Restless darkness

More than ten minutes had passed since the Sunfire God left with that pitch-black being.

Isara, who remained behind, was still deeply frustrated. Just moments earlier, after saying something to that dark thing, the Sunfire God had decided to pardon him.

A pillar of fire had appeared and faded, and the two had vanished to who knew where.

Faced with the mess she had made, Isara could only deal with it in silence.

She knew some things were not hers to know, especially when she had yet to accomplish anything of merit.

"Although the appearance of our Sunfire God strengthened the faith of his followers, our lord is far too merciful."

After sighing over this, Isara decided to put the matter aside. The god had his own plans; she needed only obey.

The Pontiff's tentacles brushed lightly across the floor, where the cracks she had left had been just moments before.

After emergency repairs by the craftsmen, the floor was smooth once again, without a trace of damage.

Just like the bishop's face at that moment.

Besides the prisoner, the "Walkers" had also delivered reports on the latest developments at the front.

Once the most troublesome issue, the Black Shell Plains, had been dealt with first, the rest had been relatively easy to handle.

Yet that was clearly not the end. The expedition had discovered another passage leading upward.

Further up, they would be approaching the mountain's midpoint. Isara had glimpsed it from afar during her exile in the wasteland.

Even when there was no windblown sand, the mountain still towered into the clouds.

Even by a rough estimate, Isara knew they had at least another two or three layers to traverse before reaching the summit.

In other words, the expedition would not end anytime soon, but its demand for resources was enormous.

The Sunfire God's entire domain was ramping up production, yet it still was not enough.

To solve this problem, Isara had recently sent a group of craftsmen and apprentices to Bastion City on the Black Shell Plains to oversee its development and construction.

Once improved, the soil there was well suited to growing grain, while the locally produced black shell was an excellent material for making armor.

Once construction was complete, the expedition would have a second supply base, greatly easing the pressure on Ashen City. Until then, however, supplies remained an unavoidable problem.

Although she knew perfectly well that she could seek help from the merciful Sunfire God, Pontiff Isara stubbornly rejected that option.

She had achieved nothing of merit. Isara's pride would not allow her to abuse the god's kindness again and again.

Then should I make the Bugfolk work longer and harder?

No. If I really did that, it would deal a tremendous blow to the order Ashen City has worked so hard to establish.

"All living beings are dust, aren't they?" Isara murmured. "Then why can't I manage even such a simple little task?"

One setback after another had left Isara exhausted in body and mind. As she pondered, she lowered her head again and looked at the mirrorlike floor. Its smooth surface reflected her as she was now.

"Could it be..."

An idea suddenly flashed through Isara's mind. Had she been thinking about this the wrong way all along?

The god had granted her power, yet she had never found an opportunity to use it.

But that was not true. It was not that she could find no opportunity to use it, but that her thinking had been wrong from the start. Power was not only for fighting.

Just as fire had more than its terrifying ability to burn everything away, it could also bring the light of hope into the night.

Rather than sitting on a lofty seat and ordering the followers below her around, she would be better off using this power to do something practical.

"Could this be the true reason our lord granted me power?"

Isara looked again at the doll in splendid clothes reflected on the floor.

A delicate doll, richly dressed and graceful in manner, utterly unlike the free, hands-on person she had been as a scout.

How... how long has it been since I ran on my own legs?

Hiss, hiss. Rrrip, rrrip!

With the sound of running footsteps, the doors burst open, startling the followers praying nearby.

The attendants asked in astonishment, "Y-your Holiness, what are you-"

"That doesn't matter. Tell me where in Ashen City help is needed most!"

Isara answered with a smile. There was nothing reserved about it, but it brimmed with the same energy she had once had, nothing like the cold face she wore while seated above them, preaching doctrine.

Isara had torn off her stately robes and changed into the same work clothes ordinary bugs wore. She had decided to use the power the god had bestowed on her to do what truly needed doing.

If we don't have enough supplies, I'll help out myself. This is what I'm really good at.

With that thought, Isara ran outside, picking up speed with every stride.

As she ran, the white marking that stretched across both her eyes glowed faintly, as though the Sunfire God himself approved of her choice.

Upper Layer

The unconquered region between the Sacrificial Grounds and the Fungal Wastes.

At that moment, the Hunter Clan and the Ashen Clan, the expedition's main fighting forces, were pressing inward from two directions, steadily clearing out the swarms pouring forth.

Primitive bugs crawled endlessly out of the pitch-black caves. Their sight had completely degenerated, leaving only the purest instinct as they crawled by scent to prey on living things that approached.

Gron led the charge, standing at the very front with spear and shield gripped tight. The battle had barely begun, yet he had already accounted for more than half the Expedition Army's kills.

Mortas refused to fall behind. The mantis chieftain wielded his new, god-given Nail-Spear, dispatching the swarms charging toward the Fungal Wastes with unprecedented speed.

Both had been fighting for a long time, and both had tacitly chosen to hold their ground rather than attack. More troops were on their way to reinforce them.

In this strange, pitch-black region, bugs were born and died every moment. Instinct had made them cautious when they first encountered something unfamiliar.

Only now had they bared their fangs, nearly catching the Expedition Army off guard.

Fortunately, both clan chiefs were present. By drawing the attacks immediately, they had held out until the remaining troops could come to their aid.

The bugs in the pitch-black caves were naturally mindless and impossible to communicate with, but their frenzy, utterly heedless of casualties, had also cost Gron dearly.

No matter how fine their equipment or strict their discipline, the troops had finally begun to suffer casualties after the prolonged fighting.

"For the Sunfire God!"

A clan warrior, completely surrounded with no hope of escape, shouted the Sunfire God's name and detonated all the Soulfire within his body.

The mighty power he had yet to master instantly cleared an empty space, yet still more bugs crawled out.

The Expedition Army had indeed swiftly established an impregnable defense, but under wave after wave of attacks, the defensive line itself was beginning to totter.

"Damn it!" After cutting down another bug, Gron snarled, "Against numbers like these, tactics and skill barely give us any advantage at all."

The intelligence gathered by the squad sent to investigate earlier had been seriously incomplete, and the danger here had been severely underestimated.

But without seeing it himself, even Gron would have struggled to imagine that such a deranged ecosystem could exist.

The passages inside the caves formed a tangled maze. Taking the offensive would be nothing short of suicide.

Their only option now was to hold fast. Until the attacks ended completely, they absolutely could not let the bugs escape the caves.

Otherwise, the other, previously normal ecosystems would soon be devoured as well.

"What the hell is going on? This shouldn't have happened here."

Gron gritted his teeth. There was another reason he had been forced onto the defensive.

According to his original estimates, there should never have been such a sudden, large-scale outbreak here.

He had only been distracted for a moment, yet the battle line was already showing faint signs of collapse. Gron had no choice but to cast aside those stray thoughts and concentrate on repelling the sudden assault.

While they fought, two figures watched from an extremely well-hidden spot on the rocky ceiling above the battlefield.