Weeks at sea had left Marcus dizzy and weak, so he was glad to be back on land. In the rugged basalt of the coastline, a path leads inland, and the smooth, greasy surface makes it unstable to be. The crooked trees on both sides of the path twisted and twisted, and the scars on the black bark flowed yellow pulp, as if some animal had scratched the trunk mottled in a panic. The woods shimmer with a soft light, like a ghostly fire in a swamp that draws ignorant souls to their perdition. The branches above his head hung down what looked like torn cotton, and it took Marcus a moment to realize that they were thousands of cobwebs.

The low trees on both sides of the path were covered with iron thorn-like ferns, and some unseen creature in the dark shadows of the jungle made a snorting sound. It may have been that the large rats that had bred on the ship followed them ashore. Marcus didn't see the full mouse, except for occasional glimpses of a round, furry body, and heard the tiny sound of paws stepping over the wood. There was one thought that kept him going, as if these rats had too many feet than normal mice.

The air on the island was salty and damp, and his delicate robes and leather boots were damp. He held a box of incense to his nose, but it still couldn't drown out the stench that permeated the island, which reminded him of his time at home, when the sea breeze blew from the pits outside the walls of Noxus. Thinking of home, he suddenly felt a pang of unease. The revelry in the catacombs deep beneath the city had indeed given him a wonderful urge to feel guilt, the reward for following the mark of the bloom of the black petals. In that dark tomb, he and his companions gathered together to become believers.

That's what she was waiting for.

He looked forward, hoping to catch a glimpse of her seductive figure, the words of this woman, who had brought so many people to this place. He caught a glimpse of scarlet silk and a voluptuous waist, and then the mist seeping from the woods obscured his vision. He had listened with excitement to her about the teachings of the old gods he believed, and he was ecstatic to learn that he and thirty others had been chosen to accompany her on this pilgrimage. It was like a wonderful adventure when they stepped aboard the laden sailboat under the cover of midnight, and the helmsman in the hood watched them without saying a word, but his enthusiasm began to fade when he was so far away from Noxus.

Marcus stopped, turned to look at the road behind him. His fellow pilgrims pushed him away and continued onward, like a herd of dead-eyed livestock, lining up for the butcher's knives in the killing room. What's going on with them? Walking at the back was the helmsman, floating gently along the road, as if his feet were floating in the air. The robe on his body fluttered undulatingly, and Marcus suddenly felt a heart-wrenching fear in his chest, trying to get away from this figure full of strange aura as much as possible.

He turned around, only to find himself face to face with her.

"Elise......" he said, feeling like he couldn't get out of breath. He instinctively wanted to push her aside and escape from this terrifying place, but her obsessive, dark enchantment prevailed over all thoughts of resistance. His disgust had dissipated so quickly that he wasn't even sure he had ever felt any disgust.

"Marcus," she said, hearing his name spit out of her sacred lips and sending a wave of joy down his spine. Her seductiveness hooked him tightly, and he savored every inch of her perfect body. Her body was angular, and her scarlet hair was shiny and silky, like the aristocratic lady he once knew. The jade lips and bright black eyes dragged him into the net, promising him the moment of ecstasy that he was about to experience. She wore a purple-black and scarlet cloak over her shoulders, held in place by an eight-prong brooch. The cloak rippled, but the wind didn't blow.

"What's the matter, Marcus?" She said. There was a sweet aroma in her voice, soothing his fear like essential oil. "I need your peace of mind. You're pretty calm right now, aren't you, Marcus? ”

"Yes, Elise," he said. "I'm at peace."

"Good. I'd be unhappy if you didn't feel calm when we were so close. ”

The thought of upsetting her made Marcus panic and he fell to his knees. He held her legs in his hands, her limbs slender and slender, white as jade, smooth and cold to the touch.

"Do as you are told, ma'am," he said.

She looked down at him and smiled. For a moment, Marcus felt like he saw something elongated, smooth writhing oddly beneath her cloak. He felt strange and disgusted, but he didn't care in the slightest. She hooked his jaw with her sharp, shiny black nails to get him to his feet. A stream of blood trickled down his neck, but he ignored it all and followed her back.

He followed willingly, and all other thoughts vanished except for the desire to make her happy and satisfied. The woods thinned out, and the path beneath them led them to a steep rock face, carved with markings that had been worn away by the wind, but still made his eyes sting. A pitch-black cavern cracked in the base of the rock wall, like a vile throat, and Marcus's persistence wavered, and he suddenly felt a wave of fear burst out of his heart.

Elise called him in, and he was powerless to resist.

The interior of the cave was eerily black and suffocatingly warm, and a sticky heat smelled like the stench of offal in a slaughterhouse. A voice in his heart screamed at him to flee and get away from this terrible place, but his feet did not obey him and led him deeper into the cavern. A drop of liquid fell from a high place, dripping on his face, and the instantaneous burning pain made him flinch suddenly. He looked to the top of the cave and saw something pale, maggot-shaped hanging from it, swaying wildly as if it was about to break free. Through the translucent surface of the newly knotted cobwebs, a human face let out a silent scream of terror, suffocating silver webs encapsulating all sounds and fears.

"What is this place?" He asked, as the curtain of fraud around him was peeling back.

"This is my temple, Marcus," Elise said, reaching for the eight-claw brooch on her shoulder, allowing the cloak to slide to the ground. "This is the lair of the spider god."

Her shoulders squirmed slightly, and two pairs of slender chitin legs stretched out from the flesh behind her back; Elongated, shiny black with sharp claws at the end. Two pairs of insect legs propped Elise into the air, and a large, grotesque shadow emerged from the dark shadows behind her. Several massive legs dragged its corrupted body, and the dim light behind the cavern reflected countless points of light on the surface of its many eyes.

The giant spider had a fat, fluffy body and was covered with wet mutants. Its nightmarish exterior brought intense fear to shatter the last of Elise's grip on Marcus, and he began to flee towards the hole, her cruel laughter ringing in his ears. Sticky cobwebs formed thick ropes that stuck to the rocks around him. Glued silk threads stuck to his wildly waving limbs, and his speed grew slower as more and more spider silk became wrapped around his body. He heard the sound of the clawworm's feet hitting the rocks chasing after him, and wept at the thought of her reaching out to touch him. But the net she had closed was still wrapping around him, when something sharp pierced his shoulder cleanly. Marcus fell to his knees, paralyzing poison spreading inside him, turning his body into a cage and imprisoning his soul.

A dark figure poked its head above him, and the silent helmsman spread his hands outstretched. He screamed as the helmsman's hooded robe was scattered on the ground, and it was not a human at all, but a dense group of small spiders gathered in the form of a human. They rallied around him, his screams muffled into coughing and moaning, they crawled into his mouth, into his ears, into his eyes.

Elise swung above him, the worm feet behind her supporting her in the air. She is no longer seductive, not even human. Her temperament burns with a never-ending intense hunger. Her terrifying spider god loomed, lifting him from the ground with her sharp jaws.

"You have to die now, Marcus," Elise said.

"Why...?" He managed to ask with his last breath.

Elise smiled, her mouth now covered with pinpoint teeth.

"In order to keep me alive."