Hajime could only breathe out a sigh as he watched one of the weirdest exchanges he had ever seen. Subaru and Kazuma making a deal with a group of spiders who were the cloned split consciousness of a fellow Isekai victim that they had met. That was a sentence he never thought he'd ever have to think about. Both his own group and Naofumi's group seemed to carry the same sentiment.
'Now come on, the nearest point we have is just over this way.' Came the telepathic voice of one of the spider sisters, he wasn't sure which. "Papa, can I see what's going on now?" Myu asked as she grappled onto the hand covering her eyes. "No, I'll tell you when you can look." He replied as the group followed after the spiders.
The dark caves covered in spider webs and only illuminated by their own light sources only grew deeper with each step. Many of their companions kept their hands on their weapons and their ears open for any sort of hostile presence. Naofumi pulled ahead for a second and put a hand on Subaru's shoulder.
"Listen, what exactly do you two know about her?" he asked them. "Not too much, all we do know is that she spent several months down here, even evolved from a basic spider monster into an Arachne. But even we didn't know about this." Subaru replied. Kazuma leaned to the closets of the spider sisters and whispered something.
'Granny, she's been around every so often. She kept dropping by when she found out about us. She's been meaning to bring something so that we can leave this place.' Was the telepathic broadcast from one of the spiders. Kazuma just smacked himself in the face while the other's leaned closer. "Granny?" Shizuku asked with slight fear. 'Yeah, she's this big powerful demon lord. But she's been pretty chill since she... Uh Information Brain what happened to her again?' Was the response from the spider with a headband with the Kanji for body on it. 'Her soul was merged with the original body brain, so she's a bit of a Chunni.' The spider with glasses responded.
Hajime just sighed again. "What is with the three of you?" he asked exasperated. Subaru and the spider sisters just shrugged, the one in a top hat tilting her head in confusion to add to it. "Crazy just follows us around, best get used to it." Kazuma said with a hint of emotion. It was Naofumi's turn to sigh as he looked them down. "What was that about her bringing in something so that you four could leave?" he asked.
'Oh that, well the spider monsters used to be ruled by mother, until we killed her.' The spider with glasses started. 'So Granny is bringing in one of our aunts to take her place, but until then we have to watch over the spider monsters here since we have the same stats that mother did.' Body Brain finished. "And just what was your mother?" Hajime asked.
'BBBBIIIGGGGG SPIDER, really big spider.' The top hat wearing spider said while raising her front scythes to emphasize it. 'A Queen Terratect, big as a castle with the power of an army tenfold.' The spider with a wizard hat spoke up. The group paused to visualize such a monster, Myu pulling herself closer to Hajime as she did so.
'And now we're here.' Information brain called out as they came to a circular mass of webs. The inside was to scale with the spider sisters itself, but with several... quirks. There was a frog monster trapped in some webbing but not dead, a set of workout weights and a poster, A small castle made of webs with small figure for spiders to mess with. The list went on and on as the nest looked extremely well lived in.
"You've been busy." Kazuma deadpanned. 'That we have.' Information Brain replied as she scuttled over to a bed. "How long will this take?" Subaru asked. 'Oh, well we just have to wait for Granny to bring auntie. shouldn't be more than a few hours.' The wizard hat spider said. "A few hours?" Hajime clarified, taking a glance back to see that the others weren't doing so well.
'Yeah, besides we need to pack our stuff before we leave.' Body Brain spoke up as they began shoving weights into a portal. The other spider sisters were doing similar things. The wizard spider was letting the frog down and securing some bags to its sides. The top hat spider was saying goodbye to a small group of lizard monsters while packing her bag. And Information Brain was shoving all their 'furniture' into a portal much like Body Brain.
"If they're like this, what is she like as a whole?" Yue asked Kazuma. "A pain in the ass, and a drain on our funds." Kazuma replied. "We managed to keep her out of trouble by letting her join a village of OP magic chunnis." Subaru chimed in. Many of them gave him weird looks. "Hey, they're from Kazuma's world. Kumoko never went to mine." he defended himself. "Didn't stop her from killing off most of the monsters around the village just to keep herself well fed." Kazuma chimed in.
Shizuku and Raphtalia just groaned while Kaori shook her head. Keel and Rifana just gave them half sympathetic looks. Tio and Shea were just staring at the chaos of the spider sisters packing up their home. "Could I visit this village?" Yue asked. Myu and Filo were just watching as the top hat spider seemed to be crying as she continued her goodbyes. "This is stupid." Naofumi deadpanned as Hajime nodded.
"This hole is new." Ariel said as she looked down into the depths. Two Spider puppets followed closely behind her as a Queen Terratect just stared down. She could smell the remains of two unknown monsters and the surrounding area was covered with the remains of other beasts. The two spider puppets turned to her, tilting their heads in curiosity. "Another Wave must have happened. Guile said that some new goddess has someone on the case, but this is getting ridiculous." She surmised while dipping her hand in a puddle of strange black liquid.
She looked down the hole once again. "Welp, down we go." She said as she jumped down. The Queen Terratect and her puppets following after her. "Let's see what the Spider Sisters are up too." She whispered with a giddy smile as she began to imagine what sort of shenanigans they could be getting up to now.
She landed with a crater, the Queen Terratect doing the same. Her puppets shimmied down and landed with far more grace. She took a whiff of air before looking around, her nose guiding her to the location she would need. "Smells like a human, some Demi humans, and... Ah those two." Ariel mumbled as she began to walk along the scent trail. Her puppets looked at her with curiosity as the Queen Terratect split from the group.
"Two people I haven't seen in a while are down here. Maybe they can answer some questions I've been meaning to ask." She said to the puppets before going down the path she could smell them.
'Ah, Granny's here.' Magic 2 said as she finished packing. "What?" Kazuma asked. 'Granny just dropped off The new Queen Terratect, now she's coming here.' Magic 1 clarified. Kazuma and Subaru just looked at one another. "Do you think...?" Subaru asked. "Probably, or maybe she'll be normal and we'll stop getting looks from them." Kazuma replied while gesturing to Hajime and Naofumi's groups.
The two aforementioned groups were preparing for the worst. Hands on weapons, spells being prepared, all to ready in fear of a worst case scenario.
"Should we tell them about the whole...?" Subaru asked. "Nah, let them find it out themselves." Kazuma waved them off. "Hey, how long is it going to take to get us to Tempest?" He asked Magic 1 and 2. 'We have to find the exact point, old us has been busy setting up way too many points.' Magic 1 replied. "Welp, prepare for disappointment." Subaru said too the others.
"Disappointment?" Hajime asked. "There probably won't be a fight," Subaru said. Some of them looked relieved at the information, others just raised their brows. "I get that, but why would we be disappointed?" Naofumi asked. Subaru opened his mouth to speak, only for a gust of wind to interrupt him.
"Hey, everyone's favorite Demagical girl Ariel is here." Came the triumphant voice of a scantily clad woman who appeared with the wind.
Hajime stared.
Naofumi stared.
The others turned to Subaru and Kazuma. The former covering his face in embarrassment while the other was shrugging his shoulders. The spider sisters just seemed to be laughing at the predicament.
'Hi Granny.' Magic 2 said while waving at her. Ariel just waved back with a smile. 'Deep Breath'; "Hello Ariel" Subaru said. Kazuma just gave her a wave before he turned back to the spider sisters.
The others were letting what Ariel had just said sink in. Hajime covered his face with his hands and groaned. Naofumi sighed and turned to them. Kaori and Shizuku were looking at the spider sisters with deadpan expressions. Most of the others just tilted their heads at Ariel's words.
"Just stop asking questions and roll with it, save you the headache." Subaru said. "Yeah, anyway. Nice to see you two again. How's Kumoko doing?" Ariel asked. "Fine, we found a school for her to attend." Kazuma said. "Ooo, good, so how did you end up here?" She asked. "Waves" was their simultaneous answer.
She pointed a thumb at the others and asked; "Same for them?". The two guys nodded. "We're right here you know." Naofumi spoke up. "Ah yeah. Guille told me that someone was working on those waves." Ariel spoke up. "Guille?" Yue asked. "Yeah, an old friend of mine." Ariel replied.
"Ready yet?" Kazuma whispered to Magic 1. 'Almost.' She replied. "Great, so we keep talking until we're ready." Subaru chimed in. 'We'll be giving Granny our goodbyes first.' Information Brain spoke up. "Yeah go do that." Kazuma waved them off.
"So every where's being hit ht these waves?" Naofumi asked Ariel. "Yep, Guille and I have been running around trying to fight them off." Ariel replied. A terrified shout got everyone's attention as a pair of multi limbed marionettes appear. "Oh, don't worry about them, they're with me." Ariel waved them off.
"I can see that, so you have anything that can track these waves?" Naofumi asked. "Guille has been working around the clock on that." Ariel replied. "Can we meet this Guille?" Naofumi inquired. "Later, he's busy right now." Ariel answered without a second thought.
Hajime finally uncovered his face as he finished groaning. "Can we leave now?" he asked annoyed. 'Got the spot up,' Magic 1 said. 'Now then, Goodbye Granny.' Information Brain said as the four spiders went to 'hug' her. "Ah, you're leaving?" Arile said with disappointment. 'We must, for we shall find our old self and teach her what for.' Body Brain said. "I'll miss you all." Ariel said sadly while hugging them back.
"This is... oddly heartwarming." Raphtalia said. "I just want today to be over." Shea said. "Yeah, it was nice to see you Ariel, but we have some stuff to do." Subaru said awkwardly. Ariel dropped the four spider sister she had been crushing and turned to them. "I know, feel free to come back anytime." She waved them goodbye.
"Hold it, I have one more thing to ask of you." Naofumi spoke up. "What would that be, Shield Hero?" Ariel spoke up. "Does everyone just know this?" he asked to now one. "Nah, Guilla just said that four heroes with weapons were needed, I can feel the strange magic from your shield and put two and two together." Ariel replied. "So what do you need?" She asked. Naofumi held out his shield; "This can absorb any material to unlock shields, even blood and hair. I was wondering if you would allow me too-" "Absorb some hair, creepy but no problem." Ariel replied as she plucked some of her locks and fed them to the shield.
Naofumi seemed to look at his hud before his eyes widened.
"Alright, ready to see Tempest?" Kazuma asked as Naofumi returned to the others. "Feel free to come back whenever you feel like it." Ariel said. "We will." Subaru replied as Magic 1 and 2 began creating a large magic circle.
"Any good thing to say about Tempest?" Kaori asked. "It looks like home." Subaru said as the circle began to glow. Subaru, Kazuma, and The spider sisters waved goodbye as light enveloped them all.
"Ah, well, might as well take a walk to Tempest when I have a moment, right Guille?" Ariel said as Guille walked out from around the corner. "So, he's one of the four, and Kazuma's the one looking for them?" She asked. "Indeed, though I fear what may happen with the fates of our worlds in their hands." Guilla replied. "They'll do fine, we just have to look after our own." Ariel replied.
