Chapter 56 — No Tea for Spiders
A sticky end for the Dark Weaver
For one heartbeat, the world held its breath.
Then Crimson Vortex Mode vanished.
The four boosters across Caelan's armor ignited together, and Event Horizon Dash hurled him across the battlefield in a molten streak of crimson and gold. Broken streets blurred beneath him. Smoke split around his passage.
His target was Arachne.
She hung above the ruined square in her revealed spider form, all jagged legs, dark armor and gleaming violet eyes, elegant even now in the way only something thoroughly convinced of its own superiority could manage.
Below her, Vellum Goldvein was having a difficult morning.
Admittedly, Vellum's version of having a difficult morning was more disturbing than most people's.
His cracked eggshell had darkened almost completely. Shadow poured from the opening in his body while long black tendrils twisted from beneath the shell, snapping through the air like living knives. Eyes opened and closed within the darkness around him as Nightmare Syndrome churned across the battlefield.
He was still fighting.
He was also losing.
Arachne flicked one claw aside and severed another tendril.
"Oh, you sweet breakfast abomination," she purred. "You do try."
Vellum's voice emerged strangely from the darkness.
"I am the shell..."
Another tendril rose.
"...the ledger..."
Arachne sighed.
"...and the unpaid invoice at the end of all things."
"Yes, yes. Very frightening."
She blocked another strike.
"Perhaps it'll distract you from the spiders I've put inside your shell."
Vellum stopped.
The shadow around him stopped.
"...You've done what?"
Then the sky screamed.
BOOOOOM!
Arachne's eight eyes turned.
"Oh dear."
Caelan arrived.
Razorstag blazed in his hand as Crimson Vortex Mode tore through the smoke like a falling star.
Arachne threw both arms forward.
Darkness compressed.
Webs layered over one another.
A violet-black barrier formed around her just before Caelan struck.
WHAM!
The collision turned the sky white.
The shockwave flattened ruined structures around them and ripped loose stones from the ground.
Caelan was driven backward.
His boosters fired.
He stopped in midair.
Across from him, cracks spread throughout Arachne's barrier.
Then it shattered.
She remained behind it, slightly scorched and considerably annoyed.
"Darling."
Arachne brushed debris from one shoulder.
"Next time you intend to murder a lady, perhaps introduce yourself."
Caelan lowered Razorstag slightly.
"Caelan Ardyn."
Vellum's tendrils began moving again.
"He usually introduces himself after attacking."
Caelan ignored him.
Arachne laughed softly.
"I must admit..."
She rose onto invisible strands of web.
"This battle has become rather inconvenient."
She gestured around herself.
"My army is being dismantled. Dreadtide is dead. Quakewyrm is dead. Blastcore is gone."
One claw pointed toward the distant crater where Chrome Eidon had collapsed.
"And my magnificent golden monkey appears to have developed a severe mechanical problem."
Vellum said, "I believe the technical term is being beaten senseless."
Arachne's eyes returned to Caelan.
"And now you."
Her smile widened.
"The little Legendary knight who wasn't supposed to be Elite yet."
Caelan raised Razorstag.
"This ends now."
Arachne sighed theatrically.
"You boys and your finales."
Vellum stared at her.
"Says the woman hovering over a battlefield delivering a monologue."
Arachne's head turned.
"Oh, hush."
Then she looked back at Caelan.
Her damaged carapace was visible now. Portions had burned away. Several cracks crossed the armor protecting her torso. Dark ichor dripped from one spider leg.
Yet she remained upright.
Proud.
Dangerous.
"I may be outnumbered."
Her dark blade formed in one hand.
"I may even be outmatched."
Her remaining legs spread.
"But weak?"
The smile disappeared.
"Weakness is not a shape I wear."
Darkness erupted around her.
"Come then, little knight."
Arachne lowered herself.
"Learn what a predator is."
The clouds split above them.
Caelan stood with Razorstag in one hand, crimson-gold lines burning through the black armor of Crimson Vortex Mode.
Vellum hovered farther away, nightmare mist dripping from the edges of his shell.
"She'll bend the space around you," he said.
Caelan watched Arachne.
"Yes."
"Illusions."
"I know."
"Paralysis."
"I know."
"Poison."
"Vellum."
The egg became quiet.
Caelan's golden eyes narrowed behind the helmet.
"Can you stop her domain?"
"For a short time."
"That's enough."
His left gauntlet changed.
Armor plates separated.
Rotated.
Locked together.
The arm became a heavy stellar cannon.
Arachne tilted her head.
Caelan raised it.
"Plasma Rift Barrage."
The cannon screamed.
Hundreds of crimson-gold plasma bolts erupted into the sky.
They spread outward before curving back from dozens of directions, filling the air with intersecting trails of light.
Arachne vanished.
The first barrage struck empty air.
Then she appeared between the bolts.
She moved along threads nobody else could see, slipping through gaps that existed for fractions of a second.
Her dark blade came down.
Caelan brought Razorstag up.
CLAAAANG!
The impact sent a shockwave across the ruins.
Arachne smiled inches from his helmet.
"Better."
Caelan shoved her away.
She returned instantly.
Blade.
Razorstag.
Web.
Gauntlet.
They clashed again.
And again.
Every impact broke the ground beneath them.
Caelan vanished through Event Horizon Dash.
Arachne folded through a tear in space.
They met somewhere else.
Razorstag carved a glowing line across one spider limb.
Arachne's blade struck Caelan's side.
The Azure-derived armor did not break.
The force beneath it still hurt.
Arachne twisted backward.
Her left hand opened.
Webs exploded outward.
Hundreds.
Caelan cut through the nearest cluster.
Dodged another.
A third wrapped around one of the blade-like fins extending from his fusion armor.
Arachne's eyes gleamed.
"Got you."
The fin moved.
Its tip opened.
A plasma blast fired point-blank.
Arachne crossed her arms too late.
BOOM!
She was thrown backward.
Caelan's mechanical mantle unfolded behind him.
Every blade-fin separated.
Crimson light ran through them.
"Flashbind Tailstorm."
The extensions shot outward like metallic serpents, curving through the air around Arachne.
One caught an arm.
Another nearly trapped a leg.
Arachne bent backward impossibly.
Her torso disappeared through a dimensional tear.
She reappeared behind Caelan.
"Too slow."
Her blade descended.
One of Caelan's fins detonated.
The blast threw her away before the strike landed.
Arachne hit the earth and skidded through stone.
Caelan did not wait.
His boosters ignited.
EVENT HORIZON DASH.
He vanished.
Razorstag became a crescent of white-gold light aimed directly at Arachne's neck.
Her eyes flashed violet.
Caelan stopped.
Not willingly.
His body froze in mid-strike.
Power crawled through his mind.
Paralysis.
Arachne smiled.
"There."
Then the darkness around them exploded.
Vellum's Nightmare Realm smashed into her influence.
The paralysis shattered.
Vellum's voice drifted through the mist.
"No cheating."
Caelan moved again.
Arachne barely escaped.
She landed farther back and opened her jaws.
Green-black poison erupted.
The ground dissolved beneath it.
Caelan drove forward.
Heat and stellar Ki surged around the armor, burning through the worst of the poison before it reached him.
Some still struck.
The outer armor hissed.
It held.
Razorstag and Arachne's dark blade collided once more.
CRACK!
The ground split beneath them.
Arachne staggered backward.
Blood ran from the corner of her mouth.
Several legs twitched.
A crack ran through her weapon.
Still she smiled.
"You really are fun."
Caelan said nothing.
Eventually even predators became tired.
Arachne landed badly.
One leg slipped beneath her.
She recovered before falling, but not gracefully enough to pretend it had been intentional.
Smoke curled from her damaged carapace.
Most of her webbing had burned away.
Her blade was cracked almost from hilt to tip.
Across from her, Caelan remained upright.
Razorstag's edge still glowed.
The black armor of Crimson Vortex Mode carried scorch marks and residue from poison, but it remained intact.
His golden eyes never left her.
For once, Caelan did not attack immediately.
Arachne noticed.
Her breathing came in sharp gasps.
Then she laughed.
"So."
She wiped blood from her mouth.
"This is what being prey feels like."
Vellum hovered behind Caelan.
"Be careful."
Arachne looked offended.
"I haven't even said anything yet."
"That is generally when you're most dangerous."
Arachne ignored him.
Her attention remained on Caelan.
"What would you say..."
She slowly raised her hands.
"...if I surrendered?"
Silence settled over the ruined square.
Caelan did not lower Razorstag.
"Surrender?"
"Yes."
"After attempting to paralyze me."
Arachne shrugged.
"Battle."
"Poison me."
"Also battle."
"Eat Yuto and Michael."
She paused.
"That part was admittedly less diplomatic."
Vellum's darkness stirred.
"She lies as naturally as breathing."
Arachne looked around.
Her army was collapsing.
The spatial field around Gilded Hollow prevented easy escape.
Vellum's Nightmare Realm disrupted several of her darker techniques.
Caelan now possessed enough power to keep pressure on her.
She knew the same thing they did.
The battle had turned.
"I can't leave."
Her voice lost some of its playfulness.
"I can't overpower you quickly enough."
She looked toward the ruined battlefield.
"And I have no interest in dying merely to make a dramatic point."
She smiled faintly.
"So. Do you permit a queen to bow gracefully?"
Caelan remained motionless.
"What does surrender mean?"
Arachne's expression became serious.
"I stop fighting."
She lowered her hands.
"I release the remaining magic under my control."
Another pause.
"And I answer your questions."
"All of them?"
"Within reason."
Vellum's golden eyes narrowed.
"And in exchange?"
Arachne looked toward him.
"You don't kill me."
She smiled.
"Simple."
The battlefield became strangely calm.
Smoke drifted over shattered stone.
Arachne waited.
Caelan turned his helmet slightly toward Vellum.
"Your city."
Vellum looked at him.
"Your decision."
For several seconds the merchant prince said nothing.
Then his golden eyes settled on Arachne.
"End her."
Arachne blinked.
Caelan did not.
Vellum continued.
"She will not stop."
The darkness inside his shell rotated slowly.
"Not because she can't."
A tendril withdrew.
"Because she doesn't want to."
Arachne sighed.
"Oh, must we be dramatic?"
Vellum ignored her.
"Let her go today and she'll return when the terms favor her."
Arachne raised both hands.
"I was merely attempting to conquer one small city."
Vellum stared.
"People have done worse."
"Not compelling."
Arachne's eyes moved quickly between them.
"Fine."
She snapped her fingers.
Several objects appeared.
A dark-red crystal floated above one palm.
A veil woven from silver moon-silk appeared beside it.
Then a book.
Vellum stared at the cover.
COOKING WITH BLACK MAGIC — FIRST EDITION
Signed.
His golden eyes narrowed.
Arachne smiled.
"Bribery is such an ugly word."
She lifted the book.
"I prefer negotiation."
Vellum looked at Caelan.
"End her."
Arachne's smile disappeared.
Caelan lowered Razorstag.
The weapon moved back toward his spine and locked against the armor.
Crimson Vortex Mode changed.
Plates opened along his left arm.
The cannon expanded.
Crimson-gold stellar energy began compressing within it.
The light became smaller.
Denser.
Darker.
Arachne stepped backward.
The ground trembled.
Caelan's mechanical fins spread around him and formed a series of luminous rings.
Energy gathered between them.
A sphere formed.
Black at the center.
Crimson at its edge.
Golden lines spiraling across the surface like miniature stars being crushed inward.
Not a true black hole.
Something more deliberate.
Compressed stellar Ki, plasma and destructive force held together until even the air around it bent from pressure.
Arachne's eyes widened.
"Wait."
The cannon hummed.
"Caelan."
For the first time since he had met her, genuine fear entered her voice.
"We can discuss this."
Caelan's boosters ignited.
Arachne moved backward.
"I can give you information about the Archive."
Caelan vanished.
Event Horizon Dash carried him behind her.
She spun.
Too late.
His cannon was already aimed.
"Crimson Star — Omega Collapse."
The sphere fired.
For a fraction of a second, there was no explosion.
There was only silence.
Then everything folded inward.
Air.
Smoke.
Loose stone.
Webbing.
Arachne.
Her scream began.
It ended almost immediately.
Her body unraveled into black strands.
The strands became particles.
The particles were pulled into the collapsing sphere.
Caelan continued feeding power into it.
No scattered essence escaped.
No drifting fragments remained to reform elsewhere.
The implosion reached its limit.
Then vanished.
The battlefield fell silent.
Arachne was gone.
Not dispersed.
Not defeated and waiting to be reborn.
Gone.
Vellum hovered beside the crater for several seconds.
Then he looked toward the scorched ground where Arachne's attempted bribe had disappeared.
"Did you destroy the signed first edition?"
Caelan slowly turned his helmet toward him.
Vellum sighed.
"Of course you did."
Crimson Vortex Mode did not last much longer.
Once the battle finally quieted, the armor began losing its red-gold glow.
The boosters folded.
The mechanical mantle dissolved into streaks of light.
Caelan felt Razorwind's presence pull away from his own.
Then the fusion broke.
Light erupted around him.
When it faded, Caelan stood once more in his normal Adult form, the Azure armor reverting with him before eventually dissolving away as the immediate danger passed.
He nearly fell.
Then he saw Razorwind.
The Roadstreaker had collapsed beside him.
His red-black body flickered.
Parts of his armor phased in and out.
Razorstag lay nearby after returning from weapon form, his insectoid body dim and unstable.
Tiny motes of essence were drifting from both of them.
Caelan's exhaustion vanished beneath alarm.
"Razorwind."
He dropped beside him.
Razorwind's engine gave a weak cough.
"Heh."
His voice sounded distorted.
"That..."
Another flicker.
"...was the ride of a lifetime."
"Don't."
Razorwind managed something like a laugh.
"Always wanted to go out fast."
Caelan put one hand against his armor.
"You aren't going out."
Razorwind's light continued breaking apart.
"If I get another chance..."
His engine sputtered.
"...race me again."
Nearby, Razorstag lifted his head.
His wings buzzed once.
A soldier's salute.
Then more essence began slipping from his body.
Caelan looked down at his hands.
He had power.
More than he had possessed days ago.
Fate.
Time.
Stellar Ki.
Enough force to kill Arachne.
None of it told him how to repair two Aetherkin whose cores were coming apart after being pushed far beyond what they could sustain.
He turned.
"Vellum."
The merchant prince was already there.
He crouched beside Razorwind and examined the flickering armor.
"They spent more than they had."
Caelan's eyes narrowed.
"Can you save them?"
Vellum inspected Razorstag next.
"The fusion forced both cores into a state they weren't built to maintain."
"Can you save them?"
Vellum looked up.
"Yes."
Caelan did not relax.
Vellum rarely stopped after that word.
"But."
There it was.
"Saving them properly won't be cheap."
"I don't care."
Vellum's golden eyes narrowed.
"You should."
"I don't."
Caelan looked down at Razorwind.
"Tell me."
Vellum reached into his shell.
A parchment emerged.
Not one of his ordinary employment contracts.
This one glowed with symbols tied to the deeper systems of the Grand Archive.
"An Archive-bound contract."
Caelan looked at it.
"It will bind the stabilization process to you, to them, and to me as guarantor."
"What does it cost?"
"I'll specify that after they're alive."
Caelan stared at him.
Vellum stared back.
"No tricks."
"None."
"Terms written clearly."
"Always."
Caelan took the parchment.
"Then give it to me."
Vellum produced a pen.
Caelan signed.
Golden symbols ran across the page.
The contract vanished into light.
Vellum nodded once.
"Good."
Then he reached inside his shell again.
This time he removed a sphere.
Crimson.
Dense.
It pulsed slowly like a heart.
Razorwind's flickering eyes focused weakly on it.
"What's that?"
"A Berserker Core."
Vellum held it carefully.
"It belonged to an old weapon-beast."
Razorwind gave a weak engine cough.
"You're putting that..."
"...in me?"
"Not exactly."
Vellum looked between him and Razorstag.
"The two of you already fused your resonance through Caelan."
His claw tightened around the core.
"Separating you cleanly now may not leave enough stability for either of you."
Caelan understood.
"You merge them."
Vellum nodded.
"A new body."
Razorwind was silent.
Vellum continued.
"You won't remain Roadstreaker and weapon-beast as you are now."
Razorstag watched him.
"Your forms change."
Vellum looked toward Razorwind.
"Possibly even the way your identities express themselves."
Razorwind's engine flickered.
"But I'll still be me?"
"At the core."
A long silence.
Then Razorwind laughed weakly.
"Still got wheels?"
Vellum considered the crimson sphere.
"I can probably arrange that."
"Then I'm in."
Razorstag buzzed his wings.
Once.
Agreement.
Vellum lowered the Berserker Core.
He pressed it against Razorwind's failing chest.
Red light erupted.
Razorstag's body answered.
His essence lifted.
Razorwind's followed.
Neither dispersed.
They spiraled toward the core.
Metal.
Speed.
Blades.
Instinct.
The resonance Caelan had shared with both of them.
All of it converged.
The crimson sphere pulsed.
Once.
Twice.
Then exploded into light.
Caelan raised one arm against the brilliance.
The earth shook.
The sound that followed resembled a hundred weapons being drawn together.
Something landed.
Heavy forelimbs struck the ground.
The light receded.
A new creature stood inside it.
Quadrupedal.
Powerfully built.
Its forward body was broad and heavily armored, shaped around the brutal geometry of an axe head. Massive forelimbs ended in reinforced claws that struck the ground with metallic weight. Its rear legs were narrower, curved and bladed for speed. Two pairs of long cutting fins rose from its upper back, trembling faintly with stored energy.
Wheels were embedded along the rear limbs.
Razorwind had apparently won that argument.
A golden crest curved over its head.
Dark armor covered most of the body, crossed with crimson lines of energy.
Its eyes opened.
Caelan stared.
The creature looked at its own limbs.
Then at him.
Vellum folded his claws.
"Well."
The new Aetherkin lowered his head.
A low growl became a mechanical roar.
"Razorcleaver."
The name seemed to settle naturally over him.
Caelan stepped closer.
Razorcleaver looked up.
"You look ridiculous."
Caelan blinked.
Then the creature's eyes curved.
Caelan laughed.
"You're definitely still Razorwind."
A blade on Razorcleaver's back flexed.
A familiar buzz ran through it.
Razorstag too.
Different.
Merged.
But there.
Caelan placed a hand against the new creature's armored head.
"Then we'll fight together again."
Razorcleaver snorted.
His rear wheels spun.
He vanished across the ruined square in a streak of black and crimson.
Caelan stared after him.
Vellum gave a satisfied hum.
"Fast."
Caelan nodded.
Then looked at the merchant prince.
"What's the price?"
Vellum's golden eyes brightened.
Caelan immediately regretted asking so soon.
The battlefield still smelled faintly of ozone and burnt metal.
What had once been a thriving sector of Gilded Hollow now resembled the inside of a blender after a wild essence storm—buildings cracked open like eggshells, streetlights flickering with no rhythm at all, and fragments of essence drifting lazily in the air like glowing confetti.
And yet, oddly, the mood was not bleak.
No, it was quite the opposite.
Cheers echoed in the air. Survivors were hugging. Luminel was fluttering overhead, scattering tiny sparkles like a very enthusiastic Christmas fairy with no off switch.
Even Vellum Goldvein, of all creatures, had a rather smugly satisfied look about him—though with his expressionless eggshell face, it was hard to tell. Perhaps it was the way he hovered two inches taller than usual, or the rare, almost scandalously generous words coming out of his usually tight-lipped self.
"They fought," Vellum announced, his voice ringing with the solemnity of a priest and the theatrical flair of someone used to charging triple for toast. "They didn't just fade quietly when the world threatened to reset. They went out in a blaze of glory."
The gathered Aetherkin, tamers, and humans stood together in the cracked courtyard, surrounded by wreckage and weeping essence-vines. Caelan stood beside Renji, Daichi, and Yuto—his hand resting on Razorcleaver's shoulder, who was still twitching with leftover energy like an overexcited puppy made of sharp edges.
Luminel fluttered into view and did a little flip in the air for no reason other than drama.
"So don't be sad!" he chirped. "Cry a little, sure! But also remember—they got to leave a mark! Which is more than most Aetherkin can say when the world resets and erases everything like a poorly saved file!"
Some chuckles broke through the tears at that.
And then came the big moment.
Vellum cleared his nonexistent throat.
"Furthermore…" he said grandly, "in honor of their sacrifice… and this strange child's very expensive soul-binding contract—"
He threw a glance at Caelan, who waved sheepishly.
"—I, Vellum Goldvein, do hereby declare that all food today… shall be… FREE."
You could have heard a pin drop.
Except you couldn't, because the crowd exploded into pandemonium.
"FREE?!"
"Did he say free?!"
"I must be infected with a dream curse—Pinch me, Ryu!"
"Ow! Not so hard!"
Even Daichi's glasses nearly slid off his face.
Renji looked genuinely suspicious and nudged Caelan.
"He's kidding, right?"
"Nope," Caelan replied, crossing his arms. "I had to sell what's probably three lifetimes' worth of karma, but it worked."
"And your soul," Vellum added helpfully, floating past.
"And my soul," Caelan agreed without missing a beat.
The crowd surged toward the once miserly egg as if he were the last hotdog vendor at a concert. Aetherkin of every shape and flavor lined up—some weeping with joy, others stuffing food into pouches, and one Mirthbear attempting to hug Vellum, who retaliated by throwing soup at him.
"Boundaries!" Vellum shouted, despite offering second helpings.
Meanwhile, the heroes gathered at a half-broken table under a half-broken roof, plates already piled high.
Yuto was feeding crumbs to Michael, Daichi was cleaning his glasses for the tenth time, and Renji… well, Renji was busy pretending not to cry into his spicy curry.
"So what about Arachne?" Daichi asked eventually, his voice tentative.
Vellum didn't pause in ladling noodles into a Stonekin's bowl.
"Oh, she's not really dead," he said airily. "She always left behind clones—old habit. Her original form is toast, though. What's left of her is probably holed up in a basement somewhere, in a weaker body. And with all the predators out there now smelling blood…" he trailed off, shrugging in that egg-shaped way of his.
Luminel twirled again, dusting their table with sparkles and sneeze-inducing glitter.
"She's not your problem anymore," he said. "Let nature take its course. Or, well, Aetherkin nature."
As the sun finally dipped low over the city, casting long shadows through shattered towers and glowing debris, the people—Aetherkin and otherwise—were laughing, eating, and celebrating the absurd and wonderful reality of simply being alive.
Razorcleaver lounged near the edge, letting a group of fresh-hatched Aetherkin clamber over his back, giggling as they slid down his blade-like spine.
Caelan looked out over them all, then down at his plate of dumplings and curry.
"Y'know," he muttered, "for a day that started with a nightmare spider queen and a city being destroyed… this turned out kinda nice."
Luminel hovered beside him, cheeks full of cake.
"That's the Aetherkin world for you!" he mumbled around frosting. "One minute you're dying, next minute—free cake!"
Vellum snorted.
"Just for today."