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Chapter 115: For The Ants We Go
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Netero's eyes gleamed for a split second before saying, "As for you... All I want you to do is to make sure the King is dead as well as the other smaller ants... Without spoiling my fun of course.
I'm sure you understand my request clearly and I presume you accept?"
The tranquility never left Yasuo's face as he turned his face looking at Netero and answered, "I accept..."
The black-haired man only stayed silent for a second before adding, "I did my fair share of investigations on the ants so I have a general idea of what's going on.
So just call me when you decide to start, I'll be close by. As for the payment... Just owe me one."
And so Yasuo disappeared directly after with Netero letting a sigh of relief hearing the confirmation, a confirmation that insinuates more than what appears.
Yasuo went back to doing his own business though of course not forgetting to watch the Island regularly.
This is an important incident to him and to make full use of it, he needs to do a lot of things including but not only collecting all the pieces.
And a specific piece is his current target... The Queen piece which is the second most important piece in the chessboard he is playing only second to the King.
After all, even with the magical natural ability of the Queen, he can still see something more in the king, a natural ability far above what the Queen can do but an ability that wasn't made use of to its fullest.
So as the Chimera Ant Queen muttered the name of the king to the onlookers, she breathed her last breath much to the dismay of the people and the Chimera ants in the nest, losing their queen and their source of light was... devastating, to say the least.
This is a species that stands upon the shoulders of the Queen and their King appeared to be different than they anticipated.
The ants grieved their queen's passing... Only the loyal ants did because even in a well-built nest, a few rogue ants are bound to exist, this nest just happened to have a lot more of them, sentient ants that can clearly think and has their own aspirations and goals.
And so the queen started being transported under instructions of the hunter association since the latter is responsible for getting all the Chimera ants' bodies... And that would've been fine if not for the two variables Yasuo and... Pariston the hunter association's vice president.
Their goals are quite different as Yasuo simply wants the ants' bodies to study their biology while Pariston... Well, wants a tool he can use if so he wished and he prefers live ants in contrast to Yasuo.
But well, the latter happened to have an ability suitable for the job, so efficient it left the ones transporting the body baffled.
All they saw is the Queen's body disappearing as if it was never there. Not even the Nen users at the scene were able to see what really happened, the body simply disappeared never to be seen again.
And just like the rest of the Chimera ants bodies Yasuo has, after studying them for a while, he starts a simple process of applying pressure from all sides on the body until it becomes a small piece of meat, as small as possible though he isolated The queen's from the other ones.
After studying them thoroughly, he turned each body into a piece of meat and merged them all together into a smaller piece, as small as he could get them though he didn't merge the queen's body with them, the special ones are left for a different time.
'Not much has changed when it comes to the Chimera ants... I kept my influence to a minimum on the Island, in fact, I made sure not to change anything on the Island so that the nest grows like it was supposed to.'
That is what Yasuo thought as he lightly jumped landing on the back of what could be described as a massive dragon, the Zoldyck family's personal pet.
"The plan is quite simple, once we reach the Island, we'll split into two groups as the job requires.
You two will do your own thing as will I and we'll meet up after and go back the same way else if you're not in the meetup place by that time, we'll go back on our own." Instructed Zeno who is comfortably sitting on the Dragon's back besides Silva.
Yasuo sat down on the dragon's light green fur nodding, "I shouldn't take long but if my mission took more than predicted then yeah, you can go."
As the young Zoldyck finished talking, he lifted his hand focusing his Aura a few meters In front of the massive Dragon.
The Aura started to form into a portal only after one second passed, a portal big enough for the dragon to pass through.
"Draco... Go!" Ordered Zeno while lightly caressing the dragon. The latter let out a loud roar before jumping towards the portal while using his wings to increase his speed fast enough for what's beyond the portal.
And that speed helped a lot as when they appeared from the destination portal, all they could see is an ocean, an unending ocean as far as the eyes can see.
Though the portal appeared high enough in the sky to allow the Draco to use his previous speed and wings to fly... and fly he did.
A strange flight that would baffle the onlookers if there are any but in the middle of the ocean.
The surroundings just look desolate as if no soul passed the area forever.
Only a few seconds passed before another portal appeared in Draco's way and he bravely went through the unknown window.
A dark window with no apparent destination and it seemed as if it's an everyday occurrence for the Dragon as if he was trained for doing just that So he went through the dark portal appearing still in the middle of the ocean.
He went through several portals after that until the scenery finally changed completely.
And in front of their eyes, there was land, something they haven't seen for a minute or so.
That's just how far Yasuo has come, even with portals as massive as these ones, he can still travel from one continent to another in a matter of a minute and that says a lot considering how far the vast Island in front of them from the Anrika continent.
The Island on which Chimera ants inhabit and Draco continued flying until he went through a portal, the last one as they have reached their destination which is the Republic of East Gorteau.
This is where most hunters are since the King and the Royal guards took over the royal palace basically performing a massacre as they spread their clutches to the whole country.
The dragon followed Zeno's continuous commands perfectly until he landed at the meeting place.
The place agreed upon by the Zoldycks and Netero with the latter already expecting their arrival as he could be seen waiting along in the high hill.
Not a green hill but a crisp one just like the other surrounding hills, it is the south part of the known world and in this world.
This area is quite hot and it only gets hotter the souter one goes though even with the temperature, one can still feel the breeze passing by as this area is also a bit windy... A hot breeze that didn't seem to trouble anyone of the four.
"Well, you arrived perfectly on time just as you said." Lightly remarked Netero while stroking his beard.
"Well well. we have someone with an interesting ability, as you already know, so transportation became easier." Remarked the other old man in the area, Zeno, while lightly caressing his long mustache.
None of the three Zoldycks moved from the back of the dragon, instead, Netero is the one who jumped on Draco's back saying.
"The operation will start not long from now so let's fly slowly taking our time and we should be there by the agreed time." Simply explained Netero to which Zeno nodded and gave Draco new instructions.
Only then did the massive Dragon start flying albeit slowly as they're not far off from the Royal palace and only then did Netero started giving some instructions through a special transmitter specially made for hunters.
The heavy instructions were given to all the leading hunters participating in the operation simultaneously.
"Kids... Follow the already given instructions carefully though you can improvise if the situation needed it. We might die here but since you are here then that means you're ready for that fate so all I can really say is good luck... Just don't depend on luck too much."
The simple words from an old man that don't seem to mean much or is that encouraging set flames into the hunters' hearts, making their hearts beat faster yet calming their minds at the same time.
These are the words of an old man... but not any old man, the words of the man known as the strongest Nen user in the world...