Chapter 11- Invasion of the Serpents

Lieutenant Commander Valoir moved to open the door when it suddenly shakes, making his movement come to an abrupt end together with all the nobles and knights in the hall. They silently watch the door move by itself, knowing that something is happening beyond it.

“What—What is happening?” Lieutenant Commander Mainfroe raises a question.

But no one answered; they only quietly stare towards the door until it stops moving. The cries that they also often hear on the other side stop. They look at each other before cautiously opening the door.

A metallic smell riffs on everyone’s nose, as if slowly covering the entire hall and their body, and they witness a massacre. The receiving hall entrance turned into a literal blood bath while twitching bodies are playing around, covered in their blood, as the blood seemed like species are swimming in it. Still, because of the thick and dark red color covering these species, they could only imagine something even worse.

One knight that no one could even be distinguished because his face is full of snake bite marks and covered with his blood seemed to be trying to catch his breath as he reaches his hand to his lungs, seemingly trying to relax. But anyone could see his situation; no matter what he does, his case is a non-survival event.

This whole scenario is impossible for a regular snake invasion could create. Snakes going in humans' habitats are not new in their ears, but they never thought these snakes could make such a disturbing scene. Don't they only have poison? They've never heard of snakes ripping human bodies apart!

But this impossibility happened today, in front of them. As some knights' amputated bodies lying around with their arms and legs are thrown beside them or maybe eaten. This made some nobles faint and puked their stomachs out as they tremble from fear. But the most affected person is Priest Overmiere, remembering every detail of what he just saw. This is what it's been trying to say to him.

“My God!” Duchess Mouryn cannot help but exclaimed while others even stumbled on their own feet from shock.

“What is happening, Commander Cheistian!” Marquis Norsysia looks towards the Commander, asking for a justification for what is happening.

But the Commander is still on his feet, like a statue that cannot even breathe or move. His hands are trembling as his feet seemed to lose some of their energy and power.

“Let us go! We must immediately get away from here!” He commanded everyone. He looks back to see the difference in number between knights and nobles. Everyone here is a significant person in the Kingdom. If anything happens to all of them, the Kingdom might fall in a day. With all the things on-going inside and outside the Kingdom of Artheiaya, he doesn’t know whether they could stand firm on their ground.

The knights immediately take action as they are surrounded by all nobles trying to act as a human shield for what will happen.

“What are we going to do now?” A noble asks from shivering from fear as they stare at the scene. As expected, when people confront something skeptical or out of their league, they will succumb in fear. Though, at times, they act arrogant, it is because they are aware of what will happen. Still, with all the commotion they've seen, their minds instantly thought of every possible explanation resulting in overthinking unfavorable possibilities to them.

Another noble started shaking and hysterically shouted, “I don’t want to die! I don’t want to die!” The mere thought of dying, losing the ability to breathe, being hurt is what everyone is afraid of at this point. They said that when death knocks on someone's door, that's when a person's truthfulness comes out.

“No, no, no!” One noble cannot control themselves anymore and run towards the hall. But because the entrance is flooding with blood, the noble slipped into the puddle, falling right on his face. “Ah,” he groaned as he tried looking up to meet a person's head covered in blood, bloated, and his eyes wide open as if starting right into his soul. “Ah!” He shouted in fright before tumbling down again and crawling back just for several serpents to jump on him and repeatedly bite in his arms and face.

Several nobles shouted as they peer over the noble victimized by the serpents. Some cannot take it in their stomachs and puke on their ground.

Some knights tried helping the nobles but soon faced some segments which did not want to share, making them step back from the scene after slashing several serpents who stopped them. Just seconds after, the snakes who covered the noble's body retracted from the body, and there, the poor noble was almost unrecognizable with all the bite marks and parts of his body that were torn apart.

Without any choice, everyone stepped back to the receiving hall, locking the doors and staying inside. If it’s only the knights, they might be able to run away from here, but because of the nobles, they didn’t have any choice.

“Where the hell did all those serpents came from? What is happening outside?” They cannot help but wonder as they start to fear for their lives.

Minutes ago, while the commotions occupied everyone in the hall and while Third Knight Hawkin was traveling, Emil started taking action to control the Kingdom's people. Soon, other knights who are patrolling around the town also appeared.

“What happened here?” One knight asked him.

“Nothing. Suddenly a thunder bolted this tree and created this fire.” He said as he pointed towards the tree. The knights followed his gestures to see the fire burning on the tree, but there seemed to be no damage being inflicted on the tree.

“Well, this is strange.” They cannot help but mutter.

“Yeah, but we need to control the people. They are starting to create some commotion.” He suggested to them.

“Right, we should get something to barricade this tree. We don’t know what it will cause to the people.”

“That is right. We must protect the public.” They have a festival right now, so a lot of people are here. If something wrong will happen, it'll be a massacre.

The knights started looking for carpenters to create barricades, but now, they use their bodies to secure the tree's people. Emil, on the other hand, decided to go back as well. Placing his hands on the back of his head, supporting his head and neck, as he thought, he is still on his break, which he certainly deserves. It's not the time for work yet so that he will enjoy his time. He thought that maybe, Hawkin would also feel the same way; they are best buddies for several reasons.

He was on his way to his family's house when several wails sounded around the Kingdom. He was immediately alerted and ran towards the commotion. But before he could arrive there, a serpent suddenly appeared flying on to him, but thanks to his instincts, he manages to slap the snake out of his way and stopped running. Why the hell would a serpent be inside a busy place like a town? Reptiles don’t often go to active areas. Instead, they love staying and hiding inside a forest or dark skimpy spots. He took out his sword and slashed the serpent apart. He looks around to see many snakes crawling around while others are biting or trying to bite some people.

Emil's eyebrows curled up. What an unusual behavior; it’s nothing like any serpents would do. He runs towards a stunned standing person without taking any action as several snakes crawled over to her and slash the reptiles.

“You might want to wake yourself up, or else you'll die from their bites.” He told the woman, but the latter never responded. Feeling odd, he started at the woman to see a familiar face, Lady Vivian Boutemaize.