Table of Discourse

__________ POV Ashton__________

It has been a while since I've last spoken with everyone like this. Well, it's been even longer for them.

For me, it's like I've just woken up from a deep sleep, they have been struggling all the time I was 'resting'.

Well, they will keep struggling, but now I'll also be around in case things go wrong. I can provide them with protection, but I can't do that forever.

I will act as a safety net, but humanity will have to rise above the threats it faces by itself. They have a lot of room for growth, many of the soldiers that I've seen had barely been trained.

With enough training for all of the militia, the army wouldn't have lost the way it did. At least it wouldn't have been so drastic of a loss.

The Zoldycks were doing fine by themselves, but overall, it wasn't all that peachy. The gunners were missing some shots, the close-ranged fighters were panicking and frolicking around like a pack of geese.

It was rather sad to watch. And yes, I did observe them for a while. I arrived early enough to see Zeno kill an Ancient Dragon using Yama's Nail.

It was a somewhat dangerous move, not only due to the flames of the dragon but also because the relic could've killed him if he had too little Nen. That's why I gave it to Maha because I knew he'd be able to use it safely at least to some degree.

But I guess it was fine since Zeno grew stronger after that barrier fell, so he was safe enough to use it.

Now, I'm waiting with the Zoldycks for all of the leaders to gather in one place. The princes won't be attending this one, so I'll visit Momoze right after this ends.

It's rather odd to see how stronger even the civilians have gotten. Everyone is basically a third rate Nen User at this point. They just have no idea how to control their Nen properly, only doing it subconsciously.

Well, calling it an odd sight might not be completely right. It's more of a fascinating one. I wonder if I would've gotten stronger as well if I were still a human...

It's likely that I would've, but that's a bit hard to know.

"Ashton, when do you think the next invasion will happen?" Asked Maha while sipping on some poisoned tea. He also gave some to Ashton, who needed to work a bit on his resistance now. Although he was already naturally immune to most effects, he still got dizzy.

"Depends, there are many beings in the Dark Continent, but I doubt they'll start attacking in waves after seeing just how badly this one went. They will likely gather their forces for a while, and then they will attack in full force." My answer didn't seem to cheer anyone up. But it's the most realistic posibility.

The gods probably got a tad bit too cocky after seeing that I was out of the picture. Now they must be trying to take out humanity in one last, all-out attack.

"How many beasts do you reckon they will have...?" Maha asked warily. He was quite curious about the Dark Continent now that they were basically up against the entirety of it.

"They'll probably range in the billions, and three will be quite a few of the calibre of those dragons that you three fought. Probably at least a thousand. I doubt they'll gather beasts even from the deeper parts of the Continent, so I'm just estimating the ones from the shores."

Even then, this estimate is not painting a good picture. I'm not even sure I'd be able to take care of so many of them. The best thing I can do is keep them away by growing a 'Flower Wall' that spits out poisonous spores when beasts approach it.

But that wouldn't last long, the corpse would pile up to the point where beasts just scale over the flesh of the other former members of the horde.

I need to think of some countermeasures, but I do believe I have some time in my hands right now. So I'm not exactly worried. Worst case scenario I save a few thousand humans and rebuild humanity after slowly dealing with a beast infestation.

I'm pretty confident in surviving by myself, even without Relics. But I don't know about actually protecting about 150000 humans in four different cities all at once.

"That doesn't sound quite encouraging... But I guess it could've been much worse. I'm not sure humanity has much a chance either way though..." Maha is at least an optimist. Well, as much as an old jaded assassin can be.

"Nah, we will manage to pull through. I can make some things up and prepare for the worst situations. But humans still need to pull their weight. I think we should hurry up the training for new Nen users." Maha raised an eyebrow at my words.

And I think I realise why too. "You say 'humans' as if you're no longer part of that group... I get that you are a Chimaera Ant now, but you are primarily human in the end. You think, act and feel like one."

I guess it would sound like I'm disassociating myself from humanity from an outsider. I can see that both Silva and Maha are a bit uncomfortable in this conversation, even though they were quite nonchalant when hearing my earlier words.

"I do think of myself as a human, but I would sometimes speak like that even before becoming an ant," I said with a smile, revealing my jagged teeth and making Maha sigh a bit.

"Well, I guess that's also true..." He said, seemingly defeated.

Our conversation was then cut short, Kikyo walked in, leading quite the sizable group inside the meeting room.

They were the Zodiacs, Kite and Morel. Knov is probably busy or something.

Cheadle instantly lit up when seeing me. Kite also reacted in an expected way, by looking at me with a wary gaze and damn near rushing at me.

"Glad to see you all so healthy!" I got up from my seat to greet them. Cheadle seemed almost ecstatic to see me.

"I could say the same about you! Last I've heard you were decomposing for god's sake!" Kanzai greeted with some enthusiasm. Honestly, this guy has been nothing but smiles ever since I helped him with that overgrown lizard a few months back.

"Well, some things happened. As some of the more perceptive among you might've noticed, I'm not exactly human anymore. I'm a Chimaera Ant now!" Kite's eyes widened at my words, he probably had his suspicions, but my words just confirm them.

Cheadle was the only one that looked a bit sad, the rest just seemed to be mildly interested in my transformation.

"Well, we all have a lot to talk about. Let's sit down for now though, I'm sure the journey here was quite long."

And just like that, we all started speaking openly. This meeting is going to be long...

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