Chapter 97: The Serpent

Berdek couldn’t believe what had just happened. Even as Minvarals pulled his fists out of her chest and she fell to her knees, she didn’t understand.

“How do you know about him.” She said, struggling to regenerate her injury.

"Your spy isn't as perfect as you think. There were moments that he became someone else. It took me years to finally connect the dots. When I did begin to suspect his existence, I remembered his strange behavior. Sadism for one.

Berdek quickly powered her muscular system, condensing a large amount of energy in her left arm. Berdek's magic primarily consisted of enhancing parts of her body, increasing its power or defense. Her power had few rivals under the same Rank.

“You better kill me quick, otherwise the real one may come up behind you.” Her eyes turned to the wilderness, falsely implying there was someone behind him.

Minvaral jumped several feet back as he condensed a spear out of hardened mana. These simple mana weapons were simple to create and required minimal skill, but depending on its maker, they could have devastating effects. Minvaral, flung the spear at Berdek. The speed it flew created a sonic boom which tore down an old dying tree nearby, the spear entered through Berdek's shoulder, completely obliterating her bones. The other half of her arm plopped to the ground as she clenched her now bloody teeth.

“I know you Berkdek, I know how you fight, and how you plan.” Minvaral walked around her in a circle, never approaching closer than 30 feet.

"high regeneration, Superior strength, False death, " Minvaral started to name many of Berdeks skills, some of which she hadn't used in thousands of years, and others that she had never revealed to anyone. "Kamikaze, Final retribution, and of course, Avarice."

"It's rude to pry on a lady's secret." She smiled as blood dripped down her lips, not even flinching when her left thigh was pierced by another mana spear. The spear evaporated quickly, not even giving her the opportunity to absorb some of the weapons mana.

Berdek Finally understood why Minvaral stuck her with fear. Minvaral knew everything about her. "It's possible that you know all this. Who told you!!" She shouted as her right leg exploded into a pile of blood. She only had her right arm left, her other limbs would take too long to regenerate. Retaliation was impossible, her death was all but guaranteed. If Minvaral didn't know so much about her, she may have still been able to use some of her final cards, but Minvaral was incredibly cautious, going so far as to put a barrier around himself and attacking at a range.

Minvaral smiled, not in the sadistic way he had before, there was a subtle difference that Berdek noted in her mind. It was pride as if Berdek had been a thorn on his side for countless generations, but there was also something else, but Berdek didn't dare believe it. There was recognition in his eyes but that was impossible, Berdek had never met Minvaral before, or so she had thought.

"I make it a point to never forget people I deem interesting; some may call it an obsession. Analyzing you, went beyond even that. To study you I had even dedicated half my life at that time, to learning memorization spells. All so that I could remember your every movement." Minvaral condensed another mana spear and aimed for her head, as a dumbstruck Berdek looked on in horror. She didn't fear her imminent death, even if it would be her true death, she wasn't afraid, what perturbed her was his smile, it was as if he held no malicious intent towards her and yet she knew she was about to die. Minvaral threw his spear, the force tore of the reminder of her jaw but it did not kill her; the spear sped passed her and with a boom, it hit something in the nearby wood.

"Come on out." Berdeks heart clenched as she realized that Minvaral was circling her so he could position himself to attack the Serpent. The Serpent hadn't even bothered to contact her, she was even certain that he was prepared to let her die. A low hummed laugh leaked out of that tree riddled direction. "keh, keh, keh" it was the voice of a man trying to contain his sadistic laughter.

"I told Onias to place me somewhere else." the voice hummed from every direction, making it impossible for Minvaral to pinpoint its origin. "We are birds of a feather after all." A bright beam shot from Minvarals left. His left leg numbed as he saw on his calf a sharp thin needle stuck in his calf. Minvaral burned this needle with a quick magic spell but he soon realized that the needle contained a potent toxin. The toxin was quickly blackening his flesh, climbing up his thigh and onto his torso.

"what the…" Minvaral was genuinely surprised, he'd never seen such a potent toxin. "Dragon venom." The name of the toxin shook Minvaral. Only Siion possessed the means to produce Dragon Venom. The potent toxin had once been the main attack of the Black Dragon, Noxis. However, that dragon was fatally wound in the final Ferren monster-mortal war. No one ever discovered his body and more importantly his dragon core. Then Siion appeared, his rise to power was strongly related to possessing Noxis's dragon core, he had used it to poison even gods to their deaths.

Which begged the question, “how did you get that.” Minvaral managed to squeeze out before his throat clamped shut as the toxin slowly and painfully rotted his body.

"How indeed." The voice mocked from all directions, "perhaps you should spend the next thousand years deciphering it." A cackle burst forth from every direction and birds and critters fled away. Then there was only silence.

Minvaral turned to Berdek who was only a torso and an arm, her other body parts struggling to regenerate. "I suggest you run." He sent out one last magic message to her as the toxin reached his brain and rotted it to nothing. Like a mound made of charcoal, Minvarals body collapsed and fell to pieces.

The serpent revealed himself to a startled Berdek. Her voice was calm but her eyes shifted about as if trying to escape a vast tidal wave. "His lies have gotten to you, Berdek." The Serpent was cloaked in a thick black cape, it covered his entire body. The serpent was unwilling to show his face to even his allies.

"I'm not going to kill you." Berdek's heart jumped out of her chest. Her mind swirled and twisted until the truth hit her like a mountain against a small stone.

“He attacked you, claimed he knew everything about you. He gazed at you as if he cared for you, and when he had the opportunity to kill you, he instead attacked me. Even in his death, he still tried to trick you into either fleeing for attacking me. Knowing you, you would have chosen to attack.” Berdek clenched her teeth, a boiling heat took hold of her. She of all people had been tricked. She didn’t claim that her wisdom surpassed all others but she thought that she could at least resist mind games that turned her against her allies.

"Take his soul quickly." Her voice regaining its vigor, as her jaw reattached itself and formed anew. She shouted at the Serpent who chuckled all the while, mocking her at a safe distance. Although Berdek couldn't see his eyes behind the dark cloak, the aura he exuded was identical to the one Minvaral had mimicked only moments earlier.

The serpent quickly revealed a special artifact that could trap souls, these devices were commonly used when trying to capture certain targets. In many cases, containing a hero level being was extremely costly, it was much cheaper to maintain their soul in stasis, by capturing them in a soul sealing artifact.

The serpent approached the rotting corpse and used the bottle like artifact like he was collecting the air. He looked at the bottle for a few seconds and then to Berdek. “his soul isn’t here.” Both were stunned, Miar may have known he had died, but it was impossible to collect a soul that still clung to a body.

Berdek had regrown her limbs by that point and approached the corpse, "careful, the dragon venom is still very potent, don't let any of it touch you, not even your mana barrier." Berdek nodded and turned to the corpse, she was familiar with bodies as a lot of her strength derived from improving her physical aspects.

“This isn’t his body.”

“that impossible, I made sure he didn’t use one of his duplicates.” Berdek nodded, she too knew it was the real him that had been poisoned. “Move out of the way.” The serpent took a hundred or so steps back, he thought that Berdek may have come up with some ingenious plan, and did not want to impede her.

BOOM!!!! Berdek punched forward and using only the wind force of her punch, she blew Minvarals duplicate corpse away. After the attack, a sporadic line of death and decay danced upon that forest as if the dead had risen and paraded themselves all across that vast forest. Anything the black rot touched died, not even the life that lived beneath the earth was spared.

One such sporadic dot of decay fell on the Serpent's shoe. The man frantically removed his shoe and even removed his leg for good measure.

"HOLY SHIT!!! You almost killed me!!!" The grace and cunning the serpent paraded himself as was instantly shattered by the string of expletives and insults he spit out. His wrath soon cooled and he returned to the cold, calm, and almost graceful, stoic man he was before.

Berdek stared at him for a few seconds, the disdain on her face was apparent. She came to a quiet realization and shook her head as disappointed audibly lingered on her throat. She turned to the area where Minvaral had died and pointed at the purple glowing circle.

“A teleportation circle?”

“the very same I used to get here. He must have highjacked it right under our noses and used it to flee to somewhere safe.” Magic circles could be hijacked and after a quiet thought, she realized that he may not have needed to hijack it, in all probability, it was his teleportation spell to begin with.

"Either way, he should be dead, the poison can even kill weaker gods, killing a Hero shouldn't be a problem." After Berdek regained her limbs, her demeanor had changed again, she didn't have the appearance of a frail woman, she exuded an aura of confidence and spoke in an authoritative tone. The serpent didn’t pester her on this as he knew she was one to hold grudges. He almost pitied Minvaral who had obtained her wrath.

Contrary to his beliefs however, Berdek was contemplating her encounter with Minvaral, "He knew me. But from where." The serpent may have believed that Minvaral had taken wild guesses or pieced things together after investigating her, but there were some things that she had never told anyone, things that only a handful of people knew and as far as she knew, those people had died long ago. Berdek shook her head, wiping those preoccupying thoughts, she had a mission to fulfill.

“let’s go…”

“We have a band of monsters to destroy…”