A Peacock Husband of Five Princesses by day, a Noble Assassin by Night-Chapter 80 : The Thousand Faced Spider (3/4)

Shiera's eyes darted around the cavern. The mist coiled at the edges of her vision, shifting, twisting. Her heart pounded, but her mind remained sharp.

The Spider was not strong—not in the way of brute force, not in the way of beasts that ruled through raw might.

Yet, it had lived for centuries. It had survived. And that alone made it more dangerous than any mindless monster.

As if reading her thoughts, the creature's voice slithered through the air, smooth and taunting. "Do you wonder why? How I have thrived here for so long, despite the countless warriors who came before you?"

A whisper brushed against her ear—too close, though no one was there. "Because they all failed."

Shiera clenched her jaw.

The voice danced around her, shifting from one place to another, as if the mist itself spoke. "I am not the strongest. But I do not need to be. I have no army, no underlings, and yet, here I stand."

A beat of silence.

Then the voice darkened, a low purr of satisfaction. "Would you like to know why?"

Shiera remained still, her grip on her sword unwavering.

"Because I have something far greater than strength. I have skill—"

The ice prison around her frozen teammates trembled slightly.

"—and I have patience."

Shiera's stomach twisted. "Where is it?"

Then, the proposal came.

"Seeing that you have great potential, I'll have a proposal for you."

The cave seemed to shrink around her, the walls pressing closer, the air growing heavier.

The Thousand-Faced Spider chuckled, slow and deliberate. "Two choices." A pause, just long enough to stretch the dread in her chest. "One: Give up that sword of yours as it looked quite precious. And you choose one of your precious friends. Leave with them. The other dies. And you can walk away in peace."

Shiera's blood ran cold.

The voice smiled—she could hear it. "Or… resist. Both will perish. And you will have to find a way to escape on your own."

Silence.

The weight of the words settled like lead in her lungs.

"Oh—" the voice added as an afterthought, "and before you think of escaping through other means, let me remind you—"

A soft, mocking hum.

"Flight, teleportation, anything that might take you out of this place? It simply doesn't work here."

Shiera stood frozen, her mind racing.

A choice.

An impossible, merciless choice.

And the Thousand-Faced Spider waited.

Shiera's grip tightened around the hilt of her sword, her knuckles turning white. She didn't flinch, didn't waver, even as the cold weight of the spider's words settled over her. The air was thick with unseen malice, the mist curling at the edges of the cave like the breath of some slumbering beast.

Then, she brandished her sword.

The steel gleamed under the dim glow of flickering mana, its surface coated with the lingering frost from her last attack. Her stance was firm, unwavering.

"I don't need to escape," she said, voice like tempered steel. "Not when I'm facing a cowardly spider like you. I just have to seal my friends in a freezing state."

The cave went still.

Then—

Laughter.

Not mocking, not enraged—simply amused.

The Thousand-Faced Spider's voice carried no offense, no indignation. If anything, it seemed pleased. "Ah, young swordswoman," the voice crooned, smooth as silk. "Such boldness. You truly are green."

The mist stirred, swirling with unseen motion, though Shiera still couldn't pinpoint the creature's exact location.

"Cowardly? Perhaps."

The voice drifted, shifting from one side of the cavern to the other, as if the walls themselves whispered.

"But tell me—"

The clicking of something sharp against stone. "What is the value of pride, if they are dead?" The words slithered into her ears, wrapping around her mind like a noose. "What is the value of honor, if it brings only a shallow grave?"

Another shift in the mist. A shadow flickered in the corner of her vision. "I do not mind being called a coward, Lady Shiera."

A whisper—just behind her. "I will be a coward, so long as I outlive my peers."

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Then, suddenly, without any warning, Shiera's neck was bitten by something invisible and the poison seeped into her body, rapidly started spreading.

"You…" Shiera's eyes widened in horror as poison spread too fast to the point that her whole body numbed in the matter of seconds. The sword fell down from her grip and she collapsed to the ground, supporting herself with a fist. As she gasped for breath, her skin turning green and she started losing consciousness, The Thousand Faced Spider materialized. Its blank face changed to Shiera's and she licked her lips while clenching her hands. "This power… It's awesome, young lady. I'll put it to a good use. Don't worry about it."

Shiera could no longer speak or support herself. She directly collapsed to the ground, her mana is trying to resist the effects of the poison but couldn't block it either way.

As she was about to lose her consciousness, surprisingly, the face of Kael appeared in her head. Not her mother, Not her father, and not her sisters. It was Kael who she thought in her last moments. And for the first time since she got acquainted with Kael, which is like a dozen years, she thought something positive about him, although it is more like self criticism. "At the very least, there is one person who won't be too sad that I died. We don't have a connection formed and neither have I ever acknowledged him as my husband. If anything, I only belittled him because I hated him. How couldn't I? He is the world to Sister Mia, who spent her entire life for his sake instead of living for her own. But then again, he wasn't the one at fault I wish I could apo…"

*Zzz* Zzz*

Her final thoughts before death were interrupted by the sudden appearance of a mass of black energy. Thousand Faced Spider, who was waiting for Shiera's death in order to consume her and steal all of her abilities, also couldn't help but stare in the direction of vibrations—followed by the appearance of something that looked like a male but not human, just concentrated energy and nothing else.

The black mass of energy set its eyes on the monster, which had its amusement disappeared and developed a deep frown.