The Devourer-Queen's mandibles clacked together, but the sound that emerged was not a chitter or a hiss. It was a guttural, psychic roar that slammed into their minds with the force of a physical blow.

"KILL! KILL! KILL! KILL! KILL! KILL! KILL!"

The words were raw, unfiltered hatred given form, a singular, all-consuming imperative. Adam recoiled, not from the force, but from the shock. 'A monster… speaking? Not telepathically, but… projecting pure intent as language?'

«It's worse than I thought!» Lilith's mental voice was laced with genuine dread. «The forced evolution… it didn't just change her body. It has forced a higher consciousness to the surface! She is fully aware, truly sentient in her rage! She is beyond mere monster now!»

The newly conscious horror turned its chilling, intelligent gaze upon them. Its movements, while still hampered by its injuries, became more calculated, less frantic. It was learning, adapting while fighting.

Adam shook off the shock, his star-lit eyes hardening. «Stay calm. So she can talk. All that means is she'll be able to understand her own regret when I grind her into the dirt. We stick to the plan!»

They attacked again. Adam and Ignis harried her from the air with Ember Shard Shots and Solar Lances, while Lilith darted in with Mind Spikes. But the difference was palpable. Where before their attacks caused clear damage, now the Devourer-Queen's regenerating, resistant carapace absorbed or mitigated much of the impact.

A Solar Lance that would have burned a hole before only left a deep scorch mark. Her movements, though slow, were efficient, parrying and blocking with her remaining legs, using her massive body as a shield.

«This isn't working! Her resistance is too high!» Ignis cried out after her latest attack barely seemed to faze the spider.

«Lightning!» Alice snarled, her analytical mind cutting through the chaos. «Her regeneration is biochemically and thermally based! She's adapting to fire and poison! But the nervous system overload from the lightning earlier worked! It's the only thing that got a full reaction!»

Adam knew she was right. The Chain Lightning scroll was their best shot. But he was drained, and the spider was watching him, its new intelligence anticipating his strongest moves.

«Alice, take the scroll!» Adam commanded, tossing the enchanted parchment her way with a flick of his tail. «We'll create the opening. You unleash it on my signal. Aim for the wounds on her back!»

«Understood!» Alice caught the scroll in her jaws, her void energy already priming to activate the magic within.

«Ignis, Lilith! With me! All-out distraction! NOW!»

Adam dove straight at the Devourer-Queen's face, a suicidal charge. Ignis followed, bathing its head in continuous Solar Wind, not to damage, but to obscure its vision and overload its heat sensors. Lilith, risking everything, scrambled up a stalagmite and leaped onto the spider's back, directly between its shoulders. She plunged her legs down, not to pierce, but to anchor herself, and unleashed the most powerful Crimson Gaze she could muster directly into the base of its skull, a brutal, point-blank psychic assault.

"KILL YOU!" The Devourer-Queen shrieked, its consciousness recoiling from the mental invasion. It thrashed wildly, one of its legs slamming into Lilith and sending her flying with a sickening crack. But the damage was done. For a crucial second, its attention was completely fractured, its body spasming from the internal conflict.

«ALICE! NOW!» Adam roared, pouring every last drop of his own mana, every ounce of his will, into one final skill. He wasn't aiming to cut. He was aiming to hold. "STORM-REND!"

The vortex of cutting lightning erupted from him again, but this time he focused it not as a weapon, but as a cage. He wrapped the electrified, howling winds around the Devourer-Queen's upper body, the paralyzing current locking its muscles, the force holding it in place.

On the ground, Alice bit down on the Scroll of Chain Lightning, channeling her void energy into it. The parchment disintegrated in a flash of blue-white light.

The cavern erupted. A jagged spear of primordial lightning, thick as a tree trunk, lanced from the air above the spider and struck it directly in the center of its back, right where Lilith had been moments before. The lightning did not stop. It cascaded, splitting into multiple branches that raked across its body, dancing from wound to wound, searing the regenerative ichor instantly, overloading its newly sensitive nervous system with catastrophic voltage.

Adam's Stormrend, already holding it, conducted and amplified the magical lightning. The two powers merged into a single, devastating storm of annihilation centered on the Devourer-Queen.

It tried to resist. It tried to regenerate. It tried to push through the pain with its newfound will. Its body glowed with a desperate, ugly light as it burned its own life force to survive.

"SURRENDER ALREADY, DAMN YOU!!" Adam bellowed, pouring the last of his soul into the attack.

There was a final, silent psychic scream that wasn't a word, just a wave of pure, uncomprehending agony. Then, with a sound like a mountain cracking, the light within the Devourer-Queen died.

The Stormrend dissipated. The chain lightning faded. The massive, white-and-crimson form of the Ophiarachna, the Devourer-Queen, trembled once and collapsed to the cavern floor, its legs folding uselessly beneath it. The malevolent intelligence in its eyes guttered out, leaving only empty, black orbs.

Adam landed, his body screaming in protest, his mana core completely empty. He panted, great heaving breaths that steamed in the cold air. He looked at the fallen spider, then at his companions—Alice, standing protectively over a dazed but alive Lilith, Ignis landing shakily beside them.

«We… we did it,» he managed to project, the thought thick with exhaustion and disbelief.

Then, the notifications came, washing over him in a wave of hard-earned reward.

[ Ophiarachna, The Devourer-Queen Defeated! ]

[ +670 EXP | +2500 EP ]

[ Ding! Level Up! ]

[ You are now Level 48! ]

[ Ding! Level Up! ]

[ You are now Level 49! ]

[ Ding! Level Up! ]

[ You are now Level 50! ]

[ Next Level: 10 / 300 ]

[ Skill Points: +3 ]

[ Evolution Points: 1534 -> 4034/3500 ]

[ Evolution Requirements Met! Evolution Available! ]

[ Special Condition Met: Defeated a sentient Dungeon Lord while below its evolution tier.]

[ Unlocked Access to: Legendary Evolution Path - Eclipse Dragon Serpent ]

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