The Spider King was sitting at the table, his hand supporting his enlarged stomach.

“This EnchantedBoar Bacon and HarpyEggs truly were splendid.”

The Mer Princess finished her last bite. “I still think you made a mistake for not choosing grilled fish instead of bacon, but yes, the eggs were delicious.”

“Huh? Who eats eggs with fish, you weirdo.”

Yes, the Mer Princess, despite her previous protests, ended up eating the eggs too. But let’s leave her hypocrisy aside.

Just so, she ignored the comment about beeing a wierdo and insted reached for the used plates. “Give yours to me too. I’ll wash them.”

“Here you go.”

She put the plates and cutlery in her bubble, the cleansing water there purified the dishes in no time.

“Wow! Quite an ability you have. You would make an excellent dishwasher!

“Thank you! I do try to do my maid abilities to my best! Be it dishes or clothes you can leave it to me.” She beemed him a sunny smile, taking the comment as a praise.

Conveniently so, a nearby spider cleaner put a stack of plates into her bubble, giving her a chirp of thanks and then scrambling away. Begrudgingly, she washed the entire stack in mere seconds, stacking the plates back on the table.

The Spider King chuckled seeing his maid to pout. “Job well done. Care for a desert?”

She perked up at the question.

“I have something simple, but highly delicious. [Inventory],” he took out a small jar. “It’s BlueHoney! And it tastes best then eaten with a finger,” he scooped a generous blob and into his mouth it went. “Yum! ... Go ahead, give it a try!"

She dipped the finger in, and then into her mouth it went.

“Yum, delicious!” she reached for more.

There was something captivating about watching a girl eat honey from her finger. Or rather there was something about the way this maid chose to eat it.

“Wow... You realy are enjoying it,” he swallowed the pooling saliva in his mouth, there was alot for some reason.

“Mhm... But I shouldn’t be enjoying this alone. Let’s share it, here,” she offered her honey covered finger.

Watching a girl eat honey was one thing, but eating it from her finger would be an entirely different experience! He swallowed again, opening his mouth open wide, his expectations high.

“Hey! Thanks!” the cheery voice belonged to the harpy. “Yum!” she smacked her lips, licking off the honey.

“Hey!” the Mer Princess looked at her finger with shock. It was licked clean.

“...” Watching a girl feed another girl, was also an experience.

“Hey! Hehe... You’ve said you’d share it. Why the sour expression? Hey, why are you crying?”

“If you want honey, use your own fingers, you featherbrained harpy!” the Mer protested, her eyes tearing.

“Hey! I can’t. I don’t have any.”

The Spider King nodded with simpathy and understanding. “Good point. Let me help you, here.”

“Yum! Delicious!”

“Hey!” the maid exlaimed much like a harpy would.

Another harpy manifested near the table.

“Hey! What is this! I want it too!”

“It is yumy! Hey, King, Give her some!”

“Yum!”

“...” the maid was silently pouting.

More harpies manifested, surrounding the table.

“Me! Hey, me! ... Yum!”

“Now me! ... Yum!”

“Yum!”

There was something captivating about feeding harpies the honey. Eating honey was a sweet experience, yes, but feeding it to harpies was even sweeter. So much unexpected experience.

Then suddenly, “ Yum. Thanks!” the finger was licked off clean with a chirp.

“Spider Navigator?” the Spider King looked at his finger, his expression troubled. It didn’t feel the same with a spider. How odd... The experience was not sweet.

“Yes!” The spider licked the spidery lips, or at least the equivalent of there off.

“Why are you here?” he looked at the spider, his expression slightly puzzled.

The Spider Navigator opened the spidery mouth, big and wide, but no chirps escaped it. Instead the spider looked at the Spider King expectantly, the four yellow eyes big and begging.

“Aren’t you cute. Here you go.”

“Yum! ... Spider King, we’ve reached our destination. The Dark Forest.”

“Oh? So quick? I didn’t even notice...”

“Yes! Get ready. Bye-bye.”

The navigator gave a spidery salute and scrambled away. The harpies too, curious about where the journey took them, ran outside. Suddenly the mess hall was rather empty.

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“Spider King,” the Mer Princess opened her mouth wide, her sapphire eyes big and expectant.

He showed her the empty jar of honey, it was all licked clean.

“This is so unfair...” she pouted again.

“Life is unfair,” he nodded like a sage. “Okay, let’s go outside,” he stood up to leave the table.

“Ahem! Are you going out wearing just this?” she pointed at the bath towel wrapped around his waist.

“Oh! Right...”

...

In the depths of the Dark Forest, hidden by crooked but giant trees, lay a secret outpost. The Spidery Outpost was a base established for covert operations within the Demon Realm.

The outpost served other purposes as well, such as exploring and documenting the Dark Forest. It also traded with the Mer residing in the Deep Lake. Additionally, it was a supply base for the Cream Cheese Cavalry, the Centauri mercenary band. The latter was the very reason the Spider King was here, or to be more precise, it was for their leader, the Centauri Champion.

The Centauri Champion was undertaking her own Quest, something about freeing her people and reclaiming the Centauri lands. However, she was taking too long! Her, and her people’s, presence was sorely missed within the Spider Kingdom, and the cheese storage was running dangerously low. Unacceptable!

It was time for the Spider King to lend her a spidery hand.

The spidery force, consisting of mages and warriors, disembarked the flying ship, leaving it to continue the supply runs. From here on, hidden by the darkness of the night, they would travel by land. Their new destination was the Ruins of the Centauri Castle.

Mounted atop his trusty steed, Warrior Leader Jr., the Spider King began his adventure. The maid floated beside him in her bubble, and the harpies flew ahead to scout.

They left the forest, skirted past the lake, and then emerged into expansive meadows. The terrain was mostly grass, but some areas were flooded by water, turning them into seasonal marshes.Despite the terrain, the spiders traveled quickly, and at this pace, they would reach their destination by daybreak.

The daybreak was near. The ruined castle was still distant, but its tower tops were already visible.

Just then, the harpies returned with disturbing news. With distressed Heys!, they reported an army, a siege, and Centauri barricaded inside the castle ruins.

The news shocked the Spider King. He grabbed the nearest harpy and asked, “Centauri? How are they faring?”

“Hey! Not good! I've seen... corpses..." the Forest Harpy lowered her head in sorrow.

His precious girls were... some of them... were... Dead!

“Who, who is attacking them?” the Spider King demanded.

“Oni! It is the Oni, a race of warriors!” the Forest Harpy replied.

Whoever they were, they had done something unforgivable!

“They will pay! Spiders, attack!” the Spider King commanded.

...

For centuries the Oni were the neighbors to the Centauri, both races competing for territory and dominance. The Centauri were winning for a while, but that was until the Centauri lost badly to the advancing human army; disappointing the Demon Lord and thus losing their honor.

Seeing the opportunity, the Oni attacked the weakened Centauri, raising their castle, killing their steeds, and enslaving the rest. Much honor was gained during that campaign, propelling the Oni as the best warriors within the Demon Realm.

And yet, seemingly out of nowhere, a Centauri Champion appeared, a mare previously thought dead. She attacked Oni camps, freed her people, and amassed a huge slave army in a mere few months.

Imagine the dishonor, the shame the Oni were forced to bear. This couldn't stand! The Oni would not lose the honor and the lands they'd won rightfully by blood and sword. Thus they amassed a huge army in return, attacking the Centauri Castle again. They hoped to deal a final decisive blow and end the Centauri race for good.

They brought ten thousand warriors, wearing Heavy Samurai Armour and armed with Curse Katanas. Two thousand archers, Yumi Longbows in their hands. And no less than twenty siege machines.

With odds stacked against them, the slaves died in hordes in their futile attempt to defend the castle. However, the walls remained stubborn, refusing to crumble and let in the main force.

The Oni needed one more push, one more attack, to breach the cracked gate. Soon the Centauri would cease to be.

A sound of a horn greeted the morning sun, no, it was a sound of warning from Oni Ccouts. The Oni turned to look to the east, an unknown enemy was approaching. They were coming shrouded in unnatural darkness, their forms obfuscated and hard to see.

Quickly, the Oni turned their siege machines around, aiming for the mysterious threat.

"Loose!" the Oni Engineer commanded.

An explosion resounded instead, knocking the Oni Engineer to the ground. A siege machine was blown to splinters. One and then the next.

The archers spotted distant fliers in the sky; they aimed and shot their arrows. The flyers were too high. The arrows never reached them.

More explosions resounded, shaking the archers. Some came with frost and fire, others with slime or nasty thorns, but too few to make a serious dent in their numbers.

The cloud of darkness was getting close, however, and that disturbed them the most.

"Attack them! I shall lead the charge!" The Oni Commander shouted.

Bravely the Oni split their force, a third of it running towards the approaching darkness. As they approached the veil of darkness, it thinned. With shock and drenched in cold sweat, they looked at the horrors exposed.

Monsters... terrors from the darkest Oni nightmares... they were running within the unnatural darkness. Their forms horrible and spidery. Six legs, tipped in metal like sharp spears. Their chitin obsidian black. Atop it, armor of nasty thorns and serrated spikes. In their hands axes glowing from many enchantments, and shields just as spiky as their bodies. Four eyes, yellow and radiating malice. But most importantly, they emitted that palpable aura, a chill that ran down the Oni's spines and curdled their blood... Terror.

Their hearts wavered, but they charged nevertheless. If they died, they would die with honor.

From behind the spidery stampede, orbs of purple light blinked into existence. Soon the vision of the Oni was drowned in purple. Rain of purple bolts struck them before they could strike the monsters. Nasty magic cut through their armor, boring through twice enchanted lameral plates like paper. Then gnawing at their skin, then flesh, getting inside their guts and pulping their insided. This was Dark magic, ancient and arcane, the most nasty of its kind. Like puppets with their strings cut, the first line of Oni dropped before even reaching the monstrous spiders.

But there was a second line and then a third, a thousand samurai warriors each. Craving vengeance, they finally clashed with the nightmarish spiders. Striking at them with their thousand folded katanas, weapons able to cut metal like dry bamboo.

Like thunder, like explosion, like shattered glass, that ear-piercing sound echoed throughout the battlefield. The katanas they were so proud of shattered like old pottery thrown at the wall. Impossible! But before they could face the reality, they were plunged deeper into the nightmarish abyss, the scene unfolding in front of them didn't align with what they thought was real or possible. They were plunged into a living hell.

Disembodied heads, their eyes glazed with terror, rained down like hail of stones. Limbs frozen in magical ice were shattered with a single blow, ice shrapnel hitting the Oni behind. Screams of burning men echoed around, hellish fire charred Oni alive. Others, struck by supernatural darkness, simply withered to dust, their empty armour clanging to the ground.

The third line of Oni witnessed the incomprehensible horror. The screams and cries pierced their ears. Crimson blood of their comrades rained on their faces, blinding their eyes. Ash of Oni flesh burned their lungs, stealing their breath away. Chunks of frozen meat clanged off their armour plates, shattering the remnants of their resolve. They stood there Stunned, their eyes vacantly looking at the approaching stampede of monsters. Their minds struggled to comprehend what the hell just happened.

Minutes... minutes only passed. And yet, it was enough for the darkness to claim a third of their army. The spiders chirped like one, a vicious unrecognizable curse, full of vile and anger.A monster within monsters jumped forward, leading the stampede. It was a spider unlike any other. It was different. It was positively giant. It was like an unstoppable boulder, all clad in black metal. It even had a rider. Another monster, a man, or rather a King. His most prominent feature was the horn crown and the aura he emitted. The aura of dread was similar to the Demon Lord's but many times more powerful.

"Die! You all will Die!" The monstrous king cursed at them in perfect Demonic.