Chapter 119 - Queen Arachnia
Lower West District.
Amidst the rubble of broken buildings and scattered carcasses, a pungent smell of sourly acid permeated the air like noxious fumes, making people feel extremely repugnant and nauseous.
After the sealing of the rifts, the three districts, excluding the east side, had moved onto the offensive to sweep the remaining crawlers. City guards, palace guards and nobles alike, paraded the streets in search of stragglers that were still alive, while the rest had went to assist the east.
During this night, the east side had received the least help and had suffered disastrous losses. Apart from the palace guards that were completely free from harm, there were many deaths among the city guards and nobles.
At the same time, the group parading the west all wore a wet clothe over their faces to stifle the smell to a bearable level.
If not for a person with weaker constitution collapsing earlier, the group may have discovered too late that the smell produced by the arachnid's carcasses were toxic.
"This smell is so bad. I highly doubt there would be any survivors." A middle-aged noble said with disgust as he pinched his nose through the cloth.
He was used to the luxurious clean life of the Upper District. He had never been so unclean in his whole life. His entire body was covered in blue blood from top to bottom. At the same time, he strongly doubted anyone could survive hiding in the lower district after it was swarmed by the creepy crawlers.
"There's still some people over in this building!" A city guard hollered not long after the noble made his comment.
The crowd looked at the middle-aged noble with both contempt and amusement, while the middle-aged noble felt like he had lost face and glared at the loudmouth city guard. His face burned with anger and embarrassment.
It was beyond his expectations that his words would be corrected immediately. If he knew this was going to happen, he wouldn't have made the comment just now. No one wanted to slap their own faces unless their heads had been kicked by a donkey.
Inside the building, there was a basement floor, where the family of five; a father, mother and three children of two boys and one girl had hid during the chaos.
The family of five were weak and spastic with yellow and green complexion when they were found. Although they were safe from becoming meals for the crawlers during the chaos, they were poisoned by the noxious fumes that seeped into the basement.
"Don't worry! You will all be okay. We will get you to safety, where the Saintess will heal you back to perfect health." Owen assured.
By now, even the people on the frontlines had heard about the Saintesses and the miracle wood ability of the Greene family.
Seriously injured guards and nobles from the frontline were also sent to them with great urgency. The venomous bites of Deadeye Spiders leave paralyzing effects and disables them from continuing to fight.
When the family of five heard the cityguard captain's assurance, the father moves his lips weakly, but was unable to form any coherent words. He could only feel grateful in his heart and flash the captain an emotional look.
The cityguard captain, Owen was able to read the father's feelings and a peculiar uplifting feeling of gratification swelled up inside him. He nodded and ordered his men to take them to them away to be treated, before wearing a heavy expression filled with guilt. He didn't deserve such gratitude.
He had been living his life in vain! The cityguards had a duty to uphold law and protect the commoners, but they haven't been doing that all these years. It was only until now that he had discovered the sense of self-satisfaction and happiness in being able to help others.
Owen silently swore to turn over a new leaf and be a proper guard if the prince does not execute him for his past crimes after this ordeal was over. He would not touch alcohol and women through improper channels again. He would become someone the people could look up to, someone who could walk down the streets proudly with his head held high.
"There could be more people in other basements! Search them!" Owen ordered. The cityguards quickly got to work when the captain gave his orders.
It was around this time that they began to feel the ground rumbling.
"Silence!"
Isaac raised his hand gesture and commanded. He brows creased as he bent down to feel the earth. He could feel the earth shaking. An unprecedented feeling of apprehension and foreboding swelled inside him.
What is happening underground? Why does it feel like something terrible is about to happen?
...
Lower East District,
The level of destruction here was far greater than any other districts. Practically every building and homes had been razed to the ground. The chances of finding survivors in the basements of the Lower East District was low and chances of saving them, even lower.
The people fighting on the eastern side fought hard and pushed back the crawlers.
The Duke and general marquis worked hand in hand to reduce the pressure on everyone else, while the Shadows Guard sealed the final rift.
Their bodies were soaked in sweats and great exhaustion could be seen on their faces. They were nearing their physical and mental limits.
However, until the final closing of the rift and the complete eradication of the crawlers from the surface, they would not rest.
Old man Kasif was completely drained and left the work to the rest of his men. Even if success was in sight, he wore a grim expression on his tired age-torn face.
The rumbling ground had been going on for some time and no one knew what it is, nor did anyone wanted to know what it is. Whatever it is, it couldn't be good.
The rumbling continues to grow stronger and the earth began to shake... no, tremble? The earth was trembling!
Boom!
The rift that was about to be fully sealed with everyone's hard effort, exploded once more.
An inexplicably large shadow shot out from the reopened rift and made its way to the surface! The ground shook one last time due to its landing.
"Oh my god... what is that thing?"
Everyone paled at the giant creature that was hundreds to a thousand times larger than the average crawlers.
Its lower body shared a similar appearance to the Deadeye Spiders, but it had an upper body of a woman. It was the mother of all crawlers, Queen Arachnia. It was an ancient creature at the Transcendent level, one that could instill fear into the hearts of men simply by glancing at them.
"SCREEEE!"
It issued a powerful and deafening screech that echoed throughout the land and shook the people to their core. Behind it, another swarm of crawlers began spewing out of the rift and made the people feel despair.
"Humans! You have gone too far! How dare you kill this Queen's children!" Queen Arachnia scream.
"Run! It's a demon queen!"
"Retreat!"
Everyone in the eastern side began to panic and fall back due to the dominating presence of the arachnid mother.
At the same time, in the royal palace, Elizabeth stood up in shock, before she swiftly recovering with a serious and cold look.
"Your children are too rampant and are abominable existences! They all deserve to be killed on sight!
In the face of a Transcendent-level monster, Elizabeth did not back down. She projected her own powerful voice over. It rang with a metallic tone.
Leon, who was rushing back to the Capital at his quickest speed, was surprised by his mother's skill. It was similar to his [Lion's Roar] through the usage of energy to amplify his voice.
"That audacity!"
Queen Arachnia's anger rose another level. She couldn't accept the disrespect. She was used to commanding millions with zero disobedience.
"Go, my children! The surface dwelling will be your new home!" Queen Arachnia decreed.
Unlike her children, she was not blind. The surface was much more beautiful than the darkness of the underground world, thus her greed for the land was ignited.
The crawlers received their Queen mother's order like it was the edict of heaven and their numbers spawned from the rift with greater ferocity.
The general marquis and the Duke were forced to retreat helplessly. They didn't have the strength to keep fighting and required rest.
Elizabeth sighed at the sight of her retreating subjects. Crazy Don was still in seclusion and the people were too exhausted to do anything. Only she could put up a fight against the Transcendent monster, whilst not being at the Transcendent level herself.
She took a final look in the direction of the king's bedchamber with tenderness like she was looking at the king directly, through the palace walls.
"Guard the king well. If anything untoward happens to the king, all your heads will roll." Elizabeth said heartlessly.
"Yes, your majesty!"
Lily and the other maids complied without any change in expression.
Lily had long returned to the queen's side as per her word, when the north side was quickly settled.
Elizabeth looked back at spider queen coldly for forcing her hand. She began to float in the air.
"Rise!"
She made a lifting gesture and a building in the palace; a metal tower began to rise from the ground. A throne was formed at the top of the tower and Elizabeth seated herself on it.
The metal tower soon flew towards the spider queen. It didn't stopped until it was within two hundred yards of the spider queen and at an altitude where she could look down on it.
Numerous windows opened from the tower as hundreds of swords flew out and formed a sword formation around Elizabeth.
Queen Arachnia watch everything unfold both growing interest and anger. Interest that a puny human dare to challenge her! Anger because it dared to look down on her!