Due to Morel and the others, most of the ants' attention was drawn away, with most of the ant tribe inside the royal palace rushing toward the city walls.
"Hmm? This feeling? Have they started moving? Interesting." Meruem seemed to sense some kind of aura and suddenly looked up, a smile of unclear meaning appearing at the corner of his mouth.
"Pouf, Youpi, get ready to warm up. We'll be welcoming some visitors shortly. Quite a few of them too. Also notify all the ant tribe members that we're playing big this time." He just hadn't expected that after losing Knov's "Four-Dimensional Apartment" spatial-type Nen ability, the Hunter Association could still find another spatial-type Nen user. Indeed, one shouldn't underestimate anyone. But it's almost time. I can feel it - soon I'll be able to leave this world. Before that, let me indulge myself and properly enjoy the pleasure of battle. Several of those people seem to have decent strength.
"Pitou, you stay here and keep me company."
"Yes, King." Meow haha, I'm the one the King values most. Pitou squinted her eyes happily as she stood behind Meruem, her tail constantly twitching, showing her very pleasant mood.
Directly above the East Gorteau Royal Palace, several hundred meters in the sky, a giant strange bird was flying with several human figures standing on it.
"It looks like Morel and their plan is very successful." If anyone saw them, they would certainly cry out in surprise - among the people standing there were actually several members of the world's strongest assassin family, the Zoldyck family.
Silva, Zeno, and Maha.
"The Zodiac Twelve and Illumi's group should be acting soon too. Our target is only to kill the King. Take him out and leave immediately. Those ants' strength isn't weak - once we get entangled with them, it'll be difficult to leave." The speaker was someone who had never appeared in the Hunter world manga. This was a somewhat delicate-looking long-haired man who had been standing at the edge of the strange bird's body, looking down at the palace below. But anyone who could chat with world-class assassins wasn't simple goods. In the original work, Zeno and Netero also attacked the royal palace this way.
"Thank you all very much for coming to help avenge my father this time. After this incident ends, I'd like to invite you all to join me in going to the Dark Continent to explore that world's mysteries." Beyond Netero, Netero's son, the instigator who publicly revealed information about the Dark Continent and organized people to go there in the original work. His strength was unknown, but the original work mentioned he was suppressed while Netero was alive, so his direct combat strength should be weaker than Netero's.
"Don't get it wrong, kid. First, we didn't come here to avenge that old geezer Netero, but because we received a commission from the Hunter Association. Second, we have no interest whatsoever in that Dark Continent you mentioned." Maha's aged voice rang out, but Maha's mouth showed no movement.
Ventriloquism.
"I never thought that just to deal with one monster, the leaders would have the Hunter Association gather all of us here. Except for Ging and those two guys who lost contact, two of us five great Nen users actually showed up, right, Little Sauce." The disheveled uncle with a full face of stubble lazily spoke while scratching his head, but tons of dandruff were falling like snow along with his right hand. After finishing, he even patted the previously mentioned delicate-looking long-haired man, though rather than patting, it was more like he used the other's clothes as a rag to wipe his hands.
"I told you, don't call me Little Sauce, and don't mention that 'five great Nen users' thing you guys decided among yourselves. And get your dirty hands off me." The long-haired man disgustedly snatched his clothes back from the stubbled uncle, though there was already a yellow stain of unclear meaning on it.
"Ah~~ yes yes." The decadent uncle burped and yawned, with some tears immediately appearing in the corners of his eyes. Of course, there was also brown eye crust that wasn't wiped clean. He looked completely terrible overall.
"Hmph, I don't care about your five great Nen users. If we remember correctly, that title seems to be something you five guys gave yourselves, right? I heard Netero even went over to join in the fun. You few guys aren't even as good as Netero in direct confrontation, yet you dare call yourselves the world's top five? Overestimating yourselves." A body of robust muscles, a perfect inverted triangle physique, a square face, bright piercing eyes, and eyebrows even thicker than Rock Lee's. You could tell at a glance he was a martial artist, and also a bodybuilder. Well, much better image than that previous gorilla man. "I only know that guy who dares call himself King actually destroyed my Heaven's Arena while I was away. I swear by my title as Heaven's Arena's strongest that this time I'll definitely make him pay back double."
"Everyone, sorry to interrupt, but it looks like we've been discovered." Silva spoke up. Honestly, Silva was under a lot of pressure right now - every single person present had strength greater than his. Unless it was assassination, if direct conflict occurred, he might very well be the one killed.
At some point, the strange bird's surroundings were filled with flying ant soldiers with wings.
Leading them was the Chimera Ant air force - the Heavenly General Corps led by Colt.
"Ah, hahahaha, humans! You damn invaders. We've been aware of you from the very beginning. Next year's today will be your death anniversary." An ant that looked seven or eight parts like a fly pointed a spear-like weapon at everyone and laughed arrogantly, looking completely confident of victory.
"Not afraid to tell you, our Heavenly General Corps leader Colt is coming soon. Now let me, Lord Bido of the Heavenly General Corps Third Army, claim the first merit."
"Crack" - this was the sound of bones breaking.
At some point, Silva had launched an attack, and this fly-like Chimera Ant's head was instantly plucked off by Silva. The entire process happened in an instant, without leaving a single drop of blood.
"Ahh w(?Д?)w My body! If you're smart, quickly put my head back on my body, or I'll definitely make your life worse than death." Chimera Ants all had very tenacious vitality. Even with their heads cut off, they could live for a short while longer. If they could receive treatment during this time, they definitely wouldn't die.
"Too noisy." Silva crushed Bido's head like squashing a tomato. But miraculously, even so, not a drop of blood or flesh stained Silva's hands.
"Anyone else?" Silva coldly glanced around at the surrounding soldier ants. The soldier ants his gaze fell upon quickly retreated, not daring to meet his eyes. Silva's single move had intimidated all the soldier ants.
"Everyone, don't panic."
"Heavenly General Corps Second Army Blara" "Heavenly General Corps Fourth Army Piko" "Heavenly General Corps Fifth Army Kyukyu" "Heavenly General Corps Seventh Army Ronpaopao"
"Greetings to-" Countless ant armies flying in the air appeared overwhelmingly before Silva and the others.
Their leader - Chimera Ant Heavenly General Corps General Colt.
"Whoa, that's quite an impressive number." The stubbled uncle made a gesture of looking into the distance and sighed, but from his tone, his attitude toward the Chimera Ants was clearly indifferent.
"Hmph, no matter how many flies there are, they're still just flies!" A huge light dragon appeared before the ant swarm, instantly clearing out a circle of surrounding ant soldiers with an unmatched posture.
However, more ant soldiers swarmed in again, looking like they were preparing to launch a general attack on everyone.
"No choice then, let's clean them all up at once - Dragon Dive!" That huge light dragon gradually dimmed and dispersed with Zeno's movements.
"Not good!" Cold sweat dripped from Colt's forehead. He sensed Zeno's technique. That guy was preparing to use a large-area attack! The soldier ants couldn't block it! Aside from the Ant King's Royal Guards, this was the first time Colt felt a threat to his life. Even with his greatly increased strength now, the opponent was much stronger than him!
Immediately after, the huge light dragon suddenly split into countless shadows, each one a small dragon. These small dragons targeted the Chimera soldier ants flying around Zeno and the others' strange bird.
Even though ordinary soldier ants were stronger than ordinary humans, when facing human experts, they had no difference from real ants facing humans.
This was a one-sided slaughter.
"I say, even when beating a dog you should consider its master, and I don't like people standing above my head." Meruem had already walked out of the palace with Pitou and stood in the plaza, looking up at the sky with great dissatisfaction. Then he slowly raised his right hand. "No one can run wild above my head. Come down!" He swung hard toward Zeno and the others' position.
"Squawk!" The giant bird cried out in pain and began rapidly descending as if a thousand-pound weight was tied to its feet.
The people originally standing on the giant bird were also thrown into some panic by this sudden movement. Even Zeno's Dragon Dive lost control and gradually dispersed.
"S-saved" The Heavenly General Corps members who hadn't been killed yet breathed long sighs of relief. When facing human experts, they were as fragile as infants.
"The King saved us." Colt said. "Not good, I must tell the King that these guys are definitely not ordinary people!" Thinking of something, Colt flew rapidly toward Meruem's location.
"That Ant King did this, right! Everyone, use your own methods to get down." Someone on the strange bird was first to suggest and put it into action, jumping down from the bird monster.
Immediately after, the other figures on the strange bird followed suit.
"King!" Just as Colt reached the Ant King, the strange bird also happened to crash into the ground, raising huge clouds of smoke and affecting buildings in the surrounding area.
"No need to say anything, they're here." Waving his hand to signal Colt to be silent, Meruem stared directly at that cloud of smoke, seemingly talking to himself.
(End of Chapter)
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