Chapter 223 : Chapter 223
Chapter 223: Saving Eleanor
Ilyss watched that scene, her lips pressing together before slowly easing apart.
“It’s unusual.”
Her gaze never left the little bird.
“Maybe.” Ryan’s tone was flat, and he did not elaborate. He had no intention of digging into Syl’s origins right now. “This place is safe for the moment, but we shouldn’t stay here long. There’s no telling when that spider outside will wake up. We need to find another way out, or—”
He stopped mid-sentence.
“That spider’s still asleep? After the commotion we just made...” Ilyss moved to the door and looked outside.
“I’m not sure.” Ryan looked out as well. “The door opened suddenly, and the light spilled out. It might have disturbed it. This place...”
His words cut off abruptly.
On the other side of the room, near the stone door, Lillian suddenly let out a sharp little cry.
“Ah!”
Everyone turned at once.
At some point, Lillian had edged up to the crack in the door. Her face had gone pale, and she was pointing outside with a trembling finger, eyes wide.
“Th-that cocoon! It’s moving! There’s something inside—it’s moving!”
Ryan crossed to the door in a single stride and looked out through the gap.
In the dim light outside, the gray-white cocoon hanging closest to the door was bulging and twitching in irregular pulses.
Something inside was struggling, trying to break free of the sticky shell.
The cocoon twisted faintly with each movement. The damp, half-transparent spider silk stretched into fine, wrinkled folds.
Through that gauzy veil, the outline of the person inside could just barely be seen—a figure in a dark, fitted knight’s uniform, the limbs drawn in at unnatural angles by the cramped, constricting silk.
Most striking of all was the head of scattered, flame-red hair. Even in such dim light, it burned with vivid color.
At first, Lillian had only been startled by the movement.
But the moment she saw that red hair, her body went rigid.
She edged forward two more steps, almost pressing her face to the crack, her blue eyes straining to pierce the half-transparent silk.
Then she saw her.
Beneath the silk was a side profile.
The skin looked pale, perhaps from lack of air or something worse. The eyes were shut, and long, thick lashes cast faint shadows beneath them.
The nose was straight, the lips pressed into a pale line, and there seemed to be the trace of something dark and dried at one corner of the mouth.
Even in such a wretched, unconscious state, that face still carried a sharp, unyielding kind of beauty, like a famous sword drawn halfway from its sheath only to be forced back in.
Eleanor Asteria.
Lillian clapped a hand over her mouth, choking back the cry that nearly escaped her.
She whipped around to look at Ryan, her voice tight from the effort of keeping it low.
“Ryan... it’s Senior Eleanor. She’s still alive. Can we... can we save her? Please.”
The plea was direct, but it was not the cry of someone who had lost all reason. After everything they had already been through, she clearly understood the danger of their situation.
Ryan looked back at the cocoon outside, where the struggling inside was already weakening again.
Eleanor Asteria.
The Sword Duke’s daughter. A famous genius at the academy. And... one of the characters from the original story.
She had blocked Ryan’s dormitory door before school started, and she had fought him. But in the end, they held no real grudge against one another. If anything, Eleanor’s single-minded devotion to the sword, her utter lack of scheming, was far preferable to Parker’s calculated hostility.
Not save her?
Just stand here and watch someone he knew—especially someone who had played a notable role in the original plot—die like this?
That could easily have consequences he could not predict. Who knew how her death might disturb the future course of events? What kind of reaction would it provoke from the Sword Duke?
And beyond that, Lillian’s plea was far too genuine to ignore.
Save her?
That would inevitably wake the creature outside.
The risks and the cost arranged themselves in Ryan’s mind with perfect clarity.
The calculation of gain and loss lasted only an instant.
“We save her,” Ryan said.
He glanced at the sudden light in Lillian’s eyes and added, “But it has to be fast. The spider will definitely wake up. We only get one chance, and we all have to make it back.”
He turned to the others, his speech quickening.
“Vera, Ilyss, I need the two of you to create an opening and cover the retreat. Rex, you handle the rescue.”
Vera narrowed her gray-green eyes slightly and nodded without asking any questions.
Ilyss’s violet eyes remained calm, and she nodded as well.
Rex thumped his chest hard.
“Leave it to me!”
“Here’s the plan.” Ryan’s thoughts came out with the clarity of something he had already rehearsed. “Lillian, when I give the signal, use your widest ice mist spell. Obscure the spider’s vision, especially around the compound eyes. Keep it up for at least three seconds if you can. The moment the mist goes up, Rex, you sprint out, cut the main strand holding the cocoon, shoulder it, and run straight back inside at full speed. Vera, use wind Magic to accelerate Rex, and set up two delayed wind barriers along his retreat path to disrupt any pursuit. Ilyss, you and I handle the spider’s first attack. I’ll use lightning to interfere with its joints and senses. You hit any attack limb aimed at Rex with a concentrated lightning strike or energy blast. Whatever you use, make sure its trajectory is knocked off course.”
He paused, his gaze sweeping over them all.
“Does everyone understand their role? If even one part goes wrong, Rex gets stranded outside—or we let the spider through the door.”
“Understood!” Rex and Lillian answered at the same time.
Wind was already circulating around Vera’s fingertips.
At Ilyss’s sides, her hands quietly closed, and a faint arc of electricity flashed in her violet eyes.
“Good.”
Ryan drew a deep breath.
The twin Seals of Enlightenment inside him gave off a faint warmth, bringing him a level of clarity he had never known before. He could feel the Illusion Spider’s enormous, foul Mana source even in its slumber. He could sense the faint energy flow through every strand of silk in the web. He could even feel the fading pulse of life inside Eleanor’s cocoon.
“Get ready—”
Lillian raised both hands, and ice-blue Mana surged violently in her palms. Moisture in the air began to condense into tiny crystals of frost.
Rex leaned forward, Mana pouring into his legs, every muscle in his body tightening like a bowstring drawn to its limit.
The wind elements at Vera’s fingertips began to hum low and deep, ready to burst forth at any instant.
Ilyss locked her violet gaze onto several key points within the massive shadow outside, faint static crackling around her.
Ryan’s right hand rested on the knife hilt. The index and middle fingers of his left hand drew together, and a thin white arc of electricity flickered and gathered at the tips.
His eyes pierced through the crack in the door, fixed on the sleeping beast. In his mind, he calculated every single moment of the coming exchange—the spread of the ice mist, Rex’s dash, the severing of the silk, the lift, the retreat, and the several possible angles and forms the spider’s first counterattack might take once it woke.
“Move!”