Power Punch

There have been many situations in my past when I had no idea what to say to someone, and the current one is definitely like that. The spider girl is curled up on the ground and holding her stomach while looking at me with defiant and yet desperate expression, and, to be frank, I don't think anything I say will make her calm down.

I, um, I miiight have hit her a bit too hard?

"Can you talk?" I ask finally, trying to smile reassuringly, though I'm doubtful if it has the intended effect. "Do you understand me?"

The girl's eyes widen a bit and she nods vigorously, her expression easing a bit. "I... can." She replies slowly in a slightly strange voice, slightly... wheezing? Kinda, and a bit rough, as if unused for a long while. Oh, and I notice a pair of fangs in her mouth. Not the vampire kind, but the extendable kind, like spider's. She's a spider, duh.

"That's a relief." I nod. "Sorry about the hit, but I couldn't just stop the attack." That's a bit of a lie, I have hit her as intended, just didn't use my full strength. But she doesn't need to know that, and it's true that I needed to somehow incapacitate her for a while.

The girl's eyes widen a bit in shock and she props her body to upright position. "Why... didn't you kill me?" She asks, gasping for air as her eyebrows scrunch in pain. Shit, that looks painful as hell. She must have internal wounds, and likely broken ribs or sternum.

"Well, why would I kill you?" I ask, smiling lightly and approaching her slowly. "I'd like to talk a bit and I'd prefer you alive for that. Afterwards as well." I'd like to ask her a few questions, first and foremost if she has any kind of community or somethnig of the sort. And what's her approach to humans and Wayfarers if she wants to answer. It is, after all, an intelligent monster we have here, and, rephrasing Levia's words, she's not human, but she's a person, and that makes her the same as humans.

I crouch next to her and see as she doesn't back away only because she forces herself not to, but her muscles tense and she lets out a hiss of pain, likely straining a severly hurt part of her body.

"Don't." I say, stretching my arm and touching her stomach lightly, the action that makes her jerk visibly. "Tell me if it hurts too much." I say and reach out my my Demonic Flame.

I was able to heal myself very quickly, so I should be able to heal her as well, shouldn't I? My magic sense already tells me a bit about her injuries, for example I am able to spot a severe fracture in her lower sternum where two equalvients of collarbones for her lower set of arms connect with it. I pull a tiny bit of demonic energy from my body and push it into hers with purpose to pass unimpended and help me identify the damage, and I barely stop myself from sucking in a breath of cold air at what I realize.

That one hit with my arm, where I pulled back a lot, could easily kill her. Eight fractures in her bones, splinters from her sternum in her lungs, her stomach and liver damaged visibly and a lot of blood vessels popped under the pressure from my fist. Add to that some minor internal damage, bruised pelvis, and strained spine from the rough landing and you have more or less the extent of what one hit not with my full power did. I'm honestly suprised she didn't retch after that, because a human probably would.

"What..." I hear the girl gasp. "What is that?"

"Just a moment." I say. "Please bear with me."

Fuck, I need to numb her pain. I don't think she would feel as little pain as I do and feeling what I'm about to do isn't something I'd like to experience. How to do that? Hm. I'll go with the straightforward approach. That is, leave it to demonic energy.

I stretch my other arm and touch her spine below her neck, then will a bit of flame to get there and block pain signals. Judging by the relieved gasp and slumping muscles from her, it's a success.

"Okay, this will probably feel very weird. Please bear with it." I say and let a larger amount of demonic energy into her body, making sure to make it harmless, and will it to restore her organs and bones to optimal state and burn the damaged, not neededy parts. Now hope it doesn't kill her.

The girl starts squirming and whimpering as the flames do their job properly and I hold her in place, watching the inside of her body and seeing the bones and organs regrow and get back to their places. Five seconds later she seems completely fine, save for the fact she is gasping for breath while laying limply on the ground. Well. Good enough, I guess. She could have been dead.

I take the demonic energy out of her body, taking additional care to make it cleanse her body and erase all traces of itself past healed tissues and bones. Who knows what aftereffects it might cause if I don't. "You should be alright now." I let her down from my arm to lie on the ground and say, glancing at my reserves of demonic energy and finding them... hm. Mostly unchanged. There's definitely less, but the difference is on the level of a single percent or so of my energy, not large enough to be important.

I back away from her and step back to Levia, turning to look at her and seeing her nodding with a small frown. "Why does it feel like your power doesn't have any limits?" She asks with a hint of bitterness in her voice.

"It has." I smile at her. "But you won't find them easily because Energy at higher levels extends to practically everything. Elecricity, momentum, mass, time, it all relates to energy. But not many things relate to nothingness."

"Right." Levia nods, though I can't tell if she is really convinced.

"It's also hard for me to make permanent constructs. At least I haven't managed to do so yet." I add. "The closest to that would be my gaunlets, but your swords are completely independent, aren't they? Have you tried making guns, by the way?"

"I tried, but I didn't have anything to actually shoot the bullets. Though... Oh! I know!" She shakes her head and is about to nod, but then her eyes snap open and a moment later she places her hand on her chin in a thoughtful expression.

Well, okay, let her think for now. I look back at the spider girl and see her standing up and touching her stomach with astonished expression on her face.

"Are you fine?" I ask and her head turns to me sharply as she makes a thankful and a bit scared expression.

"Y-yes! I'm completely fine, Rédi!" She answers, leaning forward a bit and doing something between a nod and a bow, and looks at me nervously as if unsure what to do now. I, to be honest, am at loss as well.

"That's good, I was worried I would kill you with that." I nod. "Sorry that I ask, what does... rédi mean?"

The girl blinks a few times and gets embarrassed, shrinking a bit. "It's, um, how we High Arachne call... females stronger than us, generally. Mostly those who have defeated us in a fight." Oh, High Arachne? That's interesting. Nothing I know about, at least.

"Oh, alright." I nod. Maybe I shouldn't have asked. "You can call me Helia, and this is Levia." I say with a smile and gesture to Levia, who has at some point stopped thinking so intensely, or at least stopped showing it, and now nods with a polite smile. "I'd say it's a pleasure to meet you, but, well." My smile turns to lopsided one and I wave the fist I hit the girl with. "I hope I'll be able to say that when we'll be separating."

She nods vigorously in response. "My name is Elena. You mentioned you wanted to talk with me, Rédi?"

Not Rédi... ah screw that. If she wants to call me that, I won't rob her of the pleasure, duh.

"More like ask a few questions." I reply. "We didn't expect to encounter anyone able to talk in this forest. Neither so similar to humans in appearance. And, well, I'm curious." I didn't expect anyone so polite, if we're on this subject. I don't think I was ever treated in my entire life like she is treating me, and her speech and behavior kinda tickle me in a good way. Is it because of Pride?

"Oh." Elena makes a conflicted expression for a moment, but nods in the end. "I understand. If you would follow me, then. This is no place for a longer talk." After I nod in approval she turns around and somewhat hesitatnly leads us deeper into the tunnel, or more like she leads me and I lead Levia, because she seems more keen on hugging my arm and following it while looking around than walking by herself. She got kinda clingly after I ran out of juice back then. Not that I don't like it.

On this occasion I finally have time to properly see the tunnel and I realize that this is firmly Elena's territory. Although there are no webs visible to the naked eye, with magic sense I can see hundreds of threads in various patterns all around the walls and ceiling. If I wasn't certain I could burn them within seconds I would have been worried about where we're going blindly, but I think Elena knows better than to trap me after my earlier show. The show that ended rather quickly for both of us, but well.

Additional thing worth noting I only now properly notice is that Elena seems to be extremely powerful, definitely much stronger than a monster in dark forest should be. Seeing that I easily defeated a Beisvart in upper silver and she was even able to wound me, she should be around upper silver in terms of strength, but at least one rank higher in terms of her capabilities. And I say that without knowing her full abilities, because I doubt she has shown me everything she is capable of.

Also, I'm not yet sure how the relation between body strength and soul size is, but physically she is even stronger than me, and by a significant margin. Not taking into account the differences in our musculature she's more than twice my strength, though I can't tell precisely. Even with my much stronger build she should be able to overpower me.

If not for my Demonic Flame, I would be completely helpless in a fight with her even if my soul was a hundred times larger than my Flame is now. Because, if I remember correctly how much mana flowed through human's bodies, Wayfarers particularly, her soul's size should be a few tens of times the base. My Flame meanwhile has grown a bit and right now sits at almost exactly fifth of base soul size. And that's, to be honest... comical.

But, who am I to judge that. I'm certainly not going to complain.

"Are you living here alone?" I ask to break the silence and the somewhat awkward atmosphere.

Elena turns to me briefly, but then looks back to the front. "Yes, for now, at least. I'm not staying here for a long time. We High Arachne, unlike lower spiders, typically live in small families that stay in one place for a long time, but..." She hesitates for a while but nods in the end and turns to me nervously. "Our family was numerous, and I... decided to leave and start a new one, but I haven't found a suitable place as of now." She says with a hint of bitterness in her voice.

"Oh, oookay. Did you come from inner forests?" I ask.

"Hm?" She turns to me. "Um, may I ask what are... inner forests?"

I blink and almost misstep hearing this question that should have been obvious, but apparently wasn't. She's not a human, duh. The names they call things with would be different. "Inner forests are what humans call the area of this island covered in huge trees reaching high into the sky and where monsters stronger than here typically live." I answer as shortly as I can since she doesn't need a detailed description.

Elena nods slowly in response. "Yes, we have indeed come from such place. Why do you ask, Rédi?"

"I'm not sure if you are aware, but the area we are in is called dark forests, for a reason you can probably guess. If you go further, you will only find weaker monsters than they are here and the mana density will be lower. Are you looking for that?" I ask, raising my eyebrows, and she opens her mouth only to close it a moment later with a thoughtful expression on her face.

"Do you know what's on the other side of these forests?" She asks finally and kind of hopefully. "The few our people who went there have never returned and we don't know what to expect. I'm also trying to get to know that, to be honest." Oh, wait, hold up.

That single damned sentence has sooo many implications it's just amazing. First would be that they don't know about humans, or at least don't know about their settlements. Second would be that the High Arachne that didn't return were killed by humans. Because I have no idea why else they wouldn't return considering... Holy shit. No one from who I talked about really knew High Arachne exist. That can lead to only two conclusions, and I don't think I want either of them to be true.

First is that there is something very strong out there that kills only High Arachne, or at least something that's not known to wider public. That's doubtful for much more than one reason, so the second conclusion is much more likely. Humans are hiding the existence of intelligent monsters, first and foremost by killing any that come near to cities and towns.

Anyway, another thing is that due to the fact the... scouts let's say don't come back from there, they must be assuming there is someone or something strong on the other side of dark forests. And while it's technically not wrong, it's also not exactly true, because humans are living on the edge only because of the fact they are new arrivals on this island and didn't manage to establish themselves further in. And they live only in the south. The point is, I think their perception of the island might be completely distorted.

"Um, Rédi?" I hear Elena asking nervously and I shake my head and focus back on her.

"Sorry, I just realized something I don't think I like." I say. "Answering your question, I came from that side so I can tell you what's out there, but I'm afraid I might not know many details."

"I would be grateful, Rédi." She replies, doing this not really bow and not really nod again. "We'll arrive in a moment." She turns to the front and I now notice there is another intersection in front of us.

As we approach it and round the corner, I see... a home. A relatively small white nest, at most five meters wide, halfway in a most likely manmade... or spidermade hole in the tunnel and with one side sticking to a large tree trunk. And there are a lot of webs around there, including a few bundles of... something on the side, if I had to guess they would be dead monsters, and something I can only take as a table with chairs. It is, to put short, a large stone plate and two smaller pieces of wood hanging from the ceiling.

"Please wait a moment, Rédie." Elena, says, walking forward. "I'll prepare another seat."

"There will be no need for that, I'll take care of it." Levia interjects, making the spider girl look at her with surprise, but she nods eventually. Wouldn't want to upset the Rédie now, huh?

"Please sit then." She motions to the table, stading to the side herself. "I'm afraid I don't have anything to share with you, but-."

"We don't mind, it's on me that we're intruding." I interrupt her, walking up to the chair or whatever it is and sitting on it, feeling the threads strain and extend a little bit under my weight. "None of us could have predicted we'll meet and I don't think our customs match. Honestly, you're already giving a better impression than most I've met up to now."

Elena blinks a few times in response. "I... alright." She nods finally and sits down herself while Levia produces a chair out of her Nihility... or nanobots? It's getting confusing. The point is, she makes herself a seat and sits on my side, leaning a bit to me. "What do you want to talk about?" Elena asks after a moment.

"What do you know about humans?" I mention this first since many of my questions are quite related to humans.

"Uh, hardly anything. They have occasionally attacked us before, so I know a fair bit about how they fight, but they never tried to negotiate with us so I have no idea where or how they live." She replies kind of apologetically.

"That's fine." I nod. "I have never heard of any intelligent monsters, or people should I say, in these forests. I think humans might even be hiding this fact from common folk. So I'm interested in who you are as people." I smile lightly. "Would you mind telling me? I don't ask you to divulge any details, just the general idea would be enough."

"Um, before that, may I know what's your relation with humans?" Elena asks warily. And that's a good question, I guess, for I could have been working for them.

"Do you know about Wayfarers? I've heard gods announced their arrival, but I don't know if it would extend to your people." I ask and the girl's eyes open wide in astonishment, making me raise my eyebrows in turn.

"You, um, Rédi, are you sure they were Wayfarers?" She asks anxiously.

"Yes." I nod. "I'm positive they are, and I've met a few myself." I say and notice Levia looking at me in momentary surprise, but then she realizes that I'm hiding the fact we are Wayfarers and plops back on my shoulder she started leaning on at some point.

"Oh." Elena's shoulders slump down, but she shakes her head a moment later and straightens her back. "Sorry about that. Twenty suns ago our... our oracle received information that Wayfarers will be appearing and we should be wary of them. We didn't know what it meant at first. Could you please tell me who are those Wayfarers?" She looks at me and asks almost pleadingly.

"Well, to put simply, they are people who are given vessels to enter this world and train. They can come in various bodies and it's impossible to kill them for good as they will be reborn." I explain simply and her's eyes open wide in what's close to horror. "Don't worry too much though. I would personally advise not to trust them at first, but they can be talked with and in certain aspects they are better than local people. It will also be some time till they come to these areas as they are now just beginning their training and are still very weak."

Elena nods her head slowly with conflicted, anxious expression. "Thanks for telling me that."

"Answering your question about our relation with humans." I continue. "We, both I and Levia, are in situation similar to that of Wayfarers, that is we came here to train. We have merely come from different places with... no way to return in short term. We consider humans as our allies, I guess. Nothing you can't be."

"Mhm. Alright." She nods in response. "As I've said earlier, we High Arachne live in families of a few tens of people. I don't know much about other families as there aren't many of us, but we are generally territorial and stay in one place for a long time. We have the matriarch and the elders that make important decisions. Is that what you wanted to know, Rédi?" She looks up at me with, once again, nervousness and anxiousness, though I can tell she is purposefully trying not to tell me any details.

"Yes, it's enough." I nod with a smile. "I can tell humans would be similar to how you live, but they are much more numerous. They build cities and towns there thousands of them live, but few reach high enough level of strength to venture to the forests. Also, they are ruled by a king in a system where the strongest and wealthiest people have most influence. They mostly stay in the cities though, and they are hunters who venture into the forests. If you ever meet them, I would suggest to try to talk, but always be prepared to escape."

"...Thank you for this information." Elena nods slowly, thoughtfully. "Is there anything else you would like to talk about?"

...

We have exchanged some small talk afterwards and separated in calm atmosphere, walking off in direction of inner forests. Elena has been a really good... eye opener, if I can call a person this way. She showed us that monsters aren't all beasts to be killed, but some can be talked and reasoned with or even made friends with. I wonder if I could call her a friend.

"It's funny." Levia says as we are running further into dark forests. "How you described Wayfarers." I look at her with raised eyebrows, signalling ot continue. "It's just... your description is so different from how humans see it, but also so very true."

"Which humans?" I ask with a smirk. "On Beholder's Eye they don't see it this way."

"You know what I..." She rolls her eyes, but then her face freezes for a long while. "Holy fuck." She says eloquently.

"What?" I raise my eyebrows.

"It's just..." Levia looks at me with a frown. "If you look at it this way, seeing the people here as humans like any other... your description of Wayfarers is actually much more correct than how it's viewed out... out of VOW. I would say... in real life, but it's... hard to say that this." She waves her arms to indicate the whole world around us. "Is not real."

"Well, true." I reply. "Have you heard the term of virtuality?"

"No?"

"It's how some people where I live are starting to call games and other things in virtual reality, or rather the virtual reality as a whole." I say with a small smile. "To emphasize it's so close to reality, though I can't say someone burned their brain to think of that name. I also heard about some people saying that virtuality shouldn't be treated like something lesser than reality, but something on the same level, and I kinda agree with that."

"...Yeah." Levia nods after a while.

"Though this brings a whole set of new problems and questions I'm not really keen on discussing, like if people in virtual reality, the programmed people, should have the same rights as... real people let's say. Like Elena. She seemed like a completely normal person. I'd rather just treat everyone the same, but people can have... various ideas."

"Yeah." She says with a grimace. "Speaking of Elena, don't you think she was hiding something when she was asking about Wayfarers?"

"Kinda." I reply. "I don't think she was lying, she didn't give me that impression, but she probably hid the reason why she asked under some sort of half-truth. She was kind of... afraid and anxious, so I wouldn't be surprised if that oracle of theirs said to keep the hell away from Wayfarers or something."

"Mhm." Levia nods once again, but then shrugs. "Well, I'm not surprised she didn't really trust us. I wonder if we'll meet her again sometime."

"No idea, but I sure hope we do." I smile lightly. "It was nice talking with her. Refreshing, I could say."