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Paliseth carried me ever deeper into Arachne Cavern. As we got deeper in, the amount of spiders we encountered only grew by the minute. From the initial head-sized spider, we began bumping into spiders the size of a small basin, to finally that of a large basin. Not only that, there were now monsters with the lower body of a spider and the upper body of Dark Elf following us.

These monsters were the Dryders I had heard about not too long. Being the monster that they were, they were naturally naked as well. Dryders had males and females, and no matter which gender they were, they were all above average in terms of appearance. Unfortunately, that only applied to their upper half…

For the most part, Dryders had a humanoid upper half except for their arms which were covered in a sturdy exoskeleton. Their hands were covered in the same exoskeleton that tapered out into a sharp claw reminiscent of a demon’s. Even in the relative darkness of the cave, I could see a dangerous glint off the tip of their claws, offering the glimpse of what fell fate would befall anyone unfortunate enough to cross their path.

In general, Dryders came out to be roughly two to three meters in height with the majority of that being due to their arachnid lower half. They had a variety of attack options available on top of their usual spider silk. Depending on their individual genes, they might even have some unique attacks.

For example, if the Dryder in question had the genes of a poisonous spider within him or her, any attack made would be laced with poison as well. Spiders with spiky carapaces would result in Dryders having the same characteristics as well. For these Dryders, the spikes would mostly manifest in their rear and came in at a shocking ten centimeters length and half a centimeter thickness.

These spikes weren’t particularly deadly on their own, but the sheer numbers available gave the Dryder a distinct advantage in battle. A Dryder activating this skill could easily cover an enemy’s field of vision in spikes. However, such an attack had a short duration as the Dryder only had so many spikes.

In essence, if such a Dryder suddenly turned his or her rear towards you, you could be sure that he was about to activate his ultimate weapon.

Other than the aforementioned two strains of Dryders, there were countless others as well but Paliseth did not go into further details. Instead, she ended up carrying to a horrific section of the cavern. As for what made this particular section so horrific, it was those spine-chilling cries in the air generated by the coupling of a monster spider and a female Dark elf.

As we got closer and closer to the source of this sound, the stench that assaulted my nose nearly left me retching in disgust. The scene itself was… graphic, to say the least… the kind that would forever haunt me in my dreams.

Furthermore, it had to be said the female vessels in this section were all mad. They had to be! They were either mad or twisted. Who knew if they were even able to reproduce at this point. Either way, they were either broken in the head or broken down there. Then there were those who had become soulless puppets, completely oblivious to the trauma around them.

Now that we had passed by that horrific breeding ground, the next area Paliseth carried me to could only be described as a cliff. Even though we were clearly in a giant cavernous system of tunnels, there was somehow a cliff-like formation that dropped off into a giant basin that contained nothing but a greyish mass of spider silk -disgusting.

“My dear, we’ve arrived.” She lowered me down onto the ground then smiled knowingly at me. Her slightly cold hands reached out to grasp my face and turned it till I had no choice but to face her. Staring right into my eyes, she said so in a teasing voice, “Such a beautiful little thing, if you weren’t so perfect, your big sister would have kept you to herself already.”

I curled my lips in annoyance. “I’d rather not. Compared to being your husband, I would much rather face a spider.”

“What do you mean husband? Your big sister is the husband in this relationship.”

“So does this count as Jezsere having contributed?” I said, ignoring her usual flirtatious teasing entirely.

“Are you worried that I would send her here?” At that point, she laughed heartily and said, “Don’t worry, I would never bear to send her here. That was just to scare her a little, it’s not my fault she’s like that…”

Naturally, I didn’t believe a word she said. After all, she had already cheated my innocent feelings once. Even so, what she said made sense as well -a tiger didn’t eat its own cubs. But these were the Dark Elves we were talking about… one couldn’t be too sure.

“My dear, I think you should be more worried about yourself.” Her voice turned icy cold at that point, following which I felt a shove on back and down I went. “Well, not like it matters now. The best has to be left for our goddess after all.”

The moment we reached cliffedge, I knew she was about to do something to me. The most likely scenario was that she pushed me off the cliff so that was what I prepared myself for. Honestly, even with my limbs and wings bound up, I still had a way to break free. At the same time that she pushed me off the cliff and I felt a sense of weightlessness, I wasn’t worried at all. This was all within my calculations.

Shadow Demon!

My shadow began to twist and turn into its own separate entity. The Shadow Demon’s first act was to transform its shadowy arm into a blade and slice apart the spider silk. Given that my Shadow Demon had merged with Shadowfang before, an Epic-grade weapon, it was only to be expected that it inherited that weapon’s sharpness, a fact that I only recently discovered.

No matter how strong Paliseth’s silk was, there was no way it could stand up to the sharpness of an Epic weapon.

Now that I had broken free of the silk, I immediately beat my wings to distance myself from Paliseth. Yet this escape plan of mine was doomed to failure from the start. She held absolute control over this situation, and without my Devil King Idol to protect me, I really wasn’t much of a threat to her.

“My dear, you can’t escape so you’d better behave.” She licked her lips seductively like she was recalling a particularly delicious memory. “If you’re too naughty, you might just get spanked.”

“You would have to catch me first then.” Now that I was free, I was more than confident enough to talk back to her. “I’ll leave the Devil King Idol with you for now. I’ll be back.”

I was done messing around that harlot; I quickly called out to Ferti’nier in my mind to summon the teleportation gate right now. Technically speaking, the point of me accepting the summons in the first place was to visit Nicole, Roscar and the others. But now wasn’t the time for such matters. At this rate, I might just end up being a sacrifice to the Spider Queen.

There’s no helping it, I’ll find another way to return. Ferti’nier, I need you to open the teleportation gate now. Any later and I can’t guarantee my safety.

“Alright, your big sis will get right to it.”

Her unexpected efficiency surprised me. At the same time, it made me feel like I had finally won, assuming she didn’t mess up at this point.

However, two seconds passed without anything happening… Why am I still staring at that spider lady’s disgusting mug? Also, what the heck is that growing black hole? Exactly how long more before I can return to Purgatory?

“So you still have a card to play, such a pity.”

Paliseth casually fired off a magical black orb at the slowly expanding black hole. A second later, a powerful shockwave blasted forth from the collision point, knocking me a good ten meters away and causing me to lose control of my body temporarily.

Following that, the black hole and that black orb both disappeared.

It’s gone?

‘Err… Ferti’nier, what’s going on? What the heck was that black hole? Don’t tell that was the teleportation gate back to Purgatory? Why was it just the size of a football?’

“Drats… it failed… such a pain. I just knew it would get destroyed before it could form completely.” Even though she said she was annoyed, I could hear a hint of excitement in her voice. “In that case, your big sis has to start over again.”

‘Hey, what are you getting all excited for? And was that really the gate back to purgatory? Exactly how long does it need to form? Don’t tell me it needs a year!’

“Relax, relax. Your big sis has already left a marking point in Sable Radiance before leaving. Thanks to the whole summoning ritual, your big sis only needs ten seconds to form the gate -really quick, right?”

‘Now’s not the time to play around! What do you mean you need ten seconds? Are you trying to get us killed here?!’

“But setting up a gate to cross dimensions requires time. Did you think it would be easy to create such a powerful gate?”

‘Blast it… why are you even talking down to me right now? Also, why the heck didn’t you tell me something so important from the start?!’

“You never asked.” She happily replied before launching into an explanation. “Let’s be clear here, little brother, the only reason your big sis is able to create such a gate so quickly is because of the special circumstances created by a summoning. If our little brother wasn’t a summoned Devil, one would normally need…”

‘Enough, enough. I don’t want to hear about any of that right now. All I want to know is what should we do now? There’s no way Paliseth will ever give us ten seconds to create a gate. And this is her homeground too… Can you stop fooling around already, my dear big sis? We’re about to die here!’

“But your big sis is already being serious.” Having said that, her tone began to take on its usual mischievous tone. “You know, little brother, if you get into trouble, your big sis will suffer as well. That’s why your big sis cannot be any more serious right now.”

‘Curse you, stop fooling around already. Even if I can’t see your face right now, I can clearly tell that you were winking when you said that you know!’

Shameless Self-promotion

Announcement: I’ve re-opened my Patreon in case anyone wants to sponsor more chapters. Every end of the month, those chapters in early access will be released for free for all to read. If you sponsored a chapter, you will gain permanent early access to these chapters. Essentially, everyone gets more chapters to read, but those who donated get to read earlier. More chapters will then be translated at the start of the month. Explanation on the Patreon itself.

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If you liked my work translating Devil’s Evolution Catalog, feel free to check out Song of Adolescence. Also, every comment is appreciated even though I might not reply. I do read them.