He who Bends Time-Chapter 54 - who will escape

"Auran, any solution?" asked Marian, growing impatient with the situation.

"Well, it’s a bug, so we could try spraying it with bug spray," said Auran, without much care.

"Stop joking in a situation like this. Even I, who am in the Forge Mana stage, can’t think of defeating it—much less any of you, who are still in the Bonding stage. If we’re not able to get rid of that thing, it could kill us all. And I don’t think anyone here has the ability to stop it—except you, with your time ability," exclaimed Marian. As she spoke, she looked at the others’ faces to see if any of them would reject what she had said—but to her disappointment, they all remained silent, proving her words to be true.

"What if we all fight it together, combining our abilities?" suggested Henry at that moment, and the others saw a glimpse of hope in the suggestion. Eventually, they all turned to Auran.

"Well, it’s poss—" Auran began, but suddenly halted his words mid-sentence as a faint voice came from someone else.

"Ple... please..."

It sounded like the voice of a little kid begging while crying.

"Who’s that?" asked Auran, turning to the others, but they all had the same question.

"Not me."

"Me neither."

"I would never make such a pathetic sound."

"It sounds like a kid..."

While they were looking at each other, the voice came again.

"Pl... Please. Let... me... in."

This time, the voice came again while all of them were looking at each other. That was when they were finally certain—it wasn’t any of them who had made the sound. As a result, they turned toward the direction from which the voice had come. What they looked at was the bloody wall Marian had created, separating them from the spider.

"The wall can talk?" said Nimuk.

"Obviously not, which means the sound came from..."

The realization hit all of them at once—and that thought frightened them even more.

"Could that thing have become an awakened beast? One possessing intelligence comparable to ours?" Marian asked in a hurry.

"How else could it possibly speak words like we do? Shit, this makes things complicated. If the beast has intelligence, that means it’s surely at the awakened stage—and an awakened-stage beast is far more powerful than a Forge magician, let alone a few Bonding-stage magicians," said Auran, looking at Marian.

"The only solution here is to run away before it crashes down that thing," he added afterward.

"I can hold the wall for a little more time" said Marian.

Bang!

Just then, a sudden collision occurred on the other side of the bloody wall. A few cracks appeared on its surface—clearly visible to Auran and the group.

"Are you sure you can hold that thing back?" asked Auran.

"Not now I’m not," said Marian after witnessing the cracks appear on the blood wall.

"Then there’s only one option left—let’s run," said Auran.

The moment he said that, Nimuk’s hand was already at the door knob, but before he turned it and opened the door, Marian pushed ahead.

"You all go. I’ll stay behind," she said.

"Are you trying to say something like staying behind to give us enough time to escape?" asked Auran.

"You’re exactly on point. As the creator of this wall, I know its limits. The spider only needs two more strikes to break through, and I don’t think, once that happens, it’ll take much time to catch us with its speed. Even when it was just an elite beast, its speed was incredible. Now that it’s at the awakened stage, it’ll be far beyond that. So you go. I’ll stay behind. After all, this all began because of my problem, and I should be the one to bear responsibility for it," said Marian.

After hearing her and understanding the situation, Nimuk once again gripped the door knob and tried to open it—but stopped halfway when Henry raised his voice.

"Unacceptable! Don’t tell me to leave my friend behind so I can live while she dies. How would you expect us to live with the burden of literally sacrificing one of our friends just so we can survive?" he shouted.

"I can live with that burden—no problem at all," muttered Octo, though he was smart enough to say it quietly, just to himself.

"Henry, stop being a kid and do what’s most suitable for this time. Do you think you can manage to hold it back while all of us escape? No, you can’t. Only I can do that," exclaimed Marian.

"You’re greatly underestimating me, Marian. You don’t know that I was also named a genius in my academy. If I use all of my mana, I can very well blind that thing for at least half an hour," said Henry with respectful pride.

Boom!

Suddenly came another collision sound from the other side of the wall, and more cracks appeared. The existing ones widened significantly across the wall.

"Idiot! The Ten-Second Death Spider can smell its prey. It doesn’t matter if it goes blind—it can still find us by scent," said Marian.

"Even so, I won’t abandon my friend. Auran, you go and escape. I’ll stay behind to hold the spider off," said Henry to Auran. But before he could respond, Marian screamed from the other side.

"No, you won’t! Just go and escape while I’m being generous here, or else I’ll force you to run!" she shouted. In the meantime, the wound that had already stopped bleeding began to ooze blood again, and that blood gathered upon Marian’s hand, crystallizing into a spear.

"I have the same thing to say," said Henry, as dark energy gathered in his palm.

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While the two of them glared at each other in anger, Octo slightly raised his voice.

Bang!

Just then, another loud collision sounded, and the blood wall shattered like glass. From the other side, the fearsome Ten-Second Death Spider stepped forward.

The moment it became visible to the group, they all felt an immense mental pressure descend upon them—paralyzing them for a few seconds and leaving them vulnerable, unable to move.

"Shit, the pressure alone made my knees weak... but I won’t let it kill any of my friends. I have to draw its attention to me," Marian clenched the spear in her hand and tried to move. And just as she expected, sensing her strong resistance, the spider’s attention was drawn to her.

A massive amount of poisonous gas was released from the creature’s body, slowly overtaking the breathable air in the room.

Revealing its fangs, the spider took a stance.

"No..." Henry screamed, realizing what was about to happen, but he was unable to move—paralyzed—while the spider lunged at Marian like a predator.

"Ugh... I’m dying without being able to do anything," sighed Marian, closing her eyes.

In her final moment, the fear of death overwhelmed her.

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