The mountain range stretched endlessly beneath a gray, war-heavy sky. Peaks overlapped like jagged teeth, their ridges cutting through drifting mist. Between them, military tents had been set up in careful formation, banners snapping in the wind as officers coordinated movements along the front.

Then a flare shot up from one section of the mountainside.

It burned bright red against the dim sky.

Inside the command tent, several officers looked up at once.

"That’s from the scouting party."

Within moments, orders were barked and soldiers mobilized. A small unit advanced toward the flare’s origin, weapons drawn, healers close behind.

---

A few hours later, the area had fallen into uneasy silence.

Bodies were laid out in rows. The injured were being treated near makeshift stretchers.

"What happened to the others?" the commanding officer asked sternly.

Kaeya sat on a flat rock while an adventurer with healing abilities worked carefully on a cut along arms. Her expression remained steady despite the chaos around her.

"Most of them are dead," she replied. "Several are severely injured. The healer who was with Olsen is missing. We suspect Olsen himself is a demon in disguise."

The officer’s brows furrowed as he wrote everything down.

Meanwhile, not far from them, a much smaller figure moved through the trees.

Tyler —now reduced in size due to the Giant Spider’s skill— leapt lightly onto a high branch overlooking the cave. From there, he narrowed his eyes and activated Eye of the Forest.

His vision sharpened.

He scanned not only the cave entrance but the surrounding rock layers, tracing hidden veins and hollow structures beneath the mountain. After several seconds of focused observation, he exhaled softly.

"This cave doesn’t connect to the internal mountain system," he muttered. "Which means... it leads somewhere beyond."

His gaze darkened slightly. This wasn’t just a small escape route. It was a passage.

Back near the tents, Kaeya stood up once the healer finished.

"So what now?" she asked the officer directly.

"Your assignment ends here," he replied without looking up. "We’ll send a reconnaissance team inside. That is official protocol."

"Then allow us to enter as well," Kaeya said calmly.

The officer finally looked at her. "Us?"

"Me and him." She pointed toward the tree line where miniature Tyler perched.

The officer followed her gesture, squinting at the barely noticeable figure.

"No," he said flatly. "Absolutely not. Your mission is complete. You’ve done your duty, adventurer. Leave the rest to trained personnel."

Kaeya tilted her head slightly. "What if I have a recommendation?"

"Then it should come from someone above my rank," the officer replied with a smug half-smile. "I don’t concern myself with endorsements from below."

Several soldiers nearby exchanged uncomfortable glances.

A few minutes later, that smugness had completely vanished.

The officer’s jaw nearly hit the ground as he stared at the letter in his hands. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

The royal seal shimmered unmistakably.

He swallowed.

"You... this... this is—"

"A self written recommendation," Kaeya said lightly, though her eyes carried authority beneath the softness. "From someone above you."

The officer stiffened instantly and snapped to attention.

"You may proceed," he said quickly, handing the letter back with trembling fingers.

Tyler dropped from the tree, landing lightly beside her.

"What did you give him?" he asked.

Kaeya smiled faintly. "Permission from someone who has the third legion seal."

Without another word, the two of them turned toward the dark cave entrance.

And together, they stepped inside.

---

The air inside was cold and stale, heavy with the smell of damp stone and something faintly metallic. The entrance narrowed after a few meters, forcing them to move single file. Water dripped from the ceiling in slow, uneven intervals, the sound echoing down the dark corridor like distant footsteps.

Tyler blinked and activated Eye of the Forest out of habit.

Nothing changed.

His vision remained ordinary.

"Not forest territory," he muttered quietly. "So the skill won’t help."

Kaeya nodded, her hand resting lightly on the hilt of her sword. A faint glow gathered around the blade, just enough to illuminate their path without announcing their presence too loudly.

They advanced slowly.

The tunnel curved downward, the walls growing smoother as though shaped deliberately rather than formed naturally. The further they walked, the more the temperature dropped.

Then they saw her.

The healer girl.

She was pinned upright against a jagged stone outcrop, a sharp shard of rock driven straight through her chest. Her healer robes were stained dark, her hands frozen mid-motion as if she had tried to cast one final spell. Her eyes remained open, wide with disbelief.

Kaeya froze.

Tyler stepped closer, his expression hardening.

"She didn’t even get to fight, which means he just killed him while she was least expecting." he said quietly.

There were no signs of spider webs here.

No battle marks.

Just one precise execution.

"Olsen," Kaeya said under her breath. "He killed her and escaped."

Tyler examined the wound. Clean. Efficient. No hesitation.

"This..." he paused and said , "Maybe he is done with acting and just killed her. "

They moved on.

The cave widened into a chamber deeper inside the mountain. The walls here were darker, veins of faint blue minerals running through the rock like frozen lightning. At the far end of the chamber, three tunnels branched out in different directions.

Left. Right. Forward.

Each one looked identical— same width, same darkness, same eerie silence.

Kaeya glanced at Tyler. "Which path?"

Tyler scratched his chin thoughtfully.

"Let’s leave it to luck."

Before she could question him further, he pulled a small knife from his belt and tossed it casually into the air. The blade spun several times before clattering against the stone floor and sliding forward, stopping just before the middle tunnel.

He picked it up.

"Middle it is."

Kaeya raised an eyebrow but followed without arguing.

They entered the chosen path.

The tunnel sloped downward again, this time more steeply. The air grew thicker. Faint vibrations pulsed through the ground, barely noticeable but constant.

Ten minutes passed in silence.

They already passed few more passages.

Kaeya slowed slightly, studying Tyler’s back.

"You’ve never been here before, have you?" she asked.

Tyler glanced over his shoulder with a faint grin. "Nope."

"Then how is it that every time you ’leave it to luck,’ you end up choosing the correct path?"

He shrugged lightly.

"Maybe my luck is just that good."

Kaeya narrowed her eyes at him, unconvinced. But Tyler was not lying.

Up ahead, the tunnel opened into a much larger space. A faint blue glow flickered in the distance.

---

A strand of glowing blue webbing shot out of the darkness without warning, slicing through the air toward Kaeya’s throat.

She barely had time to react.

Tyler, still in his reduced form, moved first.

He vanished from where he stood and reappeared mid-air, catching the web with both hands. His small boots hit the stone floor with a sharp crack, knees bending slightly as the force tried to drag him forward.

The web tightened.

It pulled.

The stone beneath his feet fractured.

Tyler did not move an inch.

The web trembled instead, stretched to its limit like a bowstring drawn too far.

A low chuckle echoed through the cavern.

"As expected... you are strong."

From the glow ahead, a figure stepped forward, holding the other end of the web strand in one hand.

His body was still human.

His face was not.

Where Olsen’s features had once been, there was now a white chitinous mask shaped like a spider’s head. Eight faint blue eyes shimmered across it, glowing like cold embers. Thin cracks of electricity danced along the surface of his skin.

Tyler slowly released the web and let it fall slack.

"As expected, it’s you," he said calmly.

Kaeya stepped beside him, sword drawn, light gathering along its edge. "You know him?"

Tyler didn’t look away from the spider-faced man.

"Yeah. He once said he needed to cure someone with a curse and left the forest." His voice hardened slightly. "Instead, he became a Demon General."

He tilted his head.

"Olsen... no. Gailo."

At the name, the spider’s glowing eyes flickered.

"Your daughter Dia misses you."

For a moment, the cavern fell silent.

Then Gailo laughed.

It was not the voice of Olsen. It was layered, distorted, something vast pressing through a human throat.

"As expected... a being from my world." His spider face twitched as the blue glow intensified. "You guessed correctly. I am Gailo."

Kaeya’s eyes widened slightly, but she remained composed. Even though she was confused by the words ’a being from my world’.

Gailo continued, his tone almost amused.

Tyler’s expression remained steady.

Gailo was the one who had once ruled the red sandalwood region in the Westmere Woods. The one who had handed over his territory to Tyler before departing to complete this so-called Orion Cube mission. He is also father of Dia.

And now—

A Demon General.

Gailo’s laughter faded abruptly.

His eight glowing eyes narrowed, focusing on Tyler’s hip, then lower... then lower again.

"Why," he asked slowly, voice losing its amusement, "Why do you have smell of Dia on your body?"