Interconnected: Spliced Souls

I’m sorry.   

“Don’t be,” I said, sitting beside Merka. It took him a few minutes to settle down. The boy believed himself to be the only survivor.      

…maybe he was. I hoped not, but…  

No.   

I just had to hope his friends were still alive.    

What do I do? Where do I go from here? I’ll be attacked on sight.   

“I know an easy solution. Why don’t you come with me?”  

What?  

“You heard me.”  

But I’m a golem! And I have this magic I don’t fully understand. I don’t even know what I’m doing half the time with it.    

“And?” I told him about Albert—a revenant— who pretended to be my spirit. “It’s not like I’ll force you to do anything you don’t want to do. Once people realize you’re a ‘spirit’ instead of a golem, they’ll look at you in a favorable light. And at that point, you’re free to leave. Or you can stay with me. Oh, I know some powerful people in Canary. Good people. Kind women who can help you out.”  

I hope Dineria and Nimyra aren’t too upset about me sending another one their way.  

Are you really okay with me going with you?  

“I wouldn’t have offered if I wasn’t. I—” Suddenly, the ghost sent a notification. Suusa was groaning, so he was about to wake up. I told Merka, and he shivered at hearing Suusa’s name. Of course, that was natural since the ogre almost killed him.   

Just as I wondered what we could do, Merka’s body flashed a deep brown and shrunk to the size of a muddy-colored crystal about as big as my hand.   

And then he reverted.   

I can make myself smaller. I don’t know how, but will that make it easier?  

“It will,” I said, standing up. “Do you mind?”  

Wait, Servi! I can target Merka!  

“What? You can?” Merka looked at me. “Okay, so this is going to sound weird, but…” The boy patiently listened as I told him about my ring and the ‘ring spirit’ living inside. “I can stick you in my pocket until after we return to the house I’m staying at, or you can hang out in the ring. The choice is up to you.”  

I want to trust you, Servi. I’ll go inside your ring if it makes it easier for you. 

Merka soon vanished in a pale crimson light, and Itarr kept me updated as I returned to Suusa.   

He was still asleep— just barely.  

Merka was rightfully alarmed, but Itarr met him at the fountain and talked to him. The truth about being an immortal goddess remained a secret at the moment.   

I asked the ghost to investigate the room down the corridor, and it did, but it died upon touching the wall. I presumed it held a seal around it.   

The arachnecrosis weaver sent another update and said things were progressing well. It sensed my location and believed it was about a few hundred feet above me. The path descended as they continued, and the spider assumed we would eventually meet up if we kept progressing.    

The foes are becoming annoying. The horde is more numerous. Even a million weak mice can overpower a death knight. I have a plan to show myself without revealing our connection. No one but the revenant and cat will know who my loyalty belongs to.    

I listened, and it made sense. I texted the spider and told it to go ahead. 

Texting a spider feels weird...   

I absorbed my phone and sighed, wondering if I should press on.  

I wanted to face whatever was waiting for me alone.   

Honestly?  

It wasn’t even a choice. I scribbled a note on a paper and gently sat it in Suusa’s clenched hands, then departed for the mysterious room at the hallway’s end.    

The ghost was still hidden inside the ceiling, watching Suusa for me.    

Slowly, I gripped the handle and felt some resistance before noticing what seemed to be the same seals Dineria used. But these were…weaker? My ghosts were helpless, so they couldn’t pass through. But that stiffness I felt was just the door being stubborn. It needed some elbow grease and loudly squeaked as I pressed it open.   

And I entered a blanket of darkness—almost welcoming me to delve deeper.   

I couldn’t see anything, but the nothingness was more of a comfort than a real fear—things like being afraid of the darkness had long since left me.   

If I was even fearful of it in the first place.    

Most of the string lights were left with Suusa. I had them up in the room, but I carried some with me. Why do something manually when you could have the undead do it for you?  

A few seconds later, I had a dozen ravenwatchers carry the lights in their claws as they flew around the room, illuminating it for me.   

A giant faded sigil in the middle with intricate etching and flanking that was thirty-two alters. The white paint for the magic circle had long since been stained by the overwhelming dried blood splattered everywhere. Did a massacre happen here? This room seemed cultish, so what about mass suicide?  

“Do you think something was summoned?”  

Possibly? I see an exit at the back.    

“I don’t want to get too far away. Honestly? This is kinda a letdown.”  

Were you looking for a fight?   

“An answer.” If an illusionist was behind the voice we heard…  

Where the hell were they?  

Itarr found it strange. But an inclined pathway sat at the room’s end. I didn’t want to go too far away from Suusa, so I readied my scythe and tested out a new undead.    

“[Create Mid-Tier Undead – Skeleton Captain]!” I cut into the ground and watched as a six-foot-tall skeleton dressed in steel armor adorned with bones clawed upwards from the rift. Its eyes glowed a deep green, and the undead immediately kneeled after stabbing his sword into the ground.   

“What are your orders, my liege?” The voice was deep and cold, like a frozen chunk of guttural darkness.    

“Liege?” Its personality was like a loyal, serious soldier utterly devoted to its lord. “I want you to progress forward and discover what’s beyond. Reunite with the arachnecrosis weaver and follow its scheme.”  

“At one, my liege.” The skeleton grabbed its sword, retrieved the shield from its back, and marched away.   

I returned to Suusa and waited until either he awoke or the skeleton captain found something.    

 

---

“Come on… This isn’t fair...” A witch’s whining overpowered her laborious breathing. Sweat and exhaustion drenched her cheeks and soaked her collar. The canteen she held in a pouch on her hips had nearly gone dry. Perhaps it had one or two more swigs left.   

“This hasn’t been fair since we entered. Just what bullshit…is this?” Gerld groaned, but he gripped his spear with sweaty hands.   

“We’ve been good so far,” added Momo, wiping her face. The enemies they had faced really were easy when left alone.    

Albert was unaffected by the growing heat as the group looked out over a cliff and onto the ground below. The only way to descend would be to climb down—a far cry from the angled path behind them that they had loyally followed.   

“Good only matters so much when you’re fighting against ten. Maybe twenty. But 400?!”  

“Don’t exaggerate, Gerld. It’s more like 200.”  

“Exaggeration is specifically called for in this situation, Sissy!” Gerld gestured to the roaming army. They flaffed around without any rhyme or reason. “Even if they’re weak, they’re going to overwhelm us! Hey, what’s Servi and Suusa doing?”  

“They’re catching their breaths,” said Albert. “They’ve found a safe room. Suusa fell asleep for a moment.”  

“That bastard got us into this, and now he’s taking a damn nap?!”  

Momo knew about Annie. Her relationship with Suusa was the first thing out of Sissy’s mouth after she received word of Servi’s and Suusa’s safety. She thought it was a sad, horrible tale, and Momo felt for the young ogre. Having a close friend taken away so cruelly?  

I’m glad he has Sissy and Gerld. And he has us, too.   

Sissy simmered her friend’s anger and calmed him, but that didn’t help them discuss what to do. Only Albert and Momo knew what was about to happen, though.   

From the sleuthing darkness sat a ravenous spider, and it acted.   

Sissy was the first to notice. She almost didn’t believe it when it uncloaked itself and jabbed its elongated legs into a zombie, ripping it apart like wet tissue.   

Were her eyes deceiving her?! The sight was too odd—too close to brushing the unknowable. Sissy outright grabbed Gerld’s head, shutting him up from talking to Momo and Albert, whose attention had been on him, and made him look.   

Two pairs of eyes naturally followed, and quietness infected them.    

“Ohohohoho!” Feminine laughter almost made Gerld lose control over his bladder.   

“Did that come—”  

“Shhhh!” shushed Sissy. She covered his mouth with her hand.   

Momo knew this monster had come from Servi, so she wasn't afraid. If anything, she thought it was cool in a grotesque type of way.   

“How dare these little pissants try and intrude upon my lair! No! Oh no! I cannot have that! Ohohohoho! [Spectral Arachnomancy]!”   

The arachnecrosis weaver raised its forelegs, each tip dripping with an otherworldly luminescence. The haunting glow intensified as the air crackled with dark energy. Its eight eyes glimmered with an arcane intelligence as it weaved a spell.  

Suddenly, from the ethereal void, a legion of ghostly spiders—each one three feet tall— materialized, bearing the twisted markings of the spectral realm. They scuttled forth with eerie coordination like a macabre dance. The chittering sound that accompanied their arrival echoed—a dissonant harmony that sent shivers through Sissy’s and Gerld’s spines.    

They watched as the spider horde quickly overwhelmed the zombies and skeletons, using their large fangs to sever heads and destroy brains, or they used their webbing to entrap several together for the arachnecrosis weaver to take out with a swipe of its elongated, twisted legs.   

All the while, the spider never stopped laughing. The beast thoroughly enjoyed the destruction it wrought and found fun in achieving its creator's wishes.    

Sissy and the others could only watch as so many were killed so quickly. The spiders returned to their summoner, where they dissolved into the monster as it let loose one more joyous laugh.   

“And don’t think I don’t see a couple of intruders. Mmmnn… Is it perhaps too steep to climb down?”  

“SHIT! RUN!” Gerld exclaimed. He scrambled but suddenly stopped because a handful of ethereal arachnids stood between him and the room’s exit. Gerld raised his spear and kept it steady as the arachnecrosis weaver told its spiders to stand down.   

“No… You don’t smell like intruders… Tell me, why are you here? For what reason did you intrude upon my lair?”  

“What…do we do?” Sissy was frozen. Reaching for her wand pouch felt like an impossible task.   

Albert stood and met the arachnecrosis weaver’s eyes—he knew what game the spider was playing. “We’re trying to find our allies,” said the revenant, becoming a supporting actor. “They fell through a trap. We presume they’re somewhere below us.”  

“And these… things…” The spider gestured to the dead zombies.   

“They’ve attacked us multiple times. I take it they aren’t your allies?”  

“Me? Friends with them? Ohohoho! Never in a million years, boy.”  

“What are you doing?!” whispered Gerld. Albert ignored him and continued conversing with the spider, acting out the script it already had written and shared via telepathy.   

“Will you assist us, o’ great one?”  

“Oh, if I must. Perhaps the ones you seek are with my husband.”  

“Husband?!” exclaimed Momo and Sissy.   

“A spider… That’s married… Great divines above... Am I still drunk? Is this a drunkard’s dream? Wait, why aren’t you surprised that it’s talking?!”  

“It is no dream, Rhinokin. Be a sweetie and lower your weapon, please,” said the spider as it scurried up the cliff. It weaved an elegant rope that shimmered like sparkling stars.  

Gerld asked Albert if he would trust it, and he said the spider would’ve done something if it wanted them dead.     

“The boy’s right. I merely wish to live with my husband in peace.” The spider crossed two legs while the group rappelled down the cliff. Gerld was full of caution as he approached. He didn’t let Sissy walk in front of him, but it seemed Albert didn’t harbor the same apprehension.   

And neither did Momo. Of course, she knew the truth—the husband idea had gotten her unaware—so she wondered what kind of scheme Servi had going on.   

“Now, please do stick close. I sense more of these monsters.” The spider turned around and slowly walked down the only available path.   

The group was glad everything had been mostly linear. Things would’ve been dire if this place was a maze.   

“Umm… Do…you know what these things are?” asked Sissy, stuttering. She was the very definition of stupefied.   

“Monsters that should be dead, little witch.” The spider spoke so casually, yet its tone hinted at refinement. “Oh, I forgot. You can't see in the dark, so allow me to remedy that.” The arachnecrosis weaver wove its illuminating web and shot it down the corridor, where the group saw many more zombies waiting like blood clotting a wound.   

“Even if we had gotten past…what would we have done about this?”  

“Hmm? I believe the answer is simple.” The spider summoned another horde of ethereal arachnids and let them loose upon the stoic undead. “Merely kill them. Isn’t that all? I’ve observed your fights, and you’re not the weakest I’ve seen.”  

“Great… Being judged by a married, talking spider deep underground…”  

“Hey! Stop it!”   

“Ow! Don’t elbow—”  

“Dumbass! Be on your best behavior! Please forgive him! He doesn’t mean anything by it!”  

“Why would the lion want an ant’s apology?”  

“But you’re not a lion. You’re a spider, right?” inquired Momo, changing the subject.   

“Indeed, I am, little cat. It is merely a saying.”  

Well, talking to a mummy is one thing. Is it any different than speaking with a spider? At least I know Servy and Suusa are safe. I kinda wish I could tell Sissy and Gerld to make them stop worrying.   

The tension Gerld emitted never dwindled. And he always had his spear in a low-resting position.   

Soon enough, Sissy somehow accepted her situation and found herself openly conversing with the spider. The passing arachnids stood victoriously over the undead they had slaughtered as they moved from room to room, crossing over stone bridges built across ravines filled with corpses. The unsettling altars became more numerous. The side rooms they had passed were clearly spots meant for inhumane torture.   

The sinister altars proved more unnerving by the moment, and they saw more of those faded sigils that must’ve been used for something heinous.   

Sissy felt her stomach churn more and more.    

The depravity merely continued, and Gerld smugly asked—his tone changed after another elbow from a friendly witch—what the deal was.   

“Those decorations were here before I laid claim with my husband,” said the spider, jumping across a twenty-foot gap. It wove a bridge of beauty that Momo couldn’t help but adore. As thanks, the arachnecrosis weaver spun a little hat for Momo and delicately sat it on her head.   

Gerld kept quiet. He didn’t want to get elbowed anymore, so silencing his tongue was the best way to achieve that.   

“Wait…” Momo suddenly stopped. Her ears twitched as she said she heard metal clashing against metal.   

“Ah, that must be my husband. Wait for me, darling!” cried the spider. It picked up speed and entered the widened corridor. That connected to another large, open area.   

“What’s up?” Sissy suddenly said, jogging along with the others to catch up. She turned to Gerld, and he wondered why everything was…so big. He thought that maybe subterranean worms or snakes were responsible since he had heard stories about how countries used them to excavate mines. But he wondered if the spider had carved everything out?  

“So, who came before the spider and her husband? What do you—” They turned the corner, and Gerld was struck dumb. He saw this tall spider excitedly jump around an armored skeleton wielding a sword and shield. It didn’t look anything like the buckler-wielding ones he had fought. Nearly four dozen corpses were spewed around it, and the skeleton captain finished the fight, cutting down four more in a single swipe.  

“Honey!!!” sang the spider. “Oh, it’s been so long!”  

The skeleton turned its green irises to Momo and Albert, then he looked at the witch and Rhinokin, ignoring the spider entirely.   

“Your companions are this way,” said the skeleton. Gerld was surprised by its voice. It left, and the others followed.  

Sissy looked at the spider and swore it was swooning. It had a little kick in its step and never once stopped speaking about how dashing or handsome its husband was.    

 

---

I thought it was the oddest thing in the world.   

But then I realized there were situations stranger than a powerful Mid-Tier Undead spider who wished to be treated like a pampered noblewoman who dreamed of finding Prince Charming.   

The skeleton captain, in this case, would play that very role. Albert kept me updated when the spider made its introduction. Sissy and Gerld were rightfully cautious, but it was abundantly clear the arachnecrosis weaver didn’t want to kill them.   

It just wanted to spend time with its ‘honey,’ after all.   

Along the way, the skeleton captain had found an odd room with a cauldron and a sigil. Unlike the others it and Momo’s group had discovered, this one still held a faint glow.   

Suusa and I headed there immediately after he had awoken, but the ogre didn’t know what to think about the dead zombies we found.   

“Believe it or not,” I said, stepping over a corpse. “I found one that talks.” Suusa received the same story the arachnecrosis weaver told Sissy’s group, albeit slightly altered to make sense from its perspective. “It looks like a knight commander that still has a sense of loyalty—with the armor, sword, and everything. It said it had detected a group of four from above and asked its wife to protect them.”   

“And you trusted that thing?! Why didn’t you kill it?! We need—”  

“Because what could I have done? We fought, but its shield tanked my attacks. I couldn’t get past its defensive stance. And it could’ve killed me, but it didn’t. I know we’ve been burned by the other skeletons, but this one is different. It knew we had fallen from above.” Suusa rightfully believed that this was a trap. He angrily pushed past me and shrugged me off when I tried to stop him. He ran, following the undead corpses, and I trailed behind.   

Not the reaction you were hoping for?  

Not really. I texted back, keeping pace.   

Well, it won’t be too long until you’re reunited. And then we can go to Cassidy’s and relax.    

Yeah, until tonight. Then it's back to Fortuna. 

I was so thankful I couldn’t feel tired.   

---

“Suusa!!!” Gerld and Sissy cried upon laying eyes on their friend. They rushed to him when we entered a laboratory-like room that held an enormous iron cauldron in the middle. They ran to each other and embraced a group hug.   

“And Servy!” Momo jumped into my arms, and we swung in circles until I sat her down  

“It’s good to be back. And—” I turned to the skeleton captain and arachnecrosis weaver. Again, this room was so massive it supported the giant spider just fine with about twenty feet to spare. Just what needed so much height? A monster?  

And did it come from that sigil in the room protected by seals? If so, just where was it? Logic dictated it was with the other necromancers. Or maybe this Kaisaku Syndicate had it?  

The two departed before I could thank them, although they received my praise via text. The spider laughed, and the skeleton said it was created to fulfill my wishes and asked for further orders.   

Keep investigating. Try to find any clues we may have missed. Can you help them, ghost?  

The ghost sent an affirmation signal, and I left them to do that.    

“Already gone, huh?” Momo whispered. She looked up at me with her bright, beautiful eyes.   

“Yeah, but…”  

“I know. At least, I think I get most of it.” Momo side-eyed the other reunion. “We’ll talk about it when we get back. Same place?” She tapped my chest, and I nodded. “But just look at them.”  

We turned to Gerld and the others and saw a truly emotional scene. But I couldn’t relate to their…feelings. Or if I did, it was some faux attempt to mimic them.    

Being truly immortal came with…different thought processes, I suppose.  

“I hope I didn’t make you worry too much.”  

“I’ll always worry about you. I’ll probably make a big deal over a paper cut or a little splinter, but that’s because you mean a whole lot to me.”  

“Holy shit, you’re probably my favorite person ever!” Gerld broke from the hug and stared at me. His eyes glistened with salty water, and his horn seemed to tremble. “Eh? Where’s the skeleton? And the spider? I need to thank them. I feel like a jackass…”   

Sissy stared at me with teary eyes as she held Suusa’s hand. She scrunched her face and tried to restrain the dam, but she failed. I walked over and hugged her. Her legs went weak, and I supported her as she exhausted her emotions.    

“Welcome back, Servi.” Albert placed a hand on my shoulder. “I’ve investigated the room. There’s a teleportation seal etched into the space behind that curtain, but I don’t know where it leads.”  

Albert says it’s not designed to work with undead.   

Sissy finally stopped crying. She adjusted her hat, wiped her eyes, and dusted her knees, then realized she couldn’t look at me without shedding a few more tears. Gerld and Suusa had apologized to each other before the Rhinokin called me his favorite person, so I guess there weren’t any hard feelings.   

I turned the subject to the cauldron.     

“I know I’m a witch, but that’s different from what we use.” Sissy said she had investigated it while they anxiously waited for us to arrive. She clung to Suusa and explained a little more, saying it was made of a different metal than what her covenant uses. “Witches often brew potions and poisons, but just look inside. It’s not liquid that’s boiling—it’s gas. Ah, but be careful. It’s hot. Don’t let it burn your face.”  

I took her advice and peeked over, and...  

It was weird and odd. Green gas was clearly there—trapped at the bottom. It bubbled and emitted a green mist that vanished after reaching the ceiling. 

But why can't I absorb it? If it's a product of [Necromancy], that explains it. So... How do I handle it? What can I do? 

We split up and searched the room while Albert further investigated the etched circle he had found, but he confessed magic engineering and engraving weren’t his strong suit. He had no idea where it would go.   

There was no way in hell we would risk it. It could’ve led outside or been a trap laying in wait by the necromancers.  

Regardless, the best choice was to retrace the path Sissy’s group took. The thread the spider had woven would still be there.   

Along the way back, Gerld suddenly apologized a few times. He said he had been pessimistic about Suusa and me surviving the fall even though he knew Albert wouldn’t have lied.    

“How about I make it up? What if I buy dinner? No, not just dinner… Oh, here. I’ll transfer you half of what I made off you. Then—”  

“Calm down, boy.” Sissy didn’t smack Gerld. She merely gently covered his motormouth with her delicate hand.   

“I’m not upset.”  

“And neither am I,” added Albert. He spoke like a man far wiser than his child-like appearance and helped Gerld understand that his lacking belief was expected. “Some cling to hope while others refuse to allow it in their heart since they don’t wish to be betrayed when it doesn’t bear fruit. Neither is objectively the correct or wrong way to think about things.”  

“Ah… Yeah. That’s it. I’ve been burned…one too many times.”  

But wait. Didn’t he cling to hope you’d win your matches?  

Itarr raised an interesting point, but the situations weren’t the same. Money was vital, but you could always earn more. A life couldn’t—usually—be replaced. Losing Suusa would, to them, mean losing him for good.   

Right?  

My stomach churned as if it had acknowledged an inconsistency.  

And then I brought up the mysterious voice.   

No one had found anything. The puzzling situation was no closer to being answered, but…  

We heard it again after bypassing the hole Suusa and I fell down.   

This time, Gerld tightly held Suusa’s arm and refused to let him go. The ogre formed two tight fists and acknowledged…that Annie had passed. That she wouldn't be coming back.   

But he had heard her voice when he thought that would never happen.   

The atmosphere became quiet.   

As we continued to leave, Albert broke the silence and said he wondered if what we had experienced was the result of a trap laid by an illusionist. Albert explained—masking a slight lie—and said his prior summoner was once friends with one, and he held a Skill Path that could enchant specific illusion-like effects onto an area or room to alter someone’s perception—to make them hear what they wanted or despised the most.    

If that’s the case, then… How old is this place? Can spells remain active for a long time?  

I’ll ask Albert. Umm… He says…no. The spell relies on the mage’s skill energy, so the caster must still be around somewhere.  

Does Merka know anything?  

He doesn’t. I already asked.   

So, what did that leave for me?  

A lot.  

More than a lot, really.   

I had Fortuna, the manager, and the missing fighters to handle. That would probably lead me to the Kaisaku Syndicate—whatever that was—and their base? If it was nearby, that was. I’d probably encounter the necromancers there. And if luck was with me, the geomancer would show up. I could kill a dozen birds with one stone if the illusionist appeared.    

Unlocking [Elemental Manipulation] would be a boon. I could hopefully use two forbidden skills simultaneously, and there wasn’t any bullshit mechanic like swapping between one or the other that necessitated unnecessary downtime.    

Now, I’d be golden if that happened tonight. That would be the best-case scenario because Sissy, as we finally left the tunnel and emerged onto the cloud afternoon sunlight, discussed returning to Canary sooner than later.    

The witch wondered if telling the guild was worth it. “We’ll be questioned, obviously. And maybe forced to remain here until they figure out what’s going on. We have to return the horse and wagon, remember?”  

“Yeah, we don’t want to be hit with late fees. I don’t need a bounty hunter coming after us..." added Gerld. “Can’t we just leave it to the spider and skeleton?”  

“So, now you trust them?”  

“I’m just gonna ignore that slight against me, you witch.”  

The two undead were still sleuthing around. The ghost worked tirelessly for any hidden paths or secret areas we hadn’t found, but there wasn’t anything.   

Suusa finally spoke and said he didn’t want anyone to fall victim to the illusion trap. “I don’t want others to be taunted by what they closely desire,” he whispered. “It’s too cruel. It isn’t right. Even if we warn them… The ones investigating might fall for it. It’s difficult to find, anyway.”  

“Yeah, but there’s still a chance some overeager novices might stumble upon it. Maybe…we can convince the spider and skeleton to leave?” I offered a solution. “I’m sure there might be better caves in the mountains.”   

In the end…  

We decided to tell the guild tomorrow. But before that, we would travel to the tunnels early—before dawn—and talk with the spider and skeleton and tell them what we had planned.   

We wouldn’t find anything but a note scribbled by the skeleton, telling us that they were honeymooning elsewhere.    

I figured a little humor wouldn’t hurt to break the tension.   

A few mummies with their earth magic could deal enough damage, cause a cave-in, and seal it off for good.    

I was just ready to get back to the city.   

We all were.