The Spider Queen

Sophie's cold words echoed through the vehicle as she stared at the corpse that was still bleeding out on the floor.

The hybrid girl furrowed her brows as she approached the body and cautiously prodded it using her blade-like appendages.

"What happened?" Cleo asked softly as she stepped in Sophie's direction.

"Watch out for the crystals on the ground!" Sophie immediately shouted as her girlfriend froze in place.

Cleo's foot was mere inches away from one of the bright red Kry'en crystals that had spilled from the palm of the shadow guard.

"My danger sense keeps going off whenever I look at those crystals," Sophie explained in a much calmer tone as she walked towards Cleo.

She looked down on the ground and took large steps to avoid the crystals that were in her path.

It was impossible to know what would happen if her body or clothes made contact with the rare mineral and Sophie was not taking any chances.

"I don't know what's happening but clearly someone is aiming for you," Sophie spoke seriously as she lifted Cleo up and walked towards a nearby chair.

She sat down on the chair with Cleo still her arms. The warmth of her girlfriend's soft body made the hybrid girl subconsciously relax.

The two pilots were still driving the hovercar, but it was obvious that they were listening in to what Sophie was saying.

"But who? And for what purpose? I don't think that I've made any enemies who would be interested in taking my life…" Cleo exclaimed in a puzzled tone.

"They didn't even attempt to kidnap me… if your danger sense is correct then they just want to murder me which makes no sense…"

Sophie nodded since she understood her girlfriend's confusion.

The most logical reason for someone to target Cleo was her connection to House Peterlor but in that case, there would be no benefit to her death.

With her death there would be no other strong connection to the high noble house controlled by the youngest god stage cultivator in the Federation.

Sophie frowned slightly as she tilted her wrist communicator upwards and sent a quick message to her father.

Sophie: [Hey dad… we're coming back now. There were three attempts on Cleo's life including one by a shadow guard]

Sophie: [She was a pale-skinned slender women with the ability to travel through shadows… I don't understand why she suddenly betrayed us]

Not even two seconds passed before Sophie's wrist communicator vibrated twice and she received a quick reply from her father.

Dad: [Okay I will investigate immediately. Are the servants in the hovercar compromised in any way?]

Sophie: [No my danger sense is reading them as normal… there should not be any issues]

Dad: [Listen carefully princess, in case of the worst-case situation I want you to…]

The hybrid girl glanced at the screen as her father typed out a few lines of text detailing a plan for her safety.

The conversation between the father-daughter pair went on for around five minutes and Sophie made sure to mention the strange crystals.

Cleo was following along the conversation since the princess was on her lap, but Sophie didn't mind.

Finally, she closed the messenger app and leaned back on the chair.

Why couldn't she just have a simple and relaxing vacation?

"Hey babe… don't be so upset…" Cleo whispered softly as she tilted up her head and captured Sophie's lips in a soft and lingering kiss.

"I'm just grateful that my knight in shining armour is always there to protect her princess."

Cleo's green eyes sparkled with affection as she raised up one hand and gently stroked the side of Sophie's cheek.

"I'm just worried about your safety… I don't know what I would do if something happened to you…" Sophie hesitantly confessed as she stared into her girlfriend's eyes.

"I'm not going anywhere," Cleo promised solemnly as she spoke with a rare seriousness in her tone.

The hybrid girl cracked a small smile, but it was clear from her facial expression that she still felt worried.

Meanwhile Rachel was shifting slightly on the bed while occasionally letting out a low groan of pain.

The saintess was still asleep but the sharp bursts of pain that kept hitting her head were making it impossible to be comfortable.

"Excuse me young lady but would you like the cleaning bot to tidy up the room," one of the pilots suddenly spoke.

"Oh? We have an android on the hovercar? In that case tell it to place all the Kry'en crystals in its storage space," Sophie ordered calmly.

The pilot nodded and then pressed a series of buttons next to the dashboard in front of her. A hidden white door slid open from behind the bar and a metallic robot rolled out.

The cleaning android was no bigger than two feet and had a round cylindrical body with two long slender arms.

"Clean up the red crystals on the ground and place them in your storage space," Sophie spoke softly to the bot.

The android hummed in acknowledgement and then its yellow eyes shifted in the direction of the ground.

A burst of bright light came from its sockets which quickly scanned the room and lingered on the location of all of the crystals.

The robot moved from one reddish crystal to the next and used its arms to pick up the crystals and deposit them in its back cache.

Soon the floor was completely spotless with the exception of the corpse of the shadow guard that was still warm.

The cleaning android returned to its private room and the white door slid shut. Sophie visibly relaxed as the source of her danger sense activation was finally tucked away.

It was hard to describe how difficult it was to have a small voice in her head constantly screaming 'Danger! Danger! Danger!' along with a sense of impending doom.

Still, she was grateful for her ability to detect trouble because it had saved her life more times than she could count.

"Wait Sophie I've just thought of something…" Cleo spoke in hushed tone as she glanced in the direction of Rachel's sleeping body.

"Remember Rachel said that the man who almost bumped into me was like a puppet with no will of his own?"

"What if something happened to your shadow guard to turn her into a puppet? The reason why I think that's the case is because you didn't feel a sense of danger from her before right?"

Sophie frowned as she realised that her girlfriend had raised a very important point.

She did not feel anything was wrong when the shadow guard had appeared in the transport hub.

But what had changed? Wait… no… it couldn't be….

"The little girl!" Sophie exclaimed in shock.