I died while watching the stupid clock tick past midnight. I had my eyes fixed on the TV show Seven Deadly Sins, when a truck flew around the corner and hit me.
Everything went dark in a heartbeat.
Next thing I know, I woke up on a rough surface that scratched my face. Cold air hit me hard—like I stepped into a freezer. I had no idea what I was. Couldn't move much. My whole body felt heavy and weird.
Shaking, I pushed myself upright. Didn't try to talk at first—I couldn't. My voice was gone.
A long moment passed, and I realized I wasn't human. My whole body was hard and slippery. I was a snake, just like Melascula. I saw myself in a puddle and froze.
My scales matched hers—pale and smooth—but mine had a dark tint, almost black. My eyes looked like hers, too, but colder. I stared at that snake version of me and my heart pounded like a drum.
I tried to remember what happened. Tube lines popped into my head. I had been watching Seven Deadly Sins before I died. Then the truck hit. Now I was here—in snake form.
I tried to stand. The ground crunched under my body. I lifted my head and looked around. The world looked broken—twisted shapes of trees and cracked ground. Red-flamed sky covered everything. I couldn't name the place. But it felt heavy and dangerous, like fear had weight.
A voice burst in my mind—sharp and close. "Alakula."
It was Melascula's voice. There was no whispering or darkness about it—it was real and cruel. No more hints. The bond was obvious.
Her power pressed into me. I felt her heart racing, her fear hiding behind her strength. She wasn't hiding it anymore.
I breathed in and out. It wasn't me breathing—my snake lungs heaved air with every hiss from my slit-fanged mouth.
I needed answers, but right now I just needed to get up. I gathered my awkward snake body and pushed forward. The scent of smoke and metal filled me. Sharp, like rusted steel.
The sky turned a deeper red as I slithered. I tasted panic in the air. Not mine, but hers. Strong and pounding.
I remembered being separated from her—not knowing why. Now I knew I was her twin, reborn into snake form, and I could feel her as clear as day. It shocked me. No question she feared me. Healed me. Needed me.
I forced my muscles to move. Scales scraped the ground as I slid sideways, trying to figure out where I was. Every breath carried the burn of smoke, and the air pressed down like a cruel weight. This place was twisted. It felt like a mirror of the Demon Realm—but darker, sharper, more broken. Nothing like Earth. Nothing like human.
I didn't name it. Not yet.
The voice came again, stronger. Melascula. She cried out. Not into my mind, but through it. I could feel it in my whole body.
I let it sink in. She could reach me, right now. She feared me and loved me in the same pulse. She was in pain, but also…something else. Obsession? Need? Bond?
I shook it off and focused on what I could do. One thing was clear: I was alive again. Alive in a twisted snake body. Connected to her. And not said out loud, I wanted to find her.
My muscles burned when I pushed forward, through cracked stone and broken ground. Flames danced on horizon edges. No wind. Just hot, smoky air.
Lost isn't the word. Confused fits better.
I slowed. Tongue flicked out, tasting the air. Sharp metal. Rotten leaf. Blood.
I could hear her again. She was close, even though I didn't see her. My belly tightened.
I raised my head and hissed a question into the red haze. No words—just a hiss. But her name echoed through my mind: Melascula.
Realization hit me.
I am snake born into this broken place. I had died, come back, and the bond didn't hide anymore.
Now, I needed to find out what that bond meant. Where she was. And why we were here—connected in scales and shadow, in twin cold eyes in a place we couldn't name yet.
I pressed my body forward, eyes scanning the twisted land. No name yet for the place. I didn't know what to do next.
But I had to move. I had to find her. I need to get out this hellscape and plunder the thing that tests the thing closest to me!