Seren, Sunny, Cassie, and Nephis, landed on the island without so much as a struggle. Seren walked hand in hand with Nephis and Cassie, while Sunny led from the front, scouting with his shadows.
They had quickly run into the eccentric hunter: Effie, who gave them various bits of valuable information regarding the castle and the island they were on, as well as the knowledge that there was no gate in the dark city.
It was all a lot to digest, but it was made worse by the fact that they wouldn't all be able to live inside the city, due to the tax imposed by the tyrannical leader, Gunlaug.
Sunny and Seren had been volunteered by Nephis herself to go first. Sunny so that he could glean information from within, and Seren because of her vigilance attribute.
But everything wasn't all bad. In fact, Seren and Sunny's adventure into the bright castle had proven to be very fruitful. Because in a week's time, they had not only discovered more than a few things about the castle, but also had recruited a powerful fighter to help them rescue Kallen.
Caster, the proud Legacy her brother had befriended, seemed more than willing to travel with them. And so that's how Seren, Sunny, Nephis, and Caster set off to go find Kallen. With the blessing of Cassie, who had stayed behind with the Effie woman, it seemed like nothing could go wrong.
But far away, in the heart of the nest, something stirred.
~~~
Kallen
Kallen observed the small creature in front of him. He'd found it curled in the corner of the nest this time, its eyes wide and wet. Something in his gut twisted. This was wrong. But the thought slipped away. It was a vapid creature… he didn't care.
Since the death of the spider matriarch, he had tried to kill it several times, but each instance, it simply puffed out of existence. Eventually, he had learned to simply live with the annoying thing.
Or had he? A spark of annoyance passed through his mind. He brandished Wyrm's Tongue at the beast, but the air in front of him shimmered, and the creature barked as it spat an image at him.
The picture was of a humanoid. It was crouched in the shadows. It donned a suit of savaged chitin and silk, and a fearsome mask covered their face. For a brief moment, Kallen recognized it as himself. He looked dreadful, like the very creatures he'd spent weeks, months battling.
But as quickly as the image came, he slashed through it with his blade, lunging at the tiny Leviathan. It dissolved into mist in mere moments, and Kallen forgot the interaction by dawn.
~~~
Sunny
Sunny, Seren, Nephis, and that Legacy Caster ventured deeper into the south-western reaches of the crimson Labyrinth. Sunny would have been more than a little hesitant to go so far out of his way for a legacy he didn't know, but he was doing this for Seren.
So, he didn't mind too much.
Was he a nice guy now? Surely not… that would ruin his image. Right, he was just doing this to bring over another powerful fighter onto their side in the eventual war against Gunlaug.
Their little procession had made it a good way into the territory of Iron-Spiders. Well, they assumed it to be their territory. With every step, the webs grew more numerous, and they were so thin that it was nearly impossible to notice them all.
They were sharp enough to cut through armor and bone, and it was growing into a nightmare because of their need to stop and heal every few hundred yards.
What a disaster.
The only semblance of solace was that something seemed to have gone through and annexed most of the locals. According to Seren, they were nearing her brother, but they'd only killed five spiders, while seeing dozens of corpses.
Her brother is probably in their nest…
She hadn't seemed to understand the dire underlying meaning behind that. She knew her brother was alive, and in the nest, but she hadn't put two and two together.
If he was alive, but inside the nest of hundreds of monstrous spiders, then only one thing could have happened.
Sunny didn't want to think of it too much, but there was a rather promising chance that they had made Kallen an incubator of sorts. Nephis and Caster understood this as well. Nephis seemed to hold the opinion that as long as he was alive, her flames could reverse anything that could happen, but Sunny wasn't too sure.
Could they heal a tortured mind?
Likely, they were going to be forced to put the kid out of his misery, and turn back empty-handed, and with a devastated Sleeper to boot.
He didn't look forward to it.
Passing the eviscerated corpse of a strange beast, Sunny grew uneasy from the lack of spiders. There was an unnatural silence in this little corner of the dream realm.
Most Nightmare Creatures had been turned away from this region because of the spiders marking their territory with their webs. But the lack of spiders seemed to suggest they'd all died. Or at least moved.
Caster was the first to voice it. "This isn't right." He nudged a spider corpse with his boot. The monster was hollow on the inside, and missing several sections of its carapace. "Something's feeding on them, and taking their armor, as well as their fangs and blood."
Nephis crouched beside a second carcass. Her eyes flicked between the severed head and thorax. "They harvested that one, but this one remained untouched…"
Sunny's grip tightened on his tachi. Some spiders were charred, some crushed, but the majority were killed in the same manner. Precise, surgical cuts, severing the heads. The type of wounds left by something that had studied and discovered the best way of dealing with them.
The same thing Nephis and Sunny had done to the carapace legion. Had it truly been Kallen? Sunny wasn't sure… but he hoped.
It wasn't long before they found what they were looking for. Seren's excitement had grown as they got closer until she was ready to burst from the seams. Inside, the massive labyrinth of spider webs sculpted around the body of a giant stone warrior. That was where her brother would be.
Sunny couldn't get rid of that sense of impending doom.
The longer they followed Seren toward her brother, the fewer spiders they found. Living spiders, that was. In fact, they hadn't seen a live arachnid in hours.
Closer to the nest, it was easier to see spiders that had clear defensive wounds… wounds that suggested they were battling each other, rather than some sentient hunter that knew their weaknesses.
He had expected a battle before entry, and so had everyone else, but nothing came for them. There was nothing to defend the nest. All of its defenders were lying dead.
The entrance was situated high above the ground, and was extremely wide. Looking at the diameter of the hole gave the cohort a good idea of just how big the Matriarch of it all had been.
Sunny went first, scouting the area best he could. Inside, it was dark and damp, with drops of black water falling from above.
Peering into the darkness with his shadow, Sunny suddenly stumbled. Inside the giant nest, the charred corpse of what he assumed was the matriarch lay shriveled and dead on the floor. The creature was terrifying, but long dead.
As his shadow moved to head into a tunnel, his eyes widened.
Hundreds of corpses lined the entrance to one of the many tunnels. All the other tunnel entrances were clear… it was as if something had killed all the spiders and piled them in one spot.
Sunny nearly lost his lunch.
His shadow crept forward, slithering along the floor. There was no sign of Kallen anywhere. No vibration, nothing. Just the corpses.
Too many corpses.
Some sprawled, others curled defensively, limbs snapped at unnatural angles. Others pinned to the wall. What had happened?
"Sunny?" Nephis asked.
Sunny paused for a moment. "I think you guys should see for yourself. He's not in here… at least, not in the central hub of the nest."
He recalled his shadow and walked inside. Behind, Seren had grasped Nephis's hand, a worried look on her youthful face.
Caster walked past him, taking the vanguard, while Nephis held the rear, with Sunny in the middle. No one spoke as they entered the central hub. Sunny heard Seren gasp behind him.
Drip.
Slowly, he looked from side to side.
Drip.
Something is wrong.
Seren's voice cut through the tension, panicked and scared. "He's here! Above—"
A whisper of movement. High overhead. Sunny's eyes snapped up, just as the thing detached from the ceiling.
It wasn't a spider. Clad in armor of stitched carapace and tattered silk, its mask a grotesque fusion of human and arachnid design, something fell upon them like a blade thrown from the sky.
The being's sword ignited mid-descent, fire roaring to life as it slammed into the center of the cohort. It lashed out with the frenzy of something cornered, and Sunny barely dodged—the heat searing his cheek as the blade whooshed above him.
It was Kallen. He didn't pause, didn't apologize. He just attacked.
Sunny staggered to the ground, evading the Nightwalker's follow up, but earning a new bruise on his elbow.
Behind the hellish glow of Kallen's flames, beneath the terrifying mask, his eyes were wide and unfeeling—pupils swallowed by black veins, spider-webbed across like cracks in porcelain. Caster moved in to intercept, but Kallen leaped away, the strength and deftness surprising from a Sleeper.
Was it his aspect?
Sunny scrambled to his feet, but Nephis was already on the counter. She dashed forward, her blade swinging in an arc toward the retreating boy.
Kallen landed on a wire of silk so small, Sunny hadn't seen it until it dipped from his weight. Then the boy moved to another, then another, becoming a blur of flame and steel.
Even as Seren's thread of starlight wrapped around him, Sunny struggled to keep up. Kallen moved like a phantom, leaping between nearly invisible silk threads strung across the cavern. Each step was effortless, each landing precise.
His flaming sword left trails of embers in its wake.
"Protect Seren," Nephis ordered, and Caster moved to the rear of the group. Another thread of starlight shot from Seren, wrapping around Nephis this time.
Sunny barely had a beat to think before Kallen lunged again, this time at Nephis. She parried, their blades shrieking as they clashed, but Kallen twisted mid-air, using the momentum to flip over her and land behind Seren.
His free hand shot out, fingers curling toward her throat—
Caster slammed into him, shoulder crashing against his ribs. Kallen skidded back, but didn't fall, instead grinning behind his mask, which revealed his face from his top lip, down to his chin.
His smile was a jagged, unnatural thing. Sunny's blood ran cold. What they were fighting… it wasn't the boy he'd met back in the academy.
Nephis didn't hesitate. She struck, her own flames flaring as she aimed for the Nightwalker's legs, but he leaped, flipping backward onto another silk thread. The moment his feet touched the strand, he pushed off, shooting himself at Caster like a bullet.
Caster raised his enchanted jian just in time. The impact sent him sprawling, his weapon skittering across the stone.
"His Aspect!" Nephis said, dodging a swipe of Kallen's blade. "Seren, now!"
Seren's voice was small, terrified as she answered. "H-he controls water! But—but he can't use it here."
Kallen laughed, the sound warped and guttural. He landed on another thread, crouched like a predator. Then he moved. Not toward them, but up.
He scaled the cavern wall in seconds, his fingers finding purchase along the smooth webs. At the top, where the black water dripped from the ceiling, he stopped.
Then held out his hand. The droplets froze mid-air. Then reversed. They streaked upward, gathering in his palm, coalescing into a swirling orb of liquid darkness.
Sunny's stomach dropped.
Oh hell.
Kallen threw it. The orb shattered against the ground between them, exploding into a wave of lashing water. Sunny wrapped himself in his shadow and rolled clear, but Nephis was too close to the center and earned a slice across her arm.
Blood dripped to the ground.
Kallen didn't give them time to regroup; he launched from the ceiling, landing in a crouch and charged. His movements were erratic, unpredictable, half-feral, half-calculated.
Sunny blocked a slash aimed for his throat, the force knocking him back. Kallen pressed the advantage, his blade a whirlwind of flame—but it was a mistake.
Kallen overextended. Just for a moment. Just enough. Nephis struck, her sword biting into his side, the flame searing through his armor. Kallen hissed, stumbling back, but instead of retreating, he dove forward, grasping for her.
Sunny lashed out with a front-kick, catching him in the chest, his shadow doubling his strength.
The Nightwalker scrambled to the ground, and Sunny didn't wait, lunging with his tachi aimed for Kallen's leg, but the boy twisted, avoiding it by inches. Sunny pressed forward, and—likely noticing their advantage—Caster finally came from the rear.
Then Nephis joined, and they wrestled Kallen to the ground. Sunny caught an elbow to the face and hit the ground, his vision swimming. But by the time he rose to his feet, Caster was able to rip Kallen's helmet off, slipping an arm under his chin.
Caster snaked his legs around Kallen's mid section and constricted like a snake, trapping the thrashing Sleeper in place. Nephis moved to hold down his legs, but then something strange happened.
The blood dripping from her arm gravitated. And just before Kallen lost consciousness, that small drop of blood went hurtling toward Caster, fast enough to crack stone.
Caster's eyes went wide, but Sunny scrambled forward just in time, Midnight Shard flashing in front of the impromptu bullet.
But Caster's grip had loosened.
Kallen tore free, scrabbling to his feet. He lunged away, hurtling after the most vulnerable member of their cohort.
Seren was alone without Caster to protect her. She stood still, not even summoning a Memory, or her Echo. She was a deer in the headlights, pale and terrified. Before anyone could stop him, his flaming sword tore at the lone girl. Too fast. The blade arced right for her—
And stopped. An inch from her throat.
Kallen trembled, his arm shaking. His breathing came in ragged gasps. He tried to say something but his mouth didn't work.
"K-Kallen?" Seren whispered. For a heartbeat, nothing moved. Then Sunny lurched from the shadows, his fist catching Kallen square in the jaw.
The boy crumbled to the floor, his weapon clambering to the silken ground.
Sunny moved over top of him, placing his knee on the Scion's spine, while Caster moved up hold him down should he attack.
Nephis joined them, and they flipped Kallen over to his back.
Sunny's punch had knocked him out, but the effect was already wearing off. Lucidity was returning to his eyes, and they would soon be in for another battle.
But then Nephis did something strange. She placed a hand to Kallen's head, and bit back a pained expression. Soon, a blinding glow enveloped both of them as her flame worked on… something.
Truthfully, Sunny wasn't sure.
But after a minute had passed, and Nephis was on her hands and knees, panting, something about Kallen had changed. He rose from his seated position, looking around with a confused expression. He dismissed the top half of his armor, and Sunny had to hold himself together, looking at the grotesque sight.
Kallen was covered in thick, black liquid. Everywhere Sunny looked, he saw semi-fresh spider blood smeared. It was slowly congealing.
Under that blood, Kallen looked like he hadn't eaten in a week. Burn scars crisscrossed his torso, interrupted by deep stabbing wounds, impalements that hadn't fully healed, and a ragged hole piercing his shoulder.
What the hell happened to this guy?
Well, it was obvious. He took over the Iron-Spider nest and received all those wounds from fighting. And judging by the burns, he probably fancied lighting himself on fire to do so.
Kallen blinked slowly, his gaze unfocused as he took in the faces surrounding him. His fingers twitched at his sides, still half curled as if he was ready to fight, but the wild, feral light in his eyes was gone. The black veins had receded as well.
Seren was the first to move. She shifted up beside him, her hands hovering just above his shoulders, as if afraid to touch him. "K-Kallen?"
His breath hitched. For a moment, he stared at her with an incredulous expression. Then a slight smile flickered across his face. His lips parted, but no sound came out.
Sunny kept his blade ready, watching closely. He didn't trust this. Not yet.
Nephis, still panting from the strain of whatever she had done, wiped the sweat from her brow.
"What did you do?" Sunny asked. "Why is he okay now?"
"Venom," she said, voice rough. "His mind was fractured by some sort of venom. I purged it."
Kallen's fingers flexed. He looked down at himself—at the blood smeared across his chest, the burns, the wounds. His brow furrowed, and he looked back up to Seren.
In a slow, deliberate motion, he reached up and touched his own face. His fingertips smeared black on his cheeks. "I'm… I'm back."
A/N
This is my favorite chapter so far, so I hope you all like it. Also, shoutout to DuckWiz for all those powerstones!