Chua, Crane, and Retter view a boy at the local morgue. Zubloski cracks some jokes, which annoys Chua, and then says that over twenty people have died in the last few months from a drug called ‘silk.’ The drug is taken orally and brands its users’ tongues with a mark that looks like a spider bite. He also notes that one of the dead is a girl named Violet Russo, and her sister Gemma mysteriously vanished recently. Chua says the government thinks a rogue CIA agent named Steven Pauk, and codenamed ‘The Black Recluse,’ is responsible.
Crane says that the government knows how Chua and Retter helped catch Captain Nebel and think the duo can deal with Pauk too. Pauk is in a nation called Shen Guo, which is backed by China and which refuses to extradite Pauk or the massive cartel organization he’s built up. Retter notes that Shen Guo has very high elevation and asks if they’ll need mountaineering training. Crane says yes and adds that Bishop Beige has agreed to let Retter go train for a while. Chua can train too; the government really wants Pauk stopped and is willing to let Chua spend time training if that helps bring down a cartel kingpin. Zubloski says he doesn’t care about ‘wannabe wizard’ work and throw the others out of his office, but Chua just thanks Zubloski for his help.
Retter visits the Russo home, where Lucy, the mother of Violent and Gemma, rants at Retter about how all her prayers were for nothing. She shatters a figurine of St. Anthony and demands answers as to why God would let this happen given the family’s devout faith. Lucy storms off and her husband, John, apologizes. Retter pledges to do all he can, and he reassures John that God still loves him even though He’s having John ‘bear the cross’ that comes when drugs are funneled into the community.
Retter goes home to study but is interrupted by Crane and Grunow, the latter being the liaison who can explain things from the government’s point of view. Retter explains that Pauk has taken over a monastery part of the way up a huge mountain. The mountain is called ‘Dragon’s Tooth,’ and its summit is called ‘Sky Cathedral,’ but Pauk won’t let anyone climb above the monastery (or into it) without his permission. Even if he did, more than half the climbers known to try reaching Sky Cathedral died; the ascent is brutal. Grunow explains that the government tried sending special forces after Pauk but none came back, possibly due to supernatural happenings causing problems on the ascent to the monastery. Retter then says he’s learned that Pauk likely serves the demon De Aranea Satanas, or the ‘Spider of Satan,’ and that he may believe there’s some kind of supernatural portal within Sky Cathedral which he can use to transport drugs wherever he wants. However, local intelligence says that many of Pauk’s explorers have also never returned from investigating Sky Cathedral.
Grunow says that they have suborned Pauk’s driver Divsimar. If Retter and Chua can climb into the monastery and nab Pauk, Divsimar will drive them to the base camp used by climbers attempting to reach Sky Cathedral, and the government will extract everyone from there. Crane says he can’t join them because he’s too old for rock climbing, and Retter himself is unsure if he can climb thanks to his prosthetic leg, but Grunow says he’ll have months to learn how.
Eight months pass as Retter and Chua practice climbing in Yosemite National Park. Retter slips and is caught by his rope, and when Chua reassures him that nobody is perfect, Retter notes that the special ops teams all died and he’s worried they will too if he screws up. Chua insists that they can handle the climb, especially given Retter’s skill in dealing with supernatural enemies. The next day, the group goes to their helicopter and talk with both Crane and General Curtis Falco before departing. Falco goes over logistics and notes the monastery has little security on the inside. Crane notes that the government will disavow them if they’re caught so as not to cause a diplomatic fracas with Shen Guo and China. Crane, however, says that no matter what the government does, he will get them out.
Retter and Chua reach Shen Guo and rappel down to meet their guide Aakampan. He says the locals are happy that someone is finally dealing with Pauk, and many consider it an answer to prayer. He takes them to the mountain’s base and explains that Sky Cathedral has long been rumored to be a portal of some kind, and was even supposedly used by monks to evangelize, but when Pauk took over he shot everyone who wouldn’t accept him. Since the monks kept no written records, nobody knows how to use the portal any longer. He gets them to the mountain, gives them their gear, tells them the climb should take about twelve hours, and leaves.
Hours into the grueling climb, the Spider of Satan takes the form of a large black spider, crawls over Chua’s backpack, and gnaws through his cables. His gear drops and he begins to panic, but Retter reassures him and gets him back on track. Hours later, as the sunsets and the duo near the monastery, Retter reaches into a crack and is bitten by the Spider. Trapped in a nightmarish world of visions called ‘The Devil’s Web,’ he hallucinates Chua falling off the mountain and begins to think that he failed and everyone he cares for will suffer and die because of his errors. Retter then realizes that the thoughts aren’t his and he prays for God to protect him even as the Spider seems to wrap him in a web. Retter snaps back to reality where Chua caught him from falling; Chua himself begins to panic and says he almost dropped him, but Retter says Chua saved him and is doing fine. The two make it to the monastery.
Using instructions provided by Divsimar, the duo infiltrate the monastery. They stumble across Gemma, who is drugged into a stupor with the ‘silk’ drug, and they resolve to carry her out after catching Pauk. Gemma feebly pleads for help as Retter lays his hand on her to comfort her and then leaves to go after their target. They find Pauk in another room, but he’s waiting for them and has tied Divsimar to a large rock. Pauk is dressed like a Buddhist monk but has six eyes which all glow red. He rants about Divsimar’s betrayal and then attacks the man with machetes, but Chua and Retter shoot and drive him away. Retter wraps his fist with the rosary he took from Cascia’s body during his last adventure and then battles Pauk, who climbs up the walls like a spider, while Chua deals with a couple of guards who rush in. Retter manages to beat Pauk and knocks him out. He runs back for Gemma, and then he, Chua, an Divsimar leave hauling Gemma and Pauk.
The group escapes the compound moments ahead of pursuing guards and they reach the extraction point, where Crane is waiting in a helicopter. They manage to get Gemma into the helicopter, but even as Chua manages to blow up the car of some pursuing guards, one guard springs free and fires an explosive at the helicopter before anyone else can get into it. The helicopter is blasted, knocking back Retter, Chua, and the unconscious Pauk, and the pilot retreats without picking them up (though the gunner shoots up the rest of the pursuing guards as the helicopter flies away). Crane jumps out of the helicopter as it starts to rise and lands among his companions; meanwhile, Retter looks at Pauk’s unconscious form, has a vision of himself when he was maimed by an IED, and saves him from the flames.
A couple of locals join the group and one says that Pauk’s men control all the land exits from the country, but the group might be able to escape if they reach Sky Cathedral and figure out how to use the portal. The locals say at least three out of every four men who make the attempt die, some of whom just disappear, and the survivors report terrifying hallucinations, but nobody has a better idea for getting the team out of Shen Guo. The locals agree to provide equipment and to help carry Pauk until the group reaches the final ascent.
After a week, the group is nearing the final ascent, but they’re only two days ahead of Pauk’s men and they need to rest for a while to acclimate to the high altitude they’ve reached. A local says that Pauk has agreed to talk, but only to Crane, so Crane goes into Pauk’s tent. Pauk taunts Crane and then spits up a matchbook with obsidian matches, saying after he’s done that Retter was already tempted once and will fall again once Crane is gone. He further taunts Crane by noting that Retter is Crane’s second apprentice and something bad happened to the first one.
—Steven Pauk
Crane retreats. .Outside the tent, he takes out of photo of himself and another priest — presumably Soulfinder 78 — and bows his head.
In their tent, Retter notes that the scars he took during his last mission may never go away, and Chua grumbles that the portal will probably dump them in the Bermuda Triangle if it works at all. He asks Retter to tell his parents that he loves them if he dies. Retter tells him to stop talking like that, and then references Chua having biological parents as well. Chua just says he’s no good at fighting supernatural beings, but Retter says he and Crane have no powers either, only faith. He recommends Chua try that and then gives him the rosary he took off of Cascia’s body. However, Pauk’s men begin launching artillery up the mountain in the hopes of causing an avalanche, and the group has to move out right away. Pauk taunts them, mocking how the government failed them and how they can’t seem to perform any miracles, and then hints that the group is caught in a web of deceit spun by the American government.
The room gets darker as Pauk criticizes Retter for not reconciling with his sister, Chua for not reconciling with his birth parents, and Crane for not reconciling with his past and whatever happened to his last partner. The priests pray and rebuke him, but he bites Chua, and Chua collapses. He sees visions of himself before he was given up for adoption until he wakes up a day later with his arm burning. A local then enters the tent and says they have to hurry before the cartel catches them.
The group only has two masks, which go to the injured Chua and the prisoner Pauk. Chua wants Crane to have his mask on account of the other man’s age, but Crane just says he’ll ask for air if he needs it. He demands answers for Pauk about what his bite actually did but Retter just tells him to let it go and Pauk says his bite only revealed what was already there. Crane and Retter prevail upon Chua to ignore Pauk and get moving.
The locals agree to slip down the mountain and act as bait to draw off the cartel while the others climb on. Crane and Retter lean on each other while Chua drags Pauk, who has been strapped to a sledge. Chua gives his oxygen to Crane for the final push to the summit. The group ascends further and reaches a camp, and as Crane prays, Pauk says the government abandoned both of them and blamed them for their own failures. He tells Crane to stop denying himself pleasures just to serve institutions that will never support him, and then says that his drugs give people like Gemma an escape from the crumbling remains of Western civilization. Retter tells him to shut up, and then they all hear the cartel approaching, so they abandon the camp and resume their ascent. As they reach Sky Cathedral, though, they enter a blizzard and Chua loses track of the priests as he drags Pauk upwards. Pauk continues taunting Chua until Chua decks him and knocks him out, then demands to know why God is letting this happen, but he gets no response.
Chua reaches a building atop Sky Cathedral and enters to fin the priests standing in a church. A portal glows on the altar. Retter says that Crane is dying from altitude sickness and they have to take their chances in the portal. He calls Chua his friend and then carries Crane through the portal. A baffled Chua takes Pauk and follows.
The portal drops Chua and Pauk into a grassy mountain and removes their winter gear. This reveals that Chua’s hand and arm are badly scarred and warped from Pauk’s bite. With Pauk still unconscious, Chua meets a man named Christopher (implied to be Saint Christopher
who addresses Chua by name and lets him put Pauk on the back of his mule so that he doesn’t have to haul the man around anymore. Christopher says that Retter and Crane finished their journey, and now Christopher can lead Chua to the exit point too.
Christopher tells Pauk to order a large boulder to move. Chua grips the rosary and does so, and it crumbles to dust. Christopher says that this is the power of faith. He then leads Chua to another portal, but Chua sees images of himself as a child after being abandoned by his biological parents, and Christopher says Chua must forgive them before he can leave. Chua protests that his parents abandoned him and says that his adoptive parents are his real parents anyways, but Christopher rebukes him and says not to play semantic games. Chua then says he has to get Pauk to justice but Christopher says that’s not important at the moment. He leaves.
Chua considers for a long moment as he looks at his past self. Then he glances at his warped hand, clenches it, and touches the image of himself. He is able to walk through the portal and he appears before Retter and Crane on Mount Carmel. Pauk’s unconscious form is still on the mule next to him. Chua thanks the priests, saying he’d have died if they hadn’t convinced him to forgive his parents, but Crane says the credit is due to God and also to him (for listening to God). The group leaves for the nearest American embassy.
In an epilogue, John thanks Retter for rescuing Gemma and apologizes on Lucy’s behalf. Retter has mostly repaired the figurine of St. Anthony that Lucy broke and he gives it back to John. John thanks him and asks for details of Gemma’s rescue; Congress and the military are staying mum about the whole incident, and all Gema remembers is that a ‘guardian angel’ carried her to safety. Retter says that angels may have helped but the team itself wasn’t angels; he also notes that Pauk is safely in custody ‘on many levels.’ John leaves and Retter looks at a photograph of him, Crane, and Chua standing before the American flag.
This comic contains examples of the following tropes:
- Bald of Evil: Pauk is an evil demoniac and is completely bald.
- Rage Against the Heavens: Lucy does this early in the story, and Chua does it near the end. Both recover.
- Rogue Agent: Pauk is a former CIA agent who was corrupted and built a cartel in service to a demon.
- Scaling the Summit: Retter, Crane, and Chua have to do this to escape Shen Guo.
- Spiders Are Scary: Pauk’s demon takes the form and identity of a large spider, and Pauk himself also displays spider characters like having too many eyes and being able to crawl up walls.
