Chapter 49 - Chapter 49: The Queen’s Lair

The trio had spent almost two weeks to get to this point above ground. On the way, they dealt with countless spiders that tried to ambush them. They then entered a cave through the ground and began following it down. "Eight, another one is on top of you." Shouted seven. Eight leaped out of the way and shot blood beams in the shape of a mesh at the spider slicing it into multiple parts. "Damn, this annoying bugs. Do you think the queen will be angry that we killed her kids?" Eight asked. "Well it doesn't matter. If she does we just have to fight. Very few people can take on the three of us." Nine added. "Only master, The Blood Origin can do that." Seven said. "What about 21?" Eight asked. Twenty one was originally the name given to Chrono as he took part in the various duels in the vampire's domain. "That kid has some serious talent. I think in a millennia he might take out all of us from One to Nine at the same time and win." Seven said. "Really? I mean he's very strong but that is an overkill right Eight?" Nine asked. "He beat the Upper Cream one by one in an instant. Twenty One will likely become a force to reckon with in future." Eight answered. "I did hear that he landed a powerful blow to the Overlord The Hydra. Your assessment is likely correct." Nine said. "I saw the attack from Twenty One from a distance away. Let me tell you he was holding back against us." Eight said. "You have told us the story countless times Eight. The sky shattered and a single attack from the sky pierced the ground and so on…" Nine said. Nine took care of another spider creeping from the back with his giant hammer. Sometimes he carried a giant axe sometimes a hammer. Nobody really understood the rationale for each decision. "You don't understand it Nine, seeing it up close is not like hearing about it." Seven said. "But what was more impressive was that the Overlord was unharmed." Eight said. "Yes, I also heard it from Three that the Overlord was so impressed with the attack that he wanted to make Twenty One a part of his subordinate." Nine said. "Yeah I heard that. Master told me that Twenty One got away. He called him another name. Chroson…Chromos…mmh…chrosmos…" Eight said. "Ran away? More like went to call for reinforcement from his scaly friends." Seven answered. She had taken a liking to Chrono after he helped them fight against the Upper Cream. Her judgment when it came to Chrono was very flawed as emotions always took center stage. Both Eight and Nine had learnt that and did not dare to correct her. "Chrono. Yes Chrono. That was the name master called him." Eight shouted. The Blood Origin and Eight had a special relationship that not many knew about. Eight was always free spirited and always spoke his mind which was a quality that The Blood Origin admired. It was because of Eight's ingenious acts such as organizing fights and running multiple businesses that ensured cohesion throughout the Vampires domain. The economy and entertainment in the entire domain run through Eight and his two closest confidants, Seven and Nine. While the Top Cream, One to Four had more administrative powers, Eight and his group had more influence with the masses. This ensured that it was impossible for the top cream to make decisions that were against the interest of Eight. "You know sometimes I think your close relationship with master is why none of the Upper Cream likes you." Nine said. "Yeah well they can get jealous all they like. Those snobbish bastards." Seven said. Eight nodded in agreement."Is it me or are the spiders getting larger as we go down?" Seven asked. They had been dealing with low level spiders and for the first time at this depth, they encountered a midlevel spider. "I know right, this bugs would give some of our guys a very hard time." Eight said. Considering that the Mid-level spider Chrono fought had mana reserves of 73,000, that statement was very true. The Cream were the first generation vampires turned by The Blood Origin himself. Second generation vampires were turned by the Cream themselves and so on and so forth. This stands to reason that for the sixth generation Vampires going forward who had inherited inferior and minimal vampire genetics, defeating a mid-level spider was a pipe dream. While they were still stronger than most species such as humans, fae, dwarves and gnomes, in terms of Vampire standards their strength was comparable to that of an infant. Eight who had a mana capacity of 1.8 million promptly took care of the spider. He made some sort of blood sword and chopped the legs on one side with one sweep before ultimately going for the head. "The outer shell is very hard." Nine said as he picked up a severed limb and began twisting it. "Others are coming by." Seven shouted. A group of more than fifty mid-level spiders appeared and began charging at the trio. Seven formed a blood spear and prepared for the attack. Eight held his blood blade with both hands and took a striking position. Nine hit his palm with his giant hammer lightly in anticipation of the attack. Nine laughed liked a maniac and jumped towards the spear. He swung his giant hammer like a golf club and hit the first spider on the front line. This led to a cascading effect where the spiders were violently pushed back. "Nice work big guy." Seven shouted. She lounged at the spiders and pierced their foreheads jumping from one spider to the next. Not to be outshined by his two compatriots, Eight ran towards the spiders this time slicing them vertically in halves. Nines initial attack had managed to disorient the spiders giving the trio a better opportunity to win. This however does not mean that, they would have lost otherwise. All that would have happened is that the battle would have been longer but the ultimate result similar. In a few moments, the spiders were all defeated. Both Eight and seven showed a masterclass in performance and skill. Nine was not quite as skilled but his raw brute strength more than made up for it. "We have just entered this cave and this is the welcoming party? What will happen in the deeper floors?" Seven complained. The queen spider's lair was dug in a way that narrow entrances were dug diagonally and led to a deeper room from one floor to another. This led the entire lair having three dimensional plans. It was reminiscent of the shape of representation of atoms in elements. This meant that a lot of the paths they took were dead ends."This one is no good either." Eight said while sighing. "I don't even remember the way back. This lair is messing with all our senses." Nine said. "These paths look exactly the same. I think we should mark the ones we have visited." Seven said as she swung her blood spear to remove the fluids from the dead spiders. "Yes I don't understand what is happening but the corpses we leave behind are moved." Eight said. They began hacking the wall and floor with their weapons to create marks before they eventually traced their way back to the previous cross roads. "Do we split up to explore more options?" Eight asked. "Yes. At this rate it will take a long time before we reach the bottom." Nine said. "I agree with the big guy." Seven said. The problem with this lair was that it was that when looking at it in two dimensional format, it was similar to a tree diagram. Only one path led to the target which meant that if the first path was wrong, then it was possible to travel to the bottom of the Lair but not meet the target. The first landing and open area had four different paths to choose from same as the subsequent floors. This was going to be an imaginable pain in the rear for the trio. The number of floors in the lair was five, each floor had four different paths to choose from. This meant that the probability of getting the correct floor was 0.1%. A very miniscule number. This was the reason why the lair was considered an impenetrable fortress. "Damn it!" Eight screamed at the top of his voice. He had just spent two days to get to the bottom of one of the paths. Despair was all that was found at the bottom. He was very anxious because this task that he was given was the precursor to all the others in future. The Queen Spider was needed to locate the remains of the Titan and The Sea Serpent with the help of her minions. The Blood Origin did not know the location of the two generals but was sure the queen of spiders would be located in this Lair. It was a race against time for the tri