Chapter 3: Spider Legs

The journey was longer than either of them thought, but at the very least it wasn't perilous or deadly in any kind of way. The only odd thing they found out along the way was that among the golden lit pyre flies they started to find some glowing black ones. These black pyre flies were similar to the others in every way; however, unlike the ones that were creating light these ones looked as if they were eating light. They also tasted absolutely disgusting or as Noah said they tasted like 'concentrated rust'. The biggest concern wasn't the taste though and rather the fact that they were eating light which Dia nor Noah could see through.

"What's g-going to happen if they eat all the light i-in the area?" Dia asked while looking toward Noah as the two of them slowly approached the village.

"We'll just have to hope there aren't too many more of those cave horror things then," Noah muttered in response as he looked around the village gate.

The two of them slowly fell silent though as they realized that there was no one manning the front gate and upon looking inside the village they noticed it had been deserted. There were no signs of people and the homes, roads, and rooftops were all covered in mass amounts of snow without even the trace of a single footprint. The wooden buildings loomed silently ahead of them and the more and more they stood there without budging an inch was another second that Dia was left in concern about what was to come.

"Do you think this is the right place?" Noah asked, but his response didn't come from Dia and instead came from the arrival of Key and Rei.

"Hey handsome, I see the two of you made it," Key called out while jogging lightly toward the two of them. "Wait...where is everyone?" Key said while looking passed Noah at the deserted village almost at the same time as Rei finally closed the distance between herself and the rest of the group.

"Something's not right. The village was never large to begin with, but it shouldn't be like this..." Rei spoke up with almost a hint of panic in her voice as she pushed passed the rest of the group and quickly entered the deserted village while the other three followed silently behind her.

The four of them moved carefully through the village while looking for any kind of clue they could find; however, they came up empty handed. The houses were as empty as expected, but there wasn't even a drop of blood within them and with no footprints in the village it was almost as if something had come in and simply whisked away the people. As they moved closer to the other end of the village they finally came across a corpse of some creature lying in the snow though to Dia it was more than just a corpse as there was a spirit lingering around.

Dia slowly approached the spirit which appeared to be feminine in nature while the rest of the group seemed to gather around the corpse for evidence.

"H-Hello...I um...I know you c-can't talk to me, but can you n-nod if you're okay?" Dia asked softly to the spirit of the woman.

"I can speak to you just fine," the woman spoke up in response which left Dia somewhat surprised. She had never actually spoken to a spirit before though she could always see their forms talking to them was never something she had done. Maybe this world was somehow enhancing her ability as a medium? Was that even possible? She wasn't sure, but she at least knew that this was a great opportunity to get information.

"Do you know w-what happened...here?" Dia asked in the same soft sounding voice.

"I'm sorry, I don't really remember much of anything. I can't even seem to recall my own name. The only thing I can remember is that I was supposed to be helping these people somehow? They were on the receiving end of some kind of experiments, but that's really all I can remember," the woman said almost sadly as she looked toward the corpse of the creature behind Dia.

"Is that w-what happened to the...um...v-villagers?" Dia asked as she finally turned around to get a better look at the creature as Rei and Key slowly investigated the body. She noted that Noah seemed to be missing, but a set of footprints leaving into one of the neat by buildings told her he must have entered there.

The corpse seemed to have a very long torso with three arms on each of its sides and with its two legs it almost looked like a dead spider lying on its back. Its head was completely upside down though with its mouth and jaw where it's eyes normally should have been. It looked masculine and human in nature besides that though and was wearing nothing more than a pair of torn black pants. The creature seemed to have several lacerations and stitches across its body as if it had been subjected to some form of painful scientific experiment gone completely wrong. It clearly showed signs of infection in some wounds and judging by the face of Key an Rei it must have smelled terribly fowl.

"As I said, I don't' remember. I only remember what I told you and that I've been wandering around here for a very long time," the woman quietly responded.

"A-Are you dead?" Dia asked quietly while turning her gaze away from her companions and the corpse.

"I think so? I don't know why I can't move on though," the woman responded.

"D-Do you want t-to move on? I can h-help with that..." Dia asked just as one of her companions quietly called out her name. Dia shifted her gaze somewhat to see a hand on her shoulder, but the fact that she couldn't feel that hand wasn't something new to her.

"Who are you talking to?" Noah asked as he removed his hand from her shoulder.

Dia slowly shifted her gaze from the spirit toward Noah, but not before having seen the woman nodher head and give a small smile of acceptance almost as if she were happy about finally being able to move on. Dia only wished that she could move on with the woman since there was no longer any point to this life if she didn't even have her son in it.

"I um...I can s-see spirits and there's a l-lady there..." Dia responded to Noah while motioning to the woman that he clearly couldn't see himself.

Their conversation seemed to garner the attention of the other two in the party though as they slowly approached them now too.

"Spirits? You can see them? I've never heard of anyone being able to see spirits before" Rei said though she seemingly stole the words right out of Noah's mouth; however, Dia only gave a small nod of her head instead of any sort of verbal confirmation to the woman. She would have responded vocally had she not suddenly begun panicking about whether Rei would believe her at all or not.

Dia had no clue that seeing spirits was something never heard of in this world and she wondered briefly if this was going to lead to Rei finding her suspicious or special. She didn't want that at all though; in fact, she wanted the exact opposite of that as being considered any form of suspicious or special might put her on the radar of some unwanted attention. She didn't want anyone's eyes on her for fear that her secret might be found out even if that attention was positive in nature.

"So, what did she say?" Noah asked with a somewhat curious tone which caused Dia to snap out of her moment of panic.

"She s-said the people here w-were subject to some awful...um...e-experiments, but she doesn't remember m-much else. She can't even r-remember her own name..." Dia responded to his question quietly, but judging from the expression on his face and quiet sigh it seemed like he was disappointed with her answer.

Dia took a small step backwards almost instinctually as she pondered whether his disappointment in her would lead to her being abandoned here in the cold or sent off to fight some impossible beast. Or would she be hit? It didn't hurt to be hut or beaten in any many; however, it was almost always humiliating.

"Well, I found some underground passage that we could potentially look into," Noah said as he looked toward the rest of the group. Dia found herself slightly surprised at his words as it was strange for someone to be disappointed in her and not try to harm her in some way. Was this what it was like to be treated as an equal? If that was the case then she hoped this kind of treatment would stick with her for good, but for that to happen she knew that she'd have to keep her secret hidden.

Dia slowly turned toward the spirit woman and smiled softly at her before taking a slow, deep breath. She watched for a moment as the spirit slowly disappeared before finally nothing remained of the woman. Dia slowly lowered her head and paid a quick respect to the woman before finally joining the other three who seemed to have decided to head downward using the underground passages.

Noah quickly led the group to the passage he found beneath a trap door inside one of the abandoned houses and as expected the inside of the passage was far from homey. Dia could see from the faces of her companions that the passage had an awful stench and not only that, but it was dark and narrow with a very faint echoing sound of something dripping.

"Ah...I um...I can c-create some l-light," Dia spoke up softly before pursing her lips and letting out a serene and quiet whistle while touching her shield. The shield soon lit up a bright white color that lit up the darkened path and revealed a set of stairs to the party; however, the stairs were slick with what appeared to be blood. The color and viscosity of it made it known to the party that it wasn't fresh.

"That explains the stench," Key said while raising a hand in order to use a sleeve to block the smell of the rotting blood.

"L-Let me go first..." Dia said quietly before gently pushing passed the rest of the party and then entering the dark passage way. She could faintly hear the other three following behind her.

A few quiet moments went by as the party continued to descend even further into the dark until they eventually came to a large open room with a passage ahead and off to the left of them. There was also some sort of light flitting about her vision whose appearance reminded her a bit of a soul. She was further proven that this flitting light might very well be a soul as the rest of the party didn't seem to notice its appearance.

"Ah...um...t-there seems to be a s-soul running around. It r-ran down t-that way..." Dia spoke up carefully as she pointed off toward the left. Rei briefly looked down both paths before giving a shrug of her shoulders and choosing to step down the path that Dia had pointed out as where the soul had gone.

"I don't see anything down either way so the soul Dia saw is probably our biggest hint for now," Rei said as she continued to move further away from the group though Dia didn't let her stay ahead for too long because she knew her role in this group was obviously that of the tank.

It wasn't long before the party finally came across something odd. In a little alcove off to their left, they were able to spot what appeared to be some sort of amorphous fleshy blob and one of the human-spider like corpses they had seen outside. The only difference between this one and the creature outside was that now Dia could see its soul; however, its soul was nothing like Dia had ever seen before as it appeared broken and completely fragmented. Dia quickly raised her shield while also reaching for her flail at her side while the rest of the part also took on their respective fighting stances.

"Wait! Wait! We no harm you!" the spider like creature spoke up, but his voice sounded close to monstrous. It was deep and gravely and his sentence was broken and choppy to the point that the party seemed to struggle with understanding him.

"You can talk?" Noah asked from somewhere behind Dia with curiosity and surprise in his voice. It didn't seem like anyone in the party thought that these creatures would be able to speak.

"Yes, some can't, but some can. Some going crazy. Hungry...they eat us and they'll eat you. Must be careful. Watch for chains," the creature spoke up while keeping his arms in the air seemingly to try and appear less dangerous than he looked.

"Eat us? There are others like you that are going to try and eat us?" Rei asked watching the spider creature carefully and never once lowering her weapon.

"Yes. So hungry, so little food left, they hunt and eat others now," the creature responded.

"And uh...what exactly is that?" Noah chimed in before pointing to the amalgamation of flesh as it withered and quietly cried in what appeared to be pain.

"Son. He suffers, experiments left him in pain. More pain than us. Can't die," the creature responded in what Dia could only describe as pain.

"What kind of experiments?" Noah asked in an almost tentative manner as if afraid to hear what this creature's response might be.

"Sliced and sewn together, like you before this...tried to force mana out from us....something with souls..." the creature responded and at the mention of souls Dia quickly looked back up to him.

"W-What were they um...d-doing with people's souls?" Dia asked in the same inquisitive tone that Noah had used.

"Don't know. Stitch souls together...maybe?" the creature did its best to answer Dia; however, it didn't seem like his memories were fully intact. "Help. Need help. Large spider further down. Won't let us leave. Please, help?" the creature asked while giving the party a somewhat hopeful look or at least what Dia would describe as a hopeful look.

"I um...I-I don't mind h-helping..." Dia spoke up while looking toward the rest of the party. She didn't like the idea of these people being stuck down here with what were essentially cannibals. She already felt bad enough for them because of what had happened to them. Was it okay that she was even asking? She knew back in her home world that she could get punished for asking for anything, but these people didn't seem so bad? Maybe it was because they didn't know what she was?

"I don't have any problem with it," Noah answered her question without much hesitation and the others were soon to follow. It seemed none of them wanted to abandon someone who was asking for help so desperately.