Taming The Villainesses-Chapter 344.2
(EP-344.2) #1
344 – Spider #1
Creeeak-.
As the heavy iron door swung open, a damp, moldy stench unique to underground spaces rushed into my nose. Mixed with it were strange, unpleasant odors that grated on my nerves.
Because of that, Aira dug deeper into my arms, trembling violently.
Was she afraid?
It was only then that I realized—
It was not that she hated leaving the safe zone.
It was coming here.
“… What a wretched place.”
Someone muttered.
It was probably Mirna. As she said, this place was terrible.
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Bloodstains were splattered everywhere, while pulled teeth and torn nails littered the floor—all were a grim testament to the suffering that had unfolded here. An inescapable prison.
The end of hope.
I had been locked up here myself not too long ago due to the Nymph Fever Koronoi incident, but even then, it hadn’t been this bad.
Just then, Elga nudged me.
“No time to linger. They’ll notice we’re here soon. We need to move.”
She was right.
There was no time to be immersed in emotions. This wasn’t even reality—just some figment in a dream.
We kept our eyes forward, never glancing at the iron bars around us, and simply followed the nymph’s lead.
How long had we been walking?
“This place is like a maze. We’ve been walking for tens of minutes, but there’s no end in sight. Was the palace’s underground always this big?”
Elga voiced her doubts.
I shared the same sentiment.
Like her, I was also feeling doubtful. We had walked long enough to reach the dungeon’s end, yet we were still circling similar corridors.
Was the nymph leading us into a trap?
Just as that thought crossed my mind, Mirna spoke calmly.
“It’s common for the deepest parts of the subconscious to form a labyrinth. A place where one locks away thoughts they don’t want to face, or things they don’t want to see. It’s a psychological defense to keep what’s inside sealed.”
As if to prove Mirna’s words, the further we went, the stronger the stench became. The ground beneath us grew damp and sticky.
“… What is this?”
Elga grimaced at the inky black water now lapping at her ankles. It was so dark that you couldn’t even see the bottom.
The further we went, the higher the water level climbed—first to our knees, then to our thighs, until we finally had to wade through the murky sludge.
“This is awful. The stench is stabbing my nose.”
Elga scowled.
Perhaps annoyed by her complaints, the nymph walking ahead let out a long sigh.
“This is where all the palace’s waste and sewage gather. It’s a dumping ground for everything people have thrown away. If you can’t even handle this, there’s no way you’ll be able to face that monster. Go back.”
“Hah, I’m just saying… I never said I can’t handle it!”
As they exchanged some bickering, we arrived before a massive iron gate. Its bars were spaced just wide enough for a small child to squeeze through.
“No way. My chest is stuck.”
Elga attempted to slip through the gap but got caught at her chest and hips. And Mirna seemed to have many places where she got stuck, so it seemed impossible for her as well.
Could I make it?
But with Aira in my arms, squeezing through such a narrow gap would be harder than threading a needle with a rope. In the end, the only one who could slip through freely was the nymph.
We paused for a moment, contemplating our options.
The first to comment was Elga, who said boldly, “Why not just bend them? It’s just iron bars.”
However, the bars were sturdier than expected—they didn’t budge even with Elga’s strength.
Meanwhile, Mirna looked around. Her eyes narrowed, as she slowly traced her fingers over the patterns and inscriptions etched near the wall.
“… I see now. This is a sealing ritual. Drawing wedge-shaped patterns like this is the work of northern witches. Looks like they sealed something in here.”
‘A witch’s seal.’
That phrase sparked a realization in my mind. The hypothesis that the Tarantera family might have artificially implanted Ars Nova inside Aira.
The patterns on this gate and the sealing ritual seemed to add credence to that hypothesis. Thinking like that, I couldn’t afford to wait any longer.
“Everyone, step back.”
After making everyone step back, I stretched out the hand that was supporting Aira’s back forward. Now that we’ve come this far, we can’t just hesitate like this.
—Belial.
This was a nullification spell devised by Solomon himself.
No matter how formidable the witches’ seal was, it couldn’t surpass this.
Crack. Crack.
The moment I uttered the spell, the iron bars cracked and shattered completely.
“Ah, no…!”
Aira trembled violently in my arms. She must have sensed that something terrible had just been set in motion.
Splish. Splash.
Holding her close, I ventured deeper into the maze until we finally arrived at a vast hall where a black waterfall cascaded endlessly.
Shhhhhhh-.
Rain from above and all the palace’s sewage gushed in through the pipes, spilling into a chasm of darkness. A pit. A pond. A waterfall. Call it whatever—
And there, it crouched.
A body woven from countless bones. Ten elongated legs stretched outward. And on the front of its stark white form, eight human faces were clustered together like a spider’s eyes.
It looked as if someone had grotesquely fused humans into the shape of a spider.
It was massive, measuring several meters tall, and beyond horrifying. The sheer sight of it sent a chill that rippled goosebumps to my entire body.
‘Monster.’
Was there any word more fitting?
Could it even understand speech?
Suppressing the visceral unease that clung to my skin, I asked.
“Are you Bael, ranked first?”
Edit by: faker
