12 Little Black Snake

| ~2000 B.C. | An Unnatural Mound | Center of the Twisting Jungle | ??? |

Backtracking a day to when the participants of the coming-of-age ceremony were still gathering outside the jungle, in the center of the dense forest, a steep mound situated itself in a clearing.

The clearing was a wasteland, with the only thing to see within a kilometer radius being bones and rocks. No life seemed to want to be anywhere near the mound, not even the jungle itself. The closest trees were growing outward and away from the wasteland as if they were trying to get as far away as possible.

The entire location plus mound appeared to be concealed under a perpetual shroud of shadow, giving off an unnatural and an eerie atmosphere.

Atop the mound of dirt, near the very peak, a gaping hole opened up leading down through a straight and narrow tunnel. This passageway led through the hillock, going deeper into the underground beneath.

At the end of the shaft, a chamber opened up and extended outward covering a similar area as the mound above-ground. Black marble stone made-up the floors and walls of the room. If Xing were here, he would realize similar material was within his Mindscape. The black-marble was old, and cracks were prevalent, marking the entire place with an ancient look.

At the center of this chamber taking up most of the space, lay black altar made from the same ancient material. On top of the platform sat an egg, which pulsated with a strange black light.

The chamber was dark and dusty which added to the decrepit style, with the sole light coming from the center of the room.

The egg was huge, taking up half of the platform. Near the center of the oval was a round hole, which compared to the size of the entire thing was minuscule.

Beneath the hole, on the ground, was a snake. The snake's body was a smooth column of pitch-black armored muscle, one-foot in length. It's golden slit-pupils unblinkingly glowed in the surrounding darkness.

The snake was busy piercing it's pearly white fangs into the bottom of the egg, tearing off and swallowing pieces whole. The snake was devouring the egg at a rapid pace, never stopping its actions. The eggshell did not bloat the little critter, digested upon entering its mouth.

'Nom, nom, nom.'

The snake was simple-minded in its pursuit of devouring, as it had just been born out of the egg it was eating. Yes, this giant egg had birthed such a tiny, yet voracious snake.

However, unlike most newborn creatures, a few fragmented memories gradually flooded the mind of the little snake while eating its egg- inherited memories.

'So I'm a Light Devouring Snake, at least I think so, parts of that memory are missing. My egg was placed in this underground for protection due to the ridiculous amount of time it takes to hatch.'

The black snake continued the eggshell buffet as more memories poured into its mind.

'Hmm, being able to devour the cores and mana of other living creatures to evolve makes me a Demon-Beast. And the fact that I can eventually take humanoid form takes that classification another step higher, making me a Mythical-Beast.'

'Mmmh?'

Suddenly the tip of little black snake's tail shot into the air, flitting in every direction like an antenna. It had felt a power similar to its own, something calling out to, and tugging, at its soul, originating from the source of the similarity.

'Kin? No, something different, but similar.' Swallowing one more piece of eggshell, the snake made its resolve to go toward the mystery.

Slithering around and turning away from the egg, the black snake merged into the shadows, and using them, teleported a few dozen meters up the tunnel. Repeating this action, the snake made it's way out of the gaping hole and into the shadowy daylight which surrounded the mound.

The snakes tail shot into the air like a radar again, searching for the direction of the calling.

'That way!'

Darting into shadows and reappearing out of shadows allowed the snake to travel hundreds of meters in mere seconds, as it began its first journey since birth, toward the source of the pull.

***

Getting closer and closer, the snake felt the tugging at its soul grow stronger and stronger. It had taken the snake an around an hour to travel the tens-of-kilometers required, it could have been faster, but the snake had gotten sidetracked by a tasty meal- a giant rat. But now finally the little black snake had gotten close enough to hear a loud fiery explosion and the sounds of pain.

Pocking its tiny head out of the forest and peering into a clearing, the snake caught sight of devastation as burning corpses of goblins littered the locale, surrounding a smoldering crater. Blood stained the ground, adding an acrid scent of slaughter to the smell of goblin barbecue which hung over the battleground.

The black snake noticed a human female lying on the ground not far away from a human male- he too lay on the ground. The female was breathing fine, but the male wasn't, 'He is going to die if he doesn't get healed… I wonder if it will be fine to eat him? But anyway, neither of those humans are the source of the calling, so where is it?'

Suddenly the snake caught the movement of a human male standing over another, weapon in hand, ready to deliver a finishing strike. The snake glanced over the one standing, looking proud of his upcoming accomplishment, 'Not this human either.'

Glancing downward at the fallen human about to lose his life, the snake's beady eyes widened, flashing with a golden glow, 'That one, that one is similar to my kin! I can't let him die!'

The snake knew that it couldn't let that human die, but there was nothing it could do to fight against a human yet, it had only been born a few hours ago, 'If I were a normal snake that would be the case, however, little me has intelligence!'

A crafty gleam flickered within the black snake's golden pupils as it darted out of its stake-out position, and lunged at the unsuspecting standing human's behind.

"EEEEeeee!!"

A loud screech resounded out from the mouth of the standing human as the little snake's fangs sank into the man's rear-end.

***

"And then the snake devoured the bastard whole! Then spat him out as he tasted like trash!" Umbra declared as she was about to type the sentence into the story.

"Umbra, since you suggested this, at least take it seriously!" The man within the room did not look one bit happy at Umbra's antics.

"Cheh," Umbra clicked her tongue, "I just thought the readers deserved some of my hilarity, don't get your underwear in a twist little Star."

"What readers? This is one-hundred-percent classified and cannot be shown to anyone, except those who know about reincarnation. And don't call me that. Now, continue, but if you cannot be at least semi-serious and tell the true story, you won't get to have another chapter with your point-of-view!"

"Fine, fine."

Umbra pouted and she began typing once more.

***

| ~2000 B.C. | A Random Clearing | Outskirts of the Twisting Jungle | ??? |

The little black snake knew that there was no more it could do, the rest would be up to the fallen human. The most it could do was release an ability called Shadow Domain, which was exactly what it did.

The area was suddenly enveloped in shadow, there was no place that wasn't covered by the darkness. No light, whether it was natural, or coming from one of the many fires, could fight back against it.

Somehow just knowing that he could utilize the sudden shadow, the fallen human descended into the shadows below, reappearing standing tall, next to the flailing and screeching human with a snake hanging from his buttocks.

With a menacing expression, the shadow human materialized a short blade of energy and thrust it toward the still thrashing human. The blade pierced through the front of the human, cutting off something that must have been important as the human let out a high-pitch wail, even louder than when he was bitten.

The human who was acting so high and mighty seconds ago, toppled over to the ground in agony, while the human who previously was lying on the ground stood over him; their roles had been reversed.

Since the human no longer needed assistance, the snake unclamped its jaw from the butt it had been latching onto and released it's Shadow Domain. The surroundings returned to normal, well, as normal as can be- there were still funeral pyres burning and even more, blood was splattered everywhere.

Staring up at the victorious human, with its golden eyes, the snake thought, 'This is the human calling to my soul, he can use shadows and the dark element, but that wouldn't make me feel this way. Does it matter though? My subconscious is telling me staying with this human is the best decision, and if that is the case then it must mean lots and lots of food!'

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