The Spider Queen

"I'm back," Sophie smiled softly as she gently rubbed the sides of Lily's cheeks.

The little girl was fast asleep on the bed and Sophie didn't want to wake her up so she stopped her movements.

It had been a stressful couple of days and getting as much rest as possible was necessary for the both of them.

Especially for a growing child who hadn't stepped on the path of cultivation yet.

Intense mental exhaustion meant that Sophie herself was ready to catch a few hours of sleep.

Defeating Captain Dawn and managing to kill him was a great victory but it was definitely a tiring experience.

Sophie's hands still trembled as she recalled the many times during the battle where she had almost lost her life.

This was not a game where one had a second chance. The slightest misstep would lead to death.

Being the vessel of the Hunter Goddess was as much a curse as it was a blessing.

No power came without a price.

Sophie fondly touched Lily's head a few more times and then headed towards the cleaning area to take a full bath.

She had already washed her hands and replaced the damaged battle suit that she wore during the fight with a fresh one…

But there was still a faint bloody scent that seemed to linger around her body.

Sophie carefully stripped the body suit off her body and then flung it to the side carelessly.

The body suit was made from a certain material that acted similar to memory foam so it was easy to remove.

She pressed a button on the wall and soon a greenish fluid spurted out of a faucet and begun to fill the bathtub.

Sophie closed her eyes and sent out a message to the four surviving mirror copies using the mental link that connected them.

[Feed the prisoners with the supplies from the cafeteria level and make sure that the two that are tied up don't starve tonight]

[Tomorrow we will enter the holding room and try to figure out what to do next. We definitely need a pilot and at least one other crewmember in order to fly the escape vessel]

[Remember it's only a matter of time before reinforcements arrive so we need to leave this planet within the next few days]

The hybrid girl entered the bathtub and felt the soft cleaning liquid stick to the surface of her body.

It was an oddly relaxing feeling so Sophie just leaned her head back against the side of the tub and began to contemplate.

There was no time to celebrate her victory.

Truthfully she wanted to leave the planet tonight but right now she wasn't in the right mental state to play psychological tricks on the prisoners.

That engineer Pirene had testified that the escape starships only needed a main pilot and an auxiliary pilot at minimum in order to fly.

Two people.

The tricky part was controlling those two individuals to ensure that they actually flew the starship in the direction she wanted over the span of a week.

It would be a challenging task because Sophie was at a disadvantage since she could not read Unovan text.

She could speak the language fairly well but would be unable to tell what any of the information shown on the main control deck of the starship meant.

How should she do it?

Constant pressure and fear?

That could work. Sophie was confident in her acting abilities and it would be a simple matter to have her copies keep their eyes on the two crewmembers at all times.

Reward? The problem was that she didn't have anything to offer.

There was a limited number of local currencies in her storage bag which essentially meant that she was a pauper.

Sophie lazily turned over and ducked her head underwater for a few minutes to get the cleaning liquid in contact with her hair.

Having long hair did look good but it was a pain in the ass to get dried blood, guts, and filth out after a fight.

Sophie rose to the surface and wiped her face using the palm of her right hand. Everything now depended on reaching the border zone.

The place where a war was happening.

This was an active battlefield and there would be tremendous risk involved but it was really the only option left.

Sophie's communicator could only connect to the Earth Federation network once it was within signal distance.

Sending out a message to her father for help was Sophie's best chance at reaching home safely.

Hopefully… he hadn't suffered too much when she was gone.

Sophie knew just how much love her father had for her.

Finding out that his daughter was missing… she couldn't even imagine how much pain he was going through.

And then… her friends… Cleo… even her little bat Moon. All of her loved ones did not know if she was even alive.

It was a sobering thought.

The joy of surviving the fight with the captain seemed to diminish as Sophie was struck by an intense feeling of loneliness and homesickness.

The most frustrating thing about the whole situation was that there was really nothing that she could have done.

It was impossible to predict that Emperor Sisrelis would be insane enough to sacrifice his life to teleport the heirs of high noble families to random places across the universe.

"Fucking old bastard," Sophie darkly growled as she slammed her fist into the side of the wall.

Crack!

She used a bit too much power in her frustration and soon a section of the wall completely collapsed.

Sophie coughed awkwardly and then sheepishly placed her hand back under the cleaning liquid to get the dust off.

Okay maybe she should just go to bed before more stuff in the cabin room got destroyed by accident.

The hybrid girl got out of the tub and reached into her storage bag to pull out a fresh set of clothes for the night.

Lily was snoring softly when Sophie quietly tip-toed her way to the bed. It had been a good idea to cover her body with the cleaning liquid since the bloody smell was now gone.

Sophie carefully lifted up the blanket and then slipped inside while trying her best not to wake up Lily.

She planted a loving kiss on the little girl's forehead and then closed her eyes to take a well-deserved rest.