Hunter x Hunter: Tonight, Germain joins the hunt

Chapter 499: Everyone is waiting for the moment when the balance is broken

The sunlight of Qingming Festival passed through the cracks between the stone pillars of the ancient maze, like golden pointers, pointing to the towering ancient tower above the sea of ​​blood and reeds.

On the top floor of the tower, not far from the huge bronze bell, a man in a black robe was sitting cross-legged.

He pinched his fingers, and a light feather pen and an ancient book with a thick cover appeared in his hands.

The man in black robe flipped the light yellow paper, slowly turning to the latest page, and started writing a new paragraph below the ending of the last paragraph.

"February 2001, 2. I can't believe that I have been writing this book for more than 23 years. I think it will soon come to an end."

"I always adhere to the calendar of the six continents. Occasionally, when I encounter explorers from the six continents, I will go and confirm something."

"The purpose of doing this is, of course, to remind myself not to forget my roots and not to forget that I am a human being."

"If I don't remind myself this, I'm worried that one day I'll lose myself and my direction... But maybe I can't keep doing this for long."

"Although last night passed peacefully, I noticed that the time I was tortured by the curse was getting longer and longer."

"I went from spending a third of my day in agony to nearly half of it now. This is not normal, even though it was not normal before."

"I had to lock myself up in a tower, not contacting outsiders, and not letting them come to see me."

"If I wasn't worried about the siege here, I would have left here long ago."

"Now, I am waiting for a man. As long as I wait for him, my mission here will be over..."

Knock knock knock——

Before Dong Fulishi finished writing down the sudden realization that came to him in the morning, he noticed that someone had entered the bottom floor of the tower and was climbing up the spiral stone staircase.

The steady footsteps on all fours, the slight sound of the spear that he always carried rubbing against the wall, and the undisguised aura, the person coming was undoubtedly Scela.

"Dong." Sure enough, before I climbed to the top floor, Scel'a's voice came, he used the language of the moose centaur, "Are you there?"

"I'm here." Dong replied in the same Moose Centaur language. He waved his hands, and the feather pen and the ancient book disappeared.

Scela's tall centaur body entered the top floor of the tower.

He was worried about hitting his head, so he kept his head down, but now he realized that this worry was completely unnecessary.

The ceilings here are high and the space is quite spacious.

Dong asked in a slightly reproachful tone, "What do you have that you can't express in a letter? Haven't I told you many times not to come up to the tower?"

He installed a basket pulled by a pulley and a bell on the side of the tower.

If Scela or anyone else wanted to contact him, they just had to drop the written letter into the basket and ring the bell.

Dong would pull the basket up, take the letter, and read its contents, or if the matter was less personal, they could just go up and down the tower and talk in loud voices.

They have been communicating in this way ever since Dong helped the Asians enter the safe spot of the ancient maze castle.

"I didn't mean to do this," said Scela awkwardly. "I just noticed two things... or maybe one thing. I can't make up my mind at the moment. I can't do it without meeting you in person."

Dong frowned under the hood, having a bad feeling: "What's going on? Tell me."

Scela said:
"Dong, more than a month ago, those filthy evil creatures from the west coast attacked many sub-human tribes, including our moose centaur tribe."

"The old chief died on the way... and he and his compatriots were transformed into flesh-and-blood monsters. We had no choice but to destroy them."

"The tribe was completely destroyed in the night attack by the flesh monsters. If you hadn't shown up in time, we would have been like headless flies."

"You quickly gathered us and many other sub-species and brought us into the ancient maze castle. With the help of this castle, we had a chance to catch our breath."

"However, more than a month has passed, and the flesh monsters have besieged us until now. The food we brought here is almost gone."

"The water we drink must be drawn and refined from the sea of ​​blood. Occasionally, we can get some rain water, but this is not a solution."

"More and more sub-ethnic groups are dissatisfied with the current situation. They think that staying here is a dead end."

"At the same time, they also don't understand why you and I have been unwilling to lead everyone to fight. They have begun to doubt us."

"They secretly formed a powerful force. They don't want to sit and wait for death. They want to rush out of here by their own strength."

"We can't let them do this." Dong heard this and immediately said, "Find a way to convince them to wait a few more days. It should be fine if we wait a few more days."

Scela shook his head. When he spoke the language of the moose centaurs, he always stuck out his tongue and made strange puffing sounds.

"I have been trying to do so, but the situation in the castle is becoming increasingly severe, supplies are becoming increasingly scarce, and conflicts are becoming more frequent."

"The cracks of suspicion are getting bigger and bigger. It's impossible for Chikhorshi (his younger brother) and I to convince the public alone. Once trust collapses, it can't be restored... Dong, you have to do something."

Dong understood Scel'a's situation and the intention behind his words. He thought about it and still insisted:
"I can't show up. Talking to you face to face like I am now is risky."

"No. I don't want to wait for so many days, only to have the strong fortress breached from the inside."

Dong's words have two meanings. One is of course the potential for chaos and conflict in the ancient maze castle, and the other is his "blood curse". He doesn't want to infect any of the sub-human races here with the "blood curse", which would be disastrous.

Scela also insisted: "Then at least do what we did to the 'Bloodthirsty Apostle' last month to cheer people up."

At the end of last month in the Six Continents calendar, the "Painful Bloodthirsty Apostle" was resurrected in the sea of ​​blood.

In order to establish his prestige, stabilize people's hearts, and obtain the precious "Herb for All Diseases" to cure the seriously ill sub-humans in the castle, Dong killed the "Apostle of Pain and Bloodthirsty".

He frowned again and said, "If the situation requires, I will take action."

Scela heaved a sigh of relief. As the leader of the Overwatch League of small sub-humans, he had done his best. The current situation was beyond his ability.

At this time, Dong moved away from Scela and slowly walked to the balcony.

He pointed at the edge of the sea of ​​blood, at the group of flesh and blood monsters that were fighting day and night, and at the "plant weapons, gold and silver ingots".

"Scera, do you know why I still don't lead you out of this encirclement when supplies are scarce?"

“You worry there will be a lot of sacrifices and you can’t protect everybody.”

Dong put down his hand, which was covered with cracked and red skin, and sighed. He said:

"This is just one of the reasons. There are actually two more. Scel, you just said that you noticed two things. What is the other one?"

Scela did not hesitate and immediately replied:

"That group of monsters was very afraid of the sea of ​​blood that could melt their limbs, so they tried to dismantle the stone pillars of the ancient maze to fill in a passage."

"We have been on high alert. Once we find that they are trying to fill the sea of ​​blood with stone pillars, we will try to repel them, destroy the stone pillars, and move large pieces of stone pillars to the bottom of our castle."

"But Chikhorshi reported to me that he found that a patrol team did not fulfill its responsibilities and allowed the flesh monsters on the other side to fill half of the stone pillar."

"We discovered and defeated the enemy in time, and captured all the patrol members. We wanted to interrogate them, but we were opposed by the forces I mentioned earlier."

"Although the situation has been temporarily suppressed, I still feel quite uneasy..."

Dong didn't notice this incident. Perhaps it happened when he was suffering from the "Curse of Flesh and Blood" and he had no time to pay attention to it.

Now that Scela had repeated everything exactly as it was said, Dong also noticed something unusual.

"You mean, this patrol team has already connected with the flesh-and-blood monsters on the other side of the river, and wants to cooperate with them?"

"I mean, they were bewitched." Scela emphasized, "They are all very brave warriors, but they seemed very strange to me last night."

"So I said, something has bewitched them and affected their minds."

Dong understood why Scela said that these two things might be one and the same.

Coincidentally, what he said coincided with the second reason why Dong remained on the sidelines.

"That's right." He explained, "Scera, there is indeed a bewitching monster on the other side. Your intuition is correct."

"who is it?"

"A so-called 'prophet'... but he is not the most troublesome one... It is because of them in the ancient maze that I have to endure until now."

After so long, it was the first time that Sisel heard Dong speak the truth, and he couldn't help but ask nervously:
"Is that 'prophet' stronger than the 'bloodthirsty apostle of pain'?"

"Yes." Dong replied, "His companions... those two monsters are both stronger than the "Painful Bloodthirsty Apostle"."

Scela's hair stood on end and his breathing quickened.

He paused for a while before asking, "You said there were three reasons. What's the last one?"

"I've already told you that," Dong replied. "I'm waiting for someone. He will definitely come."

I hope it's not too late.

Before Scela opened his mouth to ask, he heard a noise at the edge of the blood sea, and then he was hit by a strong, evil mental energy!

hum-

For a moment, he almost fell to the ground and vomited.

Dong's expression turned ugly:

"It seems that the two monsters are also waiting for someone, and the people they are waiting for have arrived first... four of them... They are about to launch a general attack."

What came into view were several stone pillars of an ancient maze. Suddenly, they all seemed to be free from gravity, broke off from the roots, and flew into the air.

bang bang bang-

They fell one after another into the sea of ​​blood and reeds, forming a road in an instant!
The tide of flesh and blood monsters broke through the defense line of "Plant Weapon Gold and Silver Ingots" effortlessly, stepped onto the bridge of stone pillars, roared strangely, and pounced on the ancient maze castle!
(End of this chapter)