Tears began to stream from her eyes. She tried to shake the child, to bring him back to himself. Around them, people deliberately looked away, stepping back as if distance could protect them.
The child's large black eyes were completely lost in the man's blue gaze.
A faint disturbance stirred within those blue eyes.
Then, suddenly, something began to emerge.
Something wet. Unnatural. Strange.
In an instant, two long, thin blue snakes slid out from the man's eyes and lunged toward the child.
The mother froze where she stood.
The crowd erupted into chaos.
As the blue snakes continued to advance toward the child's dark eyes, a sudden and powerful violet light burst forth.
The blue snakes vanished.
The child lay fallen on the ground. The mother sat beside him, collapsed, her senses lost.
A tall young woman stood there.
Around the circular ground, a violet glow shimmered. At the center of her forehead, a mark of the same violet hue shone brightly. With a calm, unmoving face, she spoke to the woman lying below her.
"Take this child away from here."
The woman, half-conscious, slowly came to her senses. Somehow, she managed to lift the child into her arms.
At that moment, the blue snakes tried once again to break through the violet glow.
The violet marked woman immediately raised her hands, forming strange signs, forcing the snakes back.
She then turned her gaze from the woman to the people standing nearby. Her eyes swept across the crowd. Raising her voice, she shouted,
"If any of you wish to stay alive, take this child and leave this place at once."
The glow of the mark on the girl's forehead grew even stronger. The blue snakes kept trying to push past the violet light, writhing as if they were in pain. The violet marked woman once again formed the strange signs with her hands, rapidly intensifying the glow. The snakes immediately pulled back.
The people standing nearby remained frozen. None of them reacted. For a brief moment, seeing the snakes retreat, a faint sense of relief appeared on their faces. But just then, within the violet mist, they began to see something dark.
Seeing this, the girl steadied herself. Inside the violet haze were scorpions—dark shapes slowly emerging. They began to surround the violet light.
At the sight of this, the girl's feet lifted slightly off the ground. She joined two fingers from both hands and began to rotate the intense violet light into a slow, controlled vortex. The scorpions were unable to move beneath the glow.
The young woman turned back once and spoke coldly to the people standing nearby,"These scorpions will move inside your bodies if you do not take this child away from here right now."
Hearing this, the people were deeply frightened. Two or three of them gathered their courage and rushed forward through the glow to lift the mother and child. They began carrying them away.
As soon as they started taking the child farther from the circle, loud sounds rose from around the violet ring. The scorpions seemed to cry out. They began merging into one another.
The girl stood still, focusing all her attention on the violet circle. The scorpions continued to combine, slowly taking the shape of a massive snake. Blue and violet light stretched far into the distance.