finn almost jolted back when she started approaching him, pressing himself further against the wall in fear.

she raised a finger and pointed it to him, but stopped just as the tip of her nail touched his head.

"sperae yeptum rufermus... vilal eurekant onzoo."

in just mere seconds, the exhaustion and strain from his body was removed and he felt his mana slowly being replenished, and [name] took her finger off from his head before turning back to the stairs, slithering her way up.

"what just happened..."

he muttered, seeing her tail finally disappearing to the upper floors.

"she let me live... twice."

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

"a couatl, you say? can't really say if i've seen one before."

marcille looks at laios while nibbling on the veggies they just finished cooking, growing intrigued from how he described their friend's appearance.

"that's what i saw, at least. a couatl is a completely different creature from a lamia, but she shares the same characteristics as one. but yeah, i've never seen one before either. only in the books..."

"meaning to say she has the appearance of those things but she's actually a completely different creature?"

chilchuck asked, and laios cups his chin in thought before responding.

"i think it's safe to say she's turned into both of those things."

laios corrected, placing his bowl down in front of him after finishing his fill.

"if it does happen to be real, then i feel lucky to be able to witness a hybrid monster up close with my own two eyes."

he grins blissfully, and marcille gives him the side eye.

"hm, i've never heard of such a creature before in this dungeon. and you're saying that your friend has been turned into a couatl?"

senshi asked, and laios nodded his head in confirmation.

"i don't know much about it, but from what i've read those monsters are similar to a known deity that has similar traits, and it shares the same name as them. the quetzalcoatl."

"all these monster stuff is giving me a headache..."

chilchuck sighed, placing his empty bowl down too.

after they all finished their food, the group decided to just sit around for a while.

"ahh, that hit the spot!"

marcille sighed, rubbing her stomach.

"i'm stuffed. i feel like taking a nap now."

chilchuck says, releasing a sigh.

"go on and take a nap. i've got a few chores to run anyways."

senshi says, suddenly standing up and heading for the door.

as senshi left the room, marcille began cleaning up the bowls and cutlery they used for their meal, glancing at chilchuck who had his eyes closed.

"help clean up."

"ugh..."

"i'm gonna go visit the eggs now—"

laios was about to sneak off when a hand caught him by the back of his armour, and pulled him back inside the room.

"oh no, you won't! you're gonna sit here and help with the dishes first!"

and so laios sat there on the ground like a sulking child, pouting while he cleans the bowls with a white cloth.

"speaking of the eggs... what do you guys plan to do now?"

the two paused at chilchuck's question, not really knowing how to respond. they didn't have a plan for anything yet, after all.

"surely she's bound to go back to her eggs, right?"

"yeah, marcille's right. she'll go back for her eggs so finding her won't be hard at the very least."

laios rubs the back of his head.

"but confrontation is the hardest part. i'm not sure if she's still gonna act as friendly as she did after what happened."

"do we stay on this floor a little longer then? we can't leave unless we get her back somehow."

marcille says firmly, the spark of determination back in her eyes once again. laios recognised it as the same one she had when she swore she'll help him no matter what to save falin.

"right. but if we take too long, this might cause trouble for us saving falin."

laios rubs his face with his hand.

"so i say we get her back as soon as possible."

"not to burst your bubbles but how are we supposed to do that exactly? one, she's a giant monster at the moment. two, she's pretty dangerous apparently. and three, how do we turn her back?"

chilchuck's questions seemed to have made both marcille and laios stop and think for a moment.

"the details of turning her back to normal won't matter for now. we just need her back with us."

marcille shook her head, looking down at the floor before glancing up to meet laios' gaze with a deep sadness in her eyes.

"right, laios?"

sensing the shake in her voice, laios frowned. he doesn't know what to do either, but he agrees with marcille. spare the details of returning her back in her normal state, they need her alive with them right now.

"how about this then? let's set up camp at her nest later and wait for her to show up."

"you forgot to answer the part where she's dangerous..."

chilchuck says with a frown.

"oh, yeah..."

laios grunts in frustration, racking his brain for any kind of solution. he can't keep relying on the intuition that she won't hurt them because she didn't hurt him, that would only put his friends in danger.

"...then i'll be the only one facing her head on. you guys can hide and be my back-up if things get ugly. i can't guarantee she won't attack any of us, so it's the safest way we could do this."

"guess that could work..."

chilchuck agrees, looking off to the side. he looked like he wanted to say more, but stopped himself from doing so.

"laios, if it's needed... i can just cast an illusion spell on her."

marcille suggested, holding her book in hand.

"i'm not an expert at it, but if we need it as a last resort, i can do it."

laios thought for a while before a small smile made its way to his lips, and he gives marcille a pat on the shoulder in appreciation.

"thanks, marcille. we'll definitely need your magic in this one, so we're counting on you when the time comes."

"i'll do anything to get falin and [name] back..."

she frowned, staring at the ground again with a longing expression. she really did miss them.

"alright, it's settled then! let's tell senshi that we'll be setting up camp in the nest instead!"

well, that didn't really end well.

"laios i swear to god, if you touch that egg one more time—"

"whaaat? i'm just trying to feel it."

marcille growled under her breath and picks up her staff, which was enough to send laios back to his own bedroll.

"eggs are delicate! stop touching them like that!"

"marcille, i know a lot about snake eggs. touching them like that won't kill them, you know."

laios crossed his arms like a sassy child.

"i'm trying to feel for the embryo to make sure if the eggs are fertile or not."

"as much as i'm worried he'll try to eat the eggs, i guess he does have a point."

chilchuck added in, setting down his bedroll on the floor next to them.

"i won't try to eat 'em, swear! those are [name]'s eggs..."

laios then crawls his way to the eggs, frowning.

"snake eggs don't necessarily need their mother to warm them up since dried vegetation is a good warmth source, but i'm not sure about this one."

he then gathers the eggs around him, carefully placing them in his arms.

"what the hell are you doing now?"

marcille sighed in exhaustion, watching as laios tried to find a comfortable position while trying not to crush the eggs.

"warming them up."

"laios, you'll crush the eggs. let go of those..."

"idiot, you have to be more delicate with them. those aren't potato sacks."

both marcille and chilchuck criticised the young man who sweatdrops.

"i'm trying my best here."

with laios awkwardly warming the eggs in his arms and the other two doing their own thing on their own bedrolls, they only had to wait for senshi to return from his errands.

while also waiting for her to come back.

laios had no solid plans at all. all he had in his mind is wait it out til she shows up. he couldn't help but worry that it'll take quite a long time, and they'd be too late to save falin from the dragon's stomach.

but luckily for them, that won't be the case at all.

"i hear something."

chilchuck shivered as his ears picked up on a distinct noise he could faintly hear, a combination of hissing and scales sliding against the concrete ground.

laios perked up and carefully placed the eggs down on the nest upon hearing chilchuck's words, and marcille quickly reached for her staff and stood up.

"you guys should step back."

laios whispered and they reluctantly did as told, going to the furthest corner of the room.

laios waited by the entrance, hiding kensuke behind him just in case.

a few seconds passed and nothing happened, but he almost jumped out of his skin when he heard footsteps and in came senshi with the rest of the vegetables they left behind in his camp base.

"sorry it took a while, ye lads doing alright?"

what he didn't expect though was that someone else came with senshi, and that someone just so happened to be a 20 feet tall giantess with snow white wings and a couatl for a lower half.

laios was staring up at her with wide eyes, his jaw dropped to the floor while senshi looks at him in pure confusion.

"laios?"

he then feels a gush of air blow against his back, and heard a huff behind him. senshi sweats, refusing to look back for a second before slowly turning his head with the "she's behind me, isn't she?" look on his face.

"son of a mother—"

"ahhhhh!!!!"

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

—i did some research in the quetzalcoatl and its so interesting to learn abt omg (btw im not really using the actual deity bcs idk i think its just disrespectful ahhdhwhs so im basing it off purely in the monster that's in the dunmeshi and dungeons & dragons game)

im writing the second part of this right now bcs im actually very inspired to write something lol

"yes mother laios, warm the eggs" we all say in unison.

yall would probably never expect how this confrontation will go lmao 😭

BTW SPOILER FOR THE NEXT TEXT, IM SORRY IN ADVANCE IF YOU'RE AN ANIME ONLY TYPE OF FAN (⁠ ⁠；⁠∀⁠；⁠)

alsooooo i just remembered the part in the manga where laios was seduced by a succubus and his ideal type is literally a monster and wants to be turned into one too 😭😭 you can't convince me that he won't be attracted to mc even more after she was turned into one

i might be reeling away from the main story right now but PLS BEAR WITH ME I SWEAR IT'S WORTH IT :'D

also just dropping it here if y'all are wondering why they haven't figured out why she's that way when they easily found out how to solve falin's situation, it's bcs the falin and [name] have completely different cases. they had something to go off from in falin's case (the red dragon) while they haven't even seen the monster that mc got her form from plus marcille didn't use her dark magic to revive her

what I'm trying to say is they have no clue abt all that crap yet but they will soon enough :D

no arts for now bcs im focused on popping out chapters, but I'll have a new one soon enough! I'm really determined to finish this fanfic :3

here's the dunmeshi meme of the day!