Chapter 33: The Last Pace

[3rd Person POV]

Arachne, or the curse that is currently in control  of Arachne's body is cursing itself and Arachne, the original bearer of the body in her mind as it continued to retreat and was forced to postpone her attempt in killing Idun and to reorganize its plans upon learning how wrong the information about Loki and Arachne being in the same threshold of power is.

Actually, that knowledge is technically true, like Loki said, if the two of them was measured just according to physical and magical power or mana reserves, then they will have the same amount without any ups or down in the stats of either of the two, however, like Loki have also said, that was only in raw power and given that Arachne just learned and mastered the arts of battle of spiders and did not bothered to learn basic forms of magic, only having little proficiency in wind magic as a way to remote control the direction of her threads.

She was basically a master of her art, but a fool in other arts and the total opposite of Loki that have a high amount of mastery in both physical and magical battle arts, meaning Arachne and Loki is an unfair match for Arachne and at that exchange just now is the only time that the curse realized this facts making her someone akin to a clown.

_FUCK! TO THINK THAT I DID EVER THINK OF DISPOSING OF LOKI!_

At first, the curse thought that, even though the poison of Arachne is incapable of slaying Loki, that doesn't mean that the poison cannot paralyze him, in which is the truth.

Well, only if, the curse can properly use the poison of Arachne.

_YOU SPIDER BITCH! MAKE ME USE YOUR POISON PROPERLY!_

The ego of the curse argued with the ego of Arachne, they appear as an orb of darkness and a little spider respectively, however the spider suddenly grew in size as it just looked at the impudent curse in front of her ordering her around, the one who is the legal owner of the body.

_Do you think that I will be stupid enough to make a parasite freely control all my powers against my spouse? You must be daydreaming or just stupid for thinking so then_

The voice of the spider who represents the will of Arachne resounded in the non-existent ears of the curse like thunder as it was provoked but cannot do anything to retort, for the disappearance of Arachne's will, will also be the disappearance of the curse because the curse was tightly linked with Arachne into an existential level and thus making the weakness of the curse that if Arachne is to die, then the curse will also disappear with her.

The curse can only grit its teeth as it frustratingly spitted out large amounts of poison towards Loki, if Arachne didn't just concealed  the poison controlling style of hers when the curse successfully got trough her mental strength, then things would be fine and the curse wouldn't have to retreat.

Yes, that's right, Arachne, even though have a full trust towards her husband, was still worried in the end and made the decision of not letting the curse use her techniques successfully, making the curse not able to control the volume of the poison and thus making it impossible for the curse to integrate the strings and the poison in which is the main pillar of Arachne's battle style.

With this, the two deadliest weapons of Arachne became useless, that moment when Arachne successfully trapped Loki in  a web system, if Arachne was normal at that time, then a purple colored poison will be flooding out of the webs and thus making the curse successfully incapacitating Loki.

However, the curse didn't do so, why? Simple, the one who have the maximum authority over the body the curse was controlling didn't allowed the curse to do lt.

Loki also noticed this and have a little awkward smile, he thought that he would go all out and became an embarrassment in an instant because he thought that his wife will also do so, who would have thought that his wife was very thoughtful and make herself less dangerous in purpose, of course he would not complain for he also found himself in a predicament that he only realized just now, that is, his spells was sealed and he have no access into them whatsoever, he is sure to come into great trouble if Arachne didn't do such a cunning thing.

Well, its not like he didn't have his fill, he have this challenging task of making and inventing on the spot spells, he also have to deal with the almost invisible thread traps of Arachne and thus he have no regrets because he already used a considerable amount of his prowess, and its not like he is here just to fight.

At this moment, as he chased after the retreating figure of Arachne, a message directly relayed into the mind of Loki was received.

[Loki's POV]

"Fa... Ahem, Loki-Sama, the fourth circle is successfully built, from this point on, the magic circle will be now have sufficient mana capacity to self create and will not need my support anymore, making the process of the creation of the circle become tenfold faster. Now please listen, when the last circle is to be built, we need Arachne-sama to be pinned down to the ground for the magic circle to work. It doesn't matter where she is, as long as she is inside the circle, the circle will succeed. However, if even one of the requirements is not met, for example if Arachne-sama is just even an inch away out of the circle or she is not touching the ground when we activated the magic circle, the spell for the destruction of the curse will fail and the magic circle we just made with our efforts will be in complete vain and we will have to restart the process all over again."

As I was chasing Arachne and went in front of her, I suddenly received a message, or because of the long ass words of Virgo, more like instructions directly into my mind telling the requirements for the spell to work and telling the importance of the said requirements. I am actually shocked to see the requirements being so simple, I mean the circle was so complicated and needed to be manually drawn until it was already self sufficient to work, and the requirements are just "Do not let Arachne outside of the circle" and "Pin her to the ground."

And doesn't need any freaking sacrificial ritual whatsoever and only those two. That being said, it is not like its so simple given that the one who is supposed to be inside the circle and should be pinned down was Arachne, so I have to take this on seriously from now on and  I also have to stop looking for ways to go all out despite Arachne not letting the curse use her body to go all out at all.

"Where do you think you're going?"

I made a mischievous smile that caused Arachne to shudder, well even though the last pace is officially on kick and I don't have any reason to play around anymore, I still need to pretend that I don't plan on doing anything and it seems like she forgot or just didn't processed properly my words earlier saying that I will erase the curse. (Though technically, I will not be the one who will do it)

She only take it upon himself as a kind of provocation in my part and actually just choose Idun to be saved by killing Arachne, the curse then didn't even tried to or even noticed that she is under an illusion and the very thing that will end its life is being built under her very feet

"GRR!? GO AWAY! GO AWAY!"

Arachne recklessly stabbed her spider leg located on her back as it spitted out large amount of poison spraying all over the field as it started to dissolve anything that it came down upon, I immediately dodged the stab and used wind magic to make the spray of deadly and corrosive poison get dispersed out of my back.

I then clenched both of my fist as two blades made out of darkness was created, I then let my full power go on display once again as I started to attack Arachne with all my might.

Yes, with all my might, at this juncture of the fight, a fight in which is started to buy time in the first place, there is no need to show off my high speed spell making anymore and what I need right now is simple. Brute force my way into Arachne and successfully save her from her curse.

There is no need for any fancy spell, or anything of the sort, what I need is not any complicated shits. I only need one thing.

Raw.

Unfiltered.

And pure power.

Seeing me starting to attack Arachne, the curse cannot take it anymore and also started to go all out, she also made her legs ready and stabbed it consecutively unto me, targeting all my vital spots as I blocked all of it, yes all of her numerous and ultra fast legs with only two limbs was either blocked or dodged, sometimes I also use my legs to intercept the attacks but mostly, I only use two making Arachne feel confused again as to how can a two limbed person block the attacks of a six limbed person and attack that person at the same time.

However, she is already at the limit of her patience as she frantically asked me.

"WHY!? WHY!? WHY ARE YOU PROTECTING IDUN!?"

She said as she continued to pour out all of her power into her spider legs and spit poisons out of it in which I dodged with ease as I also continued my relentless assault.

"Why you ask? Simple, because she's my friend."

This agitated and enraged Arachne even more as she started to use her finger tips and spit out threads as she once again tried to stop my movements, however, I coated myself with my bloodline magic, Dark Magic hailed as the unstoppable force. Some threads with extra durability will surely not pass the endurance test to endure this aura alone.

Sure enough, every threads she tried to entangle me with was melted and obliterated out of existence without any exemptions.

"THEN WHAT ABOUT ME!? SHE... SHE SLAUGHTERED MY RACE! JUST BECAUSE OF WHO WE ARE! JUST BECAUSE WE ARE DIFFERENT! HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT YOU WILL PROTECT YOUR FRIEND IF SHE DID ALL OF THOSE ATROCIOUS THINGS HUH!?"

I just snorted coldly at this as  I kicked her on the face, she was immediately caught off guard and was stomped flying to the ground without any resistance.

"Just because of who you are? Do you know what are you saying? You and your fucking race eats light fairies for dinner. With a smile on your face! WITH A SMILE! DO YOU THINK IDUN CAN JUST FORGIVE YOU BECAUSE YOUR CHILDREN AND YOUR GRANDFATHER SMILED AT YOU IF YOU MAKE ADOBO (1) MADE OUT OF HER RACE'S EYEBALLS AND FORCE HERSELF TO FORGIVE YOU JUST BECAUSE THOSE SMILES ARE PRECIOUS!?"

"NO! SHE WILL NOT! YOU AND HER RACE ARE BORN AND EXISTED TO FIGHT, AND BOTH OF YOU ACCEPTED IT, YOU ACCEPTED YOUR FATE! AND WHEN YOUR RACE LOST THAT HUNDRED MILLION YEARS WAR, YOU FUCKING GRUMBLED AND OUGHT TO HAUNT HER EVEN AFTER YOU DIE!? LOOK AT YOU, YOU'RE NOT EVEN YOURSELF ANYMORE, YOU ARE NOTHING BUT JUST A SPELL! AND WHAT'S MORE IS THAT, YOU USED MY WIFE AS YOUR GODDAMN VESSEL AND YOU ASK ME WHY AM I OBSTRUCTING YOUR WAY!?"

" I WILL TELL YOU WHY!"

I let out a deep sigh and paused for a moment as I caught the incoming attack of Arachne as I voiced out in a cold and indifferent manner:

"For you used my wife for your own goals. And people knew it, that if they used one of my wives or a person close to me for their personal desires, they already have gone too far."

I looked at her with my crimson cold eyes as she just stuttered.

"But... But... I..."

Look of despair can be seen from Arachne's face as I said those words, I put some power into my words and every words that came out of my mouth contained shockwaves that produced violent winds akin to a monsoon.

Of course, as we are arguing like this, we continued our fight, stabs upon stabs after stabs that spits out poisons from time to time was unleased as well as slashes of hundred and thousands per second, the collision went into a stalement in mid-sair as we flew a little bit in mid air to have a broader battlefield. We went up, down, left and right again and again in speeds that even the stars of Idun can barely perceive.

However as I entailed some emotional damage towards the curse, she started to lose her ground as another telepathic message was sent into my brain.

"Loki-Sama, the circle is complete, pin Arachne-sama down to the ground, now!"

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Author's note:

Definition.

(1) Adobo: A Filipino dish made out of chicken (or pork or othe meat preferred), soy sauce and vinegar. Search the term for more information.