The world was silent.
The echo of the Fire Python's final roar still trembled in the air, fading like a dying storm. The once-blazing cavern now flickered dimly, its molten rivers slowing to sluggish trickles of dull red. The oppressive heat that had filled the chamber for centuries was gone, replaced by an eerie, heavy stillness.
The serpent's body — massive, magnificent, and terrible — lay coiled in death. The scales that once shimmered like living embers were now dull and cracked, their inner fire extinguished. Its golden eyes, wide and clouded, stared blankly toward the cavern ceiling. Smoke rose faintly from its wounds, where the Red Snow Python Spirit and White Fire Python Spirit had burned through flesh and bone with the force of yin and yang combined.
