*Bing-Bong*
The writer of the work would like to reiterate that the following chapter will be terrible if you have arachnophobia.
You have been warned.
Thank you.
...
...
|What? No quips this time? I figured you would complain about the chapterâs title being a t*mblr meme.|
No, Iâm mad at you.
|Mad at me? For what?|
You said no biting.
|HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW YOUâD MOAN LIKE THAT?!|
YOU MOTHERFU-wait...godsdammit!
*Bing-Bong*
_____________________________________________
"You."
"MMMPH?!"
Arachanidame pointed a chitin covered finger directly at a particular rogue that appeared to be a young woman with a surprisingly innocent looking face.
At a glance, one would never guess such a woman could be an assassin or spy. But then again, sometimes itâs the least likely suspects that are actually guilty.
Upon the strange spider womanâs face, the gagged prisoners could see an amused expression that gave them the feeling that she was dissecting their bodies and souls with every flick of their eyes, and now all six of them were aimed at this "poor" girl.
"Why donât you come on up here, my little volunteer?," Archanidame asked in a strange, singing voice. "So you can show these little flies what I have in store?"
"MMMF?"
"MMM!"
"HMMM?!"
Based on how they saw this spider woman manifest out of a swarm of spiders, the captured prisoners assumed that Archanidame would produce webs from somewhere on her body and physically pull the innocent looking assassin towards her.
What happened instead was much more unsettling.
Arachnidame simply waved her hand, causing the innocent looking woman to suddenly freeze up. Immediately after this sudden paralysis, a giant spider as big as a dog came down from the ceiling and ripped away the silk that was holding the girl in place, freeing her arms and legs.
This wouldâve been the part where the now freed prisoner would immediately attempt escape by either tool, skill or will. Instead, she sat there in that chair with her hands on her lap like a student in class waiting to answer a question. Although, the look on her face indicated that she wasnât doing any of these actions on purpose.
All of the other warriors could sense the womanâs aether circulating and condensing into her arms and legs, a clear sign that she was trying to dispel or break something that was affecting her body.
However, none of the warriors could sense any other forms of energy affecting this woman, all they could sense was the womanâs aether circulating around and around, as if she was merely exercising her channels for the sake of it and not in conflict with anything.
"Oh what a polite girl you are!," Arachnidame praised in a sarcastically earnest tone. "Well donât just sit there all day. Walk over here please."
Arcahnidame simply gestured to the woman to walk over with a single fluid motion, somehow causing the woman to walk in an equally natural, fluid motion.
If they hadnât seen what had happen before this moment with their very eyes, they wouldâve just assumed that this girl was working with Arachnidame as a double agent or something, and not that she was under the control of some unfathomable spider monster. What made that observation even more terrifying though, was the fact that none of them could detect or identify what kind of power Arachnidame was using to do so.
They could only speculate.
_____________________________________________
"Alright, seeing as Rianna and I can only mildly detect [Chaos], can you explain exactly how Archanidame is able to do all of that?"
"Oh, this is actually pretty simple. You know how use [Chaos] to give myself aether channels to do stuff with? Turns out [Chaos] under the right conditions and kaijin can be used to make things like organs and nerve cells. Arachnidame is using threads of [Chaos] in order to literally rewire that girlâs movements. If she wants to move her right leg forward, it will move backwards if Arachnidame so wills it. And nobody is none the wiser."
"Huh...thatâs surprisingly powerful."
"Right?"
"Follow-up question."
"Sure?"
"Whatâs a nerve cell?"
"Ah, well..."
_____________________________________________
"Donât worry little one, I donât bite. Hard."
"MMMPH?!"
The warriors could only watch with growing dread in their stomach as the distance between Archanidame and her "volunteer" grew smaller and smaller by the second, until they were only about a foot apart from one another.
At this short distance, one could clearly see how Arachnidame was absolutely towering over the shorter assassin woman, while the formerâs aura absolutely eclipsed the latterâs.
"Mmmm..."
"Oh, initiative! How cute!"
Without being prompted, the gagged assassin woman craned her neck upwards in order to stare into Arachanidameâs strange looking face. It looked mortal enough, to be sure, but there was this strange hint of pure wrongness to it that it made her uneasy...an emotion she hadnât felt in years.
"Now then, little girl," Archanidame said with a motherly tone that was just a bit off, "why donât we start with you. Tell me your name, your superior and the reason why you were here tonight?"
Arachnidame lazily spun one of her fingers in a spiral directly in the face of the shorter assassin.
As naturally as someone taking off their scarf, the short assassin woman gingerly and expertly took off the silk strands binding their mouth shut and proceeded to take a deep breath before finally speaking.
However, it wasnât an answer to Arachnidameâs questions. Instead, it was a tirade.
<<The fuck you mean name, superior and reason, huh?!,>> the woman shouted, clearly forgetting about her professionalism in the face of utter insanity. <<I ainât going to answer shit, so you better just fucking kill me because I->>
*CLICK*
<<AH!>>
Before the assassin could continue her strangely emotional outburst, Archanidame grabbed the person by the mouth in order to effectively shut them up. To the assassin being held, this was the worst sensation she had ever felt due to her understanding what this Archanidame woman was made of.
"Ah, ah, aaaaah!," Archanidame chided while her hands were still firmly over the assassinâs mouth. "only answer the questions asked of you, then youâll be okay?"
<<Fuck you!,>> the assassin answered through a muffled voice.
"Tsk! Such a foul mouth! Looks like some is in need of an adjustment! And I have just the remedy. Open wide~"
Archanidame changed the way she was holding the assassinâs mouth, from covering it to completely with all five fingers, to making a person open their mouths while using several fingers to keep it open.
At the sight of this particular action, none of the other bound warriors reacted in any way other than just disinterest.
The force consumption of aether pills was a practice that was fairly common in their line of work, since not all aether pills were beneficial and could be used to get information. As such, many people in their line of work would figure out means to resist such influences in their own little ways.
Depending on who this girl worked for, any aether pills Archanidame could produce could not do anything, or may actually empower the girl.
However, absolutely none of them expected this next part.
"Hmm?"
As the assassin did her best to resist Archanidameâs grip, the people on the side suddenly noticed that at certain points across the spider womanâs body, fat looking spiders began to pop out of her skin and crawl towards the shoulders.
"Hmm..."
Once the spiders reached Archanidameâs shoulders, the resisting warrior paused as soon as she noticed the little beasties starting to gather in front of her, confusion plain on her face.
It wasnât until the spiders started crawling again,this time down Archanidameâs out stretched arm, that the assassin realized what was going on and what was about to happen.
She was about to swallow a whole bunch of spiders.
"Donât worry, Iâll be really gentle inside you~."
"MMM?!"
Correction, she was about to swallow a bunch of spiders that also happened to be Archanidame.
Professionally, something like that shouldnât be affecting her in anyways shape or form, it was just a bunch of spiders and nothing more.
However, instinctually, every part of the assassinâs being was screaming in terror as there was something absolutely primal about the fear of spiders.
And this fear became especially palpable the moment the first spider reached the girlâs mouth and began to crawl right in.
"MMM!"
"HMMM!"
"MMMM! MMM! MMM!"
One by one, sharp leg after sharp leg and under the gaze of half a dozen warriors, a swarm of spiders that was Archanidame, crawled into the mouth of assassin until not a single one was left outside.
<<No, no, no! Get out of me!>>
Once this last spider was swallowed, the assassin immediately made moves to try and destroy themselves or hopefully the spiders now crawling in her insides.
However, literally inches before her own fists could make an impact, the assassin suddenly stopped once more, only this time, it was accompanied by an even more worrying phenomenon.
The aether and aura of this assassin woman had suddenly changed into that of the spider woman that just disappeared down the formerâs throat.
It wasnât until a voice from earlier popped in that the others realized what was going on.
"Well then, since you have seem to drive my associate to this extent, mind telling me your name then, sweetheart?"
This time the moves of the assassin was a lot more jerky as she moved her face up and gave the fakest smile that they had ever seen.
But then they heard her speak, and they all turned pale.
"My...name...is...Yin...Mai..."
It should be noted that it wasnât the name that made these warriors of the shadows pale like this, it was how the name was produced that was the issue...and the fact that none of them could figure out how they were doing this.
"Yin Mai... interesting...alright, now mind explaining who you work for?"
"That..."