"Where could those two have gone?" Daisy wandered around her home village searching for two students she only now realized were missing. Between her giving her students their first assignment, and her talking with old friends and her parents while she was there, Daisy had managed to lose sight of Zain and Elise. Fear started to creep up within her after receiving news that a number of the magic beasts in the area started vanishing a few months back.
"The school day is almost over, and I need to bring the students back. Oh dear, what do I do..?" She had gathered a number of the villagers to her aid in finding her missing students, but suddenly the ground below them rumbled, causing most of the people to lose their footing.
"W-What now?!" The shaking continued for some time before settling down and allowing the villagers to get their footing back.
"Some earthquakes like that one have been happening lately. This one however…this was a bit bigger than the others." A villager answered Daisy's question as the search continued for the missing students.
Deep below the earth, Zain and Elise continued to watch on as a towering figure pulled itself from the pathway before them. Pitch black claws dug into the ground and pulled out a massive body. Six long slender arms held up the creature's form as a head shrouded in long hair gazed upon the two. Beady red eyes stared towards the destroyed egg shells and slaughtered bodies of the smaller spiders. The fangs in its mouth began grinding against one another as the spider let out a ghastly wail into the room, causing the entire area to shake violently. The bellow from the demonic beast reverberated Elise to the core, and forced her to the ground. Malevolent mana started to gather in the spider before the large figure lunged towards the two.in a maddened frenzy. Chunks of earth and dirt flew up as the sharp talons ripped and tore apart everything in its path.
"Get out the way already!" Zain dashed into Elise and managed to grab her before getting sliced to shreds. The two fumbled across the ground before rushing to stand up straight. In an instant the spider queen was upon them with a face filled with anger and limbs ready to attack. Sharpened nails sliced at the two, only to be stopped as an ice barrier erected itself to defend them. However, the attacks didn't stop at one. The rest of the spider's limbs came crashing down on the dome one after the other. Every direction was a wild slash or scratch with the full intention of breaking through the object in its path. Yet just as the creature gained more momentum, the barrier protecting the two mages broke on its own as an arm of ice leapt out, grabbing the demonic beast by the throat.
"Quit getting ahead of yourself you damn insect!" Elise shouted as she enacted her retribution upon the spider. Her golem rose to the same size and height as the spider and began throwing punches. The queen's head was caved into the side of the underground wall before getting dragged along and tossed to the ground. The earth rumbled as Elise raised her hand to create a hammer, but stopped short as her fist left a dent in the ceiling.
"Shit! The area's too small to use a large-scale spell like this!" Her greatest offensive spell would only hinder her in the underground room, but she had more pressing matters to worry about as an entire arm fell off from her ice-golem. With a sickening crack, the spider queen turned her head and spat acid ropes along Elise's spell and lopped off an arm in the process. Elise fell back to protect herself, but was trapped as the spider queen's arms grabbed onto her sides. The beast started to crush her makeshift body while pushing her further into the ground.
"Dammit, get off of me!" Mana channeled through her construct's body to bolster her defense but couldn't keep up with the pressure put on her. Cracks and splinters formed along her large creation as despair settled in. The heiress could feel the intense power of the demonic beast bearing down on her, and just as she was about to break under the pressure, intense lightning crashed into the side head of the beast. The strike was powerful enough to send its entire upper half flying away with a deafening boom.
Just as Zain's attack had landed, Elise's spell had crumbled away after giving out. Roughly she landed in the rubble of her own creation before panting.
"This is madness! We need to get out of here now!"
"If you wanna run then get out of here. I'm not going anywhere until I take that things head"
Elise was appalled with Zain's reply. He wanted to stay and fight this monstrosity? A creature that easily stood meters tall and had the destructive force to shatter solid ice and tear through rock was before him, and he stood unflinching. Her teeth clenched again as she quickly stood up.
"Fine then! Go on and get yourself killed for all I care!" She had no reason to stay, let alone fight for someone she hoped would die. If anything this was her chance to have her greatest wish granted. The same person who humiliated her would die helplessly at the hands of the grotesque monster before them both.
Though strained, she managed to stand on two feet and hobble away as Zain faced down the seemingly endless hoard. With a deep breath he raised his hands in front of him.
"Runes. Activate." Lightning surged off the ground as magical energy formed in the air. They gathered in his palms as circles started to form.
"Multi layered attack. Discharge." The runes spit off into different layers, three rows stacking on top of each other as they all gathered energy in one point. As Zain gathered the energy for his spell the Arachne all charged toward him. They marched in unison, trying to overpower him in one go. Yet Zain continued to gather energy unperturbed before flashing his eyes open as they all converged on him.
"Lightning cannon." His spell fired off in a straight line, destroying all the ants in his way and the rest at his side. The black ray tore up the ground as the thunder echoed throughout the area. The army that was once before him was blown away in mere seconds and burned to ash, leaving nothing but destruction in their aftermath. Even Elise as she limped away turned around to see the devastated land left in the wake of Zain's spell. Sweat rolled down her face as she bit her lip.
"Even if you deal with those pathetic ants, unless you kill that queen it's all meaningless. Everything you do is meaningless!" She refused to believe it. She refused to believe that anything Zain would do from now on could result in his victory.
"Not enough." Zain muttered underneath his breath as he walked through the wasteland of his attack. "Compared to the world I know of…compared to that bastard, this isn't anywhere near enough." As Zain spoke, the spider queen rose from its crater and lunged at Zain in blind fury. Zain charged towards her in response as lightning coursed over his body. He leapt up to the same height as the demonic beast, fully intent on ending the fight.