133 STEALING A BABY
"What happened to me?" Patricia asked, her heart pounding.
"You've entered the Realm of Sins," the Sister said casually, as though it were the most natural thing in the world. "And I'm your handler."
"The Realm of Sins? What the hell is that?" Patricia's voice rose in panic.
Before the Sister could reply, the door to the room burst open, and several women rushed inside.
"Petunia, are you alright?" one of them asked urgently, her voice filled with concern. "The maids told me you had a fall!"
Patricia stared at the woman who had spoken. She was tall and regal, with soft, elegant features and an air of authority. The way she looked at her—eyes full of worry and affection—was something Patricia had never experienced before.
"She's your mother," the Sister said softly, gesturing toward the woman. "Madam Chantrieri."
Patricia's breath hitched. Her mother? She had never known her real parents, let alone felt the warmth of a mother's love.
"Is this place... heaven?" Patricia asked, her voice trembling with disbelief.
The Sister's expression shifted, her smile tinged with a strange mix of amusement and pity. "On the contrary," she replied, her voice dropping into a whisper. "This place is closer to hell than you think."
-----
"Alright, let's settle here for the night," Leo suggested after a night of passion. "I'll prepare supper."
As Leo prepared supper, Petunia busied herself examining the remnants of the webs of the spider.
"What are you doing?" Yun-Yun asked.
"These webs are ridiculously strong," Petunia replied. "I'm trying to figure out a way to cut through them more easily. We might run into more spiders later."
Leo glanced over. "The spiders are weak to magic. If only we had magical knives that could cut through their webs."
Yun-Yun's face brightened with realization. "Wait, what about the magic chef knife? Remember when I complained about you buying it?"
Leo retrieved a small knife from his pack, the one he used for preparing magical creature meat. "You mean this? It's from the magic butcher. Cut through tough materials even magic creature skin like butter. I have a whole set of them."
"Try it on the webs," Yun-Yun urged.
Leo tested the knife on a stray strand of web. To everyone's amazement, it sliced through effortlessly.
"Well, looks like we've got a weapon against those pesky spiders," Petunia said, a grin spreading across her face.
----
"Where are we headed next?" Petunia asked as they stirred awake in the soft glow of dawn.
Leo turned to Yun-Yun, silently asking for guidance.
"The spider web," Yun-Yun began, her voice steady with purpose. "It's incredibly useful—indestructible by physical force. We should acquire it."
Leo raised an eyebrow. "And how exactly do we acquire the spider?"
Yun-Yun gestured toward the silver ring on his finger.
"The ring that held the bees?" he asked, glancing at it with mild curiosity.
"What bees?" Petunia chimed in, frowning in confusion.
Yun-Yun explained patiently. "The magic ring has a flawed magic space that once housed a colony of special bees, trained and contained for specific tasks."
Leo's expression darkened slightly. "The bees are gone, though. We'd have to return to the Assassin Workshop to replenish them."
"But the ring remains," Yun-Yun countered. "If it could rear bees, it might just be able to rear a spider."
A glimmer of understanding crossed Leo's face. "You're right. And once we acquire a spider, we can have a beast tamer train it later."
Petunia tilted her head, curiosity plain on her face. "Where do we even find these spiders?"
"We follow their trails," Yun-Yun said, her eyes gleaming with determination.
-----
Following the spider's trail, they arrived at a large, crumbled building. The ruins loomed before them, silent and foreboding. Carefully, they slipped through a jagged crack in the wall, entering the dark interior.
The air shifted as soon as they stepped inside, thick with an eerie, suffocating presence. Fine, silken threads glistened in the faint light, clinging to every surface like a delicate yet menacing tapestry.
"Good thing I brought these," Leo said, pulling out a set of gleaming magic chef knives and handing one to each of them. "Yun-Yun used to call me a trash collector for carrying these around."
"Right. Remind me not to call you that again," Yun-Yun quipped, earning a chuckle from Petunia.
Together, they hacked through the dense webbing, inching deeper into the ruins until they reached a vast cavern beneath the building. The chamber buzzed with activity—and danger.
A team of mages was locked in battle with a swarm of spiders, their spells lighting up the gloom.
"There are mages here?" Petunia whispered, her voice barely audible.
"Wait," Leo instructed, handing her an invisibility cloak.
Petunia slipped the cloak on without question, its magic rendering her unseen. Moving as silently as shadows, oblivious to the fighting around them, they navigated the chaos, weaving through the mages and the skittering spiders.
Soon, they found a side corridor and slipped into it.
The passage spiraled downward, leading them to the heart of the lair. What they saw froze them in their tracks.
The cavern was enormous, teeming with life—and death. Dozens of smaller spiders scuttled about, guarding countless cocoons hanging from the walls. Spiderlings darted between them, feeding on what lay trapped within.
There were people inside the cocoons. Dead people most likely.
"The cocoons," Petunia said, her voice hushed, "are their victims."
"Brought here to feed the young," Yun-Yun confirmed grimly.
Their eyes were drawn upward, to the center of the ceiling. There, a monstrous spider loomed, her massive body dominating the chamber. The Spider Queen, easily twice the size of her brood, radiated an aura of malevolence and power.
She was the guardian of the lair.
"We're not here to fight her," Yun-Yun whispered. "Find a young spider, take it, and leave. Quietly."
She pointed to a smaller spider, curled up in sleep near the edge of the chamber.
"That one," she said.
Leo raised his hand, focusing on the ring's magic to transport the spider into his Ring Ward. Just as the spell activated, a deafening roar echoed through the cavern.
"Who dares invade my lair and steal my children?" the Spider Queen's voice thundered, cold and filled with rage.