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《Twisted Nerves》Level 21: Nyarlathotep

"I recall that the people went about with pale and worried faces, and whispered warnings and prophecies which no one dared consciously repeat or acknowledge to himself that he had heard. A sense of monstrous guilt was upon the land, and out of the abysses between the stars swept chill currents that made men shiver in dark and lonely places." —Nyarlathotep, by H.P. Lovecraft

Aisha looked at the message and was surprised

Unlocked Thanatos' giftRestrictions:Class:PandoraLevel:100

Death's Eyes (Passive)Death is equal to all, no one is spared before its eyes. You are now able to see the world through them, and whether you like it or not, everyone has a time limit.Effects:Able to see NPCs' namesAble to see when NPCs will dieAble to see the level of every player and mobAble to see the remaining health of every player and mob (Azure->Blue->Purple)

Dismissing them, Aisha looked at Matagi's level, it was written in a light blue colour with a red dot before it [A/N: like this: ·Level 94]. Matagi was a bit puzzled as to why Aisha was staring at her level, but paid it no mind as Aisha stopped and went down the stairs.

What did surprise her was that now Aisha was able to tell where each slime and Shadow was located. Because of that, it got boring until on the 12th floor they began to encounter spider-like creatures that had a sting and tail similar to a scorpion's. Aisha called them "Sharadnids" making Matagi wonder if she knew them or she had just come up with the name.

The sharadnids were no bigger than a house cat, but there were lots of them and their web wasn't normal. It was poisoned. It was a fortune that this floor was inhabited only by them, as the two had to take a break after every wave to let the poison hex fade away.

While the next floor was the same, only with the groups a bit larger, the second last floor had chimeras. They were all around level 160 and were always alone, but the fact that they were composed of sharadnids and elven corpses was a bit grotesque by Matagi's standards. The most creepy one was a two-headed child, one his own, the other a shradnid's, with a sharadnid's body as his lower half. Kind of like a centaur.

The 15th floor, where the boss was located, had again the above mentioned chimeras, but instead of mindless creatures, this ones were groups of patrols, composed of two spear-wielding warrior and one mage. Matagi took the role of tank while Aisha quickly dealt with the mage, even though the first three patrols were used as lab rats with Primordial Fear to verify their weaknesses.

It took them about two hours to reach the boss room. Two heavy-looking iron doors stood before Aisha and Matagi. On the doors was engraved the tale of a elven city worshipping a giant spider with a human-like face, Atlach-Nacha, one of the Great Old Ones, and of how its Queen made chimeras by ordering her subjects to mate with Atlach-Nacha's various avatars, the sharadnids.

That's all there was. There wasn't how this crypt came to be, how every other elf died while the sharadnids, the chimeras and, possibly, the Queen didn't die.

Not interested in the least, Aisha pushed the doors open. The room was spacious even with the various rows of pillars seemingly dividing the room in cubes. Opposite to them, was a coffin, similar to a sarcophagus, and even though the lid was decorated in strange ways, as it was transparent like glass, it was possible to see the female elf inside.

Other than the normal two eyes, she had another pair, smaller, on the forehead and more distant than the bigger eyes. Like a spider. Then she had four limbs, four spider legs to be precise, coming out of each of her sides and momentarily hugging her body.

There was nothing in the room other than that, but the moment Aisha and Matagi entered and the iron doors closed, the scenery changed. Countless green webs, the sharadnids' webs, appeared everywhere while the elf was now out and in front of her coffin.

She had a silvery/purple crown and a similarly coloured scepter. Her white dress was in tatters and not so white anymore, but it still seemed beautiful. Her four eyes were black, but unlike the normal pair, the extra ones on the forehead were exactly like a spider's eyes. Lastly, the lowest set of spider legs turned out to be a pair of tails complete with stinger.

Even with all the fanfare, Bathory had already told them all about this place, so they weren't fazed. Not completely. It made Aisha wonder if Matagi had arachnophobia or was just disgusted by them. Probably the latter.

Not intent on wasting any more time, Aisha used Sprint to quickly go near the boss with Matagi following close behind, after confirming that on their path there was no other mob. Seeing her guests were the restless type, the Queen lightly waved her scepter while muttering some incomprehensible words.

Hundreds of sharadnids appeared, some from behind the webs on the grounds, some from the darkness a little distance away, and other descending from the ceiling. Matagi made a disgusted face a wavered for a second before continuing to run, while Aisha didn't stop, unperturbed by the Queen's illusion.

Certainly, not every spider was a fake, like the ones coming from the sides, so when the two where near enough to the Queen, Aisha turned around and began to kill every real sharadnid. At first the strategy was to just kill every sharadnid that neared them while they fought the Queen, but now that Aisha could distinguish which was which, they changed tactic.

As soon as the Queen was within range, Matagi kicked her. She was stunned for a couple of seconds, enough for the girl to slash at her left shoulder, nearly amputating the scepter-wielding arm. The Queen hissed something and one stinger lunged for Matagi's flank while the other shot a greenish web.

Matagi dodged the web by running toward the other stinger and using the momentum to cut it vertically in two parts. Its gel-like green contents fell on the ground while they mixed with the Queen's red blood and as she let out a half enraged, half pained scream, Matagi once again tried to severe her left arm with an oblique, upward slash of her katana, this time succeeding.

The fake spiders faded out. Now the Queen would not be able to create any more illusions or call for now sharadnids, though she still would be able to command the ones present in the hall. The fact that Matagi stroke while the Queen was not concentrating on the battle, made it so that she wouldn't be able to use her spider legs to parry, as those were not something she was born with, those were foreign limbs that required her concentration to work correctly.

After that Matagi just made more slashes on the Queen's body and severed on of the spider legs until Aisha confirmed that the mob had about half her life left. At that moment, the two switched, Aisha faced the Queen while Matagi killed the remaining spiders.

Using Primordial fear, Aisha stabbed the Queen in the heart with a dagger while using the other to cut her throat, inflicting the hex bleed. Just as she retracted her daggers, the Queen attempted to catch her with her remaining hand while the last stinger once again let out the green web.

Aisha just moved to the left and stabbed repeatedly the Queen's flanks. Glancing upwards, Aisha saw "Fuji - Level 187," meaning the Queen was almost dead. Black fog began to seep out of her wounds as she chanted some strange spell, the last part of the battle began.

"Maverick"

Aisha called for her familiar the instant she heard the Queen chant again. From Aisha's wrist another black fog seeped out, bust this one seemed faster, and in a couple of seconds it morphed into a shuck. Having already been instructed, Maverick moved toward the black fog coming out of the Queen.

Fuji was alarmed of the bastard dog nearing her, but the white-haired bitch wouldn't leave her alone, making it impossible to try and stop the maggot as her subjects, too, were busy fighting the black-haired bitch.

Without activating his corporeal form, Maverick repeatedly used his skill, Luck Stealer Bite, on the fog until his MP run out and then proceeded to just bite it. Before long, the fog shattered like glass, causing the Queen to scream, whether in pain or rage one couldn't know.

Knowing she had lost, Fuji disregarded her health and just plummeted the enemy in front of her with every attack she could think of.

Aisha dodged almost every attack, as they were just mindless throes of a loser, while slipping in quite a few of her own attacks. Once again stabbing the Queen's chest, Aisha saw she had just took away the Queen's remaining health, killing her. Breathing in relief a bit, Aisha turned around to see Matagi grinning at her, even though she was panting.

Unsummoning Maverick, Aisha and Matagi looted everything in the room and after half an hour they were already walking back toward the staircase to the upper floor. While they reached the floor where they split up, they thought they were lucky to have been able to restore their health, mana and stamina to the full.

An army of players greeted them.

2 hours before.

In front of Bathory and Kaine were at least a thousand users. Two players didn't have a level above their head and about 20 were near level 180, but all the others didn't seem to even reach level 150. One of the two above-lvl200 player stepped forward to talk.

"My juniors here told me there was a group causing troubles. Seeing your high-levels, I'd expect more from you. Guys, attack."

Even though he said that, only Kaine's level was visible, so with "quantity over quality" Oblitus Mori sent lots of low-leveled players and two players near level 300, hoping the woman was not one of the monsters with a level near 500.

Bathory quickly went to fight against the two players that didn't have a level above their heads while Kaine took on the 20-ish guys near level 180. They fought while ignoring the loads of low-level players attacking them, but immediately killed every player that tried to go to the next floor, even if the cost was the possibility of taking a blow from the high-leveled players.

Bathory used some of her skills, but not all as she didn't want to showcase her capabilities to an enemy guild. Using her teeth to draw the players' "blood" she recovered health every so often, while she used her class' skills to both debuff her enemies and buff herself and Kaine. Bathory stood her ground for two hours, killing both of the high-leveled players and almost 200 hundreds low-leveled ones.

Kaine used his staff to stun the nearest enemies while at the same time using ice magic to impale or freeze the others. Thanks to his Thief class, he could throw daggers at the players that tried to sneak away and those that tried to hit him from behind. Kaine mostly dealt with the mages, not counting the remaining 11~13 players at level 180. After an hour and a half, he died, taking with him the lives of all but 4 180-leveled users, and 150 low-level ones.

"Damn it."

Was all Matagi muttered before she lunged against the members of Oblitus Mori. Aisha, too, understood what had happened while they were busy fighting the boss, and so she did what Matagi did, she rushed against them with her katana, putting her daggers in the inventory.

Aisha found herself alone, in the midst of the enemy troops. She was determined to not use Primordial Fear, Sprint or any other mana-consuming skill to be able to use Divine Healing when she needed it. After she killed twenty or so users, she began to feel a rhythm in her moves.

Slash. The torso is cut in two.

Stab. The heart is pierced.

Pierce. The head is skewered.

Cut. A limb is severed.

Thrust. They see no more.

Slit. They blood makes a fountain.

Impale. Even the sides are fatal hits.

Aisha instinctively ducked to the side, then a fireball passed through her previous spot, killing off the already mortally wounded enemies. It seemed that they didn't care anymore about hitting their own guys.