Chapter 166: In the Name of [God] x The Red-Robed Archbishop Appears
Blood stained the ground red.
Dozens of bodies, men and women, lay decapitated... all because of a single thought from the boy.
The long blade, wreathed in raging flames, pointed diagonally downward...
Frank Capone paused in his fiddling with the "Infinite" pistol. Cigarette dangling from his mouth, he narrowed his eyes... Roy's En had been briefly blocked by his "Mental Stabilization," but now it wavered again, leaking a sliver of his inner voice.
"Such a fast blade!"
In the blink of an eye, the elite squad he'd painstakingly assembled was dead. Frank hadn't expected a random "compatriot" encounter to turn into such a tough fight!
He forced himself to calm down, took out another cigarette, and tossed it over. "Friend, this is all a misunderstanding."
Frank Capone blew a smoke ring, seemingly indifferent to his subordinates' deaths. He forced a smile. "We're all outcasts here. I'm sure you 'heard' everything just now. Our line of work isn't easy; we're just looking for a 'status'..."
He glanced pointedly at the back of Roy's hand. "As the saying goes, no acquaintance without a fight. Let's just be friends. In fact..."
Frank Capone paused, spreading his arms wide to Roy. "Brother, you don't want to be 'marked' forever, do you? It just so happens my men are dead, and you're alone. Why don't we partner up? I happen to have some connections with Lord Benjamin of Maple Leaf Town. With his guarantee, maybe we can even remove that 'mark' of yours..."
Roy: "I killed your men."
Frank sneered. "Useless trash dies; that's life. Doesn't the sun still rise every day?"
The sun was setting in the west, casting dappled light through the giant forest...
Frank Capone stubbed out his cigarette and tossed it aside. "If I, the boss, don't care, why should you, brother?"
Roy said nothing. It wasn't that he cared; he was just... sad.
The bodies of Nelson, Katie, Torre, Muto, Olivia, and the others lay quietly before him. Transparent figures emerged from their corpses... Some roared at the sky... some stared blankly... some hugged their knees and wept... some looked around in confusion, gazing at this familiar yet strange world with immense longing. After a moment...
They all placed their hands over their chests and bowed to Roy, transforming into specks of light that flowed into his body as "Life Energy"...
In that instant, Roy understood. All these spirits were outcasts captured as prey by this pot-bellied fat man's "4K Gang" and sent to the Church of Storms... They were hanged, sacrificed to [Storm], burned alive, or used as expendable materials for some dark priests within the church to satisfy their perverse sadism...
Among them, Roy noticed a young girl. Because of her delicate beauty, Frank Capone had specifically hired a "beautician" to dress her up that night and sent her to the "Lord Benjamin" he mentioned. The next day, she was found in a trash can...
At that time, the girl was naked, exposed to the sun, her body pierced from bottom to top, covered in bruises. Like a discarded doll, her bulging eyes stared unreconciled at the world, as if questioning, as if screaming...
"Little Mary." Roy silently spoke her name.
"Her..." Frank Capone chuckled. "I remember her... She was lucky. To be chosen by Lord Benjamin meant her life wasn't wasted."
Noticing Roy's cold gaze, Frank took out another cigarette, lit it, and took a deep drag. "Don't look at me like that. In the eyes of those big shots, we outcasts are less than dogs. If we get played to death, we die. What can we do?"
He advised earnestly, like someone who had been there, "Brother, I understand your anger. I completely understand."
"But it is precisely because of that anger, because of that unwillingness, that we must face reality, isn't it?"
"Only [Status], only [Status] can allow us to return to [God's] embrace and be treated like actual [Humans]!"
Frank Capone looked at Roy frankly. "That was my original intention when I founded the '4K Gang'."
Roy was silent. Frank waited quietly, smoking...
After a moment, the boy nodded. "Okay."
Seeing this, Frank laughed heartily. "Brother, congratulations on making the right choice."
"Congratulations... to you too..." Roy opened his arms as if to hug Frank.
Perhaps feeling the sincerity wasn't enough, two more arms burst from his ribs. Activating [Limb Regeneration], he turned his palms into blades and thrust two [Snake Awakens] strikes viciously towards Frank's back!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Several gunshots fired, Nen bullets forcing Roy back... Frank Capone spat out his cigarette, pointing his gun at Roy, his face dark. "You fucking betrayed me!"
Clang... Clang... Clang...
The training blade reappeared, caught one-handed by Roy, casually deflecting the bullets. Roy looked at Frank with dead eyes... "Don't make it sound so ugly. You betrayed yourself."
Sending "compatriots" to their deaths, submitting to [Storm]... his traitorous acts were obvious... Roy stroked the training blade, thinking of Little Mary's bright, delicate face, stripped naked and thrown in the trash, despairing, unwilling, painful, numb...
He murmured, "Rest easy. I'll avenge you."
Then, a sudden extension of [Shinso] broke the limits of space, piercing Frank Capone's heart and pinning him to a tall tree nearby!
[Shoot to kill, Shinso!]
The hundred-meter-long blade was insignificant compared to the giant tree, but to Frank Capone, this stab hurt!
Unfortunately, not physically... but in his heart...
"I gave you a chance. You didn't appreciate it." A ghostly voice suddenly drilled into Roy's ear.
Pinned to the tree, Frank's head lolled, and his breath ceased... But Roy frowned, sensing danger. In a flash, he retracted the blade and slashed behind him without looking!
BOOM... BOOM... BOOM...
The flying slash was instantly met with continuous "cannon fire" and obliterated!
Smoke cleared...
Roy turned. Behind him, a "Mini" Frank Capone had somehow flanked him. He whispered, "Fortress: Deploy!"
RUMBLE...
The fortress gate opened, and a row of "Mini Tanks" drove out!
Growing in the wind, crushing the undergrowth...
Long cannon barrels aimed straight at Roy, smoke billowing...
The dark muzzles seemed ready to suck in one's gaze...
[Fortress]: Not only could it store others, it could store Frank Capone himself! So... the "Big" Frank Capone who just died was merely a "Wall Nen Beast" he created!
The real him had been hiding inside the mini [Fortress] all along!
Observing all this quietly...
Roy understood. Through En, he located Frank standing on a "Mini Armored Car" directing the troops. A swamp appeared beneath his feet, and like a fish in water, he dove underground, heading straight for Frank behind the tanks.
Frank Capone, cigarette in mouth, sneered coldly. He also used En to track Roy. At a certain moment, his eyes narrowed, and he drew his gun and fired!
Relying on the "Divine Script" enhancement, the pistol in his hand was essentially a Gatling gun spewing tongues of fire. Relying on the "Radar" formed by En, he targeted a spot five meters in front of him, wildly spraying "bullets." At the same time, he drove the armored car back, giving the tanks enough space to fire a few rounds!
The ground exploded, dirt flying. Amidst an apocalyptic scene, Roy was buried alive. One man commanding an army... relying on the [Fortress] to store weapons, he could produce the effect of a small-scale war. In terms of "automation" and "integration," he was even smarter than Botobai's [One-Man Army]. It had to be admitted...
His ability to form a gang and be supported by Nelson, Katie, and others showed extraordinary skill.
But, as his father said, battles between Nen users, excluding "specific mechanisms," ultimately come down to "stats" and the user's understanding of "Shape Transformation" and "Nature Transformation"...
The "Aura Quantity" consumed by "one person controlling an army" versus "one person with one sword" was not on the same level!
Rat-a-tat-tat...
Facing Frank's suppressive fire, Roy didn't choose to tank it... Instead, he lingered underground, using the rock layers to block the shelling. Occasionally, he used magnetism to control the training blade coated in his Nen to act as a decoy, playing guerrilla warfare with Frank... Gradually, Frank started panting, realizing something was wrong!
This kid was slippery as a loach—couldn't catch him, couldn't hit him. If this continued...
The first one to collapse would be... him!
Thoughts racing, Frank stopped the random firing. He raised a hand, signaling the chariots and tanks to stop. Maintaining En to track Roy, he narrowed his eyes and growled, "Fortress Transformation!"
Clank clank clank...
Chariots and tanks disassembled, transformed, reassembled, and flew... In an instant, with Frank as the "drive core," they formed a steel Gundam with a propeller on its head!
WOOSH! "Nen" thrusters fired from palms and soles...
The propeller on top spun rapidly, shredding the air...
Frank Capone shot into the sky. Just two seconds of thought, realizing Roy was difficult, and he immediately changed tactics—Run!
Without even a parting threat, he turned tail and fled, his speed jaw-dropping!
Vroom... The engine roar faded into the distance...
The muddy ground reappeared. Roy emerged, looking up at the sky. Beyond the trees, the sun remained, the sunset red...
Watching the Gundam streak into the sky, becoming a black dot on the horizon, he spread his legs in a bow stance, gripped the training blade backhanded in an "Iaijutsu" posture. At a certain moment, he drew his blade towards the sky!
[Gravitational Blade: Rising Dragon!]
Nen turned to magnetism... surging magnetic force spiraled upwards, turning into a purple dragon in mid-air!
Antlers of a deer, head of a camel, eyes of a rabbit, neck of a snake, belly of a clam, scales of a fish, claws of an eagle, paws of a tiger, ears of an ox... It gave a heaven-shaking roar!
Under Frank's horrified gaze, it bit onto the Gundam and dragged it back to the ground!
"So heavy!"
"Let go of me, damn you!"
BOOM! "Nen" thrusters at maximum!
Frank drove the Gundam, struggling madly... Dragon and Gundam tangled in mid-air... Then, a cold light flashed!
Roy kicked off the ground, shooting into the sky like a cannonball!
Brushing past the Gundam, he unleashed a Ken-enhanced "Wind Breathing, Fifth Form: Cold Mountain Wind"!
From bottom to top, he struck Frank Capone... Snap... snap... A series of crisp sounds!
The Gundam was slashed one hundred and seventy-four times in an instant, disintegrating on the spot!
Rattle... rattle... Countless parts fell like rain, revealing Frank Capone's true body within...
The pot-bellied Frank felt a chill on his chest. He subconsciously reached out to touch it. Splurt~ His chest split open in an X-shape, two lines of blood spurting out...
"AAAARGH!" A bloodcurdling scream rang out!
Having not felt pain for years, he was in agony. Roy grabbed him by the collar, rode the wind down, and threw him onto the ground like a dead dog!
Heaven's sins can be forgiven; self-inflicted sins cannot be lived. Rolling, thrashing, revealing his ugly nature...
Roy watched coldly, quietly watching him bleed out... occasionally adding two stabs to make the blood loss faster and fiercer... Ignoring Frank's kneeling pleas, hugging his leg and wailing...
"I want to spare you, but Little Mary won't. The outcast compatriots you hunted as prey won't..."
The boy kicked him over, then squatted down, quietly watching his consciousness fade into coma, listening to his heart go from despair to unwillingness, to pain, to numbness... finally turning into a hysterical scream: "Lord Benjamin, save me!"
BANG!
He stomped, exploding that filthy, ugly, wretched head!
Standing in the red and white mire for a moment, he received the panel notification in time...
[Notification: Life Energy +57!]
57!
Roy's heart went cold. In his two lives, aside from Moritonio's sister who yielded fifty points due to deep resentment... this was the most he had ever gotten!
"What do you think life is?"
A gust of wind blew, swaying the "Hanafuda earrings." Roy remembered Yoriichi's angry question to Muzan in the bamboo forest... watching the spirits emerge from Frank's headless corpse. Suddenly, alarms blared in his heart. He abruptly realized—
Among the spirits that should have been repaying his vengeance with "Life Energy," one furious figure glared aside...
Unnoticed, a blurry figure in a red robe had mixed in among the spirits...
He chanted the name of [Storm]. A corner of his hood lifted, revealing his face. It was... the "Lord Benjamin" Roy had seen deep in Frank Capone's heart via En!
"[Storm] is above. Blasphemer, you shall be executed!"
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