The Serpent Abyss Forest, which was once a labyrinth of venom, rivalry, and living nightmares, had now become something else entirely.
It has turned into a kingdom that breathed in strings since the ascension of the Marionettist, and everything had changed.
Where rivers once gurgled with toxic currents, they now flowed with eerie calm, their surfaces threaded faintly with silver filaments, dancing like veins beneath the water.
Where beasts once roared from the shadows, now they crept, their wills shackled, and their instincts muted.
Where war cries once echoed between towering trees, there was only the synchronized cadence of puppeted steps.
The forest no longer felt alive, but it felt directed as if an invisible hand conducted every breeze, every movement, and every silence.
In the far reaches, tribes like Lamia, Naga, Viper, Serpent...once the sovereigns of their domains, now marched in perfect unison. Their eyes glowed faintly, robbed of flame and fury, guided by strings woven into their very souls.
All day long, they harvested, they uprooted, and they dug as they gathered everything of value, like venom pools, rare herbs, spiritual ores, even ancient bones of forgotten beasts, and treasures hidden for countless years that were once protected by those tribes and chaos.
Everything was piled into enormous mounds, sorted by eerie precision, and delivered to the heart of the forest by countless ’puppets’ of the forest.
On the other hand, at the Center of the Marionettist Kingdom, where the Lamia Queen’s palace once stood proud and wild, now an intricate nest of ethereal strings pulsed with living order.
What remained of the palace had been woven into something alien—a throne of coiling roots and puppeted vines, suspended by soul-threads that glimmered with unholy cadence.
Upon this throne sat the Lamia Queen, Autarch’s current vessel and also the controller of the entire forest, who had unified every tribe that once seemed impossible!
Her beauty was flawless, but her aura carried the chill of a being who no longer belonged to any race or realm.
Behind her, the evolved Marionettist Totem, an obsidian centipede of monumental scale, coiled around the tree pillars, its countless luminous legs flickering like celestial harp wires.
This totem was the very core of Autarch’s control over the entire forest, and as long as it exists, the whole forest is destined to be under Autarch control with no exception!
Before Autarch, two elite Lamias stood motionless, eyes hollow yet filled with shimmering, ethereal strings.
On the sides, the husks of the former tribal kings, the Giant Serpent Chief, the Viper Matriarch, the Naga Warlord, knelt as silent gatekeepers, their towering forms bent in reverence.
Hundreds of thousands of puppets busily moved crates, baskets, and floating sacks of resources into a vast, spiraling formation, like a ritualistic mandala crafted from the entire forest’s riches.
Autarch watched all this with eerie serenity, as if he weren’t simply collecting resources but arranging them, precisely and deliberately, with care. As if preparing a grand offering or a present.
With every passing second, the centipede totem behind him pulsed with anticipation, each vibration echoing with longing as if waiting for someone.
At that moment, Autarch’s fingers twitched faintly, once, twice...before resting upon the armrest of the throne.
A familiar whisper escaped her lips like a chant, too soft for ears, but the strings shimmered in response.
"He will come... soon. I know...he will come..."
At that moment, all of a sudden, the forest suddenly froze as every puppet halted mid-step, and the poisonous rivers rippled once before the air trembled.
Autarch’s head rose sharply, emerald eyes narrowing with a hint of unexpected surprise because he also sensed something, and those puppets were projecting his rapidly shifting thoughts.
’Someone is attacking?’
With a single thought, the centipede totem behind him curled inward as its countless legs quivered in a single, unified tremor, like ready to clash with whoever dared to infiltrate his domain.
Suddenly, a presence surfaced, and Autarch’s sharp killing intent halted because, from the depths of her soul, she felt an unfamiliar yet familiar presence that was far yet suddenly near, approaching like the collapse of a thousand distances at once.
A hint of bewilderment surfaced in Autarch’s usually emotionless eyes before she whispered, "...this!?"
But before the Lamia Queen finished speaking...
"FWOOM—!!"
It wasn’t the soul of space tearing nor the time folds, but instead, all laws simply parted, like curtains pulled aside by an unseen hand, and the next moment, a tall skeletal figure donning a black windbreaker.
At the same time, his head was covered behind a long hood with only his infernal flaming eyes visible. This skeletal figure didn’t teleport, nor did he seem to be summoned; he was revealed as if he had always been meant to stand there.
At this moment, his infernal eyes glimmered behind the hood, and his aura leaked a faint shiver of infinity, still fading from his previous ’wish’ for this person was none other than Jacob!
But before either could react, a pulse or strong connection surfaced, and Lamia Queen’s eyes widened.
At the same time, Jacob paused, looking at the graceful, half-humanoid, half-snake woman adorned in primal attire, who gave off an imposing aura of astonishment.
There wasn’t any need for Jacob nor Autarch to say any word because their connection, like a thread, thin, ancient, and absolute, snapped into existence between their souls, was enough to confirm their identities!
Furthermore, Jacob didn’t seem to be so shocked by appearing right in front of Autarch because his entire wish was ’I wish to teleport where Autarch is!’ and the power of the wish didn’t disappoint him either.
When Jacob realized that he needed to get out of that place before the inevitable fate of being captured or worse, getting killed by the clash of those two terrifying existences, he decided to make that wish count and decided to retrieve the missing Autarch!
Although he had paid 1.5 million years of his lifespan for this wish, he didn’t care in his current situation, for his life was more important. Nonetheless, he won’t forget this loss and pay his enemies back a hundredfold.
However, to his surprise, he wasn’t expecting to find Autarch in his current appearance while surrounded by those Legendary Kings and that centipede totem behind him, curled protectively around its vessel, and threads tensing like blades ready to strike.
Nevertheless, Jacob was glad that Autarch was fine and felt slightly emotional, as if seeing an old friend, which was rare and probably the result of what Jacob had experienced in that nightmarish future.
Nodding in greeting, Jacob whispered in recognition, "Autarch!"
Autarch wasn’t the one who showed excessive emotions as if it wasn’t in Autarch’s nature, yet still, he stood from the throne as the Lamia Queen’s coils shifted with quiet authority.
Without any hesitation, Autarch kneeled in front of Jacob and, with a hint of excitement in his emotionless voice, called, "Welcome, sir!"