It dragged behind her, long after she had continued on her way. It intersected interstate highways and suburban neighborhoods indiscriminately, breaking the landscape with a fissure where wayside crowds gathered. They existed in the aftermath of a passing giant, but her presence was still upon them, lingering behind and continuing to grind civilization beneath her underbelly. It was a train, but ten times as thick and many times longer, armored with blue scales that decorated the backside with a mesmerizing pattern of yellow-framed diamonds. Blind to the bystanders that watched it, the tail passed by in a swirl of a dance, saying its farewell to the damaged population and the plots of debris, all the people and property her winding strides damaged without her noticing.
Grrrn… Chrrrrn… The driving, earthy sound persisted endlessly behind Cera, the noise of her snake-tailed body traveling across the little lands of humanity. None of their world mattered to her when she was in such a good mood, pleased to find herself in a playground of possibilities. She was superior to them all, a giant-sized lamia, scaled in a blue-gray color and pointed with yellow spines on her shoulders. Not merely a beast, she deliberately dressed lightly with cloth bracers and a scarf, a fashion sense that boasted her fit physique. Those that escaped Cera’s deadly approach would see the sun be eclipsed by her height, and the off-center horn at that peak; her head was held high four-hundred feet above ground, while her tail unraveled more than a thousand feet long itself, propelling her massiveness forward in s-shaped strokes – not towards any prudent objective, but to wherever she thought fun could be had.
The highway she barreled through was lined with interests that caught the sharpness of her acid-yellow eyes, including blocks of homes and plazas of businesses. Her curiosity was unfettered as her tan underbelly powered through overpasses and ramps, breaking through the structures like they were sand, and intentionally throwing her hips into billboards and signal towers when she willed it. Blitz of traffic raced away from the encroaching wall that was Cera’s slithering figure, forcing drivers to either steer off-road or risk being pressed flat. As humanity responded to Cera’s movements, more and more of the road became barren with abandoned cars – except for one metropolitan bus, a vehicle too wide, too slow, and too full for her to overlook.
“So easy,” Cera hissed to herself. Indeed, there was no challenge at all; hurried as the bus was to get away, it had to slow to swerve around the driverless cars, funneled into a suspension bridge with no option to exit. At any moment, she could swipe it and its load of passengers into her claw, but she savored the call of the hunt. She licked her fanged smile, wanting them to have the hope that the bridge would save them, that Cera would be stopped by the river and unable to follow. Her fist clenched in anticipation; They’ll be so surprised…
The bus driver was entirely geared on the way forward, dripping with sweat while the full load of passengers rioted behind him. Faces plastered against the back window frantically called out the lamia’s maneuvers, but their voices dropped when the bus crossed onto the bridge. The monster paused at the gate, her bulldozing finally subsiding; she stopped with one claw on a main cable, a threatening amount of weight applied as she hung low with a peering gaze. She watched them like they watched her, a back-and-forth study of the other, until she took her grin and leaned aside, twisting out of sight…
Silence overtook the bus, except for the speedening hum of the bus’s engine. The driver stammered with uncertainty, flicking glances to his rear-view mirrors while dodging traffic both active and inactive – a mix of drivers congested into a jam exiting out of the bridge as so many fled from the lamia’s whereabouts. A constant quaking afflicted the bridge, an intensity that grew worrisomely intense as the bus neared the end; the beast lurked beneath them, climbing the underside of the bridge for an inevitable ambush. She revealed herself on the opposite side, clawing cables and chords like footholds of a jungle-gym as she looped around the structure. Her tail’s thickness crunched on everything it wrapped around, bending the sides of the bridge inwards and causing cars to tip and spill over. The monster was then directly above the bus, moving past but with the patience to enjoy her angle, hovering above the blockade of vehicles like the prey they were to her.
Cera flashed her eyes and fangs, savoring that instinctive itch to dive down and snatch her target. Her senses flared – she could detect so many trembling hearts that she salivated, barely restraining herself to perform one more loop around the bridge. It was simply fun, evident by how she giggled when she swung beneath the bridge and weaved around its foundation. In the river below, a cruising boat and its passengers were startled by her appearance, spurred into screams when she smiled toothily at them – but Cera continued around, leaving the little boat with the captivating pattern of her tail as it trailed behind her.
A horn rose from off the bridge, and then half of an expression – bloodlust eyes, accented by long ears that twitched with intrigue. Unable to wait any longer, Cera jumped in front of the exit and body-slammed the intersection it led to. Her hugeness crashed like a tsunami of scaled flesh, instantly demolishing a slide of cars, pavement, and people. A terrible tremor bounced everything else, an unfortunate building collapsing under a fissured foundation – consequences outside of Cera’s attention, collateral damage as she hunted that one bus. She watched it veer and almost tip over as the driver responded to the madness; she let it make a sharp turn, a final effort to evade her, before grasping her prize instantly between three fingers.
Everyone inside the public transport was rattled and tossed as they were lifted off the ground. Desperate escapes were attempted through emergency exits, but too many were flung and bashed against the seats, subdued by just one curious shake. Cera giddily tore open the front of the bus, shredding the metal like it was paper packaging; appropriately did she see the contents inside as dots of candy waiting to reward her for a successful hunt. With little of a wait did she then tilt her head back and spill the passengers into her mouth, her serpentine tongue unrolling like a sticky net. She closed her eyes in bliss, uncaring if a few bounced off her lips or missed her maw entirely, so long as she felt her cheeks be filled enough with squirming delights. After half of the bus was downed, Cera closed her mouth and massaged the mob into her throat, ensuring their flavor was appreciated well enough before finishing the rest. She glanced inside once more, just one eye open to cast a hint of pity, before flooding the inside with her tongue – it could have been a monster on its own, slithering swiftly down the aisle and claiming the stragglers sunk at the back, reeling them into the behemoth it belonged to.
Cera’s satisfaction was obvious. Swallowing the last of the passengers – those that fell into her mouth, at least – brought a surge of empowerment, signaled by her fist clenching the bus into scrap, no differently than a finished soda can and littered aside just as casually. Tickled by the final slip of a person down her throat, her tail acted similarly, suddenly flexing inward and crunching the bridge it was wrapped around. The pavement erupted as the lengthy tail tightened, tearing down the support cables, uprooting the anchors, and splashing the traffic down into the river. Cera rose from where she lounged, extending her arms and arching her back in a relaxing stretch while dozens behind her suffered as a result.
“... So, what’s around here? Looks cool.” Cera rebounded from the chaos unflinchingly. After swirling her tail onto dry land, she pushed herself into the city – a metropolis that spanned the entirety of the island, compact with buildings, railways, and the cries of hundreds horrified by what had arrived. Her body orchestrated a pronounced panic wherever it went, but the drag of her tail conducted the crowds afterwards, continuously crumbling the streets that its plumpness filled from wall to wall.
Surrounded by so many waist-high buildings, Cera sunk her upper body low to the rooftops, creeping forward like a reptile sneaking through foliage. It was as stealthy as a giant lamia could be, her breath held while she spied through windows and observed the evacuations below. She loved to make their lives worse; she heartlessly picked individuals from the crowds, singling them out to be crushed by a finger, and she clawed against the walls of buildings, just to watch the people inside pour out. The sprawl of seemingly endless victims riled her appetite, but playing with their little lives was its own precious delight – and with so many to spare, fulfilling her hunger was already guaranteed.
The ping to next give her direction was a sharp buzzer, a sound distinct above the uproarious crowds, different from the emergency sirens. Annoying, Cera described it, puzzled to first find the source, but was then eager upon locating it. At the other end of the district was a notably-sized structure: a sports stadium, a roofless circle that was host to a competitive event – until news broke that a snake-woman was attacking the city. From afar, Cera could taste the fear and uncertainty that brewed, like a cauldron of flavor that called out to her. Her hugeness darted in its direction, even cutting above a lowrise that was then squashed by her traveling underbelly just to close the distance sooner.
Making a game of their terror, Cera crawled flat on the ground, sneaking as best as a lamia her size could up to the stadium’s outer wall. Her long shape bore through a lake of parked cars as she circled halfway around the building, keenly listening to the drum of heartbeats before deciding to leap up and expose herself. Her appearance called upon the tens of thousands that were densely gathered to shriek in harmony; louder than they ever were for the game playing out below, outright cacophony took over, surpassing the volume of alarms blasted by loud speakers.
Yet Cera felt welcomed by the response, resting her arms long around the rim of the stadium, a husky chuckle exhaled as she chose how to act. Waves of people cascaded away from where she appeared, tripping down bleachers in a hurried evacuation, even if it meant spilling into the field of play. Deciding it best to stop too many from escaping, Cera entered the stadium, slinking over the wall and into a corner of elevated seats – that level soon cracked under her weight, collapsing into the seats below and allowing her body entry. She slithered inward excitedly, careless of how her reptilian hips careened into a scoreboard and knocked it down onto evacuees; far more victims were made against her body as she seeped into the playing field, smashing through any possible obstacle until she was posed at the literal center of attention.
Her superiority shined down on the scattered people, her body boasted with hands on her hips and a smug smile. Cera was fit and gigantic, and thus felt justified to do what she willed, happy to express that sheer strength she was blessed with. With plenty of toys to spare, she greedily grabbed a group near to her tail, a cluster among the many colorfully-clothed stadium-goers. They writhed and fought in the clutches of one hand, a grip that balled them cruelly together, allowing only loose limbs to flail between her fingers. Next, she selected an audience – a commentary box and VIP room proved perfect for her needs, still occupied with high-class guests that deserved a show. She gave them a scene to digest: the fistful of people were lifted to the viewing deck, and then– clunsh! An unforgiving squeeze, a tightness that strangled human bodies into a lump of agony. For too many seconds, the life in her fist was strained and crushed, a generous crimson gushing between her digits – and behind the gorey mess and rock-like grip was a demented smile, sharpened by the traumatized faces of those trapped in front of her.
The despair behind the glass stoked Cera’s appetite; high-class VIP guests wrestling over one another to make it to an exit, forgoing their dignity in a rush to escape. While the one claw dripped with sinew, the other was brought to the window, a single digit used to push on the glass until it cracked apart completely. Like having undone a lid, Cera had free access to the contents within, having exposed the dozen guests to her hunger. Her mouth approached the shattered window, filling the chamber with the humidity of her breath – a prelude to the tongue’s debut, which darted from her mouth like a snake in its own right, being a behemoth that could not be countered. It barreled past the furnishings of the platform to begin from one corner and slide to the opposite, cleanly amounting everything and everyone into the cling of saliva. Attempts to wiggle and break free only tickled Cera, adding that unique flavor that always delighted her senses as a predator; reeling the lot into her mouth, she swirled it all together like a vortex, touching at her throat as bit by bit was swallowed at a time.
Once her treats had been devoured, Cera sighed pleasantly and leaned her weight on top of the VIP box, satisfied by how it crunched and shuddered beneath her. She took a breath to relax, but even as she did, disorder continued around her. She was savvy in how she had her tail coil into the stadium, tactically covering the numerous exit gates so that those pooled into the playing field were without options. Few dared to engage with the wall of teal-colored scales, many more caught entranced by the pattern while their hearts sank from hopelessness; those that tried to circumvent the living mass found themselves outmatched by its width and weight, too slick to climb atop and too heavy to crawl under.
The crowd teetered anxiously into a cluster with nowhere to go or hide, but that closeness ended when Cera’s acidic glare turned to them over her shoulder. They spread apart from one another, only friends and loved-ones held together like attachments as it became a free-for-all under the lamia’s gaze. She granted them the time to frenzy about, using the opportunity to analyze her playthings and determine their value as much. Locked in the field with her were both teams of athletes, opposingly-colored dots that were intermixed with the white uniforms of game officials and stray splashes of sports fans. Altogether, they appeared as a variety platter for Cera’s enjoyment, her thoughts bouncing with tormenting ideas while her tongue finished the last of the VIPs.
“They must think they’re so strong~” Cera snickered, taunting the athletes that scurried as helplessly as anyone else. Her remarks were for herself only, so smug that she did not waste the effort to speak to such little lives. She lurched forward slowly, empowered as she boasted the refined qualities of her mightier body. “Time for a reality check, losers.”
A trio of teammates was tested by the point of a single claw, imposed upon them with only a casual amount of power behind it, yet it drove into the three like a truck. They fought against it with their collective strength, believing they were able to hold the digit at bay, but it was all according to Cera’s amusement that she allowed them to struggle – for just those few seconds. The moment she willed it, the contest was over– cr-runch! A minor adjustment in angle and force, and Cera’s palm was planted upon them, flattening the players into puddles of gore that all bore witness to. The glimpse and chill of blood riled Cera into a snotty laugh, kicked into a violent craving that was instantly acted upon as she smashed her fist into the thick of a crowd, a crater made where there was once spirited life.
Cera danced with deadly designs, dexterously swirling above her captives and deciding on their demises. It was too easy to pick out a target and end their life, using a single claw to stab where they stood; so simple that it bored her to rely on it. Pursuing more fun reactions, she would grab at victims and lift them high into the air – especially families that tethered together for support, binding themselves to a shared fate. After watching the rope of people sway and struggle before her eyes, she chose to release them all at once, letting them plummet and break against the turf. The dull thump of their bodies earned a laugh from Cera as she transitioned to other stragglers, a collection that was rapidly shrinking to a mere handful of players and fans.
Appropriately, the lamia gathered that remaining number into her possession, scooping them into her palms like mounds of sand. Less than thirty people were piled on top of one another, shrieking and kicking at one another within the web of confusion. They soon discovered they were raised too high for a safe jump down, yet so many still risked getting to the edges of Cera’s hands, instinctively driven to flee despite having no course – already caught and obtained, they could only await their fates, tortured to comprehend the lamia’s looming expression. For some time, she was entertained by merely holding them level with her chest, observing their paranoia and distress while she lounged across a stretch of bleachers.
She chose one woman to single out, a tiny sportscaster crawling pathetically up a finger and directly away from her stare; that fear was exactly why she lurked closer onto the woman, imposing upon her the size of her yellow eyes and the heat of her breath. The sportscaster screamed and dashed to the very limit of Cera’s fingers, as far as balancing herself on the nail, yet the scaly face crept closer. Unblinkingly, Cera pushed her nose into the woman, completely smothering her in just that tip and bullying her onto it. When she lifted her head away, the newscaster was stuck there, squealing as her entirety was being made into a game. If nothing else, she served her purpose, sparking a haughty laugh from Cera as she balanced the squirming character on her nose.
Like all games she played, Cera finished on her own terms, and her reptilian tongue made short work of licking the little lady away. The newscaster was blindsided by the pink tendril, her perspective captivated by the huge pools of yellow eyes that stared possessively into her – only a cut of her scream was heard before the thin tongue cleanly removed her from the nose. She was swallowed as part of a hissy giggle, as the lamia amused herself with a remark, “I wouldn’t have to eat so many if they weren’t so small~”
The remaining captives cupped in her hand were stewed in their emotions, then boiling over when Cera’s attention darkened on them again. They were grapes in her clutches, waiting to be plucked off from the bunch and eaten – if they would even be treated with that much respect. On the contrary, Cera ate directly from her hands, lifting the palms close to her mouth so that her tongue could collect. The slickness of her saliva caught an amount effortlessly, dragging them into the depths of her mouth where they could be swallowed like crumbs. In that flick of appetite, nearly half of her handfuls were devoured.
Cera washed the few in her mouth, thrashing them from cheek to cheek. After swallowing, she realized that some humans were more flavorful than others, more worthwhile to be savored. She concluded by her predator’s sense of smell that the athletes were the highlights; pumped up with adrenaline and competitive spirit, they were perfectly ripened for her tastes, and their refined physiques made them especially fun to overpower in the realm of her mouth. She enjoyed an individual player with visible delight, spelling suspense for the rest of her color-coordinated snacks. The remaining amount was compiled into just one hand as Cera decided then to continue elsewhere. Pooled together with minimum concern, an unfortunate few found themselves spilled out of her hand completely, the rest lumped into a writhing pile. The takeaway collection was carried in front of her abs, a tall and indomitable wall of musculature that served as a humiliating reminder of how outclassed the athletes were in her grasp, waiting to become nutrients for that exact physique.
As explosive as her entrance, Cera straightforwardly exited the stadium through the bleachers and over the bannered wall, at least until stacks of levels broke under the weight of her snake body. She was met outside with a parking lot alive with hysteria, vehicles and pedestrians clashing in their efforts to run away from her bustout appearance; she slithered deliberately through the traffic jams, tickled to feel the metal of cars melt in her path, and eager to find somewhere new to play. While meandering her way back into a knot of streets, Cera casually tossed an athlete into the air and caught it with a snap of her jaw – a spark of play to tide her bloodlust for the meantime.
The highways were electrified by Cera’s tremor-inducing presence as she quickly traversed into a different district – not due to any rush, but by her size alone speeding her steadily through the passage-like streets. She was a demanding spectacle wherever she appeared, and would persist as much in any given location as her tail dragged long, long behind her. It followed in the wake of every corner she turned, overtaking the bustling roads with the scaled plushness of her extended body, constantly writhing with life and movement. The hide was unbending to anything but Cera’s whims; when a passenger train came jetting along tracks that she intersected, it could only crash nose-first into the teal-colored barrier, a deadly blaze easily shrugged aside by the lamia. The very tip of her tail was curious in its own way, blindly wrapping around objects of interest as it passed places Cera had visited – an insulting farewell to all the tragedies left behind.
No terrain obstructed her hugeness; Cera barreled through bridges and weaved beneath the highest overpasses, often enthused by the traffic she stopped, but at one point, critically annoyed. A freight truck announced itself with a heavy-sounding horn, a spit of anger from a driver whose highway was blitzed through by the lamia. A nerve was struck, and Cera delivered a whiplash rebuttal: she claimed the head of the truck in her grasp, then brutally squeezed her grip tight. The horn was gutted, then whistled into a muffled death, the entire front-half of the vehicle having been crunched like a can oozing with oil. Cera’s long ears flicked, visibly irritated by the noise; the remaining handful of the sports teams were sacrificed to soothe her over, all shoved into her mouth to serve as a distraction.
“Gah… Too busy over here,” Cera said, another remark meant only for herself, yet nonetheless alarmed the citizens swarming around her. As she had admitted, the industrial area with its winding roads and factory locations was abuzz with mechanical activity and sounds. A block of offending buildings thus warranted a dismissal, and so Cera spun her tail through their bases, sentencing them to collapse and spread rubble across its scaly length. She crossed her arms and huffed, her mood no better after the destructive impulse. “Is the whole nest this filthy? Ugh. I need to be somewhere cleaner…”
The chaos drummed on as Cera slithered into another area to explore, appealed to by the shine and polish of upper-class urban developments. Broadcasts and news outlets were fast to report of her direction taking a turn towards that of the inner-city residential district, the hub of wealthy living within the metropolis. The aristocrats and other elites of society were alarmed of her arrival, but as helpless as any other citizen; attached to their luxuries, many proved slow to forfeit their lifestyles and flee their condominiums, and were thus trapped in the lamia’s playground. The modern designs of their various homes particularly intrigued Cera, though they were appreciated only as she muscled herself through a narrow path between them; the fat of her snake body fully flooded the roads and slowed her movement, but the tall towers and outdoor terraces inspired a better means to get around.
Her claws dug into separate rooftops, two buildings across from one another that became unstable supports for an incredible amount of weight. Cera huffed and lifted her upper body off the street, her tail tucking under her to help bolster her jump – an ordinary feat for her, but an astonishing moment for the tiny people around her, baffled at how a monster so huge could also be so acrobatic. The rooftops buckled under her grasp, her claws tearing into the upper stories and disrupting the homes inside, but once balanced, Cera rotated her weight so that she was centered atop one of the apartment buildings. Her tail followed behind her as she then crawled from one set of roofs to the next; her body bridged across a wide street, terrifying the unsuspecting traffic below as her long form slithered overhead.
It was as though the lamia had taken flight just above the cityscape peaks, but there was no feathery softness to Cera’s traversal, always announcing her presence with the hard groaning of the buildings beneath her. Luxury lifestyles were interrupted by her arrival, the designs of rooftop amenities cleared away and crumbled so that her body had a flat surface to slide across. A field of tennis courts became one such disaster zone, the players evacuating from the green top that drew Cera’s attention before she was suddenly upon them; she then swung to the next building, crashing into a rooftop pool that flooded down a complex’s walls. The residents of such places took shelter inside, but they dared into shaking hallways, the ceiling above always teetering to collapse as long as her tail dragged on.
Cera enjoyed their horrified cries and flighty reactions, but when she coiled around a tall building and cherished a deep inhale through her nostrils, all she could think about was how to appease her appetite again. Those caught in the eclipse of her shadow were the first to earn her focus: a collection of pedestrians jammed at a four-way intersection, crowded in the street to gawk at and snap photos of the creature. Cera relished in their attention for a moment as though bathing in the sun, but in a flash, her hunger took over. Her tail tightly spun around her building’s pointed peak, creating an anchor with which she could hang low and be within reach of her treats. The descent urged the people to spread out and flee, but she was huge and fast, picking out her victims and plucking them off the roads before they could hide away. Cera tossed them just as swiftly into her mouth, citizens that kicked and screamed as they funneled into her throat, barely appreciated for their lively taste before another was found to follow them.
After just a few morsel-filled bites, however, the intersection beneath Cera was depleted as the crowds dispersed into the tepid safety of distances out of her reach. She lifted some cars and trucks, but found no one behind or inside them; annoyed as she was, she crushed one such vehicle in her grasp and turned elsewhere – behind her, into the very tower she descended from. At the base of the building was an atrium defined by geometric glass walls and ceilings, essentially a display case of the delicious humans packed inside. Cera discovered them trembling in every corner of the multi-floor lobby, clustering at stairs and hallways, uncertain if rushing outside was a wise decision.
Her smile, appearing in a slow curve, answered them well that no place was truly safe from her. They were stirred into a frenzy, screams swelling loudly as reptilian hands stuck to the glass walls and pressed inwards until– kkrassshhh! The barriers of the atrium shattered, the shards painfully raining down on the crowds. Cera’s hiss of amusement leaked into the chamber as she crept in upside-down, her hair and scarf falling up her head as she blocked the front exits with her intrusion. Two flights of stairs were tightly congested with people forcing through its narrow design – packs of prey that her fingers were delighted to scoop up and then throw into her mouth. Feasting upside-down was a challenge, but Cera was fine with being graceless as she ate, uncaring how humans spilled at the corners of her lips or missed her mouth entirely, left to dully drop onto the atrium floor.
After a satisfying swallow that sentenced victims up through her throat and into her stomach, Cera uncurled her upper body from the ground level, hoisting herself back into the air. Both arms were lifted high over her head as she stretched her torso, and by extension did her tail coil more tightly, straining the building she was wrapped around. She scanned the area for where the citizens had fled to, doing so while she used a finger to fish out a pesky woman persisting between her teeth. Her violent spree had roused her hunger anew, a craving that motivated her to locate the most densely populated building – a hive filled with humans that she could make a buffet out of.
When Cera rose above the rooftops next, she soon found that which she searched for: outside the residential district was the Trilogy, a skyscraper that overlooked the center of the metropolis. It was three buildings that wove together into a singular spiral, layered with outdoor levels that were wide enough to be courtyards and parks. It was a multipurpose property with a tall host of different businesses taking place in its walls, with construction projects ongoing to expand upon that which was already towering. That size in particular is what spoke to Cera the clearest, but what it said was an insult, boasting a height that certainly outbeat her extraordinary length. She slithered across rooftops in the Trilogy’s direction, pleasantly challenging herself to take it over.
She could sense their fear from a mile away, but they had been keenly aware of her since her rampage began. Once Cera had angled herself towards the Trilogy, its occupants grew through a brief moment of hopeful doubt before breaking out into panic, realizing well that the lamia was coming, unimpeded by any of the buildings or traffic between them. Distance was the sole barrier they had, the only factor that allowed some to successfully escape – some fled on foot through the wooded field outside the Trilogy, while others crammed into cars in the attached parking garage, risking precious time to claim their vehicles. Cera noticed the leaks of humans as she neared, but her instincts assured her that there was plenty more still trapped inside, pitifully racing down nearly a hundred stories to a base that would soon be blocked.
The trees were no hurdle to Cera, whose snakey hips bulldozed through without a fight on her way into the plaza. An entry gate clogged with drivers was flattened just the same, making a massacre of those that tried to get away. A pile-up of toppled vehicles formed against her, splitting apart as she hurried hungrily towards the Trilogy. A similar commotion occurred at the parking garage, which greeted Cera at the skyscraper’s ground level; she was tempted to lurk there and pick out the cars from the multiple levels, but the chore of prying drivers from their seats convinced her to pass up the opportunity. She lifted herself atop the garage, soon after adding enough weight with her tail that it collapsed under her, earning a giggle as she felt the lovely crunch of metal and concrete against her tan-colored bottom.
The mound of debris from the garage became the first step of Cera’s climb up the building. Reaching the wall and its many rows of windows, she began her ascent, clawing into the outer ring of rooms regardless of their purpose. Her tail twisted behind her, forming supportive curls that pushed her higher; her chest pressed into every window she passed, casting pitch blackness into the varied floors that she surpassed. Balconies were reliable perches to grab, her hands occasionally popping over a ledge and ambushing the people paralyzed there. Many hid inside and watched from the windows, but when her arrogant expression leered back at them, they were reminded that no corner of the building was safe from her reach.
Soon was Cera atop the first of Trilogy’s three main buildings. The infrastructure groaned from the pressure that her weight contributed, creaking louder and sharper as she balanced her massiveness and curiously peeked through the windows. Though they had dreaded her quake-causing approach, she was yet upon them sooner than they expected, launching into view outside without a shiver of sympathy. A presentation room hooked her interest, her acid-yellow stare filling the wide windows that were behind the stage; the audience inside appropriately responded in horror, her thirst for blood instantly detected by the prey-like humans.
“Oh, perfect!” Cera celebrated, her voice the alarm that called for everyone in the presentation room to run. People climbed over seats and each other to make it to the exits in the upper back, but Cera remained light and casual as her claws broke the glass and tore through the wall, creating an opening inside. High-altitude winds flooded the presentation room like an explosion, staggering escape attempts as the lamia’s head approached within breathing distance. Her devilish grin expanded into an open maw, “Hahhn~” Glistening fangs struck terror into the stumbled, and before they could stand again, the teeth lunged at them like a trap. A vicious chomp claimed rows of seats and the victims around them, people that were caged behind giant teeth that ripped them away from their peers.
With her mouth still full, Cera’s head popped up to the next few floors, eagerly on the hunt for more. Her scan revealed an elevator running down an outer corner of the Trilogy, a capsule stuffed with people pressed tightly in the glass walls, praying that they might sneak past the lamia. She sneered at them, amused by how helpless the lot of them were; bound to their descent, Cera could spare the time to pose in front of the elevator, ensuring her captives had to gaze upon her musculature, past her abs and down to where her tail began. At that low of a point, after enjoying their attention well enough, Cera reached down and tore the elevator off the corner, possessing a dozen lives in her fist – only for so long, however, before an impulse of violence inspired her to clench tightly, and then even tighter. The glass and metal of the elevator were destroyed instantly, and the bodies within made into a disgusting pulp of death. Blood and flesh gushed from between her fingers, a crimson juice that she happily lapped up with her wiry tongue as she continued up the second tower.
Cera curled a length of her tail onto the next rooftop, situating herself as comfortably as she could atop the ledge too narrow for her. With that bloodied hand, she used her wrist to swipe the sweat from under her horn; a glance downwards reminded her how high up she had traveled, a distance that deserved an accomplished grin. She saw how busy the streets had become under her reign, and the crumbled path of destruction her body had formed everywhere it went – all work that she was proud of. Cera waved at her onlookers as though she were a celebrity, happy to boast her superiority while she sensed the fear boiling inside the building behind her.
The third tower was home to leagues of offices that served high-level businesses, luxury workspaces that featured decorated lobbies and various facilities. The order and structure of these offices had been shaken into disarray, disturbed by the giant’s gradual and heavy crawl up the Trilogy’s walls; just as much were the suits inside scrambled to respond, hurrying around the cubicles and desks. They threw themselves to save data or rescue belongings, optimistic that of all the floors, they might be fortunate enough to be overlooked – a hope that was dashed as the sky blue outside was suddenly overtaken by the dangerous yellow of reptilian eyes.
Cera acted quickly upon being met with sharp screams, noticing that the higher floors were occupied with less people at a time – less treats to devour, as well as less crowding around the exits. To make the most of an opportunity, she attacked with only her tongue; it slapped hard against the windows, fogging the glass with steamy breaths in the second it could hold up against the pressure. The next instant, the serpentine muscle was broken into the office with merciless intent. It slithered fast from one wall to the next, as far as it could reach, dragging and piling everything into a messy lump that she could then scoop directly into her mouth. The delicious people she desired were mixed painfully in the debris of office furniture and cubicle walls, but her tongue was talented too at sifting their taste apart from the wreckage, manipulating mangled bodies so that their flavor could be cherished the most. In the corners of the offices, survivors opened their eyes to see their familiar workspace flushed out into the sky, the walls and floor soaked with saliva and littered with broken traces of what they remembered.
The next office up was devoured similarly as Cera worked her way towards the top of the Trilogy. It did not matter to her if people evaded her tongue, or if they spilled out from her lips, or persisted precariously between her teeth; no amount of human life, tiny as they were, was going to soon fill her stomach. The ritual of hunting and feasting was a predatory instinct, and the fulfillment had no limit, that she could devour as much as she wanted and still have the passion to swallow more. If Cera considered one of these lives, it was only to make a game of their final moments; pinching fallen people off her body only to drop them onto her tongue, or pinpointing a body in her mouth to keep starved of conclusion. It enhanced the taste to strain her victims in such devious ways, and as she neared the cloudy peak of the Trilogy, she was teased of an especially cruel chance of flavor: a red evacuation helicopter at the precipice of lift-off. Long, fortified, and equipped with multiple propellers that spun cuttingly fast, the pilot was rushed into taking air as the lamia’s gaze dawned in front of the cockpit.
The final VIP passenger was pulled on board and packed tightly inside with the other aristocrats. The aircraft was loaded beyond its capacity, and the effects were apparent, resulting in a slower, staggered lift – a grim development as Cera’s wicked expression loomed above them. In a fast and risky maneuver, the pilot peeled hard to the side, gaining speed at the cost of stability. It swayed into the air, practically thrown by its own weight, desperate to escape the monster’s reach.
“Hey… You think you’re fast…?” Cera grumbled, unamused with the effort to evade her. Her tail rose behind her, curling around the final rooftop until she had a grip around the structure. In the meantime, the aircraft buzzed away from her, boosted by a good wind. Cera’s reptilian eyes took aim, predicting the helicopter’s movement, and then, after a lick of her lips, she lunged far from the Trilogy – tearing into the back-half of the vehicle with a vicious bite.
The passengers inside were ambushed by incredible fangs penetrating from above and below, a pressure so strict that it nearly broke the helicopter in half mid-air. Sirens sounded, but could barely be heard over the crunching of metal and the roaring dismay of the VIPs; the suits fought each other like animals to be at the front of the helicopter, fearing the rear would be ripped off entirely. Everything was painfully jerked back in that dreadful direction, confusion and fear boiling over as the windows were enshrouded by huge claws and a twisting tongue. Another bite, short and strong, drew the helicopter inwards and threatened to break off a wider fraction of the vehicle. Madness flushed out the doors as they were forced open by frantic passengers looking to escape, but they saw outside how doomed they were – a half-mile of a fall straight down into the city, yet in the chaos, several were shoved or shaken out into that drop. Like a leak, these elites spilled out from the helicopter, plummeting far below if they did not cling to the lamia’s body like castaway crumbs.
The satisfaction of sinking her teeth into supple prey had sprung Cera into predatory ecstasy. The horror of her victims poured right into her maw, an appetizer of emotion to prepare her hunger for the deliciousness inside. Like crunching into an apple, Cera clenched her jaws and bit the back of the helicopter, giggling as she used her tongue to maintain the general shape of her meal as it was pulled into her mouth. Another bite took everything but the cockpit, a window that caught the final glimpses of the sky before the lamia’s lips closed around it. Squeezed by her tongue and cheeks, the aircraft was then chewed apart – metal snapping and splintering like hard candy, sheets of red steel peeled and dissolved, the interior flooded with saliva until there was no interior to refer to. Before long, after several strained bites, the evac helicopter was crumbled into scraps, and its wealthy passengers were scattered just the same, inevitably plunged into the depths of her throat as her tongue processed everything to be swallowed.
Cera cherished the food – not so much for the dull taste of machinery, but her bloodlust enjoyed the abstract flavor of violence. Images of the carnage flashed in her head, but only imaginations of what was happening; she was blind to the truth, how horrid the circumstance was, the noises of death echoing off saliva-lined gums, the patterned crushing of steel ripped by teeth. All the same did Cera swish the contents around, picking out as much human life as she could before sentencing the tragedy to her stomach. Her claws followed along with what she swallowed, tracing down her neck and chest, keenly sensing her victims arrive at their most final destination. She bubbled into a laugh, and then sighed with a shallow amount of pity for the misfortunate things she feasted upon.
After that beat of peace, however, came the crackling sound of Cera’s consequence for lunging out like she had. Stretched out into the sky, she glanced back at where her tail anchored her to the top of the Trilogy, realizing too late that the peak was quickly breaking apart from her misaligned weight. A fraction of the tallest tower was fractured, then fell – multiple floors of offices and amenities, torn into a cloud of debris that would hail down onto the streets and buildings below. Yet that all was a spit of destruction compared to the promised magnitude of Cera’s impact, her hugeness hurtling towards the city, snake-tail and all.
Though her descent was meteoric from the population’s perspective, Cera herself was entertained by the surprise fall, agasp but excited to hit the earth. A plaza of businesses would cushion her landing, as targeted by her shadow; total societal breakdown occurred in those suspended moments, a flashfire of misery as her massiveness neared at whirlwind speed.
No shelter could withstand the crash – kra-thoooom! The sound bellowed outward, traveling faster than the ground itself could fissure in a shockwave of displacement. Some buildings jumped into the air, others melted in collapse; the businesses beneath Cera were instantly flattened, and so were the occupants inside, crushed completely by an unstoppable ceiling of scales. The destruction was made more widespread by how her snake-body stretched and strung out, striking locations with even more spontaneity than she expected.
Despite the explosive happening and the irreparable damages caused in an instant, the giant responsible was recovered in mere seconds. Cera was soon lifting herself up, haphazardly using ruined buildings and complexes to restore her balance. She writhed in a blanket of cobbled civilization, twisting pleasantly amidst the remains of shops, offices, and homes. For her, the experience had been no more than roughhousing resulting in a tumble – she laughed while she rose, guilt-free regarding both the bomb-like power of her fall, and the gash made of the Trilogy she fell from.
The city had been struck with reasonless catastrophes, suffering mass losses of life to a monster that, after everything, had only just begun to feel drowsy. Indeed, the relief for tens of thousands was that their lamian tormentor was caught yawning high and loud above that which she demolished. As though the rampage within her had been subdued, Cera drifted through a highway without a murderous glare, but instead with eyes weary from a long day of destroying and devouring – eyes that glazed across crowds, stirring them into panic with a look alone.
Yet it was deep in her instincts to think of the morsels surrounding her, the meal she would make of them later. Conveniently, Cera came across a neighborhood of apartment buildings, a square-shaped area that had braved her boisterous behavior, but was then threatened by her approach. Residents ran away or bunkered where they were, unsure what plot she had devised; in truth, they were in no danger, not immediately. Cera chose to make a ring of her extensive body that encircled the apartments, wrapping around them so that all exits were closed by her tail. As easy as that, the lamia had thousands of people trapped – prepared to become her playthings when she would awaken next. That grave reality eventually sank into the hearts of those captives as they saw the walls of their lives defined by the diamond pattern of scales.
Cera’s smile persisted as she nestled into a comfortable place, resting against part of her own tail like a pillow. Her eyes gently closed, admiring the restlessness of the city, eased by the terror she had strewn, relaxed by the knowledge that the chaos would continue. Though the lamia had finally fallen asleep, she proceeded to haunt her victims still with the sounds of her slumbering – the sharp breezes of her snoring, and the hypnotic rumbling that resonated from her reptilian stomach.