Chapter 1413 – I Know That Song

The eggs weren’t destroyed! Whoo! Regardless of what I might think of the Krath (it isn’t good), I didn’t want to see a bunch of eggs get roasted by the purification process.

They were definitely changed, though. No longer black, they were… lighter. Not quite white, more like a… a sombre sort of grey. Reaching out with my senses, I could tell that the life present within them was still there, if perhaps a little muted from what it had been before.

When the rest of the Colony came down to join me, I was quick to point out to Solant, Tungstant and the others just what I’d found.

“This is… unexpected,” Solant mused, for once not having foreseen the issue. “I would never have imagined that Krath, even unhatched, would be able to survive the purification process.”

“More than that, they may not even be monsters,” I point out. “They were clearly farming and growing food down here. Mould and meat, it looks like.”

Tungstant appears quite perturbed by this revelation.

“If they aren’t monsters, how on Pangera were they able to survive down here? The fifth is… such a unique biome, I can’t imagine something being able to live here without specifically being born to this place.”

Solant has an answer for that.

“There are legends that the fifth wasn’t always like this. That it was corrupted by one of the Ancients. None of the stories agree on which one. Morribolg, perhaps, or Theorazzn. Perhaps even Yolesh. Only the sophos have a history of the Dungeon that goes back that far, and even they aren’t sure.”

“Wait, you spoke to the sophos? About the fifth?” I break in.

Solant flicks an antenna dismissively.

“I sought out all information available about the fifth, from every source willing to speak to us. I have read thousands of pages, hundreds of texts, transcribed into pheromones, about this place. Preparation is not just the key to victory, it is the victory itself.”

Yeah, yeah. Smarty legs.

“As I was saying,” she continues, “it’s possible that the Krath were not always the way they are now. Perhaps they too, like the fifth, were changed into their current form… corrupted by the toxic energy that fills this place.”

“If they weren’t always the slippery, slimy critters that they are now… what were they in the past?” I wonder.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Solant turns her eyes down to the eggs, shimmering slightly in the clear fluid around them.