Chapter 465: Welcome to the Family

The blackness covering Belladonna's forehead slowly peeled back, sucking itself back into her eyes, as the colour returned to them with a sharp gasp.

Belladonna blinked a few times, taking a moment to get used to her own body again, before she lowered her hand and watched the newly named Spider girl carefully. The throbbing and burning headache searing into the back of her brain could wait.

"D-did it work?" The girl asked, standing up straight and tapping her claws together nervously.

"Am I going to be pretty noWWWWAAAHHHHHH!" Her question turned to an ear piercing screech, as she immediately threw herself backwards. She crashed into the wall, collapsing a portion of it and sending chunks of dead wood and white marble crumbling to the ground around her.

Her claws wrapped around her head, digging into her tough chitinous hide as if she was trying to tear herself in two, as her screeches grew louder and more agonised.

She collapsed to the ground, her multiple legs wriggling helplessly in the air as she writhed and screamed in agony, before all at once falling completely still and slumping into a dishevelled pile.

Belladonna's heart plummeted into her stomach and melted into a swirling vortex of bile that she could feel churning within that pit.

She stepped forwards, eyes filled with guilt and horror, but the cold edge of steel pressed against her throat and stopped her in her tracks.

The Hollow Knight had moved in the same moment as she had, drawing his sword and stopping it just before it could take Belladonna's head. But something about the way this hollow armour was rattling with barely contained rage, and the way the sword pressed against her throat was trembling, she had a feeling that it did not stop out of consideration for her.

It also gave her the feeling that this Hollow Knight was more than just a simple golem modelled after a suit of armour. There was something almost... human within those empty sockets.

Crrk. Crriik.

All heads and eyes, even the hollow ones, immediately whipped towards the body of the fallen White Widow, as it let out a few small cracking noises. They were barely louder than crumpling paper, but in the silence of the room, each small crack was absolutely deafening.

The body remained still despite the noise. No life in the black eyes, no sign of a single twitch in the fingers. It seemed like a completely dead corpse.

Then the thorax wriggled.

It shifted and bulged, as something pushed at it from the inside, until finally the chitin cracked like an egg, and a long, thin spider's leg burst out from within.

Three more followed, sprouting from the shell like bamboo, before pushing it open and cracking the shell completely in half - a feat that was considerably easier as the shell was already starting to lose its structure and disintegrate into a wispy white silken material.

The Hollow Knights sword clattered against the stone, the knight himself dropping it without a care as he rushed over and leapt on top of the Spider shell. He reached into the crack, uncaring for the thick, viscous green goo that had built bridges between the shells, and slowly pulled out the figure hiding within by their soft, pale hand.

The head of a young girl, with pure white hair that reached half way down her chest, popped out from within the shell. Goop clinging to her pale skin, and dripping from the long pointed ears either side of her head.

But she didn't care about that. All the girl could focus on, was her own reflection the armours breastplate.

She let out a soft, trembling gasp, and gently touched her cheek. She flinched when her cheek pressed inwards, surprised by the softness of her own features, before recoiling and staring at her own hand.

A hand with stubby fingers, and short black fingernails. No chitin or gut ripping claws in sight.

The girl whipped her head towards Belladonna, and stared at her with wide, strangely familar eyes. Six of them in total.

Two sets of small beady black orbs, like that of a spider, one above and the other to the side of a regular, human shaped eye. But even that eye had a pitch black sclera, with deep crimson Iris'.

Even if she could not pass for a normal human, it was impossible for anyone to focus on the strangeness of her eyes. All their attention was drawn to the stream of tears flowing down her wobbling cheeks, and the wide unceasingly joyous smile that stretched her lips.

"I'm... I'm finally pretty." The girl said with a trembling voice between blubbering sniffles. She wiped her face with her hands, but nothing could stop the flow of these joyous tears.

She wasn't the only one.

Belladonna was a mess of tears herself, as she rushed over and leapt into the hollow Widow shell, which squelched beneath her feet, as she scooped up the girl and hugged her tight.

"Aww, it's just so nice, isn't it?" Figg said with a smile and a sniff, dabbing his eyes with a leaf that he conjured, as he turned to Revenant.

The Necromancer just grunted in annoyance, standing beside the druid completely stone faced with his arms crossed.

"So she looks human now, so what? This is still a waste of time." He grumbled, turning his head away from the heartwarming scene as he made sure to keep his own heart ice cold.

Figg was about to say something more, but paused when he saw a single glimmer of something reflective on Revenant's cheek. Just one, but that was enough.

"Tsundere." Figg muttered with a smirk.

"What did you just say?!" Revenant whipped his head around, growling like a feral dog.

"Hehe, Nothing." Figg chuckled, backing away with his hands up in fake surrender, before shaking his head and muttering under his breath again.

"Such a Tsundere."

Revenant grumbled lowly, digging his fingers into his arms as he kept them crossed, before barking towards Belladonna.

"Hey! Are we done here?! We still need to actually secure the rites to the city, as well as do some prep work back home.

What is the little brats name anyways? You don't really expect us to call her Girl all the time, do you?"

The girl in question glanced over to Revenant, tilting head in confusion at the barking dog, before looking up at Belladonna with wide, puppy dog eyes.

"Ignore him dear, He's just grumpy. You'll get used to him." Belladonna said to her with a smile, brushing some of her goop covered hair from her face.

"He's right... I don't have a name. My mother died before I could get one."

"That's where you are wrong, because before you turned into this, your true self, I gave you a name.

Your name, is Kumiko Walachia."

"Kumiko... Walachia..." Kumiko said slowly, testing how the name sounded in her mouth, before giggling and smiling brightly at Belladonna.

"I'm Kumiko Walachia!"

"Yes, Yes you are. And my name, is Belladonna Walachia. Do you know what that means?" She asked with a smile, as Kumiko stared up at her with wide, sparkling eyes.

"It means that you, my dear little Kumiko, are part of my family and you always will be."

[Your Family grows Stronger.]