Spider

The sudden attack interrupted the man's actions and silenced his unspoken sarcastic remarks.

He stared wide-eyed at the Magic Armament dagger that had pierced through his chest, making "hoarse" sounds but unable to utter a single word. Blood spilled from his throat, causing him to cough involuntarily.

"Lantern, go check on that Aberrant Beast. If you can, subdue it. First, see if there are any survivors among those tumors."

Pulling out the dagger embedded in the enemy's heart, Larkspur mercilessly kicked him to the ground, bound the man with magical threads, and then directly cast several Fawo Runes onto the man's body, forming Anti-Magic Technique: "I'll interrogate this guy."

"Okay." The Lantern nodded, activated its magic, and soared into the air, charging straight at the pupa above.

Before long, the roars of the Aberrant Beast and the explosions of magic mingled together, clearly indicating that a battle had also broken out in the sky.

The Larkspur glanced up at the battle above, then looked down at the man she had bound to the ground with icy eyes. "Name, identity, purpose."

"Hah... hah..." However, the man was unable to answer. Blood continued to gush from his throat. He opened his mouth wide, stared at his eyes, and gasped for breath. It was clear that he was about to die.

He looked quite pitiful, but the Larkspur showed him no sympathy or empathy whatsoever, and simply watched him quietly.

Since entering this Nest, everything she had seen and known pointed to the same fact—that the man before her was a complete villain. Such a person did not deserve any sympathy.

She just stared at the man on the ground without saying a word.

After several seconds, looking at the man who still appeared half-dead but seemed to be struggling to survive, Larkspur spoke again, "Have you finished acting?"

These words seemed to serve as a signal. After staring at her for a while, the man on the ground finally stopped making any cryptic noises and instead slightly raised the corners of his mouth. "You're smarter than her, young lady."

"This is the first time I've heard of a human who could defeat Blossom Rank magical girl, but my intuition tells me that such a person shouldn't have ended up like this after having their heart pierced."

The Larkspur said coldly, "Now, I'll give you two choices. Tell me where the missing magical girl is and what your plans are, and you'll have the chance to commit suicide or be executed by me in one blow; or refuse to answer my questions. The Magic Kingdom has plenty of ways to make you talk, but you might not have a peaceful death."

The man relaxed his wide eyes, stared at the Larkspur in silence for a long time, paused slightly, and then sighed in relief, "Too bad, I don't like leggings."

His words startled Larkspur for a moment. After a while, she gradually realized what he meant and then looked down at her skirt.

"You don't seem to want a peaceful death?"

The Larkspur spoke, then knelt down, pressing her skirt. Magic threads coalesced into a dagger in her hand. She held it up to the man's eyes. "Or do you want me to do something rather inhumane before you'll answer my question?"

"I don't want to waste my time on scum, so I don't want to hear any more pointless nonsense from you. Tell me your choice in three seconds, or this dagger will blind you."

"One."

"Two."

"I said," the man tried to turn his head to the side, but the magical threads had already firmly fixed his body, making it impossible for him to move an inch, "You really have no mercy, much colder than those magical girls who came to see me before."

Sizzle!

"Ah!"

The dagger grazed the man's eye socket, severing his lower eyelid and causing him to scream in agony.

"Your eyes are saved, but your nonsense has caused you more pain."

The Larkspur removed the dagger. "Now, name, identity, purpose."

The man, panting for a long time, finally spoke weakly, "Spider, Ash Guard, collect nutrients."

"Explain these words you're using, don't give me riddles." Larkspur narrowed his eyes.

"You didn't know?" Hearing Larkspur's words, the man was slightly taken aback, then his gaze lingered on her face, revealing a somewhat enigmatic smile. "Interesting. Just like the code name that Blossom Rank used to refer to you, you are a caged bird, true to your name."

The Larkspur raised her dagger and slashed his lip.

"Hmm!" the man couldn't help but groan again.

"Are you trying to provoke me by using my code name?"

She tossed the dagger aside, and magical threads coalesced into a new one. Larkspur raised her voice slightly, "I don't really mind if you continue, but time is limited. I hope you'll stop with the nonsense, otherwise my promises will be meaningless by the time the interrogation ends."

"... Spider is my code name."

Seeing that the Larkspur remained completely unmoved by his provocation, the man finally admitted somewhat honestly, "My identity is that of a Palace Ash Guard, so I have my own code name."

"Palace Ash Guard? Is this your social class?" Larkspur asked coldly.

"The Courtfront Ash Soldiers, the Ash Guard before the Palace, the Royal Ash Attendants"

The man, panting, uttered three words: "This is no secret, especially for your Investigation Institute; it should already be open information."

Without a word, the Larkspur raised her dagger, and the man immediately shrank back, saying, "I understand! I'll talk! Don't do anything!"

Seeing that Larkspur had lowered her hand again, he breathed a sigh of relief and continued to explain, "The three identities are arranged from lowest to highest. The lowest level is the Ash Soldier, followed by the Ash Guard, and the highest level is the Ash Attendant."

"The Courtfront Ash Soldiers are just the most ordinary members. They don't have their own code names, only numbers. For example, among my subordinates, the Ash Soldier who specialize in combat are prefixed with 'Battle Spider,' and with their numbers, they are Battle Spider One, Battle Spider Two, and so on..."

"The Palace Ash Guard can obtain their own code names and, as mid-level personnel, command a portion of the Ash Soldier."

"The Royal Ash Attendants is the person closest to the core of power, and is also synonymous with great power. He often Control Stage an entire region under his command."

"An entire area?"

His words made Larkspur realize something, and she pressed further, "Is the southern Eastern Hua Prefecture considered a region?"

"Yes, of course it counts." The man codenamed Spider chuckled. "But I don't know exactly how many districts there are. That's not something we Ash Guard would know."

"So who is the leader of Black Ash Dawn in this area?" Larkspur stared into his eyes.

"I don't know," the spider said with a smile.

A flash of cold light, and another wound appeared on his abdomen.

"Ah!"

He cried out in pain again, but this time he didn't tell the truth as before. Instead, his face covered in cold sweat, he said, "I... I can't say it."

"Can't say it?"

Larkspur frowned slightly. "Perhaps I should stab you in a more painful spot next, to help you remember?"

"It's not... a memory, it's that I... can't say it, can't do it."

Spider spoke haltingly, his face flushed. "I cannot tell the magical girl his name. It is his order, and I cannot disobey it."

"Disobeying orders will get you killed, and refusing to answer my questions here will also get you killed. Which do you think is better?"

Larkspur calmly asked, "Perhaps you could describe the consequences of disobeying orders, and I'll try to go even further than your superiors."

"I've already said... we cannot disobey our superiors."

The spider continued, panting, "Just as a lower-ranking beast cannot defy a higher-ranking beast, this is a hierarchy of life, an insurmountable ladder."

"You mean to say that your superiors' orders to you are absolute, and have nothing to do with your will?"

The Larkspur raised an eyebrow. "Similar to Aberrant Beast? Do you really consider yourselves Aberrant Beast?"

"We should regard the power of beasts as a ladder for our progress, and what's wrong with climbing the path of human power?"

After the pain subsided, the spider's voice gradually calmed. "You magical girls would never understand."

"I don't intend to understand the monster's thoughts; I just want to know what you've done."

The Larkspur remained unmoved. "Continue. Explain your purpose clearly. What exactly is this 'collecting nutrients'?"

"That's right, hunting for food for beasts."

The spider's gaze shifted upwards, watching the spider -Aberrant Beast battling the Lantern and clearly at a disadvantage. A sinister glint flashed in its eyes. "Beasts can devour any life form possessing magic. Even the most dull-witted ordinary person has a trace of magic within them. Although it's better than nothing, it can accumulate over time."

"If we want to increase efficiency, then we should find food with more powerful magic, such as other beasts, the Mana Source of Fairy, or..."

At this point, his gaze fell on the Larkspur's collar, noticing the Heart Gem that flickered across her neck. He swallowed hard and said, "Your Mana Source."

The Larkspur remained silent for a long time.

She stared at the spider for a long time before speaking again, "You really are a bunch of beasts."

What the spiders said is not difficult to understand. In other words, the "nourishment" they seek is essentially all life forms that possess magic. Whether it is humans, Fairy, magical girls, or cannibalism with other Aberrant Beast, these are all existing facts.

"This is the reality of this world."

The spider said somewhat nonchalantly, "Without the power to protect itself, it will eventually be devoured."

"Were you responsible for the magical girl disappearances in Eastern Hua Prefecture over the past two years?"

Larkspur gripped the dagger tightly in her hand. "Where is the investigation team that came to Bai'an City before?

"It was all us? Who knows? But in Bai'an City, it was probably all me who did it."

Spider stared blankly at the sky, a smile playing on his lips, "It's just a pity I couldn't capture those new magical girls here. I had just trapped that troublesome Blossom Rank when you arrived. Otherwise, once I killed her, all the Heart Gem of this city would be mine."

You won't have another chance like this.

Larkspur said coldly, "Tell me where the investigation team is, and I'll give you a quick death."

"Investigation team? Ah, you mean those stupid magical girls who came to interrogate me a few days ago?"

Spider's gaze shifted, gradually focusing on Larkspur's face. "You've been asking me about their whereabouts from the very beginning, why is that? Are your colleagues in the Investigation Institute really that important to you, Cornflower?"

The Larkspur's breathing became slightly sluggish.

Although his words were inquiring, he wasn't actually asking the Larkspur a question; when he gave the code name "Cornflower," he used an extremely certain tone.

The Lantern had called out "Larkspur" before, so he had reason to know the code name "Larkspur." But no one had ever mentioned the code name "Cornflower" to this man.

It's possible the Cat-Tail Squad mentioned this codename before, but why? What reason would they have to mention themselves in front of this man?

"You seem to recognize me?"

The Larkspur lowered her voice and raised the dagger again. "Very well, now you have one more thing to explain. I hope the answer to this question will also satisfy me."

"I know you, that's not surprising, young lady. You seem to have a slight misunderstanding about your own fame."

Spider slightly raised her eyes. "However, I am quite surprised that the Investigation Institute would send you to investigate this matter, and that you would come knocking on my door so quickly. This is indeed not what I expected."

"I'll say it again, stop talking nonsense." Larkspur pressed the dagger against his chin.

"I'm not talking nonsense, I'm telling the truth."

The spider suddenly met the Larkspur's gaze, looking intently into her eyes. "I just wanted to tell you that you weren't originally my prey."

The Larkspur met his gaze without flinching, her cold eyes burning with a fierce fire, carrying an aura that seemed intent on incinerating the person before her.

She stopped speaking and instead thrust the dagger upwards.

This time, however, the dagger failed to pierce the spider's skin.

"... See, I told you, I wasn't talking nonsense."

Spider's face, which had been deathly pale from blood loss, regained some color. He grinned again, but this time with a hint of coldness. "You've been talking too much nonsense, young lady."

"--Senior Larkspur!"

The next moment, a cry of Lantern came from high above.

Almost simultaneously with hearing those two voices, the Larkspur felt a sense of impending danger, and immediately released the dagger in her hand. In an instant, her Magic Armament transformed into a square protective shell, completely protecting her.

Immediately afterwards, purplish-black magic surged down from the sky, and blood and flesh threads, appearing from nowhere, coiled down from the air, tightly binding the Magic Armament protective shell that the Larkspur was wearing.

A white spider, several meters tall, descended from the sky on a silken thread, slowly landing beside the spider. Then, it lifted its limbs and placed the spider on its back.

The spider sat on the white spider's back, then suddenly looked up at the sky again, muttering to itself, "Alright, your mission is complete."

As his words fell, the Pupa Stage Aberrant Beast, which had been hanging on the giant Spiderweb and battling the Lantern, suddenly let out a mournful howl. Its already riddled body went limp in an instant and fell straight into the web it had woven.

The man codenamed Spider straightened up from the white spider's back and reached for his neck, but the magic Spell Formula that Anti-Magic Technique suddenly repelled his hand, causing a hint of displeasure to appear on his face.

However, he quickly put these minor unpleasant feelings aside, looked at the Larkspur trapped in the Magic Armament, and spoke once more:

"You see, I wasn't talking nonsense. Just as I said, the commands of higher-level Aberrant Beast are absolute to lower-level Aberrant Beast."

These words made Lark pause, as he was about to transform into his Magic Armament form again and cut through the Larkspur around him.

"A high-level Aberrant Beast..." Realizing something, she looked up at the spider, "I was wondering why this Nest never seemed like a pupa's Nest from the very beginning."

"Your intuition is really sharp."

The spider, perched atop the white spider's back, gently stroked the Aberrant Beast beneath it. "Pupa Stage Aberrant Beast can command the caterpillars and eggs gathered in its Nest, then why can't the pupa itself be commanded?"

As if in response to his words, the spider- Aberrant Beast beneath him raised its head and cried out again towards the sky. Then, the giant spider that had been lying on the Spiderweb trembled all over, and after a series of convulsions, it became completely still.

"That Aberrant Beast was not the culprit behind this incident at all; it was merely a tool."

The Larkspur looked up for a moment, then looked down at the spider and said, "You merely controlled it, borrowed its Nest, and turned Nest into your own hunting tool."

Spider smiled slightly.

"You keep asking me where those silly magical girls went."

He spoke, and with a sudden twist of his hand, he tore a piece of purplish-black flesh from the back of the White Spider Aberrant Beast amidst its hissing.

The purplish-black flesh, detached from the Aberrant Beast, was still throbbing. The spider gazed at the flesh with fascination, then slowly pressed it against its chest.

"You will be the one to witness the answer."

"This is the time to eliminate traitors and rebels."