The Broken Body Cocooned, the King Reborn

The two severed halves of Meruem's body had not truly died. The core of the Chimera Ants was not in the heart, but in the nerve cluster deep within the skull.

Saitama's foot had shattered his genetic shackles, and that crushing kick had completely forced out the most primitive and terrifying regenerative instinct hidden in his bloodline.

The ruined flesh slowly writhed in the darkness, intertwining and fusing like living vines. Just then, a figure dragging battered butterfly wings stumbled and crawled into the fissure.

It was Shaiapouf.

He had been blasted into the ground by the force of Saitama's punch. His already undersized body had been crushed in half again, yet his absolute loyalty to Meruem had carried him this far. When he saw the writhing mass of flesh, ecstatic light erupted in his eyes, immediately transforming into near-mad devotion.

"King... my King... you're still alive..."

Without the slightest hesitation, he pressed his chest directly against Meruem's ruined body. A pale-purple flame of life blazed within him. All his Nen, mental energy, even every drop of blood and every cell in his body, turned into a pure torrent of energy that continuously poured into Meruem.

Pouf's body visibly became transparent and withered. In the end, only a thin layer of skin remained before it scattered into ashes on the wind.

"To be able to give everything to the King... is this servant's greatest honor..."

Those were his final words in this world.

After absorbing all of Pouf's life energy, Meruem's ruined body suddenly erupted with dazzling purple light. Countless fine threads extended from the flesh, weaving and twisting together until they formed a huge, translucent cocoon.

The cocoon hovered silently in the darkness underground, dark-purple light flowing across its surface. Within it, a figure was being reshaped and growing