Don's face was full of disbelief.
Indeed, anyone who knew the truth would find this hard to accept.
In over three hundred years of his life, he had gone through all sorts of adventures, gathered massive amounts of knowledge — yet he had never heard of the "Blood Moon" having any apostles.
Or perhaps, "Darkness," "Flesh," "Deep Sea," and "Curse of Resentment" could already be considered its apostles.
So when he suddenly heard Germain say this, it wasn't surprising that Don was shocked.
Even people like Ging, Bisky, and Shizuku — who had known Germain for a long time and had always suspected something about his Nen ability — were caught off guard by what he said.
Germain looked at Don, who had stood up. He could tell Don was still half-doubting, half-believing him. So he stood up as well.
He took a few steps forward, then slowly lowered himself to the ground.
Ging, Bisky, and Shizuku immediately realized what he was about to do.
But none of them tried to stop him.
Germain currently had seven spare "Teleport Lanterns." Leaving one here wouldn't be a big deal.
After all, this place was very close to the resurrection points of the "Black Snake of Defamation" and the "Red Snake of Jealousy," making it convenient for the next raid.
If they had to travel back and forth from the "Rainforest Swamp Special Teleport Lantern" every time, it would waste too much time and Nen.
At first, Don just watched Germain's strange movement, confused.
Then, he saw a faint purple light, and from it emerged a "lantern" and four little spirits.
He quickly felt a strange energy radiating from the lantern.
"This is..."
Don couldn't help but take two steps forward, but then suddenly remembered the "Curse of Flesh and Blood" on him. He froze in place, then stepped back a few paces.
"This is the Teleport Lantern, my Nen ability."
Germain explained the purpose of the Teleport Lantern clearly and briefly, then added a description of the dream he had.
Don listened in silence for a while, unable to speak, and eventually sat back down quietly in the shadows.
"This kind of ability leans more toward 'Darkness.' And Darkness... is closest to the 'Blood Moon'..."
"In the dream you had, the sequence was: Curse of Resentment, Darkness, Deep Sea, Flesh and Blood, and then the Blood Moon."
"Although there are many strange points and not enough solid evidence, your instincts and intuition are actually very important."
But even after hearing all of this, Don still couldn't figure out why the Blood Moon would call a human to the Dark Continent.
It wasn't that he couldn't think of any possible reasons — it was that there were too many, making it impossible to guess.
Could it really be that Germain is being chosen to become its apostle?
Am I witnessing the birth of a new demi-god?!
A chill ran down Don's spine.
Germain put the Teleport Lantern away and asked, "Earlier, you mentioned the fall of Curse of Resentment. That caught my attention. Can you tell me more about that?"
Don had been deep in thought and didn't respond until Germain called out to him a few times. He finally snapped back to reality.
Germain repeated the question once more.
"Honestly, I don't know much either," Don replied seriously.
"The knowledge I received came in fragments. I had to organize and piece them together to roughly understand what happened."
"I've said this before—most of the Dark Continent has already been divided up by the 'demigods'."
"Everything within the walls belongs to 'Darkness,' while Lake Möbius belongs to the 'Deep Sea.'"
"The land caught between those two—east and west—belongs to 'Flesh' and 'Curse of Resentment.'"
"That was around two thousand years ago, back in the ancient age when humans still lived in the Dark Continent."
"'Flesh' controlled the western shore of Lake Möbius, while 'Curse of Resentment' held the eastern shore."
"Later, a 'God War' broke out between them. The details are lost to time, but it must have been a battle of epic proportions…"
"In the end, 'Curse of Resentment' fell... and 'Flesh' was heavily wounded. Its territory shrank to the western interior, and it went into deep slumber."
The air grew heavier.
Ging and Bisky, both top Hunters, came here with their own goals, hoping to explore a new world.
But from what Don told them, this 'new world' already belonged to the demigods.
And judging by Don's current situation, stepping into a demigod's domain would be incredibly dangerous—and likely come with a curse.
If that's the case, then in the future, humanity will have to travel through the Deep Sea Demigod's territory just to move forward, and even then, they'd only be allowed on the eastern shore of Lake Möbius.
Sure, the eastern shore of Möbius Lake is bigger than the Six Continents and has richer resources.
But learning this truth—like crawling out of a small cage only to be trapped in a bigger one—was too heavy, too cold, and too cruel.
Germain and Shizuku, though, didn't seem too bothered.
Germain focused more on the present, hoping to dig more intel out of Don. Shizuku simply didn't care.
Who owns the world, what kind of disaster it faces, or even if the world's about to end—if it's not right in front of her, Shizuku won't think twice about it.
Germain recalled the "knowledge" he gained not long ago beside the corpses of the "Twins of Jealousy and Defamation"—
"These were powerful monsters… but they were failed creations..."
Germain spoke that line aloud and asked Don what he thought it meant.
Don thought for a moment, then replied, "Because they were failed creations."
"The 'God War' I mentioned earlier was actually started by the 'Curse of Resentment' side. And it had done a lot of preparation for it."
"One of those preparations was creating more people 'chosen by the gods' to fight in the war."
Don raised his hand and pointed at Ging.
"Ging is not one of the 'Chosen by the Gods.' That means this is the limit of how far he can grow."
"Maybe in a few years, maybe a decade later, he'll become stronger — but at most, he'll only get close to your current level, Germain."
"His strength will keep fluctuating within that range."
Ging's expression darkened when he heard that.
No one wants to be told their limits like that — that they can't go any further.
But since it was Don saying it, it carried serious weight.
Ging felt bitter.
Bisky, meanwhile, thought of Chairman Netero.
How long had he struggled inside his own limitations?
Don continued explaining:
"Simply put, Ging, your progress in every area has almost reached its peak. If you want to go beyond it, you'll need something called an 'Ascension Ritual.'"
"But you're not someone 'chosen by the gods,' so you can't start the ritual. That's where the problem lies. Your path forward is blocked."
"The ones like the 'Wallfacer,' the 'Gatekeeper,' me, and Germain — we all succeeded in completing this ritual."
Everyone couldn't help but recall the recent brutal battle with the 'Twins of Jealousy and Defamation.'
During that fight, Ging, Bisky, and Shizuku all burst out with a silvery glow, helping Germain step into the level of 'Legend' during the battle.
That must have been the 'Ascension Ritual' Don was talking about.
*******
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