The lady is gone. With empty spider sac bracelets on the pool of blood where she had rested. Swindling grass shows no trail of blood, and the noisy trees catches the hunter’s attention. Grizeo can barely see it in the dark, but there are arches of silk strings reflecting from his lighter. He follows it by instinct before a giant spider pounce at him
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Bang
Bang
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And the creature erupts in flames, screeching as an additional fire source. Around its eight legs are bracelets out of spider sac, and more of its friends, jumping from the branches, want to join in the grill. Grizeo firing his darts with ease and following the spider strings. Anything that comes towards him, spider, branches or villager heads, headshot and scorched in the muted light. The scent of olives grows stronger then, at a clearing with a pond lays the lady.
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Her bare legs spread open as she lay eggs after eggs that hatches out spiderlings. A pile of corpses on her side as the spiderlings feast and grow to fully adults in under minutes. Big enough for an easier headshot.
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“PLEASE! Stay back!" she cries, and to Grizeo's horror, large spider legs burst from her back, poised to strike. Larger spider eggs roll out of her before it hatches out grown beetles with strange sacs behind them.
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Grizeo fires at it and It explodes with acid. “I’ve done your favor.”
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“Please run away” Yelping in pain, “I don’t want to hurt more people” as more eggs spill out of her.
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But Grizeo just fires the creatures dead, and maintains a safe distance. “Did you kill the villagers?”
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“NO!” She strongly denies, tears streaming down her cheeks “I didn’t kill them! It’s Ughhh—It’s the spiders.”
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The Grizeo easily shots dead before pointing one of the guns straight at the lady, “Then stop giving birth.”
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“I can’t!”
"Then let’s talk," he says, “What happened to you?”
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The lady chuckles, maybe because of the pain or the strange man in front and watching her give birth to insects that he shoots dead. “My body... it's been modified by an organization called TaKaRa. I escaped from their lab over half a year ago, but they're still hunting me "
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"Why?" he asks, serious lipped, “What did they do?”
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The lady's eyes darken. "They want to add tacet marks to people. To create an army of resonators. And I don't know why. All I know is that the tacet mark on my back... it spawns tacet discords. Making me give birth to insects and turning me into one of them." Her body twisting and contorting as the spider legs lengthen and multiply. She lunges at Grizeo, her movements erratic and unpredictable. Grizeo dodges, his mind racing as he tries to find a way to subdue her without causing further harm.
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In the end, he has no choice. He raises his dart gun, aiming for her legs, her body, her chest. Each shot finds its mark, and the lady falls, her transformation reversing as she hits the ground. "Go," the lady whispers, her breath coming in short gasps. "Before TaKaRa finds me. They're tracking me through the chips in my tacet mark." Her body slowly fades to strings of sharp and low frequency, leaving only an echo and a glowing chip on her back.
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Grizeo tries to take it but he cannot absorb echoes, and certainly cannot get an echo chip out. As he turns to leave, he sees the village elder standing behind him.
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The village elder approaches Grizeo, a smile on her weathered face. "Thank you," she says sincerely.
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“For what?” Grizeo asks,
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“Avenging the village and putting her to rest…I knew about it when those black soldiers came. Took little Maria and her child. Little Maria was just five, and she—was still in the womb.”
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“Figuratively?”
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“No” shaking her head, “The black soldiers took pregnant little Maria. And when like everybody else, nobody knew who she was. Except for my husband who raped little Maria. He knew that she was his daughter. Made him kill himself at the thought that the girl came here for revenge. Told me that she was death itself. A crazy story it is”
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“hmph, okay. Got the job done so I’ll head back.”
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“You…are you really working alone?”
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And Grizeo walks away, nodding before suddenly feeling a sharp jab at his side. The elder injecting a cyanic liquid into him. Dizzying his system as his legs fall to the knees. “What…”
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“You don’t care for anything or anyone” she says, “Better if people like you were to be taken away!”
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