The bells of Kagamori stopped ringing at midnight.
No warning. No final chime. Just silence—heavy and absolute, like the city itself had been smothered.
Raizen noticed it first.
He was half-awake in the inn's upper room, sitting against the wall with his sword resting beside him. The pain in his shoulder had dulled into a deep, throbbing ache, but something else crawled beneath it now—a faint numbness spreading along his arm.
He flexed his fingers.
They moved… slower than they should have.
"Haruka," he said quietly.
She was already awake.
"I felt it too," she replied, kneeling beside him and peeling back the bloodstained cloth. Her expression tightened. "The poison hasn't stopped. It's adapting."
Kaito sat up sharply. "Adapting how?"
Haruka traced a dark vein creeping outward from the wound. "Like it's learning his body."
Senji cursed under his breath.
From the far corner of the room, Aoi leaned against the wall, arms folded. "That's Weaver poison."
Mika, seated near the window, added calmly, "If they wanted him dead, he'd already be convulsing. This means they're watching."
Raizen exhaled slowly. "Then they know we're here."
Aoi smiled thinly. "They knew the moment you killed one of theirs."
⸻
The Shrine Below
They moved through Kagamori without lanterns.
The city streets were empty—doors barred, windows shuttered, shrines lit with low, trembling candles. Every alley felt watched. Every shadow felt deeper than it should have been.
Aoi led them to an old district near the southern wall, where stone buildings sank unevenly into the earth.
"People think this place collapsed during an earthquake," she said, stopping before a cracked shrine dedicated not to the heavens, but to the ground itself. "Truth is, the earth was hollowed out."
Mika stepped forward and pressed her palm against the shrine's base.
Stone shifted.
A hidden stairway spiraled downward, breathing out damp air that smelled of soil, rot, and something faintly sweet—like blood left too long in the open.
Senji crouched immediately, examining the steps. "No metal traps."
Aoi smirked. "They don't need them."
They descended.
⸻
The Underways of Kagamori
The tunnel walls changed the deeper they went.
Stone gave way to packed earth. Earth gave way to something fibrous—webbing mixed with bone fragments and hair. The floor pulsed faintly, as if alive.
Kaito gagged. "That's… disgusting."
Mika didn't slow. "This is the outer ring. Where they listen."
Raizen's vision blurred briefly. He steadied himself against the wall.
Haruka noticed instantly. "Raizen."
"I'm fine," he lied.
Aoi watched him closely but said nothing.
They reached a chamber wide enough to stand upright. Strange symbols were carved into the walls—half prayer, half warning. Skulls hung from cords of hardened silk.
"This is a record chamber," Senji whispered. "Not a nest."
Aoi nodded. "Hierarchy is written here. For those who know how to read it."
⸻
The Tsuchigumo Hierarchy
Mika traced the carvings with her fingers.
"Scouts," she said. "Marked by the open hand. Human. Disposable."
Aoi pointed higher. "Warriors. Reinforced bones. Partial adaptation."
Haruka's gaze followed the carvings upward. "And these?"
Mika's voice hardened. "Weavers."
The symbol was unmistakable—an eight-pointed spiral surrounding a humanoid figure.
"They don't fight like warriors," Aoi said. "They shape. They decide who transforms and who dies."
Raizen clenched his jaw. "And above them?"
Mika hesitated.
"Brood Lords," she said finally. "We've never seen one. Only… what they leave behind."
The chamber trembled slightly.
Everyone froze.
Senji whispered, "We're not alone."
⸻
The Ritual
They crept forward into the next chamber.
This one was vast.
The ceiling vanished into darkness. Thick strands of webbing stretched between stone pillars like obscene architecture. At the center, a pit yawned open—black earth churning slowly, breathing.
Bound figures knelt around it.
Villagers.
Alive.
A figure stood above them.
Tall. Wrapped in layered robes of silk and bone. Its face was human, but wrong—eyes too still, mouth unmoving as it spoke in a voice that echoed through the chamber without sound.
A Weaver.
It raised a staff tipped with chitin.
The earth responded.
One captive screamed as his body convulsed. Bones cracked. His spine arched violently. Skin split as something pushed outward from within.
Haruka covered her mouth.
Kaito shook, fists clenched. "They're turning them alive…"
Raizen felt his stomach twist—not from fear, but rage.
The Weaver spoke softly.
"Fear strengthens the flesh. Resistance shapes the form."
Mika whispered, "This is how they're made."
⸻
Discovered
A strand of web snapped.
The Weaver's head turned—slow, deliberate.
Its eyes locked onto Raizen.
"Ah," it said. "The broken blade returns."
The ground shook violently.
Incomplete Tsuchigumo tore themselves free from the walls—limbs malformed, jaws half-formed, bodies twitching in agony.
"Move!" Senji barked.
⸻
Battle in the Dark
The first creature lunged.
Aoi met it head-on—bare-handed.
She ducked beneath its claws, drove her elbow into its throat, then twisted, snapping its neck with a brutal crack. Black blood sprayed across her arm.
Kaito stared. "She didn't even use a weapon—"
Mika was already moving.
She slid under another creature's swing, slammed her palm into its knee joint, shattered it, then drove her heel down onto its skull repeatedly until it stopped twitching.
Haruka joined the fight, polearm sweeping wide, crushing malformed limbs.
Raizen fought through pain, blade precise but slower now. The poison burned through his veins.
The Weaver didn't attack.
It watched.
"Interesting," it murmured. "You endure."
The chamber began to collapse.
Webbing fell like rain.
"Retreat!" Senji shouted.
⸻
Escape
They ran.
The tunnels screamed—stone grinding, webbing tightening, the earth itself rejecting them.
Aoi grabbed Raizen when he stumbled, hauling him forward without a word.
Mika brought up the rear, striking anything that came too close with ruthless efficiency.
They burst back into the shrine as the passage sealed behind them.
Silence returned.
⸻
Aftermath
They collapsed in the alley behind the shrine, gasping.
Raizen's vision dimmed.
Haruka knelt beside him again. "The poison stabilized… barely."
Aoi wiped blood from her hands. "The Weaver marked you."
Raizen met her gaze. "Good. Let it remember me."
For a brief moment, Aoi looked at him—not as a warrior, not as prey—but as something else.
Then she turned away.
Mika spoke quietly. "This isn't just revenge anymore."
Senji nodded. "It's war."
Above them, Kagamori's bells remained silent.
Below them, the Tsuchigumo hierarchy shifted.
And somewhere deep beneath the earth, the Weaver smiled.