Ares headed back to the main ship with blood all over her scythe and hands which she quickly wiped off using her long, black skirt. The ant queen stomped her way to the front of the ship to order the army to head back to the colony while setting the ship's course at the same time. Ares rested her head on her hand as anticipated her arrival back home, but...

Something wasn't right. 

Ares thought back to the time when she had murdered every arthropod that hadn't evacuated the Beehive, which was when she realized that IT hadn't bothered her for hours. Maybe it finally decided to stop bothering her? Was it finally bored of it's attempts to kill her after 900 years? But right when she was about to mentally celebrate, it decided to appear from the shadows just to irritate her. The shadowy-serpent laughed hysterically as it mocked her.

"Did you really think I was finally gone? Fat chance! I'll be here your entire life!" Ares slammed all four of her fists against the table in front of her. "What's wrong? Are you mad that you won't have a second of rest? That I'll never leave your side? That eventually I'll succeed in killing you-" "Shut the fuck up. I don't need your stupid rambling annoying me every second of my day especially when I just finished my enemy's colony. Just leave me alone, you can try to kill me when I get home." 

The snake groaned and complained about how "It won't be any fun that way! Just imagine how hilarious it would be for all the soldiers waiting for your next order only to find you hanging by the ceiling!" while the queen just rolled her eyes at the wretched thing. 

Fortunately for her, by the time it even tried raising a fist at her, the spaceship had landed right beside her tower. She exited the ship as calmly as she could so she could ready herself for the party that was to come the very next day as a celebration of the fall of the Beehive. Out of anger, the shadowy serpent disappeared into the Ant Queen's shadow so it wouldn't have to see Ares enjoying her evening.

The first thing Ares did was work on the project she'd spent every hour working on, something that could get rid of the serpent who went with her everywhere. She stood beside her chair, then turned on the hologramic screen in front of her. Her rough, grey fingers moved across it to open the advanced map application she'd created for herself and herself only. Ares then demanded that the computer show her a planet with undocumented plants, she's already tried all the documented ones, and she wasn't willing to send her soldiers in a year long mission outside their galaxy, they'd just screw it up. 

It took a few seconds before it presented to her the only plant that had no background or information behind it, located on a seemingly abandoned planet that had huge plants of the same species covering it all around. No other wildlife was around. Ares decided this could be the one thing to put an end to the misery that was brought to her through the thing which cursed her shadow.

She went back to the ship she had driven for the destruction of the beehive hours ago, then set course for the weird planet. Ofnir had taken notice to the fact she was on a spaceship again, so it rose from her shadow out of curiosity. 

"Whatcha doin?" It gained no response from the queen ant, so it asked again. "You up to anything?" But she continued to ignore it. "Answer me." Demanded the serpent who's fingers were crawling around Ares' throat. The queen continued to ignore it, angering it further. "Answer me!" The serpent finally yelled as it tore a shelf from the corner of the spaceship, hurling it towards Ares who barely dodged the attack. She stared up at the serpent who was fuming with rage, like a toddler who wasn't allowed to eat ice cream for breakfast. 

"You'll find out once we get there goddamnit!" Her fists were clenched as she raised her voice against the wretched snake who groaned loudly in response.

 "Why don't I just kill you now and get this over with?! You've already bored me for the past 900 years of your pathetic life! You were way funner before you hit 138!" "My life was way better before you came into it!" "Well you should've thought about that before using my blood like everyone in your family! You know why I try to kill you every single day? Because the only way I can get it back is by killing whoever comes into contact with it!" 

"That is none of my business! You can't even see your blood outside of your pigsty of a home realm!" Ares hit it right in the nerves by calling its home a 'pigsty', like the childish being that the serpent was despite being older than Ares, it took a hold of one of the chairs surrounding them in the ship and shot it towards Ares faster than a bullet, it broke against her artificial arms. The serpent disappeared into the shadows after letting out a frustrated yell.

 Then, the ship announced to Ares that it was 3 minutes away from landing. A wave of relief went across her body as she sighed and awaited the landing of the spacecraft.

Upon landing, she put on her customized oxygen mask, and exited the spaceship. The planet greeted her with a deserted land filled with hundreds of abnormally tall plants.

 The queen explored the planet until she found the tiniest one of the bunch, she picked it up, and the first thing that appeared in her head was a weird word she's never heard before; "mushroom." Maybe that was what she should call it. Ares placed it in a bag before picking up more samples that were 3 feet bigger than the first one which she effortlessly carried back to the ship. Maybe this could finally get rid of Ofnir.