Law of The Web - Zetro Translation

Gideon barely had time to process the events that had unfolded in the strange marble hall before everything shifted again.

He was yanked forward, along with the line of chained children, into a yawning void of blackness. The glowing sigil that had served as their portal vanished behind them, leaving the space so dark that Gideon’s <<I Spy>> ability was rendered useless.

And for the first time since his awakening, he felt truly blind.

‘Ha?!’

He said to himself as he began to look around, but to no avail, he could not find, nor could he see a single thing.

“Wait, wait, what the hell is going on here? I can’t see a thing! Even this weird power of mine isn’t picking up any visual information at all. What is this? Or rather, where am I?”

Gideon asked himself as he looked around, turning his head to the left and then to the right, but there was nothing to see.

It was clear to him that this was normal darkness.

This wasn’t just ordinary darkness; it wasn’t simply the absence of light. For some strange reason, this darkness felt alive; Gideon didn’t know how to put the sensation and the feeling into words, but this darkness was moving around him; the children wouldn’t notice it, but he could feel it moving around his body, and he also felt like something was missing; he just didn’t know what it was.

But as time went on, he himself felt oppressed by the place. Like a heavy fog clinging to him, suffocating his senses, or at least his sense of sight. The unsettling sensation reminded him of being submerged in water yet remaining completely dry.

If that made any sense, but the feeling of being here was just that esoteric.

The silence was no less stifling.

It pressed down on him like a weight, thick and unnatural, amplifying the eerie tension of the darkness around him. The oppressive quiet was only broken by the faint, trembling voices of the other children.

“It’s so cold…

“Mommy…

“Big brother, where are we?”

Their fragile, frightened murmurs carried through the heavy stillness, each word laced with confusion and fear, making the situation feel even more sinister.

Gideon’s unease prickled into full-blown dread. His thoughts raced.

‘What is this place?’

‘Why can’t I see anything?’

It was as if he was starting to lose his rationality; he couldn’t think straight, but his heart soon fell, so after the screaming began.

The children’s fragile voices quickly spiraled into hysterical screaming. Their words broke into incoherent fragments, each more piercing than the last, like nails dragged across a chalkboard.

“Don’t leave me! Don’t leave me!”

“Stop! STOP! Make it go away!”

“They’re everywhere! I can feel them crawling; GET THEM OFF ME!”

The voices overlapped, blending into a vile mixture of madden sounds.

Honestly, as Gideon stood there, he began to think to himself that hearing children scream was one thing, but hearing them scream like they were dying was another thing.

Some wept uncontrollably, others shrieked like wild animals, their cries jagged and raw, stabbing through Gideon’s mind as their words flowed through his ears.

“I can’t breathe! I CAN’T.”

“No! Stay away!”

“Something crawling inside my… UUahGHHAAaaa!!…

Gideon wishes for nothing more than to cover his ears, but with his hands cuffed, but that is easier said than done.

As such, it made him question.

‘What’s happening to them? Why can’t I see?’

Panic clawed at his chest, but the chaos only intensified. The children’s screams turned guttural, choking, and then abruptly stopped, leaving an even more unnerving silence in their wake.

“This is not funny.”

Gideon whispered hoarsely, his voice trembling. He couldn’t shake the feeling that something was watching them—something unseen and malevolent.

And then, at that moment, he heard a familiar voice in his head.

It was the voice that always talks when something happens to him. As the voice said, cold and uncaring as always.

“Your soul has been infected with a parasitic Soul Worm.”

Gideon stiffened.

“What?”

He said, lost but scared.

As it continued.

“Your soul is strong enough to withstand the madness and sleep effects, though not entirely. Be warned: the madness will deepen with time. Any attempt to remove it will trigger the Death Geas.”

The explanation was clinical, but it did nothing to soothe his rising terror. Madness? Sleep effects? What the hell was a Death Geas? He didn’t have time to ask.

From somewhere in the darkness, the sound of chains rattling filled the air, followed by the unmistakable sound of bodies hitting the ground. The children, one by one, were collapsing, their unconscious forms falling on the floor, pulling him forward as a result, bringing him to his knees.

The darkness pressed in closer, and Gideon could hear the faint, erratic gasps of his own breath.

And then the footsteps began.

*Clack. Clack!!*

The measured, deliberate rhythm of boots against stone cut through the silence like a death knell. Gideon froze, his entire body trembling as the sound grew louder, each step reverberating in his chest like a heartbeat.

With each approaching step came a wave of pressure, an aura of horror so overwhelming it crushed all thought and reason. The closer it came, the harder it was to breathe and to think.

The cold sweat on his back turned into an icy flood as his knees buckled beneath him even further. He tried to fight it and get up, but the harder he tried, the more he succumbed, and as a result, he hit the floor with a dull thud, his head bowing involuntarily as if his body had surrendered to the weight of that presence.

He tried to lift his head to look toward the source of the sound, but his neck refused to obey. He could only stare into the void below him, his forehead brushing the smooth, cold surface of the ground.

The footsteps stopped, and for a moment, there was only silence. Then came the voice of Clark.

“Remember the drill, boys.”

Clark muttered from somewhere ahead, his voice barely audible above the suffocating tension.

“Just kneel, greet, and for the love of God, don’t look up.”

Clark’s tone was devoid of its usual bravado, replaced by something Gideon had never heard before, even with Bram: Genuine Fear.

And then the light came.

It was faint at first, like the glow of a distant firefly, but it grew steadily brighter, pulsing as it strolled along. The glow was a deep, otherworldly but creepy green, illuminating strands of long, wild hair that seemed to ripple like water in the faint light.

Gideon’s breath hitched. The hair was radiant, cascading in luminous waves that pierced through the impenetrable darkness. His gaze trailed downward, catching a glimpse of bare feet—they were large, glowing green claws coming out of them like a beast yet impossibly pristine despite the oppressive environment.

The sight filled him with an almost unbearable curiosity; if anything, all his dread was gone, and only a feeling of admiration.

“Haaa, so pretty…

He said his action was not one of sanity.

As such, despite Clark’s warning, Gideon’s eyes flicked upward, <<I Spy>> seeming to register this being from behind the ropes around his eyes.

And the moment his gaze reached her face, regret consumed him.

Her features were unearthly, human, and beastly. She had clear skin and a stoic facial expression. Her eyes, however, were the most striking. They were a piercing shade of dour green, glowing faintly in the dark.

And then, as he looked her way, so too did she as she looked down on the boy with a coarse rope in his eyes, yet she could feel it; his gaze, someone looked at her.

She had four eyes, also glowing green, and a voluptuous but elegant physique; she was dressed in a rather neon gothic black dress, and on her head were green cat ears that were black; behind her was a long green cat tail with two skull pins on it.

And then she speaks.

“Ha… this one was awake? How the hell did a kid manage to stay conscious?”

She mused, her tone almost amused, but there was a tiredness to it, a resignation.

Gideon could barely process her words. His heart pounded so violently it felt like it would tear free from his chest. He wanted to speak, to demand answers, but his mouth refused to cooperate.

He just wanted to keep looking at her; she was beautiful.

But the woman just sighed as she walked away while saying.

“Too late to ask, anyway… such a pity. This one seemed like a gem. Shame he looked at my face.”

Her voice was cold, detached, yet tinged with something almost akin to sorrow.

Gideon’s thoughts spiraled. His vision blurred, but he forced out a raspy whisper, barely audible:

“She is a beau…

*BADUMP!!*

Pain struck him like a lightning bolt at that moment, as the rest of the word was swallowed by the scream that tore from his throat.

“AAAHHHHHHHH!”

It wasn’t just pain; it was as though his entire body was being ripped apart from the inside. His chest exploded with agony, his heart convulsing violently, each beat hammering like a death knell. He clutched at his chest, fingers digging into the flesh of his palms due to the unbearable pain he felt at that moment; his lips bit down hard in response.

The pain only grew worse. His lungs felt like they were filling with shards of glass, every breath slicing him from the inside. Blood poured from his nose, his mouth, and even his eyes.

“WhaT… whAt’S HapPeNIng tO MEEE?!”

He choked out, his voice barely more than a gurgle.

Then the slashes began.

Thin, invisible blades tore through his skin, carving deep, jagged lines across his body. He screamed again, his voice raw and hoarse, tears mixing with the blood that streamed down his face.

“Make it stop! PLEASE!”

He begged, his voice breaking.

His body betrayed him. Bones cracked and splintered, his limbs twisting into grotesque angles. His muscles spasmed uncontrollably, his body writhing on the ground like a broken marionette.

Through it all, the woman just stood there from behind, her presence a cold, distant shadow.

“Sorry kid… I can’t stop this even if I wanted to… you weren’t supposed to be awake.”

She murmured.

Gideon couldn’t respond, his skin began to peel away, curling and flaking like burnt paper, revealing raw, glistening tissue beneath. His nerves screamed each felt like they were on fire, every inch of his body alive with unbearable pain. He sobbed, choking on his own blood, his vision swimming with red and black.

“Stop… please… I’m begging you..”

His words were slurred, his strength fading with every passing second.

The final blow was a horror beyond comprehension. His body began to collapse inward, folding in on itself as though crushed by an unseen hand, rolling him like a flour dough. Flesh, bone, and sinew compacted into a grotesque mass, his screams dissolving into choking gasps.

And then, nothing.

The silence was deafening, the darkness swallowing what little remained of him. All that lingered was the faint echo of the woman’s sigh.

…

At that moment, Gideon opened or tried to open his eyes, the coarse rope holding tight in place, but at that moment he heard the conversation between two men.

“Ah, more contributions from the Black Web gang, egh?”

Bram said smoothly, his voice deep and velvety but carrying a cold tone behind it. He tapped the edge of his monocle, and a faint hum echoed as he examined each child.

“It seems the young master’s request has spread far and wide in such a short time.

Gideon looked around, he was trembling, his heart beating fast, extremely fast the phantom pain could be felt all over his body.

And before he could process anything the voice in his head began to speak.

“You have successfully defied fate; your Law Beast, Primordial Spider Lily, has grown stronger, and as a result, so too has your soul. You have reached the third step of the Awakening Stage.”

“You have awakened a new Law ability under the Aspect of Fusion: <<Gore Web>>: This ability gives one complete control over the circulatory system of themselves. However, your blood vessels can also fuse and stick to matter like a spider web. Warning! May Cause Anemia, and drains one stamina