Elias Thorn was born on a night of storms, but the heavens had not blessed him. They had mocked him.
The moment his bloodline was tested, the crystal orb dimmed to a sickly brown. A single word appeared across its surface:
Lesser Python.
A bloodline so weak it was barely above mundane. A serpent with no venom worth speaking of, no magical affinity, no prestige. Children with such bloodlines became farmers, servants, or corpses on battlefields.
Never warlocks.
Never anything great.
At twelve years old, Elias had learned to keep his head down.
The world returned slowly.
First came sensation — cold earth beneath his palms, damp leaves clinging to his skin, the metallic taste of blood on his tongue. Then came sound — the whisper of wind through dead branches, the distant hoot of an owl, the steady thrum of his heartbeat.
But something else pulsed beneath it.
Something ancient.
Something hungry.
Elias gasped and sat upright. His vision blurred, then sharpened unnaturally. Every shadow seemed to breathe. Every sound carried layers he had never noticed before — the scuttle of insects under bark, the slow drip of dew from a fern, the faint rustle of a mouse fifty paces away.
His senses had changed.
His blood had changed.
A faint glow pulsed beneath the skin of his forearms, like dark veins filled with starlight. He stared, horrified and fascinated.
"What… what did you do to me?"
The forest answered with silence.
Then the voice returned — not from outside, but from the marrow of his bones.
"I awakened what was already yours."
Elias shivered. "You said I'm your fragment. What does that mean?"
A low, rumbling amusement echoed through him.
"A shard of my essence sleeps in your blood. A seed. A hunger. You are small now… but you will grow."
Elias swallowed hard. "Grow into what?"
The darkness did not answer directly.
Instead, a memory not his own flashed behind his eyes — a colossal serpent coiling around a dying star, jaws unhinging as it swallowed the light whole. A universe collapsing into its maw.
Elias screamed and clutched his head.
The vision vanished.
His breath came in ragged gasps. "No… no, that can't be me. I'm nothing. I'm—"
"You are mine."
The voice softened, almost gentle.
"And you are starving."
Elias froze.
Because he was starving — but not for food. His stomach felt hollow, but not in a human way. It was as if something inside him demanded… essence. Life. Power.
A twig snapped behind him.
Elias turned sharply — too sharply. His body moved with a fluidity he didn't recognize.
A boar stood at the edge of the clearing, snorting, pawing the ground. Its eyes glinted with challenge.
Elias should have been afraid.
Instead, something inside him stirred.
Hunger.
The boar charged.
Elias didn't think — instinct took over. His body twisted aside with serpentine grace. His hand shot out, grabbing the boar's neck. His fingers tightened, far stronger than they should have been.
The boar squealed.
Elias felt something flow from the creature into him — warm, electric, intoxicating. The boar's strength, its life, its essence poured into his veins like molten fire.
The glow beneath his skin brightened.
The boar collapsed, lifeless.
Elias staggered back, horrified. "I… I killed it. I drank it."
"You devoured it," the voice corrected. "As all serpents of the abyss must."
Elias fell to his knees, trembling. "I didn't want to"
"You will."
The presence faded, leaving him alone in the silent forest.
But the hunger remained.
And deep within his blood, something ancient uncoiled and smiled.