Nira slumped in her chair exhausted, lifting her head to face the unmoving boy.
Adder laid in his bed unconscious and obviously suffering, it had been two whole weeks since Erdush had brought in the comatose boy with a weeping Abner in tow.
Nira had been by Adder's side since then, treating his fevers, feeding him, and changing his bedding hourly.
Erdush had delved into books and tomes even older than himself looking for an answer to help the herald of Judgement.
Abner would periodically wake up and come to Adder's side to cry and beg for forgiveness, only stopping when sleep came for him.
But the concerning thing to Nira was that Adder's state was not brought on by the wounds brought by the manticore, or even the beast's venom.
His body had already healed and the Manticore's venom could do nothing against one such as the basilisk.
Yet Adder continued to suffer and still did not stir, forcing them to consider that the boy could never wake.
"I found it!"
Erdush yelled as he brushed into the room, waving an ancient book enthusiastically.
Erdush had done this a couple of times, so she was able to temper her enthusiasm as she faced the old man.
Erdush then showed a diagram for a ritual to forcefully awaken one's holy power.
Divine power, the oldest and greatest form of power known throughout the realm only being wielded by a select few.
Gifted through divine relics, devotion to an idol or ideal, being an idol that others worshiped, or awakening it through one's divine ancestry.
There have been many who have delved within the secrets of the power of creation, with little luck.
But that doesn't mean there had been no breakthroughs, this ritual being one of those very few.
This ritual was made for those who had divine blood coursing through their veins but for whatever reason could not awaken it themselves.
The ritual, the draconic emergence originated from the isle of Dragalia,where the ritual was meant for the noble families who inherited the blood of the primordial dragons.
While not the same as the nobles, Adder did possess divine power that slumbered within him.
The hope being, that if Adder's divine power was awakened he too would be able to rouse from that tortuous slumber he was currently trapped in.
Though even now this plan was more a theory made by the old man, having no proof of it doing anything for the poor boy.
But this was their best chance at saving the young boy, and having no other way to help Adder, Nira agreed to try the ritual.
…
The ritual would be held outside in the fields that surrounded Nira's cabin, all the wild grasses and other flora had been removed.
Nira held Adder in her arms as she watched the ritual grounds be prepared.
Erdush handled the preparation by himself, the ritual needed to be modified to bring the best chance to help Adder.
Creating the ritual space was the easiest part, five wooden posts inscribed in holy sigils and hymns.
These bright white wooden posts were set in the pattern of a five pointed star, with a stone slab inscribed with holy text laid in the middle of the star.
After setting up the ritual space, Erdush prepared the substitute for the draconic idol; in the original ritual the noble would use a family relic that would help stabilize the ritual.
And thankfully Erdush had the perfect substitute, the holy spear made from the corpse of the divine beast of judgement himself.
The spear of judgement Serpents Ire, forged by Sardoll who created both the spear along with his own weapon, Lion's fury.
Though only Sardoll's weapon went down in history, the spear stayed dormant for the entirety of its existence.
Erdush had received both divine weapons when he received his final mission, though both were in a dormant state.
But even as the spear slumbered Nira could feel the power of the weapon, Adder even stirred in her arms as Erdush passed them with Serpents Ire.
The spear was seemingly crafted from grey stone, with the spear's blade being forged in a wave-like pattern.
Bringing to mind the imagery of arching serpents for Nira, who for the first time in over twenty years hummed a protective hymn originating from Lerna.
Erdush planted the spear at the head of the slab, and with that it was time for the ritual.
Erdush motioned for Nira, she carefully carried Adder to the center and laid the boy upon the slab.
But before leaving him, Nira thought of something and motioned to Erdush to wait.
She then rushed into her cabin, awakening the restless Abner who at the sight of the ritual rushed to his grandfather in search of answers.
Nira returned with a pouch in hand and quickly rejoined Adder's side, she had of course read about the ritual and how the children would be given trinkets or charms.
And Nira had the perfect item for such a charm, she took a deep breath before opening the pouch for the first time in years.
She carefully took the keepsake with absolute care, tears fell as she watched a light dance of the palm sized scale.
Its azure color had dimmed in her memories, but the scale had reignited all of those beautiful memories.
This was more than a charm that represented good luck, no this was an agalma that would protect Adder.
Nira clasped the scale into Adder's hands before kissing him on the forehead, like her mother used to.
'Please, please watch over this child, your successor and Lerna's only hope.'
She prayed to her guardian that she knew was long gone, but even after all this time her faith in the immortal serpent never once wavered.
Nira then left the ritual site and watched as Erdush started the ritual.
The clear night sky shook as Erdush started the ritual, his creaking throat gaining a deep nature that neither Nira or Abner had ever heard from him before.
The language the old man spoke was nonsensical, nothing like anything Nira had heard before.
Nira couldn't help but think back to Lerna, her people and her own mother.
…
Alecto the prophet, many were shocked when they heard that she had taken a child as her own.
A baby girl who lost her entire family to illness, the family not even from Lerna they were banished due to them being sick.
They were all thrown into a boat and left to drift into the depths of the swamp, Alecto finding the horrid scene by following the baby's wailing.
The image of what Alecto could only guess was the mother, who even in death still held the baby in her arms would forever stay in her mind.
When the first fury returned to Lerna with the babe in her arms it seemed that everyone balked at the idea of Alecto taking in the child.
But she had already made up her mind, naming her child Nira meaning daughter of the viper in their old tongue.
After the shock of this affair faded, many wondered about the fate of this child. Though just as many worried, seeing this Infant as nothing more than an outsider.
But Alecto was quick to silence those who would be distressed by one so young they haven't even started to babble.
Most were smart enough to hold their words after that, but of course a few kept their opinions known.
Treating themselves as poor souls trying their hardest to protect their home, though those poor 'prophets' all vanished as Nira grew.
From an early age she had a one of a kind affinity with serpents, some genuinely believed that the child could speak to them.
At just four years old she would play with serpents, as one would play with dogs.
Even the ever revered diamond back ripper, a creature not even a fury would ever touch, would become docile and friendly when within the young Nira's presence.
After that the people of lerna started to sing a different tune, instead of some destined destroyer Nira would be the shining star that would lead the next generation of Furies.
And when she came of age, she would rise to all their expectations and even surpass them.
Becoming a Fury at only eighteen years old, even earning the moniker of the Gorgon due to her martial achievements.
But all of that came to an end when the war started, due to her mother wishing to keep her from the horrors of war she kept Nira away from the bloodshed.
The youngest Fury would stay behind serving as the 'last line of defence' for her people, though Nira easily saw through these actions and sweet words.
She saw these actions as coddling and nothing more, this would be the grounds on which both mother and daughter fought over for the very first time.
A daughter who wished to serve and a mother who wished to protect her, but in the end it mattered little.
When the jealous tribes made their deal with the false angels, the battle for their home was already lost.
So as both their guardian and the first Fury were on their final breath, Thera, Melina and Iris received their last commands from the first.
And soon after, Nira spoke to her mother for the final time.
Nira made her way to her waning mother, tears burning in her eyes made it almost impossible for Nira to see.
But nothing could ever stop her from recognizing her mother's smile, Nira grabbed her mother's aged hands as she started to speak.
"This is not the end of us my treasure."
Alecto's guiding voice was so weak now, yet Nira couldn't hear anything else but her words.
"Beyond these waters, far from our homeland there lives the successor to the Hydra."
All who could hear their conversation exploded into a fervor, yet once again the shouts and screams of the Lerneans could not reach the youngest of the Furies.
"You must find him, you must journey through this realm searching high and low."
Alecto handed her daughter the Scale of the hydra, as she continued to speak.
"Becuase he needs you, my daughter you will raise the Hydra's heir just as I have raised you and soon our people will have a Hydra once more."
"Mom…"
That was the only thing Nira could say as she watched her mother's light steadily fade out from her steel gray eyes.
"Oh my treasure, how blessed I have been to have been your mother…"
Shortly after those words the first fury passed away smiling, her daughter refusing to leave her side until the boats made landfall a week later.
The last four Furies handled the matter of the funeral pyre, and after the flames of the pyre died out Nira started her odyssey.
For over twenty years she searched the realm for the Hydra's heir, finally finding him but not as Nira expected.
An unwanted child, the last of his family, Adder Serpens.
The bearer of the basilisk, a boy with infinite potential left to rot and seemingly forgotten.
But from the moment she spoke to that boy, Nira knew who that boy was.
Her son, the heir to the Hydra and the one to bring a new golden age for the people of Lerna.
So after taking the deepest breath of her life, and turning her eyes towards the future.
Her eyes locked on the ritual as it started to radiate ungodly light, but she refused to be worried because her son would make it through this ordeal alive.
…
The boy had felt like he was drifting weightlessly through a river composed of tar, both stuck yet slipping through the world around him.
his limbs impossibly heavy, mind clouded, and his body unbearably cold, with only moments of warmth and care to break up the unfeeling torture that had become his existence.
But from the edge of his senses he felt the realm of the living shift around him, the echoes of echoes of conversation impossible to understand.
Then movement, a lot of movement then a warm he felt on his forehead, a feeling unfamiliar to the boy that made the boy's heart ache.
And soon after an all encompassing force freed Adder into consciousness.
Sight did not instantly return to the boy, forcing him to sit up while he tried to recover from whatever stupor he was in.
He felt the stone that he laid upon and tasted the air, he had never tasted something so pure in his life.
Even when he lived in the capital, the air had never been this clean or pure.
Soon his sight returned to him, but even then it did not help him understand where he was.
He laid in the middle of a land split into three different environments, where he stood within a circular stone structure that was covered in the imagery of snakes and serpents.
The surrounding realms were all different with little to no similarities, one was familiar to him.
The great forests of Arenrit, but the other two were a mystery for the boy.
One an endless grassy plain with a pure white tree far in the distance, the other a dense swamp filled with trees that Adder had never seen before.
But soon a mighty burst of sounds exploded from the stones that Adder stood upon.
A single question spoken in a hundred different tongues and a thousand different voices filled the sky.
The boy stood in the center of all this, as he watched the world start to tremble and shake as the three arrived in front of the boy.
From the woods came the mighty form of the king of serpents, whose purple and gold scales gave the mighty serpent the air of nobility.
From the swamps came a mighty cobra, whose scales shined like gemstones and might was apparent at a glance.
Truly if it was just these two serpents, they would have already started a fight over the title of king, but it wasn't just them.
For there was a god among them, and even though they never acknowledged the third serpent's presence it was obvious who was superior.
From the grassy plains came the original serpent, who dwarfed the both of them.
A mighty white serpent with eyes the color of bronze, whose presence held the very concept of divinity.
And as they all made their presence known, the question finally was understood by the boy.
"Who are you?"
Adder tried to answer but found himself with no clue who he was, his memory blank
Then light erupted around him, as the eyes of the serpents shone like stars and as the light devoured the realm that surrounded the boy.
He remembered who he was.
…
The ritual erupted into light that disoriented both Nira and Abner, but Erdush continued the ritual unaffected.
His voice ever steady, his conviction akin to iron, his eyes focused on the ritual site.
Finally the time was at hand and the ritual was almost completed, Erduesh smiled as he then roared the final words of the ritual.
Then all went quite, the sky now silent the hallowed lights dimmed to almost nothing, but all three of them saw as the creature in front of them stirred.
The hallowed lights stirred as the creature rose from the stone slab, the lights soon illuminating the mighty form in front of them.
There stood not Adder, but what Adder could become.
In the middle of the ritual space stood a man that had the air of a king, his mighty form akin to one found with statues.
At seven feet tall he towered over them, hands covered in scales of purple and gold, crimson eyes looking towards them.
Then the most eye-catching feature, the beast had three heads. a serpent sprouting from each shoulder, the serpents their heads raised their eyes locked onto the three before him.
"Who am I?"
His voice was rich like a bell and soft as velvet, he strolled forward as he spoke.
"I am the hydra."
"I am the venomous calamity."
"I am the divine beast of judgement."
He stopped just before them, not leaving the ritual area.
"I am the King of Serpents, Adder Serpens!"
The serpents danced and arched as they reveled in their existence.
Though after exclaiming his name, the beast's visage disappeared from their view.
And there stood the young Adder, tired but alive.
"Where are we?"
He croaked before being caught by Nira, who had burst into joyful tears.