Chapter 41: Trust
Somewhere underground, April was being kept hostage.
This was her purgatory. When she finally woke up, she was still lying down at the center of the spider web with the glowing blue strings which had been responsible for capturing her earlier in the woods.
"Where am I?" she whispered to herself as she woke up.
"You are right beneath the tower of your witch," Araknar crawled toward her as he was perched on another web right above the other. Even though she had only whispered to herself upon waking up, he had heard her pretty well. He heard her so well, in fact, that he could hear her thoughts as he perversely intruded himself onto her. Upon waking up, her eyes were still too dry and too tired to fully open them. Therefore, the only thing she saw from him at first was his vast shadow being cast over her as he crawled on the other web above her. April couldn't catch a break. The green-haired elf had obviously been the primary target of the hobgoblin earlier, and now she had just been made captive by the vampire demon that they already fought as a group the other day. Except that they were no longer a group now. And even as a group, this guy had been a serious pain in the ass to defeat. April couldn't fathom the idea of having to defeat him all by herself. This was something absolutely impossible for her to do and even though she had just woken up and that her senses were all mixed up, she knew that for a fact… If she didn't escape, she wouldn't survive here. It was dark here under the tower, but not too dark, so she couldn't see anything. When she finally managed to fully open her eyes, she could perfectly see the horror that was Araknar as he stared at her from above. The death from above. She was about to face it.
"Why are you here? Why would you come here?" she asked.
"You left me the other day after thinking you defeated me."
"But… We defeated you…" April murmured to the creature.
"Not exactly," as the spider demon came closer to her, traversing from web to web as if the two artistically constructed structures were two separate entities that he could use as portals and teleport from one side to another. Before she knew it, he was on her side.
And when she could get better, she saw that the demon lord had taken quite a beating from Junk, during their last encounter. The claws that the Minotaur possessed on his new armor had inflicted some major injuries to the creature. The left side of his head had completely been ravaged. Some of his skin was still peeling off. Half of his spider legs didn't move as smoothly or anywhere as elegantly as they used to be prior to the showdown. April quickly understood that the demon lord wasn't too happy about the aftermath of the fierce battle. To her, this explained why he was here. This explained why he sought her as she wandered alone in the woods without the others. Araknar was all about revenge and getting it as soon as possible. What better way for him to obtain his sweet, sweet, little revenge than abducting April and taking care of her first, hoping to hurt Junk and September in the process right out of the gates. This was perfect for him. April began to understand that when it was too late. Much too late for her to do anything about it now.
"What are you going to do to me?" April directly asked him.
"I always desired to have a bride one day," he replied.
"A bride? You don't mean?" she did not expect this.
"Perhaps the time has come for something such as this to happen in my life. Wouldn't you enjoy it to be turned into a spider demon?" he politely asked her as he crawled closer to her.
"No. That has never been one of my dreams. My apologies."
"Don't apologize. You'll love it to become like me. You'll see. Don't worry. I won't give you spider legs like me. Although, that could be fun. No. When you'll become my bride, I'll make sure you pretty much stay the same for as long as possible. I like the way the great Gods shaped you. You are perfect in every way possible," he passionately murmured to her as he thought about casually rubbing the tip of one of his spider legs across her pretty face. Imaging himself feeling her silky-smooth skin. Skin almost as smooth as the silk of his web.
The next second, the spider-demon crawled his way up to April while she was immobilized and executed his plan.
He leaned forward with his demonic and vampiric spider fangs and bit her neck.
Exactly like a regular vampire.
However, this vampire bite was different.
Violet venom came out of his fangs and was infused into the ranger witch's neck.
Some of the poisonous violet venom also dripped down her neck during the demonic bite.
"Ugh!" she grunted in pain.
Without trust, there was nothing.
And because April and the rest of the trio stopped trusting each other as much as they once used to, this sort of situation was bound to happen.
April had been poisoned.
The unknown poison ran through her veins.
April had no intention of becoming Araknar's bridge.
The only one she had eyes on was Junk and strictly Junk.
He was the one she wished to marry one day.
Not him.
"No… Ugh…" she continued grunting as she soon fell into nothingness…
Soon, all she could see was a black void…
***
Sometime later, April was woken up. But not by Araknar this time.
"She's here! She's here!" it was Junk's voice.
"There she is. It's a good thing we were able to track her location based on the mana energy that I enchanted the nightgown I gave her with," September said as they found her.