The group set off first thing in the morning before the rising sun's rays stretched across Savir. Edirashok Misiah allocated three of her fastest carriages to them, and Edina summoned undead ronoas because living ones weren't going to cut it. They needed to be quick and untiring, and the dead didn't need to rest.

Kanae bid goodbye to the revolutionaries that brought her companions this far, who in turn provided them with a large helping of bread to eat for the journey. Before they disembarked, Misiah had a map drawn for their convenience. With the occasional help of sympathetic camel and ronoa shepherds, the small caravan were well on their way to Serpent's Tail, well hidden from the Harpy King's soldiers.

"This is as far as we dare go." The dark elven ronoa shepherder signalled his beast to stop. "Any closer, and we risk being prey for more terrifying creatures. Follow this beaten path, and you will find yourself at the Fangs of the Serpent, that is the entrance to Serpent's Tail."

"Thank you! Try to make yourselves scarce. There really is a war going on," Kanae warned the man and his family.

"Bye-bye! Be safe! There's big monsters over there, so try not to get eaten!" The young son waved as they steered their herd away.

"Shepherd, if you wish for your son to have a more fulfilling life, I am in need of a page!" Petyr shoved Kanae from the window and shouted.

"Get back in here!" Red yanked the high elf inside.

Petyr angrily raised a fist at her former colleague, only to quietly rein it in. She clicked her tongue instead and settled back into the seat.

"I'm impressed by the necromancer. Capable of controlling her undead even while asleep. Part of me still wants to strangle her for what she did when I was on Ortesia's side." Petyr glared at the snoring necromancer, who was sleeping on her side at one end of the seat.

The paladin was likely recalling that time towards the end of the war, where Edina repeatedly summoned an undead army to attack the Ortesian forces and wear them ragged. If anything, the fact that Petyr and the Ortesians survived was a testament to their tenacity…

"There was a time you'd just do it. You're getting soft." Red sneered.

"I'll break you open, and we can see who's actually soft," Petyr fired back.

"Save antagonizing each other for after the war." Kanae sighed.

An earthquake shook their carriage. The three of them grabbed hold of something to steady themselves. Kanae felt like her brain was being rattled inside her skull. Glasses and wine bottles rolled off the table, shattering on the floor. Heavy crashes boomed from the outside. All the shaking knocked Edina off the seat, and she hit the ground with a thud.

The squirreling shot awake, rubbing her head and frowning. She plucked a piece of glass from her cheek. Fortunately, the earthquake didn't last much longer and everything was still again.

"What in three hells was that?" Red asked.

Kanae stuck her head out of the window and couldn't believe her eyes. Neither did the others. The Mouth of the Serpent was an actual skull of a gargantuan snake wedged in the canyon pass. Giant fangs as tall as watch towers punctured into the earth, and smaller rows of jagged teeth lined down the length of its upper jaw.

But that wasn't what startled them. The mouth had been unnaturally stuffed with stone rubble. It all couldn't have gotten there unless someone purposefully placed the rocks like that. But who had the magic to do that?

Kanae didn't need to think very long. Her mind wandered to the only answer— Grahib, the Unbreakable Dervish. This happened before when they were on their way to Avanesse, and Ambrosia, with Grahib and Sofisa under her control, created a stone blockade to impede them. Follow current novᴇls on N0v3l.Fiɾe.net

"Amethyst, what's the plan now?" Archbishop Patrice asked from the frontmost carriage. "Do we cut our losses and go through Sala'vir?"

They had the option of flying over and carrying those who couldn't. But doing so meant they needed to leave their carriages behind. Taking the Sala'vir route… Petyr already painted a good idea as to why that wasn't going to work.

"Can you break through like last time?" Kanae asked their living bulldozer.

Without so much as a response, Petyr hopped out the back of the carriage. She untethered one of the undead ronoas to ride for the Mouth of the Serpent.

"You know, Kanae. The way that skull is stuffed, it looks like you when you got a mouth full of cock!" Edina erupted into laughter.

Kanae twisted a glass shard stuck in the squirreling's arm, causing her to yelp in pain. She flew out to join Petyr, who was closing in on the canyon pass. The Knight of Red accompanied her in flying there, and a pouting Edina came up on the rear.

They landed just as the paladin infused her warhammer with Smite and smashed it into the wall of rocks. Again, and again, and again, and again until she was covered in sweat, gasping for breath. Petyr's demolition had excavated several feet of stone, but there was plenty more.

Red took flight over the skull and returned a few minutes later, shaking her head.

"Not gonna happen. It's a lot of earth to destroy. We'll be here all day with you smashing rocks," Red explained.

"Are you calling me weak?" Petyr growled.

"No, but I am calling you an idiot. This is like trying to bash a hole through the earth. Good fucking luck," the harpy taunted.

"This thing is just a giant pile of bones. I got an idea." Edina grinned.

"Y-You're not going to try and raise this thing, are you?" Kanae asked nervously.

That was exactly what Edina wanted to do. They filled the others in on the plan, and Archbishop Patrice and Delayn got to work drawing a magic circle a fair distance from the serpent. The necromancer waited within, her Pillar of the Damned plunged squarely in the center.

"I can't believe I'm lending my magic to assist in such foul magic…" Delayn muttered.

"I can't believe I'm lending my magic to assist in such foul magic!" Patrice exclaimed, giddier than usual.

"Can I help? Or are you two more than enough?" Kanae asked.

The archbishop nodded. "I believe you are also a spellcaster. Draw a shoulder-width circle beside us, Amethyst. Edina will need all the help she can get. The size of the undead being raised directly corresponds to how much mana is consumed. Think of it like filling the bones full of magic. A tiny critter won't need very much, but her dragons and death knights will."

"Alright, guys. I'm ready. Start channeling on my mark." Edina incanted something that ignited the brazier atop her staff.

Through the power of assisted spellcasting, Kanae, Patrice, and Delayn channeled their magic into the circle, and Edina made use of the pool beneath her feet. A gaseous purple miasma gushed out from the smoking Pillar of the Damned, slowly making its way to the dead serpent.

Petyr took one look at the mist and stepped back. Red, on the other hand, curiously scooped some up and let it drop back into the ground.

The magic drained from Kanae's body. Archbishop Patrice and Delayn's, too. They were fine for the time being, but when the miasma reached the serpent skull, a tether formed. The human priest gasped hard and dropped to one knee.

"Stand, Delayn! I'll not have a Saint Priest show weakness!" Archbishop Patrice shouted.

"It came so suddenly… but don't count me out yet." Delayn pushed herself up and gritted her teeth.

Edina's spell robbed them of their mana by vast amounts. If it wasn't for Cursemark of Horniness draining thralls back home, she would have been drained empty several times over already.

"How much more do you need, Edina?" Kanae winced.

"I-I dunno! I keep feeding magic into the corpse, but it isn't waking. Wait, I think we're getting close…" Edina concentrated, and the ground shuddered a little.

No, not the ground. The gigantic snake skull shifted a little. Delayn needed to use her staff to prop herself up now. Archbishop Patrice remained steadfast, but the stress was beginning to show.

Empty eye sockets flared up with Edina's purplish necromantic energies. Even Petyr was taken aback. Maybe for the briefest of moments, she showed a little trepidation.

The serpent behemoth came to life again, albeit in a different form. It lifted its massive head, sand and stone cascading down from the jaw. Every time the beast wriggled, debris shook loose.

"Now… move forward…" Edina ordered.

Obeying its master, the ancient thing slowly slithered out with stones still trapped in its jaws. Suddenly, the connection severed. The serpent went inert again, but it moved most of the debris out of the way. A small cavity just large enough for their carriages to fit through opened up.

"Good work." Kanae slapped her friend on the back.

"Man…" Edina panted. "If the Pillar was still juiced, I could've taken control of that monster on my own."

The undead ronoas rode up with the carriages, and they pressed on through the opening. Kanae, Petyr, Red, and Camilla traveled on foot in case of an attack. The long spine of the serpent casted a shadow down on them, and its ribcage pressed against the canyon walls was like a prison that confined them into the pass. It probably died from being stuck, rather than of old age.

Whistling winds cut through the length of the canyon. Kanae's ears twitched. She thought she recognized the sound… the pitch… the howling gale.

"Take cover! Sofisa, the Dancing Dervish is here, too!" Kanae warned.

Razor sharp winds screeched down the canyon. Everyone and the carriages got behind rocky outcrops just as the attacks came. Slicing currents cut deep into the stone, taking chunks off.

Kanae thought they were out of danger until earthen arms formed from the outcrops they had hidden behind. She slashed the rock and casted Turn Horny, only to hear a very masculine moan erupt from inside. One pair of arms grabbed Petyr, but the others pushed off before being restrained. A massive fist lifted above the carriage that Kara, Theena, and Seven were inside of.

"It's Grahib! Guys, get out of there!" Kanae yelled.

The Knight of Red smashed the fist with her ram headed maul, harmlessly showering the carriage with smaller rocks. Earthen golems rose to life to do battle, and so did Edina's undead. Petyr broke free from the stone, raised a Smite-infused warhammer up, and brought it crashing down on their cover.

"Tch! Curse you, high elf! You as well, succubus!" Grahib, the centaur fused with an earth elemental, jumped from the stone as it broke apart.

A tornado raced down the canyon pass and ended with Sofisa standing on top of the serpent spine.

"Greetings, warriors! We meet again, and hopefully for the last time." Sofisa took a bow.

"The Harpy King figured there was a small chance our enemies would come through here, and he was right. So, you managed to escape Buhar with Sivvy Brenhallow. I do not believe Nasiri would have fallen so easily…" Grahib murmured in surprise.

Kanae squinted at their weapons, similar but not the same from what she last remembered. Grahib wielded a double-sided glaive, and Sofisa still wielded a large curved blade. However, they weren't made of steel and iron. The sheen of their weapons emitted a soft reddish hue, and crimson striations ran along the metal.

"You're using felmetal," Kanae deduced.

"Correct! I expected nothing less from you, Kanae! Our blades are reforged in felmetal. There is no better symphony than the vibrations of coursing winds as I swing my sword. I'm astounded that the dwarves mastered the art of manipulating this metal. We will not be defeated so easily this time!" Sofisa laughed.

"A trite little rant." The voice came from Red, but she didn't say a single word.

All eyes turned to the visage of Elirashj behind Sivvy's back. The elemental lord gazed at Grahib and Sofisa— no, past them

— like a parent would their misbehaving child.

Elirashj continued, "You are a whisper from an infant's breath. I am the roar of a hurricane. Begone from my sight, or be cast to the wind like cosmic dust."

Both Dervishes staggered back, but it really looked like they struggled against something within themselves.

"What? Sivvy, you've been infused with an elemental lord? H-How?" Sofisa gulped.

"Why so surprised? Your Harpy King wanted to put one in me for the longest time. Now, Elirashj and Kanae have made a deal to put an end to his reign. The Harpy King is finished." Red drew a thumb across her throat.

The jackal beastman and centaur warrior didn't take that kindly. Sofisa jumped down, spinning herself into a tornado. Grahib donned stone armor all over his body. They both coordinated an attack, sending slicing winds and flying boulders right for them.

Elirashj, not one to take insult, breathed deeply and exhaled. Everything flew back to the Dervishes. Her mere breath sent them flying deeper into the canyon.

"Sofisa, retreat back to the others. We'll launch a counterattack!" Grahib ordered, then brought a rockslide crashing down the pass.

Kanae and Red flew up to give chase, but the harpy's wings gave out. She descended to catch her and laid her gently on the ground.

"Fuck. Making use of Elirashj's power really takes the sails outta you. Sorry, Amethyst." Red hung her head.

"You just saved the kids and bought us some time. There's nothing to be sorry about. We'll get them later." Kanae gave the harpy a hand and walked back to everyone together.

"What was that about being soft?" Petyr raised a brow.

"Yeah, yeah." The harpy groaned as they passed her.

"Hey," she said.

They stopped and turned around. Petyr tossed a flask full of water, and Red played hot potato twice before grasping it firmly.

"You really are soft." Red smirked and gladly drained it all in one gulp.

Luckily, Grahib's haphazardly-induced rockslide didn't achieve much to block them. They skirted around and moved the heavier stones out of the way. As night fell, the Dervishes hadn't launched another attack. Elirashj's sudden appearance put the fear of death in them. A few monsters jumped out, but no such enormous ones that terrified the shepherders earlier.

The cowl of night dropped the temperatures close to frigid temperatures in the moistureless Savir. With no sun to bake the earth, the absence of its rays left the surface freezing.

Kanae exhaled a misty breath and hugged Edina's tail for warmth. It wasn't working.

"H-Hey, it's m-my turn… Gimme my tail back." Edina shivered.

"What is wrong with this side of Savir? It's so c-cold…" Kanae cocooned herself in a cloak.

"Beats me." Red shrugged. "Ask the archbishop. Maybe she'll bitchslap us with a book on it—"

Their carriages grinded to a stop. Flickers of light passed by outside. Yipping and hollering echoed through the canyon pass.

"What's going on? Are those nutjobs back with reinforcements?" Edina gasped.

They jumped out of the carriages and found the others in the rest of the carriage having emerged, too. Donning fur pelts and simple fabrics, rhinocerine, lion, and bull beastmen with paint all over their faces brandished primitive spears. Many looked terrified.

"I'll handle this." Petyr hoisted her warhammer.

"Petyr, cease hostilities!" Archbishop Patrice demanded. "These are tribal folks native to Sala'vir. They have been displaced by the war and fled to Serpent's Tail."

"Are you not soldiers of the Harpy King?" a particularly frail lioness woman asked.

"No. The opposite actually. We're enemies of the Harpy King," Kanae said.

The beastmen stepped aside as a large, broad-chested boar man lumbered up to them. His dark brown skin was mottled with sun spots. Bristly hair appeared in random patches. He wielded the femur bone of some dire beast, which Red licked her lips over hungrily.

"If you are his foes, then we may be friends. Assist us, and we will guide you through this canyon unscathed in return. Decline us and be on your way. But know that there are dangers that terrify even the bravest of adventurers out here," he explained.