely baffled.
'What happened to Hisoka?'
'Why did he just stop moving?'
'Roy Zoldyck must have done something to him!'
Thoughts sprang up chaotically like weeds, impossible to burn away.
Grant and dozens of Benjamin's private soldiers instinctively turned toward Guzman. If they wanted answers, the only one who could provide them was the man directly involved—the Hisoka who had been saved by the [Substitute Death Doll].
As one of the men Benjamin Hui Guo Rou relied on most, Grant and the others were hardly ignorant of the [Church of Truth], which had recently surged through Kakin and the V5 like a tidal wave, sweeping across the continent. On the contrary, they had gathered plenty of intelligence on it.
Within the church, it was widely said that anyone who believed in [Truth] and successfully received the blessing to become a [Bishop] would gain one chance to avoid death.
That point in particular had become a major intelligence focus on the desks of high-ranking officials in every nation.
The facts proved it: no one could reject a chance at [substituting death]. That was one of the reasons the [Church of Truth] was currently being allowed to spread with one eye open and one eye shut.
"Guzman, I assume you know what to do," old brigade commander Grant said, narrowing his eyes at him.
Guzman's green hair swayed in the wind as his expression darkened. Through Nen perception, he could already tell that Hisoka had revived inside the altar of the [Church]'s branch in the Kingdom of Gugan Yu. With a thought, he recalled the Champion Owl's projection. As the screen vanished and Roy's face disappeared with it, the shock and gloom in Guzman's heart were no less than Grant's.
'Flames, light transformation, what appears to be a soul-targeting mental attack, plus sharp swordsmanship. Judging by the Divine Right of Kings system, this guy is at worst a [Count]. And a [Count]… that's far beyond what he showed last time. Which means…'
'He didn't just step onto the [Path of Faith]. He's already walked a considerable distance down it and gained quite a lot of "Nen quantity" and "Nen abilities"…'
Thoughts raced through his mind. Guzman forcefully suppressed the turmoil in his heart, stepped forward from the crowd, and bowed to Benjamin Hui Guo Rou.
"Of course," he said.
"I'll go question Hisoka at once."
"And the moment I have the results, I'll report them to Your Highness."
What made Nen abilities truly unsettling was how hard they were to identify. Other than Hisoka himself, even with a divine scouting tool like the Champion Owl, Guzman still couldn't tell exactly what kind of [mental secret art] Roy had used.
But before Guzman could straighten up—
before Benjamin Hui Guo Rou could respond—
a whisper drifted in with the wind through the giant windows of the palace and echoed in every ear inside the hall…
"I found you…"
"Who's there?"
"Clack!"
Guns were cocked. Blades were drawn.
The palace instantly went on alert!
Led by old brigade commander Grant, the private soldiers immediately closed ranks around Benjamin Hui Guo Rou, forming a human wall and shielding him from every direction.
Benjamin's tapping hand stopped at once.
Together with Guzman below the throne, he looked toward the corner where the screen had vanished.
Under the glazed tiles of the grand hall, a pair of calm eyes slowly emerged.
Following the fading projection of the Champion Owl, tracing the karmic thread across time and space, those eyes locked firmly onto Guzman below—and onto every "important figure" connected to the [Church of Truth], those high-ranking members who had each been granted one chance to cheat death…
For example, Beyond, who was inspecting the progress of the Black Whale at the harbor beside the royal palace of the Kakin Empire.
For example, King Nasubi Hui Guo Rou himself, deep within the palace, the man who had personally established the Seed Urn Ceremony and set the kingdom's succession war in motion.
For example, Botobai, acting under Netero's orders to secretly investigate the [Church of Truth], having already gathered a great deal of information, and now holding a closed-door meeting at one of its hidden bases with a rotund bishop who had been turned.
And for example… the Second Princess of the Kukan'yu Kingdom, who was suspected of being connected to the [Dark Sonata].
And then there was Pariston, who had just parted ways with Beyond and was closely tied to him. Though not one of the [Church]'s upper echelons, he had already fallen within its sphere of influence.
At that moment—
when Roy's eyes appeared, openly and in secret, in the sky—
all of them froze for an instant.
Then some were shocked, some chuckled under their breath, some frowned, some grew wary…
Their expressions differed, but all of them shared one thing in common:
their emotions spiked, and none of them remained calm.
"Keh-heh-heh-heh… Those eyes look awfully familiar. Is that you, Roy Zoldyck?"
At the Kakin Empire's coastal docks, Beyond's rough face lit up as his gaze fixed sharply on Roy, recognizing him instantly.
"It's him… it's him… it's him!"
"My precious little darling, my beloved… Roy!"
"Heh-heh-heh… hahahaha… So you've been waiting for me to find you too, haven't you?"
On the Yorbian Continent, a new Hunter Exam had just begun. At one of the entrances, Tonpa happened to be assigned to the same testing site as Pariston. He nearly jumped out of his skin when Pariston suddenly fell into a frenzied state. Cursing inwardly, Tonpa pumped his stubby legs and hurried as far away as possible…
Perhaps it was precisely that instinct for danger that had allowed him to survive more than thirty Hunter Exams in a row.
In any case,
on this moon-high midnight,
certain people, and certain forces, were destined to toss and turn through a sleepless night.
Botobai was no exception.
Years ago, he had fought the boy during the Hunter Exam, and the battle had ended before either of them was truly satisfied. This three-star Terrorist Hunter—widely acknowledged as the strongest man beneath Netero—wore a Peking opera mask on his face, his presence imposing even without anger.
He reached out and calmed the frightened, heavyset bishop beside him.
Then he looked up at Roy's eyes, his heart filled with agitation and anticipation.
"There's no need to worry. He's also a Hunter from our Hunter Association."
"A Hunter?"
"That's right. A Hunter."
"Hoo…" The fat bishop patted his chest and shot Roy a resentful glance. "All mysterious and spooky—he nearly scared me to death. Since he's a Hunter too, then like you, is he some kind of anti-terror hunter?"
"No." Botobai folded his arms and silently watched Roy's projected gaze fade along the karmic thread. In a tone difficult to read, he said, "His mission is heavier than mine. And harder."
The fat bishop was instantly intrigued. "Oh?" he said, in a long rising tone. "Then what kind of Hunter is he?"
Botobai watched Roy's gaze finally disappear. Looking down from above, he slowly turned his head and spoke two words through clenched teeth:
"Godslayer."
"He says he wants to become a [Godslayer Hunter]!"
The fat bishop instantly rolled off his chair with a smack and dove under the table.
"He's insane! Damn it, your Hunter Association is full of lunatics!"
"You people dare say anything, take any job—aren't you afraid of divine punishment?"
Divine punishment?
Botobai sat there like a mountain beside the table, snorting two long streams of air from his nostrils. Inwardly, he thought:
For that boy, it's still hard to say who exactly is whose punishment…
"Phew…"
In the secret chamber, Roy's eyes finally vanished.
Across the entire island in the middle of the lake, surrounded by Lake Mobius, only one pair of eyes remained suspended in the air—
the eyes above the First Prince's palace in the Kakin royal capital.
From high above, they locked onto Guzman.
Deep within those pupils, scarlet light churned—
sharp enough to make the heart tremble.
~~~
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