The Spider Queen

Freedom.

Sophie's golden eyes darkened, and she could feel nothing but a surge of excitement running through her veins.

Unconsciously her steps got faster and faster until she was moving at an all-out sprint.

The endless sea of sand dunes flashed by as Sophie's blurred figure ran towards the gathering point and away from the camp.

Of course, she didn't forget to wrap Lily's body with a layer of defensive qi in order to protect the small child from the high wind speeds and g-force.

The floating spherical tents slowly became nothing more than small dots in the distance as Sophie laughed madly.

"We did it!" the hybrid girl yelled in glee.

It was a relief to finally escape the high-tension situation safely and without any missteps.

The only concern Sophie had left was whether or not the deaths of her clones would serve their purpose as a way for them to die without raising suspicion.

Logically, it was highly unlikely that the higher ups of the Hyperion Order would allow two outsiders to learn about the prized secret hidden in the temple.

"Big sister are we okay now?" a small whisper broke Sophie out of her thoughts.

Lily's eyes were tightly closed as the little girl had been instructed to tilt her head towards Sophie's chest while moving.

Sophie gradually slowed down her movements to a more leisurely pace and removed the qi barrier from Lily's body.

"Yes baby… soon we can go back to that giant ship and then hopefully within the next few weeks we will be at the frontier region," Sophie explained with a loving smile.

"As long as my communicator can get in range of the Federation's virtual network then I should be able to send out a message for help."

"Then we can go back home?" Lily asked curiously.

"I promise," Sophie hooked her pinky finger on Lily's tiny finger and shook twice.

It was an old gesture from Sui Meng's memories that Sophie hadn't even realised she had picked up.

Sophie glanced back to gauge the distance and realised that the campsite of the Hyperion Knights could no longer be seen.

The pale blue moon was now sinking towards the horizon just as the first warm rays of sunlight peaked out.

Sophie could feel the cold chill of the desert slowly fade away as a new dawn approached.

There was a strange sense of tranquility while walking among the endless sand dunes that was hard to describe.

For the first time in awhile….

She felt a spark of hope.

Even the darkest of nights had to give way to the start of a new day.

This unexpected teleportation had thrown the pair into one dangerous situation after the next, but they had survived.

Survive.

That was all she wanted to do.

Some may dream of dominating the universe and ruling as gods among men, but Sophie could be happy just by laying down next to a warm fireplace surrounded by friends and family.

Well… it was not yet time for dreams.

They still needed to travel to the gathering point within the next two days.

This was a far shorter time than Sophie would have liked as it meant that the pair would have to rush non-stop for the next forty-eight hours.

Sophie reached in her storage bag and a silvery- white hoverbike appeared right in front of her.

The sleek metalloid design was paired with a powerful plasma engine capable of travelling vast distances in a short amount of time.

This was not the first time Sophie had operated one of these machines, so she jumped on the vehicle with fluid motions and pressed the ignition button.

Pale blue flames appeared beneath the hoverbike as the vehicle slowly rose two feet in the air with a roaring hum.

Lily clapped her hands in excitement and stared at Sophie with sparkles in her eyes.

"Make sure to hold on to me closely," Sophie laughed as she tickled Lily's stomach causing the little girl to giggle.

Just for good measure, Sophie pulled out a thin metalloid rope from her storage bag and securely attached Lily to her body.

The last thing she needed was for Lily to fall off while the hoverbike was travelling at speeds up to Mach 5 when the engine was fully charged.

Small dust particles were kicked up into the air as Sophie smoothly operated the hoverbike and begun her long journey back to the gathering point.

She could only pray silently in her heart that the clones would succeed in their mission.

(One day later…)

(Base Camp Of The Hyperion Knights)

There was an eerie silence as a legion of heavily clad armoured soldiers surrounded two shivering bodies.

Weapons were drawn and at least ten plasma rifles were aimed at the hearts of the two humanoid figures to prevent any escape.

"What's going on?" the older one asked in shock.

She was an attractive young woman with long flowing black hair and four bladed appendages jutting out of her back.

Her sinful figure with voluptuous chests and hips would be enough to drive anyone to a state of lust but none of the knights seemed to care.

"How can you treat us like this?! Aren't we your captain's guests?" Sophie's clone demanded in rage.

"Are you really going to kill us before the captain even comes out of his trial?"

Meanwhile 'Lily' was huddled in her chest and trembling in fear.

The little girl couldn't even look at the scary knights that were once her heroes.

Only Sophie's clone knew that the only reason why her 'Lily' wasn't facing the knights…

Was the incredibly bored expression that was prominently displayed on her face.

Seriously… what a pain in the ass.

You would have thought that the officers among the knights would just quietly assassinate them during the night but… nope!

Apparently, they needed to be dragged out of their comfortable beds to take part in some sort of occult ritual.

Something to do with cleansing by fire or some other nonsense.

The second- in- command kept sprouting talk about healing or salvation and the fact that this ritual would allow them to enter the gates of paradise.

Truthfully…. Sophie's clone had tuned out after the first couple of verses.

The truly fucked-up thing was that all of these lunatics genuinely believed that it was a great honour for their guests to be burnt alive.

Sophie's clone continued to beg and plead with desperation and sorrow in her tone but feeling nothing but contempt in her heart.

"The high priests of the order have decreed that you are both to be granted the privilege of partaking in the sacred ritual!" Ragnar bellowed while holding a thin scroll.

"For our Lord is merciful! He believes that every sinner has a chance to repent their sins after being baptised by fire!"

"Praise be! For the Sun God in his wisdom…

The scripture reading continued uninterrupted for another ten minutes all while Sophie's mirror image struggled to keep her expression in check.

Please… can we wrap this up soon?

Actually…

An evil grin surfaced on the face of the clone as she remembered an interesting fact about the 'Rsychosis' technique.

After death all of her memories would be transferred to the original Sophie.

Immediately her performance increased to a level of higher intensity as Sophie's clone used all of her acting talent.

Tears ran down the sides of the clone's face as she rolled around in the sand with madness that resembled a mental breakdown.

She screeched and cried like a banshee which interrupted the solemn chanting of the second-in-command desperately trying to finish the ritual.

"What the fuck are you doing?" 'Lily' whispered from inside her arms.

"Just a bit of payback," Sophie's mirror image softly responded.

She ignored the look of confusion on the face of the little girl in her arms and continued to flail about wildly.

Eventually she had to be restrained by several of the knights who slammed her into the ground and wrapped thick metalloid chains around her arms and legs.

Sophie's clone didn't resist and allowed the brutes to painfully clamp the metalloid restraints onto her body even as her flesh was bruised and battered.

"Do not struggle… this is a blessing," a youthful voice sounded in her ear.

Sophie's clone glanced up to see the familiar figure of the young guard she had conversed with during the night of the escape.

"A blessing? Well, if this is a blessing then I'd hate to see what you all do as a punishment," Sophie whispered sarcastically.

Tears continued to run down her face as she appeared to be nothing more than a defeated warrior accepting her fate.

Sophie's clone could not observe the expression beneath the helmet of the young knight, so she missed the confused look that surfaced on his face.

He simply could not comprehend why someone would not desire a chance to reside in the hallowed halls of the Sun God.

"We will now commence the ritual," an elderly voice spoke out from behind the crowd.

A knight wearing a variation of the metalloid armour that was pure white walked towards the kneeling figures of the two sacrifices with purposeful steps.

In his right hand was a torch that burned with a brilliant purple flame that danced merrily in the wind.

"Come closer and I'll blow you all up!" Sophie's clone suddenly yelled.

The knight holding the flame paused and chuckled slightly before replying, "We have already searched your body and removed your storage bag."

"There is no bomb. Just do not make trouble and enjoy the blessing that is to come."

It was true.

The knights had entered the captain's tent in the morning and before she could react, they confiscated her storage bag and used a scanner to check for any devices on her body.

But perhaps out of sheer arrogance, no one had bothered to search the little girl that innocently looked at them with an expression of shock.

That was their fatal mistake….

"Oh, you…. poor fool…" Sophie's clone laughed and then screeched in pain as the knight thrust the purple flame into her stomach.

A burning scent of meat filled the air as the clone could feel her flesh char and turn into a smoky mess.

Sophie's clone could barely think under the influence of this intense pain but suddenly received a message through the mental link connecting the clones.

[Can I do it now?]

[Or do I have to wait for you to be cooked alive?]

[Alright… I'll take your screaming as a 'yes']

The knights saw that 'Lily' was crying out in a mixture of fear and horror as she watched her big sister burn slowly to death.

None saw that one of her hands was secretly pressing a few buttons on the device hidden in her sleeve.

A soft bleeping noise could be heard that was masked by the loud cries of pain coming from the young woman slumped to the ground.

Three…

Two….

The last thoughts that flashed through the minds of Sophie's clones caused identical bitter smiles to surface on their faces.

Enjoy these memories…. my darling creator…

One….

Boom!

An enormous explosion erupted from the spherical palm-sized device that immediately sent out a shockwave that hit everything within a sixty-foot radius.