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Chapter 1561 - Pounding Heart
🕑 Added 2025-03-10 05:38:47 +0000 UTCZluth had never felt anything like this before. He knew about the hearts, every Krath knew about the hearts. They could feel it’s vibrations anywhere in the fifth, could determine the flow of mana through the arterial tunnels by the pulse of its movement, but he had never been this close to one before. Not remotely.
The pounding rhythm was all consuming, the mana rushing past, so dense it was visible to the naked eye, with every pulse. The walls vibrated from the strength of it. His entire body was attuned to it.
A certain reverence had overtaken the Krath as he drew neared to it, a deep respect ingrained into his slug-flesh rising up within him. This was one of the beating hearts of the fifth, one of the core components of the entire level of the Dungeon and the source of Theorazzn’s greatest miracle.
Zluth hunkered down amongst some fungal blooms that he felt almost certain weren’t going to eat him in the short term. He’d seen them tear apart a chubby toad monster he couldn’t identify not long ago, and so hoped that they weren’t able to take in more food. It was a risk he had to take, since there wasn’t anywhere else safe in this tunnel for him to rest.
Battered and torn from the journey, he was barely holding on. The journey had gone wrong almost as soon as he’d left, unfamiliar tunnels and incomplete instructions combining to put him in dangerous situations again and again. He was also confident that the Bulg had withheld the locations of many safe-holes and shortcuts, unwilling to part with their secrets even now. That was fine. Zluth wouldn’t forget.
Despite all the setbacks, the numerous times he’d almost been eaten, having to survive on his wits and instincts alone, he had almost made it. The Slimeground of the Zissth tribe was located directly adjacent to the heart, and he was rapidly closing in on that location.
The issue was…
With the mana so dense and so vibrant, so exceptionally virulent and toxic this close to the heart, the monsters and plant life were equally deadly. Even Zluth, a Krath scout, had to retract his eyes every few seconds in order to protect them from the acidity in the air. A Krath.
In front of him, wild mould spores the size of a Krath egg drifted through the air in dense clouds. Most of the monsters were clever, avoiding them, or using their sticky spit or bile to catch them out of the air before moving through, but others weren’t so careful. Even in the last few minutes, the scout had witnessed several newborn monsters come into contact with the spores. Once contact had been made, the spores would grow into their victim, seizing control and using them to spread the spores ever further.
He wasn’t sure when this particular mould had bloomed here, but he didn’t think it was long ago. With so many monsters spawning, the spores would claim more creatures before long, accelerating the spread. He couldn’t afford to wait for long, delaying would result in certain death.
Trying to chart his path, Zluth concentrated, summoning the last of his energy. It had been foolhardy to volunteer for this mission. Actually succeeding would be something of a miracle. But if he did, his name would spread far and wide as a loyal servant of Theorazzn, a dedicated slug who was cunning and quick enough to travel where others refused to slide.
Another breath, another. The air of the fifth, rich with mana, burned and sizzled in his body, invigorating him and empowering the acid in his flesh. He was ready.
Zluth burst into motion, accelerating hard as he raced away, leaving tendrils of fungal growth, just starting to extend out of the tunnel wall behind. Once he’d reached top speed, he flattened down, compressing his body down and banking left. Slipping onto the surface of the flowing mucus, he glided forwards like a flat stone sent skipping over the surface.
Just above him, drifting spores covered so much space, seemingly harmless. He knew they could be sent floating in any direction by a stray wind or the pounding of the heart. The Ancient smiled on him, and he slipped beneath the first spores without trouble, but that was only the beginning.
Monsters were everywhere, fighting each other, crouching in defensive positions, trying to hold their ground and avoid battling, while others had already succumbed to the spores and were actively moving them around. It was inevitable he was seen, several creatures turning towards him, snarling, catching his scent.
He ignored them. Getting through as quickly as possible was the goal and getting caught up by a monster, even for a few seconds, could prove fatal.
Skipping off the mucus for the final time, his foot found solid rock once again and he expanded his body out once again and pushed as hard as he could. Speed. More speed!
With his eyes starting to bubble, he retracted them for a fraction of a second, then expanded them again, only to find a monster had stepped into his path.
Thoughts racing, Zluth acted quickly.
Summoning a wad of acidic phlegm, he leapt off the rock wall and into the air. Aiming carefully, he spat the mucus, right on target, then landed again, racing to the left.
His spit struck a floating spore, sending it catapulting through the air to smack into the offending monsters.
Shrieking with rage and terror, the beast started swiping desperately at itself, trying to remove the offending spore. The shock of movement and noise was like a detonation within the tunnel, causing a flurry of activity. Monsters charged at each other, the spore infected creatures rushed to join in. Through the chaos, Zluth slid, darting left and right as he dodged trouble, the pounding of the heart growing louder and louder.
The tunnel branched ahead and he would have to make a blind decision as to which one to follow. He didn’t know exactly where the Zissth would be, no tribe advertised the location of their Slimeground, he would just have to survive long enough for them to find him.
Left!
He turned hard, but before he even got the chance to inspect the tunnel, the ground dropped away beneath him, and he was falling.
Comments
ManguKing
I wonder if these pounding hearts could be converted
Gopard
Its really mostly the slugs for me... one is now dead (I hope this isn't a super spoiler and you're there already) and we got many many chapters even from their persepctive... I'm honestly not seeing the purification working I think it will end with their death
Joseph Lemongello
Author is probably building up characters he plans on purifying in future chapters I'm guessing. Good authors typically don't bring things up in a story to not use them. But I feel you. I sometimes find my self skimming the side character chapters.
Gopard
Thanks for the chapter! Honestly way too much Zluth and Krath content in general for me currently feels like a strange way to slow down the plot... If we need to get "filler" I would prefer it to be with character we're not almost certain will be completely slaughtered and annihilated by the Colony anyways!7
Gonvas
So not just one but several hearts!!!
Ozzy
The Colony might not even need to reach a heart to convert it. The vents they found earlier alternate between pulling mana in and blasting it out, so if they secure enough of the vents and feed enough cleansing mana into them they could indirectly cleanse the heart. After that they could use the hearts to cleanse entire regions without having to directly enter them.
Grey Knight Lord
The Colony must terraform one of these hearts. That will spread the cleansed mana throughout the 5th and continue to claim more to fully cleanse the 5th
Vlad s
Zluth here becoming the hero of the Krath, one heroic journey after another.
Ether's Blessed One
Hearts of the Fifth exist. The Colony: Terra-forming targets lock in. Deploying Wuffers.
fair3238
It would be funny if the spore mention is from Leeroy and The Immortal🤣🤣, later affecting the heart of the fifth.
Nathan Emerson
Or at least convert the local section of the layer.
CentaureHeart
Well, we already knew it and Solant already probably theorized it but convert one the Hearts, convert the whole layer.
alt31415
Pride before the fall. Literally, in this case.
