The air around them was thick with tension. The night that had once been calm now seemed full of ominous silence. Lucian's breath caught in his throat as he watched the child, whose eyes glowed with a terrifying, unnatural light. For a brief moment, he had thought they had defeated the serpent's power, but now, standing before him, was the undeniable truth: the serpent was inside her.
Daen's hand tightened around his axe, his grip shaking. "What have we done?" he muttered, his voice tinged with fear and guilt. "We thought we could save her, but this... this isn't her anymore."
Lucian could barely hear Daen's words. He was too consumed by the sight before him—the child who had once been a symbol of hope now standing as an avatar of something ancient, something dreadful. The serpent's influence was undeniable, and it was no longer just a force lurking in the shadows. It had fully taken root.
"She was never just a victim," Lucian whispered to himself, his mind racing. "We were wrong to think that. She was always a part of this. But... Why now? Why has it happened like this?"
The child tilted her head, her glowing eyes locked onto Lucian and Daen with an intensity that sent a chill down their spines. Her voice, when it came, was no longer the soft, innocent sound they had once heard. It was deep and resonant, carrying with it an unnatural weight that seemed to reverberate through the very earth beneath their feet.
"The serpent has awakened," she said, her voice echoing in the night, as if more than one being spoke through her. "And so have I."
Lucian's heart pounded. "No… We stopped the high priest. We broke the ritual."
"Did you?" the child's voice twisted, as though mocking him. "Did you think such things could be undone so easily?"
Daen stepped forward, his eyes wild with desperation. "What do you want from us? Why are you doing this?"
The child's gaze shifted to Daen, and for a moment, there was something in her eyes—something that almost seemed like the child they had known. But it was fleeting, vanishing as quickly as it had appeared. She raised her hands, and the ground trembled once more.
"I want nothing," the child said. "It is not I who seek destruction, but the serpent. Its will is mine, as mine is now its. The time has come to end the cycle of man's corruption. The serpent will rise again, and all will be remade."
Lucian's pulse quickened. "You're… you're being used. This isn't you. You're more than this."
But the child only smiled, her lips curling into an eerie expression. "You do not understand. I am no longer bound by your world, nor by your rules. The serpent is ancient, beyond your comprehension. It is the one true force, and it will remake everything, as it always has."
The air seemed to hum with dark energy. The trees around them groaned as if they were being twisted and reshaped by some unseen hand. The night sky, once heavy with clouds, now crackled with a strange, violet energy that pulsed from the child's glowing eyes.
Daen looked to Lucian, his expression filled with growing horror. "What do we do? She—she's no longer herself. This is the serpent controlling her."
Lucian didn't have an answer. He had no plan, no way to fix this. He had thought the serpent was a force to be defeated, but he had never anticipated something like this—an embodiment of the serpent itself, wearing the face of a child. He felt a sharp pang of guilt. Had they been too hasty? Had they failed her?
"I don't know," Lucian finally said, his voice tight. "But we can't give up on her. We have to fight back, even if it's hopeless. We need to stop the serpent, before it consumes her entirely."
Daen's axe remained in his grip, but he looked uncertain, as though torn between his desire to protect the child and his fear of the power she now wielded.
The child began to move toward them, her steps unnaturally graceful, her eyes blazing with an inner fire. "You will see, Lucian. Daen. You will see what I have become."
Lucian reached for his sword, but before he could draw it, the ground around them exploded in a flash of bright light. The forest around them began to buckle, twisting and warping as if reality itself were being reshaped. The trees, once gnarled and twisted, now writhed like serpents, their roots lifting from the ground and coiling into the air.
The child raised her arms high, and the energy around them intensified. Lucian could feel the power surging through the earth beneath him, as though the very fabric of the world was being torn apart.
"Stop!" Lucian shouted, his voice raw with desperation. "We can stop this! You don't have to do this!"
The child stopped, her eyes flickering for a moment. It was a brief moment, but it was enough. In that instant, Lucian saw the child beneath the serpent, the girl they had tried so hard to save. It was faint, barely noticeable, but it was there.
"Please," Lucian whispered, stepping forward. "I know you're still in there. You don't have to be its vessel. Fight it. Fight for yourself."
The child's lips trembled. For a second, she seemed to hesitate. But then, the serpent's influence surged once more, and the hesitation vanished. Her eyes flared brighter, and the magic around them became oppressive, thick and suffocating. The child's voice—no longer her own—spoke once more, a deep, rumbling sound that seemed to reverberate through the air.
"You think you can save her? There is no saving what is already claimed."
Lucian's heart sank, but he didn't falter. "We'll fight until the end. We won't let you take her."
The earth trembled beneath them as the serpent's power intensified. The sky darkened, and the world seemed to close in on them. There was no escape from what was happening, no way to undo the horrors that had been set in motion. But Lucian knew one thing: they could not let the serpent win.
Lucian turned to Daen, his expression resolute. "We don't have much time. We need to get to the mountains—the old temple. That's where the artifact is. That's where we can end this. We can't let her become its weapon."
Daen nodded grimly, his expression darkening. He knew the stakes now. He knew what had to be done.
With the child's power pressing down on them, they began their march toward the mountains. The forest writhed and screamed around them, but they pushed forward. The serpent's hold on the child grew stronger with each passing moment, but they were not ready to give up. Not yet.
As they left the clearing behind and headed deeper into the darkness, Lucian couldn't shake the feeling that the true battle was only just beginning. The child was slipping further from their reach, but as long as they had breath in their bodies, they would fight for her.
They would fight until the serpent was no more.