Delilah's eyes no longer belonged to Delilah. They burned with shifting colors—sapphire storms, molten amber, obsidian shadows. Her voice had been silenced, her will swallowed. Where she had once stood, there was only him.
The nameless man stretched her limbs, flexing new muscle, savoring the weight of solid flesh that no longer crumbled to dust. "Yes…" he murmured, his words like thunder disguised as speech. "This body endures."
Every step she—he—took reshaped the ground. Roots writhed, stones bent, the air trembled. Nature itself bent to the command of this invader.
But unseen eyes were already watching.
From the treeline, soldiers in scaled armor emerged, rifles gleaming with strange serpentine designs. Their insignia—fangs coiled around the world—marked them clearly: the Black Serpents.
At their center strode a tall figure, draped in a cloak the color of venom. His mask was sculpted like a cobra's hood, and his voice slithered across the clearing.
"You are not Delilah," the commander hissed. "We felt the shift when you came. You are something older… something greater. And we—the Black Serpents—would have you join us."
The nameless one tilted Delilah's head, studying them with cold amusement. "You would command me?" His laughter rippled like breaking glass. "I have broken empires larger than your cult."
Still, the commander extended a hand. "Together, we could devour nations. The world already fears us. With you, it would bow."
For a moment, silence stretched. The trees leaned in, as if listening. Then the nameless one smiled. "No."
The forest erupted.
---
The Serpents struck first—rifles spitting bursts of plasma, grenades igniting with serpentine green fire. The clearing shook under the assault. But none of it mattered.
The nameless one raised a hand, and the earth surged upward like a shield, absorbing the blasts. He swept his other arm, and lightning crackled across the sky, lancing into the Serpent ranks. Soldiers convulsed, their screams drowned in thunder.
With a stomp, he split the ground, roots whipping up to ensnare men and crush them like toys. A wave of water rose from the soil itself, slamming others into trees.
The commander fought through the chaos, drawing twin blades that glowed with venomous light. He lunged, striking for the host's chest.
Steel met flame.
The nameless one caught the blades in his bare hands. Metal screamed, melted, then collapsed into slag between his fingers. The commander staggered back, mask cracking.
"You think yourselves serpents," the nameless one thundered, his voice carried on the roar of elements. "But to me, you are worms."
He unleashed everything. Fire swept outward in a circle, wind howled like a hurricane, the earth quaked beneath them. The jungle itself seemed to rise against the Serpents, trees bending and striking like living spears.
Within minutes, silence fell. The survivors crawled back, dragging the broken, their venomous bravado shattered.
The commander, burned and gasping, hissed one final vow as he retreated into the shadows. "You will regret this. No one defies the Serpents."
The nameless one stood tall in Delilah's body, unscathed, his eyes burning with storms.
"Let them come," he whispered. "I have fought gods. I will fight again."
And with that, he turned, leaving the jungle bathed in smoke and ruin, the first true sign that something far more dangerous than Greta, Helena, or Mausgrau had entered the game.