Adventure Of A Lifetime

In the Hall of the Dark Mistress.

Concorde woke up inside a red silken cocoon, so did Illoaide. The pain they felt was gone, perhaps due to the magic around the web.

They struggled inside their cocoons for a moment, and then a red spider "foot" pierced the silk, ripping a line through so that their captives inside could see where they are.

"Hello Concorde and Illoaide," a silky voice replied, "Let me have a good look at you." The Mistress, in her purple drider form, stood in front of them. She extended a hand and felt the chins of each elf. "Hmm," she said, "The antidote must have restored your faces one hundred percent and made your skin much softer, like baby skin."

"Why thank you kindly!" Concorde replied. "You're welcome," answered Mistress Hourglass. "We were being sarcastic, really," Illoaide replied, "Why are we here anyway?"

"Like I said before," the Mistress replied, "I want to kill you personally." "But why hire innocent champions to do this for you?" Illoaide asked.

"I knew you'd be going to the Rift Games," answered the spirit, "so I followed. I knew that some champions also wanted to do something out of the Institute's reach, so I gave them what they wanted. All they have to do is carry out my revenge plot, and make me become divine."

"How?" Both elves asked. "It's none of your business," Mistress Hourglass replied, "Anyway, Syndra and Elise will take care of you. I have other plans in mind." The apparition scuttled away from the two, and two ladies went towards the elves.

Syndra and Elise headed towards the two. The former had a dark sphere in hand while the latter's abdomen was pulsating, toxin and liquid silk dropping from an opening at the end of her rear to the floor. Concorde and Illoaide simply stuck there in place, struggling to get out as  Syndra and Elise drew nearer.

Suddenly, Illoaide was able to break free, and she jumped towards Elise, locking each of her arms and eight legs around Elise's body in a hug. "Get off of me!" Elise said as she struggled to break free, but Illoaide's hug grew tighter with every movement. "No
!" Illoaide replied, "I will get you back even if it's the last thing I do." "Never!" Elise replied, "Get off me!"

Concorde was watching her try to get Elise back with her method, but she was weakening and Concorde saw her  slipping. Illoaide's limbs got weary, and she was starting to get tired.

"Elise, you are not like this!" Illoaide screamed, "Snap out of it! Come back to us, please."

And that was when the Spider Queen snapped. She finally broke free of Illoaide's grasp and sent her flying towards the wall. Illoaide hit it and landed with a thud. Elise scuttled over to her, and said, "Now I'm through with you!" She raised both her forelegs over Illoaide's big red abdomen, as the drider demigoddess awaited her death. Illoaide closed her eyes, and heard a stab.

Yet she was not dead, and more importantly, she was unscathed --- nothing touched her. She opened her eyes, and saw Concorde taking the leg stabs himself. One ran through his chest, and the other through his stomach, and Illoaide watched, horrified with the act, but touched with love. Tears flowed from her eyes.
Elise pulled the now bloodied legs out of the body, and Illoaide went to cradle it, weeping and hugging it close to her.

"One down, one to go," Syndra said, and readied to fire her dark sphere, but Illoaide stopped her, and in between her tears, she said, "No, ... With Concorde gone, ... I'm already dead inside."

That's when Elise realized what she had done. She had already killed the two elves sought out to defeat the Mistress. She saw Illoaide crying over the body of Concorde, and her legs splayed and she fainted to the floor with a horrified gasp on her face.