Chapter 73: Puppet Dance

As Rocky entered the ancestral chambers of the snake-men clan, he felt a weird sense of Deja-Vu; his surroundings looked and felt the same as the one where he met Shakuni in his vision, as he could almost imagine seeing him before his eyes here, as if that moment was about to recreate itself.

There were nothing but white objects within the space, as the floor beneath his feet was white, the walls in the distance were white and even the sky above was pure white.

His colorful university robes that he walked into the chamber with, slowly lost color before his very eyes, turning pure white without a spec of color on them.

"Welcome champion of Gemini-" a gentle voice said as Rocky looked around but did not find out where the sound came from in this white space.

"Woah-"

Rocky said, startled as a beautiful snake-woman suddenly appeared before him out of nowhere.

"Hello, I'm Nubi, the guide" said the snake-woman as she wiggled her tongue infront of Rocky rather cutely.

"Hello. I'm Rocky" said Rocky, as Nubi began smelling Rocky's scent like a pet beast.

Although Rocky felt uncomfortable by her behaviour he endured the intimate sniffing session for as long as he could, however, when she began sniffing his privates, Rocky felt too flushed to let her continue as he took a step back.

"Alright, that's enough sniffing" Rocky said, as Nubi smiled and tilted her head from side to side.

"It smells like Sir Rocky doesn't use his esteemed sword that often, has it ever felt the warmth of a womb?" Nubi inquired rather shamelessly as Rocky was left red faced.

This was not the kind of conversation he had expected to engage in at all when entering the chamber as Nubi's behaviour gave him a weird ick.

" Ahem, I'd rather not talk about it-" Rocky said, avoiding the topic as he tried his best to calm down his fast beating heart.

"Umm, so how to begin?"

Rocky inquired curiously as he was eager to begin, however Nubi did not reply to his question at all as she kept tilting her head from side to side.

Rocky had no idea what condition was Riva in at the moment and whether it was already too late to save her or not?

It was a question that haunted his heart and mind, a question that often kept him up at night.

By the time Rocky snapped out of his stupor, Riva disappeared from before him as when Rocky turned he realized that even Nubi was no longer behind him.

"Riva? Nubi?" Rocky called out, but no-one replied, as instead of those two Rocky saw a human man and a small boy walking towards him with smiles on their faces.

"Look, son, it's the champion of Gemini, the light of humanity!" The father said to the son, as the little boy looked at Rocky with literal stars in his eyes.

"Father, father, will I ever become like Sir Rocky? Will I ever become as strong as him?" The son asked the father as the man laughed at the question.

"As strong as him? My son, the power of the champion of Gemini isn't his own, it's borrowed from the divine.

If Gemini smiles on you, even you can become as strong as Rocky, No.... You can become even better.

It is not him who is special, it's only the divine that sees over him that makes him special" The father said as the son's gaze turned from that of reverence to that of condescension when he looked towards Rocky.

"Oh, so he's just a puppet-" The son said, as the father and son duo began laughing, pointing towards Rocky for being a puppet.

"Hey, hey, hey, who are you calling a puppet? I'm a man of my own-" Rocky said as he tried to point towards the small kid, however, realized that he could not move his arm at all.

Strings were suddenly attached all over his body as against his will Rocky began dancing to the pull off those strings as he performed a clown dance for the father-son duo to enjoy.

"What's going on here? Just who is controlling me?" Rocky said out loud, however, received no reply.

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/// A/N - Mass Release Chapter 3 of 8 //