Chapter 894: Unwelcome Arrival
When the spatial rift disappeared behind Elaine, she looked around to find herself in a dark forest, the light of the moon spilling through the gaps in the tall trees around her.
It took her a few seconds to adjust to the darkness, then she looked down at the ring on her right index finger, one with spatial storage containing several items she was going to need for her task.
First, and most important, was an object that resembled a thermometer gun, except that instead of measuring temperature, it detected concentrations of magic and cosmic energy.
That device was meant to help her locate the energy hotspot she’d need to summon Arthur. After that came the magic chalk for drawing the summoning circle, along with a sheet of paper showing the exact design of the circle and the chant required to activate it.
Also, there were two crystals, each containing a charge of Arthur’s Authorities over the laws of Death and Destruction.
Even if only at the Basic Rank level, it was still more than powerful enough as a trump card for Elaine, and as for the charge of his more powerful Authority of Destruction? That was for the worst-case scenario of her being discovered by any of the Infernal Devil Deities.
On her middle finger was another ring, enchanted with transformation magic that granted her a short pair of horns, slightly darker skin, and a blade-tipped tail extending from her lower back, altering her appearance to resemble a young Infernal Devil.
After confirming she had everything, she finally lifted her gaze and studied the forest around her, immediately noticing the high ambient magic power concentration.
"It’s comparable to that of Chazat..."
The fact that a High-Level World was having ambient energy concentrations on par with an Apex World spoke of just how irregular the situation with this world was.
Its gravity was also higher than normal, but Arthur used his Authority to give Elaine adaptability so she wouldn’t have to deal with that unnecessary stress.
Regarding information about the current situation on the planet’s surface, Arthur had only given her a vague summary, saying that finding out more was part of her mission, meaning she’d need to investigate on her own.
Elaine silently bit her lips, many thoughts and emotions washing through her at the same time. Anxiety topped the list, but after telling herself that she had to do this to prove herself, she gradually calmed down, taking deep breaths.
She lifted her head once more, her earlier hesitation fading as she took a step forward, only for her foot to come down on something sticky.
Elaine froze in place, heaving a deep, exasperated sigh as she realised that she’d stepped straight into the trap of some creature living within the forest.
Her thoughts were confirmed barely a second later when something shot toward her from behind.
She ducked to avoid it before igniting a burst of energy beneath her foot to destroy whatever stick substance she’d stepped onto.
Elaine leapt to her left, extending her hand to summon her spear as she turned to face the presence now before her.
The first thing Elaine saw was the outline of a woman of overwhelming beauty, to an almost absurd degree, with flawless skin, a face that stirred a flame of envy within her, shimmering eyes, and an unnatural allure that seemed to pull at the mind and invite closeness.
"—!!"
Elaine’s thoughts snapped back to normal a second later as she realised something was interfering with her mind, because she shouldn’t have been thinking about beauty in a situation where her life was clearly in danger.
She immediately raised her spear, just in time to block a blade that burst out from the darkness, deflecting it and forcing it back before she gathered magic power into her left palm, shaped it into an orb, and hurled it straight at the woman.
A magic barrier appeared to intercept the attack, but the instant the orb made contact, it detonated in a blinding flash, the explosion briefly lighting up the area and giving Elaine a clear view of her opponent.
The beauty of the figure before her was only from the waist up, as below that was the massive body of a spider standing nearly a meter above the ground, with eight legs, a similar number of arachnid eyes, and a bloated abdomen from which a grey, viscous fluid sprayed, arcing through the air toward Elaine.
’Arachne!’
Elaine immediately identified the race of her opponent as she jumped backwards to avoid the sticky spray, spreading her magic outward in concentric waves to sense the surroundings and search for any additional web traps the creature might’ve laid.
The Arachne opened its mouth and screeched loudly, its human eyes transforming into compound, multi-pupiled ones that glowed as they focused on Elaine.
Elaine was instantly hit by a wave of dizziness, causing her to stagger, and the two foremost limbs of the spider extended and shot forward, their ends flattening into blades that she barely managed to block with her spear.
Regaining her balance, Elaine quickly went through the list of possible abilities an Arachne could have, and in a second, she understood what it had just tried to do to her.
"Charm?"
Indeed, the Arachne had tried to ensnare her mind, and though it failed, it had still managed to disorient her for a moment.
Elaine knew she wasn’t immune to Charm and similar Status Effects the way Arthur had been when he was Mortal, as she did not possess Sub-Cosmic Superiority, and she also knew that while she could resist it now, repeated attempts could wear her mental defences down, and she sure as hell wasn’t about to become Arachne food within minutes of arriving on this world.
She coated her body in a dense layer of magic power, adjusted her stance, and kicked off the ground, shooting straight toward the Arachne as its bladed forelimbs sliced through the air in wide arcs meant to intercept her.
At the last possible moment, Elaine twisted her body between the slashes, spun her spear and stabbed it into a joint she’d spotted, death energy flooding from her arm through the weapon and detonating on impact, the violent burst tearing through the joint and eliciting a shrill screech of pain from the Arachne.
The Arachne waved its humanoid hands, the ground shuddering as jagged spikes of stone erupted behind Elaine, forcing her to leap sideways to evade them. As she did, she caught the falling severed limb before it hit the ground, swinging it in a wide anticlockwise arc to shear off the tips of the earthen spears before releasing it and letting it sail toward the Arachne, which had been preparing to fire another web.
The creature jumped to evade the thrown limb, and in that short airborne moment, Elaine snapped her fingers and conjured several black magic circles that unleashed a barrage of magic missiles, each streaking toward the Arachne in rapid succession.
Magic power condensed to form a barrier to block her missiles, but one by one the missiles exploded on contact, cracking the defence until it finally shattered, and without a split-second’s hesitation, Elaine closed the distance, her spear thrusting straight toward the Arachne’s humanoid chest.
With no time to raise another barrier, the Arachne threw up one of its humanoid arms to block the strike while its remaining scythe-like limb shot toward Elaine’s back.
Despite being faced with this, Elaine didn’t alter her spear’s trajectory, thrusting it right through the Arachne’s arm, and hit its chest behind it, though not with enough force to pierce into its chest.
Elaine reached out with her left hand and grabbed the Arachne’s arm, using Death’s Touch to drain as much of its life force as she could in that instant, converting it into death energy that she expelled in a violent burst, the shockwave knocking the incoming blade aside while blasting the creature backwards across the ground.
The Arachne screeched in pain as it tumbled across the ground, and before it could even regain its footing, Elaine was already upon it, her spear plunging into the joint of the remaining forelimb and detonating another burst of death energy that completely severed it.
She let go of her spear, grabbed the detached limb and swung it like a blade, severing two of the Arachne’s left legs and robbing it of the limbs needed to properly stand.
It screeched and tried to gather magic, but the moment it raised its arm, Elaine brought the limb-blade down, splitting the humanoid arm it raised before its spell could even begin to form.
’I’d really love to have a weapon I could swing like a sword while still having the reach of a polearm.’
That idle thought crossed Elaine’s mind as she pulled back the detached bladed limb she was holding and stabbed it through the face of the Arachne’s humanoid head without hesitation.
She knew that wouldn’t kill it, since that head wasn’t the true weak point. Its real weak point was the spider head where the humanoid torso connected, and Elaine didn’t hesitate to give it a good kick, death energy bursting from beneath her foot on impact, sending the Arachne’s body reeling backwards and blinding several of its eyes.
Summoning her spear back into her hand, she coated it with magic and hurled it with immense force, the weapon piercing right through the webbing the Arachne tried to release, punching through its humanoid torso and burying itself in its large abdomen, eliciting another screech of agony from the creature.
Elaine followed up by unleashing another barrage of magic missiles that slammed into it from every direction, and while the bombardment continued, she arced to its side, drew a sword from her spatial ring, and swung after coating the blade in death energy, cleanly severing all of the Arachne’s legs on its left side.
Its body toppled, and Elaine raised her hand, swapping the sword for her spear, which she then stabbed down with all her strength into the Arachne’s back, piercing straight through its hide, bursting out of its chest, and embedding deep into the ground beneath it, pinning the creature to the earth.
All the while, she expanded her Death’s Touch into a drain field, pulling as much life force from it as she could, to the point where her Life Well was filled up.
The weakened Arachne finally collapsed, its remaining limbs twitching weakly, and for good measure, Elaine fired another magic missile to blind its spider eyes, then conjured two more spears of condensed energy and stabbed them through its abdomen to further pin it in place before finally pulling out her real spear from its body.
Returning the weapon to her spatial ring, she began muttering to herself.
"This is exactly why I wanted a scythe, but Lady Berlal said it’s impractical.
However, no matter how I look at it, having the reach of a polearm while still being able to slash like a blade and stab like a spear with a spiked tip sounds like the peak of practicality to me."
