The round shell object fell to the ground, utterly silent.
In the dark and silent tree hole, Law's faint breathing sounded. A moment later, he opened his eyes, a black and red glint flashing within them before disappearing.
This time, the fire was completely extinguished. The cold ashes could no longer provide any warmth, causing a chilling cold to emanate throughout the entire tree hole.
Law gazed into the darkness, his Aura flowing. The luminescent algae glowed, illuminating the smooth ground with perfect clarity.
He couldn't hear the wind and rain outside, but he saw the ashes of the fire, the soybean-sized round shell object, and the swollen objects attached to Biscuit and the others.
He showed no surprise at the scene within the tree hole, nor did he rashly try to remove the swollen objects from Biscuit and the others, appearing extremely calm.
'Am I back? So, this is the culprit?'
Law squatted down, extended his thumb and index finger, and picked up the soybean-sized round shell object.
This time, the White Smoke Font finally regained its function, inputting some information into his mind.
'So that's how it is.'
A cold glint flashed in Law's eyes. He exerted force with his fingers, directly crushing the round shell object, fulfilling the words he had spoken in the fictional scenario.
This round shell object was called a Mirage Tick. Its species boundaries were blurry, somewhere between shelled creatures and insects.
Although its volume was only the size of a soybean, the hundred legs underneath its body allowed it to move at extremely high speeds across various complex terrains.
The Dark Continent was everywhere associated with 'gigantic' things, yet this creature was only the size of a soybean.
However, the threat it posed was extremely high, even capable of destroying creatures countless times larger than itself.
The Mirage Tick's range of activity was mostly confined to places like caves, underground areas, tree holes… relatively enclosed spaces.
This wasn't due to their innate preference, but because after attacking a target, they needed a period of time to slowly consume. Those places were the best and safest environments for them.
Mirage Ticks were small, moved quickly, and were hard to detect. After climbing onto a target's body, they would use their dense hundred legs to pierce the target's body, achieving parasitic conditions.
Each segment of their limbs was extremely tiny, but their structure was like a collapsible baton, capable of extending, with strong penetrative power.
Once parasitized by a Mirage Tick, it was equivalent to a hunt already being over. Prey caught by a Mirage Tick basically cannot escape, and most could only become empty shells within the fictional cycle woven by the Mirage Tick.
For the Mirage Tick, humans could be considered the best prey. However, finding humans on the Dark Continent was very difficult.
These few Mirage Ticks had finally encountered humans, like encountering a rare delicacy not seen in a thousand years.
Yet, the one that latched onto Law was probably confused until its death.
Law shattered the Mirage Tick's body, collected the powder, then went to Bruna's side.
The Mirage Tick attached to Bruna had swollen to the point of nearly being fully liberated.
If it were to liberate itself, Bruna's soul would be erased, and the Mirage Tick that had fed on Bruna's spirit would evolve into another form.
At that time, it would lay many eggs, then leave. Those eggs would hatch into more Mirage Ticks.
Judging from the swelling trend of the Mirage Tick, Bruna was already hanging off a cliff by one foot. The reason for this was that the Buru Tribe had delicate and sensitive emotions.
Just a slight provocation from the Mirage Tick could give rise to very violent fluctuations.
On the back of the enormous swollen Mirage Tick on Bruna was a grey eye. Seeing Law approach, the pupil shifted several times, glaring malevolently at Law.
If looks could kill, Law would have been sliced to pieces by now.
The advanced form of the evolved Mirage Tick was centered around this eye.
Based on the progress of the parasitism, once the Mirage Tick on Bruna successfully evolved, its growth ceiling would undoubtedly be very high.
Unfortunately, it wouldn't have this opportunity.
Law met the gaze of the grey giant eye indifferently, 'Fortunately, I had managed to counter-kill the Mirage Tick in time. Any later, and Bruna would have been in danger.'
Thinking of this, he directly reached out his hand, used God Hand, covered the Mirage Tick, and simultaneously injected spiritual power into his Nen.
The grey giant eye suddenly thrashed wildly within its socket, countless blood vessels appearing at its edges, ferocious and terrifying.
Seeing this, Law's expression remained as cold as ice as he continued to manipulate his Nen.
In a short time, the swollen Mirage Tick began to shrink, like a deflating balloon, at a not slow pace.
The opened eye socket on its back was also closing simultaneously, though the giant eye was still struggling madly, as if trying to burst out of the socket.
Soon, the Mirage Tick's volume drastically reduced, returning to the size of a soybean.
The eye socket on its back completely closed, leaving only a seam. However, it was still full of vitality and could start consuming Bruna again.
Law snorted coldly and muttered to himself, "It's a pity you encountered me."
As soon as the words fell, he directly separated the Mirage Tick from Bruna's body.
If a Mirage Tick cannot extract the target's spiritual power, it will die from backlash. It also has another particularly nasty characteristic: once its hundred legs pierce the target's body, they will continuously extend, branching out like tendons, eventually spreading throughout the target's entire body.
Therefore, trying to remove a Mirage Tick from a target's body is infinitely difficult. Forcibly removing it would basically result in mutual destruction. This is the fundamental reason why targets, once parasitized by a Mirage Tick, find it difficult to escape.
However, Law's Nen Ability allowed him to perfectly separate the Mirage Tick.
After perfectly removing the Mirage Tick, Law first extracted a tiny amount of body fluid from within the Mirage Tick, then crushed it into powder.
After Bruna was out of danger, Law used the same method to remove the Mirage Ticks from Biscuit and the others. What was peculiar was that even Nen Beasts could be affected.
It seemed that when a Nen Beast materialized, it also fell into the biological category.
Or perhaps, the Mirage Tick only needed the so-called imagination or power of fantasy, so it didn't matter if Kuro was a Nen Beast or not.
As long as he met this condition, he could become prey.
Law finally finished killing all the Mirage Ticks, crushing them into powder and collecting it, and extracting a drop of body fluid, which could produce an effect similar to a neurotoxin.
Kuro was the first to wake up, looking dazedly at Law sitting by the fire.
An hour had already passed since the crisis was resolved. Law had rekindled the fire and sprinkled the Mirage Tick powder around inside the tree hole.
That way, other Mirage Ticks would think this place was already occupied by their kind and wouldn't enter.
For an hour, Law sat motionless by the fire.
He believed the crisis was over, but a thorn was still stuck in his heart.
To pull out that thorn, he could only wait for this day to pass.
The Mirage Tick had lost to Law in the war of attrition within the illusionary realm, but it had still left him with many indelible, painful memories.
Similarly, it had given Law's willpower a thorough baptism.
Next time, if he encountered a Mirage Tick again, or an evolved Mirage Tick, Law might be able to face it without fear.
Even if the true body of the Twin-Tailed Snake, Hellbell, appeared, he should be able to be immune to the spread of its killing intent.