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Chapter 433
🕑 Added 2025-03-17 16:00:18 +0000 UTCChapter 433
The moment Natsu halted his attack just now, the woman assumed Ron must have overlooked her. But the instant she tried to slip away, Natsu once again blocked her path. Then, when she backed off, Natsu stopped attacking. Evidently, his only aim was to keep her pinned there, not to kill her.
She couldn’t figure out what they were planning.
“Even if they want a hostage, this isn’t how you’d normally do it…”
The guards had either fled or died. Only Ron, Ponzu, and Natsu remained. Natsu kept the woman contained, Ponzu monitored the bee radar, and Ron had opened a laptop. On its screen, he was watching surveillance feeds from around the estate—what few cameras were still operational—showing three intruders from Nightfall in total.
One was held up by Natsu. Of the other two, one was currently locked in combat with Tuck, and the other was busy cutting down ordinary guards. The one fighting Tuck seemed to be a Conjuration-type Nen user who had created a full suit of armor to bolster defense and wielded a spear.
“This ability looks a bit like Sasuke’s Rashomon Susanoo,” Ron mused.
Tuck and that intruder seemed evenly matched so far. Meanwhile, the other intruder—a woman wielding an enormous pair of scissors—rampaged among the guards, slicing them apart like it was some hack-and-slash game Ron remembered from his previous life.
“That looks less like Conjuration and more like a weapon imbued with Nen,” Ron thought.
Suddenly, an explosion rattled the estate. A stealth unit hidden in the dark—armed Nen users kitted out with top-of-the-line gear—revealed themselves. Though they weren’t especially powerful as individuals, their weapons gave them enough edge to threaten a Nen user. The blast forced the intruder to retreat.
“Ratatat!”
Gunfire rained on the intruder’s position, momentarily pinning them down. Karu emerged with a vicious grin.
“Nightfall?” he sneered. “You want to kill me? Go ahead—here I am. Too naïve to think you can take me as a target!”
Meanwhile, Tuck began to gain the upper hand. His ability grew stronger the more he fought, increasing his defense with each hit he took. At first, he had to dodge carefully, but now he could withstand a portion of his opponent’s attacks head-on. The intruder in armor grimaced.
“What’s going on with Nesli? She was supposed to keep Tuck busy. Could she be in trouble? But there’s no way Tuck could have beaten her already and then come to defend. Damint! She is supposed to be stronger than me.”
Tuck glowered at the intruder, resolve etched on his face. “Because of people like you, this country’s fallen into ruin. I’ll wipe you all out, one by one. Only then can it be saved. Prepare for judgment!”
A radiant aura flared around Tuck.
Boom!
A powerful force hammered the intruder, cracking the armor’s surface. He flew backward, slamming into a building and bringing it crashing down. Moments later, he burst out of the rubble, but the cracks in his armor remained. He launched himself at Tuck again, and the fight resumed.
Elsewhere, the scissor-wielding intruder hid behind a building, wary of the heavy fire directed by Kalu’s forces. Her defenses were nowhere near as strong as Uvogin’s from the Phantom Troupe. Seeing this, Karu only smiled wider.
“Nightfall? They’re nothing. I never guessed their assassin would be such a looker—pity. Once I catch you, I’ll make sure you suffer. You’ll be part of my pleasure.”
But then—
Crack!
Crack!
Crack!
A series of splitting sounds rang out as the scissor-wielder darted around at high speed, simultaneously blocking bullets with her huge scissors. The cracks, however, came from the support pillars and walls of the castle-like building.
“Not good!” Karu realized too late.
Boom!
The castle quaked violently as bricks and stones rained down, first a few, then dozens, then hundreds, until the entire roof collapsed. One wall after another leaned and crumbled, turning everything into debris. The armored intruder’s face lit up.
“Nicely done!”
In moments, the estate was little more than a ruin. Numerous guards, butlers, and servants were buried in the collapse. Ordinary people had little chance of escaping such sudden destruction; the scissor-wielding intruder had moved too fast. Only Tuck, the two intruders, Kalu, and a handful of subordinates survived, either through strength or sheer luck.
Tuck stood there, trembling with rage.
“This is too much… How can you slaughter so many innocent people? You’re a blight on this country! I will judge you!”
Kalu’s face darkened as well, seemingly wanting to rip them apart with more zel than before. This structure was his pride and joy, personally designed from top to bottom—underground included. Now it lay in ruins.
“Nightfall!” he roared. “I won’t let you get away with this. I’ll see to it that you all will be dead!”
The two intruders regrouped.
“Something must’ve happened with Nesli,” said the armored one. “She’s not coming. Tuck’s stronger than we thought, so I’ll give it my all to keep him busy. But I can’t hold out long.”
“Got it. I’ll focus on killing Karu as fast as I can,” replied the scissor-wielder.
Once the castle fell, most surveillance cameras went offline. Only a few at the edges of the estate remained, which still gave Ron a partial view on his laptop screen. Even so, the feed had grown fragmentary.
