The scene was utterly brutal.
Then Cayden remembered a certain line from the Drifter's Clock.
[The snakes present in the grid will be released once a prey landed on these squares. And for these unlucky prey, they will turn into a new monster pet for the Alpha Snake Beast and forever be its slave.]
A chill went crawling down Cayden's spine.
At that moment, the woman's body was stranded. She was kneeling but without a head. Others did not find it odd how she was still in a kneeling position even though her head had just got eaten.
Cayden noticed this discrepancy. And recalled the sight of that man without a head he went against earlier.
Could it be…
The giant snake that happily devoured her head stuck out its fangs and drove it straight into her severed neck. Then the woman's body began to convulse.
If it wasn't for the snakes from the grid holding her body down, she would have lashed out.
But what's happening? She's already dead, how could she still convulse like that? Confusion filled their faces. But it didn't take long for their facial expressions to change.
The giant snake retracted its fangs and slithered its tongue. Its slanted pupils seemed very pleased.
On the woman's body, a bright sparkling, surface can be seen. Like little droplets of rain sitting on the rain leaves. But the more they stared at it, the more they found that the color purple marbles has something inside.
And it was moving.
For a few seconds, they look colorful and very attractive. But to think it's directly sitting on the woman's severed neck, was ultimately scary and horribly disgusting.
Not a minute later, something broke away from the purple marble. Small snakes!
Dozens of small snakes erupted from the purple eggs. They settled in by the woman's neck and sucked the blood, tissue and nutrients out of her.
The withering of the corpse can be seen through the naked eye.
This undeniably shocked everyone. They could see the woman's veins appeared on the skin surface because its been drained of blood. They could also see how vicious these monsters are.
The snakes have integrated perfectly with the body within a few seconds. They can see the woman twist its body.
Not long after, the horrifying truth was revealed in front of their eyes.
The woman came back alive! But she's no longer human, nor have the characteristics of a human. Dozens pair of bright slit pupils blink, their small body slithered. Some let out its fangs and lick it with their lips.
After watching the process of a human being turned into a snake slave, the Alpha Snake Beasts laughed boisterously!
"Hahahahah! This is hilarious! You all deserved to be my slaves! Look here puny humans. This is what happens when you give up your life to me. See? I honored her request right? I give her the taste of death. But.... who said I will set her free? Hahahahha. No, no. If any of you choose the easy way to die by asking for death, I, the Alpha Snake Beast, will make you my slave forever! You shall be trapped inside my realm for eternity."
"You - You - You monster!!!" The old man in the group could not help but roar. Instead of fear, what covered his face was pure hatred.
This is already too much!
This level of cruelty goes beyond evil!
What does he think human lives are?
"What do you think human lives are? We aren't things you could discard, kill and torture whenever you want!!"
The old man's raspy voice echoed in the quiet space. It was obvious it took almost all his strength just to shout those words. The pent up emotion and terror must have build up that he could no longer suppressed them.
Cayden want to say this man is old because of his wrinkled face and almost white hair and beard but in fact, he had a well toned body. His strength could not be underestimated beneath those ripped biceps.
This must be the reason why this old man was not eliminated from this world.
"Oh? Then answer this human. When you hunt down the wild fledgings in the jungle did you also stop to consider their measly little lives? When you killed the mother bear in front of their cubs, did you feel pity for them? Or you just don't care because you felt great satisfaction after taking down a wild animal bigger than you?" This time the ridicule of the Alpha Beast Snake stunned the old man.
The usual reaction for this type of thing is confusion. But the old man has the most curious surprise expression in his face before it shriveled and turned into unspeakable anger.
The Alpha Beast Snake is laughing at the top of his lungs.
"That's right. Don't try to pin everything on me. Just because I'm cruel in your eyes doesn't cleanse you and make you innocent either. Haha! You've taken lives much more than I am!"
"Don't..." The old man said with gritted teeth. "Don't you dare justify the things you do and make us look bad. I know you hated humans. But we are only doing what we can to survive. That mother bear you just mention? That bear just attack my comrades in the mercenary and cut off the leg of my junior. Feel pity to its baby? Why would I? Why feel pity for something that will grow up only to harm others again? Isn't that what you, as a monster, is doing right now? Aren't you killing us one after another because you are afraid one of us will survive here and exact revenge on you?"
"You trapped us here, choose to torture us into making us be scared out of our wits and be driven crazy!"
The old man is still trying to vent out all his frustration when the Alpha Snake Beast summoned the giant snake behind him. The imposing figure of the giant snake that peeked from the Alpha Snake Beast's throne caused all of them to get weaken on their knees.