Just like with the Carmine Flame Deer, the Ant Queen bit at a wound on the Rigid Stone Bear and began gorging on the blood, and despite being torched from ‘head to toe’, the blood she had swallowed from the Carmine Flame Deer was beginning to be digested and she was feeling drastic increases in power.
The current ‘her’ didn’t notice that she was also taking in a lot of impurities as a result of her actions, but she was loving every bit of the increasing strength. It was just too great.
Even as she was crazily rolling about on the floor in an attempt to alleviate the pain caused by the consumption of the Rigid Stone Bear blood, there was only joy in her heart. Thankfully, the Rigid Stone Bear blood wasn’t as painful as the Carmine Flame Deer blood, but it was still extremely thick and caused waves of agony as it went down her oesophagus.
2 minutes later, she began to feel the positive effects of the Rigid Stone Bear blood and although the pain had barely receded, the feeling of her cultivation rising was just too wonderful. She had already broken through to the 3rd Stage and she was swiftly making her way to the 4th.
Her previously 10cm long all-black body was slowly growing and gaining red patterns along in certain parts of her carapace, and going by the feeling in her mandibles, she already felt like she could take on the rats that used to bully her!
She was finally, finally obtaining greater power!
A ray of euphoria burst through the cloud of pain in her heart as thoughts of revenge already began to impregnate her mind. But then all of a sudden, the environment around her began to change.
WHOOOOOSH!
The wind became audibly violent as the ambient Magical Energy turned chaotic, moving in an irregular pattern that had never occurred before. It was extremely worrying, but when the temperature began to rise in heat, and the ‘Mountain’ on her left started to grow in height as its colour slowly darkened, the Ant Queen decided to flee immediately.
The series of events were too dangerous, and if the rise in the ambient Magical Energy’s density was any indication, this place was about to become swarmed with trouble. On top of that, the panicked signals from the worker ants in her colony reminded her of the fact that even if she had become stronger, and was still becoming stronger, those in her colony were still weak and the chaotic environment was having ever effects on them. The soldier ants were doing okay, but that wouldn’t last long. She needed to escape rapidly.
But just as she was about to send the signal for the colony to flee to the nest, an abrupt sharp pain coursed through her body and paralysed it completely.
It felt like her innards were burning and cracking at the same time and it was so painful that she collapsed to the ground. Her colony started clambering all over her body in a desperate attempt to protect her, but all it did was increase her already rising stress.
She was dying and she knew it.
But how? How could this be? Why now? Why her? All she wanted was power, and she got it! Power was within her grasp so everything should have been okay! So what the hell is going on?!
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DING!
‘What?!’ the Queen Ant inwardly screamed. She had heard this voice in her head a few times in the past, and even though she wasn’t a stranger to telepathic communication, it still managed to always confuse her. But what were the things that it was saying now? The same boon that had granted her power, was the same thing that was trying to kill her? What kind of concept was this?!
‘How could this be?! No, help me! Help me!’
DING!
‘So you knew all this time?! Why did you not tell me before?!’
DING!
And that was it. That was all it said in response. The Ant Queen was absolutely livid, but her vision was already beginning to fade and she could no longer feel her body. It was hopeless.
But as her lifeforce continued to dwindle and her consciousness gradually lost its grip on reality, different scenes began to appear in her mind.
She began to see the entire lives of countless ants as they struggled on a day to day basis. She even saw herself through the eyes of her own colony and that of those that had died, but that began to change and she saw the lives of Ants she had never seen before. They were all powerless and helpless against their oppressors like she was, but as these lives continued to play and end in her mind in quick succession, she began to notice a change.
The overall quality of the ants she was seeing was rising, and instead of only the Queen having enough talent to reach Stage 2 of the Magic Beast Realm, there were actually some special soldier ants who reached Stage 2 too! Some of the Queens she was seeing even reached Stage 3!
Still hopeless against the rest of the food chain, but as long as their colony was big enough, they were at least able to fend off a mischief(group) of rats! Amazing!
She even noticed that the Queens that she was seeing had different mental states to the previous ones, they had more emotions and they were almost as furious at their status quo as she was. However, she couldn’t help but notice the difference in the environment.
The level and amount of the Magic Herbs, Trees and Magical Energy in the surroundings, was actually decreasing. But instead of the talent of the Ants decreasing in tandem, it was actually rising, and because of the fact that she was seeing the entirety of their short lives, she knew why.
The simple answer was talent.
The purity and vigour of the Ants that she was currently seeing was heads and shoulders above that of those of the rest, including her colony, and it made her feel ashamed. But at this point, she knew that she was seeing memories of the past. The memories of not only her ancestors, but the memories of EVERYBODY connected to her bloodline.
And eventually, she saw the life of the first ever Queen.