As they struggled to reason why they were trapped in this place, an overwhelming silence wrapped the entire dimension.
There was no sound, no wind, not even the faintest trace of time's existence.
Only the void — deep, infinite, and absolute — swallowing all meaning of being.
Even the faint light radiating from Sentrie's form could barely pierce a few steps ahead, as if the darkness devoured every fragment of illumination.
Then… he felt it.
Something stirred within the stillness — subtle, alien, yet undeniably alive.
A low, resonant hum vibrated from beneath their feet, like the heartbeat of a buried god.
It echoed through the emptiness, soft yet thunderous, spreading in waves that shook the very fabric of the realm.
The hum grew louder… louder… until the ground beneath them began to tremble.
Sentrie frowned, his voice barely more than a whisper, "What is… this?"
Yet in this realm of silence, his whisper came back to him multiplied a hundredfold, reverberating through the hollow void.
Lensin glanced down. The ground beneath their feet — a colorless abyss — began to crack. Thin veins of violet light glowed from within, like molten energy bleeding through the wounds of the world.
Then, a deafening sound—
CRRRAAAACK!
A metallic screech tore through the air, as though the fabric of reality itself was being ripped apart.
The ground split wide open, vast enough to devour a city whole.
And from within that abyss, the first thing to emerge was — a leg.
A single leg.
But its sheer scale defied imagination.
It was immense, a monolith of flesh and shadow radiating power like a mountain come alive.
Its surface shimmered with an unnatural black-violet hue, and when it moved, the air itself distorted — unable to bear the weight of its presence.
Each motion of that colossal limb ripped the surrounding space apart, shattering the silence like glass crushed beneath a divine hand.
Violet rays burst outward in concentric waves, the air humming with chaotic energy.
Sentrie staggered back, his white cloak fluttering in the unseen wind. His golden eyes fixed upon the widening chasm.
"This energy… it shouldn't exist in this dimension…" he muttered, disbelief tightening his voice.
Lensin clenched his fists, staring into the growing rift. Shadows flickered within his eyes.
"That leg… I wish I could forget what it belongs to," he whispered hoarsely.
The enormous limb stood tall, radiating both darkness and raw authority.
Around it, thick chains of white light coiled tightly — each link as large as a tower, trembling as though straining to hold back an ancient fury.
Cracks of gold and violet shimmered across the chains, sparks of opposing powers — one of seal and one of chaos — battling endlessly.
The sound of metal scraping against itself echoed — grrk… grrk… — slow, rhythmic, dreadful.
It rang like the bell of apocalypse.
The Creator took a half step back. His long azure hair swayed gently, though the air was still. His eyes, cold yet ancient, narrowed as he gazed upon the chasm.
"This power…" he murmured. "I haven't felt it since the dawn of the first creation…"
Though his tone was calm, each word carried the weight of eternity, shaking even the marrow of those who heard him.
Then, more legs emerged — one, two, three… countless.
Each one emanated a distinct energy from a different realm: one burned with black fire, another crackled with lightning that had no light, and another was covered with thousands of eyes, all opening in unison, staring at every direction at once.
Sentrie's breath trembled. "What… is that thing?"
He took a step back, his heart pounding, warmth draining from his chest as the darkness consumed every ounce of courage within.
Lensin's eyes widened. His pupils glowed crimson — a memory awakening deep within.
"I remember now!" he shouted, voice trembling with fury and fear. "I remember what it is!"
His words echoed like thunder across the realm. Even The Creator fell silent.
"It's the Spider of Chaos!"
The name itself seemed to disturb the air.
Lensin clenched his bleeding fists tighter. "It was the one that nearly destroyed the Demon City! It isn't a creature born of nature—it's the consequence of the distortion between the Five Realms!"
Sentrie turned sharply toward him. "The… Spider of Chaos?" he repeated, voice low, golden eyes wavering.
Lensin continued, his tone unsteady, almost breaking.
"Once, it was sealed away by the power of the Demon Kings and the God of Darkness together. But it seems the seal has long decayed…"
In his mind, scenes from the past flickered — flames devouring the city of demons, towers collapsing under their own weight, the cries of innocents fading beneath the roar of destruction, and that enormous leg descending from the sky like the hand of annihilation.
He had faced it once. He had believed he destroyed it.
Lensin exhaled shakily. "Didn't I… destroy this thing before?"
But there was no answer.
Only a deep, guttural sound emerged from beneath the ground — not the sound of a beast, but something far more primal, filled with hatred, despair, and pure destructive will.
Then — SNAP!
The final chain of white light shattered.
A blinding pulse of energy erupted outward.
The trembling grew violent, winds of black energy whipped through the emptiness, twisting the space around them into a storm of raw chaos.
The Creator slowly closed his eyes, his voice as cold as a frozen sea.
"That which slumbered in the deepest layer of existence… has awakened once more."
Sentrie stood frozen, staring into the ever-widening chasm.
He couldn't tell whether the feeling in his heart was fear — or pity — for the thing rising from the void.
Yet within his golden eyes, a faint glimmer of hope still flickered, fragile but unyielding.
The three of them stood in silence.
The air still vibrated with the sound of the broken chains, an echo that carried the weight of doom.
And then came the final roar — deep, thunderous, ancient — shaking the entire dimension of nothingness.
The sound consumed all things.
Darkness swallowed the realm whole.
And in that infinite blackness—
It had awakened.
The three stood before the colossal creature — the Spider of Chaos — a being so vast and ancient that even the void itself seemed to tremble in its presence.
Yet, what was strange was that none of them showed the faintest trace of fear.
There was no panic, no terror — only puzzlement.
The spider's countless legs twitched ever so slightly, stirring the black mist that surrounded it.
For a long moment, no one spoke. The air was still, as though the entire dimension had stopped breathing.
Then, without warning, the spider's many eyes — eyes that glowed with the faint hue of forgotten galaxies — opened all at once.
A deep vibration rolled across the ground, echoing through the endless space like a pulse from the heart of the abyss.
And then — it laughed.
The sound was twisted and hollow, an eerie blend between a shriek and a whisper.
It wasn't the laugh of an animal.
It was the laugh of something aware, something that understood pain, loss, and hatred at their most primal core.
The laughter carried a thousand tones, each one resonating with emotions too heavy to name — sorrow, rage, mockery, and despair.
The void itself echoed it back, turning the sound into a haunting chorus that wrapped around the three like invisible chains.
Sentrie blinked, eyes widening in surprise.
"Oh… wow," he muttered softly, his golden eyes glinting in the dim glow.
"I didn't know spiders could laugh. This one's… interesting. It feels like it's hiding something — something deep, something hateful."
He tilted his head slightly, observing the trembling air around the monster as if studying a strange new phenomenon.
Then, a faint, almost amused smile crossed his lips.
There was no mockery in it — just a quiet recognition, as though he saw something familiar in the creature's madness.
Sentrie turned toward Lensin and chuckled lightly.
"Guess the void still has a few surprises left for me," he said, his voice calm, almost cheerful.