The Spider Queen

(Earth Federation- Alpha Star System)

(Nephilim Church Starship Model MK11 Delta)

"This is the sparring room," Rachel spoke cheerfully as she pressed a finger against the door scanner.

The metalloid door swung open to reveal a large open space filled with robotic training droids and racks of weapons.

There was even what looked like an obstacle course at the end of the room complete with rotating platforms.

"Very impressive," Sophie whistled appreciatively as she went inside. She made her way to the weapons rack and picked up one of the whips on display.

Sophie ran her fingers along the length of the whip's body and absentmindedly grabbed the hilt using her right palm.

"So how often do you train here?" Sophie asked curiously. Rachel shrugged her shoulders and reached for a sword.

"Not that often… mainly a two-hour session in the morning and then I spend the rest of the day catching up on assignments," Rachel explained lazily.

The saintess held the sword confidently in her hand and begun to make a few thrusting motions in a specific pattern.

Sophie quietly watched as her friend's body gradually became engulfed in a heavy aura that was a faint golden colour.

Holy Sword Art Form Two- Blazing Justice!

Rachel's sword burst into golden flames that raised the temperature inside the room significantly.

Sophie took a step back and continued to observe as the Quafes girl lunged forward and launched a wave of fire at the nearest practice dummy.

Boom!

The poor robot never stood a chance as its metalloid exterior was neatly sliced in half along its mid torso region.

It was by all accounts an impressive display of strength for a student of her age, but Sophie could not help but unconsciously take note of the flaws in the technique.

The wave of fire that erupted from the tip of her blade took far too long to be released and the momentary pause in her movements would be enough for an attacker to slip through her defenses.

These flaws were in addition to the high visibility of the technique that would make it easy to dodge.

"Want to give it a try?" Rachel asked as she extinguished the flames on the sword with a confident smirk on her face

Sophie shook her head twice to decline and placed the whip back on the rack slowly. She wasn't in the mood for any fighting tonight.

It was strange but she just couldn't muster up any excitement at the thought of fighting training dummies.

Maybe it was the fact that her battles over the last few months had all involved dangerous life and death situations so regular training now felt too fake.

"Why don't I show you a cool place to relax then?" Rachel suggested quickly.

"Yeah that sounds great!" Sophie replied with a warm smile. The two girls shared a grin before leaving the training room.

Rachel led the way confidently through a maze of corridors and side passageways.

The Nephilim Church's spacecrafts had specially designed interiors that were built in order to confuse any intruders that boarded their vessels without permission.

Many of the passageways led to dead ends or rooms that would slam tightly shut once an organism was detected inside them.

There were holy and demonic symbols carved onto the floor of the vessel which Rachel glanced at as they walked by.

She explained to Sophie that these symbols were placed in a certain way to spell out a message to those familiar with the church's secret language.

Sophie nodded in understanding and took a few more glances at the eerie symbols.

The holy runes were golden or white in colour with strange letterings that looked vaguely familiar to ancient Latin.

The demonic symbols on the other hand were painted in a crimson red colour and instead of words there were numbers etched into their centers.

"Here we are!" Rachel exclaimed in excitement. She stopped suddenly in front of a wooden door that seemed out of place on a futuristic high-tech spaceship.

Rachel eagerly reached for the handle and turned the knob until a clicking noise was heard coming from the other side.

The wooden door unexpectedly crumbled to tiny pieces to reveal a small cozy room with a pool in the middle.

As Sophie and Rachel stepped inside the room, the wooden pieces on the ground floated upwards and resembled into the shape of the door.

The water inside the pool was crystal-clear and the bottom was covered in white fine sand that gently tumbled around.

"Welcome to my secret hot tub! Turns out that being a saintess has the benefit of people building you a private room!" Rachel proudly stated.

"But we don't have any swim…" Sophie's words were interrupted by a shirt that hit her right in the face.

"Wooo!" a loud shriek echoed through the room. Sophie heard a loud splashing noise as Rachel dove straight into the water.

The hybrid girl removed the shirt from her face and saw Rachel merrily swimming laps inside the pool while wearing a one-piece bikini.

"Do you think it looks good?" Rachel called out from the other side of the room.

Sophie observed the area in front of her friend's chest temporarily morph into a liquid before transforming into a two-piece red bikini set.

Once again Sophie was reminded of just how useful it was to have the ability to shapeshift.

Rachel's curly hair floated gently in the water as she waved at Sophie to get in as well. Sophie let out a small sigh before jumping into the water with a resigned expression on her face.

The water felt cool and refreshing. Sophie closed her eyes and stretched out her arms and legs to relax.

She was still wearing her track pants and shirt, but it wouldn't be a problem to just wait inside the room until her clothes dried after the swim.

"Did you get bigger?" a shocked gasp came from Rachel's mouth. The Quafes girl swam over and gazed at Sophie without hiding the admiration in her eyes.

Sophie looked down and saw that the front of her shirt was now slightly translucent, and the faint outline of her breasts could be seen.

"It's probably the wet shirt making them stand out more than usual," Sophie explained with a nonchalant expression.

"Besides can't you just modify the size of your avatar's body parts at will?"

"Yeah but I like this current look. I might keep it for the next few years unless a new human appearance comes into fashion," Rachel replied with a grin.

"I was thinking of trying out purple or blonde hair next time and mixed things up with some freckles or scars."

"But there have been some rumors that the new hot look is going to be tall and slender physiques..."

Sophie was content to listen quietly as her friend explained the pros and cons of different body types when designed an avatar.

This was… nice.

Sophie couldn't remember the last time that she had felt at peace as she did in this moment.

It was incredibly mundane to sit down with a friend and talk about random topics and yet this was something that she cherished.

After months of life in constant stress and fear, Sophie had learnt about the value of appreciating calm and tranquility whenever possible.

"That reminds me…" Rachel's voice suddenly interrupted her train of thought.

"Cleo wasn't the same after you disappeared."

Sophie felt her heart drop as those words sent ripples across her calm mood. She opened her mouth and hesitantly asked, "What do you mean?"

Rachel shot her friend a look of sympathy and then explained," Well all of us were affected by what happened that night but your girlfriend she…"

"Look I'm only saying what Astrid told me but apparently she stayed in her dorm room for weeks and refused to come out."

"It took her quite some time to finally return to attending lectures, but she just goes to class and returns straight to the apartment. Astrid said it's like she lost her soul..."