Chapter 159: Are You Ready to Face the Dark Continent?
That Blood Soul Card abruptly burst apart! Not into an energy shockwave, but transforming into countless crimson blood threads, fine as hair and nearly impossible for the naked eye to track! These blood threads, like living venomous snakes, bypassed Illumi's hastily erected Nen defense (most of his power was still controlling those melted Nen needles) and instantly wrapped around his body, limbs, and neck!
The blood threads bit into his flesh, not causing physical cutting damage, but like maggots adhering to bone, frantically siphoning and polluting his life force and mental energy! A feeling of weakness, sluggishness, and icy resentment originating from the depths of his soul instantly swept through his entire body!
"Argh!"
Illumi let out an agonized, muffled groan, his body's movements instantly becoming stiff and sluggish! His Nen thread command controlling Killua, issued to Gotoh, also became chaotic in tandem!
It was this fatal sluggishness!
Killua, whose body had been stiff due to the fear of his older brother and the oppressive aura of his grandfather, at the life-and-death moment when Gotoh's giant hand was about to grab the back of his neck, finally erupted like a volcano with his suppressed will to resist and his instinct as a Zoldyck genius!
The disruption of Illumi's Nen thread control was like severing the final invisible shackle on him!
"Get lost!!!"
Killua let out a beast-like roar! His icy-blue pupils instantly transformed into a blinding sea of pale blue lightning!
Bzzzt—!
The violent lightning was no longer confined to his fingertips but erupted like an explosion from every pore on his body! His silver hair stood on end, his entire person seemingly transforming into a deity bathed in thunder!
[Godspeed: Thunder God's Wrath]!
Boom!
Gotoh's giant hand, covered in Enhancer Nen and capable of crushing steel, grabbed fiercely at the spot where Killua had been standing, but only crushed a blinding phantom of lightning! The violent electric current scurried frantically along his Nen-covered arm, numbing it and causing his movements to stagnate!
And the real Killua had appeared beside Gotoh exactly like teleportation! His right hand was formed into a knife-hand, the entire arm completely enveloped in highly compressed pale blue lightning, emitting a high-frequency, air-tearing hum!
That was no longer a simple "knife-hand," but a blade of judgment forged from pure lightning!
[Lightning Speed: Raikiri]!
Squelch—!
Fast! Fast beyond the limits of thought! The pale blue lightning blade, carrying Killua's long-accumulated anger, fear, and the resolution to break through his own limits, pierced without hindrance through Gotoh's Nen defense—which was slightly sluggish due to paralysis—and thrust with incomparable precision into his left chest!
Time seemed to freeze.
The savage smile on Gotoh's face instantly congealed, transforming into extreme bewilderment and disbelief.
He slowly lowered his head, looking at the terrifying, blackened-edged bloody hole in his left chest, pierced by pale blue lightning. Through the hole, one could even see the ruined, collapsed stone pillars behind him.
"You..."
Gotoh opened his mouth, only spitting out a blurred syllable. The life in his eyes rapidly dimmed, and his massive body crashed down like a falling mountain of gold and jade, kicking up a large cloud of dust.
The entire arena was dead silent!
Everyone was stunned by this instantaneous reversal of life and death! A moment ago it was Gotoh's confident sneak attack, but the next it became the stage for Killua to break through his fear and complete a fatal counter-kill!
That violent lightning, that resolute strike, was deeply branded in the minds of every survivor.
"Killua!" Gon shouted happily, his eyes full of excitement and pride.
Biscuit also breathed a sigh of relief. Looking at Killua, whose lightning was gradually subsiding, panting slightly but with eyes sharp as knives, a trace of gratification flashed in her eyes. "This kid... finally crossed that hurdle."
"Gotoh!"
Zeno's roar was like a wounded lion, full of shock and fury!
He never expected that under the oppressive aura of his standoff with Riku, a mere butler like Gotoh would actually fail, and be counter-killed by the grandson who had always feared his eldest brother?!
This roar completely ignited Zeno's final bit of reason!
He no longer cared about Elena and that crystal. His hand-blade, paused in mid-air, carrying the monstrous ferocity of the Nen dragon behind him, was about to ruthlessly and destructively slash down towards Riku and Killua! He wanted to completely erase this area, along with everyone obstructing his view, from the map!
"Grandpa! Stop!"
Killua abruptly raised his head, shouting hoarsely toward Zeno's direction. His voice was somewhat raspy from excitement and his recent outburst, yet it carried unprecedented determination. "I choose my own path! Push me again..."
The lightning in his icy-blue pupils flared again, and he enunciated every word: "...and I'll fight you too!"
Zeno's movement experienced an extremely brief stagnation due to Killua's earth-shattering declaration.
On his archaic face, anger, bewilderment, and a trace of imperceptible, complex emotion intertwined.
The Nen dragon phantom behind him also let out a low roar, its energy showing an unstable fluctuation.
Right in this delicate gap where the old force had just faded and the new had not yet been born!
"Old man, look at the crystal!"
Riku's cold voice, like a grim reaper's whisper, rang in Zeno's ear!
His long-prepared right hand did not strike towards Zeno; instead, with fingers spread, he aimed from afar at the seven-colored crystal [Ruler's Blessing], which Elena was forcibly stabilizing with the milky-white light beam!
In his palm, the incandescent Lightning Core, compressed to the extreme, lit up once again. But this time, the light of the Lightning Core wasn't violent, but carried a bizarre, high-frequency oscillatory fluctuation!
"Lightning Core: Resonant Stripping!"
Buzz—!
An incredibly condensed incandescent lightning beam, containing terrifying high-frequency oscillatory power, did not shoot towards Zeno, but struck with incomparable precision the milky-white light beam Elena was using to stabilize the crystal!
Crack!
Like the crisp sound of shattering glass! That resilient stabilizing light beam, activated by administrator privileges and a special crystal, under the impact of the lightning containing dual attributes of annihilation and high-frequency oscillation, held on for less than half a second before shattering with a crash!
Losing the suppression of the stabilizing light beam, the [Ruler's Blessing] seven-colored crystal, already at a critical point due to the previous energy impact, suddenly erupted from within with chaotic light hundreds, thousands of times more intense than before!
The seven-colored flowing light frantically twisted, spun, and expanded! An ancient, primeval intent fluctuation, full of endless resentment and dark aura, like a slumbering immemorial ferocious beast violently awakened, erupted abruptly from the crystal's core!
"No—!"
Elena let out a despairing scream as the white crystal in her hand shattered into powder with a "snap"!
Rumble!!!
The seven-colored crystal could no longer withstand the impact of the terrifying will within it and exploded violently!
There was no earth-shattering physical impact, but an invisible dark Nen frenzy, sufficient to distort the boundaries of reality and spirit, swept outwards in all directions like the bursting waters of the River Styx!
Bearing the brunt was Elena, who was closest! She couldn't even let out a scream before her entire body, under the washing of that dark Nen tide, instantly decomposed and dissipated like a weathered sand sculpture, not leaving a single trace behind!
Immediately following were several players and administrators slightly closer. Their bodies, like wax figures thrown into strong acid, vanished into nothingness amidst silent twisting and dissolving!
Zeno's expression changed drastically! The resentment and chaos contained within the sweeping dark Nen tide made even his heart palpitate!
He could no longer care about attacking Riku. The roaring Nen dragon phantom behind him instantly rolled back, transforming into a thick dark red Nen shield, firmly protecting him!
The dark Nen tide beat fiercely against the shield, emitting a corrosive "sizzling" sound, the shield's light dimming rapidly!
The [AT Field - Modified] on Riku's body operated at full capacity. The pale golden light stubbornly flickered in the dark tide, protecting him, Gon, Killua, and Biscuit behind him.
Violent ripples appeared on the surface of the force field, as if it would be eroded and penetrated at any moment.
And right at the instant this dark Nen tide swept the arena and the chaos reached its peak!
"Buzz—!!!"
A sharper buzz, grander and more ear-piercing, as if billions of cicadas were shrieking simultaneously, suddenly erupted from the center of the administrator team!
It was Razor!
The [Game Core: Aluka's Yearning] he had been holding all along, emitting a soft white light, was now flashing and vibrating frantically at an unprecedented frequency!
The white light fluctuated violently, as if fiercely resonating and struggling against the dark Nen frenzy dispersing from the crystal explosion, or as if being forcibly invaded and polluted by that dark power!
On the surface of the core light sphere, countless fine, writhing black patterns like living things were rapidly spreading and eroding! The white light was losing ground!
"The core... the core is being polluted! The rules... the rules are collapsing!"
List let out a despairing roar, looking at the administrator terminal in his hand, flashing frantically red with jumping runes.
"Razor! Cut the connection quickly!" Dwun shouted in absolute horror.
However, it was all too late.
The buzzing reached its apex! The [Aluka's Yearning] light sphere suddenly erupted with one final blindingly intense light, instantly swallowing Razor's figure!
Within the intense light, countless chaotic data streams poured out like a waterfall, intertwining and twisting in the air!
Under everyone's utterly horrified gazes, those violent data streams, the residual seven-colored crystal energy, and the dark Nen frantically converged, compressed, and took shape in the sky above the light sphere!
The light gradually subsided and stabilized.
A figure, jointly outlined by pure light, chaotic data, and dense dark aura, floated clearly in mid-air.
It was the phantom of a man.
Tall, wearing a worn exploration jacket covered in dust and unknown stains. His messy black hair was like a bird's nest, his face bearing the marks carved by wind and frost, yet a cynical smile that seemed to have seen through everything hung on his lips.
Most striking were his eyes—bright, profound, full of endless curiosity and the desire to explore, as if capable of holding the entire starry universe.
The phantom's gaze slowly swept over the ruined arena below, resembling an apocalyptic wasteland, over Zeno fully on the defensive, over Riku with lightning arcs flashing around him. Finally, that smiling gaze accurately locked onto Gon, whose face was full of shock, blurting out, "Dad?!"
The smile on the man's phantom face widened a bit, carrying a hint of mischievousness, a hint of gratification, and a hint of... excitement, fearing the world wouldn't be chaotic enough.
A clear voice, carrying unique magnetism and brimming with wicked amusement, rang directly in the depths of everyone's minds like a great bell:
"Yo, people messing with my son's game... are you ready to face the real 'Dark Continent'?"