CHAPTER 28-CHIMERA_Epoch of Desolation

Rain was afraid, terrified even, and he was ever so right to be.

An Anaconda was a snake known for its size. And even though he did not know precisely what the ‘Chimera’ tag was supposed to mean yet, it was quite obvious that the current Anaconda he was being warned of by the Plexus wasn’t the same as the ones earth used to have. Despite the distance between them, and the blur the downpour caused to his view, it seemed to be twice the size of what he remembered an Anaconda was supposed to look like.

Rain closed his eyes and sighed exasperatedly. That took priority at the moment. After all, he had to cure himself of the hope sickness that had plagued him.

Yes. Hope sickness.

Somewhere along the way, despite him never once discarding unpredictability, some seed of hope had sprouted deep down within him that he might just be able to complete his mission without any such thing as a hitch.

So much for that.

[Side Plot]

A Chimera Anaconda has appeared, and it holds animosity towards you. Survive.

Rain opened his eyes and into his view came the message that served as a countdown to another battle of his. It had only been a day and he’d been involved in so much that it had begun to feel like a week.

He sighed three more times in subsequent intervals; after which he shifted his crossbody bag to his front and dug his hand into the front most section of it where he kept the kitchen knife serving as his weapon.

But just as he was about to bring it out, a heavy and slow primal voice reverberated in his head, pausing his actions and widening his eyes where he stood with his forehead buried underneath the hood of his hoodie.

The guttural voice had not passed through his ears. No. It was as though it had always been within his skull all this time, ancient and buried in a tomb somewhere there. Like a mist shadowing the forest of his mind, it echoed in an hypnotic manner, forcefully pulling his attention.

What was that?

Rain looked up, befuddled in that instant, and… his blood turned cold—frozen within his veins.

For a moment there he couldn’t breath. His heart took notice of that and pumped blood faster, but despite its efforts they didn’t flow. Or maybe they did, but Rain couldn’t know that, could he? After all, his life was flashing before his eyes.

Usually, the sort of scenes he would be seeing at this point in time were ways on how he could defeat whatever beast was before him and survive. That was not the case now. The ones he saw were those depicting the various ways his life would end here.

Wh-What the hell is this? He instinctively staggered backwards.

Rain had seen the Anaconda’s silhouette already while it had still been on the ground between the large trees surrounding the area, but now—now that it was perked up—his previous view had deceived him.

This… This was more than just twice the size of anything.

The beast stretched into the clouds above; and even if that wasn’t quite true, it was well above Rain’s home—larger than the burly trees too. It was a castle, a skyscraper, a giant, a… god.

Rain’s hood fell off his head, plunging his face into the harsh rain, as he tried to look up at the Anaconda towering over him—towering over the small span of area he believed to be his home.

It had glistening scales of green that looked like the gems of an exquisite armor, four eyes—a pair on each side—and a thick black mane that flew down its back almost like a horse's own. Also, just like the Coyotes and the wharf rat, on its forehead was a great glowing black horn which looked like it had been crafted from the most exotic of jewels to ever grace the history of earth.

The sight was both beautiful and terrifying.

Whatever the Plexus meant by calling this monstrosity a Chimera, Rain believed it made the right choice. Tagging it with the mere ‘mutated’ word as the wharf rat and Coyotes would have been basically sacrilege. After all, those ones had not filled him with the dread he was feeling now.

There was no way he stood a chance here. Thank goodness he was yet to bring out his knife. He had to run—right now.

Rain was about to discard his whole purpose of coming to his home when the voice he’d completely forgotten about slithered its way into his head once again, rooting him to the spot.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

It can speak…? Rain thought in fright. Anyone would. But this was not the time to be scared. He had to calm down and act as he’d always done to survive until this point. By weighing the pros and cons of any action he might take. And as he did, he realized that running away was a bad idea.

Firstly, turning his back to a beast of such a caliber was definitely stupid. He was to it what an ant was to a human. No matter how fast it might think it could run, all that needed to be done was to decipher its next movement and drop a foot there in time, crushing it.

That was precisely the way he would end up, just different in that he would most likely be eaten after it all.

In that regard, the best thing to do was…

Rain raised up his hands as a means of showing that he meant no harm; he only hoped that when he tried picking up his knife the Anaconda had not been alerted of him holding any animosity towards it. He did not seem to have a good friendship with that thing called ‘hope’ though.

Well, it was not like that was the crux of his plan.

The fact that the Anaconda could communicate with him meant that it had wits, just like J. In other words, he could try communicating with it and possibly get it to allow him to gather a few memory triggers from his own home and leave after.

“Rain Leclair!” Rain voiced through the downpour.

Then why did you ask?

Rain’s eyes narrowed then blinked fervently as his face was bathed with the water from the sky. He wanted to wipe his face, but that would mean putting down his hands; he did not want any problems so he remained the way he was.

Also, he was quite surprised that the Anaconda’s English was good despite being a reptile.