In the southwestern part of Haiya Province, beneath a silent city of ruins, ugly heads bobbed one after another.
Under the pitch-black night sky, bare-chested mutants pushed carts piled high with broken concrete and other construction debris, laboriously hauling them toward the fortifications under construction.
At the construction site, even more mutant laborers and diminutive goblins worked desperately under the lashes of their overseers' whips.
Using crude engineering equipment, they stuffed the debris into woven sacks, piled them together with crooked lengths of rebar, and used them to build shelters that were hardly sturdy but barely serviceable.
These steel-and-concrete ruins were among the few places beyond Heaven's reach.
After all, no matter how pervasive Nago's mycelium was, it could not grow on concrete.
Not only that.
Torch's most important research institution was nearby, and quite a few of its researchers were still living humans.
The Church's attitude and treatment toward valuable people and worthless people were obviously different.
However, these circumstances had changed somewhat recently.
As the situation at the front continued to deteriorate, the Church had less and less time to care about the feelings of those inside its facilities.
Those who had once conducted research in Shelter 20 still had opportunities to go outside for fresh air every day.
But ever since the mutants had withdrawn to this area, their chances to leave had become fewer and fewer.
The mutant tribe stationed here was the Flame Cavern Clan, which had once been active on Ten Peaks Mountain. Its leader was Borudo Flame Cavern, and it commanded roughly five thousand followers.
After the Beast King's defeat, he had led his followers to retreat to this area under the new king's orders, where they recuperated and rebuilt.
The Torch Church provided them with ample food, supplies, and human sacrifices for