16 Winter Castle: Attuned

Just as Sael finished preparing for combat dozens of pillars of stone shot from the floor lifting the corpse spiders up to meet a matching pillar that came out of the ceiling. Spiders crawling on the walls and ceilings were either met with pillar combos of their own or walls that folded out to smash them. Before he could say anything more spiders flooded out of the existing entrances and new ones were being made every moment. By the time the next wave was being squashed their numbers had risen from dozens to hundreds.

They flooded into the throne room at an increasing rate and though the castle arranged itself to Nee's will the spiders were slowly gaining ground. One set of the crushing pillars were too slow only glancing it's target. Mid air the spider spat out another glob of the green venom towards Nee. Sael intercepted the glob of the green venom and cursed as his armor sizzled. "Note to self. Shopping list. A backup weapon, a ranged weapon, and leaning to cast goddamn fireballs." He stepped forward and thrust his spear into the airborne spider and to his surprise it went limp after the first blow to the chime of experience.

Nee saw the human shield her from the venomous attack and worried about its effect on him. 'Certainly the Vitality of Summer can handle even the Corpse Spiders venom in such a small amount. But why does he have such a terrifying look in his eyes.'

Grinning Sael rushed forward headless of the spider swarm. His spear thrust out endlessly ending a spider with each attack. "Weak...Weak...Weak! Yes finally this is what I call Grinding! And there are so many!" With a cackle of pure joy he hurled his spear forward killing multiple spiders before stomping down hard squashing another one. Another leapt down from the ceiling towards him only to be caught one handed and slammed into a still receding pillar. His spear reappeared in his hand only to skewer several more before being tossed again. The rapid chiming of experience filled him with joy.

He felt a sudden burning pain in his arm and glanced to see the venom had eaten a hole through his armor. Seeing the armor he'd worked so hard for damaged enraged him more than his now spiking health. The acidic venom, slashing attacks, bites, and even body slams from the spiders were causing his health to dip down only to almost instantly refill. One of the slender legs of the spider pierce his thigh like a rapier's thrust only to earn a spear thrust in return. Another bit down on his arm to be smashed against a rising pillar. Seconds ticked by and turned into minutes as he slaughtered spiders in droves yet their numbers never seemed to diminish.

Gritting his teeth the euphoric rush of suddenly gaining a veritable flood of experience started to fade. He realized his health was spiking lower and lower while not being able to fully fill back up. Already it was reaching near half health. 'Shit, they may be weak but there are just too damn many of them.'

"HASTEN!" as the world slowed down he finally thought to check on Nee. She was hovering above the ground with wings of black and silver that reminded him of the Ulysses Butterfly. She was surrounded by a cage of thin stone pillars that impaled the spiders rather than crushing them. Her beautiful gown was covered in acid burn holes and tears. One of her hands was touching an impaled spider covered in what looked to be writhing silver veined shadows as the spider shriveled and turned to dust.

With his sudden burst of speed he slaughtered what felt like hundreds of spiders yet at most it seemed to slow their tide. With his Hasten buff ticking down he went into a flurry of attacks killing dozens of spiders. He then spun in a full three sixty circle cleaving many spiders and throwing back the rest before retreating back towards the Fairy Queen.

He made it back to Nee's side just as his hasten wore off. Reaching down and then thrusting her hands upwards dozens of pillars so close together that they formed a wall rose up crushing all the spiders near them. Nee dropped to the floor beside him, her wings receding back into her as she gasped. Already they could hear the shattering of stone as the spiders started tearing their way through the barrier.

"You know. I believed most of your tale to be utter nonsense. Fabrications to impress a lonely fairy." The tiny fairy gasped out from the floor. "But I might believe you now." She gave him a strained smile.

Shaking his head he knelt down. " Can you make us another escape hole like before?"

She shook her head. "No, They are tunneling through even the floor below and I don't think I have the mana left anyways. Raising the barrier around us took up what I had left. I lack the mana of a true queen. I'm not but a placeholder until we can find someone worthy."

"Well fuck." He glanced around at the stone pillars blocking the enemy from them. With his regenerative abilities he might be able to make it out. He'd already blown his hasten ability so his odds were lower but still not zero. Glancing down at the exhausted fairy he knew if he tried to take her with him his chances would get even slimmer. 'Damn it. I'm not dying here but… I don't want to abandon them either.' He was grinding his teeth in frustration when Nee interrupted his moral debate.

"Ask me." She reached up and grasped his wrist to pull herself up.

"What?" Sael suddenly felt guilty. 'Did she know I was debating on running away without her?'

"Ask me to be yours. Of all the beings I've met, your mana capacity is second only to the Summer Queen. Between a Summer Prince, even one so odd as you, and a Demon I know which I should let the Winter Crown end up with. Now quickly the barrier will not hold much longer."

Countless thoughts flooded his mind as he stared down into her pale face. Some against and some for the plan but his inner debate was interrupted by the sound of breaking stone only inches away. "Consider yourself proposed!"

She reached up and he leaned down knowing what was coming. She placed a gentle kiss on his lips so soft he barely felt it. A shiver ran down his spine and he could see his breath. The air around him felt crisp and refreshing like a perfect winter afternoon. In his mind he heard chiming almost as fast as the experience spam from the spiders going off. Beneath the red bar for his health was now a blue one. One message flashed bolder across his thoughts than the others.

[Requirements Met: Would you like to attune to the Winter Castle?]

"Fuck yes!" he yelled out even as the corpse spiders tore their way through the last row of pillars defending them.

Time seemed to stop and his awareness flowed out through the soles of his feet into the floor beneath him. It continued flowing outwards seeping through every stone of the castle around him. He felt the spiders burrowing through the stone walls. Tearing into the pillars. He could sense the endless void surrounding the castle like a moat from which they swarmed out of.

The feel of them moving around his stone body was no different than having a swarm of bugs crawling over his flesh one and responding as he would normally. He swatted them, crushed them and smashed them wherever they were. Hundreds even thousands of pillars of stone projected through the castle crushing them where they crawled. The tunnels they burrowed thru were squeezed closed as if he was clenching his fist. In an instant the endless swarm inside the castle was wiped out.

**********

Shel looked on in horror as the entire castle moved and shifted crushing countless years of hard work in an instant. One of the broken towers rotated the single window left now shaped like an angry eye as it swept the entire circumference of the castle. Then countless giant stone spikes erupted from the towers, walls, even the walkways of the castle slamming into any spider not yet inside the castle. They rained down like arrows killing each spider as they moved like homing missiles towards their target while moving ever closer to her Shadow Hold. In panic she closed the dimensional space she stored her army in afraid that the fairy queen would wipe them all out.

"Impossible! If they had that much power they could have simply flown away. What was that fairy thinking? Did they know of my plans? Was this all a trap?" Suddenly paranoid she slipped into the shadow beneath her and fled. "I must let my lord know we have been betrayed!"

Shel fled before witnessing the sea of stone pillars slowly creep their way back into the castle. Inside the walls and floors returned to their normal default positions. Sael's awareness returned to his body and he collapsed down gasping. He was covered in sweat, soaking his clothes and even his hair. In his vision the blue bar that had appeared beneath the red one was completely empty. He rolled over on his back and was glad the stone wasn't nearly as hard as he expected. That or he was too tired to care how hard it was.

Cool delicate hands grasped the side of his head and lifted it before lowering it back into their owner's lap. Sael gazed up at Nee as she gently brushed his feverish forehead. "Huh, always wanted to do the lap pillow thing." the last word came out as yawn without him meaning to. "It's even nicer than I imagined. All the spiders are gone right?" Nee just nodded her pale face calm. "Mmm good. Ima take a nap then." True to his words he passed out not a moment later.