Chapter 46: Welcome Home
Among the heroes Haze had created so far, aside from Nunu and Willump, there were also Yi, the Wuju Bladesman, and Kassadin, the Void Walker.
At first, he had considered choosing either Yi or Kassadin
but he quickly dismissed the idea.
The reason was simple: uncertainty.
Yi's highland heritage and Kassadin's void-walking ability granted both extreme speed and evasiveness, but their enemies were too many, and their telekinetic abilities were unknown. Against such numbers, they would be ineffective.
Both Yi and Kassadin feared being restricted.
If they couldn't halve the number of foes quickly, the situation would turn against them… and Haze wasn't one to gamble.
He loved combat he enjoyed it, Hazeed for growth
but unlike Hisoka, he didn't crave thrill.
He feared death.
So he would never put himself in reckless danger.
He needed a decisive, absolute ending to this fight.
Thus, after weighing all his options, the best choice of heroes was obvious:
The Snow Twins.
"I'm running out of telekinesis…"
murmured Haze.
His wounds weren't fatal he had manipulated the flow of battle deliberately, dodging mortal blows. His abdomen was the worst injury, yet it hadn't reached his organs.
Extending the fight any Hazeer… was risky.
If the "beast" accompanying Ten Old Man Brown had still been present, or if the Nen group numbered around thirty, Haze would never have faced them head-on. There were many other ways to fight
use the terrain, the environment, pick them off one by one.
He could have chosen a different hero.
If there had been just a dozen opponents, maybe fewer
he would have tried.
He was confident in himself.
But even he knew he couldn't take on an entire Brown Family army alone.
Different situations demand different strategies. One must stay flexible.
Bodies were scattered all across the courtyard some dead, some still breathing.
Haze walked up to a corpse and looked down.
The lower half of the woman called Uka was shredded beyond recognition, though frost had formed on her wounds, melting slowly, keeping them from bleeding. Her ball of yarn was gone.
She's not a Materialization type… a special variant.
Once that yarn was woven into a doll, Haze had a feeling
something terrible would've happened.
He turned to Green.
The boy's chest rose and fell faintly, face bruised, eyes shattered.
"Still conscious?"
Haze raised a brow.
A pity.
For someone that young to reach such a level was impressive.
If he hadn't been an enemy, Haze might've even offered him "guidance."
As his words faded, Green's energy dissipated.
Haze killed the few survivors one by one.
Finally, he came to the man with the lightest wounds
"lightest" being relative only to death.
His body was torn by wind and snow, covered in gashes, yet still recognizably human.
His pupils were dilated; he lay sprawled on the ground.
It was the man with the syringe the Nen user who drained telekinesis.
He had jumped early but not far enough, hoping to let his teammates restrain Haze. Once the blizzard came, it was too late to escape.
"I can save you. Do you want to live?"
Haze's voice was calm.
The man's eyes flickered weakly, but his body was too damaged to respond.
"Are you a Psychic Exterminator?"
Haze asked again, watching him slip into unconsciousness.
Draining telekinesis… it reminded him of a rare Nen ability
Psychic Extermination.
To some extent, this ability was a mistake
a glitch in nature.
Haze hadn't expected to find such a user among his enemies.
If he could save and recruit one, it would be invaluable.
No matter what kind of hunter he became, he couldn't fight alone.
He would need a team
and a Psychic Exterminator would fit that role perfectly.
A rare treasure indeed.
But then, the man's eyes suddenly cleared for a brief moment
and Haze smiled.
The next instant, his life snapped like a kite string cut loose.
His qi dispersed silently into the air.
"…"
Haze frowned at the sight
and walked away without a hint of sorrow.
Even injured and with depleted telekinesis,
he could still wipe out the palace survivors.
A few days later, four Nen users under Brown's command returned to the palace.
They had been handling the chaos caused by the Firth family's infiltration of the Seven Families eliminating troublemakers, stabilizing regions, and leaving garrisons behind.
After the Haze campaign, they finally took a rare break.
But a strange unease lingered.
Their comrades hadn't contacted them for days. No updates, no orders.
"Those guys better not be slacking off here!"
At noon, their car stopped in front of the palace. One of them kicked open the door, complaining,
"It's hard enough out there, and now we've got to "
He froze mid-sentence.
The stench of blood hit him like a wall.
The three behind him stepped out, confused.
"Stop whining. The faster we finish, the sooner we rest. Once everything's settled, we'll ask the boss for some time off… Anderson's team nearly wiped out the Fields family, their HQ's gone. Only a few mid-tier gangs left. Won't be Haze now. Let's just "
Halfway through his words, the others stiffened too.
"Hey, hey… what the hell happened here?!"
"Could it be the Shield family? Impossible… if they'd gathered enough men, we'd have heard. Besides, they've been fighting aHazeside Anderson the whole time…"
In the distance
they saw rotting corpses, swarmed by flies, reeking of decay.
The guards.
Their hearts sank.
"Why the panic? Green and the others are here… Probably just being lazy about cleaning up. Typical."
One of the telepaths sighed, running a hand through his hair.
"Seems like something really happened while we were gone. A lot of people died. Let's take a look."
He led the way. The others followed.
"Judging by the traces, it doesn't look like a large-scale battle… maybe only a few attackers? Or just one?"
Bodies littered the palace halls patrolmen, guards, checkpoints all slaughtered in an instant.
"Whoever did this… was terrifyingly strong."
Their veteran instincts screamed danger.
As they advanced, the death toll rose and oddly, their expressions eased.
"Anderson and the others still haven't found Shield, Lily, or the housekeeper… nor the boss Haze."
"You think… Haze did all this?"
"Alone?"
"You kidding? That'd be suicide. If he still had the Shield remnants, maybe he could've used the chaos to escape… But to walk in here alone? That's arrogance."
They argued briefly until one of them fell silent, face turning grave.
He pulled out his phone and dialed a number
Green's.
Beep… beep…
No answer.
They hurried through the gate.
At the heart of the palace was a vast courtyard
and there, before the fountain
stood a man sitting calmly on the stone platform, smiling.
Before him lay eighteen corpses, neatly arranged.
All rotting
and yet unmistakably, their comrades.
The Nen user with the phone trembled, eyes wide.
He saw
the man by the fountain, also holding a ringing phone.
It was Green's.
The man raised it slightly, and from dozens of meters away
answered softly:
"Welcome… home."
The phone slipped from the Nen user's hand, shattering on the ground.
"RUN!!!"
he screamed with all his might.
The blazing midday sun suddenly felt like the dead of winter.
Minutes later
Haze, drenched in blood, dragged fresh corpses to the fountain, arranging them beside the others.
"Now then… let's wait for the next guests."
Meanwhile, the meeting between the Ten Donss and their associates had just ended.
Brown immediately boarded his private spacecraft back to the Republic of Bartokia.
His gut told him something was very wrong.
All his Nen subordinates were out of contact.
The only silver lining: the gangs were now under control, the Firth family destroyed
but the woman, the maid, and Haze were still at large.
His army was in ruins; Green and the others were missing.
He had to return.
And decide the next move personally.
Inside the private craft, Brown stood by the window, cigarette in hand.
He'd grown addicted lately switching from cigars to chain-smoking cigarettes.
His hair was streaked with gray; he hadn't slept in days.
"They should… all be dead…"
Behind him, Sato and two other Nen users stood silently.
"He did it, didn't he? But how…?"
Brown's temples throbbed painfully.
Too many questions, no answers.
"I'll find him and kill him,"
said Sato coldly.
Brown stared at him for a Haze moment, then nodded.
"I'll leave it to you. I believe in you."
These three were his strongest cards.
And among them
Sato had never failed.
(End of Chapter)