In the Heavenly River overhead, Witch Macedon walked through white ripples. The river was like the veins of this world, boundless life force surging through it. Holding the Heavenly Imperial Cabbage, she sensed the shifts in life force and Spiritual Breath, and her lips curled. She had known this would happen from the moment the Elven Empire accepted the Mother of Insects into its Great Magic. As a witch who had earned the name "insect slayer" by slaughtering insects along the New Route, she knew these creatures too well.
The Void Swarm was like a horde of insects that could never be killed off. Once it infected a region, the world would struggle to eradicate it.
You could kill them until none seemed left, but after a while, another swarm would emerge.
To the Wizard Civilization, the Swarm's greatest strength was not its ability to evolve. The civilization's research advanced through successive generations even faster than the Swarm evolved. What made the Swarm so troublesome was its ability to infect. Successful eradication was possible, but once an infection took hold, removing every last insect became harder than climbing to the heavens.
And most successful eradications involved small swarms without an overlord, or swarms in the early stages of infesting a world. Once a swarm with an overlord established itself, eradication became as difficult as it could possibly be.
Edgar simply lacked experience.
He had actually dared to let the Swarm enter his Great Magic. The worst thing about the Swarm was that once it infested an environment, it burrowed in and remained there forever. After that, you could suppress it by reducing its numbers, but removing it completely was extremely difficult.
Witch Macedon walked through the Heavenly River with the cabbage in hand. Many little cabbage boats floated on the