The utterly dark hall held nothing but ruins. Toppled Serpentfolk statues lay helplessly on a floor awash with black blood, as bleak and lightless as the Serpentfolk Empire's future.
Both Aaron and Aponia were injured. Aaron had internal bleeding, bruises all over his body, almost no magic left, a broken right arm, and a sword cut across his face. He was in terrible shape.
But with the power of his Keeper of Secrets form, those injuries were healing rapidly. They still hurt, but no longer hindered him.
Aponia's injuries were lighter. The Bladesong beauty had spent a great deal of magic breaking the Snake God's divine shield in the secret chamber, weakening her in the battle that followed. The Legendary Serpentfolk had broken her ribs with a strike, but her poison had still played a crucial role.
What kind of poison was that?
Aaron remembered that the books he had read treated Serpentfolk as a race immune to poison. Anything that could affect them under those circumstances had to be something of a higher order.
"Mystery loses its power before mystery of a higher order."
-A fundamental principle of occult studies
The Bladesong beauty delivered one final thrust, putting a definitive end to any chance of the Legendary Serpentfolk returning to life.
In the Realms, resurrection was relatively common. Generally, if a creature had just died from a fatal injury, third-level Revivify could bring them back, provided the body was intact, they had not died of old age, and no more than a minute had passed. The price was a little of the caster's own lifespan and a diamond worth at least three hundred Golden Lions.
Revivify was rarely used in practice, however, because all it actually did was keep the deceased's soul from leaving their body. If a fatal