In the stillness of the late night, the silence of the hotel was torn apart by a sudden roar—and its source was Wise.
"It's the Exaltists! Everyone be careful!"
The moment those three words left his mouth, every heart in the vicinity leapt into their throats.
Billy, who had only just powered up, wasn't sure what was happening. But upon hearing the name Exaltists, he instantly grabbed his handgun and switched into combat mode.
Elsewhere, the Victoria Housekeeping Co. had also heard Wise's shout. At the front, Lycaon led Ellen and the others into the corridor, then stopped to think aloud. "Exaltists... Could it be the ones who attacked us before?"
Victoria Housekeeping Co. still had no real understanding of who the Exaltists were, nor that their previous assailants had been from that very group. But Lycaon knew one thing: if even the Cunning Hares were this tense, whoever they were facing had to be extraordinarily dangerous.
"Rina, Ellen—get ready. We're likely in for a real fight." With that, Lycaon flexed his wrists and his expression turned grim.
As for Ellen, her thoughts were a mess. All she could think about was Zhong Yan. If the attacker hadn't possibly been after him, she wouldn't have felt any need to get involved.
...
"Everyone's here now, huh..." From within the room, the cloaked young man scanned the circle of people surrounding him both inside and out. His gaze grew heavier.
Then, he looked up at Zhong Yan, who stood at the entrance, and slowly said, "Originally, you were supposed to be the final target. But it seems things have changed."
"Tell me, if I blew this entire hotel sky high, how many people could you save? Or maybe—none at all, Uchiha?"
The moment he addressed Zhong Yan as Uchiha, everyone in the room froze—especially Anby and Belle, who were the most emotionally invested in him. Their minds immediately began to race.
But the attacker had no intention of giving them time to think.
Zhong Yan's expression darkened the instant he heard those words. Just then, Victoria Housekeeping Co. arrived at the scene.
Before they could speak, they saw multicolored energy visibly spilling from the youth's body. In seconds, the entire room was saturated.
"This is..." Lycaon immediately sensed the danger.
Ether—energy that should only exist within the Hollows—was now flooding the real world.
And the pressure of this ether was overwhelming. Even minimal exposure was enough to make ordinary people feel extreme discomfort or even suffocate.
Very quickly, the room could no longer contain the power. Cracks spidered across the walls. Sensing the tipping point, Anby lunged forward with a swift attack.
Electric-blue energy surged along the blade as she stabbed toward the attacker's head.
But just before impact, the terrifying energy dissolved her blade into a thick, viscous fluid.
Shocked, Anby instantly retracted what was left of the weapon, terrified that even her hands might melt away.
Zhong Yan hesitated—but that hesitation lasted just long enough for the ether within the room to reach its final threshold.
In the next second, under countless despairing stares, the wildly expanding ether exploded into a blazing inferno that engulfed the room—and then the entire hotel.
BOOM!
As the scene pulled back, a towering pillar of flame erupted from the hotel's center, so bright it lit up the night sky like a second sun.
Watching the terrifying sight unfold, nearby bystanders who finally reacted began frantically calling the city's security hotline.
Inside the firestorm, everyone—including Belle—felt their scalps prickle from the searing heat.
Strangely though, none of them were burned alive. It was as if some mysterious force was shielding them from the blaze.
As the fire began to fade, it became clear that no trace of the hotel remained.
But now they could see it—a massive figure, deep-blue in color, was wrapped tightly around them all.
Its protection was the reason they'd survived.
"Zhong Yan...?" Anby looked up and saw Zhong Yan standing at the front. As she felt the powerful pressure emanating from him, her expression froze.
Zhong Yan slowly turned his head in response to her voice, revealing a pair of blood-red eyes, adorned with a black lotus-shaped pattern.
His expression was unreadable.
Everyone who saw him fell silent in shock.
They all remembered those eyes—the Sharingan belonged to the Uchiha. And that towering blue figure? That was a manifestation of Uchiha power.
Combined with the earlier enemy's words...
By now, everyone understood. Though it had all happened too fast to fully process—let alone accept.
Zhong Yan... was the Uchiha.
"You..." Ellen suddenly remembered—during the assault on the Victoria Housekeeping Co. estate back in the Hidden Village, a mysterious figure had saved her.
And he had eyes exactly like Zhong Yan's.
It had been him. There was no doubt anymore.
"This... this can't be real, right?" Belle muttered, hand over her mouth, eyes wide. She couldn't believe that the private agent she had worked with for so long was actually the Uchiha.
If she'd known back then, all those careful Hollow explorations would've been completely unnecessary. With someone like him around, they could've bulldozed their way through anything—no scan data required.
Faced with everyone's stunned expressions, Zhong Yan had no idea what to say. Not that he had time for explanations now—because just a short distance away, another mass of ether was visibly beginning to coalesce.
In mere moments, it reformed into the very same young man.
It was clear the explosion had affected him too—but as long as ether still flowed through his body, he could regenerate without limit. Death wasn't a concern.
What did surprise him, though, was that despite such a brutal attack, Zhong Yan had managed to save everyone.
No—he had saved everyone connected to him. All the other hotel guests and staff?
Completely obliterated. Not even ashes remained.