Chapter 31

Severus was looking around the gloomy but rather spacious room with slight interest. It was a dull swamp green, with a huge number of snake statues standing on the sides of the stone path that the wizard was currently walking along.

The Archmage's hand tightly gripped the hilt of the sword. After all, even with the help of a spell that enhances perception, he could not find the exact place where the Basilisk was hiding, and the feeling that someone was watching him caused him slight annoyance.

"Hidden in the snake's mouth…" as soon as Severus remembered these words, he stopped abruptly and, turning around, returned to the beginning of the path and began to check the mouths of the snake statues… And so, after spending almost ten minutes, with a slight disappointment, he finally finished with the last one and stood in front of a stone human face with a long beard and the same hair, engraved on a huge rock.

At the same time, the statue's mouth was unnaturally open, which looked rather suspicious, which is why the Archmage stopped only ten metres from it. Apparently, that's where his(basilisk) lair is.

"Be careful…" Nagini slithered out and said.

 Severus looked towards her and asked. "Oh, so you already forgave me?"

"If you die, who will feed and talk to me…?"

"It's logical since you are asking me to be more careful…" under Nagini's perplexed look, a fireball escaped from his hand… ~ BOOM!!! In less than a second, a furious hissing resounded through space, from which poor Nagaina almost fainted.

The Archmage himself did not experience any fear, but on the contrary, a slight anticipation. And the Basilisk itself did not make him wait too long: like an arrow, it jumped out from under the rubble with its mouth open and, having overcome the distance separating them in a split second, was already ready to swallow Severus at once.

But the wizard expected something like this, so even at the moment when the monster was just about to attack, he had already cast an accelerating spell on himself and without much difficulty with a slight gust of wind went to the side, and the young man could finally examine the monster normally: in front of him was a fifteen-meter poisonous green monster, it was as thick as a pillar.

The monster's huge yellow eyes with vertical pupils emitted an eerie oppressive feeling, and giant fangs, from which poisonous saliva dripped, from which the stone floor melted, caused real horror, but …

" Is that all?" Severus grumbled sullenly, looking slightly annoyed at the monster's eyes. "Heck! Did I come all the way down here for this? This more looks like a worm than a Basilisk! I would rather call a chicken a Phoenix than calling this thing a Brazilian!"

From such a tirade, even the monster froze, looking in bewilderment directly into the eyes of the Archmage, while wondering if this man had gone crazy, and why didn't he turn into stone? Of course, the Basilisk had a mind and could easily understand that he was being insulted, and this rekindled the flames of rage in him.

With a wild "roar", or rather, a hiss, the monster rushed towards Severus, but, like last time, Sever us was able to evade without much difficulty, only the snake did not stop there, because at the same second its tail rushed right into the face of the wizard.

Of course, the Archmage didn't try to block the attack, because that would be stupid: he would just be "blown away" like a house of cards. 

Therefore, he parried the attack, leaning on his right foot and slightly lowering his sword, causing the tail of the snake to slide along the flat part of the sword and strike the stone floor under his feet, while the wizard himself jumped back a couple of metres.

From such an exchange, Basilisk fell into a stupor and Severus took advantage of it, jumping on it and leaving several deep wounds on the strong skin of the monster, from which blood flowed profusely, which caused another fit of rage.

The creature, sharply turning around, tried to bite the Archmage again, but Severus managed to jump off his back, finally leaving one more wound.

Landing on the stone floor, Severus looked thoughtfully at the snake. "A rather strong skin… apparently, instead of growing in size, it preferred skin and poison, and thanks to this, its speed became higher, and its physical strength is a lot less than what it should be, but the powerful poison almost completely levelled this weakness… eh…I made the mistake of a warrior rookie, by judging the enemy's strength by its appearance," looking up at the gigantic-sized snake rushing towards him, Severus smiled wryly, and the runes on the blade lit up.

"Okay, I more or less appreciated your strength, so consider this my apology for underestimating you…" The next moment, the creature's mouth closed on the very spot where the Archmage stood, but the snake only blinked its eyes in bewilderment.

"~ Hessss…?" But the surprise did not last long, as it hissed in pain from the many wounds that opened in one second, and it began to wriggle furiously, and the floor was covered with more and more blood.

At the same time, Severus, standing in the distance, thoughtfully looked at the slowly collapsing sword. "I only applied the rune for two seconds and the sword became like this. Looks like I'll have to look for a worthy sword after this… oh… my back… now it's going to hurt for a week," the Archmage muttered sadly, clutching at his lower back and watching the Basilisk, whose movements gradually became more and more lethargic, and hissing became quieter.

"Forgive me for this pain, but I need your life …"

Only after ten minutes, the snake stopped twitching, and the young man could finally approach it.

The monster was on its last legs due to profuse blood loss. "Eh… never liked hurting animals." Reaching out, Severus touched Basilisk's forehead, creating a small seal on it.

"Using only one sword, you were able to defeat such a fearsome monster… are you sure you're human?" At this moment Nagini came out of his shirt and said.

"Of course, I am a human, but unlike ordinary wizards who develop only their magic, I also improved the body, and also studied the path of the sword. I can teach you after you become a human." At first, Nagini wanted to agree, but the next moment, remembering what training Severus went through and what terrifying loads he was doing, her desire completely disappeared. She was just going to say "No" but the following action of Severus made her eyes widen in disbelief.

Severus indifferently walked up to the Basilisk and under the terrified eyes of Nagini, he began to cut upon its eyes.

Nagini, watching this hissed in horror "Why are you doing it?!"

"For you, you will have to eat them."

"I won't eat his eyes!"

"You will."

"I won't!"

"You will."

"I won't!"

"Naginiiii~~~" the young man sang more affectionately, and Nagini from this voice only trembled even more and with real horror in her eyes looked at the smiling face of the Archmage, covered with blood, peering under the sweater.

"NOOOOOOO…!

*********************** 

[An hour later.]

There were two snakes on the floor. But only the skeleton remained of one from the first "work" in an hour, and the second looked like an inflated balloon.

Her eyes were tightly closed, and a star-shaped pattern shone on her forehead.

"Rest in peace, Basilisk, I will never forget your sacrifice," the wizard muttered, folding his hands together, and then, throwing the skeleton into his purse, the young man looked towards Nagini. "Evolution is almost over," going up to her, he cut his finger and dripped blood directly on the seal.

In the next moment, she was swallowed up by a bright light, accompanied by an unpleasant crackle, which stopped only after a minute.

Half a minute later the light began to fade, revealing a huge ten-metre-long snake, its thickness was ½ of the Basilisk.

Her colour has also changed from greenish brown to pale green with hints of brighter shades of yellow and green.

"Now she should not be in danger of losing her memory, but at the same time, the snake instincts have also increased. Hopefully, I can still find the last three ingredients…" With a warm smile, he extended his hand, and, oddly enough, she answered this by lowering her head into his palm. "Congratulations on a successful evolution."

"Thanks… but I only got bigger, and it's a strange feeling… why can I feel your emotions?"Her voice became much softer and sounded younger than before due to her increased lifespan. Basilisks could easily live for several thousand years, and thanks to the absorbed bloodline, Nagini's life span also increased several dozen times. "Do you know what familiars are?"

"This is the first time I hear this term."

"This is a creature that has made a pact with a wizard, thanks to which a certain connection appears between the familiar and the wizard."

"Connection…?"

"I can understand you without an artefact, as well as feel your emotions and know where you are, even if you go to the other side of the world. You can also do the same." Feeling the turmoil coming from his companion, he smiled.

"Don't worry, you can cancel it at any time," and now Severus was overwhelmed with a feeling of displeasure.

"I understand… it's convenient, now you don't have to risk carrying that artefact with you, but… why can't I feel your emotions…?" Narrowing her eyes, she hissed. 

"I closed my mind." Severus answered.

"So you can read mine, but I can't read yours?"

"Don't think that I don't trust you, it's just that I'm not used to showing my emotions to other people. During these three months, you should have understood that I never pretended when I was with you, and I won't do it in the future," right before his eyes, Nagini began to decrease until she again became the same size as she was before.

- Okay…" from such "openness" on the part of the Archmage, she was very embarrassed and quickly darted into his sleeve in order to hide her embarrassment, as if she had forgotten about the connection. 

"That's great, now only one last thing is left…" looking up at the half-destroyed face from which the Basilisk crawled out earlier, he began to sort out the rubble…