As Finn looked up, he was met with pure dread.
The swamp itself began to heave upward. Muddy earth and foul, unidentifiable waste clung to something massive rising from beneath, dripping back down in slow, sickening streams.
Everyone froze. Knights and adventurers alike stood paralyzed, their swords rattling in their hands, their legs trembling as the ground shook beneath them.
Even Finn felt his chest tighten with fear. Whatever this was, it was huge—and it didn't stop rising. The muck peeled away bit by bit, but the thing beneath was too far up to make out its form.
Overhead, the crows wheeled and cawed, circling the creature as though in worship.
Finn's blood ran cold. This had to be the cocoon he and Seraphina had found in the slime cavern—only now it had grown into something nightmarishly colossal. Nothing else made sense.
The knight who had harassed Finn earlier stumbled back, his entire body quaking. He looked more afraid now than he ever had of the chief woman.
