The marker shimmered and lightly changed the direction it was pointing at. Even though we have been basically moving at the pace of someone running full speed for half an hour, for now, no trace of the arachne could be found.
“You still haven’t talked about Morrigan.”
Lily opened his mouth. I was a little bit worried about his stamina when we started to move fast even though for us this was more like power walking than sprinting. Despite my worries, the stamina enhancements he received with the items he was given seemed to be helping him greatly. Maybe a little bit too greatly as he talked nonsense.
“Morrigan and I have nothing between us except camaraderie. Why do people keep thinking we have something?”
Seriously, it was getting annoying...
“Because we have eyes, duh.”
Lily answered my rhetorical question. I looked at Elandris and Methild’s reactions but since they didn’t know Morrigan they kept silent.
“You need to get your eyes checked then. She can do much better than me, not to mention age difference.”
My body may be younger now but I was old enough to be her grandfather for fuck’s sake.
“Hey, give yourself some credit. You are quite the looker. Plus, she has daddy issues. Age difference works in your favor.”
I couldn’t help but sigh at Lily’s audacity.
“You are going a little bit too far. Don’t just assume things about her.”
Morrigan wanted to live up to her father. That made her feel inferior and not good enough but she was still young. Back on Earth when it was peaceful she still would have the support of her parents while trying to finish college and get a job. But here she had to represent beastkin and fight against oppression. With an unsteady society like this, it was normal that she still had doubts about herself.
“I spent a lot of time with girls with daddy issues. Trust me, I know one when I see them. You are the perfect mature man they look for.”
I stopped, surprising everyone.
“Lily.”
My voice was cold and deep.
“This is enough.”
I removed my helmet so that Lily could see what kind of face I was making. Even though we were no longer in the military, I made the same face and used the same tone when I really wanted him to follow my orders. Lily's expression shifted, the playful demeanor fading as he met my gaze. He must have realized the seriousness in my tone and the weight behind my words. His tendency to banter and joke around sometimes pushed what was acceptable and I had to remind him.
“Okay, I’ll drop it. I was just trying to lighten the mood.”
He said, his voice more subdued now. I sighed once again. I didn’t like to talk to him like this. I don’t want to boss around people like this.
“I told you to not speak about our comrades like that before. Not everyone is like you or knows you as well as me. If Morrigan heard that she might get the wrong idea.”
I started to move again. Our elven companions didn’t say anything and a part of me was glad for it. I knew that at least Elandris was confused with our conversation. He had seen Morrigan and knew that in outside we were basically the same age. I hoped that the presence of a Fallen Child would distract him from thinking too deeply about it. Damn it, Lily. I don’t want to spread out the fact that we are outworlders and chosen of individual Stars.
“Bark!”
Gökbörü barked and I stopped. I quickly looked down to see another web covering the ground below. I took a deep breath and held it in. Even with this unnatural darkness dampening our senses, I could hear the spiders moving around.
“Looks like we have gotten closer. The problem is how will we move forward. Methild, any fire-based magic?”
I wish Amaterasu was with us now. Methild shook her head.
“No. Fire magic is not my specialty.”
Guess that made sense. They lived inside a tree.
“Gökbörü.”
(Your partner is sharing the skill Ice Wolf’s Breath with you.)
I lifted my foot and stepped on the web. Cold quickly spread, freezing it.
“It may be slippery but it is still better than being stuck.”
My breath turned into a small cloud due to the cold as I explained. The web cracked and broke into several pieces as I walked along it. It was consuming a fair bit of mana but I could always rely on Gökbörü for some extra.
“Growl.”
Gökbörü popped his head out of my chest plate, synchronizing with me to help freeze the webs. To spend less mana and be more efficient, I had to focus on how to use the skill. Of course, using it randomly still worked but I needed to understand them if I wanted to master them. It was harder to do this with Ice Wolf’s Breath as it was Gökbörü’s skill, not mine. I was merely borrowing it. Still, I focused on how the mana moved.
Elandris told how mythical beasts like Gökbörü were more natural phenomena. Perhaps thinking the skills he had like that was helpful. I thought of cold. The burning sensation I would get after playing with snow for too long. I thought of branches being weighed down with large amounts of snow they had. The crunching sound the snow made when I walked rang in my head.
“Poyraz.”
Lily’s call snapped me out of my focus.
“What happened?”
I turned to him and saw all of my companions huddled together.
“I understand that you are freezing the webs but can you tone it down a bit? We are going to be ice cubes if you lower the temperature more.”
Oh. I guess I was too effective as my focus on freezing the webs had inadvertently affected the temperature around us. With a mental command, I dialed back the intensity of the Ice Wolf's Breath skill, allowing the surrounding air to warm up slightly.
“Poyraz, to the left!”
Elandris roared a warning as my focus shifted to decreasing the intensity of my skill. Despite that, I was able the swat the spider flying toward us. It flew back in pieces as my heavy shield slammed against its body.
“We must be close to her!”
Methild exclaimed.
"We need to keep moving if we do not want to get showered by flying spiders."
I said, scanning our surroundings for any signs of movement but my eyes still couldn’t penetrate the darkness. As we continued forward, navigating through the icy webs and keeping a wary eye out for any ambushes, the tension in the air grew thicker with each passing moment. The sense of unease lingered, fueled by the knowledge that we were closing in on our elusive foe.
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Suddenly, a disturbance in the shadows caught my attention. I raised my shield defensively as a horde of spiders emerged from the darkness, their gleaming eyes reflecting the dim light around us. With a grim determination, I prepared to defend against the oncoming assault.
“Their movements are different.”
I shared my observation.
“They were trying to surround us before. Now they are focusing on one side. They are trying to block us from going in that direction.”
With Gökbörü at my side and my companions ready for battle, we braced ourselves for the impending confrontation. The air crackled with tension as the first wave of spiders lunged towards us, their chittering cries filling the air. Gigantifying my shield to create a barricade, I pulled Shadowchaser’s Bow from my bag of holding. This time I wasn’t stingy with my mana so the barricade was big enough. From the safety of our barricade, we sniped them as they rushed towards us, slamming their bodies against my shield. Many were torn apart before even getting close to us by Elandris and my arrows, Lily’s wind blades, and Methild’s magic.
They soon realized that they couldn’t break through my shield and tried to climb to it. However, their numbers were already low and the remaining ones couldn’t withstand our barrage.
As the last of the spiders fell, the clearing fell silent once more, save for the sound of our heavy breaths and the crackling of ice beneath our feet. I took a moment to assess our surroundings, scanning for any further signs of danger.
My gaze shifted towards the marker and I noticed that it was less bright than before. It was possible that the magic Methild used to track down the arachne was fading away as time went on. I could ask Methild about it but if arachne were close and heard that all she had to do to lose us was run away just a little more things could get uglier.
“Will you not come out?”
I called out to the darkness.
“You called us slaves. You claimed that you were free. Yet all you do is use cheap tricks and run away. Come out and show how strong you are. The strength you gained by falling from Mother Tree’s grace.”
The taunting wasn’t exactly something I liked to do. But considering how emotionally and irrationally the arachne behaved before, it could work to lure her out. As my voice echoed into the darkness, there was a tense silence that hung in the air, broken only by the faint breathing of my companions. For a moment, it seemed as though our words had fallen on deaf ears, and I prepared myself for the possibility that the Fallen Child might not bite the bait. However, just as I began to doubt the effectiveness of my taunt, a low, sinister chuckle filled the air, sending shivers down my spine.
"You dare to mock me, mortal?" Her voice was laced with venom, dripping with malice as she regarded us with a mixture of disdain and amusement. "You think yourself superior, yet you cower behind your shield like a frightened child."
I put my bow back into my bag and grabbed my spear from the ground.
“Bold words from someone hiding in shadows. Afraid you are going to lose your head again?”
The marker suddenly shifted to point in the opposite direction.
“Elandris! Watch out!”
From the shadows emerged the figure of the arachne, her twisted form moving with an unsettling grace as she stepped into the dim light. Its sharp spider legs aimed to pierce Elandris, who was at behind our group. Even with my warning Elandris barely moved out of the way, dodging a lethal wound but getting injured as the legs chipped his skin.
I leaped forward while leaving my shield behind but Lily was faster than me. With blades coated by mana and wind, he blocked the attacks aimed at Elandris.
“You!”
She summoned a spear made out of mana but I was already on her. My spear blocked her and I managed to look into her eyes. Her face was more twisted than before. Spider features seemed to overtake her elven features as her face resembled more of a spider than before.
"Your persistence is commendable," she hissed her voice a sibilant whisper that sent a chill down my spine. "But it will not save you from the inevitable."
With a surge of strength, I pushed back against her, driving her back with the force of my attack. Lily moved in tandem with me, his blades flashing with deadly precision as he launched a flurry of strikes against her, forcing her to defend against our combined assault. Meanwhile, Methild and Elandris provided support from the rear, unleashing volleys of arrows and bolts of magic to keep the arachne off balance.
“Only inevitable is your death.”
I said as I chopped her elven part’s arm. It collapsed to the floor as Lily cut off 6 of her legs. Another beam of mana tore a hole in her chest. Her regeneration tried to patch up her wounds but it wasn’t fast enough.
“Where is Nidhogg?”
I demanded to know as I stepped on her spider head. All of her legs and both of her arms were gone. She had no way of running away or fighting back. But before I killed her I wanted to get all the information I could from her. The Fallen Child's twisted laughter echoed through the clearing, her voice filled with defiance even in the face of defeat. Despite her dire situation, she seemed determined to maintain her facade of superiority, refusing to yield even as her strength waned.
“Even if you reach it you won’t be able to defeat it! It will free us from the shackles of this tree! “
I pressed my foot down harder, causing sticky fluids to come out of her body.
“Tell me where it is.”
“Curse you human!”
She looked at Methild and Elandris.
“Curse you too! How can you stand having to rely on a damn tree! We can grow more! Children don’t have to grow stuck in a tree! We don’t need her! If we absorbed others! If we suck out their strength we can grow strong enough to be independent of this tree!”
My spear severed her head from her shoulders. This time I didn’t stop with that and tore the spider half to pieces.
(You collected Soul of Fallen Child of Elves.)