OP Absorption
Chapter 54: Throne Room

Chapter 54: Throne Room

Hana walked near the back, her pace steady, eyes scanning everything. Her mind, however, was focused elsewhere. Not on the unnerving murals or the silence, but on the small tracker concealed in her palm. It vibrated faintly, a steady pulse confirming its target was close.

Ahead.

Her mission wasn’t just about clearing this dungeon or mapping the anomaly. Valerius City hadn’t sent an A-rank team leader solely for reconnaissance. They lost something here. A weapon artifact retrieved from another high-rank dungeon, irreplaceable, potent. The last team assigned to test it vanished in this very sector.

The directive was clear: retrieve the weapon. No matter the cost. The team, the dungeon clear—secondary.

Her tracker had remained silent until they passed through Arachne’s portal. Now, it pointed directly toward the heart of this castle. Toward the Queen. Toward whatever lay beyond the doors they were inevitably approaching.

Fin was a complication. His power was undeniable, perhaps even necessary to reach the objective. But it was unstable, growing at an alarming rate. He was a threat to control, a threat to the mission’s secrecy if he survived. He already subdued Arachne, defied Hana directly. If he stood between her and the weapon... well, the cost was irrelevant.

She tucked the tracker away as the hallway finally ended, opening into a slightly wider space dominated by a pair of colossal doors. They were carved from the same dark stone as the castle walls, featureless except for intricate, web-like patterns etched deep into their surface. No handles, no visible hinges. Just sheer, imposing scale.

The air here felt heavy, charged. The silence pressed in, thicker than anywhere else.

Everyone stopped. Weapons remained ready, but nobody made a move toward the doors.

"Well," Gary muttered, breaking the silence. "Looks like we found the front door to hell."

"No turning back now, I suppose," Lucas said, adjusting his glasses nervously. He glanced toward Hana, then quickly looked away.

Susan shifted her weight, her gaze fixed on the imposing doors. "Whatever’s in there... it knows we’re here. It’s been waiting."

Joe didn’t speak, just wiped a sweaty palm on his trousers, his knuckles white around his dagger hilts.

Arachne had collapsed against the wall nearby, still trembling, her eyes squeezed shut as if trying to block out the presence on the other side. "She’s... so strong," she whispered, audible only to Fin who stood closest. "way stronger than I ever thought..."

Mary looked at Fin. "Your call. We going in?"

He stepped forward, ignoring Arachne’s warning. He ran a hand over the cool stone of the door, feeling the faint thrum of power beneath the surface. He glanced back at the team, his expression unreadable. He saw the fear, the suspicion, the exhaustion. He saw Hana watching him, her face a mask of professional calm that didn’t quite reach her eyes.

He remembered Arachne’s earlier words. They’ll cut your throat while you sleep. Maybe. But not yet. Not until they faced what was behind these doors.

"Yeah," he said simply. "We are."

He placed both hands flat against the right door. He didn’t push immediately, just stood there for a second, gathering himself. The silver lines on his arms remained hidden beneath his sleeves, but he could feel the power coiling within him – both his own and the lingering remnants of Arachne’s drained energy.

He took a breath.

Then, he pushed.

There was no resistance at first. The massive stone door swung inward silently, smoothly, revealing not a throne room, but darkness. An absolute, consuming blackness that seemed to drink the faint light from the hallway sconces.

The presence from beyond the door intensified tenfold, washing over them like a physical wave. It carried the weight of ages, the chilling indifference of a predator, and the overwhelming power of something ancient and deeply alien.

Fin braced himself against it, planting his feet. He pushed the other door open as well, revealing the full extent of the void beyond.

"Get ready," he said, his voice tight, as he stepped across the threshold into the darkness.

The moment Mary, the last one through, crossed the threshold, the massive stone doors slammed shut behind them with a deep, echoing boom that vibrated through the floor. The hallway light vanished instantly, plunging them back into absolute darkness.

The presence intensified, pressing down, stealing breath. Fin braced himself, staff ready, senses straining against the void. Beside him, he heard Arachne whimper softly.

Then, just as abruptly as it had appeared, the darkness dissolved.

Light flared, not from torches, but seeming to emanate from the very air itself – a cold, silvery luminescence that revealed the staggering scale of the chamber.

They stood on a wide, polished black dais at one end of a throne room so vast it felt more like a cathedral dedicated to shadows. Pillars carved into grotesque, multi-limbed shapes stretched up into impossible heights where the ceiling was lost in shifting darkness. The walls were draped not with fabric, but with thick, shimmering webs that pulsed faintly with captured light.

And they were not alone.

Lining the walls, perched on ledges, clinging to the pillars, were spiders. Dozens upon dozens of them. Giant ones like the matriarch Fin had drained. Smaller, quicker ones crackling with elemental energy. And others, humanoid like Arachne, standing sentinel, their multiple eyes gleaming coldly in the silver light.

Fin’s heightened senses screamed danger. Some felt as strong as Arachne had been before he drained her. Others... others felt significantly stronger, radiating power that made the air around them hum.

At the far end of the hall, atop another, higher dais reached by a wide flight of obsidian stairs, sat the source of the overwhelming presence.

The Queen.

She wasn’t the monstrous beast they might have expected. She looked remarkably human, reclining languidly on a throne woven from bone-white silk and shadows. She had only two eyes, deep and intelligent, currently fixed on them with unnerving calm. Her hair was the color of spun moonlight, cascading over pale shoulders. Her features were sharp, aristocratic, possessing a beauty so striking it felt alien, dangerous – like a perfectly crafted weapon.

The only hints of her true nature were the subtle, sharp points to her ears, the faint iridescent sheen to her skin, and the eight slender, obsidian-black spider legs that unfolded gracefully from her back, supporting her weight on the throne like living buttresses. She wore robes of shifting grey silk that seemed woven from the same material as the webs lining the hall.

Her power radiated outwards, a palpable force that dwarfed everything else in the room, even the combined might of her guards. It wasn’t aggressive, not yet. It was absolute confidence. The quiet certainty of a predator that knows its prey has entered the killing floor.

The team stood frozen on the entrance dais, momentarily stunned by the sight, by the sheer numbers, by the Queen herself.

Lucas pushed his glasses up his nose, his face paling rapidly as he took in the impossible odds, the palpable power radiating from the throne. His voice was barely a trembling whisper, choked with despair.

"We are so fucked."

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