D: "Hahaha, you finally got what was coming to you..."
...
The silvery, mocking laughter of a young girl seed to echo in his ears. Shirazawa frowned–wait, that must be an illusion. Actually, since his head was currently gone, he didn't even have eyebrows to frown with.
By the way, where am I?
In a pitch-black space, a lone soul floated quietly. After an unknown amount of ti, a crack appeared in the void, letting in a sliver of blinding light. Shirazawa squinted, adjusting to the brightness before finally opening his eyes.
What t his vision was a brilliant blue sky and soft, white clouds. And... a crab?
*Splash... splash...*
Waves lapped against the golden sand. On that beach, a single crimson eyeball rolled around. A sand crab, appearing from nowhere, marched arrogantly across the fine grains toward the eye. Looking at its posture, it seed ready to devour it?!
"Holy crap!!!"
"Bro, you really shouldn't eat that!"
Unfortunately, Shirazawa had only managed to condense a single eye; he didn't even have a mouth, so he couldn't speak.
Sand Crab: "Gifts from the sea! Ti to dig in!"
It didn't hesitate to bite down on the eyeball, chewing with all its might.
*Crunch, crunch!*
Huh? It couldn't break through?
"It'd be a miracle if you could. Do you think my defense is just for show?" Shirazawa complained silently, then tried to gather his mana. Finding that he could sense the flow of magic around him ant that constructing magic circles wouldn't be a problem.
"Die!"
He roared internally as magic condensed beside him. A blast of Dark Magic blew the sand crab into smithereens. Hmph! That's the price for offending a Great Spider!
Shirazawa began to think of ways to speed up his body's reconstruction. Although the Immortality skill guaranteed his body wouldn't perish–even if turned to dust–recovering at a natural pace would take ages.
"Co to think of it, among the titles D gave us, there was . That's the highest tier of healing magic. Let's give it a shot!"
With that thought, he imdiately began constructing the magic formula. An erald-green magic circle expanded, and accompanied by the light of healing, flesh and blood began to sprout around Shirazawa's eyeball. Red sprouts of at quivered; eight compound eyes, a head, a torso, and eight legs were soon fully ford.
"I'm back!" Shirazawa looked at his brand-new body with satisfaction. "Man, I look sharp!"
He looked up at the azure sky, dazed for a mont. "Wait, where's Shiro?"
Shirazawa scanned the surroundings but couldn't find her. Had she not revived yet? Just as he was wondering, a white seagull flew overhead. In its beak, it carried a crystal-clear eyeball. One look was all it took–his "wife" was being carried off by a bird.
"You dare steal my Kumoko? You must be tired of living!" Shirazawa cursed, lunging upward. He snatched the seagull by its neck and slamd it into the sand.
*Thud!*
The seagull's carcass hit the ground at Shirazawa's feet, blood staining the sand. He gave the mangled bird a cold glance and imdiately cast Miracle Magic to reshape Shiro's body.
...
anwhile, on the other side.
After dealing with the two rebellious spiders, Ariel headed straight for the deepest part of the labyrinth. Watching the Queen Taratect, who was constantly shrieking in pain, her brow furrowed.
"What's wrong with this thing? The targets were clearly killed, so why hasn't the attack stopped?" Ariel's face darkened. She placed her hand on the Queen's massive body, opening the ntal link between kin to investigate.
What she saw inside the Queen's ntal world was shocking: eight small spiders, identical in appearance, were relentlessly devouring the Queen's soul. The once mountain-like soul had already shrunk by three-quarters.
"This..." Ariel realized then that the pair had survived her attack. How was that possible?!
While she was montarily stunned, it happened! Suddenly, one of the tiny white spiders–the one with a bandage on its head labeled "Body"–snapped its head up. Its crimson eyes locked onto her, flashing with excitent.
"Oho! A fresh soul!"
"I'm coming for you!"
Body Mind shrieked with joy and charged straight toward Ariel's ntal world.
"Oh no!" The Body Mind on Shirazawa's side realized things were going south. This wasn't the plan! "Body! Get back here!"
Unfortunately, the white spiderling didn't hear a word. It remained obsessed with chasing after Ariel without slowing down.
"This is trouble!" Body cursed, filled with urgency. "Magic Mind, ergency! I have to go into the Demon Lord's ntal world to bring Body (Shiro) back. I'm leaving the rest to you!"
He shouted to the others and imdiately lunged into the ntal channel, vanishing into the Demon Lord's mind.
"Wait, hang on! What the hell is going on?!" The remaining minds from Shirazawa's side were left staring in shock as both "Bodies" disappeared.
"Magic Mind, what do we do now?" Shirazawa's Parallel Minds gathered for an ergency eting.
"We can only trust Body to bring her back. The 'Grandmother Raid' was not supposed to go like this! Sigh!"
"It's not that bad. Trust Body to handle it," Magic Mind 2 comforted. Magic Mind 3 also signaled that it was a minor issue.
However, Ariel, sensing her soul being invaded, imdiately severed the ntal link with the Queen. The passage to her mind began to close. Now, the Parallel Minds were truly panicked.
"No–!"
"Body Mind–!"
"Quickly, notify Information Brain! The plan has gone off the rails!"
...
Deep within the dim labyrinth, Ariel clutched her head, her face contorted in pain.
"A soul-erosion attack that doesn't even use skills... it actually entered my consciousness!"
"How despicable."
"Argh!"
A wave of intense pain swept from her mind through her entire body. Ariel groaned, beads of sweat forming on her forehead.
"Damn it!"
"I can't purge it..."
She cursed venomously, enduring the sensation of her soul being torn apart as she struggled to stand.
"Kill!"
"I must kill their main bodies, no matter what!"
With a low roar, Ariel's mana surged, and a faint purple glow flickered across her skin.
*CRASH!*
With a single punch, she shattered the rock blocking her way. Ariel charged out of the labyrinth, racing toward the coastline with eyes full of terrifying murderous intent.
---
[100 Powerstones = 1 Bonus Chapter (Quest Pending!)]
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Halfway there let's go. Fighting!
[Ptreon.cm/Prince_of_LanLi for 50 adv chs. 20% discount right now. Throw spirit stones to this humble one *dogeza*.]
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