Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka? - Vol. 8 Ch. 39.2

[huyhuy14]

Maybe the mother was waiting for her to defeat alaba and make it possible to exit the labyrinth?

 

[Zael]

Why don't they eat in a coordinated fashion to disable the legs on just one side entirely to begin with? Or start with the eyes or something?

 

[Knonderd]

I just caught up to the manga, is the web novel translation is still going on? Last time I heard, there were no translator picked up the WN translation. After dropping it for a long time and reading the latest chapter, I finally understand why people like this series. I want to enjoy the continuation of from the latest chapter, which is better for me WN or LN?

 

[sinisempi]

@Kryon_PL isn't the WN translation caught up? the author is only pushing out LNs

 

[Knonderd]

@sinisempi, the last time I checked is in 2016. So I might be wrong.

 

[Bramia]

@Zael they aren't eating her literally. It's her mind and showing the body "half eaten" is just a way to represent how far they got. It doesn't mean they actually ate her limbs

 

[iloveaquariums123]

@liquidxlax I think its shown in the manga that mother is around the size of the dragons in the labyrinth. Seen when she was in the second layer.

Edit:

Spoiler

In WN ch.3 kumo-chan says mother is 30 meters in length, and kumo-chan herself is around 1 meter at this stage. Just came across this in my reread

 

[Sancturil]

@Kryon_PL The latest web novel chapter was posted by the author on November 11, 2018. We're still waiting for more chapters, but according to a post by the author a few months ago, she(?)'s been busy working on not only the light novel, but also a lot with the anime staff. The anime was originally given a 2019 release date, but other than the old trailer(from over a year ago, I think) we haven't heard about it apart from that blog post by the author. So clearly it's taking them more time than initially intended.
I hope we'll get the anime in 2020 and that the author will continue the web novel eventually, especially since the author has stated that the two versions are going into somewhat different routes due to the differences between the two of them. So I really want to get the ending of the web novel version.

 

[Sancturil]

@Tych I'm pretty sure the entire mind body is her mind. It shouldn't make any different which part they eat first, since it's all Mother's mind, so the entire mind body is her head.

 

[Tych]

@Sancturil well yeah but I assume she would keep refined motor skills or something in her head even if it was her mental body . . .is that weird?

 

[Sancturil]

@saifors Well, yes, the poses is an example of one of the things done to make it more cutesy. The color pattern of the spiders is as well. In the web novel, Kumoko and her kind (Taratect, including Mother) are not pink-ish, but black (but I don't remember if they had spider body hair or not).
The light novel (and by extension the manga and anime) changed that. I'm among those who dislike that change. Other than that, in the light novel, Kumoko does change colors a bit as she evolves, but here in the manga she doesn't. The scarier(?) patterns on her body are also toned down in the manga compared to those from the LN.

Edit: also, about the poses in the manga. In both the WN and LN, Kumoko is unable to turn her head, precisely because she's a spider. So she senses things behind her (and diagonally behind her) through the vibrations in her silk(like real spiders do). The manga added the cosplaying poses kind of thing.

 

[Sancturil]

@Tych Well, Mother can still make her legs function even with the legs of her mind body already eaten(the lower half of all her legs). That doesn't impede her motor skills.
You should also think of the "mind body" as a representation of the "soul," because that is what it actually is. It hasn't been very well explained in the manga, but it's very clear in both the WN and LN that it's the soul.
(Also, Heresy targets the mind through the soul, and Heresy Immunity makes you immune to soul/mind attacks. For example, of the lower rank Heresy spell is to cause discomfort in someone's body and mind, but it actually does it through the soul so it bypasses all physically and mental defenses.)
So, in short, Kumoko's split minds are corroding and taking over Mother's soul. In this series, the mind is a product of your soul.

 

[Sancturil]

@alfa2aero Yes, and "Information-in-charge" is also the original. When the first split-mind was made, it was Body-in-charge that was made. And the original nicknamed herself Information-in-charge. She's also the one that has been focusing on skills such as appraisal, detection, etc, as well as the one who was the de-facto leader and main decision maker.

 

[Tych]

@Sancturil okay so wait if Magic in charge 1 were to like use heresy attacks couldn't she accelerated the whole destroy mother's Soul body faster then them eating it could?

 

[Sancturil]

@Tych I suppose so, but for that it would also require an actual body to use the magic from (since it requires mana(that's what it was called in this series, right?)).
However, the act of mind/soul corrosion that they are doing is described in the novel as a simile heresy attack from outside the System. In short, if the target had Herersy immunity, this mind/soul take-over wouldn't work, and if the resistance is high(such as in Mother's case), then it takes a long time.
So technically speaking, this mind/soul corrosion is already an Heresy attack, just one that isn't an Heresy spell and that doesn't required mana to use.

Also, while the split-minds have kept their nicknames, they no longer have those functions since they aren't in the main body anymore. However, once they do take-over Mother, they'll be able to use Mother's body.

 

[Tych]

@Sancturil wait so is she going to turn her mother into a puppet?

 

[Sancturil]

@Tych Well, if the soul has been fully corroded/taken over, it's not really a puppet anymore. At that point the targeted soul isn't really itself anymore. Maybe referring to it as the soul being "devoured" would be better, but that's not exactly what's happening. I'm not really sure how to explain this in a clear fashion, but the gist of it is that Mother's mind will be no more and the body without the split-minds controlling it would just be a husk. So in that sense, I guess you could call it a puppet, just not one in the sense of controlling a person.
Also, what did you think was going to happen once the mind/soul was taken over? This has already been established by this point, and there are several manga-only readers who have commented on that (though most of their comments on the topic were more so in the angle that they view Mother's actions as meaningless in the end, with them commenting on how even if the main body loses(or even dies) to Mother, that's not going to stop the split-minds(who are now no longer connected to the main body, as seen in this chapter) from still taking over Mother's mind).

 

[SweatyBrie]

FREEDOM, MY COMRADES!

 

[Straforel]

😱Nai wa! 😱

 

[Pokari]

Narrator:

"That was not the Last Boss."