He ran towards them. " What the hell is wrong with her?" Lucy smiled bitterly. " She's terrified of spiders."
Khali's mouth twitched. " Arachnophobia? I've watched her kill wraiths and clickers and she's terrified of spiders?"
Lucy shrugged. He turned and looked at the spiders rushing towards them. " Fine, I'll carry her, run."
She ran out of the cave as fast as her tiny legs could carry her. He threw Viona on his shoulder and ran after Lucy.
Just as they left the cave he felt a terrifying aura behind them. He turned to look and saw four spiders as large as a bull.
Around them were smaller spiders but each one was around the size of a house cat from a certain planet in some young universe he once visited.
" Rank 1." He turned and ran even faster. The spiders ran after them through the long tunnel.
They were closing in fast, he empowered his legs with divine energy and his speed increased.
He caught up to Lucy in a second, she was already panting from exhaustion. He scooped her under his arm and carried her.
" Heeey." She complained. " Shut up." He growled, he didn't have time for her protests. She looked back and saw the flood of spiders especially the four biggest.
Her body shook with fear. " What..what are those? Why are they so big?" Khali understood her fear.
This was called rank suppression, higher ranked beings could instill fear and awe to lower ranked ones.
That's why mortals below a certain rank can not survive seeing the true form of a God or even hearing their voice, it's also why he doesn't remember how either he or his siblings looked.
He poured more divine energy into his legs moving even faster but the spiders were still on his hills.
The tunnel shook under their weight. He knew he wouldn't be able to win this fight, not against all four of them.
He would run out of divine energy before then and these things would keep chasing him until they consume him.
Especially since he has divine energy, to other creatures especially beasts and monsters.
Consuming anything with a sliver of divinity could elevate their existential level allowing them to reach much higher grades than normally possible for their species.
Then an idea struck him, he looked at the tunnel, ' No no no too wide, too wide.' the tunnel was really wide, around 4 to 5 metres wide.
Even creatures as huge as these spiders could move comfortably through it side by side.
However as they ran the tunnel started getting smaller and smaller. As some point they could no longer run side by side.
He knew this was his chance. He jumped forward, placed both girls on the ground then turned and faced the spiders.
He raised his hands forward, divine energy coursed through his veins. He had around 8000 divine energy points now.
He used most of them to create a 2 meters thick reinforced steel door and harden the tunnel walls around the door.
However that was just it, the door was also coated with a substance called Noytum, it was found from an ant eater from some other planet.
The giant ants of that planet had incredibly potent acid so the ant eaters evolved glands that produce this substance.
Once covered in it, acid can no longer burn you. He didn't know if these spiders had acid but it was better to be safe than sorry.
Then he carried both women back, Lucy had also fainted at some point. After reaching the small lake with the blue flowers he threw them inside.
" MY GOD WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?" Lucy screamed at him. Viona didn't say anything.
She looked embarrassed, he just grinned at her. She coughed, " Are we going back?" She didn't sound happy about it.
" No." He shook his head. " We continue to explore." Lucy looked at him strangely. " How?that's the only tunnel through."
She wasn't lying, although there were many other tunnels inside, there was one connecting all of them including the spiders nest.
If the tunnel to the spiders nest wasn't so wide, he would've closed it instead of the main one.
He smiled at her, she didn't flinch so he figured his smile was getting better. Unbeknownst to him, they were just getting to used to it.
" Then we'll explore the other side." He looked across the river, on the side of their dwelling, there were other caves there going deeper it seemed.
Viona nodded with too much enthusiasm. They went into those caves, withing a few kilometres they found the first creature.
A huge white eyed rodent, it was as large as a fully grown pet dog and was obviously blind.
It sniffed the air then lunged at them, he was about to pull out his sword when Viona jumped forward and took off it head.
They continued moving forward with her taking the lead. Along the way they saw more and more of these rodents.
And each time she took care of it. Lucy leaned towards him. " She's trying to prove herself." She whispered.
" Why?" He asked with confusion, he already understood the extent of her power and so did everybody else.
He doesn't understand what she's trying to prove and to whom. Lucy sighed, " I feel like you don't understand humans at all, she's prideful.
She's a very prideful woman, her fear of spiders is something she's not only ashamed of but despises.
She considers it a weakness and she's a warrior, to her, having a weakness is shameful."
" That makes no sense, mortals are weak and flawed, it's your nature, it's also your strength.
Weakness is what gives you room to grow, it's what makes you alive, why would anybody seek perfection? It's so lonely and dull, or so I believe." She turned and look at him.
His voice sounded sad, even Viona raised her eyebrows. As they were walking they heard the sound of flapping wings.
From a cave flew out bats, large pitch black bats. The bats flew above them and disappeared into the dark tunnels.
" Bats " he whispered. " Bats? BATS." he grew excited. The two women gave him strange looks.
" What's your thing with bats? You like them?" Lucy asked. " Potassium nitrate" he replied with an excited voice.
" Huh?"
"Huh?"