It doesn't work as well as I'd hoped, because of course it doesn't. The Gravity Bomb may have been a one-size-fits-all solution to my problems higher up in the Dungeon, but lately, not so much. With mana levels so dense, making problems go away by sucking them into a black hole just isn't as effective as it used to be, which is a shame, and the monsters are powerful enough that they can usually conjure balls of compact mana of their own.
In this case, the enemy doesn't bother doing this, but simply accepts the oncoming black hole, swarming it with its tentacle appendages and making it disappear from sight. Confused, I watch and wait for it to explode or something, but my mana sense gives me a clear picture of what's taking place.
It's eating it.
Not as in, physically eating, but using its tentacles to siphon away the mana at a truly furious rate. Some of the limbs are ripped apart, a lot of the limbs are ripped apart, but what does that matter? There's tens of thousands more where those came from!
When it's done chewing up the mana I have apparently donated to it, clusters of tentacles rise up and fire it back at me in muddied purple beams. I dodge to the side as the lasers tear through the ground, ripping it apart and sending sludge and goop flying through the air.
Uh, ok? This is a thing now, apparently.
For a moment, I'm a little taken aback at how to approach this beast. Do I shoot more spells at it? To what effect?! If it can consume them and shoot them back, aren't I making life harder for myself?
Maybe I should try and approach it, get my mandibles to put in some work.
Bracing my legs, I drop to the ground before skittering rapidly, moving with absurd speed and agility for a creature of my enormous size as I circle to the right, jaws open wide and ready to strike. Where exactly I should strike… I'm not so sure. Like a sea anemone, the monster is so covered in drifting cilia that I can't even see its actual body!
Well who needs to aim anyway?
Starcrusher!
My enemy wibbles in surprise as I unleash the Skill. Searing fire and terrible suction are unleashed as my jaws slice down on the forming ball of energy between them. The monster shrieks, reaching towards me with its limbs as thousands of them separate to reveal a dreadful, ring-shaped maw with layer after layer of teeth and what appear to be suckers of some kind. Yuck!
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My jaws snap shut and the immediate surroundings are engulfed in fire, the catastrophic explosion directed outwards, right into the creature's face.
It shrieks and pulls back, which is good, because only then do I realise that my mana was starting to leak out of me. Somehow, I don't know how, it managed to latch some of those cilia onto me and somehow, and I really don't know how, was drinking my mana!
How in the world?! So if I get too close to this thing, it's going to consume the energy I need to survive, but if I hang back and throw spells at it, it'll eat those too?
My legs are still sore, so I flex them a little before I start backing up a few steps. Having just used the vestigial legs, I shouldn't push them too hard just yet, which means not trying any fancy moves like that again. Which is just great. If I can't throw bombs at it, and I can't run rings around it, it's like I'm trying to fight a powerful monster with two legs tied behind my back.
Luckily I have another four where those came from!
It appears as though the monster took some damage from that chomp. Several of its waggling tentacles are smoking and more than a few have been burned away, but the overall number doesn't appear to be much diminished, if at all. It's possible this beast has a way to repair or regenerate these limbs in a hurry, which makes sense if its main strategy is to use them to drain the mana out of its foes.
How does that even work?! Manipulating mana inside someone else is insanely difficult. Keep in mind, it's my mana, not theirs! My mandibles allow me to inject my own energy into an enemy and use it, I'm not taking control of anything that isn't mine to begin with.
I guess it's not really manipulating it, but just… drinking it? Perhaps that's a loophole of some sort. It's tier eight at least, every monster who gets that high is going to have some sort of nonsense ability, myself included.
Deciding I need more information, I start to unleash a wave of Dragon's Breath at the monster.
Searing, roaring flame bursts out from between my mandibles like the flare from a jet-engine. Thousands of cilia come together and… start absorbing it. In rather short order, I get my own fire right back into my face.
Lovely.
It's not perfect, though. Looking closely, I can see that the tentacles need to physically come into contact with the mana in order to absorb it, which means they are getting burned. Problem is, I have no idea if they're taking enough damage to matter, I can't possibly count them all!
I mean, it already chewed up a gravity bomb and there doesn't seem to be any difference to that forest of tentacles, despite knowing it must have shredded tons of them to pull that off.
As much as I'd love to have more time to sit back and think about how this bizarre monster works, it obviously doesn't want to give it to me. With surprising speed, it wibbles its way forward, innumerable cilia reaching out towards me. I need to move!
-x-X-x-
A fight between two powerful monsters is supposed to be epic and exciting! What's with this lame engagement? Not wanting to get entangled by the creature approaching me, I skitter back, only to remember that the absurdly potent and toxic mucus has spread to cover the entire width of the tunnel behind me. Bubbling fiercely, it's still melting everything it touches and filling the air with an acrid stench that stings my antennae. So, I guess I'm not backing up that way.
If my legs were in better shape, I'd just run past this thing and leave it in my dust, but that isn't going to happen right now.
Lousy Krath! Always trying to be clever. They're still out there somewhere, watching to see how this all goes, no doubt hoping I get eaten by this weird anemone monster. Well, it's not going to happen! I still have an active Gravity Well, I'll use that to lift myself up and soar to safety!
As I begin to do just that, I find the creature appears to have sensed the dense mana hanging over my head and is reaching for that as well. Hey! No! Tsss! Tsss!
Thankfully I can move the Gravity Well at will, so I can swing it out of the way and lift myself up. I'm not especially fast while floating, but neither is my opponent, so it doesn't seem to be too much of an issue. I move to the side and try to angle around the monster rather than out over the acid and closer to the Krath. Knowing my luck, this thing will be somewhat immune to the stuff while it'll instantly melt whatever I put in it. Typical.
As I thought, the weird, spongy, tentacle-covered monster isn't fast enough to catch me as I drift out of its reach and start to make a wide circle around it. Hah! Take that, you mobile seaweed-impersonator! If you're going to be this easy to escape from, why would I even bother fighting you at all?
If this was the Krath's idea of a backup plan, then they're slipping. Not even a problem.
Which is, of course, the moment I realise that something bad is about to happen. When it comes to being sneaky pains in the thorax, the Krath never slip, it's the only thing they're good at. Secondly, this thing is a high tier powerhouse in a stratum that is exceptionally difficult to survive in. There's no way it's this easy to get away from.
As soon as the thought occurs to me, I rip energy out of the Well, expending it quickly to fling myself away down the tunnel while my minds spin furiously. Half a second later, my antennae blaze with warning and I release the Well entirely, letting myself drop down to the ground.
Obviously it's not that easy to escape from this thing! It's highly evolved, which means a heck of a lot of hunting and fighting.
Just above where I had been a moment ago, a bubble of black sludge pops into existence, and a second later, wiggling, pale-green cilia emerge from it, lashing at the space I had just occupied. Not finding me, they continue to extend outwards, sensing my core as they seek to eat the precious energy.
Holy moly!
Pushing myself, I skitter to the side, my minds spinning as I blast the bubble with Dragon's Breath, hoping to boil it away. I have… mild success, doing some damage but not enough to overcome the forest of waving tentacles that emerge to welcome my flames and eat the mana within.
So this thing can summon a… bubble portal around itself? Great! Just great! I've really got to stop underestimating it just because it appears slow. Doubtless it has even more tricks up its sleeve that haven't been revealed so far. I have to be cautious, play the fight carefully.
I have to say, though, this sort of fighting strategy is downright annoying! Is it really trying to inflict mana starvation on me? I assume that's what it's trying to do, drain out all the mana in my core to leave me gasping on the ground, unable to move, unable to fight and wracked with horrible pain. Presumably it then eats me.
That's… so nasty! Cowardly, mean-spirited and downright scary to boot! Sheesh, I wish I'd thought of it. Really takes the risk out of fighting in the Dungeon if you can turn any opponent into an immobile blob. Well, no use crying over spilt evolutionary energy, I need to come up with a solution.
Wary of another bubble being summoned at any time, I keep my weight low and skitter from side to side, not pushing my speed, but staying in constant motion. If it tries to trap me again, I want to be mobile and ready to get out of trouble. For now, the creature continues to wobble towards me, eager to close the distance.
I am not keen to get much closer, but I need to do something. Deciding to try my luck, I open my mandibles and prepare to unleash an empowered Starcrusher.
Using the power of the Altar takes this chomp attack from devastating to comically disastrous. Even without getting close, I'll be able to inflict massive damage. However, as if it senses what I'm up to, a black bubble pops into existence just above me, setting my antennae to blaring.
Yikes!
Aborting the chomp, I roll to the side and put on some moves, getting a little distance as the cilia emerge once more, trying to latch onto me. The monster itself continues its wibbling movement towards me, radiating a potent, smug energy.
That was fast, way too fast. I'd barely locked open my mandibles before that bubble was done forming. Did it guess what I was going to do? Or does it have predictive capabilities similar to mine?
The more I fight this thing, the more I hate it.
-x-X-x-
Well I'm not willing to stand here and let this thing close the distance on me. Nor will I turn my back and try to run away. There's something about this monster that makes me think trying to run away isn't going to help me in any way. I need to stand my ground and try to find a way to win or drive this monster off.
Deciding to try my luck, I put a little more distance between me and the creature, fake going left and right, snap my mandibles a few times, but no bubble materialises. Not wanting to waste time, I open my mandibles and activate the Starcrusher. Immediately my antennae blare a warning as a bubble materialises overhead. This time, I don't abort the attack, empowering the Skill and slamming my jaws shut even as the tentacles begin to emerge and reach for me.
They get me, which I expected, and I have to say, the feeling of having mana removed from my core is not a welcome one. It's been a while since I suffered from proper mana sickness, but it doesn't get any better the more highly evolved I become. Not a fan.
But hey, you can take a bit of my mana, it's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Meanwhile, how will you deal with a catastrophic explosion? Even though I backed off, the creature is close enough that when my jaws slam shut and the space in front of me detonates, it's still well within the blast zone.
Rocked by the explosion, I don't absorb the force with my still-recovering legs and instead let my body get blown backward, sliding on the underside of my carapace across the slimy floor of the tunnel. In front of me, all is fire; even in the damp, soggy world of the fifth, the blast from the empowered Starcrusher isn't something easily suppressed.
Getting my feet back under me, I scuttle backwards, not wanting to let the tentacles get close to me again as I take a look at my opponent.
Oho, you felt that one, didn't you?
It's regrowing, I can see that clearly now, considering the scale of the damage, but for a moment its face is revealed, and it does not look happy. Growling, its maw gnashes at the air, revealing a number of spear-tipped tongues within. Something else I need to watch out for.
Examining the speed of regeneration, I have to say it's impressive. There's surely some sort of trick behind it, because an ordinary regeneration gland certainly can't heal that fast.
If it has a limit, then I can keep piling on the damage until we reach it, I won't run out of juice before this creature, but if it's anything like mine and there isn't a limit, then all we'll be doing is wasting each other's time.
I watch and wait, learning what I can while the monster heals itself, new cilia sprouting at an absurd pace to cover it again. There's no way it doesn't have more tricks up its sleeve, monsters don't reach mythic without gaining some nasty powers along the way. Watching as the creature starts to approach me more cautiously than before, I can tell it's thinking the same thing I am.
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What's going to be the next reveal? Who's going to make the first move? After thinking my chomp was powerful but manageable, I've shown a much stronger version which is far more worrisome. Now it knows it can't trade taking another Starcrusher for getting some of my mana without getting majorly whacked, so it needs another strategy if I threaten to chomp again.
Honestly, the best way to deal with this creature would be if I had some pure mana for it to steal. As a native of the fifth, it's completely rotten with corruption, so absorbing pure mana would be the same as drinking poison. Even if it tried to spit it back out, that stuff eats fifth mana and replicates itself, as dangerous to this monster as the toxic mana is to everyone else.
No sooner do I have the thought than I feel a response from my Pure Core. It's subtle at first, a sort of hum, as if the gem inside me were resonating with something ever so faintly.
I jump backwards and blast out a stream of Dragon's Breath just to keep my enemy occupied while I check what the heck is happening. Focusing my senses internally, the Pure Core is doing… something, goodness knows what. I suspected there might be more to the thing, considering the changes it went through when the snails sang at me, along with the vanishing corruption that it's been eating.
What is it going to do? Hopefully something that helps me get rid of this thing. I'm not here to fight powerful monsters and risk my carapace, I'm here to smash the Krath into oblivion!
As I focus on the Pure Core, the resonance only grows stronger, the hum growing louder and louder until it manifests as something else entirely. I feel the core heat up as a single, pure note of snail-song rings out through the tunnel.
Within the tunnel, it's like an atomic bomb went off.
As the sound rolls through the air, everything it touches is purified, instantly. Corrupted creatures and parasites are made clean so quickly their bodies just fall apart, unable to hold themselves together as eighty percent of their flesh vanishes in an instant. Mucus sizzles and evaporates. Slime boils into nothing. Even the diseased flesh of the tunnel itself is healed and made whole. It doesn't go far, only a ten metre radius around me before the note loses its power and fades, leaving me stunned and confused at what the heck just happened.
My opponent, however, wants none of that. Before the resonant sound of that precious song has faded, it's already sinking into the tunnel floor, phasing through the surface somehow and getting the heck out of town.
Frankly, I'm happy to let it. It might be afraid of the snail song, but I have no idea if I can even do that again. Maybe I should ask the snails what they've done? Can they even explain themselves to me?
Once I can no longer see it, the monster vanishes from my senses with disturbing speed. No trace of mana remains, not even a gravitational wave, which makes no sense. It's as if it blended into the flesh of the tunnel walls and just… vanished. Creepy.
For a moment, I sit in the empty tunnel, dead centre of a shrinking circle of purity, watching and waiting for it to reemerge, but… nothing.
Testing my legs, I think they're probably ninety-percent of the way to full operation. I'd better get moving before that thing decides it wants to come back. Krath are back on the menu!
-x-X-x-
All-consuming, the war to end all wars, where victory and defeat meant the difference between having a future or vanishing into darkness.
I thought my determination to win would burn brighter than ever in the heart of this conflict, would turn my misgivings to ash and drive me forward. At times, it does… but others… it isn't enough.
I would have welcomed this task under normal circumstances. A puzzle and challenge unlike any other. I know that losing here would feel like losing, and I refuse to lose, but so far I have found that winning doesn't feel like winning.
Rest well, Senior. It will be over soon.
- From the private notes of Solant.
Holy. Moly.
That is a lot of mucus.
After somehow scaring off the bizarre tier nine-ish monster who lives in these tunnels, I retrace my steps, float over the still-hissing mess that the Krath shot at me and start to chase them down. Wiggly and almost undetectable, the Krath's gravitational signature isn't the easiest to follow, but it's better than any other method of tracking them, since they're such masters of stealth.
Which leads up and around a few tunnel branches and eventually into a wide cavern into which the massive artery that emerged from the lungs emerges. I have to say, that thing gives me the heebie-jeebies. The way it pulses wetly is one thing, but the sound, the roar of mucus being pumped through it is just… disturbing.
I'm pretty sure if I chomped into it and cut through the thick wall of the thing, the sheer pressure of the mucus inside would tear my antennae off and crush my carapace. Even if it didn't, the sheer amount and toxicity of the stuff would bury me in a second, like standing in front of a dam's emergency release valve when they flip the switch.
Thankfully, this is where that massive artery splits. Like the most disgusting piece of pipework imaginable, it divides into two, then four, then a dozen smaller, still completely awful vessels that attach to the ceiling of the chamber and then spread out in different directions, carrying their toxic payload elsewhere in the Dungeon.
And it's here where the evidence of slug interference is most prevalent. As those vessels split and depart, sunk into the quivering flesh of the ceiling, there are clearly signs of manipulation. Added vessels, similar to the naturally occurring ones, but… worse, have been attached all over the place, siphoning off mucus and plunging into the roof, vanishing up to a higher level. Clearly the Krath who live in this area have found a way to manipulate the fleshy substance that makes up the tubes, but they aren't perfect at it. Even more diseased and broken than the rest of the stratum, I wager they have to constantly repair their work here, lest they burst under the pressure and flood the area.
I wave my antennae around, seeing if I can sense anything… sluggish, and there are definitely a few of them around, but not a large, concentrated group like I was hoping for.
Still, I'm certain they're up there somewhere, I just need to keep looking.
Backing out of the chamber and into the tunnels, I scratch around here and there, but once again, it proves impossible to find a path to where I'm trying to get to. Determined, I don't give up, and eventually come across a clue. It's tiny, probably no bigger than a human fist, but it's a hole that I can trace going into the wall and snaking up and away.
Krath tunnel.
I really don't want to go digging into the walls here, considering how gross they are, but I don't have much choice in the matter. What follows is the least zen-like digging session of my life as I chomp, slash and shudder my way forward, cutting into and forcing my way through the disgusting, fleshy walls. It takes much, much longer than I would have liked, but eventually I do break through into a new space, and what I find is not exactly what I expected.
If I were to liken it to anything that I've seen before, then I would say it's a canal network. However, Venice it isn't. The only tourists visiting this place are suffering from chronic sinus infections and take acid baths regularly.
There isn't much room for a monster of my size, putting it mildly. Keeping myself up and out of the sludge channels, which move with an unusual amount of zip for mucus, is a challenge while the roof is so low. Exploring a little further, it quickly becomes apparent that this wasn't something that was built overnight. Interconnecting channels, junctions, strange flesh contraptions pumping sludge to higher elevations and all sorts of shenanigans. What's more, there are Krath everywhere.
Every tunnel I go down, every branch I check, they're in there. Getting the heck away from me, sure, but there are a ton of them around. Which means I'm getting very close to their hiding place.
Gweheheheh. Get ready, slugs, soon you'll have nowhere to run!
I can almost feel the unending wave of cleansed mana pouring through these tunnels. It's going to be glorious.
-x-X-x-
"I suppose Slizzl didn't deal with the monster like we hoped?" Thooza burbled nervously.
Not for the first time today, Fluzzl swore to herself she would eat the useless slug at the first opportunity.
"I know," she frothed, barely able to contain her rage. "We are both looking at the ant, right now."
How Thooza had managed to survive the hyper-competitive and often lethal upbringing all Krath endured after hatching, she had no idea. As anger-inducing as he was, however, the main target of her wrath continued to be the ant, who was now blundering through and causing widespread damage to the Sludgeway her tribe had painstakingly built over a thousand years.
"Has word from the tribe come back yet?" she demanded.
"We just recently heard," Thooza burbled. "They've asked us to retreat to the chamber above."
"And you're only telling me now?" she hissed, fury running through her veins alongside the boiling hot acid.
"You wanted me to run messages to the scout slugs," the smaller slug defended himself, anger sparking in his own eyes.
Reining in her temper with enormous difficulty, Fluzzl swallowed her burning saliva and considered their position. With so many things happening at once, the tunnels were becoming chaotic, to say the least. With such a large monster rampaging in the Sludgeway, she'd expected the tribes to rush in and try to put it down as quickly as possible.
On reflection, that might not be such a good idea. The Sludgeway tunnels were narrow and cramped. It would be almost impossible to bring enough slugs to fight against the ant in such tight spaces. If it wasn't hit with overwhelming firepower, then it would just start healing again, letting it fight through the Sludgeway for days and days.
Perhaps they had actually thought through what she'd told them after all.
"Fine," she ground out. "Get the rest of the slugs together and spread the word, we're moving up. Make sure they know to move quickly. Once we leave, the ant is going to come after us."
"You think it can find us?" Thooza wurbled in shock.
"Obviously it can!" she roared, her spindly arms thrashing wildly with anger.
In short order, he managed to pull her loyal slugs together and spread the word to the others in the Sludgeway tunnels that they were leaving and heading to the Slimeground chamber above.
Once she gave the signal, the slugs moved together, racing upwards through the cracks and taking advantage of every trick they had to vacate the area and leave this terrifying monster behind.
Just as Fluzzl had thought, the moment they left, the ant turned upwards, looking after them for a few moments before it began to slam its legs into the walls and chomp into the ceiling. They would have less than an hour before it managed to dig through to the Slimeground, a terrifying thought. The idea of having this vicious monster eat its way into the hidden home of her tribe was enough to set her acid burning in her flesh.
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When she reached the Slimeground itself, her fears were somewhat alleviated. The Krath'lath had summoned everyone. There were thousands of slugs assembled in a great ring looking down into the lowest section of the Slimeground.
She found the tribe leader with a gathering of his most trusted and capable followers in the heart of the formation.
"Krath'lath," she reported, "the monster is rising up behind us. It will arrive soon."
Ferzzoz, a mighty and powerful slug who had been Krath'lath of the tribe since before Fluzzl was hatched, nodded at her words.
"This thing heals faster the more we attack it?" he burbled.
"That's right."
"But it showed fear of the Ancient's Blessing?"
"It did."
When they had flung the concentrated mana at the ant, it had fled desperately.
"Fine," the Krath'lath spat. "I hate letting the filthy ant into my Slimeground, but if it's necessary to kill it and fulfill the will of the Ancient, I'll allow it."
"Listen well!" Ferzzoz bellowed to the gathering. "Prepare your magic! The moment that filthy ant reveals itself, I want it buried in an avalanche of filth so potent it would melt the fifth itself!"
With an iron grip over one of the strongest tribes in the fifth, Ferzzoz' words were taken as law. Immediately, all of the thousands of gathered Krath began to draw on the acid they cultivated within, ready to unleash it upon the monster as soon as they saw it.
Feeling the gathering of power, Fluzzl felt hope. This much mana would dwarf the Doom Sphere that she had thrown at the ant. There was no way it could possibly survive.
Tensions were high in the chamber as the Krath waited. There was no need to check if the ant was coming; they could feel it, its monstrous core radiating mana like a bonfire radiated heat. Even without that, the tremors that caused the walls to shudder as it dug through the rock were enough to track it precisely.
It was coming… not far now.
Every one of the Krath tensed, prepared to unleash their gathered power the instant the creature's head poked into the chamber. With so much mana, likely the entire lower entrance to the Slimeground would be melted away, along with a large section of the Sludgeway. A heavy price to pay, but in order to fulfil the wish of the Ancient and save their territory, it would have to be paid.
Any second now… any second… any….
Where the heck was the ant?!
A moment before she could say something, a beam of light burst upward from below, no thicker than a Krath, but so bright as to sear her eyes with pain.
"What is that?!" the Krath'lath roared.
"It's the ant!" she cried. "It must have concealed its mana!"
But what was it doing? She wasn't able to look at the spell directly, but she could tell it wasn't attacking any of the gathered Krath directly. She herself wasn't suffering any ill effects other than temporary blindness. There had to be a purpose?
"Unleash your magic!" the Krath'lath bellowed. "Kill it!"
As the members of the tribe let loose their power, Fluzzl looked up, high above, to the roof of the Slimeground.
Where the beam was busy boring a hole deep into the ceiling.
"NO," she hissed.
When the beam cut off suddenly, she immediately saw the first of the mucus begin to drip through. Followed by a torrent.
-x-X-x-
Look, is it my fault that you decided to construct your hidden village of slugs and slime directly underneath a massive lake of deadly mucus? Of course not! I am not responsible for the poor planning decisions of the Krath tribes!
Bit of an absurd vulnerability if you ask me. And it's not like it was difficult for me to work out, either. I have the upgraded Tunnel Map Skill, I can see the top of the lake, I was up there not that long ago, and I can see the chamber above me could only have a dozen metres of stone between the ceiling and the lake at best.
I suppose the lake prevents anyone from attacking them from above, and to get in from below, you have to survive the unbelievably toxic environment in the lungs. If I'm guessing, this tribe probably uses those mucus highways to avoid having to travel through either of those, which makes this location pretty defensible, I suppose.
Right up until I get close enough to drill a hole in the roof with a Singularity beam.
Welp, my work here is done, time to skedaddle!
The sheer volume and density of the attack being launched against me is frankly ridiculous overkill. If I was hit with all of that at once, I'd be absolutely melted in a matter of seconds. Wanting no part of it, I turn my industrial franchise around and start sprinting my way down the tunnel I dug as if all the demons of the third were on my tail.
Because what is actually on my tail is significantly worse. Not just what the Krath threw at me, but if I were to hazard a guess… that intense rumbling I'm feeling is the roof of their hideout starting to collapse, which is going to unleash an entire lake's worth of mucus to come crashing down on where I'm standing right now.
Time to make like an ant and fly the heck out of here, Anthony! Maybe I should have gotten wings when I evolved, dammit! At least this time I can blame Granin and the others and not me.
Go, go, go, go, go!
Thankfully my legs are fully regrown now and more than capable of taking my full strength. I blitz my way through the narrow tunnel, tripping and snagging my mandibles on the walls constantly as I shove and scramble as quickly as I can.
When I fall through the roof and down into the narrow mucus highway tunnels, I gather myself, leap to my feet and start Dashing for all I'm worth. Right behind me, a wave of hyper-dense and murderously potent slime splashes down, chewing into the tunnel floor and eating through in an instant.
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Yikes! Turning my head slightly, I can see the opening above melting away and widening rapidly as more and more slime comes through, eating into everything it touches. Trying to run downwards would be an unbelievably foolish move, I need to make ground sideways and try to get out from under the ocean of sludge coming my way, but I can't do it right here. These tunnels are going to get completely flooded, of that I have no doubt, which means if I tried to hide in here somewhere, I'd only get caught in a trap of my own creation.
Nope! I am absolutely going to get a heck of a lot further away than this, but to do that, I need to go a bit lower first and then make some lateral distance. Which means this race is far from over.
Run, Anthony! Run like your gorgeous, diamond carapace depends on it!
Because it does!
Six legs pumping, I move as fast as I can, which isn't nearly as fast as I would like it to be. Once again hampered by the narrow tunnels that twist and tangle around each other, I frequently find myself smashing into walls, ceilings and floors as I scrabble to get through.
I'm constantly dumping sludge and mucus out of the channels and onto my carapace, but I have to trust that the Pure Core is going to do its job and prevent any corruption from building up inside me. I don't have time to worry about it right now, since most of my brains are tasked with plotting a way for me to get the heck out of here. There's a fine line between tactical genius and getting yourself killed like an idiot, and I'm afraid I walked too close to the line way too often lately.
With another headlong lunge, a dizzying fall and a mighty crash, I finally manage to escape the twisted tunnels of the Krath and land in the chamber just above the lungs. Still pumping away, the massive artery is here, and I hope to heck that it isn't going to rupture when the rest of the mucus falls down here. I don't want to think about the volume being pumped through that thing, but if it bursts… holy moly. It'll make the lake I unleashed from above look like a puddle.
Maybe I need to get further away than I thought….
Actually… if this thing bursts… and the lungs below get clogged up with an endless tide of mucus… uh… oh no. This could be… this could be really bad.
Did I just cause an apocalyptic mucus event in the fifth?
Surely not. But… uh… I'm going to run like heck, just in case.
I don't have a tunnel map of this broader area, so to a certain extent, I'm going to have to wing it. Time to zoom.
Sprinting as hard as I can, my antennae blow back against the top of my head as I run like the wind. Reaching the exit into another tunnel, I burst through and find it filled with native monsters, all eager to take a chomp out of me.
Forget about it, lads! We need to get the heck out of here. RUN!
-x-X-x-
Obviously, I can't hang around to witness the consequences of my decisions, since I would be instantly evaporated by a tidal wave of sludge, but I have a feeling I know how it went.
First, the rumbling that's busy shaking the ground I'm running on is giving away the catastrophic nature of what's going on behind me, and second, my antennae are telling me quite the tale.
The vibrations are crazy. I can hear a roar like an onrushing ocean, and something is forcing the air to rush past me at an absurd speed. I think the artery did in fact burst and now half of the sludge accumulated in the lungs is filling up the tunnels, combining with the lake I drained to create a flood of truly epic proportions.
I can also tell because the tunnel behind me is currently filling up with mucus that is moving altogether too quickly for my comfort.
Just how far am I supposed to run?!
I've run kilometres from the artery—kilometres! This is an extinction level event! I'm sure all of this muck will drain downwards eventually, but for now it's bursting out sideways because the lower tunnels are so packed full of slime that there's no room for anything to flow downward.
I don't want to run sideways, I really want to find a path upwards, but according to my Tunnel Map, I'm still underneath some of the lakes blocking off the Colony's access to these lower areas. If I head up there now, I can't guarantee that I won't get trapped beneath a lake while the mucus fills up the tunnels below me, squishing me in between.
That's not a chance I'm willing to take!
Death by slime is not on the cards for this ant! They almost got me once, it's not happening again. For any Krath living in the area, I can only say… my bad.
I highly doubt they'll be able to avoid having their secret hidey-holes filled up with a torrent of virulent slime. No matter how well hidden they are or how narrow their hidden pathways are, the sheer volume and pressure of the mucus is going to break through eventually.
If they weren't the most spiteful and hateful species on all of Pangera, I'd feel a lot worse, but man, it's hard to feel sympathy for them. Why couldn't they have been a bit more like the chal? I get that they're corrupted, but the snails have a lot going for them, including really nice moustaches! Surely a few of those traits could have survived the touch of Theorrazzn.
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If I ever meet that Ancient, I'm going to have a few words for them. They've caused a right mess up here.
For now, I run, my six legs skittering as fast as they can as the monsters around me join in the sprint, running for their lives. Even the native creatures of the fifth know how much slime they can tolerate and this is just way too much slime.
Behind me, the frontline of the mucus wave hisses and bubbles furiously as it melts everything it touches, turning mould and fungus patches into clouds of acidic steam that billow forward, pushed by the wall of sludge behind them. The end result is that I'm forced to climb over giant snails, sludge monsters, weird half-crabs and every other sort of nonsense creature that lives in this place.
They snap at me with their claws and jaws but only in a half-hearted way, much more focused on running for their lives than they are on fighting me. I really wish I had the confidence to run on the roof right now, but I don't trust the soggy, fleshy ceiling to bear my weight. Instead, I'm down here with the rest of the monsters, scrabbling to survive.
Sadly for most of the mollusc-adjacent monsters here, they just don't have the speed. I don't really want to turn around and see what becomes of them; I'd rather not know what's in store for me if I don't make it.
Ahead of me, I see another branch in the tunnel, one heading upwards, and this time I think I'm going to take it. With a little luck, it'll angle up and out of the danger zone.
A lot of other monsters have the same idea, causing a mad rush as we all try to run up the walls to access the path to safety. In the end, I have to jump, leaping over a particularly nasty-looking blobby thing in order to get onto the path.
I land heavily, crushing several smaller creatures with my legs before I'm off and running again. Once I get some distance, I take a moment to turn and look behind me.
Thankfully obeying the laws of gravity, the wave of mucus continues down the lower branch first, giving me a moment of breathing room. Sickly green and yellow, it's unbelievably potent and shockingly fast-moving, the sheer quantity of sludge pushing it forward by pressure alone. In just a few minutes, the tunnel below is half-filled, and the level is only continuing to rise. A few more minutes, and it's all the way to the top, eating into the roof, and still rising, pushing up into the available space, which is the tunnel I am currently standing in.
That was… way too fast. Holy moly. Just how much of this stuff is there?
When I think of how far I've run and the dozens and dozens of tunnel branches I passed on the way here… all of which must also be filled to the absolute brim with mucus… hoo boy.
The Colony might have to put its plans on hold for a little while. Once everything has drained downwards, we can come down here, but until then, dropping purified mana into these tunnels will be like spitting in the wind.
-x-X-x-
"Matron, you need to see this! Something strange is going on out there!"
"How many times do I have to tell you not to call me matron?" Eliza growled, her glare sharp enough to cut Abyssal Steel.
As usual, the trainees stationed here in the fifth were made of sterner stuff and brushed off her fearful stare.
"I won't do it again," Sheriman grinned, lying through his pearly white teeth, "but you definitely need to come and see this. The recruits are buzzing."
Letting herself be persuaded, Eliza dropped her paperwork onto the desk with a sigh and stood. Not willing to wait for her, Sheriman laughed and hared off down the corridor, urging the officer to follow faster.
You're nineteen years old, she thought to herself, exasperated, not five.
Indeed, no. The woman known as 'the Matron' to the residents of this remote outpost, officer trainees for the most part, would not run down the corridor, but would maintain a stately walk befitting of her rank.
Just because they all killed monsters for a living didn't mean they couldn't maintain a sense of dignity about themselves. She had tried for years to instill this belief in the officers of the Legion, largely to no avail.
Narrow, with the roof low enough she needed to duck her head in order to walk through, every corridor in the outpost was just as cramped. Space was at a premium in the fifth, where every room had to be insulated and pressurised against the deadly atmosphere on the other side of the walls.
"Come on," Sheriman begged. "You need to hurry!"
"I need to do no such thing," she hurrumphed, maintaining her pace. "I will run when there is cause to run. If you wish to be an officer of the Abyssal Legion in the future, then you strive to execute the appropriate action for each situation."
Sheriman groaned.
"But this could be an emergency, how would you know if it wasn't?"
"Because the alarm would be going off."
And right on cue, the enchanted lighting inside the corridor snapped from soft white light to red, painting the entire scene the colour of blood. Sheriman frowned, looking up in confusion.
"Is… is that? Matron?"
"Don't call me that!" Eliza growled as she sprinted past the bewildered student. There wouldn't be an alarm unless there was an imminent threat to the base, but how had one appeared so suddenly? There hadn't been any warnings from the patrols or concerning reports from the other outposts.
Something had gone drastically wrong out there.
Ahead, a gathering of confused and worried students clustered around the sensor equipment panel, muttering amongst themselves. When they saw her steaming towards them, they staggered back, startled by the unexpected sight.
"Matron!" they cried out, pushing into those behind them in order to make room.
"Go back to your dorms," she snapped. "Now!"
"What's wrong?" Sheriman gasped, skidding to a stop beside her.
"Everyone to their dorms," Eliza emphasised, her eyes already on the panels. "Are you members of the Legion or children? Follow your damn orders."
"Yes, Commander!" the youths cried, snapping out salutes before they turned to run. Sheriman looked pained and left only reluctantly, but there was no time to worry about angsty young officers right now.
"This doesn't make sense," Commander Eliza muttered to herself, checking the readings on the array display. According to the sensors placed around the outpost, the mana intensity was rising rapidly in the surrounding area.
Why? There wasn't a wave occurring, or any other reason for a tangible surge in energy level, but it was happening nonetheless. There wasn't any choice, she had to contact the other outposts.
She reached for the communications panel and pulled back the cover plate. Behind, even more intricate enchantments glittered, but the function was relatively simple.
Any sort of long-range communication magic was almost impossible to perform within the fifth. At great expense and effort, the Legion had managed to install secret corruption-resistant cables that ran through kilometres of tunnel, even boring through solid rock to connect their outposts together in some instances. Using them was a risk, however. Any tremor of mana could be enough to reveal them to the Krath who were always hunting for ways to attack the Legion in their midst.
For something like this, she didn't have any other option.
"This is Commander Eliza Sparrek, ranking officer of Vallis Outpost. Is anyone receiving?"
She lowered the speech box and waited. There wasn't necessarily someone sitting and waiting for communications all day, but hopefully it wouldn't be too long before….
"This is Commander Steven Monsine of Rupes Outpost. I am receiving you."
"Steven, my sensors are reading an enormous spike in mana levels in the surrounding tunnels. Are you seeing anything similar?"
"Hold on a second, Matron."
"Shut your damn mouth, Steve."
"Ahhh, let me see… No, nothing. At least, not yet."
Rupes was the closest base to Vallis, but it was higher up. Whatever this disturbance was, it hadn't reached them yet.
"I'm seeing a spike of thirty percent in the last hour, Steven."
"Holy heck! That's… not good."
"Obviously."
"There hasn't been any visual confirmation of disturbances in the tunnels?"
"My last patrol returned two hours ago and the next wasn't scheduled to leave for half an hour. Whatever this is, it happened quickly."
"I'll get people out in the tunnels shortly. We need to know what is going on as soon as possible."
"Agreed. Make sure your people are careful out there, something strange is happening."
"Rupes out."
Her fellow commander clicked off the line and Eliza replaced the box, her mind racing. Things had been a nightmare in this area since those damned ants had invaded the area above, stirring up the Krath and sending them into a frenzy. At least until now, it hadn't had an impact on the outpost. That had to have changed, she couldn't think of any other reason for something this out of the ordinary to happen.
"What is THAT?!"
Shocked, Eliza turned to see Sheriman, who hadn't followed orders and turned back to her dorm, staring out a nearby port window in horror.
Without time to reprimand her student, Eliza Dashed across the room and shouldered the girl out of the way. Pressing her face to the small glass opening, she paused for a moment, unsure what she was looking at.
A moment later, the picture snapped into place.
It was an eye. A very, very large eye.
Monster!
A mind locked onto her own, a bridge rapidly forming between them. Eliza cursed, realising her helmet was sitting back on her desk.
"Run, fool girl!" she roared, shoving Sheriman away and towards her dorm rooms. "Lock the doors and put your helmets on!"
Then it was too late, the bridge snapped into place and she was at the mercy of the creature.
It spoke to her, sounding more like a young man than a horrifying beast of the Dungeon.
[Uh… you guys really need to get out of here. Like… fast.]
[You want us to leave safety and feed ourselves to you? Should I marinate myself first, monster? Kill me if you're going to kill me, but I warn you, chew well or I'll kill you from the inside out.]
The eye pulled back, revealing the sheer size of the monster outside the outpost. The monster ant.
[Look, what you do in the privacy of your own space base is no business of mine, but this whole area is going to be flooded with mucus in… soon. I don't know how well-built this thing is, but I don't think it can handle that. So… you know… leaving seems like a good idea?]
Mucus?
[Would this have anything to do with the sudden mana spike in the area?] she asked, eyes narrowing.
[Wow, it's already here! I better go hold it off and stuff. Bye!]
And then the connection was gone.
-x-X-x-
Commander Eliza Sparrek had lived and fought in the fifth stratum for eight years, and in that time, she had seen many horrifying things. However, watching her outpost become buried by an ever-rising tide of mucus was perhaps the worst of them all.
"We designed this area to drain slime downwards to the lower tunnels," she said to nobody in particular. "We spent years making sure it couldn't be flooded."
Steven, her fellow commander, had left his base to assist the evacuation. Hearing this, he could only shake his head.
"We designed those tunnels to drain fluid originating from this height or above. Since the stuff is rising up from below, those drainage channels are the very thing causing the problem."
He wasn't wrong. Legion engineers had designed the system to work in conditions that were completely different to those that they found themselves in now. In the entire history of their presence in this section of the fifth, they had never experienced anything remotely like this before.
Something extraordinary had to have happened to upset the natural behaviour of the Dungeon here. And that extraordinary something just happened to be walking alongside her and her trainee officers as they abandoned their base and moved to higher ground.
Thankfully they had enough armour and equipment for every individual inside the outpost, otherwise Eliza would have been forced to go down with the ship, so to speak.
[Ant, what in the name of the Iron Fortress did you do down there?]
The monster, for its own part, had been disturbingly cooperative. Apparently there was already a Legion tasked with monitoring the thing, and eliminating it should the opportunity arise, yet it was more than willing to help escort her people out.
She hadn't believed it at first, naturally, but confirmation had been received through the communications network. Someone out in the fifth had at least been aware of the arrangement.
[Look. Was a chain of events set into motion that clogged the major arteries down below, causing them to prevent mana flowing smoothly and causing a never-ending build-up of toxic mucus? Yes. Was I present when the catalytic event took place? Also yes. But was I personally responsible? I can't be the judge of that.]
Commander Eliza grit her teeth. Getting a straight answer out of this monster was like pulling teeth. It had all but admitted to being at fault, but still wouldn't actually admit to anything at all.
[Is there any chance you could tell us what this event was? Seeing as you were present when it occurred and all.]
[Well, the rumour is that someone drilled a hole through the roof of a hidden Krath sanctum, draining an entire lake full of mucus through it. Now, that would have been fine on its own, but that Krath settlement happened to sit over the lungs and major arteries in the area, which also flooded, then burst.]
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[You found a hidden Krath settlement?]
[Maybe. Anyways, the bursting arteries have created a feedback loop, clogging the tunnels and preventing mucus from being moved out of the area. Essentially, the sludge has nowhere to go, so it's rising higher up in the tunnels.]
[When will it stop? Will we be safe at Rupes Outpost?]
[I have no idea where that is. Eventually it'll all start dropping once it's spread out wide enough and found more paths downward. Until then, the level will keep rising.]
"Eliza? Are you alright?"
"Pardon?"
"You look distracted."
"Oh, I was talking to the ant."
Steven made a face of disgust.
"You trust it? This monster?"
"Of course not," she looked at him as if he were stupid. "But if it has relevant information, then I would have it."
"It could easily be lying to you."
"I'm not sure it's smart enough to lie."
[We're still connected by a mind bridge…]
[I know.]
[... That's hurtful.]
The giant monster flexed its mandibles, causing Eliza to tense and many of the young Legionaries around her to flinch backwards.
Rather than reply, the ant simply clacked its mandibles rapidly, laughing at them.
[You think I even need to use my mandibles to flatten the lot of you? Please. I'm tier eight over here.]
[Simply being tier eight doesn't make you invincible.]
[It does to my present company.]
It was almost certainly right about that. Even with two Commanders present, they weren't equipped to deal with a monster of this size and strength. Even so, she might have made the attempt and died honourably, if they weren't escorting young officers, the future leaders of the Legion.
To reach Rupes Outpost, they needed to ascend a narrow pathway carved into a vertical stretch of tunnel. It was a journey of several kilometres, but the short distance belied the danger. With poor footing and limited manoeuvrability, they were massively exposed until they reached the top. This was exactly the kind of opportunity the Legion strove to ensure the Krath would never have.
However, the ant assured them that "the slugs were busy right now", and so long as it was with them, the monsters were largely happy to ignore them, intimidated by its aura.
Below them, she could already see the mucus beginning to rise up the slope, having finished swallowing her outpost.
[I hope your Colony is willing to pay for the damages,] she said.
The ant scratched its head with an antenna.
[Sure, why not.]
[I'm not sure you realise how expensive it is to create a single outpost here.]
The ant actually laughed at her.
[I think we can manage a few little tin cans for you to live in,] it chortled. [Besides, this entire area is going to be cleansed soon anyway. You could live in a wood hut if you wanted.]
[You seem awfully confident about that.]
The ant clacked its mandibles again.
[You really have no idea what we've done down here, do you? Pangera has changed forever and you had no idea it was happening.]
-x-X-x-
"Is it really necessary to gather us for a full meeting at this stage of the campaign? Once the Eldest has cleared the obstruction below, can't we move forward with the plan we already had in place?"
It was fairly rare for Solant to gather all nineteen of her broodmates at the same time in recent months. As her most trusted advisors and those who understood her mind the best, there were none she could depend on more to ensure her plans were executed perfectly.
Juliant had asked the question and it was a reasonable one. They had spent a great deal of time ensuring that Solant's strategy was as foolproof as they could make it.
"As is often the case when the Eldest is involved, circumstances in the lower tunnels appear to have changed."
Zhant, a mage, sipped her tea before folding her front legs together in contemplation.
"We gamed out two hundred and thirty six different scenarios that could eventuate as a result of the Eldest's involvement. I assume something has happened outside of even those predictions?"
Solant nodded before taking a nibble of her cake. It was difficult to get confections within the fifth, even with the robust logistics network she had laboured over working flawlessly. However, for her precious siblings, she would conserve her rations and reclaim a delicious sponge, a recent favourite. Light and fluffy with just the right amount of vanilla in the cream, it made her antennae dance in delight with every bite.
"As expected, no plan is sufficiently robust that it can survive contact with the Eldest," she said.
"How did you learn about this new development?" Leonidant asked. "As far as I know, there hasn't been any contact with them since they left."
Solant tapped her head.
"I received a direct communication from them."
How the Eldest managed to do that, even within the fifth, was something Solant really wanted to know, but of course the Eldest would never tell her.
"So, what did the Eldest say?" Leonidant asked curiously.
Solant hesitated, unsure of how to say this.
"They said they may have caused a 'Snot-pocalypse' below."
There was silence around the table as each of the nineteen digested those words. Then, a bit more time passed, allowing for further silent contemplation.
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"A what?" Dunlant asked, thoroughly without patience for this nonsense.
"I will repeat it if you really want me to," Solant said reluctantly.
"A… snot-pocalypse. What… what does that mean?"
"I had similar questions. Although the Eldest was able to elucidate somewhat, I needed to send out scouts in order to gather more information."
"Scouts?" Washingtant demanded. "I haven't heard anything of this."
"Time was of the essence, sister," Solant explained herself. "Let us consult the map."
Much smaller than the full model held in the HQ, what she had here in her own private quarters only modelled the lowest levels of the fifth that had been mapped. Upon the return of the scouts, significant details had been added to this model, as they'd been able to access entirely unexplored terrain.
"As you can see, the Krath had created enormous lakes of mucus that blocked off our access to the lower tunnels. According to the Eldest, it was extremely difficult to find a path through, but they succeeded eventually."
"This must be why they have been gone so long…"
"Not entirely."
Solant leaned forward to point to specific areas of the model.
"This chamber was once filled with mucus, almost to the brim, a quantity of thousands of megalitres."
One megalitre being a million litres. That was a lot of mucus.
"Was?" Leonidant asked.
"Was," Solant confirmed. "It has now been drained entirely."
"So the Eldest was successful? They've cut open a path for us."
"Not entirely," Solant repeated. Seeing there was some more to the story, her siblings sat back in their chairs, sipping tea and nibbling on cake.
"Draining that lake has indeed dealt a severe blow to the Krath in the area, but that isn't all. It has, apparently, unleashed a mucus feedback loop which is, as we speak, flooding an enormous amount of the lower tunnels and rising several kilometres up towards this fortress."
Each of her siblings was more than intelligent enough to grasp the gravity of such a situation.
"Snot-pocalypse…" Washingtant breathed.
"Indeed. This provides us with certain challenges, but also opportunities."
"The Krath are occupied," Juliant pointed out.
"Indeed," Solant said, clacking her mandibles in satisfaction. "Our enemies are in desperate straits and in no position to meddle in our affairs. As long as we take appropriate measures, the rising tide of mucus shouldn't threaten our infrastructure. In the meantime, we can prepare our advance. If things go well, we should be able to seize a vast swath of territory in one fell swoop, breaking the back of the slugs in this area and pushing through to the sixth."
An ambitious plan, no doubt, but one that she was certain could succeed.
"Any chance of more tea?" Zhant asked hopefully. "I have a feeling we are going to be here for a while."
Solant rose from her seat, skittered to the next room and returned with a large teapot balanced on a heating tray.
"I am always prepared," she said.
-x-X-x-
Unleashing, somehow, an even worse environmental disaster in the fifth was not something I thought I even could achieve. Things are already so terrible down here that making it meaningfully more dangerous is almost impossible. What can I say? Life finds a way.
To make things more awkward, I end up having to babysit a group of Legionaries as they flee. To make matters even worse, they're baby Legionaries! Hatchlings who haven't even finished their training.
Why the Legion is teaching them down here in the fifth, I have no idea. Just imagining bringing a Queen into this place to hatch ants is enough to make my carapace itch. It's not safe! It's the opposite of safe!
Now that the thought has occurred to me, I have to ask. I can't stand not knowing.
[Why do you train people down here in the fifth? That seems… really dumb.]
[Do you actually expect me to explain the reasoning behind the Legion's decisions to a monster?]
I've only met a few Commanders, but they have been universally snippy, when they aren't terrifyingly dangerous. I understand that they have a deep-seated and borderline irrational hatred of monsters, but seriously, I'm right here saving their lives, aren't I?
Sheesh!
[Just seems irresponsible is all. They're barely more than hatchlings. How old are they? Ten?]
[They're at least eighteen!]
Oh. You know what, I find it hard to tell with humans these days. I can look at two hatchlings and tell you the age difference between them down to the minute.
After the carapace has fully hardened, it's a lot harder, but I could probably get it down to the day. Humans, increasingly, all look the same to me.
[Eighteen is still fairly young, right? I think?]
[Are you eighteen?]
Honestly, not even if you put both of my lives together. But monster years are like dog years. Most of us don't live all that long. Considering the average lifespan of the demon larvae in the third, I'd have to think the median lifespan of a monster in the Dungeon would have to be… five minutes or so.
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[None of your business. I'm the oldest in my family, that's all that matters.]
[Is that right.]
Awkward silence descends as I continue to follow along behind the others, climbing up the wall as they scale the rather perilous-looking path. To their credit, they aren't afraid and move together as a unit, always on alert, like you would expect from professional soldiers with a suspicious amount of mana in them.
Eventually it seems as though Commander Eliza relents a little.
[The hardest steel is forged in the hottest fire. We bring our officers here and train them in the hardest conditions so that nothing they face in leadership is as hard as what they endured in training.]
I mean, sure…
[Feels like you would break a lot of good steel that way.]
[We've done things this way for over a thousand years and we've tried any number of other methods in that time. Not everyone makes it out, but those who do survive, and those who depend on them survive. That's what matters.]
I can't imagine the Colony ever adopting a similar training strategy. Every ant is a precious member of the family and has to be given the best chance to succeed, not smashed on an anvil and moulded. Antcademy training is difficult, arduous even, designed to challenge eager young hatchlings who are more than willing to burn their lives up for the family, but it's not as hard as learning to survive in the fifth. Not by a long shot.
[I'm not sure how likely you are to welcome this suggestion, but I'm not sure your second Outpost is going to survive the rising tide, so to speak.]
We are currently moving up a near vertical slope, but the space we are in isn't all that wide by fifth standards, barely a hundred metres, and it's filling up fast. The space below in which the previous Outpost had rested is now completely full, and the level is still rising up behind us.
Honestly, I didn't think it would get this high, but I have, yet again, been proven wrong. Surely it won't be much longer until it starts to go down. Thankfully I can see on my tunnel map that it's likely a path exists towards the fortress from my current location.
[You can take shelter in the Colony's fortress,] I suggest. [You can hang out with Commander Chyron and her Legion if you want. I promise this isn't a trap to try and feed you to some grubs.]
[How reassuring. Let me talk to the others.]
Huh, I kind of expected a straight-up rejection. This is the Legion, after all.
Either my relentless optimism and charm is working on them, or they're more worried about the rising level of mucus than I thought.
There's less than a hundred of them altogether, maybe a hundred and fifty if we empty out the other base as well. We should be able to fit them in without any issues.
They discuss for a while and I await the inevitable refusal as we continue to climb. Only, ten minutes later, I get an unexpected thought over the bridge.
[We will accept your offer.]
You what?
[Uh. That's not what I thought you would say.]
[Does that mean the offer wasn't genuine?]
[No, no! You're welcome. It'll be a rough journey, but I'm sure we can make it in one piece. Well… I can… I'm a lot more durable than you.]
-x-X-x-
All was stillness in the halls of the undying. Many were gathered, to reflect, to show obeisance, to rededicate their spirits to the cause.
Exposed and vulnerable without their armour, the ants were huddled, pressed together for comfort in the dark and silent chamber. High, arched ceilings of grey stone lent an austere atmosphere to the gathering, a mood only made more potent by the abundant candles burning low in sconces and ceremonial vessels.
Indeed, many of the ants had placed candles upon their own backs, beside the fungi that now sprouted abundantly there, wax melting and running down their carapaces in rivulets of red and white. Though the ants did not feel the heat, their partner did, the fungus that lived within and alongside each of them. Although it had shied away from the scalding flame in the past, with help from their hosts, the fungus had learned to embrace it.
This, as all things, was a test of will.
The Will of the Immortals could never be broken.
In silence the ants remained, contemplating, plunging their inner selves, expunging doubt and weakness. Without any sign or signal, one ant, solitary amongst the thousands, began to sway from side to side.
A minute motion, barely a matter of millimetres, yet it was immediately noticed by those adjacent, who mimicked the motion. A gentle sway, barely noticeable, that rippled throughout the gathering until they all were participating.
Left, to right, left to right. Gradual, slow, a rhythm that gave shape and motion to their thoughts and unified their spirits.
No ant could say when it was the right time to clack. If you were to ask them, any of the thousand, all of the thousand, they would give you the same answer: they simply didn't know when the right time would come. A silence so profound filled the hall that it felt almost sacrilegious to break it, an act of desecration, of spiritual sabotage.
Yet, when that moment arrived, they all knew it. They knew it together, and they knew it wholly.
CLACK.
A mighty and sharp crack echoed through the room, echoing off the vaulted ceiling and unyielding stone. So synchronised were they, to anyone standing in the centre of the gathering, only a single sound would have been heard.
Of course, there was nobody standing in the centre of the gathering, no ant or human or even the Eldest themselves would be permitted to occupy that space. No, that place was reserved for the reliquary of the fallen, the Lost Immortal, She Who Dreamed Eternal.
CLACK.
They swayed, like leaves in the breeze, like lilies on the pond, a profound sense of peace beginning to well in their cores.
CLACK.
Sensing that the time had now come, the ant-tendants, robed and cowled, began to move, climbing solemnly over the backs of their sisters, censors of precious incense (tea leaves and vanilla) and sacred oils (liquid sugar) gripped in their mandibles.
CLACK.
These were applied liberally to the gathering, censors swaying, thick smoke drifting out to cover the antennae of the ants and suffuse them with a sense of warmth of comfort. Oil was distributed, nourishing the fungi and running down the carapaces of the swaying ants.
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As the ant-tendants devoted themselves to their work, one rose amongst them, one leg resting on the reliquary, as if drawing strength from it.
"Sisters," Leeroy said, her tone solemn and still.
CLACK.
"We have been called upon once more."
CLACK.
"Our family has asked that we fulfil our oaths and perform our sacred duty."
CLACK.
"We go, sisters, into battle."
This time, the gathering did not slam their mandibles shut, they knew, one and all, that they were called to speak, and they knew what they must say.
"We seek."
Solemn, hushed, from the pheromone glands of the gathered thousands, it filled the Hall of Undying, blending with the faint sound of their carapaces rubbing against each other as they shifted from side to side.
"It is in battle, that we shall find our purpose."
"We seek."
"It is in battle, that we shall find our release."
"We seek."
Still the ant-tendants moved atop their flock, thick clouds of incense now drifting over the top of the gathered throng, from whom a growing intensity could be felt. A subtle energy that permeated the room and filled the air like an electrical charge, building and building until there was no choice but for it to be released.
Everyone in the chamber could sense it, could feel it rising. Including Leeroy.
"WHAT IS OUR PURPOSE, SISTERS?" she thundered into the stillness.
"WE SEEK!" the Immortals roared back.
Within all of the gathered Immortals, their fungi stirred to life, energised by the passion suddenly roaring through their hosts. Each of the ants had flung off their placidity like a cloak. The time of reflection was done. The time for action had arrived!
"WHAT IS IT THAT YOU SEEK, SISTERS?" Leeroy demanded.
"SACRIFICE! DUTY! PURPOSE!"
"WILL YOU FIND IT IN BATTLE?"
"YES!"
"WILL YOU LAY DOWN YOUR MANDIBLES FOR THE COLONY?"
"FOR THE COLONY!"
"WILL YOU FIND WHAT YOU SEEK?"
"YES!"
"And then?" Leeroy asked quietly, and suddenly there was a hushed stillness that washed over the gathered throng.
"Once you have fallen in battle, what will then follow? Rest. Oblivion. Satisfaction, knowing that you have given your all to the family."
She nodded solemnly.
"Glorious sacrifice for the Colony, that is our destiny."
"We seek," the Immortals chanted back to her.
"When all is done, and the darkness has descended…."
She paused and raised her head, as if imagining that moment, when her limbs failed her and her carapace was rent asunder. When strength faded along with the light and all she knew was peace….
Each of the Immortals shivered as they imagined it for themselves. They yearned for that sensation, strove for it, dreamed of it when they slept. It was all they craved in all the Dungeon.
And they could never have enough of it.
Leeroy clacked her mandibles once, sharply, drawing all attention to herself.
"The light will return, and we will be reborn," she said, "so that we may sacrifice ourselves again."
CLACK.
"WE LIVE, SISTERS!"
"WE LIVE!"
"WE DIE, SISTERS!"
"WE DIE!"
"WE LIVE AGAIN!"
"WE LIVE AGAIN!"
"ENDLESS SACRIFICE!" Leeroy roared, a feeling of pure bliss running through her mind.
"SEARCH WITHOUT END!" the Immortals roared back.
From a nearby alcove, the healers who had been ordered to accompany the armoured ants into battle watched the proceeding with a deep sense of distance.
"I hate these idiots," one sighed.
-x-X-x-
Donning their armour was no longer an arduous task for the Immortals. Indeed, it had transformed from a process wherein they felt they were being encased in a hateful shell to one where they felt they assumed their true forms.
After all, what was an Immortal? Without their armour, they were simply ants, soldiers like the others, scouts and generals such as could be found anywhere in the Colony. Of course, they had their unique evolutions, Skills and Mutations, but was that the whole of what they were?
No, no it was not.
Ant-tendants swung their censors and drizzled Leeroy with oils as the light from the candles guttered and gleamed in the darkness. Her armour, resting within its sconce within the sacred hall, was carried before her, each individual component polished to a mirror shine, every dent and scratch buffed out. With great ceremony, the main piece was raised high, lifted over her head and then lowered onto her back.
Leeroy didn't move, except for a slight flex of the legs as the great weight rested on her carapace. In truth, she felt too light without it. Weaker. Incomplete.
One by one, the straps were threaded and pulled tight, each buckle inspected carefully before being sealed with ceremonial wax. This was the heaviest and central piece of the set. With it properly in place, the others were brought out. A large tail segment to cover her abdomen was next, slotting into place with ease before it too was strapped down. Almost no protection was given to the back of an Immortal, they weren't expected to show their rear to the enemy in any but the most desperate circumstances. Besides, the third segment of the ant body housed the least important organs, such as their stomach.
Further plates were attached, wrapping around the sides of her thorax, adding layers of protection that perfectly fit along the lines of her carapace. Truly, the work of Smithant was beyond compare, every Immortal set having been personally crafted by the Colony's master smith.
Now some of the heaviest and thickest segments were brought forward, the ant-tendants solemnly clacking their mandibles in a meditative rhythm as they carried the armour. A gorget was clicked into place to protect the join between her head and thorax, then plates snapped into place around it.
Finally, the helmet. Leeroy lowered her head as it was brought down solemnly, a massive weight, several hundred kilograms of righteous metal forged in the heat of the third stratum. She accepted the burden, welcomed it.
Finally, she was complete.
Once the final strap was tightened, Leeroy stepped forward, the ant-tendants moving back, heads bowed low as she stomped out of her personal armoury.
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Every step now carried with it tremendous force and power. Her legs, thick and mighty for an ant, now pounded the stone floor like the footprints of a giant. Her steps now matched the force of her will. Implacable and unstoppable, she marched onward, through the great complex the Immortals had constructed as their personal sanctum. More and more of her kindred spirits came out to join her, emerging from their own armouries and falling into line behind her.
Already, the charge of the Immortals was gathering momentum, and their enemies were yet to realise a thing.
By the time she reached the ornate, immensely tall doors of their sanctuary, the column was complete, and over a thousand of the fully armoured Immortals strode through, their synchronised steps shaking the very ground on which they walked. Falling in behind them were the long-suffering and deeply unhappy to be there healers.
When the Immortals had been crazy and trying to get themselves killed and failing, it had been deeply funny to observe their suffering and ensure they survived, no matter what. Now that they had embraced their "death" and "resurrection" by the zombie fungi that each carried, a lot of the joy had been sucked out of the whole endeavour for the healers. This was never more apparent than in the way the Immortals treated their dedicated medics.
"Welcome, sisters," they said as they passed.
"Welcome to another glorious mission, sisters."
"It's a pleasure to go into battle with you. Please witness my magnificent sacrifice and return to service."
"We aren't one of you," one of the healers retorted, but her heart wasn't really in it. There was no joy to be had here.
Sloan fell in beside Leeroy as she marched.
"Do you remember the mission?" the general asked. Always a relevant question when dealing with this group.
"Charge into glory," Leeroy replied, nodding.
"No, you blithering... haaaaaah. One day you'll be the death of me, Leeroy."
"You should get a zombie fungus of your own," the soldier said, worried. "Then you could come back and serve again, like me."
"I'm fine," Sloan bit off. "Now, let's get back to the mission. We need you to charge in and clear four tunnels for us. We will surge cleansed mana into the tunnels before you go, but it will only cover sixty percent of the space we need. For the last forty, you'll rely on bubble protection from your enchantments. Even if you haven't completed the mission, you must return when the bubble runs out."
"We never return until the mission is done!" Leeroy refuted.
"I wasn't talking to you, I was talking to the fungus."
"Rude."
Leeroy knew the zombie fungus was listening, it was surprisingly intelligent, all things considered. If she were to fall before the bubble ran out, her partner would ensure that she made it back to safety. After all, the fungus was keen on ensuring its own survival, which meant protecting its host, even from herself.
"We don't believe there will be an active Krath presence in the tunnels, but watch carefully, they may show up when we don't expect them."
"That's their favourite time to appear," Leeroy nodded. "Don't worry. All becomes nothing in the face of an Immortal charge. Even the stratum itself."
-x-X-x-
The Immortals. What can be said about the armoured ants that hasn't been said already? An anvil on which the enemies of the ants cannot help but break, yet also a mighty hammer, smashing through any defensive line put in front of them. Each of them a powerful, highly evolved monster in their own right, when combined into a single column and draped in expertly made and heavily enchanted steel, they are truly unstoppable.
Legend has it that none have died in battle, something I personally dismissed as nonsense propaganda when I had first heard it. After facing them in battle, I am no longer sure.
For one, the ants do not deploy this secret weapon lightly or without preparation. Their commanders are fully aware of what the Immortals can and cannot do and never deploy them where their signature tactics will not be effective. If the ground is too treacherous, if there is too much magic and artillery fire such that the heavy shock-troops would get bogged down without reaching enemy lines, then they are not unleashed.
But when the conditions are right, when you think your defence is sound and your lines are well established, the ground beneath your feet will begin to shake. I know now that retreat is the only solution once that moment has come. I stood and fought them many times, and I have never seen a single one die.
No matter how well dug-in I thought I was, they smashed through like the clenched fist of an angry god. Selfless, without fear, perhaps insane, there is nothing the Immortals will not charge. Similarly, there is nothing they will not break.
- Excerpt from the private notes of General MacNowles of the Atreum Empire
"LIVE! DIE! LIVE AGAIN!" Leeroy bellowed, her entire body alive with energy, her core blazing like a miniature sun.
"WE LIVE! WE DIE! WE LIVE AGAIN!" the Immortals roared in return, their legs pounding the ground as they launched themselves forward.
"SACRIFICE WITHOUT END!"
"SACRIFICE WITHOUT END!"
CRUNCH!
The first monster to try and stand against them vanished in a cloud of mist, flattened and trampled underfoot in an instant as the armoured column continued to build momentum. Moments ago, the Colony had performed one of its favourite tricks and blasted a thick cloud of cleansed mana down this tunnel, driving back the corruption and killing off the foulness that plagued it. Mostly.
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Frenzied and weakened, the local monsters threw themselves towards the Immortals the moment they saw the ants coming, which suited Leeroy down to the ground.
Crabs dripping with ooze rose up and tried to confront the ants. They exploded in a cloud of ooze and shell fragments.
Snails and slugs belched acid and dripped slime, screeching in hatred. The Immortals ran straight through them without even slowing down.
Rivers of mucus and thick bands of sludge obstructed their path, blocking the way forward. Did the Immortals flinch? Did they turn? Did they notice?
No! They simply ran, each one locked into place by the sister ahead, behind and on either side. In truth, they couldn't see where they were going or what was in the way, and they didn't need to. They only trusted in their sisters and in the knowledge that whatever they found along the way was sure to kill them eventually, and that it would be glorious.
And so, rivers of mucus, which seemed like a bad target for a column of charging ants, were obliterated, the sheer momentum and mass of the Immortals more than sufficient to reverse the tides. Thick webs of sludge were snapped and cleared without issue, and still the charge went on.
At the head of the column, Leeroy was filled with excitement and joy. With the force of her sisters behind her, she could have lifted her legs from the ground and still been carried forward, such was their speed and power. In truth, she'd forgotten the plan long ago, sure that the Immortals would find their rightful destiny at some point on this charge, perhaps on the other side of that wall.
There was no point in trying to turn an Immortal charge, that simply wasn't how it worked, so Leeroy happily braced, angling her body slightly to present the side of her head, and smashed into the wall, eagerly awaiting the oblivion that was sure to come. Except, it didn't. Fleshy and soft, the wall gave way, tearing and ripping as the Immortals barreled through it, unstopping. Covered in unspeakable chunks and burning with acid, the Immortals continued on their way, happy to find the tunnel beyond was filled with monsters and corrupted mana, increasing the level of danger tremendously.
When the charge was finally exhausted, they had ripped through five walls and cleared kilometers of tunnel. Exhausted, their armour in ruins, their carapaces pierced and broken, with large sections of their bodies melted away, the Immortals fell, blissfully, gloriously, into the dark abyss.
Knowing that their time had come, the fungus parasites that existed within each of the Immortals began to harvest their spores, drawing in energy, regenerating themselves and pulling their hosts back together. Fibres were extended to wrench metal back into shape, to reattach legs and the occasional head, regrowing destroyed organs and muscles. Soon, the zombie fungi were ready to pick their hosts up and pilot them back along the trail of destruction they had left in their wake, into the safety of the Colony and the cleansed mana.
They returned their hosts to the Halls of Undying, delivering each ant to her own personal armory, and there they lay down, content that their hosts had been saved and would live on another day.
-x-X-x-
When I finally see the entrance to the fortress in the distance, I almost sag with relief. Not because I've been really suffering over the last few days, but because these Legionaries are really annoying. Yes, I'm a giant monster, you hate monsters and all that, we get it, this isn't new or surprising for anyone, but every time my attention drifts, I find them eyeing me up like I'm a delicious turkey they don't know how to slaughter.
Always muttering amongst themselves, looking at me sideways, acting all suspicious. I swear a few of them threw rocks at my joints, testing for weakness, but I wasn't able to catch them in the act. I'm pretty sure, though. The rocks didn't throw themselves, dammit!
If they actually tried anything, I'm sure Protectant and the others would have jumped on them in an instant, but if all they do is talk and make me paranoid, then there isn't really a case for a dramatic intervention. Considering I haven't slept, and neither have they, over thirty-six hours straight of this nonsense is more than enough.
[There it is, the fortress. Inside you'll find Commander Chyron and her Legion, who I'm sure will be more than happy to see you. I'm out of here.]
[It's rather large,] Commander Eliza notes. [How did you manage to build it so quickly?]
[We're ants,] I tell her, as if that explains everything. And frankly, it does. We're industrious, what else can I say? [This isn't the only fortress like this that we've built down here.]
[How many are there?] she asks, probing for information.
[I have absolutely no idea,] I reply.
Hah! Imagine probing me for information. I have no idea what's going on down here and I like it that way. Someone else can work out all the tricky details, just call for me when they need some help.
Thankfully, we've made it into the area covered by the cleansed mana, another thing that Commander Eliza didn't seem to understand. In her opinion, it was 'impossible' to overcome the native mana of the fifth and its self-replicating and corruptive properties. What could I tell her other than that they should have tried harder?
Understandably, the Legionaries want to wait outside until Chyron or one of the others comes out to get them, which is perfectly reasonable, I suppose, but I sure as heck am not going to stand about waiting with them. As soon as they're comfortable, I head on inside and find Tiny, Crinis and Invidia waiting for me.
[Hey there, gang. How is everyone?]
Tiny gives me a broad grin on his bat-face and a thumbs up.
[Good,] he tells me.
[I havesssss been mossssst helpful,] Invidia purrs, looking immensely pleased with himself.
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Crinis, counter to what I've come to expect from her, does not dive inside my carapace and start rummaging around between my organs. Which is a good thing.
[Master, you are late,] she tells me pointedly.
[Yes, well. I'm perfectly fine, as you can see, but there were a few unexpected twists out there.]
[I suppose that isn't your fault,] she says, finally approaching and plopping onto my back.
This is unusually reserved behaviour from Crinis... which is making me worried.
[Did you... do anything wrong while I was away?] I ask suspiciously.
[Of course not,] she says calmly. Too calmly.
I need to get to the bottom of this... but for now, I let it go. I've been promising myself I'm going to go and touch base with the Templars, and I've kept them waiting a heck of a lot longer than I intended to. Using the Vestibule, I could have reached out to them any time, of course. Each of them has a permanent home within the Nave, so to speak, but I generally don't like talking to people through it. Feels a little invasive., so to speak.
Chatting and laughing with the gang, I move through the fortress, deliberately avoiding going where Solant might find me, and head to the location of the Templars. Conveniently for me, they appear to have gathered in one place, making it a heck of a lot easier to track them down.
I only run into trouble when I realise they've parked themselves in a spot I simply don't fit inside, namely the human quarter of the fortress. Obviously, the corridors here haven't been designed with monsters in mind, especially monsters of my size, and therefore I just don't fit. With no other choice, I am forced to reach out to them through the Nave and speak directly into their minds.
[Hello there! I've come to pay a visit! How is everyone? Feeling... uh.... human? I suppose?]
[Wha? What?]
[Who?]
[Greetings, Great One.]
As it turns out, they were sleeping. Well, the older ones were sleeping, the three kids seem to have been wide awake for some reason. Which means this is probably a dorm of some sort. That makes a lot of sense. After a while, the six of them pile out of the corridor, having refreshed themselves and put on some clothes.
[Good morning!] I greet them with enthusiasm. [Or at least, I think it's morning!]
[It isn't,] one of the young ones, Emilia, tells me. [It's closer to the middle of the night.]
[Oh.]
I really should find a better way to keep track of time. Pangera does have a regular system of time, as it turns out, synched to the day/night cycle on the surface. It was only when we reached the fourth stratum that we realised everyone else was running on this clock system and we eventually adopted it, but I am, as usual, late to the party and haven't really bothered keeping track of it.
[I'm really sorry to disrupt your sleep, then,] I say, scratching at my head with an antenna, feeling a little embarrassed.
The three youngest nod seriously, while the others wave away my concerns.
[It's fine,] Jern says, yawning. [I was about ready to wake up anyway.]
Alis snorts a laugh before she blushes and claps a hand to her face.
Bertran, the oldest of the group, reaches up and pats me on the leg.
[At my age, it's hard to sleep through the night anyway. I'm happy to pop out and say hello. You certainly got a fair bit bigger! I don't think I've seen a larger monster down here.]
[Of course not. I'm a magnificent tier eight Mythicmythic! But enough about how shiny and incredible I am. How have you all been?]