"This is a bit complicated," Liam said.
He watched the newly forged entity. It held its hands up, flexing the fingers slowly, its eyes darting as it absorbed and categorized the sudden influx of sensory data. "Netero-Meruem? Meruro? I could go with Eminem."
The entity raised its head.
The left side of its mouth curved upward, softening the deep creases around the eye into a genuine, weathered warmth. In its opposite palm, raw energy condensed into a glowing sphere.
The blinding light unspooled into winding threads of green data, stripping away its physical form into pure electromagnetic waves. Starting at the fingertips, the digitization crawled up the wrists, swallowed the forearms, and climbed the shoulders.
As the pixelated boundary reached the collarbone, Liam raised his index finger.
Dense natural energy surged upward from the dirt, catching the edge of the dissolving neck and instantly weaving fresh muscle, bone, and skin back down to the toes. The digitization halted. The entity stared down at a completely reconstructed physical vessel.
"In a hurry?" Liam asked, dropping his hand. "Rare opportunity, and you are going to spend it on two moves?"
The entity fell silent. When it finally spoke, the dry, raspy cadence of an ancient martial artist layered perfectly over the resonant, absolute authority of an apex predator.
"Tathagata," it declared. "That will be the name."
A flash bleached the clearing, and the physical form shattered into pure, soaring light.
Liam shifted his stance.
Within a half-kilometer radius, brilliant rose-gold pentagrams erupted from the empty air. They layered over the ruined masonry, hovered in the dust clouds, and blanketed the sky, locking together into an impenetrable, multi-dimensional grid. The barrier sealed the airspace completely.
A streak of electromagnetic light slammed into the interior curve of the pentagram net and abruptly stopped.
A translucent silhouette materialized at the point of impact. It slowly turned its head.
You set that up very fast. Very few constraints. Very decisive effect. That is not a standard Manipulation application.
"Interesting that you noticed," Liam replied.
He flattened his right palm. The heavy natural energy swirling around the ruins surged behind his shoulders, stacking into the towering, thousand-armed golden construct. He thrust his hand forward.
"Tathagata Palm."
The massive golden hand struck the interior of the grid. The shockwave rattled the boundary, ringing out a sharp, clean vibration before settling into stillness.
"I named it first. You brat." The dual voice bled directly from the translucent outline. The pitch leaned sharper, carrying a distinct, abrasive annoyance. The silhouette pressed its palms together. The ambient energy violently reorganized behind it, manifesting a towering construct born from a century of relentless Enhancement, nine percent natural system integration, and a unified consciousness understanding both human limits and biological supremacy.
Three thousand burning eyes opened. Three thousand golden arms fanned outward. The palms pressed together, the eyes lowering.
Tathagata Palm descended from the sky.
The sheer force of the strike buried Liam deep into the fractured earth, ripping open massive fissures across the bedrock.
"Nothing," Shizuku murmured.
She stood beside Bisky in the center of the pulverized crater where the massive Meteor City nest had once loomed. The entire eastern sector was reduced to gray powder and deep, sweeping geometric gouges carved by the overwhelming collision of raw Nen. The chimera ants were gone. The King was gone. Isaac Netero was gone. Liam had vanished.
Bisky closed her eyes, pulling up the internal interface.
Total Nen: 150,000. Death energy reserve: 0. Transmutation: Extreme, fifth tier. Conjuration: Excellent, third tier. Specialization: Extreme, fifth tier. Manipulation: Good, first tier. Emission: Excellent, second tier. Enhancement: Gifted, fourth tier. Natural system: Excellent, third tier, 42 percent.
The data hovered clearly in her mind, pulsing with steady logic. She let out a slow breath. If the interface remained intact and readable, the architect who built it was still alive. She did not bother analyzing the mechanics of her certainty.
Shizuku stared straight up into the settling dust.
Multiple beams of varying wavelengths pierced the gray clouds, converging on a single coordinate hovering above the rubble. The scattered patterns braided together, deliberately assembling into a distinct humanoid silhouette.
The rose-gold Star Mark burning on Shizuku's wrist flared.
A tiny, compressed spark of light detached from her skin, shooting upward. It struck the center of the glowing silhouette. The brilliant light instantly condensed, resolving into physical flesh and cloth. Liam opened his eyes, staring down at his own hand.
His fingers rippled, seamlessly cycling from solid bone, to crackling electromagnetism, to pure light, and back to solid bone. He watched the transitions without a flinch.
"Are you still human?" Bisky asked, planting her hands on her hips.
Liam looked down, a wide grin spreading across his face. "You and Netero already solved that question. I thought we established it was a philosophical category rather than a biological one."
"That was before. Now is now." Bisky raked her eyes over him, measuring his shifting aura against the ruined landscape. "Where is Netero?"
"Fighting Meruem. Just the two of them. They seemed to want the space."
Liam dropped to the ground, his boots touching the dust without making a sound. He looked Bisky up and down. She no longer wore the delicate, frilly disguise of a young girl, nor the terrifying, over-muscled proportions of her King Kong output. She stood tall and deeply athletic. Dense, functional muscle lined her arms and waist, her long legs anchored firmly to the broken earth. Her blonde hair fell loosely around her shoulders. She occupied the physical space entirely on her own terms.
"You have changed too," he noted.
"I always looked exactly like this," Bisky replied, lifting her chin. "I just stopped choosing not to."
Liam reached out, wrapping his fingers around Shizuku's hand.
"We still need three," she stated, looking at his knuckles.
"Three members?"
"Three Heavenly Stems. The Ten is not ten."
"I know." He tilted his head back, speaking directly into the empty air. "Tathagata. Find someone for me."
A beat of silence hung over the crater.
Specks of ambient light swarmed together inches from Liam's face, projecting a flat, glowing screen. Tathagata's combined features filled the projection, his brow furrowed in deep, visible irritation.
"I am not your artificial intelligence assistant," the entity stated. The voice carried a strange mix of ancient wisdom and absolute, unyielding authority. "This menial task is entirely beneath what I am."
"Great power, great responsibility," Liam countered. "Netero would have given me the exact same speech if I asked him to run an errand, and he would have been wrong too. Can you reach him or not?"
A dark, feline shadow slammed into the digital screen from the background. Neferpitou's digitized form, now reduced to a third of her original size, pressed her animated face against the visual feed, her tail lashing back and forth. A cloud of digital butterflies fluttered into the frame behind her, coalescing into Shaiapouf's elegant, panicked form. Menthuthuyoupi squeezed into the edge of the projection, his terrifying bulk compressed into a small, rounded configuration. The three Royal Guards scrambled over each other, cluttering Tathagata's visual space.
Further back in the digital environment, a tall, serene figure drifted past. Lataiagai, the uploaded queen, possessed the regal, upright posture she had always deserved. She knelt in the simulated background, quietly speaking to thirty-two miniature, heavily armed ant soldiers marching across her palm.
"Fine," Tathagata grumbled, his voice cutting through the digital chaos. "I will relay your message."
The glowing screen shattered into loose light and faded.
The water of Lake Mobius lapped gently against the grassy shore of Whale Island. The afternoon sun baked the mud. Killua sat on a large rock, holding a simple fishing rod perfectly still over the calm surface, his eyes tracking the slight bobbing of the float.
A few yards away in the tall grass, Gon and Alluka remained locked in an agonizingly long game of statues. Both children held their awkward, mid-stride poses, completely motionless. Two gray squirrels had scampered up Gon's rigid leg, currently resting on his knee.
The fishing line snapped taut.
Killua yanked the rod backward. The creature breaching the surface barely resembled a fish, possessing the jagged, oversized plating of a deep-water scavenger. The wet scales flashed in the sunlight. Killua flicked his wrist, altering the trajectory and sending the heavy, thrashing mass flying in a high arc directly over his shoulder toward the grass.
The creature's shadow fell directly across Gon's face. Gon kept his eyes locked straight ahead, refusing to twitch a single muscle and forfeit the game.
Blue lightning cracked the air. Killua vanished from the rock and reappeared inches from Gon. He caught the massive fish bare-handed, channeling high-voltage electricity directly into the wet scales. The creature seized, cooked through in a fraction of a second, and went limp, releasing a rich, savory scent into the humid air.
Killua waved his free hand directly in front of Gon's face.
Gon's dark eyes darted sideways, tracking the movement.
"If you help me clean and deal with this fish," Killua offered, holding up the smoking catch, "I will teach you Nen. How about it?"
The rigid concentration holding Gon's body together instantly shattered. The squirrels scattered into the brush. He spun toward Killua, his eyes widening. "Really?"
"I won!" Alluka shouted, dropping her rigid pose. She skipped over to inspect the roasted scavenger.
Deep within the dense tree line bordering the shore, Liam sat comfortably on a thick oak branch, having watched the entire exchange unfold.
"Netero was not exaggerating when he talked about you," a low voice drifted up from the base of the trunk. "If anything, he was being overly conservative."
Liam peered over the edge of the branch.
Ging Freecss stood in the dirt, his hands shoved deep into his pockets. He stared up through the leaves, his brow furrowed in careful calculation.
"Is that so," Liam said.
"Your organization," Ging continued, kicking a pebble with his boot. "The Heavenly Stems codename system. I heard there are a few vacancies." He tilted his head. "Which three? I am absolutely not taking the Boar if there is a better option available."
"Wu, Ji, and Geng," Liam listed.
Ging tapped his thumb against his thigh, turning the options over in his head.
"Geng. Codename: Hunter."
"Hunter Geng." Liam rolled the title around, testing the weight. He dropped from the branch, landing in the dirt directly beside the older Hunter. "That is honest, at least."
Ging shifted his gaze toward the sunlit clearing. "What about the remaining two?"
Liam looked out toward the grass. Gon, Killua, and Alluka were currently arguing over the best method to carve up the smoking fish.
Ging followed his line of sight. He pressed his lips together into a thin, tight line. He stared at the spiky black hair of the boy by the lake, his jaw working silently.
"Gon," Liam stated. "And Killua."
"Gon is nowhere near ready for the Dark Continent," Ging shot back quickly.
"Then teach him until he is." Liam took a step toward the clearing. "You are his father. That is your problem now."
"Teaching is not my—"
"A competition, then." Liam glanced over his shoulder. "I will teach Killua. You teach Gon. Whoever graduates their student first wins."
Ging stared at the dirt for three long seconds.
"Switch," Ging finally muttered. "You take Gon. I will teach the kid with the electricity."
Liam stopped. He pivoted slowly, staring flatly at Ging. "He is fourteen years old and he already knows your face. You are avoiding him because you are embarrassed."
"You do not have children, so your opinion does not count."
"Fair." Liam turned back toward the bright lake. "Fine. I will teach Gon. You handle Killua. Winner buys the ticket for the boat to the Dark Continent."
Ging fell into step beside him, his boots swishing through the tall grass. "What is the graduate test?"
"Gon challenges you. Killua challenges me. We see what happens."
Ging narrowed his eyes, tracking Liam's profile. "You just want to sit back and watch Gon beat me up."
"I want to see exactly what you have built," Liam corrected. "There is a difference."
They approached the edge of the clearing. The fish had been successfully butchered. Alluka sat happily munching on a roasted strip. Gon had turned his back to the food, staring out over the vast expanse of Lake Mobius. Killua watched Gon closely, chewing his lip, visibly struggling to find the right words for a difficult conversation.
"The others are already on their way," Liam mentioned quietly. "Kurapika, Menchi, Bisky, Aria, Camilla. Everyone. Once they arrive, we will figure out the exact route."
"Direct crossing of Lake Mobius?"
"That is one option. Utilizing Camilla's royal authority to organize a heavily funded, legal expedition is another. Neither path presents a significant challenge. We can decide when the entire group is together."
Ging stared at the rippling water. The sunlight glinted sharply off the gentle waves. Gon stood at the absolute edge of the muddy shore, staring toward the horizon line, searching for the hidden shores completely obscured by the distance.
"Which option is harder?" Ging asked.
"Neither."
"I will cast my vote for whichever method is harder."
"I know you will." Liam stepped out from the shade of the trees into the bright sun. "That is exactly why we are putting it to a group vote."
He raised his right hand, waving it in the air.
"Gon," Liam called out, his voice carrying clearly over the gentle lapping of the water. "I heard you want to take the Hunter Exam."
Gon spun around. His wide, dark eyes locked onto Liam, blazing with absolute, unbridled excitement.
"Yeah," Gon answered.
"Let us talk about it," Liam said. He walked forward, sliding his hands casually into his pockets. The morning dew still soaked the tips of the grass. Far away in a digital construct, three miniature Royal Guards were undoubtedly driving an ancient, digitized monk to the brink of insanity. Deep within the Kakin Empire, Halkenburg was quietly plotting his next move. The vast, terrifying expanse of the Dark Continent waited across the water. The final, microscopic fraction separating his existence from total assimilation into the natural energy field remained firmly closed, because he had actively decided to leave it there. The world beneath his boots was entirely worth occupying, and the story remained worth continuing.
Ging shoved his hands deep into his pockets and followed Liam into the clearing.