"...What the hell is that."
"No way..."
At that moment.
Before the eyes of the superhumans, who had been grumbling about the sudden order, a sight so incredible it made them want to rub their eyes unfolded.
Monsters had appeared.
A number so vast it was impossible to count—truly transcendent in scale.
"Isn’t that... Black Tarantulas...?"
"T-That can’t be...!"
Monsters reproduce and have offspring.
That was common knowledge everyone knew.
Occasionally, swarms of young monsters did attack.
That wasn’t strange.
What was strange was the sheer number.
Look at that wave—so overwhelming it could only be called a black tide—of spiders.
That was the nature of the Black Tarantula.
They gave birth to an enormous number of tiny offspring.
According to scholars, they produced a literally astronomical number of young.
...But until now, there had been no way for us to witness it.
Yet, based on past experience, everyone knew it was true.
And that common knowledge—
That assumption, which had always been taken for granted, was now being shattered before their eyes.
"That number is impossible! Given the Black Tarantula’s nature, it should be absolutely impossible...!"
Humans receive nutrients through the umbilical cord.
Usually one. At most two or three.
But for spiders like these, in numbers too great to count, supplying nutrients that way was impossible. They hatch from eggs, after all.
So where do they get their nutrients?
How do the countless spiderlings clustered in a single egg sac survive?
How do they obtain sustenance after struggling out of the sac, when nutrients are scarce?
...The answer was simple.
They eat each other as soon as they’re born.
They devour one another to replenish nutrients, and once the competition ends, only two or three remain.
That was the accepted truth.
That was common knowledge.
Which made these spiderlings an anomaly.
Without cannibalizing each other, they wouldn’t get enough nutrients and would die.
So how...?
As the superhumans stood in confusion, a command boomed out.
"Form ranks! Now! We’re out of time!"
"...Yes!"
The commander seemed to issue the order calmly, as if he had anticipated this horrifying black wave.
Of course, he couldn’t have known in advance, but his composure helped steady the heroes’ panic, and their work began to progress.
Naturally, the commander’s mind was just as chaotic.
This unprecedented situation was just as shocking to him.
"..."
The only reason the commander could remain calm was due to his years of battlefield experience, and because he had a hunch.
"Is this because of *that* existence...?"
It had to be. There was no other explanation.
He looked toward the children rushing toward them in a hurry.
That student, Yu Siwoo, who had warned them of some kind of threat.
And the student, Arte.
He felt a pang of pity for them.
One of them might not quite fit the label of a student... but since they were both younger than him, he decided to think of them as students.
What a pity these children are.
To catch the eye of such a monstrous being and be forced to live such twisted lives...
"No matter what happens, protect the students! They are the future assets!"
"Of course! Everyone, move quickly! We’re running out of time!"
"Yes!"
Even the criminals, who had been out of their minds, seemed to realize that escape was impossible when they saw the scene.
I’ve never seen them work this passionately before.
As I stared blankly at the makeshift fortress being completed at a rapid pace, Lionel returned, holding the corpse of a spider in his hand.
...It was just a hatchling, but only small compared to the size of an adult.
Each one was nearly the size of a human.
"What’s your estimate?"
"Lower Rank 3... No, likely Rank 4 monsters. They’re quite weak. We could crush them easily, but..."
"Then they could crush us just as easily."
"...Yes."
Even if a monster’s exoskeleton was fragile, it was still tougher than a human’s.
Unless someone had an ability to toughen their own body, the best options were to dodge, evade, or deflect.
So a swarm this large, impossible to avoid, was nothing short of a disaster.
One alone wouldn’t be frightening.
Even ten would only be a minor nuisance—no one here would fear them.
But a hundred?
A thousand?
Eventually, there would be nowhere left to stand, and they’d be swallowed whole.
It was like a tidal wave.
A black wave—a disaster, that’s what it should be called.
"...Tch."
"Why are you sighing again? You’re usually so calm and smiling."
"Would *you* not sigh if you saw this? It’s horrifying."
The smirking bastard didn’t answer me.
What I felt from him was trust.
A feeling of trust that I could handle this.
"...Damn it, you little. You shouldn’t be working an old man like this."
"Haha. Old man? What are you talking about? You’re the strongest one here, if I do say so myself."
"Hmph. Flattery won’t get you any scraps from me."
"Scraps? What scraps? There’s plenty."
He glanced at his daughter, who was moving so fast she was nearly invisible to our eyes.
"...My daughter’s in danger. Having the commander with us is reassuring."
"Tsk. You should’ve thought of that sooner."
"Haha."
"Hmm, we got lucky."
"Yeah, Annie. We really did."
The girl wrapped in rags smiled brightly.
We *had* gotten lucky.
Not long after we found these spider friends, one of the eggs hatched.
I was shocked when I saw them trying to eat each other.
Fortunately, I told them to stop, and they listened, though they whined about being hungry.
Luckily, there were spider corpses nearby, so I divided those up for them, and they ate greedily.
It was a struggle for a while, feeding all the newly hatched baby spiders... but seeing this enormous swarm now filled me with pride.
"They must be starving."
"Yeah, probably. We barely fed them at the end."
"We didn’t have a choice. They were growing so fast every day."
When they were little, just a little food was enough.
I was planning to raise them a bit more before sending them off, but we ran out of monsters to feed them, so what could we do?
After just one day without food, they started trying to eat each other, so I quickly told them there was food over there—and look at them, charging toward it like that.
How cute.
"Ahaha, look at you, so startled."
"···."
"Now we can finally achieve our goal, Mir."
Would those guys manage to hold off the spiders, or would they fail and all die?
She didn’t care.
They’d be too busy to notice a little girl slipping away from the front lines.
All that mattered was using this power to finally accomplish what she’d been unable to before.
"Mir, at last. Soon, you’ll be able to create the equal world you’ve always dreamed of."
"···."
"···Mir? Why aren’t you answering?"
Mir’s silence filled her with unease.
Had she made another mistake?
Just then.
When Mir had been slammed into the ground.
She’d sworn never to repeat that kind of error.
Had she messed up again?
As that anxiety coiled tighter inside her, a voice cut through to reassure her.
"It’s not that, Annie."
"···Then what?"
"He just looks familiar."
The girl kept muttering to herself.
As if someone were standing beside her.
As if she were talking to someone.
"Familiar? What do you mean?"
"That person over there. I’m sure I’ve seen him before."
"That person?"
"The man heading toward the main road."
···Ah.
Only then did the girl realize what felt off.
Right. How could she have forgotten?
No.
Maybe she hadn’t forgotten.
Maybe she just hadn’t wanted to remember.
"···Of course. How could I forget, Mir? I remember everything."
"···."
"The day you fell—it’s burned into my mind."
"···."
That boy.
She remembered.
The one who had interfered with Mir.
The one Mir had said she’d handle quickly, so she should go on ahead.
···The one who, in the very end, had ruined everything.
"Why the hell is that bastard···."
Wasn’t he a student?
What was he doing in a place like this?
···Then it hit her.
Come to think of it, that woman—the one who had killed Mir—she’d been wearing a school uniform too.
The thought of escaping as quickly as possible had already vanished from her mind.
All she did was scan the sea of faces, one by one.
"···Not here."
But as if to mock her, that despicable woman’s face was nowhere to be seen.
Even with her distinctive appearance, which should have made her easy to spot.
"Well, of course. There’s no way I’d run into her here. Let’s go, Mir···?"
Just as the girl turned to leave, she saw it.
Far in the distance, someone running from a small building.
That hateful black hair. That face.
"···."
The moment she saw that face, every plan in her mind evaporated.
Plans. Right. Good.
Time to make a new one.
Revenge against that despicable woman.
She’d soothe Mir with that woman’s blood.
The girl smiled brightly.