Chapter 53: Here It Is

Arachne immediately ordered several spiders to make silk and wrap the whole body of the bat queen except the head that was still on her hands, dripping with a lot of blood that was slowly creating a poodle under her feet, for some reason her master Sophia wants to smear herself with a lot of blood, she finds it puzzling but personal decisions of her lady is none of a subordinate's business, thus she left it alone, but of course, Sophia, a curious person that she is will not let go of questioning Arachne.

"Aphrodisiac huh? How creative, but still why did you administer it through the mouth? You two would become a moaning mess for the whole war if you happened to gulp a large amount of it, you know? I mean, the spider producing it is in the top of your throat."

Arachne licked her lips whilst summoning one of her giant spiders and then chucking the wrapped body into its dislocated mouth as she replied.

"Well, I mean, I don't mind getting into the grind, I mean I can already produce spider eggs without Wokung's sperms so I wanna explore more... But you see, I need to administer it to her directly because all monsters including her and myself are resistant to any kind of mind-muddling drugs she has the most resistance because of the nature of her layer so if I put it on her drinking water or her food, that would just a waste of resources, it will also  risk me from being discovered because the bat surely has some kind of ability to detect poison."

Sophia looked at the head and gestured to Arachne to give it to her, which she did.

Of course those facts, she already knew, because she already studied the stats of her heavy hitters, but something was bothering her, thus while shaking her head to splatter some blood all over the place, she asked Arachne.

"... You know, I've been wondering for a while, your whole body structure screams of a super powerful slice and dice warrior, frontal claws that have blades so big it can severe pillars from colosseums and legs that can pierce through concrete rather easily as well as strings that I am sure to be as tough as a steel wire."

Sophia let her forehead be smeared with blood, causing her image to be quite terrifying, but she was yet to be aware of such an effect on her appearance so she ignored it and continued to ask.

"...So tell me, what exactly is preventing you from just duking it out with people you can't control like the queen of the bats? You can even try and have a shot on my brain's contents, you know?"

Arachne sighed whilst looking at the now thread-wrapped head of the queen of the bats, the threads were still dripping with blood, thus she put it upside down and swallowed it whole, Sophia's eyes narrowed at that sight, but they immediately went back to normal and once again stared at Arachne.

"Hmm... A shot to your brain is certainly a good idea, but if it's to endanger my life, then I can just ask you stuff... and to answer your question of why I am not fighting..."

Arachne put one of her frontal claws in Sophia's forehead and pushed it with all she could, but instead of piercing through it, all the claw did was creak a little as if to indicate that it could not even puncture a child's skin.

"As you can see, it cannot pierce anything when I am thinking of harming someone alive and even if I'm not thinking about such things, it will not work."

Sophia touched her forehead and spoke.

"Please elaborate."

"To put it simply..."

At the command of her master, Arachne explained the full extent of her limits.

In summary, the system of the world itself is the one that is limiting her from being a menace and robbing any monster of the forest of their right to become the strongest. The reason is the debuff of her unique skill  [Queen of Arachnids] that denies her any kind of common skill she can potentially learn with her experiments. This debuff is already present even before the Asexual Egg Reproduction appeared when she was named by Sophia.

However, that debuff is not limited to common skills, it also makes magic that is a branch of common skills (if it's not already obvious) impossible to get, and for some reason, title skills are also blunted out.

This part is something puzzling Arachne, after all, title skills and common skills are not the same because the titles can be unique, for example, Urduja is called [The Hero of the People], and no one other than her can have that title Sophia can't because she is currently destroying the balance of the forest and absorbing all of the power to herself.

But that's beyond the point, so going back, the restriction did not stop here, even the special traits of her unique race such as the ultra-sharp frontal claws, sturdy legs as well and her high-quality threads will all become pathetic excuses for abilities if Arachne ever tried to use them in anything other than a dissection of her subjects and when she's slicing her food.

Sophia could not help but once again squint her eyes, this time not because of repulse but of shock as she said.

"That's rather annoying, you sacrificed every potential of being the ruler of the forest to become its eyes. Rather, isn't that series of restrictions unreasonable?"

Arachne just nodded her head as one of the giant spiders went behind her, its maw was already opened and ready to swallow its mother anytime.

"Eh... annoying, yes, after all, I can fight rather well when I am yet to become the queen of Arachnids, and mind me in my prime I am as strong as Wokung and can compete with anyone I want and get away with it either victorious or in a draw that will scar my opponent for life, so if for example, I can still do that when I got the [Dissection] unique skill that gives me freakish dexterity when I am disemboweling someone or something, it will instead be unreasonable for the forest instead."

Sophia went silent for a while as if she was contemplating something, but then just nodded in the end and then sighed.

"Well, it does make sense... to a certain extent if you put it that way."

Arachne's eyes then suddenly widened as she said to Sophia, her tone is quite in haste.

"Master, Bakunawa started to make her move."

Sophia's eyes then swept at the front and then once again shook her hair and then loaded her feet, focusing some force on it as she momentarily looked at Arachne.

"Alright, my time has come, please escape from this place as fast as possible for I cannot guarantee that I can contain the fight in its epicenter"

Arachne then nodded and got ready to enter the mouth of her subordinate, she then replied.

"You don't have to remind me... and master, good luck."

Sophia smiled and answered. "I don't need one... usually, so I guess thank you."

Sophia then after replying kicked the wall hard, causing some of its upper footing to crumble slightly, soon light explosions caused by super fast movements resounded out of the forest, Arachne looked at the trail of small craters being created as she used her index finger touch his lips.

"I wonder if I can make something like a clone of her using her whole nervous system..."

________

When Arachne went back to her lair to preserve the head and body of the Queen Bat, a communication was heard in his head, it was a command from her lady Sophia.

"... You're overworking me! Rather, why didn't you tell me when were still together!?"

"The enemy's near, it would be disastrous if you got caught up in the fight."

"You smooth talker!"

Arachne just sighed as she finished heeding her master's command, after that shout thousands of spiders went out of her cave.

______

In the inner part of the third layer, a silver streak can be seen.

This streak is nimbly moving, weaving through trees making sharp turns left and right without losing even a single second of her speed and Bakunawa is the one who is making such a ridiculous feat.

Her whole body is covered with extra durable scales that serve as her armor against almost every attack whether it may be physical or magical, the only thing that cannot be stopped by such magnificent scales are poisons directly ingested by her, but of course, her natural body endurance will do the work to negate most of the poison's effect, well not like she will ingest one.

Her hair is white and slowly turns black as it goes lower down her neck, she is short in stature and just as tall as Sophia, she is running at her full speed, and her mind is replaying something again and again.

That something is the conversation between her and her father, the god of streams from the pantheon of the god of the undead. In that conversation, the two of them are in a heated argument about something that Bakunawa wants to do.

And that something is fighting the hero prospect of the owner of the forest.

"I'm telling you Bakunawa, you cannot fight her! She is too strong and crafty for you who only have the monkey tribe leader as your rival!"

The god of streams shouted inside Bakunawa's head, he is restricted in disclosing all of his insider intelligence by the order of his lord because that will be directly interfering with the outcome of the test, thus he cannot tell that the monkey tribe leader is still alive among much other mystery of their seemingly all strong opponent.

Bakunawa sighed while she was underwater, on an Indian seat meditating to properly communicate with her lord.

"Why are you so obstinate about stopping me... I mean, don't you have any ambitions of usurping the god of the undead? You even suggested me to be Sophia's replacement."

Indeed, the god of streams is one of the many gods in the pantheon of the god of the undead that embarrassed themselves because of doubting the person chosen by their lord himself, thus the god of streams immediately.

"Didn't I tell you to stop using that as a proper argument!? I have had enough of my lord's smug laughter that caused me nightmares for many days straight! She is not arrogant at all and is a genius from flesh to bone!"

Even though he is a god, the god of streams started gasping, obviously he is desperate to stop the serpent he cultivated with utmost care to commit suicide, after he panted for a few seconds, he continued.

"Didn't you see how she played around the whole monkey tribe!? That tribe has metal weapons and Sophia's soldiers only have a stone chucked on a stick! And yet those primates became her living playthings! That alone is enough proof that she is more intelligent than you!"

Bakunawa cannot help but shake her head.

"How many times do I have to reply to you too, my lord? Military tactics and fighting tactics are two different things, she might be a prodigy, but my observation as well as the spider queen's hints that she's not very good at fights, the best proof is her almost dying at the hands of the Blazing Wolf King... And she most probably killed the monkey tribe leader through some large magic circle."

The god of streams sighed.

"No... You see..."

The monkey tribe leader is not dead, and the Blazing Wolf King just had the headstart at that time because of a minor immaturity that can already be controlled by Sophia to some extent, the god of streams swallowed his words, and soon silence lingered in the mindscape of Bakunawa.

"See? If you're scared for nothing, I will be fine... Besides... I cannot let a human who got a silver plate when I worked so hard on what I attained do anything she wants to my forest."

The communication then, was cut off.

Back to the present, Bakunawa cannot help but sigh, even though she said those words, she still has to be cautious, hero prospects are borderline one-man army after all, so it's not surprising for her to be a target of a group damage type attack, thus she has to be careful or she will immediately slip up before even fighting her.

But one thing is for sure.

_I will do anything to kill Sophia Demiurge and bring the god of streams, my lord, and my father his deserved honor._

As she was thinking that a whistling sound was heard, and alongside it a spear made out of sand came flying in her direction at a super fast speed, a speed that rivaled her full speed.

_Shit, she constructed a magic circle near my territory!? How did I not notice it!?_

Bakunawa thought so as she made a sharp turn, but the spear surprisingly made a sharp one too and continued to close into her.

_Homing function!?_

Bakunawa, the natural fighter that she is immediately understood that running in a zigzag was not an option anymore and only a straight dash to get away from the range of what she presumed to be a magic circle was the best option, she then clutched her first and dashed head on towards the tip of the spear, when the spear got near on her face, Bakunawa ducked her body while her fist is still clenched and punched the spear, the impact between the projectile and the fist send shockwaves of explosion throughout the area, trees was cleaved, stones and boulders got upturned and a small crater was created in the epicenter.

_Now then, let's dash out of- The sand turned into tentacles!?_

Suddenly, the spear Bakunawa thought to have exploded latched to her hand and immediately spread throughout her body, restricting her body from any kind of movement.

"Of all the things you can do to negate a homing weapon, you choose punching it? Come on, you have to be better than that."

Suddenly, a small yet imposing, adorable yet terrifying voice was heard alongside it was the appearance of a child with white hair smeared in blood that is smiling faintly.

"Hello there, ate (1) hero prospect, the name is Sophia..."

The white-haired child pulled out the rapier in her waist and pointed it at Bakunawa.

"Sophia Demiurge."

This interaction and not the sonic boom from the first layer nor the bomb-like sound from the collision of the sand spear and Bakunawa's fist started the war of the five-pronged forest and the last stage of the Hero's Test.

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Author:

Ate: is the literal Filipino word for older sister, but is also used when referring to a senior at college or high school, so basically Sophia here said "Hero Prospect Senpai" but she is a Filipino, so she used her language.