The two of them encountered no obstacles along the way and arrived at the residence in the miners' barracks district.
The door stood wide open, and a thick stench of blood rushed at them. Dawn swept his gaze across the room, then strode without hesitation to the two corpses and crouched beside them, pretending to examine them with complete focus.
At times, he moved the bodies to inspect their wounds; at others, he stared at the pools of blood in thought, as though all his attention had been absorbed in analyzing the case.
Gamenio stood behind Dawn, watching that utterly defenseless back. Beneath his mask, his lips curled into a cruel smile.
The prey had finally walked into the trap!
He dropped the act. His body rippled like water and instantly returned to its original form. A white sphere of energy capable of making space itself tremble condensed in his right palm. Without the slightest hesitation, he slammed it viciously toward Dawn's back with terrifying force that could shatter everything!
At that critical moment, Dawn, who had kept most of his attention focused behind him all along, suddenly shifted as though he had eyes in the back of his head!
"Soru!"
A faint afterimage remained where he had stood, while his true body had already vanished.
Gamenio's sure-kill blow completely missed, and the white sphere slammed viciously into the floor.
The instant the sphere touched the ground, something terrifying happened—centered on the impact point, spiderweb cracks spread across the floor, walls, and ceiling like glass struck by an invisible giant hammer. Then, amid a violent localized earthquake, the entire house collapsed into dust and rubble, sending clouds of smoke and debris billowing into the air.
Hovering in midair, Dawn looked down at the residence that had instantly become ruins, as