OP Absorption
Chapter 56: Betrayed

Chapter 56: Betrayed

"Are you insane?!" Susan hissed, scrambling to her feet, her voice trembling with fury and fear. "You just gambled all our lives! A death match? Against one of them?" She gestured wildly at the silent, imposing spider guards.

Gary clenched his fists, his face pale but furious. "Kid, what were you thinking? We could have maybe talked our way out, offered something—"

"Offered what?" Fin cut him off sharply, not looking back at them. His gaze was still fixed forward, assessing the potential opponents. "Our loyalty? Our gear? She could take anything she wants. This was the only deal on the table."

Mary stepped forward, her voice low but intense. "Fin, there had to be another way. This is reckless. You’re betting everything on a fight you might not win."

He finally glanced back, his eyes cold, devoid of the manic energy from earlier fights, replaced by something harder. "Do any of you have a brighter idea? Because I’m all ears. Otherwise, shut up and let me handle this."

The sharp retort silenced them. They exchanged uneasy glances – fear warring with the undeniable truth that he had, once again, created a path where there seemed to be none, however perilous. No one offered an alternative.

He turned back toward the court, letting out a slow breath. His eyes scanned the ranks of spider-kin. Choosing the right opponent was crucial. Not necessarily the weakest, but the one whose fighting style might offer him an exploitable edge.

"Alright," he murmured, mostly to himself, taking a step forward. "Who to choose—"

Shink.

A sound sharp and wet, cutting through the tense silence.

Fin froze. His eyes widened slightly, not in pain yet, but in stunned disbelief. He looked down.

A sword blade protruded from his chest, just below the collarbone, smeared crimson.

Time seemed to stutter. The reactions were slow, muted. Gary’s jaw dropped. Susan gasped, hand flying to her mouth. Mary took an involuntary step back, eyes wide with horror. Arachne, still huddled nearby, stared with a mixture of shock and something unreadable.

Slowly, agonizingly, he turned his head.

Hana stood directly behind him, her expression unnervingly calm, both hands gripping the hilt of her sword, driving it deeper. Her eyes held no malice, no anger – just cold, unwavering conviction.

His voice was a choked whisper, blood bubbling at his lips. "Hana... why?"

"You can’t be trusted," she stated, her voice flat, devoid of emotion. She met his shocked gaze without flinching. "That power... it went to your head. You defied orders, consort with the enemy, gamble with lives that aren’t yours to throw away."

She twisted the blade slightly, eliciting a choked gasp from him. "The mission objective is paramount. Your instability puts it at risk. I’ll handle the Queen. My way."

He stared at her, the life draining from his eyes, replaced by a profound, weary understanding. The betrayal wasn’t just physical; it was the confirmation of the suspicion he’d tried to ignore.

His knees buckled. His grip on his staff loosened, the weapon clattering against the polished stone floor. He collapsed forward, landing heavily, the sword still embedded in his back, pinning him like an insect.

Darkness crept in at the edges of his vision. Through the haze of pain and fading consciousness, he saw Hana stepping back, pulling her sword free with a wet rasp. He saw the stunned, horrified faces of his teammates.

He saw the Queen on her throne, watching the entire exchange with detached, clinical interest.

With his last ragged breath, he forced out two words, barely audible but heavy with bitter finality.

"You... fool."

Then his eyes rolled back, and he lay still on the cold floor of the Queen’s throne room.

Hana stood, breathing evenly, the bloody blade held loosely at her side. Fin lay motionless at her feet, the dark stain spreading rapidly on the floor.

Gary was the first to break the stunned silence, his voice a raw roar of disbelief. "Hana! What in the hell did you do?!"

Susan lurched forward, fury contorting her face. "Are you insane?! You killed him! Why?!"

Mary’s face was pale, her eyes wide with shock. "Hana... why?"

Lucas and Joe were frozen, staring from Fin’s fallen body to their leader, their previous fear of the Queen temporarily forgotten in the face of this betrayal.

Arachne stared at Fin, then at Hana, a strange mix of fear and dawning comprehension in her eyes. ’They truly turned on him,’ she thought, a morbid fascination replacing some of her terror.

Hana ignored them all. She wiped the blood from her sword with a deliberate motion on her sleeve, her gaze fixed on the Queen. She didn’t look at Fin, didn’t acknowledge her teammates’ horror.

She walked forward, her footsteps echoing slightly in the chamber, leaving the shocked group behind on the dais. She stopped at the foot of the Queen’s throne, kneeling on one knee, not in reverence, but formality.

"My Queen," she said, her voice clear and steady, addressing the figure on the throne directly. "The human who insulted you is dealt with. His challenge... I will take his place."

The spider guards lining the walls remained silent, but their eyes seemed to track Hana’s movement with predatory interest.

The Queen regarded her with those unnervingly calm eyes, a flicker of something unreadable crossing her face. "You kill your own kind. How... efficient."

"He was unstable," she stated, rising to stand at attention. "A threat to the mission."

"Ah, yes," the Queen said, her soft voice filling the space. "The ’mission’." She tilted her head slightly, her gaze drifting past Hana, back toward the entrance dais, lingering momentarily on the crumpled figure of Fin. "He seemed... more interesting than you, human. More potential."

Hana didn’t react. "He is irrelevant now. I accept the challenge he proposed. Your best warrior, against me."

The Queen’s delicate fingers tapped lightly on the arm of her throne. "Bold. And what reward do you seek for this... substitution? Your life and the lives of your companions are already forfeit. Merely walking away seems... insufficient payment for my entertainment."

She didn’t hesitate. She pointed across the chamber, to a small pedestal near the base of the Queen’s throne. Resting upon it was a dark, crystalline object, pulsing faintly with a deep, internal light. It was the device Hana’s tracker had been keyed to.

"That," she stated. "If I win, that is my prize. We walk away with that, and our lives."

The Queen followed Hana’s gaze to the pedestal. A genuine expression of surprise touched her face, brief but undeniable. Then, a slow smile spread across her lips, more amused than cold this time.

She reached out a slender hand, her fingers brushing against the dark crystal. The object seemed to hum in response to her touch. She lifted it, holding it up before her, the pulsing light reflecting in her eyes.

"Oh," she murmured, her voice laced with dry, unsettling amusement. "So that is what this is all about."

She looked from the crystal to Hana, then back to her gathered court, a knowing look in her eyes that sent a ripple of murmurs through the spider-kin.

"You... little humans," she sighed, shaking her head slightly as if at a child’s folly. "Do you even know what you seek?"

Hana remained impassive. "My orders are specific. I am to retrieve that object."

The Queen chuckled softly. "Orders. How predictable. Do you have any concept of its true nature? Of the power contained within? Of its origins?"

She didn’t reply. Her face remained a mask of cold determination.

The Queen’s expression sobered slightly, though the amusement didn’t entirely leave her eyes. She held the dark crystal aloft.

"This is a Mana Cell," she explained, her voice clear and resonant. "Unlike the trivial cores your kind extracts from common monsters, these are found only in the deepest reaches of the Abyss itself. Fragments of primal creation energy, condensed into crystalline form."

She turned the crystal, its facets catching the silvery light. "They hold power vast beyond your imagining. Enough to fuel weapons that could shatter cities. To warp reality. This one... this one is particularly potent. I found it long time ago, abandoned by a fool who did not comprehend its worth."

Her gaze sharpened, fixing on Hana. "And your masters... they sent you, a mere weak hunter, into my domain for this? Knowing what I am? Knowing where this came from?" She shook her head again, a look of something akin to pity crossing her features. "They are even more reckless than your fallen companion."

She lowered the Mana Cell slightly. "A Hunter... a mere human came into my domain with this," she mused aloud, though she seemed to be speaking more to herself than to Hana. "He did not know its potential. None of them did."

She looked at Hana again, her smile returning, predatory and sharp. "Very well, human. Your Guild values this bauble above your lives. You believe you can defeat my champion for it. An intriguing bargain."

She waved a hand towards her court. "Prepare yourselves. Let us see if this ’mission’ is worth the cost."

On the entrance dais, Mary, Gary, Susan, Joe, and Lucas stared, listening to the Queen’s words, their horror deepening with each revelation. Fin’s sacrifice, Hana’s betrayal, the true nature of the object they were risking their lives for... it was overwhelming.

They were pawns in a game far larger and deadlier than they could have ever imagined. And now, their only hope for survival rested on the cold, calculated capabilities of the woman who had just murdered their companion.

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