To Combine and Create

__________ POV Ashton__________

Now, Ashton, how do you save yourself?

Truth be told, actually healing myself seems pretty much impossible to achieve.

Asking Ai for help would be the only option I've got to heal myself.

And I'm reluctant to do it. Ai hasn't even been responding lately. Not even to Killua, and he was technically friends with the thing.

So I guess that's not even an option anymore. The only method of preserving myself that I have left is the one in front of me...

Project P, from procreation. A shitty name that I came up with on a whim.

In front of me, on top of my large desk stands a strange container with tubes connected to it from many different sides. Each tube further connects to a different container.

This... This is the result of the few months I've had to work on these things. I've called it, 'The Artificial Womb'. Now, this is a perfect recreation of the reproductive system found inside the Chimaera Ant Queen.

It was a bit difficult to salvage since the king managed to injure her quite a bit, but I still managed. It just took me more than it otherwise would've.

The reproductive system itself was quite intricate, I needed to recreate its stomach, as well as the two of them, worked hand in hand.

Each tube that enters the 'Mechanical Womb' must be connected to a small 'Stomach Container'. The reproductive system works by digesting the DNA from the things consumed and combining them into one single container(the womb).

It's a bit odd, but it should work. Problem? I haven't the time to test this thing on humans. I don't have any guinea pigs left from the last time I ran human experiments, so I only tested it on animals.

I don't know if it will work the same as the Queen's actual reproductive system when humans are involved.

I plan to grow myself a new body. I've been thinking and planning this for a very long time. I've kept samples of every calamity, all of the powerful beasts that I could find in the Dark Continent.

Now, why exactly was I thinking of something like this even before getting this body injured beyond any repair?

Well, at first, I was a bit sad at my lack of progress. For the first time in my life, there is simply no way to grow stronger with this body.

I am currently still limited by my innate talents. I was never an overwhelmingly talented individual anyway. But after giving my vitality for strength the first time, I reached the very limit that my body allows.

The only obvious path forwards in this aspect is simply becoming something other than human...

In truth, I wasn't going to go through with this plan, but my body dying already isn't something that I can afford to let happen.

Humanity's fate is currently related to my survival. I made a sacrifice to save the Zoldycks and the rest of the expedition that was coming our way, but I doubt that humanity will survive without my help or interference.

Well, I now realize just how pretentious that sentence sounds. But it is a fact. There currently aren't any Nen users powerful enough to take care of the more dangerous beings in the Dark Continent.

Kite is probably the closest thing they have to me in strength, but I doubt he's actually enough to deal with hordes of monsters just as strong or even stronger than him.

A lot of my strength resides in artefacts and fighting styles, but that's beside the point. I am lucky that my most useful weapon negates defences.

If serving were to happen to me, a large gap would open up in our defence.

When thinking like that, some might find my decision to sacrifice my lifespan to be selfish, especially considering the circumstances. But, at this point, that doesn't matter to me.

The only people I do feel bad about are Cheadle, Kurapika and Momoze. At least Kite and Maha are both still alive and relatively healthy. The two of them together should technically be able to defend humanity for a while.

I doubt a large horde forming as it did in the Dark Continent is actually possible, so they should be relatively fine even if this little experiment of mine fails and I end up dead.

There's also Pitou, but I at least know that she'd survive even without me. She's not exactly human, so she won't even be a target. As long as she doesn't put herself in front of danger, she'll be fine.

Well, I don't have much time left, I maybe have one more week left in this body, I need to hurry up and start creating a body for myself. I need to greatly hurry the process of forming a body too.

This is basically my last chance at survival, I can't afford to waste time when I don't even know how long assimilating all of these bodies will take for the artificial stomachs.

I hurried along and put all of the parts I could fit inside. I cut chunks of the bigger carcasses.

My list of beings that will make up my new body is quite extensive. Namely, all of the calamities besides Ai, which I don't have any method of getting a sample of.

There's a piece of bone from that 'Roc' I encountered in the Dark Continent, a small piece of exoskeleton belonging to the 'Blood Spider' that captured the expedition team that one time. There's also a small charred piece of flesh from an Ancestral Whale.

And, to top it all off, I also add a chunk of flesh from my teacher. Just to add more spice to this strange abomination that I'm creating.

Ok, so the worst thing that can happen is that I create an unkillable monster that doesn't have any memory. Basically a newborn artificial Chimaera Ant King, but on steroids/made with better ingredients.

I will also add myself to one of these stomachs. I will be the last piece of the puzzle, as some would say.

I also will add a few more things in there. Exotic species that I happen to have some remains of on me. Like the Black-Winged Scorpion, which has the strongest poison in Lake Mobius.

Well... I should start preparing. Depending on the outcome, this might be my very last experiment.

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