Chapter 4
Original story and characters set in universe by Square Enix. No for-profit ownership is claimed over any of them.
The older man had accepted his fate the moment his younger aide had met his.
The only thing that mattered now was making sure his life's work was not lost in the process. Whoever or whatever killed his aide could kill him in any given moment - and judging by the green glow that seemed to emanate from the room, that moment was dangerously near.
Perhaps it was to his benefit that this was not the first time his life had been threatened, covertly or otherwise, over his work. He had already long since planned contingencies for as close as these threats would to fruition. These plans would keep his work secure until such a time that people he trusted could find it.
The old man came face to face with his death the moment he had felt enough of that plan had been executed. There was only one way out of this floor without tripping the emergency fire alarm, and the agent of his demise was blocking it.
The giant serpent in the doorway was at least three times as long as the man was tall. There was only one way out, around the snake, but he would have to react before the snake made its move.
The serpent, however, seized the initiative. Despite its bulk, it lunged almost invisibly at the older man, whose reflexive flinching only opened up more of his jugular to its unhinged jaw.
The snake's fangs clamped efficiently around the older man's neck, rendering him unable to make any noise that would have alerted anyone else to his position. He dropped to his knees, and slowly to the floor with the snake using its own bulk to ensure he collapsed quietly.
The snake then let go, letting the old man twitch and spasm and gurgle as the venom shut down his internal organs, his mind too consumed by pain to find coherent thought before slipping into the void.
It was as the old man finally stopped moving that the snake's master stepped into the doorway, as imposing a figure as the snake was.
Standing close to seven dohms tall, the dark, athletic figure was clad in little more than a headband around his silvery-white locks, a pair of green short pants and bracers around his hands and feet, all of which were a matching, faded shade of evergreen. He had a look on his face that was at once serious yet apathetic to the scene before him.
Arazlam Durai and his assistant now lay lifeless on the floor in different rooms, their bodies contorted in their deathly agony from the poison as if petrified.
The serpent, on the other hand, was excited to see its master.
He placed a hand on each of the two bodies, which then began to glow with a green flame of rot than incineration. Before long the two bodies were left with a mummified gaunt that contrasted with their clothes seemingly unaffected by the flame.
The snake tamer extended an arm outward, and the snake coiled itself around his body, firm enough to hang on without suffocating its master. It placed its head on the tamer's shoulder and let out a contented hiss, though the master showed no such joy now.
He stepped over the bodies and made his way to the desk, glancing over the compiled papers on the table. He picked them up, briefly reading through their contents before slipping them into the assistant's backpack. The notebook computer on the desk next to him remained closed, its standby LED blinking on and off as if it was frightened by him.
Having existed on this plane as long as he did, it served him sell to learn the intricacies of modern technology. He moved toward the computer, reaching out to grab it with a gloved arm before a voice stopped it in place.
"Mr. Durai? We are closing soon..." came the voice of the library's young librarian down the staircase to the fifth floor, followed by approaching steps.
Collateral damage was not needed on a night where a statement had to be made.
With a wave of his hand, the scenery around the snake tamer and his familiar changed to a small island in the middle of the marsh outside Orbonne. Despite being clothed so little, neither the assassin nor his pet seem disturbed at all by the cold.
They were, however, disturbed by the sound of a cellular phone ringing in the snake tamer's back pocket. The giant serpent snarled, but the tamer put up a hand, commanding it to be silent without speaking. The serpent was territorial like that, but it would comply with its master without hesitation.
"Jack?" came the caller's voice.
"Caught all the vermin. Big ones, too. Didn't leave a mess."
"What did the owners think?"
"They didn't lie. There were two of them, but they went quickly."
He had gotten used to talking in codes with his employers, after all it wasn't simply Saint Ajora watching over his every word these days.
"Excellent. The housekeepers will send your pay to the usual place. After that you can relax at home for a while."
The snake tamer was hesitant to reply, as the caller's concept of "home" was nothing short of dimensions different than his own.
"Is it almost done?" he then asked, looking for words to find.
"No...but you will know when the end is near. Saint Ajora be with you."
These were the words that ended every call from his employer, and he had yearned for the day when that end would be near at last. But he did well to put such thoughts out of his mind as he clenched his fist around the phone, incinerating it in the same green flame that consumed the bodies of his most recent victims.
He sat down on the muddy island, the giant snake slithering toward him before slinking around and over his shoulders as he looked up at the stars.
Chapter 4 End