『Ding! You have killed a Peak 4th-order Soul-Devouring Spider. Your experience points have been saved.』

『Ding! You have killed a beginner 5th-order Soul-Devouring Spider. Your experience points have been saved.』

『Ding! You have killed a Peak 3rd-order Soul-Devouring Sp…..』

Huff….!!!!

“Finally…..” Finally, Aditya was done. It had taken him more than 5 hours to wipe out every single one of the Soul-Devouring Spiders from around the capital. In these hours, he hadn’t taken a break. At first, it felt as if no matter how much slaughtered there wasn’t any, and to these Soul-Devouring Spiders. The more he killed the more kept coming. 

He kept going on for hours till he finished the last remaining Beginner 5th-order Soul-Devouring Spider. 

Sigh!

“It has been a while since I had felt this exhausted,” Aditya said in a tired tone. He was really exhausted right now. 

“Your Majesty, are you alright.” As soon as Aditya killed the last remaining of the Soul-Devouring Spiders, his butler Watson approached him with a worried look. 

“Watson…I am alright. How is everything going on within the city?” Aditya asked back with a tired smile. Aditya was sitting on the top of the walls of the Aurora Frostreach City. 

“Thanks to your help all of the Soul-Devouring Spiders that had managed to get inside the city have been killed. Though I am sad to inform you that a lot of people including a lot of our troops have died.” Hearing this Aditya sighed while looking into the distance. It pained him to hear this. But this whole invasion from the Soul-Devouring Spiders was something that neither Aditya nor anyone else could have anticipated. 

“But Your Majesty, I still have bad news.” 

“Other cities were also attacked by these Soul-Devouring Spiders…..?” Aditya was able to guess before Watson needed to say it out loud. While fighting these Soul-Devouring Spiders for about 6 hours now, he was able to understand some things about these monsters. These monsters worked as a group or single unit. This meant that there was someone controlling these Soul-Devouring Spiders. During the battle, he had noticed that none of the Soul-Devouring Spiders were trying to flee or run away. Instead, these stupid spiders kept coming at Aditya. 

Aditya hadn’t been able to find the main controller of this Soul-Devouring Spiders. The Queen Soul-Devouring Spider was nowhere to be seen during the whole battle. During the battle he had kind of figured it that the Queen was somewhere else and he wouldn’t be surprised if other cities were attacked by these Soul-Devouring Spiders. And it happened. 

“Yes….” Watson nodded his head heavily. Due to the crazy number of Soul-Devouring Spiders attacking other cities, Watson had to call all of the Istarin troops and even ask the Istarin Empire’s allies to send lending hands to fight these Soul-Devouring Spiders. 

The only reason Watson did not call any backup to the capital was that there wasn’t any need to do it as their Emperor alone was more than powerful enough to take care of millions of Soul-Devouring Spiders. There were close to 25 million Soul-Devouring Spiders surrounding the Capital and within the capital, all combined together. Yet their Monarch managed to defeat them all. This was something that even an army of 5 million or even 10 million won’t be able to accomplish. 

“Watson, I think I have figured out how these Soul-Devouring Spiders can grow their numbers so fast.” Aditya broke the silence. 

“Really?” Watson asked in a hopeful tone. The more they understood this unknown creature the better they could prepare to face this monster in the future. 

“When I was killing these Soul-Devouring Spiders. While killing adult female Soul-Devouring Spiders that can grow up to the size of 7 to 10 meters, I found many of the female adults were pregnant. Can you guess how many spiders were there inside the stomach of each pregnant female Soul-Devouring Spider?” Aditya asked. 

Watson looked confused but he tried to make a guess. “I don’t know. Maybe 100 or a few hundred at most. Did I guess anywhere close?” In Watson’s mind, even a few hundred would be a ridiculous amount. 

Aditya shook his head. “10,000. There were TEN THOUSAND unborn Soul-Devouring Spiders within the stomach of an adult female Soul-Devouring Spider. Can you freaking believe it?” Hearing this Watson’s pupils contracted to the size of a needle. His whole body visibly shook as he gasped for air. He stared at Aditya in deep shock.

When Aditya discovered this fact, even he couldn’t believe it either but thought about how it felt as if these Soul-Devouring Spiders were nearly infinite in number made him accept this fact. “It all makes sense now…..” Watson still looked shaken and shocked by hearing this. 

“Yeah. I had at least killed around 50,000 pregnant female Soul-Devouring Spiders. If each spider could give birth to 10,000 more of these parasites, 50,000 pregnant spiders would have resulted in half a billion of these spiders. Watson, can you believe this figure? Half a billion for heaven’s sake…!!!” Even Aditya had a hard time believing this number. 

“500,000,000…” Watson mumbled in a low tone. 

“If these pregnant spiders were able to give birth to 500,000,000 more Soul-Devouring Spiders, then even I won’t be able to stop this calamity from spreading. The whole Istarin Empire and its allies would have failed to stop 500,000,000 Soul-Devouring Spiders.” 

“And now that you’re telling me that other cities were also attacked by Soul-Devouring Spiders, I can’t help but fear for the worst. Even if there are 10,000 pregnant female Soul-Devouring Spiders, then these 10,000 will multiply into 100,000,000. And if that happens the entire Southern region is doomed forever.” Aditya said in a serious tone. 

“One hundred million….” Both Aditya and Watson silently looked at each other. Both of them realized that the situation had suddenly become even more serious. 

While Aditya and Watson were talking, a soldier came running to them holding a letter in his hand. 

“Your Majesty, my apologies for disturbing you when you’re resting but there was a mysterious man who handed me this letter and then disappeared.” Hearing these words, Watson and Aditya shared another look.

“See if you could see still this mysterious man. Search for this man.” Aditya merely shook his head. If that person was Simon, then he already had left the capital and there was no use in searching for him right now. It was already a big fortune that this soldier wasn’t killed and then this letter wasn’t dropped on his corpse for Aditya’s attention.

Aditya took the letter from the soldier’s name and then signaled him to leave them alone. Once they were alone, Aditya opened the letter. 

[Hello, Aditya!!!!]

Reading the first two words, Aditya felt as if Simon was mocking him. He felt angry but he calmly suppressed his anger and continued reading. 

[I hope you liked my gift. It was really difficult to get these Soul-Devouring Spiders from the organization. Even though I am a core member of the organization, I had a difficult time getting these Soul-Devouring Spiders from the organization. 

Since you don’t know much about these monsters, let me tell you about them as an apology for all of the people who are going to die in your empire.] 

[These monsters are called Soul-Devouring Spiders. These spiders can only eat the life force of living beings. And fulfilling the stomachs of these Soul-Devouring Spiders isn’t easy at all. The moment these Soul-Devouring Spiders are born, their lifelong mission is to keep eating life force. The adult female Soul-Devouring Spiders can get pregnant once they have filled their stomachs with life force. And surprise for you, each pregnant spider can give birth to 10,000 more baby spiders. In other words, these spiders are the perfect weapon for bringing a civilization to its knees. They were the perfect tool for causing chaos and calamity.]

[These sinister creatures are social beings, they work in groups under the command of the mighty Soul Devouring Spider Queen.

Once these newborn Soul Devouring Spiders emerge, they will randomly go in all directions, seeking out more life force to feed upon. Meanwhile, the adult female that has just given birth undergoes a transformation, becoming the queen of her own nest. This transformation is accompanied by a shift in her physical appearance, as she grows larger and more imposing.

These newly born spiders become members of her nest, and they are governed by a strict hierarchy. The queen of the main nest retains control over her sub-Queens, who are the mature females that have given birth to their own broods. Each sub-queen governs her sub-nest, ensuring that all the members work together in their relentless pursuit of life force.

This complex web of interconnected nests and queens allows Soul Devouring Spiders to multiply at a terrifying rate, posing a grave threat to the balance of this whole continent. If you’re not fast enough, then before you know it the whole Southern region might be full of these soul-devouring spiders and all living beings will die. 

Dragon Monarch, you have lots of things to do while having very little time. I wonder what you will do now. And as promised, I will see you very soon.]

As soon as Aditya finished reading the letter, his forehead was covered in sweat. He wasn’t afraid of Simon or the mysterious organization behind him but if his words in the letter were true, then the whole southern region was in grave danger. 

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