Epona, desperate, tried to kick the serpent again, but with her manna nearly drained, Jormungandr struck her with a brutal head-butt, slamming her into the ground and carving out a massive crater.

  “My legs… I can’t feel my legs!” Epona screamed in terror when she realized they were broken—and her body wasn’t regenerating.

  Her ichor was almost gone.

  Shaking violently, Epona stared up as the serpent’s dripping jaws loomed over her.

  Jormungandr lunged with its venom-soaked fangs wide—ready to bite her in half.

  But before it could, Rodrigo threw himself in front of her, using his own body as a shield.

  A colossal fang pierced him clean through—from abdomen to back.

  At that same moment, Ana and Tania arrived.

  “No, Rodrigo! NO!” Tania howled in horror.

  “RUI!” Ana screamed, flying toward him—

  But the serpent unleashed a thick cloud of toxic gas, forcing Ana to retreat.

  Rodrigo had already absorbed a lethal amount of venom—not only inhaled, but injected directly into his bloodstream by the serpent’s fang.

  A human would die instantly.

  Even a god would struggle to survive.

  Ana began crying and shouting:

  “Rui! RUI!”

  Driven by panic, she tried to charge headlong into the poisonous cloud.

  At that instant, Athena appeared and grabbed her arm.

  “I won’t let you throw your life away on a whim, Ana,” the Greek goddess said.

  “Let me go, Master Athena! LET ME GO, DAMMIT!” Ana screamed, eyes bloodshot with rage as she glared at her former master.

  “If you don’t let me go… I’ll kill you!”

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  But Athena held her firmly.

  Then—as the gas began to dissipate—the sight before them froze everyone cold.

  Rodrigo was holding Jormungandr’s head in his arms, and with a monstrous scream, he lifted the colossal serpent and smashed its skull into the ground, shattering the fang that had impaled him.

  Roaring in agony, he ripped the broken fang out of his own body.

  “How the hell is he still alive?!” Loki yelled.

  Tania stood motionless—horrified—as she remembered that same feral look Rodrigo once had during their training.

  But now… it was worse.

  Rodrigo’s green eyes had become serpentine slits.

  His skin had gone pale, his posture twisted and animalistic.

  He was no longer conscious—

  He was absorbing the venom, not dying from it.

  “I don’t blame you,” Athena said calmly.

  “And it’s normal you never sensed his true nature—you had never faced a tannin before.”

  “Your companion is a serpent-being…

  And not just any serpent-being—

  a serpent-being who can wield divine power like a Venus.”

  “This kind of anomaly… I haven’t seen anything like it in centuries,” the goddess added, smiling with manic excitement.

  “And he will belong to me.”

  “No—we can’t let Rodrigo live. We’ll have to kill him!” Tania shouted, fear thick in her voice.

  Ana couldn’t speak. Her mind was collapsing.

  She had trained him, protected him, believed in him—

  But now the boy turned out to be a monster… one that might need to die.

  She felt sick.

  Epona shook her head violently, tears streaming.

  “He saved me… he saved me more than once! I won’t let you kill him!”

  Tania bit her lip as Rodrigo’s grotesque transformation deepened—his body twitching, hunched, drinking in the venom like nourishment—while Jormungandr slowly rose again.

  The fire goddess summoned her burning claw, ready to strike Rodrigo down.

  But Athena moved.

  Her spear touched Tania’s throat.

  “I won’t let any of you kill him,” Athena said coldly.

  “If you try it…

  I’ll kill you right here.”

  She stared Tania down, unblinking.