Chapter 30. Basilisk Hunt. Part 2. Evolution
Severus looked around with mild interest at the gloomy yet fairly spacious chamber, lit in a dim swamp-green glow, with countless snake statues standing on either side of the stone path he was walking along.
His hand gripped the hilt of his sword tight. Even with a perception-enhancing spell, he still could not pinpoint the basilisk's exact location, and the feeling of being watched irritated him, just a little.
Hidden in the snake's mouth. The moment he recalled those words, he stopped short, turned around, went back to the start of the path, and began checking the mouths of the snake statues.
And so, after almost ten minutes, he finished the last one with faint disappointment and came to a halt before a stone human face with a long beard and matching hair, carved into a massive rock and surrounded by a thin layer of water. Its mouth was unnaturally wide, which looked suspicious, so Severus stopped only ten meters away.
"Looks like that is where its lair is."
"Be careful."
"Oh, so you have forgiven me already?"
"If you die, who will feed me and talk to me?"
"Fair point, if you are telling me to be careful." Under Nagini's puzzled stare, a fireball flared from his hand.
~ BOOM!!!
Not even a second passed before a furious hiss ripped through the air, almost making poor Nagini faint. Severus felt no fear at all, only a mild anticipation. And the basilisk did not keep him waiting: like an arrow it shot out of the rubble, jaws open, and in a split second it had crossed the distance between them and was ready to swallow him whole. But Severus had expected something like this, so even as the monster lunged he had already cast a speeding charm on himself and, with a gentle gust of wind, slid aside without much effort, finally getting a proper look at it. It was a fifteen-meter-long monster, poisonous green, as thick as a pillar. Its huge yellow eyes with vertical pupils radiated a crushing, oppressive pressure, and its giant fangs, dripping venom that melted the stone floor, inspired real horror, but.
"Is that all?" Severus grumbled, staring the monster straight in the eyes with a hint of irritation. "Damn! Are you trying to mock me like this?! And this is a basilisk, a worm?! At this rate even a chicken could be called a phoenix!"
Even the monster froze at that tirade, blinking in bewilderment as it stared into Severus's eyes, as if wondering whether he had gone mad and why he was not turning to stone. Of course, the basilisk was intelligent; it understood perfectly well that it was being insulted, and that reignited the flames of rage inside it. With a wild roar, or rather a hiss, it lunged at Severus, but, as before, he dodged without much difficulty. The snake did not stop there, though, because in the next instant its tail whipped toward Severus's face.
Of course, Severus did not try to block the blow, because that would have been foolish: he would have been hurled away like a house of cards. Instead, he redirected it. He braced on his right leg and lowered his sword just enough for the snake's tail to slide along the flat of the blade and slam into the stone floor beneath his feet, forcing him to spring back a couple of meters.
That threw the snake into a stupor again, and Severus, naturally, took advantage of it, leaping onto its body and carving several deep gashes into the monster's tough hide. Blood poured freely from them, provoking another fit of rage. The creature twisted sharply and tried to strike Severus again, but he managed to jump off its back, leaving another wound behind him as he did.
Landing on the stone floor, he studied the snake thoughtfully.
Tough hide. apparently, instead of growing even larger, it chose leather and poison over other options. And because of that, its speed increased while its raw physical strength decreased, but the potent venom almost completely compensated for the weakness. ah. I made a rookie's mistake, judging my opponent by its appearance. Looking up at the colossal snake rushing toward him, he smiled wryly, and the runes on the blade lit up. "All right. I have more or less measured your strength and mine, so consider this my apology for underestimating you."
In the next moment, the mouth snapped shut on the exact spot where Severus had been standing, but the snake only blinked in confusion.
~ Hessssss?
The surprise did not last long. It hissed in pain as countless wounds opened across its body in a single second, and it began to writhe furiously while the floor was slicked with more and more blood.
At the same time, Severus, standing at a distance, watched the sword as it slowly began to crumble.
"Only two seconds, and I used the simplest runework. Too bad. Looks like I will be hunting for a decent sword for a long time. oh. my back. it is definitely going to ache for a week," Severus muttered mournfully, clutching his lower back as he watched the basilisk's movements grow slower and slower, its hissing quieter and quieter. "Forgive the pain, but I need you alive."
Only ten minutes later did the snake stop twitching, and Severus could finally approach. It was barely hanging on from massive blood loss.
"Eh. I have never liked hurting animals," he said, reaching out and touching the basilisk's forehead, forming a small seal there. "Stop peeking. It is time to start your treatment." He tapped Nagini on the forehead as she peeked out from under his collar, then pulled his hand away from the monster.
"With just one sword, you managed to defeat such a terrifying monster. are you really human?"
"Of course I am human. It is just that, unlike ordinary wizards who only develop their magic, I have also strengthened my body and studied the way of the sword. Once you become human, I can teach you."
At first she wanted to agree, but then she remembered the training Severus had gone through and the terrifying loads he had handled, and her desire vanished completely. And when she was about to answer, Severus's next actions made Nagini freeze in shock, then, horror in her eyes, she hid under his clothes as blood streamed down the face of the indifferent basilisk.
"Why are you doing this?!"
"For you. You will have to eat them."
"I will not eat its eyes!"
"You will."
"I will not!"
"You will."
"I will not!"
"You will, you will," Severus sang in a far too gentle voice, and Nagini trembled even harder. With real horror in her eyes, she stared at his smiling face, smeared with blood, peeking under his sweater.
"NOOO."
An hour later, two snakes lay on the floor. The first had been reduced to a skeleton after an hour of work, while the second looked like an inflated balloon. Her eyes were tightly shut, and a star-shaped pattern gleamed on her forehead.
"Rest in peace, basilisk. I will never forget your sacrifice," Severus muttered, folding his hands together. Then, tossing the skeleton into his wallet, he looked toward Nagini. "The evolution is almost complete, which is good news," he said, stepping closer, cutting his finger, and dripping blood straight onto the seal.
In the next moment, she was swallowed by bright light, accompanied by an unpleasant crackling sound. It only stopped a minute later, and the light began to fade, revealing to Severus a huge, ten-meter-long snake, half the basilisk's thickness. Her coloring had changed too, from greenish-brown to pale green, with hints of brighter yellow and green.
"Now you should not be in danger of memory loss, but your snake instincts have also intensified. I just hope I can still find the last three ingredients." He smiled warmly as he extended his hand, and, surprisingly, she responded, lowering her head into his palm. "Congratulations on your successful evolution."
"Thank you. but I have only gotten bigger, and this strange feeling. why can I sense your emotions?" Her voice was much gentler now and sounded younger than before, thanks to her increased lifespan.
Basilisks could easily live for several thousand years, and thanks to the absorbed bloodline, Nagini's lifespan had increased dozens of times as well.
"Do you know what familiars are?"
"This is the first time I have heard the term."
"A familiar is a creature that enters into a contract with a wizard, and because of that a certain connection appears between them."
"A connection?"
"I can understand you without an artifact, sense your emotions, and know where you are, even if you went to the other side of the world. You can do the same," he said, feeling the confusion coming from his companion and smiling. "Do not worry, you can cancel it at any time." And only then did Severus feel a surge of discontent.
"I get it. it is convenient, so now you will not have to risk carrying that artifact around with you, but. why can I not sense your emotions?" she hissed, narrowing her eyes.
"I closed my mind."
"So you can read mine, but I cannot read yours?!"
"Do not think I do not trust you. I am just not used to showing my emotions to other people. Over the past three months you should have realized that I never pretended when I was with you, and I will not start in the future." Right before his eyes, Nagini began to shrink until she was the same size as before.
"Okay." She felt terribly embarrassed by that kind of openness from Severus and quickly slipped into his sleeve to hide, as if she had forgotten about the connection entirely.
"Good. Now all that is left is." He looked up at the half-destroyed face the basilisk had crawled out of earlier and started clearing the rubble.
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