Chương 54: Chapter 52. Webbed

The path that Oscar found himself in was eerily quiet. By now they should have ran into someone, or heard anything signaling that this place was occupied. Instead all he could hear was the dull echo of his footsteps and the thumps of his heart. The whole place looked less like a high security prison and more like an evil scientists lab. Which he supposed was sort of correct. This was where they'd concocted the new recipe for Desire after all.

Shamic opened the door that led further in and the moment he pried the door open, a dreadful stench filled hit their nostrils.

"Oh, gods! Olin, what is that smell?" Even the stoic man couldn't help himself from recoiling from the smell.

"I don't know, my lady…"" M'lago … look at that," Shamic said breathlessly. Oscar followed his gaze and saw four [Agents] pinned against the wall. Some strange black substance oozed out from behind them. Their bodies were a mangled mess. Skin was ripped on all of them, rendering it impossible to discern what they might've looked like before. One woman had her foot barely hanging on while her chest was ripped open. Her organs were only kept from falling out due to the odd black ooze.

"Um, I think I can see why no one's bothered to check in," Oscar remarked.

"Good thing I left Mook behind with Plank…"

"What do you think did this?" Ariesa asked.

"Nothing human," Shamic said. Olin regained his composure and observed the bodies closer. He reached a hand out to touch the black substance, but thought better of it and recalled his curious fingers.

"I see, they're webbed… Whatever this web is, it's what is producing this strange substance, but what's it for?"

"Look, you can see the webs more clearly up above," Ariesa pointed out.

"They don't seem to have any of the black sludge. I wonder if it responds to contact before producing it." She was right. The webs were thick—likely created by something massive—but they were otherwise pretty standard. A long, broken strand of web stretched down from the ceiling. Curiosity won over logic and Oscar tentatively poked the web strand. Contact was brief, but the moment he touched the web, it latched onto his finger.

He yelled first out of surprise and then pain as he felt the web prick its way into his fingertip. He hastily created a shadow dagger and sliced the web, disconnecting the strand from the larger web. As soon as the web was cut, Oscar felt the strange invader die. From above, the rest of the strand dangled. However, it had now visibly been changed. What had looked like normal webbing before was now completely black.

Or, the connective line that led to that strand was which was now starting to leak droplets of the black substance.

"What the fuck?" was all he could say.

"Are you stupid?" Olin asked and then realized he'd almost done the same.

"Ahem, apologies… Let's perhaps not touch the strange web, okay?"

"Yeah, don't need to worry about that happening again," Oscar said.

"It was weird, though, it was as if the web was—or is—alive."

"I don't know about alive, but where ever the webbing leads… it responded to your touch," Shamic said.

"Nyxils have something similar where the web reacts to foreign touch and injects a paralytic poison into the victims blood. Given how Oscar is still standing… that's not it." The room quieted for a moment before Olin spoke up.

"No sense in wondering, let's keep going."

"Olin, can I ask you something?" Oscar asked as they continued to walk. Olin gave a brief hum, signaling him to ask.

"Why are you helping us? I mean… doesn't this hurt the [King]?"

"I've been assigned to Lady Ariesa's side ever since she was… seven? Goodness, how time flies. Anyhow, as I've been her protector and educator for all these years… I feel like this is less a betrayal of my [King] and more like an extension of my primary duties," Olin replied.

"However, I know that is just an excuse… but it's an excuse that I don't mind using. Should I be executed for my assistance, then so be it. To be quite honest… it's nice to relax a bit and not be so proper."

"This is you… relaxed?" Shamic asked.

"Shut it, Olin," Ariesa said and gently punched him in the shoulder.

"Father won't have you executed for this. I'll protect you."

"Say Olin… you wouldn't happen to be the one that gives Aurelia her orders, would you?" Oscar asked.

"No… why do you ask?"

"Ariesa and I spied on a meeting between Maveon Reissi and someone whose named started with an 'O'. Then I learned that that same person was the one in charge of giving Aurelia orders," Oscar said.

"I apologize, but my family all has names that start with that letter. Furthermore, I don't know anyone that gives Aurelia orders, at all. Only the [King] tells her what to do."

"Sorry, just had to ask…" Olin shrugged.

"No offense taken, I understand. But you have to know that I'd deny it if it were true. If there was anyone that might give her orders, then it'd be my eldest brother, Oda."

"Enough with the conspiracies. Our destination is just up ahead," Ariesa said and turned the corner. Oscar rounded the corner and slammed into Ariesa's back. As he peeled away from her, he saw what had given her pause.

"This is getting worse and worse by the minute…" The door to the 'Discoveries and Documentation' room was currently replaced in lieu of an all-natural web door. On the ceiling there was black cocoons and were it not for one incomplete cocoon, Oscar wouldn't have known it was people inside. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"Do you think they documented this discovery… or is that going to be left to us?" Shamic asked.

"Stand back, I'll cut us a way through," he said and pulled out his scimitars from their storage. It took a few slices, but eventually he managed to carve away the webs to access one of the double doors. Then with a powerful kick, he flung open the doors. The vibrations from his kick resonated with the cocoons above, which began to weakly quake.

"Shamic! Move!" Oscar shouted. Calmly, the [Bounty Hunter] sidestepped away as one of the cocoons above ruptured open and the body fell. Years of watching horror films flashed through Oscar's mind. He thought that the body was infested with weird fantasy spiders… but nothing happened. The body laid limp on the ground, having seemingly fell from the cocoon itself having been weak. Shamic stepped inside the room and gestured for everyone to follow.

Stepping over the body, Oscar found himself in a room that aptly fit its name. Rows of desks and cabinets littered the room. Which he meant literally. Whatever had laid the webs must have been through here as the room was in complete disarray. Paper was scattered everywhere, and the desks and cabinets were flipped or broken. Some—a lot—of the furniture and papers were stuck in webbing, and the flooring was absolutely ravaged.

It was important that he focus on all of the chaos first, as he didn't want to look at the large, rotating, black cocoon that was suspended in the center of the room.

"Do you feel that?" Oscar asked. Shamic and the others just raised an eye at him.

"Whatever's inside that cocoon… it's alive. I can feel the corruption coming off of it… which is strange, because none of the other cocoons, nor the webbing, did that."

"No sense in waiting for it to hatch," Shamic said and swung his scimitars across the cocoon's side. However, instead of cutting cleanly through the cocoon, his weapon bounced off, dealing zero damage.

"Wow, I don't think even nyxil's have that tough of—" The cocoon exploded, sending its webbing scattering through the air. A person emerged out of it and began to mumble... no, it was chittering like it was a spider. It was a man, around maybe forty years of age. His eyes rolled around aimlessly and continuously, not matching the direction his head violently twitched towards.

Shamic went to attack the person, but as his weapon was about to make contact, a thick spider leg erupted out of his shoulder blades, blocking his scimitar. Another leg emerged out of the other shoulder blade. They clicked against one another, the sound making the others behind him shudder. The horrific spider-human wasn't done yet, though. The man's mouth stretched wide and a smaller pair of spider legs emerged out of the cavity.

An eight-eyed face poked itself out of the mouth before recalling back inside the man's body.

"I think… I think I'm going to be sick," Oscar said.

"I've never seen anything like this before… not even nyxils are capable of doing something like this," Shamic said breathlessly.

"And they're renowned for being the most crafty pestolas on this continent. Just what are you?" Whatever it was, it certainly wasn't fast. The spider's legs were fast, but the body wasn't. The spider-man lurched forwards and stumbled and fell face first into one of the desks. Shamic didn't hesitate and plunged both of his scimitars into the center of the man's back and dragged them outwards, splitting him in half. Two new spiders emerged of the bisected body.

Shamic cried out that there markings on the back was unmistakably nyxil, but the facial structure wasn't one that he could recall seeing before. He had no time to inspect further as the both opened their freakish mouths and spewed webs at him. Shamic ducked and cut off one of the spider's heads while the other received three shadow daggers lodged inside it.

"Did anyone get hit?" Shamic asked.

"We're fine," Olin replied.

"[Ignite]," he said and set the both the man and the spider's corpse alight.

"The web is back to being white," Ariesa pointed out.

"I think the web is… eating the bodies." Shamic clicked his tongue and shook his head, seemingly disagreeing.

"I think what's actually happening is that the web is feeding the cocoon's inhabitants. The truth is likely to be more complex, of course, but that might be how this person ended up the way they did."

"Feeding them… what?" Ariesa asked. One of the doors in the back of the room abruptly flung open.

"In the name of Praxios, cease the rambling! Get in before it shows up!" a woman called out.

"You've just activated an alarm!"

"Who the fuck are you?" Oscar replied, his voice shaky from the surprise. Shamic grabbed the boy by his shoulder and pushed him towards the woman.

"I don't think I want to find out what she's talking about, do you? Everyone, go!"

"She's with the Depths! What if it's a trap? Olin, what do you think?" Ariesa asked.

"Pardon me, [Princess], but I think I'd rather deal with the Depths than more of whatever… that was," Olin replied. The group ran past the woman and into the new room. She shut the door behind them and barricaded it with some nearby furniture. Shamic had been expecting this to be an office, but it was actually a hallway. A set of spiral stairs lay ahead that led down further.

"How did you know we were in there?" Shamic asked.

"You weren't just waiting by this door hoping someone stumbled in there… right?" The woman scurried past him and stopped at the top of the stairs.

"No! Of course not! Well… not exactly. I haven't been able to escape and every time I try to leave this area… something happens. I just didn't expect this something to be… people."

"And what is something usually?" Oscar asked.

"Spiders. Human-spider hybrids… or the big one," she replied.

"Uh, I'm Emma by the way. I'm not apart of the Depth's if you're wondering."

"Then who are you, and what's the big one?" Ariesa asked.

"Wish I could tell you who I am… I can't remember a damn thing about whoever I was before coming here. I woke up yesterday and discovered my cell block had been ravaged by something monstrous. Were it not for my habit of sleeping underneath my bed… I'd have been killed too."

"And you just slept through a giant spider monster destroying everything near you?" Shamic asked, skeptical at her story. Emma shrugged and continued walking down the stairs.

"Yeah, I mean whatever it is that they drug us with… it ravages you. I don't even know what the drug is, but it knocks you the fuck out. And in regards to the big one… I don't know what that thing is. I've only ever seen its face. The bitch is massive, though. I've seen the silhouette of its body and something weird and tall sits pointing up on its back."

"Well, so much for discovering anything on our path," Oscar said.

"I wonder how Bruno and the others are fairing on theirs."

"Just who exactly are you guys anyway? You wear the Depth's pin… but I don't get the same vibe from you like I did the others that worked down here," Emma said.

"We're here to rescue some of our friends that got wrongfully abducted," Oscar said.

"Have you seen a group of teenagers? One girl and the others all boys." The stairwell ended and revealed what looked to be a break room of sorts. Emma sat down on one of the chairs and picked up a half-eaten slice of bread. For the first time, Oscar really got a good look at her. Emma had deep bags under her eyes and her brown hair was disheveled. It looked like she had begun to bald in some spots. Her clothes weren't standard prisoner fatigues, but instead a nice floral tunic that had to have been looted.

"Nope, don't recall seeing them in my block. Not that I saw too many people, of course," Emma said and took a bite out of her slice of bread.

"Right now, we're in the staffs lounge. Myself and Critter found it while fleeing and so far none of the spiders have found their way down for whatever reason."

"Critter?" Olin asked.

"There's other survivors?" Emma stopped to chew another bite before answering.

"There were, but I don't know how many are left. This place has gone to the damned Abyss, so when I was escaping from my cell block, I didn't both to escape with any others. I just wanted to be anywhere but where my cell was. If you take the door to my left, it'll lead you there. Anyway, I found Critter hiding in the middle of the stairwell. Fucker almost tripped me and made me break my neck." Shamic turned to address Olin.

"Do you recall seeing this on the blueprints?" Olin shook his head.

"No, there most certainly wasn't an area like this on there."

"Veo would've told us about this if he knew. Maybe this was added later after he finished?" Ariesa said.

"Perhaps the [King] didn't want Veo to know the full extent of things down here," Oscar suggested.

"I wasn't trying to imply your man betrayed you," Shamic said.

"I just worry that perhaps reaching the Depth's Heart won't be as easy as we thought." Emma spat out her bread, a bit of it landing on Shamic's shoe.

"You want to reach the center of this place? It's actually pretty easy to reach from here, but I must advise you against that…"

"And why is that?" Oscar asked hesitantly. The door that Emma had referenced earlier flung open, startling everyone once more.

"Because that's where the Abyssal Amalgam dwells," a man said. For some reason, Oscar froze up at hearing that name.

"The… the what?" he asked.

"About time you returned, Critter," Emma said. Critter stalked towards Oscar and looked him up and down.

"I call her that because she's surely from the Abyss itself, and for whatever reason… she's not outright killing folk," he swallowed loudly.

"I-I… she's collecting folk and adding their meat to herself…"

"I really don't want to ask, but… could you elaborate further?" Shamic asked.

"It's insane, I know! Don't look at me like that… Please!" he shouted.

"I snuck a glimpse onto her and… I saw a-a woman erected on the beasts back! She began to sing… but her voice was fried and in tatters. It was the most horrible sound that I've ever heard…" Oscar slumped against the wall, placed his head in his hands and let out a loud groan.

"I think I'd rather fight Aurelia again… No one said there'd be horrors beyond comprehension down here."