Abyss Descension: I Perform Rituals to Evolve In The Apocalyps-Chapter 26: The Guide (2)

In the tunnel, a little further away from the hole in the wall, three corpses could be seen. These were the remains of the first group of revenants Kev had defeated after arriving in the Abyss.

He stole the shadows of all three, then collected one of them, increasing his corpse collection points by one, and gave the other two to his guide.

"Here's your payment."

The book devoured them seemingly happily.

Not only did that stop her complaint and cleared the debt between them, it also ensured she would answer his next call.

After getting paid for the service she had provided Kev a while ago, she stuck to his side.

She showed no signs of leaving, prompting Kev to ask,

"Why are you still here?"

"Do you want me to leave?" his guide questioned.

She didn't let him know she was sticking around to ensure his survival by providing him crucial information in time.

"Not really," Kev answered truthfully.

"I knew it!" his guide exclaimed.

"Though it might sound ironic, in this deep, dark place, your presence brings me comfort," Kev said with an honest look on his face.

"Oh, how sweet. I didn't know you could say stuff like that," his guide said.

Suddenly.

Kev said,

"Why does it feel like you are a person rather than a sentient book?"

His guide went silent for a moment.

But then words began to form on its revealed page in a hurry, as if it were a person panicking.

"You must be imagining things. Can't you see what I look like? What can I be if not a book that can think and communicate?"

Kev nodded, however suspicions had already formed in his mind.

***

Temple of Miracles

In a private quarter, a magic circle was drawn on the floor.

It pulsed faintly, glowing every now and then.

Each time it glowed, a new corpse would appear in the center of the room.

Suddenly, the door creaked open.

An intense stench surged outward.

A beautiful woman with hair and eyes the colour of red wine and a tall and curvy body stood at the entrance, her black-painted toes peeking from beneath her plain white robes.

The moment the stench hit her, her nose wrinkled in disgust. A violent wave of nausea welled up inside her, and an intense desire to puke her guts out filled her heart.

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"Ugh! These Revenants smell so bad. I'm gonna puke. How did he remain fine in the face of their dreadful stench? Are his senses fried?"

She turned around and sprinted toward the open field outside her room, barely making it before vomiting into the grass.

An elderly woman followed her and gently rubbed her back to provide her comfort as she threw up the chicken noodle soup that she had last night with soda on the side.

"Natasha, sweetie," the old woman said softly as she handed over a handkerchief, "this is exactly what I was afraid of when you told me you wanted to raise a corpse spider. You've a gentle nature and a kind heart and there's nothing wrong with that. But that kind of personality just doesn't mix well with raising a creature that feeds on death. It's diet is so unique even experienced abyss dewellers can't stomach it. You can still back out if you want. I'll find a new home for it."

Natasha wiped her mouth with the handkerchief her aunt had given her.

She drew in a deep breath, then let it out slowly, doing it in repetition to calm her rapidly thumping heart before saying, "I don't have a choice."

The elderly woman frowned. "Why do you say that? One day, out of nowhere, you insisted on raising a corpse spider. So, I went out of my way to get one for you. Is this... connected to why you gave up on everything and suddenly agreed to apprentice under a random priest in this temple?"

"Yes, it is." Natasha nodded.

The elderly woman wanted to probe further, but Natasha raised a hand, stopping her.

"Auntie, I have work to do. Please excuse me."

Without giving the elderly woman a chance to say another word, Natasha took a deep breath of fresh air, pinched her nose shut, grabbed the cage from her hand, and rushed back into the room.

The elderly woman watched her go with a strange, deeply unsettled expression.

Since her mother died giving birth to her and her father was always too busy to not be largely absent from her life, the elderly woman had taken on the responsibility of raising Natasha since she was a newborn baby.

The person who taught her how to walk and speak, it was her.

The person who taught her basic manners and etiquette befitting a noble, it was also her.

She had been with her every step of the way and raised her to be a fine lady who knew her worth.

It could be said that she knew Natasha like the back of her hand.

Which was exactly why she found her current behaviour disturbing and suspicious.

Under her obsessive care, Natasha grew up sheltered from the disgusting reality of Abyss.

Just like her looks, her personality also mirrored her mother's.

She was sweet and considerate.

She was the type of person who would give a random stranger the last piece of bread on her plate if she heard their stomach growling due to hunger.

In the abyss, such a person was rare, almost nonexistent.

Natasha had been able to grow into such a wonderful person because of her powerful background and the overprotective nature of her maternal aunt.

But a few days ago, Natasha changed, and the elderly woman felt it.

Her personality did a total 180.

She dropped her peaceful and luxurious lifestyle and escaped to a temple in the mountains far away from home to raise a monstrous spider.

The elderly woman didn't know what caused these changes in her niece, but she had every intention of finding the cause behind her sudden change in personality.

Inside the room...

Natasha placed the cage down and opened it.

Then stepped back.

A small spider skittered out.

It was tiny, barely the size of her palm. Its four black beady eyes gleamed above its fang-lined mouth.

Presented with a number of corpses, its little head began to spin—it couldn't decide where to start.

"So silly and cute."

That notion had only popped into Natasha's mind when it pounced on a corpse and began eating it ferociously.

Its fangs sank into the corpse's flesh with a wet crunch, and in seconds, it tore through it, consuming everything it had to offer.

The sight was more horrifying and chilling than anything she had read about in horror stories.

Suddenly, she didn't find it so cute and silly anymore.

Despite being the size of a palm, the spider devoured the seven-foot-tall corpse entirely in a matter of seconds.

How its tiny body could consume something more than ten times its size so quickly was one of the many wonders of the Abyss.

It used its tiny legs to rub its stomach in satisfaction.

Then it laid down.

For a while, it remained motionless.

Then its small frame quivered... and began to expand.

In seconds, it grew from palm-sized to the size of a watermelon.

Corpse spiders could grow by eating corpses.

This was their inherent trait.

They were easy to raise—just feed them a bunch of corpses every day, and they would reach maturity in a matter of months.

A fully grown corpse spider could easily shred an evolved revenant to pieces.

Because of these two reasons, they were a popular choice for battle companions among Abyss dwellers.

The corpse spider, now the size of a watermelon, got back on its many feet and scurried off to eat the other corpses in the room.

A glint flashed in Natasha's eyes as she watched it grow stronger and taller by eating the corpses she had provided.

"Eat," she whispered. "Eat as much as you can and grow. You'll be my greatest trump card in the war to come."

Her delicate hand curled into a tight fist.

"In this life... I refuse to be helpless in the face of danger. I refuse to be felled easily."

In her eyes, a fire blazed.

"From here on, it's either do or die."

She was going to accomplish her goal or die trying.

"Thankfully, I have a man I can rely on. I just need to continue my current relationship with him, and I will be able to guarantee the continuous growth of my corpse spider."

The person she was talking about... Who could it be if not Kev?

Talking about Kev, he was curious about why the sentient book desired corpses so much.

Was it true that its diet included corpses, or was there some other reason?

What Kev didn't know was that the creature acting as his guide ever since he became a corpse collector was an actual person, not just a sentient book.

All the corpses he gave her in exchange for her guidance?

They were being fed to the weapon she was secretly raising to ensure she wouldn't die in some kind of war that was yet to happen!