"Those two... they seem like children..." Strax murmured, letting out a deep breath as he used his energy to try to heal his hand, which had nearly been amputated by Veronica's sword.
Completely ignoring his older sister, who was still struggling to process Diana's words, he turned to his stepmother, who was still recovering from the shock of almost dying in a rather pathetic way.
"Look, do you want to kill each other? Fine, I understand! But you can do that after my problem is solved, alright? How about this?" Strax began, unleashing a barrage of piercing blades at the two women with just a few words. "I have something far more important than this feud between you two. The damn spiders are already coming this way, did you know that, second-in-command?" Strax asked sarcastically, after all, he was already annoyed with the situation.
Diana raised one eyebrow, but Strax continued without giving her a chance to say anything.
"I imagine you had a great plan, right? Let's send the most idiotic one to die, and use that as an excuse to send him to clean up the mess we made, bringing Xenovia to the prince, but I'm sorry to inform you, the spiders are approaching Vorah, and I don't have time for your games, alright? I need help, or I'll just leave and let the city fall, you decide," he said, smiling like an angel, but Diana and Veronica only saw a demon looking back at them.
Veronica, who had been silent, finally turned to Strax, her gaze a mix of indignation and confusion. "What do you mean by 'the spiders are on the move'? You should be more worried about what's happening in the house!"
"Yes, but what happens in here doesn't matter if the spiders invade Vorah before we can act, so shut up because I'm not talking to you." Strax said, still smiling. He was fed up with the internal fighting and the family disunity; not that he cared if they all died, but he was more worried about the next problem. "Our father doesn't care about these things, and he probably isn't even in the Ducato to stop this with the godlike strength he has, so it's down to the three of us and my wives. And you," he pointed at Veronica, "Shut up and do the bare minimum if you want Xenovia to be okay, for reasons I don't understand, since as far as I know, you don't care about anyone; just help me prevent us from being wiped out."
"Goodness, what's gotten into you today? You weren't like this," Diana commented, crossing her arms. "Of course, imagine being forced to do something because your retard of a father decided it was a good idea to sell his daughter and gave me the task of cleaning up his messes. And now, six months have vanished. So yes, I'm very annoyed and yes, I'm very irritated with you; after all, as far as I know, you're the information chief, and I'm not seeing any information anywhere, are you, my dear stepmother?" He commented with his eyes closed, making a happy yet frightening expression at the same time.
"Goodness, what bit you..." Diana murmured.
"It wasn't me that got bitten; it was a woman named Sylvia, who is in my house, about to die from spider venom," Strax replied, short and blunt.
Diana seemed to realize the gravity of the situation for the first time. "How many spiders have you seen? And how close are they?" she asked, her tone now more serious.
"I haven't seen anything yet; this woman I mentioned was bitten and had her group torn apart while exploring the forest north of the city. They travel in large groups; I don't know what they're doing, but if they're hungry, the chances of them marching here just increase. I'm already starting some preparations to hunt them, but alone, this will be impossible," Strax commented with a sigh. "I haven't had time to prepare yet, so what will we do?" he questioned, since Diana was the commander when Albert was not around.
"If you had this information, why didn't you tell us before?" Veronica questioned, but Strax was not willing to be distracted by her criticisms. "Shut up, you don't have a say here. You weirdo," he shot back quickly. "B-but! You little—" "Quiet." Strax said as his aura intensified.
'He's... almost twice as strong as the last time we saw him... what the hell happened to him?...' she thought.
' Veronica finally seemed to relent a bit, her expression softening. "Then let's unite. I'll go with you. If we don't do this, we'll lose much more than just our dignity. And I... I don't want to lose Xenovia."
"You want to come with me? After this, I've heard it all," Strax replied.
Veronica rolled her eyes, trying to mask the mix of nervousness and determination. "It's not a matter of wanting, Strax. It's a matter of necessity." She crossed her arms and pouted.
Strax smirked sarcastically. "You're just worried about your own skin, aren't you? Concern for Xenovia is just a disguise for your selfishness."
"Tsk, annoying," Veronica muttered, and Strax gave a faint smile... But it was quickly shattered...
[Veronica Vorah Joined the Party]
'What the—
'
At that moment, his eyes caught the notification from the System popping up right before him, everything he wanted now...
'Holy hell...'
he murmured.
[Mission: Exterminate the Spider Horde]
[Summary: The Twelve-Legged Demon Spider has released its cocoons and offspring in some part of the forest. Exterminate all of them and find her nest.]
[Reward: Affection from Diana Vorah, Affection from Veronica Vorah, ???]