The stars fell, a magnificent and mighty sight.
This was definitely not an offensive that a human could launch.
The Death God was instantly certain of this.
But it didn't matter.
His ability, Death Plague, could bestow the concept of death upon any objectively existing thing.
Death Plague.
A light gray halo instantly spread out from the Death God's body, sweeping over the sky full of falling stars in the blink of an eye.
There was no violent collision, nor any deafening roar.
Wherever the gray light passed, the originally grand and mighty starfall attack was reduced to nothingness in an instant.
This was the power of death.
No matter how sharp your attack or how astonishing its quantity, it was meaningless before this power.
The final result would only be instantaneous Decay and annihilation.
—--
High in the sky.
Morrow looked down at the Death God on the skyscraper's roof.
Even though the starfall offensive he had launched was easily dismantled, his expression didn't change in the slightest.
This was because he had already obtained the relevant intelligence from the Hunter Association long before making a move against the Death God.
The scene before him was entirely within his expectations.
Mid-to-long-range attacks will be directly erased, and if I choose to get close, I'll be afflicted with the 'Instant Death' effect before I even approach...
Morrow's eyes were calm as he mused to himself, But the most troublesome thing is actually that danger premonition ability, or rather, a near-instinctive danger perception. No wonder even Ging was helpless.
From their brief exchange, Morrow saw that the most difficult aspect of the Death God was its extreme sensitivity to danger.
It was precisely because it could sense threats at the first possible moment that it could construct a nearly impregnable defense, with that power of Decay as its foundation. In the face of such an ability, any offensive means employed by humans would be easily neutralized.
It would likely be an extremely difficult task to even inflict damage on the Death God.
Let alone... to kill it.
Let's probe a little more. There's one more thing I need to confirm.
Morrow's eyelids lowered. With a casual wave of his hand, another meteor-like offensive rained down upon the earth.
This seemingly casual Emission attack already possessed a destructive power comparable to the firepower coverage of a small nation.
Strictly speaking, as long as Morrow could maintain air superiority, he was equivalent to a mobile strategic bomber capable of easily annihilating a country.
The Nen users who were closely watching this assassination operation had long been struck dumb by the destructive power Morrow displayed. A small fraction of V5 officials, on the other hand, developed a deep apprehension toward this power.
The first thing they thought of was... just what kind of terrifying existence was a Morrow who controlled the skies.
Merely imagining a few possible threats was enough to send a chill down their spines.
For a fleeting moment, they even felt that Morrow was a more threatening existence than the Death God.
—--
Within the battlefield.
Morrow naturally had no idea what these people were thinking. He just calmly watched as the stars once again descended upon the Death God.
Faced with this second group attack, the Death God shot up into the sky without hesitation.
Death Plague.
The light gray halo once again spread out rapidly, sweeping over the falling Shooting Stars.
As the conceptual power of death took effect, the magnificent stars were once again disintegrated and annihilated layer by layer.
However, Morrow's offensive wasn't over.
He had launched a surprise attack from the skyscraper's roof earlier, then used the Wolf Spirit's spatial ability to teleport high into the sky.
After the Death God missed its target on the roof, he had continuously unleashed grand Emission attacks to attract the Death God's attention. All of this was for one purpose... to make the Death God turn its back on the true killing move he had hidden in advance, thereby putting the Death God in a pincer attack from above and below.
Morrow stood suspended in mid-air, a sharp glint flashing in his eyes.
Insidious Shooting Star.
On the skyscraper's roof, Divine Script coins suddenly lit up with a stellar cross.
The next second, Nen waves crisscrossed and shot into the sky, precisely aimed at the Death God's back.
The Nen waves were extremely fast, and their angles were exceptionally tricky.
All of this was within Morrow's calculations.
The two waves of starfall attacks launched from the front were the setup for this very moment.
This should have been an almost guaranteed hit.
However, just as Morrow had realized earlier, the Death God's overly keen danger perception could often render all meticulously planned sneak attacks meaningless.
The Death God's attention had indeed been briefly diverted by Morrow's tactics.
But its premonition ability was like a passively triggered instinct. Even if it didn't see through Morrow's hidden move, it could instantly pinpoint the source of the threat just before the crisis truly descended.
Therefore, at the very instant the Insidious Shooting Star attacks crisscrossed toward it, another gray halo expanded from the Death God's body, sweeping toward the Insidious Shooting Star from below.
The hidden move that should have had an extremely high hit rate was thus reduced to nothingness before the power of Decay.
As expected, it still won't work...
Although Morrow had anticipated this, he couldn't help but feel it was a pity.
This was originally the killing move he had set up in advance.
But before he truly activated it, he had realized that the Death God possessed an abnormally keen sense of danger.
So he hadn't held out much hope.
It was more to test the limits of the Death God's danger perception.
And the result was clearly not optimistic.
Attack methods related to 'distance' probably won't work on it. I can only rely on 'close combat' to decide the victor. But before that, I have to personally experience its Instant Death power.
As the thought flashed through Morrow's mind, he looked down at the Death God rushing toward him, wreathed in gray light, and his right hand suddenly pressed against the Wolf Spirit's bone mask.
Spatial ripples spread from the point of contact.
The next moment, Morrow's figure vanished from thin air, and the Wolf Spirit disappeared along with him, leaving only a fading ripple in their place. The Death God, carrying the power of death, arrived only to find its target gone once again.
Tsk tsk, such a fast transfer speed. Really hard to catch.
Missing its target again, the Death God was not annoyed.
Even though the strength Morrow displayed far exceeded the scope of a human, in the Death God's eyes, he was merely a rat that was good at fleeing. Like a game of cat and mouse.
The relationship between the two was already preordained.
No matter how well the mouse could run, it couldn't stir up any significant trouble.
And for the cat, the only question was when it would catch the mouse.
Hmm?
The Death God scanned its surroundings but couldn't sense Morrow's aura at all. A thought suddenly flashed through its mind.
It turned without hesitation and sped off in the direction where Morena was.
—--
On the long street.
Spatial ripples spread out silently, and Morrow emerged from within.
Dozens of meters away, Morena immediately looked toward the source of the ripples. Seeing the suddenly appeared Morrow, she just slightly lifted her chin.
Her expression was so calm it was almost indifferent.
Was she not afraid of Morrow's strength, or did she simply not care about her own safety?
Others had no way of guessing.
Morrow's gaze swept over the fine snake scales on her face, vaguely recognizing her familiar features, and he instantly understood the reason.
Chimera Ant... so that's what happened.
She had also been eaten by a Chimera Ant back then, but had retained her memories from her previous life after being reborn.
Morena calmly watched Morrow and said, "I don't think you'd be naive enough to believe that everything will end just by killing me."
Morrow looked back at Morena with an equally calm expression.
He said nothing.
Yet Morena suddenly understood.
Without any basis, perhaps through some unspoken intuition, she vaguely sensed Morrow's intention.
"You underestimate him too much, and you overestimate yourself."
As if completely unconcerned that Morrow might suddenly try to kill her, Morena continued to speak calmly, "Exposing your back to an opponent who can easily kill you is clearly a foolish move."
She could see that Morrow wanted to use her to test the Death God's reaction.
Perhaps he even intended to hold her hostage or use her as bait.
But as long as Morrow dared to make a move on her... the Death God could strike at the fleeting opening the moment he acted.
What's more, Morena didn't care about her own life or death at all.
If she really died at Morrow's hands, the power of the Death Plague rooted within her body would erupt, dragging Morrow down to hell with her.
Yes.
The Death God had also planted a seed of its death power within her body.
This was something she herself had requested.
So as long as she was willing, she could take Morrow down with her at any moment.
"A foolish move...?"
Morrow turned and took a step forward.
Almost simultaneously, a gray beam of light carrying a thick aura of death tore through the air, instantly piercing his chest.
The beam passed through his body, and the power of Decay immediately took effect, erasing a portion of Morrow's aura output.
Hmm?
Seeing this, the Death God and Morena's eyes narrowed almost at the same time.
When dealing with Nen users, the Death God's Death Plague required two attacks.
The first attack could kill the target's aura output, and the second attack would end the Nen user's life.
Although it required two steps, essentially, as long as the first attack landed, it was almost equivalent to declaring the opponent's death.
Because while Nen was a power that could make humans monstrously strong, on the flip side, once deprived of Nen in battle, humans became exceptionally fragile.
Yet at this moment, Morrow was hit head-on by the Death Plague, but the aura on his body was still alive.
This unexpected situation caused an extremely brief pause in the Death God's movements.
But in the face of Morrow's speed, this momentary opening was more than enough.
His figure suddenly blurred, and in the next instant, he flashed before the Death God.
The Death God reacted extremely quickly. The moment Morrow appeared, a second Death Plague attack blasted out, hitting Morrow again.
However, the power that should have caused all things to Decay still failed to directly kill the aura on Morrow's body.
How is that possible!?
A look of shock and panic appeared on the Death God's face.
His ability was the absolute authority of death, why would it fail here?
Of course, the Death God's ability hadn't failed.
It was just that the aura he had killed was not Morrow's own aura output, but the protective aura from the armor.
This armor was one of the four pieces Morrow had taken from the Kukan'yu Kingdom's royal tomb.
By infusing Tree Rings energy into the armor, it could generate a layer of protective Nen that covered the entire body, and it could even coexist and stack with Morrow's own aura output.
This meant that as long as Morrow activated the armor, he would have an extra layer of Nen protection compared to other Nen users.
The Death God's attack just now had destroyed the layer of Nen provided by the armor.
And Morrow only needed to continue infusing Tree Rings energy into the armor to reactivate the protective Nen and continue using it to block the Death God's Death Plague attacks.
This was also the method Morrow had to personally verify in actual combat after obtaining intelligence on the Death God's ability.
If the result didn't match his expectations, his fate would be to be killed by the Death God.
So this course of action was actually extremely risky.
But the one thing Morrow was least worried about was precisely the risk of death.
He had far too many options.
If the armor's effect was as he envisioned, he could defeat the Death God through close combat.
Conversely, if the result was not as expected, leading to his death at the hands of the Death God... he could also rely on his abundant Tree Rings energy to immediately activate his rewind and perfectly replicate the Death God's ability.
In terms of results, Morrow could take the Death God's life right now.
Shnk!
His right hand formed a Palm Blade and stabbed straight at the Death God's face.
He didn't use the hilt from the four-piece set, but chose a thrust with his right hand, which had a shorter reach.
He actually wanted to see if Tree Rings could absorb the opponent.
The aura-wreathed Palm Blade pierced through the Death God's face.
Unfortunately, Tree Rings did not give an absorption prompt.
It won't work...? Fine, it's not like I'm short on Tree Rings energy right now.
As Morrow's thoughts turned, just as he was about to erupt with aura from his palm and shatter the Death God's head in one go, the Death God suddenly let out a cackling laugh.
"How was my 'acting' just now? That look of panic and bewilderment, wasn't it very realistic?"
Its face was indeed pierced, but in reality, it hadn't suffered any damage that could affect its existence.
Morrow's brow twitched slightly as he instantly felt the connection to the aura in his palm being severed.
The Death God stared at him from up close, its mouth splitting into a grin.
"I've been 'neutralizing' all sorts of attack methods from you humans. Did that make you think that as long as you hit me, you could kill me?"
Morrow's expression was impassive.
"Tsk-tsk-tsk!"
The Death God's mouth suddenly doubled in size, its laughter becoming even more shrill and piercing.
"I was tricking you, tsk tsk! Isn't it a sick joke? Can't be helped. Just as Morena said, after peeking into the essence of humanity, I've become more and more like a human."
It cackled, and a look of contempt gradually filled the eye that had been half-pierced.
This scene, along with the words it had just spoken, were all seen by the numerous Nen users in the safe zone.
The members of the Hunter Association's Zodiac Twelve, as well as the Nen users from the V5 and the International Permit Agencies, were initially shocked that Morrow could withstand the calamity's attack. Then, seeing Morrow succeed, their surprise turned to delight.
But this feeling didn't even last for three seconds before the situation took a sharp downturn.
"Even Morrow, who is this strong... can't deal with this calamity?"
A shadow fell over the faces of many Nen users.
—--
On the field.
The turmoil in Morena's heart gradually subsided.
The Death God seemed to be able to sense her emotions and laughed loudly, "Morena, I even fooled you, didn't I?"
Morena remained silent.
"Tsk tsk, did I not tell you about this?"
The Death God's serrated body surface suddenly sprouted numerous small hands that crawled up Morrow's arm.
"I control the power of death. I– am immortal!"
'...!'
A trace of astonishment flashed in Morena's eyes.
This was indeed the first time she had heard of this.
But soon, the astonishment in her eyes abruptly froze.
The reason was... the Death God's body had split in two.
But the Death God seemed not to have realized this yet. While controlling its many small hands, it only noticed that Morrow was unnaturally calm in the face of this crisis.
"You..."
Just as the Death God was about to say something, it belatedly noticed the abnormality with its body.
"Eh?"
It looked at its body, split in two, and felt its energy draining away. It couldn't help but be stunned, its wide grin freezing in place.
Morrow's left hand was holding the hilt he had drawn from the Wolf Spirit Space.
Infused with Tree Rings energy, it had transformed directly into a pitch-black blade, cleaving the Death God's body in half.
"Control death, you say..."
Morrow stared at the stunned and bewildered expression on one half of the Death God's face and said calmly, "What a coincidence. This blade of mine... is also called Death."
The energy of Tree Rings, that is the true power of death.