Netero's chest was pierced through.
Even though he immediately slapped the King away with his palm to prevent further damage, such a severe injury was enough to start the countdown to his death.
"Cough, cough."
Netero steadied his stance, his gaze fixed on the King who had been sent flying.
The King flipped mid-air and landed skillfully on a stone pillar. However, this time, he did not launch another attack.
In his view, the strike that had pierced through Netero's chest was already a checkmate.
"As a human, you are strong."
The King leaped lightly down from the stone pillar and looked at the dying Netero. "I offer my praise."
"..."
Faced with the King's condescending tone, Netero had no retort, nor did he have the strength to speak.
Under the King's watchful eyes, he slowly brought his palms together.
This was his final prayerful gesture.
Regardless of the outcome of this strike, both he and the King were destined to leave their lives here.
100-Type Guanyin Bodhisattva: Zero Hand
A golden Guanyin glowing with golden light materialized behind the King, extending its broad palms.
The King abruptly turned his head, his eyes reflecting the golden Guanyin's approaching hands. Clearly, he was both surprised and astonished by the Guanyin's sudden appearance behind him.
Immediately after, the golden hands gently enveloped the King.
At that moment, Netero's hand gesture changed. Only his middle fingers remained raised high, while the rest of his fingers intertwined.
With this gesture as the trigger, Netero concentrated all his aura into the Guanyin's next strike.
Beneath the gentle embrace of the palms, the golden Guanyin's face gradually lost its solemnity. In the dead silence, its mouth slowly opened, twisting into an exaggerated curve.
In the next instant, a Nen wave as blinding as a star erupted from its wide-open mouth, instantly devouring the King along with the enclosing palms.
This was the 100-Type Guanyin Bodhisattva's merciless roar, the ultimate strike exclusive to Zero Hand.
A pure energy wave formed from a massive concentration of aura surged forth like a continuous blast from a flamethrower, relentlessly bombarding its target.
Under the onslaught of this violent energy, the palms enveloping the King turned to dust in an instant.
Stripped of the palms' protection, the King was fully exposed to the energy impact.
A moment later, the golden Guanyin released the last trace of its aura, and its gaping mouth slowly began to close.
But before it could fully shut, it shattered into countless drifting points of light before Netero's eyes.
The smoke stirred up by Zero Hand lingered in the air, refusing to dissipate.
Netero had exhausted all his aura, as if his very life force had been drained along with it. His body instantly withered, resembling dried wood.
He collapsed to the ground, his aged and gaunt face turned toward the smoke-filled center.
"A magnificent strike."
From deep within the smoke, the King's voice suddenly rang out.
His tone carried even more admiration than before.
But to Netero's ears at this moment, it sounded particularly grating.
As his life was about to wither away, he stared vacantly with his sunken eye sockets at the Chimera Ant King striding out from the dust and smoke.
The King had gained numerous abrasions, but that was all.
Witnessing such an outcome, Netero, whether from utter despair or complete exhaustion, ultimately lowered his head in silent resignation.
"Do not be disheartened. As the Chimera Ant King, I was born at the pinnacle of life. You, though not a king among humans but merely an ordinary man, have fought to such an extent."
The King stood before him, speaking with the authority of a victor yet offering genuine acknowledgment:
"At the end of your life, you should take pride in yourself."
"..."
Netero remained silent for a second or two, his head still bowed, before suddenly letting out a low chuckle. "Heh... hehehe..."
The King couldn't decipher the meaning behind that laughter, simply observing as Netero's vitality drained away like sand in an hourglass.
He didn't have to wait long.
Within seconds, Netero's laughter gradually faded, and along with it, his damaged heart stilled.
Netero was dead.
In his final moments, he hadn't responded to the King's praise, choosing instead to meet his end as quietly as possible.
But the Poor Man's Rose that had been surgically implanted in his body beforehand was triggered the moment his heart stopped beating.
Without any warning, the King sensed an overwhelmingly intense premonition of danger.
Before he could react, a blinding white light erupted from Netero's body.
The Rose had detonated.
The entire underground ruin, along with the surrounding earth, was instantly swallowed by explosive flames.
Thick smoke billowed upward, quickly coalescing into a blooming death rose in the sky above the rocky ground.
The intense heat from the explosion melted massive amounts of rock into crimson-black fluid.
The area transformed into what seemed like the epicenter of a volcanic eruption, everything twisting in the blistering heat. Toxic black smoke continuously poured forth, forming a barrier across this restricted area of life, denying entry to any living being.
No human could survive such an explosion.
But the King was no human.
The point-blank explosion failed to completely destroy his body, though the intense heat had scorched away nearly half of his form.
Even so, he didn't die immediately.
His charred, broken torso lay sprawled at the center of the newly formed crater, his features now unrecognizable. His lips parted slightly.
A faint breath slowly escaped his mouth.
That he could retain even this last wisp of life after such a devastating explosion was testament to the King's terrifying vitality.
But in such dire circumstances, even this final breath was about to dissipate.
The self-proclaimed pinnacle of life seemed destined to meet his end here.
Yet, just before his life could completely fade, a ball of flesh encased in a hard membrane within his body began to melt slowly, like ice falling into fire.
The liquefied substance rapidly spread throughout the King's body.
This Meatball was actually his unborn sibling.
The Chimera Ant Queen, striving to nurture the most powerful King, had primarily consumed nutrient-rich humans as her food source.
Under normal feeding conditions, the nutritional value provided by humans would have allowed the King to develop fully, even if born prematurely.
But the appearance of Nen users disrupted this process.
Because the nutritional value contained within a single Nen user could rival that of thousands of ordinary people.
This surplus of nutrients unexpectedly led to the development of two embryos within the Queen's womb.
If the Queen had continued consuming ordinary humans as usual, only one embryo might have ultimately developed successfully.
But under Morena's intervention, the Queen ingested numerous Nen users.
The highly concentrated nutrients and aura were absorbed by both fetuses.
Since the King formed an embryo earlier, he seized the majority of nutrients first, rapidly developing and continuously encroaching on the other embryo's share.
It wasn't until Morena continuously provided more Nen users that the second embryo gained sufficient nutrients and began accelerating its development.
As the second embryo grew rapidly, its nutritional requirements increased substantially.
The already partially developed King, unwilling to share too much nutrition and energy with his sibling, coldly "consumed" the other embryo.
However, this embryo that had absorbed substantial nutrients didn't truly disappear, instead merging with the King's body in a chimeric form.
This outcome also subtly influenced some of the King's external features.
Now, that second embryo that had existed like a malignant tumor within the King's body was now "returning good for evil" by becoming the King's final lifeline.
The abundant energy stored within was rapidly absorbed by the King in his last breath.
Through his innate power of devouring evolution, his broken body began regenerating at a visible pace.
Netero, who had acted first, probably never imagined that even a point-blank Poor Man's Rose explosion couldn't immediately take the King's life.
Even less could he have anticipated that the King possessed two lives in one body.
Sustained by the continuous energy nourishment, the King quickly regained consciousness, his body restored to its original state.
The only differences from before were that his eyes had returned to normal.
And the aura intensity surrounding him had actually become stronger than before.
Humans... Hmph.
The reborn King coldly surveyed the unrecognizable scorched earth before him.
So this was why humans had meticulously created a battlefield for solo combat; to display this unique brand of human depravity and malice.
This filled the King with utter contempt and disdain.
Yet despite this battle giving him deeper understanding of humans, Komugi still surfaced first in his thoughts.
He yearned to immediately begin new games with Komugi to verify the strategic ideas that had emerged during their palace matches.
With this thought, the King ignored the still-seething high temperatures beneath his feet and violently launched himself upward.
In an instant, the King's figure shot through the thick smoke like lightning, racing toward the palace direction.
—--
Palace courtyard.
Neferpitou, bearing five Accretion Charges, ultimately abandoned the opportunity to push Morrow into Zetsu after careful consideration.
She clearly understood that maintaining high-intensity offense for just half a minute, or even less, would effortlessly break Morrow's resistance.
However, compared to the time pressure from A.P.R., the unknown risks hidden within the azure flames concerned her more.
Neferpitou judged that ceasing the attack now was the wiser choice.
And reality proved this correct.
Had she continued the assault, she likely would have been completely ignited by seven Accretion Charges and annihilated within the deep blue flames before exhausting Morrow's final trace of potential aura.
By temporarily retreating now, she could adopt lower-risk strategies instead.
Such as materializing Puppeteering, or re-establishing control over those Nen-using puppets to resume the attack.
Just outside the combat zone, Morel and his smoke soldiers watched intently, their presence likely to disrupt her tactical arrangement.
Though she had considered this possibility, it did not affect her wise decision.
Instead, Neferpitou's critical judgment at this juncture shifted the pressure onto Morrow.
For Morrow, even if he chose to retreat at this turning point, he could ultimately rely on A.P.R.'s ability to defeat Neferpitou.
At worst, he might lose the experience points from Neferpitou.
But should he shrink back under pressure?
Morrow's answer was no.
Throughout his journey, the Tree Rings' Etude of Love upgrade ability had indeed brought him countless possibilities.
Yet this increase in power had never come without cost.
He had to constantly throw himself into life-and-death battles.
And because of the experience decay mechanism, he often had to overcome stronger opponents in past fights.
He had long grown accustomed to drawing nourishment from risk and pressure.
Now, facing Neferpitou, he still had the chance to successfully ignite the last two Accretion Charges.
How could he possibly retreat because of the risk?
Outside the arena, Morel keenly sensed the shift in the battle and, drawing on his rich combat experience, realized that the best course of action was to cover Morrow's retreat immediately.
So he quickly took action, preparing to assist Morrow.
Yet Morrow acted in a way completely contrary to his judgment.
"Don't think you can just retreat like that."
Seeing Neferpitou pull back to create distance, Morrow decisively stepped forward to press the attack.
He wasn't the only one with severely depleted potential aura.
Neferpitou, who had been continuously using Terpsichora at high intensity, was also nearing the bottom of her potential aura.
"Shooting Star."
At this critical moment, Morrow didn't hesitate to expend his dwindling aura to close the distance with Neferpitou, while simultaneously forming a Nen sphere in his left palm.
Seeing him pursue without hesitation, Neferpitou grew more certain of her earlier judgment and continued to create distance.
As long as she didn't attack proactively, she wouldn't give Morrow an opening for a defensive counterattack.
But in the next instant, Neferpitou suddenly saw Morrow raise his right hand and slam the back of it fiercely into the Nen sphere.
Crack!
The Nen sphere shattered under the violent impact into countless streams of light, like a dazzling yet deadly shower of sparks, raining down upon Neferpitou.
This was Shooting Star: Dandelion!
Neferpitou's pupils contracted sharply, completely unprepared for Morrow, who was on the verge of his limit, to pull off such a move.
Though she dodged swiftly, the cascading sparks splattered all around her.
In that instant, her left thigh seemed to ignite as if touched by fire, a cluster of faint blue Accretion Charge flaring up out of nowhere.
This was the sixth Accretion Charge, now marking her forehead, chest, both arms, and both legs.
I need to get further away from him. Until then, use 'Puppeteering' to block him!
Neferpitou quickly glanced at the newly ignited Accretion Charge on her leg and, while retreating, materialized a burly puppeteer with a wave of her hand.
At that very moment, she noticed that the aura output on Morrow's body was flickering violently like a dying candle, visibly collapsing.
He can only launch one more attack at most...
Neferpitou concluded inwardly, though the vigilance in her eyes did not diminish in the slightest.
To dispel this ability of unknown nature, Stellar Collapse, she needed to ensure Morrow was eliminated after he exhausted the last of his strength.
Now, the remaining potential aura within Morrow's body was indeed only enough for one final strike.
"Astral Step"
A technique never once revealed throughout their thousands of exchanges abruptly blossomed at this moment.
Whoosh.
Morrow's figure vanished into thin air, bypassing the Puppeteering's defensive perimeter through teleportation, and appeared directly before Neferpitou.
All the aura he could barely sustain with Ten converged entirely into his right fist.
The force of the punch shot forth, striking heavily against Neferpitou's abdomen.
Thud!
Amid the dull impact, Neferpitou remained uninjured, but from Morrow's fist pressed against her abdomen, a seventh Accretion Charge abruptly ignited.
Stellar Collapse; conditions fulfilled!
Seven clusters of ghostly blue flames instantly linked together, engulfing Neferpitou completely in the blink of an eye.
For Neferpitou, this was an inescapable death trap.
For Morrow, it was an assured victory.