The warfront was filthy. That was the first thing Kazuki noticed.
The second? It was getting filthier.
For every village the Unwashed Horde overran, three more were choked in disease fallout: poisoned wells, plague spores, and trails of rotting waste.
Kazuki knew what he had to build.
Not walls.
Not swords.
But solutions on wheels.
The Sanitation Vanguard
Kazuki convened his elite circle: mages, engineers, alchemists, and broom-wielders who had stood with him through Blackspire and Mireholt.
They called themselves the Sanitation Vanguard—a mix of humans, elves, dwarves, and even a former demon apothecary who now brewed antiseptic potions instead of curses.
Together, they designed the Mobile Purification Stations: rune-powered caravans the size of small fortresses, built to cleanse, shelter, and counterattack.
Each station included:
Holy Pressure Tanks – Launches scalding water infused with cleansing magic
Soap Forges – Miniature cauldrons producing lye-soap from herbs and demon-fat
Laundry Zones – Rapid-sterilization chambers with rotating rune-brushes
Water Recycling Cores – Dwarven-piped systems that distill and repurify greywater
Air Purity Towers – Magical ventilation stacks that neutralize airborne plague spores
They rumbled like thunder across the plains—gleaming, steaming, unapologetically sanitary.
Enter: Grum Steelfoam
On the second day of construction, the ground shook. A wagonload of barrels, pipes, and cursing could only mean one thing:
"MAKE WAY FOR THE SOAPBEARD!"
Grum Steelfoam, dwarven engineer and proud son of Clan Soapbeard, arrived with a scowl, a forge-wagon, and blueprints written in beard oil.
He took one look at Kazuki's designs and said:
"Ye may build walls, boy… but I'll build the ones that wash themselves."
Grum's additions?
Stain-Resistant Mythril Armor – enchanted plating that repelled mold, blood, AND goblin bile
Flame-Sterilizing Exhausts – rear vents that blasted entire fields in cleansing fire
Auto-Mopping Legs – retractable feet that cleaned the ground as the wagons moved
Soap Mortars – high-arc launchers firing compressed cleansing bombs
Kazuki shook his hand (after checking for glove cleanliness) and said:
"We're going to make this continent sparkle."
Refuge and Resistance
As word spread, towns began evacuating toward the stations.
Refugees were washed, healed, clothed, and fed—all within gleaming steel-and-wood sanctuaries that smelled like lavender and victory.
But the Mobile Stations weren't just shelters.
They became bastions. Each deployment point marked a counterfront, with squads of Cleaners deployed to push back rot zones.
Some even began calling the stations by name:
"The Scrub Citadel"
"Sanctuary Suds"
"The Lather Engine"
And most fearsome of all: "Foambreaker Alpha", driven by Grum himself.
The Horde Responds
From the Eastern Blightlands, the Unwashed Horde watched these machines with disgust—and fear.
They sent spores to infect the wheels. They sent bile spirits to melt the pipes.
They sent warbands with acid-soaked axes.
But the stations held.
And as the first pressure-bomb dropped into a goblin trench, scalding their plague reserves and melting their filth to sterile puddles, Kazuki muttered:
"Cleanliness isn't passive. It's a war we win every day."