Leo possesses two abilities related to manipulating shadows:
Puppet Manipulation Technique – removes a person's shadow and controls their actions through commands.
Beheading Within the Mind Technique – invades and takes control of the target's body via soul infiltration.
Leo's conjecture had been correct.
When using the Beheading Within the Mind Technique, if the controlled body is injured or killed, the damage is synchronized directly to Leo himself.
This is why, when Moro's probing attack landed, Leo reacted so strongly—immediately withdrawing his ability and forfeiting any further opportunity to act.
Thinking back on his rushed response earlier, Leo couldn't help but feel regret.
Recalling the situation carefully, he realized that if he had stayed calm, he could have noticed that the trajectory of Moro's projectile had slightly deviated.
If he had maintained his composure and kept his disguise, he might have achieved his goal.
But it was too late to change things now.
"Although I failed..."
Lowering his gaze, Leo's right thumb rubbed the hilt of his blade as he contemplated Moro's deliberately off-target projectile.
Would someone avoid causing unnecessary harm when faced with uncertainty?
This was something he could use.
Leo pushed away his regret.
Even if his abilities had been partially exposed, he still had room to maneuver.
With this thought, Leo gathered his aura, stepping into the black shadow before him. His entire body sank into it, vanishing completely.
Leo's Shadow Stream Technique allowed him to traverse freely through the shadows of ordinary people within a certain range. However, this ability could not coexist with the Puppet Manipulation Technique.
This was because those controlled by the Puppet Manipulation Technique lacked shadows.
Similarly, if he canceled the Beheading Within the Mind Technique, the controlled individual would die instantly, losing the shadow needed for the Shadow Stream Technique.
This explained why some people in the room had been tied to chairs.
After entering the shadow, Leo used the Shadow Stream Technique to select his next target for the Beheading Within the Mind Technique—
A defense officer aboard the airship!
At that moment—
Inside the airship's monitoring room, a defense officer anxiously stared at the many surveillance screens, clutching a walkie-talkie and reporting the situation to his colleagues.
Suddenly, the officer's expression froze, his body immobilized mid-action.
Leo had seized control of the officer using the Beheading Within the Mind Technique.
Click.
Leo turned off the walkie-talkie and activated the public address microphone.
"Attention, passengers. Attention, passengers. The airship is currently under attack by an unidentified group. However, the situation is under control, and our defense team is handling it. There is no need for alarm."
"For your safety, please proceed to the upper-level cockpit as soon as possible. I repeat, all passengers are requested to head to the upper-level cockpit immediately."
Using the officer's body, Leo broadcasted the announcement to the entire airship. Afterward, he turned off the microphone, glanced upward, and looked at the screen displaying the cockpit surveillance feed.
He had only embedded activation switches into fifty or so individuals.
Unless the switches were triggered, these people remained unaffected and appeared completely normal, serving as potential stepping stones for the Shadow Stream Technique.
With the broadcast, Leo resolved the problem of how to direct the passengers to Moro, including those he hadn't yet controlled.
Soon, a large crowd of passengers would pour into the cockpit.
This would allow him to maximize the chaos and exploit his latent puppets to the fullest.
It was an almost unsolvable scenario for Moro.
Unless Moro gave in to bloodlust and eliminated everyone—passengers and crew alike—just to remove the potential threat.
"You'll head to the cockpit right away, won't you? To force the airship to land..."
Leo stared at the monitor, watching Moro. "I won't let you succeed. Now, show me how you'll respond... hmm?"
Fixing his gaze on the surveillance feed, Leo suddenly noticed Moro looking directly at the camera.
For a fleeting moment, Leo felt as though their eyes met.
He noticed.
Realizing this, Leo's expression stiffened, and he watched as the screen began to shake violently before turning into static.
Moro had destroyed the cockpit camera.
"..."
Leo frowned deeply.
Although he believed his plan was foolproof, he also had a sense that things wouldn't be that simple.
In the Cockpit
Moro didn't pay much attention to the earlier broadcast.
"How peculiar," he murmured.
What intrigued him more was the obvious targeting involved.
To prevent him from interfering with the airship's navigation, the enemy had gone to great lengths.
With such abilities, wouldn't it make more sense to go after Kang?
Wait... something doesn't add up.
Moro glanced at the broken surveillance camera.
From the initial energy fluctuations and the general direction of the commotion, it was clear that someone had targeted the person Kang was protecting.
That was Kang of the Twelve Earthly Branches, a renowned hunter.
Yet, despite dealing with someone of Kang's caliber, the enemy had diverted resources.
And not just a small amount—significant resources.
This realization struck Moro like a bolt of lightning: the individual controlling the captain and making the broadcast might not even be after Kang's client.
From the very beginning... they were targeting him.
"Almost fell for it," Moro muttered, his expression sharpening.
If not for Kang's presence, he might not have deduced this so quickly.
With this realization, Moro shifted his focus to the controlled captain and first officer.
He had already studied them carefully.
The person controlling them was using a command-based manipulation ability.
This type of manipulation usually worked on puppets.
The captain and first officer were already dead.
Until the manipulator issued a new command, they would continue executing their last directive without deviation.
For now, Moro abandoned the idea of safely landing the airship. He also decided to leave the cockpit.
Initially, his plan had been to stall the manipulator using a defensive strategy.
His reasoning was that the manipulator's power likely came with certain limitations.
A multi-faceted ability, while versatile, inevitably came with proportional constraints.
Two forms of manipulation, combined with the capacity to control large numbers...
Moro surmised that the manipulator must bear the heavy cost of heightened energy consumption.
Had Leo been aware of Moro's deductions, he would undoubtedly have felt a chill.
After all—
Leo operated in the shadows, while Moro was in the light.
The asymmetry of information was significant.
Yet, even amid the chaos, Moro was able to discern the truth.
Thunk.
Moro, having revised his strategy, opened the cockpit door and walked out before the passengers could flood in.
As he expanded his En, he moved toward the earlier energy fluctuations.
He needed to confirm Kang's situation and plan accordingly based on the evolving circumstances.
In the worst-case scenario, he had to prepare for the possibility of the airship's destruction.
On his way toward Kang, Moro's En detected the presence of Nen energy.
"Hmm?"
Moro's gaze snapped to the viewing platform outside.
On the floor, roughly ten meters away, a series of cryptic symbols glowed faintly with Nen energy.
"Divine script?"
Moro didn't understand divine script, but he could recognize it—one of the perks of being a traveler from another world.
Why... would divine script appear here?
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Powerstones?
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