Cordis crouched in front of Ikalgo with a smile and instinctively reached out to pat his round octopus head. "Sorry for all the trouble our Killua has caused you these past few days."
Ikalgo felt a little embarrassed at that. He rubbed his head and said shyly, "Not at all! Actually, Killua was the one helping me!"
Cordis nodded and stood up, brushing back his silver hair. His initial smile was gone, replaced by a rare look of seriousness.
"That's enough catching up. Let's get back to the rendezvous point. Gon and the others are still waiting."
The look on Cordis's face told Killua something bad had happened. Without another word, he exchanged a glance with Ikalgo beside him and hurried after Cordis.
Cordis and Killua talked at length along the way, and Cordis learned quite a bit. He was startled to hear that a brother-and-sister pair of Chimera Ants had injured Killua.
"The Chimera Ants really are evolving at an absurd speed."
"They only learned to use aura less than a month ago, and now there are already Chimera Ants who can use Nen."
Killua agreed. "Exactly, and there are quite a few of them. Is it because they're naturally gifted?"
Cordis scoffed. "They are the product of combining genes from all sorts of humans and animals, after all. It makes sense for them to be more talented, but the Three Royal Guards probably had a hand in this."
Cordis looked perfectly relaxed, but inside, he was already panicking. He had always been afraid of dying, and he had been worrying ever since this mission began.
He was afraid he would lose his life on this mission.
But things had reached a point where there was no turning back.
Knov had already withdrawn early because of his mental state.