Chapter 1619 – Invasion

By the time Zluth reached the settlement of the Zissth along the roof of the heart, it was already a storm. The slugs could feel the tempest of mana at war in the chamber below and were already up in arms. Zluth found Zaluss, the scout and pet master who’d captured him on his first visit to the Zissth.

“What’s going on down there?” he hissed from atop his hulking pet spider.

All of the Krath were assembling, gathering their war-beasts and pets as well. They’d need everything they could summon to ensure they won the fight. Losing was not an option.

“The heart has been invaded,” Zluth told him quickly. “They are filling it with contaminated mana, hoping to use the heart to spread it through this entire section of the Dungeon. If we don’t stop them, we’re all dead!”

If it actually managed to fill the heart, it would soon start flooding the main artery tunnels, and from there spreading out to all the capillaries. As long as there was enough of it, and Zluth suspected the invaders would surely have enough, then there wouldn’t be anywhere to hide. The cleansed area would spread throughout this entire sector of the fifth until it ran into the border of the next. He already knew what would happen after that.

The ants would come, with their disgusting jelly monsters. They’d pull the exact same trick again, soaking up the energy of the fifth, tainting it with their blue filth, then sending it straight back. Only this time, they’d have an enormous safe zone in which to operate, huge chunks of the fifth that were perfectly safe for them to move in.

The very thought made him sick.

“Where’s Soluzz?” the scout demanded. “Don’t tell me the Krath’lath died down there?”

Before Zluth could offer a denial, a powerful voice burbled from behind them.

“Your Krath’lath doesn’t die that easily.”

Zluth froze in the act of saying Soluzz had been killed by the invaders and turned. Soluzz may have escaped, but he had paid a price. Down one side of his face, a deep, blue trench had been cut into his flesh, the path a drop of the blue liquid had travelled after landing on his head.

One could only imagine what he’d had to do in order to survive such close contact with the purified energy.

“Gather everyone and everything,” Soluzz burbled. “We are going to make them regret ever daring to imagine they could come to this heart.”

The presence of their mighty Krath’lath further galvanised the slugs of the Zissth, and they rallied to defend their slimeground, as did the warrior slugs of the other tribes who had accompanied them on the journey down.

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With Soluzz in the lead, the combined might of the Zissth charged down the narrow and winding paths to the lower chamber. Blubbeasts, Cannon Snails and Vileslimes, ranks of them, along with hundreds of Krath warriors.

Zluth hoped it would be enough.

When he made it deep enough to see the lower end of the heart again, it was like a scene out of a nightmare. The blue liquid continued to fountain out of the vents, crystalline and clear, raining its filth down to the floor of the heart, already several feet deep.