Once a man was dead, the secrets that had once mattered to him lost all meaning.
Tserriednich was in exactly that state.
He knew he was dead. He simply did not understand what method Ronin had used to drag him back from whatever lay below. Chrollo's questions pulled his memories more than a decade into the past. At the time Lisnos had been nothing more than an unremarkable subordinate.
The man had simply possessed a clever mind. While working for the prince he had quietly embezzled resources and cultivated connections until he eventually reinvented himself as a philanthropist of sorts.
"What exactly are you trying to say?" the Fourth Prince asked with complete indifference. "Looking for revenge?"
Chrollo's eyes flickered.
If Tserriednich were still alive, revenge would have been the obvious choice. In his present condition the man had nothing to do with the living. The casual attitude only confirmed that Chrollo currently held no leverage over him at all.
Ronin was genuinely exasperating.
Being able to track Lisnos and, through him, confirm that the ultimate source of everything rested with the Fourth Prince had been possible only because of the Scarlet Eyes taken from the Kurta Clan. Yet that same massacre had also left behind the disaster named Ronin.
There was a certain taste of fate in it.
Chrollo's gaze left the prince. He would never waste time asking why the man had done it. The answer was obvious.
Profit.
It was the same answer Kurapika had once received when he asked why the Troupe had slaughtered the Kurta. Profit.
Kidnapping people from Meteor City had brought Tserriednich benefits on multiple levels—sale of organs, trafficking of living bodies, even the production of morbid videos. The gains were not only financial. They included connections and a particular kind of psychological satisfaction. The investigation had made one fact clear: Tserriednich himself was a degenerate.
"Well?" Ronin asked. "Did you get the answers you wanted?"
He was in no hurry to attack.
He was waiting—not for the battle still unfolding inside the Earth Prison, but for Kurapika.
The moment the stone pillars stopped falling he had known Kurapika had already found Kortopi and taken action. He did not believe Kortopi could stand against him. Therefore he would wait until Kurapika arrived carrying the news of that death, and then together they would finish the most important target of their revenge.
"It no longer matters," Chrollo said.
Yes. At this point, who had done what years ago had become irrelevant.
He knew exactly what remained for him to do: fight Ronin with everything he still possessed. If he won, continue toward the ideal. If he lost, go to the other side and properly apologize to Sarasa.
Bandit's Secret opened once more.
The next second his movement locked in place.
"Your acquisition of Xiyou's ability surprised me," Ronin said. "You simply haven't pushed its application to the limit. That is understandable. After all, you could never have known from the beginning that I already had a certain understanding of that power."
Amenotokotachi sealed Chrollo where he stood.
With no remaining allies on the field, Ronin no longer needed to fear external interference that might damage the seal and increase the burden on his eyes. Unless the page Chrollo had just turned contained teleportation, Amaterasu would ignite across his body the instant the seal released.
Chrollo showed little surprise at the words.
From the earlier fighting he had already noticed certain signs. The reason he had deployed Xiyou's ability so early was precisely because of a private guess of his own.
Beyond would never deliberately leak only that single ability to him. If he fought under the assumption that Ronin knew nothing, the one who suffered in the end might well be himself. Therefore Xiyou's power had never been treated as the final trump card.
His true trump card from the beginning had been only one thing: Hisoka's Bungee Gum.
Only by planting an antenna on Ronin could final victory be declared.
There was no panic on his face now. He had already anticipated the ability Ronin would use.
In the final second before Amenotokotachi vanished and Amaterasu was about to ignite, Chrollo's figure disappeared.
The place where he reappeared was already filled with a vast volume of water.
Water Style: Great Waterfall Technique.
The probability that Chrollo would choose teleportation had exceeded eighty percent. From the outset Ronin had prepared for the possibility that Amenotokotachi alone would not be enough. From the previous exchanges he had also formed a clear judgment: Chrollo's teleportation range did not exceed ten meters.
Therefore, by treating the sealed position as the center and releasing enough water to cover a full twenty-meter diameter, he was certain to enclose the man. The Great Waterfall could easily cover that range—and expand farther still, far enough that even successive teleports would not allow escape.
In a single instant the flood swallowed the entire villa. Even so it failed to reach the tops of the tall stone pillars.
Ronin, already inside the water, began forming seals a second time.
Chrollo's figure appeared in the water not far away and, exactly as predicted, activated teleportation once more.
Escaping a Great Waterfall of this scale with an ability limited to ten meters per jump would require at least ten successive uses—judging by the direction he had chosen.
Water Style: Water Shark Bullet Technique.
Shark-shaped projectiles of condensed water erupted across Ronin's body and carried him surging forward at high speed. At the same moment additional Water Shark Bullets formed throughout the surrounding flood. These projectiles did not need to carry a passenger; the instant they appeared they tore straight toward Chrollo.
When Chrollo attempted the third teleport, the ability failed.
He was forcibly ejected from the spatial transition.
Predicted.
No—
His gaze swept the four corners of the water and found four figures identical to Ronin already standing at those positions.
They activated their technique simultaneously. The Four Violet Flames Formation that had once trapped Uvogin bloomed inside the Great Waterfall and sealed him completely within its barrier.
A spatial ability answered by spatial sealing. Ronin had truly found a method to counter him.
The page in Chrollo's hand turned once more.
What ability could still pose a threat?