NOVEL NEXT Chapter 195: The Colossal Spider.
Jax ignored the beast's roars and continued approaching. Entering the deep part of the forest, the area seemed to be surrounded by trunks and branches, forming a kind of nest or dark lair. Jax kept moving forward, and the roars grew louder. Upon entering the clearing, Jax finally saw what was inside: it was a colossal spider more than 100 meters tall.
Jax felt insignificant in size, as if he were next to a massive and powerful monster that had the power to kill him. This made Jax unable to understand how such a powerful creature could be so close and not have killed him. Furthermore, feeling so vulnerable was strange. Since he had risen to Level 99 and become a demigod, Jax had felt invincible, as if he could not be killed by anyone; but now he felt weakness.
Upon his entry, the spider raised its giant head and turned to look at him with curiosity. It did not know who dared to enter its domains despite its warning.
The spider, seeing the human, seemed to smile with contempt, as if viewing a simple worm delivering itself to its lair.
Jax spoke first as he continued to approach. Unlike before, he did not have that golden glow; he maintained a certain caution around the monster, as he didn't want to startle it and make it more aggressive than it already was. He raised his hand and greeted it with calmness and confidence.
"Hello, giant spider. I know you can understand me, or at least you should understand me. Can you grant me an audience? I would like to talk with you."
The spider, which understood languages, became interested in the human and approached slowly. But every step the spider took made everything around it tremble. The power was so great that not only the ground shook, but even the world itself seemed to be cracking with every step, as if it were a crystal being bent.
It seemed that the world could barely contain the spider, as if reality itself was not strong enough to contain its presence. Feeling this, Jax finally took the situation seriously and began channeling his energy around his body, prepared for the worst.
The spider stopped in front of Jax, at a distance where it could assassinate him without any problem. Jax could feel it; his senses were too sharp to miss that clear signal the giant spider was sending him.
Standing in that position, the spider just stared at him and said nothing, as if waiting. Jax began, asking, "Are you some kind of emperor, or are you the owner of this forest?"
The spider tilted its head with curiosity and laughed, as if it couldn't believe there was someone so foolish in this place.
The spider spoke, its voice sounding deep, profound, and terrifying. It told him he must be new to this place. "It's strange that you've lasted this long here," it continued. "I thought humans had gone extinct a long time ago..."
Those words made no sense to Jax, since every time he entered and left, there was a pillar of light that went up and down as if announcing his presence. He couldn't believe the monster hadn't noticed his presence. Everything was strange, too strange.
Jax asked, "What are you doing in this place, in the forest? Why do you stay here without leaving?"
The spider was intrigued now. How did this human know about leaving this place?
A sensation it yearned for swirled in its heart with an urgency it hadn't felt in millennia, or perhaps it would be better to say, in ages.
The spider, with a voice of urgency, moved closer, almost placing its gigantic head against Jax's small body, saying, "What do you mean by leaving this place? Do you know how to leave this place? How do you leave this place? What do you mean by leaving this place? You better not play games with me, child...! Your words can cause your death...!"
The spider's roar and its intensity betrayed its desperate urgency to get out of there. Its screams made the world tremble. In the location where all his wives were, they couldn't believe the power being released; it was as if the entire world was shaking. The screams caused the waterfall to break intermittently, and even their shelter began to collapse.
The races that were working came fleeing from the underground, shouting that parts of the tunnels had collapsed and that people were trapped. Despite their efforts to help, the collapsed tunnels kept falling one after another. Constructions made of solid granite and metals could not withstand the pressure induced by the spider's screams.
The women tried to send messages to Jax through the divine connection, notifying him that their territory was being destroyed by earthquakes. Although they didn't know what was causing what was happening, they thought it was Jax doing it with the aftershocks of his attacks.
Jax tried to calm the giant spider, attempting to prevent it from further destroying its lair while saying to it:
"Easy there, friend. Wooh, wooh, relax! Everything is fine. There's no need to go so crazy. We can talk calmly. There's no need to destroy everything over something so simple."
The spider, ignoring Jax's attempts to calm it, yelled with a heart-rending fury that shook even the depths of the clearing: "Do you know how long I've been here...?! Do you know how much I've been through here because of that damn traitor, the Celestial!!!?"
The spider's words caused Jax to freeze. The spider was shouting the name of the Celestial, and incredibly, nothing happened. It was as if she was unaffected by his ancient rules. Every time Jax even wanted to try to pronounce his name, he felt like he would die due to the Celestial's rules; but the spider in front of him was insulting him directly, without fear, as if he were not the Celestial, but some insignificant person in the world.
"Damn Celestial!!" the spider screamed, her voice loaded with ancient pain. "You have betrayed me! You abandoned me in this goddamn place abandoned by the gods! You left me to die alone like a beast when I was no longer useful to you...! How dare you abandon us?! We gave everything for you...! We sacrificed ourselves, and this is how you repay us, you cursed traitor!!"
Jax was hearing things that went against everything he knew and thought. He never imagined finding such a huge and terrifying secret in a place like this.