"Ah.... I guess that must hurt quite a bit to have your neck turned around like that. Sorry, my bad. Let me put it back the way it was."
Seras felt his head continue to turn around his neck, pulled by some force which he could not see.
His muscles felt like they were about to tear, and some did with a horrible sound.
'Agh!!! W-what is going on!?!? This spider.... she is controlling my movements without even touching me.... all she is doing is holding out her hands and moving her fingers.....'
"D-blergh..... do.... you have the power.... to control movements of people..... with magic?"
Seras just barely managed to get these words out as he began to spit up blood.
His neck was being twisted with a violent pressure so great that he could no longer even breathe.
"Ah, whoops. That was the wrong way. I meant to turn your body to match your head, not continue turning your head.", the female spider mocked.
As soon as the she said this, Seras felt his legs and arms moving on their own, turning his body so that he was now facing the monsters.
"Ah, but don't get me wrong. I can't just control people with mana like her excellency, nor can I seduce them or use any kind of mind control. Only a higher being would be able to do something like that. It's simple, really. Watch my fingers carefully, scum."
Berith pulled the fingers of her human hand back and forth, and as she did so the body of Seras writhed with chaotic movements. He fell to the ground before he was quickly pulled up again, and looked around in fear as his thousands of soldiers merely watched as this happened.
"M-men.... attack this beast!! If you kill her, whatever spell she has cast on me will be released!!"
"Yes Sir!!"
The men surrounding Coran and Berith immediately brandished their weapons, charging en mass.
"Hey, would it be wrong for me to kill you?"
Berith raised up both of her hands, and in an instant the soldiers around her stopped their movements in their tracks.
"Wha-"
"I can't move!!!"
"Colonel!! We've been caught in the spell as well!!!"
Some soldiers screamed out, however Berith seemed to make some adjustments with her fingers, and the mouths of any who were shouting were closed.
"Hey, I asked a question. Would it be wrong for me to kill you?"
Seras looked at Berith like she was a complete abomination, his eyes filled with anger which had overtaken his fear.
"Of course it would be!!!!! You're nothing more than a monster, so perhaps you don't understand the worth of a life and the disorder created by meaningless killing, but of course it would be wrong!!!!!"
Berith thinned her eyes and smiled.
"Ah, great. So if I killed you, it would mean I'm doing something really wrong, wouldn't it? Something.... evil?"
"Of course!!!! You monster!!! You'll never get away with whatever evil acts you have planned!!! I don't know what kind of spell you have cast on us, but we have an entire Legion of 10,000 men here!!!! There's no way you can take on all of us!!!"
"Heh heh heh..... well, what about those children? You weren't doing something evil when you were about to kill them? Man.... this whole good and evil thing is really complicated, isn't that right brother?"
"Indeed it is, my good sister. For one reason or another, there seem to be no rules when it comes to good and evil. You have people like this man who claim that when some perform an action, that it is evil, but that when others do the same action, it is good. Why is good and evil measured on an individual basis? Why aren't there universal rules that everyone could just follow?"
"Isn't it because these people cannot be evil in their own minds, brother? That they themselves are figures of radiant justice who could do no wrong?"
The face of Seras seemed to writhe with fury as he shouted out in response.
"You fools!!! Killing those children was for the sake of order, for they had already done something so evil to the point where it was unforgivable!! Don't lump me in with you monsters!!! I am on the side of order and righteousness!!!!!"
"Ah, you see, brother? Have we ever met a person who doesn't claim to be on the side of justice?"
"It seems like every person I have met in my short life claims to be on the side of righteousness, dear sister. Ah wait. Except for a specific few....."
The two grinned maliciously, looking over to Seras.
"Unfortunately for you, it seems like you're faced with quite the evil. For our masters are the only beings in this world who have embraced the evil which they represent."
Seras was desperately trying to move his body, but no matter how hard he struggled, something prevented him from doing so.
"You monsters.... you'll pay for this...."
"Mhm.... well, dear brother, shall I explain to him what this so called 'spell' of mine is? After all, I would like to enjoy his face when he realizes the simplicity of the trick."
"Please do, dear sister. As a matter of fact, allow me to assist you in the casting of this spell."
Berith walked over to Seras, her human hands still raised in the air, and she looked down in him with condescending eyes.
"Have you ever heard of a puppet? It's apparently a human contraption where the body is controlled by strings.... though, usually it would be attached to a doll.... a toy, that is.... heh heh. Ah, but you won't be able to see the strings. After all, his excellency created a potion which makes the string I produce invisible- but they're sharp as wires. They've already been wrapped around not only you, but all these men around us who are frozen. Noooooow then...."
Berith looked back to the men who were frozen.
"Would it be wrong if you were to kill one another?"
----
Seras felt himself being pulled left and right, and the spider girl who stood in front of him began to play a symphony with all six of her arms and all 10 of her human fingers.
He was thrusted forward, sword in hand, and stood alongside a group of around 30 men who were also under the control of the beast, literally being played with as puppets.
Each of the men drew their weapons and right now were facing outward as they surrounded not only the two monsters, but also the traitorous children and woman.
"You.... you bitch.... are you going to force us to protect you?!?", Seras shouted. "My body.... being used to protect a monster!?!?!"
"Exactly so!! How exciting!!! Will your men attack you, or will they die by your hand!? I can't wait to find out!!!", Berith shouted.
"I will assist you, my sister. Heh heh...."
Coran too shot out a series of thin wires from his hands, which wrapped themselves around a large number of men- taking control of their bodies.
"C-Colonel!!!"
"We've been ensnared as well!!!"
"Agh!!! My body is moving on it's own!!!"
"It's not suppose to twist like this!!!!"
Now around 60 men were ensnared as puppets, surrounding the group, who were completely surrounded by an entire Legion.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
"I wonder which will give out first?? Hey brother, why don't we make this into a competition? We've each got 30 puppets. Whoever kills more people before their 30 men are torn to pieces wins!"
"I'll take you on, sister. Heh heh..."
And so, the two began to twiddle their strings, contracting and retracting their fingers like madmen while controlling the bodies of the men.
The controlled men jumped out and began furiously slashing away at the others who surrounded them.
"Agh!!!"
"The cowards!!!! They're using our own men, which they have ensnared, to attack us!!!"
"They're too scared to fight us themselves, so they're using our men!!!!!"
"The monsters!!!!"
"Horrible creatures!!! We must make our way through this line and kill them ourselves!!!!"
Many of the men charged forward to meet the attacks of the puppets in an attempt to parry them and break through the line.
"Such naive thinking..... that will only get you killed, pathetic insect....", Berith chuckled as she maneuvered many of the men she controlled such that the attacks were parried, and many of the attackers were allowed through the circle.
Only to be stabbed in the back by the people who she manipulated as puppets.
"Did you think that I would be an amateur at controlling these bodies?"
A fang poked out of the girl's lips as she grinned.
"Slaughter is perhaps the one.... and only thing I am good at."
"Agh!!!!!"
"Ugh!!!!!"
"Eeek!!!!!"
Many people fell to the ground after being stabbed in the backs and heads, screaming.
For a few of the soldiers Berith controlled, their arms had been twisted in strange ways, completely ignoring the normal capabilities of a human body.
Berith continued forcing the men to move their swords where she wanted it to even if it meant ripping them apart.
Many of these men balled in pain, but others had their mouths sewn shut and could only cry tears as their bodies were twisted horribly.
"Ahh..... looks like some of you won't be able to use those right hands anymore.... I guess I should be more careful with these precious puppets.... after all, I only have a limited number of you....."
Flicking her hands, Berith switched the swords of many of the men to their off hands.
"It might be a bit difficult to fight left handed for those of you who no longer hand usable right hands..... however...."
Berith grinned horribly.
"Fortunately, I'm ambidextrous."
She continued to move the people forward.
Their bodies now performed the movements of experienced warriors, as Berith was now treasuring them as her lifeline in this game of control.
Coran too was manipulating his puppets with a devious smile on his face as he took out man after man, slaying any who came near his men.
"So this is what it's like to be a general on the battlefield, sister!! Haha!!! It's so much fun to have the lives of these people in our hands!!!! This one goes here, that one goes there!!! And with this one...."
A man sliced off the heads of three others in a single swipe.
"Three points!! How many are you at total, my dear sister? I've counted 54 for myself thus far."
"You still have quite a way to go, dear brother. I am at 75."
"Keh heh keh....."
The two chuckled together while conducting a symphony of death around them.
"We need reinforcements!!! Everyone, close in on those two spiders!!! If necessary, cut down all those who have been captured!!! We need to kill these monsters off now!!!!", one of the Colonels shouted as he led a force of men towards the group.
"It seems like everyone is finally trying to attack seriously. What should we do, sister?"
"What should we do? We continue playing the game until we can play no more of course."
"Haha!! Of course!!!"
Hundreds of men charged at the puppets, only to be cut down. While under the skilled control of the two spiderlings, mere human soldiers were turned into formidable warriors far beyond normal levels.
However, little by little they were being worn down.
"Ah... there goes a piece of armor for one of my men... another slash and he'll die....", Coran mused.
"Did we say anything about them dying?", Berith responded.
"Oh.... I see... that's how it is, sister...."
"Of course. After all, a puppet isn't alive in the first place, right?"
"Hahaha!!!"
"AHAHAHAH!!!!!!"
"Heh heh heh!!!!!!!"
The two laughed like maniacs as they continued to control their playthings.
One was slashed to the chest, and after a scream his eyes seemed to go blank. The man had died.
"I.... I'm sorry.... I had to kill you.... now I can make it through to those monsters...."
The soldier who killed the man seemed to be remorseful, however he did not have time to even regret his actions.
The dead corpse raised it's sword and slashed down, cutting across the chest of the man so that his upper half slid across his body.
"Eh?"
The man looked up with utter confusion to see that the man who he had just killed was still moving.
"They.... are still going.... even after... cough!!!!"
The man died on the spot, his upper body splattering to the ground.
"Agh!!!!"
"Even death won't stop them!!! We have to tear them to pieces, limb from limb!!!!!", one man shouted.
A group of soldiers continued attacking the puppets, little by little reducing them to nothing, however not before hundreds of people had died already.
Necks were sliced. Heads were sent flying. Sprays of blood covered the soil, soaking it with it's crimson shade.
"All of mine have died, dear sister, however they are still somewhat in tact. Though.... I fear they will not be able to last too much longer."
"What is your number right now, dear brother?"
"823"
"I am at 1467."
"Then, we are about 1/4 of the way through this legion, no? It seems like we didn't give ourselves enough men to finish off the game from the start.... your men are in rough spots as well, no?"
"That they are. But I can make it to 2000."
"Then I will strive to reach at least half that."
The screams continued to paint the landscape, and the number of bodies piled up endlessly. From the perspective of every member of the legion, it was nothing less than a tragedy.
These two monsters had such bloodlust in their eyes, and such happiness as they orchestrated the scene of carnage. It was truly a loss for humanity that these beings even existed.
"Why..... how could they be so strong....."
"No, they must be weak themselves!! That is why they have been using our men as shields!!!! We must press on!!!!! And the fact that they have only taken over so few men shows that they can take over no more with their strange spells!!"
"Oohhhhhhhh!!!!!!!"
Many men continued to charge forward to meet their quick ends.
The bodies of the puppets became more and more useless, limbs being torn off one by one. Some had lost their feet, yet remained standing due to Berith's strings. Others had lost many arms or been twisted in horrible ways, and their faces were complete messes. Yet, the men continued to move under the control of the strings, despite the fact that the vast majority of them were already dead.
This included Seras.
His last thoughts were right before a man slashed his throat, with tears in his eyes.
'We must.... bring order.... to these creatures..... they must..... die...'
These were his last thoughts before the blood filled his lungs and he suffocated.
What followed was a massacre.
The lifeless bodies continued to fight the men of the legion desperately, until a total of 1256 men had been killed by Coran, and a total of 2586 has been killed by Berith.
At this point, the puppets which they used to create such carnage had been reduced to nothing more than bits of flesh.
Retracting her strings, Berith laughed as she stared at the remaining thousands of soldiers around her and her brother.
"It looks like game time is over, and I beat you by a landslide, brother."
"I am nowhere even close to your skill, sister. Even though their excellencies gave us the same level of power, it seems that you far surpass me. How shameful as your older brother this is."
"Ah, but we still have the rest to clean up after. So I will assist you with this as well."
"Thank you dearly, sister."
And so, the two jumped from man to man like flashes of lightning, spreading their webs around the field like a matrix.
It happened in an instant. It was such a small sliver of time that most men didn't even realize the two had left the spots they stood in.
"Agh!!!"
"I'm surrounded by these wires!!!!"
"We can't move!!! They've trapped all of us!!!"
"Grr... are you telling me that these monsters were fast enough to do this in that instant!?! Or did they set this trap up before!?!?!"
"Agh!!!"
The entire field was covered with the wires, and Berith held up a single finger.
"You were all weak. If I was some sort of battle fanatic, perhaps I might say something along the lines of 'not a single person within this unit could entertain me. Isn't there anyone interesting here?' Fortunately, I am not a battle fanatic. I don't care to fight the strong. I don't want to fight someone on the same level as myself. Why?"
Berith pulled her finger, tightening the wires and dicing up the group of roughly 6000 men in an instant.
"Because it's so much more fun to trample on the weak who believe they're strong."
----
Calerius was awoken abruptly from the horrible screams of what seemed to be thousands of people.
"What the hell is going on out there!?!", Calerius shouted, barging out of his room.
Kraven, who sat at his desk continuing his own work, barely lifted a single eye before responding.
"Why don't you go see for yourself, Legion Commander?"
The Commander rushed his way through the unorganized office, barging out the door.
What he saw was a scene of complete carnage.
Pieces of flesh and armor had been diced up by the thousands.
Blood literally painted the entire city. It had sprayed onto the walls of buildings, and the flesh covered the streets as if it were an entire foot of snow.
"What.... happened here....", Calerius whispered, stepping back in fear and shock as his eyes made their way to the center of the scene.
Children and a woman had been tied up.
Thousands of his men were on the ground, unrecognizable.
Not a single living subordinate of his was in sight.
"Ah, it looks like the leader has finally woke up!!!"
Calerius looked over to the source of the voice to see two monsters standing upright, with the features of spiders.
"This is..."
"Ah, sorry Mr. Leader. We sorta killed everyone in your unit here while you were asleep!! Man, they were creating quite the ruckus here in our village. It was so disorderly. You should keep a better leash on your men, you know? Our masters would never dare to sleep while their subordinates ran off and did as they pleased. Or perhaps they would? Hahah!! Well, either way. We taught them a lesson for you, so all is fine!! Except for one little detail...."
Before Calerius could even utter out a word, he felt an insectoid hand rummaging around within him.
It had stuck itself straight through his chest, before he even had time to blink.
It was the male creature, and he stood there in front of Calerius, grinning horribly.
"We can't let word of this get out. Of course, I wanted to avoid this.... because the disappearance of an entire legion will create a stir no matter what, however.... I suppose if we eliminate all the witnesses, then it can't be pinpointed to us just yet."
Calerius fell to the ground with a pool of blood leaking from his chest and mouth.
"Now then.... ah, children!!! These men took a whole bunch of food from our homes, but it looks like they're going to be paying us back with interest!!! Look at all the meat around us!!!"
"Yay!!!"
"Are we gonna grill tonight, dad!?"
"I wanna eat mama's cooking!!!"
Coran walked back over, untying the children and Veronica, who smiled gratefully at Coran.
"Veronica, you did very well. And you as well, my sweet children. Sticking up for me... it almost brings me to tears. I will never let any of those evil men bring harm to any of you. Now then.... I suppose I should get your mother to do some cooking for us all, right? Everyone!!! Bring all this meat to the storage!! We're going to have a feast tonight!!!!"
"Yeah!!!!!"
----