Postmortem Nen

Goreinu himself charged straight at Terrence.

He knew he had to deal with this long-range threat first—the Nen bullets were far too lethal. If left unchecked, Colton's men would soon be slaughtered to the last.

The two muscle-bound gorilla Nen beasts, Black Sage and White Sage, charged together at Gabri, who was slaughtering Colton's guards in the distance.

Terrence had just pulled the trigger when a Nen bullet whistled out, only to eerily change direction midair and shoot straight at Goreinu's chest.

Goreinu had been prepared. Nen burst forth, forming Ken over his body to block the attack, and he immediately threw a punch at Terrence.

Over on Gabri's side, the white gorilla was unexpectedly no slower than him.

Whenever his blade flashed, the gorilla narrowly evaded it by a hair, then struck back with its thick arms, forcing Gabri to keep changing direction.

The guards, their pressure greatly reduced, seized the chance to rebuild their defenses. But more than half of them had already been lost.

At the same time, Theodore moved as though no one stood in his way.

He had not entered through the front gate at all, instead climbing over the wall on the west side of the manor.

Two guards spotted him and were just about to raise their guns when Theodore flicked his fingers, instantly striking them in the forehead. He then rushed forward and twisted hard, and the guards dropped at once.

Without slowing, he headed straight for the main building. Every guard he encountered along the way was casually dealt with.

A relaxed smile remained on Theodore's face throughout, as if he were taking a stroll through his own backyard.

He went up to the second floor and pushed open the meeting room door.

Leo stood in the center of the meeting room, calmly watching him.

"Hm? There's only one of you?"

Theodore raised a brow and looked around the empty room.

"Kid, where's that woman? Tell me now. If I'm in a good mood, I might let you die without too much pain."

Leo did not answer.

He was observing—the gray hair, red tattoos, hands shoved into pockets, and the undisguised Nen aura around him, carrying a mocking air.

"So there really was someone else."

Leo finally spoke, his voice steady.

"I just need to take care of you."

Theodore froze for a moment, then burst into uproarious laughter, bending over with it.

"I like your ignorance!"

He pointed at Leo, his smile twisting.

"Let's have some fun!"

Before he finished speaking, violent Nen erupted from his body.

Two dice appeared out of thin air in his palms—one was an ordinary six-sided numbered die.

The other was engraved with "Great Fortune," "Lesser Fortune," "Great Misfortune," and "Lesser Misfortune."

"This is my ability, Risk Daredevil."

Theodore showed off the dice, his tone full of pride.

"The number die has faces from one to six. As for the risk die... it has one Great Fortune face, two Lesser Fortune faces, one Great Misfortune face, and two Lesser Misfortune faces."

"The number die determines the degree of enhancement."

He licked his lips, madness gleaming in his eyes.

"As long as I throw them and get 'Fortune,' my strength increases according to the number die."

"If I get 'Misfortune'... heh heh, it decreases according to the number as well."

"The activation condition is explaining the rules to a witness."

Theodore stared at Leo.

"And you are my witness. Isn't that fun?"

The moment Leo heard this, he understood the terrifying nature of the ability—its upper limit was incredibly high, but so was its lower limit.

A gambler's ability suited someone as insane as Theodore perfectly.

But he also noticed the flaw.

Theodore had explained far too much.

Too confident, and too stupid.

"Well then..."

Theodore laughed madly as he tossed both dice high into the air.

"Let's see what fate—"

He did not get to finish.

In the instant while the dice were still in the air, a figure had already appeared before Theodore.

Leo was so fast that he exceeded Theodore's reaction limit.

His left hand shot out and firmly caught the two falling dice.

At the same time, his right hand was already pressed against Theodore's face.

Theodore's pupils contracted sharply, and the wild grin on his face froze.

He had not reacted to what had happened at all.

The next second, a tremendous force struck.

Leo grabbed his head and smashed it viciously into the wall.

Boom!

The wall cracked, and fragments of stone flew everywhere.

Theodore's entire face was embedded in the wall. His nose was pulverized, blood spraying out.

But that was only the beginning.

Leo released him. Just as Theodore's body began to slide down, a heavy punch slammed into his face.

Bang!

His skull caved in.

The second punch shattered his jaw.

The third crushed his cheekbone.

Theodore could not even scream.

His Nen spiraled out of control and dispersed under the excruciating pain. He tried to resist, but Leo's fists rained down upon him, every blow carrying the terrifying force of Enhancement Nen.

The fourth punch, the fifth, the sixth...

When Leo finally stopped, Theodore had collapsed limply on the floor. His face was unrecognizable, and he no longer breathed.

He had died in an absurdly pathetic way, at the hands of the opponent he had looked down on the most.

Leo opened his tightly clenched left hand, and the two dice dropped beside Theodore's corpse.

He gave them a disdainful glance.

"I appreciate your ignorance too. Too much nonsense. What a clown."

The spiral tattoo on the back of his hand grew faintly hot.

[Life Energy +300]

[Level: 25 (20.5%)]

Three hundred points. Far more than any beast he had hunted before.

Leo understood at once—killing Nen users truly yielded vastly greater amounts of life energy.

But he also knew this was an exception.

Theodore had been too arrogant and too stupid, revealing both his ability's weakness and activation conditions in full.

Under normal circumstances, battles between Nen users would never be this simple.

"Must be thrown..."

Leo recalled Theodore's words.

"In other words, as long as the dice haven't landed, the ability won't activate."

He let go, and the dice fell to the floor.

He was about to leave and help Goreinu.

Then a sudden change occurred.

An immense, twisted, malicious Nen erupted from Theodore's corpse!

Leo abruptly retreated several steps, his face filled with shock.

This aura... was postmortem Nen!

He had only seen it described in the manga—an intense obsession born after an ability user's death. He had not expected to witness it firsthand so soon, much less at such astonishing strength.

Black Nen swirled and gathered through the air like smoke and mist, radiating a suffocating sense of foreboding.

The two dice were drawn upward, slowly floating into the air.

"..." Leo stared at them intently.

"These two dice should be turning into Nen tools."

The swirling malicious Nen abruptly contracted, flooding into the dice like a tide.

The dice shook violently. The numbers and fortune symbols on their surfaces glowed a dark red, while their illusory Nen composition gradually solidified into something with the cold texture of metal.

The process lasted roughly ten seconds.

When the final wisp of Nen had been absorbed, the dice lost their buoyancy and fell to the floor with two clinks, rolling to Leo's feet.

Leo observed them cautiously for a moment. Only after confirming there was no danger did he carefully pick them up.

They were cold and heavy in his hand, as though cast from some kind of black metal, their engraved markings clear. He tried channeling Nen into them—

The dice trembled slightly.

A stream of information flooded into his mind:

[Destiny Daredevil · Nen Tool]

Ability Rules:

Consumes one day of lifespan to use the dice once.

Throw the number die to determine the number rolled (1–6). The risk die determines whether the effect is enhanced or weakened.

Great Fortune: Strength is doubled according to the number rolled.

Lesser Fortune: Strength is increased by a percentage according to the number rolled.

Great Misfortune: Nen aura is emptied, entering "Zetsu," and lifespan is additionally reduced by the number of days corresponding to the number rolled.

Lesser Misfortune: Nen aura is reduced by a percentage according to the number rolled, and lifespan is additionally reduced by one day.

The effect lasts three minutes. The dice must land on the ground for it to take effect.

Delight flashed through Leo's eyes.

Although it now had the restrictions of consuming lifespan and having a duration limit, and no longer required explaining the ability to someone, this Nen tool was far more valuable than he had expected.

There was certainly a risk of rolling "Misfortune," but with good luck, it could be enough to turn the tide of battle.

"Looks like my luck really is pretty good."

He carefully put away the dice.

Outside the window, the sounds of gunfire and fighting had yet to stop. Goreinu was still locked in a hard battle.

Leo walked to the window and leaped down.

The height of the second floor was nothing to him.

His knees bent slightly as he landed, dust stirring lightly around him.

He looked toward the distant battlefield ahead—both Nen beasts had returned to Goreinu's side, struggling to hold on under Terrence and Gabri's combined assault.

Most of Colton's guards had fallen. Only a dozen or so were still stubbornly resisting, while the Waldeck Family still had more than forty people. The situation was dire.

Leo rolled his wrist.

Now it was time to deal with the remaining trouble.