Chapter Text
It was with great skill and agility that Shen Jiu slammed hard into the wall as one of the silk ropes gave out under pressure from a protruding rock.
“Fuck!” He swore, wincing as the jagged rocks cut into his back and bare thighs as he swung high above the tunnel floor, his curses echoing loudly in the dark. Shaking off the scare, Shen Jiu continued slowly climbing his way down the dark pit.
It has been around three sleep cycles since the Spider imprisoned him here. About three days that he’s been trapped.
Although there’s really no sense of time in this strange cavern, Shen Jiu has had enough of it to run out of things to do. After spending months working in open spaces outside, spending the last few days doing nothing was jarring. He hated the inactivity.
The first few days had been spent at a weird impasse with the spider. Shen Jiu would wander the cavern looking at things, and the spider would follow him at a distance; watching him at every moment.
It stayed out of sight usually. If he was fast enough, he could turn his head and watch as the spider leaped behind a pillar so as to stay out of his sight. However, the pillars generally wouldn’t be big enough for it to completely hide; let alone the fact that some of them were perfectly transparent.
Shen Jiu has honestly given up trying to understand it at this point. Just when he thinks it has some form of intelligent awareness, it goes and hides behind something smaller than it.
Though he does have to admit that his stay in the cave has been very comfortable. He used the web silk blanket to make a robe of sorts to wear, he had a soft place to rest, his cultivation had progressed rapidly, and despite his initial concerns the spider had provided food for him every meal.
But despite this strangely comfortable setting, the boredom and uneasiness wouldn’t stop settling in. What if he couldn’t get out?
He had cultivated. In fact, his cultivation has been improving rapidly in the time spent in this cave. But he hasn’t reached the point where he can lose himself in cultivation for days or weeks. That part is for after he’s created his foundation. But with that out of his immediate reach, he had been left with either playing around with some of the creatures or combing the cavern to find an exit.
And that is what he did.
His explorations revealed that there were two main exit tunnels from the cavern. One was towards the top of the ceiling, the other was a deep pit that sloped downwards. It was the latter that he was most interested in the moment. The spider had covered both of the entrances with strong ropes and nettings of web, sealing them off from any form of penetration.
Shen Jiu had taken a shard of crystal in hand and slightly cut a small hole, strand by strand. And after tying a section of silk rope he had collected previously to a nearby formation and gathering a pile of small glowing crystals to take with him in a small pouch he made, he descended into the dark hole.
Which had led to the situation he was now in; i.e. climbing down a terrifyingly deep hole trying to find his way out.
Making his way down carefully, inch by painstaking inch, he eventually landed on solid ground right next to a smashed piece of glowing crystal he dropped earlier so as to see just how far he would need to climb. The tunnel was deathly quiet. In the darkness, the sound of water dripping from somewhere high above was noticeably loud in the stillness.
Keeping close to the wall and grabbing a piece of the fallen shards, Shen Jiu picked a direction and started following it; keeping a close eye on the moving shadows and listening for any sign of trouble.
He wasn’t quite sure how long he walked in the dark for. It could have been hours or days. The tunnel had curved around and opened into large caverns empty but for the still pools of black water. Shen Jiu kept walking forward and keeping his eyes peeled for anything. Which was how he noticed when he wasn’t as alone as before.
The next cavern he entered was massive. The ceiling towering high above him with stone pillars reaching upwards. Creatures with massive blind eyes scuttled in the dark and the distinct shuffle of large beasts scurried from up high. More webs decorated the ceiling in gentle drapes.
A quiet chittering sounded loudly in the silence. The whisper of movement from many legs.
Shen Jiu backed himself up against the cave wall. When after listening for a moment and hearing nothing, he took one of the larger glowing crystals in his pouch and after imbuing it with some of his own power, threw it as far as he could towards the center of the cave.
Like a falling star, the crystal fell from above. Illuminating the cavern in a brilliant burst of bright light before crashing into a thousand small pieces.
Revealing the multitude of reflective eyes and shadowed bodies of hundreds of spiders.
Turning around, Shen Jiu sprinted back into the tunnel.
XXX
When Shen Yuan came back home after hunting for the day and the child wasn’t around, he kind of panicked. Just a little bit.
Searching the large cavern wasn’t easy. Even with his vibration sensing threads, those only work if the target is moving around and creating vibration. Tearing apart his cave and putting it back together afterwards, Shen Yuan felt like he misplaced his phone in between the couch cushions. Except with a creepy Halloween theme and the phone is actually a breathing child.
First he checked the nest, in case he was sleeping, then the lake. The crabs weren’t disturbed, and their clear exoskeletons showed that they hadn’t eaten any meat recently. It was the same for all his other animals.
Then he saw the hole. The entrance he blocked off to protect himself and keep his many brothers and sisters out. As well as Her. A small hole with a rope strand disappearing into the dark.
Oh.
Oh shit.
Shen Yuan ripped the netting at the seams wide enough to fit through. He followed the swaying rope down the hole and into the connecting tunnel.
At the fork, he paused to listen with one leg touching an almost invisible thread on the wall. The threads he left around this area were still connected. The vibrations drew him in.
The thudding of two legs hitting rock. Then it stops. The fast tapping racing just behind. The swarm motionless, before running farther away. The screeching chitters of his siblings. GlowfindGlowfindTaketaketakeQuickfastHurryhurry!
The spiders are riled up. Something has happened. Things have changed.
No guesses needed to know who did just that.
As Shen Yuan began moving, a heavy wave of power rushed through the underground. Thick and cloying, it spread like tar sticking to his mind. A single command.
Come.
It was almost overpowering.
But still only almost.
Regardless of the command and the effort it took to ignore it, Shen Yuan sped down the tunnel, crawling along the ceiling and dodging stalactites as he began tracking where he last felt the child was. There was no light in the tunnel, but his eyes let him see regardless. Carcasses of dead spiders, webbing, and spider parts littered a section of the tunnel. But no blood and no small body.
His child was taken!
The command rushed through again.
COME!
This time he listened.
There was no blood or flesh or webbing. So, his child was being moved. And if he’s correct, the command was an all-encompassing command for all of the spiders.
There’s only one with the power to do that in these caves.
Sadly, its not him.
Alas.
Shen Yuan mentally promised himself to learn that skill. How fun would it be to have an army of spiders at your command? But considering he’s probably about to go against that army… not fun at all!
He continued down the tunnel, passing through forgotten caverns of times long past. He followed along as more and more spiders moved slowly in the same direction. He watched silent as the tens turned to hundreds, thousands. Big, small, miniscule, black, red, green, though none glowed iridescent like him. So many different spider types just casually walking in the same direction as peaceful as could be.
The march continued deep into the unknown.
Shen Yuan marveled as the great caverns opened into even larger labyrinths of open space made stable by enormous floor to ceiling pillars miles in circumference. Spiders seemed to cover every surface of the labyrinth; floor, pillars, ceiling, there was no escaping. No sign of his child yet.
A third command boomed and echoed through the space, knocking over some of the smaller spiders.
COME TO ME!
Like a shot of adrenaline, everyone rushed forward, moving as one. From one corner of the room, eerie red lights flickered, glowing ever brighter with every passing second. The lone pillars cast long shadows.
Then Shen Yuan saw her.
She sat on the edge of a massive web. Covering the ground, the nearby pillars, the walls, and ceiling, huge swathes of white webbing lay like thick carpet. Surrounding her body like an aura, red energy moved and flickered like red flames. Along the outside edge of her web, the thousands of smaller spiders waited in line as if to greet her. Only there was no greeting.
Whenever a group of spiders neared, the Mother opened her mouth and sucked at the air itself. With her grotesque body miles high, it was easy for her to simply breathe several dozens of spiders into her mouth at a single time. With every spider that entered, the red light glowed brighter.
Fuck.
There was cannibalism. And then there was this… gorging.
Out of the corner of his eye, Shen Yuan saw something wiggle.
Dangling between two pillars and wriggling like a wrapped-up worm was the child. It was almost amusing the look of fury on his face as he swung back and forth with every breath from the Mother if it wasn’t so terrifying.
Why is she saving him?
What could she possibly need from him?
Shen Yuan was already moving sideways through the masses to get to him when he heard it.
A crack.
The red light flickered faster and faster.
Crack.
A split in the Mother’s abdomen spewed out light.
More cracks.
The Mother kept eating more and more as she was falling apart.
Shen Yuan reached one of the pillars.
The hum of energy got louder and louder.
With a screech of triumph, the Mother’s carapace split right in half. Red light flashed and energy whipped around the cavern in a gale. Smaller spiders went flying while the larger hunkered down and held tight to the ground, kneeling as if in supplication. Eight legs not yet hardened burst from the split. A humanoid torso and head rising from the new body, hissing.
Her new form was strikingly gorgeous. Pale breasts and a toned lower body matched an equally attractive face with eight blood red eyes, long tangled dark hair, and a smile that showed long fangs dripping venom. She was everything dangerous in the word beautiful. All the more horrifying to see was the place where human met spider. Eyes covered the connection and a large mouth gaped open from beneath. The red energy spilled out the empty carcass and flew back into her body; leaving the cavern pitch black.
An Arachne.
Mother evolved.
Shit!