Chapter Thirty-Four: The Dark Spider Enchantress

“Hehehe, Qin Fei, do you think I’m beautiful?”
The Dark Spider Witch strode elegantly to Qin Fei’s side; her eight obsidian spear-like spider legs somehow moved with a seductive grace.
Her massive spindle-shaped abdomen was cloaked in a crystalline armor, stretching up to her waist and accentuating a lovely curve.
At this moment, she seemed intent only on displaying her alluring figure before Qin Fei, paying no mind to the Demon Beast, who was retreating slowly nearby.
“Why? Why have you changed into this form?”
Qin Fei lifted his head, gazing at the Dark Spider Witch’s cold and madly beautiful face, his voice tinged with bitterness.
She was now worlds apart from the mature form he had designed for her.
“Appearance is born from the heart, my little boy.”
The Dark Spider Witch bent down, her slender upper arms gently encircling the back of Qin Fei’s head, pressing him close to her abdomen as she looked down into his delicate eyes.
“Hehehe, I felt your despair, your rage, your fear—and thus I became what I am.”
She released him, her possessive gaze scrutinizing Qin Fei. “You are my tamer. You promised, we’ll always be together, forever and ever, hehehe.”
Qin Fei shivered involuntarily at her aggressive glance; the seemingly gentle and elegant Spider Witch was, he feared, a whirlwind of madness and darkness within.
“She... could she be one of those ‘yandere’ types from anime?”
Qin Fei swallowed, feeling as if countless spider threads bound his limbs and bones beneath her gaze, exposing him utterly.
“My little boy, what’s wrong? Are you afraid of me?”
The Dark Spider Witch straightened, smiling down at her tamer. Her exquisite, enormous spider body made her tower over two meters tall.
Facing such an oppressive figure, Qin Fei instinctively stepped back.
“Are you... a result of faulty evolution?”
Click!
As Qin Fei spoke, a massive rock beside the Dark Spider Witch was sliced clean in two.
“I’m hurt, you know? Faulty evolution, or proper evolution—does it matter so much to you, my little boy?”
Retracting the venting spider leg, the Dark Spider Witch lifted Qin Fei’s chin with her index finger, her flawless black nail pricking him with a faint pain.
It was clear she disliked being called a faulty evolution.
“Death’s Hand!”
Having retreated some distance, the Demon Beast saw that the terrifying half-human, half-spider Digimon was ignoring him and instead bantering with the human boy; he could not resist such an opportunity.
His long claws rose swiftly, aiming at the Dark Spider Witch and Qin Fei, hoping to catch them off guard.
“Noisy~”
The Dark Spider Witch snorted softly, her gaze never leaving Qin Fei, as if nothing else existed for her in that moment.
Then, something strange happened: the Demon Beast, who had raised his arm to ambush, suddenly froze. The triumphant glee on his face twisted into terror.
He had lost contact with his own arm.

“It’s rare that I can converse with my adorable little Qin Fei. I was even planning to show some mercy and let you live a little longer...”
The Dark Spider Witch slowly lifted her other arm, merely hooking her finger lightly by her cheek.
A sound like silk tearing echoed.
“Ah!!!”
Seeing his arm sliced into fragments, the Demon Beast’s expression finally turned to terror.
The pieces were cleanly cut, as if by a sharp blade, and as they fell to the ground, they disintegrated into a flurry of data.
“Spider silk?”
Seeing the near-invisible filaments before his eyes, the Demon Beast’s face grew grimmer.
He realized he had unwittingly walked into the Dark Spider Witch’s web.
Her earlier indifference was, in fact, a trap.
“What kind of monster are you?”
The Demon Beast snarled, teeth bared at the Spider Witch.
“Monster? Hahaha, I like that name.”
With a laugh, the Dark Spider Witch finally turned, smiling sweetly.
But before her words finished, the Demon Beast’s wing was sliced into countless pieces.
“Ah!!!”
“How amusing! Let’s see how many times your body can be cut?”
Watching the Demon Beast stumble and fall, the Dark Spider Witch licked her lips, flashing a devilish grin.
At this moment, she seemed more like a demon from hell than the Demon Beast himself.
“Hahaha, in the end, this world will be shrouded in darkness. But perhaps you all can enjoy the coming revelry—you each hold such pure darkness in your hearts, how ironic.”
The Demon Beast laughed wildly, astonished by the pure darkness emanating from the Spider Witch, and amused by the irony of his defeat by darkness.
Crack.
One of the Demon Beast’s long legs shattered.
“You are indeed formidable, but do you think I’ll simply let you slaughter me?”
As he spoke, the ground beneath him began to shake.
His battered body immediately sank into the earth, trying to escape.
“Thousand Threads Sever!”
The Dark Spider Witch shielded Qin Fei behind her, slamming her palm down on the ground...

Countless shattered black gears emerged from below, dissolving into data before Qin Fei’s eyes.
He glanced at his hand; the black gear card, previously half-formed, finally solidified, yet Qin Fei’s expression was complicated.
It seemed endless black gears obstructed the Spider Witch’s attack, preventing her from sensing the Demon Beast’s presence again.
The gears all carried the same aura as the Demon Beast.
“As expected, keeping the Demon Beast isn’t easy. Help me out, little Qin Fei.”
The Dark Spider Witch sneered, turning to Qin Fei.
He nodded helplessly and took out the Unicorn Beast card once more.
“Card exchange... Sacred...”
But before Qin Fei could swipe the card, the Spider Witch suddenly tugged him with her silk, then sneered and stabbed downward at the ground beneath him.
A demonic hand was pierced through instantly.
Yet the Demon Beast was decisive, severing his own hand and vanishing underground.
“What a pity...”
Watching the Demon Beast escape, the Spider Witch lowered her hand; had he hesitated for an instant, she was confident she could have trapped him beneath the earth.
“Qin Fei, it’s such a beautiful day—I almost don’t want it to end.”
Still lamenting her failure to capture the Demon Beast, Qin Fei was startled by the Spider Witch’s words.
“I hope we meet again. And...”
She bent down once more, embracing Qin Fei, greedily inhaling his scent.
“I don’t want this form to be called a faulty evolution by you. I am myself, the Dark Spider Witch.”
With those words, her sorrowful gaze lingered as she slowly reverted to Loretta Beast.

“…”
“Qin Fei…”
Lost in thought, Qin Fei was pulled back by the gentle voice of the small figure before him.
“I think I had a very strange dream,” Loretta Beast said. “It felt so sad.”
“I’m sorry.”
Qin Fei nodded and embraced Loretta Beast.