The new "ornament" on Egor's arm caused no discomfort. The mark had faded slightly overnight, but it remained clearly visible. Fortunately, his work shirt had long sleeves.
A heavy silence hung over the apartment. Each of them was lost in their own thoughts. Today they would visit the place where, according to Klaus, a portal to another world had opened.
Egor could barely contain his excitement. He wanted to see it with his own eyes. What would it look like? What would it feel like? How would it differ from anything he had ever known?
Unlike his grim companions, he felt a strange anticipation.
"We'll need a taxi," Pauoka said, slipping into a light coat. "There's a bus along that highway, but it doesn't stop where we need."
"I'll call one. What address should I use?"
"Any. We'll have to get out on the highway regardless."
Egor selected the first suburban address he found and set it as their destination. The taxi arrived quickly — Klaus didn't even have time to light a cigarette.
His new habit irritated Egor. He disliked the smell and saw no point in smoking.
Pauoka took the front seat. The young men sat in the back. Egor expected Klaus to insist on sitting beside the driver, but instead he remarked thoughtfully:
"Nobility rides in the rear. The seat beside the coachman suits you better — though I suppose you have risen in rank."
The taxi merged onto the highway. Klaus stared out the window without blinking. Egor shifted restlessly.
"How much longer?" Pauoka asked.
"I don't know," Klaus replied calmly.
"What do you mean you don't know?" Egor turned sharply toward him. "You don't know where it is?"
"In theory, I do. In practice, I was unconscious when they brought me to the hospital. I don't know how far it is from the city."
Egor leaned forward. "Could you stop here, please?" he asked the driver. Then, noticing Pauoka's confusion, he added, "He doesn't actually know where we're going. It'll be easier to search on foot. You'll recognize the place if you see it again, right?"
"I'm not certain," Klaus admitted. "It was night."
"Then why did we even come?"
"It's somewhere here." His voice hardened. "I will find it. I must."
Egor said nothing more.
The taxi pulled away.
It was nearly noon. Sunlight barely penetrated the thick canopy of trees lining the highway. A cool wind swept along the roadside.
Two young men and an elderly woman walked along the shoulder, searching for something that might not even exist.
"I can't go any farther," Pauoka said at last, breathless. "You seem to forget I'm over seventy. These heroic marches do nothing for my joints."
"It's close," Klaus said. "It has to be."
"Everything looks the same. How are we supposed to find a portal?" Egor muttered. He wasn't used to this kind of walking either.
But Klaus had already begun to feel it.
The air seemed heavier. His body tensed. His instincts sharpened.
Something was wrong.
"I should have left you both at home."
"You should have admitted from the beginning that you don't remember where it is," Pauoka snapped, stopping. "That's enough. I won't take another step until I rest."
Klaus bristled — but she was right. Exhausted companions would only slow him down.
"Ten minutes," he said.
He scanned the roadside and noticed a fallen tree ahead. Something stirred in his memory.
"You can sit there."
"Great," Egor panted. "Another hundred meters won't kill me."
While they rested, Klaus stepped aside to study the surroundings.
The fallen tree.
A faded white mark on the asphalt.
A crooked advertisement sign by the roadside.
Yes.
This was the place.
"You thirsty?" Egor called, holding out a bottle.
"Yes, I—"
A sharp metallic click cut through the air behind him.
Klaus spun instantly, his hand flying to his belt — to a sword that was no longer there.
A burst of white light flared beside the fallen tree. Right in the middle of the road.
The exact spot where he had entered this world.
"A portal," Pauoka murmured, rising slowly. "Why is it opening?"
"I don't know," Klaus said quietly. "But nothing good will come of it."
Egor stepped closer, drawn toward the light. A firm hand seized his wrist.
The air thickened — pressure building, tightening.
The flash vanished.
In its place stood a gigantic spider.
It was taller than Klaus.
Egor froze.
Klaus did not.
"Step back," he said evenly. "Old woman — take your grandson behind the tree."
"What are you going to do?"
"I have no weapon." His eyes never left the creature. "I'll improvise."
"It spits venom."
"I know."
The spider's black eyes scanned the clearing — then fixed on Egor.
"Idiot! I told you to hide!"
Everything happened at once.
The spider lunged and spat a stream of pale green venom straight at Egor.
Klaus slammed into him, shoving him aside. The venom missed — but grazed Klaus's sleeve.
The fabric dissolved instantly.
He tore off the jacket and flung it away as the poison continued eating through it.
Without hesitation, he seized Egor by the collar and hurled him behind the fallen tree beside Pauoka.
"Snap him out of it and run! It's hunting him!"
"That's a terrible plan," Pauoka said, pale.
"Have a better one?"
"We kill it here."
"Oh, brilliant," Klaus snapped. "Then hand me something to kill it with."
Pauoka slapped Egor hard across the face.
"This is not the time to faint — unless you wish to be dissolved or eaten."
"Dissolved?" he croaked.
She pointed.
Where Klaus's jacket had fallen, only scorched ground and faint smoke remained.
"Grandma… what do we do?"
"We kill it before it kills us," she said grimly. "A difficult task for an old woman, a frail boy, and a warrior without a weapon."
Klaus heard that.
Warrior without a weapon.
Rage surged through him.
With a shout, he charged.
Venom shot toward him again. He twisted aside and pressed forward.
The spider and the prince circled in a deadly dance. It spat. He dodged. Its mandibles snapped. He closed the distance.
A splash of venom struck his collar. He tore off his shirt and cast it aside.
For a split second, the creature's eyes followed the movement.
That was enough.
Klaus lunged.
He slipped beneath its body as its legs lashed wildly around him. Hairy limbs struck the ground.
From behind, Egor shouted:
"Hey! Freak! I'm over here!"
The spider froze and turned.
"Where do you think you're going?!" Klaus roared, seizing one of its hind legs.
It barely slowed.
With a desperate heave, he dragged it back.
The spider faltered.
Klaus drove his heel into the joint. Again. And again.
A sickening crack.
The leg snapped.
The creature collapsed sideways.
Klaus tore a thick branch from a nearby tree and leapt onto its back as it struggled to rise.
He drove the sharpened wood into one glossy eye.
Thick fluid burst forth.
He didn't stop.
He struck again.
And again.
The spider went mad. Venom sprayed in all directions, melting bark and scorching the earth. Klaus clung to its back, fighting to stay upright.
Finish it.
The belly.
He slid beneath it and thrust the branch upward.
The wood snapped.
Egor's heart pounded wildly.
One mistake — and Klaus would die.
He couldn't just stand there.
"The eyes!" he shouted.
"I already destroyed them! Are you blind?" Klaus snapped, rolling away from a thrashing leg.
"Hit the eyes!"
Understanding flashed.
Klaus smashed the broken branch against another joint, shattering it with brute force. Then he climbed onto the spider's back again and drove the jagged wood deep into an empty eye socket.
Again.
And again.
The creature convulsed — then fell still.
Klaus slid off and collapsed onto his back, gasping.
"Are you okay?" Egor rushed to him.
"I'm alive," Klaus said weakly. "Unlike that bastard."
"That was insane," Egor breathed, eyes shining. "You're unbelievable. You're… incredible."
Klaus tried to shrug it off, though exhaustion and pain wracked his body.
But the look on Egor's face — flushed, bright-eyed, filled with awe — gave him a strange surge of strength.
For some reason, the weakness no longer mattered.
Pauoka approached, holding a small sphere the size of a large pearl. It glowed faintly blue, its light swirling within like liquid mist.
"Is that what I think it is?" Klaus asked.
"Don't touch it," she warned. "This artifact detects magic, absorbs it, and shares it. I carried it when I fled."
"Can it open a portal?" Egor asked.
"That was my hope," she said. "But it contains too little power."
She pressed the orb against the spider's corpse.
A thin silver thread stretched from the creature into the sphere. The light within it brightened.
"As I suspected," she murmured. "Even this beast contains traces of magic."
Within minutes the last shimmer flowed into the orb.
The spider's body dissolved — as if it had never existed.
"This still won't be enough," Pauoka sighed, returning the orb to her bag. "We should go home."
She glanced at Klaus — half-naked, smeared with dirt and blood, a cut along his side, yet with his ponytail still perfectly tied.
"The driver's task is to follow orders, not ask questions," Klaus muttered. "Call a taxi. I'm starving."
"Where did it go?" Egor asked, staring at the empty road.
"Magical creatures exist only through magic," Pauoka explained. "Without it, they cannot remain."
Klaus stared at the scorched patch of asphalt where the monster had fallen.
He needed to grow stronger.
He needed power.
He needed a weapon.
And now—
He had someone to protect.