Chapter 104: The End of the Road(2)
She couldn’t change the predetermined course of this time, could only follow the path that had already been laid.
Bai felt this, and she knew that even if she tried to disrupt the historical process, she would be erased by the river of time before she could act.
Or rather, with her personality, she would have never done so. And so, the established facts became the reality she knew.
After leaving the Bewildering Forest, with her dream body fading, her time in this chaotic space-time was growing shorter and shorter.
Following a few clues, and the aura of the Blood Spider clan, she quickly found Queen Arachne, intending to ask her about the Wild God—or rather, the corpse of the Bloodlust Spider.
She had chosen to go directly to the Queen because, firstly, she didn’t know where the corpse was, and secondly, the current Queen Arachne was too weak. And Bai, in her dream body, could have easily killed her.
…Yes, too weak.
Only at the high-level Calamity Class, not even at the peak. But in this era of the Savage Lands, she was practically invincible.
The ancient Solor had been just one of many desolate lands in the Promised Land. There had been no beings above the World Ender Class. A low-level Calamity Class being could rule a continent.
Until the Divine Advent, when countless races had fled the Promised Land, and Solor and the Abyss had begun their explosive growth.
When Bai found the Queen, she could sense the strong aura of death around her, and she knew what time it was, and what the state of the Place of Divine Advent was.
But she still had to see the corpse of the Bloodlust Spider. This corpse… could talk.
Unfortunately, the Queen was merciless. The moment Bai had mentioned borrowing the corpse, she had, without a second thought, attacked, intending to silence her.
And the two poor guards had also been killed, without a moment’s hesitation.
“…It’s really the Queen Arachne I know. Although she looks much sunnier now than she did at the Wild God Altar, her murderous nature is still the same,” Bai sighed. Although she had expected this, she was still helpless.
But… because she had expected this, she had left a contingency.
Queen Arachne, still contemplating when the news had been leaked, suddenly heard the sound of weapons being drawn, and a guard’s low growl.
“Who’s there!”
Another one?
She instinctively looked up, but then she felt something was wrong.
Wait… a guard?
She whirled around to see the guard, who should have been dead, now standing, his weapon raised, a look of anxiety on his face.
“Queen Arachne, I’m not interested in the corpse. I won’t steal it from you. I just have a few questions for it,” a small, pink figure said, her accent as strange and comical as before.
—Dream Ability Number Five, “Real Dream.”
From the moment Bai had approached the Queen, her dream had been silently invading reality, creating a false reality.
With Bai’s strength, to see through her “Real Dream,” one would have to be at least at the level of Queen Shaya. Queen Arachne couldn’t, and no one on Solor at this time could either.
So, to the Queen, Bai had been “resurrected,” and so had her guards.
The shocking reality before her left her speechless, her mind a blank.
“Queen Arachne? Don’t worry, I’ll—”
“Die!”
Before Bai could finish, the Queen attacked again.
But this time, her expression was no longer calm, but a mask of rage.
“Shlick—”
The sensation of her spider leg piercing through flesh was so real. The fox-kin girl before her was torn apart, leaving only a mangled mess of blood and gore.
The Queen stared at the unrecognizable remains, her chest heaving.
“She’s… she’s really dead this time…” she murmured, the lingering rage on her face terrifying the two guards.
“Your… Your Majesty…” one of them stammered.
But before he could finish, a spider leg pierced through his chest.
The other guard suffered the same fate. They stared at her, their eyes wide with disbelief, just as before, unable to understand why their Queen was killing them.
The Queen watched as their bodies, corroded by the venom on her spider legs, dissolved into a pool of bloody pus.
“…”
She stared at the bloody mess, then, after a long moment, she sighed in relief and leaned back in her chair.
“It must have been an illusion. With my strength, how could anyone…”
“Who’s there!”
The guard’s voice echoed again, accompanied by the sound of clashing weapons.
The Queen’s breathing hitched. She sat up, and before her was the familiar fox-kin girl, her nine large tails swaying, their movement identical to before.
“I just want to borrow the corpse, Queen Arachne,” she said, her voice a strange, yet earnest, monotone.
In that moment, a deep, primal fear was etched into the Queen’s heart.
“Impossible!” she shrieked, interrupting Bai’s “persuasion.”
Bai and the guards were stunned. The guards were confused, and Bai was helpless.
“No, I’ll kill you! I don’t believe…”
The Queen transformed into her semi-beast form, her lower half a grotesque, massive spider body, covered in fanged maws and writhing eyes.
She roared, a piercing shriek, and lunged at Bai, crushing the guards beside her.
“I don’t believe…”
A tide of blood-red energy, thick with a sweet, cloying poison, spread out, killing everyone on the battlefield, including her own army.
“That I can’t kill you!”
Her spider leg, imbued with an immense power, pierced through Bai’s body.
A shower of blood.
