The Infinite Bk. 05 Ch. 07

After thoroughly savoring and memorizing Carthace's womanly flavor, Noah returned his cock to its rightful place and thrust into her like a machine. Her lower body made it challenging to find a place to put his legs, but the springiness of the web worked to his advantage, letting him rise higher and drive deeper. The two took turns on top, rolling across the web with Carthace holding him tight. Due to her lower body, missionary and cowgirl were their only options, but Noah made it work. He even gave her spinneret some attention.

Finally, after making Carthace climax one last time, Noah released everything he had, pumping the fiend full of hot semen. She gasped for air and struggled to stand as Noah's seed dribbled out of her pussy. "My, my, you really are something special. Tell you what, I'll be willing to forgive your transgressions as long as you swear fealty to me. Become my slave, obey me, and you shall rule at my side when the Profane take over this world. There is so much more pleasure for us to enjoy."

"Considering the situation, but that sounds like a pretty good deal. Spare my friends and I'm all yours."

"Very well, I'm in a merciful mood." Carthace extended her arms to him. "Come to me, my darling servant."

Noah got to his feet and walked over to her, albeit on shaky steps atop the webbing, and the two shared a passionate kiss, which ended when Noah conjured a knife from his ring and slashed her throat. He had been trying to cut her head off, but his wounded hand barely had the strength to grip the blade.

Carthace staggered back, pouring blood and screaming in anger. "You bastard!"

"If it's any consolation, what I said about you being a gilded page was true. I truly wish we could have met under different circumstances and gotten to know each other. However, I'm here on a mission, and I can't let you continue what you've been doing."

He then dropped down through a gap in the web and landed on the floor beside Shannon. He conjured a healing potion from his ring, pulled the cork out with his teeth, and drank it down, closing the holes in his palms and restoring his strength. He then tossed a scroll to Shannon, containing the alchemic formula he used in the generator room.

"Cast it!" Shannon stared at him, still stunned by everything she had just witnessed. "Shannon!"

"Oh, uh, sorry! Yes, My Lord! Molecular Deconstruction!"

She opened the scroll and channeled all of her mana into it. Her energy surged from the parchment and into the webbing wrapped around her, then continued through all the threads in the chamber, causing them to disintegrate. Valia was freed from her silken straightjacket and dropped to the floor, along with Noah's weapons.

"Your dick is still out," she said dryly.

"Cut me some slack, I was just violated by the Profane. I feel so dirty."

"Uh-huh, sure. Shannon, how about you?"

Shannon was freed, but she had dropped to her knees, drained of all her mana. "I'll... I'll be fine, but the scroll turned to ash."

"I'll kill you all!" Carthace shrieked from high above their heads.

"If she didn't mean it before, she sure means it now," said Valia. "Get your gear, quick!"

As Noah went to retrieve his weapons and armor, Carthace clapped her hands together. "Silk Storm!" Countless balls of thread began shooting from her spinneret at high speed, unraveling as they flew. They ricocheted off every surface, losing none of their energy as though immune to the laws of physics. The silk would stick every time they hit something, but the ball would continue bouncing, creating a new web that quickly filled the room.

Noah had almost reached his sword when one of these ricocheting threads bounced off the floor at an angle and grazed his shoulder. That slight touch was all it took to lock him in place, stuck to the webbing like an insect. He conjured a knife from his ring and slashed at the thread, but despite his skill with a blade, it simply stuck to the web. Noah was forced to abandon his shirt and keep going.

Behind him, Valia grabbed the weakened Shannon and pulled her to the side, dodging the flying threads. With each passing second, these threads were taking up more and more space, and riding them like a rollercoaster on a track, Carthace swooped down and attacked with her razor-sharp legs. Valia pushed Shannon out of the way and fended off Carthace's slashes, but the power and speed were beyond her expectations, and she received several cuts that broke through her armor and steel defenses.

"Lady Valia!" Shannon exclaimed, seeing her mentor stagger back in pain and blood loss. She raised her bow and launched an arrow at Carthace, but by swinging around on her web, she easily avoided it. As long as one of her legs touched a thread, the laws of gravity and inertia seemed to hold no sway.

Now armed and armored, Noah returned to Valia and Shannon as the elf downed a healing potion. The three were crouching to avoid the threads. "Are you all right?" he asked.

"Don't worry, I've had worse," Valia replied as her wounds closed.

"She's coming back!" Shannon exclaimed.

Carthace once more dropped in on them, swinging all eight of her legs like a tornado of blades. Noah and Valia defended against the onslaught as best as they could, but they had little room to maneuver, and though they were able to block the Profane's attacks, the force behind it pushed them back into the threads, leaving them stuck.

"Zodiac: Teez!" Valia cast. An aura of mana engulfed her glade, and with a flick of her wrist, she severed the threads binding her, then did the same for Noah. These threads could resist regular steel, but a mana-wrapped blade could cut them like a razor through yarn. "Zodiac: Avagath!"

Valia extended her field of awareness in all directions, and as the flying threads entered her reach, she'd reach out and sever them, creating an open space to keep the trio safe. Carthace once more swung down while slashing and stabbing with her legs. Noah attempted an invisible attack while using his clone as a decoy, but his attack was merely repelled by her swinging limbs, hitting with the force of a runaway car. It seemed like invisibility wouldn't help him in this fight. It didn't matter if he could avoid detection when she was too fast and too fortified to hit.

Carthage again swung down, and this time, Noah formed an illusory handgun and fired three rounds. The mana bullets hit their mark and made Carthace stagger in the air, distracted by her survival instinct screaming she had just been wounded, and in that brief window, Valia slashed her from shoulder to hip. The wound was deep, but far from fatal for a Profane of her caliber. She spun around and slashed with all her legs, wounding Valia and giving her an opening to climb back up out of reach to heal.

"You are all certainly skilled, I'll give you that," said Carthace. "However, no amount of skill can free you from my domain." She again clapped her hands. "Web of Nightmares!"

Another bundle of threads shot from her spinneret, bouncing off the walls while leaving a trail like her previous attack. However, these threads smoldered with a black aura and didn't flex or sway in the air. As they closed in on the trio, Valia moved to cut them, but the moment her blade met one of the threads, she cried out and was thrown back as if she had been electrocuted.

Several threads crazed Shannon's back, making her scream in pain as deep cuts crisscrossed her flesh like she had been whipped, and Noah dropped to one knee as a thread slashed his leg. The sting hit him with unexpected force, making him feel like his soul had just been poisoned, except blood streamed from where he had been hit, and the affected tissue had turned black as if gangrene was already setting in.

Seeing her lover and protégé wounded, Valia's patience, already frayed by pain, reached its limit, and anger took over. "Get back here!" she shouted, leaping towards Carthace like before.

She slashed at her neck with full killing intent, but Carthace had the advantage in the air and leaned back to avoid the slash. She countered with several swings of her own, and though Valia blocked them all, Carthace turned around and aimed her spinneret at the elf, then shot her with another barrage of glowing threads, stabbing and slashing her like a wall of spears and knocking her back down to the ground. She landed on the floor beside Noah, narrowly sticking the landing but hemorrhaging blood from her numerous wounds.

"In all my years, I've never fought an opponent like this before," Valia panted before drinking a potion. "Her movements and technique are out of this world. I can't get a read on her."

"She's like Tysinger, but with eight swords instead of one. She also has the home-field advantage, but I know how to turn it against her. Can you throw me straight up and then catch me?"

"I hope you know what you're doing." Valia held out her clasped hands, giving Noah a leg-up, and then launched him towards the ceiling.

"Die!" Carthace shrieked as she zoomed towards him on her webs.

Noah conjured a scroll and unrolled it. "Molecular Construction!" The spell activated, but there was nothing to show for it, no flash of light or dramatic effect. However, just as Carthace was about to strike him, she stumbled and missed her mark. Noah fell back down, and Valia caught him.

"What did you-- oh!"

"What is that smell?!" Shannon exclaimed.

"Ammonia, made by combining hydrogen and nitrogen. Normally I need a source of water, but here in this enclosed chamber, I can make due with just the moisture in the air. Speaking of which, ammonia is lighter than air, meaning it's all rising towards the ceiling. As bad as it is down here, it's infinitely worse for her up there."

Over their heads, Carthace was struggling to find clean air. In actuality, she was breathing in Noah's mana, imitating ammonia, but it was enough to deceive her senses, and just like the monster repellent Noah used earlier, the pungent stink was overpowering her and sapping her strength. Noah stepped up his attack and began bombarding her with flashbangs. Her eyes, which had not seen sunlight in centuries, felt like they were melting in their sockets from the blinding radiance, and the deafening clap bounced off the walls and hit her again and again like a slap to the face.

With three of her senses completely overwhelmed, Carthace lost her hold on the webs and began to fall. She flailed her legs, trying to find a single thread she could latch onto, but couldn't focus enough to hold on. No longer able to dodge, she was an easy target for Shannon, launching arrow after arrow. Carthace hit the ground with enough force to kill an average person, but her Profane body was too powerful to be broken by something so simple. Still, several arrows were lodged in her abdomen, and she had multiple chemical burns caused by acid splashes.

"Don't give her time to heal!" Valia shouted as she led the charge.

She and Noah attacked Carthace from opposite directions while Shannon rained arrows, putting their foe on defense. Carthace fended them off with her limbs as best as she could while still trying to recover from Noah's sensory barrage. Left distracted, there was no way she could fend off all three, and Noah and Valia's swords left their marks. Again and again, their blades gouged her flesh and spilled her black blood, but her wounds were healing almost as fast as they were inflicted.

Soon enough, Carthace steadied her senses and went on the offensive, becoming a spinning wrecking ball of blades. The trio kept their distance, unable to get past her killing range, until Noah formed an illusory shotgun and blasted Carthace. The mana buckshot threw her off her balance and broke her rhythm, allowing Valia to get behind her and drive her sword into the center of her arachnid abdomen. Despite her raised pain tolerance, the wound left her screaming in agony, and Noah closed in for a stab.

She raised her hand to block, and his sword pierced her right arm and buried itself in her throat. Before she could retaliate, Shannon planted an arrow between her ribs. Gripped by pain and fury, Carthace jumped straight up, freeing herself of the trio and wrenching their swords out of her body. "To me, my children!"

The sound of scuttling legs reached the trio as an army of spiders appeared, crawling out of holes in the walls. They began launching silk threads, trying to fill the room once more with webbing, but their attacks were falling flat due to the illusory ammonia in the air assaulting their senses. Those lower to the ground were having better luck, but Valia, retrieving her sword, managed to fend off the threads with her cutting enhancement. Holding an illusory machine gun in each hand, Noah fired off storms of phantasmal bullets in all directions, stunning the spiders long enough for Shannon to dispatch them.

Watching them fight, Carthace realized that victory was slipping from her gasp. She had to escape and find a place to hide until nightfall. She rushed towards the exit, but moving at super speed, Valia cut her off. "You're not going anywhere."

"Elf bitch!"

Carthace tried to force her way past Valia with a flurry of slashes, but Valia blocked them all. "You had me for a loop at first, I'll give you that, but after fighting you for so long, I've wised up to your patterns. There is a reason why I'm called the Sword Goddess."

She pushed Carthace back towards Noah and Shannon, who attacked her from all sides. Slash, stab, hack, their blades tore through her defenses, and try as she might to fend them off, not even eight legs was enough to turn the tide of battle. Finally, Valia inflicted the deciding blow. Zooming by like a bullet, she clipped Carthace across the waist with her sword, separating her upper and lower body. Carthace fell to the ground, with her arachnid extension writhing aimlessly before all eight legs curled up like a fist.

Shannon stood over her, holding her sword to the woman's throat. "With this, my people are free. All that's left is to finish you off. I'll rejoin my kin, and the horse tribe will once more gallop across these lands, unburdened by your evil."

At her words, Carthace began to laugh. "The horse tribe? Oh, you poor baby. The horse tribe is long dead."

"What?" Shannon gasped as the blood drained from her face.

"How long do you think we hold prisoners before we give them parasites? We had been stalled recently and become engorged with test subjects, but normally, their fate is decided within the first few days of arriving. If they bond with it, they become one of us, forever a servant to the Profane. Most, however, react badly, and they become food for those who survived. Your friends and family went mad in the pit and devoured each other! Their remains were ground up and used to feed the growing parasites!"

"You lie! That can't be true!" Shannon tearfully screamed.

"Shannon, I saw it," Noah said softly. "I saw how the parasites are raised, what they are fed. I saw how they're attached to their hosts and what it makes them do."

"The few of your tribe that survived the process are now part of the Pack! They're roaming the countryside, slaughtering, enslaving, and devouring any poor soul that crosses their path, all for the glory of the Profane! Even if you find them, there is no turning them back, no undoing what's been done to them and what they have done to others! Your tribe was doomed the moment those chains were put on them!"

Shannon dropped her sword and staggered back. "No, no, no, no, no, no!" she cried with her hands over her face. Valia rushed over and held her, trying to offer comfort.

Carthace watched her crumble and crackled gleefully as Noah approached. Despite seeing the sword in his hand, she grinned wickedly. "Hello, lover," she said, her final words before Noah separated her head from her shoulders. Throughout the room, all the spiders curled up and died. The battle was over, but could it be called a victory?

"Valia, get Shannon out of here. She needs fresh air, and the freed prisoners outside need guidance and organization.

"What about you?"

"I still have a few things to take care of down here. It may take some time, but don't worry about me." Valia led Shannon away, leaving Noah to his own devices. Once they were gone, he crouched down beside Carthace's severed head. "Ah, you really were beautiful," he said, brushing aside a lock of her hair.

He then conjured a syringe from his ring and stabbed her through the eye, driving the needle into the center of her brain. He pulled back the plunger, filling it with black liquid. Pure Profane venom, as fresh as it gets. It was such a powerful substance, he was sure he could find a use for it. He then pulled out a rolled cloth and opened it up to reveal several surgical tools, including scalpels, forceps, a bone saw, and other devices for dismantling bodies. He went to work on Carthace's corpse, harvesting valuable materials. This was a better haul than the wyverns he butchered on Kisara Island.

After he had collected everything of use from her, he set off to scour the palace for any intel on the Profane, anything that might offer insight on their path towards world domination. He also helped himself to various tools and pieces of magical tech that he could use for his own creations.

He finally stepped outside and took a moment to enjoy the sunlight before turning to the next problem. The barren lands surrounding the destroyed prison were filled with liberated captives, all wounded, hungry, and searching desperately for their friends and loved ones. They were free, but the fight for survival had only just begun. They had nothing but the dirty, shredded clothes on their backs, and they were in the heart of autumn.

Looking around, Noah found Shannon sitting on a boulder. She was no longer crying, as her red eyes and puffy face told him she had run out of tears. "Your wounds look pretty bad. Drink this," he said, giving her a potion. She received the bottle with stiff fingers, but didn't open it. Noah conjured his green cloak and wrapped it around her, then sat down.

"Right now, I'm supposed to be telling you that everything is going to be all right, that you'll survive this and you aren't alone, but I'm not going to do that. You don't have to be strong or hopeful. Go ahead and give in to despair, be as miserable as you want. Unclench your jaw, relax your shoulders, and just let it all wash over you. If you want me to comfort or cheer you up, I will. If you want to wallow and feel sorry for yourself, you go right on ahead. Right now, the only thing that matters in the world is how you feel and how much it hurts."

Shannon collapsed like a felled tree, resting her head on Noah's lap while staring off into the distance. Noah sat with her and stroked her hair, listening to her intermittent sniffles and weeping.

The trio spent two days trying to help the freed prisoners. Keeping enough fires burning through the night was a herculean task. They scavenged what they could from the prison--weapons, armor, clothes, provisions, but most would rather sit in the wind rather than take shelter in that stony hell. On the third day, the various tribes and clans, each decimated by the Profane's experiments, went their separate ways.

The nomad groups had cultivated food highways across the countryside, and once they found their ancestral paths, they could begin to rebuild. The other groups, farmers and hunters, set off to rebuild their destroyed villages or find new ones to call home. The Pack had left plenty of ghost towns scattered across the land. Noah gave each group alchemically crafted gems to barter for resources.

Though he didn't say it, Noah half-expected Shannon to join one of the nomad tribes. They weren't her kin, but they lived the same lifestyle she was used to. Instead, she remained by his side, but without her usual bright eyes and smile. She was silent and despondent, clinging to him like his shadow. Often, he would feel her tugging on his shirt, afraid of letting him go.