𝐇𝐢𝐬 𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐨𝐧 || meruem

| 0 |: prologue

*Not long after the Chimera Ant King was born*

"The brain doesn't taste too bad, but it's still inedible compared to a rare human's," Meruem commented as he spits out the defenseless child's brain.

Wanting to be of help to their new king, Pitou knelt down and offered Meruem a piece of advice to easily identify the 'rare humans'. But before they got to finish her sentence, Meruem swung his tail at them at an inhumane speed, intending to kill them with that one blow.

That was until he stopped mid-swing, sharp eyes locked onto something— or someone within the lush greenery; Well, whatever it is, it's radiating 'energy'— as the chimeras liked to call it— strong enough to catch the King's attention. Whoever it was must've been confident in their abilities to not even bother concealing their nen.

Pitou and the other two royal guards were stunned by their king's sudden action but quickly schooled their expressions. Meruem walked past them towards the thing they assumed caught his eye, only sparing Pitou a death glare at which she bowed respectfully to show their apologies for insulting their King.

Using the glaringly obvious nen to track the owner's whereabouts, Meruem could feel their oppressive strength with every step he took. His royal guards behind him must also feel it as they were now on their guard, ready to strike at any moment.

Pushing aside one last droopy leaf covering his sight, his eyes finally laid upon the person— or should he say the thing— that had been emitting that powerful nen.

A stone.

From all the things it could be, he didn't expect a mere stone to be able to produce that much nen.

"My King, if I may, please let me inspect the stone first; we don't know if it's a trap set by those rare humans," Pouf spoke up, halting Meruem's movements from reaching out to the stone.

Meruem pondered about it for a moment before giving Pouf his approval.

The Chimera Ant King watched in slight anticipation as Pouf cautiously scooped the stone into his hands after using gyo, half expecting it to blow up. When it didn't, Pouf double-checked the stone before deeming it safe for his King to handle.

Meruem observed the stone now on his palm. Now that he had a closer look at it, he could finally admire the stone's ancient-looking carvings. The stone is slightly bigger than your average penny, and the rune-shaped carving embellishing it has a slight glow to it. (heLP- i can't describe things for the life of me, pls bear w/ me TT)

He gave the stone one last once-over before deciding to keep it with him in the meantime. Meruem carelessly tossed the stone with way more force than necessary, pleasantly surprised when he saw one of his royal guards (Youpi) catch it.

"Hold onto it, and don't lose it."

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Arriving at the Republic of East Gorteau, the King's royal guards annihilated the soldiers guarding the Palace's entrance easily without even lifting a finger.

Inside the palace, their path was blocked by a nen user, whose eyes seemed to flick towards the stone cradled in Youpi's hand, a look of dread escaping from his neutral expression for a split second. Although the change in expression was swift, it didn't go unnoticed by Meruem's keen eyes.

Oh?

Meruem became even more delighted at the thought that he'd get to have an appetizing treat while also finding out more about the stone, a manic grin making its way to his expression.

In a flash, Meruem was behind the buff nen user, his sharp needle-like tail only a few centimeters away from the latter's carotid artery. He had to swallow down his desire to kill that nen user right then and there. The feeling was comparable to you having to restrain yourself from eating your favorite food.

"If you think I didn't notice the look you gave that stone, you're wrong. Tell me everything you know, and I will consider giving you a painless death," Meruem threatened the now frightened man, the same manic grin still plastered on his face.

It didn't take long for the nen user to spout out information, occasionally tripping over his words, "F-From the look of the carvings, that stone is a summoning stone. They are stones that enable the user to summon an entity from another world. That is everything I know about the stone."

Upon seeing Meruem's murderous gaze, the nen user quickly added, "As far as I know, there are no records of someone owning that stone, only in the legends; T-That's why the information is limited."

Meruem let out a contented hum at the man's words— being the first-ever being to own a summoning stone has a nice ring to it.

As promised, he gave the nen user a quick and painless death for the information.

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The Ant King was seated comfortably on his throne, repetitively tossing the summoning stone upwards and catching it with his right hand with ease. His other hand was occupied, holding a book containing information about the stone he was tossing at the moment.

According to the books he's read, the user only needs to imbue a significant amount of nen into the stone to summon the entity, and the same goes for unsummoning it.

His eyes then darted off to a sentence that said:

"The stone can only summon the same entity. There's no limit to how many times you can summon and unsummon it; unless that entity dies, that is."

Meruem's brows furrowed. He doesn't know why he felt so bothered about his entity dying; he hasn't even summoned it yet. He shrugged off the feeling, telling himself that it was because he didn't like having his efforts going to waste— yeah, that's definitely it.

With that over with, he stood up from his throne, shooting a glance at the pile of books he had read before redirecting his attention back to the sun slowly making its appearance. Only then did Meruem realize he spent the entire day reading.

After a bit of stretching, he told Pouf— who was stationed a few feet away from him— to gather the other two royal guards on the grassy field just below them.

"Bring a chimera ant soldier together with you while you're at it," Meruem added after putting some thought to it. He had something he wanted to test out.

"As you wish, my King."

Meruem leaped down from the oversized balcony, landing on his feet. He didn't have to wait long before his royal guards came to his side, together with that ant soldier he requested for.

"You," Meruem directed his gaze at the nervous ant soldier, not wanting to waste a second. "Stand close to the opposite wall, and don't move unless I say so."

The unnamed soldier gave a deep bow before complying with the King's wishes.

Ignoring the curious glances sent his way by his royal guards, Meruem started imbuing his nen onto the summoning stone in his hand. It didn't take long for the clouds to part ways, making way for the entity that was about to fall from the sky.

Now, let's see what you got.

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it's meruem's fault for being so lovable that my first fic here had to be abt him

srsly, that man has no right to make me hate his guts at the start of the anime only for me to cry over his (and komugi's) death at the end 😤😤

word count: 1261