Chapter 63: Chapter 63- The Child Of Gold (Part 2)
Chapter 63- The Child Of Gold (Part 2)
"It’s so eerie..."
The car cut through the deserted path, the bumper slicing through the webs with relative ease as they seemingly went deeper and deeper into this forest of webs. However, even as they moved, there was not a single trace of any spider... All they could see were the webs, which put them in a way worse situation than they anticipated.
Seeing the enemy, even if their numbers were huge and they were unable to face them head-on, was far easier to deal with than not knowing when they would appear or where they would come from.
"Stay alert and don’t lose focus. The spiders could possibly be all around us." Violet said as she clenched the steering wheel and accelerated a bit. The maze of webs seemed to only get more and more complicated the further they went. At this point, they had completely lost track of where they were, and they were simply following the road ahead of them, which seemed to be their guiding light.
For minutes, they moved with no real aim, simply going where the road led. The farther they went, the thicker the layers of webs became. Each layer puts more strain on the car’s engine until eventually... The car came to a halt as it couldn’t cut through another layer of webs.
Violet pressed the pedal, trying to push it even further. But the wheel remained in place, spinning against the ground without being able to push the vehicle any further.
"Sigh..." Violet exhaled tiredly as she looked at her people. "We will continue on foot." She said.
The group nodded and quickly gathered their stuff as they exited the car. Immediately, they were hit with an extremely foul smell, one akin to rotten corpses. Emily immediately felt nauseated as she looked down, ready to throw up.
"Cover her nose," Violet said. "This smell is..." She frowned. It wasn’t hard to guess what could be the source of it, and it wasn’t something she wanted to see.
But, there was no other option but to continue moving forward to find Rein. Even if this was something they shouldn’t do, Rein’s life was that important to them. Not to mention that if they save him, their chances of survival increase exponentially. It wasn’t merely the love they carry for him... They needed him urgently.
"Let’s go..." Gulping down a mouthful of saliva, Violet used her weapon as she ignited a fire in the webs and started cutting a way through the thick walls of white ahead of them. "Stay close to me and keep your eyes on your surroundings." She said.
"It’s so quiet..." Alex muttered as he grasped his bow tightly. A feeling of extreme unease filled his heart. He had seen with his own eyes the number of spiders that attacked the city; how could that number of creatures suddenly disappear without a trace?
That made no sense to him. Unless the earth split open and swallowed them all, leaving no trace behind.
*CUT*
The sound of the fire slicing through the webs echoed in the windy, desolate city. Nobody dared to speak loudly; all they could do was clutch their belongings and walk ahead.
10 minutes passed, then 20... And no trace of anything appeared on their horizon. At that point, the group started questioning if they were truly getting closer to the source or if they were simply walking toward nowhere.
There was simply no indication. The webs were so thick that they couldn’t see beyond them anymore. They were essentially blinded.
However, was there truly any other option? They had come so far, they simply can’t go back now.
"Hey, Violet." Alex stepped forward a bit and called for Violet, who looked over her shoulder. "We can’t keep advancing forever... We will have to retreat at some point. The deeper we go, the riskier it is when it’s time for us to leave."
"I know..." Violet clenched her teeth tightly. She knew that truth, and she didn’t want to accept it. ’I can feel it... Rein didn’t die... He couldn’t die yet. We will find him... Just a bit longer... Just a bit longer...’
She knew that this went against all logic and reasoning, but how could she think that way? Just holding back her tears was already tough enough; she couldn’t give up on Rein. The sheer pain she will feel at that moment will eclipse everything she has experienced in her life. She didn’t just do it for Rein; she also did it for her own sanity.
As she was having a war with these thoughts, Violet cut through a layer of webs without focusing on them too much. She had been cutting through them for half an hour now; she didn’t really expect this one to be that different.
As her foot stepped ahead naturally, she suddenly realized something... There was no ground beneath her feet. She had stepped into emptiness as her body started falling forward.
"Violet!!" Alex quickly reacted as he rushed toward her and grabbed her arm. The woman snapped out of her daze as she looked down at the abyss beneath her. It was dark... Blindingly dark.
*BADUMP* *BADUMP*
She felt her heart beat loudly in her chest, and her breath halted in her throat as she was yanked back and fell to the ground.
"Violet! Are you ok?!" Alex crouched next to her.
"... Yeah... Yeah..." She blinked as she looked at him. "I’m fine. I’m sorry, I just... I wasn’t looking."
She slowly stood up and looked at the large hole ahead of them. It was incredibly vast, stretching as far as the eye could see into the distance. It was also incredibly deep to the point where they couldn’t even see the bottom of it from here.
"What... the hell is this hole?" Teo asked as she peeked down with a terrified look on his face.
"Who knows?" Cain asked. "This looks far too perfect a circle to be the result of the bombing. Something... Could’ve dug it."
The keyword... something. What’s something that could dig such a pit? Nobody truly wanted to know the answer.
Violet approached the edge and then looked down again, feeling the same fear she felt when she almost fell in it.
"Do... Do we have a flashlight?" She asked as she kept staring down.
"Yeah, I have one with me," Teo said as he approached Violet and gave it to her. The girl then cast the light down, trying to see farther down there. However, the light only helped a little... And there was still nothing to be seen.
"Hm... This is most likely the spider nest." Violet said as she moved the light around. "Rein could be here. We need to find a way to get down there."
"How? We don’t have any ropes to get down there."
Violet didn’t reply as she fell into deep thought. ’There has to be a way down there. Think, Violet, think...’
As she was thinking, Alex looked down there again, trying to see if he could notice any details. ’Hmm...’
As he was trying to gauge the situation down there. Suddenly...
*BOOOOOOOM*
The ground beneath their feet shook violently out of nowhere as if something exploded nearby. Everyone lost their balance for a second before they recovered quickly.
"What the hell was that? Another earthquake?!" Teo yelled.
"No, it’s..." Alex’s expression darkened as he quickly shot his eyes back down there... This time, he saw something different.
The blinding darkness was no more... Instead, small red dots started appearing everywhere. From a dozen, to hundreds, to thousands... To hundreds of thousands of dots just popping everywhere.
Alex’s face paled instantly as all color was sucked out of him. Those weren’t dots... Those were eyes.
Hundreds of thousands of tiny eyes and they all woke up at the same exact time due to that explosion.
"You have got to be kidding me..."
