The linear force of the Forceful Suppression instantly crushed the Zodiac Twelve's offensive.
At the same time.
As the ominous sword slid inch by inch from its scabbard, the light-blue space was suddenly permeated by wisps of black smoke, as if dark cracks were splintering across it.
Clang.
Beyond completely drew the blade.
A dense, pitch-black aura coiled around the blade. Upon closer inspection, it seemed as if countless tiny, twisted faces were crowded together, screaming silently.
Sacred Treasure: Sword of Good Omens.
This was the treasure that had laid the foundation for the Kakin Empire's prosperity, a ceremonial regalia capable of influencing the nation's fate.
What set it apart from ordinary Post-Mortem Nen was its ability to accept offerings.
As long as enough offerings were made, tens of thousands of human lives...
The Sacred Treasure: Sword of Good Omens could bestow absolute fortified luck upon its wielder.
And this was the very reason Beyond had no fear of Gel's snake venom.
Fortified luck was, by its very nature, an unreasonable existence.
Beyond had come to understand this deeply from his numerous experiences using the Sword of Good Omens.
Moreover, his will-based ability was already enough to suppress the Zodiacs present. Now that he had unleashed the power of the Sword of Good Omens, the outcome of the battle was no longer in doubt.
Hiss.
Beyond held the Sword of Good Omens in one hand and pressed his other against the wound bitten open by Gel's Nen Beast, squeezing out a bit of black blood.
Such a hasty emergency treatment would normally have little effect.
But with fortified luck on his side, this simple preliminary action was enough for him to evade the threat of the venom.
"I seem to have... overestimated you."
Beyond restrained all the Zodiacs except Gel with his Forceful Suppression and sighed with a hint of disappointment.
"It's clear the factional divides among you are quite severe. Not only do you not understand each other's abilities, but you can't even manage the most basic coordinated assault."
As he spoke, his gaze swept over the group, finally landing on Gel, who remained standing firm under the Forceful Suppression.
"You're the only Zodiac so far worthy of a second glance. So, I'll give you a piece of intel for free. When I'm maintaining 'this ability,' I can't use it to attack or defend at the same time. So..."
He grinned, looking directly at Gel.
"Are you going to attack me directly?"
This voluntarily revealed information reached Gel's ears, but she found it difficult to discern whether it was true or false, let alone judge if it was an opportunity or a trap.
But in the next second, Gel decisively launched an attack on Beyond.
Where did this confidence come from?
Naturally, it was from her aura output, which was near the pinnacle of human potential.
Faced with such a high margin for error, Gel was more willing to gamble on a chance to free her colleagues from suppression.
"Serpent's Fang!"
An astonishing amount of aura erupted from her body. Enduring the oppressive, linear black force, she whipped her right arm out like a long lash. It instantly transformed into a curved black trajectory, striking at Beyond like a venomous hook.
Beyond had not been lying.
While maintaining Nothing External to the Mind: Forceful Suppression, he could not simultaneously use the ability to attack or defend.
Faced with Gel's fierce strike, Beyond's options were quite limited if he didn't want to release the Forceful Suppression.
But it was enough.
The unsheathed Sword of Good Omens was sufficient for Beyond to defend against any attack.
All he needed to do was see the trajectory of his opponent's attack.
Beyond stared at the venomous hook that struck like black lightning. The moment he discerned its path, he simply swung his sword.
This seemingly casual slash, under the effect of fortified luck, precisely met the hook's trajectory.
Schwing!
The blade of the Sword of Good Omens, wreathed in black aura, effortlessly severed Gel's attack.
A section of the hook-shaped Serpent's Fang snapped off.
Gel grunted, a flicker of shock and doubt in her eyes.
In the exchange just now, her real-time feedback had told her there was room to evade. She had indeed adjusted at the last moment, intending to bypass the blade and land an effective hit.
But for some reason...
The outcome, which should have been the hook and blade missing each other, changed at the final instant.
It was as if some power had rewritten reality at the last second.
Amid her shock, Gel retracted her injured right hand.
Beyond's last slash had taken off half her palm.
This was the risk of using her arm as the basis for her Conjuration; any substantial damage was equivalent to her arm itself being injured.
But with her current aura output level, she shouldn't have been wounded so easily.
However, throughout the Kakin Empire's history, the Sacred Treasure: Sword of Good Omens had absorbed an unknown number of offerings...
This had granted it astonishing power, and the black Post-Mortem Nen that had clung to its blade for years carried the nation's unending fate.
So, even if Gel's aura output reached the peak of human potential, she could not withstand the sharpness of this regalia.
After forcing Gel back with a single slash, Beyond suddenly turned his gaze to Botobai, who was outside the main fray.
He sensed a pure, malevolent aura beginning to emanate from Botobai.
Malevolence... A rare sight, but nothing more.
Although the malevolent aura carried a clear sense of threat, in Beyond's eyes, it was nothing.
He had thought Botobai might have a special trick up his sleeve, but it turned out to be just a gimmick used at best to enhance attack power.
Just as Beyond felt a flicker of disappointment, a figure blinked behind him.
It was Saccho, wielding his Agony Blade.
He should have been pinned down by the Forceful Suppression, yet for some reason, he was now moving freely within the heavy pressure, even swinging his blade at Beyond's back.
Faced with this sudden attack from behind, Beyond reached back without even turning his head.
As expected, he caught the blade with his bare hand, stopping it in its tracks.
Beyond turned to look at Saccho.
The dense, linear Forceful Suppression had a single gap in it, right above Saccho's head.
Did you 'cut' away the suppression in your immediate vicinity with your blade?
Beyond guessed at a glance how Saccho had managed to suddenly break free.
That Blade of Heart, which corresponded to Saccho's profession as a psychologist, couldn't inflict physical damage but had a special effect on human emotions and will. And the Forceful Suppression of Nothing External to the Mind was, in essence, a manifestation of will.
Thus, it wasn't truly difficult for Saccho to cut through a localized portion of the suppression with his Blade of Heart.
The difficult part was realizing this and putting it into action.
Unfortunately, as long as he was within the range of the Forceful Suppression, any of Saccho's actions, including cutting the suppression itself, would instantly alert Beyond, making a successful sneak attack naturally difficult.
"It seems you've noticed."
Being able to realize he could cut the suppression with his Blade of Heart meant Saccho understood the nature of Beyond's ability.
Beyond suddenly withdrew the Forceful Suppression. Instead, he gathered the power of Nothing External to the Mind in his palm and crushed Saccho's longsword.
The blade shattered into pieces, and Saccho's expression changed drastically.
From just these few exchanges, he felt the man before him was an absolute monster.
The power of Nothing External to the Mind that Beyond had used to crush the longsword was, in the next instant, applied to the countless blade fragments in the air.
In a flash, the innumerable fragments pierced Saccho's entire body like a storm of needles. The subsequent impact sent him flying backward violently.
At the same time.
The moment the Forceful Suppression vanished, the other members of the Zodiac Twelve charged at Beyond without the slightest hesitation.
In their view, while that invisible attack was certainly troublesome, now was the time. By launching a synchronized pincer attack from all directions while Beyond was dealing with Saccho...
They should be able to break through!
This was the judgment every person present made in the same instant, and they all acted on it without hesitation.
Even non-combatants like Cheadle and Pyon, whose Nen abilities weren't suited for fighting, could still launch an offensive relying on their mastery of Nen Techniques.
If it had been the Beyond from before he drew the Sword of Good Omens, he might have truly been defeated by such a highly synchronized pincer attack.
Unfortunately, there were no "ifs."
Beyond merely let his aura erupt from his entire body, transforming it into a series of invisible Nen strikes that accurately blasted the Zodiacs attacking him from all directions.
The air exploded with a series of sharp cracks.
The invisible force, like iron fists, sent everyone flying backward.
However, because the power was dispersed, this blow couldn't inflict fatal damage on them.
But an opportunity like the one just now would not come again...
Yet, just as everyone was blasted back by the power of Nothing External to the Mind, Botobai had, at some point, blinked above Beyond.
"Evil Visage."
This was Botobai's ability, which combined the properties of Emission and Enhancement.
As a Three-Star Terrorist Hunter and prosecutor, he dealt with all sorts of criminals and terrorists year-round.
They were a lawless band of villains.
In the process of directly confronting all kinds of extreme malevolence, Botobai had developed this ability to turn that malevolence to his own use.
Painting the Evil Visage on his face was the prerequisite for activating this move.
At this moment, Botobai's face was covered in red and white greasepaint, outlining a ferocious, evil visage.
The malevolent aura surging from the visage invisibly strengthened his own aura.
He hung upside down above Beyond and thrust out a palm from a distance.
A black, dragon-shaped aura wave, empowered by malevolence, surged forth from his palm, bearing down on Beyond from above with immense power.
Beyond had just blasted everyone away with his invisible Nen strikes, but he didn't need to readjust his defense at all. He simply swung the Sword of Good Omens, slashing an invisible Nen strike up at Botobai.
"Red, Dismiss!"
Just then, Mizaistom, whose right arm had been blasted apart earlier, was now holding a red card in his left hand, aimed at Botobai above. Traces of the black dragon aura wave's impact remained on his body.
This deliberate friendly fire gave him the right to use his card ability directly on Botobai.
Swoosh!
As the Dismiss effect activated, Botobai's figure suddenly distorted and shifted.
He was instantly transported from the air to Mizaistom's side, and even the angle and trajectory of the black dragon aura wave changed with him.
But the attack's destination remained locked on Beyond.
The black dragon aura wave completely engulfed Beyond.
BOOM!
The energy was unleashed in a violent explosion.
The Zodiacs fell from mid-air, barely steadying their battered bodies as they all stared at the center of the explosion.
Did it work...?
The Zodiacs all asked themselves the same question.
As the aftershock subsided, Beyond's figure was still standing tall. His clothes were torn in many places, but there were no signs of any substantial injuries.
Even a strengthened 'Evil Wave'...
Witnessing this, Botobai's heart pounded.
The other Zodiacs' pupils also constricted.
He took that hit, and he's still unharmed?
This wasn't a frontal attack.
It was a final, coordinated ability from Botobai and Mizaistom after everyone else had taken turns to distract him, landing a strengthened attack precisely on a spot Beyond had left unguarded.
Logically, even if this blow couldn't defeat Beyond, it should have at least severely wounded him.
Could it be that Beyond had used the "one extra life" effect from the Nen space?
No.
If that were the case, Beyond's condition should have been pristine, not showing clear signs of being hit.
This meant he hadn't "used" the Nen space's ability effect.
The basis for this judgment was...
The flesh and blood remains of Bushidora, who was killed first, had already vanished.
In their place, he now reappeared in his original position, completely intact.
This undoubtedly verified the ability effect that Phyllis had just described.
Meeting the Zodiacs' poorly concealed shock, Beyond spoke in a flat tone, "What are you all so surprised about? The gap between us has been obvious from the very beginning."
He was met with silence.
Only Gel's brow was tightly furrowed. Recalling the jarring sense of wrongness she had felt during their earlier exchange, a thought involuntarily surfaced.
"The Power of Luck...?" she whispered, uncertain.
Among all the abilities she knew, the most unreasonable was the Power of Luck she had once witnessed from the Entropy Bird.
It was a power that seemed capable of completely twisting "possibility," even directly rewriting reality.
From her perspective...
An attack that should have been dodged, wasn't.
An attack that should have hit, missed by a hair's breadth.
A blow that should have caused serious injury, left him unharmed...
Besides the Power of Luck, she could think of no other possibility that could achieve all this.
"Oh?"
Beyond looked at Gel with a hint of surprise.
He hadn't expected her to be so knowledgeable about the "Power of Luck" that she could see through the essence of the Sword of Good Omens.
Seeing Beyond's reaction, Gel instantly understood her guess was correct, and her heart sank.
So this kind of unreasonable Power of Luck also existed in the Six Continents...?
Her gaze swept over the Sword of Good Omens in Beyond's hand.
If that's true, we have no chance of winning.
If it were merely the Power of Luck interfering, Gel wouldn't have been so certain.
The problem was that Beyond's own strength was already terrifyingly immense. With the Power of Luck added on top of that, it was far more than just adding wings to a tiger.
Beyond wanted to ask something, but seeing Gel's cold and indifferent expression, he couldn't be bothered to speak.
"It's time to face reality."
He glanced around at the Zodiacs and said coolly, "With your strength, even injuring me is a problem, let alone completing the V5's orders. Why don't we... help each other out for once?"
No one responded.
The gazes directed at him remained as cold as blades, even brimming with bloodlust.
Seeing this, Beyond raised a hand and scratched his head in exasperation.
"Is the fact that I killed Netero so hard for you to get over? What if I told you... that Netero wanted me to kill him with my own hands?"
The response was still a cold silence.
Beyond lowered his hand, his expression calm.
"Fine. If we can't help each other out, then I'll just use you one-sidedly."
Before his voice had even faded, the aura around him suddenly surged.
"Nothing External to the Mind: Power Strike."
Invisible Nen strikes moved outside of reality, only revealing their presence the instant they neared their targets.
Such a tyrannical attack slammed into the Zodiacs without any obstruction.
Thump, thump...!
Amid the dull thuds, blood splattered everywhere.
Only Bushidora was not attacked, standing frozen in place, staring blankly at the scene before him.
Beyond clearly intended to make every Zodiac "die" once.
But it couldn't be ruled out that he might change his mind on a whim and make the Zodiacs "die" a second time.
If that were to happen, they would be well and truly dead.