A Land Of Secrets: ATALANTE

Act XVI- Cages Of String

3rd POV

Alexander summons a cosmic slime cushion before they land on the surface. It would explode after they landed on it for the first time, so he made plenty of it to make themselves land safely. After they landed, he quickly went over to Zachariah who was bleeding.

He stripped off a piece of his clothing to wrap it around Zachariah's wound, he poured some healing potion on it before wrapping it tightly.

"Tch, we got stuck. That thing got us." Leigh commented. She grunted as her headaches turned worse than earlier.

"Prince Zachariah, can you stand?" Alexander asked. Zachariah slowly stood up with Alexander's help, looking around- they were in a much bigger cavern full of webs, a lava pool, and lava dripping from the ceiling. There are loads of strings in the ceiling, they are everywhere! Then they saw a giant spider web in the distance hanging in the middle of the lava.

"L-look, everyone! Look closely on the web!" Leigh pointed to the webs. They focused their sight on the webs, and they saw...

"The students?!" Alexander exclaimed. With horrors filling their eyes, they saw the students wrapped in strings, some were tied up in the ceiling, some were stuck in the big spider web, and some were stuck in the walls. Before they could take action, spiders started to crawl out from who knows where.

Giant spider grims started to emerge, bigger than a human. Zachariah brings out his weapon, and so are the other two.

"I can still fight. This isn't over!" Zachariah shouted. He tries to suppress the pain he feels, he probably had multiple broken ribs from the kick earlier.

"You mustn't push yourself, Your Highness. You too, Leigh." Alexander warned the both of them. Leigh is sweating so much, that her sight is blurry as she can barely maintain her balance.

"I can still fight. Don't hold back." Leigh assured them. Leigh then saw a spider going in their direction when she pointed her staff at it- someone suddenly spoke.

"Please don't hit me! T-That fake Meira turned me into this hideous creature!" The spider cried. They all looked at each other, Alexander rushed towards the spider to make sure it was telling the truth.

"You... are you a student of Atalante Academy?" Alexander asked as the spidey nodded in reply.

"Yes! Some of us were transformed into a spider- that fake Meira said that on the 8th day, we will soon lose our mind, morals, and identity to transform into a grim fully!" The spider said.

"Call the other students who turned into a spider- go hide in a corner so we will not attack you," Zachariah said. The spider left as a group of them gathered in one corner. They can freely attack now.

"They are done for, why not just mercy kill them?" Leigh commented. Alexander can't believe what she just said.

"There's no such thing as a mercy kill them. You can tell that they still want to live." Alexander rebutted. Zachariah took the lead and attacked the spiders. They soon go after him as they kill several spiders.

"Arachne Mimicus, rank SSS. It's a grim that has a high intelligence that can mimic any living things, they have unimaginable strength, one's body is very durable, and has a high regeneration." Zachariah explained. Rank SSS is the highest kind of grim, it's as if their enemy right now is a human but turned into a monster.

"Not only that, I can transform humans into grim using my blood." They turned their heads as Meira's voice echoed throughout the cavern. She laughed maniacally. They regrouped as they expected Meira to attack them any minute now.