The force left behind by the abbot's strike took a long time to fade.
Rock dust from the back mountain still drifted lazily in the wind.
The four of them stood where they were. No one spoke.
All those grueling trials had seemed like scattered pieces. Now, suddenly, they fit together.
"So... that's what it was all about."
Gon moved first.
He walked up to a test stone half as tall as a person and clenched his fist.
He didn't let golden Nen surge around his whole body like before, shaking the ground.
Instead, he tried drawing his Nen inward, peeling away the useless energy leaking out, layer by layer.
He left only the core of the rotation wrapped around his knuckles.
"Hah!"
He threw a punch.
There was no thunderous crash.
No shock wave.
Barely even a breeze.
His fist struck the stone with a dull thud.
A deep fist print sank into its face.
There wasn't a single crack around it.
Gon pulled back his fist and stared for a long moment.
He could feel it clearly.
He had used only half as much strength as before.
Yet the result was more focused, and the mark deeper, than when he had punched with everything he had.
"I did it!"
His eyes lit up, and he nearly jumped with excitement.
"I really got rid of all that wasted strength!"
Killua wasn't idle either.
He stood off to one side, blue-white lightning dancing over his fingertips.
Before, lightning had always spilled out of his Godspeed, crackling impressively while most of it went to waste in the air.
His footwork had been full of unnecessary movements too. It looked fast, but it cost him plenty of energy.
He took a deep breath.
The lightning slowly drew back, clinging to his skin