Eithne took out her mutated head from Barty’s subspace pocket. She scrutinized the large cracks across her nose and on her check. Those cracks contained small eyeballs which were constantly darting around. The chaotic motion of those eyes made Eithne have an intrusive thought to poke them.
“My soul is still connected to this head… It’s going to hurt. I’d better not do that.” - Eithne rubbed her fox's nose. “When I talk using this head, corruption is materialized in my mouth.”
She raised the corrupted head and pulled the head’s chin down to open the mouth. Strangely, even though the neck was already cut off, she could see black and white mysterious fluid flowing up from the throat, as if Eithne had opened a van of a hidden storage below the neck. Eithne had no idea how it could defy the law of nature like this, but the fluid was surely the Primordial Serpent’s corrupting power’s product.
“Hm? More eyes are being created in the fluid.”
Eithne saw one, then two eyeballs were materialized in the fluid inside the head’s mouth. The number of eyeballs kept increasing until it overflowed the mouth’s space and rolled outside. When the eyeballs dropped on the ground, they suddenly flew to various directions.
“Hey! Come back!”
Eithne gasped. She did not expect the eyeballs to escape.
She chased after an eyeball, but it quickly disappeared in the bushes.
“You ought to find them back, otherwise they would spread corruption everywhere.” - Barty said.
How troublesome! Eithne frowned. Truly, the Primordial Serpent’s talent was hexes.
“But how am I going to find them? I can’t see them anymore.”
Eithne frantically looked in the bushes.
“The eyes came from the corruption of your head. The corrupting power came from the Serpent so the eyes are still under the Serpent’s authority. But you can seize control of the corruption part in your head to cut off the Serpent’s authority on the eyes!” – Barty yelped. “Hurry! Enter your head to subdue the Serpent’s influence!”
“O-Ok!”
Eithne’s soul jumped from the fox attendant’s body to her original head. Instantly, she felt a repulsive force stopping her from completely occupying the head. The force was the reason why Eithne could not close the cracks on her face after several days of trying.
Eithne focused her spiritual power onto the repulsive force. An unpleasant feeling started to invade her mind. It was her instinct that alerted the sign of the Primordial Serpent’s corruption.
Black and white threads took shape in her conscious vision. They knotted and unknotted themselves, twirling into a cyclone that pulled her soul in. When Eithne resisted the unknown effect, resplendent colors suddenly broke out from the threads like a fever dream.
“Shit!”
Eithne felt sharp glares of light that dazzled her mind. All logical thoughts in her consciousness were broken, only instincts remained.
A huge shadow of a serpent suddenly loomed over the dazzling fireworks of colors. Eithne’s soul frantically tried to find a way to avoid the shadow but to no avail, the shadow was too large for her to avoid. It was darkening in her vision, deepening the desperation of the mere presence that attempted to oppose its authority.
Eithne started to feel strangled under the pressure. The shadow of the huge serpent rose up to be larger, it drowned her soul down to the pool of darkness in its center. At that moment, Eithne gathered all her last spiritual power to shout:
“ORDER!”
Instantly, the echo of metal chains reverberated in the battle of minds.
Clang! Clang Clang Clang!
Eithne had expected this. The battle of the Order and the Mother of Void would not just end in the mysterious castle. If the Order modified the fox attendant body, it meant the Order had been watching her. There was no way They let her lose against the Primordial Serpent.
Eithne saw a chain shooting toward her place. She quickly caught the chain which pulled her soul out of the shadowed area.
“Order! Guide me to the Sea of Fate!”
Eithne spoke the ancient language from castle’s wall, praying for divination immediately.
The chain that she held onto quickly changed its direction upward. As she was lifted up high, Eithne witnessed the sky of swaying crimson threads.
“Barty, lend me your strength for a while.”
Eithne looked for the connection between her destiny thread and the fox attendant. She opened all nine eyes of her soul to stare into Barty’s destiny thread. As expected, she saw the image of Barty standing in the pine wood while holding her corrupted head. Even though the battle in consciousness was wild, the real world was unaffected.
“Cancel divination!” – Eithne shouted.
The Order’s chain then quickly pulled her down away from the crimson sky. The illusion of the red sky slowly dispersed in the darkness. Since the divination was cancelled, Eithne received the ‘punishment’ of Fate because she did not request to look into Barty’s fate.
Her soul’s appearance of a young woman shattered, replaced by a fox-headed man in a fine suit. Eithne became the fox attendant in a short amount of time. Luckily, ‘Barty’ knew what it must do in this situation.
The fox in suit held tightly onto the chain that pulled it toward the shadow of the Primordial Serpent again. It gathered the strength to its throat and screeched out loud:
“KEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKK!!!!!!”
Waves of sound from the fox’s screeching attacked the Primordial Serpent’s shadow.
The shadow trembled and slightly faded.
Apparently, Barty had the ability to break the influence on mind with its screech, so Eithne lent its identity to have the strength to fight back the Primordial Serpent’s mind corruption.
Three seconds passed and the ‘Fate’s punishment’ affect wore off, Eithne’s consciousness partly returned to her soul. She delivered a few more fox screech to the Primordial Serpent’s shadow before she lost Barty’s power.
“KEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKK!!!!!!”
“KEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKK!!!!!!”
“KEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKK!!!!!!”
The ear-piecing screech of the fox greatly reduced the shadow’s power more. When the Serpent shadow shrank to a certain point, more chains from the Order shot to the battle to enclose the shadow within.
Eithne saw the shadow twisted and exploded into a large cyclone, where grotesque monsters rose up and screamed in pain. The monsters were born, and then torn to pieces in the cyclone.
“What does it mean?”
Eithne furrowed her brows. She had returned to her identity.
Eithne had managed to gasp some knowledge from Barty’s mind. To overwrite the authority of the Primordial Serpent, she must ‘hack’ into the identity of the shadow that represented corruption. She had to make the shadow hers, which meant Eithne had to be the Primordial Serpent first.
“Should I do it similarly like with Barty in the Sea of Fate? No, this is too risky. The Primordial Serpent is the terrible enemy. Instead of me taking Their identity, They could replace me completely. I don’t know much about Their ability yet.”
Eithne held onto the Order’s chains while she observed the cyclone. The more time she spent in here, the more troublesome outside situation became, so she needed to act fast.
The cyclone was growing in size rapidly, even the chains of Order were shaking in the pulling force of the cyclone. The monsters were constantly born, then died in the cyclone. When the monsters saw the chains, they attempted to climb up the chains but exploded instantly when they completely left the cyclone.
“It’s like a circle of life is forcefully implemented in this cyclone. No monster can escape the death!” – Eithne thought. “Would the Primordial Serpent shadow at the cyclone eye?”
“What if the Order’s chains enter the cyclone to stop the monsters from flowing? Would this disturb the circle of life?”
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As she thought, a chain from the Order wrapped around her wrist.
“?”
Eithne was surprised with the chain when she saw several ancient letters appeared in front of her eyes.
[https://i.pinimg.com/564x/24/f2/25/24f2253bdc5676215b11c559e73b4d6f.jpg]
(‘FOX’)
“?!”
It was the ancient language on the castle wall so she understood the word.
Suddenly, the chain pulled Eithne down to the cyclone.
“AAA!”
Her soul entered the turbulent flow of the cyclone. Eithne saw the birth of the monsters and the death of them in front of her eyes. She also felt the cyclone’s influence on her soul, that her strength was decreasing like she was becoming older and weaker. However, the chain of Order kept her in one spot in the cyclone so that she would not die like other monsters.
Splash! Splash! Crack!
The sound of monster’s bones and flesh exploded into dust echoed next to Eithne’s ears. She urgently opened all her nine eyes.
When the nine eyes were activated, Eithne recognized that the cyclone was just an illusion. What actually occurred under the illusion was a wide, incomplete ring that expanded proportionately to the cyclone’s diameter.
Eithne was standing in the gap of the ring. The ring was closing up, slowly sandwiching her. She knew that once the ring was closed, she would be done for.
Not thinking longer, she called out the title of her enemy using the ancient language of the mysterious castle.
“Primordial Serpent! The Mother of Void!”
The image of the ring trembled then turned into a long serpent that was moving in a circle. Eithne could see that the Serpent’s head was trying to bite its tail to complete the ring.
“Finally show up yourself!”
Eithne channeled her remaining spiritual power. The thread of destiny rose up from her heart and branched out toward the serpent’s head.
“Your shadow is mine!”
Once the thread connected to the serpent, Eithne felt a wave of energy swept through her. Unlike when she connected Barty’s body, it was tormenting when she connected to the shadow of the Primordial Serpent. Eithne felt that the insanity had returned from her consciousness like when she had just received the corruptive Chaos from the Primordial Serpent. She was seeing illusion which millions of monsters were tearing her soul apart.
“Tsk!”
Eithne tried to ignore the pain to execute the plan’s last step. She opened her nine eyes to pray for divination again, though she could not fully say the sentence.
“Order, …to … Sea of Fate!”
The Order’s chain then quickly pulled her up to the sky again. In Eithne’s vision, she was being lifted from the hordes of bloodthirsty monsters which towered themselves on each other’s bodies to pursue her.
Eventually, Eithne had to do exactly the same way of how she stole’s Barty’s identity. She could not think of other options. As she entered the sangria Sea of Fate again, she found the newly formed destiny bond between her and the Primordial Serpent’s shadow. Eithne directed all her nine eyes to look into the shadow’s destiny.
“??!!!”
However, what Eithne saw was not the black-haired woman who she knew was the Primordial Serpent, but a blond-haired woman who had a chain wrapping around her wrist. It was herself, Eithne.
“What the fuck…”
Eithne could not help but curse in this unnerving situation. Why was she seeing herself in the Primordial Serpent’s shadow?
Horribly, she was seeing her soul’s appearance transforming into a scaly serpent!
Eithne knew something was off so she tried to cut off the divination, but the vision did not stop. The image of herself disappeared, instead, a golden throne appeared floating above her. It was the same throne in the mysterious castle, and there was a black-haired woman majestically sat on it.
Eithne instantly recognized the appearance of the Primordial Serpent. She guessed it was how the Primordial Serpent looked when She was in optimal state.
The black-haired woman was much taller than normal human’s height. Like a true god, Her appearance was beautifully exalted. The Primordial Serpent was fully protected from neck to toes in dark and scaly armor. As if there were thunders in Her gaze, when the Primordial Serpent’s golden eyes glared down to the puny human below - Eithne heard a thunderous roar and convulsed in an unbearable heat that roasted her soul.
“Argh!”
Eithne groaned in pain when she saw the dark serpent scales growing onto her body. She tried to resist the corruption by plucking out the scales from her skin. The scales being plucked out then turned into mysterious ancient letters before they vanished.
The Primordial Serpent lightly moved Her lips as if she was saying something but there was no voice coming out. She pointed at Eithne. Instantly, the scales grew faster on Eithne’s body.
“Is she trying to speed up my stealing Primordial Serpent’ identity process?” - Thoughts ran through Eithne’s head. “No. At this rate, I will become her clone!”
It was her goal at the beginning to temporarily take the Primordial Serpent identity, however, Eithne did not intend to truly become Them, not as a clone controlled by the Serpent shadow. When Eithne saw her body’s lower part started to melt down to form a serpent’s tail, her last nerve was touched.
“Order! Order! Order!”
She called the Order three times.
There was no chain to be seen, but clearly, the Primordial Serpent’s expression hardened.
Eithne suddenly laughed.
“You are just a shadow of the past, but the glorious past has long been gone.”
“Your current self is cut in half, chained on the throne. How pitiful, isn’t it?”
After provoking the Primordial Serpent shadow, Eithne looked up at the woman on the golden throne. If Eithne was not wrong, there must be a faction sharing the power with the Serpent in the castle, proven by the division in attendant force: fifty snake-heads and fifty fox-heads.
A cheeky grin bloomed on her face. Eithne said:
“I can’t become your clone. I’m no Serpent, but a Fox.”
As if Eithne had triggered a bomb, the Primordial Serpent’s expression distorted into anger and bewilderment. The illusion of the majestic Primordial Serpent broke, revealing the real appearance of the shadow. The dark serpent shadow could barely produce the detail of the scaly patterns on its body, but it still overpowered Eithne in strength.
The shadow launched toward Eithne and gored her by one of its horns.
“Argh!”
Eithne’s soul was badly damaged and fell into the pool of darkness again. She had failed to steal the Primordial Serpent’s identity, but more importantly, her life was dwindling because of the serious injury.
“Goddamn… I’ve been donut-ed.”
Eithne gritted her teeth. A big hole was evident on her soul’s body, caused by the impact with the serpent shadow’s horn. However, Eithne was not really worried about it.
“I have broken free from the divination’s illusion.”
Eithne was happy that she survived the divination and back to the battle of minds, because from this point, she could see the Order’s chains again. Eithne had been panicking that the Order’s chains could not intervene in the serpent shadow’s illusion earlier. Seeing the chains again meant that she was going to be rescued.
“Provoking the snake is really dangerous, but it worths.”
Eithne tiredly looked up in the air. The word ‘FOX’ was shining in front of her eyes.
“Embody me…”
An ethereal voice echoed from the word to Eithne.
“…”
Eithne was silent in a few seconds.
“Truthfully, when I think about it again. This shit doesn’t make sense.”
She stared at the shinning ‘FOX’ when her soul was crumbling part by part.
“Ha. You… the Fox… where did you come from? What are you? Primordial Fox?”
“Barty, Fox, the Order…”
“Do you collaborate to trap me?”
“So that’s how it is… Either Serpent or Fox, I have to pick a side to become their clone. I can’t stand by the battle.”
Just a day ago, the fox attendant Barty suggested the way to disrupt the corruption was using purification power. It said nothing about fighting with the Primordial Serpent’s shadow, so Eithne had believed nothing could be done with her head at that moment and dropped her guard.
However, very incidentally, unexpectedly, and fast, the eyes of corruption escaped from her head. Barty suddenly suggested a way to seize the control of corrupting power from the Primordial Serpent, leaving Eithne no time to think because she was afraid that the corruptive eyes might wreck everything. Just for a single slip up on logical thinking in urgent circumstance, she hastily made a mistake by jumping into the fight with the Serpent’s shadow without considering her own current strength, leading to the current situation that she was dying and had no choice to accept the help from an outer existence.
“This situation is so familiar. I’m desperate, and a God came to help… Ha ha ha.”
A helpless laugh came out from Eithne. She murmured to herself:
“Barty… I’m so disappointed in you. The Order too, just invited me to the Fox’s side, you don’t need to do this. I’ll support it more if you could be more polite.”
“Haiz… I know I shouldn’t believe things in the castle, but I still got trapped in the end.”
If the Fox was showing itself when the Order was present, it meant the Order approved of the Fox presence. Eithne laughed loudly:
“If I’m going to the Serpent’s side, what are you going to do?”
Just when she mentioned the Serpent, dark scales started to rise on all over her soul in a steady speed.
“You have been corrupted.”
The ethereal voice echoed from the word ‘FOX’. Its light became brighter as if trying to dispel the Serpent’s influence.
“No.” – Eithne chuckled. “I’ve just realized --”
Her hand reached toward the word ‘FOX’ in the air and grasped it tightly. The ancient letters broke into countless dot of light.
“My ambition for power is quite big. I’ll take both of you!”
RUMBLE!
The space of consciousness shook fiercely. Eithne saw the dots of light gathered into her like a raging stream of water. The dark scales on her body also broke into light dots and sank into her body.
Then, all the light emanated from Eithne’s soul like a bomb swept through all the darkness.
“Grooarrr!!!”
Eithne heard the angry growling of the Serpent shadow, but she could not see it anymore.
She had thought of a chance that she would be exploded for being too greedy, but Eithne did not regret. It could be seen as her attempt to escape the manipulation of both side in a suicidal manner. If she died, none of them could get her.
The blinding white light filled her eyes. Eithne exhaled in relief. At least she got to die in the light, not the darkness that she often stayed with.
…