Nobunaga's draw was blindingly fast. It was the result of a single motion practiced ten thousand times until it bypassed conscious thought entirely. An Enhancer completely dedicated to the mastery of one weapon could execute that strike the precise fraction of a second a target registered in his peripheral vision, entirely devoid of hesitation.
Liam caught the razor-sharp edge between his index and middle finger.
The massive kinetic force driving the katana simply vanished, completely neutralized. Without breaking his grip, Liam lifted his arm, hoisting Nobunaga entirely off the ground by the blade. He brought the swordsman back down, offering a firm, deliberate push. The heavy hilt snapped back, striking Nobunaga squarely in the sternum. The impact dropped him hard onto his backside in the dirt. Nobunaga sat perfectly still, his eyes wide, his brain struggling to interpret the impossible sequence of physics his body had just experienced.
Liam dropped to the ground, straddling Nobunaga's chest and pinning him to the earth.
"Nothing to gain from this," Liam stated in a mild, conversational tone while Nobunaga's eyes darted frantically, still attempting to process the restraint. Liam yanked the katana from the swordsman's loose grip and drove the tip deep into the asphalt directly beside Nobunaga's head, leaving the steel vibrating inches from his ear. "I am not actively hunting anyone. I genuinely prefer peace. It is vastly superior to the alternative."
Liam tilted his head slightly. "And regarding Uvogin and your other fallen members. Run the math, honestly. You all knew exactly what you were doing out there. The rules were established. The results were the results."
A rapid series of emotions twisted across Nobunaga's pale face—shock, followed closely by boiling rage, then finally settling into a cold, rigid calculation. He averted his gaze from Liam, staring at the sky. "If you are not hunting us, what exactly are you doing in Meteor City?"
"Visiting." Liam pushed himself up off Nobunaga's chest, taking a moment to brush the dust from his trousers. "Perfectly legal."
Nobunaga slowly pushed himself to his feet, carefully maintaining the stiff posture of a man determined not to acknowledge he had just been casually sat upon. He gripped the hilt of his katana and wrenched it free from the asphalt. He looked at Liam, then shifted his gaze toward the massive pile of slaughtered chimera ants choking the gap in Machi's razor-wire net. He clearly anticipated a barrage of questions regarding the massacre or the fact that half the city had vanished.
Liam offered nothing.
He simply swept his eyes across the monstrous resin structure consuming the eastern sector, logged the visual data, and casually strolled past Nobunaga into the untouched residential district without uttering a single syllable.
Tracking the faint pulse of his Star Mark, Liam navigated the labyrinth of alleyways until he located Shizuku and Menchi. They stood on the cracked steps of a massive, heavily weathered cathedral. It loomed over the surrounding shanties, its heavy wooden doors propped wide open to accommodate the steady flow of wounded residents.
"The one leading the assault was female," Menchi explained, crossing her arms tightly over her chest. "An insectoid body. She openly declared herself the Ant King."
Liam paused, running the new data through his established knowledge base.
In the original timeline, a chimera ant division commander named Zazan had invaded Meteor City, violently asserting herself as a queen. That was the canonical sequence. But the canonical sequence had been unraveling for months. He rapidly adjusted his framework to align with the current variables.
Female. Ant body. Operating under the title of Ant King.
Chelich.
Tserriednich's reincarnation. Birthed from the queen's second litter. Categorized as female strictly by biological designation and absolutely nothing else. He had previously dispatched several division commanders to the Kakin Empire to harass Camilla. Had Chelich personally relocated to Meteor City?
For a fleeting second, Liam wondered if Meruem had somehow undergone a radical, impossible biological shift. He immediately discarded the theory.
Bisky folded her arms, raising a skeptical eyebrow. "She sounds quite powerful. Feel like issuing a challenge?"
"Absolutely not." Liam shook his head firmly, ensuring no ambiguity remained. "We are here for a highly specific purpose. That purpose does not involve picking fights with entities fully capable of killing me. If my primary goal was climbing combat power rankings, I would be leading a vastly different lifestyle."
He let the thought linger, stripping away any false modesty.
In the absolute reality of this world, the Ant King occupied a tier of existence that simply could not be defeated through raw strength, because the ceiling for "strength" constantly shifted upward to accommodate him. The weapon that ultimately eradicated the Ant King in the original timeline was not a complex Nen ability. It was a bomb. A crude, indiscriminate explosive engineered to vaporize everything within its blast radius. An individual practitioner could push their power past every conceivable limit, yet that lifetime of dedication still ended at the hands of a device small enough to fit inside a coat pocket.
Given the choice between spending decades honing his physical combat capabilities just to engage in a doomed brawl with a god-tier entity, or dedicating those years toward achieving a form of existence operating entirely outside the parameters of that explosive device, Liam's preference remained perfectly clear. The latter was infinitely more interesting.
"Let us go find what we actually came here for," Liam said, turning toward the cathedral.
The cavernous interior stank of copper, sweat, and harsh antiseptics. Dozens of makeshift cots lined the stone floor, nearly all occupied by bleeding, groaning residents. Their wounds bore the distinct, jagged signatures of chimera ant claws and mandibles. Near the altar, an elderly man draped in faded priest's robes moved methodically between the cots. He operated with the steady, detached calm of someone accustomed to shouldering the panic so others wouldn't have to.
Liam stopped just inside the heavy double doors, sweeping his gaze across the sea of misery.
"Doctor Jingyang," Menchi noted, a faint trace of challenge coloring her voice. "Are you really planning to walk away without intervening?"
He hadn't intended to. Liam raised his hands. The Star Mark engaged instantly, deploying at its maximum area-of-effect scale. Hundreds of translucent, glowing star bubbles materialized in the stagnant air, drifting rapidly across the cathedral. Each bubble carried a micro-dose of healing energy, drawing heavily upon the ambient natural field. It was a massive, sustained application, entirely viable only because the natural system continuously replenished his reserves.
The atmosphere inside the cathedral shifted dramatically.
The low, unbroken drone of localized agony fractured, rapidly dissolving into sharp gasps of relief and confused murmurs. Residents pushed themselves upright, staring at their sealing skin in disbelief. The elderly priest froze mid-stride, dropping a roll of bandages. He stared down at his trembling hands, then tilted his head back to gaze at the vaulted ceiling, desperately trying to force the impossible miracle into his established theological framework.
Liam, Bisky, and Shizuku slipped quietly out the heavy wooden doors before the shock wore off, navigating the dusty streets until they reached a rusted bus shelter.
Meteor City possessed churches. It also maintained a functional bus route. Liam understood these facts abstractly, but standing beneath a corrugated tin roof in a slum currently half-assimilated by a genocidal insect swarm, watching a battered city bus rattle to a stop directly on schedule, forced a jarring mental recalibration.
"You underestimate the resilience of the people here," Menchi said, leaning against the rusted shelter pole with a faint smirk. "Half their territory is swallowed by monsters, and public transit still runs on time. That is the very essence of Meteor City."
She offered a brief wave as the pneumatic doors hissed open, then turned her back and jogged toward the cathedral. She had promised several children a hot meal, and she fully intended to deliver.
Shizuku stepped onto the bus, dropping into a cracked vinyl seat. "She adapts quickly."
"Food Hunters generally do," Bisky replied, taking the seat across the aisle.
Liam approached the driver, referencing the scribbled directions Menchi had provided. "Misty Valley. Can you drop us near there?"
"Get off at the forest terminus at the end of the main road," the driver grunted, his eyes fixed firmly on the cracked windshield. "Hike in about three kilometers. Present your credentials at the perimeter. Ask for Link."
Liam pulled the heavy, black cardstock pass from his pocket. It bore no text, only a single, intricate seal stamped deeply into the center. He flipped it over slowly, running his thumb across the matte finish.
"No obvious Nen signature," Liam murmured.
"It is simply a token," Bisky stated.
"A simple token that grants access to a location entirely unbothered by a chimera ant invasion."
Bisky kept her eyes forward, offering no response. Shizuku stared blankly out the smudged window.
The bus rattled to a halt at the edge of the asphalt. The three of them stepped down into the dense tree line.
The driver's estimate of three kilometers meant nothing to their travel time. They moved through the heavy brush at their natural, elevated pace. Long before a normal hiker would have registered the midpoint, the thick canopy abruptly gave way, spilling them out beneath the open sky.
A wide clearing stretched before them.
In the dead center stood a massive, ancient tree. Its sheer scale communicated centuries of unbroken growth, radiating the profound, heavy stillness of a living structure that predated everything around it. Tucked snugly between its colossal, winding roots sat a small, weathered cottage, its wooden beams settled comfortably into the earth.
Crouched near the heavy oak door was a small figure.
A young girl. The floppy, pointed hat she wore cast a sharp shadow over her features, the fabric creased and worn into a highly personalized shape. She stared directly at them. Her eyes were wide, completely overwhelmed by the sudden arrival of three individuals projecting an aura density far exceeding anything she had anticipated.
Her jaw hung slightly open.
Liam raised his hand, presenting the black credential.
The girl stared at the card.
She shifted her wide eyes to the three of them.
She looked back at the card.