"Hehe. Good, all good."
The giant dragon circled, flying around Sean. Zigg's eyes flashed, and he looked at Sean with a smile, saying, "I don't recall Father mentioning me to you."
So... "How did you recognize me, kid?"
"Old men are bound to talk in their sleep sometimes." Sean winked at Zigg and flicked his right hand—
Whoosh! A wind rope expanded in the air, caught the giant dragon's claw, tied onto it, and then pulled—
Bringing Sean right up to it!
"Heave-ho!" His feet landed steadily beside Zigg.
The young man stylishly retracted the wind rope, his confidence and composure outshining even the sun in the sky.
"How dazzling." Zigg watched Sean show off this little trick, and he couldn't help but recall his own past in a daze. He had been just as spirited back then. Unfortunately, after a trip to the Dark Continent, he returned in this state. All he could say was, "You shouldn't have come up, Sean."
Tssla~ The moment he stepped onto the dragon's head and got close to Zigg, Sean frowned, smelling the pungent odor of Nen being burned.
This smell was unique. It clearly had no scent, yet he could smell it. Coupled with what Zigg had just said, Sean scanned the area and suddenly discovered something.
A toxic miasma was spreading out from Zigg as the center, and it was the culprit gnawing away and burning his Nen!
"A curse?" A toxic miasma that can eat away at a person's Nen. Sean curled his lip. "If this thing could really hurt me, Grandpa wouldn't have flown out specifically to see me."
In other words, the second limit break was enough to resist the curse's erosion!
"You really are smart." Zigg looked at Sean with admiration. The kid was only 13, tall, with full, knotted muscles, and brimming with vigorous vitality. He was clearly a Specialist, yet he looked even stronger than an Enhancer kid. It was no wonder he was a target that Father and Alluka would argue over, and even come to blows, to recruit. Of course, this so-called recruitment was merely Netero's one-sided wish.
The more Zigg looked, the more satisfied he became. He chuckled and said, "That's right. Only an aura capacity that has undergone two limit breaks can withstand the erosion of this 'ghostly aura'."
"Otherwise..." The old man flicked his finger. The toxic miasma hit a bird flying low in the sky, and to the naked eye...
The bird's body stiffened, its feathers fell out, its flesh melted, and its skeleton separated. In the blink of an eye, it turned into a pool of black mud.
So, the prohibition against entering the back mountain was not just empty words. But Sean didn't believe that this "ghostly aura" alone could have ravaged Zigg to this extent—his teeth were even gone, making him look far older than Maha!
A hexagram flickered in his eyes. Sean squinted at Zigg. "Grandpa, you don't mind if I take a closer look, do you?"
Zigg noticed the hexagram deep in Sean's right eye and cursed playfully, "An appraisal is an appraisal. If you want to look, can I even stop you?"
Sean scratched the back of his head, pretending to laugh heartily. He chuckled dryly, "Ahaha~ Still have to keep up appearances."
'But in his heart, he wasn't surprised at all that Zigg had noticed something unusual. After all, when one's training reaches a certain level, any minor cause and effect involving oneself is often discovered due to a master's intuition—not to mention such a large hexagram was right in front of Zigg's eyes. He would have to be blind not to see it.'
"Sage, Appraise!" He stopped pretending. The scrutiny from "Sage" focused on Zigg.
Suddenly, a piercing alarm blared. Before Sean could react, "Sage" shot back like a frightened rabbit, whoosh, without even touching Zigg's body!
[REMINDER—]
[Abnormal energy overflow detected!]
[Host, please take emergency evasive action]
[Current danger level: S]
"Fuck! My strength just reached C-Rank, and you're hitting me with an S! Where the hell am I supposed to evade to?!!"
Receiving the "Sage's" warning, Sean's face turned green. He sensed something was wrong. He stiffly lowered his head and looked at his right-hand side. An ethereal, spectral child was holding his hand. Its face was deathly pale. Its eyes and mouth looked as if they had been gouged out with a knife, dark and terrifying. Yet, it seemed to think it was normal, tilting its head back, shaking Sean's hand innocently, and saying with delight, "Eh? Big brother, can you see me?"
"That's great! Nanika is so lonely. Please, will you play with me?"
Please? "No need to please!" Sean's sharp shout startled Zigg.
The old man frowned at him. The kid was acting as if he were possessed, no longer looking at him, just staring intently at the empty air to his right. But based on his understanding of the boy, Zigg kept quiet and watched. He reached out a hand to pat the giant dragon, signaling it to turn around and fly toward the back mountain.
"Roar!" The giant dragon roared, its six wings beating, stirring up a fierce gale, just like Sean's current mood—wildly turbulent!
Sean stared at Nanika in disbelief. A large question mark appeared above the child's head, who looked at him with equal curiosity. "Big brother, do you know me?"
"Why no need to please? Does that mean you won't play with me? Nanika is so pitiful..."
'How the hell could I dare not play with you? Refusing you four times is a death sentence!'
That's right. This spectral child holding Sean's right hand was the "Wish-Granting Machine" that would later coexist with Sean's soon-to-be-born younger brother, Alluka!
Some people had speculated that Nanika was actually the gaseous lifeform from the Five Great Calamities of the Dark Continent—Ai, also known as the "Codependence of Desire."
Others speculated that its true identity was the Human-Rearing Beast Pap—specializing in the "equivalent exchange of pleasure and life." It was a concrete manifestation of the Dark Continent's rules!
But no matter what, one thing was certain—Nanika was brought back from the Dark Continent by Zigg. He himself couldn't see it, and... if not for the "Sage's" warning, Sean couldn't have seen it either!
'But... he had already seen it. His hand had even been held. Was it too late to pretend he hadn't seen it?'
Sean's expression changed rapidly. He felt as if he had been targeted by some will. Was Nanika's premature appearance a kind of reminder, or a warning?
His thoughts were a tangled mess. His hand wavered, and Nanika pouted. It clearly had no mouth, but the corners of its mouth turned up in a particularly eerie way. It was clearly displeased.
"Big brother, say something!"
"You're not playing with me, and you're not talking to me. Nanika is so sad..."
Right, this was no time to be sad or conflicted. Looking down at Nanika, Sean took a deep breath, mentally cutting through his chaotic thoughts. He smiled, crouched down, and pulled Nanika into a hug. "My dear little brother, how could your big brother ever leave you all alone?"
"Don't worry. Whenever you want to play or talk to someone, just come find me, okay?"
It was better to guide than to block. Locking Nanika in the basement like Silva and Zeno was absolutely the wrong move. Instead, learning from Killua and sincerely treating Nanika as a younger sibling was the real way to stabilize it!
'Yes, stabilize it first!'