The Spider Queen

(Planet Caorn- Elysium Archipelago)

(Unnamed Island- Hidden Temple)

"Damn it!" a loud cry of anger echoed through the hall.

Sophie looked in the direction of the sound and saw Rachel crawling through a narrow passageway.

She did not look happy.

And for good reason since her entire body appeared to have been covered in bright blue paint that stuck to her clothes and the rest of her body.

Rachel ran her fingers through her hair and grimaced as she felt the paint flecks that were mixed into her roots.

She had tried shapeshifting to her liquid form to get rid of the paint but somehow the annoying substance still clung on to her body.

"You okay?" Sophie asked with concern as she walked over to her friend.

"Not really… remind me to never again pick a door with a question mark," Rachel grumbled as she shook her hands and paint fell on the ground.

"Are we all here? Wait… huh?" Rachel raised an eyebrow as she counted six versions of Sophie plus Cleo as well.

"Remember my cloning technique?" Sophie answered her friend's question before she even asked.

"Cool! How long do they last now?" Rachel quizzed with a glint of curiosity in her eyes.

"We can hear you…" one of the Sophies replied with furrowed brows.

"And we 'last' until we die… or seven to eight days later. Whichever one comes first."

Rachel was taken aback since she didn't expect the copies to be so powerful.

Most clone techniques were mere illusions and the ones that weren't could only produce pale imitations of the original.

Clearly Duke Peterlor must have taught his daughter an advanced technique from the family library!

Sophie chatted with Rachel for a few minutes about the contents of her trial while Cleo spoke to her clones.

Apparently, the mystery door had led to a giant room filled with puddles of strange brightly coloured liquids.

Each liquid was a different colour and the test involved using one's intellect to solve a riddle carved onto one of the stone pillars in the room.

The riddle would lead the participant to the correct pool where they would then jump inside and retrieve the jewel hidden in the depths.

It sounded simple enough but there were creatures lurking inside the pools and according to Rachel… they weren't particularly friendly.

"So then after one of those nasty little things bit off my leg… I was forced to transform my arm into a spear," Rachel sighed heavily as she spoke.

"I couldn't remember what my missing leg originally looked like without my character sheet, so I was forced to improvise."

Rachel lifted up the bottom of her track pants and Sophie observed that her legs were of slightly different skin tones.

The one on the right was a dark brown colour while the one on the left was similar but more of a lighter olive tone.

"Well… I planned to change my look sometime next month, so it won't last for long," Rachel remarked as she gently adjusted her pants.

"It still is pretty strange to me… I can't imagine being able to change my appearance or gender on a whim," Sophie said in a bemused tone.

If she could then she would probably reduce her height.

Seven feet was a bit too much… she liked being tall but her height difference with Cleo was sometimes annoying.

"So, are you girls done?" Cleo snuck up behind her girlfriend and whispered.

"Yeah… sorry about that…" Sophie smiled warmly as she stroked the side of Cleo's cheek.

The princess closed her eyes and let out a satisfied purr almost like a cat.

"Get a room you two," Rachel rolled her eyes and stretched out her hands.

"Alright… let's go look for that treasure and then find our way out of here!" Sophie clenched her fist and spoke with a determined expression.

The sooner they got out… the more points that they would earn. Or at least that's what she hoped since she had no idea what the scoring system was.

Sophie connected to the mental network that linked her mind to her clones and gave them all an order.

[Split up and look for any clues or hints]

She then grabbed Cleo by her hand and led the princess towards the northern side of the hall.

This open space was… surprisingly empty.

Sure, there were some stalactites hanging from the ceiling but other than that and the narrow passageways that they had crawled through… there was nothing.

Sophie channeled some qi into her eyes and the golden luster surrounding her pupils shone even brighter.

Her vision was enhanced several times over until she could clearly observe tiny specks of dust floating lazily in the wind.

Cleo was also looking around for any clues using her psychic powers to probe for any life forms or living organisms.

Sophie's eyes swept her immediate surroundings and she immediately spotted something out of place.

Two hundred meters to her right there was a tiny rock no bigger than a pebble that had a faint blue mark on its side.

Without her enhanced vision, it may have taken hours for her to spot it.

Sophie nudged Cleo and then pointed in the direction of the rock. Her girlfriend shot her a confused look since she could not see it.

"I think something is over there," Sophie whispered softly as she walked over to the rock and knelt down.

She slowly reached for the pebble and picked it up using her right hand. The rock was incredibly smooth and felt warm to the touch.

The blue mark on its side shone brighter and brighter until a blinding flash of light illuminated the entire hall.

Sophie had to close her eyes momentarily since the light was dazzling to the point where it was difficult to see.

The ground beneath her feet trembled violently and Sophie could feel someone roughly hugging her stomach.

BOOM!

A loud explosive noise came from the ceiling and then the shaking on the ground immediately stopped.

When Sophie reopened her eyes, she discovered that she was now standing outside the temple with Cleo and Rachel by her side.

Her clones?

Sophie connected to the mental network and then furrowed her brows in pain as memories surged into her mind.

A mysterious figure… possibly an examiner?

Regardless of their identity… the stranger killed all of her mirror copies with a swift strike to their throats.

"Arghh… I'm going to need to regenerate my optical nerves," Rachel complained as her pupils shook slightly.

Her eye colour switch from black to green to purple to red and finally stopped at a deep hazel brown.

"Did we get out? Then what about… oh!" Cleo's voice trailed off in shock as she looked at the object at her feet.

It was a small idol that was carved in the shape of a naked serpent-like creature with three heads and feathers along its back.

"I think that's the treasure we were looking for!" Rachel excitedly spoke up as she grabbed the idol and compared it to the picture on the map.

"That was easy!"

No sooner had those words come out of Rachel's mouth, a holographic projectile screen appeared in front of the three girls.

[Treasure Has Been Obtained!]

[New Objective: Reach Extraction Point]

[Warning! Warning! Warning!]

[Survive The Idol Worshippers!]

"Idol worshippers?" Sophie mused thoughtfully as she stared at the last line on the screen.

SCREECH! SCREECH! SCREECH!

Horrific animalistic cries of rage echoed through the jungle and the bushes behind the back of the temple began to rustle.