"Sleepwalker, do you think a pill bug can weave a spider web? Are you sure the pill bug you fought is actually what we're looking for? I'm sure it's not."
Cuhlun questioned how stupid he was and then replied in a quiet tone, "Makes sense…"
Walking through the vast dark cave without hitting a single thread was extremely lucky… uh… they must've barely avoided them…
I mean…
Probably?
Cuhlun quickly lifted his leg and examined it—damn it, yes, they were there.
Torn threads. They were so thin and soft that they hadn't noticed them, but their owner had surely noticed them.
And not just that. The owner of these threads was clever enough to hide within the Memory Realm itself. It was likely somewhere within the darkness while Cuhlun was fighting the queen pill bug, because the method Cuhlun used to get there relied on copying something that had already happened within the mind, then using that to reach the person. Complicated, but effective.
So… actually no, maybe it wasn't even there at all. Maybe its mind was spread across the entire cave system, meaning not only the queen pill bug but many other puppets throughout the cave carried its consciousness?
For god's sake, who could possibly know? After this point, making theories became ridiculously hard, and Cuhlun needed to stop speculating and focus on how much time he had left.
Neither the Mind Eater nor the Sleepwalker could face the spider lurking in the darkness—let alone create a light strong enough to push the darkness back.
Escaping wasn't particularly feasible right now.
At least not with the abilities Cuhlun knew they had.
Cuhlun had lied to the Mind Eater about his own ability at the start, and he believed the Mind Eater had lied to him too.
Meaning, neither of them truly understood the abilities they'd recently acquired, and unless they used them, their chances of winning were absolutely zero.
The spider—or its puppets—had most likely already set out to intercept them. They didn't have many options.
Judging from what Cuhlun saw in the Memory Realm, the spider might have known sunlight existed, but had never actually seen it, because in the memories formed from its knowledge, the sun was motionless. And it probably didn't know of any land in the endless ocean either, because the school and the castle could not connect through any landmass; they remained separate, like mismatched puzzle pieces.
If the spider knew a "land" existed, then when the Mind Eater created the castle, the spider would've created the land for it to stand on.
And what about those leviathans they encountered along the way? Especially that thing inside the fog…
Those were probably creatures the spider had encountered before.
If they wanted to reach the surface, they had to pass through the foggy region—but that wasn't really possible.
Cuhlun cursed internally. He was piecing together every scrap of information he had, hoping for something useful, but damn it—not a single piece helped him!
With frustration weighing on him, Cuhlun let out a tired sigh and spoke in a low voice:
"Voice, are you there? Tell me what I need to know about this world—the people of this world, and this world's final quest."
For a moment, Cuhlun could've sworn he heard a tiny giggle near his ear, but he had no way to prove it, because the next second, the voice began speaking.
Hearing such a loud voice suddenly in a silent, dark cave startled him for a moment—but only Cuhlun could hear it, so the spider wouldn't detect them.
"What misfortune. Crossing such a difficult portal, you should've expected something like this…"
"Can you cut it short and explain what's going on?"
"Heh, you're no fun. The natives of this world are Valkyrs. Contrary to what you might expect, they neither live in water nor have anything to do with it. They live on a few clouds high in the sky, in their own kingdom. The difficulty they're facing, or whatever you want to call it… is famine. Nothing can grow near them—any plants around the Valkyrs simply won't grow. That's all I know. It's a shame you got sent to the very bottom of this world. Good luck getting back up."
Cuhlun figured god must really hate him. Being this unlucky… hopefully he could survive.
Also, in the Memory Realm formed from the spider's mind, there were no clouds, no Valkyrs. In fact, the spider seemed unaware of their existence.
While Cuhlun was lost in thought, the Mind Eater spoke to him.
"Do you want to explain what the voice told you?"
Cuhlun shot him a glare that practically said "stay away from me," then replied, "Ask it yourself."
The Mind Eater stared at him for a while, took a few slow steps…
Then suddenly tried to kick him. Cuhlun blocked it with his arm and gave him a look that said "what are you doing?" The Mind Eater didn't say anything—he just walked away. As he moved farther, Cuhlun heard him say:
"Hey voice, explain to me what's going on in this world!"
Cuhlun didn't know how old the Mind Eater was, but the tone of his voice sounded pretty childish when he said that. His ridiculous name might've come from that. Maybe Cuhlun was wrong to be scared of him.
Should he split off from the Mind Eater…?
He'd inevitably run into that demon again anyway, so it probably wouldn't matter.
Cuhlun carefully watched where the Mind Eater went, then pointed toward the exact opposite direction. When he eventually left, that was where he'd go.
But now wasn't the time to leave.
He didn't know what the Mind Eater was relying on to walk so calmly through the darkness—maybe some ability or item he still hadn't mentioned. But Cuhlun had neither, so he needed to do something different before splitting up.
First, he gathered all the threads stuck on his leg. Then he tore them into smaller pieces until they turned into powder. They were so weak they could've been broken by hand anyway.
When the powder formed a small mound, Cuhlun stopped.
He took the bolt from his wrist-mounted crossbow. This bolt was made from a special silver from another world. It was enchanted to be unbreakable and connected to the crossbow with an invisible thread, so it could always return when called.
Even though they'd survived the apocalypse and lost all their abilities, their items had been untouched—at least the ones outside space-time enchantments.
Cuhlun placed the unbreakable silver bolt on the mound and began to rub with both hands. He hoped he could ignite it…
But it didn't work.