Nuri had never seen a creature so vile that it rendered everyone sick. While Kethsura was majestic in a dreadful sense, this creature was just pure abomination. There was no sugarcoating it.

Monsters in the Labyrinth often took the forms of familiar real animals or fantastical creatures, which made them, more or less, easier to adapt to in appearance. Even in Rifts or Ancient Rifts, the monsters Nuri had seen in slideshows or holographic projections were far tamer than this horror.

As dozens of cocoons stepped out of the fog in tandem, everyone backed toward the door they had entered through. Schwartz, the pseudo-leader of the group, was able to keep calm and analyze the situation.

"It seems they’re able to absorb projectile damage to some degree."

’Yeah, we can see that, Captain Obvious.’

The silk and the eyes just swallowed the arrows whole. It didn’t even leave the nock behind. The silk-wrapped man marched forward like nothing had happened, and the others around him were inching in closer and closer.

The party wasn’t as proactive as Nuri had hoped. Having just met the guardian of the Rift, everyone was stuck in fight-or-flight mode and, unsurprisingly, defaulted to defense instead.

This wasn’t going to get them past these monsters.

"Art, is that your best attack?" Nuri questioned.

"No."

"Give me a better shot."

Art gave him a brief look and nocked a fourth arrow. This time, wind gathered around the point, swirling until it coated the arrowhead. She released the string, and the arrow struck another headshot.

The arrowhead struck with the devastating punch of a tightly compressed gale. The creature’s head snapped back, its advance stuttering to a halt. A couple of its eyes burst, and pus ran down its face.

But then the silk pulled tight. It closed over the wound and dragged the shaft under, the same as the three plain arrows had gone. The smooth surface returned in no time. The head leveled out, and the elongated arm continued dragging.

A wind-infused arrow from a Second Constellation, and it amounted to nothing? This creature’s defense had to be absurdly high to absorb those attacks in the first place. The silk mended everything it touched, so just one singular attack wouldn’t work at all.

It was time for another experiment.

"Schwartz, it’s your turn."

He looked at Nuri.

"Me?"

"Yes, you," Nuri affirmed. "You’re a Third Constellation. Set an example, will you?"

Schwartz huffed a laugh, his smile widened. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

"Giving orders now, junior?"

He stepped forward anyway, brandish his spear.

"Since you asked so nicely."

Light gathered along the aquamarine shaft, blue lightning deepening to white at the tip. The hair on Nuri’s arm lifted as the air turned sharp and metallic.

The bolt left the spear in a straight line and struck the nearest cocoon in the chest.

It went stiff immediately. Light flooded through the silk. For an instant, Nuri saw the whole knot of organs flare and convulse against the current. The silk over its torso blackened and curled. Every eye on its head burst at once.

It didn’t drop, and there was no kill notification. It stood swaying, its arms twitching, while the charred silk had already begun to mend anew.

Schwartz watched it twitch in silence for a long moment, then turned to Nuri.

"There. It won’t move for a while. Though I’ll admit, I expected it to drop."

Nuri was stunned. Schwartz’s lightning was devastating as an opening move. Yet the silk creature had tanked it, and it was already almost back to perfect condition.

"It’s a 3-Star," Nuri concluded, his face quite grim.

Luckily, it seemed these creatures traded offense for defense. Their numbers looked intimidating, sure, but their slow-moving steps and lack of supernatural abilities brought them down to the likes of regular, mindless zombies.

That was Nuri’s thought when, all of a sudden, the creature lurched forward, then bent backward with a deafening shriek.

"W-What the hell?" Hugo stuttered, snapping back to reality.

Murray pushed aside his fear and hurried to grab Diana.

When Diana positioned herself, the cocoon began to transform. The spider arm angled toward its belly and sliced a line straight through the silk.

The amalgamation of innards spilled through the cut and moved on its own.

Nuri didn’t want whatever it was to finish, and neither was Art. She fired three consecutive arrows at its stomach, but the creature blocked them with its arms.

"Schwartz!" Nuri shouted.

"The thing’s getting a little annoying," Schwartz said, amused.

The aquamarine spear flared, and Schwartz snapped it forward with another bolt. The creature’s long arms whipped up to meet it. Lightning struck silk with ferocity, and the impact cracked like a whip. Blue-white light burst across the chamber as the two forces tore at each other.

In the end, the creature held, swallowing the last of the crackling force until the lightning disintegrated to sparks and died away.

Schwartz frowned.

The transformation happened fast after that. Wet cords unspooled and whipped around the body until no silk remained on the surface, only the squelch of organs.

Then it shot at them with incredible speed. It cleared the distance in a matter of seconds. By the time Nuri’s eyes caught up, it was already one them.

"Hugo!" Murray roared.

Hugo was the closest, so of course it went for him. He swung his shield up just as it reached him. The impact sent him skidding across the floor until he hit the door they had come through.

"Shit — it’s really heavy!" Hugo heaved, groaning in pain.

Everyone was starting to realize it — the Ancient Rift had truly begun. Their first opponent was a 3-Star monster that had just transformed from a silk-wrapped humanoid into a sinew-armored super soldier.

Before it could reach Art, Schwartz stepped in and knocked its arms aside. He slashed across its torso with the spear, scorching its armor as lightning opened up its wound. But that, too, regenerated like the silk before.

’Damn, we might be fucked.’

The Chapel of the Sacrament might have been the hardest room to clear, yet they had walked right into it first. There was no turning back now.