A Serpent's Tale
Chapter 332: Consequences

Chapter 332: Consequences

By the time I got back to the orphanage, the sun had almost completely set, so I wasn’t expecting many people to be awake at this hour.

And I was right, there weren’t many people up. At least not in the dining hall anyways, mostly just those who had come back late like me, or were staying here to hang out and chat with friends.

I didn’t really feel like eating much after today’s ventures, so I just had half a large plate of meat and stuff. I finished it up fairly quickly and went to have a quick wash before going to bed.

Within another half an hour, I was back in my room and in my bed and under the covers.

...

...

...

The next morning I woke up in my bed feeling tired despite having sex yesterday, which should have kept my enrgy high.

But waking up now, I just feel tired for some reason, and have no idea as to why.

Opening up my eyes, I saw a dim grey fog.

And that was it. No hint of any other colour visible. There wasn’t even a sign of my bed.

Wait... What?

Where’s my bed? Why am I not in it? And where the hell am I anyways?

Is this fog the reason I’m tired? Is it even fog? What exactly is going on here?

"Ah, you’re awake at last."

A voice suddenly rang out. It didn’t sound like a man or a woman, which was odd. Why would it not sound like either? Plus, it sounded scrambled? Distorted even. And it also sounded like it was coming from far away, but at the same time, like it was next to me as well.

I tried to get up, but I could barely even muster up the energy to move my arms. In fact, just keeping my eyes open was becoming too much the longer I kept them open.

"Ughh..." I could barely make any sound either.

The voice spoke once more, "You, detestable serpentine, have been found guilty of heresy by not only going against a high ranking noble, but killing their close relative, and also suppressing them with your power that is of sinister nature, used in a malicious way."

"For your crimes, you shall be punished by having your power stripped away from you and being publicly denounced by the church of our Goddess, Astraa, forever condemned to live a life of misery and misfortune."

"Never again will you be allowed entry into any city within the Serpentine Empire. Never again will you know peace, nor kinship. You will be eternally branded as a traitorous wretch that earns the ire of all."

Several more voices spoke out about my supposed fate. I don’t even know if there are multiple people here accusing me of all this shit, but it just feels like there are.

As for what I’ve been accused of? Complete bullshit in my opinion. I bet the Duchess has used her high standing to force whatever these people and their organisation is to falsely punish me.

"Activate the draining ritual!"

’Oh fuck, they’re going to take away my power! Can they even do that? Fuck, it’s so hard to think in this stupid fog.’

As I struggled to stay conscious and think, I saw a red light appear beneath me, on a floor that I had just now noticed was made out of some sort of blocky gray stone.

And this light felt extremely menacing, and unlike the light that came from that banishment ritual I performed on that demon, which was also sinister in nature, this felt more just purely menacing in nature.

As the brightness of the ritual circle became more intense, I heard several of those weird and distorted voices chanting something, obviously to do with the ritual itself.

Couldn’t make out what they were saying though, but I felt like I understood what they were saying at the same time.

It didn’t make any sense, why do I feel like I know what they’re saying when I’ve never even heard this language before. Yet at the same time, I still have no idea what they’re saying.

Knowing what they were saying probably wouldn’t make a difference though, as I don’t know how to fight against any of this.

I mean, they kidnapped me in my sleep and have made me incapable of doing anything physically also.

All I could do was struggle to keep my eyes open to see what would happen next.

I did try to harness my power, my magic, even my Bloodline, but nothing worked. This suppressive fog seems to prevent me from doing anything and everything it seems.

’So hard... To keep... Eyes open... Can’t... Focus...’

The longer this dragged out, the harder it got for me to stay awake, and the more tired I became. Whether that was due to this ritual draining my energy or not, I had no idea.

All it meant was that I was powerless to do anything against them. The only thing I could do now, was lie here on the floor and wait for them to finish this up.

’Goddess I seriously want to fucking kill these people for this... They didn’t even ask me for my side of the story... Fucking bastards...’

Their chanting picked up in pace, and I assumed that it meant that they were almost done completing the ritual.

Another indicator of this was the fact that I could feel something fairly small in size but not length start to crawl all over my body like some kind of rope.

It wrapped around my wrists, forearms, my tail multiple times and several more all over my body and head.

’Fuck... This isn’t right... It’s unfair! They shouldn’t... They can’t do this to me! I... I...’

’...’

’I want to kill them!’

As my anger rose, my physical abilities continued to weaken. And I’m not sure if it’s was making me more emotional and aggressive or if it was just this whole situation, but I was angry regardless.

My eyes could barely stay open at this point, and all I could do was wait for this to be over with.

Thankfully, it seemed that their chanting would be coming to an end soon as their voices reached a crescendo with how loud they were now, basically just shouting everything out.

Makes me kind of glad that my senses have been deprived slightly because of this fog, because now it means I can’t hear them as well as I normally would.

All that aside, they finally finished up with their ritual.

"With this! We finalise the Ritual of Draining! And offer up this wretched morsels power unto our Goddess!"

...

That last sentence made me snap out of my tired state because I knew that bad things were about to happen.

’Uh oh...’

"Astraa! Accept this humble offering of power!"