The gravity bomb finally fades away, leaving behind a compressed ball of ex-frog, stone and various other detritus, I pick myself up and let my strength boost fade away. The energy of the Vestibule and Nave once more returns to its normal cycle, nourishing my body and washing away injury and fatigue. Although it can't seem to do anything about that damned toxic mana eating away at me! Cursing irritably, I direct my exhausted sub-minds to get cracking breaking the stuff down and turn my attention to the rest of my body.

The sludge on my back did quite a number, eating into the carapace and multiplying itself along the way. I whip up a little water and try to hose it off my back with some small success. I think the only way to be truly rid of the stuff is to break down the mana itself. What a pain in the backside! Literally! Other than that, I'm in pretty good shape, my health ticking back up toward full as the regeneration gland does its work.

Still, that fight was way more trouble than I expected from a single monster, even if it was from the fourth strata. Considering it was wild and more likely than not wasn't raised with perfect evolutions all the way through to tier six, I should have a significant advantage in overall evolutionary energy, but some of the things it was capable of… dammit. Is this the tyranny of the deeper layers?! They get this level of crazy advantages?!

It's a real shame I won't get a chance to eat the damn thing. I wander over to examine the remains, giving the unbelievably dense sphere a quick poke with one leg but swiftly give up. This thing is 95% rock, it'll be almost impossible to extract any Biomass from it, and the core is nowhere to be seen, possibly smashed to pieces by the spell itself. Dammit! This is why I didn't want to use the gravity bomb if I didn't have to!

I'm impressed at how well the sub-brains were able to put one together without the main mind kicking in to help. Since they can handle the assembly on their own, that means being able to fight whilst putting the gravity bomb together is a possibility at last! Muahahahaha! There will be no escape from my clutches! With my deadliest spell suddenly far easier to produce in the middle of a conflict, my offensive power has skyrocketed!

Overall, I'm satisfied with how things went, the only issue is…

Turning around I'm confronted with the oozing pit of slime in front of me which Invidia and Crinis are still working hard to try and break down. With a sigh, I head over and start chipping in, pitting my mind against the dreadful sludge and trying to rip apart the truly bizarre mana it's made of. This stuff is the real puzzle if you ask me. I have no idea what kind of mana it is, but the stuff is horrendous to deal with. It does damage, invades monsters' own mana-streams, persists in the environment, eats away at stuff like acid and replicates itself like a virus, feeding on whatever mana it touches!

This stuff is exactly as deadly as I wanted my acid to be, dammit!

Although the part where it spreads uncontrollably all over the place is a bit of a pain to clean up, I have to admit. It's massively draining to exert your mind breaking down mana, especially on a scale like this. After the first ten minutes, I've already devolved into something of a fugue state, despite the fact my energy is always topped up. It's just boring and taxing work. I can't imagine how Crinis is feeling right about now. When the greenery first starts to pop up in the tunnel, I don't even notice. It's only after a flower literally bonks me in the nose do I notice something is happening and look up to find the infected areas are now covered in a wall of greenery that reminds me of one specific being.

What in the heck is she doing growing in here?! This is the Colony's territory! I eye one particularly lush looking shrub with great suspicion and it has the gall to wiggle innocently in front of me. How dare you, shrub! My mandibles flex dangerously, but before I can do anything, the rest of the ants are there, moving forward to complete the assault and retake the outer defences now that the threat posed by the monster has been removed.

"Eldest? What exactly has happened out here?" Sloan asks, confused.

Still giving the shrub the stink eye I quickly explain what we fought and the mess it left behind, followed by the sudden appearance of the Bruan'chii's mother in leaf form.

"Do you think she's perhaps here to consume the mana?" Sloan ponders.

"You're suggesting that a tree is actually seeking out the stuff and wants to consume it?" I say, filled with doubt.

Still, I activate my mana sense and try to get a feeling for what is going on, now that my line of sight is blocked by a carpet of flourishing plants.

"Holy mackerel, I think you're right…"

Looking closely, it appears as if the offending mana is being drawn up into the plants which then trap the stuff somehow. I can feel little reservoirs being built up within each bush, flower and bud, pooling even as something starts to go to work on that energy, nibbling at its edges.

"I'm more worried about a monster from two strata down making it all the way here," Sloan says, her antennae drooping. "Monsters like that are too strong for us to deal with…"

"We'll need to work on strategies," I say, "but I don't think it's impossible. The unknown is always harder to fight than the known. Besides, this was always going to happen. The mana levels rising mean that monsters who need more mana to sustain themselves can start to climb strata. It's not odd that we would see one. I'm honestly surprised that there hasn't been a tier seven invader yet."

"Tier seven!?" Sloan goggles at me.

"Sure. I think the mana is high enough to sustain one here, so we shouldn't be shocked if one turns up. The idea of the mana concentration rising so a strata can support higher tier monsters than normal is the scariest thing about a wave, Sloan. Remember?"

"But how would we deal with something like that? We don't have a pool of tier six warriors we can combine to fight it…" the general mutters.

I jerk an antennae back toward Crinis and Tiny.

"What do you think I've been trying to do out here?"

"Right! You should get back to it immediately then!"

"I will, but first I want to drop by the Bruan'chii and ask a few questions. Catch you later Sloan."