Kenzo was the first to notice it. It was not a sudden sensation, nor anything as clear as the warning he felt when detecting the hearts of Void Creatures. This was subtler, a faint but persistent pressure, as though the air itself were slowly changing texture. He instinctively looked up at the sky above the crater and realized the light was already beginning to fade. The sun, hidden somewhere behind the high clouds, was steadily sinking toward the horizon.
— « Night's coming… » he murmured.
Naty nodded almost immediately. She had noticed the change as well, the light gradually taking on that colder hue that always came before nightfall. Ophelia, however, had not taken her eyes off the bottom of the crater. Her gaze remained fixed on the vast network of webs and the cocoon at its center, as though she feared it might move the instant she looked away.
— « We're not going down there now, » Naty said firmly. « Not in the dark, and not without a plan. »
Lucian swallowed hard. He had barely spoken since they discovered the crater, but his unease was obvious. His fingers tightened nervously around the hilt of his sword, his eyes constantly shifting between the crater walls and the enormous webs covering its depths.
— « So… we go back up? » he asked, sounding as though he already feared the answer.
Kenzo nodded.
— « Yeah. We camp near the rim. We'll still have a clear view of the crater, and more importantly… we won't end up trapped down there after dark. »
No one argued. Even Ophelia, usually the most reckless among them, accepted the decision without protest. Something about this place demanded caution, almost respect, as though the crater itself were patiently waiting for someone to make the first mistake.
They turned back and began climbing toward the rim. The slope was steep but manageable, covered in loose soil and uprooted roots. Madame moved in silence, her legs sinking slightly into the damp ground while the four teenagers followed without exchanging a word. Once they reached the top, they settled at a reasonable distance from the drop. From there, they could still see into the crater without being directly exposed. In the fading light, the webs had taken on an eerie silver sheen, while the cocoon's slow pulsations remained visible below, like a gigantic heart beating beneath foreign skin.
Silence lingered for several seconds before Naty drew a deep breath.
— « Alright… we need to figure out what we're looking at. »
She crouched and absentmindedly traced a line through the dirt with one finger, as though organizing her thoughts.
— « I can think of two likely possibilities. »
Kenzo turned toward her, attentive. Lucian and Ophelia did the same.
— « Either this is a nest. A real one. Dozens, maybe hundreds of spiders, probably connected to the mist somehow, with this entire web structure built to protect them. What I don't understand is how they could have made it all the way out here. We're nowhere near the mist's usual reach. »
Lucian visibly paled at the thought.
— « And the other possibility? » Kenzo asked.
Naty looked back down toward the center of the crater.
— « The cocoon could be part of a transition. A molt. A transformation. A Void Creature in the middle of ascending to a higher rank. »
A chill passed through the group.
— « Higher than what…? » Lucian murmured.
— « Higher than anything we've fought so far, » Ophelia answered bluntly. « Unconscious, Unstable, Imperious… you don't build something like this around something weak. »
Kenzo clenched his jaw. His instincts supported her conclusion. Ever since they had discovered the crater, he had felt a heavy, almost crushing pressure coming from below. It was not like a single heart he could clearly identify, but rather a presence spread throughout the structure, buried beneath layer after layer of material.
— « And either way, » Naty continued, « this isn't something we can just walk into blind. »
— « Then we wait until tomorrow, » Kenzo concluded.
Ophelia nodded slowly.
— « Tomorrow. In full daylight. We observe first. Then we go in. »
Lucian hesitated.
— « …And if whatever's inside that thing wakes up tonight? »
Silence fell again.
Kenzo eventually answered in a low voice.
— « Then we fight it tonight. »
No one had anything to add after that.
They remained near the crater for a while longer, watching as the sky gradually darkened. Just like the previous evening, the air slowly changed, becoming heavier and more humid until the first drops of rain began to fall. A thin, persistent drizzle quickly settled over the area, cold and quiet, making any attempt to light a fire pointless. Without discussion, they moved farther back from the rim and gathered beneath Madame, using her enormous body as their only shelter. Their camp was little more than that: no light, no unnecessary noise, the four of them pressed close together to preserve what warmth they could. The night dragged on beneath the steady patter of rain against earth and distant webbing, weighed down by a tension none of them dared put into words.
They rose early the next morning. No detours. No training. No hunting. They went straight back to the crater.
Daylight revealed the true scale of the structure below. The webs formed an enormous palisade, a monumental enclosure built from countless overlapping layers of silk stretched between natural pillars of stone and fossilized roots. On one side stood a vast opening, deliberately left unobstructed, almost like a gate.
An entrance.
All four of them stopped before it. The opening was wide enough for Madame to pass through without difficulty.
The air flowing from within was colder.
Heavier.
Kenzo felt his heartbeat quicken.
Ahead of them, the walls of webbing waited.
And beyond them lay whatever was sleeping inside the cocoon.