Chapter 2183: Warped Divinity

FLASH!

"?!"

Lolth suddenly transformed against her will. Her entire body began compacting more and more, shrinking rapidly until, much like how Armageddon could do, she became smaller and far cuter in appearance.

At the end of the process she had transformed into a small, cat-sized obsidian spider with eight glowing red eyes that resembled polished jewels, and eight long, delicate legs.

"W-What is this?! You think I am going to become your pet now?!" she asked angrily, her tiny voice filled with pure indignation. "I am so small! What is this?! Aaagghhhhh!"

"It’s called an energy-saving form," Beelzebub explained while buzzing calmly to my side. "Get used to it, Lolth... It’s either that or the complete annihilation of your soul. Which do you prefer?"

"...Ugh," Lolth groaned. She clearly did not want the latter option. "Whatever... Now what? What is going to happen to me?!"

"You’re going to start coming along with me, and you’ll help me with your god-like powers to save people! Easy," I said with a bright smile. "Nothing else to it, really."

"..." She clenched her tiny teeth furiously. She clearly wanted to bite me, yet she could do nothing except agree. "O-Ok... Ugh...! I cannot even... reject you?! This is horrible! Awful! An evil goddess such as myself is being forced to do your bidding?!"

"Would you rather prefer death, Lolth?"

A strong and steady voice echoed from behind us. My grandfather stepped forward with a stern expression and glowing eyes. He gazed down at the tiny spider and then carefully grabbed her with both hands.

He was wearing white-gold armored gauntlets imbued with powerful magic jewels. The sealing power within them made him completely immune to the lingering curse that still resided inside her.

"I could now crush you like the bug you currently are," he spoke coldly. "But I am also glad..." He slowly let go of her. "That my granddaughter has chosen the wiser choice. You will be far more useful alive, forever serving mortals, than dead and gone forever."

"Yep," I nodded firmly. "You will be known as Lolth, the Kind Spider Mother Goddess of Protection and Love from now on!"

"What?! No! I’ll never do— Ugh?!"

Suddenly her dark, murky energy began to slowly purify against her will.

"W-What the...? What’s happening to meeeeee?!"

Even I was shocked by what was unfolding. My grandfather and everyone else standing behind us watched in equal astonishment.

Lolth’s form suddenly expanded and returned to her previous giant goddess appearance.

Yet the darkness that had always defined her began to warp and transform. It mutated rapidly, turning into something brighter and cleaner with every passing second.

Her aberrant spider form became more and more humanoid until she fully regained a human-like shape once again.

In the end she transformed into a beautiful goddess with pale, flawless skin and long cascading purple hair. Eight elegant spider legs made of white and gold metal now extended from her back.

A single streak of pure gold appeared in her darker hair, and one of her eyes shifted to a bright yellow color.

"Uuugggh?!"

As she groaned in confusion and pain, the very nature of her own Divinity started to shift... completely at my command.

Well, this was truly insane.

I realized that I could freely alter the nature of her Divinity simply because she was now forced to obey me... completely and without exception.

"T-This is impossible...! My own Divinity is being warped by your words alone?! You’ve completely...! Taken over my Authority!" she cried out in growing panic. "But this is impossible! You shouldn’t be able to— AAAAGGGHHHH!"

FLAAASH!

Bright golden and white light erupted outward with overwhelming force. The entire dungeon trembled violently as everything around us suddenly transformed and changed within mere seconds.

When we finally opened our eyes again, we found ourselves standing in a completely different place.

The once lugubrious and gloomy palace had shifted into a glorious castle of pure white and gold. Small golden and white-colored Arachne monsters — clearly evolved versions of the previous uglier ones — walked around calmly while wearing neat maid dresses.

"Ah, welcome," one of them greeted me and my grandfather with a polite bow. "You’ve finally woken up."

"W-What happened...?" my grandfather asked, still taken aback by the drastic change. "Sylphy, did you do something?"

"I... changed her divine authority, but did that somehow trigger the entire dungeon to mutate as well?" I wondered aloud in confusion.

"That’s quite correct," the young Arachne replied. She had soft pink hair and gentle yellow eyes. "Queen Lolth has woken up as well from her metamorphosis. The shock of the divine energy must have caused all of you to pass out for a short time."

"That’s... truly shocking," my grandfather sighed as he tried to regain his composure. "I can still feel a faint amount of divine crystal dust in the air. Could it be that the large accumulation of divine crystals Lolth had stashed somewhere also helped trigger this massive change?"

"Maybe that surplus energy combined with my order..." I muttered thoughtfully. "Well, do you know where everyone else is right now?"

"Yes, quite so!" the young Arachne answered cheerfully. "Please follow me."

We followed the Arachne, who seemed to be a monster that had evolved through Lolth’s new divinity into something much closer to the actual Arachne Demon Race from the Demon Continent.

As we walked forward through the newly transformed halls, we soon met up with the rest of my friends and family.

"Sylphy! I just slept through a huge nap," Zack said with a stretch. "What happened? We all passed out at the same time!"

"This was too dangerous. What if something bad had happened while we were unconscious?" Aquarina asked as she pulled me into a tight hug. "You keep doing reckless things!"

"I swear I had no idea how this would affect everything!" I said quickly in my own defense.

"Sylphy, guys, look!" Lara called out as she pointed toward the huge open windows that now lined the walls.

We all ran over and looked outside. A vast, beautiful garden stretched before us, complete with an elegant fountain and several statues of their newly changed goddess. Many more Arachnes walked about the grounds, calmly cleaning and maintaining the place.

"The entire dungeon turned into something like an open-area castle? This is a first for me," Alice said in quiet amazement. "I still have... a hard time believing how drastically everything changed so quickly."

"The nature of Gods is... surprisingly fragile," my grandfather said as he fully regained his composure.

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