Malak lengthened her neck akin to a serpentine, moving in the web freely like a fish in the sea. When she came face to face with the petrified Danny, her delicate face split in half, exposing the hideous visage of a hairy spider with eight crimson eyes.
"What's wrong, darling?" She asked, her mouth salivating with an acidic stench green liquid. "You no longer find me appealing?"
The moment Danny saw her true face and smelt the stench, his mind was already gone. He couldn't even muster a scream...His eyes rolled at the back of his head, passing out instantly to protect him from the horrible fate awaiting him.
"Danny! What's happening back there!! Danny!! Danny!!"
Matthew screamed at Danny to speak, alas, he heard nothing but Malak's cracked voice.
"Ah, you decided to be a coward all the way I see, fine, I guess I will save you for dessert."
Then, she completed her transformation into a giant eight-legged spider, resembling Queen Dra'Webra, but lacking some qualities.
Still, her appearence was terrifying enough for Matthew and the others. The moment she tiptoed in front of them, none of them dared to breathe out loud.
But the same didn't apply to their contracted nightcrawlers, whose lives also hung in the balance.
"Zyy'ra, I never expected you to be an undercover Sleepwalker for a Lurker." One of them uttered coldly, "We have chosen our partners at the same Assembly, we even spent half a year in the same classroom."
"The real question is how could you betray your own race, you scumbags." Zyy'ra's eyes narrowed murderously, "Humans are supposed to be nothing but food and playthings for us. Yet, you go along and enslave yourselves into weapons, used as mere tools in their hands."
"I spit on the likes of you!"
She committed to the spit as she splashed the nearest Daywalker's face with her acidic saliva, leaving him hollering in agonizing pain.
The rest of the Daywalkers shivered as they heard their squadmates' despairing cries and the sizzling noise of his face getting melted off. In a few moments at best, his whimpers died out, making the nearest Daywalkers to him glance at his tragic ending.
When they saw his exposed skull and brain juices dripping down his chin, their hearts were frozen solid in despair.
"You think we didn't want to become Sleepwalkers too?" Another contracted nightcrawler in the shape of a sand scorpion commentated coldly, "It has become extremely difficult to manipulate them with so many protocols humans have developed: SR Pills, Anti-Sleepwalkers' Bureau, ankle monitors, and more. We were forced into this path to fulfill our evolutions, and I am certain you just got lucky with this girl."
During the earliest years or even decades of the great civilization's fall, becoming a Sleepwalker was easier than drinking water.
All the people, who weren't lucky enough to be in the chosen blessed cities by the Solar Divinities, ended up either eaten or forced into becoming Sleepwalkers.
Since at that time, not much knowledge was accessible about Sleepwalkers, nightcrawlers, or such, humans did anything to survive...Even if it meant accepting being possessed by a nightcrawler.
They were easily swindled as the nightcrawlers had written a fixed term in the contract, ensuring the humans that once the nightcrawlers' evolved into Tier 9, they would return their bodies to them.
It was like a parasitic relationship and as much as humans despised it, anything was for survival, right?
Wrong!
Everyone who signed the Sleepwalkers' contract came to the horrifying truth that their souls would be trapped in their bodies without a single way to regain control.
This would have been fine if the senses between humans and nightcrawlers weren't shared!
In simpler terms, if nightcrawlers were to feast on animals or worse, human flesh, the contracted human would sense every single thing, and he could do nothing about it.
"Luck? All I hear is excuses." Zyy'ra sneered, "Nothing has been forced on you. You are simply lazy, having no interest in mastering the arts of manipulation. You think I have found this beauty lying around and prepared to sign her life away?"
Zyy'ra went on to brag about how she tracked Malak for over two years since the moment her father committed suicide for not being able to handle lack of sleep, constant nightcrawlers' dreams invasion, stress to provide, the death of his wife, and more unimaginable traumas.
And how she made sure to visit her every time she slept, installing thoughts of vengeance in her dreams without showing herself.
After two years of wearing her off and completely twisting her personality to hate the government, the flawed system that drove her father to despair, she finally made her move and suggested the sleepwalker's contract.
At that moment, Malak's mind was already gone and all she wanted was to relieve herself from everything while going out with a bang.
"I had her so wrapped under my finger that she didn't mind participating in the Assembly so I could choose her and commence a 'fake Daywalker' contract. All I had to do in return was kill as many Daywalkers as possible, which was already my goal." Zyy'ra smirked cockily, "Luck? I don't believe in such bullsh*t, you either have it in you or you don't."
The Daywalkers and their contracted nightcrawlers were silenced, realizing that they were under the presence of a cruel mastermind. While she seemed to have cocky tendencies, they understood that she earned the right to be one.
Bypassing all the protocols humans had put in place to prevent the rise of Sleepwalkers was no easy feat—especially with contracts being thoroughly checked by the authorities during the Assembly and before issuing any Daywalker their official ID.
"Feel honored, you will be the food that will enrich my intelligence even more."
Before this snarky prideful remark could take root in the Daywalkers' minds, a sudden whisper assaulted Zyy'ra's ears.
'Kill yourselves as an apology...'
The moment Ash'Kral's cold authoritative voice was processed in her mind, Zyy'ra went blank for a second, and before she realized it, she found herself penetrating her abdomen with her eight sharp legs.
Pssssssssssssss!!!
Abdomen's fluid flew everywhere, tainting the web and showering the Daywalkers' in the most revolting stench in existence.
Yet, no one paid any heed to the smell or their covered bodies in yellow juices. They just kept staring at Zyy'ra's twitching legs.
A few moments later, silence engulfed the area again...This time, everyone was too stunned to speak.
The only unified thought coursing through their minds was:
'What the f*ck just happened...'
They had foreseen their end in many ways; eaten alive, stripped of their Shadowlife seed, or even eaten by the incoming spiders' army. Yet, not in their wildest dreams would they have imagined such an ending.
The cocky and brazen Zyy'ra offed herself like someone pressed the shutdown button in her.
No matter how hard they thought about it, everyone came to a single conclusion regardless of how ludicrous it sounded...Was she killed by the Lurker Queen Spider?
Alas, no one was there to clarify this madness.
"Who f*cking cares! We live!" Matthew shouted hastily, "Wake up that moron and let's get the f*ck out of this hellhole."
"Seconded, I have never felt this level of creeps before in my life. Something sinister is happening under the surface and I have no interest in investigating it."
All the Daywalkers agreed with Matthew, swiftly using Zyy'ra's juices to slip up a hand or two and reach out to their backpacks. After retrieving the Assault totems, they burnt the web entangling them and their mounts, freeing themselves at last.
Danny was also freed while still unconscious. But, after landing on the ground face first, he immediately regained consciousness.
The first thing he did was beseech loudly while cowering behind his arms, not even daring to open his eyes.
"Please don't eat me! I can pay you handsomely! Please!! Please!!"
'Shut your trap, you goddamn disgrace. Where were my eyes when I picked you? I can't believe I am stuck with you for life, f*ck me!'
His contracted nightcrawler wasn't pleased in the slightest, cursing him nonstop. His reaction was more than understandable when considering that Danny was supposed to help him reach Tier 7. After this performance, he doubted if they would even survive their next fight.
This showed that when it came to becoming a Sleepwalker, the burden fell on the nightcrawler to convince the human by any means possible.
But, when it came to becoming a Daywalker, the burden fell on the humans to show their talents to attract a decent nightcrawler.
This was one of the main reasons all nightcrawlers refused to accept Levi. None of them was foolish enough to link their life and death with a blind kid, who could not absorb light efficiently nor fight properly with such a massive disability.
This would drive one to wonder, just what Ash'Kral had seen in him?