For a kingdom led by a half-insane echidna, the whale was dispatched only on rare occasions. It was mostly used to trap rebels and enemies that would be hard to outright kill, and on the rarest of occasions, it would swallow whoever it was that pissed off its rider.

Norman and his friends were in the second category. In a low point of depression and existential anger, he once flipped an echidna the bird, and now, 153 years later, he was going to face the music.

As they approached the entrance to the spine, he made one last ditch effort to save him and his friends.

“Inside the spine, there are only echidnas plus the guy at the end. They are really strong and vicious and unstable.”

“Are they in the final stages?” asked Caroline.

“Yes!” Norman sighed in relief. “Since you’re human and demon, you might not know. All echidnas eventually lose their minds. The kingdom traps the ones who go crazy inside this whale.”

“Then how is this kingdom still standing?” asked Finn.

The merfolk couldn’t answer his question. Norman made a tiny incision between two vertebrae for them to crawl through. His hands were shaking.

“I’ve long suspected they’ve discovered a way to stave off the insanity,” said Caroline. “The echidnas within this whale have all been imprisoned before you, were they not?”

Norman thought for a moment, then nodded. To his relief, Natalie crawled first through the hole he had made, and Finn just straight up disappeared.

“Do we really have to follow?” asked Norman.

“We can wait,” said Caroline. “The battle will end soon.”

Due to the monster’s size, each vertebrae was equally humongous. Each one was as large as a stadium, and there were many of them.

“I thought there’d be more,” said Natalie.

Within the first vertebrae, there was but a single echidna, rocking back and forth while sweeping the floor with his golden trident as if it were a broom. He wasn’t doing a good job at sweeping though, since the entire vertebrae was littered with skeletons in various stages of decomposition. Most of them were echidnas, a few were merfolk. A couple even had flesh still rotting on their bodies, though it was dry to the point of looking like mummies.

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“Crazy folk don’t get along,” said Finn. “Who would’ve thought? Heads or tails?”

He pulled out a gold coin and flicked it in the air.

“Heads.”

It was Natalie’s turn to take care of business. The arm guard on her right hand liquified into a slim black rapier. Her body burst into flames. The ground beneath her feet melted with every step she took towards her opponent.

It didn’t take long for the echidna to stop wobbling. As soon as he locked eyes with Natalie, his expression changed into an insane smile and he bolted towards her with the golden trident in front.

Natalie blocked with her rapier, and the echidna twisted on his snake-like lower body to slice her in half. The trident went straight through Natalie’s torso. She ignored the blow and delivered a cut from above.

The echidna blocked; his grin disappeared, his eyes turned wide, and before he could react, Natalie kicked him in the torso halfway across the vertebrae.

Soon, the two’s battle resumed. The echidna’s attacks grew in speed and viciousness. The giant bone structure trembled from their clashes, and those waiting outside could hear everything.

“You may enter,” said Caroline after about a minute.

“What!? But…”

“The battle is over.”

“How do you know?”

“It is quiet.”

“For the past 10 seconds!”

“That is enough.”

“We should wait at least 10 minutes.”

“I said that is enough...”

“You can never be too careful.”

Caroline sighed. She flew to the back of the group and made her eyes glow.

“Subjects, Obey. My. Command.”

The glow in her eyes grew, and upon feeling the energy inside them, the merfolk almost trampled each other on their way towards the spine. They entered the crevice between vertebrae and stopped right in front of the entrance. Afterwards, Caroline entered too and pushed them out of the way.

The scene she then saw made even her pause at the entrance too. Lava had sprouted out of the ground in the form of two, long necks. At the end of these necks were two heads of a recently deceased hydra clasping onto the arms of a battered, half conscious echidna.

His golden trident was shattered on the floor. His face and body were full of cuts. The woman in front of her raised her sword, and in a single swing, she cut the poor creature from the top of his head to the tip of his tail.

Two equal parts were served to the echidna heads who happily swallowed them before going back into the bony ground. Natalie too descended to the ground and the flames which enveloped her disappeared.

“So this is what a general of this kingdom is capable of these days.” She tried to hold in a smile and failed. “Finn, I can see why you were so cocky. Let’s end this quickly and go home.”