The Spider Queen

\'Cleo\' kept her eyes closed and tried her best not to wince as her body was unceremoniously dragged across the floor.

Whoever was pulling her was clearly not interested in her well being because they kept slamming her body against the sides of the glass containers.

The fake princess furrowed her brows slightly and made a silent promise in her heart to kill these lunatics as soon as possible.

She could hear her brother and the mysterious woman talking amongst themselves as they carried her off to an unknown location.

"Mother… isn\'t this a bit dangerous? She is under the protection of Duke Peterlor… I don\'t want to become his enemy…" Prince Luke nervously spoke.

​ He glanced at his mother who was dragging his little sister on the ground behind her with an expressionless mask on her face.

"Relax my son… this is all part of the plan," the mysterious woman spoke.

"She seems to be rather… resistant… to our goals so we need to ensure that she is more… \'eager\' about our cause."

"In order for that to happen… some extreme measures will have to be taken."

Prince Luke hummed in acknowledgement and did not voice any more complaints.

He ignored the sinking feeling in his heart that somehow, they were making a huge mistake.

In order to beat his brother, he knew that he would have to take some risks.

If this plan was successful, then one of the most powerful cultivators in the Federation would stand by his side.

\'Cleo\' listened carefully as the pair continued to talk and reference this so-called \'plan\'.

Unfortunately, she did not hear any useful information as the middle-aged woman spoke in vague terms and her brother did not seem to know the full details.

The fake princess connected to the mental network linking herself to Sophie and sent out a few messages about the situation.

Sophie ordered her to maintain her helpless state in order to gather more information. Well… that was easy for her to say!

She wasn\'t the one whose body was being dragged across the ground like she was a dead animal.

\'Cleo\' passed the time by mentally counted to ten over and over in her mind as the minutes slowly dragged on.

Time seemed to stretch out as her vision remained shrouded in darkness.

Around ten minutes later… or maybe it was twenty… she could feel her body being lifted up from the ground.

\'Cleo\' flinched as she felt a hard metalloid object clamp across her wrists as well as her lower legs.

She barely had any time to react before a liquid was splashed across her face. It was foul smelling and stung her eyes.

"Wake up," a muffled voice hoarsely spoke.

\'Cleo\' figured that was her cue to start acting and blearily opened her eyes and blinked twice.

There was a helpless and confused expression on her face as she looked around and discovered that she was strapped to a chair in the middle of a dark room.

The only source of light came from the light bulb hanging from the ceiling. Standing in front of her was the middle-aged woman who now wore a white lab coat.

She held a syringe in her left hand that was filled with an orangish-red liquid that bubbled and hissed.

Prince Luke was nowhere to be seen.

"What? What the hell is going on?! Release me immediately!" \'Cleo\' growled darkly as she struggled against the restraints.

She could snap them with a bit of effort, but the real Cleo would have found them difficult to break out of.

"You will pay for this! When the duke finds out he… Arghhhh!" \'Cleo\' screamed as an electric current flowed through her body.

She turned her head around and saw that the chair was connected to a small metalloid box that had the symbols for positive and negative charges.

"Quiet child," the middle-aged woman slowly spoke as she leaned in closer and ran her fingers along the sides of \'Cleo\'s\' neck.

Her facial features were mostly blocked by a heavy black mask, but her eyes were exposed, and \'Cleo\' could see sadistic desires barely concealed by a superficial calmness.

The woman stabbed the syringe into \'Cleo\'s\' left arm and the mixture entered her body.

The fake princess groaned painfully as she felt a burning sensation in her arm.

This sensation soon turned to euphoria as \'Cleo\' felt as though her mind was floating on clouds of cotton candy.

Joy filled her heart and suddenly the dark room did not seem too bad. Even the scary looking woman now had a friendly smile beneath that mask.

"What… hahaha!" \'Cleo\' laughed madly as she fell under the effects of the drug.

"Good," the middle-aged woman calmly whispered as she undid the restraints and prepared to start the second stage of the brain washing.

"Remember this feeling… only I can give this to you…" the woman whispered as she leaned ever so closer until her lips were mere inches away from \'Cleo\'s\' own.

"You belong to me and my son. Your entire purpose is to make us happy. Will you make us happy?"

\'Cleo\' smiled sweetly and opened her mouth. Unfortunately, the words that came out were not what the middle-aged woman expected.

"Hell, no you crazy bitch!" \'Cleo\' shouted in anger before cocking back her fist and driving in straight into the woman\'s stomach.

Prince Luke\'s mother did not even have any time to react before her body flew backwards and slammed into a wall.

She slid down with a dull groan and looked down at her stomach to see that there was a large hole.

Blood spewed out of the hole and the life slowly began to drain from her eyes. Even at the moment of her death… she could not believe what had just happened.

What? How? How could the princess break free of the brainwashing drug\'s influence?

Even a void stage cultivator would need at least twenty minutes in order to detoxify the drug from their system.

\'Cleo\' walked towards the middle-aged woman and finished her off by stomping in her head using her foot.

It was a brutal way to kill but the fake princess felt no remorse or guilt.

Instead, she immediately dug around in the woman\'s pockets looking for any useful items or information.

She found three more of the syringes as well as a black tablet that was locked behind a passcode.

It would be possible to hack the device, but she did not have the necessary technological skills to do so.

\'Cleo\' tucked the tablet away in her storage bag and headed for the exit. It was time to get out of this place.

She found herself standing in a long corridor that was completely empty. Clearly the woman did not want to be disturbed when she was doing brainwashing sessions.

Okay… that was good news.

\'Cleo\' cautiously walked forward and took out a plasma rifle from her storage bag.

She did not know where to go but if she kept walking then surely, she would eventually find a way out.

The fake princess turned around a corner and saw two guards standing motionless with their backs against the wall.

She quickly ducked back around the corner and pointed her plasma rifle at the guard on the right.

She would only have a few seconds after killing the first guard to handle the second.

\'Cleo\' took in a deep breath and then slowly pulled her finger that was on the trigger.

Bang!

A plasma round tore through the guard\'s head and he slumped to the ground motionless. The guard next to him began to panic and reach for his weapon but it was already too late.

Bang!

His body landed neatly on top of the first.

Two shots.

Two perfect headshots.

A wicked grin flashed across \'Cleo\'s\' face as she approached the bodies and took the opportunity to remove their hoods.

She wanted to see what lay beneath those robes.