‘Activate the runestones and enter, but don’t attack,’ Sokram sent another mental message to the golems, who followed his instructions immediately.

  Instead of rushing to kill the intruders, the queen stayed in front of the last arachne, standing guard, and screaming at the golems.

  “Aaaaaghh!!”

  She bared her teeth with bloodshot eyes and let out a shriek that wasn't just noise; it was a physical force.

  The vibration was so intense it caused tremors in the entire cave, dust rained from the ceiling, and the vibrations rattled Sokram’s teeth in his skull, even inside the shadow realm.

  ‘Sigh… the queen really did develop the ability to bond.’ Sokram lamented as he calculated his next move.

  Monsters were typically unable to form deep emotional bonds, instead relying on primal instincts and self-preservation.

  However, the fundamental signs of higher intelligence and potential for greater evolution, as with Willow, are the ability to bond, to demonstrate empathy, and lastly, the ability to communicate.

  The Arachne Queen stood between them without hesitation, legs braced, body trembling, refusing to abandon even the last of them.

  A bond that wasn't just instinct.

  That was proof that she wasn’t a common arachne anymore, but stood at the initial stages of becoming a new Evolved Species.

  And thinking about that, Sokram admitted to himself, ‘I hate this Oath sometimes, yet it’s the only set of words capable of making me Nhiria’s Champion, and share her will. Still, this time it was right…’

  At the same time, in the Star Palace, Nhiria sat on her throne, her head resting on Yish’s shoulders, enjoying her big sister’s hands caressing her head gently, when she muttered to herself, “So you’re sharing my will, hm?”

  “That’s to be expected, he is your Chosen Champion after all. It’s amazing how perceptive he is. Others would have ignored it and would pay the price. Him, however, you can see he is forming a plan,” Yish spoke, not hiding the great interest she had in Sokram.

  “He is mine." Nhiria pouted possessively, "Still... if you want to, I can share him with you,” She chuckled jokingly.

  Yish smirked, answering mischievously, “I do want him.”

  “Let’s watch him, there's a long road until there…” Nhiria deflected, not expecting such a direct answer.

  Yish only giggled and went back to stroking Nhiria’s hair.

  Seeing Nhiria’s discomfort didn’t discourage her from eyeing Sokram, because whatever the cost, she couldn’t lose her chance to escape the void.

  Meanwhile, Sokram remained in a deadlock.

  It was too risky to attack the two of them, and the queen wouldn’t move away from her last kin.

  ‘Come on, move, better things will come in your future if you let go of your past…’

  Realizing the hypocrisy in his thoughts, Sokram couldn’t help feeling even more conflicted.

  Looking down, his grip tightened on a needle.

  For a moment, he did nothing. Finally, his gaze met the raging queen again, and he ordered his golems. ‘Open the Scrolls, aim for the Queen.’

  He knew the spell on those two scrolls wouldn’t hold the queen for long. He still hoped it would be enough to create a window of opportunity for him to kill the last one.

  The first golem opened his scroll, and a beam of light flashed through the dark cave before vanishing into the darkness.

  Right where it landed, a powerful gravity well erupted, yanking the queen away from its last kin faster than she could twitch a muscle.

  She desperately tried to reach the last arachne, fighting against the gravitational pull with all her might.

  Then the second golem opened his scroll, unleashing yet another gravitational spell, forcing her eight legs to buckle under the weight that fell over the queen.

  The dust around her hit the floor as if each speck weighed over a ton, bursting outward as the queen’s legs buckled.

  Her patellae hit the stone with a wet crunch as invisible hands pressed her into the floor, her chitinous armor groaning under the immense pressure.

  “Aaaaagghh!!”

  Her legs shook, her strength faltered, and her cries echoed through the gallery, muffling the sound of the needle traveling toward the last standing arachne.

  Like the title he carried, Sokram was a dark lightning of death.

  “Slash!”

  He beheaded the frightened arachne, which didn’t even see who took its life.

  This time, instead of hiding, he threw ten needles in multiple directions to the far ends of the cave’s gallery.

  And rushed toward the queen, who raged, finally seeing the face of her enemy.

  ‘Even though I have shown enough knowledge and ability to serve as justification for it, I wonder how Mentyr will react...’ Sokram thought briefly before throwing another needle toward the queen.

  Just as the needle was about to reach the point he aimed at, the scrolls on the hands of the golems turned into ashes.

  And the queen, now free, deflected the needle far away and dashed toward him.

  ‘Fuck!’ Sokram cursed in his thoughts.

  Two razor-sharp bony blades came out of her forearms as she swung them in a rage-filled flurry of random and maddening attacks.

  Sokram had no other option but to unsheathe Draggonia and defend himself.

  She became a whirlwind of bone and fury.

  Her blades moved in a chaotic blur that sought only to destroy, painting the air with deadly arcs. Showering the cave in fiery sparks wherever they met the stony ground or Draggonia's metal.

  He chose not to teleport away and keep her distracted while the golems hid.

  He also wanted to test her strength and had to withstand her erratic, savage attacks that sometimes breached his defenses.

  Thankfully, his new armor was strong enough to protect his upper body. But his exposed upper arms were still a weakness against a poisonous monster like the arachne.

  And while deflecting her attacks, he felt a searing pain radiating from both his arms. Like liquid fire, the poison coursed through his veins.

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  The blood leaking from his wounds couldn't be called blood anymore. The green blood oozing from him hissed as it touched the stony ground.

  The poison turned his blood into acid that began to eat away at his nerves, demanding he drop his guard.

  He had received a few deep cuts on his arms while trying to dodge and defend at the same time. The queen's attacks were so fast that he only noticed them when his brain began screaming in pain.

  As soon as the golems were hidden, he teleported to the furthest point from her and downed a serum.

  The queen lost sight of him, looking left and right, then she heard his ragged breaths. “Huff… Huff…”

  ‘Damn, I guess fighting weaker enemies for a whole year has made me slower, or is it the fact that I got used to having a team?’

  “Aaaaaaghhh!”

  The queen dashed toward him again, this time, though, he was better prepared.

  Assuming a defensive stance, he prepared to use one of the techniques he had recreated over the past couple of weeks.

  ‘Killing Blade Art – Original Style: Blooming Black Lotus.’

  Mixing Drokmin’s War Art with his own Killing Blade Original Style, Sokram, in a defensive stance, compressed his sensory range to the range of his precognition, creating a sphere of absolute defense.

  At least that was the idea, yet he was far from being able to display the perfected version of the technique.

  Still, it would be enough to defend against her irrational attacks.

  “Clang! Clang! Clang!”

  The sound of his sword colliding with her bony blades echoed deep into the cave.

  Whenever her attacks reached the edge of his sensory shield, Draggonia moved decisively in lightning speed. The queen's attack could no longer reach him, yet she never gave up trying to rip him to shreds.

  Sokram defended from her relentless attacks, waiting for an opportunity to ambush her.

  And that opportunity came sooner than later.

  Just as Sokram was losing grip of his defensive field, the queen’s rage-empowered strength began to falter.

  Her erratic, savage attacks slowed, becoming weaker and easier to predict, to the point where Sokram could even deflect and parry them if he chose to.

  Yet he held back, holding her gaze, taunting her as the golems slowly approached her.

  “Aaaahhhg!”

  The queen screamed, throwing the last bit of caution to the wind.

  She raised both arms and forelegs, in a last attempt to use all of her remaining strength to crush Sokram.

  Before she could, the first golem unsealed his second scroll, unleashing another gravitational spell that dragged the queen back to where she had been forced to watch the last of her kin dying.

  When the second golem unsealed his last scroll, at the same time, Sokram threw a needle in the queen’s direction.

  The needle wasn’t meant to hit her. As it whistled past her ear, Sokram vanished, instantly materializing on her back, straddling her lower half.

  He quickly summoned a scroll written in complex runic lines, a Bonding Contract, and pressed against the queen’s back, and with his other hand, he touched the back of her head.

  Suddenly, the scrolls in the golems’ hands burned to ashes, and the spell lost its effect.

  The queen reached behind her, arms bent at an impossible angle. Her two bony blades erupted from her forearms, piercing her enemy's ribcage.

  Without any mercy, she spread her arm, ripping her foe in pieces.

  Before she could even celebrate her victory, her body grew heavy again, and looking back, the scrolls that had burned on the two golems’ hands reappeared.

  And before her, the last of her kin who had just died, also reappeared.

  Confused, she looked around, and this time she was able to see it, the needle flying in the direction of the last arachne, Sokram appearing like a ghost of dark lightning.

  “AAaaaHHGGG!!”

  Her scream echoed through the cave.

  Once again, she witnessed the death of her kin. Sokram attacked her again.

  This time, he went for her legs. The weight of the gravitational spells stopped holding her back, and she ripped Sokram to shreds again.

  Only for the scene to restart again.

  The blood vanished.

  The body reappeared.

  And the needle flew again.

  This time, her victory turned to ash in her mouth.

  One moment, she held his beating heart; the next, she was standing back at the start, the scent of blood replaced by the stale cave air, forced to watch her kin die again. And again.

  She was trapped in a hellish loop of her own failure.

  Outside of her mind, Sokram had already begun drawing an array around her body while she stood dazed.

  He quickly finished carving the array and used some blood-ink from his glove to activate the array engraved on the floor.

  ‘Runic Heart-Link Bond!’

  When Sokram cast the spell, the scroll glued to the queen’s back stretched and wrapped around her upper body under her arms, as countless runic lines shone in a red light, pulsating crimson that synced with her erratic heartbeat.

  Seeing that, Sokram finally let out a breath of relief.

  In the Star Palace, Mentyr was walking back and forth, and from time to time, she would look at Nhiria, begging Nhiria to believe her, “I swear I didn’t teach him that, I swear.”

  “I already told you…” Nhiria stood up from her throne and walked to Mentyr, pulled her by the hands, guiding the princess of the Nether back to her throne.

  Nhiria sat Mentyr down, gazing deep into Mentyr’s eyes.

  “I believe you, and even if you had, which I know you didn’t, even so, it would be fine. Is it a powerful illusion spell? Sure, and since he learned by himself, that's to his credit.”

  Nhiria patted Mentyr’s head reassuringly, “Your fault lies in casting and breaking the spell over and over. That is what made it easy for him to grasp the spell formula. Because that proves he not only beat you, he stole from you as well.”

  Nhiria giggled, not hiding her amusement with Sokram’s actions.

  She kissed Mentyr on the forehead and returned to her throne, sitting beside her sister.

  Although calmer, Mentyr’s fingers curled into her sleeves, eyes fixed on Sokram as awe and unease warred behind her eyes.

  She wasn't alone.

  Another of the Paragons looked at the runic lines of the bonding contract with both wonder and shock.

  Meanwhile, Sokram had been sitting in a cross-legged position for a while after drinking and washing the wounds on his upper arms with a detoxifier serum.

  However, his moment of peace was short-lived.

  His instincts screamed for him to dodge.

  He did it, rolling to the side and escaping a deathly attack coming from above.

  When Sokram's gaze finally met his new attackers, his breath hitched, “Fuck… Three of them?”

  Before his eyes stood three arachnes, very different from the others.

  Their arachnid's lower half was four times the size of the common arachne.

  They were as tall as humans riding a small elephant or a rhino-sized spider.

  Their legs were as thick as tree trunks. Each step should be sending tremors through the soles of Sokram's boots. But their graceful movements only spoke of power and precision.

  Studying their humanoid upper bodies, Sokram noticed a difference between the three.

  While two had dark, sleek hair and monstrous-looking faces, the bigger one was similar to the queen.

  Like an older and less beautiful reflection.

  Where the queen was smooth and youthful, this one was rugged and grey. Her skin wrinkled, and her eyes were dark, with less intelligence and more bloodlust.

  She reeked of old blood and rot. An aura of malice radiated from her, a primal pressure that made the air feel thick as Sokram's gaze met hers.

  ‘Oh, fuck! A mutated Broodmother?! No wonder a new species was born. Luckily, she doesn’t look stronger than the queen.’

  Sokram thought as he quickly summoned three crimson runestones, threw them inside the array surrounding the queen, and ordered his two golems to rush there before activating a barrier.

  ‘You want her, you will have to get me first,’ Sokram teleported and merged into the shadows before their eyes could find him.

  The three Broodmothers didn’t seem as intelligent as the queen, and although not stronger, they weren’t much weaker either.

  Sokram confirmed their level of strength after sensing the power behind the strikes they were launching at the runic barrier.

  "PENG! PENG! PENG!"

  With each blow, the red dome flickered and dimmed.

  Cracks of light spiderwebbed across the surface faster than it could regenerate. The crimson barrier groaned under the assault like ice about to shatter.

  If this continued, the barrier wouldn’t last even ten minutes, so he needed to act fast.

  Even Sokram had to admit it would be a waste to kill all of them.

  If the mutated Broodmother could lay eggs for pre-awakened beings like the queen, this confirmed the birth of a new race of Evolved Species.

  Sokram looked at the scroll wrapped around the queen’s waist.

  Its letters, once shining red, were now orange and leaning toward yellow.

  Though the queen’s willpower was breaking at a slower pace than he liked, her submission to him was only a matter of time.

  If Sokram could get rid of the other two and hold the mutated one back until the queen awoke, he could have the queen order the Broodmother to submit to him.

  ‘Killing the other two should be easy enough,’ Sokram thought, as he threw two needles aimed to pass close to them.

  Even before the needles could reach them, the mutated one, who was standing between the other two, twisted her spine with a sickening crack.

  She swatted the needles from the air with terrifying precision.

  One needle was sent far away, the other, although deflected, spun past her defenses, flying near the broodmother to her right.

  Sokram didn’t let this change go to waste.

  “Slash!”

  Draggonia met no resistance.

  The blade passed through the thick neck muscle as if it were smoke.

  For a second, the head remained in place, its eight eyes blinking in confusion, before gravity claimed it and a fountain of black ichor erupted.

  Sokram didn’t teleport or hide immediately.

  Instead, he stepped back as the headless Broodmother’s body went limp, hitting the floor.

  The mutated broodmother let out a deafening screech and dashed toward him, and that was all he wanted.

  He dodged her two slashes cleanly, rolling to the side.

  Then he threw a needle toward the remaining one, who continued to hit the barrier without a care, desperate to free their queen.

  The mutated broodmother attacked again, and she only hit the wind. She looked around for Sokram, who had disappeared from her sensory range.

  She didn’t find him near her at all.

  Instead, he was already standing beside the other broodmother's body, which vanished into his glove before it even had gone limp or hit the ground.

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