161. The Venomous Spider That Found a Home (3)
161. The Venomous Spider That Found a Home (3)
- 1 -
Sararak.
Under the artificial sunlight beaming down from the dungeon's ceiling, a woman gazed up at it with a face that, at first glance, seemed almost delicately ephemeral.
The skin of her face, revealed beneath a black parasol she twirled with a girlish gesture, was so pale and translucent it seemed as though it might vanish at any moment.
The black dress that enveloped her body shone with its own light even in the darkness, making her presence all the more striking.
"My, my. An uninvited guest, I see."
The moment she discovered Arpina and fixed a somewhat startled gaze upon her.
'That's...!!'
Her senses bristled sharply.
Every ounce of mana she had accumulated until now, her very soul, warned her against that woman.
'This is...!!'
And at the same time, she felt her soul cheering from the depths.
She could tell instinctively.
That there stood before her a great something that could instantly erase a mere demon's contract.
"Must take it back..."
'...back!'
A violent impulse coiled around her body.
A deep thirst surged up—one she had not even been aware of, pushed down by a sense of powerlessness—a craving to reclaim a part of herself that she had lost forever.
The moment she faced her, she realized it with certainty.
'A monster!'
That this woman was something that would make her 'perfect.'
'The ultimately perfect sculpture...!'
That she was something far nobler and greater than even that 'Noble Abelos.'
"You...!!"
As she drew up the mana throughout her body, Arpina's green eyes spewed streaks of mad light.
Nothing else mattered to her now.
Only seizing that woman's soul, laying hands on that body.
That alone was the sole impulse that enveloped her being.
Kwang - !
- Kyaaaak!
- Kraaak!
From Arpina's shadow, spreading in all directions as she kicked off the floor and flew, countless monsters burst forth.
"Right. Of course. You're a Dungeon Lord, after all!"
Hwareuruk - !
Jjeoeong - !
- Kyaaak!
With a sharp cackle of Kihihit-, the fire and ice summoned from Arpina's hands rampaged.
The magic she had absorbed from a Royal Magic School professor and a certain noble criminal swept through the monsters, annihilating them.
'Hm?'
And then, the next instant, Arpina realized that 'her' presence had already retreated far away.
"Where do you think you're going—!!"
At Arpina's ferocious shout, the black-clad woman glanced back at her for a moment and lifted a sneer onto that gentle, ephemeral face.
"Such a reckless woman. How vulgar."
Contempt and derision.
Until five years ago, it had been something she could never have imagined another directing toward her, yet receiving it from this woman felt somehow natural.
But more than that.
That attitude, that faintly permeating coquetry.
"Heuhee... you're playing hard to get!"
It excited Arpina.
"Think whatever you like."
The woman walked away, brushing back her long hair and covering her face with her parasol.
Yet despite that leisurely appearance, she was distancing herself from Arpina at a speed unimaginable from her bearing.
'She's running.'
Swaaak!
Convinced of this, Arpina's body shot forward rapidly.
Unlike the woman's steps, which seemed almost to glide over the floor, she moved with a wasteful explosion of mana that tore apart everything around her as she advanced.
Even so, Arpina felt a great satisfaction.
'I'm light.'
That was Arpina's self-assessment of her own bodily condition.
Having just emerged from a sense of powerlessness, she was now in her best state since leaving the Demon Realm.
'As I am now!'
Even if she were to encounter the Abelos of before, she would not be helplessly defeated.
Perhaps she could even fight a little more fiercely.
Of course, it was a misjudgment born of the intoxication of activating her mana at full power for the first time in a long while, but at least right now, she believed it to be true.
- Kyaaak!
- Tak!
Countless undead and monsters blocked her path.
All manner of skeletons that charged without formation or order, greenskins that rampaged in madness having lost their reason, as well as monsters and demons.
"You are indeed outstanding!"
Sensing that the quality of these monsters was certainly higher than that of an ordinary 'high-grade Dungeon Lord,' Arpina dismissed her doubts about the fleeing woman.
She could not possibly have known that they were merely summons hastily conjured as a stalling tactic.
"But that's all there is to it!"
Kkwareureureung - !!
- Keaaak!!
- Kraaak!
As white lightning summoned from her hand illuminated the dungeon corridor, the wooden furniture all around shattered and its fragments billowed up like mist.
The countless monsters in its path scattered away like dust, just the same.
"With this, you cannot stop me!! My dear little lady!"
"Yes. You do seem to think so."
At some point, the dungeon had opened up into a spacious room.
The black-clad woman, who had unfurled her parasol to scatter the lightning aimed at her, nodded with a faint smile that seemed almost gentle.
And at the same time.
"Where—!"
The nape of Arpina's neck went cold.
A razor-sharp energy that seemed to flay the skin. She felt it burrowing into her throat.
Kwadeudeudeuk - !!
The moment she twisted her body urgently, a dark crimson blade-light grazed past her neck.
It cleaved through the empty air and gouged a deep trench into the floor.
Cheok...
Platinum-blonde hair spilling from beneath a black hood.
A black knight stood there, a ferocious smile stretched across her lips.
Arpina's eyes glittered as she gauged the trench carved into the spot and the mana radiating from the knight.
'So this is the ace...!'
An elite-class Death Knight, or a Dark Knight.
She instinctively sensed that this knight was the dungeon's strongest—or at least one of them.
It was the correct judgment.
If measured by the standards of an ordinary high-grade dungeon.
'But she's grown weak, how pathetic!'
A sneer tugged at Arpina's lips.
From the power she could feel alone, this knight's strength was formidable.
Formidable enough that, in her current weakened state, Arpina would have to spend a fair amount of time on her.
But that was all.
Especially now, before this impulse that wreathed her entire body, it was nothing.
"What a cute little ace you are."
Kwareureuk - !!
Flames blossomed once more from both of Arpina's hands.
This time, the flames were different from the other spells she had used before.
Tinged green, like her own viscous eyes, the blaze flowed along the surrounding air and created a bizarre shape, as if encroaching upon space itself.
"And so loyal, too. I suppose you mean to buy time for your master while she flees?"
"...!"
At Arpina's mockery, a dark crimson mana exploded from the knight's entire body in response.
Beholding that sight, Arpina, wreathed in green flames, sneered once again. No matter how powerful a mere elite-class being might be, she could not stand against her.
'Yes... just like that time.'
Arpina's brow furrowed as she recalled when she had flung herself at the 'Noble Abelos.'
It was an unpleasant memory.
"You look like a fool."
To shake off the thought, Arpina gazed past the black knight toward the woman in the black dress.
The woman, who stood on the opposite side of the room, was watching the fight instead of fleeing.
Her expression still seemed gentle, but her eyes alone were different.
That gaze, as though a being who had lived through long ages was looking down upon something insignificant, made Arpina's blood boil.
'I want to wreck it...!'
As she imagined the moment when that lofty face would contort, a ghastly smile stretched across Arpina's lips once more.
Kwang - !!
That very instant.
The moment Arpina's attention was stolen by the black-clad woman, the knight moved.
Her eyes, burning with rage as she closed the distance in an instant with an explosion of the ground, were filled with fury, and above the greatsword she held in both hands, a dark crimson sword aura blazed fiercely.
Arpina was not in perfect condition either, so had she allowed the knight to get close, it might have posed a slight threat.
"Your movements are good, girl!"
Kiaaak!
But the difference in their tiers was absolute.
After dodging or blocking several sword strikes, Arpina unleashed green flames from her entire body that surged upward as if to blanket the world.
As though alive, it seized the black knight's entire being.
Like a giant's fist.
Udeudeuk - !!
"Keup...!"
Pain as if her whole body was being crushed, flesh melting or searing together, soul being drawn out.
It was not the sort of thing that could be endured, yet the knight's scream leaked out utterly suppressed to the very end.
At that tenacious endurance, Arpina smiled all the more widely, as though ripping apart.
This knight, too, under normal circumstances, would have been splendid enough to serve as part of her 'collection.'
"Wait for me! Once I take your master's body, I'll dote on you too! It wouldn't do for that pretty face to get scarred, would it?!"
"You...!"
Listening to the knight's rage-filled shout, Arpina laughed madly and leisurely surveyed the black-clad woman across the way once more.
The woman's expression, visible from afar, was now tinged with a degree of bewilderment and 'fear.'
It was the first change of expression Arpina had seen from her since laying eyes on her.
It was exactly the expression a Dungeon Lord wore when their 'ace' or dungeon core was in danger—the same expression Arpina had observed many times before.
"Kihi—!"
Kkattak.
Realizing that she was cornering the woman, Arpina twisted her hand with an even more triumphant heart.