Meruem

"Who am I? Why am I here? A king with no name. A borrowed castle. My subjects are mindless drones. If this is the mandate of Heaven I have been given...I fear...I fear nothing...except the tedium that it will bring!!!"

- Meruem

Meruem (メルエム, Meruemu) was the most powerful offspring of the Chimera Ant Queen, and the King of the Chimera Ants. He is the main antagonist of the Chimera Ant Arc.

Background
Meruem is the next to last ant born to the Queen and is the Chimera Ant King. He is born prematurely, forcibly birthed through rupturing through her abdomen. According to the sociology of Chimera Ants, upon the birth of the King, the Royal Guards will solely follow his commands and he will leave the nest to find various creatures to mate with and impregnate in order to create the next Chimera Ant Queen. Soon after he was born, Meruem leaves his original nest in NGL with his Royal Guards in search of a place to start his kingdom. His name means "the light that shines on everything."

Personality
Meruem initially is seen as a cruel and violent leader. The Queen's intention to give birth to a perfect offspring is reflected in Meruem's mentality, with the Ant being haughty towards all. He speaks in an eloquent manner and has refined tastes for one of his species. He considers himself superior to all other forms of life and feels no concern for his dying mother after his birth. Meruem is also merciless, killing and cannibalizing any Chimera Ant he deems as disrespectful. Though he could still hold respect towards the stronge, complimenting Neferpitou for surviving an attack that had killed many without much damage at all.

As the story progresses, Meruem starts to grudgingly respect Komugi, a human woman. He eventually grows to even care for her. From there on, Meruem begins to question the differences between the Ants and mankind. He battles with his identity as a half-human and half-insect, questioning the nature of violence and strength as true power.

He is quite adept and learns things at an astonishing rate, being capable of mastering any form seen of board games in just ten matches and defeat world champions with ease. During this time it is seen he displays a code of honor and disapproves of winning unfairly as demonstrated when he rips his left arm after placing a bet with Komugi to scare her and disrupt her game and even allows her to rest so that she can be at the best of her ability as he sees no point in winning otherwise.

After a brief loss of memory he seems to become much more respectful and closer to his subordinates after being fed a part of them when he was dying, as he can feel things they can feel, and tell easily if they are hiding something or not from him, but at the same time he can sense their loyalty to him, causing him to put their loyalty to the test before considering to punish them, even more so if they answer truthfully despite doing so may inquire admitting to a miscalculation.

Appearance
Meruem appears to be rather humanoid for an ant. His appearance is an homage to another famous manga antagonist: Cell from Dragon Ball Z, written and drawn by Akira Toriyama. Meruem is fairly muscular, despite his relatively small frame as compared to his ant servants. He has two long antennae on his face, and a large shell-like armor over his head that resembles a helmet. There are dark pigmented areas on his arms, legs, chest, and head. Meruem is always barefoot, with his only clothing being a pair of undergarments. He also possesses a powerful tail equipped with a stinger that serves as his weapon. Worthy of note both his hands and feet have only four fingers each.

Chimera Ant arc
The Chimera Ant King, Meruem, is the most powerful offspring of the Chimera Ant Queen. Shortly after his birth, Meruem leaves the hive and NGL with his royal guards in search of a place to start his kingdom. He descends on the Republic of East Gorteau and takes over the country by killing its dictator, Ming Jol-ik, and having his Royal Guardsman Neferpitou manipulate his soldiers. Meruem then has Neferpitou use Jol-ik's corpse as a puppet to place East Gorteau under martial law. The nation's entire population is then ordered to gather simultaneously in the capital city for a national rally, in order to create a situation in which entire towns and villages could be secretly abducted for a "selection": the forcible awakening of Nen in order to create an army of super soldiers to conquer the world. The Hunters Association mobilizes an extermination team in response in order to raid the East Gorteau kingdom and assassinate Meruem, composed of the Hunters Netero, Morel, Knov, Knuckle, Shoot, Palm, Killua, and Gon; the Chimera Ants Ikalgo and Meleoron join them.

Nine days prior to the selection, Meruem takes an interest in various board games and gathers various champion-level players to his palace. Simply by reading the rule books, he becomes able to master any game in under ten matches, simultaneously learning from his opponents while disrupting the flow of their playing styles. After defeating the best player in each game, Meruem proceeds to kill them--as they are of no further use to him. The final game Meruem learns is Gungi, a fictional shogi-like board game invented in East Gorteau. The world champion for the game is Komugi, a seemingly dimwitted blind woman. However, as Meruem plays against her he finds himself unable to disrupt her flow; simultaneously, the challenge of playing against Meruem causes Komugi's skills to increase.

Much to the shock of the Royal Guards, Meruem even starts show respect for Komugi and concern for her well-being. In one instance he rips his left arm off as an apology to Komugi for asking her to bet her left arm on a game (to which she replies that she always bets her life instead). In another instance, after watching Komugi's Nen suddenly awaken and realizing she would grow exponentially stronger (but only in terms of Gungi), Meruem begins to understand other forms of strength. He momentarily concludes that the power of "violence" is sovereign and befitting of a ruler and that other abilities are meaningless. Yet moments after, Meruem finds Komugi being attacked by a crow and he cannot help but protect her. Being unable to understand his own emotions towards Komugi leaves Meruem in a contemplative state in which he ponders on the purpose of his existence in the world.

During the Extermination Team's charge into the East Gorteau palace, Komugi is gravely injured by Zeno's Dragon Dive technique--initially a diversionary tactic meant to cause confusion within the palace. Meruem orders Neferpitou to save Komugi's life and then goes with Netero to a military weapons testing site. During his confrontation with Netero, Meruem develops a desire to recreate a world in which everyone would be so equal that the term "equality" would become obsolete. Meruem reveals that he has finally realized that he should use his strength to create a perfect world and save certain humans that are "worth saving," but only a special few. Recognizing that the king is caught in between his Ant instincts and emerging humanity, Netero decides to destroy him quickly but is ultimately no match for his powers and intelligence. Having admitted defeat, Netero commits suicide by detonating the Miniature Rose in his body as a last ditch effort.

Meruem is horribly injured by the bomb but manages to recover after his Guards Shaiapouf and Menthuthuyoupi offer to feed him their own flesh. With this, they win Meruem's unconditional love and trust while he gains their abilities and becomes even stronger. He recovers quickly but loses his memory of recent events due to the explosion and seemingly reverts to his original mentality, losing his humanity. Meruem begins to display Menthuthuyoupi's abilities, as well as Shaiapouf's ability to read emotions, to a higher degree of skill and control. Once he returns to the palace, Meruem uses his "En" to find the remaining members of the Extermination Team--promptly knocking out Knuckle and Meleoron first due to their close proximity. Fearing that the King might regain his humanity once he finds Komugi, Shaiapouf delays Meruem's search by proposing a competition on who could find the remaining intruders fastest (while secretly plotting to erase Komugi's existence).

Meruem accepts the engagement on condition that if he wins, he wants to know all of Shaiapouf and Menthuthuyoupi secrets. After the death of Youpi and finding a Gungi piece, Meruem decides to find them himself. Using his "En" a second time, he finds Welfin and begins to interrogate him. Meruem eventually regains his memories after learning of Komugi's name from Welfin and realizes Shaiapouf's betrayal. With that, Meruem learns to distrust his former ally and tells Welfin that he would like to meet with Gyro and maybe live as a human if was possible. He later finds Palm in the Underground Hanger and persuades her to reveal Komugi's location for him, knowing that the Rose's poison is destroying him quickly from the inside. Accepting his mortality despite his great power, he goes off to search for Komugi to enjoy a final game with her.

The two spend the remainder of their lives playing Gungi with Meruem failing to win even a single match. Meruem comes to terms with the nature of his existence and they die in each other's arms. Meruem died in peace not disturbed by foes.

Abilities & Powers
Even before his absorption of Youpi and Pouf, Meruem is already extremely durable. He easily withstands thousands of attacks launched at him by Netero, one of the most powerful human fighters in the world, without suffering a single scratch. And Netero's Zero Hand, which uses up all of his aura in an intensified blast, could barely give him cuts and bruises, he didn't even use any nen against Netero.



Immense strength: Meruem's physical strength is inconceivable, he was able to use only one powerful strike with his tail to kill several other Chimera Ants. He was able to shatter a massive wall inside the Queen's nest with only one punch. He also was able to rip off Netero's left arm and right leg easily. He can also rip off his own arm easily. After absorbing the Menthuthuyoupi and Shaiapouf, he could knockout Knuckle and Meleoron with a tap on the shoulder. However, there is a possibility of this being used with Nen.

Immense speed and reflexes: Meruem can rip off limbs and obliterate entire bodies in less than a instant. He can move at extremely fast speeds when fighting Netero despite Netero landing multiple strikes upon him, he later than began to rip off Netero's left  arm and right leg in a flash by also dodging Netero faster-than-sound attacks. After absorbing Menthuthuyoupi and Shaiapouf, he gained the ability to fly, allowing him to move at super-sonic speeds in mere seconds.

Immense durability: Meruem is extremely durable as he was able to take thousands of incredibly-powerful super-sonic blows from Netero without suffering even a single scratch. He was also able to take on Netero's most powerful move, the Zero Hand, which launches Netero's entire aura upon his opponent and he only received cuts and bruises. He was able to survive the ultra-powerful explosion of the Old Man's Rose that was released after Netero's death and despite his body being nearly destroyed in the process, however, he was still alive after the fatal attack.

High Intelligence: Meruem has extraordinary intelligence being able to learn and master nearly anything he comes across of, he also uses his intelligence for Gungi in his battle against Netero and eventually succeeds by doing so.

Enhanced perception: The time that he spent when playing gungie with Komugi have greatly bolstered his skills in perception and has gave him supernatural forsight as he can disrupt the flow of his opponents efficiently.

Excellent strategist: He can create quick and effective means to defeat Netero during his intense battle and found a way to elude through Netero's powerful defenses and was able to severely injure Netero in the process.

Nen
Throughout the course of the series, Meruem is given several Nen abilities to use at his disposal.

Quotes

 * "I was born as the King of Ants, the crowning glory of life. All of your kind evolved solely to produce me. I am the culmination of generations of their unhesitating service. You are one of many, and no king. Of course you could never win!! The ecology of the Chimera Ant is focused on the endpoint of all evolution... on me. Humanity, with its messy diversity... its individuals... never had a chance." - Meruem, to Netero

Trivia

 * Meruem shares some similarities (like the appearance and the goal to become a "perfect warrior") with Cell from Dragon Ball Z.
 * In Viz's translation of volume 21, the Chimera Ant Queen gives his name as "Meryem." This is amended to "Meruem" in their translation of volume 28.