Queen X the Brave One

Why did Rukira, who had been barely managing to stay calm just moments before, suddenly break down like this?

Kite keenly sensed something was amiss, and without making a sound, she gently nudged Kevin's arm with her elbow.

Feeling the touch, Kevin seemed to realize a possibility, and his brows furrowed tightly.

Based on this man's Loyalty.

Could his Nen ability be some kind of power that affects the Ant Queen, allowing him to sense something?

He stared at the completely devastated Rukira before him, hesitated for a moment, and decided to tell him the truth.

"Indeed, we failed. Your Queen," his voice was steady and clear, "Was secretly moved away by one of the guards, that Cat Woman who can Clone, long before we even entered the area. We were fooled by her illusion."

Kevin had no intention of provoking the other party at this moment; he needed to know the reason for the drastic change in the other party's attitude, as this information was crucial.

"The Queen — the Queen is in danger! Her life—is slipping away rapidly—she is about to die! Where is she? Where is she?!"

Rukira seemed not to have heard Kevin's next words at all, only muttering to himself in a daze, on the verge of madness, tears streaming down his face.

"You're not lying to me? You really—didn't kill her?"

He screamed almost pleadingly.

There really is a connection!

The fact that Rukira clearly has some deep connection with the Queen, probably through Nen ability.

If there was a connection, why would he return to this obviously trap-like nest after the Ant Queen was taken away?

What's the point of this?

Therefore, it's not about positioning, but about perceiving the state.

His desperate cries revealed that the Queen was in mortal danger.

Wasn't she safely taken away by the Royal Guards?

The group exchanged bewildered glances, their eyes filled with immense confusion and bewilderment, a premonition quietly rising within them.

Could it be—

Morel hesitated, his gaze unconsciously drifting towards the dark passage outside the nest.

He realized that Chairman Netero hadn't met up with them yet and was probably outside right now.

Based on his understanding of the Chairman's unfathomable wisdom and terrifying strength, it is highly likely that the Chairman successfully blocked the opponent's escape from the outside.

After all, the enemy that the Chairman personally went to intercept was none other than Neferpitou, whom Kevin had mentioned as the one most likely to take the Queen away.

The chances of the Chairman successfully intercepting the other party are very high!

"Chairman Netero —did he succeed?"

Kite couldn't help but mutter to herself, a hint of anticipation in her voice.

If that's the case, that would be wonderful.

Kevin's brow furrowed even more deeply. He slowly shook his head and muttered to himself.

"That's not right----"

The Prophecy Poem clearly stated that their mission would end in failure.

Could it be that the group predicted to be occupied did not include Chairman Netero?

Was it "they," namely Kevin and his group, who returned empty-handed, while Chairman Netero's personal operation succeeded?

While this is theoretically possible, Kevin intuitively felt it was unlikely.

In such joint operations, they are essentially one entity.

The interpretation of the Prophecy Poem as "returning empty-handed" should logically include the entire team.

Moreover, he had been misled in the past by the ambiguous and treacherous language of Prophecy Poem, so he could not be completely certain at this moment.

Just then, from the passage behind them connecting to the lower nest, came a dense and chaotic sound of footsteps and the buzzing of wings flapping violently in the air!

One after another, division Division Leader, Army Leader, and various miscellaneous soldiers poured up from the passage below.

They saw horrifying signs of battle and the mangled corpses of the Guard Regiment along the way, making the atmosphere extremely oppressive.

At that moment, as they rushed forward, they saw Kevin and the others, who were on high alert, and even more so, they saw Rukira kneeling before the enemy, completely broken and utterly dejected.

"Rukira! How are you? Are you alright?"

Several Chimera Ant Rukira anxiously gathered around, but they didn't attack rashly. Their wary eyes darted between Kevin and the others Rukira.

Because of Kevin's presence.

The opponent's undisguised, surging, and terrifying spiritual Nen Aura was continuously emanating a suffocatingly heavy pressure.

It was as if an invisible boulder was pressing down on the hearts of every Division Leader, putting them under immense mental pressure, leaving them somewhat at a loss for what to do.

Kevin's Nen power is terrifying, and Nen power is the best way to distinguish it.

Therefore, it seems that Kevin's strength gives them the impression that he overpowers the Royal Guards.

They had absolutely no idea what was happening inside the lair, Rukira's collapse only exacerbated the panic.

A Chimeric Ant, carrying a thick stack of books and resembling Penguin, calmly stepped out from the crowd and arrived at the forefront of the ant colony.

His gaze swept over Kevin and the others, then over the distraught Rukira. After a moment, he analyzed the situation in an unusually calm tone.

"You failed. But Rukira collapsed. It seems the Queen wasn't captured by you, but taken away by the guards?"

His tone carried a hint of certainty with a touch of doubt.

These words caused Melusina and the others to look at them in surprise.

This seemingly weak Division Leader had so quickly and accurately guessed the current situation.

Judging from his attire and calm analytical ability, he seems to be some kind of strategist Chimera Ant, and his Nen ability may also be similar.

"What?!"

"The Queen has been taken away?!"

"But the Queen is still pregnant! Her body is so weak!"

"This is too dangerous! How could the guards be so reckless?!"

"This is betrayal! Betrayal of the Queen!"

The surrounding group of Division Leader and Chrollo erupted in a huge uproar of astonishment and anger.

Those who would run back in this critical moment are all individuals who are absolutely Loyalty to the Queen.

They obeyed the Queen's orders without question and were extremely concerned about Queen safety. Their underlying logic and emotions made it impossible for them to stand by and watch the Queen be in danger.

The Queen was already extremely weak during her pregnancy with the King; why take her away from the safety of the nest at such a time?

This is tantamount to placing her in a dangerous situation where she could face a fatal threat at any moment.

Without the protection and resources of their nest, once they finish producing and fall into extreme weakness, the consequences are unimaginable.

They were too slow to get back!

The Loyalist Faction Division Leader and Chrollo were thrown into chaos and panic, and an atmosphere of anxiety permeated the air.

"Rukira! Calm down!"

The Penguin Chimera Ant shouted at the distraught Rukira, its voice carrying a strange penetrating power.

"What exactly did you sense?! Tell us!" He needed to know the root cause of Rukira's complete breakdown.

His words seemed to have an effect, causing Rukira was being tormented by some kind of terrifying feeling to the point of almost losing his mind, to tremble and regain a little clarity.

Just then!

Without warning, the stone wall next to them was kicked open with a loud "boom," creating a large hole.

The dust and debris instantly filled the air.

The Division Leader and Chrollo, who were already on high alert, were startled by this sudden turn of events and immediately retreated several steps, assuming their strongest fighting stances, their Nen Aura surging.

From the smoke-filled opening, a lithe figure leaped out gracefully—it was none other than Netero, the Chairman of the Hunter Association.

He was carrying a man who looked utterly exhausted; it was Nobu.

"Oh my, everyone's here? It's quite lively."

Netero stroked his signature mustache and chuckled, as if he had just pushed open his own backyard gate.

"Sorry, sorry, I'm getting old and my hands and feet aren't as nimble as they used to be. My movements were a bit rough, I may have startled you all, hahaha."

His hearty laughter sounded particularly jarring in the tense atmosphere.

He gently placed the nearly exhausted Nobu on the slightly cleaner ground beside him, then looked around at the various expressions on the faces of the crowd and the Chimeric Ant.

"Oh dear, I'm so sorry, I'm an old man, and I was a bit slow. I'm only just getting here to meet you all. It seems I missed the best part?"

His gaze swept over the empty Incubation Hall and the Chimeric Ant corpses on the ground, his tone carrying a hint of understanding.

Faced with Netero's sudden appearance, the outspoken Men Qi didn't bother with formalities and asked eagerly.

"Chairman! Did you encounter the Royal Guards outside? They ran away with the Queen. Did you stop them?"

Faced with this crucial question, Chairman Netero tilted his head slightly in surprise, his gray beard twitched, and then he shook his head with a hint of regret and sighed.

"Oh, don't even mention it. This old man of mine couldn't even keep up with that slippery Cat Woman. That creature is incredibly cunning; she switched places with her Clone at some point and slipped away from me like an eel."

"That's why I've come all this way to meet you. Look at this—"

He shrugged, his gaze sweeping over the somber expressions on everyone's faces and the situation at hand. "Our operation... has failed."

As he spoke, his sharp, hawk-like gaze swept across the surroundings, lingering for a moment on the Chrollo and Division Leader who were subtly surrounding them and drenched in sweat, and an invisible pressure suddenly increased.

At that moment, the Chrollo and Division Leader felt a chill run down their spines, and large beads of sweat rolled down their foreheads.

Having just experienced a thrilling battle with Neferpitou, Netero, though slightly dusty, is visibly regaining his peak fighting form at an alarming rate.

That surging, upward-moving, and terrifying aura, as heavy and solid as a towering mountain, mixed with Kevin's incomparably sharp Nen pressure, brought the Chimera Ant unprecedented, almost crushing pressure.

Kevin alone was already putting them under immense pressure, and now another unfathomable old monster has arrived!

"You didn't? Didn't you see our Queen?"

Having regained a sliver of reason, Rukira struggled to his feet, his voice hoarse like a broken bellows, filled with a desperate plea and the last glimmer of hope, as he stared intently at Netero and asked.

He now understood that the silence and solemnity of Kevin and the others earlier likely stemmed from their suspicion that this powerful human being, who resembled a ferocious beast, had killed the Queen.

But now this powerful human has appeared before them, admitting that he did not encounter the Cat Woman guards, nor did he seem to have met the Queen.

The Queen, however, remains in a critical situation where her life is rapidly slipping away and Queen is on the verge of death.

Despair enveloped him once again.

"What on earth happened?! Rukira!"

The Penguin Chimera Ant could no longer contain itself and eagerly pressed Rukira for answers. It needed to know immediately what the root cause was that had broken Rukira and caused the situation to deteriorate so drastically.

Rukira suppressed the immense fear and despair surging within him, his fingernails digging deep into the ground, almost breaking. He answered with difficulty, trying to be as clear as possible, each word like blood foam squeezed from his chest.

"Your Queen —I feel Your Queen's life slipping away rapidly, like sand through my fingers. Queen... she is in imminent danger! She is about to—be extinguished!"

He was so grief-stricken that he could barely speak.

Netero, Kevin, and the others instantly realized the immense value of Rukira's sensory abilities—his Nen ability was likely closely linked to the Queen of Perception's life state.

This is absolutely crucial to the tracking.

Now, the Queen is in mortal danger.

Where does this danger come from?

The Queen should have been safely taken away by the powerful Royal Guards; this makes no sense at all!

"Cough cough----cough cough cough----"

At this moment, Nobu, who had been lying on the ground like a candle flickering in the wind, let out a heart-wrenching cough. He struggled and trembled as he tried to support his weak body with his elbows.

Seeing this, Morel quickly squatted down and carefully supported him, allowing him to lean against his arm.

"I—I saw it—"

Nobu's voice was extremely weak, as if he had exhausted all his strength. He was so listless that it was as if his soul had been taken away, and his eyes were unfocused.

A profound sense of horror lingered deep within his pupils, as if he had suffered some indescribable mental shock.

"I saw the direction they fled in—"

He spoke haltingly, panting.

"You saw her? You saw the Queen?! Where is she?!"

Like a drowning man grabbing onto the last piece of driftwood, Rukira scrambled forward, screaming with a mixture of joy and despair, his compound eyes flashing with a terrifying light.

At this moment, Nobu's whole body was still trembling slightly uncontrollably, as if his soul was still trapped in some terrifying scene from which he could not extricate himself.

Kevin moved swiftly, flashing forward and instantly producing a vial of faintly glowing medicine in his hand. He pried open Nobu's mouth and poured the medicine down his throat without hesitation.

As the cold medicine flowed down his throat, Nobu's body shuddered violently, and he exhaled a long, painful breath that tasted of blood.

Her previously deathly pale complexion regained a very faint rosy hue at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"What kind of potion is this? Anyway, thank you." His voice was still extremely weak, like a mosquito's buzz, but his disordered breathing had noticeably calmed down a bit.

"Some commercially available drugs that are not suitable for mass production can temporarily stabilize mental state."

Kevin gave a brief explanation, looking at Nobu with a serious expression.

"However, it seems to have some effect on your current overexertion condition."

This is a B-Rank mental Recovery Potion used for the emergency recovery from mental fatigue and trauma.

It has limited effect on pure psychological trauma and immense fear, but at this moment it can be used to relieve Nobu's excessive mental stress, near-collapse, and extreme physical exhaustion, giving him a much-needed boost.

Everyone knew that Nobu had suffered an extremely severe psychological blow. The medicine could only barely alleviate the extreme physical discomfort and could not heal the deep-seated emotional trauma.

They simply couldn't imagine what kind of terrifying scene could have turned this space ability Hunter x Hunter, who was always known for his calm and rationality, into such a dazed and disoriented state.

Nobu took several more deep breaths, his chest heaving violently, as if he needed to use all his strength to get enough oxygen.

His eyes remained unfocused, and he spoke haltingly, his voice muffled as if in a dream.

"Before coming here, when I entered that circle, I was afraid and hesitated—"

He closed his eyes in pain, as if tearing open his own wounds.

"The Royal Guards —that overwhelming, almost tangible, malevolent Nen Aura coiled around my heart like a cold, venomous snake. It brought me unprecedented pressure—I was separated from the team—"

"Although I continued to struggle forward desperately, until the very end—it all seemed so unattainable—as if I could never reach it—"

Regret and self-blame made his voice tremble even more.

His cowardly retreat when his comrades fought was a brutal blow to his pride.

"But, at that very moment, when I was almost overwhelmed by fear—"

He suddenly opened his eyes, his pupils contracting sharply, as if he were seeing that scene again. "I saw it, I saw that Cat Woman had two Clones that moved swiftly and strangely."

"They were carefully carrying a huge, bloated body, flashing past deep into the tunnel. The image was so obvious; I recognized it as the Ant Queen at a glance!"

In that state of being almost completely overwhelmed by boundless fear, Nobu, relying on his Hunter x Hunter's instincts and the last shred of reason, immediately realized that something extremely terrifying was happening.

So, under these circumstances, he mustered his Courage.

Or rather, he wasn't cowardly; he had always struggled with great difficulty, relying on Courage.

"So, based on the general direction they fled, I used the Four-Dimensional Apartment to get ahead of them to the vicinity of the outer jungle they were likely to pass through—"

As he finished speaking, he seemed to have exhausted all his strength. With trembling hands, he silently took out a small, empty medicine bottle from the pocket inside his clothes. There were still traces of use on the bottle.

Kevin recognized him at a glance.

[Infiltrator Potion]

This was one of the B-Rank life-saving medications he specially distributed to each team member for this high-risk operation.

The effect is to put the user into an enhanced "absolute" state, greatly reducing their own presence and aura, like Chameleon hunter completely integrated into the natural environment, making them extremely difficult to perceive.

The only cost is that you must maintain "Zetsu" during its use, and you cannot use Nen ability.

That's normal.

"Thanks to the effects of that potion, I hid myself—like a Rock —deeply within the dense jungle."

Nobu's voice carried a mixture of relief at surviving the ordeal and a deeper fear.

"At that time, the three guards also seemed to be in a state of high tension and dared not fully release their senses to explore their surroundings. They were fleeing at full speed."

"But, but at that very moment, just when I thought they were about to leave safely."

Nobu's voice suddenly rose, becoming shrill and distorted, filled with an indescribable, bone-deep terror.

He began to tremble violently again, like a leaf falling in the cold wind, as an intense sense of fear threatened to engulf and tear him apart.

"At that moment—I saw it—I saw it—"

His teeth were chattering, and his eyes bulged out of extreme fear.

"I saw the movement of that thing inside the Chimera Ant Queen's huge, swollen belly!"

"He—he—he tore open—from the inside—with his sharp claws, ripped open the Queen's belly! He crawled out! He—was born!"

After saying this last sentence, Nobu seemed to have used up the last bit of strength in his soul, and his legs could no longer support him as he collapsed heavily to his knees with a thud.

She clutched her disheveled hair tightly with both hands, her nails digging deep into her scalp, and curled up into a ball.

"That—that was a monster, a monster that should absolutely not exist in this world. I was terrified."

My whole body was trembling, I couldn't move at all—"

Overwhelmed by immense fear, he could no longer utter a single word.