The moment the memory appeared in his hands, Ray immediately began examining it.
He noticed how the weapon really only consisted of two parts. First, there was the chain, which could've just as well been called a rope, with how delicate they looked.
The second part of it was the weighted, metal ball at the end of the chain. From his estimates, it should've been between seven and ten kilogram, too heavy for any mundane person to actually wield, but just heavy enough for awakened to actually be able to use it against nightmare creatures.
Hopefully.
With the way he was testing the weapon, with his limited knowledge of it, he soon attracted the attention of the others.
Kai was the first one who arrived next to him, due to Sunny still being distracted by the corrosive poison. Soon after, Effie also came over, while the others stood nearby. Because of the poison, even if they wanted, they couldn't take the shards just yet, it would still take a few minutes.
"Did you get a new memory? Anything interesting?" Kai asked, as he looked over Ray's shoulder at the meteor hammer. Not recognizing it, he couldn't help but ask another question, "Ehm, what is this, though, Ray?"
The still seating young man could only chuckle in light amusement, "Well, the spell called it a meteor hammer, but quite frankly, I have no clue. I was taught in a few weapons, but one like this was not among them."
Effie also just looked at the weapon with a puzzled expression, noticing it, Ray simply handed it to her for, and she took it from his hands and further examined it, "Huh, I mean, this thing seems cool, but… can this thing even cause any damage to nightmare creatures, at all?"
Ray just shrugged, not too sure about that part himself. It was then, that Caster took a step towards Effie, "Might I take a look?"
She looked towards the owner of it, and getting a nod in return, handed it over to the young legacy.
When he held it in his hands, he first seemed by surprised by its weight, before he threw a look towards Ray and Effie, as if was once again made to understand their physical strength.
"Well, first of all, it weighs way more than its counterparts in the waking world." Caster began the proper examination, "Though, it shouldn't be too much of a problem…"
After adding the second part, he distanced himself a few meters from the rest, and started swinging the weapon, by holding on to the end without the metal ball, in circular motions, on the right side of his body.
At first, it looked rather clumsy, due to him not being accustomed to the weight, but this quickly changed. Merely after a few swings, there was enough momentum build to allow him to rather easily swing the chain.
"As you can see, the purpose of this weapon is building momentum, before," Caster explained, until he stopped, and let the chain end with the metal ball fly towards one of the spider corpses away from the rest.
The ball didn't just crash into the carcass, and bounce off. No. The impact of it caused the iron armor plates on the body to instantly cave in, leaving a rather big dent in it, with a few cracks accompanying it. "Before letting it fly, and letting the momentum deal with the rest."
He stepped over to the body, felt the dent for a second, "With the way I see it, if you were to properly train with this, then it could prove deadly against most nightmare creatures of the awakened rank. Maybe even prove useful against those of the fallen…"
Caster didn't seem too sure about his last statement, but the others were listening regardless.
With him finished, he gave the meteor hammer back to Ray.
He took the weapon again, and looked at it once more, again with a hint of intrigue. Sadly, finding someone to train him with this would most likely prove quite difficult.
A moment later, a short clap caught the attention of everyone.
When they turned their heads, they saw Neph, still with her hands together. "We should get the shards now." She looked at the sun, seemed to wage her words for a moment, "After that, we should have a bit of time remaining. We should explore the nest a bit more, before the sun sets."
With that said, and since no one had any problems with this plan, everyone quickly started to gather the shards that lay on the ground, where the poison had previously passed over.
Even for them, and inside this otherwise hellish landscape, the scene of dozens of soul shards glittering under the light of dusk could only be called beautiful.
Nevertheless, the group of six, with Cassie remaining on the side, quickly finished gathering the shards, and dividing them afterwards.
Most crushed their share immediately, while Sunny simply asked Effie to keep his stash inside of her enchanted bag.
With that done, and most of them slightly energetic again, they began exploring the next a bit.
They quickly noticed how the nest, which mainly consisted of endless webs of the strange metallic strings, in its entirety resembled a giant sphere, which was built around one of the statue's legs.
Soon after that, they also found the actual entrance to the nest. It was an enormous hole, situated at about a dozen meters off the ground. This gave them all a good estimate, how huge the spider matriarch, that once lived here, must've truly been.
It was a harrowing thought.
Especially, for Ray, whose face instantly took on a paler and slightly green tone, upon picturing the form of the giant spider. He was truly thankful for the Second Bright Lord, who vanquished this enormous foe.
Sadly for Ray, this hadn't even been the most harrowing thing they would see here.
With the bit of time remaining, all of them decided to take a look inside of the nest.
Inside of the giant sphere, there was mostly darkness. Drops of black water were falling from the top, creating an eerie melody, which seemed to perfectly resonate the atmosphere.
Not even a dozen meters inside, the cohort's intrusion stopped. In the middle of the nest lay it, or rather… she.
The body of the giant spider matriarch lay there shriveled on the ground. Its iron carapace shattered open by some devastating blow. She was dead, but she looked possibly even more horrifying now, than she had, when she was still alive.
Ray had to consciously try not to vomit, or fall unconscious seeing all of it. Spiders seemed to truly be his bane of existence. He was already glad, he managed to get through the previous fight, while mostly ignoring this problem.
As the cohort slowly resumed their way inside, they noticed how the abdomen of the enormous spider was cut open. But it seemed like it had happened a while after she had been slain.
It appeared, as if… it had been done from the inside, rather than the outside. This made it by any means just worse, and Ray truly had difficulties holding his breakfast in now.
The others seemed mostly fine, though, Kai also had a somewhat pale look on his face. His charming friend and their amazonian huntress remained near him, after having noticed his state, offering silent support.
Mere meters later, they finally saw five massive eggs inside of the abdomen. All of which were cracked, or rather slit open. Their previous inhabitants long gone.
Diverting their attention away from the matriarch, they all began looking around, and quickly noticed something else, which seemed to span around the walls.
Cocoons made by the same spiderwebs were spread across the walls, all around the giant spider. Inside of them, withered corpses of nightmare creatures, which for some reason were still in relatively good condition.
Seeing this, Ray couldn't hold it any longer, and emptied his stomach to the side, causing the others to give him a quick look, and earning a sympathetic back pat from Kai.
It was unclear if these cocoons were meant as some kind of food preservative, or if they were…
Back in the waking world, Ray had researched a bit about his bane, and had gotten to know that such things weren't always meant only for food, but also… as incubators.
The others also soon made this exact discovery. Some of the cocoons had already been ripped open from the inside, revealing their contents, and what had happened to the prior captives.
A sight, which Ray spared himself from.
Only when the others stood gloomily around one particular cocoon, did he pay attention again. At the moment, Caster was already using his jian, to cut the container open.
As soon as he did, something fell out of it.
A human body fell limp to the ground.
Most of them looked grim and full of resentment, upon seeing the body, but Sunny who couldn't hold it in any longer, also succumbed to the nauseous feeling and emptied his stomach, soon followed by a second wave from Ray.
With both their stomachs utterly empty, they looked at it, with grim faces themselves. The thought of what this person must've gone through was truly horrifying.
Many of them shared the same sentiment. Dying by being eaten from the inside, by hundreds of small nightmare creatures must've been the one of, if not the, worst ways any human could die.
Sunny, and Caster also seemed even more gloomy, after having recognized the strangely intact face of the young man.
Effie picked up on it rather quickly, "Did you guys know him?"
It was Caster who responded a few moment later, "Yes. His name is… his name was Stephen. He was the youngest heir of the Pandavar Clan."
Now, Ray also looked slightly more direct at it, and recognized him as one of the many people who stood around Caster, in the opening banquet.
The realization settled over the cohort. They had known that this year only seven people arrived here on the forgotten shore, of which five of them were here, right now.
Six, if one wanted to count the young man… No. If one wanted to count Stephen.
This just caused them to think about what might happen to them in the future. Maybe even the following day. No one truly knew what the future held for them.
Though, technically, there were two people present who could at least make guesses how everyone here may end, one day.
It was Nephis who broke the ensured silence. She spoke through gritted teeth, her voice sounding even more hollow than it did normally, "We need to leave. The sun is setting."
Her words helped pull them out of their previous thoughts, but no one moved just yet.
Only Caster spoke, after a minute or two, what everyone had been thinking, "Aren't we… aren't we going to bury him at the very least?"
Nephis could only shake head, "There's not enough time. We should also not touch the infected bodies. It is too dangerous."
This just caused another gloomy atmosphere to settle over them. Just as Ray wanted to propose using his knives for this, she sighed, and then spoke once more.
"...Alright. I'll catch up with you guys."
Some of them threw quick looks her way, before they turned around, and all went towards the exit together, leaving her behind, with the dead bodies inside of the abominable nest.
Only after the last of them left the nest, did she start.
A beam of pure radiance shot forth from the dark hole of its entrance, followed by a wave of scorching heat. The all familiar purifying fire unleashed by the one known as Changing Star completely engulfed the remains of their fellow students, and then spread to everything around them.
Swallowing the numerous cocoons, the nightmare creatures inside of them, and then even the corpse of the Spider Matriarch herself, as well.
All of it looked like a fitting burial for a fellow human, having died to this treacherous landscape.
It barely took a few minutes, before the whole web structure was completely consumed by the eerie white flames.
She escaped the burning dome shortly after the rest of them, her face pale and tired.
Leaving the pyre of flames behind, in a physical and metaphorical way, they all began the ascend, and finally settled down for this long day, in the relative peace that the height of the giant warrior statue gifted them.