Chrysalis

Before Crinis can dive headlong into the enemy and give herself a terminal case of toxic mana poisoning, I rush back to the safe-zone, alerting the ants as I go.

“We’ve got an attack! Weird… things coming out of the river!”

Once I’m close enough, I use my antennae to try and scrape Crinis off my carapace and fling her into the purified mana, but she clings onto me, refusing to go. More accurately, she lets her body become shadow, and my antennae just slide straight through her. Heck of a trick.

[Crinis, get into the safe-zone, that’s an order.]

[I want to help fight!]

[Sure, do it from inside there. Go! Shoo!]

Unable to resist a direct order, she has no choice but to accede to my demand and slink back inside the blue mana. Invidia is already there, hovering over the blob of darkness, healing and cleansing her of the infection she’s accumulated.

Seriously, eating the things that live here is dangerous business. If we could work out a way to clean the Biomass so we could consume it safely, that would go a long way to helping us break through the stratum.

Considering there’s literal tons of inedible monster coming towards me right now, it’s a bit unfortunate we haven’t worked out that solution yet. Ah well, no time to worry about it now, I’ve got weird… slime things to destroy!

is the fact the river runs all the way down the length of this tunnel, which means there’s a good stretch of it within the safe zone,

they hate and try to destroy it, but actually being inside it? Let’s just say it doesn’t seem to agree with them. The moment the

them jumped the gun when I got too close to the river. As it stands, I shouldn’t need to help out with that part of the

of the monsters in there! I’ll deal

is not meant to be

the grin stretch across his bat-like face. With a

a close eye on them even after you beat them! They seem to be able to pull themselves back together or something. Keep fighting until you

that these opponents can take a lot of punishment only seems

by half a dozen of these things wouldn’t help the situation. With the bulk of my mind-constructs devoted

me, crawling over the rock floor of the tunnel in a disgusting tangle of gloopy limbs. The muck of the river sloughs off them as they move, leaving a trail behind that will have to

size, squelching and slurping as they use their many limbs to propel themselves forward. Every now and again, I catch a

really are like an awful, fifth stratum version of Crinis gone wrong, aren’t they? If she’d been like this the first time

how they deal with

and poison me further.

VOID CHOMP!