Oh woe to those who have seen and lived, those great pools of crimson hatred that are housed within the skull of the King of all Serpents. When our leader first was issued the job to help remove the king of the Maltune mountain ranges, he and the rest of us laughed at the simplicity of the job compared to the mountain of treasure it offered in return.
"Its just a snake! Big sure, but with enough weapons and curing charms, this will be less a trial and more a vacation!"
Those were our great leader's words, Macdune the brave leader of our mercenary group and my own older brother by about five years. The night before we and the rest of the imperial forces walked into the King's den, all fifty of us the Wolves of Kalynn held an early celebration. For even if it was a calamity, we were numerous and He was one.
And then we went there, I have seen many things in my travels you must understand. When it discovered that we were there for Him, that serpent prepared. I know that sounds mad!
But I swear, He led us to terrain that he alone had an advantage. That damn fen, we thought we had it surrounded, but that massive snake disappeared into what should have water no deeper than five feet. And that is when His hunt for us began, what we thought was solid ground was in truth peat moss.
The vanguard was the first to fall, their prime location crumbling under the Basilisk's might. And with the death of the vanguard chaos descended on the rest of the imperial forces forcing them to run in every direction, I truly believe that over one tenth of the empire's forces died by being run over by their own fellow soldiers.
In the end dealing with the weakening of the Basilisk was left down to a mercenary force fifty members strong. Yet dealing with the beast after He had already used his trump card was shockingly easy, too easy.
I'll remember when He turned to face us, the Basilisk was already being entombed into that first Serpens, that's when those eyes fell upon us. We had been busy trying our best to stay alive, but now that we had come out the victors the Basilisk wished to damn us for forcing it into a cage.
When those crimson eyes landed on my brother, my group, and I. We all stopped, my brother got the worst of it, it was he who first noticed the Basilisk's gaze. For an hour and a half the binding ritual continued, and in all that time He held only us in his crimson glare.
When the King of Serpents was finally trapped within the poor bastard's body and soul, it mattered not to us for those eyes were burned into our souls. We are forever tainted by His Glare, I remember the first time I tried to close my eyes trying to find comfort in the darkness, only to find those eyes staring back at me once more.
My brother, my idol, leader and hero, was the first to crack. Stabbing himself in the heart not two days after the imprisoning and us receiving our greatly increased reward, I found Macdune had taken our father's dagger and stabbed it into his own heart.
I will never forget his last words to me as he slowly died, of how he was haunted in his dreams by the king we had locked away. How he kept seeing those great crimson pools when awake and slumbered, how he swore serpents and snakes of all kinds had been following him.
Many of my brothers in arms went that same way, if I'm right I am the last of my group alive. I know why I've been able to live after all this time, because when I laid my brother into the earth. I had taken our father's dagger and plunged them into my eyes, hoping that would free me.
But what I thought was an act of escape was in truth submitting to the King of all Serpents, that I and my brothers by blood and water had sullied and looked down upon. Even now thirty years after ripping out my eyes, I just have to angle my head forward and there they are.
The eyes of the Basilisk.
[Last entry found in the Personal journal of Myllyn Hawksaw, the Last wolf of Kalynn.]
…
Igash had been through much these last four years, he had defected from Nalice's own army, faced the best that the empire had to offer, he had even successfully defeated the empire's strongest Fredrick Gol. Igash tried to regain control of the situation, laughing at the mysterious figure that towered over even him.
"What? Is this supposed to scare us? This tall stranger with burning eyes, We are the army who will free us from the tyranny of that false emperor Gordon! We've long outgrown campfire stories and folklore!"
The figure stood there calmly before raising what Igash recognized as a spear far too late. The red eyed sovereign spoke as his spear tightened in his grip. The noise of the figure's body sounded like a tree bending and constricting on itself as he moved.
"Sam, Jeffern, and Rook. You three will die by my hand."
Igash wanted to laugh, but he was hit with a chill that came from his tailbone and rippled through his spine to the top of his head. A question started repeating in his head filling the cruel general with seemingly endless dread.
'How does he know their names?'
The question went unsaid as the figure dropped to the ground and roared, before holding his spear aloft and screamed.
"Diamondback Rush!"
The figure burst forth the image of a mighty serpent overlapping atop of him, Igash thinking that this was the figure's true form. Yet before the massive snake was almost right in front of Igash the great serpent disappeared right in front of him and the rest of the onlookers.
Confused, the warmonger Igash tried to figure out where the monstrous serpent had gone,but failed to instantly realise that his entire left side was smothered in blood. He instantly checked his body only to find himself completely whole, before realizing where this blood had come from.
Igash turned his head where his men once stood, only to find the figure having impaled all three of his men on his spear. The figure now in the light, flicked his spear, sending the corpses flying with their lifeless fell in front of their "general".
Samuel immediately recognized the fully illuminated person, as Adder Serpens who just like their first meeting. Adder had once again saved both him and Cromb, but Adder only turned to the cruel Igash.
"Summon your men general."
Adder said not as a jest or taunt, but as a command. Igash, angered by the young man's disrespect, pointed his sword at the Serpent in the skin of a man who had dared to look down on him. Instead of saying anything, Igash pounced trying to slay the snake eyed mongrel right there and now.
But instead of the Serpent King reacting to this lowly peon's barbarity, there was a red flash and Igash fell lifelessly before screaming out of pure pain. The earsplitting and shrill scream went on for minutes until the big brute was incapacitated from the ungodly pain.
What slithered from Igash's unmoving form was Nero, who lived up to his species name of crimson torturers. With just one bite being able to perfectly debilitate a warrior like Igash. Nero slithered to his rightful place draped over his King's shoulders.
'Truly worthy of being my first subject.'
Adder thought to himself, as he prepared himself against the onslaught of attackers. Scratching his confidant's chin as Nero flicked his tongue triumphantly, Adder turned to Samuel and spoke to the man for the first time.
"Keep an eye out, the rest are with their war wagons and caravans, but no one should ever look down upon the evil of mankind."
Samuel only nodded as he watched the calamity bearer walk toward the rebel's camp ready for war.
…
The soldiers, drunk on victory and cheap grog, immediately made their way back to where they had left the defeated and cowering people of Cromb, leaving their general and five of their strongest to deal with the supplies. The rest wanted and were allowed to celebrate attaining food for the winter ahead, no matter how they had gotten it.
This drunken celebration however was dramatically interrupted, by the blood curdling scream of the fearless leader. Many of the undisciplined brutes wanted to run for the hills instead facing whatever made their general make that scream. But that is when Lyrdell showed off his silver tongue.
Lyrdell Wyst was the brains of the Army of Vermus, with him being the lone strategist amongst mercenaries, defectors and failures of the empire's own military. His small stature forced him to stand on their war wagon to be fully seen and heard by the brutes of this wanna be army.
"Listen! We have endured and grown in these four years of chaos, many of us have been since the beginning of this group of rebels. Who, sick of the Emperor's edicts of cold handed control and the attempt to shatter the Noble Alliance, threw off the Colors of Nalice to put on those of the last true emperor."
Those who attempted to run for the hills, stopped in the tracks as Lyrdell spun his beautiful words. Those once stricken with fear instead were overcome with zealotry and burning confidence.
"We have overcome so much! This is where it ends?"
The army of Vermus roared their answer, making sure that the speaker knew that this would not be their end, Not here, not now, not yet.
Lyrdell basked in the dogma he inspired, this feeling being the reason he stayed with this group even after being offered a more prestigious position within the rebellion. The small man slicked his hair back showing that his own eyes blazed with the same zealotry and ambition, before continuing his speech.
"This is our next trial, our own champions overpowered and maybe dead! Either Cromb has a guardian or those dogs of Douglas have found us once more! We have lived through so much, why die now! Come my brothers, grab your weapons we charge on Cromb once more!"
Lyrdell's form illuminated by the golden pyre inspired greater courage, The army turned to the thicket filled with bloodlust and ambition, only to watch the forest be illuminated with ghostly silver lights that hovered between the trees. This sight killed the morale kindled by Lyrdell, as they watched as a figure walked towards them.
The figure was hidden in the ghostly light, with the only thing that any of the group being able to parse was the figure's great size and their crimson eyes that darted from one member to the other. Any notion of violence or ambition was erased from their bodies, under those crimson eyes.
The light dimmed revealing Adder, in all his glory. Those who were spared from his direct gaze instantly regained their drive. Already starting their charge towards the young man, Adder only took Serpents Ire in both hands before taking a wide stance.
"Lernean Carver!"
Adder swung wide and hard, a wave of amber venom cleaving through the rogues and the brutes who survived becoming paralyzed from the venom. Adder strode past the dead and the broken as he made his way to the one who completely unharmed through this whole ordeal.
Lyrdell cowered in the unmanned warwagon, having watched the one-sided massacre done by the Serpent King. He had hoped for whatever monster in human skin that erased with little effort one of the strongest forces of their rebellion.
Lyrdell hoped that he, the small pathetic creature that he was. Would be overlooked by the all powerful monster, but sadly as he felt a massive hand grab him, he realised that he himself had been the monster's target.
…
Adder threw the knocked out and bound Igash into the war wagon along with the bound Lyrdell. Dusting off his hands as he turned to Samuel, the guardsmen happily acting as the middle man for the Serpent King.
Adder spoke to Sammuel in his regular sibilant voice, his tone soft and strangely caring.
"Thank you for the horse, the ones the vermin were using ran away when I made my way to them. I was worried I had to drag the wagon the whole way."
Adder seemed distracted for a second before calling to Samuel, having finally remembered his final piece he needed.
"You found what I had asked for?"
Samuel's smile, still bright and his manner ever respectful, held up the very ornate scroll with a silver seal addressed to Adder. Before lifting up a box holding a few other rolled up scrolls, though none had the decorated design that the imperial decree possessed.
"Our town had the responsibility of receiving mail for the Serpens' family, though I am shocked that we had received an imperial decree without much noise. And here is every other letter and notice we had received for."
Adder took the decree and and the few other letters as he nodded, before once again meeting the aging Samuel face to face. Adder put the decree with the other few pieces of mail he had received into the war wagon.
"Where are you going?"
Samuel couldn't but ask his curiosity to get the better of him. Adder sat on the seat and took the reins, before turning back to Samuel.
"The capital, Kalynn."
The serpent King said as he shook the reins, the horse started his stride before the Great serpent continued as the light of dawn started to show itself.
"I have a war to win!"