Chapter 1254: Clean Up In Isle Five

Chapter 1254: Clean Up In Isle Five

To purify the fifth's mana is an absurd idea, a comical suggestion. It's impossible, everyone knows it's impossible, and not because we haven't tried, or made half-hearted attempts. Hundreds and thousands have died, enough resources to bankrupt an empire have been spent, over several attempts, some by individual empires, some by conglomerates of several major powers.

All have been unsuccessful. Not only unsuccessful, but unmitigated disasters. Even when these efforts managed to gain a foothold, they were eventually snuffed out, unable to hold their ground against the unrelenting pressure placed upon them by the fifth. The monsters there will not abide any change to the environment, which is itself a horrifying ordeal to overcome.

Then, there are the Krath tribes, roving bands of sadistic killers, who will unleash unspeakable torment on any they capture, breaking the will of would-be invaders and sending them running back to the safety of the fourth. Against these factors, purifying the fifth has become nothing more than a dream within a dream.

Yet, when the great ant spoke of it, I couldn't help but have hope.

- From the private notes of Rathwyn Werilos, Mage of the Tower

You know, now that I'm here and everything's underway, I have to say, the fifth, despite everything I've heard about it... really sucks. I hate it here. I can't believe even the mucus-ridden toxi-snails actually enjoy living here. Take a vacation in the fourth rather than trying to melt my face off, maybe you'll learn how to relax!Visitt novelbin(.)co/m for the latest updates

Behold, the incredible engineering of the family!

For the most part, I remain almost completely outside of the cleansed mana, working to push back the monsters before they can reach the rest of my family. Every now and again, I duck into the safe zone, just for a little breather and to give myself a thorough scan, to ensure I'm clean of toxic influence.

Little by little, we expand our control until our safe zone covers the width of the tunnel and begins to extend further outwards.

It's at this point where the expansion begins to slow. Not because we're being pressed too hard, but because the war between the purified mana and the toxic energy of the fifth is beginning to reach an equilibrium. Despite the fact the energy cleaned by the wuffers is designed to eat into the energy of the fifth on its own, it's still susceptible to being corrupted by the fifth. When the two energies meet, a war begins as both try to consume the other in order to propagate itself.

With our cluster of five hundred wuffers, there's only so much they can do to push back against the overwhelming amount of mana present here.

Not helping is the local fauna. The bile toads and mucus snails are able to perform much the same terraforming tasks that they did in the fourth, puking up dense clouds of toxic energy to eat into the purified zone. Even when we finally put them down, half the time they explode into filth, or little slugs break out of them, leap at us and then explode into filth.

This place just doesn't like being clean, basically. It's fine, we aren't expecting to succeed, or even kick start the process. This is simply the first test, a trial run, as we prepare for the full invasion. By the looks of things, it's quite successful so far!