Let it be repeated again. On one side of a MAJOR Continent, everything was ruled by ANTS. And the other side was ruled by HUMANS.

Humans… and Ants… Humans and Ants…

Utterly nonsensical!

When she had arrived on the Continent, she had arrived on the territory controlled by Ants. She hadn’t known it then because it wasn’t like the Ants were crawling over every stretch of land, but she had eventually stumbled upon a nest and she had been highly impressed. That colony of Ants had possessed a Queen in the 3rd Realm and it had greatly surprised her. No other Ant had risen to that kind of height; in fact, in the entire insect World, only a few races could go that far with the most impressive being the Moonlit Wasps.

She even remembered thinking that the colony of Ants had the potential to someday rival the Moonlit Wasps even if they didn’t have a great backer like the Moon. However, she didn’t have any business mingling with insects from a foreign Continent. The quicker she finished her job and got out, the better for everyone else but most importantly herself. Intruding into foreign lands would always be dangerous.

Obviously, she didn’t know that she was only looking at the tip of the iceberg.

Having set out on a mission to find the real decision makers of the Continent, it was inevitable that she would eventually stumble upon the Burning Nines which wasn’t too far away.

It was there that she found out that the nest she had found before was merely a branch nest of a super colony that was much bigger than anything she could have possibly imagined. And if the average strength of the Ants were anything to go by, that nest was probably the weakest of its kind.

The Burning Nines itself was a terrific sight to behold. 9 rings of Sky-piercing dark mountains that were covered in lakes of fire and lava, with the biggest one of them all placed in the middle with an ominous presence that could not be put into words. Billowing smoke that completely replaced the sky, an omnipresent smell of sulfur and flesh, a suffocating mantle of heat that could not be escaped and finally, the countless deadly auras that unveiled the existence of innumerable lethal creatures.

For someone with Water Affinity like her, this was the worst kind of location to be in. In fact, it was precisely the most anathema scene to her existence that she had ever witnessed. It was horrible.

Alas, the moment she arrived, she knew that the place was her destination. Nowhere else could compare.

So for a few days she had decided to investigate the place and its inhabitants. And as expected, there were all sorts of creatures with fire, earth and even lava affinity. The 9th Ring, which was essentially the first ring that one would encounter when coming to the Burning Nines, was the weakest. But that was relative, because even Realm 3 creatures could be found there.

As one went from 1 ring to the next, getting closer and closer to the centre, the average strength of the creatures within rose and the resources were correspondingly better.

SHE FOUND ANTS AND EVERYONE WAS SCARED

Shockingly enough, she had actually found an Elf in this ring. A weird one but an Elf nonetheless. It was a shock because although Humans could be found in other Continents, Elves could only be found in Fortissimum. Everyone had chalked it down to the fact that the Elves were all descent from the Tree of Life, and there were no other such Trees for other groups of Elves to come from, so to find another Elf here was definitely a great discovery that Titania would like to hear about. 

The Elf was a male child that seemed to be about 18 years old or so. His cultivation hadn’t been impressive, only being in the 2nd Realm, but his musculature had been impeccable. Prime, sleek muscles that were designed to burst out with power without a sacrifice in flexibility, and a vigour filled with grace that displayed a great amount of experience.

The weird thing had been the unnatural darkness of his skin. It was barely dark enough to be called brown and was more like a bronze metal, but she had never seen an Elf like that before. They usually had pale skin. Perhaps it had been a result of the heat? Fire usually darkened anything that was exposed to it and maybe the boy had experienced that…

Regardless, an Elf was here, and he even seemed to have an affinity with fire (another unprecedented feature for an Elf), or maybe it was lava. It was hard to tell sometimes, especially in a place like this. Either way, it was still a feat that no other Elf had accomplished. At least that she knew of.

Anyways, the boy’s situation hadn’t been good. In fact he had been running for his life from a small pack of Beasts that she couldn’t recognize. They were four legged creatures with robust forelegs, big elongated mouths filled with sharp fangs, and no eyes.

The Elven boy’s perfectly trained body allowed him to run quite quickly, but the pack of strange creatures were four legged, and those forelegs of theirs weren’t for show. Eventually, they would catch up.

What was interesting was that there had been no fear on the Elven boy’s face. He had looked very frustrated and more than a little angry, but there had been none of the expected fear. Naturally, that had made Bellatrix wonder if he had some sort of trick up his sleeve that would save his life.

Still, she didn’t decide to wait and see and opted to save his life without hesitating. She had a lot of good will towards the Elves and wouldn’t risk one of their lives for the sake of curiosity, and so with a few stomps she had put an end to the pitiful scene. Being in the 4th Realm, her size alone made things quite effortless.

She would later make conversation with the boy, but it had been a very odd one.

She had first asked him what he was doing in a dangerous place like this and she had been forced to repeat the question a few times because the boy had been in an understandable state of shock, but when he finally registered the question, for whatever reason he just scoffed before walking away, actually turning his back on her.

Obviously she didn’t want that to happen, but she wasn’t particularly affronted either, so she decided to make 1 more attempt at conversation. If he ignored her again she would just leave.

“I’ve seen other Elves like you before, in a far away place filled with colourful trees and beautiful buildings. Ah, not many people know what a building is. I can only tell you that it is a wonderful home that no cave or underground can compare to. I don’t know if you have family somewhere else here, but if not then I can take you to them if you would like. Just after I’m done with my business.”

That was what she had said, and his response had been… odd.