Chapter 43: You Truly Are a Genius

To assassinate the Third Princess...

The prince whom Muur served merely instructed them to accomplish this task while ensuring their own survival.

If the situation became impossible, preserving their lives was to be the primary objective.

Muur did not bother trying to second-guess the prince's psychological state; from his own perspective, he interpreted the prince's words as follows:

Only by staying alive could he better maximize his value as a chess piece.

Muur was willing to be a chess piece that brought even greater value to the prince.

However, just as his companion Ada had said, while the prince did not wish to see the two of them throw away their lives for a single mission, the two of them wished even less to disappoint the prince.

Killing the Third Princess was of paramount importance.

With that goal in mind, when Muur inscribed the divine characters, he had already resolved to offer up his heart.

Naturally, if he did not have to die, neither he nor his companion wanted to perish.

They still wished to follow in the prince's footsteps and watch him ascend the stairs to the throne.

Yet there was no help for it...

Standing directly in their way were the Zodiacs of the Hunter Association, who specialized in combat.

Without the resolve to stake their lives, how could they possibly cross this obstacle and complete the mission?

Therefore, once "Cicada Slough" was activated, whether putting up a front or merely bluffing...

Muur was simply trying to disrupt or mislead Kanzai's judgment, keeping Kanzai swaying in the churning, muddy waters so as to prolong the stalling time.

Unfortunately, things went contrary to expectations, and Kanzai even made an accurate guess of the time.

Even if it had been tens of seconds longer, it had to be guessed right down to the wire.

So once the sixty seconds were up, he would just live for as many seconds as he could...

The longer he survived, the higher the success rate for his companion.

If he had any regrets, it was that before activating his ability, he failed to goad Kanzai into inflicting even more severe injuries upon himself.

That, too, was a matter beyond his control.

Without using the most basic Nen defense when taking a hit, the conditions for his ability could not be met.

Yet the most critical factor was that Kanzai had anticipated it beforehand, managing to suppress his instincts during his hasty counterattack and avoiding vital spots.

Had it not been for the secondary safeguard of having his companion violently storm the room to compress Kanzai's reaction time, there truly would have been no way to drag Kanzai into the Nen space instantly.

He truly lived up to being a Zodiac—

This praise was entirely sincere on Muur's part, and at the same time, he felt a silent pang of apology toward his companion.

Forgive me, Ada... If I could have siphoned more damage over to this guy, your survival rate after completing the mission would have been much higher.

While steeling himself for sacrifice, Muur firmly believed that his companion would succeed.

He lowered his eyelids, then looked up again at Kanzai.

"Tiger of the Zodiacs, all the intelligence I've gathered indicates that you should be a Enhancer, but after actually fighting you, it's completely different from what I imagined."

"Look at you talking. Do you think all Enhancers are just brainless brutes who only know how to charge in blindly?"

Kanzai replied expressionlessly while silently counting down the seconds in his mind.

Muur retorted, "Isn't that so?"

The few Enhancers he had encountered relied entirely on the advantages of high offense and high defense, facing everything fearlessly.

Therefore, when teaming up with his companion, Enhancers were always his favorite opponents—once caught, they were locked down for sure.

"Did Enhancers eat the rice grown in your house?"

Hearing the contempt for Enhancers in Muur's tone, Kanzai widened his eyes slightly and concluded his sixty-second count internally.

The Nen space had not vanished...

That meant he at least didn't need to worry about the counter-type ability effect of "damage sharing."

Having finished the sixty-second conversational phase, Kanzai resolutely acted on his judgment and lunged fiercely toward Muur.

The very instant he launched the attack.

Though Kanzai's physique was not particularly massive, he erupted with an aura reminiscent of a fierce tiger.

Bearing the brunt of the onslaught, Muur finally witnessed the true traits of an Enhancer from Kanzai.

"Even without diverting a portion of emitted aura to the divine characters, I absolutely wouldn't be able to block this..."

With just a single glance, Muur felt the insurmountable gap in direct combat, which was precisely what made Enhancers so troublesome.

Yet he had never intended to trade blows with Kanzai head-on; channeling Nen into his feet, he spun around and sprinted wildly, instantly maximizing the distance Kanzai needed to cover to attack him.

Unfortunately, the mechanics of the Nen space locked down their active range...

He couldn't jump off the airship, nor could he play hide-and-seek.

"I can hold out for another minute or two!"

Muur blindly fled to avoid combat.

Because the traits of "Cicada Slough" required him to inflict damage on the enemy within sixty seconds, he had invested heavily in mobility.

Now, fleeing with every ounce of his strength, he managed not to get caught by Kanzai immediately, but the moment he was caught, he would likely be killed in a single blow.

Thus, Muur and Kanzai engaged in a game of pursuit on the upper deck of the airship.

With the intervention of Nen abilities, the psychological states of both parties gradually reversed.

The one who should be anxious now was no longer Muur, but Kanzai.

Although Kanzai's victory was a foregone conclusion, he still had to consider the safety of his client, Saff.

"Could this guy's Nen ability... really have such a potent effect?"

As the pursuit dragged on bit by bit, Kanzai realized that Muur's ability mechanics were exceeding his expectations.

Sixty seconds had passed, and the Nen space had not vanished, practically confirming that the "damage sharing" mechanism had ended.

At most, thirty seconds after that, the Nen space should dissolve.

Yet the anticipated phenomenon did not occur.

Kanzai could not help but furrow his brows tightly.

He had no idea that Muur was dragging out time with the grim resolve of waiting for death.

Thirty-eight seconds into the chase.

Kanzai finally found an opening, unleashing a punch wreathed in a massive concentration of aura toward Muur's back.

Faced with Kanzai's attack, Muur abruptly spun around, raising his left arm horizontally and channeling virtually all of his emitted aura to construct a defense.

Bang.

Crack!

The punch landed squarely on Muur's left arm.

The immense destructive force sent his body flying backward through the air at high speed, while his entire left arm suffered a compound fracture on the spot.

"Do you want to know how long this Nen space will last?"

Taking advantage of the distance temporarily created by Kanzai's punch, Muur's body plummeted from mid-air. Ignoring the injury to his left arm entirely, he answered his own question:

"A full three hundred seconds. Understand now? From the moment you stepped in here, you've lost any chance of protecting that Princess."

"..."

A jolt of shock went through Kanzai. Ignoring Muur's words, he once more erupted with the speed of a tiger hurtling down a mountain, charging straight at Muur.

A flippant smile surfaced on Muur's face once again.

Though both his arms were ruined, he should be able to stall for at most another minute.

Enough!

Just as this thought crossed Muur's mind, the yellowish hue surrounding them suddenly receded like a receding tide.

"Huh!?" x2.

The abrupt change startled both Muur and Kanzai, leaving astonishment on their faces.

As the yellowish tint vanished entirely, the two remained in their original spots, except that one more person had appeared in the passage connecting the lounge to the entrance corridor.

"It's him!"

Kanzai looked over and recognized the youth who had concealed his identity as a Nen user when boarding the airship.

This youth was naturally Moroh, who had come to investigate the situation.

Watching Kanzai and Muur materialize out of thin air, Moroh glanced at the wall in the corridor behind him, where the divine characters had lost their Nen luster. Originally, a painting had hung in that exact spot.

"It seems my judgment was correct..."

Moroh shifted his gaze to Muur, whose aura was gradually subsiding, and said calmly, "Destroying the divine characters—even if it yields no direct benefit, at the very least, it creates a disadvantage for the 'troublemakers'."

"You...!"

Muur stared in disbelief at Moroh, the variable that had appeared out of nowhere.

Moroh lightly raised a hand, cast a glance toward Kanzai, and said earnestly, "I hate terrorists the most. Leave him to me."

"!"

Kanzai shouted loudly, "You're a damn genius."

Without another word, he turned and charged back into the room without hesitation.

In the vast lounge, only Moroh and Muur remained.