Ryan raised the needle and aimed it at himself.
At this point, the only thing he could rely on was his own body.
Ronin watched his choice with a trace of disappointment. Manipulators always ended up making the same move.
Once there were no usable targets left to control, they chose to control themselves.
As for how much destruction self-control could produce—that depended entirely on what price the user was willing to pay.
Shalnark had imposed a restriction on himself: he couldn't stop the fight until he won, turning his "self-control" into an Enhancer-like combat state and a body that felt outright "cheating."
What about Ryan?
What price could he pay?
Ryan had controlled many people, but in such a short time those puppets had already been cleared out—by the shadow clone, with Kurapika's group assisting.
Only the butler hadn't fought and hadn't died; he was still bound there by Kurapika's chain.
At first the old butler struggled, but the struggle weakened with time, until he finally stopped entirely.
He was intelligent. He understood they'd deliberately spared him—otherwise he would have died the moment he tried to withdraw and support Elder Ryan's ability.
Because yes—
he had already activated his ability.
Its name was "Iron Wall Prison." It could instantly conjure six iron walls, sealing himself and anyone inside predesignated positions into a prison.
Within that prison, only he could open doors—at any point on the walls, at will.
Otherwise, why would he have personally gone outside the villa to "welcome" Ronin's group?
He just hadn't expected Kurapika to bind him without him noticing.
In, probably.
So cautious…
As he thought that, he heard Kurapika's voice: "Can you cancel your ability? Or do you want me to cancel it for you?"
The butler's eyes widened slightly, but he nodded.
It wasn't surprising they'd noticed his hidden ability. What really stuck in his mind was the phrase "I'll cancel it for you."
He was curious what method Kurapika meant—yet also afraid that "canceling" might mean killing him to end the effect.
So he obediently dismissed the iron walls himself.
Meanwhile, Ryan plunged the needle into his own arm.
A huge amount of blood was injected into his body, and his frame began swelling from the arm outward.
Watching Ryan's state, Ronin thought of Marvel's Hulk—except this one was red.
It was his blood vessels bulging under the pressure of all that blood.
A terrifying aura erupted from the "blood-vessel giant." The once-elegant, aristocratic face became grotesque and twisted under the writhing, snake-like veins.
"Power… I've never felt power like this!" drool ran down Ryan's mouth, but in his swollen state he didn't even notice. He simply raised his thick arm and admired it with narcissistic delight.
Then Ronin tilted his head.
Because Ryan vanished.
He reappeared at Ronin's side with something close to teleportation speed.
Even boosted severalfold, Ryan's speed still couldn't escape the Sharingan's tracking.
A skeletal Susanoo hand flashed into existence and collided with Ryan's incoming punch.
BOOM!
The impact sounded like an explosion. Susanoo didn't give ground. The skeletal hand loosened from a fist into a grab, reaching for Ryan—who was already splattering blood from the clash.
At the same moment, veins ripped free from Ryan's body like whips, coiling around Susanoo's arm.
Amaterasu ignited again—this time directly on Ryan's body.
Black flames surged upward.
Ryan slapped Susanoo's arm, and at the same time his body burst outward with chunks of flesh wrapped in aura.
Looking closely, the flesh was threaded with countless capillaries.
But now those capillaries were coated in aura; when Ryan tore the flesh away, the aura and flesh sprayed outward together—dragging the black Amaterasu flames off his body like peeling a burning layer of skin.
Ronin also noticed: where Ryan ripped himself open, fresh tissue began squirming and regrowing.
So he'd shifted into the direction he was best at after all—
Enhancement.
That outrageous regeneration, and the brutal close-range power, made one thing clear:
Manipulator Ryan, after pumping himself full of blood, had temporarily remade himself into an Enhancer-type monster.
But it didn't matter.
Ronin formed seals. When he released them, chakra gathered in his right palm.
In an instant, a compressed sphere of chakra formed—then wind-nature chakra began to bloom over it, shaping into a shuriken-like form.
Naruto's signature technique:
Wind Style: Rasenshuriken.
Ronin made the throwing motion—Susanoo vanished in the same instant.
Ryan sensed danger, but his face only grew more ecstatic, as if he no longer understood fear. The blood had invaded his brain completely, turning him into a beast that wanted only slaughter.
Ronin hurled the Rasenshuriken straight at Ryan.
The shriek of cutting wind tore through the air. The projectile's speed was absurd.
When Ryan tried to block with his swollen blood vessels, the moment they touched, everything shattered like rotten wood and broken tiles.
Rasenshuriken might look like a Rasengan—
but in truth, with chakra's nature transformation, it contained countless microscopic chakra blades.
Ryan watched his arm disappear.
Then the Rasenshuriken struck his chest, and everything began to collapse under the technique's shredding force.
In his final moment, a flicker of clarity returned to Ryan's eyes—
too late.
The Rasenshuriken detonated inside him.
Countless fine wind blades engulfed Ryan, even chewing into the ground beneath his feet. In seconds, everything within the blast zone was ground into dust.
When the dust finally settled, the only trace left was a bit of ash on the ground—
no evidence at all that a Nen user had ever been here.
It was true annihilation. Bone and soul turned to powder.