A kunai flashed from Ronin's shadow clone's hand, streaking straight for the giant ant's head.
But the kunai began shrinking rapidly the closer it got. By the time it was only a few feet away, even the clone could no longer see it.
What the hell…?
Before the clone could process what had just happened, the ground beneath its feet exploded upward again.
The three-tailed giant snake had broken free of the genjutsu. Its cold eyes had locked onto the clone once more.
This time there was no room to dodge. The massive tail slammed into the arms the clone had thrown up in defense. Raw power detonated through the impact. The clone couldn't withstand it. Its body was blasted apart in mid-air.
The giant ant watched in silence, a flicker of confusion passing through its eyes. Its swollen abdomen twitched slightly, as if whatever was growing inside had felt the same ripple of uncertainty.
The moment the shadow clone was destroyed, Ronin—still some distance from the cave—received everything it had seen and sensed.
That swollen abdomen was the unmistakable mark of a Queen.
In any Chimera Ant colony, only the Queen could reproduce. As long as she lived, she could spawn an endless army.
Yet this Queen showed no trace of Ten. No aura at all. She either possessed some kind of absolute defense—perhaps a Vow and Restriction that had poured every point into invulnerability—or she truly had no Nen whatsoever and something else was protecting her.
The shadow clone hadn't detected any other guardian ant nearby.
Ronin leaned toward the second possibility.
The Queen didn't look like she could use Nen. But the fact that she had spoken directly into the clone's mind made him hesitate. In everything he knew about Chimera Ants, even the most intelligent ones had never been able to communicate with humans. At best they exchanged thoughts with other ants through some kind of brain-wave link.
This one had gone far beyond that.
As for the giant snake-like Chimera Ant, Ronin wasn't particularly worried. It felt like nothing more than a nest guardian. Nothing close to the level of someone like Neferpitou.
Why were these ants so different?
Ronin shared everything with Maschur and Vanessa.
Unfortunately, neither of them knew enough about Chimera Ants to give him any real answers.
"If you don't think it's as strong as we expected," Maschur said, "we can always go in and test it ourselves."
Ronin stayed quiet for a moment.
The giant snake hadn't felt like a major threat, but that bone-deep chill he'd felt the instant the clone stepped into the cave was impossible to ignore.
"Benket and his team should be getting close to the cave by now," Ronin said at last. He wasn't ready to move yet.
When the shadow clone had charged into the cave area, Benket's group had already pushed past them. Ronin's trio had kept their presence hidden, so the larger team never noticed them. The path ahead had already been cleared by the clone. Any remaining ants wouldn't be enough to stop Benket's people.
The cleanup traces even helped cover the fact that Ronin's group had fallen behind.
Maschur and Vanessa weren't the type to feel guilty about it. If Benket's team wanted to keep pushing forward and dig up the truth, they were happy to let them serve as the spearhead. Everyone who entered this nest had come in knowing the risks. And if things went south, the three of them waiting in the rear could still turn out to be the ones who saved the entire group.
Benket was still leading his people deeper.
Ronin's sudden disappearance and the appearance of the Chimera Ants had thrown off his rhythm, but he had noticed the same strange traits in these ants that Ronin had.
There was a biology expert in the exploration team. After examining the two Chimera Ant corpses, the man had put forward a theory.
The evolutionary path of the ants here had clearly diverged from the normal one.
Normally, a Queen could absorb genes from any species she consumed and pass them to her offspring. But these ants showed heavy spider-like traits—thick, bristled legs, extra compound eyes, silk-producing abdomens. Everything matched the spiders that had flooded out of the underground city.
The key difference probably came down to their food source.
The tiger-like monsters and giant scorpions in this space were different. Someone had tested fire on them and discovered they burned extremely easily—exactly like the wood-attribute monsters born from the giant trees below.
In other words, the Chimera Ants here couldn't absorb genes from those wood-type creatures.
"If these ants are evolving, it's probably because humans who entered after the ruins opened were killed and eaten," the biology expert concluded after piecing everything together.
"But we found records in the Kurta section about Kurta clan members undergoing trials here," Benket said. "They must have come into this space too. If the ants could catch Kurta, shouldn't they have started evolving long ago?"
The expert shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe there are still secrets we haven't found. Perhaps the Kurta weren't here for trials at all. Maybe they came to do something else entirely.
After all, we still haven't located the giant trees that created all those other monsters. That doesn't add up—especially since every beast tide that poured out was made up of those flammable creatures."
Benket didn't argue. He knew the Mahavi Ruins were still full of hidden truths. Their job was to drag every last one of them into the light.
A low buzzing rose from the sky.
Flying ants.
Dozens of them had poured out of the cave walls and were now streaking toward the direction where the shadow clone had launched its attack.