Ch.115 Becoming an Abomination?

The First Queen hadn’t hatched from an egg like the others and instead had been spawned by Magic. Or at least that’s what she thought, because from the first scene of the First Queen’s memories, she had already been an adult. The entire larvae and pupae stage had been skipped.

But as the memories continued, the Ant Queen found herself not only awed by the entire life of the First Queen, but also puzzled. The First Queen lived a life of blazing ambition and never ending war, and she was breathtaking. She was smart and highly talented, reaching the 4th Stage with just her own bodily talent, and reaching the 5th Stage using the flesh and blood of a Fire Ferret, gaining the affinity for Fire as well. She also managed to build up a super colony that contained millions of ants with the help of the thousands of Queen Ants that she herself had given birth to, and It was extremely glorious.

A little later on, the First Queen used her Stage 5 Magic Beast power and super sized colony to take control over a large sized Territory. This was because of the fact that most of the other creatures weren’t able to keep up with the stupendous reproduction rate of their colony, and their low numbers that never surpassed 20, were incapable of achieving anything other than becoming food.

But after a couple decades (which was the First Queen’s 60th year), things began to change. The foraging/hunting teams never came back when they left, and it was eventually revealed that their 10,000+ member teams were pretty much unable to deal with the hundreds of Beasts that were all as strong as their Queen.

Fast forward some more and the glorious life of the First Queen has been reduced to shambles. Not even able to take control of a small sized territory, and always having to run. The magnificent and fear-inducing numbers of the super colony, reduced to a 100k+ large colony.

It was extremely pitiful.

The First Queen raged and fought every day to claim back what she lost, but she had reached the limit of her strength. She had not once made a single breakthrough since the last one, and she was losing her touch.

In a desperate attempt to overcome this, she tried to devour the blood of a Stage 7 Aquarian Buffalo that she had luckily found, and died after 2 minutes of unbelievable pain. Which although unfortunate, was to be expected.

How could it be possible for a Beast with an affinity for Fire to absorb something with an affinity for water? Is that not just asking for death?

And so came the end of the memories.

But as the Ant Queen’s mind gradually restored itself back to normal, she couldn’t help but be puzzled by the startling resemblance between herself and the First Queen. Down from their appearances to their mentalities, it was almost exactly the same.

Weird.

…

When the Ant Queen regained her bearings, she realised that she was still paralysed on the ground and had completely lost her vision. But she still couldn’t help being astonished by the memories she had just seen and was feeling more than a little disorientated. It even took her a while to remember who ‘she’ herself was, because at this moment, she wasn’t really feeling like a single entity.

Even at this moment, she was still gaining the updated memories of her colony, watching through their eyes as they clambered over each other in order to protect her, and watching through their eyes as the chaotic environment became too unstable for them to endure, and they lost their lives.

It was very, very, very disorientating. And sad.

But as time continued to tick and she did her best to cling to life, she began to realise that… she seemed to be getting stronger? Or rather, healthier? She couldn’t feel any extra strength, but she could feel wisps of lifeforce entering her body even as her own constantly leaked out.

It was very strange, but through the eyes of other Ants she saw the Ants that died wither away as if something had been sucked out of them. It didn’t take much from there to realise that the lifeforce that was bolstering her own was coming from those in her colony that were succumbing to death. 

However, even though she knew this and was sad to see them die, elation filled her heart. After all, no one wanted to die, and their lifeforce was better off helping her rather than dissipating into nothingness. On top of that, if she died, the whole colony would eventually fade away and die too, so it was better for the Ants to sacrifice themselves for the greater cause. But all Ants knew that and it need not be said.

The only thing that concerned her was the strange mystical connection she seemed to have with her entire Bloodline. Apparently, it didn’t stop at just an exchange of memories. She wanted to experiment with it further, but she didn’t have the time nor the energy.

‘System, can you use this extra lifeforce to save my life.’

DING!

<Yes, I can. However, if the incompatible Energy is not cleansed from your body. You will still become an Abomination. Will you like me to go ahead?>

‘Yes! Yes! Just save me!’ The Ant Queen didn’t care about anything else and only wanted to survive.

DING!

<Understood.>

After that things went silent. However, the Ant Queen had a vague feeling that something within her body was twisting around. At another time, she might have been able to detect it, but her body was just too numb and she couldn’t be sure. She decided to write it off as the effects of the System’s manoeuvring, and waited with bated breath.

This strange state of limbo continued for an impressive 5 minutes, before things began to change.

Her sight was slowly beginning to return to her, and she had even regained some feeling in her legs. It was looking like she would live after all! The Ant Queen was ecstatic and finally started thinking more about her current situation, suddenly remembering that she was in an extremely vulnerable state and needed to start evacuating. She needed to instruct her colony to carry her away.

But just before she could, a terrifying shock coursed its way through her body, causing her to collapse into a writhing mess.

It was so painful that she had lost all control of her senses for a whole minute, and it was only after that did she realise through the eyes of the Ants in her colony, what was happening to her body.