Blue flames raced along the silk, making the special threads harden as they seared flesh and bark. The air filled with a cacophony of screams—women and treants alike—each cry a raw, ragged note of pain.

Li Xue and Tian Li had collapsed across Jin Shu's sides; Yin'er was trapped on his chest. He alone remained uncoffined by the burning threads, but that meant little—his limbs were pinned beneath the weight of the others. He poured everything into the effort—wind, water, fire, lightning—but the plasma-fed blaze laughed at him. Nothing could douse it.

The flames and screams finally stuttered when ice swept over the silk, cooling the threads into brittle glass. For a breath there was relief—then more of the spider's plasma dripped down, hissing through the ice and reigniting the inferno. Bing Hou pushed her cold flames to the limit, but even they could not hold back the spider's superheated saliva.

The flames licked the three bodies over him, singeing hair, skin, and feathers as they became a human shield between the blaze and Jin Shu. He wrapped each of them in his elements, a frantic, failing tuck of protection that only slowed the inevitable. He listened to their cries while he stayed unbearably safe beneath them. He felt useless.

"Damn it. I have to do something." He ground the words through clenched teeth.

"Daddy! It burns!" Yin'er's voice was raw, breaking with pain. He wanted to scoop her into his arms, to soothe her, but his arms were trapped. Words died in his throat. Tears slid hot and silent down his face.

Li Xue's free hand clawed at his robe. She tore a patch of singed hair from her scalp and turned toward him, breath rattling. "Jin Shu… I'm sorry for before. But I don't regret it." Her lips trembled. "If we hadn't met, I'd have lived worse than death—used as a bargaining chip, a hostage. You saved me from that. I— I love you."

She forced herself forward and brushed a soft kiss to the corner of his mouth. His head swam with a thousand things; he couldn't form an answer.

Tian Li did the same, ripping at her clothes until she could face him. "I didn't like you at first," she gasped. "I watched because of Yin'er. I hated you for how she clung to you, for my own trauma. I thought I loved the version of you that was a woman—I was wrong. I love you as you are."

Her lips pressed to his on the other side, sealing the confession with a fierce, trembling kiss.

As his hands shifted free just enough, Jin Shu dragged them close the best he could—an awkward, precious hug through singed cloth and smoke. "I'm sorry I couldn't save you all. Maybe—maybe in the next life we'll meet and fall in love all over."

Clap. Clap. Clap.

The villain's slow, mocking applause cut through the noise like a blade. "How touching," he sneered. "It almost makes my dead heart beat—in disgust! I've decided on a special death for you."

The broodqueen's leg shot down and ripped the webbing away. Before Jin Shu could pull the others with him, a jagged fang of bone and barbed chitin drove into his leg. He felt himself lifted into the air, hung upside down, the world a sickening tilt. He kept his mouth shut; he wouldn't give the monster the music of his scream.

Fumbling, he drew the shotgun hidden in his earring and thumbed at the latch. For a second he tasted hope—then the man's hand closed over the barrel. With a hard twist the weapon crumpled, metal groaning into scrap in his palm.

"Unfortunate," the man purred. "You've already shown me what those strange toys of yours can do. Don't think I'll let you use them on me."

With a wave of the man's hand, the broodqueen's other legs slammed down and ripped the silk free from Tian Li, Li Xue, and Yin'er.

"JII!!" a bird-cry cut through the chaos as a tiny golden blur plummeted from the high sky toward the man's bald head—only to snag in a lattice of invisible qi threads just above him.

The cloaked villain blinked, plucked the struggling bird from the air, and held it up between two dirty fingers.

"Hm? Where did this little chicken come from?" he mused, amused by Ji Ji's struggle. "Perfect for a snack."

"Let them go, you ugly monster!" Ji Ji screeched, beating her wings and pecking at his hand.

"Sure," the man smiled, dark and patient. "I'll let them go—straight to the afterlife."

Bang!

A shot cracked through the air. The man glanced down; the sleeve of his robe had been torn and a thin line of blood gleamed where a bullet had nicked him.

Bang!

Li Xue fired again, a desperate, steady shot. The man's grin didn't falter. He snatched the second slug from the air and pinched it between his blackened nails as if it were nothing.

The broodqueen's leg fell like a guillotine, slicing through Li Xue's arm and sending the glock clattering from her grip. "That was close," the man chuckled. "If you weren't so gentle with your little friend, you might have actually hurt me."

Three legs struck in brutal unison: two impaled Li Xue and Tian Li by the arms and hoisted them up; the third swung for Yin'er. But, quick as a shadow, Yin'er slipped free, and in mid-flight shifted into her true, feral form, leaping at the man.

"Let Daddy go!" she roared, claws slashing for his face.

"Oh, feisty," he cooed, calm as a butcher. With a single fluid motion he closed his remaining hand around her neck and squeezed, as if to admire the creature before discarding it. "Perfect sacrifices for my grand spell."

If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Jin Shu's head thudded with a dozen useless plans. He called on his other selves, willed Nano into the fray—none of them answered with a workable solution. Blood loss fogged his thoughts; the wounds on his back and leg drained him of strength until he hung like wet cloth, powerless. Around him, the people he loved twisted and screamed as the man toyed with them.

"Kill them," the man said softly.

The broodqueen leaned down, fangs steaming, its cavernous maw opening to devour the victims whole.

A bright green glow cut through the chaos. The broodqueen froze, its gaze drawn toward the center of the lake.

On the island where a massive tree had once been dying, something new had rooted itself: a vibrant tree, leaves luminescent under the moonlight. A gentle wind ran across the water, setting the leaves to whispering; birds answered in song, insects chimed, and the forest itself seemed to inhale. Life thrummed through the clearing like a living chord.

The cloaked man blinked, then tilted his head to watch, ignoring the two struggling animals still clenched in his hands. A small, contemptuous smirk crossed his face.

"Last gasps from a dying queen trying to save her people? How touching," he sneered. "I feel nauseous."

He turned to the broodqueen. "Do it."

But the spider didn't move. Its many eyes were fixed on the glowing tree, pupils reflecting the jade light.

"I said—do it!" the man snarled. The web tattoo along his face darkened, veins of crimson spreading across the design.

This time the broodqueen tried to obey, but its motions were hesitant, jerky—as if some hand unseen tugged at its limbs.

A clearer flash of jade leapt from the island and washed over the battlefield. The glow swept across the smoking webbing, blotting out blue fire and sticky silk. Where it passed over wounds, burns and cuts vanished as if time reversed: charred flesh knit back together, blisters smoothed, scorched bark regrew.

The brave young girl whose neck had been snapped gasped—the vertebrae popped into place, flesh sealing. The woman who had lost an arm and had a bleeding chest was whole again; a new limb unfolded where bone had been gone. The woman who'd lost a leg watched fresh skin and muscle knit and rise until she stood again.

The broodqueen let go. Jin Shu felt the green warmth slide over him like a hand—soft, intimate. Blood stilled. Pain eased. Life returned in a roar through his veins.

"Life is precious," a voice said from inside the light—quiet, tender. "And yet you choose to end it so casually. Who are you to decide?"

"Who am I to decide?" the man spat. "I am the predator. Who are you? Nothing but a dying thing burning its last breaths away."

A gentle laugh answered him as the glow thinned and resolved into a figure: a woman whose hair was the green of new leaves, falling past her feet and waving in the breeze like foliage. Her body was swathed only in woven leaves and flowers, fragile and ancient at once.

"I am no dying thing," she said, voice like wind through branches. "I am life itself."

Jin Shu blinked, stunned. "Biyu?"

The woman resembled Biyu and the dryad queen at once—like two forms braided together—so he couldn't be certain it was either. She hovered above him and shook her head with a small, sad smile. "No. I am what you once knew as the dryad queen. With her abundant life energy, I have ascended. I am Ziran Nushen—the goddess of nature."

She lifted a hand, silencing him before he could ask more. "Don't worry. She will return. Right after I deal with this blasphemer of nature's laws."

The villain clawed at the broodqueen's control as they spoke. The web tattoo along his face pulsed, blood leaking from its pores, but he could not force the creature back under his will.

"Nature isn't only trees and vines," Ziran Nushen said, voice steady. "It is every living thing. You would enslave one of its children in my presence? Fool."

"Ha." The man sneered. "You won't scare me with your act. I don't need the broodqueen to finish you."

He didn't bother wiping the blood from his face; it made him look like he cried tears of blood. He pressed his palms together and poured out his qi—revealing cultivation at the 9th Stage of the Spirit Realm. Oddly, he strained against the broodqueen, which itself rang at Adept strength; yet as he fed on the creature its aura wavered. The broodqueen's legs folded; it spasmed as its aura collapsed while his surged. In moments his qi burst past the 9th Spirit Stage and cracked into the 1st Stage of the Adept Realm—then kept climbing toward the 3rd.

Ziran Nushen flicked a hand and a jade cocoon flared around the broodqueen, severing the man's link—though not before his aura pushed up to the 3rd Stage of the Adept Realm.

"Eehehehe!" he shrieked, wild and high. "You—the dryad queen—may once have been a supreme being in the Sage Realm, but you're dying! You've fallen to the 1st Stage Adept Realm. Burning your last life to swell your strength is only a temporary foil to true strength!"

"Siphoning another's life—is that your claim to strength?" Ziran Nushen asked, incredulous.

"Of course!" he snapped. "This is my technique—one I, Chou Hundan, invented!"

"Then you wouldn't mind if it were used on you?" she asked coolly.

He let out a contemptuous chuckle. "I am the only one in this world who can enslave creatures and drain their life to feed my cultivation." He stepped forward, venom in every word. "Now, enough talk. I'll kill you, then these plebs."

Jin Shu tensed, bracing for the grand battle to come, ready to act if Biyu—or whatever she had become—needed him… though deep down he knew he hadn't even been able to protect himself, let alone anyone else.