Purple smoke churned like mad in the deepest reaches of the Main Hall.
Lethal heat rampaged through the confined space.
Morel's chest heaved like a broken bellows.
He gripped his pipe, larger than his own head, so tightly that his knuckles turned white.
Veins bulged beneath his skin.
His lungs protested desperately, and every breath carried a heavy taste of blood.
Sweat dripped from his rugged chin onto the shattered floor tiles, sending up tiny splashes.
The absolute cage formed by his Purple Smoke Soldier Corps was his strongest technique for defense and trapping enemies. Now, its interior was enduring a truly terrifying onslaught.
It was Shaiapouf's violent agitation.
Shaiapouf's main body rapidly contracted within the smoke. Without hesitation, he abandoned his tall, magnificent form and physically divided his immense life energy at the cellular level.
Thousands upon thousands of tiny clones emerged, each no larger than a grain of rice, crowding against the boundaries of the purple smoke.
Countless pairs of tiny, colorful wings beat in a frenzy, producing a high-pitched whine that threatened to pierce eardrums.
Morel bit through the tip of his tongue, forcibly squeezing out his remaining Nen to maintain the smoke's density.
But physical smoke ultimately could not stop nanoscale infiltration...
BOOM!
A massive hole burst through the top of the purple smoke cage, and countless colorful points of light shot skyward.
Shaiapouf had broken through the blockade!
Those points of light swiftly converged in midair, forming a rainbow-colored cloud.
Hypnotic scales.
This was Shaiapouf's most insidious wide-area killing technique. Inhaling even a trace or exposing a large area of skin would instantly surrender control of a human's nervous system, turning them into walking corpses for the ants to manipulate.
The cloud began descending rapidly, its colorful scales blanketing the air above the entire central