Meanwhile, Myra approached her nest and entered inside with a jittery heart. After traveling quite the distance, she finally came across a closed section in the nest while assuming her ant form, and left a pheromone scent in the air which implied a message 'I'm back'.
A second later, one of the ants from the other side opened a small path in the closed section and warily peeked outside. It initially became shocked to find a practitioner stage ant other than their queen to stand inside their nest.
But the ant immediately calmed down after it recognized Myra's aura as one of the commanders who followed the queen.
The ant immediately widened the entrance and allowed entry for Myra.
After noticing no other ants in the vicinity, the ant closed the entrance again while piling up mud in its place.
Myra observed about 20 odd ants who were currently taking care of the 12 newly laid eggs by their late queen. It was almost a pitiful sight in comparison to their initial 400 members.
Myra sighed in sadness before she communicated with the other ants about everything that had transpired through their own primitive pheromone method.
The 20 odd ants clenched their mandibles, waved their antennae chaotically in distress after hearing about the death of their queen, Ella, the two guard commanders, and all of their ant brethren who ventured outside.
The 20 odd ants immediately lowered their shivering antennae as a sign of submission towards Myra since she was the only ant with the highest amount of power and hierarchy who was still alive.
Their action initially came as a shock to Myra since her mentality was currently still influenced by Enbi Arin's.
It took a few seconds before Myra regained her senses and resumed authority over the colony.
After that, Myra assumed her humanoid form to see their reactions.
But sadly the ants didn't act according to her expectations. Since the aura Myra was currently unleashing was the same as in her ant form, so, In the eyes of the other ants, Myra was still one of their brethren.
The ants just took Myra's current appearance as something they would eventually end up with when they become as powerful as their new queen.
After asserting her authority, Myra rallied up all the ants towards the surface while leaving behind 3 ants to take care of the eggs.
It was at this moment that a strange connection was established between Myra, the 20 odd ants, and the still unhatched eggs.
Myra immediately stopped in her tracks in astonishment because she felt her thoughts getting connected to all the other ants.
Unlike her connection with Enbi Arin where she could even communicate through words, her current connection with her fellow ants was where, just basic emotions like happiness, sadness, fear, danger, and hunger could be shared. Myra also felt slight mutations occur simultaneously on the Aria Cores of all the other ants.
Not bothering about it, for now, Myra along with her ant brethren traversed along their empty nest towards the make-shift fortress.
"Oh, You're back. How did it go?"
Prakash inquired when Myra and her swarm encountered him along the way.
"They recognized me as their queen. So they won't attack you guys without my orders" Myra assured Prakash.
Myra turned around and instructed her swarm to carry the monster carcasses lying outside the supermarket back to their nest. She also repeatedly commanded them to not attack the three humans in their immediate vicinity.
The ants obediently executed her commands and proceeded to carry the monster carcasses.
Meanwhile, Myra approached Prakash, but when she saw his curious face as he watched the ants work, she immediately lost the will to speak.
Prakash on noticing her hesitation helped her to break the ice "You can speak out your thoughts to me. I'm all ears"
"It's ....T-that is …I…I" Myra stuttered.
"It's fine. Just take a deep breath and recollect your thoughts" Advised Prakash.
Myra did as she was told but still stuttered to talk properly on her subsequent attempts.
"Hey, am I that scary looking? I'm just a harmless sea – anemone" Prakash said while all webs attached to his body assumed his sea-anemone look.
Myra burst out laughing. She clutched her stomach and rolled on the ground with tears streaming from her eyes as if she had a laughing fit.
"Hah, thanks for that" Myra said in a weak voice as she collected herself to get up from the ground and stood to face Prakash.
"Anytime" Prakash replied with a laugh and continued "So, what were you about to tell me?"
"It's about that incident, I …" Myra was interrupted mid-sentence.
"I told you, its fine. Don't beat yourself up about it. And you being open and free towards me is fine by me. Just act a bit reserved in front of Big bro. He's quite sensitive towards your circumstances" assured Prakash.
"Thanks for that, I'll keep it in my mind" replied Myra in a somber tone but her eyes sparkled with giddiness.
"Oh Yeah, something weird happened to me while I was on my way back from the colony" Myra began to reaccount about the mysterious connection that was established between her and her brethren and also told him about how their Aria Cores were currently experiencing a mutation.
"I think that is probably due to a side-effect from your contract with Enbi Arin. Her innate ability 'Karma Incarnation' is quite the mystical ability after all" Replied Prakash in a pondering tone.
"These side effects will be the end of me" Exclaimed an exasperated Myra.
"Then why did you enter into a contract with her in the first place" Prakash questioned since he couldn't guess Myra's intention even till now.
"I was just desperate for power and my gut feeling told me that I would become more powerful through establishing a contract with Enbi Arin. That was my only choice to prevent my brethren from going into extinction" Replied Myra with a sigh.
"True. Moreover, these side-effects will fade away eventually and I think that those mutations that are currently occurring to the Aria Cores of your brethren are probably based on your Aria Core as a reference. Since they have been connected to you, then they may eventually profit from this mutation" Said Prakash as he tapped on Myra's shoulder to console her.
Suddenly through her connection with the ants, Myra suddenly received multiple signals of anger and sadness.
Myra abruptly bolted towards the supermarket's entrance to figure out the reason for such an occurrence.
Prakash suddenly saw Myra dash out towards the supermarket's entrance. Not knowing the reason for her actions, Prakash used his 'Moving Nature' innate ability on his roller skates and chased after Myra.
On noticing the commotion, Li Qiu who was currently meditating to consolidate his emotions also abruptly sprang towards the source of the commotion.
Prakash and Li Qiu arrived at the entrance of the supermarket almost at the same time.
On Li Qiu's inquiry, Prakash just shook his head implying that he too had no idea about the current situation.
Currently, Enbi Arin and Myra were standing side-by-side with Myra sporting a depressed face.
The other ants, however, were shrieking at varying pitch unable to properly showcase their emotions.
It all started when the ants who came across the mutilated body of their late queen and her two guard commanders while they were carrying the various monster carcasses.
The ants lost their mind on seeing the dozens and dozens of their ant brethren strewed across the entire battlefield with various degree of destruction. Some were just a damaged head without a body, some with melted exo-skeletons, while there were a few ants who looked like concentrated acids has corroded their entire exoskeleton armour.
"Control them before they lose their minds" Enbi Arin advised to Myra after seeing that she just stood at the same place with a blank look on her face.
"Ugh….y-yeah sure" Myra snapped back to reality and forcefully commanded her brethren to set their fallen comrades at one side and quickly transport the other carcasses to their nest.
Even though the ants were unwilling but under the relentless orders of their new queen, they finally went back to do their job.
Within an hour, all of the monster carcasses were taken to the nest and Myra commanded them to take care of their unhatched eggs and to not come out unless she ordered them.
The ants too obediently went back to their nest and started to reorganize their food and spacing.
Among the 20 odd ants that were still alive, there existed a couple of male ants. Myra assigned an ant who was currently the most suited for laying eggs in the brood chamber and commanded the other ants to take care of her needs.
Myra named the egg-laying ant as Ella in remembrance of her comrade who was eventually swallowed by the toad.
The ant which was now named Ella was overjoyed to gain a name from her queen.
All the ants busied themselves with their respective tasks and responsibilities.
Myra returned to the entrance of the supermarket and saw Li Qiu, Prakash and Enbi Arin standing near the heap of monster ant carcasses while discussing about something she couldn't hear due to the distance.
Myra slowly approached the trio and stood before Li Qiu and directly gazed at his eyes.
"What is it?" Questioned Li Qiu in an overbearing tone.
Myra desperately urged herself to stand straight because her legs almost became jelly due to the intimidating aura that was unconsciously released from Li Qiu's body.
"I – I want you to burn them with your flames" Exclaimed Myra as she resolved herself.
"But they're" Prakash wanted to interject but was stopped midway by Enbi Arin with a shake of her head.
"I have no qualms about burning them, but are you sure – that you wouldn't regret your decision?" Li Qiu questioned.
"I won't" Replied a resolute Myra.
"But if an artefact forms again then I don't think we could survive another battle" Li Qiu replied.
"You don't have to worry about that Big bro. According to Myra, only monsters with a 1 kilometre radius from an artefact can sense its aura but all the monsters within a kilometre radius are already dead due to today's battle. So we are safe for the current time period" Consoled Prakash.
"Okay" replied Li Qiu as he prepared to cast out his thermal flames.