With a haphazard wrapping of bandages, a vaguely humanoid shape took form, which is completely hollow inside, and they looked like an invisible man covered in strips of cloth.
The humanoid bandage figure stood silently beside the opening, while not far away, the artificially produced green smoke surged toward it.
Law looked at this scene in amazement. Generally speaking, in this world, any strange creature or phenomenon could be linked to Nen… whether it was a special ability or residual willpower, even resentments were just a form of Post-Mortem Nen.
However, he couldn't sense a single trace of Nen from the humanoid figure. No Aura, no grudge.
'It wasn't Nen. It wasn't a grudge. Then what exactly was this thing? Was it some unknown creature immune to the virus?'
As soon as this thought came to his mind, Law immediately dismissed it.
No matter how he looked at it, it was just a bundle of bandages wrapped around air and there's nothing biological about it at all.
It was too weird, beyond both Law and Sanbica's understanding.
"Law." Sanbica took two steps towards Law and asked in a low voice: "Should we avoid it?"
Hearing this, Law let out a low hum, and without thinking for too long, he nodded and said, "Yeah. Let's go around it."
If they directly engaged with this humanoid bandage figure, the White Smoke Font may be able to give him the answer, but with so little information, it would be dangerous to rashly touch this thing.
Law didn't want to take any risks in this situation. Besides, he couldn't help but recall the tens of thousands of corpses he'd seen in that underground space.
'Could there be a connection between those bodies and this figure? But I hadn't seen anything like it during my time down there.'
Furthermore, this humanoid bandage figure was actually absorbing the green smoke that filled the forest. Although he could clearly see the smoke being sucked into it, the moment the smoke entered, it seemed to vanish, almost as if digested.
Everything about it was an unknown wrapped in mystery.
Law and Sanbica looked at each other, then slowly started backing away, moving with the lightest of steps.
However, the moment they took the first step back, the humanoid bandage, who is still facing away from them, suddenly turned around to face them.
The turning motion was disturbingly unnatural, like a towel being wrung out. Its upper and lower halves twisted in opposite directions before snapping back into place to complete a turn.
Instantly, Law and Sanbica's nerves went taut. They didn't panic or turn and run, but keeping their eyes locked on the strange figure.
Now facing it directly, it was clear this thing had no signs of life. It is just a human shape formed by bandages.
Although he couldn't feel any gaze from it, Law knew that the humanoid bandage was looking at them.
The standoff lasted less than a second before the humanoid bandage began to expand and transformed from thin to bloated.
There was no sound, no Aura, and no visible pressure. But both Law and Sanbica felt an unmistakable sense of danger in that moment.
Law suddenly raised his hand, gathered his Aura to condense a spinning circular blade of Aura, and threw it towards the humanoid bandage a hundred meters away.
The Destructo Disc was like a flying saucer, breaking through the air. Crossing a distance of a hundred meters, it directly cut the bloated humanoid bandage into two halves. (T/N: It is written as Ki-enzan, but I feel it's better to change it to Destructo Disc.)
The bandages scattered like flower petals in the wind.
It was so simple that it actually caught Law off guard.
But just as the bandages floated to the ground, they suddenly rushed back together, reassembling into the bloated humanoid shape once more.
Seeing this, Law frowned and raised his hand to summon the book of God Hand. On its black cover, the faint white glow of its veins seemed dimmer, with the threads thinner.
Law didn't have time to dwell on the changes in the book. With a thought, the book flipped open to the newest page.
'Nothing!'
'It was directly hit by Destructo Disc which contained the power of the God Hand, but the page did not show any name, which means that this humanoid bandage was most likely not a lifeform.'
"Sanbica, get back."
Law dismissed the book and kept his eyes locked on the bandaged figure.
Sanbica obediently retreated. Her combat ability was never high to begin with, so in order to avoid being a drag, she could only wait outside the battle zone.
Whoosh!
At this time, Kuro emerged from the tattoo on the back of Law's hand and floated in the air in the air in his usual housecat form.
"It's not Nen, nor is it resentment, and I can't even feel a hint of danger." Kuro said, putting on an expert tone.
Law glanced at him from the corner of his eye and said, "Perfect timing. Go deal with it."
With almost no information to work with, Law didn't want to get in close himself, so he could let Kuro check the situation first.
Kuro curled his lips but flew toward the humanoid figure. After a few seconds, he got close and swung his claws, sending arcs of dark light across the surface of the figure.
In an instant, the bandages unraveled like butterflies breaking apart, drifting gently toward the ground.
After a brief flurry of claw swipes, Kuro floated back and stared in confusion at the scattered fragments.
He had felt the sensation of tearing through fabric, but that was all. Whatever this strange entity was, he couldn't take a hit at all.
Just as that thought crossed Kuro's mind, the shredded pieces of bandage suddenly reassembled in a blink, restoring the humanoid form perfectly… eerily similar to how Law could repair torn objects using the God Hand.
"...Tch."
Kuro looked at the humanoid bandage that returned to its original shape in the blink of an eye, and attacked it with his claws again, tearing the bandage into pieces.
But the next second, the bandage returned to its original shape on its own. This happened five or six times in a row, with the same result every time.
Kuro refused to accept it and got into a full-on brawl with the humanoid bandage. However, after shredding it thirty times with no permanent damage, he finally gave up.
"This thing's cursed."
Kuro turned around and shrugged at Law, who was a hundred meters away.
Law had watched everything clearly from his spot, but because there's no Nen as a reference, he had no way of knowing whether Kuro's relentless attacks had actually done any damage to the humanoid bandage.
'But judging from the fact that the thing continued to swell in size, it probably hadn't suffered any damage at all.'
Just as Law was thinking about what to do next, the humanoid bandage finally launched its first attack. It suddenly extended both arms and grabbed Kuro.
"A weird thing without Nen thinks it can catch me?"
Kuro sneered and was about to turn into black smoke and slip away, but after implementing the thought, he found that he could not turn into black smoke.
"Huh?"
Kuro cried out in surprise, wondering how this humanoid bandage, which clearly had no Nen, was able to trap and solidify his body.
Then, without warning, a dense green smoke gushed out from the hands of the humanoid bandage, forming a shell-like oval that enveloped Kuro.
The green smoke came so suddenly and densely that Law couldn't even see Kuro anymore.
After a while, Kuro shouted, "I can't get free, help me."
Kuro's cry for help came from the green smoke.
However, the green smoke, which seemed to have the same origin as the poisonous gas in the forest, could not cause any harm to Kuro.
Law looked at the green smoke inexplicably spewing out of the hands of the humanoid bandage, and felt like he was starting to get a picture of what was going on.
He dashed forward with sudden speed, closed the distance in an instant, and slashed his sword downward, cutting off both arms of the humanoid bandage.
As the severed bandages fell away, Kuro broke free and floated aside, staring at the humanoid bandage in disbelief.
After Law rescued Kuro, he suddenly sheathed his sword, then gathered his Aura into his fist and punched the humanoid bandage.
The air shook from the force, and the humanoid bandage was sent flying backward, disintegrating in mid-air.
However, Law knew that it would take less than three seconds for the humanoid bandage to return to its original shape.
The reason why he suddenly approached the humanoid bandage and punched it with his own hands was not to save Kuro, but to try whether the White Smoke Font could identify what this thing was.
This was the judgment he made after seeing the humanoid bandage attacking Kuro with the green smoke. If it was green smoke, then with the Domain, he had nothing to worry about.
The moment he touched it, the White Smoke Font displayed a horrifyingly concise line of information.
[Invisible Calamity. Non-lifeform. Void. Origin: Dark Continent.]