Extra's POV: My Obsessive Villainous Fiancee Is The Game's Final Boss

The first thing Ren noticed when he woke up was the silence.

It wasn't that it was too quiet, or stifling. It still felt the same. But this time, it had a quality that made goosebumps appear on his arms.

As if someone had visited while they were asleep, and they hadn't even known.

He sat up slowly, looking around him. Lilith's eyes blinked open as she was woken up by his movement.

And that was when he noticed the vines.

His vines had somehow grown past just the hammocks. It had spread all over the walls where it anchored the hammocks over the water, and had reached every corner of the courtyard.

The green strands that had formed their resting spots now looked like wild growths that were trying to consume everything.

The vines had even bloomed with pale white, ghostly flowers that hadn't been there before.

"What the hell…" Elias muttered, sitting up. He ran a hand through his hair, eyes flicking across the vines.

Zuzu blinked blearily from her hammock. In an instant, her eyes widened and she was fully awake. "This… this wasn't here when we slept. Is it?"

Ren's eyes narrowed as he placed a hand on the vines. They were still under his control and when he touched them, his eyes narrowed as he realized something.

The vines weren't just blooming and growing. They were actually old. Dry around the edges, like they'd aged days.

"Either we've been asleep for a week," he said slowly, "or time works differently inside the Deep."

Lilith looked around the walls at the vines before her eyes drifted down to the water below.

"We've got company." She said quietly.

They all moved to the edges of their hammocks.

Beneath them, slithering through the water like threads of blood, were hundreds of thin red snakes.

They were fast, darting between the seaweed and bones. Some twisted around the remaining bone piles, others circled beneath the vines that had hung low toward the water.

"Are they… watching us?" Thorn whispered.

"I think they're waiting." Elias answered, his eyes narrowed as he studied the snakes. "Waiting for us to come down."

Zuzu paled. "They're everywhere."

They all looked around to discover that she was right. The snakes were in every part of the water, and were even flowing in and out of the courtyard.

Ren crouched down, studying them. "They're fast. Too fast to fight in the water. If we enter, most of us will be torn apart."

"So what do we do?" Thorn asked.

Lilith answered, her eyes taking on a slight glow. "We don't touch the water."

She stretched her hand and created a platform of soul energy, letting it bloom in mid air into a wide, circular base. The translucent blue barrier glowed faintly as it hovered, and one by one, they climbed onto it.

"Hold tight." She muttered.

The platform hovered up and drifted forward, just a few feet above the snake-infested water.

Below them, the snakes reacted immediately, twisting into a frenzy, slapping the water as they chased the motion.

"So, where do we go?" They turned to Ren.

"Any corridor without wave patterned moss." Ren answered. "At least, we now know what to avoid."

The platform glided toward one of the openings, and Zuzu pointed.

"There! No wave patterns in the moss! That means sea water shouldn't pass here. It should be safe."

Lilith guided them through, and the stone doors groaned shut behind them, sealing the courtyard away. Whatever they encountered going forward, there was no retreat.

Below them, the snakes still swam in droves, forming eddies of blood beneath the surface.

"Zuzu," Ren called, "is there any way for you to check the flow of water?"

Zuzu looked at the water. Then at the snakes. She shook her head. "Not without going down. I can't sense anything from up here. Even if I summon the water up here, it won't work. I need to be touching the flowing current directly."

Elias cursed under his breath. "We're blind, then."

"Not blind. Yet." Ren corrected. "Just flying with our eyes closed."

"Totally comforting." Thorn muttered.

Suddenly, one of the snakes shot out of the water, launching itself like a spear. It missed the platform by inches, splashing back down.

Another followed.

Then three more.

"Hang on!" Lilith said, before raising the platform higher. They lifted ten feet, then twenty.

The snakes below went wild.

The red shapes twisted, tangling into a spiral. Then, impossibly, they began to merge.

The bodies joined together like melted wax. Dozens of snakes twisting, overlapping, fusing until one massive body rose out of the chaos.

A giant snake, ten times the size of the others, reared its head from the water and let out a rumbling hiss. Its skin shimmered like molten glass. Its eyes glowed gold and its slit pupils locked on them.

"What in the actual—" Thorn started.

"Don't finish that thought!" Ren snapped.

The giant snake lunged.

Lilith formed a bow of soul energy, drawing an arrow with a crackle of blue. She fired.

The first arrow hit its side and vanished into the snake's bulk.

It reared back, unharmed.

"Again!" Elias shouted.

She drew another. And another. The third arrow struck its eye. It screamed, thrashing in pain, water erupting around it.

"That's it! Keep aiming for the eyes!" Ren called.

Zuzu knelt, forming spheres of compressed water, flinging them at the beast. One struck its open mouth, forcing it back.

Lilith growled as she conjured another arrow. Soul energy burned in her hand, buzzing unstably as it sensed her emotional turmoil. She ignored it, drew it back and fired.

The arrow sliced through the air like a falling star, and struck the giant snake in the jaw, tearing through the connective tissue and embedding in the base of its skull.

The snake spasmed.

Then, with a drawn out hiss, it collapsed into the water, breaking into a hundred smaller red threads.

The smaller snakes scattered, and in a second, there were no snakes in the corridor.

"Quick, Zuzu." Ren snapped into action. "Check the current leading to the heart."

Lilith lowered the platform and Zuzu dipped her hand in the water.

"Please, tell me that was the only one." Thorn groaned, clutching his stump.

"It definitely wasn't." Ren replied.

"I've got it!" Zuzu came up excitedly. "I've got the current!"

"Finally!"