After an unknown stretch of time in a murky, senseless haze, Qi Peixin suddenly regained consciousness, as if waking from a dream.
At the same time, he felt his life pouring out of him like water. Death seemed close at hand.
Qi Peixin struggled to open his blurry right eye. He seemed to see that dim yellow light again, like the Grim Reaper on the night when he was five.
Was he finally going to die...?
Had he achieved his goal?
Once again, his instincts told him-no.
Had he failed after all?
Unable to tell whether he felt disappointment or shame, Qi Peixin finally exhaled his last breath.
Darkness and cold crept over his hands and feet.
So cold...
In his daze, that unbearably freezing winter seemed to descend once more, digging up the chewed-up scraps buried in his heart.
A sound emerged from his parched throat, as if he were murmuring to himself:
"Sorry... I'm hungry..."
In the final moment before his death, his heart held not hatred, but guilt.
Who was he speaking to?
Dio withdrew the [Golden Yellow Ripple Nen] wrapped around his hand. There was no longer any need to strike.
The enemy was already dead.
Dio looked at his dead enemy. He seemed to have suffered so many grievances.
Why had he attacked Kakin's princes, even at such an enormous cost?
Kakin...
Dio stood where he was, silent for a long time.
His Ripple was almost entirely depleted.
Only by pushing himself close to his limit had he managed to drain the giant beast's Nen to the threshold.
Then he had watched it gradually shrink and dissolve into white light, from which a figure that barely looked human had fallen.
The figure was a horrifying sight. Every inch of skin had been corroded away, exposing bright red, shriveled muscles, yet there was not a single drop of blood.
His features were an indistinct mess, but one eye socket was visibly empty. Half an eyelid that had somehow survived clung to his remaining eye. One hand had been severed as well, exposing stark white bone.
Anyone else would have died long ago from such horrific injuries.
Yet when Dio checked, he discovered that the man still clung to life. Even Dio was astonished by such terrifying vitality.
Dio suddenly remembered that, when he had used [Zetsu] to divert the threat toward that mercenary, he seemed to have heard her say this enemy's name.
Was it... Qi Peixin?
The man who had organized an assassination back at the Cave Restaurant?
Although he had already reached that conclusion earlier, only now had Dio found solid evidence that the enemy had been targeting Mumuzawa.
He had no interest in whatever history lay behind it.
Yet he did not know why he felt none of his usual relief after killing an enemy.
Dio thought for a moment, took a deep breath, and squeezed out the last trace of his Ripple.
The rising [Crimson Ripple Overdrive] enveloped the corpse in searing heat, reducing it to ash in an instant.
Dio lingered in the hall for a while before walking out.
He was about to head downstairs to find Bokushin when he suddenly remembered something. Turning around, he walked toward the bodies of the two mercenaries who had just died.
At the stairs at the end of the corridor, two mangled bodies lay by the stairwell entrance.
"From this distance, she should've been able to get straight downstairs and escape, right? Why did she stop at the entrance?"
Confusion showed in Dio's eyes as he examined the position of the body of the mercenary he had seen.
She seemed to have already stepped onto the stairs to flee downward, but the position of her upper body showed that she had turned back instead of continuing down.
Why had she turned back?
The next moment, he saw that the corpse's hand was tightly gripping the clothes of the other, headless body, and he immediately understood everything:
"She turned back to take his body with her..."
Trying to take her companion's body had cost her the last chance to escape. It could hardly be called rational, but Dio could not bring himself to call it wrong.
He sighed inwardly, shook his head to cast aside those unnecessary thoughts, and stepped forward to search the two bodies.
These mercenaries might have clues about whoever put a bounty on him. He couldn't overlook them...
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