The shadow did not rise again.
It lay there broken against the cavern wall, its form splintered and uneven. It's edges were unraveling into slow, drifting strands of darkness. The crimson light in its eyes weakly flickered as it tried to pull itself together.
But it failed.
The serpent moved close to the boy.
Its body uncoiled with a sound like a stone grinding against a stone. Scales the size of a human slid over one another as it advanced and filled the cavern with its presence. The air around grew heavy and thick with pressure.
The shadow hissed.
It tried to retreat.
But the serpent did not rush.
It simply opened its mouth wide.
There was no roar. Just a sudden, violent pull as if the darkness itself had been seized and dragged forward. The shadow's form stretched, contorted, it screamed as it was torn apart into many different pieces. Its limbs unraveled into black smoke, its middle collapsing inward as the serpent bit it down.
The sound it made was very brief.
And just like that it was gone.
There were no explosions and No residue left of it.
Only the silence remained.
The serpent lifted its head slowly. It swallowed once. Then pressure in the cavern eased, though it did not disappear entirely. Whatever the serpent was, its presence alone was enough to bent the space around it.
Its gaze shifted towards the boy.
The boy lay crumpled at the base of the cavern wall, unmoving. Blood pooled beneath him, dark, warm and thick. His breathing was shallow and irregular and with each breath the pain got worse. He was struggling to stay conscious.
Just lying there at the moment was the hardest and most painful thing he could experience.
The serpent studied him.
For a long moment, it did nothing.
And the boy kept suffering, just as the boy was about to fall unconscious the serpent spoke
"Unlucky," it said, its voice was deep and resonant, it echoed directly within the cavern rather than through the air. "Aren't you, traveler."
The boy did not respond. Even if he wanted to say something he wasn't in any condition to do so.
The serpent's eyes narrowed slightly.
"To arrive," it continued looking down at the boy, "and immediately brush against something you were never meant to encounter.
It lowered its head, bringing one massive eye level with the boy's broken form.
"And yet," it murmured, "here you are and you still draw breath."
The serpent shifted, its body coiling tighter. The cavern floor cracked beneath its weight, stone fracturing as it leaned closer. Slowly. And carefully it extended the tip of its tail.
The scaled end hovered over the boy's forehead.
"For now, this is all I will do" it said.
The tail touched him.
Pain vanished.
It did not dull nor did it eased.
It was completely gone.
The boy's body jerked violently as his life and surged through him again warm and overwhelming. His shattered wrist realigned with a sickening series of cracks, bone knitting itself back together in moments. Torn muscle also repaired itself. Crushed ribs lifted, reshaping as if time itself were being forced to rewind.
Blood retreated, soaking back into his skin before vanishing entirely.
The boy gasped.
His back arched as he sucked in a deep, desperate breath, lungs filling fully for the first time since the cavern collapse. His eyes open, wide with shock and confusion.
He screamed.
Not in pain—but in terror.
He scrambled backward, slipping on stone as he tried to put distance between himself and the massive presence looming over him. His heart hammered violently in his chest as he stared up at the serpent, breath coming in ragged bursts.
"What....what are you?" he choked out.
The serpent regarded him calmly.
"Something older than your fear," it replied. "And something far less merciful than what you encountered above."
"I could try to explain but even months would fall short for the whole thing"
The boy froze.
His body trembled as he looked down at himself.
He was whole.
His whole.. his arm and everything was intact. There was no blood and No pain. Only a faint warmth lingering beneath his skin, like embers that refused to cool.
Then he noticed them.
Dark markings spread across his chest and arms, lines etched into his skin like ink poured beneath flesh. They twisted in a complex patterns, branching and overlapping, pulsing faintly with a muted glow.
"What… did you do to me?" he whispered.
The serpent tilted its head slightly.
"Nothing permanent," it said. "And nothing you earned."
The markings pulsed once more—then began to fade.
They sank into his skin, dissolving as though they had never existed, leaving behind no trace at all.
The boy swallowed.
"I don't understand," he said weakly.
"You are not meant to," the serpent replied. "Not yet at least."
It drew back, lifting its massive head toward the cavern ceiling.
"You are not like this because you came from elsewhere," it continued to talk. "Nor because you survived. What I placed upon you was not strength."
The serpent's gaze returned to him.
"It was permission."
The boy's stomach twisted.
"Permission… for what?"
The serpent did not answer.
Instead, it turned away.
Its massive body shifted, coils sliding across the cavern floor as it began to move deeper into the darkness beyond. The ground trembled beneath its passage, stone cracking, dust falling from above.
"Wait!" the boy called out, panic flaring. "Don't....don't leave me here!"
"What am I supposed to do"
"Who am I" He screamed and the voice bounced across the wall.
The serpent paused.
It did not look back.
"You will leave," it said calmly. "Whether you survive long enough to do so is not my concern."
"That thing," the boy said desperately. "The shadow came because of me, When I touched the bracelet....didn't't it"
Silence stretched for a while
"Yes."
The single word struck him harder than any blow.
The serpent resumed its movement.
"You completed what should have remained incomplete," it said. "That is why it manifested fully. That is why the one meant to suppress it failed."
The boy's throat tightened.
"I didn't know," he whispered. "I didn't mean to"..
"Intent is irrelevant," the serpent interrupted. "The world does not care what you meant."
Its body slipped through a narrowing passage at the far end of the cavern, scales scrape against stone as it forced its way through. The darkness beyond seemed thicker.
Before disappearing entirely, it spoke once more.
"Others like you have stood where you stand now."
The boy's breath caught.
"Where are they?" he asked.
The serpent did not answer directly.
"Some endure," it said. "Some sleep. Some became part of the imbalance they sought to oppose."
Just like that Its tail vanished into the passage.
"And some," it added, almost thoughtfully, "are the reason I remain here."
The cavern grew still.
The boy sat there for a long time, shaking, his mind struggling to process what had just happened. His body felt wrong it was not injured, but altered, as though something unseen had been woven into him and then hidden away.
It's the marking I guess.
Slowly, he pushed himself to his feet.
His legs held.
That alone felt like a miracle.
He looked toward the passage where the serpent had gone. Beyond it, the cavern sloped downward, leading into dark depths he could not see.
He didn't know what else was there.
Far below in the cavern, beyond the reach of light, the serpent emerged into a vast hollow chamber. Roots as thick as towers pierced the stone, rising from the ground and vanishing into darkness above. At their center stood a massive, ancient tree, its bark was pale and thick. Just the size can tell how old the tree could be.
The serpent coiled at its base.
It lowered its head and rested there, eyes slowly closing.
"Another has arrived," it murmured into the roots. "And this one… may last longer than the others."