In their perception of time, only a second or two had passed.
However--
Moses appeared again after only 'two seconds', but he had undergone an earth-shattering change.
This phenomenon brought an inexplicable sense of cognitive dissonance to Ken and Sivir, which in turn gave rise to many unanswered questions.
Hawk, who was leaning against a tree, finally recognized Moses's back after a brief moment of surprise.
"So... it wasn't a failure after all..."
Unlike Ken and Sivir, who knew nothing about Elena's Nen Space, Hawke was very familiar with the time-stopping ability of the Nen Space.
So, after recognizing Moses, he quickly understood what had happened.
Before the Nen Space left behind by Elena had unfolded, he did succeed in sending Moses and Cheadle out.
What followed was that everything in the scenic area, including him, had been frozen.
Until just now, time, which had been unknown how long it had stopped, resumed its flow.
One year?
Two years?
Or three years?
Hawk didn't know.
He looked at Moses's now taller back and felt his body completely relaxed.
"You've grown taller... brat..."
Hawk forced a smile on his blood-stained face.
"Now I... can go see Elena with peace of mind..."
His increasingly powerless eyelids slowly drooped as Hawk felt exhausted.
The resumption of time also meant that Hawk's 'countdown to death' had restarted.
Moses stood with his back to Hawk, and glanced at Ken and Sivir with cold gaze.
Everything in the forest remained the same as it had been that night.
The one who really changed was Moses, who had traversed through the ripples of the Nen Space.
Soul Echo!
Moses's Nen surged, and when he raised his hand, the shadow behind him turned into a viscous, muddy form and was absorbed into his palm.
Seeing Moses's suddenly revealed ability, Ken and Sivir's faces changed.
Clearly, just a second or two ago, Moses was just a novice Nen User with weak basic of Nen Skills.
Now, he has such a stable and solid foundation of Nen, skillful and natural Nen Techniques, and mature Nen Abilities...
'What on earth had happened in this extremely short one or two seconds?!'
Ken and Sivir were shocked. Seeing Moses started attacking, they had no time to think and quickly mobilized their Nen to cover their entire bodies.
Because of the threat from Libra, their intention was still to flee this place as quickly as possible.
But they also understood that if they didn't eliminate the threat before them, it would be impossible for them to leave safely.
"Thinking of escaping quickly?"
Moses looked at Ken and Sivir coldly. A shadow ball condensed on his palm as he calmly said: "What a coincidence, I'm also thinking of finishing you off quickly."
As soon as he finished speaking, without waiting for Ken and Sivir to react, Moses waved his arm and threw the shadow ball in his hand towards Ken.
Whoosh-!
The shadow ball, infused with Nen, shot towards Keen through the air.
Sivir immediately saw the trajectory of the shadow ball, but she had no intention of blocking the attack for Ken. Instead, she rushed straight at Moses.
As an Enhancer, she has the highest tolerance rate in attack and defense. In theory, she should take the initiative to block Moses's shadow ball, which has unknown ability.
But under the premise of trusting her teammate, there is another option.
That is, to take advantage of the gap when Moses started attacking to shorten the distance as quickly as possible, and then use the advantage of as an Enhancer to exert the strongest offensive pressure on Moses.
Ken naturally didn't need Sivir to help him block the attack for him. He swung his blade forward.
The blade, surrounded by bright Nen, cut through the air, creating a slash aimed at the shadow ball.
But at the moment when the blade was about to touch the shadow ball, the ball abruptly transformed into a two-dimensional state in mid-air, turning into a flat shadow that directly fell to the ground.
Ken's slash hit nothing but air.
"Huh?!"
Kane was slightly surprised when he saw the change in the shadow ball's form.
'A Conjuration Ability...?'
The question flashed through his mind as Ken leaped back, his gaze fixed on the eerie shadow moving along the ground.
"Flying Slash!"
The next moment after he leaped up to create some distance, Ken swung his sword at the strange black shadow on the ground.
An Aura blade extended from the tip of his sword, instantly slicing the shadow into two.
"…"
Even after the successful attack, Ken did not relax and kept a close eye on the changes of the shadow.
Because it was a two-dimensional shadow, he had no feeling of hitting any solid entity, making it hard to determine if his attack was successful.
In fact—
His sword did not hit the shadow.
Before the Aura blade came, Moses took the initiative to split the shadow into two, creating the illusion of a successful cut.
After all, in its two-dimensional state, the shadow was at its weakest.
If hit by an attack infused with Nen, it could easily disintegrate, thus wasting the part of the Manifested Aura released by Moses.
The divided shadow quickly gathered together again, and under Ken's surprised gaze, it took the form of 3D Hisoka.
'Nen Beast? Or Nen Clone...?'
Ken still couldn't comprehend the ability unfolding before him.
The condensed 3D Hisoka attacked Ken.
Facing 3D Hisoka's frontal attack, Ken's eyes sharpened like blades as he swung his sword forward once more.
Meanwhile, Sivir, wrapped in a powerful Aura, rushed towards Moses.
Her fist, which was filled with condensed Nen, aimed straight at Moses's face without any flourish.
Moses merely glanced sideways at Sivir.
The formidable attack that had once impressed him no longer brings any sense of intimidation.
This significant shift in perception wasn't because his opponent had weakened, but because he had grown stronger.
[Shadow Shift]
With a thought, Moses's figure disappeared instantly.
Sivir's extremely powerful punch struck nothing but air.
"What?!"
Seeing Moses suddenly disappeared, Sivir's eyes widened in shock.
'I couldn't see anything at all!'
'No…'
'It's a teleportation-type ability!'
In a split second, Sivir pieced together some crucial information and quickly turned to look at Ken.
Before she could open her mouth to remind Ken, he saw Moses, who had just disappeared, appear in front of Ken.
At this moment, Ken still maintained the motion of swinging his sword downwards.
In that brief moment, less than a second, 3D Hisoka's had been completely ineffective, and he was 'cut' into two halves by Ken's sword. Then, 3D Hisoka dissolved into black foam and quickly sank into the ground.
In reality…
It was still Moses's active control ability that allowed 3D Hisoka to split along the path of Ken's downward slash, creating the illusion of being cut in half.
After Ken's attack had 'missed' in this manner, Moses had the shadow quickly feign disintegration, and in the process of sinking to the ground, it used In to erase all traces of its existence.
Then…
Moses used the Shadow Shift ability to switch places with the shadow that used In before.
This brief exchange not only allowed him to dodge Sivir's attack, but also provided an opportunity to kill Ken.
The moment his figure appeared, Moses took a step forward, and his empty right hand was in a posture as if he's holding a sword and slashing forward.
It's as if…
He's holding an invisible sword.
Immediately afterwards, Moses moved past Ken, whose sword was still extended in a downward slash.
During this process, Nen surged in Moses empty right hand, and a black long sword appeared out of thin air. Combined with the sword-swinging gesture he had made in advance, it swiftly sliced across Ken's neck.
A cold flash of blade light.
Moses stopped behind Ken, holding the black sword tightly in his right hand, and holding it straight at his side.
Splurt!
At the same time, a stream of blood spurted out from Ken's neck.
His eyes trembled as he turned his head with difficulty, looking at the back of the boy, who had become so formidable in just 'two seconds' in his cognition.
'What kind of ability is that... How... did he change so suddenly...'
Overwhelmed by the bizarre and unpredictable ability, Ken gradually felt the creeping sensation of suffocation as his strength was rapidly draining away.
However, the questions he had in his dying moments would remain unanswered, buried with him in the darkness of death.