Princess of the Silver Ocean - Chapter 32

She gawked at the creature in shock. It had the body of a genetically modified spider with a woman’s face and sat on a regal throne of stones. The throne was covered in nothing but labyrinthine sculptures, and a gem-encrusted spider head was fixed on each of the front legs.

“W-who and what are you?” she asked the creature.

The spider woman eyed her with a dull expression.

“I should be asking you that since you stepped into my boundary.”

Astoria’s hand covered her nose because of the stench of rotten corpses lying everywhere. A gust of wind blew past, and the woman rose from her throne.

“I asked who you are. Are you just going to keep quiet and stare at me? If you won’t speak,” the woman said, “I. Will. Eat.You.”

As she said the last part, a strong gravitational force pushed Astoria down, causing her to painfully land on her knees. She strained her muscles as she attempted to get up, but it was futile.

“Well?” the woman inquired again, casually marching towards her.

“I’m Princess Nexi,” Astoria promptly answered.

The force pushed her down further. She groaned as she felt like the oxygen was slowly being sucked out of her lungs. She glared at the woman who had an eery grin as she walked towards her, hips swaying from side to side.

“Princess Nexi?” she asked, a hand on her chin as she tried to remember where she heard that name from.

She finally stood in front of the princess and crouched down to her level. Up close, Astoria could see the spider woman’s appearance. For a spider, the woman looked very curvaceous with her silky sky-blue hair. She had an hourglass figure with a beautiful yet conniving face and crystal clear eyes with a mole under her left eye.

“Ah, that’s it!” the dark blue-haired spider woman said, her face lighting up at the realisation.

“I remember now. Oh my,” she continued, “You do know there’s a hefty price for your body, right?”

“What are you-”

“The Dark Lord, or as some like to call him, the Lord of Darkness is searching for you. Judging from your facial expression,” she said, her head tilted to the side, “I’m guessing you do not know who the Dark Lord is, or you do know, but you just do not know that is his name is.”

Astoria could not utter a single word as she stared up at the spider woman who was gently stroking her silky sky-blue hair.

“The Dark Lord is the smokey fella. Well,” the woman giggled, “he would kill me if he heard me call him a ‘fella’. Anyway, I was so excited when I saw that something had stepped into my boundary.”

She suddenly yanked Astoria’s hair, and her crystal eyes began to darken. Pain spread throughout Astoria’s body.

“I was hoping it was a male creature since I’m rather hungry right now, but alas,” she pulled Astoria closer to her face, “it’s a female. You see, I’m obsessed with eating the souls of men.”

Her obsession revealed why Astoria had noticed that most of the corpses were male.

“Sometimes females enter my boundary, but their souls are just not tantalising. You, on the other hand…”

She paused and licked her lips, a glint of hunger in her eyes.

“Your soul is rather interesting, though. Not to mention delicious.”

She let go of Astoria’s hair, and the gravitational force that was pushing her down disappeared. Astoria quickly stood up and called out for the magic book. She had to think of a plan to escape this boundary and go back to the palace.

“Oh, what is that book? Am I supposed to be afraid?” the woman asked her, a chuckle escaping her blue lips.

‘Judging from the dark energy I’m sensing in this place, I doubt the spells I have will be effective, so I’ll just try to stay alive and escape.’

“Listen here, princess, I ought to capture you and hand you over to the Lord of Darkness, but,” she paused, “I won’t do that because I loathe men.”

“What are you talking about?” she questioned the woman.

The spider woman casually sauntered back to her throne and sat down. She watched Astoria with a bored expression.

“Firstly, let me introduce myself. My name is Saxhish. I’m a Spiderfolk known as the ‘Lover of Men’ because I am obsessed with them, as you can tell from the corpses. You see,” she began, a smile on her lips.

“The souls of men are extremely tainted. They have deep dark secrets. I’ve seen things one could never imagine. Dark things and the evil deeds they had done or desired to commit. That’s why I prefer their souls since they are rich in dark energy, something I live off on.”

She crossed her arms and leaned forward.

“You, princess,” she continued, “I see a little darkness in you.”

“Darkness in me? What are you talking about?” Astoria asked.

Saxhish shrugged and leaned back.

“There’s a little evil in you, but it’s not enough to make me want to eat you, although I only eat the souls of men. If I see a woman whose soul is dark enough, I do indulge myself, but that is a rare occurrence.”

Saxhish loudly sighed and rubbed her tummy.

“So damn hungry! Now be on your way. Shoo shoo.”

“You’re letting me go?” Astoria asked in bewilderment.

Saxhish, already bored with her, got up and walked towards her. She grabbed Astoria’s arm and dragged her to the edge of the boundary.

“I’m letting you go because you are of no interest to me. I don’t even care about the bounty on your head. I don’t care about the Dark Lord.”

“I’m grateful that you are letting me go, but this,” Astoria pointed at the dead corpses, ” this is entirely wrong. This is murder. As much as these men are evil, as you say, they still have families waiting for them, missing them. Please stop this and-”

Saxhish growled, and suddenly Astoria was pinned to the ground. The spider woman got on top of her, licking her own lips as her eyes, which had earlier turned back to normal, turned dark again. Her lips twisted into a crooked smile.

“Honey,” she began as Astoria struggled to free herself from her firm grasp, “what I do is my business. These men are trash, and I feed off trashy men, so just go and pretend we never even met because the next time I see you again…”

Saxhish paused and slowly moved her head down. Astoria felt cold lips on her neck and, without warning, was bitten by her. Her eyes felt heavy, and her vision was blurry. In an instant, she was out cold. Saxhish stood up and clicked her tongue.

“Such a bothersome woman,” she said as she held the princess and pushed her out of her boundary.

Ai had called her Yashiro the moment Astoria had disappeared into the boundary. No matter how hard they tried, they could not pass through it. It was as if their access was blocked. While they continued to try out different means of entering the boundary to save Astoria, they saw her body slowly emerging from the darkness and falling to the floor.

“Astoria!” Yashiro yelled, running to her side.

He noticed that she was sweating and was unconscious. Ai crouched next to her brother and stared at her with a worried expression.

“We need to get her back to the palace right now,” her brother stated, alarm in his voice.

“It’s okay, Astoria,” he softly stated, ” You will be okay.. I’ll make sure of it.”