I had to admit I wasn't expecting it to begin laughing, a disgusting, twisted, warped sound that grated on my ears. Each laugh sent a fresh wave of its blood - or ichor perhaps, it was rather thick now that I had a moment to look closer - surging from each of its wounds.

“Ha. I die here, you die tomorrow, tainted one. If you are all that is left of the Ar’tuel, then my poison is incurable. Only their blasted light can heal it once it has set. Ha, hahahhahaha-” its wheezing, warped laughter cut off as a gush of blood shot from its lips. I stared at it in shock. What? Was that - was that why the burning hadn't abated in my stomach? I gritted my teeth. Damn him. Damn this thing to hell.

I knew an Ar’Tuel. Knew her well. Ri. There was no way I was telling this thing of her existence though - I didn't know if it was the only one of its kind, or if there was a legion of these spidery abominations lurking in the shadows, itching for any word from this one.

“Then I die knowing you failed.” I forced myself to my feet, using the Saw-Spear as a crutch to push myself up. The creature’s black eyes swiveled to follow me as I rose, looming over its collapsed form. That moon-damned smile stretched across its lips, and I snared. It started to say something - to mock me one last time, to spout off some insult or something. I didn't let it.

In one fluid motion I tore my blade from the ground and planted it into the abomination’s forehead with a cracking squelch. Its black eyes went wide, staring at the jagged damascus buried in its head. Then with a shudder, its face went slack, eyes going blank. I ripped the jagged weapon free, sending a slight shower of bone and viscera scattering onto the ground, and the creature collapsed fully, sinking down to the ground as the last vestiges of life left its rapidly cooling carcass.

I sagged down, nearly falling back to the ground myself. Adrenaline had been what kept me going through the pain - adrenaline and sheer rage at the gall of the abomination, at its temerity to try to kill me, and Amari. With the threat dead, though… the burning pain in the hole in my stomach was nearly enough to make me black out. That was when something astonishing happened.

The damn body began to dissolve into a black sludge. It was like it was decaying in accelerated time - its carapace cracked and splintered, thinning out and gaining holes all over. The fleshy bits that I could see sank inwards like a failed cake, turning to black goop at a rapid pace. Then the goop began eating away at what remained of the shell of the carapace, or the carapace also began to decay.

Age. This thing had been preying upon Ar’Tuel to keep itself alive for who knows how long, and now that death had caught up to it, time was reclaiming what it had been cheated of. I was watching unknown centuries, eons perhaps, take their toll all at once, and it was a disgusting sight. Thankfully, the decay was so rapid that there was barely a whiff of the smell of rotten, fetid meat, before it was gone. Soon all that remained of the drider monstrosity was a black slick on the ground that looked like spilled oil, and a gritty black dust that blew away in the next errant gust of night air.

Then I blinked, and I was at the gate. Lock torn, chain dangling loose and free. Cobble beneath my feet. Concerned voices rushing around me - a few screams. Lights, bright and glaring shone in my eyes, flickering and dancing. A hard mattress - someone had stripped me? Scratchy sheets on my skin, covered only by bandages around my midsection.

Pain.

Darkness.