Coran and Berith arrived at the bottom of the abyss.

This was the first time they had seen the eggs recently laid by their mother.

They were aware that their mother had found a new partner and laid a new set of eggs, but this was... overwhelming.

They both gasped as they descended into the pit.

The eggs were disgusting. They were yellow, and one could see the hatchlings through the shells. Upon reaching the bottom, Coran and Berith froze up.

"Do we... do we really have to kill them.... they're our siblings... right? Even if they look different, they're still our blood related siblings...right? Even if they haven't gone through the same things we have...", Coran whispered.

He wasn't sure if he could do it.

Could he really kill even one of them?

Much less all ten thousand of them.

However, as Coran was seemingly shaking upon thinking about this, he heard a squashing sound.

Squish!

When he turned around, he saw his little sister, with her sharp spider arm sticking inside one of the eggs.

She had killed one of the spiders.

She pulled the arm out, covered in a yellow goo, and moved on to the next one.

Squish!

How could Coran have let this happen?

How could he have let his little sister be the one getting her hands dirty with the blood of his siblings, while he sat here and did nothing!

He was furious with himself for his lack of resolve.

"Berith! How can you kill them so calmly!? Are these not our siblings!?"

Berith looked at Coran with a face that his cute little sister had never given him before.

It was the face of a cold blooded killer. Not one who enjoyed what they do-one who was completely indifferent to the taking of a life. One who considered killing to be nothing more and an everyday endeavor.

"If we kill them all now, then we won't have to deal with them later. We should also hide away once they start hatching, and wait until they have killed each other off. Once there is only one left, we can kill that one off and take the victory. We will then be able to leave this web and make our own. Isn't that what you want, brother? To be free of the clutches of our mother? Let's get on with it then. If you don't start killing then I will have to do your part for you."

How did his sister become like this?

Was she too nothing more than a monster?

No.

NO.

NO!!!!!

Coran would not allow his sister to become a monster in his eyes.

His sister was always there for him.

They were always together through the rough times.

Nobody else understood him as well as she did.

And now, he couldn't understand her?

ABSURD!

He would just have to force himself to understand.

And so, he too took his arm and stabbed inside one of the eggs.

He heard a slight squeal as he stabbed the spider inside, and he flinched back, pulling his goo covered arm out of the egg.

He had now killed one of his siblings.

Coran was now a murderer.

There was no going back now, he told himself.

And so, Coran bit his lip and started stabbing the eggs, just like his sister.

Stab.

Stab.

Squish.

Squash.

After they had stabbed tens- maybe even hundreds, something happened in the distance across the field of eggs.

A giant ball of fire rained from above, landing on a patch of eggs around 30 m in diameter, and creating an enormous crater, killing hundreds of spiders at once.

"What was that!?"

"Brother! We should get out of here! I don't know what that was, but that isn't something we should stick around to find out!"

Fight or flight.

This was another animal instinct. Only dumb animals, the animals that had someone to protect, or the strong would choose to fight.

The smarter ones, or the ones with nothing to lose aside from their life, would choose to flee at the sight of an opponent they could not beat.

With the sight of a large explosion, and the shrieks of hundreds of baby spiders, Coran and Berith had no doubt in their minds that it was time to flee.

And so, they ran. They ran as far as they could to the edge of the abyss, and found a small cavern to hide in.

They watched as they saw four beings slowly float down into the giant crater that had been created. One of them was being hugged onto the other three, and propelling the group upwards with flames on her ghastly feet.

"Who... just who are they?", Coran asked, completely dumbfounded. "What are those monsters doing here?"