Chapter 136: [Coda]—Eternal Silence
By the time Queen Arachne regained her senses, her life was already at its end.
She stared blankly at the collapsing crimson sky, her pupils slowly losing focus.
“Did I… lose?”
After the great war of ancient times, she had survived, by a hair’s breadth.
Although she had been forced to live in a grotesque, half-human, half-spider form, unable to leave the Crimson Nest for long, she had, in a way, secured her future.
But now, the fate Nimora and Bai had foreseen had finally come to pass.
It was inevitable, yet she couldn’t help but feel a sense of… resentment.
The massive corpse of the Wild God lay beside her. Bai had forcibly separated her from it, and she had been thrown to the ground.
Their fusion had been incomplete, which was why she had been so easily separated.
But it was also why she couldn’t survive for long without it.
As her life flickered like a candle in the wind, a final burst of clarity returned.
But now, she was powerless to resist.
Bai walked slowly towards her, her blood-red sword dissipating, her long hair fading from crimson to a silver-white.
“You said… your name was—Bai, right?” the Queen asked, looking up at her.
She paused, then chuckled softly.
“I see, I see…”
Bai frowned slightly, then, looking down, she saw her own hair, now a cascade of pure silver, reaching the ground.
“Hmm? What’s going on…?”
She looked at her reflection in a nearby pool of blood.
Although blurry, she could see a pair of burning, dark-gold eyes.
“Hahahaha… cough, cough…”
The Queen’s laughter turned into a wracking cough, her body deteriorating rapidly, blood spewing from her throat.
“You’re not a little fox, or a Vampire, or even a demon…”
“You’re not human, or beastkin, or elf, or fairy…”
“You are the embodiment of disaster, the destroyer of the Place of Divine Advent, the source of all calamities…”
Although her throat was raw, her voice was filled with a chilling mockery.
“A pity… I won’t be here to see it… your friends, they will all die in the catastrophe you bring…”
In her brief fusion with the Wild God, she had seen fragments of its memories.
And in every one, the final image was the same: a silent, all-consuming darkness.
And in that darkness, a pair of cold, dark-gold vertical slits, just like Bai’s now.
“I will… stop it,” Bai said, her voice low.
“When all the disasters in this world are caused by you, how will you stop them?!” the Queen cried out, pushing herself up.
She clutched her head, a crazed smile on her face.
“I know… since I am destined to die, then let the world die with me!”
Her last flicker of life flared, a final, brilliant flash, then it was gone.
With her last ounce of strength, she had transformed her knowledge of Bai, of the truth, into a stream of information, and had sent it out into the world.
Anyone who received it would know Bai’s true identity, and the truth behind everything.
And once they knew…
The Abyssal Lord would awaken again, and would return to this world.
“Hahahaha…”
In her final moments, she spread her arms wide.
“Awaken, my dear Wild God!”
“Devour me! Let my life become one with yours!”
With that, her life force was extinguished, and the fallen body of the Wild God began to stir.
Bai’s heart skipped a beat. “No!”
She hadn’t expected this. She had consumed her own kind her entire life, and now, in death, she had willingly become food for the Wild God.
But this was not good news for Bai. She quickly formed a sword of blood, intending to destroy the Queen’s body before the Wild God could reach it.
But she was too slow.
In a flash, the Wild God’s massive maw closed around the Queen’s body.
With a sickening crunch, it devoured her, flesh and blood flying everywhere.
And then, its own consciousness, which had been dormant, began to awaken. All of its eyes turned to Bai.
“Roar… hoo… roo…”
It let out a series of guttural growls, and its eyes filled with a powerful emotion.
“That’s… a deep-seated hatred…”
Not because of the Queen, but from before, from when it had been a Bloodlust Spider, a hatred for Bai that transcended life and death.
“Traitor… die… die…”
Bai could understand some of its words, but they were disjointed, nonsensical.
But this wasn’t the time to listen. The newly awakened Wild God, though not as powerful as when it had been fused with the Queen, was still a formidable opponent. And Bai was now at her weakest.
She was exhausted, the backlash from her earlier battle now setting in.
The Wild God’s claws struck, and she was barely able to block, her defensive runes shattering.
“No, I have to use my Vampire form…”
Although her silver form allowed her to use [Word of Command], her regenerative abilities and combat endurance were far inferior to her Vampire form.
And with so much bloodlust in the air, she could at least hold off the Wild God’s attacks for a while.
But…
“Why… can’t I transform…?”
In her soul vision, the silver light was now a blazing inferno, suppressing all the other bloodlines.
And in that silver light, she saw a pair of cold, lifeless dark-gold vertical slits, identical to her own.
“What’s happening…?”
She looked at her reflection in her soul vision, at her own beautiful, yet terrifying, face, and a sense of dread washed over her.
Then, her soul vision went dark.
And her consciousness began to fade, just as it had five years ago, when she had been lost in the void.
