Down With The Gods

As a last-ditch effort, Mira successfully summons a fire pillar beneath herself, forcing the creature to retreat. In response, it shoots a web, wrapping it tightly around her head and cutting off her air supply. Paralyzed and unable to breathe, Mira struggles motionlessly. Just before she passes out, she hears a commotion.

Mira's eyes snap open as she’s jolted awake by sharp slaps. She springs up like a reanimated corpse in a movie. Standing before her is the petite figure of an old lady – it’s Grandma Mildred.

“You’re still alive?” Mira asks.

“Did you kiss your daddy with that mouth?”

“Yep, you’re very much alive. And DON’T EVER joke about my parents!”

Mira’s leg bears a nibbled wound, but thankfully, it’s not serious. She carefully moves over to Christine and burns down the web entangling her. Meanwhile, Grandma Mildred wakes Christine in the same abrupt manner she did with Mira.

“Owww. What happened? Like, where’s the spider?”

“It fled. That fucker don’t belong here.”

“Like, what fucker?”

“The spooderface.”

Grandma Mildred often roams the Twilight and Haunted Forests, mostly looking for trouble. After her encounter with Mira and the others, she set out to find a powerful creature to quench her bloodlust. That’s when she came across the millipede creature. Since it was her first time encountering it, she decided to observe it closely before engaging. Using her wind abilities to move swiftly from tree to tree, she searched for its head. Along the way, she fought off several spider creatures lurking in the branches. With a high essence count and as an electric type, Grandma Mildred has high tolerance to paralysis. This time was no different. In tandem with her wind powers and her chained kunais, the electric webs posed no threat. When the millipede started chasing the earie, she had to backtrack.

“Spooderface? Haunted Forest?”

“I ain’t teachin’ you nothin’. There’s a map for a reason. Use your brain for once, not your boobs.”

“Grrr! Our leader Wyn told us not to worry about other areas yet.”

“Wyn? That go-happy boy?”

“No, that’s Yu.”

“Do I look like a go-happy boy to you?”

“No, you’re an old hag. How about we settle this with a bitch fight?”

“Ain’t got no time for that. Thing’s still alive, and there’s more of ‘em here!”

Grandma Mildred points out the yellow webs spread throughout the area and the path ahead. She hasn't been able to kill one of the creatures yet, as they're quick to relocate using their webs.

"We're, like, so lucky, Mira! We would’ve, like, become meals," Christine says.

"More like, y’all lucky I came back," Grandma Mildred grumbles.

While Grandma Mildred is eager to take down one of the creatures, Mira pleads with her to lead them back to the boys. Annoyed but compliant, she guides the girls, cutting through webs along the way. Their seemingly undisturbed journey is suddenly disrupted when a roundo falls into a web in front of them. A spooderface descends for its prey. Noticing the three, it immediately shoots webs at them.

Mira helps Grandma Mildred summon flaming gusts to burn down the incoming webs. By the time they clear the webs, the spooderface has disappeared, leaving the roundo behind. But then, more webs descend from above. Despite her small stature, Grandma Mildred is an experienced fighter and instantly slows the webs with wind gusts for Mira to burn them down afterward. Remembering her training with Anish, Christine fuses with Grandma Mildred to create a floating snowman, hoping to trick the spooderface into thinking it’s live prey.

"Finally some brains!" Grandma Mildred says, impressed.

The plan works as the spooderface attacks the snowman. But just when the snowman fights back, it accidentally punches into another web between the trees, drawing another spooderface into the fight.

At this point, Grandma Mildred’s stamina is running low. She assumes a defensive stance, gripping her kunais.

"What do we do? Usually, it’s Wyn who gives the orders!" Mira says, anxious.

"I ain’t dying here. Let’s handle one at a time," Grandma Mildred replies.

"We need to, like, avoid the existing webs too," Christine adds.

The three retreat in the opposite direction of their destination, aiming for a more open area. Christine creates snow walls to block the webs as they run. The three reach a clearing with a small pond, and a motherchoad is lounging near it. Without hesitation, Grandma Mildred attacks the toad with a mild electric-fused gust, causing it to lash out its tongue at the group.

"Why d...," Mira begins to ask.

Another gust from beneath carries the three up, narrowly avoiding the toad’s tongue. The two spooderfaces are nowhere in sight, presumably hidden in the trees. Suddenly, one of them descends from directly above. Mira closes her eyes, bracing for impact.

“Help me, dammit, you fire tramp!”

When she opens her eyes, Mira finds herself still suspended in the air. Looking up, Grandma Mildred’s short arms are halfway inside the spooderface’s mouth. The creature is completely still. Meanwhile, the other spooderface, now below Mira’s eye level, is caught by the toad’s tongue and gets dragged away.

“My kunais are inside its stomach! Do something!”

Fused with Mira’s fire, Grandma Mildred summons a powerful gust inside the creature’s stomach, burning it from within. She then flings the creature toward the toad, whose tongue is still entangled with the other spooderface’s tongues. The impact sends the two entangled creatures crashing into the pond, while the flung one lies motionless beside it.

“Like, awesome job, you two!” Christine exclaims.

“What’s with you and your incessant ‘like’ this, ‘like’ that?” Grandma Mildred remarks, wobbling her head as she speaks.

Christine falls silent, clearly taken aback.

“The other one’s gon be back, just watch,” Grandma Mildred warns.

“How?” Mira asks.

“The motherchoad’s too weak for the spooderface.”

The water in the pond crackles with electricity. The three prepare for any sudden movement. Minutes pass, but the spooderface doesn’t resurface. The sparking dies down.

“It must've drowned,” Mira concludes.

“Well, in that case, you bimbos can take that essence. I’ll go down for mine in the pond,” Grandma Mildred says.

“Are you, like, crazy?” Christine exclaims.

Grandma Mildred quickly dives down to collect the essence from the dead motherchoad and the drowned spooderface. Mira and Christine stay by the pond to gather the essence drops. The spooderface yields a total of two hundred and forty essence, and is accompanied by the most useless description they’ve encountered so far: “Ewww.” After Grandma Mildred resurfaces, the three proceed cautiously back to the battlefield.

Anish, gripped by one of the sickle feet of a hawkian, is being carried at high speed along with several mosqui-toes. As the hawkian nears its destination, it slows down, giving Anish a chance to stab it with his javelin. The hard scales prevent the javelin from penetrating, though a loud screech follows, leading Anish to believe he might have caused some damage. However, looking down, he sees a nest of small baby hawkians – some still eggs – being devoured by three spooderfaces. After feasting on one bird, the spooderfaces use their webs to drag another out of the nest.

The hawkian sheds its sickle feet and beak to instantly regrow new ones, then begins to dive toward a spooderface. Anish, falling onto a thick branch, struggles to free himself from the discarded sickle. The mosqui-toe next to him is sliced in half during the struggle. As Anish desperately tries to slide his thigh off the sickle, a spooderface approaches the remaining part of the mosqui-toe still on the branch. Disgusted, Anish pauses to watch as the spooderface lays on top of the mosqui-toe and bends its maw knobs down to feed. From his experience, Anish is quick to notice the emitted electricity from the feasting maws.

As silently as possible, he hovers the javelin above the spooderface. The creature’s eyes on its back section, which Anish fails to notice, react immediately. It latches onto another branch and shoots an electric web at the javelin. At the current distance, the spooderface spots Anish and shoots another web at him. Anish thrusts the resummoned javelin toward the web, piercing through it, but the web still manages to stick to him. The spooderface leaps toward Anish, over the javelin. By sheer luck, a hawkian egg falls onto the spooderface, sending it crashing down.

Anish is trembling violently, his ears pounding loudly. Peeking back at the hawkian nest, he sees one more hawkian joining the fight against the spooderfaces.

“One, two, three,” Anish counts quietly to himself.

On three, he clenches his teeth and slides his thigh off the sickle. Still gritting his teeth, Anish covers the deep wound with one hand while pressing his other hand to his mouth.

“I’d better find my team. I’m worried about them.”

After a moment, Anish opens the map and realizes he’s not too far from Wyn and Yu. He breathes a sigh of relief upon seeing Mira and Christine moving.

“Oh, my dear Mira. I can’t wait to see your pretty face again,” he murmurs to himself, a mischievous grin spreading across his face.

Anish lifts himself above the treetops to avoid colliding with another creature. From his vantage point, he sees the mosqui-toe swarms thinning, and the hawkian and roundo flocks becoming sparse. He spots Wyn and Yu amidst a poisonous cloud, dazed and gasping for air. As Anish flies toward the bright area, he watches Wyn and Yu fall onto the millipede’s back. Ignoring the pain from his wound, he accelerates his flight, hoping to reach them before it’s too late.