70. Journey Again(3)
The nest rose like a grotesque fortress of silk and bones.
The stench of rot and venom was suffocating. Hundreds of pale, skittering forms shifted in the shadows, their fangs clattering like teeth in a nightmare.
The three of them—Akame, Lucas, and Elizabeth—stood just outside the entrance. No one spoke. Words would have meant fear.
Akame's fingers tightened around her star-blade.
'Eight months. Eight months without Murphy… and now this.'
Her heartbeat echoed in her skull, a drum of anger and dread. Lucas adjusted the vials on his belt, eyes cold and calculating, while Elizabeth's serpent coiled around her legs, its scales whispering against the ground like soft blades.
Then, the nest came alive.
The first wave hit like a flood—dozens of Awakened Beasts bursting from the webbed tunnels. Their jagged, black limbs sliced the air with shrieks that clawed at the mind.
Akame didn't wait for the others.
She launched herself into the swarm, [Midnight Shard] flashing like a silver fang.
Corpse Collector—a humanoid silhouette of porcelain and malice—dropped beside her, its six arms moving in perfect, deadly arcs. Its blades didn't just cut; they shredded through the first wave of Awakened Beasts, carving limbs and skulls into flying meat as though they were made of wet paper. The sound was a mix of porcelain slicing bone and the shrieks of dying creatures—a brutal symphony of slaughter.
[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Iron Spider.]
[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Iron Spider.]
A beast lunged at her—a hulking Iron Spider, its claws dripping black venom.
Akame didn't dodge.
WHAM!
The claw slammed into her ribs, a bone-crunching blow that would have folded any other fighter in half. She gritted her teeth as white-hot pain exploded in her side, her breath catching, but her Aspect [Aegis] triggered.
The force of the hit rebounded like a coiled spring snapping free. There was a wet crack as the spider's entire arm bent backward at a grotesque angle, its joint shattering. Its screech was cut short when Akame's blade traced a clean arc, slicing its head free in a single, perfect motion. Blood sprayed across her face, burning like acid as it ran down her cheek.
[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Iron Spider.]
But the victory tasted like iron and agony.
Blood gushed from her side where the claw had torn through her flesh. Every strike she took, every wound she endured, was real. Her Aspect gave her power, but at the cost of forcing her to bear the entire weight of her enemy's attacks. It felt like her body was being dismantled piece by piece, her bones vibrating with pain.
Another spider sprang at her from above, screeching, its fangs flashing like ivory blades. Akame snarled, twisting her body just enough to take the hit head-on.
CRASH!
Its fangs sank deep into her shoulder, and agony lanced through her body like a lightning strike. She screamed—an animal sound—but her Aspect responded, a violent ripple of force erupting outward. The spider's neck snapped in an instant, its broken body tumbling to the ground. Akame's follow-up slash carved it into twitching halves.
[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Iron Spider.]
[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Iron Spider.]
Her breathing turned ragged. Blood soaked her torn clothes, dripping from her chin and fingers. Her arms trembled, not from fear, but from the sheer strain of forcing her battered body to keep moving.
'If you had been here, this would have been so easy, Murphy.'
"Corpse Collector!" she roared, voice hoarse. "Right flank! Kill them all!"
The puppet obeyed without hesitation, its six arms spinning like a storm of guillotines. It cleaved through another wave of Iron Spiders, its movements precise and merciless. Severed legs and glistening innards painted the battlefield, the scent of burned blood rising like smoke.
[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Iron Spider.]
[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Iron Spider.]
[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Iron Spider.]
Akame surged forward, slashing through another beast's carapace, her eyes blazing with a wild, almost unhinged fury. She took another hit across her thigh—felt the muscle tear—but didn't even flinch. The pain fueled her, drove her forward like fire consuming dry wood. Every hit she took was repaid with double carnage.
Her knuckles bled from gripping [Midnight Shard] too tightly. Her entire body screamed at her to stop, but her heart, her rage, and the echo of Murphy's voice pushed her on.
'I'll suffer as many wounds as it takes. Murphy… I'll cut through everything if it means finding you.'
Another spider lunged—larger than the rest. She let it hit her. Its claw slammed into her chest with such force that her vision blackened for a moment, blood erupting from her mouth. But she didn't step back.
"Die!" she hissed.
The force rebounded. The spider's entire torso exploded inward, ribs snapping, organs bursting like overripe fruit. Akame staggered forward through the gore, her body trembling but her gaze locked on the nest's heart.
[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Iron Spider.]
Blood dripped from her side, her thigh, her mouth—but her steps never faltered.
While Akame carved through the beasts, Lucas crouched behind a shattered pillar of fused coral and bone, half-hidden in the smoke and silk dust. He wasn't built for the front line. He was the scalpel, not the sword—and tonight the battlefield was a patient with too many tumors.
"Two parts sodium… three volatile gas…" he muttered, rolling a vial between burned fingers until the liquid inside turned a veined crimson, pressure building under the cap.
'One wrong throw and I'm ash.'
He popped, primed, threw.
BOOM!
The vial detonated mid-bounce, flash-igniting the dry webbing beneath a cluster of Iron Spiders closing on Akame's flank. A ball of fire flowered outward, silk and chitin vaporizing. Six beasts shrieked as armor ran like wax, legs curling in molten knots.
The heat rolled back at him—far hotter than expected. His sleeve ignited.
[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Iron Spider.]
[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Iron Spider.]
[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Iron Spider.]
[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Iron Spider.]
[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Iron Spider.]
[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Iron Spider.]
"Shit—!" He slapped at the flames, skin peeling as cloth fused to flesh. Blisters rose instantly along his forearm. Pain stabbed—clean, white, mean.
Still, he grinned. "Better me than her."
Smoke clawed at his throat. He tasted copper and burned resin. Lucas forced himself to breathe slow, shallow. Eyes up. Angles. Loads. He tracked and calculated the nest's structural anchors: main silk pylons braided into the ruined spires; lateral tension lines webbed across the ceiling; cocoon clusters weighting the north side.
'If I take out that brace there… and the left tension cluster… the top deck drops. Hundred dead, maybe more. Akame gets breathing room.'
He selected a new mix: oxidizer gel + powdered bone catalyst + shock bead. He shook it until the chamber pulsed orange. Threw long, overhand.
The vial struck a hanging cocoon cluster—burst—acid ate through, heat flash‑dried the surrounding silk, then the shock bead cracked. Ceiling webwork snapped like overstrung wire. Bodies rained—Iron Spiders, egg sacks, larval clumps—crashing down in a wet avalanche onto the swarm below.
Secondary explosions rippled as sacs ruptured and Lucas's previous incendiaries caught. The air turned into a furnace.
His hands were already raw; soot blackened his face; his eyebrows curled from the heat. He kept going.
[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Iron Spider.]
[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Iron Spider.]
[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Iron Spider.]
[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Iron Spider.]
"Akame! Drive them center!" he shouted through smoke.
She didn't answer—but her slaughter line curved exactly where he needed it.
'She's listening. Good.'
Lucas slid behind another rib of stone, uncorked two thin ampoules—clear and green. He poured the clear into a crater where spider ichor pooled; tossed the green; snapped his fingers over the mix. The reaction went exothermic instantly—superheated vapor blasting upward, cooking the cluster clinging to the ceiling like meat on a spit.
He flinched as stray fire washed back, blistering his neck.
'Keep moving. Keep thinking.'
A smaller spider skittered close; he jabbed it through the eye with his spear butt, twisted, and kicked the corpse aside without looking.
'We can't fail here. If we do, the Tyrant will tear this city apart—and we lose the only safe ground left.
You said plan the terrain, Murphy. I'm planning it.'
He mapped loads in his head: 30% weight on the rear braces, 45% on central girdle, the rest floating in distributed webs. If he severed the central girdle while the swarm massed beneath it… crush radius two tiers deep.
He primed three vials at once—thumbs bleeding from cracked knuckles. Set them in a silk sling. Lit the fuse powder with a spark strip between teeth. Swung. Released.
Chain detonation. Silk spines parted. A roaring cascade of heavy anchor nodes collapsed, smashing down through lower tunnels. Screams cut short. Dust and blood gusted outward in a choking wave.
Kill prompts flooded his vision:
[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Iron Spider.]
[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Iron Spider.]
[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Iron Spider.]
[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Iron Spider.]
[You have slain a Fallen Beast, Grave Spinner.]
His burned hand spasmed; he almost dropped his last satchel charge. He bit his lip until blood filled his mouth, forced his fingers closed, and crawled to a new angle.
The ground began to tremble. Not from explosions. From weight.
Lucas looked up.
At first he saw only shadow. Then eight massive legs, each thick as a siege beam, lowered through the smoke. Armor plates glistened like wet gunmetal; mandibles clicked; venom burned holes where it dripped.
The Spider Tyrant had arrived.
It was as big as a house, its black armor glistening like forged steel. Eight legs slammed into the ground, each strike leaving cracks in the earth. Its eight glowing eyes fixated on them with malevolent intelligence. Its jaws dripped with venom, hissing as it approached.
He swallowed, throat raw, and muttered, "Scalpel meets tank. Great."