From the very beginning, Ivan had never fully trusted Corea.
After all, he was no longer the original Ivan.
So when he infiltrated Corea's house, he had already made preparations.
While waiting for Corea to return, Ivan searched the surrounding area and found quite a few pets—cats, dogs, and even a few strays.
He transformed them all into dinosaurs.
During that time, he even discovered a caged lion.
That lion was now the Velociraptor lunging straight toward Corea.
Yet Corea's expression showed not the slightest hint of surprise.
Because he had known all along.
From the moment he returned home, his En had never been deactivated.
Even the ceiling above him suddenly shattering at that moment didn't make him flinch.
Ivan watched as something materialized rapidly before Corea.
A judge's bench appeared.
At the same time, a gavel and a law book appeared in his hands.
The gavel fell gently.
The sound was crisp.
"Order in the court!"
Corea's voice rang out with unmistakable authority.
More importantly—
The Velociraptor lunging toward him and the smaller raptor dropping from the ceiling were both blasted backward by the command.
Even Ivan himself, standing several meters away, was forced to retreat a few steps.
The cause was the Nen erupting from Corea's body.
The massive aura burst outward like a shockwave, repelling anything approaching him that lacked sufficient strength.
He was a far stronger Nen user than Pat or Zalan.
As expected of Kakin's Chief Justice.
But that wasn't what worried Ivan most.
What truly troubled him were the objects in Corea's hands:
The gavel, the law book, and the judge's bench.
Those were clearly items created through Conjuration.
And Conjured objects almost always carried special abilities, often tied to strict vows and conditions.
With the gavel, the law book, the judge's bench—and Corea's identity as Chief Justice—
What came next was obvious.
A trial.
Ivan made an immediate judgment.
He could not allow himself to be judged.
Even as he retreated, Ivan launched his counterattack.
The tennis ball he had been hiding in his left hand shot forward instantly.
But now several small pebbles were attached to the ball.
Corea didn't know how those stones had been stuck to the tennis ball.
But he didn't see the ball as a threat.
Because the dinosaurs had already revealed Ivan's supposed Nen category.
Corea assumed Ivan was a Conjurer, just like himself.
Which meant the tennis ball likely served only one purpose:
A weapon enhanced by Enhancement, meant to push him back.
In other words—
A test.
A test to see whether he would dodge.
Corea had to admit.
Ivan was extremely clever.
Standing behind the judge's bench meant he didn't need to dodge.
But revealing that fact would expose part of his ability.
Unfortunately, Corea no longer had the freedom to choose.
Once his ability activated, it had to proceed step by step.
The first strike of the gavel established the authority of the court.
The second strike would deliver the final judgment.
But before that second strike, there was still something he needed to do.
The law book before him flipped open rapidly.
Ivan's attack was completely ignored.
Because from the moment the first gavel strike fell, any attack could be interpreted as contempt of court, which would only increase the severity of the judgment.
The tennis ball grew larger and larger in Corea's vision.
When it reached about two meters away, Corea's aura reacted.
Like a stone dropped into a calm lake, his Nen rippled outward violently, forming a powerful counterforce.
The tennis ball collided with the erupting aura.
The pebbles attached to it broke free.
Spinning with a strange rotational force, they continued drilling forward.
But they couldn't push far.
Wave after wave of Nen pressure shattered their advance.
Corea's solemn voice began to echo.
"According to the Kakin Royal Code—"
He stopped.
Because Ivan had vanished.
No.
It wasn't just Ivan.
Everything to the left side of Corea's vision had vanished.
It was as if that entire half of the world had turned into darkness.
The attacking Velociraptor disappeared.
The tennis ball that had been deflected vanished.
Even half of Ivan's room had vanished.
More importantly—
When Corea looked down, he discovered something shocking.
His left arm was gone.
The law book in his left hand was also gone.
In fact—
He couldn't feel the entire left side of his body.
Even the En he had spread outward gave him no feedback from that side.
Everything felt incredibly unnatural.
Ivan was not a Conjurer.
Corea reached that conclusion instantly.
Which also meant the dinosaurs attacking him hadn't been created by Ivan.
Then who had done it?
Lyman?
Or perhaps another ally of Ivan?
Had Ivan contacted Sevanci before coming here?
But that didn't make sense.
The Seventh Queen's faction had no Nen users.
And even if they did, they would never send one to help Ivan—no matter whether Lyman had contacted them beforehand.
Another thing was certain.
Corea could say with absolute confidence—
None of the pebbles thrown with the tennis ball had hit him.
So how had he been affected?
The thoughts flashed through Corea's mind in an instant.
But he quickly calmed down.
His left side probably still existed.
He simply couldn't feel it right now.
Ivan's ability likely belonged to the Specialist category.
Any target struck by the tennis ball—or objects attached to it—would instantly lose all sensation on the left half of their body within a certain radius.
A terrifying ability.
But Corea suspected it couldn't last long.
The immediate problem was different.
His law book was gone.
Without it, he couldn't continue reading the verdict.
Which meant his ability had been interrupted.
So what would Ivan do now?
Would he continue attacking?
Or take advantage of Corea's impaired left side and escape before the final judgment could be delivered?
Corea turned his head, trying to see what was happening.
The small raptors still lunging toward him from the right, and the growing swarm of dinosaurs climbing up from downstairs, were completely ignored.
There were two reasons for that.
First—
While his ability "Judgment of the Royal Court" was active, any attack approaching him would be automatically repelled while he stood behind the bench.
Second—
He had already noticed that these dinosaurs carried no Nen.
Even if their dinosaur forms made them tougher and faster, they were ultimately insignificant.
He could crush them anytime he wanted.
As Corea turned his head, his vision slowly began returning to normal.
But Ivan was nowhere to be seen.
Instead—
A massive, foul-smelling mouth burst toward his head.
It belonged to a Velociraptor.
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