The world around Tyson stopped.
Time tore like silk, and in its place, spider silk rewove reality.
She appeared before him: the Broodmother, draped seductively across a line of silk. Her gaze fell on him, half contempt, half desire — as if deciding whether he was dirt, or the next one to breed with.
Either way, he was back in her domain.
"Dark-skinned one," she purred. "You remember our deal. Eyes, ears, and…"
In a shimmer of silk, she was suddenly beside him, caressing his jawline.
"…Soul~"
She nibbled his ear before weaving herself back onto her web.
Tyson's face hardened. He looked down, his hand clenched so tightly that his palm split, that blood dripping onto the silk below.
"What do you want to know?"
His voice was quiet but full of venom, the kind that comes from anger restrained by respect.
The Broodmother smiled lazily.
"Tell me what you're doing right now. Simple."
"We're just doing a job." Tyson said
"Oh my, how boring!" she mocked. "Haven't you heard of 'show, don't tell' in the literary world? You've broken the rule — and sinned!"
She giggled, covering her mouth and swinging theatrically from one line of silk to another.
"Stop toying with me," Tyson growled, breathing hard, nostrils flaring.
"Fine. You want serious?"
She snapped her fingers. The illusion dropped.
Her true form unfolded, vast, impossible, incomprehensible. It wasn't her size that overwhelmed him; it was her eyes. Endless, pitch-black orbs that saw everything. They didn't just look at Tyson, they looked through him: his soul, his mind, his atoms, his purpose.
Her voice filled the silk-lined void, vibrating through his bones.
"Tell me, Tyson. If you break the deal… I'll take her back. Choose your words wisely."
"We're hunting The Wraith: The Witch Beast Horror."
"Interesting. You haven't lied… yet." Her many eyes blinked slowly. "I can see all, yet organizations like yours still manage to block me. So, tell me what's behind their curtain."
"We're going to use its acid to make dark matter," Tyson said, his voice steady now. "The director didn't tell me what for. We already have dark matter, but I didn't question it."
The Broodmother was silent for a moment, then whispered,
"…Panchito. I require your assistance."
A small jumping spider descended delicately on a thread of silk.
"Yes, Mama?"
"Information on The Wraith: The Witch Beast Horror."
The little spider straightened proudly.
"The Witch Beast Horror, in Realm 76-B, Universe T-47, and current timeline Xeno-54, is known as The Wraith. It was created when Loki passed through that universe. His essence seeped into its fabric. The rotten cosmos sipped from his chaos and birthed a Horror that incarnates it. The Wraith may seem mindless, but it thinks, cunning and deceitful, just like Loki himself. That's all, Mama."
Panchito zipped back upward, vanishing into the web of darkness.
The eyes look at him and suddenly his world came back like nothing.
"Tyson chicken nugget you okay?" Amaru said.