When a choice emerged from the depths of his consciousness—
Exorcism is possible!
Upon realizing this, Moses felt a slight relief in his heart.
The so-called cost had been casually mentioned by Cheadle before, leaving him without a clear impression.
But seeing it now with his own eyes, it was very eerie and terrifying.
If one were to say this thing came from the Dark Continent, Moses would be inclined to believe it.
Moreover, the so-called 'Perception' that attached to his consciousness, whose origin was unknown, likely originated from the Dark Continent too. After all, even a 'All-Wishing Machine' exists in the original work.
In any case, at this moment, Moses had a certain understanding in his heart and felt fortunate that Perception had given him a chance to exorcise.
However, before removing the cost from Hawk, he wanted to see if Eriselle could do it.
If it's the 'Libra' sealed deep underground, Moses felt that even the exorcism chance given by Perception might be ineffective. But if it's the cost imposed on Hawk…
Since his exorcism chance was viable, then perhaps Eriselle can do it too.
"Don't worry, Hawk. Everything will be fine."
Moses supported Hawk's arm and comforted him softly.
Upon hearing this, Hawk's wrinkled face revealed a smile.
Originally, he should have been the one comforting Moses, but now, the roles had reversed.
He didn't say anything, just gently patted Moses's hand.
He would pay any price to protect Moses.
That was the meaning of his existence.
"Let's start now, Mr. Eriselle."
Hawk's old eyes carried a bit of anticipation.
Eriselle nodded silently.
Then, everyone moved inside the main hall.
Eriselle began to exorcise the cost from Hawk.
He opened his ping pong ball-sized mouth and took a small bite of the Post-Mortem Nen from Hawk's body.
"Ugh, ugh…"
Upon the first bite, Eriselle's face showed signs of pain, and he dropped to his knees, retching uncontrollably.
Anorexic—
Rejecting every single 'bite'.
After painstakingly swallow the first mouthful of Nen, Eriselle's face turned pale.
Seeing Eriselle's difficult and struggling appearance, Hawk and Cheadle's hearts were filled with anxiety.
Eriselle's Nen Exorcism ability is their only hope at the moment, but if…
Neither Hawk nor Cheadle wanted to think about it deeply.
It took a long while before Eriselle managed to take another bite of Nen from Hawk.
The process of swallowing was still extremely difficult, and he retched as if he would vomit out his internal organs the next second.
'Is exorcising Post-Mortem Nen always this difficult and painful?'
Watching Eriselle, who kneeling and kept retching on the ground, Moses's eyes widened in shock.
If it's so hard to remove the cost imposed by the 'Libra', he couldn't imagine how difficult it would be to remove the Post-Mortem Nen on the Libra.
"Ugh, ugh..."
In the hall, Eriselle's pained retching echoed.
Thanks to his excellent professional ethics, despite being in such pain, he still persisted.
Time passed slowly.
As the sun set, Eriselle lost track of how many bites of Nen he'd swallowed.
Although he could still persist, he knew it was time to stop.
After all, he needed time to digest the swallowed Nen. If he couldn't digest it, the cost formed by this Nen would be transferred to him.
"I need time to digest… I can only continue with the exorcism once I've digested everything."
Exhausted, Eriselle collapsed on the ground.
His efforts weren't in vain, as there were visible changes in Hawk's aging phenomenon.
"Okay."
Hawk's face lit up with joy.
Cheadle also noticed the effects of the exorcism and her tense body gradually relaxed.
"Don't be too happy too soon."
Eriselle, with a blank expression, hoarsely said, "If my 'Appetite of Anorexic' can't digest this Post-Mortem Nen… it means I'm not cut out for this job."
Hawk and Cheadle's expressions tensed slightly upon hearing this.
With great effort, Eriselle stood up and walked towards the crimson pillar. Leaning his back against it, he closed his eyes to rest.
Seeing this, Hawk suggested that Eriselle should go rest in a guest room. However, he was met with a cold refusal from Eriselle.
Before the digestion results came out, all Hawk and the others could do was wait.
Time passed minute by minute.
Night fell.
The hall was filled with soft light.
Hawk, Cheadle, and Moses sat cross-legged on the ground, watching Eriselle, who rest with closed eyes.
No one spoke, and the hall was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.
"Hm?"
Suddenly, Cheadle seemed to sense something.
"What's wrong?"
Hawk and Moses immediately turned their attention to Cheadle. Meanwhile, Eriselle remained completely unresponsive, as if in deep meditation.
Cheadle glanced at the night outside the gate and frowned, "The Nen threads I set up in the forest have been disturbed."
"What's the specific situation?"
After being mentally bombarded by Cheadle's words the last time, Hawk was less optimistic this time and asked for the details.
If it were the previous him, he might have suggested the possibility of them being touched by animals first.
"I'm not sure, but… at least 11 Nen threads disappeared at the same moment."
As Cheadle spoke, she stood up.
The weak Nen threads could only serve as a warning at most, and couldn't provide much more information.
"I'll go check."
Cheadle prepared to go to the scene.
Hearing this, Hawk instinctively stood up, intending to accompany her.
Cheadle shot him a look, and bluntly said, "In your current state, what can you do?"
"…"
Hawk was speechless at first, then sighed helplessly.
"Cheadle, I'll go with you."
Moses also stood up, intending to accompany Cheadle outside to check the situation.
"No."
Cheadle rejected Moses's offer without hesitation, and calmly said, "You should stay here to take care of Hawk and Mr. Eriselle."
Without waiting for a response from Moses, Cheadle walked out of the hall.
Watching Cheadle's figure blending into the night, Moses and Hawk exchanged glances, and remained silent one after another.
A moment later, Moses suddenly said, "I'll go to the kitchen and get something to eat."
"Okay."
Hawk nodded.
On the other side…
Cheadle walked out of the temple and headed towards the forest.
Staring into the pitch-black woods, her gaze shows a sense of gravity.
"The situation I least wanted to see… still occurred in the end."
Though the feedback from the Nen threads was limited, but by connecting the dots, she could draw a conclusion.
There were at least ten creatures that disrupted her Nen threads, and judging from the subsequent distribution of the disrupted Nen threads, they were most likely heading towards the temple.
It could be reasonably assumed that invaders had arrived…
Moreover, there was a high probability that they were the self-proclaimed heirs of Old Seirin Group, who came for the Post-Mortem Artifact.
Now that the situation had reached this level, Cheadle wouldn't engage in pointless complaints towards Hawk. Her focus now was on actively finding solutions to the problem.
"Medical Roster"
As Cheadle used her Nen, a thin roster and a pen appeared out of nowhere.
The moment she activated her ability, her perceptiveness was significantly enhanced.
Within the forest, an armed team of about twenty people advanced in an orderly formation, and behind the armed team were four Nen users, led by Ken.