Chapter 315: Maha's Punch X Ants X Pariston
"How strong am I?" Maha chuckled with a hoarse voice.
Perhaps due to his age, or perhaps because he had not made a move in a long time, it seemed no one had asked him this question for quite a while.
The old man looked deeply at Ryo. Separated by a single window, they were clearly close at hand, yet it seemed as if an invisible boundary... separated the old and the young into two different worlds.
Ryo's gaze burned fervently, two great suns faintly and slowly burning within his pupils... The [True Eye] capable of seeing through vitality was activated, casting its gaze upon Maha in a single instant... Immediately, the youth's gaze froze, holding his breath as if peering into an endless abyss.
What kind of feeling was that? It was as if an ant looking up to its utmost limit could barely glimpse a corner of an elephant, or like a frog at the bottom of a well, restricted by its cognition, completely unaware of the vastness of heaven and earth. As a stream of information flooded into his mind...
[Maha Zoldyck... Status: Unknown... Physique: Unknown... Manifested/Potential Aura Volume: Unknown...]
The old man kept his hands tucked in his pockets and said indifferently, "Are you asking me? Or are you asking Him?"
Ryo forced himself to remain calm, slowly withdrawing the great suns from his eyes, and replied frankly, "I am asking Great-grandfather, and I am also asking Him!"
Maha gave a noncommittal grunt and took a step forward. The ground beneath his feet shrank to the extreme, compressing directly from a line into a single point, as if the ends of the earth were right before him... The vast world was entirely measured within his footsteps, instantly losing the concept of "length."
Tap... The instant the soft sound of his feet touching the floor echoed;
Maha, who was inside the room the previous second, crossed the window lattice and wall in the next, arriving right in front of Ryo. Looking up at him, he said, "I am not as good as Him, and I do not know how strong He is. But if you want to know, I have a punch right here. Do you want to try taking it?"
Maha smilingly and slowly took his right hand out of his pocket...
Ryo gulped heavily. Shifting his vision downward, he looked at this withered hand, bones wrapped in skin, nearly devoid of flesh and blood. After a long silence... he beamed a bright smile...
"They all say, if you want to learn how to hit people, you must first learn how to take a beating."
"Since Great-grandfather has offered, as your grandson, I naturally have no reason... not to accept!"
Ryo straightened his back boldly. His expression turning solemn, he looked earnestly at Maha and said, "Please enlighten me!"
Maha quietly looked at the boy. Within his weathered old eyes, filled with the epic of time, a flash of unforgettable reminiscence surfaced... If he remembered correctly, the day Zzigg was severely beaten back then, he was just like this boy—iron-boned, stubbornly craning his neck to meet his gaze, even if it meant... hitting the south wall and bleeding from his head, never once turning back...
He slowly nodded and said, "Good... good... You brats all have your own reasoning."
"This old man cannot out-stubborn you..."
The withered right hand slowly clenched into a fist. Maha then spoke no more. He merely bent his elbow slightly and gently sent this fist toward Ryo's chest...
In that instant, heaven and earth mutated... Within his senses, Ryo suddenly and horrifically discovered... In broad daylight, a massive expanse of sunlight vanished...
The ancient castle above his head, the white clouds above the castle, and the azure sky above the white clouds turned pitch-black... Out of nowhere, they were covered by a gigantic fist!
Boom! Crackle! Continuous thunderclaps subsequently exploded between heaven and earth!
The Kurta siblings, who had just returned to the butler's villa with Tsubone and were digesting the previous battle in their room, were suddenly startled. They hurriedly ran to the window, looking up at the sky...
Within a ten-mile radius, wind and clouds gathered, lightning and thunder intertwined, all completely grasped within a single fist, slowly pressing down upon the ancient castle at the mountain peak.
Kurapika's eyes bulged, and he slumped onto the floor. Panting heavily, he could not utter a single normal syllable!
Beside him, Kurajin opened her mouth, completely dumbfounded!
Panicked shouts immediately rang out in their ears... "What is that?!"
"Why has the sky gone dark?!"
"God knows!"
Boom! Crackle! Another thunderclap sounded at the right moment, and the entire butler's villa instantly went into an uproar!
On the top floor of the villa, in the bedroom belonging to Tsubone, the old butler with her two pink pigtails hurried back. Holding Amane in one hand and Canary in the other, she hummed a nursery rhyme, coaxing the two young ones who were frightened by the thunder. Her old eyes then looked out the window at the sky, murmuring in her heart: "Ancestor..."
Her pupils were entirely filled by that fist blocking out the sky and the sun!
"Ho ho ho... Is the Old Master planning to personally destroy this home?"
Inside the training room on the first floor, having taken off his martial arts uniform and changed into a sports vest, Netero, accompanied by Zeno, was casually playing volleyball to relieve the itch in his hands. At a certain moment, the old man's Buddha-like earlobes twitched backward. Catching the volleyball Zeno spiked over with one hand, he dashed to the window, casting a sidelong glance toward that dim little room on the first floor...
That light and fluttery fist Maha threw at Ryo, though small, was massive. Faintly... it carried the momentum to instantly crush the youth...
"Grandfather is getting serious." With his white hair swaying, Zeno flashed to Netero's side, looking up at the sky... A fist taller and larger than the sky itself, possessing even more might and ferocity than the Nuclear Slash Ryo executed in the dream space!
It completely didn't feel like they were on the same level or dimension... It made one feel almost... suffocated!
"Silva!" In the garden, beneath that parasol, the woman holding the infant anxiously hid in the man's embrace. Silva, his silver hair falling to his waist, reached out to wrap his arm around Kikyo's waist, smoothly taking Killua-kun into his arms, and looked silently at the sky.
Wind, clouds, thunder, sunlight, rain, and dew were all gathered within Maha's fist as he slowly drove it toward Ryo's chest. As Ryo's emotions fluctuated, alarm bells rang loudly in his heart, and every hair on his body stood on end in response... Lowering his eyelids, he just stared blankly... As Maha's completely ordinary-looking fist was about to land on his chest, in that single instant, the youth felt like a reckless small boat plunging into the vast ocean, liable to be submerged by a crashing wave at any moment. For the first time in his life... he tasted the fear of death!
"Great-grandfather's punch can kill me!"
Even though he possessed [Rebirth from a Drop of Blood], Ryo's intuition told him that Maha's punch could truly obliterate him!
Whoosh~ The fist arrived. At the exact instant it was about to touch his chest, it abruptly stopped...
The fist wind howled, blowing the boy's silver hair, accompanied by glazed golden light, fluttering backward... When the boy looked again, Maha smilingly withdrew his right hand, instead patting him on the shoulder and saying, "Go eat."
Ryo took a deep breath. Sweating all over as if he had just been fished out of the water, he silently replied, "Understood."
Following that, he stood and watched Maha turn and walk back into the bedroom... Looking up at the sky, the azure sky had returned; the dark clouds and thunder were all gone, and the light was restored.
The entirety of Kukuroo Mountain seemed to heave a sigh of relief along with it.
Ryo took another look, bowed deeply toward the interior of the room, and with a heavy heart, raised his feet to walk toward his own bedroom.
Tap... tap... The sound of footsteps treading on the stone corridor emitted soft echoes.
In the butler's villa, Kurajin recovered her senses and helped Kurapika up. Tsubone comforted the children, then went around to the back kitchen and pushed the dining cart out. In the ancient castle garden, Silva embraced Kikyo and Killua-kun as they returned to their bedroom. Netero and Zeno exchanged a glance in silent speechlessness. All these living beings returned to normal, as if the various events from before had never happened, going about their respective tasks... But once a memory is branded with a mark, trying to forget it is by no means an easy task...
"You didn't have to try and take it." Arriving at the bedroom, Illumi, with his smooth black hair falling to his waist and arms crossed, leaned against the doorframe. Watching Ryo stroll over, he raised his eyes and spoke to him.
The foolish younger brother clearly understood what had just happened.
Tap... tap... Ryo walked straight past Illumi's shoulder, remaining silently wordless. At a certain moment, he halted his steps, his gaze bypassing Illumi to look at the corner, and called out softly, "Milluki, come here!"
A shadowy figure flashed around the corner. Just as he was about to run, Ryo predictably flicked his finger, shooting out a Nen thread that bound his hands and feet, dragging him over...
"Big Brother, I just came over to take a look!" Milluki screamed in panic. Flying through the air, a bag of potato chips plummeted from his arms, caught firmly by Ryo with a single hand.
"Cucumber flavor, you really know how to pick your snacks..."
"If Big Brother wants it, I still have more over there."
"That won't be necessary..."
Although potato chips are good, it's just for a fresh taste... Ryo released Milluki, letting the chubby Milluki oil his soles and slip away in a panic.
Tearing open the packaging himself, he tossed a chip into his mouth. Crunch... crunch... he chewed. Only then did he unhurriedly cast a glance at Illumi and said, "Why wouldn't I take it?"
"Knowing perfectly well you can't take it but insisting on taking it anyway, that is something only an idiot would do..."
"Are you insulting me?"
"I am merely stating a fact."
Crunch... crunch... Ryo noncommittally offered the potato chips to Illumi: "Want some?"
Illumi reached his hand into the bag. However, before he even touched the chips, a sudden pain flared in his buttocks. He was immediately kicked flying by Ryo...
"Knowing perfectly well I won't let you eat them, yet you still try to eat them. Aren't you an idiot too?"
Illumi: "..."
With a twitch of the corner of his mouth, he crashed straight through the window, transforming into a black dot on the horizon and disappearing.
Ryo opportunely retracted his foot and said leisurely, "Idiot, a person only thinks of making progress when they realize the gap..."
Subsequently, he turned and returned to his bedroom.
Dong... At twelve o'clock noon, the wooden grandfather clock placed in the corner struck its chime, announcing the hour.
Ryo tilted his head back and poured the potato chips into his mouth all at once, simply padding his stomach. Then... he pulled out a chair and sat at the desk. Taking advantage of the time before Tsubone delivered lunch, he opened the drawer, pulled out a pen and paper, and began to review the situation. First, it was certain that his Great-grandfather's punch far exceeded his cognition. How it compared to the punch Adult Gon used to brutalize Neferpitou in the original story, Ryo had no way of knowing. But... what was certain was that it was not a punch a B-class creature could throw out. If he really had to compare it, perhaps... only the strike from that towering Sandworm—the one that had once intercepted Netero, Linne, and his grandfather Zzigg's landing—which split a piece of land with a tail swipe, could be considered comparable...
But, it should be known that the Sandworm's grade was A, a full major grade higher than the Chimera Ants!
In other words... "If I want to catch this punch, or even... see through Great-grandfather's vitality, I must reach at least A-class..."
And for A-class, perhaps only those at the Super Kage level, such as Asura, Indra, and their reincarnations, Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha, could achieve this level!
Which means... Ryo held the pen and slowly wrote down a sentence on the white paper—
[To become A-class, one must possess local [Star-Busting] level combat power.]
This would inevitably require more [Life Energy] and [Faith Power], which consequently requires massive amounts of [Rations] and [Believers].
As Ryo pondered, he simply pulled up Gotoh's [Believer Panel] and took a look...
[[Prompt: Believer Gotoh, the evolutionary process continues...]
[Current progress: 6/7 (Days)]
[One day remaining until evolution is complete...]
(Note: Loyalty overflowing)]
[Current Status: Evolving...]
[Physique +1+1+1+1...]
[Current: 1594... Increased by 1200 points compared to before evolution (Note: Still continuously increasing)]
[Manifested Aura Volume: C+ (15,784 / 100k) -> C+ (38,741 / 100k) (Note: Still continuously increasing)]
[Potential Aura Volume: B- (200k / 1 Million) -> B- (470k / 1 Million) (Note: Still continuously increasing)]
[Category: Emission]
[Initial Nen Ability: Coin Guessing]
[First Embrace Nen Ability: Currently Awakening...]
[Awakening Progress: 88%]
[Evaluation: C++]
[Note: Referencing the Ants, your believer "Gotoh" has reached the level of a top-tier Ant Squadron Leader. His current strength is roughly at the level of a peak Kite, and he is advancing toward the B- class.]
[Controllable Status: Under absolute domination]
Ryo slowly withdrew his gaze. Seeing that the remaining [First Embrace] opportunity in the panel had not been used yet, he looked thoughtfully toward the NGL Autonomous Republic in the south...
"Ants, huh... Would they be good subjects?"
As the youth murmured to himself, his thoughts drifted far away with the wind.
On the Yorbian continent, in the southwest corner, upon a steep cliff adjacent to the ocean, hidden within the overgrown weeds, lay a damp cave.
The cave saw no light. Faintly, a rustling sound of eating could be heard from within...
Occasionally, several sea fish went in alive, and after their flesh was eaten, only fish bones were spat out.
Further deep inside, one could vaguely see a massive ant with a bulging belly, constantly eating and complaining.
"Hungry... so hungry... I need more and better food... for the King..."
Crunch~ Another fresh sea fish had its head bitten off, struggling as it lost its life, accompanied by a dark gleam flashing deep within the cave.
Right above the cave, on that cliff adjacent to the ocean, a handsome blond young man in a suit gave a wicked, charming smile. Satisfiedly looking at the surveillance footage, he tilted his head to address several Hunter Association staff members beside him: "Go down, send her more food."
"Too slow... too slow... I want to see her go mad, go crazy, and stir up the world! Of course, if this can attract my absolute most beloved darling..."
"Ryo Zoldyck!"
"Then that would truly... be too wonderful..."
But... "Pariston-sama, the fishing boats we sent out won't be back with their catch for another two hours..."
A staff member said cautiously. As soon as the words fell, he saw... the blond youth tilt his head, looking at him with a squinting smile...
"I said, go down!"
"If there are not enough fish, don't you know how to adapt, deliver yourselves to her door, and let her eat you?"
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