Chapter
2 – Caught in the Spider’s Web
The inner city looks worse than
where we were before with rubble and broken buildings blocking certain streets.
It’s almost like a maze because of how many turns we have to take and how many buildings
we need to cut through. Markings and arrows on the side of buildings tell us
that they’re pointing us in the direction of help. Some say weird
things that make it sound like a paradise with some sort of goddess queen in it
who performs miracles. Maybe this is the goddess that Kitsune was talking
about.
“Eerie, can you tell me more about
what you know is going on in the world?”
“I know that all order in the world
collapsed and no one knew what exactly ended it.”
“What do you remember about it
because I’ve recently woken up?”
“Not much that I can make sense of.
I woke up yesterday or so many hours ago. I can barely tell what time of day
it is because of the sky.”
“What about our appearances? I
mean, you look like a cat.”
“I think it has to do with a thing that our appearances are related to our souls somehow. People can change
their clothes, but the clothes will change to something more suitable for a
person's personality. Besides, I like the way I look. You know you don’t look
so different from me. You have sharp, cat-like teeth too.”
“I do? Huh. I guess you’re right
because of how my nails and teeth are sharper. We also both have cats as assistants.”
“That’s right. I wouldn’t be
surprised if we find out that we’re sisters or twins.”
“Hmm. I don’t think I had a
sibling.”
“A lot of people have completely
forgotten parts of their life because of what happened and one of the ways to
remember yourself is by fighting. That’s one of the many reasons the city looks
the way it does.”
“What fight do you think caused
this?”
“I have no clue.”
We’re looking at a mess of webs
that string between the tall buildings. Some of these webs block our path and
are thicker than they seem. These seem to be spider webs.
“Ah!”
Speaking of spiders…
“What is it, Val?”
“There are spiders in these webs. It
looks like their strengthening and adding layers to it.”
“There must be someone who can
spawn them. I’ve heard of people who have grown their power to the point where
they can make their animal use different abilities. We’ll have to be careful
not to alert whoever commands these spiders. Don’t touch the webs or bother the
spiders.”
“…I already touched the webs.”
“You what?”
“That’s what made the spiders come
out.”
“Then we just have to hope that we’re
dealing with someone friendly.”
“Oh, you’ll find that I’m more than
friendly,” a girl above us says as she descends on a large spider followed by a
squad of other large spiders, “My name is Sybella. I am the guardian of the
city ruled by Queen Shea.”
“You guard the city by yourself?” I
ask.
“Technically yes since my spiders are
an extension of myself. My little scouts have told me that you’re coming here
to learn more about what caused all of this. Unfortunately for you, the city is
already full of people like that who wish to know the queen’s wisdom. You’ll
have to search somewhere else.”
“Somewhere else?” Eerie says, “The
entire city looks dead and I’m sure other places are like this. Can’t you let
us through? We’ll wait in line for our questions to be answered if we have to.”
“Eerie…I don’t think…”
“No, she has a fair point, but you
are not allowed into the city unless you want to go through me. Come to think
of it now, that’s exactly what you should do. My little scouts and my victories
have told me all that I need to know about you.”
“You know about us? Just tell us
what you know. We don’t need to fight,” Eerie says.
“No, I do.”
Sybella flips a coin that flies up
into the air. Dozens of large spiders descend from the webs above and shoot
their string at us. Vic and Torio spring into action and cut the strings with
ease.
“That’s surprising. The string
usually guarantees me an easy victory,” Sybella says.
I’m a little surprised that Vic was
able to cut the string and in such a fast way. I guess we got stronger from the
last fight.
“We’re stronger than we look! Bring
her down to us, Vic!”
“Do the same, Torio!”
Vic and Torio rapidly cut at the
strings the hold the buildings together. Their speed is like that of Kitsune’s
fox, so the buildings are quickly crumbling.
“You don’t have to wait for me to
come down because I’m coming to yo-you!”
Both our cats have managed to bring
down the webs connecting the buildings, which results in the rubble crushing
Sybella and her spiders.
“Good job, boy!” I say to Vic as he
comes up to me and rubs his face against mine.
“You did great, Torio,” Eerie says
as her cat does the same.
The rubble then starts to move as
dozens of little spiders crawl out of it. Sybella’s larger spiders then break
out of the rubble along with her.
“You'll have to do more than that to beat me!”
Sybella’s smaller spiders swarm both of our cats. Their little bites don’t hurt that much on their own by
the swarm is overwhelming.
“Concentrate on Sybella, Vic!”
“Don’t worry about the smaller
ones, Torio. Just bear the pain and take out the larger one!”
The larger spiders that aren’t Sybella’s
main spider use themselves as her sword and shield as they form a barrier
around her. They use their pincers to try to stab at our cats, but they can’t
react fast enough as they tear apart the barrier.
“You two are more than I thought
you would be,” Sybella says as she and her spider try to retreat while fighting.
Our cats are too fast for her and
cut her spider to pieces, which defeats her.
“We did it!” Eerie and I say as we
clap. Even our cats clap their paws together.
I look over to Sybella to see her
body and her spiders disappear, but her head doesn’t disappear. Eerie and I look
at each other in confusion. Sybella’s head then stands up as the head and legs
of a spider come out of it.
“I won’t be so easily defeated,”
Sybella says as her head jumps around.
Part of a broken building is broken
through as Sybella in her new form comes out. Half of her body is now part
spider with her hands and face being more spider-like.
“Your power is going to be useful
to me. You should feel honored. I’ve never had to use this form until now,” Sybella
says as she begins to attack our cats.
She sends out flying small spiders
after them since they’re her most effective force. These spiders inject some
kind of venom into our cats, which makes them woozy. Vic and Torio are unable
to fight effectively as Sybella tosses them around while her spiders continue
to bite at them. Come on, Vic! Concentrate like how we did last time. You can
do it. Just fight through the pain with me. We can do this if we combine our
strength.
Eerie and I scream as we lend our
energy to our cats. Our combined energy allows them to get the strength to bear
their pain and effectively fight Sybella until they cut through her defenses
and her.
As her entire body along with her head
disappear, she says, “I hope you’re happy with yourself because of what you’ve
done you monster.”
My mind is then filled with
memories of Sybella at a high school where she would defend her friends from
bullies and terrible teachers. Again, I see the exploding light that ended the
world. I then see Sybella striking a deal with a girl who I think is the queen
she was talking about. The next memories after that are just battles. There is
a memory that catches my attention that being one that doesn’t seem like hers.
It’s of a girl and what looks to be her boyfriend with her. They both are seen at the center of the explosion with a priest attempting to stop them. That’s
where the memory ends.
Eerie and I tell each other what we
saw, and it turns out that we got the same memories.
“That last memory was a strange one,”
I say.
I wonder why I felt a close
connection to it.
“Maybe the rest of what she knows
about us was just told to her?” Eerie suggests.
“Probably, but I can’t remember
that memory unless I need more of the pieces from someone else.”
“That’s how people end up fighting
so much. They want to find out who they were so bad that they end up
taking the lives of so many people. Some even continue to fight because they
didn’t like the person they remembered.”
“I hope that doesn’t become us.”
“Me too. Let’s see if this queen
will give us the answers we need. It looks like we made a mess since Sybella’s
spiders and webs were the only things keeping these buildings together. Let’s
see if our cats have a new ability.”
Torio can turn the surface
of his body into spikes, which allows him to cut through the rubble.
“That was awesome!”
Well? Let’s not let them show us
up, Vic. Wow! Vic uses his tail as a long whip that can cut through the
rubble as it were paper. That’s amazing, boy! Eerie and I look at each other
with a satisfied smile as our cats dig through the rubble towards our destination
and hopefully the answers we seek.
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