Chapter 184: The Spiders' Shock x The One-Month Deadline Arrives
It was over.
Just like that?
The unexpected outcome left Chrollo, Shalnark, and Pakunoda stunned.
The garbage mountain, piled dozens of meters high, was definitely not a nice place, but the three of them took turns sharing a telescope, none of them initiating the topic of leaving.
"That Bolton and... Elder Ilya, just died like that?"
Shalnark swallowed hard. After a moment, he recovered and looked at the boy beside him. "Chrollo, 4th Street is going to change hands!"
Chrollo remained silent. He had intended to drive the tiger to swallow the wolf, helping Elder Belus expand his territory. But... he absolutely never expected that missionary, that priest... was neither a "tiger" nor a "wolf," but a giant dragon described in The Cleanup Brigade... one whose curled tail could surround a city!
"One thing is certain: with him there, even if Elder Belus wants to extend his reach, he can't do anything without his consent."
Pakunoda said deeply, "At least... in terms of martial force, the opponent is far more powerful than we imagined!"
"That wasn't power a human could possess." Chrollo stared through the telescope in silence, watching the young priest cast a casual glance their way. He immediately took off the telescope, his emotions fluctuating like a roller coaster.
He said, "That blade, that explosion, including Elder Ilya's suspected ability to 'guide direction'... those aren't movements a normal human can make..."
"It's 'Nen'!" Pakunoda said solemnly. "It's something called 'Nen'."
"Like the 'magic' in The Cleanup Brigade?" Shalnark's eyes lit up, staring at Pakunoda.
The girl noticed Chrollo looking over too. She shook her head. "I'm not sure about that."
Pakunoda crossed her arms, inadvertently pushing up her bust, highlighting her developing figure. She recalled carefully, "I heard it from Sister Renko at the church... That day, I saw her sewing up Little Mary's body. She used neither needle nor thread, yet she stitched Little Mary up perfectly. I asked her out of curiosity, and... that's what she told me."
"Sister Renko... Didn't you ask if we could learn it? Superpowers..."
"Shalnark!" Chrollo glanced at him, stopping Shalnark's chatter. He turned his head, looking deeply at Pakunoda. "Paku, don't speak of these things to outsiders in the future."
In Meteor City, the more you know and the deeper you get involved, the closer you are to death...
"Mm." Pakunoda nodded solemnly.
Seeing this, the boy said, "Let's go."
Shalnark stood up. "Where to?"
Chrollo narrowed his eyes at the gray-white church with a broken wall. "There!"
Shalnark and Pakunoda were both stunned. "He's even fiercer than Bolton!"
"Yes. So, if he wants to kill us, do you think we can escape, or can Elder Belus protect us?" Chrollo said calmly. "He's already discovered us. If we don't go explain ourselves and let him misunderstand..."
The boy didn't say more about the consequences, but both Shalnark and Pakunoda fell silent.
Survival of the fittest, the law of the jungle. The weak never have autonomy. Since they were caught "peeping," the young Spiders—whether Chrollo's trio or the reckless Uvogin, Nobunaga, and Machi trio—dared not gamble on the "magnanimity of the strong." To use Elder Belus's words... for those strong ones, the less they care, the more disdainful they are, the luckier we ants are. Conversely... when they do care, it's a nightmare for us ants.
So...
Chrollo took a deep breath. "He can pretend not to see, but we can't pretend not to explain."
He led the way down the garbage mountain.
"Paku, are you coming?"
Me? Pakunoda answered Shalnark with action, moving her feet to follow Chrollo.
Shalnark: "..."
Gritting his teeth, he followed.
Tap... tap...
Footsteps sounded...
Accompanied by a final BOOM!
Kastro pierced the last black-suited man's heart with a flaming hand-blade...
The white-haired boy, wreathed in thick bloodlust, stood before the open church doors like an Asura, admiring his "battle record"... the ground littered with severed limbs and blood. Then his ears twitched, and he looked down...
As they got closer, the three little ones led by Chrollo stopped in their tracks, holding their breath in unison!
"Seeing" also depends on angle, distance, and senses... Watching from afar with a telescope was far less impactful than "smelling" and "seeing" up close.
The pungent smell of blood drilled straight into their nostrils. Pools of blood gathered underfoot, floating with various human tissues, sketching a picture of hell. Paired with the nearby spire church symbolizing "sanctity," Shalnark suddenly regretted following Chrollo. His legs were trembling uncontrollably, and he... was usually not a cowardly person. He would even fight Uvogin for a broken game console, although he got beaten black and blue every time.
"What do you want?" Three concise words came from Kastro's mouth.
Pakunoda involuntarily grabbed Chrollo's arm. Chrollo, usually calm and composed, was momentarily rendered speechless by Kastro's killing intent and bloodlust.
Just then, a gentle voice drifted from inside the hall: "Douro, let them in."
Kastro wiped the blood from his face, bowed respectfully, and said "Yes." Then he glanced at the three and turned into the church.
"Chrollo..." Pakunoda and Shalnark looked at him worriedly.
The boy looked at the pool of blood beginning to congeal into jelly. After a moment of silence, he whispered, "Let's go."
He lifted his foot and followed...
Standing in the empty prayer hall, smelling the hot air not yet dissipated from the high temperature, his pupils rippled, reflecting the boy not far away. Roy had his back to them, holding a scripture, dressed as a priest, admiring the church murals. Mimicking the old priest at their church, Chrollo led Shalnark and Pakunoda to touch their foreheads and chests, clasp their hands, and greet Roy. "Chrollo / Shalnark / Pakunoda, greetings, Father. May the Lord's light protect your health and banish your troubles..."
"Heh heh heh..."
A light laugh swept away the remaining heat...
Roy turned around. Beside him stood the expressionless Kastro. Roy smiled, "I am not Daniel Lauren, and my faith is not in the True Lord. Please do not mistake me in the future."
Daniel Lauren... he knows the old priest?!
Chrollo and the others were stunned. Looking closely at Roy's attire, the sun pendant on his chest reflected an arc of light; it clearly wasn't a cross... They were momentarily at a loss.
Preaching another sect in front of a pastor was tantamount to cheating with a mistress in front of one's wife on the wedding night... It was blasphemy against "God," disrespect to "Faith."
"Young Master, should we kill them too?" Kastro's killing intent hadn't faded. In a trance... Roy seemed to see a shadow of Gotoh.
"The ignorant are innocent," Roy patted the boy's shoulder gently, looking at Chrollo and the others with a warm smile. "Don't be nervous. I know you mean no harm, so you don't need to explain to me. Three days later, if you are hungry, you can come here to receive a meal."
"Free?" Shalnark asked cautiously.
Roy: "Free."
"Then can we leave?"
"As you wish."
Pakunoda tugged at Chrollo secretly. Beside him, Shalnark was also winking furiously.
Chrollo remained silent. He bowed his head. "Sorry for offending you. Please apologize to your God on my behalf."
"It has been watching you. If you have sinned, It will know."
"May I ask, who is It?"
Chrollo, Shalnark, and Pakunoda followed Roy's finger pointing upwards. They looked up... A dazzling sun poured down sunlight freely, nourishing the earth. While they were entranced, they heard Roy say: "My Lord is the Sun."
Chrollo, Shalnark, and Pakunoda were all stunned. When they came back to their senses, they found themselves gently sent out the door by a breeze raised by the young priest's palm.
Goodbye...
The church door creeaked shut, leaving the three staring blankly at the closed door. After a long while, they looked at each other, speechless.
"Go?" Shalnark asked.
"Go?" Pakunoda tugged at Chrollo's sleeve.
The boy, still sporting a bowl cut and not yet the slicked-back adult look, suddenly spoke through the door: "Father, you killed Elder Seven. The Elder Council will definitely know. Be careful of trouble."
A faint voice drifted from inside: "Praise the Sun."
It seemed to say everything, yet nothing at all. Like a gust of wind, destined to sweep away all noise...
And also separating the two boys inside and outside the door into two worlds.
"Chrollo..."
Shalnark and Pakunoda looked at him.
After standing quietly at the door for a moment, the boy finally said, "Let's go."
As expected...
Just as they left 4th Street and entered 3rd Street, the three were "invited" back to the mansion of the Tenth Elder of Meteor City... "The False Upright"—Belus Raymond.
At the same time, the commotion caused by the gray-white church, not suppressed by Roy, eventually spread...
In this land abandoned by the world, every sector and every street was buzzing with rumors...
West Sector, 1st Street, True Lord Church.
Miss Renko, veiled to hide her delicate face, told the old priest Daniel Lauren the news as soon as she received it.
Meteor City had human traffickers, and now suddenly a missionary with a seemingly different faith. Renko was curious about Daniel Lauren's attitude.
However, "I'm old. I have no attitude."
Daniel Lauren sat on a small folding stool, leaning against a stone pillar in the courtyard, enjoying the sun. Without lifting his eyelids, he said, "Good or bad, believe or not believe, that is others' freedom... Renko, when I die, if you want to find someone else to rely on, that boy might be a good home."
"He won't look at me."
"I'm not his match."
Renko leaned her graceful body against the doorframe, twirling a strand of hair falling by her ear. "He killed Bolton and Ilya. Those two have complicated backgrounds. Meteor City... won't be peaceful anytime soon."
"Heh heh heh..." The old priest opened his eyes indifferently. Through the drifting clouds, he caught a glimpse of the sun. After a moment, he said to the woman, "Renko, do you know what old people crave?"
"What?"
The old man opened his withered right hand, letting the sunlight shine through the clouds onto his palm. He said warmly, "Most of all, that little bit of sunlight. You... go busy yourself with your own affairs. Don't disturb this old man's sunbathing..."
Renko: "..."
Fine... when you die, I'll expose your corpse in the wilderness so you can sunbathe enough...
Stamping her small foot, the woman twisted her waist and walked away gracefully...
Perhaps she thought the old man was disgusted, but he truly loved sunbathing. Just like some people, born disliking the sun, yet desperately yearning to walk under it, willing to spend a thousand years searching for the Blue Spider Lily, trying to cure their "strange illness," hoping to become a true "Perfect Creature"!
"Muzan Kibutsuji has gone into hiding. The Upper Moons have also restrained themselves recently..."
Padokea Republic, Kukuroo Mountain, Zoldyck Estate.
4:30 AM.
Roy (Main Body) left the Demon Slayer world, passed through the multicolored dream tunnel, and returned to reality... After receiving this news via crow from Kagaya Ubuyashiki, he realized he had underestimated the opponent's understanding of the "Way of Cowardice."
Undoubtedly, he was using the same method he used against Yoriichi Tsugikuni against Roy... trying to use a demon's long life to outlast him, waiting until he died of old age before showing his face.
But... is a certain demon sure he can resist the temptation of becoming a "Perfect Creature" and walking under the sun?
Roy clearly remembered that the last ingredient Muzan needed, the existence he had sought for nearly a thousand years... the Blue Spider Lily, bloomed not far from his home. Specifically... deep in the mountains behind the Kamado family's ancestral wooden hut...
Before the grave where Yoriichi buried his wife—"Uta"—and their unborn child.
If he was dead set on not coming out, Roy decided then and there to catch a demon and make it open its eyes wide to watch... burning the flower field, dreams shattering. What kind of despair would that be!
A cold sneer curled his lips...
Thinking of home, the wooden hut, Tanjuro, Tanjiro, his mother Kie, his younger siblings, and Grandma... away from home for nearly two years... it was time for him to go back and visit...
But before that, he had to get his hands on the "De-Conjuration" method!
The one-month deadline agreed with Ging was fast approaching... Speak of the devil. Roy rolled out of bed, just finished his run and a quick shower, and sat at the table waiting for breakfast.
He heard Gotoh pushing the cart in, reporting good news—
"Young Master, the other party sent a message. Meet at noon the day after tomorrow in Vebis, on the west coast of the Yorbian Continent."
The young butler pushed up his glasses and said gravely, "According to them, they found a suspected 'Elephant Tapir' in an underwater ruin in the West Sea, about three hundred nautical miles from Vebis!"
The Elephant Tapir from the "Dark Continent," walking the line between "illusion" and "reality," often lost in "realistic illusion" and "illusory reality," and currently the only known existence possessing "De-Conjuration" means. After nearly a month of waiting, Roy finally caught a trace of it!
The boy spooned some steamed egg into his mouth and said lightly, "There's more, isn't there?"
"Yes. Young Master is wise." Gotoh narrowed his eyes. "She told the Young Master to prepare early. Departure... for the prison break!"
As expected!
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