The bone serpent’s coils tightened once more.

The bone plates protecting the Burrow Matriarch’s abdomen collided against one another, then sank into her flesh as the skeleton beneath them began to collapse. Blood sprayed through the gaps between the coils, soaking the dull white segments constricting her body.

The mother ghoul’s jaws opened.

No roar came out.

Blackish-red fluid flowed from her mouth along with a piece of her tongue and several broken teeth. Both claws continued trying to rake the serpent’s body, but there was no longer any strength behind their movements.

The coils tightened one final time.

KRAK!

The Burrow Matriarch’s spine snapped.

Her body stiffened for a moment before all strength left it. One hind leg continued moving uncontrollably, scraping against the floor several times before finally falling still.

The bone serpent released its coils.

The Matriarch’s corpse struck the floor with a heavy thud. Blood pooled beneath her deformed body.

The serpent’s skull turned.

The green light inside its rib cage pulsed with increasing intensity.

The Matriarch was dead.

We were not safe yet.

My Heart Skinner Vassal was still lying near the pillar with some of its organs hanging from the wound in its abdomen. The Kobold was beside Calvar, his back bent unnaturally from the earlier impact of the serpent’s tail. Elongated Helm tried to rise with the one arm that still functioned, while the Goblin Leader and Assassin held their positions among the ghoul corpses.

The serpent’s head moved toward them.

‘Do not move.’

Every Vassal froze.

The serpent’s skull paused, but the Pseudo-Core within its chest continued to pulse. Its head slowly rotated, following the faint vibrations and foreign Mana filling the hall.

Calvar opened his eyes.

The old man’s gaze had not yet fully focused. Blood had dried along the side of his face, while his breathing sounded like air being forced through a narrow throat.

The serpent’s skull lowered toward him.

Calvar raised one hand.

His fingers trembled as they touched the silver emblem beneath his robe. A faint light appeared across the metal’s surface, then dimmed as though swallowed by the pressure filling the hall.

“This...” His voice was barely audible. “Is not life.”

The serpent’s head continued descending.

Calvar pulled out the emblem and gripped it tightly.

“Its body is moved by bindings.”

He did not look at the woman upon the throne. His gaze remained fixed solely on the Pseudo-Core and the sheath of fibers anchoring it to the inside of the rib cage.

Calvar drew a shallow breath.

“Holy Purification.”

White light exploded from the silver emblem in a single flash.

The wave struck the bone serpent’s rib cage. The Pseudo-Core pulsed violently, while several thin fibers connected to it stretched taut and snapped.

The serpent’s skull jerked.

Its jaws stopped several steps away from Calvar, as though the command moving its body had been severed for an instant.

The flash immediately vanished.

A crack spread across the silver emblem. Calvar’s palm blistered, and blood flowed from his nose and the corner of his mouth before his body collapsed unconscious.

My connection to Ratkin strengthened as he entered the hall.

The Vassal emerged through the stone doorway with low, rapid movements. His claws struck the floor, carrying his semi-humanoid body across piles of bones and ghoul corpses.

Deadeye followed several seconds later.

‘Its rib cage. The cracked section.’

Deadeye stopped beside a pillar and raised his bow.

The first arrow flew.

Its tip struck the gap in the rib previously damaged by the Matriarch. The dull bone cracked, but the arrow shaft also shattered and bounced across the floor.

Deadeye had already released a second arrow.

It passed through the fracture and pierced the mass of fibers wrapped around the Pseudo-Core.

The green light dimmed momentarily.

The serpent’s entire body convulsed.

Its jaws resumed moving toward Calvar.

Ratkin leaped.

The claws on his feet gripped one of the serpent’s neck segments. His body ran across the violently shaking bones before launching toward the rib cage.

Ratkin’s jaws closed around the fibers torn open by the arrow.

Rending Bite activated.

His teeth ripped through several outer layers, causing the fiber bindings to unravel and partially detach from the protective ribs. He pulled once more, but the main mass surrounding the Pseudo-Core remained too thick to sever.

The bone serpent went berserk.

Its head slammed into the floor.

DOOM!

Ratkin leaped away before the jaws closed around the place where he had been standing. He rolled between two segments of its body, then returned to his feet as the serpent’s tail swept toward him.

The fibers that had been severed began drawing themselves together again with each pulse of the Pseudo-Core. The serpent’s movements gradually recovered, and its skull rose fully upright.

Pressure from the bone serpent once again filled the hall.

Heavy footsteps sounded from the passage.

Bloodhorn entered the hall with his long axe raised. Both Orc Warriors followed behind him, with Alden still lagging far behind among the shadows of the corridor.

‘The cracked rib. Open it.’

Bloodhorn charged.

His axe struck the protective bone.

KRAK!

The axe blade embedded itself in the fracture, but the rib did not break. The serpent bent its body and swung its head toward Bloodhorn.

The first Orc caught one of the neck segments with both hands.

His body was dragged several steps, the soles of his feet grinding through blood and bone fragments across the floor. The second Orc rammed the serpent’s body from the side, helping restrain its movement.

Bloodhorn pulled his axe.

The protective rib shifted slightly.

The serpent’s skull turned and snapped at the first Orc.

Its jaws closed around the Vassal’s left arm.

Bone and leather armor collapsed between its fangs. The serpent jerked its head sideways, tearing through the remaining flesh until the entire arm was ripped from the Orc’s body.

The severed arm fell to the floor.

The Orc did not scream.

He merely adjusted his grip, wrapping his remaining arm around the neck segment before using his entire body weight to pull the serpent’s head away from Bloodhorn.

The second Orc drove his shoulder into the cracked rib.

Bloodhorn levered his axe.

The protective bone snapped.

One of the large ribs tore free from the cage and fell to the floor, taking a mass of thick fibers still attached to its end.

The Pseudo-Core was exposed. The enormous heart continued to beat, wrapped in a thick sheath of fibers anchoring it to the inside of the rib cage.

‘Hold its head.’

Both Orcs pulled on the serpent’s neck segment.

Bloodhorn raised his axe once more.

Ratkin leaped back onto the cage and bit into another section of fibers. Deadeye released a third arrow into the exposed gap.

The arrow lodged itself in the thick layer of fibers surrounding the Pseudo-Core. Several strands snapped and unraveled, exposing a small portion of its surface.

The bone serpent thrashed its entire body.

The second Orc was thrown away and crashed into a pillar. Bloodhorn lost his footing and was dragged one step, but his axe remained in his grasp.

The serpent’s skull began turning toward me.

I moved.

I gathered my remaining Mana into my right hand. Cold immediately spread from my palm toward my shoulder, followed by a sharp throbbing behind my eyes.

Abyssal Claw ignited.

I ran across the blood and bones covering the floor. The serpent’s tail swept in from the right, but Ratkin pounced on one of its segments and pulled its trajectory aside by several inches.

I leaped.

One foot landed upon the broken rib. My body rose toward the opening inside the cage.

The Pseudo-Core pulsed directly before my face.

I drove Abyssal Claw into it.

The object collapsed around my right hand like a rotten heart being impaled. Thick green fluid sprayed from the wound, soaking the fur on my arm and burning the skin beneath it.

The sheath of fibers surrounding the Pseudo-Core tightened.

Its skull opened its jaws.

I dragged my claws downward.

The Pseudo-Core’s outer layer split from the top almost to its base. The fibers wrapped around it snapped as well, while green fluid and fragments of tissue sprayed from the opening.

The light within it went out.

The serpent’s entire body collapsed.

Its bone segments struck the floor at the same time. The tail that had remained raised crashed between the pillars, while its skull fell several steps away from Calvar.

The enormous jaws opened and closed once.

Then they became still.

I glanced at the Burrow Matriarch’s corpse lying among the serpent’s coils.

I approached and pressed my palm against her chest.

‘Absorb.’

Cold spread through my palm, but no essence entered me.

I maintained the contact and activated Abyssal Parasite.

The parasitic connection slipped into the corpse, but the murky pressure within her body immediately rejected it.

[Absorption and Resurrection Rejected]
[Corruption: Low]

The connection was severed.

Even corruption at such a low level was enough to make her essence impossible to absorb and her corpse impossible to resurrect as a Vassal.