Chapter 29 The Web System

❄️Snow❄️

The rushing waters kept sucking her in. Everytime Snow emerged to get a breath, she would be pulled back down. This torturous drowning did not stop. It would happen again, again, and again. She was exhausted, combined with the strength of these waters, Snow had to fight against gravity just to reach the surface. Each time she popped her head out to get a gasp of air, her ears would be flooded by the screams of the roaring cistern.

At this rate, the system would expel her from Vulcas, if she could even stay up much longer. Everytime Snow would emerge, for that one or two seconds she would swish her head around, looking for a way out. There were none, no edges, ledges, stairs or walkways. There were none because the water was above it all. The system was flooded.

Snow was forced to ride the current.

After a few brutal twists and turns the current finally calmed enough to where Snow wasn't sucked in every two seconds. Now she could see how beautiful the cistern looked. Elegant columns and chipped designs littered the stone walls. Sunlight fed in from wells that were jutting out from holes in the ceiling. Eventually, she flowed into the cisterns' natural counterpart, where glistening rocks and plants took over the walls. The view didn't last long because Snow saw her exit. Ladders, jutting down from the ceiling ahead of her. She kept kicking and keeping on the surface as she rapidly approached them. The ladders came quick, Snow held her hand up and caught hold of one. Her body was being pulled like a leaf by the current as she used her upper body strength to pull herself onto the ladder before climbing out of the cistern.

When she got to the top of the ladder, Snow expected to be outside, but she was only greeted with the stench of the sewers and a long brick tunnel ahead of her.

Snow limped through the dark passage with her hand gliding against the wall. Streaks of light from the manhole covers above served as her only source of light. She heard the marching of the guard every time she passed underneath one. There was water running down a small waterway to her right, but unlike the water in the cistern, it was green and disgusting.

The regal district was the highest. Therefore, walking in the direction opposite the current should take her there. She wondered why they didn’t think of taking the sewers before. Lussuria would have most definitely refused.

Lussuria…Snow hoped she was okay. Lussuria was badly hurt. Maybe she should still consider Lussuria lucky that the explosion didn't kill her. Then there was Omeric; her ex-royal guard that sacrificed himself, in an attempt to seek redemption or cleanse his guilt. She did not know which, but either way, Snow did not feel worthy of that sacrifice.

The king needed to be warned, Lussuria was taken, her Lotus guardsmen were all missing, this inferno sewer system was becoming more and more of a maze as she explored it and she did not dare to leave the sewers with the amount of movement she heard above her. Odds were not in her favor. She had absolutely no clue on what her next move should be. The only thing that was certain was that she was still free and alive. She had to make sure not to squander this opportunity.

Snow eventually reached a fork in the tunnel that split into several paths. To be fair, she had been taking crapshoots on where to go up to this point. This intersection was clearly important, indicated by the map on the wall nearby. Snow slumped up to it and attempted to read it. She tried to make sense of the map that was barely visible in the light, she saw the sewers were split into 4 separate networks. One looked like multiple triangles, the next was an assortment of crosses, the third was a crescent, and the last was shaped like a web.

She was baffled at how ridiculous this sewer design was. How was she supposed to know where to go or what part of the nobles district she was even in. As she stared at the different shapes trying to understand, she shook her head as her ears began to ring.

“Damnit. How the hell am I supposed to know where each of these leads?” Snow sat down underneath the map, she wished she had Little Crow or something to lead her. But she had nothing, no guardians, no family or friends. She pulled her knees up and cradled her legs while the annoying ringing in her ear slowly began to fade away.

“After this, we will truly be friends. And I help my friends.”

She suddenly remembered something.

Snow dug her hand into her soaked pocket and pulled out a parchment. Its edges were black and the parchment was soaked from the cistern. It was the note Lazarus’ servant gave her in the market. She held it up to the light as she read it. The writing was barely legible.

# # # #

If y## find yo###elf in hell seek ### my t#read m#d# of spider’s web

# ## ##

- L ## #

# # # #

“Thread made of spider’s web?”

She stood up and looked at the map again, at each section.

“Triangles, crosses, crescent and a web…”

her eyes focused on the fourth section, which looked like a spider web.

“Web?”

She glanced at the note then back at the map.

“That's got to be it!”

She descended the tunnels in the direction of the web system.

𓄿Crow𓄿

Crow was marching with his hands shackled behind his back. Based on the direction they had been escorting him, he knew their destination was not the jail. Crow just silently marched onward, trying to focus on picking up any usable information. Based on the dialect of the men escorting him: their postures, their formation, and eyes, Crow came to the conclusion that these men were not knights of the Republic and if they were, not for very long.

He had failed Ares, he was supposed to be his eyes and ears. Hell, he couldn't even watch out for himself. He had never been caught before. He overexerted himself. He spread his flock too far, perhaps that's why these men practically marched right up to him.

Crow felt a poke in his back as he was commanded to continue walking, until the road under his feet turned into dirt. They had him walking onto a construction ground, isolated from the public road or more importantly, public eyes. A simple smile formed on his face when they came to a stop. He looked at the recently dug hole in the ground, it was five feet long, two feet wide and about four feet deep. Everyone silently watched for his reaction as he stared at the hole.

“That is a sad excuse for a grave.” Crow uttered.

The mercenary captain stepped up next to him, shoulder to shoulder, as they shared a view of the grave.

“I hope you are happy with it.” The captain turned his head to Crow with a sly smirk.

“Under a construction site, you must think you're clever.” Crow’s eyes shifted to look at him.

“Your corpse will contribute to the foundation for the orphanage that's going to be built here. You should be happy, for supporting all those children with no parents. Literally.” He laughed.

Crow looked back at the grave, as memories filled his mind.

~

The days in his orphanage, with no family, exiled for playing with his shadows.

“He doesn't talk much. He just plays with those birds all day.”

“Ow! One of them pecked me!”

His orphanage keepers; “That might be witchcraft. He's too dangerous!”

“You're right, we need to get rid of him.”

Of course nobody told that to his face. Unaware as they spoke, his birds were ever watching, ever listening, and they knew everything. The gossip told by his shadowy friends were not an exaggeration or fabrication of truth, though he had hoped they were.. They told him the real truth, verbatim, directly from the mouths of those around him. He was seen as a threat, and he was going to be cast out like one.

The Lotus men in black cloaks came for him shortly after.

Magician training wasn’t easy. He didn't like hurting people. So he played the part of learning surveillance. Lotus Agents never go on missions alone. Always in pairs or teams. He thought he finally amounted to something, a goal in life that made it worth living. Being a Lotus agent was supposed to be a highly regarded position. He was told repeatedly that he was special and he almost thought he was, until he learned that once again, nobody wanted him. ‘Incompatible.’ they called him. ‘Not enough lethality’ they justified it. Once again, he was alone. Based on his unviability he knew it was a matter of time until he was once again, exiled.

Crow refused to be told those words again, so he decided that he would leave on his own. On that very day, as he was exiting the Lotus headquarters one final time, a man stopped him.

“Hey you.”

He turned to face this overbearing man and greeted him with an expression of neutrality.

“Hello?”

“Are you that ‘Crow’ guy?” The man looked upon him in seriousness, as if already regretting his decision of approach.

“I am, Crow.” Crow gave his response.

The man stared at him questionably. After a strong pause Crow felt a slap on his arm as the man gave out a boastful laugh.

“I approve. Let’s go.”

“Go?”

“We got a mission to do. The fire captain said I am only allowed to go if I find someone that can synergize with me.”

“You don't even know me. I have no lethality.”

“Exactly! And I'm Mister Lethality! See? Perfect pair, your name is short too!” The loudmouth that he soon knew to be Ares, grabbed his arm and dragged him towards the fire captain's office.

Crow smiled, as a tear rolled down his eye.

“Sorry, brother.”

“Any last words?” He felt a sword blade resting on his shoulder.

Crow slowly turned around, looking around at all the men who surrounded him.

“Yes. That grave is too small for me. You are a few inches off in height and one inch off in width.”

The mercenary knight captain was surprised before a wide grin formed across his face. “Be my guest then.” Crow’s shackles were removed as a shovel was thrown down in front of him.

Crow spent about two minutes fixing the grave. The mercenary walked up to him when he appeared to be finished.

“Is that grave fine enough for you now? Sir Lotus?” The mercenary’s words of formality were betrayed by a tone of sarcasm. After looking down and inspecting Crow’s alteration of the grave, the captain shook his head. “Look at what you did, that's way too deep, now my men need to shovel extra to cover you up.”

The whole band of mercenaries started laughing.

“Your men won't need to shovel at all ‘Captain’.”

“Oh, why is that?”

“Cremation needs no shoveling.”

Just as Crow said that, a mirage manifested in-between everyone. They all turned to the strange sight as Arthur appeared. His cloak was off, fire was blazing out of the slits of his leg plates and the ground around him was rapidly turning black from the heat. The fire emitting from his legs gave the image of draconic flaming scales. Half of his fiery form had been revealed. The most terrifying part about him wasn’t the monstrous shape of his lower half, it was the danger that radiated from his eyes. Eyes that brought with them a fiery rage that was about to be unleashed.

Crow crossed his arms and fell backwards into the grave as Arthur began spinning on the ground. Fire swirled around Arthur before he kicked his legs like a windmill, causing a huge blade of flame to shoot out all around him, hitting ALL of the mercenaries.

❄️Snow❄️

Snow was traversing the twisting path of the web system. She assumed she was supposed to go to the center. The way the tunnels were structured, she had to walk down then choose left or right and walk until the next turn downwards again. Sort of like a set of rings. She was on the second ring, she remembered from the map that there were four. If anything indicated the name of this section of sewer, she hoped it had been because of its shape and not because of what was inside it. As she traversed the second ring, she heard a squeak. A big one.

“Don't be a giant spider-don't be a giant spider-don't be a giant spider.” Snow rapidly whispered to herself as she continued. She could only see a few feet ahead of her. There were no more manholes above to give her light so this section was rapidly turning darker and darker. The noise echoed from both directions so she was not sure which direction it came from. Cautiousness increasing, Snow began to slow her pace through the darkness.

Snow noticed something was on the floor. It looked like a rope, but pink. It was so dark she could barely make it out. The rope was slowly being pulled ahead of her. As she hastened to keep up the rope began getting bigger.

(“Is that the thread Lazarus was talking about?")

She followed the rope until it suddenly whipped around into the darkness. Snow froze and slowly brought her head up. Just in front of her, was a set of beady red eyes, looking right at her. The thing she was following wasn’t a rope, it was a tail.

“SQUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKK!”

A ginormous fat rat.

Without hesitation, Snow spun and sprinted in the other direction as the ground pounded behind her. The chase was indicated by the sound of giant paws, slapping the floor. This giant rat, taking up nearly the entire width of the tunnel, had most likely decided that she would be its next meal.

("You gotta be kidding me!!!")

Snow was running for her life, now in the opposite direction of the ring. Her heart was racing as she ran as fast as she could. Any remaining pain had left her body as she pushed herself not to be eaten. The booming tunnel was shaking as the rat was gaining on her. It was inhaling and exhaling through its nostrils like a bull, and she could feel it on the back of her neck. This made the sprinting she had to do in Regalia seem like a mere jog.

(“Faster faster faster!”)

Snow was running so fast that she almost missed the left turn. A tunnel appeared for a split second to her left and she breaked, nearly spinning as she dove into the tunnel. The monstrous rat barreled past her, continuing down the ring.

Snow rolled down the tunnel tumbling into the next ring. Silence followed. She had lost the rat. She stood up and began to catch her breath.

“Time to add… being chased by a monstrous rat… to the list of unbelievable… absurdities today.”

The next ring was a lot wider than the last. Piles of gold decorated the sides of the room, as well as skeletons dressed in ancient outfits of nobility. This looked like an ancient vault, or tomb.

Snow began to walk through this vault. Looking around, she couldn't believe just how much gold was in here. This amount of gold could back a small country. The piles of gold were large enough to the point where she had to walk around some of them. Snow approached a pile in the center and picked up one of the gold coins. Examining the coin she could see that a dragon symbol was stamped on it.

“Strange, I’ve never seen this emblem before.”

The emblem was of no country or house she recognized. Thinking about dragons, dragons were ancient creatures of this country. She remembered Randal’s dad talking about how he wrangled with a few in his life. She shrugged and pocketed the coin.

As soon as she did that, the pile she pulled it from began to shake.

“Uh, oh…”

She took a step back as coins were spilling off the sides of the pile. Something was moving around inside of it.

“A-new-thief-pockets-the-gold.” A green impish creature emerged from atop the pile. It was small, bald, and had big notched ears. As funny as the small creature looked, Snow had the opposite of laughter written on her face.

Upon seeing the creature Snow immediately denied it.

“No! No! I did not! See? Here!” Snow quickly threw the coin back into the pile. This thing was a devil. Little monsters of fantasy that supposedly had witchcraft abilities. After everything that’s happened today, she was not in the position to question whether this thing was real or not.

“No! No! You-pocket-the-gold. Which-means-this-is-now-your-home!” The imp said in a rhyme.

Snow looked around at all the dead bodies in this room, gold was flowing out of their pockets.

“I did not pocket the gold!” She yelled back at it.

“You-did! You-did! Rezlo saw it! You-pocket-the-gold!”

Snow had to find a way to talk herself out of this, Otherwise she could get cursed.

“Rezlo, your name is Rezlo right?”

“Me-Rezlo-yes!”

“Rezlo, My name is Snow Regalia. Princess of the Regalian monarchy. I don’t need gold. I'm rich already.”

“No-Rezlo-knows! Rich-greedy. Steals-more-than-poor. You-no-Snow, You-thief. Pocket-gold!”

“I wasn't, pocketting the gold, I was weighing it.” Snow smiled as she gave her excuse.

Rezlo looked at her in question.

“Rezlo-no-believe-you-THIEF!”

Rezlo sank back into the gold.

Snow expected something to happen. Nothing did though. She felt fine. Maybe she could just ignore the imp and leave. That's what she did, she continued through the vault to find the exit.

Snow walked for a while, she walked longer than she did to find the rat on the first ring. There should have been a tunnel or exit on the side of the room. Either this vault was truly ginormous, the exit was hidden, or something was up.

Snow came to a stop when she saw the original pile that Rezlo popped out of, the entrance behind it where she had come in from was gone. She never turned around, it was like she walked around the entire ring. Snow knew she didn't walk THAT far to fully loop the ring, yet she did a full loop. Something was definitely wrong.

She called back out to Rezlo.

“Rezlo!”

Rezlo popped back up from the center pile.

“Rezlo-greets-thief!”

“What did you do Rezlo? Where is the entrance and exit?!”

“Rezlo-fulfill-deal! Pocket-gold-equals-new-home!”

“I didn’t agree to any deal.”

“Deal-marked-on-coin!”

Snow took a coin from the pile and examined it closely. There was a pinhead sized inscription pulsing in red.

“I can't read this! Deal is faulty Rezlo, therefore you can't honor it.”

“Rezlo-knows-all-excuses. You-not-ever-leave!” he actually began to laugh.

Snow took a moment.

“Okay Rezlo, how about we make a deal?”

Rezlo’s ears perked up at that sentence.

“Deal? Rezlo-likes-deals….” He started wiping his hands together.

Now she was speaking his language.

“A game of ‘stone, parchment, scissors’. If I win, you will allow me to leave. If I lose then you get this.” She pulled out her medallion.

Rezlo looked at the medallion as his eyes grew larger.

“Ohh!-symbol-from-black-ones! Are-you-black-one?”

“I don't know what a ‘black one’ is.”

“Black-one-souls-best-of-their-kind, bet-Rezlo-that-and-he-will-break-your-bind!”

“My… soul?”

Rezlo’s eyes radiated a darkness that revealed the extent of his maliciousness.

“Yes… Your… Soul.” Rezlo’s voice sounded evil for a moment, before he resumed his normal rhyme. “Rezlo-want-soul!”

Her soul for a game to escape? Seems she didn't have a choice. It was either stay here and die or bet her soul for a game.

“Okay.”

“But-black-one’s-game-boring! Rezlo-want-to-change-game!”

“What game do you want to play then?”

The impish creature put his hands on his head in deep thought, before jumping at an idea.

“I-know-game-Rezlo-good-at!”

“What game?” She questioned. Whatever he had in mind was probably not good.

“Hide-and-seek! Rezlo-hide! You-seek-Rezlo!”

Snow looked at the hall sized vault.

“How long do I have?”

“Ten minutes!” Rezlo pointed his finger up as a bunch of hour glasses phased into existence on the walls. Torches lit the walls as the room came into light. The vault they were in was rectangular with large piles of gold on each end.

“Wait- I want to add a rule.”

“What!”

“You must shout every minute.”

“How-about-this. You-get-three-calls. Call-Rezlo and Rezlo-calls-you! Use-them-wisely!”

“Ok, fine.”

“One-last-thing. Rezlo-has-friends!”

“I didn't agree to find your friends.”

“Not-find, AVOID!”

“Avoid?”

“Ten minutes. Go!” Rezlo sank back into the gold.

Snow heard the movement of bones as the dead corpses began to slowly shift and animate, rising up with weapons in their hands. All around the center pile. The game was on.

“Are you kidding me?!”

She looked left and then right. She needed to see which direction he went.

“Rezlo!”

“Rezlo over here!”

Snow heard his voice echo from the far left side of the vault. She dashed towards the sound. Snow ran up to one of the piles of gold and began digging through it. The clacking sounds of the skeletons approaching closer and closer was behind her. Flinging the gold to the sides frantically while the skeletal footsteps got closer, Snow couldnt waste time. After getting through the bulk of the pile she moved onto the next. If she could get through the piles before these skeletal zombies got to her perhaps she wouldn't need to deal with them.

Snow began to dig through the next pile. As she shoved her hands inside to sweep aside the gold, a skeletal hand grabbed her wrist from within.

“What the!” The skeleton began pulling itself out using her as leverage. Its skull began emerging from the pile with gold coins falling out of its eye sockets. Snow tried to shake it off. But its grip was surprisingly strong. She reached for her boot, pulling out the silver dagger that Gravis gave her and stabbed downward into the skeleton’s wrist joint, popping it clean off and freeing herself. She fell back and looked at her wrist, the hand was still attached to her. She had to give it a few good yanks to get it off.

Snow got up and decided to move on to the next pile, nothing. She skipped a few piles running to the end of the chamber. If she called Rezlo’s name, he should be in one of the piles surrounding her.

“Rezlo!”

Expecting him to call from one of the piles around her, she was surprised to hear his name echo from the other end of the chamber. She spun around.

“What?! How is he on that side now?!” Snow began her sprint to the other end of the room. Scrambling and dodging past the skeletons in the center that tried taking swipes at her. The walking ones were slow enough to dodge but the hidden skeletons in the goldpiles were the ones she needed to watch out for.

Snow got to the other end and chose a pile, but before shoving her hand in she poked her dagger inside. As if in reaction, skeletal hands bursted from the gold and tried to take a grab at her. She hopped back, avoiding them successfully.

“So much for a simple game of hide and seek!” Snow yelled as the skeleton shambled out. She needed to search that pile before the bulk of skeletons made their way over here.

She examined the undead skeleton stumbling towards her. In her haste, her emotions had been dulled. Now standing face to face with this undead nightmare she realized how scary it was. She was in a tomb, fighting skeletons for her life, after making a deal with a devil for her soul. Why? She half expected to cry, or fearfully recoil, but her emotional response was the opposite. She grew angry. Angry at the constant misfortunes she was forced to go through. These skeletons were all thieves. They probably deserved their fate. She was no thief, she did not deserve to even be here.

Snow grew serious as she focused on the walking obstacle in front of her.

If Snow took out its legs maybe that could buy her time. She backed up and readied herself. The skeleton was still marching towards her. When it got close, it lunged at her. Snow sidestepped and kicked it in the side of the knee. The knee buckled but didn't break. The skeleton turned around and lunged at her again. She sidestepped again followed by a stronger driving kick to the knee. The knee broke this time and the skeleton fell over. As The skeleton was now reduced to crawling, she used the opportunity to search that goldpile it came from. Snow ran up to the pile and swiped through the gold with the knife in her hands. Rezlo wasn't here.

Time was running out. The hourglasses on the walls were halfway empty. She had five minutes left and over a dozen piles. She didn't want to waste her last call so she went to the next pile.

The next pile was empty of skeletons and Rezlo.

Same thing for the next one.

The pile after that had a skeleton burst out of it. Snow backed up. Hearing the shambles of the main group of skeletons practically on top of her, as well as the falling grains of sand from the hourglasses, Snow knew she did not have time to deal with these things.

She got prepared to do a similar sidestep. It predictably lunged forward, Snow dodged it, but instead of going for the knee, Snow shoved the skeleton as hard as she could in the back, making it crash against the floor. By the time it would get back up, she would be on the next pile.

Snow went up to the pile. Certain that this was the one she heard Rezlo call from. She took both hands and shifted the bulk of gold off the top. As the coins sprinkled against the floor Snow would see nothing within.

The hourglass had about two minutes left.

She had one call left.

She had to think fast.

If Rezlo was indeed magically appearing and disappearing across the room, there would be no possible way she could win. She has never heard of a spell that could do that though. Rezlo was a devil, a trickster. Their magic doesn't work the same as normal mage magic.

There was about 90 seconds left.

She looked at the gold piles. Trying to think of a way he could be doing this or where could he possibly be.

“How-about-this. You-get-three-calls. Call-rezlo and rezlo-calls-you! Use-them-wisely!”

Why would Rezlo restrict her to three calls if he could magically disappear and reappear wherever he wanted. The number of calls in that case wouldn't matter. There had to be another reason.

Snow decided to use her last call.

“Rezlo!”

“Rezlo-over-here!” The call came from the opposite end of the room again. Just like before his voice came from the other side.

Then it dawned on her.

Snow knew exactly where he was. She made a dash toward the center of the room.

The hourglasses on the wall read one minute left.

Rezlo wasn't in the opposite end of the room. As Snow was ducking and weaving past the skeletons that were ever present in the center. The pile the Rezlo was in was obvious now. He had not teleported anywhere, he was in the same pile the entire time. The undead were a deterrent, and the calls were meant to throw her off. The skeletons didn't stray too far from the pile, now it seemed like they were protecting it. After dodging two of them, Snow slid past a third.

Thirty seconds left. Plenty of time.

Snow dove into the original pile. As Snow was digging through the pile she could feel something small shifting and moving around underneath her in an attempt to evade her.

“I know you're here Rezlo!”

Rezlo was small and slippery. Every time she would bury her hands deeper, he would swim lower. When Snow got to the bottom of the pile she could hear something small jump out. She popped out of the pile and heard the sounds of gold on the floor being stepped on like a bunny rabbit had been hopping away. She saw the small patches of gold on the ground shake but didn't see Rezlo. He was invisible.

Fifteen seconds left.

There was an immediate problem, the skeletons had surrounded her. They blocked her in, preventing her from chasing after Rezlo.

Ten seconds left.

“If she couldn't go under or around. She would go over. Snow positioned herself at the top most part of the fallen pile and sprung up, getting one foot on top of a skeletal shoulder and jumped out. Landing with a roll one foot away from the invisible creature.

The creature began to hop left and right erratically as Snow chased after it.

Five seconds left.

If she failed this grab she would lose the game.

She raised her dagger.

Four seconds left.

While giving chase, she got ready to throw it.

Three seconds.

Left-right-left-right. Rezlo was moving erratically trying his best not to get hit.

Two seconds.

Rezlo wasn't her target though. She aimed ahead of him, towards the left.

One second.

She threw the dagger and dove at the same time.

The dagger rattled against the floor hitting nothing.

Snow had her right hand extended far out. While mid-air she felt a pair of furry ears glide across her palm. She squeezed them tight as she crashed onto the floor.

“Got you.”

She stood up, holding the invisible creature like a captured rabbit. Rezlo appeared, dangling underneath her grip. The hourglasses had run empty and all the undead skeletons collapsed to the ground.

“Ow-ow-ow, Let Rezlo-Go! Let-Rezlo-go! You win-you win!”

“Only when you let me out of here.”

“Okay-Okay! Uh! Snow-Regalia-good-to-go, No-thief-she-is-now-let-Rezlo-go!”

The walls of the room flashed red as the room returned to its normal state. Snow could see the tunnel leading to the next ring.

The innermost ring was another chamberlike section, except it was circular and very small. Magical lights emitted from the bases of several statues located around the room. The statues looked to be of various godlike figures. There was none of goddess Regalia or any gods that she recognized. There was another strangeness of this section, in that there was no exit. No way to continue.

Snow began to investigate the room.

There was a golden plaque in the center of the room on the floor that read

“Snuff the heretic and God will open the way.”

“Snuff his blessed disciple and ye shall pay.”

Snow began to walk around and examine each statue. Each of the statues had a magical light in the center of their base. She went back to the tunnel entrance and looked up where the tunnel fed into the room.

“I guess I got one shot at this.”

She could see a slit framing the tunnel entrance where most likely a slab would be released if she chose wrong.

After inspecting all the statues twice, Snow could only deduce one noticeable differential between them. Each of them was a statue of someone of a different race: Human, elf, insect, mothian, fairy, draconic and an angel. Seven statues. She sat in the center with her legs crossed in thought. After some thought she stood up and walked up to one of the statues looking at its feet and toga, then at its large wings. The angel.

They are the most prideful creatures by far.

Snow remembered Sir Harper talking about the angels when he was boasting about his armor sets. She just had a strong feeling this was the correct guess.

“It has to be this one.”

She pressed down on the light at the base of the angelic statue. The sound of metal was heard before a slab slid down blocking the tunnel entrance coming into the room. All the lights went out leaving her in total darkness.

𓄿Crow𓄿

Crow pulled himself out of the grave, the dirt was scorching hot. Arthur’s attack only lasted for a moment but Crow was already sweating from the heat. Moans of agonizing pain were heard from most of the men on the floor.

“Crow, you alright?” Arthur asked.

“I am uninjured.” Crow rose to his feet and dusted himself off.

“How did they find you?”

“I do not know.”

Arthur shifted his attention to the captain of this group of mercenaries, who was lying on the ground nearest to Crow’s grave. His waist and legs were blackened and he was reeling on the ground.

The crunching of dirt sounded with each step as Arthur stepped up to the man. Arthur grabbed the fabrics of his armor and lifted him a few inches off the ground.

“You are going to tell me. How did you come about my colleague’s location?”

“G.. to hell.” The man struggled to say.

Arthur smiled, dropping the man before crouching next to him. Arthur held up his pointer finger, the finger began to glow red hot. “You know how much damage this one finger can do to you? I will let you in on a little secret, everyone confesses. Right now, those burns will leave scars but that's all. Would you like to be left with scars, or be left with scars along with unrelenting pain for the rest of your miserable life? I think the choice is simple.”

The man looked at it with anger, but held his tongue still.

“You Lotus aren't so scary at all. Just all talk.”

Arthur said nothing, followed by a subtle shake of his head.

“I gave you a chance. Never forget that.” Arthur rose up and kicked the man over onto his stomach. Arthur’s finger from the man's view was inching lower and lower closer to his lower back side.

“No-What the hell is wrong with you! What do you think you're doing!”

Arthur’s finger inched closer as the man's eyes widened. “Now now, I know what you're thinking.” Arthur looked back up at him.

“Dont. DONT STICK ME WITH THAT!” He yelled.

“Relax man. It's not going to enter your flank if that's what you're thinking.”

The man dropped his shoulders in relief.

“Thank the gods.”

“It's going in your eye.``

The man was startled and then tried to resist.

“No-no!”

Arthur leaned forward and grabbed the man's head from behind digging his finger into the man's eye. Low sizzling was heard as the man's high pitch scream drowned it out.

❄️Snow❄️

Snow was sitting in the darkness, with her fists balled up on her legs. There was no way she was wrong. Just before panic started to set in, one of the statues began to shift, revealing a small hole where light was coming through. It was big enough that she could crawl inside of it.

On the other side she saw that she finally reached the center of the web system. There were several small waterway bridges connecting the center of this system. All from different levels and different angles. A truly unique design. These waterway bridges looked so old they could fall apart at any moment. Some of them had already collapsed in fact. Snow began to balance across one of them towards the center, where a distinct beam of light was emitting from the top center of the room. Within the beam of light was a rope.

“The thread, within a spider's web.” Snow wished Lazarus was being philosophical. He was not, the rope was quite literally, in a spider's web.

The rope dangled through several webs. The rope was also coated in spider thread, where dozens of crawling spiders were climbing up and down.

“Damnit, Lazarus.”

The silk threaded rope was dangling a few inches away from the bridge. Seeing no other way out of here She put one foot on the ledge and reached out to grab the rope. She could feel the silk with her fingers, It felt like dried paper. It even crunched a little when she tightened her grip.

“So gross.”

Snow looked up. Through all the spider webs she could see the sun. This was her escape from this hell. As perilous as it appeared, she began her ascent out of this hell.

Every grueling pull, every time she grasped the rope and the crunch that followed, was disgusting and made her winge. She wished the sunlight didn't give her vision because now she could see the spiders that were surrounding her. One spider was crawling down the rope towards her. It was black with a red pattern on its back.

“Dont, dont-” The small spider trickled onto her hand.

“Ew ew ew ew!” she frantically shook her hand, flinging it off.

Soon, it would be exponentially worse. She would need to breach the first web that weaved around the rope. When she got there she used her left hand to swipe at the web, breaking it, sort of. Only half of the web fell and some of it was tangled around her hand. No matter how much she shook it, the web stuck onto her.

While she was swinging her left hand she heard skittering towards her right. She looked to see a wave of spiders rushing towards the rope.

“Nope-nope-nope-nope!”

Snow immediately resumed her climb ignoring the web that was sticking to her arm. When she looked down, the spiders had already made it to the rope. When she looked up above, there were more spiders coming down. It was inevitable, the spiders were going to reach her and If she couldn't out-speed the spiders…

She would need to stay calm.

She closed her eyes and calmed herself, before resuming her ascent.

As Snow continued her ascent she felt the spiders crawling up her legs and down her arms. She gritted her teeth and tried her best not to freak out. Eventually they were crawling all over her hair, her face and her back. The next web blocking the way up was crawling with them. The rope became so full of these little crawlers that if she removed her hand to swipe at the next web she would not be able to re-grab the rope without potentially crushing one of them. She slid her hands upwards, the spiders skittering down the rope were pushed onto her arms and continued making their way down using her body. She numbed herself and fought past the disgusting tickling sensation and just kept going. Not even swiping the next web she just used her head to pierce through it. The web was in her hair, face and mouth.

(“Just. Keep. Going.”)

She began to tear up as she continued on. The spiders were in her clothes now, she could feel them crawling on her skin. The worst was the sensation and sound they made when they skittled over her ears. The sewer grate above was clearly visible now, she was mere feet. Mere feet that might as well been a mile because every action, every inch she shifted, she could feel the scattering of spiders within her clothing. There were so many that it was a miracle she hadn't been bitten yet.

Snow didn’t know how she managed to stay calm this long. She wanted to scream out. She wanted to let go of the rope and fall, but she climbed onward through the final web.

The skittling sound became fleshy as the army of spiders were traversing over her. She couldn't even see her skin anymore. Salvation was within reach.

(“Almost…There…”)

Snow reached the top. The sewer grate itself was shaped like a web. She used one hand to pop the grate up and push it to the side. She could see the outside, she could smell the clean air. She lowered her hand back to grab the rope so she could pull herself up. That’s when she felt a sharp prick.

“rg!” There was blood on her hand, She almost crushed a spider and it bit her. She swiped the rope moving the spiders aside before grabbing hold of it and fully pulling herself high enough to get out.

The second she was out Snow began to strip; throwing her clothes off like a crazy person, her boots, her shirt, her skirt and her hair were all filled with spiders. The spiders that crawled out of her tossed clothing skittered back into the sewer. She began shaking her head as if she was a part of some aggressive musical band while trying to get these creepy crawlers off her. Snow swiped at her back, legs, chest, arms, any and everywhere to get them off her.

Once Snow’s dancing fit finally came to an end, she checked herself a total of twelve times. After that, she checked her clothing five times before putting them back on.

Now that Snow was spider free, she was finally able to look at her environment. She was in the middle of a walled-in grape garden. Snow made her way to the house that the garden was connected too. There was an overhanging roof with plants elegantly sprawled over its edge creating a curtain of flora that separated the house from the garden. Snow crossed through it and came up to an ornate door with a curved golden handle. She put her hand on the door and her hand stung. She looked at her hand, two small bloody holes were visible on the base of her palm. She hoped the bite was not venomous. Unfortunately she had to assume it was, because she was feeling very ill, very quickly. By the time she went inside, she felt herself wobbling as if her coordination was completely out of whack. Snow felt both dizzy, nauseous and a strange funny sensation all at once. She wondered if this is what it was like when people were drunk.

After entering inside it appeared this was yet another luxurious manor, except there was a clear artistic style to it. Paintings supplemented by flowers strung everywhere. The flowers made it appear too girly for her taste. As fast as she came to a judgment on the decor, she found herself bumping against some of the walls as she began to drag her feet.

“Miss?” Somebody was on her side. Snow looked at the person before giving her a crooked smile.

“Don’t mind me, just passin- through.” She pushed the servant aside and continued down the hall. The hall began spinning like some bizarre illusion. Snow stopped at a big door. She heard the callings of some more servants behind her but she didn't have the energy to interpret their words. All she knew was that they didn't want her to go in this particular door, so that meant she was going in.

“Let's see what's behind door number two!” She swung the door upon and stumbled in,

An image of Lazarus in conversation with another noble was the sight she took in.

“Lazarus, just the man I was looking for!” She looked at his funny hat, she just wanted to flick it off his head. “I always wanted to slap that hat off your head!” As she staggered ahead to do so, Lazarus questionably watched her approach. Snow stepped up to him and swung as hard as she could, she knew she aimed at his head but her hand accidentally shifted to hit his face. Lazarus caught her hand, holding it up he looked at her palm.

“Is this the only bite?” He asked slowly.

Snow only laughed.

“Yup!”

“Go get the deathwidow antidote.” Lazarus motioned at his servant before she rushed out. Lazarus then lowered himself to her level and leaned in really close before whispering. “I am now certain, you will be the greatest flower I will have ever painted.” She heard him chuckle darkly as her eyes rolled to the back of her head. Everything went blank. The last thing she remembered was the smell of and feel of Lazarus’ clothing as he held her.

𓄿 Crow and Arthur 🔥

Crow and Arthur were hiding on a rooftop in wait. The sky was darkening as the ongoing rain began to pour.

“How could you lose them Crow?”

“The guide bird I had leading them was destroyed. I don't know how. The lesser flock is looking.”

“This is not good. I can’t fight in this rain either without removing my limiter.” Arthur sucked his teeth.

“Do you want me to use the bellbird?”

Arthur considered it before inevitably shaking his head.

“No, we need as much information as possible. Continue maintaining them.”

“Trying to find out more about those mages? I still think you went overboard on that guy.”

“We don't have time to play nice here. Based on what that mercenary said, those mages are more involved than we thought. Openly revealing themselves to try and take us out of the picture means that we are in the midst of an active plot.”

Silence followed until Crow asked what was on his mind.

“Does that mean… Ares… is?”

Arthur only looked down in response, unsure of what to say.

“I see.” Crow said with despondence

“I’m sorry, Crow.”

Crow did not reply, nor look Arthur’s way for an entire minute. “At least he discovered the ring, as well as revealing the true nature of the head councilor. Let’s just stay focused.”

“Locating and securing Princess Snow and Princess Lussuria are now our top and only priority. Understood? You can report whatever you have found afterwards to Warden Isabella.”

“Understood.”

A shadowy bird came in flying towards their direction

“There it is.” Arthur pointed at the bird. The bird was descending towards them before diving into Crow’s shadow. “Well?”

Crow seemed to be focused as if taking in what the bird just saw.

“I only see Princess Snow, She is still in the Noble’s district, she appears to be on the move somewhere.”

“The regal district?”

“No she’s going somewhere else, towards the east end of the nobles district, warehouse row, and she appears to be in a hurry.”

“Is she being pursued?”

“No.”

“Let’s get moving.”