16 The true name

For a moment, Lucy was dumbfounded.

She didn't understand what Ranjo meant.

"What do you mean by that?"

Ranjo went silent for a moment, before he decided to elaborate.

"OK, it went like this. Basically, I decided one day to go to sleep in my room. I live on the fourth floor. Then, I woke up because I heard loud sounds of battle going on. So, I woke up, and went towards the third floor.

For the way the sounds came from, it was supposed to come from the spider room.

But when I got up, I saw that the spiders were busy eating up big chunks of boars. When they saw me they were at first displeased, but realising then who I am their demeanor changed towards a more, nice side. So I decided to talk to Arachna"

"You can talk with spiders? And who ist Arachna?"

"Oh, well Arachna is the mother of the entire colony. Imagine her being something akin to a and queen. She is the white spider."

"And who was the black one? Wasn't it her mate?"

"Not exactly. It is an adult version of the green spiders you saw down there. He is known as a queen bodyguard."

"Is he the only one?"

"At the moment yes. Like you deviled ones, monsters and humanoids can level up, or evolve to a higher rank. And it isn't always safe for monsters to evolve. And if you consider how dangerous those spiders can get, it is only natural that it would be incredibly difficult for them to get stronger. Blackie, the black spider you saw in the room back then is currently the only spider that managed to become a higher tier monster."

"Huh."

Lucy didn't want Ranjo to come to fast towards what possibly happened when she blacked out, so she decided to ask more about the spiders.

"Can I ask you another question?"

"You still haven't answered my question."

"You can ask two more questions after that."

*Sigh* "What is it?"

"How did those spiders cone into Syzoth's possession? What is their relationship with him? And what is this place?"

"You said you would only ask one more question. But fine, let's get those out of the way. Yes, both my and father can communicate with spiders if we wish so. As for how they met, well… a few years ago, before Syzoth's life turned upside down…"

'Wait, something happened to him? What could potentially be bad towards him?'

"…he took part in an auction. And basically what happened is that he saw that a particular white Arachnid was about yo be sold to some mages. You most realize that they absolutely despise them and would make everything in their power to completely eradicate them from this planet. And thanks to Renala Orsuki, an incredible powerful mage, they wanted to conduct a ritual to kill all those types of spiders. My father however saw potential in the spider. He knew that they had theirown potential use and wished to keep it for himself to study. And when he wasn't able to buy the spider, he did the next best thing."

"Let me guess. He stole her."

"Yes, and not only that. He somehow managed infiltrate the human college of magic, freed all magic beast's that were there, made half of the class pass out to alcohol and killed the headmaster of the college, who was Renala's personal teacher, while he was busy with the ritual.

After that he swiftly dissapeard, not leaving any traces behind.

The spider also dissappeared.

And during the next few years, Syzoth slowly but surely got the spider to trust him, and she even gave him her true name."

"She WHAT?!"

"Don't scream. Yes she did that."

Lucy was now even more shocked. Not all knew, but every living being, from the most smallest of plants to even the gods themselves possessed a true name. If they were to tell anyone that name that meant that they gave up their freedom towards the other party. After that they would be forced to live the rest of their life as their slave. You should only tell someone your true name if you absolutely trusted them. Even most deviled ones in marriage don't do that. So for a spider to give up her everything for an alchemist seemed completely insane.

"Then, many years later, Syzoth helped her evolve into the fourth tier, after which Arachna was able to give birth to a new generation of spiders."

"Ok, but where did Syzoth find a male for Arachna. I didn't see him."

"That's because they didn't find one. All of the spiders that Syzoth found after many raids on goblin nests, because those gremlin used them the most, where always female."

"…but how fid she then managed to bring new spiders to life if all eggs that she lay weren't insemination."

Ranjo, for the first time, seemed to actually think of it. It seems that he never questioned that fact.

"…now that you mentioned it, I do not know. Father has many secrets and is capable of things that I can't even hope to understand. My existence is a prime example of his capabilities. However what I do know is that Arachna is loyal to my father to the very core, and that means that all of her children are also loyal to him. That loyalty is the only reason why Arachna, Antonia and Belle don't kill each."

"Who are Antonia and Belle?"

"That question is something I'm not gonna answer. What I can say however is that for some reason they all desperately wish to evolve to the 7 tier of monsters, which is the tier that Echidna, the mother if all monsters possessed."

Lucy knew of Echidna. Everyone knew about Echidna, the first monster to ever walk the planet. She gave birth to all known monsters with the exception of dragons. She then let them go on a rampage, which was the first time the gods summoned heroes.

Now that Lucy thinks of it, she had to hurry back home as quickly as possibly back to her family and prepare for the new champions of the gods. If the legends are true, than the existence of all deviled ones would forever perish once they arrived.

Lucy knew that they had to be killed before they managed to get stronger, and now that she was a higher tier, it was actually possible. The impending arrival of the heroes was another reason why she desperately wished to become stronger.

"Back to the part when I came to the spider nest. Arachna told me that she met a cursed one, or a deviled one as we call them, and said that they had a battle where she effortlessly beat her and if it weren't for Indino she would have gladly eaten her already."

Lucy had to pause for a moment. That's not what actually happened. She felt a sudden urge for another fight with that White Spider and put her in her place for such lies.

"So I went up realizing that that was probably the place where you and Indino went. And then I heard sounds."

"Sounds?"

"Yes. Sounds that I have never heard before. And so I followed where they came from. And then I saw a picture that will never leave my mind."

Lucy was becoming restless. She could already guess what Ranjo was about to say, but she still thought that maybe it wasn't that bad.

"I saw my father lying on the ground in the laboratory with his head between your legs heavily drinking something with his small tail being engulfed in your mouth. You moved your head up and down…"

'Oh nooooooo.'

"… up and down, up and down for many minutes before both of you stopped as something white came out of father while you urinated. I wanted to intervene, but then I saw both Inigo and the Phoenix in the room carefully staring at the both of you, so I knew that if you did something dangerous, they would gave already attacked you. I guessed back then that thus was another one of father's experiments, and I then returned to go to sleep. So I am asking you. Do you deviled ones give birth from your mouth?"