Beyond's team, in a certain sense, they were even stronger than the Hunter Association's Zodiac Twelve.
This strength didn't solely stem from pure individual combat power but was reflected in their remarkably precise team composition.
Each member of Beyond's team had abilities that had been meticulously honed for specific purposes. While not perfectly complementary like puzzle pieces, they could often form a synergistic relationship.
The power of synergy between Nen abilities goes without saying.
This alone made them incomparable to the Zodiac Twelve, who operated independently and weren't even familiar with their colleagues' abilities.
In fact, although Beyond had no intention of proving anything to his father Netero, the construction of his team embodied his will to completely surpass both the Hunter Association and Netero.
Thanks to the efficient synergy between his team members' abilities, Beyond quickly pinpointed Morrow and Kurapika's location.
After all, under such intensive area-contraction reconnaissance, if those two moving red lines weren't Morrow and Kurapika, then such an extremely low-probability coincidence would be a judgment error Beyond was willing to accept.
"If there are coordinate points between the red and black lines, we'll intercept them directly along the way."
A sharp glint flashed in Beyond's eyes.
Marione glanced at Beyond and said, "I'm just suggesting possibilities. I never guaranteed that black line is definitely related to those two. If they change direction and we fail to intercept them, don't push the blame on me."
"Why so wordy? If it's a misjudgment, I'll take full responsibility. And no matter what, I'd never shift blame onto others."
Beyond declared righteously.
Marione fell silent for a moment before saying calmly, "But last time you clearly–"
"Has Sawa produced any results yet?"
Beyond quickly interrupted her.
Seeing this, Marione didn't continue the topic. She raised her hand to press against the headphone-shaped device, remained silent for about one or two seconds, then said, "Yes. Although the coordinate position has some deviation, it shouldn't significantly impact us."
"Then let's move out!"
Beyond grinned.
Marione nodded.
Soon, a wave of Nen rippled beneath their feet, quickly materializing into red spider lilies. Tendril-like red petals enveloped them both.
The next instant, the tightly closed red flower bud vanished into thin air.
Utilizing Sawa's "Twin Flower Crossing" ability, Beyond and Marione instantly arrived at the coordinate point.
This was a plain. To the north behind them lay an expansive dense forest, the area where that extremely deep black line representing some creature was located.
"Lead the way."
After the Twin Flower Crossing transport completed, Beyond's body surged with aura output.
Upon hearing this, Marione also released her maximum aura output. Then, with a burst of Nen enhancement, her entire figure transformed into a blur as she swiftly crossed the plain, heading in the predetermined direction.
Beyond immediately concentrated Nen in his legs, instantly erupting with astonishing speed as he closely followed behind Marione.
The two raced horizontally across the plain at incredible speed, covering a great distance.
Before long, a faint fluorescent green glow in the distant low sky caught their attention.
Its unique aura fluctuation was especially conspicuous in the darkness.
"Hey!"
Beyond abruptly halted his steps, transitioning from a full-speed dash to complete stillness in an instant, his gaze locked onto the green light rapidly approaching them.
The distinctive color of the Nen bullet had already confirmed they had found their target.
Before making decisions, although Marione could obtain intelligence data about Morrow and Kurapika from Morena, the red lines displayed by her search and positioning ability couldn't reveal more information.
Therefore, Beyond's judgment that these two red lines represented Morrow and Kurapika could only be based on the confirmed intelligence of "two Nen users traveling together."
There might be a possibility of misjudgment here.
But the probability was extremely low.
Beyond stared at the increasingly close fluorescent green trail in the night sky, a playful smile curling at the corner of his mouth: "Marione, intercept them."
"Understood."
Bright Nen energy surged around Marione's body as her left hand swiftly reached out and clamped onto her right arm.
With a crisp mechanical click, her right arm unfolded and reconfigured like a transforming mecha.
Amid shifting metal joints, a cold-gleaming cannon barrel extended from within her arm during its descent, repositioning to the surface of her arm.
She slightly bent her knees to stabilize her posture, gradually tilting the cannon muzzle upward to lock onto the fluorescent green streak.
Hum–
The ring-shaped energy bar at the rear of the hand cannon lit up layer by layer with an eerie blue Nen glow, the turbo-like humming sound particularly clear in the silent plains.
"Target locked."
Vertical light bars flashed in Marione's irises as the cannon barrel, having reached critical charge, suddenly erupted with blinding intense light.
Accompanied by the roar of highly compressed Nen energy, a brilliant blue energy beam shot from the cannon muzzle, tearing through the night sky directly toward the fluorescent green glow.
—--
Simultaneously.
Morrow and Kurapika, standing atop the transformed Deceptive Shooting Star, almost simultaneously noticed the energy beam shooting toward them from the darkness ahead.
The trajectory of this energy cannon seemed precisely calculated, landing preemptively along the Deceptive Shooting Star's path through predictive targeting.
In that instant, all Morrow and Kurapika could do was mobilize their Nen at maximum speed to protect their entire bodies.
Boom!
The next moment, the energy beam shattered the Shooting Star, triggering a violent explosion.
Morrow and Kurapika's figures shot out from the explosion, landing steadily on the ground from different directions, carving two long trails through the plains' vegetation.
So soon!?
After landing, Morrow's eyes slightly shifted as he looked with some surprise toward the direction the energy cannon had come from.
Two figures enveloped in powerful auras approached at extreme speed.
Beyond...!
After clearly recognizing one person's features, Morrow's heart jolted, almost instinctively firing a Nen bullet into the sky.
After this action, he shifted his gaze to the girl in a sailor uniform and black knee-high socks standing beside Beyond.
From the girl's attire and the obvious mechanical construction of her face and limbs, Morrow instantly recognized her identity.
She was precisely the mechanical girl whom Ging had determined to be stronger than Pariston and the others in the original work.
Judging by the level of aura output...
It was actually comparable to Razor's.
Morrow inwardly felt a shock, his gaze returning to the immense Nen fluctuations emanating from Beyond.
This aura... it's definitely above Lv.90, possibly even Lv.95. This person must be one of the world's top five Nen users, right?
There was no time to ponder how Beyond had intercepted them in advance. All Morrow felt now was an overwhelming sense of crisis crashing down upon him.
The source of this crisis wasn't that Beyond and Marione's aura output levels were higher than his.
It was that he knew absolutely nothing about their abilities!
Without crucial information, the gap in aura output levels would become extremely troublesome.
Almost simultaneously with his judgment, Morrow's right hand manifested stalactite-like aura fluctuations, a telltale sign of an Emission ability user preparing to attack.
Beyond and Marione observed this but showed no reaction.
Their relentless pursuit wasn't necessarily about eliminating Morrow and Kurapika.
After all, if merely removing unstable factors was the goal, they could have directly used Manipulation abilities to alter memories.
Even the situation with the Fourth Prince would ultimately be resolved through Memory Alteration.
That was the safest approach.
Which was why Marione had only targeted the Shooting Star earlier.
Otherwise, with the advantage of striking first, she could have directly attacked Morrow and Kurapika.
"You're both rising stars of the Hunter Association. Dying here would be a shame."
Surrounded by a torrential aura, Beyond studied Morrow and Kurapika with keen interest, grinning as he said:
"For Netero's sake, I'll give you the best option. Close your aura nodes immediately and cooperate with our Manipulation ability to alter your memories. Then we can pretend today never happened."
"..."
Morrow's pupils constricted sharply.
Beyond had casually revealed in his words that he already possessed intelligence on them, and the existence of Manipulation abilities.
So confident...
But he certainly had the capital to be.
After hearing Beyond's words, Morrow had no intention of dropping his attack stance. His peripheral vision glanced toward Kurapika, who stood some distance away.
Kurapika's expression was grave. One hand firmly gripped the cloth bag protecting his clansmen's eyes, while the other hung loosely, the small iron ball of his Dowsing Chain dangling from it.
He had also heard Beyond's opening statement. Noticing Morrow's glance, he gave a slight nod.
The other party wasn't lying.
Kurapika had confirmed this using his Dowsing Chain ability and conveyed the information to Morrow through the nod.
Their tacit understanding was excellent.
Morrow understood Kurapika's meaning, but that was precisely the problem.
If anyone else faced this situation, with such a clear disparity in strength, once they confirmed Beyond's words were true, they'd likely choose to cooperate with the memory alteration.
But Morrow couldn't comply.
Because altering memories also implied the potential ability to extract memory information.
And he was a transmigrator!
How could he possibly allow Beyond to manipulate such a thing?
If he really went along with it, not only would his secret identity as a transmigrator be exposed, but even his Tree Rings' rewind ability would fall into Beyond's grasp.
By then, he probably wouldn't even be able to use "rewind"; he'd be completely controlled.
Rather than such an outcome, it would be better to resist violently and be killed by Beyond.
This way, even if a Death Threshold is generated on Beyond, there would still be room for manipulation.
For instance, desperately finding a way to utilize the Zoldyck family's wishing machine.
Or intentionally dying at the hands of this mechanical girl; at around level 85, he was still confident he could resolve the Death Threshold within the limited time.
Aside from these outcomes, if he could escape...
That would, of course, be the best!
Morrow's mind was racing, but his expression remained unchanged, only his brows slightly furrowed as he asked in a low voice, "What do you mean? We were just passing by. Why suddenly attack us?"
"Stop pretending."
Beyond's tone was calm, yet carried an undeniable pressure: "Since you were the first to learn of Morena's death, you should understand... the choice I'm giving you now is already the optimal solution."
It truly was the optimal solution...
One that could completely turn a major issue into a minor one, and a minor issue into nothing.
But it didn't apply to him.
Morrow sighed softly in his heart.
He knew that Beyond's willingness to say a few more words was merely due to his style, believing that matters that could be resolved simply shouldn't be complicated.
For someone like him, whether they obediently cooperated to have their memories altered or had their limbs broken before having their memories altered made no difference at all.
He might even change his mind on the spot and kill them right here.
So there was essentially no room to stall for time.
Morrow quickly assessed the situation.
His judgment was largely accurate.
However, Beyond's willingness to say a few more words wasn't entirely because he wanted to resolve things more simply.
In fact, in the already established plan to explore the Dark Continent, it was inevitable that the "V5" would be dragged into the fray.
This would be a mobilization involving the entire world!
And the Hunter Association, which served the V5, would undoubtedly not be absent when the time came.
What Beyond hoped to see was not only leveraging the Hunter Association but also having its core forces join him in challenging the Dark Continent!
So, as he had just said, it would be a pity for talents like Morrow and Kurapika to die here.
"Sigh."
Morrow feigned a helpless sigh. "To think you even know how we reacted to the news of Morena's death..."
There must be exceptionally high-level detection and positioning abilities, as well as spatial transfer abilities, within Beyond's team.
While pondering this, Morrow put on a stern expression and said in a deep voice, "If we had known these 'treasures' would be so troublesome, we wouldn't have gotten involved. Fine, we'll do as you say and cooperate obediently."
As he spoke, he decisively dispelled the sharp Nen aura on his right hand to draw the attention of Beyond and Marione.
But at that very moment, Nen surged beneath Morrow's right foot.
「Insidious Shooting Star」
As the ability activated, a stellar cross suddenly appeared beneath Beyond.
"A foolish choice."
Beyond lowered his gaze, glancing at the aura fluctuations rising from beneath him.
His reaction was incredibly fast; with a single step, he stomped down.
Boom!
The dark blue Shooting Star had barely risen before he crushed it underfoot.
"Roar!"
A roar echoed from the sky.
It was Chimera.
The Nen bullet Morrow had shot into the sky earlier was meant to summon Chimera.
「Deceptive Shooting Star」
Seeing Beyond shatter the Insidious Shooting Star, Morrow swiftly shot a Shooting Star into the air before immediately retreating and grabbing Kurapika's arm.
This action forcibly interrupted Kurapika's immediate desire to fight.
Escape.
Without any verbal communication, Kurapika understood Morrow's command.
But what Kurapika never expected was that Morrow directly hurled him into the air.
Clink!
While throwing Kurapika toward Chimera, Morrow flicked several coins engraved with Star Mark Divine Script toward Beyond and Marione.
Guided by these coins, the enhanced Shooting Star abruptly split into multiple streams, assaulting Beyond and Marione.
Boom!
The two were instantly engulfed in the explosion.