In front of them, the ground was shattered, creating a titanic fracture. The canyon was so deep and vast that Lucien had to strain his eyes to see the other side of it. Crimson coral clung to its walls, spilling over the edge like a torrent of blood.
A long time ago, a graceful bridge of white stone connected the two sides of the canyon together. Now, however, it was broken, with only its base remaining in place.
And by the remnants of that bridge stood yet another stone statue.
He was clad in an archaic cuirass, with a beautiful spear resting on his shoulder. The warrior was facing south, as though greeting the travelers who traveled on the road to reach the ancient city. Just like the rest, his head was missing.
More than that, the whole statue was covered in vast sheets of dull grey spiderweb, as if dressed in a solemn burial shroud.
Behind him, Effie and Sunny were talking about something, but he ignored them. Rather, he slowly expanded his storm sense range towards the statue, even though the matriarch spider was dead, her offspring were not.
There were dozens of them in there, all of them awakened. Although some of them seemed to be stronger. He informed the cohort of such, and Nephis nodded.
"We need to clear the nest and climb the statue before the sun sets. Prepare for battle..."
A clear and melodic sound of a ringing bell reverberated through the air above the Labyrinth, alerting the monstrous spiders hiding in the enormous cocoon of grey webs that a new prey came knocking on their door.
Moments later, swift bodies clad in heavy plates of iron armor shot from beneath the grey spiderweb, moving through the steel wires with terrifying speed. There were enough Nightmare Creatures in that wave to obliterate anything that stood in their way… seemingly.
However, what stood in their way were two figures — one tall and boisterous, the other one on the shorter side and radiating a strange feeling of indifferent firmness.
They were Effie and the Stone Saint. Both held their shields raised, the tips of their weapons resting on their edges. As the huntress grinned, the Shadow silently struck the rim of her shield with the blade of her sword twice.
As if answering that call, a vicious black arrow suddenly appeared from somewhere above, hitting the leading spider right in one of its many eyes. The monster's legs buckled, and it fell to the ground, forcing those creatures that followed behind to either dash around or jump over the massive body.
A fraction of a second later, the wave of spiders crashed into the small shield wall. A deafening roar of iron striking against iron resounded under the grey skies of the Forgotten Shore like a thunderclap. Despite the furious force of the assault, Effie and the Stone Saint somehow held — at least for now.
As soon as the momentum of the iron spiders slowed down a little, Nephis and Caster appeared out of nowhere and attacked the mass of repulsive creatures from the sides. At the same time, a stonelike sword and a beautiful bronze spear lashed out from behind the shields.
Black blood splashed into the air.
Meanwhile, Sunny softly landed on the ground behind the Nightmare Creatures and stealthily moved through the shadows, swiftly approaching them from the back.
The two shields parted momentarily, and a purple blur shot out from between them. A soft whistle filled the air briefly, and three spiders fell over dead, cut cleanly in half.
[You have killed an Awakened Beast..]
[You have killed an Awake…]
[You have kil…]
Lucien tuned out the spell's voice and kept going, with each swing of his blade, a spider would fall. He was a whirlwind of steel and lightning, ripping through the mass of spiders.
With Effie and the Stone Saint holding the front, Nephis and Caster attacking from the sides, Lucien causing havoc in the middle, and Sunny closing the trap from behind, the monstrous arachnids were now surrounded from all sides.
…Well, sort of.
Of course, a small group of dormant humans could never hope to truly surround this many superior Nightmare Creatures, not even with the help of a monster of their own. Trapped or not, as soon as the iron spiders had the time to react, they could easily overwhelm and tear them to pieces.
The few seconds of the advantage they had were coming to an end. A moment or two later, the spiders were bound to come to their senses. Even though the cohort had managed to kill twenty or so in this short window of time, there were still enough of the deadly creatures to rip them to shreds.
Just before the spiders were able to turn the tide of the battle in their favor, Effie and the Stone Saint , who was following Sunny's command — suddenly moved to the side.
Nephis, Caster, Lucien, and Sunny braced themselves.
Behind the improvised shield wall stood Cassie. She was holding a wooden staff in her hands, while an elegant rapier hovered in the air above her shoulder.
The tip of the rapier pointed directly at the spiders. As though following the direction of the Quiet Dancer's blade, Cassie moved her staff and activated its enchantment.
Immediately, a powerful gust of hurricane wind slammed into the mass of the Nightmare Creatures, sending several of them reeling and throwing clouds of dust into the air. Of course, it wasn't strong enough to truly throw these abominations off their balance or damage them in any way.
However, that wasn't the plan.
These creatures had a uniquely powerful sense of hearing. Which was rather strange, considering that they had no organs that resembled ears at all. The truth of the matter was that spiders were able to feel the vibrations of sound waves.
They were also masterful architects, using the vibrations in the specially created threads weaved into their webs to sense the movements of their prey from afar.
As the powerful wind threw dust into the air and made every wire of every surrounding spiderweb vibrate all at once, they were momentarily disoriented.
The members of the cohort were waiting for this exact moment. Instantly, they attacked with ferocious determination, spilling rivers of viscous black blood onto the ground. Lucien dismissed his sword for his preferred weapon: the spear. Instantly, the ferocity with which he attacked increased twofold, and so did his speed.
By the time the iron spiders came back to their senses, their numbers were significantly diminished.
…But there were still too many of them.
After that, the battlefield became consumed with chaos. There was no time for plans or tactics anymore. Every member of the cohort had to face off against multiple opponents, fighting with desperate resolve against enemies that surpassed them both in terms of personal power and numbers.
The battle fell apart into several small pockets of fearsome violence. Kai was trying to support his companions from above, but with how intense the fighting got, he was having trouble finding opportunities to take shots without risking hitting them.
He was too afraid to take a risk, knowing all too well how harrowing the effects of the Blood Arrow were. If even the Nightmare Creatures of higher rank were doomed to succumb to a torturous death after being wounded by the ghastly Memory, humans like them had no chance of surviving.
For now, people on the ground were on their own.
Lucien had slowed down after a while, choosing to focus on his destructive potential rather than his speed. The Stone Spear was covered in lightning, paralyzing whatever it struck before swiftly killing it.
Every few seconds, he'd enter his soul sea momentarily. Both to rest his mind and to devise a proper counterattack. But soon, he couldn't even do that. If he hesitated for even a second, he would die.
'Fuck it,' He grit his teeth and sped up once again. As the world slowed down, Lucien flipped his grip on the spear and raised it high up. A surge of lightning passed through his arms into the stone, and a bright glow encompassed his part of the battlefield.
As the spear pulsed with barely contained lightning, Lucien stabbed it down at the ground.
A deafening cry of lightning tore into the air, and a storm exploded around him. The spiders around him dropped dead as the storm passed over them. Lucien felt a trickle of storm fragments make their way into his cores.
Ripping his spear out of the ground, he looked around for more nightmare creatures, but there were none.
The gargantuan cocoon of steel spiderwebs was empty. Corpses of its previous inhabitants littered the ground, oozing with black blood.
The cohort had cleared the entire nest full of Awakened abominations.
No matter how incredible, this was the undeniable truth.
They had won.
Heaving a long sigh of relief, Lucien finally allowed himself to relax and leaned heavily on his spear. He had used up a big chunk of his reserves of storm essence there. He needed a while to rest.
Sitting down on the ground, Lucien dismissed his memories and brought up his storm fragment counter.
Storm Fragments : [73/3000]
He had gained fifty fragments in that battle. A faint smile made its way to his face. That made all the pain worth it.
Satisfied, he got up and summoned his sword. Now for the disgusting part: harvesting the soul shards. And there was a lot to harvest.
Eventually, they were done with the gruesome job of fishing out the soul shards out of the dead spiders. After which Nephis began distributing the soul shards to everyone.
When she came to him, she paused for a moment, draining most of the essence out of the shards before handing them to him. Lucien nodded in thanks and stored them with the rest of his storm shards. He'd have to fill them up later.
After it was done, Changing Star turned towards the sun, calculating something. After a few moments, she sighed and said.
"We still have some time. Let's explore the nest before ascending the statue."
Lucien shrugged, he was fine with it. There were no other spiders left in the nest, a little bit of exploring wouldn't hurt them.
The nest was formed by endless wires of the strange metal web and resembled a vast sphere. It was built around one of the legs of the stone colossus, effectively blocking the path to the bridge.The entrance was situated high above the ground, and extremely wide.
Inside, it was dark and damp. Drops of black water were falling from above, creating an ominous melody.
Inside the giant nest of spiderwebs, a desiccated corpse of the colossal Matriarch lay shriveled on the floor, its iron carapace shattered by some devastating blow. The creature was long dead, but the sight of it was still terrifying.
The vast abdomen of the brood mother, however, appeared to have been severed much later than her fatal battle against the Lord of the Bright Castle. It almost looked as if it was… torn apart from within.
Lucien shivered involuntarily, he wanted nothing more than to burn it down to dust.
Looking away from the matriarch, he found numerous coccoons of spiderwebs attached to the walls of the nest all around them.
Inside them, withered carcasses of Nightmare Creatures of all shapes and sizes were preserved in a strangely good condition.
The Nightmare Creatures appeared as though they were kept alive inside the cocoons for a long, long time before finally succumbing to death and turning into mummified corpses.
Seeing how some of them were broken, Lucien walked up to one. The creatures inside were not food for the spiders; no, they were incubators where the matriarch would lay her eggs.
The creatures in the broken cocoons had been devoured from within. A few of them still had hundreds of small, moist eggs embedded into their flesh, with embryonic spiderlings moving weakly behind the slightly transparent shells.
Gritting his teeth, Lucien looked away, just as Sunny called out to them. He led them deeper into the nest, where, attached to the wall, hung a cocoon that was different from all the others.
Because this one hid a rough silhouette of a human body.
The seven of them stood somberly around the cocoon, each consumed by their own dark thoughts. Finally, Nephis turned her head to Caster and said:
"Can your sword cut it open?"
With a short nod, the proud Legacy summoned the enchanted jian and took a step forward. Approaching the cocoon, he stopped and hesitated for a few moments.
"Be careful."
Glancing back at Changing Star, Caster lingered for a second, and then faced the cocoon with grim determination written on his face. As ghostly green light emanated from the blade of his sword, he swung it with the graceful precision of an expert swordsman.
The tip of the jian cut through the metal wires of the cocoon, splitting it open. A shriveled human body fell to the floor, making the Legacy jump back.
Nephis, Caster, and Sunny stared at it, their faces pale and full of ghastly resentment. Then, Sunny bent over and emptied the contents of his stomach
Lucien stared at the body solemnly. This was what the forgotten shores were. Most sleepers who were unfortunate enough to be sent here, would die terrible deaths.
Only a fraction ever made it to the Dark City. The rest, faced terrible fates like this.
Effie frowned beside him.
"Did you guys know him?"
After a few moments of silence, Caster slowly nodded.
"Yes. His name is… his name was Stephen. He was the youngest heir of the Pandavar clan."
A grim silence descended upon the group, and it stayed for a while. Some time later, Nephis gritted her teeth and turned away. Then, she said, her voice suppressed and hollow:
"We need to leave. The sun is setting."
Her words broke the silence and brought everyone back from their grim reveries. Caster lingered for a few minutes, then spoke in a hesitant tone:
"Aren't we… aren't we going to bury him?"
Changing Star shook her head.
"There's not enough time. I also don't want anyone touching the bodies infected with these eggs. It's too dangerous."
The members of the cohort looked at each other. No one had a reasonable objection, but it felt wrong to just leave their fellow human here.
Finally, Nephis sighed. A complicated expression appeared on her face, and then she said:
"...Alright. Go. I'll catch up with you guys later."
Sunny stared at her for a few moments, and then slowly turned away. One after another, the six of them glanced at Changing Star and left, leaving her alone with the dead young man and numerous cocoons, each hiding a slain Nightmare Creature.
As soon as the last member of the cohort climbed out of the nest, a beam of pure radiance suddenly shot from the dark hole of its entrance, followed by a wave of scorching heat.
'She's cremating them.' Lucien realized as the heat washed over his face.
The purifying fire unleashed by Changing Star engulfed the remains of their fellow student and then spread to the numerous cocoons, the Nightmare Creatures inside of them, and even the corpse of the Spider Matriarch herself.
The insides of the nest turned into an incandescent, incinerating furnace. Everything inside it was doomed to be annihilated and turned to ashes.
A few minutes later, the whole structure was consumed by furious white flames.
Nephis had escaped the burning nest shortly after the rest of her cohort, her face pale and tired.
Leaving the grandiose funeral pyre behind, they began ascending the statue of the ancient warrior.
The night was approaching.