Souls Online: Mythic Ascension
Chapter 139: The Spider Beneath the Skin

Chapter 139: The Spider Beneath the Skin

Seeing Arachne suddenly switching from a stoic guardian of sorts to an unhinged maniac who couldn’t stop smiling.

"What do you mean by that?! Is everyone in his family like this?! Like did she seriously just come here to threaten us?!"

Arachne tilted her head back, the echo of her laugh finally subsiding into a low, guttural hum of satisfaction. She sauntered forward a step, a finger pressing against her chin as insanity glimmered in her eyes.

"She did more than threaten. She hungered, little Songbird. Like a serpent in heat. That kind of madness..."

Her voice lowered into something almost sensual, but wholly predatory.

"Is twisted and delicious~! Even more so knowing the target of her desires is her own brother."

Aria looked wholly disgusted by the very notion of that and felt some annoyance that she herself was getting dragged into it as well. But what bothered her most was how Arachne was behaving.

"Why are you acting like this Arachne? You’re kind of scaring me..."

Arachne cocked her head as her body twitched. Aria flinched as Arachne’s eyes glowed before they split into 4 smaller pupils.

"Acting~? No. I am just returning to my origin~"

Aria took a step back as Arachne’s presence became darker, heavier and malicious. Ominous cracking noises came from her body.

’What in the actual fuck?! Is Adam dealing with this in his head all the time?’

However despite all of that, Arachne did not try to reach out to grab Aria and the more she thought about it, the less it made sense.

’Could it be...?’

She felt her mouth dry as she nervously opened up her mouth and asked

"Arachne...could it be that you are actually angry?"

For a second, Aria detected a slight hesitation, a flicker of something in Arachne’s crazed gaze.

"Now why would you say that Little Songbird? I have no reason to be mad~!"

Aria wasn’t buying it, growing a bit bolder as she thought about what could have set Arachne off like this.

"I might be imagining it here but I think you are mad...or at the very least jealous."

Arachne’s eyes grew cold as she glared at Aria with all 8 pupils.

"Speak your next words carefully Child. They may be your last."

"The way I see it, you see Adam as yours and you seem like the type to not take kindly to those who wish to take what’s yours."

There was silence as Arachne began to tremble in place, the faint noise of bones snapping still echoed in the room. Just as panic was about to set in, Arachne reared her head and began to laugh uproariously.

"Very good Little Songbird! Perhaps you are right"

Arachne once again glared at Aria, however the 8 pupils returned to 2 and the redness was fading to a familiar amber color.

The pitch of her voice was dropping with each passing second as Aria realized that Adam was returning to the surface. While a wave of relief quietly surged from the depths of her heart, she still felt uneasy.

"Songbird, you have caught my interest. As long as you remain friends with this little serpent, I shall aid you where I can. Yet if you dare betray him, I will skin you alive and force you to live for eons with the pain of your flesh being slowly melted."

Aria didn’t breathe as it felt thick like it was made of heavy water.

Not when Arachne’s shadow loomed over her like a guillotine. Not when the room pulsed with the lingering madness of something ancient and unhinged. Even as the red bled from her eyes and that too-wide grin softened into something less feral—something Adam-like—Aria’s instincts screamed at her to run.

But she didn’t.

She stood rooted, the weight of those words pinning her in place.

Not a threat. A promise.

Arachne’s form had shifted—subtly. Her twitching had calmed, her joints no longer audibly straining against some grotesque transformation. The voice, too, was stabilizing: less manic, more deliberate, returning to a deeper, calmer and charismatic tone.

"I..."

Aria swallowed, forcing herself to speak through the lump forming in her throat.

"I wouldn’t betray him."

A beat of silence.

Then came a hum. Deep. Resonant.

"Good,"

Arachne purred, brushing a finger along Aria’s cheek in a way that felt both maternal and murderously possessive.

"Because he believes in you and his friends. That alone earns you the thin veil of mercy I have left."

Aria’s face felt cold where Arachne touched. She was rooted in place as she met Arachne’s fading gaze.

"I shall take my leave now as my little Snake is about to wake up. You may tell him what happened if you wish. I shall permit it..."

And with a blink, the air returned to normal and Aria could finally breathe again. She gasped for breath as she realized that she had been sweating profusely. From what she could tell, Arachne had held some sort of dignity that resembled the woman she had met in the game.

’Is Arachne actually a real goddess?!’

The thought alone terrified her as if that was true, she had faced off against a goddess and survived. But that also raised more questions. If Arachne was a real goddess, how could she appear in the real world? Did that mean there were other gods? Would they manifest the same way that Arachne did?

Her thoughts were like a maelstrom but Adam’s familiar voice dragged her out.

"Owwwww! What in the actual fuck happened?"

He groaned as he dropped to his knees, clearly in immense amounts of pain. Immediately Aria rushed to his side in an attempt to check up on him.

"Adam! You have no idea how glad I am to see you!"

She confessed as she kneeled next to him with her hand on his shoulder.

"Are you okay? Are you feeling alright?"

She asked with some trepidation.

"Yeah...I’ll live. But tell me...What happened? I remember talking to Arachne and then suddenly I was out..."

Aria looked a bit sheepish as she awkwardly averted her gaze.

"Quite a bit honestly. I met two members of your family, Kyle and Melanie"

"What?!"

Adam was instantly on alert as concern welled up in his eyes. Getting involved with any of his family members was not a good sign and in her case, it was two of them!

"Oh I am fine. Arachne protected me."

"..She did?"

Adam was confused as the idea that she was helpful to someone else was entirely off brand for her...

"Yeah. Though I think the reason you’re in pain is because of what she did when she was using your body..."

A sense of foreboding bubbled up as Aria scratched her cheek.

"She...uhh kinda turned you into a girl...Though I think she put you back together!"

His face blanked, brain shutting down as his brain failed to compute what it heard.

’What in the actual fuck Arachne!’

He could only scream in his heart. Closing his eyes, he pinched the bridge of his nose and said

"Okay...We are going to head out...But while we walk, I am going to need more details."

"Sure thing"

Aria was grateful for that. Finally they were going to get out of this damned building

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