Rose Castle, deep within the garden.
Secluded in the farthest corner of the entire castle, the ground was littered with withered branches, thorny vines crawling over the rotten walls, and a dry well that whispered a chilling breeze.
Sinsid held his gun, a faint smile curling at the corner of his lips as he gently spoke to the woman slumped on the ground, “You don’t need to be afraid, Miss. We’re not bad people.”
The Lady of the Duke trembled all over, her head bowed low, silent.
Just as Sinsid was about to say more, Beiyuan casually interrupted him, “Stop playing around.”
Then, suddenly, Beiyuan stretched out his hand, fingertip pressing lightly against the woman’s forehead as he raised an eyebrow, “Did you come out of her body by yourself, or did we help you out?”
That alien aura might fool others, but after hunting countless spider monsters, it was impossible to deceive them.
The one controlling this body was no longer the so-called Lady of the Duke, but another monster from a different world.
Sure enough, the woman’s feigned trembling stopped, her long bangs falling down to cover her eyes.
After a moment, a creaking, grinding sound came from her mouth as if she were gnashing her teeth, “Why… why can’t you leave me alone? I haven’t harmed you, have I…?”
“That’s hard to say.” Beiyuan shrugged. “Aren’t you hurting others right now?”
“…This is not our world.” The woman— or rather, the Ghost Spider Lady— finally lifted her head slowly. Her pitch-black hair fluttered as pairs of compound eyes covered the once-beautiful youthful face, turning grotesquely.
“You’ve noticed, haven’t you? We are the same kind here! If you let me go this time, I will give you the Western Corridor Plains. We could even cooperate, take over this New World together!”
Her eyes blazed with fierce light, staring intently at Beiyuan as she trembled and stretched out five fingers, “You have the power. I know you have it. I’m willing to dedicate myself to your talent!!”
Sinsid looked surprised beside him. He knew this old rival well— normally, the other wouldn’t so easily show goodwill to someone else. Even if this was likely just a ploy to lower their guard.
“I refuse.” Beiyuan said mercilessly. “I don’t need the allegiance of something like you.”
Realizing her temptation had failed, the Ghost Spider Lady’s throat rattled. Then her lips curled into a terrifying gash.
Droplets of saliva fell to the ground, immediately hissing corrosively as pits formed one after another on the earth.
Her limbs twisted in unnatural ways, bones crackling with an eerie sound, then she dropped low to the ground, quickly assuming a fighting stance.
Sinsid clicked the safety off his Silver Star, “So the talks are over?”
Beiyuan didn’t waste words, “Attack.”
The moment the command fell, all three moved.
“Don’t hide inside someone else’s body if you’ve got the guts!” Sinsid fired four shots in rapid succession, aiming for the woman’s jointed limbs. He had to immobilize the body so the Ghost Spider Lady would willingly abandon her host.
But the enemy clearly anticipated this, dodging two bullets in fast motion. The remaining two hit but grazed the intended spots, failing to bring her down.
“Heh heh heh, still pitying the poor girl at a time like this? Just like you!” The Ghost Spider Lady tangled with Sinsid, taunting confidently, “Watch out, the first to die will be this girl, then you become the murderer!”
“If you can’t hurt the host, it’s true we’re at a disadvantage.” Beiyuan was still on the sidelines, not because he didn’t want to join but because he disliked unpleasant fights.
He needed to find a way to force the Ghost Spider Lady out of the body.
Beiyuan swiftly scanned the surroundings, finally resting his gaze on the wall covered in creeping ivy and immediately had an idea.
So, while Sinsid and the Ghost Spider Lady were locked in combat, Sinsid suddenly heard Beiyuan calling him, accompanied by the sound of something being thrown.
Reflexively, he reached out and caught a vine.
“Wrap it around her.” Beiyuan, now standing on the castle roof, looked down at the battlefield from above.
Without hesitation, Sinsid executed the order—using Silver Star to block her movements, then skillfully lassoing her with the vine in a cowboy’s classic style.
“…What is this?” The Ghost Spider Lady shivered, only to find it was just a harmless vine. She was about to mock, “Is that all you’ve got…”
Before she could finish, a sudden tight grip around her waist yanked her up.
The next second, with Beiyuan’s wrist twisting swiftly, the Ghost Spider Lady began a 360° spiral ascent in midair.
“This scene feels oddly familiar.” Sinsid, standing below, thought for a moment before clapping his hands, “Oh! Isn’t this like the famous spinning flying chairs at the Cloud Kingdom Amusement Park?!”
Meanwhile, Fazel and his group moving through the castle felt vibrations from the tiles above.
“What’s happening up there?!” Duke Florendo looked up suspiciously and barked, “Didn’t you say the Miss Duke went missing in the garden?!”
“Yes, this is indeed the closest route to the garden. You can already see the garden from this window…” The Maid panicked, hardly aware of what she was saying.
Furious, Duke Florendo shouted, “There’s clearly someone on the roof—Guards!!”
As a group of soldiers appeared with weapons at the duke’s command, chaos ensued.
Fazel quickly reached the nearest window and decisively pushed it open.
He braced one hand on the frame and looked up.
—He saw a woman flying high, vomiting as she looked down.
…If that face, covered in compound eyes, could still be called “human.”
The Ghost Spider Lady couldn’t suppress the host body’s physiological instincts. Such a delicate noble lady subjected to dizzying spins like this— what outcome could be expected?
Overwhelmed by intense vertigo and nausea, she was unable to speak. Her entire body was dazed, limbs weak, unable to tell east from west.
Unable to endure any longer, the Ghost Spider Lady decisively abandoned the now useless body.
Beiyuan saw his objective was achieved, flicked his wrist, tossing the Lady of the Duke’s body through the open window below while slicing the vines binding her.
Fazel instinctively caught the girl tossed inside.
From his position, he couldn’t see the rooftop scene clearly, but he knew—there was someone else. Someone outside.
Whether it was the kidnapping of the Lady of the Duke, the ensuing chaos, or the “golden light” seen by the Maid… it all pointed back to that person!
“My daughter!” Duke Florendo hurried forward.
Fazel, heart pounding and lost in thought, frowned and immediately let go of the girl.
The anxious duke checked the girl’s neck, only to find the original Spider Parasite Mark was gone. His face instantly paled.
…How could this be!? The power left! Why!?
These days, his ambitions, which swelled rapidly with the power he believed he had gained, were suddenly shaken—
He thought he was chosen, thought heaven had finally sent an emissary to help him realize his aspirations! So what was going on? That so-called Ghost Spider Lady claimed to be God’s Emissary, didn’t she?
Who could dare strike at God’s Emissary? Who had hurt her? Who dared challenge the divine!?
The trump card he relied on was gone just like that, as if the sky had fallen— it was unbearable.
Duke Florendo tossed the now fully restored girl aside, abruptly stood up, and shouted hoarsely, “Everyone, get up there! Capture whoever kidnapped the Miss Duke! No matter life or death! Immediately! Now!!!”
Soldiers: “Yes!”
On the roof, the Ghost Spider Lady, having discarded her host, revealed her true form—a half-human, half-spider creature walking nimbly on the uneven tiles.
Without the protective shell that made enemies hesitate, she just wanted to escape now.
But—
“Not letting you escape a second time.” Beiyuan spoke softly.
In the next instant, his figure suddenly teleported in front of her. Under the woman’s horrified, frozen gaze, his cold fingertips lightly rested on her shoulder.
Below the house, Duke Florendo frantically ordered the soldiers to ready guns aimed upward, breaking the tiles blocking their view.
They finally saw the scene above.
—A gigantic spider monster, with unprecedented massive limbs, enough to make anyone with arachnophobia retch, their rationality shattered.
Among the stunned onlookers, Fazel noticed there seemed to be another person in front of the spider woman.
But that person was blocked by the spider woman. He could only see a hand resting on her shoulder, then the palm suddenly emitted dazzling golden light.
The grand light flooded through the broken gap in the roof, instantly blinding everyone.
At the same time, they seemed to hear the spider monster’s piercing howl.
The sound was sharp like a sonic attack, easily penetrating their eardrums. Everyone groaned in pain, clutching their ears; some even bled from their auditory canals.
Fazel was the only one unmoving, staring straight upward, his eyes moist from the stimulus.
Then, from within the overwhelming light, a voice came through— “Sinsid, let’s go.”
It sounded like someone calling to his companion, followed by a man’s relaxed, cheerful reply.
But Fazel barely registered what the man said afterward. He only kept replaying that sentence, then compared it to residual memories from the Spiritual World, and realized—
Though the voice sounded somewhat youthful, the tone and inflection… it could only be him! The man Fazel met in the Spiritual World!
Fazel’s dark pupils seemed to be injected with the infinite light from above, instantly ignited!