__________ POV Ashton__________
"I see... It's very nice to meet you, Ai." It didn't respond to me at all. Just looked at me strangely.
"Still. I didn't expect to meet something like this today..." I looked at Killua. He shivered a bit as my gaze met his.
"Well, I believe I must take my leave for now..." Shame I can't stay until Gon has woken up... But now I have something else to look at.
Killua looked very surprised to see me leave just like that. But I guess he isn't about to start complaining.
His servants also calmed down visibly. It seems this merry group was all ready for blood.
I need to find something. A relic, I guess? I need to remember where it was. And I need to find it immediately.
I don't really care about Gon anymore. I lost all interest in any of that foolishness. Why would I care about his reaction in the first place?
Nanika, Ai, Calamity. That is something I must look into more thoroughly. Not just one, however...
I must look into every single one of them. I haven't felt this way in a very long time... Oh, I can barely contain myself.
__________ POV Narration__________
It is said that Greed is one of man greatest sins. But it's more of a character trait at this point. As everyone is greedy in one way or another.
Ai, is a being that exists to show us just how feeble the resistance of humans is to absolute temptation.
Calamities come under many forms, whether it's absolute power or absolute control. Ai is the calamity of absolute temptation and opportunity.
All Calamities exist to remind humans of the dangers of the Dark Continent. They believed the calamities were always on the Dark Continent.
Only Ashton himself had doubts about that theory. He knew how the Continent looked before the Human expeditions started.
The appearance of some calamities could be explained by a major change in fauna that gave way to a new species to develop.
But there were also special cases. Ai is one of them, a calamity that cannot really be called organic. Mist-like creatures, impossible to kill. Parasitic in nature...
The one he had just met was such an example. Residing in the body of a small child. Codependence of Desire.
They rely both on the desires of others and that of their hosts. This was the first time Ashton had seen Ai take on a human body. But it seems this had happened in the past.
Otherwise, Ai wouldn't have appeared in Alluka. It must've been somewhere else near her at some other point...
Even Ashton, one of the most knowledgeable people alive, could only speculate on the actual origin of some of the Calamities.
'Zobae Disease' was another Calamity that completely eluded the old scientist. It was the product of humanities latest expedition to the Continent.
It was also called the 'Immortality Disease'. The victims suffering from it were mostly dead. Only one person, its single survivor, managed to reach a state where he could keep himself alive without sustenance.
However... He is only capable of that because he cannibalises himself. The disease regenerating his tissue at rapid speeds.
It also greatly affected the sanity of the hunter afflicted by it. This disease was something that Ashton didn't pay much attention to initially.
Only recently had he started to have some halfhearted interest in it. But he hadn't cared enough to thoroughly look into it.
But, after meeting Ai, in the form of Nanika. A strange fire was ignited inside him. A powerful desire to study every single calamity that was ever spawned by the hand of man.
All of the things he found interesting, all of them mere ways of postponing boredom. He had finally found something he could dedicate himself to once more.
His passion, the reminders of a once-great fire, that had become mere ashes. They were lit once more. A raging flame that would eat away at his heart until he will find all of his answers.
Nanika was not all that special. But it gave the scientist a reminder. He had strayed too far from his initial goals. Too far from his values.
He needed to return home. Where else would he find his answers? The largely unexplored mass of land above the horizon was bound to have some answers.
Nay, even scraps are enough, after all, the scientist is more than capable of piecing together an answer for himself...
This wasn't going to be a simple journey. The continent was bound to have changed a lot by now. But that wasn't even a deterrent to the scientist.
No, that was what he wanted. Fresh, exorbitant, overwhelming information.
Still, there were many things he needed to prepare for. Challenges unknown. Enemies that could kill him littered the Dark Continent. Every fight was to be a struggle.
But he was barely containing himself from rushing there headfirst right now.
His hopeful nature had long been replaced by callous hatred and endless scorn. Cruelty had become his greatest form of expression.
He didn't care to become a better person, but the passion reminded him of that. The times where he could relax and look at the moon in awe.
Pondering the immensity of the world around him. His once humble existence had changed at some point.
He fails to realize that himself, however... The hatred had spread to him.
A menacing 'plague' that had afflicted his home from the very first time he had set foot on it.
After all. Every human expedition gave birth to a calamity...
He had yet to see what calamity his presence had given birth to... Or had he?
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Eyyy, hope you enjoyed the chapter!
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