World's Last Hope-Chapter 57: Free
"Don’t you dare give out!" he cursed as he looked at his severely injured left hand.
He had been clutching the tree branch for what felt like hours, but it could have easily been just a few minutes.
"There’s no way I’m letting go before the storm stops!" he hyped himself up as he tightened the muscles in his arms and legs, reluctant to let go.
By the end, his muscles were beyond exhausted, but after what felt like an eternity, the rain finally slowed down and stopped.
Eric awkwardly got back to the top of the tree branch. He rested his back against the tree and let out a long, tired sigh of relief.
"It’s not over yet," he muttered as he got back up.
He had to see what the situation was with the spider.
Was it still there? Was it sleeping?
Silently climbing to the other side of the tree, his eyes widened in disbelief.
"Huh, the bastard caught something."
In the massive web that the spider had created, there was a weird-looking monster with torn wings.
It seemed the first thing the spider had done was tear its limbs apart, making it impossible for its prey to escape.
The spider had cruelly sunk down its mouth on the monster caught in its trap and was wildly drinking its insides.
It must have been excruciatingly painful to feel something drinking your organs while you were still alive, but Eric couldn’t find time to sympathize with the monster, as he was too busy getting back down.
’I’m free!’ he thought, climbing down as fast as possible.
’The spider is busy eating, so even if I’m exposed, it should surely miss me... hopefully.’
Getting back on the ground, Eric wanted to kiss it, as he had missed it so much.
But he didn’t have the time for that as he dashed forward in the direction he hoped the cathedral was, trying to get as far away as humanly possible from the damned creature.
"Faster! Faster!" Eric muttered under his breath as he ran with everything he had.
Despite being dehydrated, sweat began to form on his forehead.
He grimaced in regret as he was getting closer to dying from thirst, but with no choice, he kept on running.
Gasping desperately for air, he placed his hands on his knees. "I have to be far enough... I hope," he muttered under his tired breath.
His encounter with the giant spider was short and horrifying, but Eric had managed to learn something valuable.
"There isn’t one parent... there are dozens." This was the conclusion he came to.
Even if the spider was giant in size, Eric doubted that the creatures could produce so many cocoons scattered all around the forest.
"Water... water..." Eric was exhausted and wanted to sleep, but he feared if he went to sleep, he wouldn’t wake up, as his body was in desperate need of water.
Walking forward with everything he had and stumbling dozens of times, he pressed on with the hope of finding something drinkable.
"Come on! There has to be..." His voice was weak and tired.
But suddenly, hearing a distant sound, his eyes widened as his steps quickened.
"Is that? Is that?" he muttered in disbelief, searching for the source of the sound.
"River!" he grinned, like a child in a candy store. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮
He was about to dive into the water but, remembering the acid rain, he stopped and looked at the water cautiously.
"Is the water drinkable?" he muttered.
He didn’t know how to tell if the water was drinkable or not.
"It’s clear, but what if there are harmful bacteria in it?" he asked his system as nothing else came to mind.
[The water is most likely infected. Drinking it would lead to agonizing death.]
"But if I don’t, I will die from thirst," he muttered, deep in thought.
[It is possible to heal it from the corruption.]
The system suddenly advised, which made Eric raise an eyebrow.
"How?" he asked skeptically.
[You have a miracle for it.]
"A miracle?" His eyebrows furrowed as he looked at his miracles.
"One is for healing people... so the only possible one is..."
-----
[The Nature is Mother to All]
Desperation: Isn’t life all the same? Does it matter whether it’s a moving organism or a plant?
Positives:
You can heal nature from corruption and exhaustion.
Your healing significantly speeds up plant growth.
Negatives:
How could a miracle from God have a downside?
-----
"Nature? Is water considered nature as well?" he muttered. It didn’t make sense, but at the same time, it did.
Nature wouldn’t exist without water, so it could be considered that water was part of nature. As such, in theory, he should be able to heal it.
"Here we go, I guess," he spoke as he used both hands to scoop some water into his palms.
Concentrating the same way he did when he healed the soil before, the water in his palms glowed slightly.
"Did it work?"
There was no answer, so left with no choice, he brought it to his mouth and drank greedily.
"Mother of God," he spoke as his eyes widened in awe.
This was, without a doubt, the most refreshing drink of his entire life.
Eric spent the next ten minutes drinking water from his palms, feeling his body regain its vigor.
He would have been in good condition if he wasn’t about to pass out from using his miracle so many times.
After he was done, he sat down, resting his back on a nearby rock, as he sighed.
"I guess I will not die just yet..."
Now feeling better, he scanned his surroundings, only to see that the trees had grown even taller.
"Holy shit, how tall are they now? 500 meters? More?"
He would have been more impressed if it weren’t for one cocoon where his eyes stopped.
"How the hell?"
Up until now, the biggest cocoon he had seen was about three meters, but the thing that he was looking at right now...
"This monstrosity is at least 40 meters tall..."
His body shivered.
He wasn’t scared of the creature that was in the cocoon.
The question was, if a cocoon of such grand scale existed...
How big were its parents?
