The mysterious woman flashed the same gentle smile with which she had rescued the young man from the abyss, on the day his life turned upside down. Ever since then, discovering the identity of his charming savior had become one of Lied’s main goals.

“It’s you. I wanted to see you again” he said, as surprised as he was curious.

The lady subtly pointed her right index finger toward the pedestal, as if trying to tell him something. Lied followed her finger with his eyes and paid close attention to the apple lying there, its color reminding him of the golden aura surrounding the woman.

“You’re the Adam’s Apple…” the Lost Prince concluded.

He stood before a mirage—perhaps the apple’s own consciousness incarnate in the form of a person. At least, that was his perception.

Lied placed his hand on the fruit, which began to glow at his touch.

“I get it. You don’t want to leave here, do you?” the teenager said, locking eyes with her as he posed the rhetorical question, before they both nodded in unison.

🐍🐍🐍

On Level -4 of the Restricted Block, Mare, Susumu, and Pantera waited with bated breath for any reaction from Lied, who had fallen unconscious after suffering a mental collapse.

Much to Mare and Susumu’s relief, the Adam’s Heir came to right on cue. The fiendish pupils had vanished from his eyes, and he no longer felt that tightness in his chest or his blood boiling. The hero was back for one last dance.

“I keep getting saved time and time again. To be honest, I’m not sure if I deserve all these favors…” Lied said with a tender look, before activating the Spirit Mode “Let’s finish this, Pantera!” the youth said, staring intently at the aztec as he took a fighting stance.

“…I don’t know what happened to you in those long seconds you were unconscious, but our fight is already over. No matter what you do, your favorite technique won’t work again” Pantera said coldly.

“We’ll see. The one I have to surpass isn’t you, but myself” Lied said, more determined than ever after that last boost of confidence.

“Stubborn to the very end…” the aztec sighed and said, resigned but no less vigilant.

The dauntless human advanced toward Pantera as the fire within him burned brighter than ever, the duel resuming amid palpable tension. However, the victor was practically decided, and Lied only had energy for one last attack. It was do or die.

The prince slid his right foot four centimeters away in comparison with the standard Unda and channeled teotl into his hand. The Adam’s Cross quivered, echoing the resolve of the black-haired teen.

“Five-Kai…”

the man thought after watching the movement of his opponent’s right foot, and summoned his spear.

Lied aimed the

cross swell

at Pantera’s abdomen, as the latter felt supremely confident. At that exact instant, the human momentarily awakened his light-green fiendish pupils and outsmarted his opponent with one of those superhuman zigzags.

“A feint! Good one!” Susumu exclaimed with unfeigned enthusiasm.

Despite being completely caught off guard by the boy’s body feint—proven by the fact that he couldn’t properly angle his spear for a teotl-imbued thrust—Pantera remained unfazed by this minor turn of events. On the contrary, the man gave an insolent smile and merely switched hands with his weapon.

“So close… but unfortunately for you, I’m ambidextrous. Game over, kid!” Pantera said, wielding the spear with his left hand as he prepared to strike a fatal blow.

Time froze for Lied in the microsecond that stood between life and death.

In that soundless vacuum, the lad’s mind swept him away to the familiar shores of Shirahama Beach in Shimoda. There, sitting side by side on the sand, were little Lied and Seiji Fujita. The boy longed to step into the water, but he wanted someone else to go with him, and he knew his father couldn’t come along this time.

Lied felt Seiji’s warm hand on his shoulder and looked up at him; smiling, the man pointed his right index finger ahead. The bairn followed the gesture and saw young Hitoshi bathed in sunset light, extending his hand as though inviting him to go together. Lied remembered, then, that he was no longer alone; he no longer had to fight on his own. At last, the child accepted his friend’s invitation, and the two charged headlong into the waves.

Time began to march once more, and the Lost Prince did the unthinkable: he summoned the Anima Sancta into his left hand and, with his sword, severed the Five-Kai. For a fleeting moment, the illusion of sixteen-year-old Hitoshi could be seen holding the Unda while Lied broke it.

“What…?!” the hunter gasped, dumbfounded by what he was seeing.

The

cross swell

began to transform into a

spilling breaker

as its crest—previously flattened and rounded—grew unstable with the wave’s own expansion. This «miracle» occurred thanks to a new, groundbreaking application of the Density property: Lied worked his sword as a craftsman would his tool, slicing through the Unda with surgical precision—to the point of altering its shape and causing it to fracture fewer times.

Just when all seemed utterly lost, the teenager’s instinct, paired with a stroke of genius, spared him from defeat yet again.

“I see. In the heat of battle, that’s the answer he arrived at” Zosimus said upon realizing exactly what had happened “It’s as if his spirit surpasses itself with every passing second, making the impossible possible. Furthermore, using the Density property with the proficiency of a master blacksmith should, in theory, be unthinkable for one so young” the detective’s shadow remarked, frankly.

“So that’s what he meant…” Mare murmured, fascinated.

“Huh?” Susumu said as he gazed curiously at the girl.

“It’s something Zaccharias, Lied’s ‘teacher’, told me once about him. Of all his qualities, his biggest strength is his adaptability” Mare said.

“The ability to adjust to new conditions or situations, hm? It makes sense” Zosimus said.

“Honestly… he never fails to amaze me” Susumu said, yielding a smile.

Lied dispelled the Anima Sancta and recalibrated his aim mid-motion right in front of a resigned Pantera. The man knew victory had slipped from his grasp, yet, oddly enough, he appeared to be at peace with the idea of losing.

“Martyr is someone I must defeat at all costs in order to understand who I really am. And I have the feeling that you are the last step I must climb… if I want to look him in the eye without fear” the prince said, reiterating his ultimate goal.

In response, Pantera smiled as if he had enjoyed himself immensely.

The

spilling breaker

crashed with a loud roar, and the aztec tumbled slowly backward from the impact.

“Two-Kai Unda Breakthrough,

Spilling Breaker

”

Lied said.

“Don’t worry, Zaccharias. Lied is getting stronger, so wait for us”

Mare thought, smiling hopefully.

The hunter lay conscious on the ground, that smug grin of his never leaving his face. Meanwhile, Susumu and Mare rushed over to help the panting Lied stand up, but the Adam’s Heir adamantly refused their assistance after deactivating the Spirit Mode, walking instead toward his fallen foe. The aztec’s gaze met the human’s, both visibly drained.

“Every dog has its day” Pantera said, staring up at the ceiling of Mictlan with an air of condescension.

“My inspiration was my luck. If we were to fight again, I would probably lose” Lied said, his tone humble despite his triumph.

“Maybe, but today the prey bested the predator, which is ironic. Still, to use your blade like that, at such a crucial moment… no normal person would ever try something like that” the man spoke his mind before honoring his word “The guy you’re looking for should be leaving Level Minus Six by now, if he hasn’t already made it to Minus Seven. That was where I last felt his teotl, shortly after the detective blew our floor to pieces. He’s no ordinary man either, that Martyr. I sensed a tremendous bloodlust when we locked eyes… strangely, the very same I felt coming from you” he said, meeting the Lost Prince’s eyes with a piercing stare.

Lied lowered his head and placed his hand on his chest, thoughtful and melancholy. He already had a hunch that there was more binding him to Martyr—and by extension, to Nachash—than just the Adam’s Apple, a truth he would only uncover when their paths crossed once again.

“You had plenty of chances to land the finishing blow, but you didn’t. Why?” Lied asked as he stared at Pantera.

“Heh, because it was never my intention to steal the apple from you and come back to life. I was merely curious about what a Spirit Mode master like that talking crow saw in you—and now, I think I get the picture” the hunter said, picking up his cowboy hat and settling it onto his head “Even though I had a teacher—my father, who was also a Full Spirit Mode user—I never imagined I’d end up teaching anyone else“ he said with a chuckle.

“You were training me?” the prince asked, surprised.

Pantera stared long at the ceiling once more, this time with an unusual sense of complacency. A brief silence fell over the floor while the man sorted through his feelings.

“There was another reason. It’s hard to put into words, but I felt it was my moral obligation to guide you, as if it were…” Pantera went quiet, then abruptly let out a laugh, entirely out of nowhere “…My «destiny», of course!” he shouted, a shiver running down his spine.

“One last question: do you have any regrets? Things you wished you had done while you were still alive, I mean” Lied asked.

“Hunting ran in our family, and my father trained me from an early age to be a hunter whose services were requested day in, day out. As such, my life has always revolved around the idea of hunting or being hunted. A pastime and a trade: nothing gave me greater pleasure, and that was how I wished to spend the rest of my years” Pantera said.

“To live with a single purpose. I kind of envy that freedom…” the young man confessed.

“The cost of freedom can be steep. In my case, the price was particularly high” the aztec said in a serious tone, referring to his own death.

That was the perfect cue for Pantera’s body to begin disintegrating into spiritual particles. The flame of his spirit was dying out with a sense of duty fulfilled, but not without tying up a few final loose ends first.

Fixing his full attention on Lied’s all-too-familiar light green eyes, the man drifted through the mists of memory back to the final chapter of his life, eleven years ago, in the mountains of Aqua. On that sunny afternoon, in the heart of the hinterland, Pantera had come across a lad who, no matter how many times the hunter told him to move, refused to get out of the way—all because of a mere deer.

Pantera would end up being killed, shortly after, by that very child’s father.

As the hunter played in his mind those harsh memories, any lingering doubt that his encounter with Lied in Mictlan was the work of fate quickly dissolved. Everything became clear.

“Ah, so that was you… the son of the

snake

” Pantera said upon seeing the truth “Another thing I wished for was revenge against my killer, and now, through his descendant, I have been given that chance. There is no longer anything holding me to the prison of the Underworld. At least… my spirit feels much lighter…” he murmured, half his body already faded away, as he felt himself transcending into an idyllic state.

“Pantera…” Lied said softly, feeling a sense of empathy for the opponent he had defeated.

“Kid… don’t let your guard down” Pantera bade farewell, finally disappearing.

“I hope that you have a good reincarnation” the prince said, bestowing his blessing as a final gesture of respect.

The Adam’s Heir raised his head and, alongside Susumu and Mare, gazed at the horizon where destiny and all its other chosen ones awaited them.

Lied’s current SSL:

70%

[END OF CHAPTER]

[ARC “RESTRICTED BLOCK” ENDS]

[END OF VOLUME 4]