Nen Abilities come in all sorts of strange and bizarre forms… some with harsh restrictions, some with annoying effects, some with peculiar utilities, and others with astonishing destructive power...
No matter what kind of Nen Ability it is, once its details are exposed, the effectiveness it can achieve will be greatly diminished.
Take Law's battle with Chrollo, for example. When the exact contents of Chrollo's book, of how many troublesome Nen Abilities were stored within it, were unknown, the best course of action was to prevent Chrollo from using them in the first place.
The same applies now. Before the [Rising Sun] could detonate, Law sliced it into harmless sparks, reducing the damage it could inflict to zero. All the "fuel" Feitan had gathered was wasted in vain.
Chrollo's [Bandit's Secret.]
Uvogin's [Big Bang Impact.]
Nobunaga's [Four-Meter En.]
Machi's [Nen Threads.]
Phinks' [Ripper Cyclotron.]
Feitan's [Pain Packer: Rising Sun.]
Shalnark's "Black Voice.]
Pakunoda's [Memory Bomb.]
Kortopi's [Gallery Fake.]
Franklin's [Double Machine Gun.]
Bonolenov's [Battle Cantabile.]
Law had a decent understanding of all these Nen Abilities. If he could devise countermeasures, even if the Phantom Troupe came at him with their full force, he could still evade danger and pick them off one by one.
The fireworks in the night sky lost their heat and quietly faded away.
Feitan stood frozen, as if struck by lightning. Anger, humiliation, hatred… all sorts of emotions tangled into a chaotic knot in his chest, with nowhere to vent, leaving him unbearably frustrated.
The sheer contrast between expectation and reality even caused his thoughts to blank out for a split second… a fatal lapse in focus.
Meanwhile, the other members of the Troupe couldn't hide their shock.
They knew full well the power of Feitan's [Rising Sun]. The energy contained within it was immense, an attack that even Ken couldn't defend against.
Because it transcended the conventional Nen offense-defense system, transforming Nen into an elemental force… an intensely destructive blaze of scorching flames.
The battlefield fell into silence as everyone watched Law slowly descend from the air.
The faint glow of his cigarette ember flickered like a dim beacon in the night.
Law coldly looked down at Feitan, then flicked the drastically shrunken [Rising Sun] off his fingertips with a casual motion.
Whether intentional or not, the tiny ember streaked through the air like a falling meteor, landing squarely on Kirlo's back.
Sizzle…
The cloth burned through, followed by skin, flesh, and bone… like a red-hot iron ball dropped onto snow, melting and dissolving everything in its path, much like the effect of Kirlo's own [Agonizing Bone Drill] Nen Ability.
The soft sizzling sound was like the whisper of death itself.
Caught off guard by the sudden attack and overwhelmed by excruciating pain, Kirlo let out a bloodcurdling scream. His body convulsed violently as his features twisted beyond recognition. Blood gushed from his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears… only to evaporate instantly.
The terrifying heat invaded his body and erupted, vaporizing his blood and fluids in an instant.
A moment later, the screaming stopped abruptly, leaving behind a charred corpse, its features no longer distinguishable.
The Phantom Troupe's members' expressions darkened at the sight, yet none of them moved recklessly.
Law landed, glanced indifferently at the charred remains, then turned his gaze back to Feitan. With a tone of mock surprise, he remarked, "How naive of me. I thought that tiny spark was only good for lighting cigarettes. Turns out it can cremate a body too. Guess you're not completely useless after all."
He treated Kirlo's death as nothing more than an afterthought, brushing it off with chilling nonchalance.
"But I think this was just an accident. Don't you agree?"
Law's gaze shifted past Uvogin and Nobunaga, settling on the remaining Phantom Troupe's members.
Just as the situation was about to defuse, Feitan had suddenly unleashed his ultimate move, which annoyed Law.
If not for Feitan's heat-resistant red suit, that shrunken [Rising Sun] wouldn't have been flicked onto Kirlo… it would have been aimed at Feitan himself.
Casually reducing a Troupe member to a charred corpse was merely an expression of Law's mild irritation.
Watching Law dismiss the matter so effortlessly, the Troupe fell into a collective silence. They couldn't refute him… nor did they have the right to.
…
Ancient Tree Museum.
Under the pale moonlight, well-equipped and highly trained squads converged from all directions.
The area had little cover, only clusters of low shrubs lining the path, and the ground was littered with silent corpses.
Clover and the guests had fled the open-air banquet, retreating into the palace-like structure. Upon learning that the thieves were targeting the museum's collection, Clover ordered the remaining armed forces to redirect most of their guards toward the museum.
However, mobilizing forces took time. Uvogin and the others had already decimated the first and second waves of guards during their frontal assault, so now, sending the remaining forces to the museum was like trying to put out a fire with distant water… too little, too late.
From the Ohara Museum's perspective, the thieves had been given far too much time to loot. But from Machi's perspective, they were racing against the clock.
As the obstructing forces arrived, the looting team split up… two members stayed behind to continue gathering treasures, while the other two went out to deal with the intruders.
Kortopi, being a support member, remained inside the museum. Machi also stayed, as her Nen Threads were essential for bundling the stolen goods.
The ones sent out to clear the path were Bonolenov and Shidore.
Around five hundred guards approached the museum, including nearly twenty Nen Users.
From the start of the assault until now, the Phantom Troupe had fought on three fronts, cutting down nearly fifty of Ohara Museum's Nen Users. These twenty were the last remnants.
In the quiet night, the faint sound of footsteps grew.
The Ohara Museum's guards fanned out, advancing cautiously toward the museum. Since they had to consider the safety of the antiques, even heavy weapons like portable rocket launchers couldn't be used.
The men closed in, forming a siege formation, preparing to breach the windows.
At this moment, a nearly imperceptible vibration hummed through the air, reaching the guards closest to the museum.
Bang!
With a slight muffled sound, one of the guards' eyes exploded in a mist of blood, viscous fluid and shattered eyeball spraying out. He collapsed dead without even a scream.
Then another. And another.
In just three seconds, ten guards died in the same grotesque fashion.
The sudden deaths sent a ripple of panic through the ranks, but the men held their ground, obeying orders.
Whoosh!
A gust of wind. A shadow darted out from the museum window, plunging into the crowd.
Snap!
The sound of snapping necks echoed repeatedly.
The figure moved faster than the guards could react… closing in, touching lightly, and with each crisp snap, another man fell, clutching his throat.
Once the target was spotted, gunfire erupted.
Inside the museum, Machi and Kortopi ignored the chaos outside, speeding up their looting. Three massive bundles of stolen goods already lay on the floor.
"Hm?"
Suddenly, an overwhelming surge of Nen pulsed in the distance… only to vanish within seconds.
Machi and Kortopi exchanged glances, a sense of foreboding settling over them.