Muer's post-death Nen flew toward the room.
Moro had no idea what consequences would follow, nor did he intend to find out.
He had come here and conveniently helped Kangzai solve a problem so that he could borrow Kangzai's strength to ensure the airship could land safely afterward.
They shared the same objective.
Provided Kangzai could free up his hands.
Moro looked toward the room with its open door.
From his angle, he could not see what was happening inside.
But he could sense the colliding fluctuations of Aura.
"Should I go over there...?"
A thought stirred in Moro's mind.
The Nen user he had killed earlier had sent his level soaring.
If he could pick up another one, then whether he went to the Gugan Jade Great Country afterward would not matter much.
While Moro considered it, undercurrents surged within the room.
Muer had gambled his life to trap Kangzai in a Nen space, while his companion Aida had broken through the ceiling to enter the room.
But there was also an Enhancement-type bodyguard beside the Third Princess...
It would be difficult for Aida to kill an Enhancement-type user within one minute, but give her one more minute, and it would be no trouble.
That was indeed how it turned out.
By the time Kangzai rushed back into the room, Talia, who had been protecting Saff, was already severely wounded and on the brink of collapse.
And that moment happened exactly two minutes earlier.
"Muer..."
From the corner of her eye, Aida saw Kangzai burst into the room and understood that Muer had already given his life.
If only he could have bought her even five more seconds...
But there were no ifs.
Still, the mission had to be completed!
From the very beginning, she and Muer had kept a final measure that could guarantee the mission's success.
Of course, the best outcome for them would have been to complete the mission while preserving their lives, so they could continue serving the prince.
But in the current situation...
There was no sorrow or regret in Aida's heart, only unwavering resolve.
In that lightning-fast instant, she discarded any hope of surviving and poured all her obsession into "completing the mission."
Then, ignoring Kangzai's incoming attack, she threw herself at Saff, who stood behind Talia's protection.
Though Talia was grievously wounded and about to fall, she possessed resolve and will no less than Muer and Aida's.
Driven by the intense obsession to protect Saff even at the cost of her own life, Talia did not hesitate to meet Aida head-on, intending to use the last of her strength to buy the critical time needed for Kangzai to arrive.
"Hold on for three more seconds—no, two seconds will do..."
Talia had no fear of death. All she wanted was to hold out until Kangzai arrived and took over her duty as Saff's protector.
I have to hold on, no matter what. Only then can I protect Saff's life!!!
With her severely injured body, Talia unleashed even more powerful Nen aura. She saw the situation turning in their favor.
But the sight that followed left her stunned, then plunged her into despair.
It was the blinding flash that appeared in the instant of an explosion.
The enemy had...
High explosives on her body!
That was right. In the end, Aida calmly detonated the explosives strapped to her body.
This was the final trump card that she and Muer had brought aboard the airship by taking the identities of substitute employees.
Since surviving was no longer possible, she had nothing to fear in flipping the table.
The blinding flash vanished in an instant, followed by a shockwave carrying scorching flames that swallowed Aida, Talia, and Saff in the blink of an eye.
Kangzai, who had been charging straight toward them, underwent a drastic change in expression. He had only enough time to raise his left arm across his face before the sweeping blast wave hurled him away.
At the same time.
Moro, who was in the lounge area, heard the deafening explosion. Then he saw the explosion's aftermath surge from the room like a long dragon, racing down the corridor toward the lounge.
That not particularly long stretch of distance gave Moro enough time to react.
Almost at the exact moment the explosion occurred, Moro's expression changed. He vaulted behind the sofa, crouched down, wrapped his body in Nen aura, and braced the sofa in front of him.
Boom—
The explosion's shockwave turned the entire lounge upside down.
When the commotion subsided, the flammable objects nearby, including the carpet, had all caught fire.
Moro rose from behind the sofa and looked at the wreckage strewn across the floor. His pupils trembled as a sliver of relief rose in his heart.
The unsteady sensation coming from beneath his feet also signaled how dire the situation had become.
The airship might crash because of this explosion...
Moro first felt that things had gone terribly wrong before looking down the corridor ahead.
Kangzai lay on the ground there, his body charred in several places. It was impossible to tell how badly he was hurt.
Inside the room.
After the violent explosion, the entire room had been shattered beyond recognition, filled everywhere with flames and thick smoke.
In one corner.
Talia's body was a mangled mass of blood and flesh, devoid of life.
Yet beneath her body came Saff's faint groans.
At the final moment before the explosion engulfed them, Talia had upheld her duty until death and succeeded in protecting Saff's life.
But before collapsing, Talia had noticed only Kangzai rushing back to help. She had not seen the mass of post-death Nen flying through the air.
Among the enemy camp, there was also someone with an exceptionally powerful obsession and will.
Muer's post-death Nen passed through the flames and smoke in the form of ghostly phosphorescent fire, flying purposefully toward the space beneath Talia's corpse.
The next second.
Saff's faint voice abruptly stopped.
In the corridor outside the room.
Kangzai shook his head and got to his feet. Without bothering to inspect his injuries, he charged into the room through the smoke pouring outward.
He quickly found Talia in a corner of the room, along with Saff beneath her.
Both were dead...
Kangzai's expression darkened.
"Sorry."
After murmuring to the corpses, Kangzai glanced at the tilting floor, clenched his fist, and quickly turned to leave the room before it was completely filled with smoke.
Back in the corridor, Kangzai immediately spotted Moro standing in the lounge area.
He ran over and asked, "What is your name?"
"Moro."
Seeing Kangzai rush out of the room again, Moro roughly guessed why.
Who knew what sort of person Kangzai had been protecting? They had actually drawn powerful Nen users here, and in the end, they had directly flipped the table.
They had left no way to survive.
Kangzai came to a stop before Moro, glanced at the headless corpse that had been blown even farther away, then looked at Moro.
"Moro, right? You know who I am, don't you?"
"..."
Moro quietly marveled at Kangzai's sharpness, then nodded and flattered him, "One of the Hunter Association's Twelve Zodiacs? It would be hard not to know you, wouldn't it?"
"Then I don't need to introduce myself. Come with me to find the captain."
Ignoring the flattery in Moro's words, Kangzai saw the consequences of the explosion and immediately thought of finding the captain to make the airship perform an emergency landing as soon as possible.
Moro remained where he was and sighed. "That's exactly why I came looking for you."
"What do you mean?"
Kangzai did not understand.
Moro briefly explained what had happened in the cockpit.
After hearing him out, Kangzai's expression grew even uglier.
Creeeak—!
A piercing sound came from ahead as the airship tilted and swayed back and forth.
Moro steadied himself and said, "This explosion... might force that Manipulation-type user to make the airship land."
As soon as he finished speaking, the ground suddenly tilted again. They could clearly feel that the airship had already listed at an extremely dangerous angle.
It seemed about to crash...
Moro and Kangzai exchanged a look, each seeing the gravity in the other's eyes.
Before you continue