And then, she really saw one.
A monster that was a naked woman on top and a giant spider on bottom appeared!
The monster woman had reddish-purple hair that reached her waist. Her bangs covered half her face, and her beautiful red lips were smiling in a terrifying manner.
Her white skin made a sharp contrast with the pitch-black spider body. Her hands were reaching out as if she wanted to embrace something. Many bones were scattered under her eight spider legs. All the skulls’ hollow eyes seemed to be giving off the expression of fear.
Yukari’s excitement instantly cooled down!
An indescribable chill enveloped her.
She sensed that this spider woman was incredibly terrifying. Apart from sensing that the spider woman was strong, Yukari also felt an indescribable feeling of horror welling up from deep within her. This was far stronger than any instinctive sense of fear.
“Who… are you?”
“Heh heh heh~~”
The reddish-purple haired spider woman answered the purple-haired girl’s reflexive question with a chilly laugh.
Yukari felt her hairs standing up end from hearing this laugh. She wanted to turn around and escape.
But she then discovered that she had imperceptibly been tied up by spiderweb strands. She was unable to move!
An icy chill invaded her body, feeling like it was even reaching her soul.
Yukari struggled furiously to no avail.
The spider woman slowly edged closer, bringing along the smell of blood and corrosion. She stuck out her black tongue and licked her bright red lips.
“Don’t come over… don’t touch me… no…” Yukari started shouting out in terror, with her eyes wide open. She couldn’t stop herself from staring directly at the spider woman’s face.
Yukari felt like she knew who that was.
However, she was unwilling to admit it.
She was afraid. Yet, she was unable to deny it, which was why she couldn’t take her eyes away. She didn’t want to look, but she was unable to close her eyes.
The spider woman smiled widely and reached out to her, touching Yukari’s face…
“Yukari!”
The purple-haired girl snapped back to her senses.
She saw a handsome boy looking at her worriedly.
“Seiji…”
“What’s the matter? Are you alright?”
“I… just…”
“You just stopped moving, and you had an expression like you saw something terrifying…” Seiji looked directly at Yukari. “What exactly happened?”
He had noticed that something seemed off about the purple-haired girl’s condition, so he immediately went to protect her. He had called out to her several times, but received no response, so he created more flames to defeat all the spiritual monsters and reestablished his wall of fire.
Currently, Mika and Mayuzumi were dealing with the few spiritual monsters that made it through the flame wall. Kaede and Natsuya were standing next to Seiji, also looking at Yukari with concern.
“I suddenly saw a spider woman… the monster I told you about previously from the drawing,” Yukari finally spoke after a period of silence. “It was as if she really appeared before me. I saw her quite clearly, and I could even hear her voice and feel her breath…”
“I see… how are you currently feeling?”
“Right now… I’m alright.”
“Let’s have Natsuya give you a checkup,” Seiji suggested.
“No need, I’m fine.” Yukari shook her head. “I can still fight.”
“Are you certain?” Seiji asked in a serious tone.
Yukari fell silent.
“Did you actually notice something about that spider woman?” Seiji looked directly at Yukari.
Yukari was shaken within her heart by this. It showed on her face.
“If so, I hope that you can tell us about it. Everyone here is trustworthy,” Seiji continued.
Something flashed in Yukari’s eyes.
“I’m not sure… I just feel like…” She slowly began speaking. “That spider woman… that monster, it seemed like her true identity was myself.”
As she said this, Yukari felt like she could still sense the chill from earlier, causing her body to shiver.
The monster she saw looked just like herself. And, the monster’s image had come from a mysterious drawing that disappeared… Seiji felt like it was difficult to come to any conclusions from this alone. However…
“Let’s treat this as a warning,” Seiji told her. “You have to be careful about your own mental condition.”
It was possible for the Awakened to become Tainted and thus transform into monsters. This was a risk that couldn’t be forgotten.
Seiji told Yukari to get some rest. He then asked Kaede, Mika, and Mayuzumi if they all wanted to continue training here. All three replied in the affirmative.
Seiji strongly emphasized to everyone that they needed to speak up immediately if they felt like something was off about themselves. He told them absolutely not to force themselves to continue if they couldn’t! Only then did he reopen the flame wall to allow more spiritual monsters to enter.
Hitaka poured some tea for Yukari. After thanking Hitaka, Yukari took the tea and began drinking. She indeed felt much better after drinking the sweet and clear tea.
A warning… Thinking back, Yukari felt that she had indeed been too excited.
She had gotten addicted to the pleasure of slaying monsters and gaining experience. That was no good.
This wasn’t a game. It was a real-life battle. Game characters that obtained negative status effects or died could start over again. However, the real-life Yukari had no such ability at all. She reminded herself that she needed to be more careful.
She didn’t only need to be on guard about her physical condition. She also needed to watch out for her mental condition.
Yukari deeply self-reflected upon herself. As Seiji suggested, she treated this vision of herself as a monster as a warning from her body.
‘I absolutely can’t allow myself to become that type of monster!’ Yukari firmed her resolve.
After resting for a while, she requested to continue training again.
“I’ve returned,” a voice spoke from above.
Seiji lifted his head to see that it was Kazuko.
“Welcome back. How’s the current situation?”
Earlier, Kazuko had said that she was going deeper into the Domain to check the situation. She had taken a rather long time to return.
“I have some good news, and some bad news. Which would you like to hear first?” the brown-haired eyeglasses wearing girl said a classical phrase.
“What’s the bad news?” Seiji furrowed his eyebrows.
“My Domain has been connected to another Domain. Many powerful existences are in that Domain, and I wasn’t careful enough and was discovered by one such existence. She chased me all the way here.”
“…”
“The good news is that she’s really beautiful and has an amazing figure. You’ll definitely be happy when you see her!” Kazuko’s eyeglasses flashed.
“Happy, the hell!” Seiji retorted reflexively. “Who is she? What type of dimensional space is the other Domain?”
“I don’t know. I wanted to secretly take a look, but I was discovered right away. I didn’t learn anything except that there were many other powerful existences… She’s here!” Kazuko looked behind her.
The next second, Seiji sensed something as well. It was as if the entire atmosphere within Kazuko’s Domain had changed.
He faintly heard a wondrous sound that resembled ethereal singing, or the sound which came from an unknown instrument. The sound was elegant, beautiful, yet also mournful.
The spiritual monsters’ attacks suddenly became more powerful. There was an obvious increase in all the monsters’ individual speed and strength, to the point where they were now a threat to Yukari and the others.
Seiji instantly decided to cast his [Evolved Spirit Flames] to burn all the monsters to ash!
Judging from the monsters’ reaction and the aura he was sensing, this “she” which was coming was no human!
“Take them all out of the Domain!” He indicated towards the girls while talking to Kazuko. “The portal to exit isn’t blocked this time, is it?”
“It’s not blocked. It’s easy enough to send the girls out, but if I open the portal like this, it’s highly possible that she’ll be able to enter the real world as well.”
“What!? It’s possible for her to use your portal as well!?”
“I need you to suppress her before I open the portal—”
Kazuko didn’t even finish speaking when numerous large spiritual monsters rushed past the flame wall barrier. They all wielded enlarged weapons and attacked!
Shing… Mayuzumi had Idelia shoot out sharp icicle spears!
Whoosh… Kaede flapped her wings and created more Wind Blades!
Their AOE attacks combined to defeat most of the large spiritual monsters. Mika and Yukari dealt with the remaining ones with the black bands and thread manipulation.
However, a second wave of large spiritual monsters immediately rushed over!
Natsuya took action and released a tremendous amount of red spiritual blades at the group of monsters!
Hitaka joined in, accurately shooting all the monsters that her master’s blades had missed!
“I think that there’s no need to worry too much about them.” Kazuko adjusted her eyeglasses after witnessing this scene.