It was on the third day that the queen and her four commanders picked up a scent, or more like they sensed an aura, which, through their instinct came to recognize it as something absolutely beneficial to them.
The queen immediately departed to the origin of the aura according to her senses along with most of the ants from her colony which amounted to about 80 of them excluding the queen and her four commanders.
There were only about 20 ants left to take care of and protect the newly laid eggs.
Enbi Arin passively watched everything unfold as the ants charged into battle against the creatures on the battlefield all of whom came for the same purpose, that was to obtain that treasure. There were about 7 practitioner stage creatures in total including the ant queen who was sweeping through the battlefield.
Enbi Arin saw all of her fellow ants die at the hands of other creatures but most of them were crushed under the jaws or burned by that detestable lizard.
In the end, only the queen and her four commanders were still alive and in a fighting state against the lizard.
But at that crucial moment, a mosquito suddenly ambushed the queen and killed her while the two guard commander ants also died under the lizard's retaliation.
Just when Enbi Arin evolved into the practitioner stage which filled her with hope for a possible counteract, she saw Ella who was also clamping and biting into the lizard's flesh get thrown into the air and suddenly get wrapped by the toad's tongue and ended up in its belly.
The intense regret, rage, and sorrow she felt couldn't be described through mere words.
These events were followed by her retaliation against the toad, the subsequent fight and finally the explosion which ended up killing all the creatures that were still alive on the battlefield leaving Enbi Arin to be the sole survivor.
"Ugh….my head…."
Enbi Arin abruptly woke up to find herself inside a grey coloured dome lying atop the ant whose life experiences were just encountered by Enbi Arin in her dream.
It took a few minutes to recollect herself from her confusion and reaffirm her identity as the human named Enbi Arin.
"That …was..intense" Murmured Enbi Arin as she rubbed her aching head.
"If you're done with that, can you get off of me. You're quite heavy for your size" The ant exclaimed with a voice that directly resounded in her head.
Enbi Arin gave a look of disdain at the ant below her.
"You couldn't even communicate before now but the first sentence you uttered is rude"
"I learned the art of language and communication from your memories. So, if anything, you're the one to be blamed" The rude ant retorted.
"What the, look at your cockiness. You can't even move due to your injuries but you sure can talk smack" Said Enbi Arin while still lying atop the ant.
"Heh, I may not have much of my physical strength left at present to even move but I still have enough Aria to blast you into oblivion. So, get lost before I beat you up" Said the rude ant while leaking a tinge of killing intent.
"Geez, fine, I'll get up from this comfy spot" Said Enbi Arin as she moved around and sat a couple of feet across the ant.
"So, how much of my memories were you able to experience?" Questioned Enbi Arin.
"All of them" The ant replied.
"All of them? But how? Your entire life consisted of a couple of weeks and it took me more than an hour to experience them but how could you experience my life worth 13 years within the same time span of an hour" Questioned a shocked Enbi Arin.
"It's like this, as you humans theorized. Since my head was almost empty and young, I could easily grasp and absorb such a large amount of memories quickly like a sponge. But my head is still reeling from the pain due to such a huge volume of memories gushing into my head within such a short time span. And if not for my current appearance, I would have assumed myself as the human named Enbi Arin. Just thinking about it still feels scary" The ant replied.
"Can you even remember the minute and mundane details of my life?" Questioned Enbi Arin
"Yeah, at present I do since the memory is still fresh. I remember those suspicious sites you visited, your account passwords and even all the phrases you usually rehearsed during your 8th grader syndrome periods. There was also that stalk…"
"Stop, stop, stop. Its fine, enough with that" Said Enbi Arin hurriedly as she waved her hands in front of her while blushing from embarrassment.
"Now, back to the serious issue" Enbi Arin said while putting on a serious look on her face.
"You can guess my intentions right? What is your take about sharing a contract with me" Enbi Arin asked the ant.
"I want to clarify a point first" The ant replied.
"Go on" Enbi Arin
"Why did you pick me?" The ant questioned in a serious tone.
"Call it fate, feeling or instinct. I just played along" Enbi Arin said with a shrug of her shoulders.
"Was it worth your life for something like this?" The ant questioned with a curious gaze.
"If I dare not take any risks now, then how will I become strong in the future and face much formidable opponents" Replied Enbi Arin with a serious face.
"Then I accept the contract" The ant finally relented after observing the determined look on Enbi Arin's face.
"Phew…Thank goodness" Enbi Arin
"But….I have two conditions" The ant suddenly retorted.
"State them" Enbi Arin said with as she nodded her head.
"The first is that I want you to help me kill any and every detestable lizard that I may encounter in the future" The ant stated with pure hatred filled voice.
"I already guessed that to be your condition. But I won't allow you to just die in vain by fighting opponents levels above you" Cautioned Enbi Arin.
"Relax, I'm not foolish enough to court death. If the situation is not in my favour, then I won't just dive recklessly for the kill" The ant assured Enbi Arin.
"So, what's your condition" Enbi Arin questioned as she gulped thinking that the second condition might be something insane.
"I need a name. It feels weird without one after experiencing your life" The ant stated with a meek voice.
"Hahahaha…kukuku…hehe…" Enbi Arin just laughed her eyes out after hearing such a simple and silly condition.
After that, she wiped the tears from her eyes.
"Fine, I'll think up a good name" Enbi Arin said and sat down while musing over the different names in her head. Finally after about 20 minutes had elapsed, she came up with a perfect name.
"How does 'Myra' sound?"
On hearing its supposed-to-be name, the ant's eyelids would have twitched if it had any.
"Do I have to remind you that I have all of your knowledge and memory for Christ's sake? Isn't Myra Swedish for ant?" said the ant in an exasperated tone.
"That was the only non-human name I knew that sounded both suited you while sounding feminine. Anyway, do you like it or not?" Complained Enbi Arin
"Yeah, it will do I guess. I shouldn't forget my origins no matter what and my name will be a constant reminder to me" Myra finally accepted her name.
"Good, then let's get this contract over with" Enbi Arin said as she clapped her hand once and approached the ant.
Enbi Arin placed her hand over Myra's head and began the contract.
"I Enbi Arin"
"And I Myra"
"Will share my Karma with my fated partner"
"Suffer through hardships, trials, and tribulations"
"Walk side by side"
"Share my innate ability 'Counter Shield' with my partner"
"Share my innate ability 'Karma Incarnation' with my partner"
"Through thick and thin"
"Unbreakable by blades"
"Nor separable by space"
"Lasting through time"
"Bend the laws of the world to my will"
"And create an Origin Contract"
""Fidantza""
The next moment, grey coloured Aria rippled out from their bodies and formed a cocoon around each of them.
After that, mysterious symbols, runes, and patterns which depicted the laws of the world appeared on both the cocoons.
These runes were radiating an intense energy that was slowly modifying the Aria cores of both Enbi Arin and Myra.
The modification process proceeded without a glitch for Myra.
But while in the case of Enbi Arin, the presence of the pale golden egg in her was hindering the modification process.
On encountering resistance that the pale golden egg offered, the runes radiated with an even more intense energy wave that first burned the two tentacles that emerged out from the pale golden egg.
After that, the energy waves started to slowly rewrite the makeup of laws that previously existed inside the pale golden egg.
Surprisingly, the pale golden egg also retaliated with a golden energy wave that radiated with an intent as if it wanted to destroy and devour the laws that comprised the various runes that formed on the grey cocoon enveloping Enbi Arin.
But its resistance proved futile when the might of the energy waves further increased in its intensity.
After a few minutes of repeated clashing and suppression, the pale golden egg could no longer keep up its resistance.
Once the laws that comprised the pale golden egg were wiped out, the energy waves radiating from the runes on the cocoon pushed the pale golden egg inside Enbi Arin's grey coloured soul flame.
Under the intense energy waves and effects of the laws comprising it, the pale golden egg slowly turned grey. Enbi Arin's grey coloured soul flame got slowly absorbed into the egg.
The fascinating thing was that the now grey coloured egg started to slowly transform.
First, it started to shrink horizontally. Then it was vertically divided into three parts. Later, it was horizontally further divided into three parts. The lowermost part further divided into two parts.
Finally, all the seven parts connected together with each other at varying angles.
Once the base form settled down, finer shapes, curves, impressions, and indentations formed over it giving it depth and texture.
Finally, the formed figure looked just like a miniature replica of Enbi Arin.
The replica was approximately 5 centimetre in height and was coloured grey.
It was sitting cross-legged in a lotus position.
After the process of the formation of the miniature replica of Enbi Arin completed, grey flames started to burn in place of the replica's eye sockets which was Enbi Arin's soul flame.
Somehow, over the course of events that happened, her soul flame combined with the pale golden egg to result in such a soul flame figure.
Since the resistance was successfully taken care of, the energy waves emanating from the runes on Enbi Arin's cocoon connected with Myra's cocoon.
Then the both of their Aria cores became modified bit by bit by the laws emanating from the energy waves.
Then in a rather anti-climatic manner, the energy waves emanating from the cocoon died down slowly followed by their cocoons shattering into pieces of Aria and got absorbed back into their bodies.
"How do you feel Myra" Enbi Arin inquired.
"Just one word, 'Powerful'. All my wounds seem to have been healed and I have also gained your 'Karma Incarnation' ability" Exclaimed a happy Myra.
"And it seems that the effectiveness, range, and strength of your 'Counter Shield' ability have also improved tremendously. It will be one of our primary defense techniques" Chimed Enbi Arin giddy with joy at her success in establishing a contract.