"Come forth-my beloved!"
The ground trembled.
Ahead of the group, the deliberately cleared area suddenly split open, and magma gushed out. The God-Devouring Serpent's immense, twisted, knotted body rose from beneath the earth, glowing with the dark red light of molten rock. Its bizarre body, complete with humanlike arms and legs, stretched out. That single movement sent the temperature soaring for hundreds of feet around it.
"Go." Tanith casually waved her spear.
The Great Serpent moved.
It did not charge. It could hardly even be called a rush; it simply wriggled forward at a leisurely pace. Yet that leisurely advance alone obliterated everything in its path.
The main entrance to Belurat, Tower Settlement was a heavy, iron-clad wooden gate, with barricades and chevaux-de-frise piled behind it.
The Great Serpent never even paused.
It opened its enormous mouth and spewed a torrent of dark green venom. The wooden gate rapidly rotted and collapsed with a sizzling hiss. Its iron plating warped, and together with the barricades piled behind it, dissolved into a pool of foul-smelling sludge.
Hornsent screams rang out from behind the gate.
The Great Serpent kept advancing.
Its body squeezed through the gateway, scraping showers of rubble from the stone walls on either side. It swung its body, scattering great swaths of lava around it. The Hornsent archers hiding in the arrow towers and watchtowers were swallowed by magma before they could even scream, reduced to burning, charred corpses.
Tanith stood a short distance behind the Great Serpent, hands on her hips and eyes sparkling. "Yes, yes, yes! Just like that! Burn! Burn it all!"
The Tarnished glanced at her.
The Volcano Manor consort had lost every trace of aristocratic elegance. She looked more like a little girl who had finally gotten a new toy and could not wait