Michael's territory was flourishing, and the Untamed Jungle's outer ring had been restored to its previous glory at last.
Meanwhile, Xiltra had become a living hell.
After the Jungle Expedition failed, and only three out of 13 Paladins returned alive, Xiltra's atmosphere grew heavier by the day.
Xiltra's citizens were worried about the Untamed Jungle's Curse and that the unknown existences hiding within the shadows of the Untamed Jungle would charge and attempt to destroy the border city.
But something like that never happened.
However, that didn't mean Xiltra's condition remained the same. No, everything changed after the three surviving Paladins returned.
The Paladin's health deteriorated, and they fell into a coma. Not even the best healers of the border city were able to tend to the Paladins' issues. They were oblivious to the disease that affected the three Tier-3 Paladins.
Weeks passed and the Paladins' health hit the lowest point possible. Their lives were on the line, and it was only a matter of time before they would die.
At that point, something shocking occurred. The healers, and the attending staff that tended to the comatose Paladins fell ill. Their skin developed a silverish tinge, and their veins began to turn black.
The chaos essence inside the Paladins had been nourished and began to spread through the entire city.
At first, the higher ups in Xiltra didn't give the situation unfolding in front of them much thought. They considered it a minor issue that could be solved quickly. They couldn't have been more wrong.
Less than a month after the three Paladins returned from the Untamed Jungle, they died. The Chaos Essence that had taken root inside them had devoured their life-force and the nutrients inside their bodies. It had been nourished and grown to affect the people and atmosphere in the Paladins' surroundings. However, the intensity of the chaos essence's influence was not that strong yet. This only changed when the Paladins died, and the Chaos Essence inside them was unleashed to the outside world.
A week after the Paladins' death, Xiltra was forced into a quarantine. Chaos Essence could be found everywhere in Xiltra, spreading like a contagious disease. It took root in the living everywhere and drained their nutrients and life-force to grow stronger and continued to spread like a wildfire.
Chaos Essence required less than a month to drain the life-force and nutrients of a Tier-3 Awakened, who had been administered various potions, and provided the care of Awakened Healers, who used their healing-type Soultraits to improve the Paladins' condition to no avail. Meanwhile, Tierless Natives fell victim to Chaos Essence within 24 hours.
The Chaos Essence invaded their immune system, and took root in the deepest parts of their bodies before requiring a single day to grow stronger by draining its host. Afterward, it would seek a new victim.
Only two weeks passed after the death of the three Paladins, but the casualties had long since exceeded 10,000.
The number of affected individuals rapidly approached the 6-digits, and it was only a matter of time before Xiltra and its surroundings ended up being corrupted without a single trace of life left behind.
This was worrisome, and it was also why the Zentika Empire's Council initiated an emergency meeting.
"Should we annihilate Xiltra? As long as we get rid of Xiltra and a portion of the surrounding land everything should be fine. We can reconstruct the border city, and refill the holes left behind." A younger member of the council proposed.
Destroying the border city and the surrounding land might kill Xiltra's citizens, but they were already dead in the young council member's eyes, in the first place. He could only look at the destruction of the border city as a financial loss, nothing else.
Losing some money in exchange for getting rid of a plague-like disease that spread with exponential growth was certainly worth it. Thus, two more council members voted in favor of the young council member's idea.
"I don't think that will be necessary. The plague-like disease is actually not a disease. It's Chaos Essence," Senator Keltos intervened, his words attracting the attention of the council members seated around the long table.
"Chaos Essence is a rare substance that can be found in a few areas. The Zentika Empire has no grounds with naturally formed Chaos Essence, but the Untamed Jungle does. Speaking about the Untamed Jungle, the silver cloud that had permeated the Untamed Jungle's outer ring was most likely chaos. The Paladins escaped the silver cloud, but they must have been infected already."
The council members around Senator Keltos grew impatient. They weren't in need of a lesson from Senator Keltos. All they wanted was information on how to solve the current predicament in the most-efficient way.
Senator Keltos noticed the impatient gazes lingering on him, and he nodded his head in satisfaction.
"Everyone must have realized that the Untamed Jungle's outer ring had been destroyed. The news should have reached everyone by now. BUT did anyone here receive the news that the Untamed Jungle had been corrupted by Chaos Essence, and that it took less than a month to remove the Chaos Essence and turn the corrupted land back into the flourishing outer ring of the Untamed Jungle it used to be?" Senator Keltos asked, causing a stir in the hearts of the council members.
"If the Untamed Jungle's outer ring was corrupted by chaos essence, how was it fixed?" One of the council members asked, providing Senator Keltos with the opportunity he sought.
"There are two possibilities. First, the Untamed Jungle might have an innate resistance to chaos essence. It's possible that it can digest the chaos essence and utilize it. I don't have hard evidence to back my claim, but it is possible. However, I have the means to prove the second possibility- Chaos Ants!" Senator Keltos declared, while retrieving a few documents from his War Rune's storage space with a wave of his arm.
Information about Chaos Ants was written on the document with a huge amount of details. Senator Keltos must have researched the Untamed Jungle, and the monsters inhabiting the Untamed Jungle for quite a while to find this many details of the Chaos Ants. They had only a small population and stayed underground rather than scavenging across the surface of the Untamed Jungle.
"They…these Chaos Ants…eat the Chaos Essence that has taken root in the corrupted lands…do you want someone to enter the Untamed Jungle secretly to get hold of a few Chaos Ants? If we want to save Xiltra's citizens we would need hundreds, or thousands of Chaos Ants, otherwise, we can only fix Xiltra's land while the citizens die miserably…" An old woman asked, the ridicule in her voice crystal clear.
She had never liked Senator Keltos, and it felt like his ideas and thoughts were getting crazier with every passing day.
Senator Keltos was also at fault for the Jungle Expedition's defeat. If he had revealed all information about the Untamed Jungle openly, the situation would have been completely different.
But that was just the beginning. Senator Keltos had been impatient and allowed his subordinates to start the Jungle Expedition before the promised day, resulting in their humiliating defeat. In the eyes of many council members, Senator Keltos had become an eyesore, and the sole reason for the diminishing reputation of the Zentika Empire's council.
Senator Keltos knew that some council members doubted him, but he couldn't care less.
He shook his head lightly, "No, I don't want to use Chaos Ants. Like you already said, they would be too slow."
"What do you want us to do then?" Someone asked, which caused a faint smile to blossom on Senator Keltos' lips.
"How about we hire Taros, Lord of the Southern Ice Mountains, to take care of this issue?" He asked, creating a stir in the hall.
The hall turned eerily silent and the tension intensified in an instant.
"Are you serious? You want to invite another Lord into the Zentika Empire?"
"He is only at the 2nd Tier. Aren't you too scared of his Soultrait? As a member of the council you should know that he is of no danger to us!" Senator Keltos retorted dismissively and further added while looking at the other members, "Furthermore, Taros is not affiliated to the powers of the Ice Mountain region. He fights for himself."
"But he will ask for a horrendous price. Rumors say that he demanded the Southern Ice Mountains after the other powerhouses requested his help." Another council member interfered. He had heard enough rumors to know that Taros was not someone who willingly followed the orders of other people – even if the council of the Zentika Empire made a special request.
"He will probably ask for a Lord Rift Entrance ticket, but that should be fine. Almost all 100 Lord Entrance Tickets are in our possession by now. In the worst case, we can send our people to kill him inside the Lord Rift. That way, we can expand the Zentika Empire's territory into the Southern Ice Mountains as well!"
The other members of the council thought about Senator Keltos' plan for a long time. It didn't seem like a big problem to offer Taros a Lord Rift Entrance ticket in exchange for saving Xiltra and its citizens.
If Taros acted too arrogant in front of the council, they would order their people to silently take care of the Lord of the Southern Ice Mountains inside the Lord Rift. That way, they could remove a potential future threat.
Using Senator Keltos' plan, they could solve several problems with one solution. Thus, the council agreed, and sent an invite to Taros, the Lord of the Southern Ice Mountains, to visit the Zentika Empire.
As predicted Taros demanded a Lord Rift Entrance ticket in exchange for saving Xiltra. The council agreed and Taros began his work.
The border city suffered a lot until Taros arrived, but everything changed the day he appeared in front of Xiltra's gates. He was welcomed with open arms, and left the day after; the citizens and surrounding lands cleansed of all Chaos Essence.
The Border City was cleansed, rescued by Taros. However, Xiltra was never like before. Too many innocent citizens had died.
The seed of fear instilled in the hearts of the citizens had rooted itself deeply, and the thought of the Untamed Jungle's Curse striking them again caused a severe trauma.
The first citizens chose to relocate elsewhere, starting the momentum that pushed more than half of Xiltra's population to leave and move further away from the Untamed Jungle.
As long as they could escape the Untamed Jungle's Curse they would be fine. That was what most were certain about.
But was it really possible to escape the Untamed Jungle's Curse?
