Nen Synthesis (Specialization): Through the consumption of bodies belonging to users of aura or mana, the King is able to gain strength and aura (or mana) from them proportional to their power. After consuming a majority of their body, the King gains their abilities as well.
Paula, one of the Three Musketeers of Lescatie, had been leading a lucky few Dark Knights to "feast" upon an army of invading humans. The day had been clear, but despite this, a fine particulate had begun to rain over them. It was only thanks to the Musketeer's sharp eyesight that it was even seen.
"Huh, that's weird. We aren't anywhere near volcanic activity, are we?" Paula remarked.
Her fellow Mamono confirmed her statement. It was only when many of the knights and their esquires' legs stopped moving and their eyes glazed over, that they realized what the particles did. Few were able to stay conscious and combat the scales, the holstaur musketeer among them.
"What the hell?"
"This crap is everywhere!"
"Where is it coming from!?"
Their panic ceased after Paula screamed for their attention. "Cover your faces! Move into defensive formation!" She stood on guard as well, expecting their attacker to visit them. She hoped that, with her range, she could catch the ambushers, who were likely expecting them to be asleep, off-guard.
"Pouf, is that the rare? They seem to be another ant."
Paula's squadron looked up, and saw something thought to be impossible: male Mamono. In fact, there were two of them, a Papillon and some sort of Man-eater (although the "plant" had several differences compared to his species, such as a tail, a shell-like hat, and notably, legs).
Suddenly, the Man-eater began to plummet from the sky, allowing his tail to loosen from the butterfly's grip. Aside from the events unfolding before her, Paula noticed the same dust that fell upon her soldiers matched the colors of the Papillion's wings. Immediately, she forced herself on guard, as the Papillion must either be immune to the scales, or, more likely, be their source.
Once the king landed, Paula reached for her back legs and holstered her pistols, one at the King and the other towards the flying Mamono, causing Pouf to immediately glide down.
"Sire!"
"Begone, Pouf. Even if this one is more dangerous than the others, I will not hesitate to kill you if you get in my way."
"…very well." Pouf, realizing that the King had already assessed the situation, decided to let the King fight, and only support him if need be.
"Are you two done? Because I've got some questions for the both of you." The King looked at the Hardened Musketeer, and said three words.
"Are you serious?"
"Wh-of course I am! Now, are you gonna-"
"Compared to a colony's King, you lie at the bottom of the food chain. Do you not realize that?" He exerted his bloodlust, causing everyone present to freeze. "Now, where is your queen?"
"W-we're both Mamono, so please, calm down." Although her words were intended to prevent the battle, the King's sinister aura made her instinctively keep her guns aimed at the pair. "I'm sure we can work something out, with you two being the first males of our species ever found…" She cooed as she said this.
The King's eyes narrowed, instantly realizing the implication in her words. "So your entire species is female? Don't tell me…you truly believe that drudge like you could lie with a King? Disgusting! Shiapouf, dispose of them. Bring me the rare one, however, and don't waste a drop of blood."
What? I thought the Mamono Lord changed every monster like him…I have to report back to Lady Druella, now!
"Charge!"
At Paula's command, the Dark Knights charged at the King, but to this, his aura only flared, anticipating the meal ahead of him. As he swung his tail, however, he noticed that there was a shield around them strong enough to reduce the momentum of his blows. Though not effective in stopping his counterattack, it did prevent most of them from being mortally wounded.
"You bastard! You'll pay for what you've done!"
Although the King did not realize what it was at the time, every one of the knights' blades had flared with Mamono mana, an essence that corrupted nearly everything around it. One after the other, they swung at the King, eroding his Ken.
What is this? It feels as though my aura is slowly being replaced with something foreign. Could this be their ability? Or an aspect of their species? I suppose I'll find out what this is when I bring one to Pitou. I look forward to their dissection.
When the King stopped humoring their attempts to attack him, the tides of the battle quickly turned. He seemingly disappeared, and one after the other, their heads were taken, save for the knight furthest from him, whom he kicked in the stomach to render her unconscious.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the battlefield, Pouf appeared to be having trouble defeating Paula. She had kept her distance from the butterfly Ant while backing towards the trees. Although the mana bullets wore his Ken down, the time he spent defending himself was all he needed to end the fight without shedding blood.
Separating his insides into fragments with his ability, Beezlebub, he allowed them to exit his body as microscopic particles, reforming them into bee-sized clones on the grass beneath them. Once enough of them had gathered near Paula's feet, he flew a few miniature clones into her face, distracting her enough to tackle the gunslinger and pin her to the ground, allowing the segments to fly into her airway.
She tried to hack out the insects, tried to claw at her throat, but nothing seemed to work. Her eyes slowly rolled back, and her vision began to fade to black. Shit shit shit shit…shit! I can't die like this! I need to…to warn…them all…
Once she lost consciousness, Pouf measured her heartbeat, and waited until it was snuffed out. After recalling Beezlebub, the Ant lifted the holstaur's body, and brought it towards the King, who held an unconscious Dark Knight.
"As requested, I have brought the body of your adversary to you in pristine condition, sire."
"Hm." He opened the somewhat bovine skull of Paula, and reached in. Putting a chunk of the mana-rich brain into his mouth, he instantly vomited. "Sire! Are you-" The King slashed Pouf once again, this time on the arm he reached out with.
"That was no rare!" He hacked up the rest of the gray matter and spit it out. "Damn it, just as if a chunk of my aura was converted by those peons…"
Upon hearing this, Pouf instantly bowed down. "My King, please forgive me! I had not educated myself on the nature of this new beast!" He nearly shed tears, for he had harmed the King's wellbeing.
"Make another mistake, Pouf, and it will be your last, understand? Now bring me back to Pitou. Once she uses her pins to gather information on this world, and once Youpi returns, we will search for more rare humans."
"Yes, sire. My deepest apologies…" Holding back tears of joy from his King's patience with him, Pouf held the King's tail, and flew towards the forest to meet with Pitou once again.
Meanwhile, in a small bar in the town of Casca…
Saiyu sighed. "Was it really a good idea to betray King Nasubi, sir?"
"Hah! How would Kakin even find us here? My ability prevented them from following our trail. This was our only chance to go here, and even if it isn't the Dark Continent, that means we can take on this place on our own!"
"Well, I guess I shouldn't even be asking, since I'm your bodyguard and all that." He took another swig of the low quality beer. If the Monkey Zodiac was going to stay sane here, he would need better drinks than this.
"Excuse me, are you two heroes?" Beyond and the Zodiac turned around, only to see a small band of knights led by a priestess clad in blue, white, and gold robes.
Before Saiyu could speak, his employer answered. "Depending on what you ask for, we might be or might not be. Now, get to the point. What are you here for?" He pulled back his robes, revealing his lamellar armor and the hilt of a sword.
"Well, good sirs, the Order can provide any supplies and gold you may need. All we request of you is that you join our supply team. We seek to resupply and join our army headed towards the fallen city of Lescatie, so that they may reconquer our rightful territory."
Five similar paths west to east, two southwest to south, and one southeast. I don't urgently need capital, so I should stick to one of the safer options: northwest.
"I'm sorry, lady, but we don't have time for suicide missions. I'm not interested in any deals you might offer either." He let his own cloak go, hiding his gear once more, and feigned a sip of his drink.
"I am sorry to hear that, sir. Men, let us proceed to the route!"
After the small band left, Saiyu's drunken mind began to wander. After a bit of thought, he whispered to Beyond. "You think we should've joined 'em? If their 'essence' is anything to go off of, that mission is screwed."
"The plan is to trail them after we give them some time to move out, Saiyu. If we join them, we'll be slaughtered ourselves. We leave in three minutes, and attach Marione's camera to one of them when they enter the forest. Got it?"
"Got it, boss."
"Ma…mon…o…are…"
Although the anatomy of the new humanoid was different, Pitou had no trouble getting her to talk after a minute of poking and prodding her brain. Using the needles they carried, Pitou's neurological knowledge had given her the ability to extract information by stimulating parts of the brain. During the operation, the other two Ants listened intently.
Once they had gleaned every piece of information they could, Pitou closed the head of the Dark Knight back up with Doctor Blythe, and conjured a Puppeteer to control the body. Although the knight was still alive, the Puppeteer controlled every one of her movements.
"Now this is rather intriguing! We now have a world without Nen, which we could easily conquer if not for the 'gods' and 'Mamono Lord' that thing had mentioned. However, because of the humans' taste and 'essence', it is more preferable to conquer this world first, and set up breeding camps to prepare for the next. Understood?" Each of the Royal Guards nodded.
Pitou bowed in response. I understand completely, my liege.
Pouf felt only admiration. Oh, sire…you are growing into an Ant befitting your role!
Just then, from the trees, Youpi and several other Ants emerged. "Sorry for the delay, your Majesty. We haven't recovered the compromised Ants, but I've gathered every possible Squadron Leader in NGL."
Welfin heartily laughed. "Ha! As if we would ever leave the King! Right, Leol?"
"You're right, Welfin. Now can we stick to the mission?" He turned to Pitou. "Pitou, what is this place? And what are we doing here?"
Pitou sighed. "We are currently in a world separate from ours, which does not use Nen. There are two humanoid species here, one similar to the humans we consume and another similar in appearance to us. They both use an energy called 'mana' to use their abilities, which they share as 'spells'."
After a brief moment of silence, Bloster, a lobster Ant, burst out in laughter. "HAH! I didn't expect a Royal Guard to be the joking type! Stop kidding around and tell us what's really going on, Pitou!" Dead silence filled the air, realization slowly falling across Bloster's face. "Shit, you're serious…".
Pitou chuckled a little. "We need every Nen-user we can get to conquer this world. Now that you all have arrived, Pouf will be giving you Nen abilities. After that, we follow the King's orders. And if any of you try to defect, remember that we can always kill and revive you for my Puppeteers." The Squadron Leaders shivered, but continued to nod. "Very well! Pouf, activate your Cocoon."
Over the course of an hour, each of the ants were enveloped in Nen casings, with the goal of emerging only a few days later along with their Hatsu. Pitou used their En to detect intruders, Shiapouf spread his scales until they found a human settlement, which seemed to be a somewhat nearby town, and Youpi acted as the primary guard, notably having to massacre a small band of humans that had stumbled across them. At the very least, the King remarked that they "were a good palate cleanser". Eventually, one by one, the Ants emerged from their chrysalises, and when the last Ant emerged, the dawn of a new era had begun.