Exploring Mechanus was full of unpredictable surprises.
The land of Mechanus consisted entirely of enormous gears, and those gears moved slowly.
Soren had come for knowledge left behind by the Arcane Empire and the ancient god corpses drifting near Mechanus. He had little desire to deal with the Formians, much less encounter the legendary Mother of All Ants.
Even among insects, the Formians were notoriously difficult to handle, more dangerous than the mutant insects in the deepest reaches of the Abyss.
However...
After traveling only a few more miles, Soren encountered Formians again.
This time, they were not workers but Formian warriors, more than a dozen of them. Spells alone would not resolve this, so Soren drew his scimitar and killed them all within a second.
"What's going on?"
"Did I arrive in the middle of a Formian settlement?"
Soren clearly sensed that something was wrong. Groups of Formian warriors rarely appeared in the wilderness unless they had claimed the area as a new colony. The Formians loved expanding their territory. They would occupy one gear after another and turn them into colonies. Without other races to keep them in check, they might have conquered all of Mechanus.
"Hm?"
"What's this?"
Soren suddenly discovered a small crest beside the Formian corpses. It looked unusual, somewhat like the emblem of a monastic sect. Yet Soren knew it did not belong to a monastic sect like those on the Material Plane, but to a sect of another race, some of whom apparently lived in Mechanus.
Soren quickened his pace.
Sure enough, he found numerous signs of battle ahead!
Soon, he saw many Formian corpses, along with the bodies of another, more slender humanoid race.
"Githzerai?!"
Soren bent down to examine a body. The Githzerai resembled the Githyanki, but they were a race