————Warning, a bit bloody————
The person letting out screams was still screaming, the gaps filled with hysterical roars and wails.
This unlucky gangster thug, who had been teleported down together with the spiders by the Nen array, had already had both his legs and both his arms completely devoured by the silvery-white bone fish.
By all logic, with injuries like that, he should have been dead long ago.
But strangely enough, he was still alive, and could even let out full-bodied, powerful screams.
No blood flowed from the severed ends.
Nor did any shattered human tissue separate from the wounds.
After that, a bone fish leisurely swam toward him, and at the instant it drew close, another part of his head was missing—along with one eye.
The scream stopped abruptly, as if a pause button had been pressed, but a breath later, it turned into one trembling laugh after another.
—His sanity had already collapsed.
The scene was far too shocking. Kisho suppressed his nausea and forced himself to pull his gaze away from the man.
He turned to look at Chrollo standing beside him. Chrollo was also looking at the person who had been more than half devoured, but compared to the other members, he appeared far calmer.
—Rather than "watching," it was more like he was coldly "observing," observing the movements of those bone fish, observing whether there was any opportunity that could be exploited.
Kisho noticed that there was also a wound on Chrollo's arm.
His gaze tightened slightly.
"So it was just now… bitten while pulling himself out of the bone fish's mouth?"
Sensing Kisho's gaze, Chrollo still wore a composed expression and said softly:
"Be careful yourself."
Kisho froze for a moment, then nodded lightly.
The law of "the weak being prey to the strong" was constantly playing out in this "sea area."
The silver bone fish hunted gracefully. Even if parts of one's body were gnawed away, it would neither hurt nor kill—but—
If one could die directly, perhaps that would instead be the happier outcome.
Shalnark also withdrew his gaze from the incomplete gangsters on the ground, looked at Chrollo, and said:
"Really ruthless, huh. You even dragged your own people in too."
Chrollo asked the few who had scattered to avoid the silver bone fish:
"Have you found Jobhan's position?"
Feitan was the first to respond:
"No—at least at the instant we were transferred here, my 'En' couldn't find him."
Omokage spread his hands:
"Nope."
The two puppets behind him, due to the lack of Nen supply, moved extremely sluggishly until they came to a halt.
Chrollo then looked at Shalnark. Shalnark made a bitter face and shrugged.
A thoughtful look appeared in Chrollo's eyes as he looked up at the bone fish in the sky.
"Preliminary judgment: these 'fish' should be Jobhan's Nen beasts."
His gaze passed through the hunted "prey" and landed on the distant wall.
"By common sense, Nen beasts cannot be maintained once their owner enters a state of 'Zetsu,' so there are two possibilities."
"First, the core of the Nen array is Jobhan himself, so he is not affected by it."
"Second, the Nen array that can forcibly put Nen users into 'Zetsu' can only be maintained within the area we're in—and he himself is outside that range."
Feitan's voice carried barely restrained irritation:
"But there's nothing here except these annoying shells and coral. There's nowhere to hide a person at all."
"If it's like the boss said," Shalnark spoke up,
"then if there's another area, it can only be outside this giant aquarium."
—Under the blockade of the Nen array, everyone was unable to use Nen and their movements were restricted. There was simply no way to leave this area and go to the outskirts to kill Jobhan, the core.
Like a dead-end alley with no solution.
At that moment, Kisho suddenly spoke:
"Boss."
Chrollo looked at him.
"…Because of my Nen ability. Before being teleported here, I felt a gust of wind."
Supporting his heavy body, he took a step in a certain direction and raised his hand.
"Over there."
Everyone followed the direction Kisho pointed.
A three-edged spike lay on the ground.
Shalnark's emerald-green pupils shrank.
"A mirror?!"
Behind the three-edged spike, there was likewise the reflection of another three-edged spike.
The mirror surface stretched the view of this sea area to an extreme width. Fake coral and fake shells were scattered all over the ground, and with the deadly Nen fish drawing attention, almost no one would be able to spare focus to notice the existence of this mirror.
Chrollo raised his hand and rubbed Kisho's head as encouragement to the member, then slowly walked toward the mirror.
The other members also avoided the Nen fish and followed behind him.
Even with their Nen sealed, the members of the Troupe could still move freely under the pressure of the Nen array.
Shalnark bent a finger and tapped on the mirror, then pressed his fingertip against the surface.
"It's a very solid double-sided mirror."
A rare coldness and anger surfaced on his face.
"That guy Jobhan is probably watching us from behind the mirror."
Chrollo asked calmly:
"Can it be broken?"
As the one responsible for arm strength among everyone present, Feitan stepped in front of the mirror, raised his hand, and threw a punch—
With a "bang," a dent that wasn't very large appeared on the mirror, but there were no signs of it shattering.
Feitan's face was cold as he shook his head.
"If it weren't for this damn Nen array…"
Looking at Feitan, who was irritated to the extreme and on the verge of exploding, Chrollo soothed him:
"Calm down."
He even had the leisure to joke:
"Fortunately, the Nen array sealed Nen abilities. Otherwise, you'd probably be using that move of yours."
Feitan: "..."
"Boss, so what do we do?" Omokage suddenly spoke. He shrugged and casually pointed behind everyone.
—The remaining "fish food" that could still run was already countable on one hand. In about a few more minutes, this group of Nen fish would come looking for the final food on the seabed.
Before Chrollo could say anything, the scene in the mirror suddenly changed.
Jobhan, now wearing another set of snow-white suit and with a deathly pale face, stood behind the glass wall.
Yet with extremely excited and pathological eyes, he looked toward the huge "aquarium" on this side of the mirror.
"Spiders… hehehe… so what if you're spiders?!"
He laughed wildly, his confident gaze slowly sweeping across everyone behind the glass.
"No need to struggle. Why not enjoy this painless death?"
He pressed his face against the glass, his pupils reflecting the blood-red scene beyond it.
"This is probably the best ending you spiders could ever get, right?!"
Chrollo calmly met his gaze. Faced with the provocation, he ignored it completely, unmoved.
Behind the Troupe, the last boy had had his entire body gnawed away, leaving only his head, which fell to the ground.
Several Nen fish elegantly swayed their silver bone tails and, amid the boy's wails, slowly swam toward the final dinner.
"Everyone, evade on your own."
Chrollo frowned slightly and issued the order in a low voice. However, the next moment, his previous calm vanished and his brows knit tightly.
Before he could speak, everyone present had already sensed something was wrong.
"—Where's Kisho?!"
...
Kisho appeared on the first underground level.
Fortunately, even though Nen abilities were sealed, the already-conjured badge could still be used.
Fortunately, before being teleported, he had left his Chapter of the Stars on the first underground level.
The Nen array on the first underground level was only used for teleportation; it did not have the terrifying Nen suppression and heavy pressure of the second level.
Feeling the familiar "Ten" envelop his body once more, Kisho let out a soft sigh of relief.
The feeling of being able to use Nen again really was wonderful.
He raised his head and scanned the surroundings. For a fleeting moment, he truly thought that maybe he should just leave like this.
But after exiting the lower space, the wound on his shoulder that suddenly began to ache violently and bleed reminded him why he could still be standing here alive.
Moreover, he believed that Chrollo and the others could definitely hold out until the team arrived as reinforcements.
If he really ran away, then after the spiders got out of the aquarium and dealt with Jobhan, the next one to be dealt with would be him.
So, thoughts of "making a clean getaway" should just stay as thoughts.
Kisho smiled, pressed his fingers to the wound, and water flowed into it. Very quickly, the wound scabbed over and healed.
He stepped forward, walking toward a certain position near the front of the first underground level.
He suddenly thought that the mirror on the second underground level might have been set there precisely to give people the illusion that the second underground level was the same size as the first.
He adjusted his stance, gripping a Chapter of the Four Seasons in his hand, and closed his eyes.
"Gyo"—pouring Nen into his fist.
"Ren"—letting his body release more aura than usual.
"Zetsu"—erasing the Nen from all other parts of his body except his fist.
"Hatsu"—releasing all the Nen on his fist in one explosive burst!
"Boom—"
The floor was violently blasted open by this punch wrapped in blazing Nen.
Amid Jobhan's terror and his eyes filled with disbelief, the white-haired, blue-eyed boy descended from above—!