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Chapter 139: The Arrival of the Demon Snake of the West
🕑 Added 2025-06-21 17:17:17 +0000 UTCRustle... rustle.
Swish... swish...
Deep within the Tob Forest, gnarled trees twisted into grotesque shapes, draped in thick vines that creaked in the wind. Dappled light filtered through the dense canopy above, falling onto a forest floor blanketed in moss and crumbling leaves.
A massive troll pushed through the underbrush like a living battering ram, its bulk shoving aside branches and brambles with brute force.
Lumbering just behind it came an equally massive beast, a Ursine Beast. Its fur was a mottled blend of black and brown, its powerful limbs sinking heavily into the ground. Red eyes glowed beneath a thick brow, and strange, ghostly patterns curled along its sides like cursed tattoos. One of the forest's apex predators.
And on its back... sat something stranger still.
"Your chief summoned me," rasped a gravelly, weathered voice from atop the bear. "What mess has he dragged me into this time?"
The speaker's body shimmered with unnatural grace, a lower half that was entirely serpentine, covered in pale, glass-tinged scales. His upper half resembled a gaunt, ancient man. Black-green hair clung in dried tangles to his skull, and a face carved with a hundred deep wrinkles twisted into an expression of withering disdain.
This was Ryraryus Spenia Ai Indarun, Demon Snake of the West—one of the three Dominators of the Tob Forest.
Crack!
Ahead of him, the troll shattered a thick branch with one swing of its meaty arm and kept trudging forward, wordless and unconcerned.
Ryraryus's lip twitched.
"Brain-dead slab of meat," he muttered.
He didn't bother repeating the question. Trolls like this one, in particular weren't known for conversation. Or coherent thought.
Still, the fact that Guu had sent for him at all meant something unusual had happened.
Ryraryus wasn't worried, per se. Nothing in this forest could truly threaten one of the Dominators. His only concern was that Guu's three working brain cells might've misfired and decided to turn on him.
Hence the bear. A portable emergency exit, wrapped in muscle and fur.
"If only their brains matched their biceps," Ryraryus sighed. "Though if they did, they might actually be dangerous."
With a flick of his tail, he slapped the bear on the haunch. The beast grunted and picked up its pace.
The Dominators of the forest were a sorry bunch, truth be told. Guu, the musclebound moron, had an army of trolls and no clue how to use them. The so-called Wise King slept more than it breathed. If either of them had an ounce of cunning, they'd have unified the forest under their rule by now.
"Pathetic," Ryraryus chuckled hoarsely.
But as they neared Guu's domain, nestled within a massive forest fissure, Ryraryus's amusement faded. The scent in the air had changed.
Blood.
Lots of it.
His snake-like eyes narrowed as he took in the scene: dark stains on bark, spattered crimson along the mossy ground. Dried, but recent.
The trees grew sparse, revealing the wide ravine that served as Guu's territory.
What he saw made him blink.
The place was... clean.
"What in the hells happened here?"
The usual rot, bones, and insect clouds were missing. The entire area looked scrubbed down, as if someone had finally introduced Guu to the concept of sanitation.
Which was impossible. Trolls loved filth the way dragons loved gold.
His gaze dropped to the soil. Reddish.
Soaked through with dried blood.
And a lot of it.
"Just how many things did Guu kill...?"
He flicked his tail again, thumping the bear's side. "Move."
The beast snarled and surged forward, barreling past the sluggish troll and toward the massive cave ahead.
A crooked log shelter came into view, inside of which a hellhound looked up at him with dull yellow eyes.
Pet? Or snack?
Ryraryus considered vaporizing it just to make a point, but something in the air made him pause. A prickling sense of wrongness.
His tail curled tighter beneath him, his eyes scanning the clearing with suspicion.
Then he saw it.
The cave.
And there, towering over the entrance—stood Guu.
The troll didn't move. Just stood there, staring at nothing.
Ryraryus raised a clawed hand and pressed down on the ghost bear's head to slow its charge. His voice rasped across the clearing.
"Guu! You called for me. What's going on here?"
No answer.
"What happened to this place?"
He held back, keeping a fifty-meter gap. Just in case.
Splish... splash...
A faint trickle. It came from somewhere ahead of Guu.
Ryraryus frowned.
"Really?" he muttered. "Relieving yourself outside the cave now? Have you no shame?"
Still, Guu didn't move.
Then a calm, unfamiliar voice replied.
"My apologies. You've got the wrong idea."
Not Guu's voice.
Thud!
Guu stepped aside.
Behind him, sitting casually on a stump, was a young man in a white robe. Human. Laughably small compared to the troll.
In front of him sat a wooden bucket.
And from Guu's thigh, a gaping wound the size of a fist, blood poured steadily into it.
Ryraryus's grip on the bear tightened.
That wound should have healed in seconds. Trolls regenerated faster than rabbits bred. Why was it still bleeding?
Wait.
Wrong question.
Who was this human?
"You," Ryraryus growled, eyes narrowing. "What are you?"
He glanced at Guu again—vacant, dazed.
Mind control?
A spellcaster.
A human spellcaster controlling Guu?
Thoughts snapped through his mind like lightning.
"He didn't summon you," the human said with a small smile. "I did. Nice to finally meet you, Ryraryus of the West."
Ryraryus's eyes narrowed to slits.
"Don't flatter yourself, worm. You think you're important?"
A surge of magic lit up his body. "You're in our domain."
"Human Charm!"
"Unyielding Will."
Lyle's eyes flicked upward, canceling the effect without breaking a sweat.
And then—
"All-Race Charm."
A shimmering wave of green light pulsed from him.
Ryraryus didn't flinch. His scaled body glowed faintly, but his expression remained unchanged.
"See?" he hissed. "Your little tricks don't work on me."
"So what if you've got Guu wrapped around your finger? You can't kill him. And you're not getting out of here alive."
His claw lit with fire, a bright orb forming at his fingertip.
"Let me show you what happens when humans overstep—"
Fireball!
A ball of flame the size of a boulder shot from his claw, roaring toward Lyle.
But Lyle was already rising, one hand closing around the hilt of a sword that had been resting beside him.
The blade shimmered, glowing with focused magical energy.
"You keep calling me weak," he said. "And maybe you're right."
"But that's only because you haven't met me yet."
Magic Slash!
