Chapter 64: Strings

The skull was of an avian beast, that had a long pointy beak, the red ocean poured from its two empty eye sockets, and it seemed as if it was weeping blood.

A massive spinal column emerged from the ocean that was connected to the massive bones around him, and he realized that this being was far larger than he thought, and the body ashore was still a part of it.

A greater part of its body was buried inside the bloody ocean, and as it arose, it brought a formless pressure that drove the breath away from his lungs.

It appeared he might have overstayed his welcome, he hurriedly poured his Spatial sight into the Rune below him, his mind tensed as he saw that whatever method the teleportation circle used, it would take a few more seconds to charge, before he could leave, the pressure from the giant was beginning to mount, and then his snakes... attacked!

"Godda*nit... They are like mindless brats, who bite everything that moves!"

The sounds made as their numerous needle - sharp teeth rip through the bones were spine-chilling.

This was all disregarding the fact that they were consuming the body of a creature with powers that Rowan feared neared or were equal to a god.

The reaction of the giant avian skeleton was a bit sluggish, but it soon shook in agitation, when the third snake with three eyes, which unlike its other two siblings who ate along the surface, it was focused on boring deeper into the skeleton.

It must have reached particularly deep, for the skeleton gave a strange scream like nails scratching a board, and a green ghost fire emerged from its sockets.

It eyes blazed for a moment with that emerald flame before it spewed it at the three snakes, and they turned to dust, yet even before they died, they opened their mouths wide and greedily swallowed the flames.

"..."

Rowan felt a thump inside his chest, and a frightening sense of weakness before his body steadied itself and looking inside his body, he saw the three snakes had resurrected inside the void, where his hearts previously resided.

Before he could give any instructions, the snakes burst out of his body with startling speed, driving him to his knees as they shot towards the giant.

They emerged from his body, in a reduced form, before they rapidly expanded once more, which was a good thing because with their current size, they would kill him the moment they emerged from his body, as his constitution was like paper to them.

Okay. He was never going to get used to that.

The snake with two eyes with a more mild temperament did not rush into battle like it's two siblings, but paused, and seeing the massive bones surrounding them, rushed towards the bones and began to take massive bites.

Their stomach must be endless, for Rowan had seen it must have eaten more than twice it's body weight. A massive rib bone began to wobble, as the two eyed snake had eaten its connecting part to the vertebra.

Meanwhile, the other two snakes were braving the onslaught of the giant head, who was spewing a fresh round of green flames.

Both of them were blasted by the flames coming out of the eyes of the giant skeleton, and Rowan was surprised that the damage inflicted did not turn them to dust, instead only their scales and most of their flesh were burned off.

Their skeletons roared in anger and charged ahead through the flames, meanwhile, Rowan had been feeling a massive amount of pressure building up for a while now. He knew he had to leave, else if this giant erupted with whatever techniques it was brewing, he doubted he would survive it.

Thankfully, the Rune lit up before him, and he began to fade away, the two snakes ahead burned to ash as ultimately, they could not handle more of the flames, but they had swallowed a lot of it.

The last snake seized the falling rib bone as they disappeared, behind him the world shattered as the giant skeleton unleashed its endless fury, but Rowan was already inside the Spatial passage.

The last snake outside his body had its mouth opened wide as it was swallowing the rib bone, eight times its length. The other two gluttons burst out of him, tearing his body apart, as they began fighting for the rib bone, in less than ten seconds, they had finished consuming it.

The Spatial passage did not seem to have any influence on the massive serpents, as they flew around, and the three eyed one began biting the glowing floor of the passage.

The others looked around, and the one - eyed snake fixed on the Axe in Rowans hand, and charged over.

"No you don't!" Rowan moved the Axe away, but it had already a bit down on it, and Rowan did not know which of them was more surprised that the needle sharp teeth did not penetrate the Axe.

The Axe retaliated with a green glow that pushed the snake away, shaking its head in annoyance, it joined its siblings in roaming the spatial passage and occasionally biting at the walls and floors, leaving a glowing imprint of their teeth on them.

Rowan wanted to laugh at their silliness, as he felt that he was looking at babies that were mouthing. Everything was new and fresh in their eyes, and everything must be tasted!

He almost wanted to let them play, as he took the time to check the Primordial Record, but that was before the passage vibrated, and the snake with three eyes reared up as it swallowed a massive pile of glowing gems from the passage floor.

Rowan's face went black as chaos erupted all over the passage, and it began to shrink, outside the passage was only the chaos of endless space.

He began running towards the green door, the snakes screamed in surprise and instead of fleeing, continued attacking and eating the shrinking passage.

Rowan's anger was beginning to mount as he forcefully pulled them into his chest and with a force of will, he opened the green door and reappeared inside the mansion.

The gem behind him began to crack, he turned around in anger, as in less than three seconds the massive yellow gem collapsed into dust, the wave of breeze blowing towards him as they filled the void the gem left behind, did nothing to chill his growing outrage.

An endless source of soul points just disappeared because of the need for these gluttons to feed their endless stomach.

AAAHHH!!!

He felt like hitting something really hard, to reduce his frustration. But the wave of spatial powers that began to flow through his body made him pause as he watched his Spatial sight beginning to grow.

Its dimension was rapidly expanding, and soon he was able to effortlessly cover the entire room and most of the adjourning passage.

The vision his Spatial sight showed him got richer than before, and that eerie dimension that formed over him, when his body senses and his Spatial sight merged got stronger, as he effortlessly levitated a couple of chairs inside his sphere of influence.

His anger was mildly tempered by this, but it still burned bright, the exuberant snakes became meek as they turned into a ball and hid their faces inside their coils.

Looking at his growing fourth heart, would they soon become another new source of headache? In fact, how many hearts could he even have? His body did not seem to even need them at this point.

His body was far from normal, and seeing as how it could hold massive living organisms, it was unlikely that space was an issue for him, so he had no idea how many hearts he could even end up having.

Sigh. Now would be a good time to get knowledge from another Empyrean, but where would he find a being like that? This world must be like a speck of dust before their eyes.

Well, it was time to check his Record, he had held back long enough to settle his spirit, he hoped he was ready for the revelations it would show him.

He was mistaken!