Meanwhile, as the fight was ensuing between Vincent and Jason's Werewolf form against Endo the snake-man, Maki was still unconscious but very much alive inside the snake's stomach.
As she woke up slowly, she realized her surroundings were so narrow and the smell was too pungent.
"Ewww!! The smell here is horrible!! This is what I get for being in the stomach of a snake, I guess!!," she complained but was happy she was still alive.
"This stomach is so small and much more spacious than normal. I thought that…" she then paused and realized her predicament.
...…••••••••••••••••••••••....
Snakes, both mega-sized and minor-sized variants have two stomach chambers: the first chamber is where all the food engulfed by the snake is kept and slowly partially digested by gastric juices, usually after three days for the small sized variants, and about two to three weeks for the large sized individuals; this usually depends on the size of the prey in both cases.
The true stomach is the second chamber, where after the partial digestion of the snake's prey is sent to fully digested and broken down. This is much smaller as compared to the first chamber, but is still large enough to hold the size of large Giant Ox; in this snake's case, but for a minor-sized variant, it differs depending on the size of the snake.
...…••••••••••••••••••••••....
"It seems this is the first stomach, so I still have about a week due to my size. I need to get out of here before I start getting digested.
But as she tried to crawl out of the first chamber, she realized that her strength was depleting and her vision was getting blurry.
As she was looking around, she saw her Mana slowly being extracted from her body and was being transported throughout the snake's body.
"B*stard!! This first chamber drains the Mana out of any creature in here to aid in its digestion!! Must….leave….here….as….fast…." she slowly muttered as she crawled at the back of the stomach and dropped.
Before it seemed that she would pass out, she sensed a faint presence in front of her.
"Whatever Mana I'm sensing from there, something or someone is also inside this thing!! I need to just get out!!," she said determined as she powered herself through despite her energy and Mana being drained by the stomach until she slid through into the next chamber.
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As she dropped into the second chamber, the smell was stronger and much more dreadful.
She held her breath and she crawled through and stopped as she saw a small stream of stomach acid in front of her.
"This means it just recently ate something and it's beginning the digestion process. I need to find the Mana source before that happens!!"
She crawled her way through until she saw two sacs filled with fluid hanging on the wall of the stomach.
As she approached the sacs, she saw the stomach acid rising in level and knew she didn't have a lot of time left.
For comparison, she saw the skeleton of a large rodent close to the acid and as it touched the acid, it rapidly disintegrated until the entire skeleton was covered and completely dissolved.
Maki panicked, after realizing the potency of the acid, but used a little bit of her remaining Mana to form a hard armor of earth around her body; covering her face as a mask, and protected her lower body, as well as her arms and legs.
She then approached the sacs again and saw a faint figure inside the first one.
She was shocked as she saw the figure of a young girl inside it, unconscious but very much alive.
The same was for the young boy inside the second case.
"These might be the two kids that the stranger said was her children that got missing," she thought and shuddered at the fact that Endo was responsible for their disappearance.
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As she was still making sense of how the kids were here, the acid was rapidly rising and was now at her ankles.
"Fortunately, for my armor, it should be resistant to the acid for a while. But with the current Mana I have now, I'll say I have about ten minutes left before I'm totally dissolved."
She then immediately opened the first sac, grabbed the girl and went to the entrance of the first stomach and placed her inside.
Maki then rushed and grabbed the boy from the second sac and placed him inside before climbing the entrance as well.
After she entered and looked back, the second chamber immediately reduced in size -because the two kids and Maki were no longer occupying the space in the stomach- and the stomach acid level now was halfway full.
The two young kids slowly got up and panicked as they held each other right at the sight of Maki in her armor.
"Relax, I'm a friend. My name is Maki and I'm getting you out of here!!," she addressed to the kids, holding her hands up showing that she's not going to hurt them.
They were hesitant at first, but the young girl went to Maki and held her hand, which made Maki sigh out of relief knowing that she has their trust.
"Come on, we're going through that side!!," she said as she held the young girl's hand and led the way back to the first chamber.