At the far end of the inner city within the Harimu Ruins.
Here stood a pitch-black gate, as if it were made of solid ink, shrouded in a dense, suffocating miasma of death nen.
The gate loomed tall and unyielding, barring the way for all who came.
If the death nen outside was like a drifting fog, then this gate was a slab of condensed ink
so thick, it had solidified.
Yet in front of the gate, instead of the usual silence, the place was oddly bustling.
"So… we're just leaving like this?"
The young master, Pete, with his center-parted hair and oversized sunglasses, spoke up. A shadow flickered in his eyes.
"What else can we do? You think you can exorcise it?"
The woman in a leather jacket glared at the gate. Her gritted teeth betrayed her frustration.
…
"Um… I do know a little…"
???
All six people turned their heads toward the voice behind them.
The area—supposedly suffocating with death nen, was now trembling violently, like boiling water.
Seconds later, a young man with striking features and a calm smile emerged from the haze.
Around him was a translucent "plastic film," keeping the death nen entirely at bay.
Behind him stood a humanoid nen beast, exuding the refined air of a noble lady.
It was none other than Linck and Gardevoir.
As Linck ventured deeper, he realized the so-called "end" of the inner city wasn't truly the end.
The fact that his progress bar had stopped at 80% was proof enough.
The real end must be beyond this gate.
Everyone noticed the Gardevoir beside Linck. Being nen users themselves, they immediately recognized her as a nen beast.
But what truly caught their attention was the absence of death nen around him.
An exorcist?!
"Brother, are you an exorcist?" The leather-clad woman's eyes were already half-convinced, but she still had to ask.
"I wouldn't dare claim that title. I just have a little trick that keeps death nen outside, so it doesn't bother me."
His words lit up the faces of those who had been enduring constant torment from death nen. They hurried toward him, as if seeing the first ray of hope.
After some explanation, Linck finally pieced together their story.
The man with glasses, the leather-clad woman, and the hip-hop guy were siblings.
Outside the ruins, they'd run into Pete and his two bodyguards, who were also aiming for the depths.
Knowing the dangers that might lie ahead, they had formed a temporary alliance to explore together.
The biggest problem with this team, however, was the lack of an exorcist. The entire way here, they'd had to burn their own nen aura just to push forward.
It was only because the path wasn't long that they'd managed to get this far at all.
Even so, more than half of their nen reserves had been drained.
Now that Linck examined the gate closely, he finally understood why no one had ever reached the true end.
They'd all been stopped here, by this door radiating an ominous, oppressive death nen.
The death nen clinging to the gate was easily ten times stronger than what filled the surrounding air.
If the miasma outside could be resisted through sheer nen, then this door offered no such mercy.
Touch it even slightly, and your body and soul might be snuffed out instantly.
While listening to their account, Linck used his Pokédex ability to scan the group.
The results were reassuring—most of them were C-rank, with only Pete at B-rank and the hip-hop guy at B-minus.
Such levels posed no real threat to him or Gardevoir.
The siblings' nen abilities were a bit unusual, which mildly surprised him, but their overall strength was still unimpressive.
As they sized up Linck, he was also studying them.
Pete and his two bodyguards wore standard black suits.
Perhaps because of the impression Pierce had left on him, Linck now instinctively thought "mafia" when he saw that kind of attire.
The two bodyguards had close-cropped hair and unremarkable faces.
Pete's center-parted hair and oversized sunglasses hid his eyes entirely, making it impossible to read his expression.
But Linck didn't need to guess—either the man had an eye problem, or he was the problem.
The former meant hiding an eye disease; the latter, concealing the truth in his gaze.
The bodyguards each carried large leather backpacks, while Pete's hands were free.
Among the siblings, the bespectacled man was the eldest, the leather-clad woman the second, and the hip-hop guy the youngest.
The eldest was thin, with narrow, squinting eyes behind gold-rimmed glasses. He wore a plain white shirt and scuffed leather shoes coated with layers of gray dust.
In a crowd, he'd pass for an utterly average office worker—were it not for the sharpness hidden in his eyes.
The leather-clad woman stood about 170 cm tall, with the face of a domineering older sister and an inexplicable air of boldness between her brows.
She wore a black leather jacket and gripped a thin whip studded with backward-facing barbs. She looked every bit the "queen" archetype.
This wasn't a cosplay prop—Linck's focused gaze revealed the whip was entirely made of nen.
Clearly, it was a product of materialization.
The youngest, the hip-hop guy, was the most eye-catching. Dark-skinned, with thick eyebrows, dressed in a red hip-hop-style dance outfit, and carrying a large mountaineering pack.
What drew Linck's eye most was the thickness of his finger joints and the heavy calluses on his hands—signs of someone far from ordinary.
"Brother, as long as you can keep us safe from death nen, I promise you forty percent of all loot we find. How about it?"
Pete was the first to speak, his tone full of sincerity—though Linck couldn't shake the feeling that the man was scheming something.
With a faint smirk, Linck's narrowed eyes gleamed with amusement.
Since their strength wasn't anything remarkable, he might as well play along.
"Deal."
Linck nodded, then started walking toward the gate.