Chapter 913
2-in-1 Chapter
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Ozen's eyes flickered as she made up her mind and stepped out from the monitoring base.
At the same time, Ron was in the forest. He had started a fire and was butchering the prey he'd caught. Erina was grilling the meat, and the savory aroma filled the air. Cooking really was a strange kind of ability.
Ron and Erina had the same conditions: same fire, same meat, same seasonings. Yet Erina's roasted meat always smelled better than his.
Ozen approached. The smell of roasted meat entered her nose, and she raised her brows slightly.
"That smells amazing."
Ron sensed Ozen drawing near and looked in her direction.
Ozen stepped into view.
Ron now got a clear look at her.
A woman. She wore formal black clothing, similar to a knight's uniform. Her face looked like a white bowling ball with several holes in it, giving her a bizarre appearance.
In truth, Ozen wasn't fully human anymore. Through the Thousand-Person Pacts, she had gained more than just power—she had also gained the ability to maintain youth. But along with it came side effects.
Abyss relics were complex. Gaining power always came with a price.
"Ozen, ma'am? Were you looking for me?"
"Yes," Ozen replied.
Ron nodded. "I thought so."
Ozen glanced at Erina. "Is that the power of your Abyss relic?"
"You can see it?" Ron asked.
"I can't see it, but I can feel it."
Ron nodded. "Something like that."
"I'll introduce myself. I'm Ron. Nice to meet you, Ozen."
"What do you want with me?"
"I'd like to make a deal."
As he spoke, Ron used his aura to simulate the presence of an Ascension Relic.
"I'm searching for something with an aura similar to this. Have you seen anything like it?"
Ozen focused seriously, then frowned. "No."
Ron was clearly disappointed. If even someone like Ozen—a White Whistle—had never seen it, then finding the Ascension Relic he sought would have to be a slow and laborious search. It would cost him a great deal of time.
"Thank you anyway, Ozen."
He regained his composure and added, "As a token of thanks, if you don't mind, you're welcome to take some of the grilled meat I prepared. It's pretty good."
Still, Ozen's response did reveal one thing—she had never encountered an Ascension Relics in the places she'd been. Meaning he could skim the areas she has been to.
Ozen sat down across from Ron, glancing at the skewer of grilled meat stuck in the ground. It was close to the fire, still steaming with heat—fully cooked, the temperature just right. The aroma drifting up was rich and savory, with an inviting, mouthwatering quality.
After a moment of hesitation, Ozen picked it up and took a bite.
The flavor surpassed all expectations.
In all the years Ozen had lived, never once had she tasted something so delicious. And as a White Whistle, she could easily tell that Ron hadn't laced the food with poison.
She paused, then said, "What you're looking for doesn't exist on the first six layers. If it does, then most likely it would be on Layer Seven. But once you enter the seventh layer… there's no real path back. And that place is extremely dangerous."
Ozen shared the intel with Ron.
Ron's pupils narrowed slightly, though the truth was, he had already suspected this much. Ascension Relics weren't easy to obtain. It made sense that such a thing would be buried deep in danger.
If it weren't that difficult, the human world wouldn't have produced so few Sequence users throughout all of history. Even the creatures from the Dark Continent had the potential to become Sequence users.
The sheer difficulty of reaching that depth was explanation enough. Not to mention the path that leads to the Inverse World.
Ron remembered the transition.
The corridor of light. The black space behind the glass. The silent, impossible creatures that watched him as he passed.
One of them had been over 400 meters long. Its tail alone had carved a canyon stretching for kilometers when it struck the corridor, shattering the walls and peeling back layers of stone. If not for his ability, there would've been nothing left of him.
And that was just one of the guardians along the path.
Each moment of the crossing had tested the limits of survivability—not with puzzles or trials, but through overwhelming, scale-breaking threats that no conventional defense could endure.
Ron hadn't reached the Inverse World through a ritual, a door, or a test. He had been transported, locked into place by a system that made its own rules. The corridor had only let him through because he could survive it.
Almost no one else could.
Even among Nen users, S-rank ability alone wasn't enough. It required something else—total invulnerability, the kind that could ignore direct hits from kilometer-wide predators capable of reshaping terrain just by moving.
In all honesty, it was unreasonable.
Ron suspected that in all of human history, no one else had ever survived that transition. Not because they weren't strong—but because the system didn't allow second chances.
Without an ability like the Audience rule, the corridor would've become their grave before they even saw what lay at the end.
Ron once again was grateful that he was always careful, which allowed him to develop such an ability.
"Thank you, Ozen."
Ozen stood up.
"Ron, fight me."
Ron blinked.
"You're not a Cave Raider, are you?"
Ozen looked at him and said, "I've never seen you before, and I've never heard of your name. If you were a Cave Raider, with your strength, that would be impossible. Which means you definitely aren't one."
"I'm curious about your strength. And you should want to know, too—just where do you stand, in this abyss, with your level of power?"
"If you fight me, I'll tell you."
Ron thought it over. Ozen's proposal wasn't without merit. Of course, it was also clear that Ozen had suggested this to satisfy her own curiosity.
But for Ron, it still held value. Ozen's strength could serve as a benchmark within the abyss.
"Just to the point of contact."
Ozen looked slightly disappointed, but nodded. "Alright."
In the next instant, Ron gave a mental command. Erina vanished. Two figures materialized beside him—Natsu and Uchiha Sasuke.
Ozen rolled her fists. "Can we start?"
"We can."
Suddenly, Ozen moved.
Boom!
The ground beneath her feet trembled slightly as she launched forward, using the recoil to propel herself at full speed. In a single burst, she closed the distance between them—but Natsu had already stepped in front of Ron.
"Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!"
Flames ignited over Natsu's fist as he struck.
Their fists collided.
Bang!
A thunderous impact rang out. Sparks of flame erupted at the point of contact. Natsu staggered back several steps.
Ozen's eyes lit up. "You can use fire and still have that kind of power? Not bad. Maybe today I'll actually enjoy myself."
Ron had already retreated to the other side, while Sasuke seized the opening to appear behind Ozen.
"Lightning Style: Thunder Drop."
A bolt of lightning struck Ozen squarely, precise and clean. The powerful current surged through her body—enough to cause even someone like Ozen to briefly freeze. Her muscles locked up from the electric shock.
Ozen turned around. "Lightning too?"
"Ron, looks like you've got quite a few relics from the abyss."
Natsu steadied his stance and took a deep breath. His chest expanded as he inhaled forcefully.
"Fire Dragon's Roar!"
A massive dragon-shaped blast of flame surged toward Ozen. Beyond the sheer force of the impact, the high temperature alone was lethal. Having just endured Sasuke's lightning strike, Ozen was now facing compounded damage. One plus one became greater than two.
Beside Ron, a figure was carefully observing the battle between Ozen and the two Nen Beasts, recording and analyzing the data. Chii was inputting Ozen's combat performance into the Nen user template.
"No flashy techniques. Purely physical combat. More straightforward than even Enhancement-type Nen users."
Enhancement users weren't without variety—Phinks had his Ripper Cyclotron, Gon had Rock-Paper-Scissors, Nobunaga had his sword. But Ozen fought like a true martial artist, relying on nothing but raw force.
Yet White Whistles could use other forms of power too. This was simply Ozen's personal style.
"In terms of power, slightly inferior to Natsu. In terms of speed, superior to Sasuke. But with Natsu and Sasuke teaming up, defeating Ozen won't be easy."
"Of course, it's not certain Ozen is fighting at full power right now."
"Still, from this alone, it's clear that my strength has at least reached White Whistle level."
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