A giggle resounded across the sky, dark and demonic. The gargoyles began to cackle with it. The mouth resurfaced once more, and before Pash's very eyes, it grew even bigger. Its flesh stretched and new teeth pierced through its gums. Every ounce of mass that had once made up that fingertip now belonged to it. A shiver went down Pash's spine as he began to truly understand the power of such a monster.
He turned to Ermos. "Master-" he began.
"Hm?" His master turned to him with his cheeks puffed out wide like a squirrel. A red nut fell from his lips. His hands were still full of them. For him to be so calm that he would gorge himself as such, Pash was in disbelief. "Isn't this bad..?" He finished weakly.
Ermos paused to swallow his mouthful, wiping away the debris with the back of his hand. "She underestimated it, I suppose, but there's far more to her than that. She just needs to crush it like this," he held a nut between his thumb and forefinger to illustrate his point, only, when he squeezed it, the nut did not break like he expected. "Like this…" he said again, squeezing so hard that a vein popped out of his forehead from the exertion.
For the first time in his life, Ermos had found a worthy foe. Pash left him to his war as his eyes flickered back towards the fight.
It was just as his master had said. The Queen knew that she had to end the fight with a single decisive blow. She could not allow the bridge to grow any stronger. Before she began her attack, she helped her servants. With her massive hand, she slapped the cloud of flapping gargoyles, relieving some of the pressure.
The black mouth of the bridge tittered at her efforts and it ran along the length of the walkway, intent to join in itself. She had her own plans in regards to that. Instead of attacking it with a simple fist, she turned her palm to face it.
A boom resounded across the sky as the sound barrier was shattered. From her palm there flew a stake the size of a tree, sharp and menacing.
But the mouth ducked to safety with ease. The stake passed uselessly by it, attacking lifeless stone instead.
The Queen tried again. It was a waiting game by now. As soon as it dared poke its head up, she loosed another one of those bolts.
Pash had thought he had seen a difference the first time, but now he was sure that he had not imagined it. With each bolt that she fired, the Queen's conjured hand grew smaller by just a fraction, but it was enough to show that her power was not limitless.
She chased the mouth down the full length of the bridge, forcing it right up to the doors of the Stone Tree, far away from where her servants were fighting, loosing ten bolts after it in the process.
And then she paused to reevaluate her approach. Pash could see her chest heaving up and down as though she was out of breath. It didn't make sense to him, but it seemed that there were restrictions even to god-rivalling magic.
A second later, the bridge revealed to them the fatal error that she had made.
It snuck up out of the ground leisurely, right beneath the closest stake. And then it opened its mouth and allowed the stake to fall into the infinite void-like depths of its mouth.
The change was instantaneous. It grew even larger. Even faster. And then onto the second bolt it went.
Pash felt sick. They had done more than just underestimate the bridge's physical abilities, they had also underestimated its intelligence. It battled with an understanding that was almost human. It terrified him to consider it, but with each added stake that the mouth consumed, it hammered home the reality ruthlessly. It had played the Queen of Flowers for a fool, tricking her into weakening herself, while it drained every drop of her expended power.
It was no longer just a mouth, but a huge black mountain of flowing slime. It spilt over the sides of the bridge, dropping thickly into the moat like a black lava. Monstrous and corruptive, it matched the hand in size.
"Master…" Pash croaked, his knees trembling.
"Bury me with my chickens… That's one big monster," Ermos said.
When threatened as such, the Queen played her last card. She changed from a hand to a sword. A chevalar's blade, curved and slender, just like the sort Pash and his master wielded, though hers was much bigger, as large as the bridge itself.
Her approach was valiant and her opposition was brave, but Pash was unsure that she could truly stand against such a being, especially now that it was the same size as her. The way its form ran so fluidly, he wondered whether it could truly be cut.
But the Queen had to make her stand. The strange liquid-solid that the monster was made of began to run towards her servants, threatening to swallow them as they fought their fight.
They were already weakening, those five. A razor-sharp wing managed to pierce its way through a girl's shoulder and she yelped in pain, bleeding a very human red blood.
The Queen clenched both her fists tight and moved her hands like she was holding an invisible sword. She locked her face into a courageous snarl. Even the air seemed to fear her. Pash struggled to breathe as it thinned around him.
And then she swung. Faster and stronger than any of the attacks she had thrown before. The power behind it cut a path through the waters of the moat below them, revealing the sticky mud of the water's bed. It was enough to cut the whole sky in half.
The mouth did not move to dodge it. It gurgled happily and opened its mouth wide enough to swallow a mountain.
The moment the sword came close enough, it clamped its jaws down hard, testing the strength of magical metal.
It shattered as though it was made of glass. The mouth allowed all the fragments to fall into its mouth, sending its tongue to chase the rest.