Bonus Chapter [6] - 360 Power Stones
Green light emanated from Rigel's wand, but it wasn't a small snake that formed, Rigel continued to pour his magic in a continuous stream that made him feel a tremendous weight within himself, his magic is clearly reaching an output limit, yet the result was evident.
The small green snake grew rapidly, the basilisk no longer constrained by magic, growing into its full form.
A ghostly, fifteen-meter-long green snake made it impossible for the pirates not to notice it.
Hey! What's that?!
-A snake! A giant snake!
-Ghost! The curse has come after us!
Rigel watched as the snake slithered through the air for a moment and the pirates ran for cover, but it lasted only a fraction of a second, the next moment the snake struck. A silent roar escaped from its enormous mouth as it lunged forward, its gigantic fangs clearly visible.
Several pirates were swallowed whole, their screams still echoing from within Diabolus. Rigel watched everything, but the next moment his face turned pale, his legs gave way and he almost fell, quickly bracing himself against the hollowed-out stone wall.
As the undead slowly melted away, the consumption of magic intensified! He felt as if he were going to faint, Diabolus became slightly incorporeal and his body shrank, but Rigel leaned against the wall to maintain the spell.
He noticed that the zombies inside Diabolus were rapidly turning into black mist, completely "digested" by the snake. Rigel was pleased to discover that Diabolus could even destroy cursed beings, but the magical cost was far from low, especially for an 11-year-old wizard.
Rigel was sweating profusely, barely feeling his legs, the wand in his hand trembled with tension. He breathed heavily, trying to calm himself.
He didn't have time to fully recover, the pirates were still a major problem. Taking a deep breath, he continued, causing the Diabolus to keep attacking, but this time he didn't make it swallow several at once, only one at a time while its body collided with the rest, throwing them all over the place.
His enormous body slammed against the scattered treasures and stone walls, causing a huge disturbance and dust falling from the ceiling. For a moment, Rigel worried that the cave would collapse.
Jack and Will had also moved, Jack was already fighting Barbossa while Will and Elizabeth fought the remaining pirates with swords, trying to reach the chest.
Rigel knew he wouldn't last much longer, controlling Diabolus to advance towards Will and Elizabeth, taking down the pirates who were attacking them.
Elizabeth screamed in fear, but Will held her back, watching the giant snake pass by them and continue attacking the pirates. Will quickly ran back to the chest.
Fortunately, Rigel avoided attacking that spot so as not to end up scattering the Aztec coins everywhere. If that happened, he could only let Diabolus finish off the pirates little by little, but feeling his body getting weaker and weaker, he didn't know if he could manage it.
Barbossa was already furious, thinking that Jack had brought the snake from God knows where to get revenge, he just wanted to kill Jack quickly and get rid of the snake.
However, having dealt with curses, Barbossa knew he couldn't simply kill Jack, he needed to figure out how to deal with that snake while Jack was still in it. At the very least, he needed to use Jack as a hostage!
Jack was running away while fighting, Barbossa wasn't enjoying the fight, he just wanted to take Jack by any means necessary, so he was disregarding the defense, forcing Jack to flee for his life.
"Jack!" Will's shout reached Jack as he slid across a pile of gold with Barbossa in pursuit.
Jack saw Will drop a blood-stained coin onto the chest, Barbossa saw it too, his eyes widening as if he understood. "Bootstrap!" His scream indicated a cold understanding of what had just happened, this boy... he's William Turner's son!
However, before Barbossa could rejoice, a shot rang out.
Barbossa froze, slowly looking at Jack, who was already standing there, holding a gun that was still smoking in his hand.
Barbossa slowly looked down, pulling aside his coat and seeing the bloody hole in his chest, right over his heart.
He turned his gaze to Jack as he uttered one last word, laden with irony. "Pirate."
Hector Barbossa fell to the ground, dead.
Jack simply stared at Hector's falling figure. Jack tended to take things with an attitude often considered frivolous and ironic, but at that moment, there was no irony on Jack's face, only a cold and morbid calm.
Rigel looked at it calmly, but quickly looked away, staring at the water, he spoke in Parseltongue. "Kill them!"
The next moment, above the confused pirates, the water began to ripple violently. Jack, Will, and Elizabeth ran to the edges, away from the water. The pirates tried to run, but the next moment, a snake jumped straight into one of their faces, making him scream in pain.
Diabolus quickly shrank to just a small snake as the massacre continued.
Rigel sighed deeply, feeling the weight on him rapidly lessen, he was exhausted.
He walked with difficulty to a huddled pair in the corner, the snakes seemed to ignore them, Pintel and Ragetti.
The truth is that snake language is much more than just words to speak to a creature, the command of a single word can convey far more than any other being could understand.
Rigel said "kill them", but he didn't consider Jack, Will, and Elizabeth, nor even Ragetti and Pintel, so the snakes ignored them.
Rigel stepped in front of the pair, who cowered even further in fear upon seeing Salazar's head emerging from Rigel's shirt.
"Hello, gentlemen," Rigel introduced himself politely, giving a slight bow. The pair shrank even further. Rigel ignored them, instead looking at Ragetti. "The eye, please."
--x--
We completely reached this week's Power Stones goal, I was impressed, thank you to everyone who helped and I hope you enjoyed the story's progression.
Now the next chapter will only be released tomorrow, unless you manage to complete the story's evaluation goal.(15 reviews)
Thanks again for your help, everyone.