episode_0166

000

Spiders, with more legs than any other life form crawling on the earth, reign over the ecosystem as predators that devour countless pests and other creatures.

Furthermore, their maternal instincts are strong, protecting their laid eggs as much as possible, and some species even display extreme maternal love by offering their own bodies as food for their newborn young.

Wootu was born as a spirit of the natural world and built faith by assuming the form of a spider.

As the tactile sense of the stars, what she had to do was protect and select countless life forms of the stars, including humans.

It was to protect the lovable ones from those who harm the ecosystem or the natural world.

[KIKIRRAAAA!]

A huge figure moved with an ear-splitting scream-like cry. One leg was about twice the length of Cleon’s height, and the body was even larger than the rock part of the higher spirit I saw earlier.

Nevertheless, it moved as fast as a charging boar, running on the ground, walls, and ceiling, so it was inevitable that stones and piles of dirt would collapse every time it rampaged in this narrow space.

“It doesn’t seem to have reason…. The demon god of spiders.”

“Keuk… why. This. Thing….”

When the spider demon god pours out spider webs mixed with deadly venom, Cleon wields his sword to cut it down.

Behind him, Sasha, with a magic arrow on the string, quickly moved her eyes, aiming at the demon god’s movements as well as various attacks she fired, and firing arrows.

In comparison, Arachne had the will to fight, but her movements were slightly sluggish, perhaps because the shock of the demon god’s birth had not completely subsided.

She did not show the threatening, intellectual, and quick movements she showed when she faced Cleon and Sasha outside.

“Did I…. disgrace Lady Wootu…?”

“Get a hold of yourself! If you destroy the body of that demon god, you can get the relic back…. Regret is not too late, even if you do it after doing what you have to do.”

When Cleon rebukes Arachne with a painful expression, Arachne looks at him and nods heavily.

“By the way, it’s amazing how he moves so quickly with that huge body… Haaht!”

When Cleon waves his hand, thorns formed from dark magic appear and rush towards Arachne.

However, the demon god’s skin absorbs it as if it were nourishment.

“Tsk…”

[I guess dark magic doesn’t work… Then is it Kuon’s divine magic? I should have brought Caliburn.]

“I’m regretting it too. I didn’t think I’d be fighting a guy like this. Even if I try to summon him like last time, the distance is too far, and it’s hard to call him because there’s a barrier….”

Along with Galatea’s words, she converts the magic power she gave to divine magic through the seal connected to Kuon, but the attribute conversion of conflicting magic powers is not very efficient.

Moreover, the dark magic realm is formed like the outer skin of the demon god.

Thanks to the property that the power of divine magic is halved, it will be difficult to inflict fatal wounds with the small amount of magic power squeezed out.

It would be best to attack by loading magic power into physical attacks, but it was quite agile and annoying to move as if it were not affected by gravity.

Sasha also regretted not bringing arrows with physical forms to lighten her body after she was able to use magic arrows.

`But… I have to be helpful to Cleon-ssi too…!`

Nevertheless, in order to do her best, she circulates her magic power to the point of burning the seal, making her senses as sensitive as possible.

When something that is not normally visible becomes visible to Sasha’s eyes, along with a feeling that time is passing a little slower, the demon god’s path and traces, and the afterimage of the dark magic she scatters become visible.

Taking a form similar to extremely developed magic vision, it conveys far more information to Sasha than the magic vision used by Ryla.

“Keuk…!”

When she feels her eyes getting hot, Sasha’s seal looks one step further ahead.

The demon god’s movement is divided into several branches, as if it were an illusion. The main body remains as it is, but the non-vision moves faster than that, riding on the walls, ceiling, and ground.

Sasha realized that it was a prediction of the demon god’s movement shown by the seal, but her head ached from the amount of information.

Physical movement. The direction in which the magic power is directed. The flow of consciousness. Subtle muscle tremors. Ground vibration.

An overwhelming amount of information for one human to accept and process.

The same pain that Cleon felt when he saw the Absolute Boundary Tree Schradsel before assailed Sasha.

However, it was only for a moment. Sasha quickly felt the unnecessary information disappearing from her head and felt her body moving on its own.

[You’re an unavoidable girl. Leave the information processing to me, just focus on seeing and moving]

By absorbing part of the feedback that Ruben’s consciousness transmits to Sasha, it becomes a kind of filter, taking in unnecessary information for her.

Sasha’s eyes become sharper than ever before, and she quickly puts a magic arrow on the bowstring.

“Arachne-ssi…! Please provide cover!”

“!”

Cleon is embarrassed by her appearance as she says that and runs out, putting strength in her legs, but soon sees her sprinting across the ground at lightning speed and rising into the sky, stepping on the rubble that had fallen.

The demon god fires poison at her, who has become an excellent target by flying upside down in the air.

If hit, it was a deadly poison that would melt the armor and skin and penetrate to the muscles and bones inside.

However, when Arachne, who was looking at her after hearing Sasha’s voice, quickly reached out her hand, her proud tough silk spider web spread out like a barrier to protect Sasha.

The spider web entangles the poison as if it were entangled, absorbing it all and disappearing into the air by sacrificing itself.

But it didn’t end there, Sasha’s bow had four magic arrows on it.

Those mixed with the will of bondage soon flew in swirling trajectories in different directions, turning into the vertices of a square covering the demon god’s body.

“The movement is…. already read…!”

[KI!?]

When the demon god’s dazed voice is heard, the vertices are connected to each other, transforming into a barrier that binds the feet.

The body of the guy hanging upside down from the ceiling, unable to move anywhere, is frozen as if tied with chains.

“Cleon-ssi! Now’s your chance!”

“Well done, Sasha!”

At Sasha’s cry, Cleon immediately pours the prepared divine magic into Galatea.

He jumps straight up and goes straight to the guy’s body.

He pierces through the outer skin covered with the dark magic realm and pours magic power into the body-

[KIAAAAAA!]

A scream-like sound, as if from a woman, echoes, causing a rejection reaction inside the body of the demon god.

The function of the body stops, and the body itself, made of magic power, begins to collapse.

Cleon, who finished injecting magic power, quickly kicked off the demon god’s body and landed on the ground, and Arachne stretched out a spider web to Sasha and Cleon, bringing them to her side.

Then, she spewed out silk as if making a cocoon, creating a barrier to protect the three.

The next moment, as the demon god’s physical collapse reached its limit-

She begins to indiscriminately release dark magic towards the surroundings. The venom scattered from the rampaging body swept through the entire space.

“Keuk…!`

Cleon and Sasha quickly covered their noses and mouths to protect their bodies from the phenomenon, but Arachne focuses on continuously creating silk with both hands and reconstructing the collapsing cocoon.

Thanks to that, the demon god’s venom penetrates into her body, and blood flows from the corners of her mouth.

“A, Arachne-ssi!”

Sasha is flustered and tries to help her, but Ruben inside her controls Sasha’s body and stops her.

[You fool! Worry about your own body! That girl is Arachne, so she has resistance to poison!]

“But…!”

Sasha bit her lip at her body that she couldn’t move as she looked up at Arachne.

Eventually, when the storm-like sound disappeared, Arachne released the silk and let her body droop.

There was a lot of dust in the air, and the venom scattered here and there on the ground and walls was seen melting even the rocks and dirt.

“Don’t let your guard down yet. The dark magic has disappeared, but….”

“Arachne-ssi!”

While Cleon was saying that, Sasha bowed her head and ran to Arachne, who had stopped her body.

Her body was cold, and the blood flowing from her mouth had turned a murky black color.

[… …]

“…Why did you use your body to protect us?”

Ruben’s voice flowed out of Sasha’s mouth. Arachne quietly turned her gaze and looked at Sasha’s face.

“…I still feel…an unpleasant energy…from you. …But, at the same time. I also feel a nostalgic feeling… so… I have to use my power to protect someone… Lady Wootu’s… voice…”

While hearing the gradually labored breathing sounds, Ruben reached out and stroked her cheek as she stammered and continued speaking.

“…Is that so.”

Clearly. It must have been a kind of instinct that she possessed as a member of Wootu.

She was a kinder god than anyone else.

“…Cleon-nim. Can you fix her body?”

“If you use Kuon’s divine magic – but, not here. The dark magic realm is too dense. First, get outside-”

The next moment Cleon was about to approach Arachne while saying that-

[Ruben-nim!]

At the same time as Sasha’s cry flowed out from inside Ruben, a large amount of sharp something rose from the darkness and shadows in the cave where the dust had risen.

“Thorns…?”

It could be seen that they were pointing at the group, gradually increasing in number with needles like porcupine quills.

And, what appeared from the completely subsided dust was.

A woman with a body made of magic power like a black shadow all over her body.

She had an impression somewhat similar to Arachne’s upper body, and she looked at the three with a smile on her lips.

At the same time, chills ran down the spines of Cleon and Sasha at the same time.

“Eut…!”

When Sasha quickly regains control of her body from Ruben, she scans the thorns with her eyes with the seal raised.

Each time, the number of magic arrows attached to the bow she held in her hand increased.

It was almost simultaneous that Sasha’s bowstring was released and the thorns were fired at the group.

“Following Dewdrops…!”

Shining flashes scattered in all directions, beginning to shoot down the incoming thorns.

The magic arrows, which were bent in impossible trajectories, chased the thorns, and reached the trajectories in which they were flying in advance to block the attacks.

Cleon also wore a dark armor of magic power all over his body, just like when he defeated the higher spirit.

The powerful magic pressure emanating from his body protected Sasha and Arachne from the thorns that Sasha had not yet managed to cut down.

When the thorns that poured down like a heavy rain for a long time stopped, the demon god seemed to stop attacking for a while as if thinking about the next move.

In the meantime, Sasha and Cleon took a breather and replenished their stamina.

[Wootu… No, she’s gathering the power remaining in her relic and imitating the residue.]

“Wh, what should I do…?”

When Sasha speaks to Ruben’s calm analysis, she pauses for a moment and then opens her mouth again.

[The reason is that a weak but Divine Core is formed inside the guy. We have no choice but to separate it.]

“Divine Core… A relic.”

When Cleon answers like that, Ruben nods.

[Of course, that’s her most important part. It’s clear that she’s deploying the strongest defense.]

“Is there a way?”

[Hmm. Moving the Divine Core to a place that is more suitable than such a lump of dark magic, for example-]

Ruben’s gaze slyly turns and looks back at Arachne, who is drooping.

Arachne is a member of Wootu, and as a pure demon beast transformed from a spider, she is a body more suitable for the relic to reside in than a body composed of dark magic.

If the current demon god’s form, in which the power of the relic is revealed on the front, receives a large impact while being close to Arachne, it will automatically spit out the relic.

If that happens, Arachne’s body will also be healed and revived by the power of the relic, but-

She is now greatly damaged by the poison and almost dying, and she cannot move on her own.

“…So, we need to somehow pull her over here?”

“Is it, possible…”

Cleon closed his mouth for a moment at Sasha’s words, but then smiled and put his hand on her shoulder.

“She risked her life to protect us. We should do what we can for her too.”

At Cleon’s words, Sasha quietly nodded.

“I have a plan.”

001

In a fading mind, I heard two humans talking about something.

No, to be precise, two humans and another huge something inside the girl. …Probably, an existence related to Lady Wootu.

All I had in my knowledge was a little bit that flowed in from Lady Wootu’s relic.

What moves this body is all animalistic instinct. And a small voice coming from inside.

`Look. The two of them are doing their best for you. Humans for the demon beast.`

That gentle voice made my body move and lift its head.

The black-haired man was running towards the false Lady Wootu with a sword in his hand.

The orange-haired girl was constantly shooting arrows from her bow, dropping all attacks aimed at the man.

`Humans can become blindly devoted to what they believe in, and sometimes make cruel choices… But even so, not everyone is an enemy.`

I ask her. If you are Lady Wootu.

`Well… I may have been once, but now I’m part of you.`

I ask her. Is there anything I can do for them?

`That’s right… Although your body has been poisoned, you still have magic power left.`

Magic power… Lady Wootu’s knowledge did not have a method of how to control it.

Using magic power for her, a god, was no different from breathing.

`Magic power moves in response to the mind and soul. If you want it, it will definitely move. If you, my last member, can be of help to Ruben-`

I still had no faith in humans. But if I could make up for my sin of disgracing Lady Wootu by helping those two-

Believing in them was also. It didn’t matter.

Believing is trust and faith. For me, that was the only emotion.

Naturally, an invisible force was woven like a thread throughout my body and flowed out.

The gaze is still towards the black demon god who is impersonating Lady Wootu.

There was an attack rotating outside the black man’s field of vision, aiming at his body.

The next moment, I could see something leaving my body and flying away.

It was a lump of power that had not formed a shape, but even so – it was possible to protect the black man.

I am a member of Lady Wootu. Protecting is my duty.

“Arachne…!”

He called my name.

Even in his voice, I could feel gratitude and trust for me.

-This is what it means for humans to trust each other.

The next moment, a burning chain stretched out from his hand and bound the demon god’s body.

The demon god didn’t seem to feel any pain, and struggled as it was, but the chain’s bondage was overwhelming her power.

The man used an invisible force as it was to send her body flying in the direction I was in.

And, the orange-haired girl. She, who has the power of a beast, fires a magic-filled arrow towards the ceiling.

A large rock falls to the ground on time, crushing the demon god’s body.

In front of my eyes, a fake in the form of Lady Wootu disappears – and the relic that came out of her body flies into my arms.

And-

002

“Haa… Did we do it…?”

“I, I think so. It was a bit reckless, though….”

In order to inflict great damage on the demon god who was repeatedly regenerating with dark magic, it was solved by hitting it with a large mass of objects.

It was a reckless plan, as Sasha said, but I let out a sigh of relief that she succeeded in matching the timing and approached where Arachne was.

The relic she was holding in her hand was slowly being absorbed into her body.

“I’m glad… I think it’s working.”

[Um… No. There’s a bit of a problem.]

Unlike Sasha, who expressed relief, Ruben looked at Cleon while saying that as if she had noticed something.

“Cleon-nim will need to suffer a little.”

“What-”

The next moment, Arachne completely absorbed the relic into her body and grabbed her chest as if in pain, then turned her head towards Cleon.

“Huma…n… Keut… Aeu… Aaaaa!!”

And, a scream-like voice. When she spews out silk indiscriminately towards the surroundings, the space that had been contaminated with poison is covered with purified silk.

“H, hey, calm down!”

[By accepting the relic, she is also trying to ‘reincarnate’. However, there is a lack of magic power to do so-]

“What…?”

And, inside a space like a giant cocoon, Arachne pushes Cleon over.

She was looking down at Cleon with a flushed expression and heavy breathing.

“S, sorry. Human… My body is, strange…. I can’t control, myself….”

Arachne says that while drooling. From above, and from below.

“S, so it ends up like this after all….”

[Well, well. Isn’t that nice? To be able to hold two members of God. Even a king of an era couldn’t do that.]

Cleon quietly complained about his fate and closed his eyes tightly.