"I'll use the wheel to carve the path; you protect my back and keep the serpents off my flanks," Raven said. "There's no time to dawdle. We have to make our move before they all climb up here."
"I cannot strike my own kind." Rudy lowered his head, his body trembling slightly.
"Your kind? You mean these monsters?" Raven stared in disbelief. "Listen to me—you're Rudy! You're an Albinauric! It's only your body that has taken this shape."
"I know... but I cannot fight the instincts of this flesh. Simply resisting the urge to devour you is taking everything I have," Rudy hissed. "Leave me. Go on without me."
"I came all this way to save you, and now you're giving up?" Raven snapped, tossing a small blade toward Rudy.
"This is..."
"Your Dragon-Tooth Dirk! Stay behind me. If you feel yourself slipping, stab yourself. Use the pain to keep your mind clear."
Raven turned away and hoisted the wheel saw, but Rudy caught the edge of his cloak.
"They will not attack me. I will carry you in my mouth."
Raven looked Rudy in the eye. After a brief hesitation, he nodded. "Alright."
Rudy lowered his head and clamped his jaws around Raven's lower body, lifting him steadily into the air. With a powerful whip of his tail, Rudy lunged toward the edge of the mushroom cap, vaulting across the gap to land on the next one.
A tide of Man-Serpents surged toward them. Just as Rudy had predicted, they did not attack him, but they swarmed the path ahead, trying to block their progress.
"Hah!"
Raven swung the massive wheel saw with violent force, cleaving through any serpent in their way. As Rudy carried him, the serpent-man swung his neck from side to side, extending Raven's reach and turning their escape into a whirlwind of carnage.
Faced with this bizarre duo, the other Man-Serpents seemed at a loss. Unable to bring themselves to attack Rudy, they could only stretch their long necks to snap at Raven, only to have their heads lopped off by the spinning wheel.
In a flash, over a dozen serpents lay dead. Even without their heads, their bodies—overflowing with a perverse vitality—continued to twitch and thrash atop the mushroom caps.
Raven's face was sprayed with cold, reptilian blood, making it nearly impossible to keep his eyes open. He relied entirely on his Blind Spot technique; the wheel moved like a blur in his hands, precisely intercepting every lunging head.
The pair broke through the first encirclement. Rudy coiled his tail and leapt to the next cap. They were drenched in blood, looking like twin gods of slaughter, but another pack of serpents lunged forward, heedless of their own lives.
"This is working!" Raven shouted. "We're going to make it out!"
Rudy didn't answer. He charged ahead in silence, only speaking in a low hiss once they had cleared the latest group. "Raven... you didn't actually come here to save me, did you?"
"What? Of course I did."
"When we first met, you didn't recognize me. You couldn't have come just for my sake."
Raven was momentarily speechless. He could only focus on swinging the saw, cutting down more obstacles.
"The only thing special about me is that I was chosen as the sacrifice for the Great Serpent," Rudy continued. "That is why you are here."
"Yes," Raven finally admitted.
"To poison the Serpent God through me? What did you do to me?"
"A fragment of the Rune of Death," Raven said. "I placed it inside you. If the Great Serpent devours you, I can ignite the Ghostflame from within its belly and grant it Destined Death."
Under Rudy's questioning, Raven had no choice but to confess his plan.
In truth, the power within that single fragment was so small that it wouldn't normally pose a threat to the Great Serpent. While Ghostflame was the natural enemy of all life, it wasn't an instant-kill poison. Even if Maliketh the Black Blade were there in person, killing the Great Serpent would be no easy feat; one would have to deal a truly lethal blow. Cutting off a pinky finger will not kill a man, regardless of whether you burn that finger to ash with Ghostflame.
However, the Great Serpent had devoured countless sacrifices over the years. The spirits of the dead, unable to return to the Erdtree, had accumulated within its gut—perfect fuel for Ghostflame. If ignited from the inside, it would undoubtedly deal a catastrophic blow.
"But now that I've recognized you, I've abandoned that plan," Raven said. "You've reminded me. I'll take the fragment out now. Even though the flame is weak, it can be infused into this wheel to increase its lethality."
He reached out with his senses to locate the fragment, intending to extract it, but he felt Rudy's jaws begin to tighten around his waist.
"You're biting too hard. Relax," Raven warned as a sharp pain bloomed in his side.
Rudy didn't respond.
Raven wiped his face with his sleeve and looked back. Rudy was soaked in serpent blood, the liquid dripping into his open mouth. His slitted pupils were flickering with a sinister red light.
Raven tensed. He knew Rudy was constantly battling the instincts of his new form. This bloody slaughter was likely pushing him over the edge into madness.
If Rudy lost control...
Thinking of Inquisitor Ghiza's grizzly end, Raven tightened his grip on the wheel.
"Stay with me, Rudy!"
Still, there was no answer.
Should I strike first? The thought crossed Raven's mind, but his hands didn't stop. He cut down another serpent, sending shattered bone and minced flesh flying. Suddenly, the wheel saw let out a strange grinding noise. The spinning blades slowed and then ground to a halt.
The weapon was powerful—far more so than the mass-produced replicas used by Abductor Virgins—but after grinding through so much bone and sinew, it had finally reached its limit.
Raven clicked the switch several times, but there was no response.
He used the dead weight of the saw to bash one serpent's head aside, only for another to lunge with its jaws wide. Raven was forced to hold the saw vertically to prop open the creature's mouth. A forked purple tongue lashed against his face, accompanied by a nauseating stench.
Grabbing the tongue with his left hand, Raven yanked it hard. A blade of glintstone light surged from his right fingertips, severing the taut muscle. Blood sprayed across his face. Screeching in pain, the Man-Serpent recoiled, dragging the jammed wheel saw away with it.
He wiped his eyes only to see a tide of serpents swarming toward them, trapping him and Rudy in the center. They hissed in fury, their long necks rising like walls of greenish-gray scales. They were so high and numerous that they blocked out the crimson light from the cavern dome, plunging everything into darkness.
Do I unleash the Law here?
Raven's body tensed, then slowly relaxed. He let out a sigh and patted Rudy's jaw.
"Rudy... if you're going to eat me, just do it in one gulp, alright?"
As he spoke, he suddenly realized he was rising. He moved higher and higher, surpassing the surrounding serpents until he could see the blood-red clouds once more.
Rudy had extended his neck to its absolute limit, hoisting Raven over a dozen meters into the air. The other serpents tried to reach them, but Rudy strained on his tiptoes, his tail braced against the mushroom cap as he lifted his feet off the ground. No matter how high the others stretched, they remained just out of reach.
The other serpents hissed in frustration, jostling and pushing Rudy, unable to comprehend what their kin was doing. Rudy swayed under their weight, but he kept his neck locked at its maximum height, refusing to lower it even an inch.
"It's okay, Rudy," Raven said softly, knowing Rudy couldn't hold this position for long.
"The sky!" Rudy hissed through his teeth.
From the heavens above came the roar of a dragon.
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Elden Ring: The Unborn One's Journey Through Elden Ring(155 Chapter - Ongoing)
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