Ronin couldn't help the dark thoughts creeping in.
From the moment he stepped into this underground section, everything he had seen carried that same unnatural twist and spiral. The architecture. The plants. Even the bones.
If he had seen this before coming here, even with his memories of the old Kurta village, he probably wouldn't have noticed how strange the spiral motif really was. But trapped inside this sealed underground space, the pattern stood out like a warning.
A curse was the worst-case scenario.
At least he didn't feel any twisting or warping on himself or Kurapika. That was something.
"Is he Kurta?" Vanessa asked quietly. She had moved closer to the skeleton, staring hard at the empty eye sockets.
There was nothing left. No trace of the Scarlet Eyes that should have been there.
Ronin didn't answer. He left the tent and kept exploring.
The deeper they went, the more similarities he found with the hidden Kurta village he remembered. At this point, denying it would be pointless. And he had no reason to deny it anyway.
Finding Kurta ruins here was actually good news.
It proved the Kurta weren't limited to just the one hidden branch he knew. There were probably more of them out there somewhere, in places no one had looked yet.
After confirming the area was a closed space with only one way in or out—the tunnel they had come through—Ronin checked the other two passages.
One was grim. Full of ritual symbols and old bloodstains.
The other was ordinary. Stone houses, tilled earth, even an underground river running through it.
Once he had a rough picture of all three sections, Ronin made his decision.
He was going to seal this place off for now.
There was too much here that could give him answers about the Kurta. Everything he had read before crossing over, everything he had learned since arriving in this world, told him the Kurta were anything but ordinary. They were very likely from the Dark Continent.
This ruin only made him more certain.
If he couldn't find the rest of the Kurta inside Lake Mobius, then maybe the answer really did lie beyond it.
But first, he had to finish exploring this place properly.
"This won't be easy," Vanessa warned.
She meant it was possible, but difficult. Ronin gave her a small, understanding smile.
Sealing the area itself would be simple for him. The hard part was making sure the message got through to everyone outside. He needed to be forceful enough that anyone thinking about pushing in would understand one thing clearly:
As long as he was standing here, no one was getting through.
Once he decided on that approach, the rest was straightforward.
He could have been cruel about it. Used Shadow Clones to wait at the dig site and drive everyone out the second they broke through. But that would only breed more resentment.
So instead, he dug his way back out the same way he came in.
When he and Vanessa emerged and met the diggers again, Ronin couldn't help but feel a little impressed by how slowly they had progressed. Only a few dozen meters in all that time.
If the Nen users had done the digging themselves, they would have been through much faster. This kind of work would have been decent training for them, too.
But clearly these people had other ideas.
They thought too highly of themselves. Let the ordinary workers do the labor while the ability users stayed fresh and ready to handle any sudden danger. That was the "smart" and "safe" way, in their minds.
Ronin could understand the logic. No one knew what might be waiting on the other side. If it was another monster nest like the middle passage, having fresh Nen users ready to fight made sense.
What they hadn't expected was for Ronin to come back out this quickly.
Some were genuinely impressed by his methods. Others looked at him with open greed, trying to read his face and body language for any sign of what he might have found deeper in.
The fact that Vanessa hadn't come out with him told them there was still more space beyond the sealed section. The smarter ones among them were already putting the pieces together, and the looks they gave Ronin grew darker.
Ronin noticed every single one of those stares.
He didn't bother softening his words.
"Sorry, everyone. The area ahead is important to me right now. So I can't let any of you through."
As he spoke, he settled into a ready stance.
The meaning was obvious.
Strength decides this.
The moment he finished, the tunnel erupted into noise. The ordinary workers immediately looked to their team leaders. The Nen users started shouting accusations and demands, but none of them actually stepped forward.
Ronin listened for a while, then his patience ran out.
"Anyone who wants to go in, step forward. I'll count to three. If no one moves, then all of you get the hell out."
His voice cut through the shouting like a blade. The tunnel went dead silent.
Then came the sound of slow, deliberate clapping.
Ronin recognized the entrance immediately. Brennan had done the exact same thing.
Another one?
His eyes found the man stepping out. Another Nen user.
"Quite the show of force."
Miniso didn't even finish the sentence.
Ronin vanished from where he stood.
He had no interest in talking.
If the guy was bold enough to step out and mock him, then he should have been ready for what came next.
Miniso's eyes widened. He hadn't expected Ronin to move that fast.
He really was part of Brennan's crew. After Ronin and Vanessa had left earlier, Miniso had been the one pushing the group to split—half would keep digging honestly, the other half would wait and ambush Ronin on the way out. Kill him, take whatever he found.
The punch never landed on flesh.
A heavy metal shield appeared in front of Miniso at the last second, conjured by someone standing behind him. Ronin's fist slammed into it with a grinding screech of metal.
The shield held for less than a second.
Then it ripped free of its creator's hands and kept going, driven forward by the force of Ronin's punch. It smashed straight into Miniso like a falling steel plate.
Miniso's eyes filled with pure terror in the final moment.
"Wai—"
The shield crushed him completely. Blood poured out from under the edges and spread across the tunnel floor.
The man who had created the shield stood frozen, unharmed. His own conjured shield had become the weapon that killed his ally.
He stared at the bloody mess that used to be Miniso, then looked up at Ronin.
For a second he thought about fighting.
Then he saw the look in Ronin's eyes and realized it would be suicide.
He slowly raised both hands.
"I surrender."