Pandora Unchained B1C73: Blood Corruption Poison

Mr. Primrose was experienced in assessing environmental contamination. In the time that Sorin was able to brainstorm ten ideas as to what might be the cause of the corruption, the man had thought up dozens and taken out an array of test tubes, each with their corresponding test medium.

"Have that earth flame rat of yours heat ten of these vials, then add three drops of river water into each one," directed Mr. Primrose as he took out two portable heating arrays. "You'll need to use your spiritual strength and mana to merge the drops and the test solution. The color change will indicate a positive or negative response for a specific type of contaminant.

Sorin immediately got to work according to the apothecary's arrangements. As he tested, he also used his mana to probe the water samples and assimilate their poisons.

Unfortunately, the amount of poison present in the vials was too minute, so Sorin couldn't fully identify the contaminant. He did, however, discover that it specialized in attacking an individual's bloodstream, not the intestines, as initially diagnosed. Excessive diarrhea was just an extra, meaningless symptom.

As the two apothecaries busied themselves with testing the river water, the Alchemists Guild, in conjunction with the Mages Guild, began brewing possible anti-toxins and drafting river water remediation plans. The sheer volume of water in the aqueduct was difficult to manage for the mages, but if it were just dispersing anti-toxins, that wouldn't be a problem.

"It's not a mineral contaminant or a metal," said Sorin. "I've also confirmed that it's not a disease."

"It's not an acid or an emulsifier," said Mr. Primrose. "It's not pure corruption either, though it contains corruption in large amounts."

"Could it be a different poison, amplified by corruption?" asked Sorin. "Then it would have dual characteristics and would resonate with the strong aura of violence near Bloodwood Forest."

"You're suggesting the virulence of the poison is indirect?" asked Mr. Primrose.

"It's merely a speculation," said Sorin.

"It's a workable idea," said Mr. Primrose. "Unfortunately, none of these tests would be able to identify it. We should finish these and see if we're so lucky as to find the answer with standardized testing first."

Twenty minutes later, they were no closer to a solution, as the potential poisons that could be involved were reclusive and unknown. Sorin naturally had access to a full database of potential poisons, but like Mr. Primrose, he was limited in his ability to match highly specific information to the test results and symptoms they'd discovered.

"What if we looked at this from a different angle?" Sorin thought out loud. "For one, the carrying mechanism. We've confirmed that the poison is a colloidal solution."

"Colloidal solutions are rare," Mr. Primrose reluctantly agreed. "It does narrow it down somewhat. But most of these would need to be intentionally added to the river. The season of madness isn't upon us yet, so I'm skeptical that there's a saboteur among our cultivators causing all of this."

"Since it's happening during the demon tide, it must be the work demons," agreed Sorin. "Intelligent demons exist, or so I'm told."

"But a demon strong enough to corrupt this water could flatten the outpost," said Mr. Primrose. "Why bother corrupting the river water and the land along with it?"

"That just narrows it down even further," said Sorin. "What could demons access in large quantities that would form a colloidal solution?"

Mr. Primrose's eyes widened. "Blood. Demon blood."

"That's indeed a strong possibility," agreed Sorin. "The blood of certain demons is highly toxic. Moreover, it will naturally carry corruption, which would result in a corrupted poison."

"Contaminating our water supply wouldn't be difficult either," added Mr. Primrose. "All they'd need to do is dump some bloody corpses upstream of the river and have it leak down into the outpost using the water's natural flow."

"Doing so in this fashion would also bypass the temple of hope's measures against corruption," said Sorin. "It's a known fact that temples are situated outside of their outposts in part to purify the water supply coming in. Against normal corruption flowing from the wilderness, it's enough, but against poisonous blood? It wouldn't be very effective."

Having determined the likely source of the contamination, Mr. Primrose shot a wave of poisonous mana into the air. Five figures immediately appeared – Vice Guild Master Victor from the Adventurers Guild, Vice Guild Master Thomas from the Mages Guild, Vice Guild Master Young from the Alchemists Guild, and Vice Governor Marsh from the Governor's manor.

"We just finished damming off the water supply," said Vice Governor Marsh. "All that's left is purifying the water supply inside the outpost. What progress would you like to appraise us on, Alexis?"

"I'm afraid that given the source of the contamination, simply damming off the water supply won't suffice," said Mr. Primrose. "We've yet to verify this, but our best guess is that poisonous demon blood is responsible for the contamination."

Vice Guild Master Victor frowned. "Are you saying there are poisonous demon carcasses leaking blood into our water supply? That wouldn't have such a disproportionate impact. Unless…"

"Unless the number of corpses numbered in the dozens," finished Vice Governor Marsh. "Fortunately, something like this is easy to verify. Ashley, can I trouble you to scout out this matter? Once we confirm if there are corpses and how difficult they are to remove, we'll mobilize additional forces."

"I'll take Haley and go immediately," said Vice Guild Master Victor.

"Since the water supply is dammed off, the most pressing issue isn't the source of the corruption, but how to deal with this corrupted water," said Vice Guild Master Thomas.

"Indeed it is," said Vice Guild Master Young in a rare display of intraguild agreement. "Otherwise, the outpost's soil will need to be changed out. Judging by the rate of corruption, over a fifth of the outpost's territory will become unlivable in the next 24 hours."

"Unfortunately, there are no aggressive ways to handle this sort of contamination," said Mr. Primrose. "Only basic poison manipulation would be able to dredge out the contaminants. The only other solution I can think of is having the priests from the church of Hope cast their blessings on the river to weaken its corruption and slow the spread. Boiling the water will also work, but the amount of energy required is astronomical."

"This is our number one priority," said Vice Governor Marsh to those in attendance. "Moreover, it is clear that an intelligent demon is presiding over this year's demon tide and is using underhanded tactics. Derrek, how many fire mages can you round up quickly?"

"Probably a hundred," said Vice Guild Master Thomas. "It's the most popular specialization by far."

"I'll trouble you to mobilize them and also to mobilize your guild's geomancers to isolate sections of the river just like you did the water source," said Vice Governor Marsh. "Compartmentalization, then purification. The fire mages will boil the water, as Mr. Primrose suggested. Ellest?"

"Yes?" answered Vice Guild Master Young.

"Has the Alchemists Guild come up with a cure for this poison?" asked Vice Governor Marsh.

"Alexis thought up a solution, and we already have every alchemist in the city making anti-toxins for the afflicted," said Vice Guild Master Young. "With the guild master, Alchemist Avery, and I joining forces, we'll be able to concoct enough to treat the worse of cases."

"Please do so," said Vice Governor Marsh. "Alexis, it seems Ashley's back with our answer already. What's the word, Ashley?"

"I've located 50 corpses, all cut up and piled up ten kilometers up, just at the edge of the woods," said Vice Guild Master Victor. "Haley went to get Guild Master Roy. We'll send all the adventurers we can spare to assist in the cleanup, though life mages will be assigned to assisting Marcus and the other physicians."

"Very Good," said vice governor Marsh. "Please take Wesley and a contingent of soldiers along in case of trouble."

"Affirmative," said Vice Guild Master Victor before disappearing.

"Alexis, Sorin, we'll have to trouble you to join the mages in purifying as much of the water as you can," said Vice Governor Marsh.

"We'll do as you say," said Mr. Primrose. "Sorin, I take it you know how to separate poisons from water?"

"I've got a ring of poison manipulation to help me along, so I'll be fine," said Sorin. "Where would you like me to start?"

"In the middle, where the poison isn't too weak or too strong," said Mr. Primrose. "The mages and I will start at the river entrance and work their way towards you."

Sorin set out without any hesitation. On his way, he passed adventurers and soldiers evacuating villagers away from the river. Included was his own team excluding Daphne, who was to assist in boiling the river water, who waved Sorin down as he passed. Time was of the essence, so Sorin gave them a quick nod before proceeding.

By the time Sorin arrived, the geomancers had already blocked sectioned the river. Actually, the aqueduct was a more appropriate term, as its walls were reinforced, though many people still called it the river. It was thirty feet wide and three feet deep. As a result, even a hundred-meter section was a substantial amount of water.

As ordered, Sorin began extracting poison from the river water and dumping it into a barrel. The corrupt blood was a muddy color since not all water could be separated from it.

Unfortunately, there's too much water, thought Sorin. I'll die of exhaustion before I finish this small section.

Yet, there was little else Sorin could do. He continued separating poison from water and managed to extract a full three barrels of diluted demon blood before he finally sat down on the ground, exhausted. I didn't even fully purify a single section yet, thought Sorin. The land nearest the river was already showing signs of blight.

The mages and Mr. Primrose weren't having a much better time of it. In the time that Sorin half-cleaned a single segment, they only managed to clean five despite their superior numbers. Mr. Primrose was responsible for two of these sections. At this rate, we'll be able to prevent half the potential corruption. Not nearly enough, given the stakes involved.

Seeing no better solution to their problem, Sorin could only turn to his last resort. My body has already begun absorbing the stone-melt poison, but it's not an irreversible process. If I absorb this blood-corruption poison, I'll then be able to use my own body to extract the poison instead of using my spiritual strength. I'll be able to speed up the process by ten if not twenty times!

There was naturally a drawback to this solution – by taking in so much poison that his body had yet to assimilate, Sorin would inevitably be poisoned. There was also corruption to worry about. But Sorin was beyond caring.

I can worry about corruption later, Sorin thought as he made his way into the river, ignoring the warning calls of the guards beside him. If the land is contaminated too severely, water distribution will become an issue. Non-cultivators will be the first to perish.