Unexpected Development

Despite casting [Mage Shield] for extra protection, it was of no use. Darkness quickly descended upon Leo's vision. As if a shadow came to blanket all his sensations, the adventurer could feel that his very being was getting slowly engulfed in an endless night.

A fear of death took hold of his mind, warning him not to be consumed by the encroaching darkness. Struggling to stay alive, Leo wrestled aimlessly with his body, flailing his limbs as he desperately tried to survive from whatever it was that was smothering him.

This went on for an untold period of time.

Minutes turned into days. Days turned into years. His body's struggling movements began to falter, getting sore due to the lack of rest, yet Leo desperately persisted. He did not know where he was getting his strength from but he eventually managed to continue fighting against the creeping shadow. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, his eyes suddenly sprung open.

The darkness vanished in an instant, allowing Leo to observe his current state. Right now, he was lying face-up in a pool of mud with no other individual in the vicinity. The weapon he had in hand was currently nowhere to be found.

Edging himself away from the dirty area, he briefly scrutinized the environment and quickly confirmed that he was still within the hidden region discovered underneath Everrain.

'Where did my whole team go?' Leo slowly stood up from the ground to get a better view. The environment at this moment was quite calm, without a single raindrop falling from the ceiling. 'The monsters should've engaged them while I was passed out, right? Then what exactly happened to them?'

Surveying his surroundings, Leo's worries were soon answered.

Although the area was partially wet, signs of battle could still clearly be seen. Fresh blood soaked the leaves of certain plants and traces of devastation caused by spells could be found marked into the earth.

But what was most frightening were the black craters that dotted around the area.

'This type of destruction shouldn't've been caused by Judy,' Leo surmised, aware of the capabilities boasted by each of his comrades.

Taking several steps forward, he planted his feet near the edge of the closest crater. Even now, just by standing at the periphery, Leo was able to detect a strong remnant of mana that clung to the blackened earth.

'They seem similar to scorch marks,' Leo thought as he touched the warm surface area of the crater's interior. 'Was it caused by that flash of light?'

Recalling the recent events that had transpired before he fell, Leo turned his attention to the direction behind him. What greeted his sight were even more scorch marks, though these particular ones were not in the shape of a crater. Instead, they appeared in the form of a set of black streaks that converged onto a single area, like lines of a funnel drawn over the ground.

As Leo got closer in the direction that the black streaks were pointed to, he ended up finding familiar-looking pieces of metal that were messily strewn around. And right at the end of this wreckage, a damaged magic core was positioned in the center.

"The carrier..." Leo was unable to stop himself from speaking through the silence.

A terrible scene formulated in his mind: after the flash of light, a powerful attack impacted the wall he created and smashed it apart, scattering the vehicle's parts all over the entire area behind his collapsed body and team members.

Although this invention had only been alongside him for a few days, the loss of this carrier, which had taken him considerable efforts to produce, now laid utterly devastated beneath the land of Everrain. No matter how hard he tried to resist, a wave of sadness sprouted in his heart.

'Just where did everybody go?' Leo reiterated this thought as panic seeped into him.

The carrier had been built to be a considerably durable magic item, especially when powered by the magic core he salvaged from the golem in the Frozen Hell. If it got destroyed, probably from the brief flash of light Leo had witnessed, then what happened to his teammates and Brian?

'Did they survive? Or were they...'

Leo didn't even want to finish the thought. For some inexplicable reason, he was feeling increasingly nervous by the second.

Checking the surroundings again, he noticed some deep impressions a distance away that looked to not have been formed naturally in this environment.

[Wind Boost]!

With no hesitation in mind, Leo ignored his nervousness and followed the direction of the imprints in the hopes that they would lead him to his fellow companions.

This endeavor took a while, but eventually, after some time had passed, he successfully managed to get caught up to the sounds of chattering.

The moment he sensed some noise in the direction he was running towards, Leo slowed his steps and strained his ears to listen to the sounds that echoed throughout the air. Very soon, the familiar voices of the monsters he had fought against were faintly recognized.

'They must be close!' Leo prayed that his friends were still alright.

As he decided to approach cautiously, his eyes caught the sight of an enormous bonfire that was erected in the middle of a group of monsters. Just as he guessed, the same species Leo had previously encountered were still there, but there were unexpectedly other creatures that accompanied them.

Arachnogs.

Giant spider-like monsters with sharp pincers, they possessed the power to spin strong webs and spew acid at their prey. Said to often never hunt alone and usually enjoyed working independently from other species, these beings were now standing alongside the very same monsters that Leo had been tracking.

"Oh no..." Leo stepped back in horror once he spotted traces of human-like bodies that were being cooked within the bonfire.

"No, no, no, no, no...."

He held his head as he willed himself not to think of the worst case scenario. However, for a reason unknown to him, a sense of pessimism clenched his thoughts, drowning out his positivity and futile reasonings.

"This can't be right..." Leo tried denying what he was witnessing.

Moving his feet back, a crunching sound could be overheard behind him. Turning his head around, Leo saw his foot having accidentally stepped on a wooden twig.

This sudden occurrence cruelly attracted the attention of the monsters sitting near the bonfire, all of which began to charge over to invite this newcomer for their feast.

Knowing that there were too many for him to fight off at once, Leo made the decision to firmly retreat, doing his best not to get captured and share his companions' seemingly tragic fate. But luck appeared to have turned against him today, as just as his feet moved, they unexpectedly stopped from where they stood. Staring down, Leo horrifyingly discovered that his legs were already wrapped within some giant sticky fluids.

A swooping sensation took hold of him as Leo soon found his body being hung up through the air by a vicious Arachnog. It had been previously hiding itself right above his head and was now aiming to completely disable his escape.

The next sequence of events happened in a blur. Leo could only faintly remember having desperately cast several offensive spells to fight back but was later overwhelmed by the combined strength of all the monsters that swarmed to obtain his body.

Once captured, he was brutally restrained by his captors, having been beaten and kicked in various places, before finally given sole custody over to the giant Arachnogs. These horrible creatures bound him together in their webs before eventually taking him to their hidden lair, where a nest of their significantly smaller young were waiting.

After he was brought over, Leo was directly tossed into the nest, being helplessly rendered immobile while the tiny offspring began tearing at him through the thick fluids. Once these hideous young successfully bit through the layers, they started crawling all over his flesh, digging into his skin with their small pincers from various sections of his body.

Leo's muffled screams could be heard despite the heavy webs that covered his mouth. Along with the ungodly pain, fear and despair consumed him, threatening to slowly break away at his sanity.

Unlike when he had been previously engulfed in darkness before, this time, Leo was now completely unable to struggle his way out from death.

But just when the Arachnog young were about to bite into his inner tissues, a sudden awakening entered his mind. Though his eyes were forcefully closed, Leo could picture a powerful light appearing above him, reaching out to bring salvation.

'Is this... a god...?' Leo's stressed mind gathered the last of his strength to form this thought before finally blacking out.

----------

Within a gentle darkness, a warm light pervaded his subconscious, dispelling the horrors of the night and cleansing his pain. Leo felt himself being embraced by a soothing sensation, and instinctively chose not to offer any resistance. Though he had no idea where this light originated from, he knew that it had at least saved him from suffering a terrible fate. And somewhere in the depths of his heart, Leo could also feel a hidden longing, like a child desiring to be comforted by his mother.

Some time later, the light started getting dimmer, threatening to leave him forever.

Not wanting to let this warm sensation go, Leo desperately extended his hand--

--and found himself waking up to reality at last.

His eyes burst open, with their vision capturing the sight of a familiar ceiling constructed underneath the layer of Everrain.

Currently, the back of his head was laying softly down within somebody's lap. His right hand was reaching outwards and clasping at empty air, resembling the same motion he had made earlier to grasp the gentle light.

"AAHHH!" Leo then screamed in agony; the traumatic experience from the dream had started reemerging all at once in his mind.