Meryem (メルエム, Meruemu) is 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 in the Japanese manga series Hunter × Hunter by Yoshihiro Togashi.
Background
Meryem is the next to last ant born to the Queen and is the King of all Chimera Ants. He is born prematurely, fatally injuring the Queen at the moment of his birth. 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, Meryem 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
Meryem initially is seen as a cruel and violent leader. The Queen's intention to give birth to a perfect offspring is reflected in Meryem'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. Meryem is also merciless, killing and cannibalizing any Chimera Ant he deems as disrespectful.
As the story progresses, Meryem started to grudgingly respect Komugi, a human woman. He eventually grows to even care for her. From thereon, Meryem 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.
Appearance
Meryem 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. Meryem 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. Meryem is always barefooted, with his only clothing being a pair of undergarments. He also posseses a powerful tail equipped with a stinger that serves as his weapon.
Plot
Chimera Ant Arc
The Chimera Ant King, Meryem, is the most powerful offspring of the Chimera Ant Queen. Shortly after his birth, Meryem 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. Meryem 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 Meryem, 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, Meryem 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, Meryem proceeds to kill them--as they are of no further use to him. The final game Meryem 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 Meryem plays against her he finds himself unable to disrupt her flow; simultaneously, the challenge of playing against Meryem causes Komugi's skills to increase.
Meryem playing against Komugi in Gungi.
Much to the shock of the Royal Guards, Meryem 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), Meryem 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, Meryem finds Komugi being attacked by a crow and he cannot help but protect her. Being unable to understand his own emotions towards Komugi leaves Meryem 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. Meryem orders Neferpitou to save Komugi's life and then goes with Netero to a military weapons testing site. During his confrontation with Netero, Meryem develops a desire to recreate a world in which everyone would be so equal that the term "equality" would become obsolete. Meryem 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.
Meryem 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 Meryem'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. Meryem 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, Meryem 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 Meryem's search by proposing a competition on who could find the remaining intruders fastest (while secretly plotting to erase Komugi's existence).
Meryem 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, Meryem decides to find them himself. Using his "En" a second time, he finds Welfin and begins to interrogate him. Meryem eventually regains his memories after learning of Komugi's name from Welfin and realizes Shaiapouf's betrayal. With that, Meryem learns to distrust his former ally and tells Welfin to live as a human if 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 Meryem failing to win even a single match. Meryem comes to terms with the nature of his existence, concluding that he was born to be with Komugi before his death. In his final moments, he dies by Komugi's side.
Abilities
Physical abilities
Even before his absorption of Youpi and Pouf, Meryem 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 special attack, which uses up all of his aura in an intensified blast, could barely give him cuts and bruises.
In terms of speed, though Netero is faster than him, he is still one of the fastest characters seen thus far in the series. Meryem's speed was such that it allowed him to dodge Netero's supersonic blows to close in on and rip off Netero's limbs before the Chairman could put up his guard. After getting fed Youpi and Pouf's bodies, he becomes even faster--being able to cover long distances in a flash.
Nen abilities
Throughout the course of the series, Meryem is given several Nen abilities to use at his disposal. His initial ability gives him strength through consumption. Meryem's aura grows every time he devours a user of Nen, with their aura synthesizing to his own. After absorbing large parts of Shaiapouf and Menthuthuyoupi, he has was able to use Menthuthuyoupi's ability to transform--including gaining wings to fly and utilizing Youpi's "Rage" in a concentrated blast of aura.
Meryem's secondary ability allows him to transmute his aura into photons. Each photon maintains his aura, allowing Meryem to measure the shape, quality, emotion, and other informational content about the things the photons interact with. The precision of the information he can gather depends on the quantity of photons directed at the object of interest. Meryem deploys these photons in his En in a flash, and then is able to instantly go to anything the photons reach.