The next morning.
Biscuit's "Magical Beautician Miss Cookie" eased Shizuku and Menchi's stress a little more, so they packed away the "Sleep Girl" and prepared to set out.
When they emerged from the cave, the army from last night's Hundred Ghosts' Night Parade had vanished. But its footprints remained on the ground, chaotic yet strangely orderly.
The sky outside was still gloomy. Huge banks of gray-white clouds covered it, blocking out the sunlight and making it look as though night had not yet ended.
The gray-white "aurora" still lingered on the distant horizon, and they headed in that direction.
As Nen users, they were light as swallows. They raced across the gray-white rock, their figures almost impossible to make out.
Less than half an hour later, they reached a crude stone bridge formed by nature's uncanny handiwork and gazed at the scene in the distance.
The Walking Dead from the wilderness had all gathered there.
They milled about in a cleverly arranged circular formation, completely blocking the Gelman Squad's path forward.
The ground was blocked, and there was no way through the sky, either.
The Evil Spirit Remnants drifted through the gray-white smoke filling the sky, looking like shoals of sardines converging over the sea. The sight was both magnificent and terrifying.
At the very center, protected by the Evil Spirit Remnants and the Walking Dead, stood a gray-white plant like a spear, thrusting straight into the clouds.
Its "spear" of a stalk was covered in countless black spheres, writhing up and down like tumors.
At its base were two enormous "branches," curving downward like a pair of legs and supporting its massive body upright.
This was the Gelman Squad's target—the "Disease Spreader."
Gelman lowered his binoculars and turned around. The others were sitting cross-legged on the stone bridge, eating