God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

Cain sighed.

Anathe shrugged and leaned back,

"Are you surprised?"

Cain remained silent.

Anathe smiled,

"Well you shouldn't be."

Steve quietly cleared his throat,

"If I may... I'd like to say that we come in good faith."

He raised his index finger,

"As you might already know, your highness, I am one you might consider a mage. And I specialize in many areas of the arcane arts, but one of my most recent focuses is alchemy."

Steve grinned as he lightly slapped the stone table,

"If you help us out, I will be able to develop many elixers and potions for your workers and warriors. You want them big? No problem. You want them hardworking? Say no more! I'll—"

Anathe let out a soft giggle, the sound pleasant and not what one would expect of a being with insectoid origins,

"Sorry, but that still won't be enough to convince me."

She turned her head slightly and glanced at Cain.

Cain frowned.

He had an idea of why he had been refused so blatantly.

But he didn't want to give up just yet.

He cleared his throat as he mentally prepared another sale's pitch.

A lot of his future plans were hinged on his cooperation with the Ant Queen. If things didn't go through, then he might quickly find himself in a dilemma.

"If you want assurance that I will not throw the lives of your men away, then here it is. I will treat their lives the same way I will mine."

Anathe shook her head,

"Looks like I was wrong. You still are missing the point."

Cain let out a frustrated sigh,

"Fine. Then tell me."

Cain's words lingered in the air.

Anathe silently tapped the stone armrest for a moment.

Then, she got up.

The body of the Ant Queen was not covered in any linen or the likes.

Despite appearing humanoid, Cain didn't think these creatures shared similar anatomy with humans.

That went equally for all internal and external systems.

Instead, her body was covered in layers of chitin, some more solid, some more flexible.

The patterns these layers of chitin made were beautiful and unique from the other ants, making her truly stand out as a queen.

"Come, Cain. Let me show you something..."

***

The interior of the Redscale Colony was even more grand than its exterior.

The variety of creatures that crawled and burrowed through the darkness, all living with no killing intent or bloodlust aimed at one another.

It was jarring.

A mutant rodent wearing a set of bone-plated armor, wielding a long bone tipped spear sat down to the side of a long winded tunnel.

Cain stared at the enormous rat.

Although it looked like a rat, it also didn't.

Yellow twitching eyes that glowed in the darkness. A long twitching snout and long claws that could scratch through magically enhanced steel.

It was hunched over its wares which consisted of a plethora of shiny mana shards, all sorts of precious stones, polished and cut bones from a variety of other mutant creatures, and so on.

"Whatcha want? Take ya pick!" Seeing that its wares had caught Cain's eyes, the mutant rat scurried to its feet and bared its yellow teeth.

There were others like it. Many more rodent-like creatures, scattered through the tunnel.

Cain peered behind the rat and saw a large hole burrowed into the ground.

"Eh? Whatcha lookin' at?"

Cain shrugged as he bent down to inspect the rat's goods.

As he looked, he spoke,

"So tell me, your highness. Why bring me here?" Cain said without turning.

Standing to his right was Steve who looked around, deep fascination burning in the depths of his eyes.

To his other side were two other individuals wearing long cloaks. One was enormous, standing above almost every other creature around.

The other was of a much smaller frame.

"Well, why not have a look at my kingdom first? The Redscale aren't the only beasts here. Have a look around. At the beasts you resent and look down upon."

Cain frowned.

Then he looked forward.

The shifty eyes of the mutant rat stared at him in suspicion.

Cain sighed,

"Hey, what's your name?"

The rat blinked,

"Name? I don't sell any of those."

Cain raised a brow,

"I meant what do others call you around here."

The rat snorted, then hit his chest,

"Oh! They call me Blatt the Wretched around here. The most famous hunter in these undergrounds. I spear has pierced a hundred hearts, and I have drunk the blood of many!"

Cain was amused.

'It's more intelligent than it initially let on.'

Clearing his throat after his initial rant, Blatt stood up straight and placed his fists on his hips,

"What do they call you, human?" Blatt said with narrowed eyes.

His nose twitched, "You don't smell of much, but that can mean many things. Indeed... One doesn't see humans around here plenty."

Cain smiled lightly, "Call me Cain. I'm here on a visit if you can call it that."

Blatt chuckled,

"I see. I see... Well, worry not, Cain the Human. The people of Redscale are welcoming. May the goddess bless the Queen, I've managed to keep my young'uns alive longer than a few months."

Cain raised a brow,

"You worship Haeria?"

The Mutant Rat puffed out its chest proudly,

"Thanks to the queen, the huntin's a bit more regulated now. Those with her blessings can even form parties to hunt together in the forest. Of course, as a lowly beast like myself, no party will be willing to accept me into theirs. But it's all good. I can hunt down the smaller vermin in the Burrows. Finding precious stones is also very easy for a {Black-hide Rat} like myself and..."

Once it started, it was like it would never stop.

'He's rather talkative...'

Despite that, Cain carefully listened to the rat.

Apparently, what he had seen so far was just the surface.

The Redscale Colony actually has a working system that governed it under the authority of Anathe and the goddess, the Celestial Beast, Haeria.

There were thousands upon thousands of different evolved species above and below the Colony, but to make things simpler, they had been segregated into; Insectoids, Murines, Avians, Reptilians, Canines, and felines.

These six groups represented roughly, the various species of creatures that now populated the Redscale Colony.

Each group also had the strongest species representing them in the Queen's courts.

Seeing how much he had learned from a single conversation with the rat, Cain felt rather satisfied.

He threw down a shiny mana shard and randomly picked a bone item from the creature's wares before placing it into his inventory.

"Thank you, Blatt. I hope we meet again in the future." Cain said as he waved before disappearing down the tunnel.

Blatt waved his hand, his large ears waving as well.

"Ah... What strange creatures humans are." Blatt said as he looked down at the mana shard the human had thrown down to inspect it.

He shivered.

Very quickly he hid it in iss clothes and slipped into the darkness of the burrow behind him.

Eyes darting back and forth, he waited for a few moments before pulling the shiny gem-like mana shard out once again.

A twisted expression marred the Mutant Creature's face as he let out a hiss.

***

The group of four slowly ascended from the deeper, darker parts of the Colony.

Here, the air was more fresh, and the creatures populating it were less likely to be seen burrowing or crawling through the ground.

The first thing that caught his eyes was a huge pack of bipedal feline creatures, each one as huge as a tree.

They wore rough leather armor, and their heads and necks were decorated with the bones and teeth of their fallen prey.

A few walked in front of the pack, while the ones behind slowly pulled in a huge wooden cart containing a huge mound of carcasses.

It was a hunting squad.

One of enormous felines caught his gaze and snarled at him, revealing its huge sharp canines.

***

{Giant Marsh Lynx}.

***

Slowly, they walked away, leaving Cain with even more to ponder on.

'This place... These creatures.'

He frowned, the realization setting in.

'This is a society. It is a rather huge mixing pot, but if a society nonetheless.'

Granted, it was a society of beasts.

But they didn't act very beast like here, almost as though they were all under some sort of spell.

And what was even more fascinating, was that most were able to converse easily with one another.

With the system, it was not impossible for one creature to convey its thoughts regardless of the form of vocalization they made use of.

Some creatures didn't even possess speech organs, but the system worked in mysterious ways, it seemed.

Anathe slowly walked up to his side,

"I think you finally see why I refused your request, Cain."

She turned to him, her time and eyes heavy,

"I could give you many things as support. I can give you a haven to fall to when you have been broken."

Cain looked around at the bubbling world around him.

This scene, didn't look any different from what one would expect from humans. Mundane interactions, trade, disagreements, joy, anger, concealed killing intent, love...

"But what I cannot give you, is this. The sanctity, the elysium I am trying to create. Not just for my sake, but for the sake of beast-kind on this world."