Chapter 36: Do Me a Favor
Babimaina's En was a tangible, invisible dome. It wasn't overwhelmingly large, but it was dense, easily encompassing the space of a large apartment complex. Kai and the others were walking well within its perimeter.
He could feel the constant, prickling static of it against his own Aura, a persistent, brushing sensation, like walking through an invisible spider's web that he couldn't wipe away.
So, this is what it feels like to be 'seen' by someone else's En, Kai mused, unimpressed. It's just pressure. Nothing special.
He and the two girls followed the Kakin soldier, who moved with a precise, military gait. He led them through the moon-slicked clearing, past the scattering tigers, and toward a cluster of massive, jagged boulders that jutted from the earth like broken teeth.
The Blanchett Company guards, who were following further behind, grew visibly nervous. They hesitated, their hands going to their earpieces as they whispered reports to their superiors.
Babimaina stopped in front of one of the largest boulders. It was a multi-ton giant, easily the size of a small truck. He placed a single, steady hand on its surface. Then, with a surge of Aura that didn't even make him grunt, he pushed.
The massive stone scraped and groaned against the earth, pivoting with impossible ease. It tilted just enough to reveal a dark, hidden surface that had been pressed flat against the ground, concealed from view.
"That's it," Shizuku said, her glasses slipping down her nose.
The newly revealed face of the stone was covered in thick, gnarled weeds. Menchi knelt and tore them away, revealing what lay beneath. Her eyes went wide.
"THIS is what you were talking about?" she whispered. "The 'God Script'?"
Etched deep into the stone was a dense, complex array of symbols. They were sharp, angular, and looked less like writing and more like the cryptic sigils of some forgotten, primal religion. The sight of them made the air feel heavy.
Shizuku, ever-curious, reached a finger out to trace one of the deep lines.
"Don't touch it!" Kai snapped, grabbing her wrist. "We have no idea what it's supposed to do. For all we know, it's a trap."
He let her go and turned his attention to Babimaina. "Is this the only one you found?"
"For the moment, it's the only one I've—" Babimaina stopped mid-sentence. His head whipped to the side, his eyes narrowing to slits. "Who's there?"
A sudden, unnatural wind howled through the clearing, carrying a mournful, wailing sound. Wuuuuu... wuuuuu...
The Kakin soldiers instantly drew their pistols, aiming them at the empty darkness.
There was nothing there.
"Gyo! Now!" Kai ordered.
He, Menchi, and Shizuku all flooded their eyes with Aura. And there it was.
Just as before, the spectral, pale-white figure of the boy materialized from the thin air, hovering like a will-o'-the-wisp.
The Blanchett guards, meanwhile, saw absolutely nothing. They just watched in growing terror as this group of bizarre-looking "Hunters" all tensed and stared intently at an empty patch of grass.
Kai's team then channeled Gyo to their ears. The sound hit them instantly—a chilling, bone-deep whisper that seemed to come from everywhere at once:
"...Hui Guo Rou... must die... Hui Guo Rou... must die..."
As if summoned by the curse, the jade-green lights of the Pale Moon Tigers reappeared, this time in greater numbers. Dozens of pairs of glowing, spectral eyes formed a silent, watchful perimeter around them in the dark.
The chant grew louder, more insistent. The atmosphere became thick with a palpable, ancient malice.
Babimaina, observing the trio's focused expressions, caught on. He, too, focused Aura into his own ears. His perpetually calm, soldierly expression finally broke, his eyes widening in shock.
Menchi had goosebumps, her hand gripping the hilt of her knife. Shizuku, however, just tilted her head, her curiosity overwhelming any fear.
Babimaina gave a sharp, imperceptible nod to his men. They moved. In a blur of motion, they stepped behind the Blanchett guards and, with two precise, silent chops to the neck, knocked them unconscious, laying them gently on the grass.
"Your Highness... Nasti?" Babimaina called out, his voice tense and respectful, addressing the ghost.
"...Hui Guo Rou... must die..." The ghost's voice was hollow. Its eyes were blank white holes, devoid of any recognition.
Babimaina frowned. "Little Prince?" he tried again.
What is with these Kakin guys? Menchi thought, utterly bewildered. Do they just call every ghost they see 'Prince'? How high is their infant mortality rate, exactly?
"...Hui Guo Rou... must die..."
The ghost's voice grew even more hollow, and the air around them seemed to drop in temperature. The moonlight felt sharper, colder, raising goosebumps on everyone's arms.
"Hey, hey... isn't that...!"
Just then, Dako and his team crashed through the trees, drawn by the sound of the tiger pack. They froze, seeing the spectral child in a tense standoff with Babimaina, all surrounded by the glowing tiger army. "What is going on? Why are there so many tigers?"
They cautiously approached, then stopped again when they saw the unconscious Blanchett guards on the ground. They looked at Kai and the Kakin soldiers, their faces a mask of confusion.
"Well," Kai said, not bothering to look at them. He gestured to the ghost. "If you ignore this little guy, that's the discovery." He pointed to the massive, rune-covered stone. "A huge slab of God Script. We're about to pour our Aura into it. No idea what it'll do. Could be good, could be bad."
Dako and his men hesitated. "What do... what do you think?"
Kai looked at his own team. "Well, ladies? What's the verdict?"
Shizuku just said, "I'll follow your lead, Boss."
Menchi just shrugged. "Stop posturing. You've already decided, haven't you?"
Kai grinned. "Getting paid to do a job. That's what being a pro is all in."
"Your Majesty, King Zhenwu?" Babimaina tried one last time, using an ancient, royal title.
"Dude, just stop. It's on a loop. 'All Hui Guo Rou must die.' You're not a Hui Guo Rou, are you? So what are you worried about?" Kai said, exasperated. "Look, he's not doing anything to you. Pay attention to the main event. We're going to touch the script. If something bad happens—"
Kai, Menchi, Shizuku, and—after a second of fearful hesitation—Dako and his four men all reached out, pressing their palms against the dense, cryptic symbols.
The moment their Aura made contact, the script flashed.
A blinding white light erupted from the stone. Their bodies dissolved into particles of light and were violently pulled into the rock.
"—happens..." Kai's voice echoed and then was cut short.
The clearing was suddenly empty of all the Hunters.
"What just...?!"
The Kakin soldiers stared in shock. But before they could even process the disappearance, their faces went white. An immense wave of cold, terrifying, and overwhelmingly powerful Aura exploded from right in front of them.
It was the ghost.
It was changing. The pale-white boy's figure stretched and tore apart, expanding like a wildfire. Its bones cracked, reformed, and grew at an unnatural, horrifying rate. In seconds, the small child was gone, replaced by a monstrous, towering, four-winged, two-legged skeletal dragon.
"Is this level of Aura... even real?!"
Babimaina instantly activated his Ken, his own Aura flaring to its maximum as he took a defensive stance, skidding back two steps from the sheer pressure. "This Nen... it's pure malice..."
The bone dragon lowered its massive, empty-eyed skull, which was now filled with two roaring, green-flamed ghost-lights. It loomed over Babimaina, and its voice was no longer a child's whisper, but a soul-shattering, overlapping roar that seemed to come from a thousand-throated choir.
"...HUI GUO ROU... MUST... DIE...!!"
Under the empty moon, the dragon's wail was a sound of pure, undiluted hatred, a sound that no normal human could even hear.
In the distance, hidden in the dark woods, one pair of glowing tiger eyes was wider than the others.
"Holy shit," thought Kai, who was possessing Butch's body and seeing it all.
[Ability Analysis: 'Perpetual Vengeance']
[Nen Type: Specialization (Cooperative)]
[A soul that died in pure hatred, miraculously merging with its own guardian Nen beast. It has left behind an undying grudge, forever bound to the ancient land of its ancestors... Using the Pale Moon Tigers as vessels for reincarnation, its hatred will never fade... It has no true consciousness or intelligence. It only manifests its true, murderous intent when it senses the bloodline of the Hui Guo Rou royal family...]
"Kai... Kai, are you okay?"
Light. A dim, flickering light. Kai felt himself... falling. He landed hard on a cold, stone floor.
He was in a dark, narrow tunnel. Menchi was shaking him. "Did you hit your head? Are you knocked out?"
"I... I'm not hurt," Kai mumbled, his mind still reeling from the image of the colossal bone dragon. "But... my mind... is completely and totally blown."
He felt a hand grab his, and Shizuku pulled him to his feet. He brushed the ancient dust off his clothes and looked around.
"What the hell is this place?"
Suddenly, several bright flashlight beams blinded him. Kai instinctively snapped his hand up, a new Divine Flick already forming on his fingertip.
"Whoa, don't! Don't shoot! It's us!"
Dako and his team were standing there, their flashlights aimed right at him.
"What are you doing, waving those things around?!" Kai snarled, annoyed. "If my finger had slipped, you'd be a smear on the wall right now!"
Dako looked embarrassed, but he was too proud to apologize.
Kai just scoffed and dispersed the Aura, wasting another 100 points.
He looked around, then activated his Gyo. His eyes widened. The walls... they were covered in writing.
"You guys see this?" Menchi asked, who had also activated her GGyo.
"There are words on the wall," Shizuku pointed.
"Nen-words," Kai clarified. "Messages left behind in pure Aura, visible only with Gyo. What a pointless, 'showing-off' move. Only a Nen user could have activated that teleporter script, so who else would be here? Why make it invisible..."
He turned to Dako. "Any idea where we are?"
Dako and his men were now also using Gyo, staring at the glowing words. "Based on the architecture," Dako said, "I'd say... this is a tomb."
"That figures," Kai muttered.
Menchi, meanwhile, was slowly sounding out the largest line of text on the wall.
"'Give me a break, don't disturb this place. --Ging Freecss.'"
(End of Chapter)