Spider Lord

Suzu Kato and her god are a perfect match. She moves like a character from a martial arts drama, jumping from enemy to enemy, punching through them at what feels like lightspeed. On her heels, Pym follows like a shadow made of fire, moving in tandem. They burn through the demons as if they are paper.

But we are in the middle now, together with her. Even though Suzu is mowing down hordes, there are still more, swarming the ground. Char’s troops are engaged all around us. Karina and Gale have joined the fray, and so has Safrim. Poru and Nono stick closer to me, defending more than attacking. With my sword held out, I strike at the closest spiders while trying to get an overview of the situation.

“It never ends!” Poru yells.

He is holding out his hands, the light keeping the smaller spiders at bay as they shy away from the glow. Nono stands right next to me and puts a hand on my arm.

“There must be several summoners nearby,” she says. “Like Din, only Din was one of the more capable ones. That’s why he was stationed near Atol. Light opposes darkness naturally, so Atol always fared better than the other cities.”

“…”

“What?”

“You’re telling me the other cities have already fallen?”

Nono shrugs. “I am not at liberty to say.”

I ball my hands to fists. I can deal with that later. What’s important now is the current situation.

“Can you find the summoners?”

“I don’t have a magic GPS, or anything, if you mean—”

Nono puts both hands over her mouth as her eyes grow wide. I grab her arm, squeezing it hard.

“What did you just say?”

She shakes her head.

“What. Did. You. Just. Say. What the FUCK—”

“Yuki?” Poru turns around and looks at me.

I can’t school my features. I think I might range somewhere between shocked and furious. Nono wriggles her arm, but my grip is hard.

“Yuki??” Poru shouts, but he can’t jump between us as the spiders aren’t letting up their assault.

“If you disappear on me after this, I will haunt you. Now. How do we find the summoners?”

Nono’s ears are still red. “High concentrations of miasma. They need to condense it to summon more minions. Follow the fog.”

“I swear to all that’s—”

“Yuki!” Karina yells from a distance. “What’s wrong?”

“Look for high concentrations of miasma! That’s where their reinforcements come from. Kill whatever spawns them! Pass it on!”

She nods and jumps away. I see her approach Safrim to relay my message.

“Come on, Poru-in. We have to look too.”

“I’m going over there,” Nono says and she’s off.

I look after her. She said ‘GPS’. There are decidedly no GPS in this world. Is she… No. Only the heroes are summoned from another world. Does that mean… the Demon King gets a hero too? How does that work? It makes no sense.

“I will haunt you!!” I shout after Nono before she disappears into the mass of bodies on the battlefield.

“What’s wrong?” Poru asks.

“I’m just… ugh. This is a lot.”

Poru looks out at the never-ending assault. “It is.”

I need to do my part. With my eyes closed, I reach out to Erya. I don’t know if she heard me, so far from any of her places of worship, but when I imagine a light surrounding all the people in my vicinity, it appears, shielding them from the dark fog emitted by the slain spiders.

Okay. Now.

The summoners.

The…

I glance at Nono in the fray. She fights tooth and nail. Anyone would think she’s on our side. Anyone would think she’s a citizen of Atol. Her identity goes at least three levels down. And I don’t even know if that’s the true one.

Ugh.

The summoners.

With my sword in hand and Poru following on my heels, I slash myself through the demon spiders across the plateau. The individual spiders aren’t very strong. One hit is enough to kill them. But they quickly disintegrate into fog. Then I suddenly have an idea.

“Poru-in, can you kill a group of them at once?”

“I can try,” he replies.

There is no shortage of enemies to try on. A blade of light appears in Poru’s hand and he slashes it though another wave. They screech, many of their cores crushed immediately. But not all of them—their miasma merges and rises up.

Yes!

“Follow the cloud!”

Easier said than done. But at least I now know what to look for as I spot more and more movement above us. It’s like a slow river in the sky, going into one direction.

And then I spot it: Another spider, large as a house, cowering in a hollow in the forest at the edge of the plateau. It has itself flattened to the ground, blending into the vegetation. The fog moves towards it from all directions.

It strikes me like lightning: There is no summoner. This humongous spider demon draws in all the miasma on the battlefield and spits out new enemies.

“What is that?” Poru asks and I relay my thoughts.

“It’s too big. We can’t kill it alone. We need to get the others!” Poru concludes.

“We can’t kill it… but I can disable it.”

“How?”

“I just need to get close. Wait here.”

“That’s madness.”

I smile at him.

“Just don’t get killed,” he adds.

“I don’t plan on it.”

The spider demon sits in a hollow, legs spread out to either side. Underneath it in the depression, miasma pools. I can’t go there, but the legs are…

I circle around the area. The spiders are likely trained on Suzu and her people on the battlefield. There are none running into the opposite direction, so I dare crawl closer. From the bushes I can reach one of the massive legs, which has dug itself into the ground for purchase, quivering as its body works tirelessly.

With fear and trepidation, I put my hands on the spider leg.

“Appraisal!” I whisper.

[Demon Spider Lord]

Type: Summoned Monster

Attributes: Dark, Earth

Life Points: 178/200

Age: 4 months

Skills: Dark Aura

That must be it. The other spiders are getting revived through this skill. The big one doesn’t attack itself, but it infuses the others with miasma.

“Manipulation. Remove all skill points from Dark Aura.”

[No other skills available to assign them to.]

“That’s fine. Leave them unassigned.”

[Confirmed.]