Meruem P.O.V.
BAM!
The fist hit my palm with the force of a falling meteor, unlike anything I've ever faced before. The shockwave that erupted from the point of impact literally stripped the atmosphere away for a hundred miles in every direction, leaving nothing but a massive, expanding ring of vaporized clouds.
But unsurprisingly, my feet didn't move a single millimeter.
WOBBLE. JIGGLE. BOUNCE.
"..." I looked down.
My stomach was bouncing as I could physically feel my cheeks shaking from the residual shockwave of Thragg's punch. I, the King of the Chimera Ants, the undisputed pinnacle of evolution, was jiggling like a bowl of poorly set gelatin.
And then I heard a rather dramatic gasp.
"What... Meruem is that you?" John whispered, his voice cracking. "What in the chonky hell?!"
I let out a rumbling sigh that made my massive double chin quiver.
It is still incredibly weird being a summon. I was born the King. I was meant to rule the world, to stand at the apex of all living things. And now? Now I answer to a human who calls me "chonky." It's a bizarre existence. But, strange as it is, as I felt the boundless, comforting depths of John's power, I found I didn't really mind, even if my master is a theatre kid.
But whatever. I don't have the luxury to take the time to explain the complexities of my digestive system to him right now.
I have a much bigger problem. I ate way, way too much.
If I try to fight like this, I'm going to be slow. Sluggish even.
So to kill two birds with one stone and burn through this massive amount of life force quickly and convert it into usable aura, I needed a catalyst; a shortcut to force my metabolism into overdrive.
So I activated a Nen Vow.
In the world of Nen, the easiest and most effective way to strengthen a Vow is to explain exactly how your ability works to your opponent. It's a calculated risk that multiplies your output.
"Aura Synthesis," I said aloud, my voice distorted and layered with harmonic vibration.
Thragg stopped pushing against my hand. He tried to pull his fist back, but I simply closed my chubby green fingers around his knuckles, locking him in place, causing him to look at me like I was a lunatic.
"I possess the ability to absorb the aura—the very essence of life—from that which I consume," I explained, keeping my voice steady and casual. "In the wake of the slaughter, to strengthen myself, I found a planet, your planet; there were husks. Nearly a trillion dead Viltrumites floating around, encasing the planet itself in a ring. Their life energy was infinitesimally small, faded to almost nothing."
I looked Thragg right in the eyes. His pupils were darting around, trying to calculate how to break my grip.
"But energy is energy," I continued as I patted my belly. "Instead of letting your fallen subjects go to waste, I consumed them. Every single one of them. They are currently digesting in my stomach."
Thragg just stared at me. His face went completely blank for a second, the gears in his head grinding to a halt. And then, it twisted into a mask of primal fear. The Grand Regent of the Viltrumite Empire, a man who had conquered galaxies and bathed in the blood of billions, felt a cold dread pool in his stomach.
To hear that his fallen subjects, his proud and mighty people, were nothing more than a protein shake for this bloated monstrosity... it broke something deep within his pride.
"How vile can you be!! You…" Thragg roared, spittle flying from his lips as he desperately planted his feet and tried to wrench his arm free. "… you bug!!!"
BUG.
That word.
It triggered a phantom memory deep within my soul. I remembered my Royal Guards. I remembered the terrible light in a dirty underground tomb. And most of all, I remembered that old man. The second human I respected in my past life, Isaac Netero.
Hearing a monarch scream in defense of his fallen people, lashing out at an overwhelming threat with pure hatred... it was exactly what Netero had done to me.
I felt my pudgy cheeks stretch as I tried to smile and mimic the terrifying expression that the old man had worn right before he plunged his fingers into his own chest and blew himself to ash.
A smile of enlightenment mixed with bottomless, predatory malice.
"Don't underestimate humans, Grand Regent Thragg," I whispered, feeling the Nen Vow lock into place. "You don't know anything… about the bottomless malice within the human heart!!"
FWOOSH!
My aura exploded.
A blinding pillar of golden light erupted from my spherical body, piercing the sky and shaking the very tectonic plates beneath our feet. I could physically feel the thick layers of acquired fat around my waist finally starting to loosen, burning off at an exponential rate and converting into raw, apocalyptic power.
But it was still taking too long. Digesting a trillion souls isn't an instant process, even with a Vow. If we keep fighting here on the surface, the sheer ambient heat of my aura is going to melt this planet's crust before I even finish my warm-up.
"This world is too fragile for my digestion," I declared.
I didn't let go of his fist. Instead, I slammed my free hand squarely into Thragg's chest, grabbing the pristine fabric of his red uniform. I bent my incredibly thick knees, feeling the earth groan under the concentrated weight.
And I jumped.
We broke the sound barrier instantly, then broke through the atmosphere and finally the sky turned from blue to black in a fraction of a second as I launched us both upward, rocketing into the freezing vacuum of space. Thragg thrashed and roared, throwing wild punches at my face, but I just took them, letting the kinetic force accelerate the burning of my fat.
"Patience, alien king, I'm just setting up our stage", I thought, watching the gray, cratered surface rapidly approaching. "The moon."
John P.O.V.
BOOM.
And just like that, they were gone.
I hovered there in the air, letting out a breath I didn't know I was holding.
"Well," I muttered, scratching the back of my neck. "There goes the fat Cell. I mean, sure, he looks like he swallowed a minivan, but he still caught a full-power punch from Thragg without even flinching. I can still work with that. At least he took the aggro."
I was just about to check upon my rapidly depleting mana reserves when I heard an all too familiar sound.
TWANG!!!
The distinct yet melancholic note of a biwa string sliced cleanly through the settling dust of the battlefield.
Right behind me, suspended in thin air, a wooden sliding shoji door materialized and slid open with a soft clatter.
Before I could even pivot around, someone grabbed me. Two slender, desperate arms wrapped tightly around my chest from behind. A face buried itself deeply between my shoulder blades.
Hiss... Sizzle...
The sickening scent of burning flesh hit me instantly.
It was daytime. The sun was still out, beating down on the ruins of the mountain. And Nakime, a demon, had just stepped out of her Infinity Castle directly into unfiltered UV light.
"Nakime!" I yelled.
I violently pushed my shadow powers outward on pure instinct. The dark, inky energy erupted from my body, wrapping around us both like a thick, living, liquid cloak. I formed an absolute dark zone, a perfect sphere of shadows blocking out every single stray photon of sunlight within a ten-foot radius.
I spun around in her grip, pulling her fully into the safety of the shade.
Her skin was already smoking, angry red burns blistering across her arms and the side of her face. But the second the sunlight was cut off, her demonic regeneration kicked in. The burns hissed and knitted back together into flawless pale skin in the blink of an eye.
But she was trembling. She was shaking so hard it felt like she was vibrating. Her single, beautiful pink eye was wide open, filled with a chaotic, messy mix of sheer terror, overwhelming relief, and deep-seated tension. She stared at me, with her lips quivering like she was terrified I was a mirage that would pop if she blinked.
I didn't say a word. I just pulled her flush against my chest, wrapped my arms around her waist, and kissed her. Deeply. Letting the silence of the shadow sphere ground us both.
When we finally broke apart, she just rested her forehead against my chest. Her hands balled into fists, grabbing the fabric of my suit.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
She punched me in the chest. Three quick, successive hits. Not hard enough to actually do damage—I mean, I can tank hits from Viltrumites—but hard enough to let out all the stress, panic, and anxiety she'd been holding onto ever since I nearly died against Conquest.
I just stood there and let her vent. I deserved them. I had worried the absolute hell out of her.
"Feel better?" I asked softly, resting my chin on top of her head.
She let out a shaky breath and nodded, her grip on my suit tightening.
"You reckless, arrogant idiot," she whispered, her voice muffled against my chest but fiercely protective. "Why do you always have to scare me?"
"Good," I murmured. "Because I've been thinking about something for a while now. And I think it's time we fix a little design flaw."
I pulled back just enough so she could see my hands. I reached into my inventory space.
In my left hand, I pulled out a flower. But not just any flower. It was the legendary Blue Spider Lily. The mythical plant that Muzan Kibutsuji had spent a thousand years searching for to cure his sunlight weakness.
"Is that...?" Nakime breathed, her eye widening in disbelief as she recognized the blue petals. "Muzan's obsession. The Blue Spider Lily. How did you...?"
"Just a gacha reward, I kept it aside as a surprise," I winked.
In my right hand, I pulled out a small, green, unassuming bean. A Senzu Bean from Dragon Ball. The ultimate, reality-breaking cheat code for instant regeneration and stamina recovery.
Nakime looked at the items, tilting her head slightly, her single eye full of curiosity.
A glowing, ethereal card materialized, hovering in the air between us.
[I - The Magician]
Elite Item
Tarot Card - Increase the rarity of an ability temporarily for one hour.
240-hour cooldown.
Now, 240 hours is ten days. That is a massive cooldown for an item. But if you are a tryhard sweat who wants to min-max your build, you use it for a temporary power boost in a boss fight.
But that would be a waste of such a unique opportunity. I would much rather use my elite items for crafting. I have too many items at my disposal because of the system. That thought process is where I got the idea to merge Mahoraga and Pepsi-man, and since then, I've wondered what kind of items could be merged.
I grabbed the Tarot card, and it instantly shattered into a shower of golden sparks that surged directly into my chest. I felt my magic circuits completely overclock. My mana flared, burning with an intense, violet heat.
Normally, my 'Superpolymerization' ability has limits. It's a great skill, don't get me wrong. But it's mostly restricted to fusing living beings.
But with The Magician temporarily increasing its rarity? The rules bend. The limits break. For the next hour, I can use Superpolymerization to fuse conceptual items.
I brought my hands together, trapping the Blue Spider Lily and the Senzu Bean tightly between my palms.
"I activate my spell card," I joked, unable to resist the Yu-Gi-Oh! reference. "Superpolymerization."
Flash!
A vortex of swirling, chaotic energy—pitch black, deep blue, and vibrant, glowing green—erupted between my fingers. The air inside the shadow sphere crackled. It smelled like ozone, fresh rain, and blooming life. I could feel the conceptual properties of both items tearing themselves apart and weaving back together, the system struggling to categorize the sheer brokenness of what I was creating.
When the light faded, I slowly pulled my hands apart.
The blue flower was gone. The green bean was gone.
Sitting delicately on my palm was a single, breathtakingly beautiful blossom.
A Green Spider Lily.
It looked delicate, with long, curling petals, but I could physically feel the crazy amount of life energy radiating off it. It pulsed with an inner, vibrant light. By fusing the cure to demonkind's sunlight weakness with the absolute pinnacle of instant regeneration, I now had, in my hands, an evolution. A flower completely immune to the concepts of sunlight and death.
I smiled. A sharp, confident grin that promised absolute chaos to anyone stupid enough to stand in our way.
I reached out and gently tucked the radiant Green Spider Lily into Nakime's dark hair, right above her ear.
The moment the stem touched her, the green energy pulsed. Nakime gasped, her eye widening in shock as she felt the effects instantly kicking in. The demonic cells in her body mutated, perfected. I could feel her aura spike. The ambient darkness of my shadow sphere seemed to physically bow toward her, the ink-like energy warping and twisting to acknowledge its new apex. Her single pink eye began to glow with a terrifying, ethereal luminescence that pierced straight through the pitch black. The sunlight wouldn't just 'not burn' her anymore. It literally could not touch her concept of existence.
"So," I whispered, my shadow cloak flaring around us as I looked down into her eye. "What do you say we go out there and show them what the demoness queen of Chaos Corp can really do?"
Nakime reached up, her fingers grazing the soft green petals in her hair, before she summoned her biwa with a flick of her wrist. She looked up at me, a genuine, blood-chilling smile spreading across her lips.
"Let's show them," she agreed, her voice humming with newfound, perfected power. "I think it's time I played them a requiem."