020 (Vol 4) HxH: Tombbound Power

Ignoring Nugui's stunned expression, the scattered circles of Twice-Cooked Pork have been retrieved.

The fierce battle in room 1001 has also come to an end.

Benjamin's life signature has vanished.

"Is it finally over?"

In room 1001, Luzurus, who had rushed over immediately after receiving Basho's message, looked at Benjamin's corpse—still seated upright against the wall—and murmured with a complicated tone.

Benjamin's eyes were half-lowered and slightly open. The hair on top of his head stood on end, made even sharper by the rigidity of death.

His expression was serene—no reluctance, no resentment. His whole body was enveloped in a still shadow, radiating a heavy, unsettling aura.

If it weren't for the absence of breath, Luzurus might've believed Benjamin was still alive.

Even in death, Benjamin upheld the royal decorum he believed a King of Kakin must maintain.

Beside him, Furykov, long silent, lay lifeless—accompanying him in death.

Benjamin would not walk the road to the afterlife alone.

...

"I never thought... you'd fall this far, Benjamin," Luzurus muttered, his voice low and conflicted.

He had expected to laugh, to sneer when he saw Benjamin's body. After all, Benjamin had been smuggling weapons—ideologically opposed to everything Luzurus believed in.

But in the end, standing before the lifeless body of the man who had been his greatest rival, Luzurus felt no joy. Only a strange lightness. A breath finally released.

The strongest prince was dead. The succession war was approaching its conclusion.

...

He wasn't the only one who felt it. Others who entered the room shared that same subtle relief.

Just before this, Furykov had gone berserk at the door when he saw them.

Kurapika and the others had used an ambient melody from Melody's flute to disorient him—then Leorio struck Furykov square on the bridge of the nose with a precise airborne punch.

It was a knockout blow.

Without hesitation, Kurapika and the rest moved in, launching a flurry of attacks.

They sent him to join Benjamin—before he even had time to react.

If there is a heaven for men like him...

Their surprise assault created such a disturbance that Benjamin, deep in meditation in the back room, was immediately alerted.

He rushed out.

That was the end.

Still injured, his aura far from recovered, Benjamin was powerless against Kurapika and the others, who were lying in wait.

The moment felt too familiar—just like when he had been forced to the brink by Halkenburg.

But this time, there would be no divine intervention. No miracle.

Benjamin seemed to accept that.

When he saw the guards of the lower princes aligned together—saw Basho among them—he seemed to understand.

"That damn Luzurus... what a move."

He spoke in a terrifyingly calm voice.

Then he took his own life.

No one takes my life. I decide where and how it ends.

That was Benjamin—arrogant to the end.

He died never realizing that Luzurus wasn't the one pulling the strings.

The true mastermind... he never even met.

...

After hearing Benjamin's final words from Basho, Luzurus sighed. Then he stepped forward to close Benjamin's eyes.

But Kurapika stopped him.

"Even though the First Prince is dead, he was our enemy. Resentment can linger after death. If you approach recklessly, Seventh Prince, you might trigger something."

Kurapika's tone was quiet, but firm. Basho nodded in agreement beside him.

Luzurus understood immediately.

He could still sense the oppressive aura clinging to Benjamin's corpse. The shock of Benjamin's death had just momentarily drawn his attention away.

He recalled how Camilla—the Second Queen's daughter—had been killed by Benjamin and Halkenburg early in the war. Her Nen ability had activated after death, and her corpse had generated massive resentment.

It was said that the King's soldiers handling her body paid a steep price for it...

Luzurus wasn't about to repeat that mistake.

He had made it to the final stages of the succession war—he wasn't going to die doing something that stupid now.

Benjamin was dead. That was enough. His body could be left to his steward, Nugui.

Even though the King's private troops had been all but wiped out by Benjamin's reckless tactics.

Let them deal with it.

...

But Ronnel's warning echoed in Luzurus's mind, casting a new shadow:

"Benjamin is dead, but the Egg in the Pot ritual requires that the princes settle on a single winner within two months. If none of you can make that decision... Then King himself may descend to make it for you."

During his earlier investigation into the Zhenlin Pavilion incident, Ronnel had spoken with one of the original examiners and obtained key information about the Egg in the Pot.

The parasitic Nen beasts embedded in each prince through the ritual were designed to help determine the ultimate heir.

If the princes failed to choose a winner... the beasts, or something worse, would.