Chapter 455: Royal Mother Spider

The sound of Vergil’s footsteps on the dry vegetation became increasingly muffled. Every branch that broke, every leaf that crumbled under his boots was swallowed by a heavy silence, as if the forest itself were afraid to wake what lay ahead. He pressed on, guided not by his eyes, but by an invisible thread of energy that he felt pulsing beneath the earth like a living artery.

Webs now covered everything—trunks, rocks, even the sky seemed to have been sewn together with whitish threads that filtered the light and tinged the world with a spectral pallor. The smell in the air was denser, no longer just dust and blood, but something ancient… and dormant.

Zuri, curled up on Vergil’s shoulder, was strangely quiet.

He noticed.

“You’ve been too quiet. Strange coming from my favorite narrator of misfortune.”

Zuri didn’t answer right away. Her pupils were dilated, and her tail was wrapped around herself in a tense grip.

“I’m… feeling something. I don’t know what. But it’s bad.”

Vergil raised an eyebrow. “You feeling that something is bad is par for the course. But this seems different.”

“That’s because it is different. It’s not just fear. It’s as if something is… wrong. With space. With time. Something that shouldn’t be here.”

“All the more reason for me to go take a look.”

Zuri snorted indignantly. “You’re addicted to walking toward the abyss.”

“Yes,” he said with a smile. “But look on the bright side: it’s a different cave every week.”

Ahead, the trees began to open up, forming a natural corridor. At the end of it, a narrow opening between two giant rocks revealed itself, almost hidden under layers of web as thick as stucco.

Vergil approached slowly. The webs seemed to pulsate slightly. He raised his hand and ran his fingers through the fibers. They vibrated at his touch, and he felt a slight chill run up his arm.

“There’s magic here. More dense. As if… it were waiting.”

“I don’t like this,” Zuri said finally. Her voice trembled, almost inaudible. “This entrance… it doesn’t seem natural. It’s as if it were… built. As if the place had molded itself around something alive. And hungry.”

Vergil didn’t answer. He just raised his hand and conjured his spear of fire, using the tip to cut through the thick webs. The fire burned slowly, as if the silk itself resisted. But still, it cleared the way.

They entered.

The passage was narrow at first, the stone walls pressed together like closed claws. But as they advanced, the corridor widened, revealing a larger—and darker—space. The light from the surface disappeared completely. The flames of the spear were now the only source of illumination.

And then they saw it.

The nest.

It was like the inside of an organism. The floor and ceiling were covered with thick webs, hanging in sticky strands like living veins. Natural rooms opened up around the cave — oval capsules formed by organic fibers, pulsing slowly. Inside them, shadows moved. Some were small. Others… larger.

Vergil walked slowly, observing everything with a fascination that bordered on childishness. His eyes scanned every detail: the cocoons, the intertwined threads, the glow of the demonic larvae still forming.

“These things are in different stages of maturation,” he said, touching a cocoon that throbbed under his touch. “Some are ready. Others just laid. It’s a living production line. A… factory of horrors.”

Zuri trembled on his shoulder. “I want to get out of here. Seriously, Vergil. There’s something about this place that’s not just magic. It’s… older. Deeper. It smells like an ancient curse. This isn’t just a hive.”

Vergil advanced as if crossing a profane temple. Each step made the floor throb with a muffled, viscous sound. He did not look away. The feeling of being watched was constant—not by a single creature or presence, but by hundreds, perhaps thousands of eyes hidden in the darkness. With every turn, every silk-wrapped corridor, the magic grew denser, heavier. The air was thick, almost liquid.

Zuri dug her claws into his shoulder, her body rigid as stone.

“This is getting worse. Everything is… wrong. Time doesn’t flow right here, Vergil. Don’t you feel it? It’s as if every second stretches out.”

Vergil nodded, absorbed.

“It’s a nest. But it’s also a domain. She shaped this place with her own essence. As if this space no longer obeyed the laws of the natural world. It’s an extension of her.”

With every meter they advanced, the number of cocoons increased. Some were small, embryonic, barely pulsing. Others were larger, with visible shapes writhing inside—legs, fangs, indistinct and horrible shadows. The sound was constant now: a low, damp hum, like thousands of mouths breathing at once.

Zuri looked around and spoke in a tense whisper:

“Vergil… we’re inside her womb.”

He stopped.

The phrase was not poetic. It was literal.

The corridor they were walking through suddenly opened into a huge spherical chamber. The ceiling was high, vaulted, completely covered by a translucent, living membrane, pulsing slowly. The walls rippled silently, as if they were breathing. And in the center… a sea.

A sea of eggs.

The entire room was filled with them. Thousands. Perhaps more. They were like greasy, slightly translucent bubbles, and inside, small spider-like forms moved and stirred, some already hatched, others still gestating. There were webs connecting each egg to thin channels of magical energy, as if they were all receiving nourishment directly from an invisible source.

Vergil entered cautiously, avoiding touching anything.

There was no visible floor. Only eggs. Piled on top of eggs. Scattered, stacked, leaning against each other like a sickly harvest. The only safe path was a kind of organic bridge that rose between the masses, leading to a larger structure in the center of the chamber—a grotesque pedestal made of bones, shells, and something resembling living tissue.

Zuri could no longer maintain her composure. Her whole body was shaking.

“Vergil… we shouldn’t be here. This isn’t just an incubation room. This is an altar. A sanctuary. And this number of eggs… If they all hatch at the same time…”

“Relax… I’ve found it,” he said, cold but fascinated. His eyes wandered from egg to egg as if he were enjoying a macabre art exhibition. “Here you are…” Vergil smiled when he saw something among the eggs, or rather… something he was already stepping on…

At the end of the room… the floor was covered with the entire body of that creature.

And Vergil… was looking directly at its head.