Edward was getting swarmed by spiders, they were coming at him in a continuous stream. No matter how many he killed, more kept coming, the sensation was amplified by the wolf spiders’ illusions amplifying their actual number. Still, Edward was able to hold on. He was using his acceleration power and conserving his aura as much as possible, not firing aura blades but simply elongating and coating his daggers with aura. As the fight progressed, he let go of idle thoughts focusing exclusively on the spiders.

He was in continuous movement, never stopping, barely slowing down to change direction. His blades were able to cut through the spiders without resistance. Although he was swarmed and outnumbered by monsters alone in enemy territory, he felt confident. He was fighting well, and he knew it, each of his actions was fluid and with purpose, movements chaining together without pause. He felt invincible as the spiders were dying one after the other as if they were voluntarily jumping on his blades.

As the fight progressed spiders’ corpses accumulated around him, and Edward familiarized himself with his opponents. With the way the spiders were behaving, he was able to spot small differences between the mirages and the real spiders, helping him to focus on the real ones, and dramatically improving his efficiency. As the corpses accumulated to form small mounds, the footing became treacherous. Edward didn’t slow down and only added aura steps to run in the air, using them to both avoid slipping on a spider’s body and to avoid attacks.

Finally, the stream of spiders died down. Edward stood alone, panting and surrounded by fallen monsters. Above him the wasp spiders continued to busy themselves with their webs not reacting to Edward, they were the only witnesses of this deadly battle.

Edward slowly walked from one fallen body to the next, absorbing the blood essence of each spider he had killed. He couldn’t take as much time as he wanted since more spiders would come if he stayed too long in one place. But he had killed so many of them that it would be a waste not to drain their blood essence. Besides, it had been a long battle, and Edward was weary. Both his mana and his aura were half empty. Actually, his mana had only sustained so long because of its upgrade to liquid form which had a higher density and could contain more energy. Edward wouldn’t have been able to maintain his accelerated state otherwise.

Each spider’s blood essence refilled his energy until his aura was back to full capacity, then each one he additionally drained increased his aura by a bit. Due to their number, it was an appreciated upgrade. However, what Edward really needed to progress was to absorb blood essence from monsters that were able to use aura, just like the Mare Irae, the Regal wolves, and the Harpy queen.

After clearing the battlefield, Edward pursued his course. He didn’t meet any more resistance, only the lone wolf spiders coming to seek their death. With how many I have killed, I’m pretty sure I have emptied the surroundings Seriously with how many I am killing, I would feel bad if it were local monsters not endangering anybody. But seeing how they conquered the forest and annihilated everything else, they had it coming.

That’s when Edward saw it in the distance. It was as if the web covering the sky had collapsed. The web blocking the sky joined the one on the ground forming a pillar so large that it was more appropriate to call it a tower. It had a diameter of about fifty meters and was covered in protrusions that Edward belatedly realized were cocoons. Every meter one could see a cocoon the size of a human child. There must be thousands of them. Edward thought in horror. It is too big to destroy from the outside with a rune bomb. If I want the bomb to burn all of it, I have to place it inside the structure. Even then, I hope it will be enough to destroy everything, this thing is big.

Edward ran around the structure, circumventing it. As he ran, he confirmed that the webs were aligned towards the nest, the threads converging on it. However, even after a full circle around the nest, he didn’t see any entrance leading deeper inside. The nest had no entrance and the cocoons were situated directly on the outside of the structure. Fine, I will make my own way in then, Edward thought not getting discouraged.

Edward approached the structure close enough to touch it. Contrary to the web layer on the ground, the outer layer of the tower had sticky webs. Edward formed an aura armor around him to avoid being stuck in the webs, and with his aura blades, he began to carve a way in. It was a tedious process, the blades were able to cut the webs cleanly, but he then had to remove them by hand since there were still stuck to the nest alongside the other webs. Naturally, each time he shoved his hands to throw the webs away, said webs got stuck to his hands. He then had to remove the aura armor around his hands so that the webs lost their anchor and drift to the ground. And he had to reform the aura armor each time he wanted to remove more webs.

As he was digging in the tower Edward saw the cocoon nearest to him shake. “It’s just fucking great, more spiders, exactly what I needed,” Edward swore. But he continued to work on digging inside the structure. There were too many cocoons to deal with them one by one, and what he needed was to destroy the whole nest.

The cocoon burst open and a stream of head-sized wolf spiders emerge from it, ten spiders crawled out of this single cocoon. Then the other cocoons shook as well. Edward increased the speed at which he was digging into the structure relying on his aura armor to protect him from the newborn spiders. He had not seen a single wolf spider use aura until now so he should be safe for the time being. He had only avoided forming an aura armor while fighting the wolf spiders because it would have decreased his aura reserve with every hit he was taking. He preferred to use his aura for the offensive rather than to defend himself.

Edward dug past one meter of web in the nest when the type of web changed. There weren’t any more sticky webs, instead, Edward felt that the new kind of web was thrumming with mana. This is where all the mana is going. This tower is a gigantesque mana reserve being dispatched to feed and accelerate the growth of the spiders. As more cocoons burst open the baby spiders spread everywhere, it felt like an invasion, everywhere you look head size spiders were roaming around.

That included where Edward stood. Spiders climbed on him as well. Edward first shook his arm to send the spider climbing on it flying but as more spiders climbed on him, he realized that it was meaningless. He could only greet his teeth and pursue his task, digging deeper in the tower while trying to ignore all the spiders crawling on his body and relying on his aura armor for defense.

The spiders didn’t attack him immediately, they were still adjusting to this world having been born just a minute ago. But as time passed and Edward dug deeper, already having reached the five-meter mark, their behavior changed. They became more active and identified Edward as an intruder. If until now spiders crawled on him only by happenstance, this wasn’t the case anymore. More spiders swarmed the hole Edward was digging into to attack him. The spiders already on him tried to bite him, and Edward could see their fangs being repelled by his aura armor.

It should have been recomforting that he was safe under his aura armor, but the sight and feeling of countless spiders crawling on him and trying to stick their fangs into his flesh was profoundly disturbing. “Rèng khwāmrĕw”, Edward used his acceleration power to dig faster. Normally he would have saved his mana as he couldn’t recharge it while in the spider’s domain due to the low mana density. But here, in the heart of the nest, even without meditation, the air was so charged with mana that some of it was seeping into him naturally.

Thanks to his acceleration, Edward was able to progress much more quickly. He repeated mechanical motions, cutting the web, grabbing it with his free hand, and tossing it away to free the way. He was like a chainsaw methodically and coldly biting into a tree. With each web that he cut the mana concentration increased, and the cut webs were leaking the mana they had gathered.

By the twenty-meter mark, Edward felt himself slowing down. He gazed around in confusion, checking that his acceleration was still active and that his aura armor was still there preventing the spiders to bit him. He realized that the spiders themselves were motionless as if they were dead. What is going on? Edward pondered. And then it hit him. There is too much mana. I haven’t slowed down, it’s only that my time perception has increased, just like when I was fighting the Bloodmaws for the first time. He remembered the Damkinans’ warnings about excessive mana exposure. I can’t stay for too long, the more the mana will increase the more I will experience the slow-down effect, and too much mana can lead to mutations. I don’t want to get magical cancer. I just need to dig a few more meters.

Edward deactivated his spell which enhanced his perception but kept the power that accelerated his body. His perception of time returned to normal. Even though his spell enhancing his perception was inactive the outcome of the excess mana had the same effect. He dug for two more meters but by then he felt as his he was moving in molasse. He had kept his acceleration without enhancing his perception so his body should have been moving too fast for his mind to process, and yet the reverse was happening. This is too much, without my acceleration I would feel as if I was stuck in place. Let’s place the bomb here and come out. I’m not exactly in the center of the nest, but it should be enough.

Edward took out one of Leyla’s flame bombs and started to pour mana into it, he had barely begun when the artifact glowed red, heat releasing from it. Shit! There is way too much mana, the bomb is getting overcharged too quickly. Edward released his aura perception to teleport as far as he could. His perception got blocked by the webs except through the hole that he had made to enter the nest. He dropped the bomb, and even without exploding yet the bomb started to sink into the nest, each web in contact with it turning black from the heat and crumbling into ash.

Edward teleported away, appearing directly outside the nest, some twenty meters away from it. And then he started running away as fast as possible, his acceleration power and aura armor still active. He was a hundred meters away from the nest when he heard the explosion, then he felt the heat and the blast. A powerful wall of wind lifted him and threw him forward. He saw the webs covering the sky shake from the force and he lost perception of his surroundings. He could feel himself tumbling in the air. He impacted the ground violently and rebounded from the impact before falling on the ground again, rolling from the impact for several meters.

He slowly raised his torso, one hand pushing against the ground, and turned over to see behind him. The nest was no more. The webs covering the sky had been torn open, and a massive hole let the sunlight inside the forest for the first time in a while. Even the webs on the ground had been either burned or turned to shreds from the explosion, but what was certain was that they weren’t around anymore. The ground itself was scorched black.