"Considering those problems, it was deemed necessary to draw the Zards away from the city and destroy it in their absence, so that they are left destitute of the means of war and sustenance, and rendered weak. To do this, we have spent the last several years stockpiling huge quantities of liquid fervidus flamma, an extremely combustible substance. It is stored in an underground reservoir in the foothills of the mountains, connected via aqueduct to Lake Umquam Renatusum. When the time is ripe, we will empty it into the lake and set it aflame, and our calculations show the flames reaching a height of five miles for a length of six hours, which should be enough to gain the Zard's preponderance," Wagner explained. "But wouldn't it catch the forest on fire and burn down your whole empire in the process?" I asked, alarmed at his apparent lack of vigilance. "We have been treating the trees on a ten mile radius with an anti-flammatory solution for several years as well, and it is quite impossible to set them on fire." "Which explains why you dared to have a fire pit in the trunk of a tree outpost." "Yes," he laughed, "We aren't so foolhardy as we may seem. Appearances can be deceiving." "The exodus of the Zards from Nunami is almost guaranteed by the mortal's natural curiosity and delight in the calamities of others," I said, "But how do you plan on leveling the town before the remnant raise the alarm and the mass of the people return?" "Atomic anionizers," he returned. "Which are what? They sound like they are beyond my level of understanding." "Not at all," Wagner told me, "Do not be fooled by the technically complex sounding name. An atom is the smallest form into which matter can be broken down into while still retaining its identity, and an anion is a positively charged ion, or in other words, an instance of an atom in which there are more electrons than protons, resulting in a charge of negative electricity. An atomic anionizer is just what its name would imply: a device that morphs normal atoms into atoms with an extreme negative charge by emitting massive amounts, to the tune of many millions of moles, of solitary electrons into the air through a bombing device."