Chapter 461 Pretty

“P-pretty?! M-me?” The monstrous White Widow muttered, tapping her clawed fingers together nervously as she subconsciously nuzzled her head into Belladonna’s hand.

Her Chelicera, which were blended with her cheeks and concealed her fangs within her mouth, shifted and clicked as she digested Belladonna’s words.

“If you don’t mind me asking…” Belladonna asked softly, keeping her voice gentle and soothing as she approached the conversation like it was a bomb.

“How old are you?”

“Well… I uh… I’m 154.” The Widow said, wriggling her Chelicera again.

Belladonna frowned softly and subtly glanced over her shoulder towards Revenant, who held up fingers. One on one hand, two on the other.

Twelve. In human years, she was Twelve.

Belladonna’s heart sunk at the realisation of what that meant, not just in this timeline, but in the last one too.

Dread had been the ones to conquer this city in the last timeline, and they would have done so with more swords and less tact. They would have killed this ‘Monster’ just for the Exp.

Out of the Spider girl’s ear-shot, or so he hoped, Figg slowly got to his feet and hissed into Revenants ear.

“You’re telling me that thing is an Elf? How the hell can that be a cute elf girl?”

He had been dreaming of meeting an Elf for a while now. His mind filled with the images media had flooded his feeds with. Adorable blonde and buxom Elf girls, in their personality of course.

Yes… Such big… bouncy personalities. It was every man’s dream! So how had that dream turned to an absolute nightmare?!

Revenant shot Figg a withering glare, shoving the Druid away from him and wiping his ear of the spittle that had been hissed onto it, before replying in a low tone.

“Elves are incredibly adaptable, which is required because of their birthing issues. Remember the carvings? They are descendants of Almera, so they aren’t really born, more like grown. They spawn from a central life vein that can take different forms. This tree was probably one of them. A species with a long lifespan and low birth rate would usually be stagnant. So to make sure they can survive in extreme environments and adapt to serious changes, those that would normally be taken care of by evolution, they have special magic. It’s supposed to be used to adapt to their environment and blend with it. It’s why Dark Elves have those stone features. They literally adapted to the underground and to the dark, almost becoming one with it. But this? I’ve never seen it used like this before. I didn’t even know it was possible to use it like this.”

“Neither did my mother.”

Figg let out a muffled yelp and immediately froze up as he felt the White Widows beady eyes land on them, and heard her join their conversation.

She pulled her head away from Belladonna’s hand, as Belladonna herself turned to glare daggers at the pair. Knitting her claws together, the White Widow shrunk back and laid her spider body on the ground.

“You’re right. No one has used it like this. My mother was desperate… She was fleeing the invasion with my seed when she was attacked. Her last breath was spent sinning against our cultures laws, all to save me, and she didn’t even know if it would… No one ever tried, they didn’t even consider it. The thought of crossing ourselves with something else is… disgusting. The result would be a hideous, unwanted abomination.”

She lowered her head, letting out a soft hissing cry, before dissolving into white mist again.

Belladonna shot another hateful glare at Figg, like a scornful mother trying to psychically beat her child for misbehaving, before she turned back to where the Widow had disappeared and started to talk to the air.

“You’re not hideous, and you’re not an abomination. I should know… People say the same about me. They hate me, they shun me. Even if they don’t say it to my face, I’ve heard the way they whisper to each other behind my back when they think I’m not listening… or when they just don’t care if I hear. People can be cruel about anything that is different from themselves. But what do those idiots know? They don’t know what we have been through to survive. They don’t know a damned thing about us, and if they were in our situation they would be dead within a week and could only cry uselessly.”

“You think so?” The Widow asked softly, her head appearing out of thin air beside Belladonna, with mist curling from her seemingly severed neck.

“I know so.” Belladonna smiled warmly,

“I’ve met plenty of those people, and no matter their looks or how great they think they are, they are nothing compared to you and me. They think that good looks or pretty blonde hair means the world belongs to them-“

“Talking about no one in specific.” Revenant scoffed lowly, holding up his hands in mock surrender when Belladonna shot him a silent death glare.

She turned back to the floating head, melting right back into the sweet smile in an instant.

“They think that it means it belongs to them and them alone. But we are strong. Strong enough to pummel those pretty faces and rip out their hair. Then what will they have?”

“Nothing!” The Widow giggled cutely, manifesting the rest of her body as she stood up straight, her feet clicking against the stone as she shuffled with excitement.

“Exactly. I didn’t know your mother, but I know that what she did was to help you. You know that too… She knew that any life for you was better than nothing, and she knew that what she was doing would make you strong. Stronger than any of the so-called ‘pretty’ Elves out there.”

The Widow let out another giggle, her face twisting into a sweet smile that looked incredibly creepy on the slobbering maw of a spider, before her smile faded and she hung her head in shame.

“I just wish… I could be a pretty monster… I wish I could be like you.”

Belladonna sighed, letting her head hang in shame. It was definitely hypocritical of her to be saying all of this while she looked this good. Even her real body, which was disgusting by her own societies standards, was growing more gorgeous by the day as her Vampiric nature took over.

But what could she do? She couldn’t cure this. She didn’t know a thing about Elven magic.

‘What makes you think you need to?’