It simply opened its maw, a void of shimmering darkness within the beautiful crystal, and glided forward.
The lead Saint, one of the males with a cracked chest, met the charge. He braced, his stone sword held high. The serpent didn't bother to bite. It simply flowed around him. The crystal body slammed into the Saint with the force of a landslide. There was a sound of grinding rock, and when the serpent moved past, the Saint was gone, completely absorbed into its crystalline interior, his form now a new, struggling statue trapped forever. The bloody thing could liquify itself, and I had no doubt its insides were corrosive.
My blood ran cold. One of them, gone in an instant. This wasn't a fight; it looked like a harvest. The remaining five Saints didn't break. They scattered, realizing a direct defence was suicide. They began moving with coordinated, flanking attacks, their stone feet pounding the ground. The blood-stained Saint lunged from the side, his sword aiming for the serpent's "neck."
The blade connected with a sound like a thousand bells shattering. A web of fine cracks spread across the crystal surface, but the sword didn't penetrate. The serpent's body rippled, and the section where it was struck lashed out like a whip, sending the Saint flying through the air to crash into a building wall. He slid down, but slowly got back to his feet, his stone body now covered in a spiderweb of new fractures.
The other Saints pressed the attack, hammering at the creature's sides and tail. Chips of crystal flew through the air, glittering like deadly rain. It was working, but it was like trying to demolish a mountain with pickaxes. For every chip they knocked loose, the serpent would flow over one of them, its immense weight and strange, fluid physics crushing them against the ground or simply absorbing limbs.
One of the female Saints was too slow. The serpent's tail, moving with that same liquid speed, wrapped around her legs. We (both the other Saints and myself) watched, helpless, as she was dragged, struggling, into the main body of the beast. She disappeared into the crystal, her form joining the gallery of the damned within seconds. Two down.
The fight became a desperate dance of attrition. The Saints were incredibly durable and strong, but the Fallen Terror was on another level entirely. They couldn't stand against its direct force. Their only hope was to dodge its crushing bulk and chip away at it, over and over, aiming for the existing cracks. The blood-stained Saint was their best warrior, constantly darting in to strike the damaged section on its neck, widening the fissure with every blow.
The serpent seemed to recognize him as the primary threat. It focused its efforts on him, its crystalline head striking at him like a viper. He was impossibly fast for stone, rolling and weaving, but a glancing blow from its snout sent him tumbling again, shattering one of his arms at the elbow. He rose, now one-armed, and kept fighting.
It was a brutal, grinding process. Another male Saint was caught by a full-body slam and shattered into a pile of gravel and dust. A third lost its legs to a sweeping pass of the serpent's body and could only crawl, useless. Soon, only two Saints remained: the one-armed leader and one of the initial, undamaged females.
But the monster was showing real damage. The crack on its neck was now a deep crevice, and a large section of its midsection was hazy with fractures. Its movements were slightly slower, less fluid. The Saints' sacrifice was not in vain. The Crystal Snake seemed to be wavering, uncertain whether to flee or stay and fight. The Stone Saints probably weren't very nutritious anyways, or maybe they actually were-as the creation of Nether, who knows what value they hold for other "mundane" monsters?
Perhaps seeing the monster wavering, the female Saint created an opening, leaping onto its back and hammering down with her blade, drawing its attention. Seizing the moment, the one-armed leader gathered all his remaining strength for a final, desperate leap. He didn't use his broken sword. He launched himself, a living projectile, directly into the deep fissure on the serpent's neck. He jammed his own body into the crack, a stone wedge.
The effect was immediate and catastrophic. The serpent thrashed, a silent scream of agony seeming to vibrate through the air. Its fluid movement seized. The crystal around the lodged Saint began to spiderweb violently, the cracks racing across its entire body. With a final, convulsive shudder, the colossal creature froze, its inner light dying. Then, with a sound like a continent breaking, it shattered.
Shards of crystal exploded outwards, raining down over the entire square like deadly hail. When the dust and glittering debris settled, the square was a wasteland. Of the six Stone Saints, only one remained standing—the female who had drawn the final attack. She was heavily damaged, missing part of her head and leaning heavily to one side. The one-armed leader was gone, consumed in the final explosion that killed the beast.
The serpent was a field of broken crystal, its victims now freed into nothingness. The silence that fell was deeper than any before. The plan had worked, the survivors were down to one crippled Saint and a mountain of glittering, Fallen-class shards. The remaining Saint lay slumped against a wall, its torn face scattered in ruby dust.
I actually felt it was a pity, seeing such a beautiful thing be so badly scarred. Well, if it became my Echo, those wounds would recover. Speaking of which, it was time to move, before something even worse than that Serpent showed up.
Just as I was wondering how to get down, I saw a shadow come up over the ledge and materialise beside me. Sasrir stood up, his shoulder and chest bloodied but covered by a strip of shadow. "You alright?" I asked in concern, touching his wound gingerly. He didn't flinch, but removed my hand. "I'm fine, this isn't even from any of those monsters, I got this while on the way back."
"What did you do to provoke them so badly?"
"The centipedes had a nest I invaded, broke a couple of their eggs. As for the bears, I just kept stabbing and running. To lure over the snake though, I had to entangle with its' soul. The pain must have really truck a nerve, because it was the most rabid while chasing me. Probably collapsed a whole block over to the left."
"Entering the shadow of a Fallen monster is too risky, don't do that again" I scolded him with a serious frown. "If needed, just look for something slightly easier to lure over."
"Alright, I don't need you of all people telling me to be careful. You try to hide it, but you can't fool me-you love taking risks and gambling more than anyone I know. If it wasn't for the fact the Curator gave you Spectator, you definitely would have gotten Marauder or Monster."
"Hey now, don't go saying I'm a worse gambler than Nephis!" I countered, feigning hurt. "How many times has she nearly led her Cohort to their deaths?" He gave a slight chuckle in repones before grabbing my waist and turning back into a shadow, carrying me down the way I got up. Once we hit the ground, we walked over the the last Stone Saint with a leisurely gait.
Up close, it was even more finely crafted than I thought, and I felt a new level of respect for the Prince of the Underworld. Seeing us approach, the Saint tried to stand again, but it had only taken a step before falling back down. While I don't think it could "bleed" to death, in this state, it would be finished off by the first scavenger that comes across it.
"Consider this a mercy" I said, summoning the Unshadowed Crucifix. Under Sasrir's gaze, I held it aloft and chanted softly: "God says all fortunes are more effective here! God says all shadows are strengthened here!" Then I quickly swapped over to the Quill of Alzuhod and began writing in the air: "Sunny acquired Saint with the halo of the protagonist, while Adam and Sasrir are both protagonists and therefore have twice the halo. Thus, acquiring Saint is a very reasonable event!"
After going through my little ritual, of which I was aware probably did nothing but still felt cool anyways, Sasrir summoned a shadow longsword and raised it above his head. Strengthened by my Notary powers, the blade seemed to hold an even deeper darkness, and it cleaved through the Stone Saint's skull with only a small amount of resistance.
The monster stiffened and then stilled completely, one last layer of ruby dust floating down to the ground. Sasrir hefted the sword out, letting it dissolve into nothing. I licked my lips nervously as I looked at him, waiting for either confirmation or denial. After about ten seconds, he turned to me and spoke.
"We got her."