Chapter 80 - Seven days and Seven nights
Ariel stood some distance away.
Lilia had decided it wasn’t safe for her to fire from the higher sections of the temple anymore. The structure had grown unstable — too many cracks, too much strain from previous nights.
So Ariel remained on the ground.
With Lilia.
Their ranged defense.
As Lilia stepped forward, Ryn ahead of her, she turned back toward Ariel.
“You don’t have to use your power,” Lilia started. “It’s—”
She hesitated.
The rest of the sentence didn’t feel honest.
Ariel smiled faintly.
“It’s fine,” she said. “It’s what I can and have to do.”
Lilia’s mouth opened as if to argue.
But nothing came.
She only nodded.
“...okay”
And followed Ryn into position.
Ariel watched them go.
The golden cracks along her skin had passed her upper lip now, thin lines stretching slowly toward her nose.
Each pulse felt tighter.
Hotter.
There wasn’t much strategy left to discuss tonight.
Just repetition.
She had seen Lilia pacing earlier, frustration visible in every step as she tried — and failed — to think of something new.
There wasn’t anything.
Ariel tilted her head back as the six suns began to dim.
Their light shifted from pale gold—
To red—
To something darker—
Until black and shadow swallowed the field.
The torches they had placed earlier flickered, casting uneven halos of orange light across the grass and broken stone.
Beyond that glow—
Only darkness.
Night seven.
Ariel breathed hard.
The air grew sharper.
Colder.
The familiar voice rang through her mind.
[Seventh challenge begins.]
Just like it always had.
A chill ran down her spine.
Just like it always had—
No…
Something was different.
Her Blessing had always made her sensitive to aberrations— a pressure in the air, a wrongness against her skin. But this one was different.—
Hungrier.
Slimier.
Wrong in a way the others hadn’t been.
Her eyes darted across the darkness.
Lilia and Ryn stood ahead of her. Lilia held a torch in one hand, flame shaking slightly. Ryn had his sword drawn, scanning the field.
They didn’t feel it.
Ariel swallowed.
Where—
She heard it.
A chittering sound.
Loud.
Rapid.
Too many moving parts.
Her head snapped toward the temple.
Her pupils dilated.
And she saw it.
Crawling along the upper wall.
Eight legs.
Long. Angular. Jointed too many times.
Its body was Large, low, and wide, plated in a dark sheen that reflected torchlight like wet stone. Veins of faint blue pulsed beneath its exoskeleton.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Six red eyes gleamed along the front of its head — not symmetrical. Not even aligned properly.
They all focused at once.
On them.
“Ryn! Lilia!” Ariel shouted.
The aberration froze.
Then it's back arched.
Fine, needle-like hairs rose along its spine.
And it fired.
Ariel swore internally and dropped low.
Spikes tore through the air above her, close enough that she felt the wind of them skim past her hair.
They weren’t precise.
Not like the previous ranged aberration.
But there were more of them.
Far more.
They scattered outward in wide arcs, embedding into stone and grass alike.
Area control.
Her mind registered it instantly.
Her head snapped behind her.
Lilia—
But Ryn had already moved.
He’d deflected two mid-flight, the rest striking short and embedding into the earth before they could reach her.
They were low.
Good.
The chittering grew louder.
Then—
Heavy, drum-like impacts.
The spider aberration descended from the temple wall.
Each leg struck with force, cracking stone as it ran straight toward them.
Ariel pushed herself upright.
No.
This was good.
It was large.
Fast.
Direct.
That was good.
She would only get one shot.
If she wanted enough strength left to heal Ryn and Lilia later—
One.
She steadied her breathing.
Raised her hand.
Aimed carefully.
The creature barreled forward, tearing grass apart beneath its weight, legs digging deep into the earth as it lunged.
Ariel fired.
White light erupted from her palm, cutting through the dark like a spear of dawn.
It struck the creature head-on.
For a moment, its body lifted slightly from the force.
Legs skidding backward.
The air shimmered around it—
Then the light began to fade.
The glow slid across its surface.
And dissipated.
No burn.
No fracture.
No crack.
The aberration lowered itself again.
Unharmed.
The attack had bounced off.
“Huh—” The sound slipped from her, small and disbelieving, her mouth still parted.
She barely had time to process it before the pain came.
It lanced through her chest without warning, sharp and deep, stealing the air from her lungs.
Ariel’s hand flew to her tunic, fingers twisting the fabric tight over her sternum as if she could hold herself together.
“Not, now…” she whispered under her breath.
Not yet.
She looked up.
The creature was already charging again, faster now, earth splitting beneath its weight.
Damn.
Suddenly, arms wrapped around her.
Lilia.
The world lurched as she was lifted clean off her feet. Air blurring past her face
The aberration’s elongated, pointed limbs speared into the earth where she had stood a breath earlier, the impact splitting soil, spraying dirt in a violent ring.
Lilia ran.
Barely.
“Immunity? No way—!” she shouted over the thunder of pursuit. “Is that even possible?!”
Ariel didn’t answer.
Her teeth were clenched too tight.
Behind them, the creature gave chase. All eight limbs struck in relentless rhythm — drumming, pounding, cracking the ground apart as it gained.
Too fast.
Ariel’s hand rose weakly.
Maybe at close range—
Maybe if she concentrated it—
Maybe—
Light gathered.
Lilia felt the shift — the air thinning, heat blooming against her shoulder.
She turned her head sharply. “Ariel, what the—”
Ariel fired.
The blast erupted at point-blank range.
The recoil tore them out of the air.
They were thrown back together, Lilia tumbled across the grass.
Even as she fell, Ariel dragged her arm through the motion.
The light bent with her.
It carved a sharp arc across the dark — a crescent of white slicing outward as gravity pulled her down.
It struck.
But as if the power of a celestial’s blessing meant nothing, the aberration drove its head straight through the crescent of light.
The arc shattered around it.
It screeched, sharp, splitting, furious.
Ariel remained on her knees.
No.
There’s no way.
There’s no way… right?
This can’t be happening.
She felt it.
The cracks.
Spreading.
The fractures had climbed higher now — across her cheeks, reaching the bridge of her nose. Thin lines of dim gold against skin that no longer felt entirely her own.
Pain tore through her body, vicious and unrelenting. Each breath scraped her lungs raw. But that wasn’t even what hurt.
Ariel groaned hard and dragged trembling fingers through her hair.
From behind her—
“Ariel, that’s enough!” Lilia’s voice broke, closer now. “It’s useless. Don’t fire anymore. Please.”
Ariel’s breathing came ragged. Uneven.
Footsteps thundered past them.
Fast.
A flash of steel split the dark.
Ryn.
He struck one of the creature’s towering legs — blade biting deep with a clean, practiced arc.
The aberration shrieked.
Ryn didn’t hesitate. He slid beneath its counterstrike, its elongated limb slamming into the ground where he had stood a second before. Dirt exploded upward.
He pivoted.
Struck again.
Another leg.
The creature staggered, its massive frame lurching as balance faltered for the briefest opening.
Ryn didn’t press it.
He ran back toward them.
“Ariel. Lilia. Get up.”
His voice was tight.
“We need to think of something.”
Lilia hauled Ariel upward, one arm braced firmly around her waist. Ariel’s legs barely cooperated.
Lilia’s breaths were coming faster now, too.
"Your light doesn't work on it," she said.
Ariel’s voice came out thin.
"No..." She paused, breathing hard. "How can that be?"
Neither Ryn nor Lilia answered.
The aberration steadied itself again.
“That’s not the worst of it,” Ryn muttered.
The wounds Ryn had carved into its legs — deep, clean cuts that should have slowed it —
Were already knitting closed.
Flesh pulling together.
Sealing.
Lilia stared.
“That’s too unfair… isn’t it…?”
Ryn clicked his tongue
“Tsk.”
