Both of them suddenly turned around. Instantly, a look of disgust crossed their faces before they turned forward again. Muttering under his breath, both of them spat, "Goddamn fucking thing!"
The air grew drier with each second. Heat faded slowly; above, the deep blue sky dulled and dimmed into silence.
They had run deep into the forest now. The wind felt strange—thick, almost breathless. Dryness clung to their skin. Even after so much running, no animals appeared—no movement at all, only endless trees. Ahead, not a single branch showed any green. This forest seemed apart from the world, as if drawn along a different line.
The ground was barren—yellow soil split wide with cracks running in every direction.
Panting, Keave said, "We've come pretty far inside the forest… haven't we?"
Rudra turned, lashes fluttering. "How do you know?"
Keave, still running, pointed ahead. "Look!"
Rudra's eyes darted to where Keave pointed. For an instant, his gaze shone with sudden light. Even Drace's usually still, expressionless face flickered with a faint reflection.
Not far ahead, an opening broke the dense wall of trees: a round, bare patch of earth, encircled by sharp, spiked trunks. Wisps of green grass wavered in the dim air. At its heart stood a cave, dark and hollow, its shape eerily like an igloo.
"There's something normal here for once!" Rudra shouted, relief and disbelief tangled in his voice.
A spider's screech echoed behind them—it was still chasing.
"We can talk later! Get to the cave, now!" Drace gasped between heavy breaths.
The cave was still distant, and the spider was closing fast. Each second, the ground shook under its weight.
"Run with everything you've got! Don't stop!" Keave yelled, his voice cracking with fear.
A stench filled the air—sharp, rotting, unbearable. The spider spat a green, sticky slime, splattering sizzling drops across the ground.
"This fucking shit…" he muttered, disgust twisting his face as he ran.
The black cave drew nearer. In the green field before it, three dark stones—flat and tall—stood upright. From a distance, it seemed as if something was placed atop them.
Rudra's pupils trembled. He muttered, "Ahead… across the green field—there are tools on those stones!"
"What?" Drace and Keave gasped, still panting.
"There are sharp tools lying on the black stones!" Rudra repeated, voice tight with disbelief.
Keave and Drace quickened their pace, rushing to Rudra's side. As they drew closer, the sight sharpened—indeed, pointed metallic tools glinted faintly under the fading light.
"But who could have made such weapons… and why?" Rudra murmured, struggling to make sense of it.
Keave opened his mouth, but the stench returned, harsh and overwhelming. His face twisted again; frustrated, he shouted, "We have to get inside that cave—otherwise that damned spider will make us its dinner!"
Rudra shot him a look. "Don't you think that thing could get inside too?"
Drace shook his head. "We have no choice. The entrance looks narrow—it might not fit through."
They nodded silently, breath heavy, then broke into a final sprint for the cave.
But the path was not so simple.
The moment their feet touched the green field, the spider leapt ahead, shooting a thick web strand to a nearby tree. It landed with such force, the ground quaked.
Without warning, it hurled more of the sticky green liquid, spattering it in violent bursts.
They stumbled back, hearts pounding. Tiny needles of fear pricked their skin. Thought vanished; only their feet moved, retreating in panic.
Then, blue veins bulged along the spider's body, swelling and rising, shifting into bulbous eyes. Each eye began spinning thin, glimmering white threads—silken strands that snapped out with deadly precision.
In seconds, before they could even blink, the spider had cast its web, closing all sides in shimmering threads.
Nearly a hundred quivering eyes gleamed on its body as countless thin webs stretched outward, weaving a dome of silk—a prison that trapped them and the monster inside.
The sky's light had vanished. Looking up, they saw only a ceiling of dense white silk, rising high above.
Rudra's eyes gleamed with pure fear. In Keave's, irritation burned—a restless, stubborn defiance. But in Drace's gaze, a calm stillness—cold and deep as water—remained.
"Drace… I… I don't want to die," Rudra whispered.
"You won't," Keave and Drace said together, voices in perfect unison. Their eyes locked on the spider—Drace's steady, Keave's angry—but in both, the intent to destroy was unmistakable.
The spider's nauseating eyes shifted, blinking, watching from every side.
Using two trees as pillars, the spider had sealed the field's entrance—along with a patch of dry, yellow earth—inside the same dome.
Keave muttered, "If we want to get out, we'll have to cut through the web."
Drace nodded, silent. Rudra's gaze flickered with terror. The cave was just steps away—but now felt impossibly distant.
The spider spread itself wider inside the narrow dome.
Staring at the grotesque creature, Keave shouted, "Hey, you ugly, twisted thing—what the hell do you want?! I'm not letting you go this time!"