Leaving the solemn silence of the Silent Garden, we began our journey down the other side of the mountain. The descending terrain led us into a completely different forest, an almost immediate contrast. The thin, dry air of the highland was quickly replaced by a humid, thick atmosphere that made breathing heavy. The sunlight, once brilliant at higher elevations, now struggled to penetrate a dense canopy of leaves, creating a dim, dark green space.
This was an old-growth forest, a primeval forest untouched by human hands or axes. The ancient trees here were so massive that even the three of us with arms outstretched couldn't encircle their rough trunks, covered in moss and fungi. Their roots protruded from the ground like giant pythons, forming natural walls and steps. The intense fragrance of strange flowers and plants, the smell of damp earth, and the musty scent of centuries-old leaves mixed together, creating a distinctive aroma of life and decay.
The path of green light in my mind, once clear on the open highland, now became weaker and dimmer. It seemed the dense and chaotic life energy of this forest was disrupting the signal. I had to concentrate much harder, almost squinting mentally, to see the guiding stream of light.
Kael once again took the lead position. His spear was no longer slung at his side but held ready in his hand, its blade gleaming in the forest's dim light. The silence here wasn't peaceful. It was a tense silence, full of unheard sounds and unseen movements. Every rustle of leaves, every crack of a dry branch underfoot could be a threat. Elara walked at the rear, her role as rear guard equally important. Her hand never left the small pouches of herbs and talismans hanging at her side. Occasionally, I heard her muttering brief words, likely protective incantations.
After about two hours of careful movement, we began to notice a strange change. Thin white threads, almost invisible, began to appear, strung between low branches. At first just a few scattered strands, but the deeper we went, the denser they became. Then we saw them on the ground.
We had reached a more open area of the forest, but instead of grass or ferns, the entire ground was covered by something resembling a carpet of silvery-white silk, soft and shimmering eerily under the rare beams of sunlight. And not just the ground—enormous silk threads, thick as small ropes, had been strung between ancient tree trunks, forming misty walls, elegant vaults, and deep, dark tunnels. This entire area looked like a massive installation art piece by some surrealist artist. Its beauty was both mesmerizing and unsettling.
"Stop!" Kael commanded, his voice low and full of warning. He stood still, not daring to take another step onto the silk carpet. He carefully poked a thick thread stretched at chest height with the butt of his axe. The thread vibrated, emitting a high, clear note like a harp, but it was extremely strong. Despite Kael using some force, the thread didn't weaken at all.
Elara stepped up beside him, her face pale, initial amazement quickly replaced by deep fear. "Death Silk," she whispered, her voice trembling. "We... we've entered the territory of Akrasha." She pronounced that name as if it were a curse, something blasphemous that shouldn't be spoken.
She quickly used a branch to draw on the damp ground. A crude but expressive sketch: a spider with a bloated body, eight long spindly legs, and many eyes. Beside it was the figure of a deer wrapped in silk. The message couldn't be clearer. We had foolishly walked straight into the web of a giant spider. The elegant, deadly beauty of this place was a sophisticated trap.
My heart pounded in my chest. I immediately closed my eyes, concentrating on the "Heart of the Forest." The green light path was still there, leading straight into the middle of the silk maze. But there was something else. This entire area on my map wasn't the warning yellow like the Silent Garden, but an orange-red—the color of imminent danger. And worse still, interspersed among millions of harmless silvery-white silk threads were special threads that glowed bright red in my mind. They were strung at strategic positions—at eye level, knee height, or hidden right on the ground. These were trap threads, trigger threads.
"There's a way through," I said, my voice also hoarse with tension. "But it's extremely narrow. Many traps. The red threads... we mustn't touch them." I tried to explain by pointing at various threads, describing what I saw in my head.
Kael and Elara looked at me, then at the white maze before us. They couldn't see what I saw, but they no longer doubted my words. My role as guide now wasn't just navigation, but keeping all three of us alive.
"You go first," Kael said, his voice firm. "Lyan, you navigate. Stay close together. Not a single mistake allowed."
And so our dance with death began. I walked ahead, each step carefully considered. My eyes fixed on the vision the "Heart of the Forest" provided, distinguishing silk from death. Kael followed close on my heels, his axe raised high, ready to cut through anything that came at us. Elara walked last, her eyes not only watching the path but also observing above and to both sides.
"Step left twice," I whispered, my voice barely audible. "There's a trap thread at knee height. Step high."
"Duck down. A trap web overhead. Crawl through."
"Stop! Thread right in front of your boot toe, Kael. Back up a bit."
We moved slow as snails, our nerves pushed to the extreme. The atmosphere was so silent I could hear the blood flowing in my ears. The silk carpet underfoot wasn't sticky, but it was extremely sensitive. Every movement, every heavy breath created tiny vibrations that traveled throughout the web. We were like flies trying to cross a spider's web without alerting its owner.
The deeper we went, the more complex and deadly the web became. The space like an endless tunnel of silk. We passed through an area where white cocoons hung suspended from the ceiling. Most were empty, but in a few, we could vaguely see the shapes of forest animals: a deer, a wild boar... all drained dry, only skin and bones remaining. The sight made my stomach churn.
In a moment of lost concentration from the horrific scene, Elara's cloak brushed lightly against a red silk thread I hadn't warned about.
—Whoosh!—
Immediately, from the silk ceiling, a thick cluster of threads, sticky as glue, shot down at terrifying speed. Kael reacted like lightning. He roared and shoved Elara to one side while swinging his axe to sever the descending thread cluster. The cluster fell to the ground with a heavy "thud," sticking fast to the silk carpet. If Kael had been a tenth of a second slower, Elara would have been caught.
Her face went white as paper. We stopped, hearts pounding like war drums. That incident was a brutal warning. The monster might not be here, but its trap was working perfectly.
After what seemed like an endless time, when our spirits were nearly at breaking point, I saw it: the way out. Ahead, the sunlight was brighter, and the silk web began to thin. The green light path led to a clearing, an escape. Freedom was only a few dozen meters away.
But just as we prepared to speed up, the ground beneath our feet shook. Not a small tremor. It was a powerful, rhythmic shake, as if something enormous was approaching.
Then we heard it. The rustling, scraping sound of eight spike-covered legs moving across silk at terrifying speed.
From a dark hollow beside the exit, it emerged. Akrasha.
Every story, every drawing couldn't fully capture its horror. Its body was as big as a water buffalo, glossy black and grotesquely bloated. Eight long spindly legs, each joint spiked, supported its body with deadly grace. But the most haunting thing was its eight eyes, arranged in two rows, jet black, soulless and full of malicious intelligence. They swept over us, not as a predator views prey, but as a king views trespassers in his domain. Two glossy black fangs, long and curved like two scythes, dripped a greenish liquid that smoked lightly when it hit the silk carpet.
It had sensed us. It had been playing with us, letting us go deep into the trap, savoring our fear. Now it stood there, blocking the only way out.
There was no way back. Behind was a death maze. The only way was through it.
"Elara, Lyan, run when you get the chance!" Kael roared, breaking the deadly silence. He didn't wait for our answer; he gripped his axe with both hands and charged at the monster. It wasn't an attack—it was a sacrificial act to draw attention.
Akrasha shrieked piercingly, a sound that made the air vibrate. It ignored Kael and spat a stream of sticky silk toward me and Elara, the seemingly weaker prey.
"Watch out!" Elara screamed, pulling me sideways. The silk stream shot past, sticking to a silk wall behind. At the same moment, Kael had closed in. He didn't attack the steel-hard shell; he aimed for its leg joints. His axe blade flashed, striking hard at the joint of one of the front legs.
A metallic "clang" rang out. The axe blade bounced off, but the impact was strong enough to make that leg buckle awkwardly. Akrasha shrieked in pain and rage. It whirled around, using another leg to lash hard at Kael. He raised his spear to block, but the force was too great, sending him flying backward to crash hard against a tree trunk. He coughed and tried to get up, one arm injured.
The spider gave him no chance. It lunged forward, both fangs opening wide.
"No!" Elara screamed. She stood in front of me, both hands raised, palms facing the spider. She began chanting. Her voice initially trembled but quickly became powerful, echoing. The air around her vibrated. The silk threads on the ground began emitting a greenish light, a light of life, opposite to their deathly appearance.
Akrasha sensed the magic. It hesitated, turning toward Elara, considering her the greater threat.
Right then, with the monster distracted, a crazy idea flashed through my mind. I had no axe, no magic. But I had the "Heart of the Forest." I gripped the stone tightly. If this place was part of the forest, if these silk threads were the product of a forest creature, could I affect them?
I closed my eyes, pouring all my will into the stone. I didn't think about fleeing. I thought about "Aethel." I thought about Kael injured, about Elara facing the monster alone. I roared in my mind, not a plea but a command. I commanded the trap, this death web, to turn against its very creator.
A surge of burning energy flowed from the stone into me, a power far greater than any time I'd used it before. It didn't just show me—it let me feel every silk thread in the web. And I pulled.
—BOOM!—
The red threads, the trap threads I'd struggled to avoid, were all simultaneously triggered. But instead of shooting out clusters of sticky silk, they retracted with terrifying force. Dozens, hundreds of trap threads from every direction simultaneously tightened around Akrasha. The threads it had spun to catch prey now became a prison, wrapping around its eight legs, constricting around its bloated body.
The colossal monster was completely taken by surprise. It shrieked a frenzied roar, both painful and enraged. It thrashed violently, trying to break the threads, but they were magical threads, now reinforced by the energy of the "Heart of the Forest." They tightened increasingly, cutting deep into its steel-hard chitin shell.
At the same moment, Elara's spell was complete. She shouted a final word full of power. Green, brilliantly glowing vines emerged from the silk ground, wrapping around Akrasha, adding another layer of binding, pinning it to the ground.
Kael, though injured, hadn't missed the golden moment. He struggled up, roared like a beast, and charged forward. He leaped onto the back of the now-bound, helpless monster. He raised his axe high with both hands, channeling his last bit of strength, aiming straight at the junction between the spider's head and thorax—the only weak point a veteran hunter like him knew.
The axe blade descended with a horrific "thunk." It pierced through the shell, sinking deep inside. A stream of blackish-green fluid, stinking, spurted out like a fountain. Akrasha convulsed violently one last time, its legs trembling frantically, then went limp. It lay still. Its eight jet-black eyes were now just lifeless glass orbs.
Silence descended. The colossal corpse lay there, bound in its own web.
I collapsed, my head pounding like hammers, my body limp. Controlling such great energy had drained me completely. Elara also staggered; she had to lean against a tree trunk to keep from falling. Her face was deathly pale, not a drop of blood left. Kael slid down from the spider's back, covered in both his own blood and the monster's fluids. He propped his axe on the ground, panting heavily, trembling with exhaustion.
But we were alive.
We looked at each other across the monster's corpse. There was no jubilation of victory. Only the profound relief of people who had just escaped death's scythe.
Kael limped forward; he tore a strip of cloth from his shirt to bandage the wound on his arm. He looked at me, then at Elara. A tired but proud smile appeared on his grimy face. He raised his good fist. "Aethel," he said softly.
Elara smiled weakly, nodding. "Aethel."
I struggled to stand, also raising my fist. "Aethel."
We had won, not by individual strength, but by combining everything we had. We had survived. The journey to Tel'Adria was still far, but the bond between the three of us, forged through fire, water, and death silk, was now as strong as the very threads that had bound that monster.