It had been days since he left the mountain where he fought the serpent. Days of endless flight above the forest, wings aching, eyes burning from the strain of staying open.
He had thought at first that his demon form would fade as usual, but an hour turned into two, then many more. His body remained transformed.
The more he considered it, the more it seemed like this realm itself was holding him in that state of a demon whether he wanted it or not.
The forest beneath him was alive in ways he didn't want to test. Once, when his body gave in and he laned on the ground, the ground itself seemed to move.
A lump in the earth rushed toward him at terrifying speed, breaking open to reveal the head of another monstrous centipede. Its body was thinner than the one he'd fought before, smoother, with armored spikes—but no less threatening. Its eyes glowed as it lunged for him.
