Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka? Volume Chapter 1

The Nightmare of the Labyrinth (henceforth referred to as “the Nightmare”) is a dangerous spider monster estimated to be legendary-class.

The first reported sighting of the Nightmare was in year 841 of the Kingdom Calendar in the Great Elroe Labyrinth.

When abnormal behavior broke out among the monsters in the labyrinth, Ohts requested the help of their allies in the Renxandt Empire in finding and resolving the source of the problem.

Accepting the request, the Empire sent a group of knights into the labyrinth to investigate, where they happened upon the Nightmare.

Based on a judgment call made by the labyrinth guide and the knight captain, this force immediately retreated without engaging in combat.

Not long after, the knight captain called for reinforcements.

In response, the Empire dispatched an elite squad, led by the summoned knight Buirimus.

The team engaged in battle with the Nightmare, leaving only Buirimus alive.

Later, the Nightmare appeared outside the Great Elroe Labyrinth.

It destroyed the Elroe fortress in Ohts.

For some time after that, its whereabouts were unknown.

Right around this period of time, a queen taratect broke through the bedrock and emerged from the Great Elroe Labyrinth as if summoned by the Nightmare.

The queen taratect destroyed Mt. Uine with a single breath attack, then returned to the labyrinth.

The exact connection between this queen taratect’s actions and the Nightmare is unknown.

The next sighting of the Nightmare occurred the following year, Kingdom Calendar 842, appearing in what was Keren County of Sariella.

After creating a nest near the town at the center of Keren County, the Nightmare resided there for some time.

During its stay, there are accounts that claim the Nightmare healed sick or injured villagers, culled the robbers who were running rampant at that time, and chased away nearby monsters.

The humans who benefited from this likened the Nightmare to the Goddess’s Divine Beast, a mythical spider of legend, and began to spread praise of the monster throughout Sariella, possibly as a form of propaganda.

This behavior was a complete turnaround from the Nightmare’s obliteration of the Empire’s elite force and the destruction of the fortress in Ohts.

However, based on the fact that the citizens who lived near the Nightmare for so long were not harmed, combined with the existence of official statements by the former lord of the territory, most believe this account of events to be true.

It was around this time that Ohts took issue with Sariella.

Ohts stated that it was inexcusable for Sariella to worship the Nightmare as a divine creature after it had caused direct harm to Ohts and demanded they hand over the monster.

Sariella rejected this demand.

Tensions between the countries mounted.

Being followers of the Word of God, the Ohts Kingdom always held enmity against the Goddess-worshipping Sariella, but this incident caused their relationship to worsen all at once.

To make matters worse, the diplomat who had been sent to negotiate regarding the Nightmare suddenly died of unexplained causes.

There are those who believe the Nightmare was responsible for the death, but the veracity of this claim cannot be determined.

Others suggest that Sariella assassinated the diplomat.

With this incident as the final straw, the countries went to war.

The battle took place at Zatona Plain and is now known as the Tragedy of Zatona.

Sariella had a force of forty-two thousand soldiers.

Ohts had backup from the Empire and other countries that follow the Word of God, for a total of fifty-three thousand soldiers.

On this occasion, the Nightmare followed the Sariella Army to Zatona Plain as an ally and launched a magical attack against the Ohts Army.

It is said that this attack obliterated 10 percent of the Ohts Alliance Army.

As they were literally “obliterated,” no corpses remained, indicating the scale and power of the Nightmare’s attack.

This single attack crushed the morale of the Ohts Alliance, putting them in an unfavorable position.

However, no further records exist in our land of what occurred at the Tragedy of Zatona.

The battlefield was in chaos, and more importantly, there are so few survivors who know what truly happened, so it is impossible to record the truth in our history.

Some say the Nightmare began attacking indiscriminately, while others say it was fighting something or someone else, but the reality of the situation is unclear.

All that is known for sure is the Nightmare’s rampage resulted in massive losses for both armies.