The grand hall remained silent for several minutes, the weight of the previous discussion still hanging in the air. Then, the quiet was broken by the calm voice of a man wearing a black half-sleeved shirt. His gaze sweeping across the room.
"मुझे लगता है कि इस सब के पीछे की वजह... शायद कोई टूटी ज़ंजीरों का युग वापस लाने की कोशिश कर रहा है।"
"I believe the reason behind all this… might be someone trying to bring back the Era of the Broken Chain," he said.
The moment those words left his mouth, the entire hall froze. The silence returned, even heavier than before. Delegates began glancing at one another, uneasy expressions spreading like a ripple. It was a name no one wanted to hear again.
"أعتقد أن تخمينك قد يكون صحيحًا."
"I think your guess may be right,"
Another man responded this one dressed in a flowing white thobe, his long beard around four inches in length. His voice was calm, but firm.
لكن هذا مستحيل. لا تنسَ أن لدينا من أنهى ذلك العصر."
"But it's impossible. Don't forget we still have the one who ended that era."
"...तुम सही कह रहे हो,"
"..You're right,"
the man in black said softly. Then he paused, looking down at the floor, his jaw tight with doubt.
"लेकिन अगर... किडो ज़ेन अब ज़िंदा नहीं है तो?"
"But what if... Kido Zen is no longer alive?"
That name hit the room like a shockwave. A few people clenched their fists tightly. Others shifted in their seats legs trembling, eyes wide with unspoken fear. The weight of that thought settled deep in the room, and no one dared to speak next.
„Du kannst solche Aussagen nicht einfach so in den Raum werfen."
"You can't just throw around statements like that," a woman with long black hair snapped, her tone sharp and unforgiving.
„Schon ein einziges Gerücht könnte Chaos auslösen. Du weißt genau, was dann passiert."
"Even a rumor getting out could cause chaos. You know what'll happen."
"لا تنفعلي."
"Don't get worked up," the bearded man replied calmly.
"هو فقط يشارك أفكاره."
"He's just sharing his thoughts."
"就算你的理论是对的,"
"Let's assume your theory is right," said another man, seated across the table. His long hair was neatly combed back, and he removed his glasses slowly, placing them on the table in front of him.
"但在我们上周目睹了'太阳之息'之后,你不能这么说."
"But you can't say that after what we saw last week the Breath of the Sun."
"मुझे पता है,"
"I know," the man in the black shirt replied, adjusting his rolled-up sleeve with a thoughtful frown.
"लेकिन अगर इस बार वो हमला किडो ज़ेन ने नहीं किया तो? हमने इस बार उसे सीधे तौर पर वो तकनीक इस्तेमाल करते हुए देखा ही नहीं। किसी ने भी उस हमले के पीछे वाले शख्स को नहीं देखा। हम तो बस मान रहे हैं कि वो किडो ज़ेन था… क्योंकि हमने पहले सिर्फ उसी को वो हमला करते देखा है।"
"But what if it wasn't him who used that attack? We never actually saw Kido Zen use it directly this time. No one saw the person behind it. We're just assuming it was him.. because he's the only one we've seen use it before."
The room was quiet for a heartbeat, until the blonde woman with the tomboy haircut leaned forward and stared at him.
„Dann sag mir, wer sonst diesen Angriff einsetzen kann?"
"Then tell me who else can use that attack?" she challenged.
„Du? Ich? Irgendjemand in diesem Raum?"
"You? Me? Anyone in this room?"
Her voice grew more intense with each word.
„Niemand kann das. Diese Technik erfordert eine Kontrolle, die kaum vorstellbar ist. Sie kann eine ganze Region in Sekunden entweder zerstören oder beschützen. Und selbst wenn es jemand anderes auf diesem Niveau geschafft hätte – es wäre genauso furchteinflößend, als hätte er es getan. Kein einziger SSS-Rang-Evolver, nicht einmal eine Gruppe zusammen, könnte auch nur die Hälfte von dem erreichen, was dieser Angriff getan hat."
"No one can. That technique requires control beyond belief. It can either destroy or protect an entire region in seconds. And even if someone else pulled it off at that level it'd still be as terrifying as if he had. Not a single SSS-rank Evolver, not even a group of them working together, could match half of what that attack did."
She locked eyes with the man in black.
"आप सभी की बातें वाजिब हैं। मैं जानता हूँ कि आप क्या कह रहे हैं,"
"You all make valid points. I know everything you're saying," the man in the black shirt said.
"लेकिन मैं जो कहना चाहता हूँ वो ये है कि अगर किडो ज़ेन अभी भी ज़िंदा होता, तो अब तक वो इस सबके पीछे छिपे इंसान को ढूंढ चुका होता… और उसे एक दिन में राख बना देता। आप सब जानते हैं कि वो कैसे शिकार करता है।"
"But what I'm trying to say is if Kido Zen were still alive, he would've already found the one behind all this and turned them to ash in a day. You all know how he hunts."
He paused, glancing around the room.
"और फिर भी, जापान में 'सन की सांस' जैसी विनाशकारी तकनीक के इस्तेमाल के बाद… उन्होंने सिर्फ एक हफ्ते में रूस पर हमला करने की हिम्मत कर ली। और ज़ेन ने कुछ नहीं किया। वो आदमी, जो कभी शांति भंग करने वालों को माफ नहीं करता था—उसने कुछ नहीं किया।"
"And yet, even after Breath of the Sun was unleashed in Japan... they still dared to launch an attack on Russia just a week later. And Zen did nothing. The man who once showed no mercy to anyone who tried to disrupt peace did nothing."
He took a sip of water, letting the silence return for a moment.
"你说得对."
"You're right," said the long-haired man, slowly putting his glasses back on as his brows drew together in thought.
"Kido Zen 已经消失了十多年.然后,就在世界和平即将崩溃的时候,'太阳之息'突然再次出现.没有人看到他,也没有人看到任何东西.这太可疑了."
"Kido Zen's been absent for over ten years. Then, just when peace is on the verge of collapsing, Breath of the Sun appears again out of nowhere. No one saw him. No one saw anything. It's suspicious."
He leaned back slightly, voice lower now.
"但就像她刚才说的...能施展那种技能所需要的控制力,甚至超出了所有 SSS 级进化者联合起来的极限."
"But as she said earlier... the level of control needed to pull off that technique is beyond even what a group of SSS-rank Evolvers could do combined."
He looked around the room, his voice drifting into unease.
"那...是谁?谁能释放出那种攻击?地球上真的有人拥有和 Kido Zen 相当的力量,甚至还能完美掌控这种力量吗?我们真的有那样的人存在吗?"
"So.. who was it? Who could've used that attack? Who on Earth has power equal to Kido Zen's, let alone the ability to control it perfectly? Do we even have anyone like that?"
The room remained still, the weight of that question pressing down on every delegate.
----
[Tanezrouft Basin, Algeria]
"Ugh, why are we here again?" Jin asked, glancing at Shun, who wiped the sweat off his forehead with his shirt sleeve. The sun blazed overhead, turning the already scorching desert into a furnace. Nearby, the massive scorpion lay motionless in the sand, still unconscious.
"I told you, teleportation's weird," Shun said, placing a hand on Jin's shoulder. "Sometimes it works. Sometimes it just dumps us somewhere random."
"Wait... you're expecting me to teleport us?" Jin asked, his tone as gentle as always, but there was a clear trace of exhaustion in his eyes.
"Yeah. Who else would I be counting on?" Shun replied casually.
"Well, bad news then." Jin looked around at the endless stretch of sand, not even a mountain or building in sight not even at the horizon. "You remember I'm getting weaker by the day.. and so is my teleportation. I can only manage it two, maybe three times a day now max."
"I know," Shun said, grabbing the water bottle from Jin and taking a quick sip. "But you haven't used your teleportation today. We got here through my darkness, remember?"
"I did use it," Jin replied, his voice calm as always. "Right before you fought that scorpion, I teleported to that hill, then came back to you and grabbed this water bottle while I was at it. So yeah.. we're out. Better luck next time."
He dropped onto the hot sand with a lazy thud, lying flat on his back as he stared straight up at the sun. It was burning his eyes, but he didn't look away.
Shun kicked him lightly in the leg. "Get up. If we can't teleport, we better start walking before that thing wakes up again."
He glanced at the massive scorpion, still unconscious but far from comforting.
Jin turned his head toward it, sighed, then slowly sat up. "You know which direction leads out of here?"
Shun blinked. "Huh? I'm depending on you. Don't expect anything from me."
Jin exhaled a long, tired breath. "Why did I even ask..."
He stood up, brushing the sand from his clothes. "Let's go this way."
The two of them began walking toward the distant hill, the desert stretching endlessly in every direction behind them.
[Chapter 37 end]