The Deities of Hell

Mizuki's handcuff was attached to the handcuff that Yua had removed.

He had the key to fix the length of them, making it easier for him to move around.

“As I thought, my handcuff doesn’t have a hole.”

They both held a gun and prepared to shoot the spiders in front of the door to death.

“I’m fine whenever.”

Mizuki said, and Yua opened the door to the room.

The spiders had disappeared from the area and it had fallen completely silent.

(Good luck, Mizuki.)

Yua thought, while running to the staircase leading to the first floor.

Mizuki dragged his leg behind him as he frantically caught up with Yua.

Since there were no spiders in the area, it was their chance to head for the exit.

“There.”

As they reached the first floor, they saw several spiders roaming around.

If there were spiders on the ceiling, there would be spiders on the walls, too.

The two of them tried to sneak past the places the spiders were in.

However, they discovered them in an instant.

“Ushaaa!!!”

“Woahhh!”

Panicked, Yua fired the gun.

Having already calmed down, Mizuki aimed at the spider leaping at him.

There were 10 meters left until the exit.

However, because of the sound of guns firing, the spiders swarmed toward them.

“Shoot!”

Countless spiders sprang forth, and they shot them carefully one by one while slowly moving to the exit.

“Only a little more!”

As soon as they came close to the exit, Yua ran out of bullets.

Mizuki shot a spider jumping at her.

“I’m out of ammo!”

Yua hurled the hand grenade at the spiders swarming the exit.

The hand grenade exploded and scattered the nearby spiders all at once.

However, there were still several spiders alive.

“Run!”

The two of them hurried to the exit.

But just as they reached it, a spider clung to Yua.

“Ahhh!”

Mizuki took off the other handcuff hanging on him and used it as a cane to whip the spider.

In that instant, Yua ran out of the exit.

Having exited the department store, they hurried to close the exit behind them.

And putting the gun between the door handles, they made sure that the spiders wouldn’t be able to come out after them.

“Let’s escape with that motorcycle! If it’s that bike, we can drive on the road and leave this place!”

Afraid that the spiders would come out through the door, they climbed onto the motorcycle standing nearby.

“You can ride this, right?”

Yua put her arms around Mizuki’s waist to prevent her from falling.

The engine of the bike started running.

At the same time, swarms of spiders came out of the nearby buildings.

“They’re coming! They’re coming! The enemies of trypophobia¹!”

“Hold on tight.”

Since the roads were well-maintained, the motorcycle ran smoothly.

A swarm of spiders chased after the bike.

There was some distance between them and the bike, but if they stopped, the spiders would catch up to them immediately.

They drove at maximum speed while avoiding walls and entering narrow spaces between buildings.

After driving through crevices of buildings, they reached a starlit area.

Further ahead they saw a decaying world in which the crumbling townscape seemingly escaped the spiders.

There, they noticed an intact house.

If they entered the house and went to the inner parts of the decaying world, they would be saved.

“We’ll escape them if we go into that house! After entering it, we can just escape through the back! Go for it, Mizuki!”

In that instant, the tire stumbled over debris and the bike shot forward.

“Woahh!!!”

Yua crashed against the door to the house and fell into it.

However, Mizuki ended up falling in front of the house.

The swarm of spiders rushed at them in the distance.

“Mizuki! Hurry! Come here!”

With blood dripping from her head, Yua went out of the door and reached for his hand.

Mizuki held his head and staggered while dragging his feet to Yua.

“Huh?”

Mizuki’s body started to float.

Someone behind him grabbed him and floated up toward the sky.

Seeing that, Yua gaped and hid inside the house.

“W-what is… This spider…”

Mizuki looked back over his shoulder, trembling.

A spider who had crossed the line compared to the other spiders was there.

Its gigantic body was like Snakey’s and, like the other spiders, its arms and legs were human ones fastened onto its body.

Its face had become a skeleton’s, and eyes were growing everywhere on the body.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Sorry, Mizuki… I can’t help you.”

Yua said while barely being able to hide.

She couldn’t even think of helping him.

That was how frightening the presence in front of her was.

“Hiss!”

“I’m glad… We removed the handcuff.”

The gigantic spider winded its thread around Mizuki and returned to the townscape with well-maintained buildings.

“Wha—!?”

Mizuki ended up passing out because of the spider’s poison.

Losing consciousness, he became separated from Yua.

1. The fear of irregular patterns or clusters of small holes. ↑