In front of Annan’s eyes was a massive, translucent spider.
The highest end of its fang was about 20 meters above the ground, which was as tall as a four-story building. It looked like a jasper-colored Black Widow—this did not refer to a deity’s name but a spider’s name.
The inside of the spider’s jaws and abdomen was filled with translucent turbid liquid. There were more than seventy V-shaped traces in a messy distribution on the abdomen. It looked like densely packed scars, exuding an ominous black air.
Annan recognized that they were the holy light engravings of the Deity of Poison and Spider “Black Widow”.
Its six eyes were staring at Annan coldly.
From the spider’s eyes, Annan could feel the cold eyes full of human emotion.
The reason there were six was that one pair was closed.
Where was the last pair?
The answer was self-evident.
“It’s my first time meeting you.” Annan raised his head and smiled without fear.
“Should I call you Grover or Deward?”
[You may call me Grover.]
Rustles sounded from all directions. It was indistinctly composed of slurred words.
Annan turned around.
At some point, the “Messenger Grover” standing behind him had turned into a white bone.
Actually, it was not precisely a bone. Instead, it was a puppet made of white silk thread. The only thing in its body that could move, and the only thing that was moving was the pair of black spider eyes.
“I’ve heard of a viper with a tail like a crawling spider. When the bird swoops and wants a good meal, the viper shoots out and injects the venom into the enemy’s body. “
Regarding the skill set of “weaving webs”, snakes could not be compared with spiders.
Annan looked at the massive spider again. His right hand holding the gun drooped naturally, and he put his left hand into the pocket.
Being stared at by the huge spider, Annan did not show any fear.
“There is no doubt that ‘Grover’…” Annan held his left hand toward the spider, then extended the right hand, “…is ‘Deward’.”
Smiling, he clasped his hands over his chest as if embracing a giant spider.
“Do you want me to continue?” Annan asked, “Anything else you still want to hear, Mr. Grover?”
[Please continue talking.]
The spider was rustling, and its six limbs trembled restlessly in its web.
Tiny undulations were communicated, and they became waves.
The narrow foothold beneath Annan trembled pitifully.
It was a hazardous situation.
Upon looking down, Annan could see the abyss.
Still, Annan showed no fear.
Instead, he looked at the spider with pity and compassion.
“Then, Mr. Grover… at least I have a modicum of respect for your piety.
“Let me go on.
“Deward has never existed in the first place.”
Annan replied calmly.
If the players, Nieusel and Nefertari heard this, they would be stunned.
However, this should be the reality judging from the situation.
“Supposed Deward is the Black Widow’s believer, but who said this? Oh, right, you are the late messenger. Even if you use ritual to check on ‘Deward’, you can’t locate the person and can only check if the person is dead. Then, this matter will come to an end here.
“That’s because the ‘name’ itself is the simplest contract in this world. If you want to perform a remote ritual, you must first know the target’s name.”
When the Paper Princess chatted with Captain Alexander and Annan, they mentioned the characteristics of Black Widow Believers.
Black Widow was the Deity of Poison and Murder.
He was one of the very few deities who demanded a living sacrifice.
It was not necessary to dedicate the victim to her in the ritual, but the requirement was to kill someone with a specific poison and offer the “part” with the poison through a ritual. The parts included the liver, hair, nails, et cetera.
There would only be one Black Widow Believer in each region.
Once foreign spider worshipers broke into the net, the local Black Widow Believer would poison them first.
In other words…
“Black Widow’s believers simply won’t work together to commit murder.”
Annan narrowed his eyes slightly, “Mr. Grover, you made up lies, created the illusion of Deward’s existence, and killed ‘Job’ who did not go to the mill. I’m afraid it was to fill in the flaws of ‘Deward’.
“But since you can replace Deward with Job’s corpse, I’m curious about what happened to them.
“Also, does this person, Deward, really exist?”
[Naturally, everything was shredded into pieces.]
The spider rustled as if laughing.
[Deward is someone I have killed before. Of course, he existed.]
So that’s the case. It’s a real person who has been killed in the past.
Therefore, even if you check on it with some high-end rituals, you will not get prompts such as “the number you dialed is an empty number”.
But…
Annan raised an eyebrow and asked in a deep voice, “Then, did Alice crush them into pieces, or did you do it?”
The master of this nightmare should be Alice’s mother. But its core was Alice, the daughter. In Grover’s words, they finally killed the loggers’ group, whose flesh had swelled and was grounded.
That should be the moment when the nightmare was born.
Since Grover could serve as a witness and explain this matter to others, he was not suspected.
The messenger must have had the best alibi. He was not even in the Sporeggar Mill when it happened.
However, if Job died after the nightmare was born, that would be after the ritual was completed. So how did he impersonate Deward?
According to Grover’s statement, it seemed like they were grounded into pieces of flesh.
Why?
When did Job die?
“No, wait.” Annan’s complexion changed.
He had already guessed it out.
Seeing Annan’s expression, the spider gradually slid from the web and approached.
It leaned close to Annan, laughing unscrupulously.
[What else do you want to know? I can tell you all.]
[Sporeggar Mill is indeed centered on Alice.]
[They did die from the nightmare with Alice as the core.]
[But who has stipulated that——]
The spider gradually approached Annan.
Its two chelicerae [1] were pressed against Annan’s only foothold like pincers.
The earth had dark green light gradually seeping out.
[—the soul of a living person cannot be used to create nightmares?]
Yes.
Alice is the real victim.
She is not dead at all!
So in this nightmare, the power of [Spider Web] and [Fantasy] would fight against each other.
The [Spider Web] was undoubtedly the characteristic of Grover’s and Black Widow’s meddling in this incident.
On the other hand, [Fantasy] was the unique characteristic Alice possessed!