The Spider Queen

There it was.

The scene that Sophie had been searching for all this time.

She watched carefully as a mirror image of herself picked up a blade and pierced the captain's stomach in one fluid motion.

"Impossible…" a painful groan leaked out of the captain's mouth as his blood flowed out of the open wound.

Sophie's clone smoothly flung her blade aside and kneeled down to rip out the still beating heart from her defeated foe's chest.

The mirror image closed her eyes and offered a silent prayer to the hunter goddess before devouring the heart.

Wait… something wasn't right…

Sophie frowned as white clouds immediately shrouded the scene and then disappeared along with the vision of her victory.

Captain Sun was a human?

She could still vividly recall the creature that the captain had transformed into, and no trace of his humanity remained in that monster.

The only thing left of the man was a floating ball of dark purplish-black flames with unnerving tendrils bursting out of its core.

But the person that was shown in the vision was clearly fully human.

Could the captain even revert back?

Sophie contemplated silently and did not rush to deactivate her foresight ability since there were still some questions that needed to be answered.

"You think you have won girl?" a hoarse cry echoed through the mysterious black and white world.

Sophie turned around to see yet another vision.

This time she was gripping the captain by the neck and hoisting him a few inches off the ground.

Two of her four bladed appendages had entered the back of the captain's body and crippled his spinal cord.

The mouth of her mirror image contained fangs that were covered with a reddish-green liquid that fell to the ground.

This liquid was undoubtedly poison.

The problem was that colour alone was not enough to deduce what was the combination of toxins needed to create that particular venom.

Sophie continued to observe as a twisted grin spread across the captain's face. There was a loud bang as the devoted Hyperion Knight chose to blow himself up.

The hybrid girl in the vision could not react to the sudden explosion was badly injured by the blast.

But she was still alive.

Just as before, the white fog shrouded the injured version of Sophie and then the image faded away.

Yet again… Captain Dawn was shown as a human.

Sophie did not consider herself particularly smart or even the strongest among her peers, but she had one notable trait.

Patience.

She sat down cross-legged on the ground and waited quietly for more visions to appear.

It didn't take long for the next cry of rage to reach her ears.

"I WAS WRONG I WISH TO CHANGE!"

And the next…

"Stupid… I… I will… never bow before you… wretched dog…"

And the next…

"I can bargain… TAKE THIS YOU FILTHY HERETIC…"

And the next…

Time flowed differently in this mysterious place. Sophie could not tell if hours, days or even years had passed.

One image after another flowed into her mind and soon a pattern begun to emerge. There were common similarities in each of the captain's deaths.

The first was the most important observation and that was the fact that the captain was human…

Or at least outwardly human.

The cause of death may have ranged from whip strikes, plasma shots, poison, explosives, to even blunt trauma but every death involved a person that looked completely human.

The second interesting point was that the majority of his deaths led to Sophie being severely injured or even killed.

Captain Dawn was ruthless in several scenarios and chose to blow himself up in multiple visions.

Clearly he could not be reasoned with and would rather take his own life than fall into Sophie's hands.

"Troublesome…" Sophie muttered darkly.

She got up slowly from the ground and stared blankly in a random direction while sorting out her mind.

So.. he can be killed.

That was a good start, but it was at this moment that Sophie realised just how limiting her foresight ability was.

It was akin to skipping to the end of a movie and trying to piece together the entire plot based on the last few minutes.

Furthermore, since her ability showed multiple possibilities, it was impossible to know which vision would be best to follow.

Think… Sophie… think…

The hybrid girl furrowed her brows as she mentally reviewed every vision using her enhanced memory.

Clearly the key to defeating the captain would be to somehow undo the transformation that he had undergone.

Wait.. THAT'S IT!

Sophie deactivated her ability and returned to the real world. Her eyes returned to their familiar golden hue.

The ring of flames surrounding the fire elemental continued to expand outwards. Sophie wiped some drops of sweat from her forehead as the temperature climbed rapidly.

Cloud Treading Dragon!

Sophie's figure blurred and then vanished from sight. She teleported hundreds of feet away until her danger sense began to calm down.

The sudden realisation that had struck her just a few moments ago was still causing ripples in Sophie's mind.

The answer was so simple… the solution was so obvious!

Captain Dawn's newfound power came from channeling the divine strength of the Sun God using his qi.

Obviously that meant that his monstrous form relied on divinity and indirectly his qi reserves in order to maintain its appearance.

But what would happen if the qi in his dantian became exhausted?

It would mean that the transformation would no longer have the energy to sustain itself.

She had been approaching this fight with the wrong mentality from the start.

The way to beat the captain was not a quick sure-fire killing blow but rather a drawn-out fight that would force him to exhaust his qi.

The solution was a marathon not a sprint.

Using the whip was no longer an option as it would be impossible to get within reach of the captain's body.

Sophie placed her nano-fibre whip back into her storage bag and pulled out a heavy-duty plasma sniper.

It took her a few minutes to remember the assembly process, but Sophie eventually managed to attach a scope and a suppressor.

Sophie closed her eyes and sent out a series of mental commands to her three surviving clones.

[Return and go to the coordinates that I am about to send]

[If you need a long-range weapon then come to me first and then move out to your assigned position]

[I found his weakness]