"Do you know Loretta? I am her— Whoa, you guys!" Raven was mid-sentence when he saw one of the Wolf-Sleeping Maidens spread her legs. Beneath the dark cloth, she was wearing nothing at all.
The maiden let out a low, mournful cry. Accompanied by a rush of fluid, a pinkish, oval sphere nearly half the height of a man slid out onto the ground.
Raven grabbed Lansang and pulled him back several steps, barely avoiding being splashed by the scattering fluids.
"Are... are they laying eggs?" Lansang's voice trembled, his words stumbling.
"This is definitely not normal." Raven knit his brows as he watched the rolling pink sphere. "I've never heard of Albinaurics being oviparous. And besides—"
"This thing is soft." Lansang reached out a foot and gave the sphere a gentle nudge. "There's a soft shell on the surface, like jelly."
"It looks like a live egg," Raven said, his frown deepening. "No telling what might hatch from inside. Don't touch it anymore— Damn it!"
As if triggered by Lansang's kicks, the sphere suddenly split open. A dark shadow darted out, hissing as it lunged toward Lansang. Fortunately, it wasn't particularly fast. Lansang dodged to the side and drew his Misericorde, pinning the creature to the ground.
The monster looked like a malformed, short, thick python—or perhaps a giant loach. Its head was flat, and its body was covered in brownish-black scales. Even pinned by the dagger, it hissed and struggled violently, its mouth filled with needle-sharp teeth.
Lansang let go of the hilt and stepped back. The strange snake bit down on the handle, seemingly trying to pull the blade from the earth. Before it could succeed, Raven brought his sword down and severed its head. The headless body thrashed for a long while before finally falling still.
"Could Rykard be trying to mass-produce soldiers?" Raven glanced at the dozen or so similar spheres nearby. "But these things don't look very strong. They have no arms or legs and can't hold weapons. It doesn't seem to make much sense."
"What do we do now?"
Drawing his sword, Raven leaped high and drove the blade into the shed serpent skin, hanging in mid-air with his right hand gripping the hilt.
"Can you hear me?" he shouted at the maiden, whose head was bowed low. "Wake up! Snap out of it!"
Raising his staff with his left hand, Raven cast a Carian Royal Stasis spell. He tapped the maiden's head with the staff. "Wake up!"
He cast the calming magic several times. Ordinarily, even a frenzied flame cultist would regain temporary lucidity under such a spell, but the maiden's eyes remained unfocused. She simply panted, her body drenched in sweat.
Raven tucked his staff back into his belt and rummaged through Rudy's pack, finding a yellow Bolus used to treat madness. He reached out, grabbed the maiden's face, and forced her to spit out the piece of shed skin she was gnawing on. He pried her mouth open and shoved the Bolus inside.
The maiden whimpered, her tongue pushing against the medicine for a moment before she gave up her resistance, instead beginning to lick Raven's fingers.
Once he was sure she had swallowed the Bolus, Raven withdrew his hand from her warm, moist mouth and shook it with a conflicted expression. He observed the girl's flushed face for a moment, forced to admit that the situation had not improved.
"Lansang, is there an incantation that can dispel this kind of abnormal state?"
"This isn't an 'abnormal state.' Her mind has collapsed from too much torture. This state of lost reason is a form of self-protection—an escape from the torment of horrific memories."
"How do you know that?" Raven asked, surprised. "Is there a solution?"
"Some of the Misbegotten and Omen-born in the Royal Capital are like this. A Perfumer friend of mine once tried her best to treat them," Lansang said. "But she failed. In the end, the only thing she could do was grant them release."
"Release, huh..." Raven fell silent for a moment. "There are very few Wolf-Sleeping Maidens left. I once promised someone that I wouldn't let the Albinaurics vanish from this world. If Rykard turned them into this, perhaps he also has a way to restore them—"
He suddenly stopped talking, pulled the Sword of Night and Flame from the serpent skin, and dropped back to the ground. "Someone is coming."
Picking up the monster's carcass, Raven and Lansang ducked behind a jagged rock on the shore to observe the group approaching from the distance.
Raven had thought Bishop Baroque was a rare example of a large man, but compared to the figure leading this group, the bishop was several sizes smaller.
A literal mountain of flesh walked at the front of the line, draped in a voluminous, greyish-white robe that appeared to be stitched together from the hides of dozens, if not hundreds, of different creatures. An apron made of the same material hung comically over his chest. Even through the heavy robe, one could see the fat on his belly wobbling with every step.
With a casual wave of his hand, he unleashed a massive swathe of Black Flame, clearing away the Flame Slugs that blocked his path. These slugs could live comfortably in magma, but they had no resistance to this Black Flame; a single spark turned them instantly to ash.
Seeing the Black Flame, Raven felt his own Rune of Death stir restlessly. He frowned slightly, using his will to suppress the Rune back into the depths of his consciousness.
The pale, obese figure abruptly stopped and turned his head toward Raven's hiding spot.
"Lord Godskin, is there something over there?" a Volcano Knight behind him asked.
"Snort... It is nothing," the Godskin Noble muttered after staring for a long while. He turned back and grunted, "Just an illusion. Tend to your business."
The Volcano soldiers parked several carts in front of the shed serpent skin and busied themselves loading the giant pink eggs onto the wagons. One soldier suddenly noticed the broken eggshell on the ground.
"One of the serpent infants hatched early!"
"What are you panicking for? We won't be attacked." The leading Volcano Knight waved a hand. "Are there any slime trails on the ground? It shouldn't have gone far. Look for where it went."
The soldiers gathered around the broken shell but found no clues. "There don't seem to be any tracks— Lord Godskin, you shouldn't come over here!"
A soldier saw the Godskin Noble approaching and tried to stop him, but it was too late.
Right at the Godskin Noble's feet, a giant egg suddenly burst open. A dark shadow darted out and latched onto the fat man's leg, biting down hard. However, it couldn't even pierce the skin. The Godskin Noble reached down and snatched it up.
Muttering with dissatisfaction, the Noble ignited his Black Flame, instantly incinerating the infant serpent into ash.
"Excellency, perhaps you should take a Serpent-God's Curved Sword shard." The knight produced a palm-sized, dark black scale-like object. "That way you will be recognized as a believer of the Serpent God and won't be attacked."
The Godskin Noble glanced at him, not even bothering to respond, and wobbled away, his belly swaying.
"Hmph, clearly just a bunch of stray dogs, yet they still act so high and mighty." The knight watched the Godskin Noble walk away and let out a cold snort. "Once the ritual is complete, Lord Rykard will have no further use for them."
"Sir, we couldn't find the infant that hatched early," a soldier reported. "Should we spread out and search?"
"Don't bother. Just load up the remaining amnions and we'll head back," the knight said.
"But if the Inquisitor investigates—"
"This Godskin Noble burned two of the infants to death. You all saw it, right?" The knight's gaze swept over the men. "Report it that way to Lord Ghiza. Does anyone have a problem with that?"
"Indeed, it was that Godskin fellow's doing," the crowd quickly agreed.
Soon, the group pushed the carts filled with giant eggs and began their return journey. Lansang tugged at Raven's sleeve. "Are we following them?"
Raven didn't answer immediately. After a moment, he spoke. "Lansang, what comes next... I will finish alone."
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Elden Ring: The Unborn One's Journey Through Elden Ring(155 Chapter - Ongoing)
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