I then proceeded to summon seeds on the back wall of the room, slowly eroding and breaking down a path towards the first biome. The transport and the tanks were slowly moving any debris to a side of the room, trying not to mess the already half-submerged machines. I wasn’t sure how long would they keep working under so much punishment.

After a couple of minutes, we noticed some weird sounds, like screeches and some vibrations.

I moved closer to the forest’s biome wall and noticed some cracks being formed by roots and parasite flower tendrils appearing. The worst part was that most of them were dropping tainted sap into the room, turning the water into a murky and viscous ichor pool.

“Host, the corruption has tainted the biomass reserves, and we will need time to cleanse it.”

“What?! For fuck's sake…” I gave mental orders for the units to get out of the corrupted water, as it was slowly eroding our chitin. We then tried to keep defending the room from the flower-parasites.

That took a real effort from our part, as the wall filled with vines and flowers at the meadows was not far from this room, and the creatures started to dig in haste, trying to reach us by any means.

I created some bombs to pour acid and toxins towards any enemies, but I had my hands tied with the little biomass we could gather from the seeds.

The Gaunts positioned themselves, ready to chop down any creature that tried to get into the room.

“They noticed us way earlier than I thought. Darwin, how long till we can make a hole?!”

“Two hours at a minimum, maybe longer if the room’s walls have been reinforced with alloys.”

I hit a piece of machinery with my tail to vent up the frustration. My eyes shone with some purple light for a few seconds until I calmed myself down.

“Fuck! That’s way too long.”

Without the extra influx of biomass, I won’t be able to hold on; and waiting has proven to be a bad option on the caves. I need to change my strategy.

I turn to investigate the pipes and tubes, noticing how some of them go towards the ceiling, with some badly damaged signs, and I moved upwards.

After a few minutes investigating, I discovered it was a partially broken rain system.

“Maybe we can use this…”

I jumped to the dark waters and searched for the correct pipe that went to the ceiling and looked at the machinery that controlled the rain, but it was dead.

I sighed and to rest for a minute and rethink the situation. The flow of water helped me calm down, and then I frowned at it. The machines kept working; it was just this part that wasn’t anymore.

“If we can’t make it work, we will just redirect the flow.” I then decided to move upwards and started to throw seeds from the main pipe that fed the waterfall towards the tube on the top.

Then, I took the transporter with the blood worms, and secured it in the middle of all the seed-pipes I had built, and started to put whatever biomass we had gathered into it, making it ready to bloom.

“Ok, let’s try to redirect the flow of water!!”

I shifted part of the stream, and the pipes on the ceiling started to tremble and crack. I feared they would break down from the pressure, but it then started to pump water to the rain system.

As it kept raining on the biome, I then activated the transport, sending red acid water to the old rain system, causing an actual bloody rain on the biome. The parasites on the walls started to turn desperate, trying to hide.

We chopped them, and using the acid from the bomb units, we started to digest the muddy pool of biomass, water, and corruption using the newly found eco-filters from before.

With that, we gained some respite.

But less than a minute later, I could hear massive roars outside, and the wall started to tremble.

“What the-”

* Braammbmmm!!

Suddenly, several small tremors could be heard as the wall was hit by something massive.

---------------

As soon as the transporter carried away by the river arrived at the lake, it called the attention of several creatures. Most of them got closer to inspect the prey before dismissing it as a dangerous and deadly infested treat.

But one recognized that as a threat he had faced twice already.

* Graaaghhh!!

A huge body moved closer to the surface, with several huge tentacles ended in a sharp bone. Its huge maws took over half of the creature’s face, and two massive horns grew from the top of its skull.

It had spikes and deformations all-around several wounds that had healed not long ago. From some points, it could be seen worms festering on its flesh and tentacles, causing immense pain to the creature that had grown larger and maddened as it was unable to get rid of this vermin plague.

The corrupted octopus roared and started to move towards the river, getting itself out of the water and looking for the insect creature that had damaged it twice.

It would find it and devour that bastard and consume it and its brood of bugs.

* ROaaghh!!!

It took the octopus several seconds to get used to the new environment, but the creature could partially breathe out of water for a short time. It didn’t care, as it advanced with a single-minded focus on its mind, get revenge, and massacre its enemy.

As the corrupted beast exited the waters, more and more creatures followed it, until a total of three larger octopus and eight lesser ones. They followed it up the river, not caring for the few spider remnants that were desperately trying to save what was left of their burned and destroyed nest.

The corrupted beast stopped midriver and turned to look at the huge willow tree, the progenitor of all the enslaver flower-parasite creatures. It also had grown bigger and twisted. But it wasn't yet awakened.

Piles of bodies laid on its roots as offerings for it to grow and slowly consume, and the leaves and branches moved to an unseen or unheard wind. The octopus roared and gritted its teeth, and as the tree had no response, it kept moving upwards, not noticing a cocoon of roots pulsating.

It soon reached the waterfall and started to attack and eviscerate any nearby parasites. The damaged greater snake parasite roared, and they gave way to the playground to the newly, more energetic, and salvage kids.

The corrupted beast looked at the parasites and the waterfall and sent a pair of lesser creatures to try and enter the waterfall, yet the beasts failed miserably.

He chopped one in half and ate it, and then started to use its claws to try to destroy the rock-wall, yet it proved much more of a challenge than the rocks at the tunnels.

A weird sound then appeared, like drops of water started to fall, imitating rain.

The beast then turned upwards to look with interest once the first drops of water fell, as it was something that this biome had not seen in hundreds of years. Yet soon, it turned from innocuous water drops to slowly more and more acidic and deadly, making all the biome hiss and the creatures in it roar in pain.

The parasites tried to hide underground, and the octopuses were trying to partially get underwater, to avoid most of the acid damage that was slowly falling over them.

The corrupted beast did not pay much attention, as it had already several worms festering its flesh and melting it from inside, and simply started to hit with anger and hate the wall from the waterfall, trying to break it by sheer force.

What the creature was not noticing were the changes in the huge willow tree at the meadows. Its roots twisted, and the leaves started to turn red as the acid soaked its bark.