Chapter 414: The Rose man in the Spider’s Web
[Oh, how novel! No wonder you three enjoy being blasted into the face of other people. This makes for a rather interesting sensation,] Archanidame commented as her being began to suffuse itself with Zhen Jin’s essence, [all of this information…it’s exhilarating.]
This was her first time performing [Possession] in someone that wasn’t their lord, so it made for a novel experience for the control type kaijin.
Evidently, this prompted the other kaijin to discuss about this particular phenomenon.
[Oh yeah, it’s a real fucking trip,] Hurricroak commented, [when I jumped into the shark boy’s head, swear to the gods, started smelling ocean waves for like a week straight.
[Same…,] Frosttusk rumbled as he recalled piggybacking in Zhen Hai’s mind awhile back. The mammoth kaijin then began to wonder if he should check on the man while they were on this voyage, making sure he took his lesson to heart.
[I was about to retort that comment, but I know exactly what she means for once,] Nepherage added, [the boar uncle oddly smelled of…clean mud, if that makes any sense.]
[The…the contradiction in that sentence hurts me,] Razorstella replied. [All that said, when is it gonna be my turn to take over someone’s braincase?]
[With our lord’s propensity for attracting trouble? Sooner than you think.]
[Yay.]
[Really quick question, my friends, but is a spiderweb made of my silk and thorny rose vines too much?]
[[[No.]]]
[Excellent.]
________________________________________________
As a spider-shaped blast of energy impacted his face, Zhen Jin’s mind began to race with a whole slew of questions.
Well, most the questions revolved around him getting shot in the face and not enjoying it one bit.
‘Did…did that guy just shoot me in the face with a toy gun?’
‘What kind of gun even was that?!’
‘A desert eagle?’
‘A Beretta?’
‘Wait…why do I even know what guns are?!’
(Un)fortunately for him, he would never get the answer to that particular question as his perception of reality began to distort, making him feel as if he was falling down…
Down…
Down…..
Down….
Until.
*SPROING!*
“Huh?!”
Zhen Jin didn’t know how long was falling nor how far he was going, until he found himself trapped in a web made of spider silk and thorny rose vines.
“What? What?!”
Zhen Jin at this point was understandably, freaking the hell out.
He might have been an Aether Master with blood on his hands, but as someone who’s main personality trait was working off of predictability and knowing that very reaction works in a certain kind of way, this situation was incredibly stress inducing.
It’s one thing to go from fighting a giant cyborg rat in a steamship’s cargo hold and ending up at the bottom of the sea because the rat broke a hole open, it’s another thing entirely to go from fighting a giant cyborg rat and then ending up in a completely different plane of existence, reality and location.
As such, he began to try and break himself free from the demented bindings.
The result of which wasn’t exactly great.
“Come on, come on, come on…,” Zhen Jin kept muttering to himself as he pulled against the strands of silk clinging to his skin and the throne vines tearing into his clothes.
However, no matter how he attempted to pull himself, he wasn’t getting any freer.
“Is this damn thing alive?!,” Zhen Jin cursed.
When he tried to free one arm, his other one would get tangled.
When he tried to lift his legs, his torso would sink deeper and cause more thorny vines to stick into his flesh.
Rolling was also out of the question, because when he tried to lift one shoulder in an attempt to do so, the threads and vines would just stick to his body like packing tape.
For all intents and purposes, Zhen Jin had no control over the situation, and was trapped with no way out.
“By the gods, what the hell do I do now?”
[Well, well, well! What do we have here? A little fly has caught himself inside my trap? No…a rose? Well, by any other name, they still taste so sweet…]
“Huh?! Who said that?”
Tap, tap, tap.
“Huh?”
From Zhen Jin’s left, he could hear the sound of controlled and measured steps, walking towards him as if it was the most natural feeling in the world. When he turned to see who or what was the cause, he was shocked to see a strangely familiar face.
“Aranea?! No, wait…the features are wrong…and I’m pretty sure she didn’t have spider legs where her normal ones should be.”
Walking towards him was a being that his mind told him was an “arachne”, a monstrous humanoid with the upper half of a comely woman, and the lower of a giant webspinning spider. That being said, he had never heard of thought of the term “arachne”, until this very moment.
‘Why is my head full of this weird info-”
[Ara ara, is there any reason why you’re stuck like this, man of roses?]
“Huh? Whoa! When did you-”
[I asked you a question, man of roses,] the arachne interrupted, [why are you stuck like this?]
The reason for Zhen Jin’s exclamation of shock was due to how quickly and quietly the arachne had suddenly appeared by his side. He was fairly certain she was at least ten feet away from him a moment ago.
A part of him wanted to tell this creepy spider woman to kindly fuck off or eat him, literally, but another part of him felt…strangely compelled to answer her.
He had no reason not to.
“Well…I’m stuck in your web because…I had no control over the situation and some random guy shot me in the face. I don’t know who it was exactly, but when I find them, I will deck them.”
[Hmmm,] the arachne hummed while she heard Zhen Jin’s answer. [I now know how you got here, but I’m asking you, why are you stuck here. You know you’re free to leave whenever.]
“Well, I can’t. You made this web…vine trap, too sticky! I can’t even wiggle an arm free.”
In response to what she perceived as a silly question, the arachne let out a strange hissing laugh, a mix between a spider’s scream and a chuckle.
[Hah! That’s the funniest thing I’ve heard in centuries.] The arachne began to move about Zhen Jin’s bounded form until she was at the man’s feet. Once she was there, she nestled in as if she was sitting on a fine rug, her eight long legs bundling together underneath her.
[I didn’t make the trap too sticky, I just made it as always have done…let me ask you something new now, why do you think I’m able to traverse this web so easily?]
“Because…you made it?”
[Hmmm. Half right,] the arachne replied, [I made the web sure, but I am not immune to the stickiness of my own creation. Behold.]
To prove her point, the arachne took a single leg from underneath herself and pressed it down on a particular strand of silk, one that was directly connected to Zhen Jin’s arm. When she attempted to lift it away, Zhen Jin could see she was now stuck.
[See?]
“W-what?”
Zhen Jin was bewildered at this point, why would this spider woman purposely trapped herself alongside him.
Was she crazy?
Thankfully, he would get the answer to that question…sort of.]
[Now then, how do you think I could free myself?,] the arachne asked him.
[Should I cut off of my own leg? It would hurt, but I’d be free rather quickly,] she joked while making a cutting motion with her hand.
[Should I try and cut the threads around it?,] she asked again. [ But it could cause the entire thing to collapse and I’d get stuck in even more of my own webbing. Plus, I’d rather not do the work of rebuilding a whole web, you know what I mean?]
Zhen Jin felt as if the arachne was trying to make a point of some kind, but he wasn’t entirely sure what…until…
[Or…,] the arachne took a deep breath before slowly and gently lifting her leg off of the sticky strand of silk.
[Do I realize that while I can’t truly control every single variable around me, I can at least control myself. And simply move in the way I need to.]
“Huh…”
Zhen Jin wasn’t sure why, but something about what the arachne said caused him to become a touch more…introspective.
“Self…control…”
For as long as he could remember, Zhen Jin had always attempted to exert control on the others around him, or rather, even the situations around him.
But in the end, he could never really control the outcomes or actions that those others would do.
Even reliable tools could one day break due to a quirk circumstance.
The only thing he could truly control…was himself.
“Why am I stuck here?,” he asked himself.
As this question rolled in his mind, parts of the thorns touching the web began to glow a very faint tint of green.
