CHAPTER 384: TEARS OF ICHOR

"You... Brat. What did you just call me?!" Arachne’s voice was filled with disbelief.

Adam met her gaze without hesitation. His chest rose and fell with sharp breaths, but his eyes remained steady, unwavering. He clenched his fists tighter, feeling the sting of his nails digging deeper into his palms.

"I called you mother," Adam said, his voice rough but firm. The word hung in the air like a blade, cutting through the echoes of dripping ichor and rattling chains.

Arachne froze. Her body was still pinned and trembling against the hundreds of nails, yet it was not the pain that silenced her now. Her expression twisted, eyes wide as though she had been struck. She searched his face as if expecting it to blur, to melt away into another illusion. But Adam did not waver. His presence was solid, undeniable.

"You dare..." Her voice faltered, caught between fury and something far more fragile. "You dare speak to me like that. Do you even know what you are saying? Do you even understand who I am?"

Adam didn’t flinch in the slightest as he remarked "I remember that Domain you used on me before. It was based on Truth and Lies. That means you can tell if someone is lying or telling the truth, yeah?"

Luna who had been quiet up until now crossed her arms and remarked "Also you aren’t really saying that he is wrong, are you?"

Arachne’s lips trembled, but no words came out. The silence stretched, broken only by the faint drip of golden ichor pooling beneath her crucified body. Her eyes darted from Adam to Luna, and then back again, as if cornered.

Adam took another step forward. The glow of the runes on the stone floor flared in response, but he pressed on, refusing to stop. "So, am I lying or not?" His voice was sharp now, cutting through her hesitation like steel.

The silence deepened again. Arachne’s body shuddered against the nails, her golden ichor boiling as if in rebellion, but her eyes betrayed her. They softened, flickering with the faintest glimmer of recognition, of something she had buried so deep it had almost rotted away.

Her voice cracked when she spoke. "You... are not lying."

Leo’s jaw clenched. Aria covered her mouth with both hands. Lily tilted her head, her strange eyes narrowing as though she were seeing more than what Arachne admitted.

Luna let out a long breath, her expression unreadable. "So, it is true."

"How?" The word slipped from her lips, raw and jagged. Her head jerked weakly against the nails, hair clinging to her face as her breathing grew uneven. "How could you possibly know this? Who told you?!" Her voice cracked on the last word, desperation breaking through the armor of pride that had always defined her.

Adam let out a long, weary sigh. He had faced her wrath before, had seen her cruelty, but never had he seen her like this. Her aura was no longer suffocating in its malice but trembling, fragile, as though the truth itself was a blade pressed against her throat.

Slowly, he reached into his inventory. His fingers curled around the familiar weight before he pulled it free, holding the orb out where she could see. Its fractured light shimmered faintly, a remnant of the impossible world it had once belonged to.

"The one who told me," Adam said, his voice low but steady, "was you."

The orb pulsed faintly in his palm, a quiet reminder of the Arachne he had met in the parallel world.

Her eyes widened, the disbelief on her face raw enough to strip her bare. For a moment, her lips moved without sound, as though words had abandoned her.

"Me...?" Arachne’s voice shook, equal parts horrified and entranced. She stared at the orb like it was a ghost clawing its way into her prison, threatening to unravel what she had kept buried.

"No... no, this is not chance." Her head tilted back, chains rattling as she forced a breath past the pain. "This reeks of her touch. Phanmorra." The name came out as both curse and acknowledgment. Her gaze snapped toward Adam, then to the orb again, as if it confirmed everything. "If the Dream-Weaver herself meddled, then even the Outer Gods are circling this world. What madness has Discordia unleashed?"

Her words hung in the air like poison, their weight enough to make the others stiffen. The silence pressed heavy until Lily finally moved.

Her strange eyes glowed faintly, locking on Leo as if she had been waiting for this exact moment. She raised one finger and pointed directly at him. "Apparently," she said with unnerving calm, "he is a Singularity."

The word cracked the air like thunder.

Leo’s chest tightened, but he didn’t move. He only stared back at Lily, her words echoing in his mind as if they had been whispered from somewhere far beyond her lips.

Arachne’s body shuddered violently against the nails. Her ichor seethed and bubbled, dripping faster, the runes beneath her flaring in resonance. Her eyes widened in horror, not at Adam, not at herself, but at Leo.

"A Singularity..." she breathed, the word tasting like both dread and awe. Her gaze darted wildly across the chamber, as though the shadows themselves might be listening. "So that is why... That is why they tear me apart, why they rip the truth from my veins. They are searching." Her voice fell to a whisper, her face paling despite the golden glow. "They are trying to find the Singularity."

Her eyes locked onto Leo, trembling, the final realization settling like ice in her chest. "They are trying to find you."

Leo’s eyes widened, pupils dilating in alarm as the weight of the revelation pressed down on him. Arachne’s body shuddered against the nails, each tremor sending fresh rivulets of ichor down her arms and legs. She swallowed hard, her voice straining as she spoke.

"You all need to leave. Now." Her tone was urgent, ragged with pain and fear. "If they find him here, if anyone traces the Singularity to this place... I cannot even imagine the horrors that will follow. You all must get out before they do."

Adam shook his head, stepping closer despite the glow of the runes beneath their feet and the heat of golden ichor surrounding Arachne. "I am not leaving," he said, his voice low and unwavering. "Not without you."

Arachne’s head jerked slightly at his words, disbelief flashing across her battered face. "You... you cannot mean that! Look at me! I am broken! I am chained! I am—" Her voice cracked, the last word caught in a cough that drew a spray of blood from her mouth.

"I do mean it," Adam interrupted, eyes burning with a fierce determination. "I will not walk out of here while you remain in this torture. Not for a Singularity, not for Phanmorra, not for anything in this world or the next. I came for you, and that is the reason I will stay until I get you out."