Chapter 69: Chapter 69

THE UNSPEAKABLE WORD

The Unspeakable World

The Tundra, Arctica

Tarja braced herself for something to happen. She had seen her parents alive and with her. They were an actual family. She looked around, only to hear laugher. She stared up at Elisa, who was just laughing, like someone had told her the funniest joke in the world.

She stared down at her gun, her grip so light that she didn't see how she still had a hold of it. She retightened her grip. These mind games were getting old. She would much rather be in the middle of a battle right now than have to put up with this for another minute.

Elisa stopped laughing and leaned forward. "What? Aren't we having yet?" Her eyes flickered around the group. "Well, I'm having so much fun right now?" The snakes all hissed at her words. If Tarja didn't know any better, she would had thought a few of them were going as far as to nod along with Elisa. This just kept getting stranger and stranger.

Floor slowly moved closer to Tarja. "If go as one, we might be able to take her."

Tarja stared wide eyed at her. "You do realize what you are saying, don't you? She's a goddess with inhuman strengths. There's no way we can take her, no way at all."

"And we will not take her if you keep an attitude like that," Floor spat back. "We have to end this and we have to end this now. You saw what she had done so far, do you really want to keep this game joining for that much more longer? The sooner will kill her the better off we all be."

Tarja's eyes flickered over to Elisa, who was actually whispering to the snakes closest to her. She looked back at Floor, who had a determined look on her face. There was no way she was going to be able to talk Floor out of this.

Elisa was getting to her feet, moving closer to the circle of snakes, with more of them following her. Tarja couldn't believe it. How many snakes did she have under her control? How was it even possible?

She almost seemed to float she walked, stopping right in front of the newcomer. "You have some nerve coming here," she hissed. "You can't feel safe without your family here. I know how you people work. You have to work in numbers to even feel like you have a chance. None of you can't work on your own."

"How are you any different?" the newcomer hissed back. "Why is it that you need an army of snakes and lies to even make an appearance? You've been hiding in a human mask for you so long. It really makes me wonder if you are afraid to show the world who you truly are."

Elisa snorted as her snakes kept gathering around her. "I'm not afraid of you." If didn't know any better, she could had sworn she heard a little flicker in the goddess's voice, not a big one, but one that was still there. "You're just all talk. I know you don't have it on you."

The newcomer smiled. "You're just saying that to make yourself feel better. I can hear the doubt in your voice, smell the fear on you. You might think you aren't afraid, but even I can see that you're having a hard time convincing yourself." She paused. "Tell me, do you really fear death that badly?"

Elisa's eyes flickered to her snakes. "I've had enough of this. I shouldn't had kept you alive for this long." She motioned her snakes forward as she turned away.

Tarja could feel the snakes at her feet, threatening to bite. She shot downwards, praying that she was actually killing some. They were trying to pull her down. She could feel them wrapping tightly around her legs, so tightly that she felt like she didn't have any blood flowing down there. She wanted to grab onto someone to keep herself upright, but that would only put that person at risk. She wasn't about to let someone die in order to save herself.

Tighter and tighter they wrapped around her legs. She tried to move, tried to pull them away. When she bent down to untangle them, they bit at her fingers, hard enough to draw blood. She winced, but kept on trying to free herself. Each movement only seemed to make them wrap up even tighter than before. She didn't see how she was even still standing up.

Using her gun was now out of the question. If she were to fire, the bullet would most likely hit her leg, then she would go down. Then, the snakes would for sure eat her alive. It wasn't a very pleasant picture and not how she wanted to go.

Someone to Tarja's left was gunning down snakes. She tried to see who was still free, but couldn't move without risking falling over. Someone screamed nearby. She moved to help the screamer, but only stumbled.

Gasping, she stared down at the snakes as the their little beady eyes came closer and closer. She gulped…This was it…This was how she was doing to die…Closer and closer the eyes came. She could feel their wet tongues licking at her, threatening to eat it right off her. She wondered if it would hurt or if she would blackout before she really experienced the pain. She hoped she did.

Down and down she went…Any second now she would hit the snakes face on. They had their fangs lifted, ready to dive into the tender flesh of her face. If they wanted to, they could probably tear into her arms. It was rather odd that they weren't eating the body parts they had access to; they only seemed to be focusing on her face.

She winced as she was now nose to nose with a snake…This was it…She closed her eyes, not wanting to watch as the snake struck.

Then, she felt something odd happen. It wasn't a bite so to say. It almost felt as if someone was lifting her up, freeing her from her near death. She opened her eyes…Yes, this was actually happening. The snakes were getting further and further away from her body.

"You really didn't think I was going to let you die," Aleksander whispered in her ear.

Tarja smiled. "No, I wasn't worried." Her voice shook at the words. Why did she have to sound so weak in front of him? She didn't want him to think that she needed him all the time.

"Really? So, I should put you back down there and let them keep trying to kill you." She could hear the playfulness in his voice. He really wouldn't do something like that to her, but it still didn't make her feel about better. There was something about looking death in the eye that really made you think about your own life.

"No, I'm good," Tarja said slowly.

"Just thought I would make the offer," Aleksander said. He slowly let go of her waist.

Now, that she was free of the snakes, she was actually able to move about. Aleksander charged behind her. The newcomer was making her way toward Elisa, who didn't seem to notice. As far as Tarja could see, the newcomer didn't have any kind of weapons, anything at all to help her in the fight against Elisa. She was going to die and she was going a foolish death.

Tarja nudged Aleksander, who was working on freeing Floor. "We have to do something!"

Aleksander grunted as he worked to free the snakes. Floor was struggling to stay upright. The snakes were almost up to her midsection. "What?" He gasped as one of the snakes latched onto his hand. He shook it off with a force that made Tarja stare. Within seconds the wound was nothing more than a faded looking scar.

"She's going to get herself killed!" Tarja screamed as Aatu roared. She watched as a Pack of wolves raced past her. They dived right into the massive amount of snakes. It really was kind of surprising that they were able to so. Tarja would had thought they would had some poison to them.

"There's more coming!" Floor screamed.

Aleksander's fingers moved faster across Floor's legs. More and more snakes latched themselves onto him, but he just shook them off with a grunt. Kendra appeared out of the corner of Tarja's eyes, weapon raised, firing down at the snakes were no one was standing. She looked wide eyed at Tarja, but didn't say anything.

"She's going to die!" Tarja screamed, pointing at the newcomer who was getting closer and closer to Elisa. It would only be a matter of time before Elisa saw and killed her.

"We can't get there quick enough to help her!" Kendra yelled over the roar of her own gun. "She'll kill us before we can get up there!"

Elisa though was starting to look a little different. She wasn't a full human anymore. She seemed to be morphing into this snake-like creature, only not super snake-like looking. She looked more like a dragon or something. Her facial expressions almost human. She even stood upright like a human. Her eyes were shifting around. She had to see the newcomer by now or maybe the newcomer was working with her. That could be a possibility.

Floor gasped as Aleksander worked the final snakes free.

"Go!" he yelled, urging Floor forward.

Tarja followed Floor and Kendra across the land. Snakes tried to pull them back down, but they were moving too quickly and were passed the snakes before they could even get their mouths open. Aleksander, though, seemed to having the biggest trouble. The snakes actually seemed to be ganging up on him alone and were doing everything that they could to bring him down. Tarja winced as about six of them latched onto his legs, his cry of pain echoed as he tried to shake them off. She wanted to help, but didn't know how.

Aleksander tugged at the snakes around his legs. With his wolf strength, he was actually starting to work a few of them free. The only problem with this was it gave more snakes the chance to try to attack him. Tarja gunned a few of them down before they could latch into him.

More and more kept coming. She couldn't see where they were even coming from. It seemed like they were just popping out of nowhere. Everything was starting to blend together. Snakes tried to reach out for her and grab onto her. The key seemed to be to keep moving. As long as she kept moving, it was almost like they couldn't reach her.

She kept following Aleksander, who had managed to get free at some point, up through the snakes. The newcomer seemed to had paused behind Elisa, who still hadn't noticed her. On through the snakes, Tarja kept up her dance, dodging here and there as they threatened to latch onto her ready. Aleksander kept a path going. He had his claws out and seemed to almost be stabbing the snakes or something.

Onward and onward they went. Tarja could hear the others fighting…This was good…It meant that they were lying at the bottom of a snake pit, dying a painful death…

She looked around. The ground was completely covered in snakes…There was no avoiding them at all. It made her feel as if she were in a horror movie of some kind, like she was getting ready to die a rather painful death.

Aleskander looked back at her. "Are you ready?"

They were now standing at the base of a rather large stone cliff. There were actually going to have to go under the rock if they wanted to reach Elisa and the newcomer. It was a rather large rock and if Elisa wanted to let it go, it would most certainly crush them.

Aku appeared out of the corner of Tarja's eye. He looked battle worn, but other than that he seemed to be in pretty good shape. "What are you two doing?"

Tarja sighed. Wherever she got ready to walk into a situation like this, she did not want Aku by her side. "Um…" She looked at Aleksander; she really wasn't sure what the plan was.

Aleksander smiled. "We're going to kill Elisa."

Aku winced at the words. "How?"

"We'll come up with something."

Tarja wanted to kill him right then and there. She had thought he had a plan, but this was just downright mental. You couldn't sneak up on your enemy without having some kind of a game plan. It just didn't work that way.

Aku nodded. "I see." He looked back out at the battle. "Do you need any help."

Tarja shot Aleksander a warning look, but he didn't seem to see it or care. "Sure."

It took everything Tarja had not to groan as Aku followed them into the rock. Now, they were most certainly going to die.