Chapter 115: Fangs for Favors
The last step of the plan.
It walked up behind him, the swollen bulk convulsing as it disgorged Lilid's human shell. Flesh reknit over bone, color flushed back into her skin. As her eyes formed, Seo-jin caught it...bloodlust so deep it felt bottomless.
'Impressive she kept it corked this long.'
[Demons are masters of deception. This is not surprising.]
'I know. Seeing it up close still hits different.'
Lilid stepped in front of him, smiling with a slow drag of pleasure in her voice. The red on her cheeks and thighs said the rest.
"Such a lovely feeling. Nothing equals devouring prey alive."
Seo-jin kept his face flat and glanced toward Thragdur's aura. The dwarf aura was heading their way. He dropped his voice to a near-growl.
"The dwarves won. Now we stay careful. Once your contract is settled, that's when they'll strike if they mean to. We need to be ready. I doubt the forgemaster showed us everything."
Lilid leaned in, a leg curling around his thigh, her hand drifting across his chest.
"You will simply have to protect us. Our webs are spent, and we need at least a day to digest that… unless you provide more exercise."
"Enough. The forgemaster's close."
He pushed her back. Her pout barely had time to form before a sharp smack to her rear shut her up.
"Look forward to your reward later."
He toyed with her a moment, one last distraction, then dropped it the second Thragdur and his men came into view. The dwarf leader dragged a massive corpse behind him.
Seo-jin had to bite down a laugh as he called out.
"Couldn't a bath wait?!"
"The bastard tossed me in the ocean! Thought that was the fucking end of me! Dragged the worm in and drowned it. Wasn't satisfying, but I didn't get much of a say."
Lilid leaned in.
"What's he saying?"
"He drowned it. Doesn't seem thrilled about it."
"One thought dwarves hated water."
"We do!"
Thragdur hurled the crumpled snake head off his shoulder and barked a laugh.
Seo-jin stared, eyes widening before heat crawled up his neck.
"I knew it. This whole damn time—tricky fucker."
Even Lilid flushed, realizing she'd been played just as hard.
"You didn't know elf-shit. Quit puffing up in front of your woman."
With his men filing in behind him, faces nowhere near as smug as their chief's, Seo-jin found himself reevaluating the dwarf again.
"You gave yourself away when you picked your snake, old man. Thought it was coincidence at first. Turns out you're just a lying ass."
'Almost…'
"It does not make us feel good about our relationship, dwarf. When it begins with lies."
A clacking came from beneath Lilid's thorax, agitation she didn't bother to hide.
"Interesting stance from a demon. But the words ring true. We shared blood, so truth felt overdue. Enough sour talk. We won. Time to drink and honor the dead."
Seo-jin forced an annoyed look.
"We do not have time for drinks or play. We want the contract finished. Now."
His broodlings were already shifting into place, all but one gathering behind him. The field had settled into three groups: the leaders in the center, their forces fanned out behind them in a loose triangle.
While pretending to argue with Thragdur, Seo-jin checked his UI and took count. Two hundred forty-five lesser broodlings left, one hundred twenty already assigned. Thragdur's numbers were harder to pick out; from their starting force, maybe ninety dwarves remained, most of them ranged fighters.
'Everything better be set.'
Behind Lilid, what had once been thousands of spiderlings had shrunk to a ragged cluster of barely five hundred left.
"Broodfather? Would you agree?"
Lilid's voice snapped his focus back, but he answered without a flicker.
"I do. Staying on this island longer than needed isn't happening. In fact—"
He stepped in close beside her, like he meant to show a united front.
Then, he rolled his shoulder, slow and casual, working out a phantom ache. The cue certain dwarves had been waiting on.
"I demand you finish the boat right now."
Lilid stiffened at his side, eyes flaring wide.
"The contract—!"
Too late.
[Savage Feed // Activated]
Darkness swallowed her vision as the dwarves and brood surged.
"Betra—!"
Her cry cut off when Seo-jin's Maw tore over her human torso, swallowing it whole. The first bite severed the flesh-link to her thorax. A second bite snapped—
"How?!"
The jaws closed on air.
Lilid's bulk ripped backwardas she screamed, her escape too quick. The hoped for best-case scenario vanished as Savage Feed burned out, his face reforming in a rush of muscle and blood as Lilid's voice still sounded.
High on a stripped tree trunk, one of the few still standing, the armored face on her thorax twisted alive, eyes burning.
"The contract was completed! How did you—?!"
Gunfire shredded the tree. She dropped through the branches, landing among her swarm in a blur of legs.
"We watched, no ship was—no matter! Betrayal was expected. And prepared for!"
Their plan had been simple. From the moment Seo-jin entered the dwarven fortress, the craftsmen had been preparing. So while the main force went to battle, the now emptied forgehall held an almost-finished ship, waiting for the word. Dwarves with communication gear stood ready to pass the cue. As soon as Seo-jin made his signal, they would drive the final nail and complete the contract.
He'd hoped killing the human body first would cripple her. Judging by her hiss from the thorax-mouth, Savage Feed had been wasted. And when webbing erupted outward like a tidal wave...he knew he'd misjudged her again.
The mass hit them before anyone could shift.
Steel-thick strands wrapped him to the ground, binding limbs and chest. Dwarves and broodlings disappeared under the same crushing weight. What moments ago was their trap now stood reversed. Lilid towered before them, her remaining brood gathering like a living wall of legs and fangs, all waiting for her command.
"One can't deny we are disappointed. We hoped for more time to savor your flesh before our journey ended, but regrets are fleeting. One will still take pleasure in sucking your soul dry, and the children we birth from your essence will forever—"
"Blah, blah, blah!"
Dropping from above Seo-jin, the one broodling that stayed hidden came down like a thrown blade. Panic's dagger flashed rapidly. Every strand binding Seo-jin parted clean, with the broodling landing on the webbing like it was solid ground.
"Stop him!"
Panic's new level had given him something new. Seo-jin had seen the flash of the notification, the passive sliding across his vision. It wasn't the only thing to catch his eye, but Pain would have to wait. Still, Panic's new skill changed his role in the final moments.
[Name // Clouded Aura]
[Type // Passive (Conditional)]
[Rank // D]
[Effect // While out of combat, the Vivisector's presence does not register through normal perception. Not true Stealth. His aura drops from awareness.]
Lilid's spawn surged too late. Pain dropped the act and joined in, carving through his bindings, flames devouring every strand that touched him. His troops tore free right after. Panic's group sliced through theirs as well, claws freeing themselves and those close.
The field erupted again.
Metal snapped, Thragdur's bulk swelled, all four arms ripping free of the webs in one violent jerk.
Seo-jin's fingers reshaped into claws. He raked three spiderlings apart in one swing. Seeing Lilid coil for another volley of webbing, he took a sliver of a moment to reassess...and changed the plan.
"Everyone, STOP!"
With his strength sitting at forty-seven, enough to haul eighty tons without strain, and agility pushing him past two-hundred-fifty miles an hour, the shout wasn't a voice. It was force.
Everything froze.
In a two-meter cone before him, spiderlings collapsed, convulsing as blood leaked from every opening. Those just outside it staggered, ears pouring red, lungs failing to draw air.
Seo-jin stared up at the queen. Bloodlight bled from him like heat off steel.
"No more. Let's end this right now. Just you and me."
Lilid's laugh rolled out.
"Did we truly do that well? You cannot expect us to be fooled. Why would one give advantage to—"
"What advantage?"
His tone made the idea sound idiotic.
"Look around, Lilid. Your survival odds are scraps. You know damn well none of us have shown everything yet. If you want this dragged out, we'll gladly show you how stupid that choice is."
The forest rattled with quiet after he spoke...fire crackling, dwarves breathing hard, broodlings fidgeting, the stench of blood and burnt chitin thick enough to taste. Lilid's eyes pulsed a sick white.
"You are a demon. Your proposal carries no logic. Why wager your life to end this early? And why believe a wretch already proven betrayer?"
[You've got her. Push.]
'Didn't think you'd back me.'
[Does it matter?]
'Noted.'
Heavy steps from the Forgemaster rumbled just behind him.
"Broodfather, I share her confusion. Let us end this together. You don't need to coddle my people."
Seo-jin looked over his forces, dwarves bloodied, broodlings crouched and ready, webs hanging from trees like dried entrails, then turned back to Lilid with a steady, unblinking stare. He purposefully posed like a man prepared to die for a cause.
"I will withdraw my brood. All of them—except my three sons."
Pain, Panic, and Snare braced themselves, doing everything they could to stay standing.
"The Forgemaster will swear on his god not to intervene. You know dwarves well enough to understand he won't break that oath. Don't twist this into mercy. You're dead either way, Lilid. Whether I kill you alone or we finish this as a slaughter makes no difference."
He let the bloodlight rise, thick and sharp around him.
"My only goal is to cut my losses. How you die is your choice. But hear this—if you kill me, my brood dies with me. After that? I can't control what follows. But your odds climb if you take my head first."
He could tell the push had landed. Even before she answered, her spiderlings eased back, their killing aura thinning like a pulled thread.
"Your words stay sweet, Broodfather. And you're right—only one of us walks out of this. Order won't change the outcome."
She didn't wait for a reply, instead she lowered her stance and launched herself upward. At the peak of her rise, her thorax-mouth split wide, fangs scraping, and she vomited a sheet of web so massive it blanketed the clearing in a single breath.
She now stood upon a giant web that spanned the entire canopy.
"Withdraw your forces, then come greet your death. One is waiting."
The air vibrated. The last strands hit the ground like steel wire. At the same time, a panel snapped open across Seo-jin's vision.
[System // Notification]
[New Quest Available // Duel of Severance]
[Objective // Defeat Lilid, Spider-Queen of the 3rd layer of Hell]
[Conditions // Solo engagement only. Allies must withdraw. No outside interference.]
[Reward // 1000 yards of Spider-Queen Silk // Commander Skill Unlocked → Terrain Advantage // Bloodline Mutation (Demon Spider)]
[Accept?]
[Yes/No]
Seo-jin smiled.
"Can't wait."
Then pressed [Yes].