Hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of gazes turned toward him...
Heavy breathing rose and fell like bellows being pumped.
Deep within Kukuroo Mountain, Netero and Silva both stopped what they were doing. Beside them, Zeno's white hair swayed. A divine light flashed in his narrowed eyes, and with perfected Dark Step, he melted into the shadows of the trees, racing toward the castle.
Inside the dim little room, the dead souls led by Betty Zoldyck, Brook Sell, and Severus stared in trembling excitement.
No one knew who suddenly cried out first.
"Little John, my precious grandson, did you see that? You can live... you can live again...!"
It was like a meteor falling from the sky, dragging a blazing tail behind it and striking the center of a lake.
In an instant, towering waves were raised, and excited roars erupted one after another.
Some threw their heads back and howled. Some knelt and wept. Some embraced and cried. Some danced for joy, overwhelmed with happiness.
A chaotic flood of soaring emotions surged up, striking Maha's aura and making it rise with them. Visible to the naked eye, as the old man's emotions stirred, the aura naturally rising from above his head faintly turned an excited crimson.
"Good child... you really did it..."
Betty Zoldyck tightly gripped Roy's hand. Then she wrapped both arms around him and pulled him into her embrace.
Step... step...
One figure after another came forward, brushing past Maha's shoulders and walking toward Roy. They surrounded him in layer after layer until he was completely encircled.
By the time Zeno arrived a moment later, only Maha remained beside the rocking chair, standing with his hands behind his back, quietly and gratifiedly watching everything. Light flashed through his old eyes from time to time, though he quickly hid it well.
"Grandfather, this is the people welcoming their new king..." Zeno came to Maha's side with his hands behind his back and glanced at him. "Don't get jealous now."
"If you don't know how to talk, then shut up."
What an untimely brat.
Maha narrowed his eyes. "What's mine isn't all my grandson's?"
Zeno's mouth flattened almost imperceptibly.
They were all grandsons, but clearly, in someone's heart, the treatment was completely different.
He didn't remember himself, Silva, or the younger ones like Illumi, Milluki, and Killua ever hearing such words from the old man.
At the root of it all—
"Roy really is a promising child..."
When he said "revive," he really revived.
This time, it wasn't only Netero. Even Zeno wanted to go into the boy's dreams and see for himself what kind of people those "teachers" were, the ones who guided Roy into developing so many methods and constantly enriched his Nen ability.
Surely they were no worse than old stubborn men like them, famous or infamous throughout the world.
Buzz...
Time passed second by second, but the atmosphere inside the small room showed no sign of cooling down.
Under the eyes of the crowd, Maha gave a light cough and walked toward Roy with his hands behind his back.
Whether excited or happy, all the dead souls immediately stopped crying and moving. They quieted down of their own accord, then stepped aside and opened a path for Maha.
A distance of a few meters passed in the blink of an eye.
Roy, with Betty holding his arm, smiled and looked over.
The old man's dried-up body was shorter than Roy by more than a head, but the aura wrapped around him, and the faint dominance naturally revealed in each step, made it impossible to look away. Somehow, he seemed even taller and more imposing than Roy.
Roy understood.
This was the amplification brought by power.
It was also the natural result of countless beings lifting him up.
Dong.
At that moment, it was five in the morning.
As the wooden clock struck the hour, a streak of dawn light suddenly shot out from the horizon. In the blink of an eye, it tore open a gap in the night that had covered the entire continent.
The red sun was faintly stirring in the unseen.
Maha arrived before Roy at just the right time, stopped, looked up at him, and asked, "This isn't true resurrection, is it?"
True resurrection required neither vessel nor medium.
"What happened to that autumn cicada just now?"
When Maha's words fell, the dead souls, including Brook Sell and Severus, all fell silent.
Anyone with eyes could tell that the rhinoceros beetle's rebirth had clearly come with the autumn cicada's death.
"Ho ho..."
In other words—
"There is no such thing as resurrection in this world. It is merely taking the sacrifice of some to let others return from death."
Deep inside Kukuroo Mountain, beside the clear pool where Roy had once battled Silva, Netero stroked his white beard and quietly spoke, directly exposing the essence of Impure World Reincarnation.
But just as he and Maha said,
Roy only extended one finger and pointed lightly at the ground.
"Where there is life, there is naturally death. This is the price."
It was also—
the law of equivalent exchange in the world of Nen.
Just like in the original story, Netero's old close friend Jed returned from hell using the lives of his followers as the price and his own resentment as the medium.
There were no pies falling from the sky.
There were no free lunches.
"You know that's not what I'm asking," Maha said.
He looked around at the circles of subjects and compatriots who had followed him to their deaths, and said in a low voice, "If killing one person could bring back one of my people, I'd do it. If killing a hundred could bring back a hundred, I'd do that too. As for killing a thousand, ten thousand, a hundred million... as long as this old man is still alive by then, I wouldn't even frown."
"But—"
Maha's deep gaze locked onto Roy.
"What about you?"
"What price will fall on you?"
"Will it endanger your life?"
Betty's hand tightened around Roy's arm, and she looked at him nervously.
Beside them, Brook Sell, Severus, and the others opened their mouths as if wanting to say something. After struggling for a while, they chose to stay silent.
Resurrection was an enormous temptation to them.
But if it meant sacrificing Roy's life, or even consuming a tiny fraction of his lifespan, Brook Sell and Severus exchanged a glance, and a decision had already formed in their eyes.
That was absolutely not what they wanted.
Silence filled the small room.
No one spoke.
Even the air pressure in the room seemed to drop instantly, becoming so heavy it was suffocating.
Deep within Kukuroo Mountain, beside the clear pool, Silva and Netero faced each other in silence. Both released En, placing their attention on Roy.
On the other side of the wall, Illumi leaned against the doorframe with his arms crossed, quietly waiting.
Across the whole Zoldyck family, perhaps only Killua, still in his ignorant stage, sensed nothing at all and slept soundly in Kikyo's arms.
How to choose?
What choice to make?
Offer his own life to save millions, or ignore them, break his word, and give up?
The television mounted on the south wall captured the scene inside the small room.
Kikyo, holding Killua, flickered through her electronic lenses as she controlled the camera and focused on Roy.
Unfortunately, she could not find even the slightest sign of struggle or hesitation on the boy.
Roy's silver-gold hair fell around him. He spread both hands and said calmly, "Great-Grandfather, you all think too highly of me. I'm not a saint. I can't do things that harm myself to benefit others."
The boy spoke plainly, and the color of the aura above his head proved he was not pretending.
Although the dead souls were all staring at him, and some had already guessed the answer, actually hearing it still made many of them sink in disappointment. Some even knelt and wailed, falling from heaven into hell in an instant, struck by despair.
But even so, no one begged Roy.
Some, like Brook Sell and Severus, even fell silent for a few seconds before smiling at him.
"That is the correct choice."
Warmth rose in Roy's heart. He turned and glanced at Betty. This great-grandmother, whose appearance remained forever young, nodded firmly to him, silently encouraging him.
He had done nothing wrong.
Then the boy changed direction with one sentence and brought everyone from hell back to heaven.
"I think you misunderstood me. I meant it has no effect on me. The price is borne entirely by the vessel. The one who needs to pay with life is the vessel."
Immediately, the room fell silent again.
Even the heartbroken crying came to an abrupt stop.
After a long while, Zeno froze in astonishment, then reacted first. He raised a fist and was about to teach Roy a lesson.
Brat, when you speak, say everything clearly!
But before his hand could touch Roy, he suddenly felt a pain in his backside. In the next instant, he smashed through the glass, kicked into the sky by Maha's raised foot.
"You bastard! If you break my grandson, will you pay for him?!"
"I..."
Zeno became a mess in midair, cutting across the sky in a sorry arc.
Deep inside Kukuroo Mountain, Netero laughed, placed a hand over his eyes, and looked up. Then he turned to Silva and said, "Your father's gone..."
Silva was expressionless. He did not even bother glancing at the sky.
"If he's gone, he's gone. Roy can revive him."
Netero: "..."
He was clearly stunned for a moment.
Then, coming back to himself, he planted his hands on his hips and laughed.
"Ka-da ne... Having resurrection really is amazing..."
It truly was amazing.
"You all heard him."
Maha looked around. His gaze swept over Brook Sell, Severus, and the others. Then he reached out and patted Roy's shoulder.
"He is my grandson. From now on, he is also your king. If you wish to be revived, then believe in him."
Boom!
Led by Brook Sell and Severus, every dead soul present dropped to their knees in perfect unison and placed their right hands over their chests, respectfully saluting Roy.
"Your most loyal, most devout Brook Sell / Severus / Blake Shaw... greets Your Majesty..."
In an instant, panel prompts poured through Roy's mind like rain striking banana leaves.
[Notice: Detected one "pending follower," two, ten, hundred, thousand, ten thousand, tens of millions... awaiting host's formal confirmation...]
[Detected: current "pending follower" state abnormal. They cannot provide corresponding Power of Faith to the host. The host must revive them and confer honors upon them afterward.]
[Note: detected current "pending follower" reserve Power of Faith: 178,473,213.8 points. This has already exceeded the host's current bearing limit.]
[Recommendation: host should carry out resurrection according to a plan to avoid losing oneself.]
One hundred seventy-eight million?!
Roy's body trembled almost imperceptibly. As his mind surged, a sharp light flashed through his eyes.
The boy stood with Maha on his left and Betty holding his right arm. He looked down at the sea of kneeling dead souls before him, stretching out in dense darkness.
Just like the endless tombstones he had once seen in Maha's dream.
At this moment, his chest filled with heroic pride, and a smile rose uncontrollably on his lips.
"Rise. All of you, rise..."
At this moment, five had passed, and dawn broke.
The red sun peeked over the horizon, revealing one curved edge and shooting out thousands of rays of morning light.
Through the window, that dawn glow draped Roy in a robe of rosy light and crowned him with a sunrise crown.
Roy raised a hand lightly, stirring several gentle winds. Wherever they passed, they first lifted Brook Sell, Severus, and the others at the front.
Amid a chorus of respectful voices—
"Thank you, Your Majesty~"
The dead souls rose.
Bathed in the morning glow, their spirit bodies no longer held despair or dejection.
Only expectation and hope remained.
Gurgle...
His stomach rumbled with hunger.
With things having reached this point, Roy turned to Maha and said, "Great-Grandfather, let's eat first."
From the corridor came the soft sound of a dining cart rolling over the stone floor.
Tsubone, who had been waiting for a while, understood immediately and called softly through the door, "Ancestor, Young Master, breakfast has arrived..."
Maha and Betty exchanged a glance. Then he turned to Brook Sell, Severus, and the others and laughed.
"You won't get to eat anything hot for now, but never mind. Wait for my good grandson to revive you..."
With that, the matter was settled.
Seeing Maha finally give his approval, Roy smiled, Betty smiled, and Brook Sell, Severus, and the countless dead souls all smiled together.
They said in unison, "Thank you, Your Majesty..."
Then they turned into a wind of memory and aura. Without waiting for Maha to summon them back, they willingly entered his body and disappeared.
At that moment, the door creaked open.
Tsubone pushed the dining cart inside.
Roy pointed lightly, released Wood Release, and conjured a dining table and several chairs. He placed them beside the window, then called toward the door without turning his head.
"Don't make me call you. Come in by yourself."
Rumble...
Through the open door, Illumi followed Tsubone inside, his long, smooth black hair falling behind him. He found a chair and sat down. His face was still that same unlikable cat-like expression.
Staring at Roy with those black-and-white dead-fish eyes, he said, "Reserve a spot for me first. When I die, don't forget to revive me."
"You know, I want forever—"
"Shut up!"
Roy tore off a piece of baguette and stuffed it into Illumi's mouth.
The foolish little brother blinked, then somehow swallowed the rock-hard baguette whole. Only then did he turn to Maha.
"Great-Grandfather, look at him."
Maha chuckled and pretended not to see. He scooped up a spoonful of tomato egg soup and drank it, changing the subject.
"When you get old... something warm and soft really is more comfortable..."
He casually threw Illumi back to Roy.
The stubborn little brother did not get the answer he wanted. He stared at Roy like a mule, as if he would die right there if Roy didn't agree.
Roy really had no way to deal with him. He glared at him.
"When you can beat Gotoh, we'll talk."
Illumi picked up his knife and fork.
"When does he wake up?"
"Today."
Rip—
The sound of a blood cocoon tearing open rang out.