The new "ornament" on Egor's arm didn't bother him in the slightest. The mark had faded a little overnight, but it was still clearly visible. Thankfully, his work shirt had long sleeves.
A heavy silence filled the apartment. Each of them was lost in their own thoughts. Today, they were heading to the place where, according to Klaus, a portal to another world had opened.
Egor could barely sit still.
He had to see it.
What would it look like? What would it feel like? What made it different from everything he had ever known?
Unlike his grim companions, he was almost excited.
"We'll need a taxi," Pauoka said, slipping into a light coat. "There's a bus along that highway, but it won't stop where we need."
"I'll call one. What address?"
"Doesn't matter. We'll have to get out on the highway anyway."
Egor picked the first suburban address he saw and set it as their destination. The taxi arrived quickly—Klaus didn't even have time to light a cigarette.
That habit annoyed Egor. He hated the smell and didn't see the point.
Pauoka took the front seat. The two young men got in the back. Egor expected Klaus to insist on sitting up front, but instead he said, almost thoughtfully:
"Nobility rides in the rear. The seat beside the coachman suits you better… though I suppose you've risen in rank."
The taxi merged onto the highway. Klaus stared out the window, unblinking. Egor shifted restlessly in his seat.
"How much longer?" Pauoka asked.
"No idea," Klaus replied calmly.
Egor turned sharply.
"What do you mean, you don't know? You don't even know where it is?"
"In theory, I do. In practice, I was unconscious when they brought me to the hospital. I don't know how far it is from the city."
Egor leaned forward.
"Could you pull over here, please?"
The driver slowed and stopped.
Seeing Pauoka's confusion, Egor added:
"He has no idea where we're going. It'll be easier to search on foot. You'll recognize it when you see it, right?"
"I'm not certain," Klaus admitted. "It was night."
Egor swore under his breath.
"Then what the hell did we come out here for?"
"It's here," Klaus said, his voice hardening. "I'll find it. I have to."
Egor didn't argue.
The taxi drove off.
It was nearly noon. Sunlight barely made it through the thick canopy of trees lining the highway. A cool wind swept along the roadside.
Two young men and an elderly woman walked along the shoulder, searching for something that might not even exist.
"I can't go any farther," Pauoka said at last, breathless. "You seem to forget I'm over seventy. These heroic marches are murder on my joints."
"It's close," Klaus said. "It has to be."
"Everything looks the same. How the hell are we supposed to find a portal?" Egor muttered.
Klaus didn't answer.
He had already started to feel it.
The air was changing.
Heavier.
Thicker.
His body tensed. His instincts sharpened.
Something was wrong.
"I should've left you both at home."
"You should've said from the start you don't remember where it is," Pauoka snapped, stopping. "That's enough. I'm not taking another step until I rest."
Klaus bristled—but she was right. Exhausted companions were useless.
"Ten minutes."
He scanned the roadside.
Then he saw it.
A fallen tree.
A faded white mark on the asphalt.
A crooked advertisement sign.
Something clicked in his memory.
"Yes…"
"You thirsty?" Egor called, holding out a bottle.
"Yeah, I—"
A sharp metallic click cut through the air behind him.
Klaus spun instantly, his hand flying to his belt—
To a sword that wasn't there.
A burst of white light flared beside the fallen tree.
Right in the middle of the road.
The exact spot where he had entered this world.
"A portal," Pauoka murmured, slowly rising. "Why is it opening?"
"I don't know," Klaus said quietly. "But nothing good is coming out of it."
Egor stepped closer, drawn in like a moth to a flame.
A firm hand clamped around his wrist.
The air thickened. Pressure built.
The flash vanished.
Something stood where it had been.
A gigantic spider.
Taller than Klaus.
Egor froze.
Klaus didn't.
"Back up," he said evenly. "Take him behind the tree."
"What are you going to do?"
"I don't have a weapon." His eyes never left the creature. "I'll make do."
"It spits venom."
"I know."
The spider's black eyes shifted—
Then locked onto Egor.
Klaus's voice cracked like a whip:
"Idiot! I told you to hide!"
Everything exploded into motion.
The spider lunged, spitting a stream of pale green venom straight at Egor.
Klaus slammed into him, knocking him aside. The venom missed—but clipped his sleeve.
The fabric dissolved instantly.
He tore the jacket off and threw it away as the poison ate through it.
Without hesitation, he grabbed Egor by the collar and hurled him behind the fallen tree.
"Snap him out of it and run! It's hunting him!"
"That's a terrible plan," Pauoka said, pale.
"Got a better one?"
"We kill it here."
Klaus barked out a harsh laugh.
"Fantastic. Then give me something to kill it with."
Pauoka slapped Egor hard across the face.
"This is not the time to faint—unless you want to be melted or eaten."
"Melted?" he croaked.
She pointed.
Where Klaus's jacket had fallen, there was nothing left but scorched ground and faint smoke.
"Grandma… what do we do?"
"We kill it before it kills us," she said grimly. "Perfect job for an old woman, a weak boy, and a weaponless warrior."
Klaus heard that.
A warrior with no weapon.
Something inside him snapped.
With a roar, he charged.
Venom shot toward him again. He twisted aside and kept moving.
The spider and the prince circled.
It spat.
He dodged.
Its mandibles snapped.
He closed in.
Venom splashed across his collar.
He ripped the shirt off his body and threw it aside.
For a split second, the creature's eyes followed it.
That was enough.
Klaus lunged.
He slipped beneath its body as its legs lashed wildly around him.
From behind, Egor shouted:
"Hey! Freak! Over here!"
The spider froze—then turned.
"Where the hell do you think you're going?!" Klaus roared, grabbing one of its hind legs.
It barely slowed.
With a desperate heave, he dragged it back.
The spider faltered.
Klaus drove his heel into the joint.
Again.
And again.
A sickening crack.
The leg snapped.
The creature collapsed sideways.
Klaus tore a thick branch from a nearby tree and leapt onto its back as it struggled to rise.
He drove the sharpened wood into one glossy eye.
Thick fluid burst out.
He didn't stop.
Again.
And again.
The spider went berserk. Venom sprayed in all directions, melting bark and scorching the ground.
Klaus clung to its back, barely holding on.
Finish it.
The belly.
He dropped beneath it and thrust the branch upward.
The wood snapped.
Egor's heart hammered in his chest.
One mistake—and Klaus was dead.
He couldn't just stand there.
"The eyes!" he shouted.
"I already destroyed them! Are you blind?" Klaus snapped.
"Hit them again!"
Understanding flashed.
Klaus smashed the broken branch against a joint, breaking it further, then climbed onto the spider's back again and drove the jagged wood deep into an empty eye socket.
Again.
And again.
The creature convulsed—
Then went still.
Klaus slid off and collapsed onto his back, gasping for air.
"Are you okay?" Egor rushed to him.
"I'm alive," Klaus said hoarsely. "Unlike that thing."
Egor stared at him, breathless, eyes blazing.
"That was insane… You're unreal. You're—fuck—you're incredible."
Klaus tried to wave it off, but exhaustion and pain tore through his body.
Still—
That look on Egor's face.
The awe.
The admiration.
For some reason, it mattered.
More than the pain.
Pauoka approached, holding a small sphere the size of a large pearl. It glowed faintly blue, something swirling inside like liquid mist.
"That what I think it is?" Klaus asked, reaching out.
"Don't touch it," she snapped, smacking his hand away. "It detects magic, absorbs it, stores it."
"Can it open a portal?" Egor asked.
"That was the idea," she said. "But there's not enough power."
She pressed the orb against the spider's corpse.
A thin silver thread stretched from the creature into the sphere.
The light inside brightened.
"As I thought. Even this thing had traces of magic."
Within minutes, the last shimmer was absorbed.
The spider's body dissolved—
As if it had never existed.
"This still isn't enough," Pauoka sighed, putting the orb away. "We should head back."
She glanced at Klaus—half-naked, covered in dirt and blood, a cut along his side…
…and his ponytail still perfectly tied.
"The driver's job is to follow orders, not ask questions," Klaus muttered. "Call a taxi. I'm starving."
"Where did it go?" Egor asked, staring at the empty road.
"Magical creatures exist only through magic," Pauoka said. "Without it, they can't remain."
Klaus stared at the scorched asphalt.
He needed to get stronger.
He needed power.
He needed a weapon.
And now—
He had someone to protect.