A young demon hunter crouched beside him and watched him work. "Lord Karim, is this sand useful?"
Karim did not look up. "Of course not. I'm just playing with sand because I have nothing better to do."
"Those Rotting Corpse Walkers aren't human. Can they sink into it too?"
Karim glanced at him and said irritably, "No. The sand recognizes them."
The young demon hunter realized Karim was being sarcastic. He had asked a completely pointless question and gave an embarrassed smile.
Clayton set up three alchemical purification towers in the center of the safe zone.
The towers had been assembled from steel transported from the main world and Incantation cores. At the top of each tower was a spherical energy emitter, powered by the Silver Cube, which continuously released a force field that suppressed the pestilence.
The force field covered the entire safe zone. The black fungal mats stopped spreading at its edge, and some began to wither and crack apart.
Clayton crouched beneath the first tower and began adjusting its parameters.
His assistant was a young woman named Susan. She wore a hard hat and held a data tablet.
"Set the energy output to sixty percent," Clayton said.
Susan pressed several buttons. "Done."
"What's the force field's coverage radius?"
"Two kilometers."
"Not enough. Raise it to eighty percent."
Susan hesitated, worried. "The tower will overload."
Clayton did not turn around. "Then we'll fix it after it overloads."
Susan immediately raised the output to eighty percent. The emitter atop the tower began to hum, and its silvery-white glow brightened.
The force field's coverage radius expanded to three kilometers.
Layla worked without rest, using her healing power to stabilize the survivors' festering wounds. Her energy was being drained quickly, and she had to inject herself with an energy potion every