Dunn West bit his lower lip hard. Taking advantage of the brief window of consciousness brought on by the pain, he immediately opened his Aura Nodes and released his [Ren], beginning to resist the erosion of the 'drowsiness'...
It had to be said, he was quite quick-witted.
The underlying nature of the 'drowsiness' was essentially Nen. To defend against a Nen attack, one naturally had to use Nen!
Without needing any reminder, Edmond Sand—who had transformed into a 'putrid torrent' and lost all human shape, leaving only countless angry eyes glaring at Roy as they drifted with the current—caused the lake-like surface of his body to ripple with dark Nen light. He released his own [Ren] at the same time...
A C-class and a B-minus-class powerhouse joining forces!
The monstrous, fierce aura that suddenly erupted pressed down on Roy with tyrannical force. Smelling the familiar scent of suspected [Divine Protection] on the two men, Roy's expression remained unchanged. He reached his right hand into the sunlight, and suddenly, the hum of a sword rang out.
A 'lightsaber' was slowly drawn from the sunlight, its entire body wrapped in terrifying solar flares. It was so blindingly bright that Dunn West and Edmond Sand couldn't help but narrow their eyes, a touch of solemnity appearing on their faces!
"Dunn, you're right. He definitely isn't Andrew Cooper!"
"He's a... Viscount who has received [Divine Protection]!"
*Thud, thud...* In the living room, corridor, and garden, dozens of maids, young boys, and guards collapsed. Edmond Sand stared at the lightsaber slowly blooming with solar flares in Roy's hand. Adding to the fact that the other party could casually use a Nen ability similar to 'illusion' or 'disguise' to transform into Andrew Cooper, he began to laugh maniacally...
"A Viscount, how wonderful... A big shot like you wouldn't normally even spare us a glance, yet now you've condescended to come to the shantytown for a piece of trash..." Breaking through the surging drowsiness, Edmond rushed downstream. Suddenly, two massive, rotting hands thrust out from the torrent, wrapped in [Ken], and smashed down toward Roy's head!
Inside the [Sumeru Mustard Seed], a faint groan echoed through the hazy space...
Lying on a floating wooden floor, Ribery Garcia frowned and slowly opened his eyes. Through the fluctuations of Roy's Nen, he could vaguely see and hear something... Just as he tried to push himself up from the floor, a leisurely voice suddenly drifted into his ears...
"I advise you not to move around. It will distract me... and interrupt my killing!"
'Where am I?' Hearing that it was Roy, Ribery Garcia felt the burning, intense pain in his chest and tactfully lay back down.
The man fell silent for a moment before asking cautiously, "Great being, may I watch?"
"Watch if you want. The karma is right there." The fists wrapped in [Ken] arrived!
Gripping the lightsaber in his hand, Roy blocked the strike with his blade and spoke lightly to Ribery Garcia. With a thought from Ribery Garcia, the Nen surged within the [Sumeru Mustard Seed] space, suddenly forming a water screen. Reflected in the screen was the exact scene of... Edmond Sand throwing a punch, only to be blocked by Roy holding his blade single-handedly.
'A Viscount? How laughable... This guy has no idea who he's facing!'
The [Putrid Torrent Fist] ground against the lightsaber, emitting a harsh screeching sound. Ribery Garcia recalled the fragment of Roy's future he had seen in his divination—that sun chariot... that gilded bird whose spread wings could almost blot out the sky, and... the entity on the chariot wearing a heavenly crown, casting a cold, indifferent glance... It could only be described as a [God]!
Even though Ribery Garcia had never seen a [God], let alone experienced a divine descent, the word [God] was the highest title he could think of!
*Sizzle—* Nen clashed. Roy's feet were planted like nails in the ground as he blocked Edmond's fist with a single hand and a single sword. That calmness and composure made Dunn West, who was obediently watching from the sidelines, involuntarily reach for the slender leather belt tied around his waist. It was also his weapon, a [Nen Soft Sword] crafted by a master artisan in Rose City... He broke a sweat for Edmond Sand!
'A Viscount? So he's a Viscount!'
'Could there be some connection between him and that boy?'
Dunn West quietly glanced at the boy who was faintly protected behind Roy, having fallen asleep under the impact of the 'drowsiness'... He had clearly snatched the boy from a peasant family in the shantytown; his background couldn't be any cleaner. How could he be connected to a noble lord from the city?
Or could it be... the boy was some illegitimate child of a noble lord?
And his older brother from the main family had come looking for him?
As his thoughts churned, Dunn West's brows suddenly furrowed. At a certain moment, his attention was drawn to a sword light that tore through the sky!
That sword light was too dazzling, too scorching... As the boy disguised as Andrew Cooper gently swung his sword diagonally upward, Edmond Sand let out another pig-like squeal. His fist, wrapped in [Ken], went flying off, turning into a shower of blood mid-air that rained down...
"Lord Edmond!" This was the first time Dunn West had ever seen Edmond Sand get injured. As a knight's attendant, all thoughts of orders vanished from his eyes, leaving only the instinct to 'protect'. He suddenly dashed forward, drawing the soft sword from his waist, and thrust it in a sharp, straight stab!
Little did he know, as fellow swordsmen, it was as if they shared a telepathic connection.
Before Dunn West could even get close, Roy simply turned his head and shot him a faint glance. A touch of crimson replaced the bright gleam, followed by three slowly spinning, pitch-black tomoe that radiated a heart-palpitating fluctuation outward!
*Hum...* Nen was projected onto Dunn West through the Sharingan using [Yin Style].
The knight's attendant, who loved wearing an open vest to imitate the noble lords of the Principality of Samir, stared blankly. Before the sword in his hand could even reach Roy, his pupils dilated. Amidst a violent tremor of his consciousness, an entire world's worth of information from the [Demon Slayer World] was forcibly poured into his mind in 0.001 seconds.
His brain was completely stuffed, exploded, and shattered with a bang!
'Sure enough, the panel notification sounded...'
Roy finally figured out what that familiar feeling was!
The so-called "unknown entity" and "divine spark"—since it wasn't the [Thunder] worshipped by the Principality of Samir, then... who could it be?!
*Thud.* Dunn West collapsed, and the [Nen Soft Sword] he hadn't even managed to thrust dropped to the ground with a clang. This served as a wake-up call for Edmond Sand, who had just had his arms sliced off by Roy again!
The man, transformed into a putrid torrent, opened countless mouths and screamed in disbelief, "You're not a Viscount!"
A suspected Transmutation-type [Transformation Technique],
A suspected Conjuration-type [Light Transformation],
Plus the 'drowsiness'... and that bizarre [Mental Shock].
"Duke, Marquis, Earl, Viscount, Baron... Damn it!"
"What the hell are you?!"
Edmond Sand snapped awake, as if Dunn West's death had suddenly grabbed him by the throat and slapped him hard across the face. Trembling as he looked at Roy, the man turned his head, wrapped himself in surging Nen, smashed through the window, and fled without a second thought. His decisiveness was astonishing!
"Hehehe... cough cough... What the hell... You are defiling a great being!"
Inside the [Sumeru Mustard Seed], Ribery Garcia sneered, aggravating his wounds and making him gasp in pain. Baring his teeth as he watched Edmond Sand flee in a panic, he said angrily, "Blasphemers must be punished, they must be killed!"
As his words fell, inside the villa's living room, the window was right at hand, and breaking through it meant reaching the garden... Just as he was about to escape...
Edmond Sand suddenly heard a faint, soft whisper: "Freeze!"
The man instantly stiffened. When he looked down, he saw that a [Flesh Bud] had somehow appeared inside his putrid, foul-smelling torrent of a body. The moment this [Flesh Bud] burrowed into his body, it was like a dying fish washed up on the beach suddenly being swept back into the water by a wave—it instantly became active. In fact... it became a little too active... a little too frantic... so much so that...
He could only watch in despair as it absorbed his Nen and grew madly, turning into a small tree in the blink of an eye. Its branches stretched out, spreading through his limbs and bones, making it impossible for him to maintain his 'torrent' form. He kept shrinking... shrinking... and shrinking... until...
He was sucked into a dried human husk, skewered on the branches!
In the blink of an eye, he was left with only a single breath!
"Enough."
"Don't make me slap you!"
The [Flesh Bud Technique] had been deployed. Roy flicked his finger, hitting Edmond Sand, and quietly watched him turn into his current dried-husk state. Retracting the lightsaber in his hand, he flashed forward, pacing to his side. He patted a Heart Bug on its rear, sending it along the threads of karma to burrow into Edmond Sand's heart before he took his last breath!
"..."
Following the [Transformation Technique], [Light Transformation], 'drowsiness', and [Mental Shock]... Edmond Sand's mind trembled as he realized a transparent bug had abruptly invaded his heart. It raised its slender mouthparts and plunged them right in, just like the [Flesh Bud], beginning to frantically devour his 'despair', 'fear', 'unwillingness', and other negative emotions...
Barely holding onto his last breath, he stared at Roy with wide eyes and said, "You... you... you are..."
Before he could finish, Roy shushed him, sealing his mouth.
Following that, the gates to his mind were instantly breached by Roy. With a thought, Roy invaded directly, standing with his hands behind his back in the depths of his heart...
*Whoosh—* Within Edmond Sand's heart, the scroll of his life slowly unrolled, appearing before Roy's eyes...
There were scenes of him growing up on the streets of the shantytown, eating whatever scraps he could find...
There were scenes of him teasing cats and dogs, only to be chased and bitten by a dog, fleeing in a panic...
There were scenes of him getting a little older, stealing things on the street, getting caught, and looking lost and bewildered...
At a certain moment, Roy suddenly froze.
A familiar head of dazzling silver hair burst into view, rescuing Edmond Sand.
Roy almost lost control of his mind. As his Nen fluctuated violently, his disguise nearly broke, almost revealing his true face!
For no other reason than the resemblance. It was too similar... Roy stared blankly as the owner of that silver hair unquestioningly saved the young Edmond Sand and said to the flatbread shop owner who had caught him, "Hand him over to me."
Then, the man slowly turned around...
Revealing a cold, rugged face identical to Silva's...
Roy's mind exploded with a bang, and his consciousness violently shook. *Pfft, pfft, pfft...* It transformed into countless 'sharp swords' that instantly pierced Edmond Sand's heart into a sieve!
*Squeak—* The Heart Bug, which had been devouring negative emotions, was suddenly disturbed by Roy's turmoil and lost its footing. It squeaked in dissatisfaction and rolled back along the threads of karma...
And as Edmond Sand's heart completely shattered... his Nen, along with his life, lost its mental support. He couldn't even last two seconds before his head tilted to the side, and he died on the spot...
The [Flesh Bud], which had grown into a small tree, shook its branches in dissatisfaction. As a result, Roy shot it a cold, sharp glare, scaring it into a tremble. It then rapidly shrank, returning to its [Flesh Bud] state, and followed the Heart Bug back into Roy's body.
[Prompt: "Faith Power" +25...]
Roy stood blankly by the window, letting the panel notification echo in his ears. His eyelids drooped slightly, his expression dark and uncertain. Even Ribery Garcia inside the [Sumeru Mustard Seed], separated by the constraints of space, acutely sensed something just from the fluctuations of his Nen...
The man was in his forties and had seen more filth and squalor than the salt he had eaten.
He tactfully kept his mouth shut and didn't make a sound, but his experience told him that the boy right now... was clearly very emotionally unstable because of something.
Fortunately, time is the best regulator. Some emotions, some things, as long as the timeline is stretched out... will invisibly and quietly fade away, until they are forgotten, until they disappear completely...
After standing silently by the window for a moment, Roy forced himself to snap back to reality. He looked up at the bright sun outside the window, its sunlight pouring down, illuminating and warming the earth...
The boy took a deep breath. With a single blade, he killed all the guards who had aided the wicked. The panel prompted that he had harvested another 40 points of Life Energy. Then, he summoned the [Sumeru Mustard Seed] again, taking in the corpses of Dunn West, Edmond Sand, and the dozen or so guards, along with the hypnotized young boys and girls...
Finally, with a flick of his finger, he unleashed [Scorching True Intent], catalyzing a wisp of flame that burned the entire villa thoroughly from the inside out. He then instantly transformed into light, drifting away with the rays, and disappeared...