Once a person was already dead, things that had once counted as secrets no longer had any meaning.
Tserriednich was in exactly that state now.
He knew perfectly well that he was dead, but he didn't know what method Ronin had used to bring him back from below.
Chrollo's question pulled his memories back to more than ten years ago. Back then, Lisnos had still been one of his rather unremarkable subordinates.
But the man had a good head on his shoulders. While working for him, he embezzled quite a lot of resources, built up plenty of connections, and slowly managed to turn himself into a philanthropist instead.
"What exactly are you trying to say? Are you here to avenge him?" the Fourth Prince asked Chrollo indifferently.
Chrollo's eyes flickered.
If the Fourth Prince were still alive, he would have chosen revenge. But the prince's current state had absolutely nothing to do with being alive.
And seeing that utterly unconcerned attitude made Chrollo even clearer on one point: right now, there was really nothing he could do to the Fourth Prince.
Ronin really was infuriatingly troublesome.
The reason he had been able to investigate Lisnos, and through Lisnos confirm that the true source of everything lay with the Fourth Prince, was because of the Scarlet Eyes obtained from massacring the Kurta Clan.
But it was also because of that massacre that they had left behind a disaster like Ronin.
There was almost a sense of fate to it.
Chrollo shifted his gaze away from the Fourth Prince. He wasn't naive enough to ask the Fourth Prince why he had done it.
Because the answer was obvious.
Profit.
Just like when Kurapika had once asked him why he had massacred the Kurta Clan.
Profit.
Kidnapping people from Meteor City could bring Tserriednich profit from many different directions. Whether it was the sale of human organs, human trafficking, or even simply filming grotesque videos, all of it brought him benefits.
And those benefits weren't just financial. There were also connections involved, and psychological satisfaction as well.
From the investigation, it was easy enough to tell that Tserriednich himself was a complete degenerate.
"Well? Did you get the answer you wanted?" Ronin asked, not in any hurry to attack.
He was waiting.
Not for the result of the battle inside the Earth Prison Dome, but for Kurapika.
When the stone pillar above stopped descending, he knew Kurapika had found Kortopi and taken action.
He didn't believe Kortopi would be a match for Kurapika.
So he would wait.
He would wait until Kurapika came here with news of Kortopi's death, and then they would deal with Chrollo together—the most important target of their revenge.
"It doesn't matter anymore," Chrollo said.
Yes. At this point, it no longer mattered to him who had done what all those years ago.
Because he knew exactly what he had to do next.
Fight Ronin with everything he had.
If he won, he would continue pursuing his ideals.
If he lost, then he would go to the other world and properly apologize to Sarasa.
So the pages of Chrollo's book turned open again.
But in the very next second, his movements froze.
"I was rather surprised you managed to obtain Saiyu's ability," Ronin said. "But you haven't used it to its fullest potential. That's understandable, though. After all, from the very beginning, you couldn't have known that I actually understood Saiyu's ability."
Ronin activated Ame-no-Tokotachi and restrained Chrollo.
By now, Chrollo had no allies left. Ronin naturally no longer needed to worry about external forces damaging Ame-no-Tokotachi, disrupting the output of his ocular power, and increasing the burden on his eyes.
So unless the ability preserved on the page Chrollo had turned to first was teleportation, the moment Ame-no-Tokotachi disappeared, Amaterasu would burn directly onto Chrollo's body.
When Chrollo heard Ronin's words, he didn't show much surprise.
From their earlier battle, he had already noticed some clues. In fact, the reason he had used Saiyu's ability as soon as the fight broke out was because he had a theory.
Beyond would not have deliberately leaked Saiyu's ability only to him.
If Chrollo fought while assuming Ronin knew nothing about it, the one who would suffer in the end might be himself.
So from the start, Saiyu's ability had never been his ultimate trump card.
His true trump card had always been one thing and one thing only:
Shalnark's Black Voice.
Only by sticking an antenna into Ronin's body would true victory be his.
As for now, there was no panic on Chrollo's face, because he had already guessed what ability Ronin was about to use against him.
So one second before Ame-no-Tokotachi vanished and Amaterasu was about to activate, Chrollo's figure disappeared.
But the place where he reappeared was already filled with surging water.
Water Release: Great Exploding Water Colliding Wave!
The probability that Chrollo would activate a teleportation ability had been above eighty percent, so from the beginning, Ronin had been prepared for the possibility that Ame-no-Tokotachi would not completely pin Chrollo down.
But from their earlier battle, he had also reached another conclusion:
Chrollo's teleportation range did not exceed ten meters.
In that case, all Ronin had to do was use the restrained Chrollo as the center point and release enough water to cover a twenty-meter diameter area. That would guarantee Chrollo would be swallowed inside it.
Ronin's Great Exploding Water Colliding Wave could easily cover that range.
In fact, it could spread far beyond that—enough that even if Chrollo teleported several times in succession after appearing, he still wouldn't be able to escape.
In an instant, the flood engulfed the entire villa.
Even so, it still failed to reach the towering stone pillar.
But Ronin, now within the water, had already begun forming hand seals for a second technique.
At the same time, Chrollo's figure appeared in the water not far away, and exactly as Ronin had predicted, he activated teleportation again.
But if he wanted to escape the range of the Great Exploding Water Colliding Wave using an ability that only moved him ten meters at a time, then judging from the direction Chrollo had chosen, he would need to teleport at least ten times.
Water Release: Water Shark Bullet Technique.
Ronin activated another ninjutsu.
A shark-shaped mass of water instantly enveloped his entire body and carried him rushing toward Chrollo at high speed.
At the same time, more Water Shark Bullets appeared within the flood.
These water sharks didn't need to carry Ronin, so the instant they appeared, they charged straight at Chrollo and bit toward him.
When Chrollo activated teleportation for the third time, something went wrong with the ability.
He was forced out of space directly.
He had been predicted!
No—
Chrollo's gaze swept through several positions in the water, and he saw four figures identical to Ronin had already appeared at the four corners.
They activated their abilities simultaneously.
The Four Violet Flames Formation that had previously trapped Uvogin to death was born within the Great Exploding Water Colliding Wave, completely sealing Chrollo inside.
Using spatial sealing to counter spatial abilities—Ronin really had found a way to deal with him.
The pages of the book in Chrollo's hand turned.
But what ability could he still use to truly threaten Ronin now?
~~~
Patreon(.)com/Bleam
— Currently You can Read 70 Chapters Ahead of Others!