'Eugh'
The smell of blood and guts hit him in the face. It was awful. The serpent caught the man by the legs, crunching him in half. His longhandled shortsword flew over the edge of the path and plummeted to the forest below.
'Damnit!'
He wanted to yell but that would only waste a breath. The others seem to think the same as they didn't spare any vengeful curses to the snake for their lost friend.
'He was just an illusion….poor guy'
He couldn't help but feel sick though. The sickly sweet smell of blood followed him making him puke. Even puking couldn't stop him right now though. Running was the only thing that he needed to do nothing else. He refused to meet the same fate, he wanted to live! He wanted to see his family again!
The snake had slowed for a moment to consume the man. They tried to use this chance to make distance however the second man stumbled to the ground in exhaustion.
"No!"
His voice cracked as he shouted hoarsely in outrage. Not because another would die but because they would lose another weapon.
'Not this time…'
He spun quickly much to the dismay of his entire body and lunged for the curved sword lying on the ground. He saw the grotesque image of a lump traveling down the serpent's throat as it raised its head to swallow seemingly pleased with its meal. Gwin lunged for the handle of the blade and sighed when he felt his fingers wrap around the leather hilt. The man looked up at him. His eyes were full of an unknown emotion. He did not want to look, this image was surely going to keep him up at night. He'd rather he didn't see his face.
He saw the serpent's eyes narrow on the two of them. He quickly began running as the man desperately reached for his heels. The man missed, to Gwin's glee.
'Just die in peace..'
He pleaded in his head. After all, these people were illusions, specters of people summoned by the spell. He didn't need to feel guilt, it's not like he was the one killing him.
It was the spell.
That's right, all of this was the spell's fault. They were just pieces of a puzzle he was meant to solve. They wouldn't have been of much help during the battle to come anyways. Running with a sword was especially awkward with only one arm. He was leaning heavily to the right but with some effort he fixed himself.
Up ahead a pair of ancient looking wooden doors barred their path.
'Are you kidding me?!'
It was a complete dead end. Dread began creeping into his stomach, but he ran towards the door anyway. The second man had already been devoured and the serpent was 30 meters from them and catching up quickly. His "father" was leading the group. He ran straight to the large wooden doors and lowered his shoulder and barreled into them. They turned into splinters instantly.
'R-Right..'
He had forgotten for a moment that he was being accompanied by two superhumans. His "father" seemed especially strong even for an awakened.
'His aspect maybe?'
These ancient humans didn't have the spell to fast track their way to awakening. Gwin had no idea how they awakened but he knew most didn't have aspects. It was already surprising the woman had hers.
The frame of the door flew from the wood it was embedded in and flew ahead of them. Bits and chunks of the door flew along too with some flying over the edge. Gwin dodged the bent iron frame that was lying on the ground. Splinters dug into his feet but he ignored the pain and kept going. Up ahead the path hooked to the right and opened up into a wide area. Behind him the serpent simply barreled through the rubble, not stopping for a moment.
Gwin emerged from the path exhausted and bleeding. He left faint bloody footprints with each step. Ahead of him was a strange and mystical sight. The tree made a shallow bowl at the top. There were shallow pools of a shimmering green liquid within it forming natural terraced ponds. At the bottom of it all was a nest made from tree logs for a giant creature. The nest was currently empty with no remnants of eggshells laying in it.
Floating in the shimmering green liquid were large and clear membranes. Each one was large enough for him to fit in entirely. Faint silhouettes dwelled in these membranes. Gwin saw that they were vaguely animalistic in shape but could not tell anything besides that. On a closer inspection he noticed that all of these membranes were broken and the contents of the pools seemed to have mixed with the embryo inside. Whether this was supposed to happen or not he did not know.
At the edges of the bowl were the bases of the colossal branches. Some grew out horizontally and others grew upwards. Thick green vines grew from these drooping down into the bowl below. He noticed a few of them which touched the ground and some of which fell into the shimmering green liquid. The ones in the liquid had dissolved leaving them hanging stumps.
The whole thing was kind of eerie.
'This is the nursery?'
The awakened seemed to share in his shock. Their eyes scanned the unsettling scene grimly.
'I'm guessing it's not supposed to look like this.'
Gwin had no more time to speculate. He could hear the serpent coming quickly. The woman dropped the girl to the ground and shoved her towards Gwin.
"Take her! We will defeat the mother!"
The awakened woman shouted but her voice didn't carry any certainty.
'She doesn't even have a weapon'
Gwin eyed his sword nervously. The woman was eyeing it as well. His grip tightened.
'No way…Not a chance!'
Gwin was most certainly not giving away his sword. He bit the center of its blade and wrapped his arm around the girl. Despite trying to convince himself she was just an illusion he didn't think he'd ever be able to look his sisters in the eyes again if he just left her. He began stumbling to the edge of one of the pools where a thick cluster of wines was located to avoid the woman's desperate gaze.
A moment later the serpent burst into the opening. His "father" was ready for it, spear in hand. His eyes looked forward with grim resolve