The corridor ahead of Seth seemed to swallow sound. Not even his footsteps echoed anymore—and Eliza felt that if she spoke, her voice would be swallowed by the absolute silence that precedes a disaster.
The atmosphere changed even before they crossed the last archway.
The air grew denser. Colder. As if each particle were charged with an ancient, cruel, and blind electricity. There was no doubt: they were entering predator territory.
The hall opened up like a broken cathedral. A vast space with high ceilings and walls covered in mana crystals that pulsed in irregular shades of blue, violet, and spectral green. The light reflected there obeyed no logic: it bent at the edges of the stones, spun in impossible spirals, and cast shadows in directions opposite to the source.
And in the center—no, at the top—there it was.
The Crystal Spider.
An arachnid colossus with a body faceted like a black diamond, perched high above the arena on a throne of white crystals that rose from the floor like columns of ice. Its legs, long and thin as needles, moved with millimeter precision, almost lazily. As if it were waiting.
Watching.
Its head was a mosaic of eyes without pupils, and they all turned at once toward Seth and Eliza when they entered.
A sharp click echoed—not from the creature's mouth, but from the friction between the crystalline blades of its legs. A sound reminiscent of the preparation of a surgical instrument.
Eliza swallowed hard. She felt the mana around her twist. It was like trying to breathe underwater.
Gregory, still hanging from Seth's shoulder, moaned something incoherent. The Spider's response was almost imperceptible: a slight tilt of its monstrous body. A more... focused attention.
Seth finally stopped.
The ground beneath their feet was a circular platform, marked with ancient runes and cracks from time. In the center, an ancient sacrificial altar—now covered with a thin layer of crystal dust.
"Well," said Seth, in a voice that no longer seemed to belong entirely to the world of the living. "She's still hungry."
Eliza looked at him, horrified.
"Are you really going to...?"
Seth walked to the edge of the platform and threw Gregory away as if discarding a broken object. The body slid across the floor until it hit one of the crystal formations, leaving a trail of blood.
The Spider took a step down.
A single step.
And the floor shook.
The crystals around it pulsed in response, like an entire nervous system being activated. A chorus of sharp, metallic sounds filled the hall. The creature was interested.
Seth turned around without even looking.
"It's done."
Eliza, pale, could barely articulate words. "That... that's monstrous."
"Whatever," Seth replied, already descending the steps of the arena. "I don't care either way.""
Behind them, Gregory regained consciousness just long enough to understand where he was.
Pain was the first thing he felt—a tremor in his limbs, the metallic taste of blood in his mouth. He tried to move, but his muscles barely obeyed. The cold, rough crystal floor bit into his back.
And then he saw her.
The Spider.
Descending from its platform with the impossible elegance of something made to kill.
Its thin legs touched the ground with almost ritualistic precision. Each movement emitted a sharp sound, like glass being scratched by razors. The eyes—hundreds of them, multifaceted, soulless—stared at him as if he were just another item on a shelf of meat.
And he understood.
"Wait... wait, no... no!" he tried to shout, but his voice came out weak, cracked. "I am... I am one of you...! I AM ONE OF YOU!"
The Spider responded.
Not with words.
But with the sudden snap of two side claws, opening like giant pincers.
And it advanced.
Gregory screamed.
A pure, sharp, desperate scream that reverberated through the hall like a hysterical siren. He tried to crawl backward, his elbows scraping the floor, leaving a trail of blood and unstable mana. But it was too late.
The first paw pierced his leg like a stake, breaking his bones like toothpicks and pinning his body to the ground.
The scream that came out of him was less human, more animal—an instinctive, primal sound. His eyes wide to the edges, veins bulging in his face, spitting blood and terror.
Another paw came, piercing his left shoulder with a wet crack. The flesh opened easily, and blood spurted in intermittent jets. Gregory tried to conjure mana, but all that came out was a weak spark. The pain was too much. Concentration was impossible.
"Seth!" he yelled, in a last attempt at redemption. "PLEASE! HELP!"
But Seth didn't look back.
Neither did Eliza.
They were already on the staircase. Far enough away not to see. But close enough to hear.
The Spider crouched down.
Its fangs, enormous, serrated like saw blades, opened with a creak. Dark steam came out of them, the sour smell of corrosive mana acid spreading through the air. It grabbed Gregory by the ribs—not to kill him right away, but to explore.
And it tore.
The flesh opened like wet paper. Bones cracked. His scream turned into muffled sobs as half his torso was torn away in a voracious pull. His entrails spilled onto the floor, glowing in shades of red, purple, and spectral blue from the mana accumulated in his body.
The skull hit the floor. The eyes still blinked.
The Spider stuck a fang into the open abdomen and injected something. Gregory's body began to writhe on its own—involuntary, puppet-like spasms. The remaining mana inside him reacted, trying to heal, regenerate, survive.
The Spider liked that.
It was fresh.
The creature began to feed slowly, savoring it, as if tasting something rare. Its jaws moved with rhythmic clicks. Blood dripped through the crystals on the floor, tracing red veins between the cracks, staining the room like profane stained glass.
Gregory's heart was still beating.
And it beat.
Once more.
Then it stopped.
At the top of the stairs, Seth just took a deep breath, his eyes half-closed. Eliza, beside him, was pale. But she said nothing.
There was nothing more to say.
"Done," Seth said, in an almost serene tone. "Now we're even with what he caused." He said...
[You have eliminated a Hunter Killer, you have received the title "Hunter of Hunters"]
[You used a different method that the system did not predict]
[You have received a trait: Brutal]
"Trait?" Seth wondered...
[Trait or Characteristic> It is something engraved in your soul, those who are at a higher level of power can see your state and your characteristics]
"Well, now..." Seth said, stretching, "Kill her, Bastet." He said, and the Panther left.