Killua's sudden arrival shattered the suffocating tension in the clearing. It was not that he wanted to protect Liam. Right now, his attention was entirely focused on his parents, and the sheer hostility rolling off him was palpable.
He held Alluka tight against his chest. His young face was twisted with a messy mix of deep guilt toward his sibling and raw fury toward his family.
How could he have forgotten? This was his sibling, the one he had played with since they were little, the one the rest of the family had always treated like a monster. For three whole years, Alluka had been completely erased from his mind. Not a single memory. Not a single thought. It was as if Alluka had never existed.
"You did this," Killua said, his voice dripping with bitterness.
His eyes, newly opened to the flow of aura, glared at his father, his mother, and his grandfather. The glowing, heavy light radiating from their bodies was blindingly clear, far denser and more suffocating than even Illumi's.
Kikyo pushed herself up from the dirt, trembling with overwhelming emotion. She pressed her hands against her cheeks, her voice muffled but ecstatic. "You actually managed to land a sneak attack on your own mother. You have grown up so much, Killua. I am so thrilled!"
Zeno stepped forward, ignoring Kikyo's outburst. His sharp eyes scanned the boy. "Who forced the aura nodes on your body open?"
Killua ignored the question entirely. He shielded Alluka like an angry little lion, shouting at his parents. "You used some kind of power to block my memories, did you not? You let me out of the estate three years ago and sent me to the Heavens Arena just to test me! You wanted to see if I would get carried away and forget Alluka completely!"
Silva looked down at his son, his face completely unreadable. "Do not assume the worst of us, Killua. We sent you to the Heavens Arena to gain experience because you are our beloved son. The fact that you forgot Alluka is a completely separate matter."
A soft voice broke the argument. "Brother... did you forget me?"
Killua flinched. He looked down in absolute shock. "Alluka! When did you wake up?"
Alluka wrapped small arms around Killua's neck, tears quickly welling up in large eyes. Panicking, Killua hugged back tightly. "How could I ever forget you? Do not be stupid."
The tears spilled over, rolling down Alluka's cheeks like broken pearls. But then, the child lifted their head, looking right past Killua's shoulder.
"Liam. Give me your head."
Killua froze. A request this extreme, this fatal... he whipped his head around to yell at his parents. "Who made a random wish to Alluka last time? Who caused this?"
Silva remained silent, his gaze shifting toward the dark woods to the southeast.
"The only people capable of bypassing my surveillance to make a wish inside that room are members of this family," Kikyo said, her electronic visor flashing a steady, cold red. "Illumi. Was it you or Milluki?"
Footsteps crunched heavily on the forest floor. "It was me, Mother. I apologize for not informing you."
Illumi walked out from the shadows of the trees. Behind him trailed Tsubone and the rest of the butlers, all looking thoroughly ashamed.
Illumi's cold, black eyes locked onto Liam. "You marked them in a rush. Your goal was to take control of the butlers as quickly as possible, specifically targeting Tsubone to keep me contained. You very nearly succeeded."
It was only because of Illumi's sharp eyes that he had noticed the flaw. By scratching off the five-pointed star mark on Tsubone and the others, he had severed the manipulation. Freed from Liam's control, the butlers had turned around and helped Illumi subdue the rest of the compromised staff, quickly putting an end to the infighting.
Of course, Illumi had no intention of sharing the secret of the star mark with his family. Information was a commodity. If his parents or grandfather wanted to know how the intruder's power worked, they would have to offer something in exchange.
"But now, it is time for you to die," Illumi told Liam, his tone entirely flat. "Take off your own head, or continue to refuse the request. You will die either way."
Liam let out a short laugh. "Well, if I have to die, I should at least pick a good pose."
He planted his hands firmly on his hips, standing tall. "Excuse me, but could I get one of the more skilled Zoldycks to—"
Before the sentence even finished leaving his mouth, Liam's head was airborne.
His headless body remained standing perfectly still, hands resting loosely on its hips. The cut across his neck was so impossibly fast and clean that the blood had not even realized it needed to spray yet.
Killua did not even have time to open his mouth to shout. His father had blurred past Liam like a stroke of lightning. Silva stood a few paces away, Liam's severed head held casually in his massive hand.
The butlers watched in silent awe. Silva had extended his fingernails into razor-sharp blades, slicing through bone and muscle like a steel knife without spilling a single drop of blood on his clothes. The victim probably had not even felt a flicker of pain.
"What a pity," Kikyo mused. "He was quite a capable young man."
"The target of the request is dead," Illumi stated calmly. "Alluka's penalty should clear and reset now."
Zeno stroked his beard, narrowing his eyes. "Is he actually dead, though?"
"Huh?" Illumi blinked.
Killua stared, his mind struggling to process the sheer volume of impossible things happening right in front of him.
"Why are you still holding me?" a voice complained.
Silva looked down. The severed head in his grip was frowning at him. "Your kid is the one who asked for my head, not you. And stop holding me by the hair, it pulls."
Silva stared at the talking head in absolute silence.
"Hey, wait a minute, give it back," Liam's head continued to complain. "I have to hand it to Alluka myself. What if you give it to him, and the wish system does not register it properly because I did not do it? I do not want to have to lose my head twice."
While the head grumbled, the headless body standing a few feet away actually raised a hand and waved impatiently at Silva, as if telling the legendary assassin to hurry up and toss it over.
Silva, face completely devoid of emotion, tossed the head through the air.
The headless body caught its own head with practiced ease. It brought the head up to wipe a stray smudge of blood off its cheek. The sudden movement disrupted the seal on the cleanly severed neck, and a massive fountain of arterial blood suddenly sprayed straight up, showering the face and causing Liam's eyes to roll in pure annoyance.
"Let us coordinate this a bit better," the head muttered. The headless body walked over to Killua and carefully placed the severed head into Alluka's waiting hands.
Killua was so completely paralyzed by the absurdity of the situation that he forgot to put his sibling down.
Alluka, however, did not seem bothered. The child held Liam's head gently in both hands, fulfilling the condition of the third request.
"Did it work?" Liam's head shouted from Alluka's grip. "Is it done? I cannot see anything from this angle."
The headless body reached out and rotated the head so Liam could see.
Alluka's demeanor had instantly shifted. The innocent, crying boy was gone. In his place was something entirely different. The face was pale, the eyes completely hollow and pitch black. A crude, dark smile stretched across the face, looking like something drawn with rough ink. It was terrifying, strange, and deeply unnatural.
The three requests were complete. It was time to make a wish.
Instantly, a spike of pure, freezing murderous intent cut through the clearing.
A Nen-infused needle tore through the air, aimed directly at the severed head in Alluka's hands.
Killua spun around, desperately trying to throw his own body in the path of the needle.
Zeno let out a tired sigh and raised a single hand. A massive dragon's head made of pure aura materialized out of nowhere. Just before the needle could pierce Killua or strike Liam, the dragon snapped its glowing jaws shut, crushing the weapon into dust.
"Why did you stop me, Grandfather?" Illumi demanded, his dark aura flaring around him. "He is going to use that power to destroy our family."
Zeno dismissed the dragon and calmly clasped his hands behind his back. "Illumi. Your father is the head of this family. Not you."
"You might regret this," Illumi warned.
"Do not worry," Silva rumbled, his voice cold enough to freeze water. "The moment he utters a single word that threatens us, I will ensure he never speaks again."
"Tsk. So much paranoia in one family," Liam's head muttered.
The headless body lifted the pouting head out of Nanika's hands and firmly pressed it back onto the bloody stump of its neck. The gruesome fountain of blood stopped almost immediately.
"I swear on my Nen ability, I will not—ouch!" Liam let go of his head to gesture, and his barely healed neck gave way, nearly sending his head tumbling back into the dirt.
Sighing, he grabbed his hair and held his head in place, waiting for the tissues to fully knit together. He continued talking as if his head were not literally falling off. "As I was saying, I swear on my Nen that I will not make a wish that harms any of you. Do you think I am an idiot? It is incredibly hard to get a free wish like this. Why would I waste it trying to hurt people I barely know?"
"Nen ability?" Killua echoed quietly. Was that the name of this strange, glowing power surrounding everyone?
Holding his neck steady with one hand, Liam flashed a bright smile at the dark, hollow-eyed entity in Killua's arms.
"Alright, somebody get me a pen and some paper!" Liam announced cheerfully. "I have a very specific question I need to ask, and I need to draft the phrasing perfectly to get the best return on my investment."