"You think what you said would earn my approval? Sorry, I'm human."
The snake monster opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something, but in the end, all she let out was a series of bubble-like chuckles.
Her body began to disintegrate. Her skin peeled away, revealing her true reptilian form, before she finally turned to ash.
Silence returned to the cave.
Sam calmly ejected the shell casing and reloaded. He was no longer the naive college student he had once been.
"Mother of All Things." He repeated the name. "Sounds like trouble. These days, every kind of demon and monster is crawling out of the woodwork."
Dean wiped the grime from his broken sword and sheathed it. He looked toward the depths of the cave, as though he could see the mountains to the southwest through the layers of rock.
"Let's go back and report first," he said. "But this isn't over."
The two turned and left the cave, leaving the flames, ashes, and secrets behind them.
The clouds hung low in the night sky, as though something enormous was slowly moving behind them, casting an invisible shadow.
The front line of the Gates of Hell, the Tentacle Throne.
Wu Heng tapped his fingers against the armrest.
Dean and Sam's report came through the communicator, accompanied by the sound of sirens in the background.
"After investigating, we found it. Someone called Mother of All Things is summoning monsters," Sam said tensely. "Apparently, it's because someone has been capturing those ancient monsters and using their blood."
"This may involve the dark forces of demons. So far, we haven't found any connection to Heaven."
Wu Heng did not speak immediately.
A light screen floated in the air before him, streams of data scrolling across it. After a while, he