CHAPTER 186: [INSIDE THE SERPENT’S MOUTH]

Eli didn’t even have time to scream.

One second, the serpent was a blur of blue light below them. The next—darkness.

It was too fast.

"—shit—!"

Kairo’s curse cut through the air just before the world snapped around them.

A deafening crack split through the clearing as the serpent lunged upward, its jaws unhinging wider than seemed possible.

The impact was like a storm breaking open. The force ripped them off the branch in an instant—Eli’s stomach dropped, his breath leaving him as everything became noise and teeth and wet, crushing heat.

They didn’t even hit the ground.

The serpent’s mouth slammed shut around them.

Eli’s ears rang. His world was black and slick and suffocating.

"Kairo—!"

"I know!" Kairo barked, his voice raw, breath ragged.

He was swearing under his breath, every curse louder than the last as he clutched Eli tightly with one arm and reached out with the other, trying to anchor himself against the creature’s inner jaw.

The serpent’s breath was hot, damp, and reeking of ozone and decay. The air burned with static; it wasn’t just saliva—it was charged.

The monster was moving. Fast.

Eli could feel it in every bone, the sheer velocity making his vision spin even in the dark.

They were being dragged—rattled back and forth inside the serpent’s mouth like stones caught in a current.

"—fucking thing—won’t—open—!" Kairo hissed between clenched teeth. His muscles strained, blood aura flaring crimson around his arms.

Eli could feel it. The familiar hum of Kairo’s power—dense, sharp, alive.

"Hold on," Kairo growled.

"I am holding on!" Eli shot back, his voice hoarse with panic. His hands were gripping onto Kairo’s shirt, his nails digging into the fabric, as if letting go would mean being crushed between the serpent’s fangs.

Then—

Kairo shifted his grip, lowering his stance even within the confined space, his aura pulsing brighter.

"Pulse Burst."

The words hissed through his teeth.

The effect was immediate.

Blood-light surged out from his palms in a violent pulse, slamming into the serpent’s inner jaw like a detonation. The entire mouth shook.

A burst of red energy exploded outward, painting the inside of the serpent’s maw in flickering light.

Eli’s vision flashed white. The pressure slammed into his chest, knocking the air out of him.

But the serpent didn’t open.

It didn’t even flinch.

The light faded as quickly as it came, leaving only the sound of its deep, rhythmic breathing—completely unfazed.

"Are you kidding me?!" Kairo snarled, his voice breaking between rage and disbelief. "That should’ve blown

it open!"

Eli could barely hear himself over the deafening roar in his ears. Everything was shaking—the air, the walls, his bones.

"It’s—still—moving—!" he shouted, his voice raw.

"Yeah, I fucking noticed!" Kairo snapped back, his tone sharp with frustration.

The serpent convulsed again, its massive body twisting violently.

The motion slammed them against the slick, fleshy wall of its mouth.

The heat and humidity made it hard to breathe—everything smelled of earth and ozone, and the air vibrated with the creature’s pulse.

Eli clung to Kairo’s shoulder, trying to steady himself as the world tilted.

His heart was racing, hammering in his throat. ’God, this thing is massive...’

Kairo’s arm locked tighter around him, his grip firm, protective, almost crushing.

Every muscle in his body was coiled, tense. His aura flickered, blood energy seeping through his veins like living flame.

Eli had never seen him this furious. He’d never even heard him curse this much.

But none of that mattered right now.

Outside, faint sounds reached them—muffled, distant. Shouts. Explosions. The low, rhythmic thunder of Punzo’s blasts. And through it all, Caelen’s voice, yelling something Eli couldn’t make out.

Then the noise started to fade.

They weren’t attacking anymore.

Because the serpent wasn’t fighting.

It was retreating.

Eli’s eyes widened as realization hit. "It’s taking us somewhere—!"

Kairo’s jaw clenched, his voice low and furious. "And wherever that is, it’s not somewhere good! We have to—!"

He shifted, gathering his mana again, his entire body tensing like a spring. The red glow of his aura ignited around them, casting sharp shadows along the serpent’s inner walls. T

he air grew heavy.

He was going to strike.

"Wait!" Eli grabbed his arm, desperate, the word ripping out of him before he could stop it.

Kairo froze, breathing hard. "What—"

"It’s not trying to eat us!" Eli gasped, panic and clarity hitting all at once. "It’s taking us—somewhere!"

The serpent’s body lurched again, its movement smooth and terrifyingly fast.

The world outside was just a blur now—trees shattering, the ground tearing apart, the sound of destruction trailing behind them like thunder.

"You already said that!" Kairo growled, trying to pull his arm free.

"I’m not sensing any danger!" Eli shouted over the noise, voice cracking. "Shouldn’t you—Shouldn’t you conserve whatever blood you have?!"

Kairo turned his head sharply, black eyes flashing.

"Eli, for whatever reason, your ability might be broken!" His words came out clipped, strained. "As much as I want to listen to you—because you’ve been right before—even if it’s not trying to eat us, it’s not taking us anywhere good!"

"Which means you need

to conserve blood!" Eli fired back, gripping his sleeve tighter.

His tone was shaking, desperate. "You saw what happened earlier! Caelen and his team all attacked it—and it barely did anything! It wasn’t even close to dying! What makes you think you can do it alone, with this much blood?!"

Kairo stared at him, the red light of his aura flickering between them like a heartbeat.

His jaw clenched again—but this time, he didn’t move.

The serpent roared beneath them, a deep, rumbling growl that rattled their bones as it surged forward into the darkness.

And for a fleeting second, Eli thought he saw doubt flicker across Kairo’s face.

"I am stronger than Caelen."

That was all Kairo said—his tone low, cutting through the rumble of the serpent’s movement like a blade through fog.

And before Eli could even protest, Kairo summoned what little blood energy he had left.

The crimson aura ignited around his arm, pulsing with violent intent.

"Wait—Kairo, don’t—!"

Too late.

He drove the attack upward, muscles straining as he forced his arms apart, trying to pry open the serpent’s mouth.

For a heartbeat, the air crackled, the pressure bending around them.

And then—nothing.

The serpent didn’t even flinch.

Its body simply kept moving, the wet, suffocating sound of muscle and scales grinding together filling the air.

Kairo’s jaw tightened. "Damn it!"

"Is it too late to say I told you so?!" Eli shouted, his voice sharp and echoing through the monster’s throat. Anger and fear mixed in his chest until it was impossible to tell which one hurt more.

Kairo’s head snapped toward him, eyes narrowing. "Excuse me?"

"I told you to conserve what blood you had left!" Eli snapped back, his hands gripping the slick surface beneath them. "And if the serpent does let us go, we’ll have nothing—nothing—to fight with!"

Kairo’s aura flared, his patience snapping. "Need I remind you," he hissed, his voice dark and low, "that you WOKE this thing up? Or are we just forgetting that detail?" His hold on Eli’s waist tightened, his glare burning.

Eli’s breath hitched, but the anger didn’t falter. "ONLY BECAUSE EVERYTHING WAS FALLING APART!" he shouted, voice cracking. "I couldn’t even see you or Caelen—and all of you were too busy fighting each other instead of fixing things!"

Kairo’s eyes narrowed, cold. "Because Caelen and his team are—"

"No. Nope." Eli cut him off, shaking his head in disbelief, voice rising with exhaustion. "Whether or not I woke it up doesn’t matter! You all had to kill this SS-Class bastard eventually, or none of us were leaving! We were going to face it either way—"

"Eli—"

"No!" Eli’s voice broke, louder this time, echoing through the serpent’s cavernous throat. "You’re doing it again—this thing you do where you don’t listen! Where you act like you’re above everyone!

" His chest heaved as he glared at him, eyes bright with frustration and something dangerously close to despair.

"And you probably hate Caelen for doing that exact thing," he continued, his words shaking, "but you—you do it too! You’re no better!"

He pointed toward the dark beyond the serpent’s throat, where muffled explosions still rippled through the distance.

"This happened because instead of putting aside whatever petty feud you and your teams have—you both decided fighting each other was more important than fighting the fucking monster!"

Kairo didn’t move.

Didn’t blink.

The silence that followed was heavy—thick with everything Eli had just thrown at him.

Eli’s pulse was still pounding, the echo of his own anger mixing with the serpent’s muffled rumble.

’Did I... finally knock some sense into him?’ he thought, chest heaving. For a split second, he actually believed he’d gotten through to Kairo—until the man turned his head, black eyes narrowing like the calm before a storm.

"Don’t you ever lump me with that bastard." Kairo’s voice was low, sharp, and cold enough to slice through the air. "I am nothing like him."

Eli blinked. The disappointment hit harder than he expected.

"Out of everything I said," Eli muttered, staring at him in disbelief, "that’s what stuck to you?"

Kairo didn’t answer. He simply looked away, jaw tightening, his silence saying more than words ever could.

Eli let out a short, humorless laugh—half chuckle, half sigh. "If you think you’re nothing like him," he said, his tone dropping to something sharper, colder, "then you really are just stupid."

The second the words left his mouth, he regretted them.No—he knew he would regret them.

But exhaustion burned hotter than fear. His body still hurt from the serpent’s earlier strike, his mind was a blur of adrenaline and rage, and Kairo—Kairo—was being as stubborn and immature as Caelen.

Kairo’s eyes snapped open, wide and disbelieving, his aura flaring faintly around him. He opened his mouth, ready to fire back—

But then something cold and slick wrapped around Eli’s leg.

His breath hitched, eyes snapping downward.

A long, slimy tendril—gleaming faintly blue under the serpent’s glow—had coiled tight around his calf.

"K—Kairo, the—"

Before he could finish, the serpent’s tongue yanked.

"Eli!"

Eli’s body jerked forward violently, slipping from Kairo’s grasp as he was dragged downward. Panic surged through him like fire. He clawed for balance, for anything—but the serpent’s mouth tilted, its muscles convulsing as it thrashed.

"Hold on!" Kairo shouted, reaching for him, his voice raw with urgency. "Fuck, Eli—just hold on!"

Eli’s fingers brushed his arm—but the serpent moved again, the motion whipping them in opposite directions. His grip slipped.

And then Kairo was gone.

The serpent shook its massive head, dislodging him completely. Kairo was flung out—violently—his dark silhouette tumbling through the mist beyond the creature’s mouth.

"Kairo!" Eli screamed, horror cracking his voice.

"Eli!" came the distant reply, fading fast.

Then—silence.

Eli was alone.

The serpent’s jaws sealed shut with a wet, echoing thud, plunging him into darkness.

And all that remained was the deafening sound of its heartbeat.

’FUCK!!!’