The Green-Armored King's Bloody Birth

Deep in the mountains of the southwestern East Gorteau Republic, beneath an abandoned royal estate, lay a birthing chamber.

The entire mountain had been trembling since dawn. It was no earthquake, but a terrifying surge of Nen breaking free of its fleshly confines, spreading outward through layer after layer of rock. The air reeked of blood and ant acid. Droplets clung to the damp stone walls, each one quivering faintly from the force of that life energy.

The Ant Queen lay sprawled on a birthing platform heaped with flesh, her enormous body convulsing. Dark green fluid seeped through the seams of her shell. Her abdomen bulged high. The life inside had long since fully developed and was now tearing through its mother's flesh by sheer force of will, determined to enter the world early.

Colt stood beside the platform, his wings held rigid, his face taut with anxiety and awe. He knew that if the king tore his way out early, the queen would most likely die. But he could not stop him. This was the supreme will of their kind, the instinct to submit that every Chimera Ant was born with.

The three royal guards stood in separate corners of the chamber, their expressions solemn.

Neferpitou's fluffy cat tail brushed lightly across the floor, fervor swirling in her scarlet eyes. Her claws gleamed faintly, ready to welcome her king at any moment. Menthuthuyoupi stood like a mountain at the entrance, every muscle taut. He kept even his breathing shallow, afraid of disturbing the king in the queen's womb. Shaiapouf's eyes were half-closed, his butterfly wings perfectly still. Only the faint tremor in his fingertips betrayed the intensity of his anticipation.

They had waited so long for this day.

From the fall of their main nest in NGL, through their