World's Last Hope-Chapter 60: Butterfly

Below him were heard the sounds of the butterfly and how it began to tear the colossal spider apart in order to eat it.

Eric tried not to pay it much attention.

In fact, he was trying not to look down at all.

He was currently a few hundred meters high from the ground, so he feared that just looking down would make him lightheaded and accidentally slip, falling to his death.

There was no need to get down yet, as even if he could, the ground below was still covered in the spider’s acidic blood, so he couldn’t even step on it.

All he could do was lay on his back, feeling the rough texture of his cursed armor, which he had grown used to, and wait for time to pass.

A few minutes passed, then a few hours, yet the noises of the butterfly devouring its prey persisted. Eric was growing impatient.

’I know you’re big, but how much time do you need to eat, for god’s sake?’

Despite knowing it was a bad idea, Eric shifted his gaze downward.

The sight made him gag, but he forced himself not to vomit—he didn’t want to waste the little energy he had left.

It seemed the butterfly wasn’t eating anymore. Instead...

’This has to be some sort of joke,’ he thought, grimacing at the scene below.

The armor—or what Eric presumed to be the spider’s armor—was torn open.

The insides of the spider were laid bare on the ground, while its head had somehow been attached to the trunk of a tree.

The butterfly abruptly flapped its wings, rising into the air, before landing on the spider’s head. It spread its wings as much as possible, then produced a loud, menacing roar.

Eric was forced to stop looking as he tried to cover his ears, which were beginning to bleed from the assault of the violent sound.

"What the hell is it doing?" he muttered under his breath in frustration.

’If the thing below is so loud, I don’t see the point in being as quiet as possible.’

Eric came to a grim realization as the butterfly ended its roar, inhaled deeply—if it even breathed at all—and produced another loud, earth-shattering roar.

The assault on Eric’s ears lasted for about an hour and a half.

By the end, he was left hearing ringing noises in his ears.

While this would have been dire news for most, he was relieved to be able to hear anything at all, even with all the blood that had poured down from his ears.

Due to the blood loss, he was feeling lightheaded, most likely about to collapse into sleep, but he couldn’t allow himself to do that before discovering the reason the butterfly had been screaming for so long.

Shifting his gaze, his eyes widened in awe—or was it surprise?

’Of all the things I thought, this one was the last that came to mind.’

Rather than one butterfly, now there were two. The one that had recently arrived was visibly larger than the one that had killed the colossal spider.

The two butterflies began to approach each other.

’Are these monsters or beasts?’ he asked himself, seeing what was about to happen.

Not wanting to be haunted by horrifying nightmares, Eric averted his gaze.

’Who would have thought that all this time, the butterfly was searching for a mate?’

*****

"Saint Gabriel!" A man clad in white armor spoke as he bowed in respect.

"We have received dire news..." the man continued, his voice growing darker.

"Speak," the Saint commanded.

"The expedition we sent to the cathedral of the God of the Ocean—the one located about 1,000 kilometers away from us..."

"You mean the expedition where we were so sure of our victory that we even sent Grandmaster Lucas? What about it? There’s no way they could have failed."

The man clad in white armor gritted his teeth before continuing,

"We... have lost all forms of communication with the group for some time. And from the looks of it, the cathedral that was under Grandmaster Lucas’s control was left without an owner."

The Saint took a deep breath before resting his back against the chair.

"I see," he said, his voice cold and emotionless.

"You’ve done your job. You may leave now."

The man bowed deeper before exiting the room.

Saint Gabriel sighed with exhaustion.

In truth, he had known the moment Grandmaster Lucas had died, as he shared a connection with him and every Grandmaster in the city.

But this wasn’t information to be shared with the masses, so he often acted as if he didn’t know what had transpired.

"But for a Grandmaster Lucas to lose?" he muttered under his breath.

"What kind of monstrosity did he face that brought about his end in battle?"

This was the one question that bothered the Saint the most.

*****

Opening his eyes, Eric took a moment to adjust to his surroundings.

After passing out, he felt more refreshed, his body having regained a bit of its vigor.

Eric had long given up counting the days, but he was sure of one thing. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

’After sleeping for a few hours, the butterflies are surely done with their deed and gone, right?!’

These were his thoughts as he took a deep breath and glanced down.

His eyes darkened, and his expression grew grim.

Even if the butterflies were already gone, something else worried him more.

Thousands of eggs had been laid inside the colossal spider that had been torn apart earlier.

’So these bastards, just like the spiders, are also reproducing.’

But that wasn’t what made Eric the most concerned.

What truly worried him was that many of the eggs had already hatched...

And so had the cocoons scattered around the area.

As a result, there was now an all-out war raging below him.

Hundreds of butterfly larvae and hundreds of newborn spiders were locked in a battle.

Eric sighed in regret.

"I just really want to go down," he muttered.