Muse's Post-Mortem Will surged toward the room.
What consequences this would bring, Morrow neither knew nor cared to investigate.
He had come here and incidentally helped Kanzai solve a problem, all to leverage Kanzai's strength in ensuring the airship could land safely later.
Their goals aligned perfectly.
Provided Kanzai could free himself.
Morrow glanced at the open door of the room.
From his angle, he couldn't see inside clearly, but he could sense the clashing waves of aura.
Should I go over…?
The thought flickered in Morrow's mind.
The Nen user he had just killed had skyrocketed his level.
If he could pick off another one, whether or not he went to the Kukan'yu Kingdom afterward wouldn't matter to him.
As Morrow hesitated, the room was already a storm of unseen currents.
—--
Muse had staked his life to trap Kanzai in a Nen space, while his partner Ada breached the room by smashing through the ceiling.
But the Third Princess had an Enhancer bodyguard by her side.
Ada couldn't kill an Enhancement-type user in under a minute, but give her just one more minute and it wouldn't be difficult at all.
And so it was.
By the time Kanzai rushed back into the room, Taliya, assigned to protect Safira, was already gravely wounded, teetering on the edge.
This moment had arrived precisely two minutes earlier.
"Muse…"
Ada's peripheral vision caught Kanzai charging in, confirming Muse had sacrificed his life.
If she could just buy five more seconds…
But there were no "ifs."
Yet the mission had to be completed!
She and Muse had prepared a failsafe from the start to ensure success.
For them, the best outcome would have been completing the mission while surviving; only then could they continue serving their prince.
But now…
Ada felt no sorrow or regret, only unwavering resolve.
In that split second, she abandoned all hope of survival and poured every ounce of her will into completing the mission.
Ignoring Kanzai's lethal strike, she lunged toward Safira, shielded behind Taliya.
Though Taliya was on the verge of collapse, her determination matched Muse and Ada's.
Driven by the desperate need to protect Safira, Taliya met Ada without hesitation, using the last of her strength to buy the crucial seconds until Kanzai's arrival.
Just three more seconds… No, two will do…
Fearless in the face of death, Taliya's only thought was to hold out until Kanzai could take over.
She had to endure; only then could Safira survive!
Despite her injuries, Taliya erupted with even greater aura, sensing the tide turning in their favor.
But what followed left her stunned and despairing.
A blinding flash; the instant burst of an explosion.
On the enemy's body…
High explosives!
Indeed, in her final moments, Ada had calmly detonated the explosives strapped to her.
This was the last trump card she and Muse had smuggled aboard the airship using their disguised identities.
If survival was impossible, then she would flip the table without hesitation. A blinding flash of scorching light vanished in an instant, followed immediately by a shockwave wreathed in searing flames that swallowed Ada, Taliya, and Safira in the blink of an eye.
Kanzai, who had been charging straight toward them, paled drastically. Barely managing to cross his left arm in front of his face, he was sent flying by the explosive shockwave.
—--
At the same time, in the lounge area, Morrow heard the deafening explosion before seeing the residual blast surge out of the room like a dragon, barreling down the corridor straight toward the lounge.
The short distance gave Morrow just enough time to react.
Almost the moment the explosion occurred, Morrow's eyes sharpened. He flipped behind a sofa, crouching low as he shielded his entire body with aura while bracing the sofa in front of him.
BOOM.
The shockwave overturned the entire lounge.
When the chaos settled, flammable materials like the surrounding carpets had caught fire.
Morrow rose from behind the sofa, surveying the devastation with trembling pupils, a sliver of relief flickering in his heart.
The unsteady tilt beneath his feet signaled the severity of the situation.
The airship might very well crash because of this explosion…
A deep sense of foreboding struck Morrow before he turned his gaze toward the corridor ahead.
There, Kanzai lay sprawled on the ground, his body charred in multiple places, his condition unknown.
—--
Inside the room, after the violent explosion, the entire space was shattered, flames and thick smoke filling every corner.
In one corner, Taliya's body was mangled beyond recognition, her life already extinguished.
Yet beneath her, Safira's faint groans could barely be heard.
In the final moments before the explosion struck, Taliya had fulfilled her duty to the death, shielding Safira's life as she had wished.
But before collapsing, Taliya had only noticed Kanzai rushing back to aid them; she hadn't seen the lingering Post-Mortem Will soaring through the air.
Among the enemy ranks, there was someone with an indomitable will.
Muse's Post-Mortem Will, taking the form of phosphorescent flames, slipped through the smoke and fire, homing unerringly toward the space beneath Taliya's corpse.
The next second, Safira's weak voice abruptly cut off.
—--
Outside the room, in the corridor, Kanzai shook his head as he staggered to his feet. Without bothering to check his injuries, he charged back into the smoke-filled room.
He quickly found Taliya in the corner, and Safira, crushed beneath her.
Both were dead.
Kanzai's expression darkened.
"Sorry about this," he muttered to the corpses.
Glancing at the tilting floor, he clenched his fists before swiftly turning and leaving the room, now nearly engulfed in smoke.
Back in the corridor, he immediately spotted Morrow standing in the lounge.
He ran over and demanded, "What's your name?"
"Morrow."
Having seen Kanzai rush out of the room, Morrow could roughly guess the reason.
He wondered just who Kanzai had been protecting to attract such powerful Nen users, ones who had resorted to such extreme measures.
They really left no room for survival.
Kanzai stopped in front of Morrow, briefly glancing at the headless corpse flung farther away before locking eyes with him.
"Morrow, right? You know who I am?"
…
Morrow inwardly marveled at Kanzai's sharpness before nodding and offering a flattering reply, "One of the Hunter Association's Zodiac Twelve. Hard not to recognize you."
"Then I'll skip the introductions. Come with me to find the captain."
Ignoring the flattery in Morrow's words, Kanzai's first thought upon seeing the aftermath of the explosion was to find the captain and have the airship make an emergency landing as soon as possible.
Morrow remained standing still and sighed, "That's exactly why I came looking for you."
"What do you mean?"
Kanzai was puzzled.
Morrow briefly explained the situation in the cockpit.
After hearing it, Kanzai's expression darkened even more.
Screech!
A piercing noise came from the front as the airship tilted and swayed back and forth.
Steadying himself, Morrow said, "This explosion... might force that Manipulator to make an emergency landing."
No sooner had he spoken than the floor suddenly tilted again, making it clear that the airship had reached a dangerously steep angle.
It seemed like it was about to crash.
Morrow and Kanzai exchanged glances, both seeing the gravity in each other's eyes.