One looked like a lion, while the other leaned more toward a monkey.
After the two appeared, they both knelt on one knee beside the green Ant King.
"You are strong."
The Ant King's gaze, however, was locked onto Ronin. As for the mother who had just been burned to death, he didn't care at all.
The Susanoo vanished.
Ronin carefully sensed the aura around the Ant King, and his heart settled slightly. The other party's aura was indeed powerful, but only to a limited extent. It had not reached a level that forced Ronin to retreat.
Ronin didn't know exactly what had caused this result.
But as he looked at the place where the ant queen had disappeared, then at the cave around them, an idea surfaced in his mind and quickly connected all the information he knew.
The ant queen had revealed the most crucial clue.
What the Kurta Clan had been doing all along might not have been some so-called trial, but sealing off this cave to weaken the Chimera Ants' power.
Only, that situation had changed several hundred years ago.
The information uncovered from the ruins showed that the Kurta Clan had been completely wiped out several centuries ago. As for the cause of their destruction, that had not yet been determined, but it might have been related to that "spiralization" phenomenon.
At present, though, they still didn't know exactly how that spiralization had appeared.
What could be known was that, with the Kurta Clan's extermination, the Chimera Ants suppressed inside the cave had been given a chance to breathe.
And under those circumstances, tomb raiders discovered the existence of the ruins and opened them up.
As humans entered the ruins to explore, they gradually discovered this central ruin space that led to the cave.
During one of the previous explorations, an expedition team had chosen to enter this space and go into the cave.
Ronin couldn't judge whether that expedition team had encountered resistance at the time, but after they entered the cave, they gave the Chimera Ants the chance to master Nen.
That was also the key reason an Ant King and Royal Guard ants could be born.
Only, the queen might have been in too much of a rush, and there weren't many genes she could absorb, which prevented the Ant King's potential from being fully realized.
After all, the situation here in this cave was different from what happened in NGL.
The Chimera Ant queen that entered the NGL Autonomous Region of the Mitene Union from the outer sea had faced basically no threat. Food was plentiful there, and there were many species she could capture. Under those circumstances, the Chimera Ant Queen had pushed her phagogenetic reproductive trait to the absolute limit.
The mixing of vast numbers of species' genes created a true monster: Meruem.
But for the Chimera Ants living in this cave, the number of genes they could absorb could almost be counted on one's fingers.
On top of that, with the expedition team's arrival and the queen's lack of knowledge about the Kurta Clan's situation, choosing to give birth to a powerful Ant King as quickly as possible to reverse the situation was the most correct decision.
And if he calculated the timing, the period when the spiders below began rioting seemed to line up with the time when the ant queen in the cave had eaten the human explorers.
With that, only one thing still didn't make sense.
Why had the Kurta ancestors not chosen to exterminate the Chimera Ants, instead allowing them to continue existing inside the cave?
Ronin refused to believe that the Kurta ancestors, who had been capable of trapping the Chimera Ants here, lacked the power to kill Chimera Ants that had not even mastered Nen.
So the Kurta ancestors must have had a purpose in doing this.
What could that purpose have been?
Ronin's gaze shifted away from the Ant King and fell on the three most unusual things in the cave.
The first was the throne where the ant queen had been sitting.
The second was the two towering, still-living ancient trees behind the throne that could give birth to monsters.
The third was the fissure behind the ancient trees that connected to the underground city on the lower level.
He didn't know what exactly the Kurta ancestors had been trying to do, but he knew that if he wanted to figure everything out, he had to deal with the three Chimera Ants here.
The situation now was already different from before.
Before the ruins had been discovered, even though the Chimera Ants possessed the extremely powerful talent of phagogenetic reproduction, they had still been limited by the cave. The only prey they could hunt were the spiders that constantly poured into it.
But after humans reached the cave, that situation changed.
With the mastery of Nen, stronger beings were born among the Chimera Ants, and that also allowed them to see an opportunity to leave the cave.
The restrictive methods used before were no longer suitable for dealing with the current Chimera Ants.
Extermination was now the best option.
Even if wiping out all the Chimera Ants caused some unexpected consequences, that was not something to consider right now.
Footsteps sounded from behind.
It was Benkt and the others catching up. The appearance of the golden throne made the eyes of everyone who entered light up.
Even if they only managed to move this throne out of the cave, it would already justify the enormous risk they had taken in entering.
Not to mention, the two living ancient trees behind the throne were even more immeasurable in value.
Now there was only one problem.
They had to deal with the three beings in the cave who looked extremely powerful.
Could they do it?
Benkt had no confidence, because he could feel that none of those three figures was weaker than the giant serpent they had encountered outside the cave.
Benkt's gaze could not help shifting toward Ronin.
If they cooperated now, and his people were responsible for delaying the enemy, could Ronin kill all three current targets the same way he had dealt with the giant serpent earlier?
The thought had only just appeared in his mind when Ronin's voice rang out.
"Cooperate for now. I'll deal with the Ant King. The Royal Guard ants are yours. Until these ants are dealt with, the spiders should count as our allies."
Ronin quickly clarified the current situation, while locking all of his gaze and aura onto the Ant King.
The newly born Ant King was not some ignorant creature.
He had already awakened inside the ant queen's belly a day ago. The only reason he had not been in a hurry to emerge was that the queen had been continuously supplying him with energy.
When that special defensive mechanism was broken, the Ant King sensed danger.
So he chose to abandon the queen directly and face the enemies who had invaded his territory in his complete form.
The enemy was strong.
Especially those black flames—they made him sense the threat of death.
Now that the enemy had completely locked his gaze onto him, it was obvious he wanted to decide a victor between them.
Proud as the Ant King was, he naturally would not ignore such a challenge.
Instinctively controlling the energy in his body and gathering it into his fist, the Ant King vanished from where he stood in the next instant.
Earth rose from the ground, forming an obstruction.
But it was instantly broken through.
Yet behind the defense created by Earth Release, Amaterasu's flames were already waiting.
At the same time, a large amount of rock gathered around Ronin's arm. With the support of the Weighted Rock Technique, his fist drove straight into the flames.
The flames showed signs of shrinking.
But in the next moment, that tendency stopped entirely.
Amenotokotachi had reinforced the space.
However, the Ant King's figure did not appear within the solidified space. Instead, while retreating, he suddenly swung his hand toward Ronin, releasing a massive sphere of aura.
~~~
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