Chapter 26

Celia gritted her teeth now; her sharp canine teeth just bared out for the old snake. "Celia!" Reg struck another thunderbolt down, huffing out as he was still too young to have so much energy to cast so many spells. Their enemy tumbled and smacked against the wall of the old building. Celia's hands were trembling, feeling the poison enter her body and start taking effect. She did not know what kind of poison it was, but she had to keep holding up.

"You damn kids! I will just eat you all!" The old snake woman tried to widen her mouth to swallow both.

Lauro grabbed his sword, hanging it over the old snake woman's mouth like it was meant to stop or even damage the mouth. "Run! Get out of here with the carriage!" Lauro shouted at the two kids, and he was willing to sacrifice himself to save them.

The old woman tried to reach her hands back but started to swing around to get Lauro off. Celia did not want to leave Lauro alone, growling as she felt fire come aflame to her hands, which had the poison.

"Celia, don't!" Reg could not stop Celia from charging at the old monstrous woman, casting a few icicles around the old woman, locking her almost in place to the ground. His strength weakened while his legs trembled from the use of energy by all the casting of spells.

Celia growled and struck her sharp claws with her flames still burning her hands into the old woman's stomach, yet it was not quite there. 'Just a bit more.' Wanting to bring the woman down was a challenge. Not spotting the old woman's snake end tail, it wrapped around and squeezed Celia. The old woman's sharp scale hands grabbed onto Lauro's head and flipped him over with his sword hitting the ground. Lauro had been tossed to Reg, who did not expect him to be tossed over. Reg was pinned under Lauro, grunting while trying to pull himself out from under the butler. Celia had to release the woman's stomach with her flames dying out in her palms while she panted out of exhaustion. The old woman's wounds were still there, but it was not in any way affecting her to stop her goal to eat Celia.

The old woman's enlarged mouth was bleeding, but it was not going to stop her from swallowing Celia down. "I'll start with the pipsqueak first." She hissed, keeping her tail wrapped around the little girl in her hold.

"Celia!" Reg kept trying to get out from under Lauro.

"Girls are usually more delicious than boys." The old woman's mouth only extended more to swallow Celia down.

'Shit, is this really how it ends for me?' Celia could see the old woman's sharp fangs with the venom still dripping down with saliva as well. It was like the woman's jaw could not stop opening wider, being only a mutated being now.

***

Priti was still stuck in the carriage while taking deep breaths, and she had ripped her dress sleeve to bite down on while her painful voice was muffled by it. 'Come on. I can do this. Everyone is trying their best to protect us.' Encouraging herself, she knew that everyone was risking their life to save her and her unborn child. The carriage was still thin, not quite made to block out much noise, so hearing the struggle and shouting outside was clear to her ears.

***

"You all will have much to explain when we get home." Sachin appeared out of the blue, cutting the woman's head off with his blue flaming sword before it dispersed in his hand. He had shaped the weapon out of his elements.

Celia fell over with the old snake's tail still wrapped around her small body. She kept trying to wriggle out while the snake's tail did not seem to lose its strength and grip around her. Sachin grabbed the snake's tail, ripping it in half from the old woman's upper body before carrying Celia into his arms. 'Great, what are you going to tell me?' She could see that Sachin wanted to say something. 'From that look, I can tell that we are in for some deep lecturing later when we get home.'

Sachin stared at her, saying, "You all should have informed me. Now you are almost a snack to that thing, which will only keep you more at home."

"Father, look out!" Reg shouted, finally lifting out from underneath Lauro before assisting the unconscious butler. Both were exhausted from the previous fight, unable to stand properly on their feet without shaking.

Right when he was about to say more, he dodged the old woman who rose back up—her upper body did. "Do you think that my body will hurt and stop moving? There is no way that you can stop me." The old woman's upper body kept moving with a pair of human legs while the other end, with the snake tail, remained wiggling. "I can slowly let my body work independently to wake up and regenerate." Her head on the side only smirked.

Sachin tried to keep Celia in his arms, but she hopped out and attempted to run and grab the old woman's head. "Celia!" Taking the chance to cast a protection shield around Reg and Lauro, he glanced at his son. "Go to the carriage and protect your mother. Take her home."

Reg was hesitating to go, but he saw that he would burden his father if he stayed there. Reg bit down on his jaw, dragging Lauro to the carriage where his mother was. 'You both better survive this. I'll get the carriage going.'

She was so close before the end of the woman's snake tail swung around and entangled her feet once more and slowly crawled up to entangle her hands. "Now, now. It is not good to have you being naughty again." The old woman's head was up close to Celia's face. Sachin had tried to get over before the woman's upper body faced him again. "Don't get so excited. If I have this girl, then I can regenerate faster and hold more power. When you dug it into my body, I felt that flame in your hands. You are what I need to prove my worth to my king."

Celia growled, knowing who she was talking about. 'Laonn. So, you are under his influence as well.' She would have lost it if she had heard his name because she had loathed the man. Baring her teeth at her smirking face, it made her wish that she could smash her head.

Sachin struck down to penetrate the woman's heart with the upper body that he was brawling with. "You are one of his followers." Sachin had known who the woman was talking about. It was no surprise since no mage other than Laonn could mutate her.

The old woman did not seem to feel the pain of his flaming sword piercing her upper body's heart. "His followers and children, do you not know how special you are if you become one of his experiments? Being an adult who survives only makes one more special for him. Children are great but lack the strength and endurance to handle such mutations. I am a success. If I can consume this little girl, then I can surely be more useful to him." The old woman went on to yap, but her upper body did not even affect her. Her head had been pushed by her tail, which allowed her to bite down on Celia's neck. Celia did not show any sign of being in pain. She could not do anything currently, being so tightly wrapped around in her snake tail.

Sachin had just about enough, striking his claw into the woman's upper body. Burning the woman's upper body with his blue flames, it quickly turned to ashes, but the woman only laughed more. "Do you really think that burning one part of my body stops everything?" Sachin had not noticed, but the old woman's upper body had grown from just consuming Celia's blood. "I told you. This little girl's blood seems to be enough to help me regenerate and make me youthful again." The old woman's appearance had shifted to look more youthful. Her face was young, and her neck grew with her new upper body and hands.

'Hey! What the hell are you doing?!' Daise was shouting into Celia's head.

'What? What am I supposed to do? My hands, arms, and legs are all tied up in this woman's snake end.' Trying to talk to the panicking Daise, who was not in control of her body. 'Why is she so worked up like she is controlling this body?'

'I can die! My whole self is just our blood. Don't let her eat me! Use our fire! You are just being lazy!' Daise shouted.

'Okay, just be quiet.' Celia tried again to use the fire, which was heating up and burning around the woman's lower half.