The first rays of the sun hit the grey stones of Centauri Castle, illuminating its now fully-repaired walls. The early morning sky burst into a chorus of harpish heys as fresh recruits took flight, scouting the Centauri Territory. As the old saying went: "An early spider catches the prey." The Spider King took it to heart, leading by example, busying himself with the web of schemes that constantly churned in his mind.

Far outside the castle, he stood amidst a patch of barren land, his plans—woven like intricate webs—leading him here. The Spider Advisor had recommended this distant patch, a place where the heretical seeds of poverty used to grow, the place were the taint of the mushy blandness was forever gone. Cleansed.

“I am truly blessed with competent advisors,” he mused aloud, casting a glance at the spider beside him.

Not the Spider Advisor himself—no, that one never left his post. This was the Spider Archmage, a loyal companion, cloaked in veils of dark, tangible shadow.

“We’re always here to support you,” the spider chirped, its voice soft yet ominous beneath the curtain of condensed night around it.

"Now then," the Spider King said, drawing a seed from his SeedArchive, the thorny thing prickling his palm. "A simple ThornVine you shall be no more. [Comprehend]," he muttered, his mind dancing through webs of arcane blueprints. He envisioned the new path, its mutation already unfolding in his imagination. “Seize your new potential, [Mutate]!”

With a surge of his will, he bathed the seed in his mana. The air crackled with energy, and the seed throbbed with an eerie, unnatural glow of purple.

“Show us what you have become! [Grow].”

With a flick of his wrist, he cast the seed four spider spans—just about four meters—into the field. The seed struck the ground and exploded into life. It pulsed, growing larger with every throb, like a ball made of thorns. Then, with a snap, four thorny limbs shot out from the pulsating ball, snaking through the soil, searching hungrily for prey.

"Good!" the Spider King observed, his voice filled with approval. "But for what comes next, you will need to be stronger. [Reinforce]!" His hand glowed as he imbued the growing monster with hardened strength. The thorns sharpened, the vines thickened, reinforced with his mastery.

“Spider King! There’s another! Don’t forget it!” the Spider Archmage chimed in, its dark veil trembling with excitement.

“Ah, I wouldn’t dare.” He smirked. “[Spidery Magnificent]!”

With another flick of his wrist, a wave of energy surged into the plant, Infusing it with the deadly elegance and unbreaking loyalty of the spider. The plant twitched and rippled, and from the mass of vines sprouted two more thorny appendages—six in total. A perfectly spiderish number.

“Better,” the Spider Archmage chirped, pleased. The shadowy spider handed him a gleaming stone. Not an ordinary pebble, but a SoulStone, filled with the energy of a single soul. "Your moment has come, my King. Time to shine."

The Spider King felt a rush of anticipation. He had recently leveled up, unlocking a new skill—Splice. The power to combine life into something entirely new. With this stone, he would finally test its true potential.

“The moment of truth, then.” He took the SoulStone, feeling the squirrel's soul giggling inside it, desperate for release. “Let’s see if this works, [Splice]!”

He crushed the stone in his hand, reducing it to dust, but what remained was no simple fragment. A smiling squirrel face—wispy and translucent—drifted up from his palm. It hovered for a moment, giving a wink to the Spider King, before it shot forward toward the mutated plant.

The squirrel's soul merged with the monstrous vines, and the plant convulsed, its thorny limbs flailing wildly. It grew larger, misshapen, its form changing ever so slightly until—suddenly—it stopped. The thorny limbs drooped to the ground, motionless.

“Did it... Did it fail?” The Spider King took a cautious step closer, uncertainty creeping into his voice.

Before he could question further, a message appeared before his eyes:

[Congratulations! You have created your first monster.]

“A monster?” The Spider King’s surprise was evident. He had not expected such a result.

The Spider Archmage clapped its spidery hands, thrilled. “As expected of the Spider King! Or should I say... Monster King?”

Ah, yes. He was a Monster King, not human, but a variant—a powerful, monstrous ruler. Yet still... to have created such a being.

"[Inspect]," the Spider Archmage darted forward, circling the still creature. “It even has a monster core. Petty, of course. It’s only a level 1 monster, after all.”

“I... I created a monster,” the Spider King murmured, his mind racing to catch up with the reality before him. Yes, he had done it before—like with Johny and the Myconid Queen—but those times had been influenced by higher, chaotic forces, the ChaosBlessed perk. But now the unpredictable perk was silent. This felt... different. Inevitable. As if this was the natural next step. Natural and perhaps even mundane. The harpies will always sing their hey’s, and Monster Kings, well... create monsters?

The Spider Archmage pointed. “Look! It’s moving again!”

The plant monster stirred, jabbing its thorny appendages into the ground, lifting itself up. Its form resembled a bulbous, thorn-covered mass, walking on spindly vine-like legs. It buzzed—a low, droning sound that made the hairs on one’s neck rise.

“Aww,” the Spider Archmage chirped. “Isn’t it cute? It sings to us!”

Despite its terrifying appearance, the plant monster didn’t seem hostile. In fact, the Spider King felt something... a connection. It was faint, almost imperceptible, but there was a thread linking his core to the creature's.

“Sit,” he commanded.

The plant monster immediately slumped to the ground, obeying.

“Roll.”

It rolled, flailing its thorny vines.

“Speak.”

The creature buzzed.

“It even knows tricks!” The Archmage bounced in delight. “Try something more complicated!”

“Spin clockwise twice, speak, then roll again.”

The monster gave a sad, droning buzz, unable to follow. Its vines drooped down.

“Ah, too much for it.”

“Well, let’s not get distracted,” the Spider King said, brushing off the minor failure. “There are many more plants to Splice.”

…

A while ago, the Spider King sought the counsel of the Spider Advisor, his mind heavy with a single promise: to make the Centauri Territory great again. The Spider Advisor responded with a plan so intricate, so brilliantly spiderish, that it mirrored the complexity of a web spun by no less than a thousand of spiders. It was no simple web, but rather a plan of many threads, each requiring the Spider King’s careful participation. Only once these threads were spun together, perfectly aligned, could the King’s ambition be realized.

The Centauri Territory was no stranger to conflict. Once, the Oni Shogunate had swept across its borders, sacing the Centauri and seizing their most fertile and valuable lands. Other demonic kingdoms skulked at its edges, ever-hungry for a larger slice of the Centauri’s domain. In the Demon Realm, such struggles were a tradition, a ceaseless contest where rival races clashed, believing only the strongest deserved to rise. But the Spider King’s plan required something different. The Centauri could not rebuild their strength amid constant battle; they needed time to recover what had been lost, to cultivate their strength (and perhaps land) once more. They needed to be left alone.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Thus, the first thread of the spiderish plan was spun: to make the Centauri Territory undesirable, a place no Demon would covet. It was a deception, a carefully woven façade meant to deter any who would come too close. The solution was elegantly spiderish—an illusion of corruption, of cursed and blighted land. The Spider King was charged with making it so, to twist the land’s appearance with nightmarish flora, an eerie and grotesque transformation meant to signal magical affliction. A well-spun lie, one that only spiders could perfect.

And so, here we are. In the present moment, standing on the threshold of that first thread. The Spider King, cloaked in shadow and power, stood tall in a barren field that stretched like a canvas of desolation. In one hand, he held a large, weathered bag brimming with mutated seeds—monstrous creations of his own design. In the other, a peculiar tome, its pages alive with ancient knowledge. At his side, much like a loyal shadow, the Spider Archmage lurked—a figure of quiet menace, his four eyes reflecting the cold light of dusk. The two of them, king and mage, stood like performers before a macabre stage, the crowd of onlookers—a mixture of spiders, Centauri, and Oni—gathered in anticipation.

The land had been transformed into a ritual ground, runes etched into the soil, awaiting the power that would soon flow through it. The crowd watched, a strange sense of excitement mingling with unease. They knew that what they would witness was but the first of many steps, the beginning of the Spider King’s grand web, one that would weave the future of the Centauri Territory with threads of darkness and chaos. It was a carefully orchestrated moment, where every action, every word, would help to spin that first thread of the plan into motion.

The Spider King concentrated. The monster blueprints in his mind were clear, he selected the best mutated seeds, the best candidates, much of which he had already tested with the Spider Archmage. He reached into the bag, his hand scattering the multi-shaped and multi-coloured seeds in the field. His voice rose, deep and commanding.

"I cast these seeds into the hungry earth. They are not mere plants but promises. Promises of monstrous life to be."

He kept scatering the seeds, his purple eyes gleaming with spiderish power. The etched runes glowed, lighting up the bareren field in a magical light, albeit only a faint glow.

The Spider Archmage tilted its head toward the crowd of spiders gathered around them, not all, only a select few—his most trusted apprentices—ready to assist with the spell. Their bodies, black and sleek, shifted eagerly at the Archmage's signal.

“Lend your power,” the Spider Archmage commanded, the chirp reverberating through the air like a distant shriek. “Feed the soil with your mana, weave your essence into this magic, so that our King's will might take hold and grow.”

The Spider King continued. "Observe! I do not simply plant… I Grow life into being. These seeds will Evolve and Mutate. They will not be left to vague fate or idle nature. No! There are now in a web of chaos!”

At another signal, the apprentice spiders positioned themselves in a circle around the field. In perfect synchrony, they began to hum, their chirps harmonizing in a haunting melody that rippled through the air. Dark mana poured from their spidery bodies, pooling into the ground, where the Spider King’s seeds awaited transformation.

The Spider Archmage turned his attention back to the Spider King. “Now, my liege, the stage is set. The earth is brimming with our power. The time has come to unleash the full strength of your command. We, your loyal followers, will hold the flow steady—your will shall shape it!”

The Spider Archmage raised its claw, its form briefly expanding as if absorbing the surrounding shadows, its mana feeding into the ritual alongside its apprentices. Purple tendrils of energy spiraled outward from the spider, binding with the magic already surging in the field.

“Observe! I shall Splice the chaos seeds with the essence of creatures. They might be small, insignificant, but they are full of life. Spider Kingdom’s Squirrels come forth and give us your blessing!"

The Spider King raised his other hand, the pages in the tome he held flipped on their own. Spitting forth a series of magical circles but also unleashing a wave of souls—ghostly, wispy forms that took on smiling, feral shapes. Squirrel faces, grinning with the chaotic glee of freedom, thousands of them swirled around the Spider King in a vortex of souls.

The Spider Archmage’s eyes smiled as they watched the chaos unfold. “Yes, yes, Grow, Evolve, Mutate,” the spider muttered to itself, excitement lacing its chirp. “Seeds, become the monsters our King envisions. Become the protectors of the Centauri Territory!” The spider poured the mana nessesary to achieve the transformation.

Just then, one of the smaller spiders faltered, its mana flickering. The Spider Archmage's gaze snapped to it, and with a swift flick of the claw, the Spider Archmage reinforced the spiderling, sharing some of the mana to steady the flow. "We must not falter!" the spider hissed sharply. “The King’s will must be absolute! Pour everything you have into the land!”

The web of magical circles glowed with increased power, and the seeds responded, growing big and monstrous in mere seconds. Their thorny tendrills beckoning the vortex of souls to come closer.

The Spider King stretched his arms wide, his voice booming with authority. "Fly, my little critters. Merge with the seeds of chaos. Bring them life! Not the kind of life that grows under the sun’s tender rays—but life from nightmares. Life that thrives in shadow, in terror, in Chaos."

The SquirrelSouls laughed as they darted into the soil, diving into the mutated plants. At once, the earth began to tremble, cracking in a glowing spider-webbing from where the plants rooted their tendrils.

The earth heaved, splitting open as the mutated plants grew ever bigger, but they did not grow like normal plants. No, the Spider King’s Farmer perks took hold. From the cracks in the earth, vines emerged—dark, writhing, covered in pulsating thorns, their movement unnatural, as though driven by purpose.

The Spider Archmage and its apprentices maintained the delicate balance between chaos and control, allowing the King’s vision to take full root.

"Awaken, my children!" the Spider King’s voice thundered over the field. "You are not mere plants. You are nightmares made flesh! I have woven the threads of chaos into your very essence. Grow! Stretch forth from this barren soil and become the monsters you were meant to be!"

The plants obeyed, their monstrous shapes unfurling in mutated beauty. Tendrils and thorns, thick as limbs, curled through the air, the vines themselves crawling like serpents seeking prey. Their appendages twitched with newfound life, given a purpose that defied nature’s order.

"Plant monsters, you are not born merely to terrify. No. You are the guardians of this land." His hand swept across the field, where more of the monstrous flora began to take shape. Some bore massive, jagged teeth like flowers of death, others had eyes sprouting from the stems, glaring with malevolent intelligence. "Those who seek to trespass here will know only fear. They will see you, feel you, and they will run. That is your task."

The monstrous plants groaned as they continued to grow, towering and twisting into impossible shapes. Their forms were the stuff of nightmares, and yet, in their misshapen grotesqueness, there was beauty—a twisted, protective beauty.

"Terror is the weapon I give you," the Spider King intoned, his hand pulsing with dark power. "Your presence alone will turn armies away. Let the fools who dare cross these lands be struck dumb with fear at the sight of you."

The Spider King raised his hands up towards the sky, and from under his feet surged the CentipedeSouls, these ones darker, more twisted than the souls before. They flew into the monstrous plants, disappearing into their cores. The plants reacted immediately, their thorns sharpening, their vines hardening like ironoak under the King’s will.

"I grant you more than fear, though. I give you strength. Strength and will to protect this land, to crush those who would dare destroy it. Your thorns will pierce armour. Your vines will strangle life itself. You will not only be nightmare-born; you will be Reinforced with monstrous viciousness."

The plants groaned as their monstrous appendages grew thicker, harder, their tendrils coiling with reinforced power, ready to tear through anything that challenged them.

The field now teemed with life, but not the kind that belonged in the natural world. These were terrors with purpose, born from chaos, but shaped by the Spider King’s will. Still, one final touch was needed.

The Spider Archmage spoke again, the chirp triumphant as the last of the ritual’s power settled into the soil. “My King,” the spider said with a sinister smile creeping across its many eyes, “your monster garden is almost complete. Just one more push!”

"You are born from chaos, yes," the Spider King continued, his voice softer now, as though addressing his children. "But you are also my creations. And as such, you must bear my mark. You must carry the glory of spiders, the mastery of webs, the perception of four-eyed predators and the speed of the six-legged hunters."

He placed a hand on the nearest vine, which seemed to ripple under his touch. Chaotic energy flowed from him into the plant, and across the entire field, the monstrous plants began to change once more. Webs of dark, sticky silk began to appear between their vines and thorns, catching the light like threads spun from shadow. Their tendrils now bore the intricate patterns of spiders, their surfaces bristling with a spiderish sheen.

"I bestow upon you the Spidery Magnificence. Your thorns shall carry venom, your tendrils the cunning of webs. Let your enemies become tangled in you, helpless before your might. You will not only be fearsome—you will be unbeatable Hunters! Masters of your own fate!"

At last, the transformation was complete. The once-barren land had become a nightmarish garden, a living fortress of monstrous plants, their tendrils writhing, their eyes glowing with intelligence. Yet despite their terrifying forms, they stood as protectors of the Centauri Territory, bound to the Spider King’s will.

"Centauri, look upon my works," the Spider King adressed, his voice filled with pride. "This land is no longer barren, no longer weak. It is now a fortress of nightmares, a garden of horrors that none shall breach."

He looked to the crowd, their faces a mixture of awe and fear.

"These creatures are ours, born from my power. They will guard the Centauri land with their lives. They will protect what is yours, and what is mine. But to those who would dare set foot here uninvited—they will find no welcome, no mercy. Only Terror. Only Death."

The Spider Archmage stepped back, its form dissolving slightly into the veil of shadows that surrounded it, allowing the Spider King to deliver his final declaration to the crowd.

The Spider King lowered his arms, the final surge of Chaos magic sinking into the soil. "This is the first thread I weave," he said, his voice low but filled with promise. "And it is only the beginning. My monsters will grow, and with them, the Centauri Territory will rise once more. Stronger. Unyielding. Protected by horrors that none will dare to challenge. The Centauri Territory will be great again!"

The spiders erupted in a thunderous chirp. “All hail the Spider King!”

The Centauri slammed their feet on the ground and their fists at their chests. “All hail the Monster King!”