World's Last Hope-Chapter 63: Trapped
His eyes needed a second to adjust to the darkness around them.
Once they did, they widened in surprise.
"Are we underground?"
"Yes," Olivia was sitting on a cold rock close to him.
"Wait, what happened when I passed out?"
"Nothing much, we continued to fly forward, and after some time, Olivia said that we had reached the place, but there was nothing around us... so the only conclusion we came up with was—"
"That the cathedral was underground." Eric sighed, finishing Aria’s thought.
"Yes, pretty much. So we started searching and found an entrance to a cave. We entered it, and this is what we found at the end of it."
Eric, clearly confused, asked, "Wait, how much time was I asleep? How did I not wake up? Did you just carry me here?"
"You were out for three days. Nothing we did seemed to get you to wake up, and yes, I carried you."
Trying to make sense of it all, Eric glanced forward.
The cathedral was in front of him—that was for sure.
Unlike the previous one, this one was much darker, made from some kind of black obsidian-looking material.
Not that it was surprising, as it was supposed to be one of the cathedrals of the Underworld god.
Eric would have found it kind of funny that the cathedral of the Underworld god was underground, if something else didn’t concern him.
They were in a cave, which seemed pretty large, all things considered.
The problem was the thousands of eggs and cocoons were laid all around the ground as far as the human eyes could see.
"Geez, there are thousands of these things at least!" he muttered under his breath.
"Wait," he suddenly spoke as realization hit him.
Why were there both eggs and cocoons?
The eggs belonged to the butterflies, while the cocoons belonged to the spiders, and both of these creatures seemed to be hostile to one another.
So why were they sharing a spot for laying their offspring?
Seeing the confusion in Eric’s eyes, Aria sighed as she spoke,
"Yes, we also had the same question... that was until we saw that."
Aria suddenly pointed right above the cathedral.
Shifting his gaze, Eric squinted his eyes, trying to see.
"I... there is nothing there though?"
"Look closer," Aria urged.
Taking a few seconds to focus, Eric tried with the best of his ability, but he simply couldn’t see anything. There wasn’t even light reflecting from the area Aria was pointing at.
"Wait," he muttered,
There wasn’t light reflecting? But if they were able to see around the cave, then they should have no problem seeing right above the cathedral, unless...
"There is a creature there that absorbs all light around it?"
"Bingo," Olivia spoke as she got up and approached them.
"And this isn’t our only problem," Olivia spoke, pointing to the back.
"What’s there?"
"Well, our exit was there... but now it isn’t anymore."
"What?" Eric’s eyes widened. What was she talking about?
Seeing the confusion on his face, she explained,
"Once we entered, we seemed to have activated some kind of trap, and the whole entrance fell down behind us, effectively trapping us."
Eric suddenly remembered the time they had spent in the volcano and how they had found items that seemed to have been made by creatures with high intelligence.
He honestly had forgotten about it... but were these creatures here? Or were they scattered around the whole death zone, and he had to get used to watching out for not only monsters but traps as well?
"Can’t we... just blast through the rock?" This was the only way Eric could think of escaping their situation.
"We could..." Aria began as she glanced at the thing above the cathedral, which was most likely its guardian.
"But the chances that we disturb the monster are quite high, so..."
"So we are stuck here until we kill it," Eric finished her thought, as he put a hand on his head, clearly deep in thought.
"What rank is the creature?" he asked first before coming up with a plan—he had to get all the information he could.
"We got lucky in that aspect," Olivia grinned. "It’s the same one as the guardian before."
Eric’s eyes widened in disbelief as he cursed inwardly,
’Lucky? Lucky? That thing I just barely managed to wound and had to hide for days in fear of it killing me is lucky?!’
"You seem to be forgetting something," Olivia could more or less guess what Eric was thinking, but nevertheless, she still seemed to be in a good mood.
Pointing at Aria, she spoke,
"We have a Grandmaster with us now."
Eric wanted to protest, but as he thought about the things deeper, he had to agree with her.
’A Grandmaster is supposed to be vastly more powerful than a Master, so... maybe we still have a chance.’
Aria grimaced, "Now don’t expect me to go and kill that thing alone, it’s still a High-Grade 5 monster, and I am still getting used to my powers."
Olivia’s grin grew bigger, "Now, now, you have to give more credit to yourself, princess!"
"How long have we spent in the cave?"
"About a day."
"And that thing hasn’t moved at all?"
"It’s just staying there, waiting for something."
Eric wasn’t sure if he should take this as good news or bad news.
As long as he passed around the eggs and cocoons without disturbing them, he had a more or less clear path towards the cathedral.
But the black spot above it made him reluctant to go forward, as he didn’t know what the monster was capable of.
’Is this supposed to be some kind of trap?’ he asked himself, rubbing his chin, lost in thought.
Though his thoughts were quickly interrupted as one of the cocoons suddenly shivered slightly and began to slowly crack.
Eric, Aria, and Olivia held their breath as they saw the cocoon slowly hatch, and a spider about a meter tall emerged from it.
"Nothing is happening?" Eric muttered, looking at the creature.
Honestly, he was expecting something to happen as the spider hatched, but it seemed the guardian didn’t react in any way.
Or at least, that’s how it seemed. But the guardian shifted just slightly, if Eric hadn’t been looking at it, he wouldn’t have noticed.
And before Eric even saw any kind of movement, the spider that had just hatched was gone.
All Eric could do was stare in disbelief at what had just happened.
