Nýchta groaned as Ephialtes crawled onto a muddy mound that lied deep with the Drowned Forest.

The two had travelled for about an hour but had only covered a distance of about three kilometres and according to Ephialtes, his village was another five or so kilometres away.

Unfortunately, for Nýchta, it seemed as though Ephialtes’ knowledge about the world and events beyond the bounds of his village was limited.

He knew that the world was in a state of unrest but he did not know why nor did he know that greater structure of the world.

The two rested on the mound as the sky darkened.

At this point, Nýchta’s mud covered body had grown really cold and her golden armour provided little protection against the elements.

She coiled her tail and sat on it while Ephialtes caught his breath.

She noticed he kept sneaking glances at her tail which, although covered with dirt and mud here.

She lowered her hands, allowing them to rest on her tail.

“W-why do you want to go to the underworld?” He asked from the other side of the mound.

“Because it is my home.” Nýchta said with a gentle smile but this made Ephialtes’ brows furrow a little.

“And you? Will you continue to hunt monsters or cast aside your spear as you said?”

Ephialtes turned to the water and clutched his spear ever tighter.

The air was still, the water unmoving and settled deep below was a thick layer of mud.

Nýchta noticed that Ephialtes was looking at his reflection.

“I do not know whether a monster would care or not but I come from a long line of warriors. My father and brother spent most of their lives fighting to defend our home from monsters and my grandfather even fought alongside the Great King Engonósaetoú. They are great men who will be remembered as such…”

“And then there is you.” Nýchta commented and Ephialtes weakly nodded.

“I want to live and die as my grandfather and brother did but…”

Nýchta slithered a little closer to Ephialtes before sighing.

“Have you ever considered the possibility that you weren’t meant to be a warrior?”

“Ugh! You sound just like my parents.” Ephialtes scoffed before crawling onto his feet.

Nýchta then watched as he returned into the water even though he was visibly tired but she didn’t question him.

She simply followed him but just as they left the mound, Nýchta spotted something approaching Ephialtes at a rapid pace from about ten meters away.

Apart from the water it displaced, it had small black fins that poked out of the water.

Unfortunately, the murkiness of the water made it hard for Nýchta to see just how big it was.

“Ephialtes, look out to your right!” She cried before rushing to his side.

“What’s wrong-“

Ephialtes’ eyes widened upon seeing the approaching fins.

Nýchta unsheathed her daggers and raised them as the fins got closer and closer.

They eventually got close enough that she could see the general of whatever was beneath and she frowned upon seeing that it was just a fish.

“Huh.” Ephialtes sounded as the fish swam past Nýchta and him.

It then made its way towards the mound but just Ephialtes opened his mouth to comment, two large jaws, lined with long, needle-like teeth, emerged from the water beneath the fish and they instantly shut.

The creature, which had a head that resembled that of a crow sunk into the water and although it disappeared into the muck below, it left a trail of strange black fluid.

Nýchta wasted no time in grabbing Ephialtes.

She then rushed towards a nearby tree and placed him atop its leafy branches which were easily accessible due to the high waters.

“Hey! What are you doing?” Ephialtes cried but Nýchta didn’t respond as she returned into the water. Her daggers raised and her eyes narrowed.

She followed the trail of blackened water and saw that there was a delay between the dark creatures movement and the trail.

Spotting the creature was made even more difficult by the fact that all the recent movement disturbed the mud below.

“I want to help!” Ephialtes yelled while trying to climb down the tree but all of the serpents on Nýchta’s head hissed, freezing his movements.

“Stay there!” She urged while keeping her eyes on the water.

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She then felt the water in front of her rapidly move and so, using the dark trail in front of her as reference, she stabbed the air just in front of her just as the creature from before rushed out of the water to attack her.

She stabbed its upper jaw, knocking it down but the jaw was far harder than a normal bird’s beak and so her daggers bounced off.

Nýchta clicked her tongue before rapidly swimming back to the mound where she tried looking for the black trail but the water was far too turbulent and any blackness that oozed from the creature mixed with the mud.

A moment passed in the silence of the forest.

Nýchta sheathed the dagger in her left hand and reverse gripped the one in her right.

She then returned into the water and quickly used her tail to sweep the surrounding water.

The tip of her tail touched something to her left and so she rushed in that direction before reaching down into the water and grabbing whatever she felt.

Her face twisted with frustration as she pulled out a sunken, moss ridden log.

She tossed it aside but just as she did, the creature from before bit into her tail.

“AHH!”

“Miss monster!” Ephialtes cried.

Nýchta bit her teeth before pulling her tail back.

She then reached into the water and grabbed the creature.

Her thumb squished something that must have been the creatures eye but she didn’t care.

She used her hold on the it to stab at it but like before, she struck its hard beak all while it’s many teeth sunk into her flesh.

Nýchta held in her cries and stabbed into the water again but this time her strike was far lower and this time she struck soft flesh.

The creature’s hold on her weakened a bit but not completely and so she stabbed it again and again until it’s jaws finally slipped away from her tail.

She then, with her hand still tightly grabbing the creature’s head, dragged it towards the mound where she pulled it out of the water, revealing the creature to be some twisted hybrid between fish and crow.

It's lower body was about two meters and large. Covering its length was a mixture of feathers and scales. It also had massive fins but Nýchta’s focus was on the creature’s jaws or beak.

It was a large, black structure which held countless teeth and what appeared to be a mass of black eyes housed in two shallow sockets.

She noticed that, as the creature’s body laid on the mound, it oozed a strange black fluid.

This prompted her to raise her tail.

She frowned upon seeing the black fluid was oozing out of the bite marks the creature had given her.

“Miss monster!” Ephialtes cried as he plopped into the water.

He then swam to the mound while Nýchta sheathed her dagger.

He gasped upon seeing the bite mark.

“Tsk! You would not have gotten hurt if I helped you.” He scoffed while climbing onto the mound.

“The plausibility of that aside, are these monsters… venomous?” Nýchta asked but Ephialtes shook his head.

“It is not v-venom that coats their teeth but a dark magic that corrupts and eats away at everything it touches. There’s a castle to the far north that is teeming with corruption. Some say that you can hear the wails of the long d-dead soldiers who once called the castle’s walls home. Their souls seemingly trapped in a prolonged state of decay.” He said without meeting Nýchta’s eyes.

“I see. I do not suppose anyone in your village has any Agnófós or Aleusara?” She chuckled while washing away the black fluid from her wounds in the waters below.

“W-what? Of course not. Why would we?” Ephialtes asked.

“No reason. Anyway, lead the way. Depending on how fast the corruption spreads, I may just be able to get back home before I lose my tail.” Nýchta chuckled but Ephialtes didn’t respond.

He simply returned into the water and led Nýchta north.

As she swam, she could not help but notice the faint pulsing pain that came from her wound but she chose to pay it little mind.

.

..

Nýchta relished in the sensation the wet grass gave the bottom scales of her tail.

She and Ephialtes had finally reached some elevated ground and so they no longer had to swim.

The trees were still plentiful and everything was either wet or damp but it was a nice change of pace for Nýchta who looked up to see that the sky was still a combination of dark vortexes and what looked like blazing red fires.

“Why is the sky like that?” Nýchta asked but Ephialtes did not respond.

“Mmm…” She droned. Her eyes still raised.

She knew that the sky was not always like that and so she wondered why it had changed but it did not seem like Ephialtes was in a talking mood and so she followed in silence.

Ephialtes eventually came to a stop a path of sand and small stones appeared in the forest deep. It led deeper into the forest

He turned around and sighed before looking up into Nýchta’s eyes.

“Stay here. I do not think I need to tell you how everyone will react if we just walk in together. I will tell my father everything that happened then see you off, alright?”

“Alright.” Nýchta said while wagging her tail from side to side in an attempt to soothe a certain aching wound.

She coiled her tail and sat on it before deeply sighing.

Moments passed and Nýchta eventually noticed that flies were gathering around her head.

It’s here that she remembered that one of her serpents hung dead on her head and so she unsheathed one of her daggers and grabbed the dead snake by its head and, using the vision of her many other serpents, she cut off the rest of its body.

She then dug a fairly deep hole and buried it there.

Unfortunately, her head now ached and blood covered half of her face but she didn’t bother to wipe it.

A few more minutes passed and Nýchta eventually heard movement from the path ahead.

She looked up and frowned upon seeing that a group of men were approaching but they were hiding in the bushes instead of walking along the sandy path.

Nýchta hurriedly crawled away to a bunch of trees several meters behind her and she lowered her body before observing the men as they emerged from the deeper parts of the forest.

“Well?”

One of them asked. A tall and muscular man who held in his arms a sword and shield.

“S-she was right here.”

A familiar voice said.

Nýchta’s already wide eyes widened further upon seeing a elderly man emerging from the bushes but that wasn’t what shocked her so.

Standing behind the old man was Ephialtes and he nervously scanned the forest while biting his thumb.

“Why do you keep saying “she”? Ugh, I’m telling you sir. He’s just wasting our time again. Let’s go back and fortify our northern wall. A foul wind’s been blowing from that direction-“

“Wait! You have to believe me! She was right here! Maybe she went deeper into the forest!” Ephialtes cried desperately while looking up at the old man who simply stared into the forest with a heavy brow.

He was dressed in an old toga and what parts it did not cover revealed his many scars.

“Boy, I think it would be better if you stopped trying as hard as you have. You could have been hurt out there and what would your mother and I do then?” The Old man wheezed while turning to look Ephialtes in the eye.

“B-but… I’m not lying this time.” Ephialtes whimpered.

“That aside, it would be best if you helped everyone back home more instead of constantly putting your life in harms way.”

Ephialtes visibly trembled as his face twisted.

“And what? Watch as all of you die one by one? Fine! Ignore me! But I will not sit by and watch as the last of you falls!” He cried before stumbling up the path.

The old man glanced at the taller, sword wielding man.

“Hey, don’t look at me. I didn’t say anything.”

“True.” The old man sighed before crossing his arms behind his back and leading his men back up the path.

The group eventually got far away enough that Nýchta could finally sigh.

She bit her teeth as she thought back to everything that had happened but, after taking a deep breath, she sighed once again before slithering to the north.

Not much had changed.

Her destination was still Mount Olympus and although she harboured little ill will for Ephialtes, she hoped, for his sake, that their paths would never again cross.