Demons Among Gods

Eric and Lyria stood side by side, watching the grown-up holy spider cry speechlessly.

The moment the spider stopped, it stood up straight despite its pain, then covered its eyes with its left front limb and started sweeping around everywhere with its still-injured right front limb.

They understood that the spider's front left limb had probably received unfortunate internal injuries, which was why it was making the effort to move its other limb despite the two swords still planted in its joint.

They were dazed and didn’t know what to do next with this pitiful spider.

It seemed the Newborn-stage Rank 3 Crimson Tide Spider had truly lost its mind after being bullied so mercilessly by two inhumanely cruel humans!

Even Eric and Lyria felt terrible for the beautiful spider and wanted to curse the culprits in their hearts for being so heartless.

"Brother Eric, we need to figure something out quickly, in case it does something unpredictable again," Lyria said with an apprehensive tone.

She feared the spider would figure out a way to buy more time to heal, like the white bone thing it had pulled previously. If it covered its eye hole with its white armor again or tried to escape, all their hard work would disappear. From then on, they could only live with constant restlessness until they reached Batley City at least.

Eric nodded solemnly.

His headache was killing him. Beyond that, he was deeply worried for Livy. He still hoped to find her, and the longer this fight dragged on, the slimmer their chances of saving her became.

They were just mid-stage Rank 1 children; this was not a fight they should be having!

It was bad for their fragile backs!

"We need to move its front limb away so we can attack, while also being cautious of not getting killed by the other 'wild' limb. At the same time, we need to make a powerful attack that truly kills it. Three tasks..."

What was worse, he no longer had time to peacefully deploy his Space Shield and wait an hour for a weapon to penetrate deep into its brain for a kill.

Lyria thought for a moment and replied confidently, "If it’s just removing the limb, you can depend on me. I’m completely confident in punching away the left front limb, which is definitely injured internally." Otherwise, the spider would have used its left limb to continue its madness and guarded its eyes with its injured right limb.

Eric agreed, but two major problems remained. The biggest need was firepower, and the time to generate it had to be short.

Suddenly, Eric and Lyria turned to glance behind them. They felt someone speeding toward them.

As they gazed upon the figure, their eyes couldn’t help but grow emotional.

They turned around completely and waited for the person to arrive with bright, relieved smiles on their faces.

Livy leaped and hugged Eric and Lyria tightly.

She couldn’t express how relieved she was. Nothing else was more important than finding both of them safe and alive.

Eric and Lyria hugged Livy back.

They had been fearful for Livy but helpless to search for her until the spider was thoroughly dead. This was a life-and-death battle where anything could happen in a split-second mistake. If any of them had disappeared mid-fight, who knew what the spider might have done? The remaining one could have been left in mortal danger. Despite their worries, they had to stick together and could only hope for Livy’s survival.

Lyria had suppressed her fear for a long time—fear that Livy might have truly perished. She also couldn’t go search, as that would mean abandoning Eric. She absolutely couldn’t do that, even if her own life was at risk. She was certain Livy wouldn’t have forgiven her for that either.

Seeing Livy in good condition was a huge relief for both Lyria and Eric, as if they had become complete once more.

All three of them embraced each other warmly and silently for some time.

Instead of Lyria or Eric, it was Livy who murmured while sobbing, "I’m truly glad that both of you are alive and safe..."

Eric and Lyria were speechless.

Wasn’t that supposed to be their dialogue?

Eric patted Livy’s back and consoled her, "Yes, we’re alive, and I’m truly glad you are too. We’re sorry—we had no time to search for you. For now, we need to deal with the spider quickly, or we’re in grave danger if it recovers."

Livy returned to her senses and quickly separated. This hug had truly come from her heart—she wasn’t taking advantage of Eric. She could swear it from the depths of her soul!

"What’s going on? Where did this white spider come from? What happened to the previous one?" Livy asked, baffled. It was like an extremely ugly human being replaced with an extremely beautiful one in the blink of an eye.

Lyria’s mouth twitched. She also wanted to ask the same question, but she had already seen the process with her own eyes and didn’t want to explain too much now.

She pointed at the wildly attacking, pitiful spider and answered, "It’s the same spider. No time to explain—we’ll talk later. For now, thanks to Brother Eric, we’ve put a hole in the giant spider’s near-indestructible white armor. We need to make a lethal attack on its exposed left eye as soon as possible. But as you can see, it’s not only guarding its eyes—it’s doing everything to stop us from approaching."

Livy turned to look at Eric with admiration, though she couldn’t estimate how tough the armor had been.

Eric waved it off. "I only did a little work. Without Ly, that much work wouldn’t even count. Let’s leave that aside. Liv, how many Hydro Explosion droplets could you create with the water we have in our storage spaces?"

Eric suddenly realized they could carry a huge amount of water inside his pocket watch for emergencies. However, he or Lyria would need to build a large number of containers, as they couldn’t simply put liquids or air into any space storage—they had tried that in the past.

Lyria’s eyes lit up. If Livy could do that, there was a possibility of killing the spider—or at least killing it after multiple attempts. They didn’t dare venture inside the eye socket—who knew what tricks the spider had? If it trapped them and released potent poison, they’d die helplessly inside.

Hearing Eric’s inquiry, Livy suddenly smiled mysteriously. She stepped back a few paces, raised both arms, and dozens upon dozens of water droplets flowed from her sleeves.

Lyria stepped back in horror; Eric also wanted to, but his Evil soul refused to retreat.

Was Livy trying to blow all three of them sky-high while keeping such loosely packed explosions so close to her clothes—especially after hugging them?

Both wanted to curse Livy but held back, their lips trembling as they watched the beautiful, tiny water orbs floating under her control.

Livy chuckled and puffed out her chest proudly. "I don’t know how, but maybe getting beaten by a powerful enemy leveled up my abilities. After waking up, I felt all my skills had greatly improved. Now, I have absolute control over each Hydro Explosion drop. Not only that—I can control a hundred in total! I can also gather them into a single, far more destructive drop! But if I combine them, I can’t hold control for more than a brief moment."

Lyria and Eric marveled at Livy’s Hydro Explosion improvement. It seemed not all ability upgrades were equal—Livy’s was far more distinct. To fully understand, they’d need time—and right now, they didn’t have that.

Eric silently decided not to depress Livy by revealing that he and Lyria had also leveled up.

But seriously—why had they broken through now? Was the requirement to face a powerful enemy?

"…I think the requirement was to face a powerful enemy and survive for some time—or injure it," Riya guessed.

Eric nodded. Just as he was about to explain his plan, Lyria dropped the bomb.

"Liv, we’ve also broken through in our abilities… without getting beaten up."

Eric really wanted to slap Lyria.

Was it that hard to keep quiet and tell Livy later?

Hearing that, Livy’s cute water bombs trembled—and with them, Eric and Lyria’s hearts shuddered.

Livy quickly regained control of her children and cried out in injustice, "Why?!" She had suffered so much, yet Lyria had managed it too? Where was the justice in that? Of course, she was happy for Eric.

Eric waved it off and quickly ended the topic. "Maybe the requirement was just to injure an extremely powerful enemy. And as far as we’ve noticed, our improvements aren’t as impressive as yours. Let’s leave that aside—hear my plan first."

Lyria and Livy nodded, their expressions turning serious.

Eric briefly explained, and both girls understood their assignments.

Next, Eric tested whether he could blink along with Livy’s Hydro Explosion drops. The result was a success—since they weren’t living things and were practically extensions of Livy’s control, like her clothes or arms, there was no issue blinking with them as long as they remained within her sleeves or hands.

Eric then turned to Lyria and signaled her to begin.

Lyria shot forward, running along one of the spider’s legs—the one helping it stand straight.

The Spider Queen again sensed a threat but couldn’t pinpoint its source. So, she reinforced her injured left limb over her eyes, ensuring no human could slip past.

Lyria used all her abilities: she sprinted with Whirlwind Sprint, hardened her fist with Hardening, and punched the spider’s left limb with Crushing Blow. Then, she channeled Absolute Gravity to push the limb away.

Though Crushing Blow wasn’t designed for pushing, combined with her speed and ramming force, it had significant impact—and Absolute Gravity amplified the effect.

She felt all her abilities had improved, including Absolute Gravity.

She succeeded in pushing the spider’s limb aside, but the gap wasn’t wide enough—and the spider was already recovering, dragging its other limb into position.

"Hurry!" Lyria cried urgently.

Eric had already wrapped Livy in his mana and blinked twice, covering nearly 500 meters. He had no time to marvel at his own improvement—he arrived at the gap Lyria had created.

He dropped Livy into position and, with lightning speed, conjured two Space Shields to block the spider’s incoming limbs.

Unlike before, he could now generate two shields—and two Telepathic Slaps. This wasn’t his limit, either. He’d explore further… *if* he survived.

Livy wasted no time. She gathered all hundred Hydro Explosion drops into one—swiftly compressing them into a tennis-ball-sized orb.

Watching it, all three shuddered. Even the spider’s gigantic body trembled beneath their feet.

Eric shoved aside his horror and enveloped Lyria and Livy in his mana.

Livy launched the orb deep into the spider’s bloody eye socket.

Eric didn’t hesitate. The moment he saw the drop had already entered the depth of the empty eye socket, he blinked with Lyria and Livy and didn’t stop until he was at least a mile away, to the left of the spider.

Before the drop exploded, the Newborn-stage Rank 3 Crimson Tide Spider Queen felt an eerie silence within her.

She clearly felt that this was it—it was her death.

She didn’t know what the *thing* was or how it could be so powerful as to threaten her so vividly, but she knew this power was beyond anything she herself could create.

After an 'unknown' amount of time, she silently sighed within her heart.

BOOM!

The entire hill-sized spider’s body juddered. Its white-coated armor bulged ever so slightly, yet didn’t crack or rupture. However, a massive amount of blood, river water, organs, and whatnot spilled from its sole open eye, like a huge water reservoir punctured. It traveled straight, destroying everything in its path before losing most of its power.

The spider’s front limbs also struck its own head due to the space shield’s aftereffect. They were shoved away by the water pressure. Though the spider was still struck and pushed backward, but not by much.

Slowly, the Rank 3 Crimson Tide Spider’s huge body collapsed onto the ground with a ground-breaking **boom**, while water and blood kept pouring from its sole open left eye socket.

The Newborn-stage Rank 3 Crimson Tide Spider finally perished.

Just as Eric, Lyria, and Livy let out a breath of relief, Eric’s heart thumped violently inside his chest. It arrived with unstoppable might and force that couldn’t be suppressed by any means.

Eric, without a single hesitation, grabbed his own chest with both hands and ripped it wide open—and at the same time, his heart exploded.

He slowly fell backward, dead.

Lyria and Livy, standing on either side of Eric, could only widen their eyes as they watched from their peripherals Eric spew a massive amount of blood from his mouth and chest before slowly collapsing backward toward the ground.

Their hearts froze; blood drained from their faces.

They swiftly turned and cried out in horror.

Lyria lunged to catch Eric, but before she could reach him, he dropped to the ground—eyes closed, mouth bloodied, chest beyond recognition.

"Ahhh—!" Livy shrieked in anguish and threw herself at Eric’s fallen body. "B-Brother—Brother Eric, w-what happened?!"

She grabbed his shoulder and shook it gently. "D-don’t do this… D-don’t do this to me, please…"

She couldn’t hold back anymore. Staring at Eric’s pale, bloodied face, she hugged his body tightly and broke down, weeping uncontrollably.

Lyria collapsed, her outstretched hand grasping at nothing. Her fingers trembled; tears burst from her eyes.

She sat there, expression lifeless, eyes soaked.

The light in her once-vibrant amber eyes vanished—as if her soul had died with him.