A massive figure hovered in the sky—a middle-aged captain with a towering physique.
Ron looked up briefly.
Natsu, Uchiha Sasuke, and Akame had already disappeared. Rosgell, now in his humanoid Nen construct form, had returned to Sumas's space. Wither was still locked in battle with the dragon-form captain. Judging by the current state of the fight, the outcome was already clear—the captain was bound to lose.
Wither couldn't bring him down immediately. The First Bomb, while undeniably powerful, had limited effect against a target of such overwhelming size. The explosion alone wasn't enough to tear apart the enormous draconic body. But at the same time, the captain couldn't harm Ron's nen beast either. His attacks crashed against Wither's body much like Netero's fists had once landed against the Chimera Ant King—visibly dramatic, but ultimately ineffective.
Wither wasn't as strong as the King. But neither was the captain anywhere close to Netero's level. And when it came to attacking Ron, that option didn't even exist—Ron had designated himself as the Audience inside the Observation Platform. In that role, he was untouchable.
The longer this dragged on, the faster the captain's aura would deplete. His stamina couldn't compare to Ron's. But Ron didn't intend to wait that long.
Chris was dead, but the enemy's plan was still in motion.
Ron cast a glance toward the Ascension Relic.
The aura converging there was becoming dangerously dense.
He decided to end this quickly, so he raised his hand and began concentrating Nen.
"Nen Bullet."
Lacking a more efficient technique at the moment, Ron used a direct attack method—pure aura projectiles. This wasn't about skill anymore. It was a contest of brute force and raw output.
Previously, the pace of the fight had been dictated by the captain.
Now, Ron had taken control.
One shot.
Two.
Three...
The captain's draconic body was far too massive to dodge. His size, which was once his advantage, now turned into a vulnerability.
Enraged, he channeled his own aura and counterattacked. But all his strikes were wasted. Ron, protected by his Audience role, remained completely unharmed.
Trying to attack. Trying to defend. Trying to maintain that monstrous form.
His aura drained at an alarming pace.
And then it happened.
The giant draconic form collapsed under its own weight.
Unable to sustain it, the captain reverted back into his original human form, panting and weakened.
Wither immediately lunged.
At the same time, Ron gathered a much larger Nen bullet and hurled it forward.
The two attacks struck in unison—just like when Zeno had restrained Chrollo, allowing Silva to strike both of them at once. This was a coordinated assault, designed to finish the job in a single moment.
BOOM!
The explosion swallowed the battlefield in a wave of blinding force.
When the dust settled, Wither stepped out first, her clothes scorched but intact. Then came the captain, wounded and staggering—but still alive.
And then—
Squelch.
A soft, soundless blast erupted from his chest.
He looked down and saw that the center of his torso had vanished entirely—his chest cavity torn open, his internal organs gone.
Thud.
His body collapsed without another word.
Ron shifted his gaze to the Ascension Relic. He gave the mental signal.
Natsu appeared.
Fire ignited across his entire body.
"Fire Dragon's Brilliant Flame."
A roaring fireball descended from the sky.
Fwoooosh!
The explosion engulfed everything around the relic.
The enemy squad performing the ritual couldn't move. Their hands were locked onto the relic's surface, unable to pull away while the ritual remained incomplete.
There was no time to react—no way to dodge.
They were engulfed in fire, the entire area consumed in a blazing inferno. Their only solace was that Natsu's flames were so hot, death came instantly.
Elsewhere, Alex had been forced into a disadvantage. But the moment his opponent saw what had happened to the ritual site, fear struck his heart.
Alex seized the opportunity.
Bang!
A single punch landed with immense force. It was direct and crushing, carrying both weight and precision.
It wasn't identical to Netero's Hundred-Type Guanyin, but the force behind it was frighteningly close.
The fight was over.
Three captains had fallen one after another.
The remaining fighters completely lost their will to resist.
"We surrender!"
"We lost!"
"We give up!"
The rules of the Grand Martial Trial activated.
Massive amounts of energy surged out from the defeated participants. But unlike earlier battles, none of it went into the victors this time.
Instead, all of it flowed toward one place.
The base of the Ascension Relic.
But the relic was gone. The ritualists were dead. Nothing remained—except for one thing.
Rosgell's severed head.
A voice echoed softly near Ron's ear—audible only to him.
"Ron. Bring the head underground."
Alex and the others were still celebrating their victory. Ron gave them a glance, then silently turned away, picking up Rosgell's head and heading toward the underground lake.
Rosgell's translucent humanoid form appeared before him.
"Ron, thank you."
"You're too polite, Senior Rosgell."
Rosgell looked down at the head in Ron's hands.
Ron opened his fingers, letting it float on its own.
The head drifted toward the lake's surface, gently hovering there.
"Are they all dead?"
"Yes."
"What about the victor?"
"His name is Alex. He's a decent young man."
"Alex…"
Rosgell let out a long sigh.
"They were all decent young men once. But people change. Greed, ambition—those things twist the heart."
"But I suppose what they did wasn't entirely meaningless."
"My head… it's undergone a strange change."
"Because of that, I can now revise the rules I set when I was alive."
"Ron. What kind of rules should I write, to ensure Minpo remains peaceful and prosperous—so that people can live good lives?"
The emergence of Chris and the others had already proven Rosgell's original system had failed.
Ron shook his head.
"I don't think perfect rules exist in this world."
"As long as people exist, so will problems."
"Times change."
"Since you now have the authority to revise them, maybe it's better to simply observe Minpo and adjust the rules whenever necessary."
Rosgell was silent for a long moment, then shook his head.
"That won't work."
"Why not?"
"Because I'm not trustworthy enough."
He pointed at himself.
"I'm not really me anymore. Just a leftover fragment of consciousness. Given enough time, even I might mutate into something dangerous."
"And if that happens, I could become Minpo's greatest threat."
"That's not something I ever want to see."
"Even if I were the original me, holding this kind of power for too long… I couldn't guarantee I'd stay the same."
"I'm not reliable."
"That's why, after this revision… I need to limit my own authority."