Grief and Fear

__________ POV Narration__________

Ashton's arrival didn't come as a surprise to the Zodiacs, quite a few members were expecting him and the Zoldycks.

Cheadle especially was waiting with bated breath. She wanted to know what became of the expedition that the Zoldycks started. She knew that the colonies could use all of the help they could get.

The people started to disembark the Ark in an orderly fashion, directed by none other than Illumi and Kikyo. The elders of the Zoldyck family were still on the deck of the ship, looking over things and watching their new home.

Suddenly, a giant rip in space opened up right near the ship, startling all of the people that were currently on the shore.

Out of the torn space came two wrecked ships. They seemed to be on the brink of sinking and they were beached upon appearing.

"W-What?" Cheadle looked at the 'new' ships in confusion.

The Zodiacs beside her were not any better than her. Then, a dust cloud rose from their side, as they heard someone land on the sand.

With a wave of the hand, Cheadle blew the dust away, managing to reveal the familiar face of a man.

The Zodiacs instantly recognized him, so did Kite and Morel. They looked at his form with curiosity, they realized that something had happened.

Unfortunately, not all of the people present understood the implications of Ashton's new appearance.

"Damn, you do look pretty decent with a beard!" Said Kanzai while looking at Ashton with a smile.

Ashton just had a face that said 'obviously'. His confident smile was dazzling to Cheadle.

"Well... We don't have much time to talk about my good looks. But I appreciate the thought." Ashton's confident smile didn't falter one bit when he spoke to the people present.

"What happened? I remember that you became like this only after facing a powerful enemy..." Cheadle finally voiced her concerns for the others to hear as well.

Kanzai had a look of realization on his face, as Ashton laughed at him for a bit. Cheadle simply raised an eyebrow in concern, as even Ashton's laughter seemed to be tired and aged.

It was somewhat tragic for her to hear. But she didn't let it show on her face.

"Well, as I said, we don't have much time to talk. Things are about to get a lot busier than before." Ashton's words made the Zodiacs sweat a bit. Kite and Morel didn't quite know how much work the others were already doing, so they weren't as affected by Ashton's words.

"Unfortunately, it seems that the barrier separating Lake Mobius from the rest of the world is starting to show flaws. I can confirm the presence of three beings that are far too powerful for this Lake to contain." Ashton's words almost formed a pit in Cheadle's stomach.

The chairman of the association gulped as she looked at Ashton expectedly, hoping to hear some sort of continuation to his claims.

Every human that knew of the Dark Continent also knew about the barrier separating it from the human world. It was found out by humanity relatively early. It happened as soon as they had their first successful expedition and they finally learned just how frightful the world was.

After all, it only made sense that something was stopping these powerful beings from crossing over into Lake Mobius and rendering it completely unlivable to humans.

"Three species that can only be found in the deepest oceans beyond the known Dark Continent have been spotted in the middle of our lake." The people around Ashton all gulped as they listened to his words.

Another two sounds appeared from behind everyone, Maha and Zeno both landed near the group, neither of them raising any dust.

"It was quite ferocious a beast... It was also surprisingly large." Zeno spoke up to the startled hunters.

"Well, regardless. I don't know how they reached this Lake, but they're here and it doesn't mean anything good for us." Ashton's words seemed to be stressing Cheadle out.

"We need to contact the other expedition too. Gather our forces and prepare for the worst." Cheadle spoke while rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"This body of mine is also falling apart." Ashton rolled up the sleeves of his lab coat and showed the hunters the leathery blackened skin that was covering his arms.

Cheadle's eyes shone with a strange light.

"W-what? What happened?!" The expression of most of the Zodiacs was quite grave, including Morel. Kite just had a strange frown on his face.

"It seems that turning my vitality to strength for a second time was a bit too much... I'll figure it out though, don't worry about it too much." Maha and Zeno both looked to be quite ashamed.

In their eyes, the only reason for Ashton's current state was the fact that he needed to take care of them all.

"How can you ask me not to worry about it?! Ashton, you're dying!!" Ashton had somewhat underestimated the reaction that others would show to his conundrum. Cheadle especially even had some tears in her eyes.

"Yeah, that's soo fucked..." Kanzai was also running his hands through his hair.

"Don't overreact... I've been through worse," Ashton said while waving off their concerns. But, in truth, he hadn't been through worse.

Currently, his body was falling apart with every passing second. He was well aware that his days were numbered. There were very few things he could do to repair his body.

Even healing himself by transferring his consciousness into a healthy clone would likely harm him even more. He had almost no vitality left in his body, and he had no reliable way to replenish it. Nitro Rice already had almost no effect on him.

He was like a skinny man slowly dying of thirst in the middle of the desert. The only reason he wasn't bedridden like Gon had been was because he was much stronger.

He hadn't expected his body to react that way to the second exchange of vitality into Nen. But it was already done, he couldn't take it back. He needed to spend his moments carefully.

"What are you going to do...?" Asked Cheadle after calming down a bit. Ashton was essential to them. He was not only someone they relied on due to strength, he was a friend, a man that they could trust.

Losing him would mean losing a great ally to humanity. They simply couldn't afford it in their current situation. Let alone the fact that Cheadle was quite attached to Ashton at that point. Same could be said for most of the Zodiacs as well as Morel and Knov.

"I won't be dying anytime soon if that's what you're asking..." Ashton said in a happy tone, the smile on his face gave away quite a bit about his thoughts. Even when faced with such things, they were completely calm and collected.

There was not one trace of doubt in his eyes. Not one milligram of concern for his own safety.

"Another thing, I don't have much time, would you mind telling Momoze of my situation? I'll be off in my mancave trying to fix it for a while... Tell her not to worry about it." Ashton said as he prepared to take the ark and walk off.

He was currently in no state to use any Nen, he needed to trek his way to his laboratory on foot. Thankfully he didn't have a lot of walking to do, and his physical body was strong enough to speed things up greatly.

Now... What exactly was he supposed to do about his body?

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