Chapter 105: The End of the Road(3)
A moment later, the battlefield was a desolate wasteland, the desert air thick with the nauseating stench of blood.
The ground was a gruesome tapestry of rotting flesh and twisted limbs, a scene straight from hell.
Queen Arachne, her beast form now gone, gasped for breath.
She collapsed into her chair, her body weak, her vision filled with a sea of death.
“Phew… hiss… phew… this time, it should be…”
Unleashing such a massive spell had taken a heavy toll on her, had even forced her to overexert herself.
She was now powerless.
But… the price had been worth it. The hellish landscape before her was a testament to her power.
She composed herself, taking a deep breath, and sat up straight.
“She should be dead now… I was too rash. It seems that corpse has a great influence on me…”
She knew that using the corpse’s power would subtly change her, her already volatile temper now even more so.
But the power was too great to resist.
The bottleneck she had been struggling with for so long, she had broken through it with ease.
So, she couldn’t let it go, and she couldn’t let anyone know about it, which was why she had reacted so violently when Bai had mentioned it.
She surveyed the carnage and sighed. “Oh well. They’re all dead now. Consider this battle a loss.”
She had already conquered so much territory with the corpse’s power. A few squads of soldiers were nothing.
She stood up, about to return to her territory.
But just then, a hesitant, yet familiar, voice whispered in her ear.
“Your… Your Majesty… are we returning now?”
It was the guard’s voice.
Her consciousness reeled, and when she opened her eyes again, the hellish landscape was gone.
The battle was still raging, and beside her, the two guards stood, their heads bowed, their bodies trembling.
“No, this… no… this is…”
She fell back into her chair, a look of disbelief on her face. “This… what is this power…”
The hellish landscape had been a dream, and now she was back, before she had unleashed her spell.
But her weakened body told her it hadn’t been a dream. She had really killed everyone.
But… what was happening now?
Time travel?
Did such an ability really exist…?
She clutched her chest, her mind a whirlwind of confusion, of a fear she couldn’t comprehend.
“Who—ah!”
The guard’s cry was the same as before, but this time, before they could even raise their weapons, they were dead, their bodies collapsing to the ground.
But this time, it hadn’t been the Queen who had killed them. It had been Bai.
The Queen looked up to see the familiar fox-kin girl, her face, which had once been so innocent, now spattered with blood.
The guards, though dead, their eyes were still open, a look of shock on their faces.
They were unblemished… Bai had crushed their hearts from within, without even lifting a finger.
In this dream, which had now invaded reality, anything Bai wished was possible.
“Give up, Queen Arachne,” she said, her voice patient. In the dream world, time was distorted. She had all the time in the world.
But the Queen just laughed, a crazed, desperate sound.
“Give up? How could I… even if you can rewind time! How many times can you do it!”
She believed that even with such an ability, the cost would be immense. She couldn’t use it indefinitely.
So… once she had exhausted her power, victory would be hers.
She stood up, her grotesque spider body reappearing, this time with a chilling, deathly aura.
Her veins were a purplish-black, her blood a dark, viscous fluid, and her aura surged.
“I… how could I lose!” she shrieked, her eyes filled with a burning hatred, her gaze fixed on the calm Bai. “I am invincible!”
With a roar, another blood-red storm erupted, sweeping across the battlefield…
…
Queen Arachne’s assessment was correct, and also, wrong.
The ability to rewind time did exist, and its cost was immense. Even with her “Rewrite Reality” Authority, Bai couldn’t use it multiple times.
But the mistake was that this was a dream.
After an unknown number of times, after an eternity, the Queen, exhausted, opened her eyes, and saw the small, pink figure, and the familiar “Who!” from her guards, and she sighed.
“I… lose.”
No matter what she did, no matter how many times she killed her, the scene would just… restart, an endless, inescapable cycle.
She had paid a heavy price, had used the corpse’s power, had been consumed by the deathly aura.
Her body was now a grotesque, half-spider hybrid, her life force a flickering candle.
And if she couldn’t find a way out, she would be trapped here forever.
The awakened Queen Arachne finally understood the power of the mysterious fox-kin girl. She was on a completely different level.
Perhaps the reason she had wanted to find the corpse was because she had known its former owner, a being of her own level, perhaps even a rival.
The corpse’s power she had seen, and at least now she couldn’t fathom its level.
“Now, can you tell me?”
The fox-kin girl’s expression was serious, as it had been from the very beginning, her patience infinite.
“…Yes,” the Queen said after a long silence, her voice a low whisper.
“Good,” the fox-kin girl nodded, her expression still calm, no hint of triumph. “Please, tell me, Na.”
“Before that, I… want to know who you are,” the Queen said, struggling to sit up, her eyes a dull, lifeless gray, filled with a lingering fear and despair.
“…You can call me, Little Fox.”
