1. Across Eternity: Book 5 - Chapter 6


    Date: 4/7/2024, Categories: Fantasy Author: Sage_of_the_Forlorn_Path

    ... scuttling of their long legs and saw them move through the webbing; giant spiders, each with an abdomen the size of a human head. Upon closer examination, Noah realized that they were actually severed heads from humans and beastmen, with eight legs growing out of the stumps of the necks. They scurried along, the faces twitching with each step as though through electrical stimulation, and the mouths voicing silent words while the milky dead eyes stared into the distance. Noah wasn't sure whether the spiders were using the heads like hermit crabs wearing shells or if the heads had actually transformed into spiders, but he was careful not to get closer than he needed to. Fortunately, despite standing on their threads, they seemed unable to detect him.
    
    The more Noah looked around, the more daunting the challenge of freeing everyone became. This wasn’t a matter of simply slitting some throats and unlocking a few doors while invisible. Between the high security and the poisoned atmosphere draining the strength of those without parasites, it would take something drastic to bring this place down. He continued deeper into the city, towards the palace built into the side of the mountain. The once great dwarven masonry was unrecognizable beneath the layers of webbing, and the statues of former lords now stood cocooned, their stone faces gaunt and hopeless. Once a dignified architectural wonder, the palace itself was now just a tunnel leading ever deeper into this dark hell.
    
    As ...
    ... he progressed through the palace, Noah noticed that significant renovations had been done, accommodating pipes and cables like he had seen used in Pack labs. Here, the webbing was thinner to not obstruct the magical tech and infrastructure. Noah entered a cavernous chamber filled with colossal tanks, each the size of a house and filled with an opaque liquid. A series of catwalks stretched across the room above the tanks, where, from above, Noah could see the swarms of parasites swimming around. Technicians were busy testing the liquid and examining the parasites to ensure everything was as it should be.
    
    Before Noah could advance, an alarm rang out, and he feared he had been discovered. However, none of the technicians seemed worried, and Noah noticed several large pipes lowering from the ceiling over the tanks. A great rumbling was heard, and a deluge of blood, broken bones, and ground meat poured out of the pipes and into the tanks, as if chumming the water to draw in sharks. The surface frothed as the parasites went into a feeding frenzy, leaving no bit of viscera uneaten. This chamber was a nursery for the parasites.
    
    A dark aura, powerful and oppressive, filled the room, similar to what Noah felt when he fought Tysinger. He looked down over the catwalk's edge, seeing a pair of double doors open and two figures enter. One was a male ghoul in a lab coat, while the other was a fiend with a centaur-like body, but instead of a horse, she was a spider. Like a black widow, ...
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