"How strong am I?" Maha let out a raspy, hunched chuckle…
Maybe it was because he was getting old, or maybe because he had not made a move in so long, but it seemed no one had asked him that question in a very long time.
The old man looked at Roy with profound eyes.
Only a window separated them. They were clearly close enough to touch, yet somehow, invisibly… it felt as though the old and the young had been divided into two entirely different worlds…
Roy's gaze burned bright, as if two suns were slowly igniting within his pupils… The [True Eyes], capable of seeing through blood and vitality, activated. In that instant, when his sight landed on Maha… the boy's eyes tightened at once, and he involuntarily held his breath, as though he were staring into a bottomless abyss…
What kind of feeling was that?
Like an ant craning its neck to the limit, yet still unable to glimpse even a corner of an elephant.
Or like a frog at the bottom of a well, shackled by the limits of its own understanding, unable to comprehend how vast heaven and earth truly were.
As a stream of information flooded into his mind… [Maha Zoldyck… existence level unknown… physique unknown… manifest/potential aura quantity unknown…]
With both hands tucked into his pockets, the old man said lightly, "Are you asking me? Or are you asking Him?"
Roy forced himself to stay calm. The blazing suns in his eyes slowly faded, and he answered honestly, "I'm asking both Great-Grandpa… and Him."
Maha gave a noncommittal grunt. Then he took one step.
The ground beneath his foot compressed to the extreme, shrinking from a line into a single point, as though the farthest horizon and the nearest inch had become one… as though all of heaven and earth could be measured within the span of his stride. In that moment, the very concept of "distance" vanished…
"Tread…"
The instant the faint sound of his feet touching the floor rang out, Maha had still been inside the room one moment before, yet in the next, he had already crossed the window frame and wall to arrive in front of Roy.
Tilting his head up to look at him, he said, "I'm not as strong as Him. I don't know how strong He is. But if you want to know about me, I've got a punch here too. Want to try taking it?"
Still smiling, Maha slowly pulled his right hand out of his pocket…
Roy swallowed hard.
His gaze dropped to that hand. It was thin and withered, skin wrapped over bone, almost fleshless. After a long silence… he smiled.
"They say if you want to learn how to hit people, you first have to learn how to take a hit."
"You've already said it yourself, Great-Grandpa… so as your grandson, I naturally have no reason… not to take it."
Roy straightened his back sharply. His expression turned solemn as he looked at Maha with complete seriousness and said, "Please teach me."
Maha looked at the boy quietly. In those aged eyes, heavy with the epic passage of time, a deeply engraved memory surfaced.
If he remembered correctly, on the day Zigg was beaten half to death, he had worn the same unyielding look this boy did now. Iron-boned and stubborn, chin lifted, refusing to look away. Even when he'd crashed headfirst into a wall and come away bloodied, he still had not turned back…
Slowly, Maha nodded.
"All right… good. You little brats all have your own reasons."
"This old man can't argue you down…"
His gaunt right hand slowly clenched into a fist.
Then Maha said nothing more. He merely bent his elbow slightly and gently sent that fist toward Roy's chest…
In that instant, heaven and earth changed.
Within Roy's senses, terror exploded. It was broad daylight, yet all at once… a huge swath of sunlight vanished.
The castle overhead, the white clouds above it, the blue sky above those clouds—everything was swallowed up, as though a gigantic fist had appeared out of nowhere and covered them all.
"BOOM—CRACK!"
Thunder roared in endless succession, exploding across heaven and earth!
Kurapika and Kuraging, who had just returned to the butler villa with Tsubone and were still digesting the earlier battle in their room, were jolted in shock. They hurried to the window and looked up at the sky…
Within a radius of ten li, storm clouds gathered, lightning flashed, and all of it was clenched inside a single fist that was slowly pressing down toward the mountaintop castle…
Kurapika's eyes bulged, and he dropped flat onto the floor, gasping hoarsely, unable to force out a single coherent sound!
Beside him, Kuraging opened her mouth slightly and froze completely.
Then panicked shouting erupted around them.
"What is that?!"
"Why did the sky go dark?!"
"How the hell should I know?!"
"BOOM—CRACK!"
Another peal of thunder struck right on cue, and the entire butler villa instantly descended into chaos!
On the very top floor of the villa, in Tsubone's bedroom, the old butler rushed back in with her two pink twin-tails swaying. With Amane in one arm and Canary in the other, she hummed a nursery rhyme to soothe the two little girls frightened by the thunder. At the same time, her old eyes turned toward the sky outside the window, and she murmured inwardly, "Ancestor…"
Her pupils were filled completely by that sky-covering fist.
"Hohoho… Is the old master planning to destroy this home with his own hands?"
On the first floor, inside the training room, Netero had changed out of his martial arts uniform and into a sports vest. With Zeno keeping him company, he was idly playing volleyball to scratch the itch in his hands. At a certain moment, the old man's Buddha-like ears twitched backward. He caught the volleyball Zeno had just sent flying his way with one hand, swept his gaze toward the window, and glanced sideways toward the dim little room on the first floor…
Maha's fist, drifting lightly toward Roy, was small—yet vast. Vaguely, it carried the sense that it could crush the boy in an instant!
"Grandpa's serious."
With his white hair flaring wildly, Zeno flashed to Netero's side and looked up at the sky. That fist was higher than the heavens, larger than the heavens. Compared to the nuclear slash Roy had unleashed in the dream space, it carried even greater pressure, even fiercer savagery!
It was not even on the same level, not in the same dimension…
It was enough to make a person almost suffocate!
"Silva!"
In the garden, beneath the parasol, the woman holding the baby shrank uneasily into the man's arms.
Silva's silver hair hung all the way to his waist. He wrapped an arm around Kikyo's waist and casually took Killua from her, then silently looked toward the sky…
Wind and clouds, thunder, sunlight, rain and dew—Maha held them all within his fist as he slowly drove it toward Roy's chest.
Roy's thoughts surged violently. Alarm bells blared in his mind, every hair on his body standing on end. With his eyes lowered slightly, he stared fixedly at Maha's utterly plain, utterly ordinary punch as it approached his chest.
In that single instant, the boy felt like a tiny skiff that had recklessly blundered into the sea. Any random wave could rise and swallow him whole. For the first time in his life… he tasted the fear of death!
'Great-Grandpa's punch can kill me!'
He clearly had [Rebirth from a Drop of Blood].
But Roy's instincts told him that Maha's punch really could kill him!
"Whoosh—"
The fist arrived, and at the very instant it was about to touch his chest… it suddenly stopped.
The force of the punch howled forward, sending the boy's silver hair streaming backward, laced with crystalline golden light…
When Roy looked again, Maha was already smiling as he withdrew his right hand. Instead, he gave Roy a pat on the shoulder and said, "Go eat."
Roy drew in a deep breath. Sweat poured off him, and he looked as though he had just been dragged out of the water. After a moment of silence, he answered, "Okay."
Then he stood where he was and watched Maha turn and head back into the bedroom… He lifted his head and looked at the sky.
The blue heavens had returned. The dark clouds and thunder were gone, and daylight shone once more…
It felt as though the entire Kukuroo Mountain had let out a breath of relief…
Roy looked once more, then bowed deeply toward the room. With a heavy heart, he turned and walked toward his own bedroom…
Tap… tap…
His footsteps rang softly against the stone corridor.
Back at the butler villa, Kuraging finally came back to herself and helped Kurapika up.
Tsubone finished calming the children, then went around to the back kitchen and pushed a serving cart out.
In the castle garden, Silva led Kikyo and Killua back to their bedroom in his arms.
Netero and Zeno exchanged a glance and said nothing.
All living things returned to normal, as though none of what had just happened had ever occurred, each person resuming their own business… but once memory had been branded with a scar, forgetting it was never an easy thing.
"You didn't have to take it."
Roy had reached his bedroom.
Long, smooth black hair fell to the man's waist.
Illumi stood with his arms folded, leaning against the wall by the door. As Roy walked over, Illumi lifted his eyes and said that to him.
His foolish younger brother clearly understood what had just happened…
Tap… tap…
Roy walked straight past Illumi's shoulder without saying a word. Then, at a certain moment, he stopped. His gaze shifted past Illumi toward the corner, and he called out softly, "Milluki. Get over here."
A shadow flickered around the corner. It had just started to run when Roy casually flicked out a thread of Nen, bound its hands and feet, and dragged it over.
"Nii-san, I just came to take a look!" Milluki cried out in panic.
As he flew through the air, a bag of chips slipped from his arms. Roy caught it steadily with one hand.
"Cucumber flavor. You've got pretty good taste."
"If Nii-san wants some, I've got more back in my room—"
"No need."
Chips were good, but only for a quick bite… Roy released Milluki, letting the little fatty slick his feet and flee in a panic…
Then Roy tore open the packaging, tossed a chip into his mouth, and crunched away. Only then did he cast Illumi a leisurely glance and say, "Why not take it?"
"If you know perfectly well you can't catch it and still insist on trying, that's something only an idiot would do…"
"Are you calling me an idiot?"
"I'm only stating a fact."
Crunch… crunch…
Roy neither agreed nor denied it. Instead, he held the chips out toward Illumi. "Want some?"
Illumi reached into the bag.
But before his hand could touch a single chip, his backside suddenly exploded with pain. Roy kicked him flying in one clean motion—
"You knew I wasn't going to let you eat any, and you still tried to eat them. Doesn't that make you an idiot too?"
Illumi: "..."
His mouth twitched, and he shot straight through the window, turning into a tiny black dot in the sky before vanishing completely…
Roy slowly withdrew his foot and said lazily, "Idiot. It's only when people understand the gap between themselves and others that they start thinking about improving."
Then he turned and went back into his bedroom.
Dong…
At exactly noon, the wooden clock set in the corner struck the hour.
Roy tipped the bag back and poured all the remaining chips into his mouth, enough to pad his stomach a little. Then, before Tsubone could bring lunch in, he pushed his chair back, sat down at the desk, opened the drawer, and took out paper and pen to begin reviewing the fight.
The first thing he could confirm was that Great-Grandpa's punch was far beyond his understanding. As for how it compared to the punch Gon used in the original story to slaughter Neferpitou, Roy had no way of knowing. But one thing was certain—
That was not a punch a B-rank creature could throw.
If he really had to compare it, then maybe… only the strike from that giant sandworm—the one that had intercepted Netero, Linne, and Grandpa Zigg when they first landed, and split apart a stretch of land with a single tail sweep—was worth putting beside it…
But that sandworm had been A-rank.
A full major tier above the Chimera Ants!
Which meant…
'If I want to catch that punch—or even see through Great-Grandpa's blood vitality—I need to reach at least A-rank…'
And A-rank…
Perhaps only beings at the level of the Six Paths—people like Asura, Indra, and their reincarnations, Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha—could attain that realm!
In other words…
Roy slowly wrote a sentence down on the blank sheet of paper with his pen—
[To become A-rank, one must possess at least localized planet-busting combat power.]
Which also meant he needed more [life energy] and [power of faith], which in turn meant he needed a great deal of [fodder] and [followers]…
While thinking, Roy casually pulled up Gotoh's [Follower Panel] and took a look…
[[Notice: Follower Gotoh's evolution process is continuing…]
[Current progress: 6/7 (days)]
[One day remains until evolution is complete…]
(Note: Loyalty overflowing)]
[Current state: Evolving…]
[Physique +1 +1 +1 +1…]
[Current: 1594… increased by more than 1,100 points compared to before evolution (Note: still continuously increasing)]
[Manifest aura quantity: C+ (15,784/100,000) → C+ (38,741/100,000) (Note: still continuously increasing)]
[Potential aura quantity: B- (200,000/1,000,000) → B- (470,000/1,000,000) (Note: still continuously increasing)]
[Type: Emission]
[Initial Nen ability: Coin Conjecture]
[First Embrace Nen ability: currently awakening…]
[Awakening progress: 88%]
[Evaluation: C++]
[Note: Using the Ants as reference, your follower "Gotoh" has reached the level of a top Chimera Ant Squadron Leader. His current strength is roughly at peak Kite level and is advancing toward B-rank.]
[Controllable status — under absolute control]]
Roy slowly withdrew his gaze.
Seeing that he still had one chance left to use [First Embrace], he grew thoughtful, then turned his eyes toward the NGL Autonomous Republic far to the south…
"The ants… would they make a good target?"
The boy muttered to himself, his thoughts drifting farther and farther away on the wind…
…
On the southwestern corner of the Yorbian Continent,
inside a hidden sea cliff overgrown with weeds, there lurked a damp cave…
No light reached inside. From within came the faint rustling sound of feeding…
Every so often, a few live fish were thrown inside. They went in alive, were eaten dead, and only their bones were spat back out…
Deeper in, one could vaguely make out a massive ant with a swollen belly, endlessly eating and grumbling—
"Hungry… so hungry… I need more and better food… for the King…"
Crunch—
Another fresh fish had its head bitten off and died writhing,
and from deep inside the cave, a ghostly light flickered…
Directly above the cave, on that cliff overlooking the sea, a blond young man in a stylish suit curled his lips into an evil smile as he watched the surveillance feed with satisfaction. Turning his head, he said to the several Association staff beside him, "Go down there and bring her more food."
"Too slow… far too slow… I want to see her go mad, lose control, stir the whole world into chaos! And of course, if she can bring me my most, most, most beloved treasure…"
"Roy Zoldyck!"
"That would really… be perfect…"
"But… Lord Pariston, the fishing boat we sent out won't be back with more fish for another two hours…"
one of the Association staff said carefully.
The moment he finished speaking, the blond young man tilted his head to look at him and smiled with narrowed eyes.
"I said, go down there."
"If there aren't enough fish, then can't you be flexible for once?"
"Why don't you go down yourselves… and let her eat you?"