The coffins moved forward slowly, hovering just above the ground as they got closer. Noble had used a considerable amount of essence on her sword and on freeing the cocoons when they were trapped.
She needed to be very cautious with her consumption from now on. So Noble mentally pushed the two figures forward, conserving her effort with intense focus.
'Slowly, slowly…' Flint's anxious thought filtered into Noble's consciousness.
She didn't respond.
The three stayed back even as their bait crawled toward the Widow. They stood at the ready.
The monster watched them, her rhythmic flapping pulsing the air. The beat filled the area like an immovable force.
Rather than fight it, Noble leaned into the rhythm, studying it.
She counted it, marking the passage of time. It matched perfectly with the dirge that the Mourners had sung, and Noble found herself humming the tune silently in her head.
As the crimson chrysalises progressed down an invisible aisle, the rest of the funeral filled in around them. Ancient walls with stained glass lined the side walls while a lone priestess waited at the altar for the pallbearers. She lifted her hands, ready to bestow the final burial rites.
Red haze filled the cathedral, obscuring everything but the woman and her two charges.
Noble frowned.
What was in the priestess's hands?
Scythes?
That didn't seem right.
The outstretched arms came together in front of the priestess, bringing the blades so close to the coffins that Noble feared she would damage them.
She gasped.
'Those aren't scythes. They are mandibles!'
Noble waved her hand in front of her face. The cathedral disappeared, but the red haze remained.
It was coming from the Widow's wings.
The coffins had made it much closer than Noble remembered, now within a hair's breadth of the cave's entrance. She had let them get too far.
"Hold your breath!" Noble pulled the two men and the cocoons away from the noxious moth. They lifted above the gas.
The floating Master coughed to clear her lungs.
The other men looked at her, blinking uncomprehendingly for a moment before they also realized the danger. Broken from the trance, they took deep breaths of the fresh air into their chests.
"A hallucinogen!" Flint scowled. "We should have known."
"It's coming from the powder on her wings." Noble nodded.
Orrin shook as if waking from a dream. Tears streamed down his cheeks. "I saw…"
"Don't think about it! It was a trick." Noble hushed him.
Recalling the events might give the red haze new life, and Noble had no desire to make their job any harder.
'We need to clear the ground.' Noble glanced at Flint. 'Can you make it rain?'
The legacy frowned. 'I can cool the air to make the water condense, but it probably won't be enough to cleanse the air like you want.'
'If only we could...'
Suddenly, the wingbeats ceased with a final mighty push. The wind rushed across the broken ground, whipping up the red dust to envelop the humans.
The warriors held their breath as the haze cleared. Below them, the ground rumbled.
'She's coming.' Noble told Flint with her thoughts.
Realizing the warriors would not succumb to her illusion, the Widow finally emerged from her lair. She would have Drusus and Livia for herself, and add the three other humans for good measure.
Through the clearing haze, two eyes appeared. Each one was bigger than Noble's body, burning with the fury of a thousand suns.
They rose into the air.
As the moth came closer and closer, Noble realized just how big the Widow was. The cave had made it look deceptively small.
What had looked like just shadows was actually part of her gargantuan form.
While not quite as big as the carpet of grass that Noble and her cohort had fought a few days before, there were fewer warriors to meet the current threat.
That was not the only problem.
'You know how I can sense heat to find soul cores?' Flint's muted voice came through the Memory.
'Don't tell me…it's a Fallen Tyrant…'
The Widow had minions. That was a safe guess.
'Close…'
The Widow shook, the dirt falling from her scales in an avalanche. Her full power hit them with the force of a mountain.
Noble felt frozen with fear.
With the minions being only Awakened, it was easy to assume that their leader was Fallen. A Fallen Tyrant would have been difficult for the three Warriors, but not impossible.
"That…the Widow is Corrupted! A Corrupted Tyrant!" Noble gasped.
"Worse than that," Flint's eyes were as wide as saucers. "I can see six cores. That's a Corrupted Terror."
Whether by accident or design, the earthen cave had lulled the trio into thinking the one inside was weak enough for them to conquer.
They were wrong.
Neither Flint nor Noble had any business fighting a creature of that rank and class. Even the Shieldbearer, who had proven himself capable in the first battle, would do little to tip their odds.
They had grossly overestimated their ability.
There was only one thing they could conceivably do.
"Run!" Flint's words sounded comical considering how the group was floating, but Noble did not dwell on that fact.
She dropped the men to the ground, holding the two cocoons tightly in preparation to flee.
At the very least, they could not leave without Drusus and Livia. Not unless they were left with no other option.
The pressure around them increased, as if the air itself was gaining mass. The Awakened warriors found breathing more difficult.
Using the Hummingbird's Wings, Noble dashed through the thickness. It felt like swimming through syrup.
It didn't matter. Once they got outside the Terror's influence, they could–
Red silk shot in all directions. Unable to avoid the net, Noble felt one strand coil around her left hand and right ankle. She cut the one holding her arm with ease, but the one around her ankle dried too fast, cementing to her armor.
The two pods shuddered as they were wrapped in the thick rope. The spray of thread was simply inescapable.
Infusing her sword with essence, Noble hacked around her ankle. Four calculated strikes frayed the silk, and a strong tug caused the edges to unravel around her.
She was free.
The same could not be said for her companions. Flint and Orrin struggled against their bonds, but neither of them had a weapon as strong as the Zenith. As the Widow began retracting the rope, the two men were pulled into the air towards her mandibles.
The Terror was distracted enough that Noble might have been able to escape on her own. She might have been able to regroup and find help to stop the Widow from harming anyone else.
But that wouldn't help Flint and Orrin. By then, they would be dead.
Even if Orrin was a figment of the Nightmare, the Floating woman couldn't leave her cohort member behind. Noble had brought Flint to this battle, and they would leave together or not at all.
'Where?' She asked through The Other's Voice.
'The...the center of the midsection, between the second pair of legs...' Flint's voice sounded like it was suffocating even in her head.
Nodding slightly, Noble held out the Zenith, preparing to land it in the Widow's most vulnerable spot.
Calling the true names of light and getting brighter, Child of Promise used the brightness to cover her attack.
Enveloped in light, Noble raced forward, but something sped past her.
Everything changed.