Bankai, Minazuki

"Quit yapping and watch your young master show off..."

The man inside the church doorway had not even finished speaking.

Bai Zhu had already drawn his sword.

The sound of the blade leaving its sheath was soft.

Yet Milluki felt as if something had scraped across his eardrums.

He stood beside the car with the speaker slung over his shoulder. He had originally wanted to crack a few jokes, but the words caught in his throat.

The sword Bai Zhu called a "fire poker" every day had finally been fully drawn.

There were no patterns on it.

No exaggerated visual effects.

It even looked rather ordinary.

But the instant its tip left the sheath, the Black Crystal patterns on the church doors began to tremble.

It was not the kind of cracking caused by an attack.

It was more like a living thing encountering its natural predator.

"Th... this is your ability?"

Milluki's throat went dry.

Bai Zhu glanced at him.

"Please enjoy my true ability."

Milluki instinctively wanted to curse.

At a time like this, you were still putting on a show?

But as he watched the Black Crystals on the door shrink section by section, he could not bring himself to say it.

In the end, he only forced out one sentence.

"You can barely speak Chinese, so why are you pretending to be some kind of master?"

Bai Zhu raised his chin.

"Less talk. Get the speaker ready."

"You really think I'm your stage assistant?"

"Aren't you?"

"I'm a fucking Zoldyck!"

"You're working part-time now."

Milluki's chest heaved with anger, but his hand was already pressing the play button.

His body was still very honest.

Bai Zhu turned back toward the church.

Footsteps from every direction grew denser and denser.

The black-armored Holy Knights regrouped. Gray-robed guards rushed out of the side alleys, while the collared believers walked toward the square one after another.

They chanted prayers.

Their voices were orderly and irritating.

The white-robed saintess had arrived as well.

She stood at the other end of the square, seven Black Crystal Needle Tubes hovering before her. She did not attack immediately.

Bai Zhu raised his left hand and gripped the blade.

Milluki's eyes widened on the spot.

"What are you doing?!"

The blade sliced open his palm.

Blood ran down the sword.

At first, it was merely normal bleeding.

The next second, the blood thickened, and the amount was clearly wrong.

It was only one wound, yet it was as though an entire bucket of blood had poured from his palm, dripping down the blade onto the stone steps.

Drip.

Drip.

The sound drowned out the prayers.

Bai Zhu lowered his head and glanced at it.

The blood fell to the ground, forming a pool.

Then it began to spread outward.

The saintess seemed to sense some immense terror and involuntarily took a step back.

The movement was tiny, almost imperceptible.

But Milluki still saw it.

"She's scared?"

Bai Zhu tightened his grip on the blade, and more and more blood flowed out.

"She should be."

Milluki froze for a moment.

Inside the church doorway, the white-robed man's voice sounded again.

"Heretic, the power you carry does not belong to this world."

Bai Zhu looked up.

"What a coincidence. You people don't look like local specialties either."

The man behind the door fell silent.

"You will be reclaimed by Father."

Bai Zhu laughed.

"Your dad sure is busy. He has to make children and collect garbage too."

Milluki nearly burst out laughing.

Number Nineteen, sitting inside the car, had gone pale.

How did this guy dare say that?

Bai Zhu raised his sword.

Blood dripped from the tip, gathering into a dark red puddle on the stone steps.

He took a breath.

Then he shouted in an extremely excited pronunciation.

"Bankai—"

"Minazuki."

Milluki pressed the play button almost at the same instant.

Deep music exploded from the massive speaker.

The sound waves swept up the snow on the ground, and even the car windows shook.

Milluki had been ready to mock that ridiculous pronunciation.

But the next second, his entire body went rigid.

The blood beneath Bai Zhu's feet exploded.

It did not splash.

It spread out as if it were alive.

The dark red pool expanded from the stone steps, crossed the square before the church, surged into cracks in the streets, poured into the drains, and burrowed downward along the Black Crystal lines.

The moment the Black Crystal Formation beneath the Holy Knights' feet touched the blood pool, white smoke immediately rose.

"Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle—"

The black-armored Holy Knights retreated as one.

A few were too slow. Their leg armor was caught by the blood pool, and their Black Crystal shells began to soften.

"The holy marks have failed!"

"The formation line has been contaminated!"

"Fall back! Hurry!"

Bai Zhu stood in the center of the blood pool, and his sword had changed as well.

The plain blade looked as if it had been wrapped in plasma, with a long red stream hanging from its tip.

Milluki stood there with the speaker on his shoulder, frozen by the sight.

He had seen powerful people before.

The Zoldyck family had no shortage of monsters.

When Grandpa Zeno made a move, enemies would be afraid, break down, and even forget how to resist.

But this thing before him was hard for Milluki to describe.

Bai Zhu was not merely dominating the field.

It was as if he had moved an entire death scene to the church entrance.

Milluki muttered.

"Grandpa... probably isn't this ridiculous, right?"

The moment he said it, he immediately shook his head.

"No, no, I can't think that. If Grandpa finds out, I'm dead."

Bai Zhu heard him.

"Fatty, stop spacing out. Don't let the music stop."

Milluki immediately snapped back to his senses.

"Worry about yourself! I charge a lot as a sound technician!"

"It's fine. I won't dock your pay."

"You think you'll still be alive to settle the bill today?"

"If I don't make it, won't you brothers be going down with me? Don't worry, I'll settle up with you underground too."

"You really aren't human."

The blood pool continued pressing outward.

The Black Crystal patterns on the church doors fell away piece by piece.

At last, hurried footsteps sounded from within the church.

More than a dozen Holy Knights charged out. The moment they stepped into the blood pool, the Black Crystal armor below their knees began to smoke.

Bai Zhu advanced with his sword.

The first Holy Knight raised his shield.

Bai Zhu casually swung his sword.

The shield and its wielder were sent flying together, the Black Crystal shield splitting into several pieces in midair.

The second Holy Knight tried to thrust at him from the side.

Bai Zhu stepped on the spear shaft and struck the other man's helmet with the flat of his blade.

Thunk.

The man fell.

"I said it before. Today, I'm mainly here to tear this place down."

He raised a hand and pointed at the Holy Knights still standing.

"Don't block the way."

No one retreated.

They were bound by collars and faith alike. Even as the blood pool burned their armor, they still charged forward.

Bai Zhu sighed.

"Fine. I respect your faith."

He raised his sword.

Dozens of bloodlines suddenly rose from the pool, wrapping around the Holy Knights' legs and dragging them down one by one.

Milluki felt his scalp tingle as he watched.

"Your ultimate move can control its range too?"

"It's my first time using it too."

"You're this smooth with it on your first try?"

"That's what geniuses are like."

"Stop disgusting me!"

The white-robed saintess finally suppressed the fear in her heart and moved.

The seven Black Crystal Needle Tubes formed a spear and shot straight at Bai Zhu's chest.

Bai Zhu did not dodge.

He raised his sword to block.

The spear slammed into the blade with a piercing screech.

The blood pool coiled around the spear shaft.

The Black Crystal Spear shuddered violently, its surface peeling away layer by layer.

The white-robed saintess retreated once more.

Bai Zhu looked at her.

"You were pretty quick at stabbing people earlier. Why are you being so polite now?"

The saintess did not reply.

She raised her hand, wanting to recall the spear.

Bai Zhu turned his wrist.

The blood blade came down.

Crack.

The spear snapped in the middle.

Milluki shouted on the spot.

"Beautiful!"

After shouting, even he froze for a moment.

Bai Zhu turned his head.

"Were you cheering for me just now?"

"Shut up! I was mourning that spear!"

"Oh."

"Oh my ass!"

Bai Zhu did not pursue the saintess.

He looked up toward the interior of the church.

Blood had seeped into the cracks beneath the doors, burrowing deep along the Black Crystal circuits underground.

He could sense something below.

Something filthy.

Something heavy.

And it was still sucking people in.

There were just over eight minutes left on the countdown.

Bai Zhu did not waste any time.

"Milluki, charge in with me."

Milluki froze.

"What about Number Nineteen?"

"She'll be fine."

Only when Milluki looked back did he see that layers of blood had already wrapped around the vehicle, making it impossible for the church members to get close.

Seeing that, Milluki finally relaxed.

He happily jogged after Bai Zhu with the speaker slung over his shoulder.

Bai Zhu swung his blade, and the church doors burst apart.

A row of children stood behind them.

All of them wore white robes, their faces ashen as they recited the same prayer.

Bai Zhu paused.

Milluki saw them too.

"Don't do anything reckless. They have Black Crystal Circuits on them. They might be connected to the ritual."

Bai Zhu lowered his blade.

"Then I'll use something gentler."

He raised his hand.

"Bakudō #4: Hainawa."

Ropes of Reiatsu shot across the floor.

The children were tied up like dumplings and fell in heaps.

The prayers from the ground floor stopped.

But beneath the church, black light still flickered wildly.

Bai Zhu stepped over the threshold.

"Fatty, send Illumi a message."

"What should I send?"

"Tell him to hang on. His Prince Charming is coming to save him."

Milluki gritted his teeth and activated the communicator.

"Brother, can you hear me? That lunatic Bai Zhu is coming in."

There was no immediate reply through the earpiece.

Only static remained.

Milluki's expression changed.

"Brother?"

Outside the underground core area.

Illumi leaned against the wall, his right arm hanging at his side.

His sleeve had been cut open, and three wounds marked his arm.

The cuts were not deep.

The trouble was that a disgusting force was constantly corroding his Nen.

All the puppets he had arranged had fallen.

The people under his control were not dead. Their joints and connections to the Nen Needles had merely been severed, leaving them sprawled across the corridor.

The white-robed Holy Son stood ten meters away.

More than a dozen Black Crystal Surgical Knives floated beside him.

Illumi had already changed routes three times.

Ventilation ducts, chemical pipelines, freight elevator shafts.

Every path had been blocked.

Even his decoy tactics had failed.

The other side could not be fooled.

Every attack went straight for his real body.

It felt awful.

Illumi did not like ineffective actions.

But right now, ninety percent of what he did was useless.

The Holy Son approached slowly.

"Zoldyck assassination techniques are very refined."

Illumi raised his hand, firing three Nen Needles.

The surgical knives around the Holy Son spun and easily knocked them aside.

Clang, clang, clang.

"Unfortunately, as long as you still rely on life force and Nen, you are no match for me."

Illumi did not respond.

He turned and rushed into the ward on the left.

The moment he stepped inside, the Black Crystal patterns on the walls lit up.

A surgical knife slashed out from behind the doorframe.

Illumi twisted aside, and a piece of cloth was cut from his shoulder.

The Holy Son's voice came from the corridor.

"What we study is stronger than Nen."

"After people die, Nen remains."

"Obsessions remain as well. And some things that should not exist here will linger along with those obsessions."

"Even after the life circuit breaks, there is still a direction."

Illumi vaulted out through the other side of the ward and landed in the equipment room.

The instant he landed, the Black Crystal beneath his feet lit up.

He retreated at once.

The next moment, three surgical knives sprang from the floor, piercing through the afterimage he had left behind.

The Holy Son continued approaching.

"Black Crystal can capture that direction."

"No matter how well you hide, as long as you are alive, you will be seen."

Illumi finally spoke.

"So you turned pregnant women and children into circuits too."

The Holy Son stopped.

"They are materials, and they are containers."

Illumi glanced up at him.

"Your efficiency is poor."

The Holy Son tilted his head slightly.

"What?"

"You have researched for so long, yet you still need this many materials."

Illumi raised his hand and fired another two Nen Needles.

The Holy Son blocked them.

But this time, the Nen Needles exploded, and the fine needles hidden inside shot toward the Black Crystal at his feet.

Snap.

A small section of the Black Crystal cracked.

Illumi turned and ran.

The Holy Son remained unhurried.

"Once Father awakens, you will make an excellent specimen."

The core area suddenly shook.

A massive crack split open at the center of the altar.

The children kneeling around the outer ring of the altar all raised their heads, and their prayers became more uniform.

Illumi rushed to a corner, his steps stopping for a moment.

Ahead, Black Crystal rose from the floor and sealed the exit.

Behind him, the Holy Son approached slowly.

At the center of the altar, a stone coffin covered in Black Crystal patterns rose up.

The Holy Son's tone finally changed.

There was a trace of excitement in it.

"Father, your rebirth is almost complete."

The coffin lid slowly slid open.

A man sat up inside.

Magnificent ceremonial robes hung from his body. His skin was cracked, and Black Crystal grew from the gaps between his bones.

The moment that Nen pressure emerged, even Illumi found it difficult to breathe.

Post-Mortem Nen.

The quantity was wrong.

The intensity was wrong too.

Ordinary people's Post-Mortem Nen would condense around their obsessions.

This thing was like something that had devoured the remnants of countless people before being forcibly stitched into a single whole. And within it was an aura that was both familiar to him and something he craved!

The Pope raised his head.

His hollow face turned toward Illumi.

Illumi immediately retreated.

The passage was sealed.

The ventilation shafts were sealed.

Every escape route had been blocked.

The last two puppets he released charged toward the altar. After taking only three steps, they were sliced into pieces by surgical knives.

Illumi stopped beside the wall.

He began calculating.

Breaking through the Holy Son had a low probability of success.

Getting past the Pope had an even lower probability.

Rescuing Ella was almost impossible.

Taking the intelligence away had a failure rate close to absolute.

He raised a hand to touch the documents inside his clothes.

If he destroyed them, at least the other side would not get them back.

The Holy Son seemed to see through his movements.

"You can try."

The Pope slowly raised his hand.

All the Black Crystal patterns underground lit up at once.

Illumi felt his body being pinned down.

It wasn't Nen pressure.

That thing was crushing the life circuits inside him.

His fingers began to go numb.

Even his Nen became sluggish.

Home flashed through his mind.

His father.

His mother.

His grandfather.

And his few troublesome younger brothers.

Milluki would probably cry.

Killua might laugh.

And... forget it. He probably hated me intensely...