[126]: Standing Corpses
The capsules Maro handed out were incredibly effective. Upon entering the water, they could breathe just as easily as on land—even speaking underwater was possible.
"Blub blub blub…" Gon spoke, bubbles escaping his mouth.
Noticing the figures ahead, he quickly paddled his limbs to catch up.
The group kept diving deeper and deeper. As they spotted bubbles rising in the distance, Gon and Killua remembered the second capsule and decided to use it.
A balloon-like barrier expanded around them before shrinking to fit snugly against their bodies. It felt like a thin bodysuit—almost like a protective membrane.
It didn't restrict their breathing, nor did it cause discomfort from the water pressure. Their voices could also carry more clearly to each other.
"Gon, look!" Killua pointed to their right.
Gon turned his head—and was met with the sight of a vast, eerie underwater fortress.
The structure stood hundreds of meters tall, built entirely from stone. Over the years, coral and seaweed had grown all over it, making it appear ancient and desolate. It rested silently on the ocean floor, as if it had remained undiscovered for centuries.
Its overall shape resembled a coiled serpent, layered upon itself. Hundreds of windows dotted its walls.
Fish swam in and out of those windows—alongside something else.
A flickering white fire.
White flames… in the deep sea? Ghost fire?
Both Killua and Gon instinctively activated Gyo, channeling their aura into their eyes to discern the true form of the eerie glow.
What they saw—
Was a fish.
Its entire body was transparent, its internal organs and flowing blood clearly visible. And yet, it radiated a white light, resembling a living flame.
"That's 'White Fire,' one of the Seven Color Beauties. If you catch one and bring it to the surface, you could sell it for 2 to 3 billion Jenny," came a calm voice beside them.
The white-haired, blue-eyed boy with facial markings pointed at the glowing fish.
"Two to three billion?!"
Gon and Killua's eyes immediately turned into money signs.
"Just so you know," Cyr added with an amused smirk, "these fish have extremely high water quality requirements. If they're not properly taken care of… they'll die right in front of you in less than a second."
He had tried catching a few before, intending to keep them in his airship as natural light sources. But within ten minutes, they had all perished before his eyes.
Their once-transparent, ethereal bodies had rotted into a foul-smelling black sludge, polluting an entire tank of water.
His White Fire Fish breeding plan had ended before it even began.
"That high-maintenance, huh…?" Killua muttered, reaching out to grab one.
"Three… two… one…" Cyr silently counted down.
The moment he finished, the beautiful fish in Killua's hand turned into black liquid, dissolving into the seawater.
"Wha—?! Ew, ew, ew!" Killua yelped, frantically shaking his hand in disgust. "What the hell just happened?!"
"That's just how they are. The moment a human touches them, they die on the spot," Cyr said, laughing at the all-too-familiar scene.
"This is ridiculous!" Killua kept shaking his hand as if trying to rid himself of the invisible filth. Only after a while did he calm down—before suddenly remembering something.
Wait… he hadn't actually touched the fish directly.
The protective membrane was still between them.
"Even through the barrier?" Killua frowned.
"Yup. Even if you use Nen to grab them, they'll still die instantly," Cyr shrugged, as if he had already tested it. "The only way to catch them is to weave a cage out of deep-sea coral or seaweed—without touching them directly. As long as you can trap one in the cage and bring it to the surface that way, it should be fine…"
He sighed.
"Not that it matters, since they can't survive in upper waters anyway. They only live in the deep sea."
The moment they left their natural habitat, they would die.
Cyr figured it must be due to their sensitivity to the surface world—sunlight, oxygen levels, water pressure… Something up there simply wasn't meant for them.
The nature of these creatures meant that they would die instantly with the slightest mishap.
"…If they only survive for ten minutes after being brought to the surface," Killua muttered, deep in thought, "then there's no way we'd be able to sell them in time."
Forget two or three billion—he wouldn't even make a single Jenny.
"That's why I was only introducing them to you," Cyr said nonchalantly before swimming toward the structure ahead.
The swaying seaweed moved with the current, almost as if it were waving at them.
One by one, the group entered the building through its windows.
Surprisingly, the interior was well-preserved, without any signs of significant damage. Strangely enough, it looked much larger from the inside than it did from the outside.
Towering stone pillars, intricately carved with ancient patterns, supported the structure from all sides. A labyrinth of archways stretched endlessly in every direction, making it feel as though they had stepped into an infinite maze.
Small, glowing blue pearls embedded in the walls emitted an eerie, dim light.
Giant seashells lay scattered on the floor, carelessly discarded.
No furniture. No clothing. No signs of human habitation.
"Which civilization could've built this place…?" Killua asked, puzzled.
"Civilization?" Cyr's tone was odd. "More like a monster's lair." His answer carried an ambiguous meaning.
He had seen it.
Something lurking not too far ahead.
"A monster? You mean this place was made by magical beasts?" Gon speculated.
The group pressed forward, deeper into the ruins.
Then—
Faint human-like figures came into view in the distance.
Gon suddenly halted. A sense of unease crept over him. His expression turned serious as he cautiously scanned their surroundings.
"I feel… like something is waiting for us up ahead," he murmured.
"You mean those people?" Killua gestured toward the figures in front of them.
They looked just like human silhouettes—standing eerily still.
"…I don't know." Gon closed his eyes, focusing his senses. After a moment, he shook his head.
He couldn't feel any emotions from them.
Even though sunlight could penetrate the ocean's surface, it would never reach the depths they stood in now.
Dark. Silent. Unwelcoming.
This was a place that rejected outsiders.
"They're just corpses," Cyr said casually, continuing forward.
"Corpses?"
As they approached, the truth became clear.
What stood before them were lifeless bodies—stiff, swollen, and grotesquely bloated from prolonged exposure to water. Their faces were completely unrecognizable.
Marine scavengers had made a feast of their remains. Though small in size, these creatures did not escape the sharp perception of Cyr's Six Eyes.
Some of the corpses had been picked clean, leaving only pale gray-white skeletons. Flesh, organs—gone without a trace. Their tattered clothes clung loosely to their frames, or had disintegrated into scraps scattered across the floor.
Others were still in the process of decay—greenish, mottled, their tissues rotting away.
A textbook case of Giant's Fall.
And every single one of them—without exception—had died standing.
Like the final sentinels of this ancient structure.
But then—
"A Hunter License," Killua muttered, picking up a half-buried, tattered bag. A damaged but unmistakable license peeked out from within.
The serial number on the card indicated its age.
This person clearly hadn't been a native of the ruins.
Which meant…
They were intruders—just like them.
And in the end, they had never made it out.
Finding some amusement in identifying the corpses, Gon began searching for further clues.
"This one… was a pirate?"
"This one was a martial artist."
Each corpse belonged to a different profession—Hunters, martial artists, even some carrying equipment similar to those used by professional tomb raiders.
They hadn't come as a group.
They had arrived separately, in different waves.
And judging by the varying degrees of decomposition, they had perished at different times.
°°°
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