How to survive in the Romance Fantasy Game - Chapter 548: Hero..
Chapter 548: Hero..
“Shit! Shit! Shit!!!”
Flamme’s panicked voice echoed across the cliffside as her cocooned body swung like a trapped piece of bait, the sticky strands groaning under her frantic struggling.
She wriggled left and right, looking more like a worm on a hook than the “genius summoner” she prided herself on.
“Don’t come near me, you ugly monsters! N-Neru! Blazen! Kam! Anni! Cool! Kanta! Sel! Somebody help meee! Aghhh!”
Her voice cracked as she screamed, tossing out the names of her contracted spirits like lifelines, her eyes darting in every direction.
“If there’s even any spirits out there, I’ll even offer a fifty-fifty contract! Half! Fifty-fifty! That’s a big deal, you know! Just get me out of here!”
Her words carried into the abyss, but there was no answer.
No flicker of light, no stirring in the weather.
Nothing.
Even if the spirit world was listening, no sane spirit would respond to a summoner dangling helplessly above a nest of starving arachnids.
That was a suicide pact, not a contract.
Flamme’s throat tightened as she watched the horde below grow restless.
Thousands of beady red eyes gleamed in the dark, mandibles clicking in unison like a grotesque orchestra.
Each time one of the monstrous arachnids twitched a leg or climbed over another, her breath hitched.
Tears welled up, slipping down her cheeks as she thrashed harder. “Aghh! Why won’t this thing come off?!” Her muffled sobs carried into the night.
She had tried everything—biting at the webs until her teeth ached, rubbing her wrists raw, jerking and twisting like a lunatic—but nothing worked.
The silk was too strong, too thick, too absolute.
Her mana reserves were bone-dry. Her physical strength was pathetic, laughable even.
And worst of all, the very thing that made her Flamme—her connection to the elements, to her beloved spirits—was silent, severed.
Her lip trembled as the reality sank in.
’Is this it?’
Is this really how the great and genius Flamme—the most brilliant brain, the smartest, most beautiful, most extraordinary person to ever exist—is going to die?
She shook her head violently, hot tears spraying off her cheeks. “No… no, no, no! Not like this! Not by spiders!”
Death, she could deal with.
She was lazy—apathetic, even.
She never cared much about what the future held, and she could accept that one day her story would end.
But this?
Being eaten alive by hairy, disgusting, mandible-clacking, eight-eyed nightmares?
Her perfect body reduced to nothing more than meat for a nest of bugs?
Her heart hammered in her chest, her breaths coming shallow and quick.
“There’s no way… there’s no way I’m letting myself die like this!” she screamed, her voice breaking into a sob as she kicked uselessly against the cocoon.
But the spiders were climbing now.
One by one, dozens of hulking forms began scaling the cliff, their jointed legs scraping stone, their eyes never leaving her dangling figure.
Each second the gap closed, their excitement more palpable, their clicking chorus louder.
And for the first time in a long time—Flamme truly felt like prey.
KiKiKiKiKiKIkIkIki!!!
The sound of countless mandibles clacking in unison echoed like war drums, shaking the stone and rattling the very air.
The army of spiders advanced, their bodies glistening black under the faint red glow of their eyes.
Each step was deliberate, patient, hungry.
Up above, the monstrous mother spider—the full-grown [Ebonid]—remained still, its eight enormous eyes glimmering with cruel intelligence. It didn’t move to strike.
No—it watched. It relished the moment, savoring the sight of its spawn closing in on the dangling morsel.
Flamme’s helpless body swaying in the web was nothing more than a treat to whet their appetites.
“Damn it… damn it, no no no!” Flamme muttered, her entire body trembling.
Her chest heaved as she forced herself to concentrate, squeezing whatever pitiful amount of mana she could muster from her drained core. Just a spark—just enough for a spell, anything!
Ki-Ki-Ki!
Her thoughts froze when a grotesque stench hit her nose. Her eyes widened.
“G-Get away from me!” she shrieked, twisting wildly in her cocoon.
One of the [Ebonid] had climbed faster than the others. Its bloated body loomed directly beside her, its hairy legs bracing against the web as it drew close.
The creature’s jaws clicked open, revealing curved fangs glistening with venom, twitching with anticipation.
She could see the threads of mucus hanging from its mandibles. She could smell the rancid, rotting stench of death that lingered in its breath.
“Ahhh… n-no… no, no, no!!!” Flamme wailed, tears streaming down her face as she squeezed her eyes shut.
Her mind went blank.
She prepared for the pain—the puncture, the venom, the slow liquefying of her insides while still alive.
But then—
“Hm…?” Flamme’s breath hitched.
Instead of fangs sinking into her flesh, a sudden wave of warmth washed over her.
VOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!
A searing streak of radiant white light cut through the darkness, tearing reality itself in half. It pierced straight into the spider beside her.
The [Ebonid] didn’t even scream. It didn’t even have time.
One instant, its jaws were about to sink into Flamme’s body—
The next, it was gone.
Evaporated. Erased.
BOOOOOOOOOMMMM!!!!
The explosion that followed shook the cliffside.
Chunks of stone and fragments of melted web flew everywhere.
The impact blew the entire section apart, and the threads holding Flamme snapped instantly.
“KYAAHHHHHHHH!!!!”
Flamme’s scream echoed as her cocooned body plummeted down the cliff.
She tumbled violently, still bound tight, unable to brace herself, her entire vision spinning into a blur.
“W-Wait—no no no no noooooo!!!!”
Her head whipped with each rotation, her eyes catching fleeting glimpses of the battlefield.
Shadows.
Chittering mandibles.
Explosions of light.
And always—that blinding streak.
It darted across the darkness like a phantom, weaving between cliff walls and swarms of [Ebonid].
It wasn’t simply cutting them down—it wasn’t even slashing.
Everywhere it passed, spiders simply ceased to exist.
The radiant trail burned through them, erasing flesh, chitin, venom, even their shadows as though the light rejected their very presence in the world.
It was merciless, unstoppable. The night itself was being carved apart.
Flamme’s jaw dropped even as she fell helplessly. Her wide eyes reflected the light streaking through the swarm.
“What… what is that…?”
Whatever that white blur was, it wasn’t just light—it was pressure, weight, authority made manifest.
The energy it carried pressed against her chest, making her heart pound.
It wasn’t mana—she knew mana, its flow, its warmth, its rules.
This was something different.
Something higher.
’D-Divine energy?’ she thought, her pupils trembling.
But there was no time to dwell on it.
The next thing she saw was the ground, vast and black and mercilessly fast approaching.
“Kyaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!”
Her scream ripped from her lungs as she braced for the bone-crushing impact. She shut her eyes tight, every muscle tensing.
But instead of pain—
Tuck…
A soft touch.
Warm.
Comforting.
She felt her descent slow, as though invisible hands had caught her midair and were cradling her with impossible gentleness.
Flamme blinked.
Her eyes fluttered open hesitantly, and her breath hitched.
She wasn’t on the ground.
She was being held.
In the arms of someone she recognized.
“S-Senior… Lucas?”
Her voice cracked, fragile with disbelief.
The young man looked down at her, his expression calm, almost tender.
His golden eyes glowed faintly, reflecting her wide and dumbfounded gaze like twin suns.
Right now, he was carrying her—no, cradling her, like a princess plucked from a nightmare.
And around him, the same warm white radiance surged, wrapping her trembling body in its embrace.
She could feel it seeping into her, restoring her drained mana, refilling her strength.
Her lungs no longer burned, her heartbeat steadied, and clarity slowly returned.
Above his head, a faint halo flickered into existence, a shimmering crown of light that seemed both natural and divine.
BOOOOM!!!
Behind her, the ground shook.
Something massive crashed down. She turned her head weakly and froze.
A giant spider’s severed head—its eight lifeless eyes still glistening—rolled to a stop in the dirt, its once-terrifying mandibles twitching in their final spasms.
Flamme’s lips parted. She looked back at Lucas.
“I’m glad… I wasn’t too late, Are you alright, junior?”
Her throat tightened.
Words failed her. She wanted to answer, but instead—
“Hic…!”
A sudden hiccup escaped.
Her face flushed red as she desperately looked away, embarrassed.
But her chest betrayed her.
Thump…!
Thump…!
Thump…!
Each beat pounded harder than the last, as if her heart wanted to leap straight out of her chest.
She clenched the fabric over her chest, wide-eyed, unable to understand this sudden warmth that spread through her veins.
It was different from fear. Different from relief. Different from gratitude.
It was something she never felt before.
Lucas didn’t seem to notice. His gaze swept the battlefield, sharp and resolute.
“We need to hurry and find the others,” he said, tone tightening. “There’s not much time. That demonic nun isn’t alone.”
He extended his hand toward her, urgency blazing in his golden eyes.
“Hold my hand, junior. We’ll have to move fast.”
Flamme’s lips quivered. For just a moment, she hesitated, her mind racing with emotions she couldn’t pin down.
“…O-Okay…!”
The instant her hand touched his, light swallowed her whole.
Warmth surged through every fiber of her being, erasing all fear, all fatigue.
Her body felt weightless, like she had been remade out of pure energy.
Then the world blurred, the wind howled, and she realized—
They were flying.
Soaring through the air at speeds she never thought possible, Flamme could only cling to Lucas’s hand, her heart racing wildly.
……
“You… what exactly did you do and say to him…?”
I muttered, my voice trembling in disbelief as I stared at the shifting holographic screen before me.
On its surface, the projection showed a battlefield that looked more like a massacre.
Lucas—yes, Lucas—was cleaving through [Ebonids] as if they were nothing more than paper effigies, his body gliding with inhuman grace, each motion lit by streaks of immaculate white brilliance.
Spiders the size of men, monsters whose shells could withstand high-tier magic, were cut apart with an effortless swipe of his blade—or rather, erased outright in the flood of light he emanated.
I had expected resistance.
I had even designed this particular hell as a trial that would corner him, push him against the wall, force him to awaken a deeper rage, a more desperate fire.
The nest was flooded with thousands of Ebonids, ensuring even the [Mother]—the rare matriarch whose brood could level entire towns—was present to crush him.
And didn’t Ebonids have the highest regenerative skills among monsters, second only to dragons?
I had wanted the Ebonids to set him back for a bit, before proceeding to the next stage much like in the game….
But this…
This wasn’t struggle.
This was domination.
The light. That aura radiating from him, wrapping his every step like the mantle of a saint.
The halo burning above his head like a ring of judgment.
“[Divine Transcendence]… and [Angel’s Grace]…?”.
Those were EX-ranked blessings—miracles reserved for the very end.
Powers meant only for a hero who had reached the twilight of his journey, after countless deaths, losses, and sacrifices. He was wielding them now.
It made no sense.
“Well,” a snide, mocking tone chimed beside me, “why are you surprised, Master? Isn’t this just the sort of monster you raised?”
Lavine’s tiny form shimmered like fragments of dust beside me, her voice bitter as always, but tinged with the faintest shred of unease she couldn’t quite mask.
Her eyes followed the screen as well, narrowing as Lucas’s blade tore through another wave of monsters, each swing accompanied by the sound of holy resonance and shattering chitin.
“Tch. He’s gotten even stronger than before. Seriously—does this brat just keep climbing and climbing? Where the hell’s the ceiling for him?”
My jaw tightened. “That’s not the point. I asked—what exactly did you say to him?”
Lavine tilted her head innocently, though her smirk betrayed the satisfaction curling behind her lips.
“Hm? Nothing much. Just what you ordered me to.” She paused deliberately, enjoying every ounce of my growing irritation. “After he almost pinned me down, I told him the truth where the girls are and—that my boss is inside this place.”
Her smirk widened, fangs glinting faintly.
“And I might have added a little spice… that your oh-so-lovely golden-haired blonde pet is currently with him. That he’s probably impregnating her with demonic babies the same way he’s claimed every sweet maiden that’s ever been unlucky enough to catch his eye~”
She chuckled.
“Well, there’s a bit more context behind it but it was something along those lines~ I did great yeah?”
“…..”
