As Conrad said his words, he kept on looking at the woman.
His reason for stopping and not keeping on attacking was not that complex at all.
He remembered Camillia, the second prince of the Kakin Royal Family.
Her ability worked when she entered Zetsu and used post-mortem nen.
It would be too far away to think that this woman named Melisand has the same sort of ability, but "surrendering" may be some sort of condition that activates some sort of an ability that he is not prepared to fight against.
But of course, it would also be pretty rare that she would have the same kind of ability as Camilla.
Conrad did not feel like it, but he was not a man that acted on how he felt.
He believed, as long as the odds are he is on the right way and winning.
There is no need for arrogance and impatience to try to end the fight faster than he would need it to be.
That was the problem with most of the Nen fights.
Among experienced Nen users, a sudden action was itself a structure.
For Conrad, and for almost anyone who had survived long enough to learn, surrender was a gamble posed in words.
There are two choices, he thought.
She surrenders. I accept. A condition completes, and I don't know what activates.
She surrenders. I refuse. Another condition may still be complete, and I still don't know what activates it.
These two choices are most likely rigged.
Conrad believed that a woman like Melisand, who has a relatively strong defensive ability, would surrender in a battle just to surrender.
If her ability involves something like this, "If an enemy who wants to kill me and the person I defend is able to break two or three of my 'Nen Shields,' I am able to surrender, and at that point, if the enemy accepts my surrender, the ability of mine will be activated."
Conrad did not know what the ability would do, but such a long and complex condition that needed many things to fulfill would do no good to him if he fulfilled the conditions of the enemy.
Conrad's eyes never left Melisand.
While Adarte kept his silence.
He wanted to see more of Conrad and what he is going to do and also trusted Conrad to handle the woman with much of a problem.
She stood stiffly, her aura flickering unevenly where her defensive techniques had been shattered twice already.
He smiled.
It was the expression of someone who had already made a decision and was simply allowing the moment to catch up.
The White Death Orb bolt fired from the doorway without warning.
It was pure emission, compressed, colorless, and silent until the air screamed apart around it.
Melisand reacted on instinct alone.
A Nen shield formed in front of her.
The bolt struck.
The shield shattered like brittle glass.
Aura collapsed inward and vanished.
The force drove Melisand backward, boots scraping, her body skidding across the floor as blood sprayed from her shoulder where the edge of the emission had grazed flesh.
She did not scream.
"I didn't expect you to be this cruel."
Melisand said, breath tight, eyes locked on him.
Conrad stepped forward once,
His aura remained calm.
Her gaze flicked to the window.
Only half a second.
It was enough.
"No," Conrad whispered.
He moved.
His foot slid, angle changing, body aligning with a vector she hadn't calculated fast enough.
Melisand bolted.
She reached the window in a single leap, fingers already touching the frame, body turning sideways to slip through.
And then she saw it.
A small orb floated just beyond the glass.
Her pupils constricted.
"No."
"This"
Understanding arrived fully formed, without explanation.
There was no time for panic.
Aura threading through the environment.
The orb wasn't placed for her escape; it was waiting for it.
The Aura Blast Orb detonated.
Not outward.
Forward.
The explosion unfolded in a cone shape, compressed and released in a singular direction.
The glass vaporized. The wall deformed.
The pressure wave erased Melisand mid-motion; her body was crushed, torn, and dispersed before her Nen could even attempt to reassert structure.
There was no scream.
Only the sound of destruction completing itself.
The cone did not stop at her.
Maxwell was caught at the outer edge of the blast.
Bones fractured.
His body slammed into the wall and fell still.
Conrad lowered his arm.
For a moment, he stood.
His En expanded briefly, sweeping the space.
After understanding that Melisand and Maxwell died, he nodded.
Only then did he relax the flow of his Nen.
Behind him, Anisa stepped into the room, revolver already lowered, eyes scanning the aftermath.
"So," Adarte said quietly. "She tried it."
"Yes," Conrad replied.
"You didn't even let her finish."
"There was nothing she could say that wouldn't be part of it."
Anisa glanced at the shattered wall, then at Conrad.
Conrad then turned away from the window.