It all started fifty years ago.
In a region that was a good distance away from the Shaufell Valley, a colony of Blaze Coned Termites thrived.
This particular colony was fairly young and only numbered tens of thousands.
It was also the place where I was born.
The moment I hatched from the egg, my destiny had already been laid out for me. Unlike the Worker Termites, my role was to guard and protect our colony from any kind of threat.
Our territory was near a volcano, so our bodies had evolved to adapt to it, making us very resistant to fire.
As our numbers grew, my comrades expanded our area of influence. Because of this, we encountered our fair share of powerful Beasts who mercilessly killed our kind.
Of course, I'm not saying that we were free from fault because Blaze Coned Termites were very aggressive and very territorial. Every single encounter we faced automatically led to a confrontation.
When Worker Termites died in the field, if their bodies were not consumed by the one that killed them, it would release a scent, informing us that one of our comrades had died.
This in turn would signal soldiers, like me, to investigate what happened, and we would deal with whatever Creature dared to kill one of our brethren.
Back then, I was only a newly born Rank 3 Monster, but since I was a Soldier Termite, I joined a scouting party to investigate the cause of death of one of our members that had traveled outside our borders.
This was a very common thing since our nest was expanding, and the Worker Termites were always looking for food and other resources to provide for the entire colony.
Back then, I thought we were going to face some Fire Beetles, whom we usually found in our territory. These creatures were stronger than us, but we had the advantage when it came to numbers, so a battle between Quality and Quantity was a daily occurrence.
Unfortunately, what we found weren't beetles…
They were Ants…
Fire Ants to be exact.
Just like my comrade who perished under their hands, they were also expanding their territories, and our workers just happened to meet each other, which led to a confrontation.
I could still remember that day very clearly, for it was the day that everything that I cared for in the world… perished.
The moment our two sides met, war was inevitable.
Ants and Termites simply couldn't co-exist under the same sun. Unfortunately, our Nest was fairly young. The Ant Colony that took the initiative to attack us numbered in the Hundreds of Thousands, which put us at a great disadvantage.
Our race heavily relied on Fire Attacks to incinerate our foes to ashes, but our opponents were resistant to fire just like us.
The Fire Ants were too similar to us—they could also use Fire Attacks. However, they didn't fight with that. Instead, they used brute force and numbers to overwhelm our Colony.
Back then, our Sole Deimos-Ranked comrade fought against three Deimos-Ranked Ants to death.
I could still remember how he fought with everything he had, with his entire body burning like molten lava, illuminating that dark and nightmarish night.
All of us fought bravely. Soldiers and Workers fought with everything we had to protect our Colony and our Queen.
However, no matter how many of my brethren sacrificed their lives, we couldn't change the inevitable.
The moment our Deimos-Ranked Fighter fell, everything went downhill.
My comrades died right before my eyes, and I was among those that fell, or at least that was what I thought at that time.
I didn't know what happened after I lost consciousness, but when I opened my eyes, our nest was already destroyed.
Countless bodies of Ants and Termites were scattered across the ground. It was a scene of complete and utter carnage.
A scene that I will never forget till I draw my last breath.
Originally, our bodies should have been collected by the victors and used as food to nourish their colonies. However, for some reason, it didn't happen.
It was then that I saw it…
A fifteen-meter-tall Monster, whose mere presence was enough to make my body uncontrollably shudder.
Back then, I didn't know what it was. Later, my friend Drystan told me the name of the monster that was considered to be the Bane of the Ants' and Termites' existence.
It was none other than an Adamantium-Scaled Anteater.
Its powerful aura was said to reduce the strength of all Ants and Termites to only a tenth of their original strength, making them unable to launch an effective counterattack against it.
Even the Ants, who emerged victorious in the war against us, were all slain by it, making it the true winner of the war that we had fought against each other.
Perhaps it was a sick joke from Fate, but I woke up at the moment when the monster was about to eat our Queen.
The Spiritual Leader of our Colony whom we tried to protect with everything we had. As if sensing my gaze, the Anteater glanced in my direction and looked at me with a teasing glint in its eyes.
It then ate my helpless Queen in front of me, watching my anguished expression as it ate with relish.
I had no choice but to watch it from beginning to end because I couldn't move any part of my body. I was paralyzed by both fear and grief. Even if the Anteater had decided to kill me back then, I would have thought of it as a form of release.
A release from the nightmare that I just witnessed.
However, after eating my Queen, it didn't eat me. It only laughed.
A sickening and maddening laugh that made me wish that it had killed me instead. But, it didn't do that.
Perhaps, in its eyes, a mere Rank 3 Monster like me wasn't worthy of being eaten by an Argonaut Ranked Creature like him.
After seeing my agony and pain, it finally left and headed in the direction of the Fire Ant Colony.
Perhaps, it would feast on their Queen as well, just like it did to mine. But, I was beyond caring at that point.
I didn't know how long I stayed frozen in that spot. But since I was seriously injured, I couldn't move even if I wanted to.
That was when he appeared.
A Human, and my one and only friend in the world. Drystan.
"Fate has allowed you to live, so you must live."
That was how the two of us met, and that was how I was given a second chance at life.
