Wizard's Tower - Arc 3 - Chapter 23

In my excitement, I had flown northeast for more than an hour before I stopped. Belatedly, I remembered my intention to head south into Tervan and lift some of the jungle people’s towns or villages onto plateaus. My return south was circuitous as I traveled outside the area I had found the alchemist rather than experience any awkwardness that might come should he see me again.

It was almost morning when I arrived at the shattered lands and saw the thick jungle from where I had flown, yet I didn’t immediately fly into it. Their god, I recalled, was a raven or crow during the night, and a snake with a head on each end during the day. While I had my most powerful invisibility spells and dampened much of my magical aura, I simply didn’t know what such a being might be capable of. I had no proof of the matter, but it seemed to me that my chances of successfully escaping if I were discovered would be much greater if I could fly when it could not.

While I waited, I noticed the odd movements of beasts and monsters in the crevasses below. Mutated snakes and birds seemed to be traveling south towards the jungles, while different jungle creatures such as great cats and unusually large reptiles were headed north.

I watched quick and brutal fights take place when their paths crossed but spent no effort to interfere—except on one occurrence where a young mother and her babe were cornered. I delivered them to a small holding nearby, all while I ignored her pleas to take the child because it was destined to save the world. There were no magical traces I could see which would confirm such a claim, and I doubted her words put forth for any more reason than she thought I would be a better protector than she.

When dawn did come, I traveled slowly and cautiously over the thick Tervan jungle. Bloated and twisted trees covered much of their lands, the greenery dark and foreboding.  I used wind elementals to scout far, far around me so that I wouldn’t be surprised, and through them, I could make out several unusual things on the horizon. The way I had traveled placed me closer to the center of the jungle country, and I suspected the very center more likely to find their castles or towns, but the height I was flying gave me a good view of much of the surroundings.  

To the west, through the eyes of elementals, I could see massive figures. Man-shaped creations of roots and vines that looked like the local dryads had combined their various vinemen to create giants that stood as tall as the trees themselves, equal in size to my fifth-tier elemental. They battled along the border of the jungle against numerous hydra, but both sides were seemingly at a stalemate. The vine giants regrew parts of their bodies that were bitten away by hungry hydra.  The hydra regrew heads and necks when the giants tore them away. While I wanted to watch to see the outcome, I turned east to search for their city.

I could tell I was growing closer to their capital as I flew, but was astounded when I found it. Their buildings, which would have been dome-shaped constructs of thatch, leaves, and mud, appeared more like enormous eggs when surrounded by the enormous serpent that was their god. The avatar of their god was so enormous that even laying coiled around the city, its viperlike heads breached the treeline.  

When I had seen the vine giants earlier, I had been impressed at the power of the dryads to construct creations that could compare with the elemental octopus I had summoned. It was quite humbling to see that either their giants or my creation could fit inside its mouth. The scales looked black at first glance, but the way they shined and reflected light made me uncertain—more so when I realized that I could vaguely see the impressions of faces within, each one stuck in a macabre scream. 

Then, the great snake lifted one of its ponderous heads and looked up at me despite my invisibility. The two eyes seemed to pierce my very being, and I shook in unadulterated terror. This was the gaze of a predator, a creature beyond even my understanding. Sweat began to drip from my scalp and my back.

To it, I was an ant; less than an ant. I was insignificant. Not even worthy to hunt. I felt my mouth open and tears pool in the corner of my eyes, as I fought against the sheer fear that ran through me. Those monstrous otherworldly eyes made me feel cornered, and I knew right then and there that not even my most powerful magics, not my wards, nor my flight could save me should I be deemed prey.

Then, the second head rose as well, thankfully not looking at me. I didn’t know if I could stand before both pairs of eyes and not be left a gibbering imbecile. This head looked south toward the ocean, and when it lifted the other head turned to face the same way. I watched on, still unable to move, as the Tervan god slowly uncoiled and slithered southwards, heedless of trees or rocks that stood in its path. The second head rose higher than the first, poised and ready to strike as if a scorpion’s tail.

I watched for several long moments, seeing the crevasse that its body had created around the city start to fill with water before I followed behind the creature. I knew it had done something, used some kind of magic to set me into a trance. It was against my better judgment, and a good part of my mind was screaming within my head to turn around and flee—yet I couldn’t. Instead, I floated, both in body and mind, along the trail of destruction left in the wake of the creature, a path no one could fail to recognize.

Soon enough I was gazing down at the southern coastline of Tervan, seeing turbulent ocean waters filled with hydra. Their serpentine forms curved in and out of the waters, churning in frantic motions. I felt startled by the sight, as what should have been peaceful waves were instead frothing and chaotic waters. Yet, the beast of Tervan approached the shore and raised its massive head. An enormous forked tongue flicked out of its mouth, and it let loose a hiss so powerful I had to close my eyes and cover my ears.

That single hiss was then echoed by the other head, and I felt blood pool behind each of the hands I held to my head. When I could open my eyes again, the churning ocean waters had stopped and numerous hydra heads were floating on the surface facing the shore. In the shallower waters, I could see the shadows of their bodies beneath.  Motion from the jungle caught the corner of my eye, and I turned my head to see monsters, the corrupted and perverse snakes and birds of the jungle, quietly form a line along the coast.

When I turned my attention back to the ocean, I could see the hydra part, forming a space along the waters, and that became the path to something I hadn’t known existed. From the depth emerged on hydra head three times the size of those around it. Then another. And another.

Before long, an eight-headed monstrosity emerged and approached the shores, its eyes showing far more intelligence than the others of its kind.  It roared in challenge as it emerged from the waters, though the sound felt muted, perhaps by my blood-clogged ears.

Still, I couldn’t take my eyes away from the coming confrontation. This hydra, was only a third or perhaps half the size of the two-headed snake god, but it didn’t appear frightened at all. If anything, it appeared hungry.

I let my curiosity get the better of me, and used a quick analyze spell to see what I could learn. [Greater Hydra Broodmother] was the name, and though it didn’t provide a tier, one of the hydra’s heads looked in my direction as if searching for me. If the elder wyvern was of the sixth tier, I wasn’t certain this creature could be any less.

I realized, after casting, that I was no longer in a trance, yet I couldn’t help but watch in morbid curiosity to see what would happen between these two mountain-sized monsters as they began to circle each other. Then, one struck. In a snap that belied its size, the rear head of two-headed snake god bit away an entire head and neck of broodmother’s eight.

The broodmother’s body coiled as if in pain, but it made no sound. Instead, two heads began growing back in place of the one, while the snake god watched. Only once the two heads finished growing, did the snake god snap again, but this time the broodmother’s other heads snapped back. The smack of their collision vibrated the very air around me, and I turned and fled. My curiosity could only carry me so far.

The blind panic and horror of the snake god’s predatory gaze, the ocean filled with hydra and their broodmother, the fight between the two, it was all too much. I was lucky to be alive, and I knew it.  The shock of everything I had seen today was overwhelming, and I couldn’t stop myself from shaking as I flew away from the battle as quickly as I could.