The armored spiders leaped downward toward Iris.
He pushed himself upward to meet them head-on.
Everyone's lives depended on him now.
When he reached the spiders, he swung the Moonblade in a horizontal arc.
The strike unleashed a shockwave that spread upward with terrifying speed.
Iris carved his way through the falling remains of the spiders, jumping from one rock to another.
He grabbed a protruding stone on the rocky flesh of the Hell Keeper with his left hand, placing his feet on another stone beneath it.
His legs tensed, preparing for another leap—
but before he could, the rocky surface beside him cracked open.
Another armored spider burst out from within.
Those cursed creatures could even lurk beneath the stones.
The spider lunged toward Iris with ferocious strength, its front cutters wide open, aiming to cleave him in half.
Iris wedged the Moonblade between its claws just as they clamped down.
The spider had four armored limbs gripping the stone, while Iris only had his left hand free—
the rest of his body was locked in the struggle.
Before he could lose his balance and fall, the Moonblade shimmered in his grasp, its dark blue light growing brighter...
Boom!
Iris detonated the blade once again. The spider was surely torn to pieces.
He couldn't see a thing; he was surrounded by the ashes of the explosion.
But when he tried to pull his sword free, it wouldn't move.
The spider was still gripping the Moonblade—this time with only one cutter—
and it thrust the other toward Iris's body to end him.
Of course, Iris didn't realize it; his sight was blinded.
All he could see was a huge armored cutter enclosing his body.
The spider was about to kill him.
---
On the other side, the remaining four warriors were climbing the giant from behind.
The spiders were fewer there, but still enough to annihilate any squad that tried to ascend.
Alexa and Elara leaped swiftly from one rock to another, side by side.
Their movements were nearly identical—fast, fierce, and precise.
Another spider ambushed Alexa from beneath the stones.
When she reached its hiding spot, it burst forth, slashing at her with its cutters.
With a light motion, Alexa pushed herself away from the Hell Keeper's rocky hide.
The cutters snapped shut far from her feet.
She drew one leg back, a magical halo glowing around it.
With a sharp kick, she launched herself forward, using the magical burst to propel her straight into the spider's blind spot.
Before it could react, she drove the Kaito Blade deep into its back—
all the way to the hilt.
A stab like that wouldn't kill it, of course.
Alexa poured a surge of magic into the spider's body through her sword.
Its abdomen swelled rapidly—then, within seconds, it simply exploded.
She caught herself on the blood-soaked stones beneath what remained of the creature.
The rocks were slick with gore.
Her eyes darted around, searching for Elara.
Elara was a few meters above her, having already slain two spiders herself.
Farther away, Zack and Alex were climbing upward with the same pace.
Alexa hoped Iris was holding his ground on the other side of the giant.
Far ahead, on the front side of the Hell Keeper, Iris clutched his bleeding sides.
He had managed to contract his muscles just in time, saving himself from being sliced in half—
but the spider still wounded him badly enough to slow him down.
At least the beast was dead now.
He had killed it.
Iris paused for a moment on the stone hide of the Hell Keeper, gasping in pain.
This was no time to rest.
He tore off his upper garment and wrapped it tightly around his torso to slow the bleeding.
He couldn't use healing magic—it was already exhausted during the first stage of the assault on the capital.
Healing spells consumed even more magical power than Alexa's catastrophic spell that destroyed the capital.
Yes…
From the very beginning, Iris had been in the worst condition—
and yet he was still far better off than the others. Even Alexa.
He kept climbing upward, determined to reach the lava conduit that fueled the stone giant.
Leaping from one rock to another, he had now passed the creature's basin and reached its torso.
He looked back.
In three minutes, the giant would reach the royal palace where Ethios was hidden.
Panting, Iris muttered under his breath.
"Damn it..."
He climbed faster, pain surging through his body with every movement.
Five more spiders lunged at him.
The Moonblade flickered again.
Sooner or later, Iris's mana would run out, leaving him defenseless.
The sword flashed once more.
One spider darted ahead of the others, charging straight at him.
Iris dodged its front claws, and before it could snap its jaws closed around him, he plunged the Moonblade into its skull.
The sword gleamed one last time inside the spider's head.
He pulled the blade free and kicked the corpse upward toward the others.
When the dead spider reached the cluster—
it exploded.
Iris had slain all five.
He whispered as he climbed,
"Now…"
He surged upward, scaling the giant's torso at high speed.
Ahead of him lay thousands of armored spiders crawling across the creature's chest.
They all sensed his approach.
The swarm dropped downward like an enormous tidal wave.
From Iris's view, it looked like a tsunami of metal and fangs rushing toward him.
Meanwhile, on the rear side of the Hell Keeper, Alexa and Elara reached a protruding section of rock and stopped briefly.
Alexa knelt down, lowering her bloodied head.
A spider had struck her earlier, its blow landing hard against her skull.
Her vision was hazy, and her hearing faint.
Her mana was almost completely drained.
Elara knelt quietly before her, tearing a strip from her silk sleeve and wrapping it around Alexa's head.
She tied it tight, then gently lifted her sister's face to meet her eyes.
"Elara…" Alexa muttered weakly.
"Follow my finger," Elara said softly.
She moved her finger in different directions, testing Alexa's focus.
The injury was severe.
"You've got a heavy concussion," Elara said quietly.
"I can still fight," Alexa replied, her voice strained.
Elara looked upward.
They were still halfway up the Hell Keeper's back, and above them, colonies of armored spiders kept multiplying.
With every passing second, dozens more crawled out from the giant's rocky hide.
Elara focused for a moment—then realization struck her.
"Alexa…"
Alexa looked up weakly.
"What?"
Elara's voice trembled with disbelief.
"The Hell Keeper… it's generating the spiders from its own flesh."
On the front side of the giant, thousands of spiders attacked Iris all at once.
The Moonblade gleamed again—this time so bright that one could not look at it without hurting their eyes.
As the first spider entered the sword's range, Iris swung it in a wide horizontal arc.
The moment the blade touched the creature's armor, a thunderous explosion erupted across the front of the giant's torso.
A wave of destruction spread upward, shattering stone and tearing spiders apart.
Dust and molten rock burst in every direction.
Chunks of stone fell from the upper torso of the Hell Keeper as if an earthquake had torn through its body.
The entire giant trembled violently.
On the other side, Alexa and Elara nearly fell from the blast's force.
Elara looked around, searching for Zack and Alex—they were still clinging to the rocks, barely holding on.
Iris jumped from one collapsing stone to another, dodging the falling debris.
When the last of the rubble had fallen and the dust began to clear, he looked up, trying to trace a path to the lava channel.
Then came the shock—
Another army of armored spiders emerged, equal in number and power to the first.
Everything he had done…
was for nothing.
"By the gods…" he whispered.
The new swarm charged him from the front—
while behind the giant, another horde rushed toward Elara, Alexa, Zack, and Alex.
And worse still…
The Hell Keeper was now only a minute away from the royal palace—
where Ethios was hidden.
Things could not have gone worse for the Siren warriors.