What struck everyone even faster than the deafening sound-
Was the Nen fluctuation that instantly swept across the battlefield.
Thus, a reflexive question arose in their minds:
Where did this overwhelming Nen fluctuation come from, and what result did it bring?
Once this question took hold, the most basic assumption naturally followed.
"Can Captain Beyond unleash this level of Nen?"
"A Nen User capable of this… must be Moses, right?"
Both sides' guesses were close to the truth.
And with that came the difference between unease and reassurance.
The members of Beyond's team felt inexplicably uneasy.
While Moses's team felt a wave of relief.
If what they imagined had truly happened, then-
Wasn't it too fast?
In the distance.
The Nen fluctuations, which had surged like a storm, gradually subsided.
Perhaps because of the explosion of Aura, the ever-present harsh winds on the top of the rock mountain suddenly disappeared.
With the absence of the howling winds that once filled his ears, the surroundings fell into an eerie silence.
So much so that Moses could hear Beyond's increasingly ragged, weakening breaths.
At this moment-
Beyond lay sprawled on the rocky ground, with a bloody hole on his chest.
A large amount of blood gushed out from the hole, and in just a few moments, a pool of blood formed under Beyond.
Moses's fully charged punch had decisively ended this battle.
Given the sheer force behind that strike, it should have been enough to tear Beyond's body apart upon impact.
But Moses held back at the last moment.
With his superb and delicate control, he condensed the immense Aura wrapped around his fist into a single point, piercing straight through Beyond's body and leaving behind a clean, circular wound.
It was still a fatal injury.
But it allowed Beyond to catch his breath for a while longer.
Moses came closer and looked down at Beyond's face, which was half stained with blood.
"Before the old man went to his final meeting, he left behind a last wish."
"…"
Beyond was still conscious. His gradually darkening eyes moved with difficulty in his eye sockets, slowly turning toward Moses standing beside him.
'Last wish?'
Of course, he could guess.
After all, his father's favorite thing to do was to casually dump massive problems onto others with a smile.
'So why bring it up now…?'
'Was it meant to be a declaration of victory?'
Beyond's lips twitched, but in the end, he lacked the strength to speak.
He could already feel the last traces of life draining from his body. Perhaps in half a minute, or perhaps in ten seconds, his consciousness would sink into eternal darkness, swallowed by unwillingness.
The starting point of a person's life is birth.
And the endpoint is naturally death.
Once forced to reach that endpoint, no matter how grand or ambitious one's goals were in life, they would ultimately vanish like smoke.
Though Beyond didn't outwardly show the emotions of a man facing death, Moses could still sense them.
But Moses paid no mind to Beyond's emotional shifts in the face of defeat and continued calmly:
"In the DVD where he recorded his last wish, the old man told us to reach the Dark Continent before you, to retrieve a Hope, and to resolve a Calamity. And with that as the premise… to stop you at the threshold of the Dark Continent."
"…!"
Beyond was slightly stunned.
'Tch…'
'So it really was a declaration of victory...'
But the losers have no right to refute.
Realizing that Moses' team had already found Hope and resolved a Calamity, Beyond's lips twitched faintly, and then he closed his eyes weakly.
Whether it was his goal… or this battle...
He had completely lost.
Moses looked at Beyond, who seemed to have exhaled his last breath, and spoke in the same detached tone:
"You failed."
"…"
Beyond remained motionless, his life fully extinguished.
This man, who had devoted his entire life to the Dark Continent, had ultimately fallen on the path of 'exploring destruction'.
After confirming Beyond's death, Moses considered digging a proper grave for him here. But for now, he still had to deal with the rest of Beyond's team.
After taking a last look at Beyond's body, Moses turned and walked back toward the battlefield where the others were.
Truthfully, there were still things he wanted to say to Beyond.
But as he recited Netero's last wish, he felt those words were unnecessary.
'That stinky old geezer Netero...'
'On the one hand, he wanted the core members of the Hunter Association to stop Beyond's stubborn pursuit of destruction. And on the other hand, he also wanted the core members of the Hunter Association to experience the threats of the Dark Continent with their own eyes.'
'Only then could humanity's desire to meddle with the Dark Continent be suppressed once more.'
From his standpoint, Moses didn't think there was anything wrong with Netero's actions.
Because a place like the Dark Continent couldn't simply be summed up as a 'Pandora's Box'.
Even if humanity had always been fond of charging headlong down the path of destruction, tirelessly testing the edges of every precipice-
But when it came to the Dark Continent, there was absolutely no room for carelessness.
Moses shook his head slightly.
Only now did he finally understand the depth of Netero's intentions.
…
The battlefield on the other side.
The team battle erupted in a tense, high-stakes atmosphere.
Some engaged in tacit one-on-one duels, while others coordinated group assaults.
Within just a minute, combatants from both sides had locked onto their respective opponents.
But anyone with eyes can see-
Beyond's team was at an overwhelming disadvantage in both numbers and overall strength.
And the bulk of that disadvantage stemmed from two individuals: Ging and Botobai.
Though Beyond's side also has two experts, Golem and Marione, who are capable of unleashing devastating firepower, they still find it difficult to support the entire situation against Ging and Botobai.
So when Golem and Marione were tied down, the other members of Beyond's team found themselves unable to turn the tide, unless a variable emerged.
That variable was the outcome of the battle between Moses and Beyond.
Only if Beyond secured victory in their high-speed duel could he bring hope to his team.
About two minutes had passed from the time the two sides came into contact to the time of the head-on confrontation.
The overwhelming Nen fluctuation that had swept through earlier hadn't disrupted the performance of Beyond's team in battle.
Especially Golem, the giant robot with a strong sci-fi feel. With the support of two Emitter allies, he managed to suppress the immensely powerful Botobai, leaving him little room to act.
But the cost of this strategy was that he couldn't spare any effort to assist his teammates.
Unless he could eliminate Botobai in an instant.
However, Botobai wasn't an opponent who could be taken down so easily.
As the third strongest fighter on Moses's team, while Botobai cannot break through Golem's coordinated firepower immediately, he also will not let Golem have any spare strength.