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A Cold-Blooded War: The Transformative Power of Conflicts & Carnality

By: Delta

For: Amethystine (<3!)

WC: ~23,000

Fetishes / Themes: M/M, Transformation, Snake CTF, Mass TF, Unwilling TF, Cock Vore (Soft), Living Liquids, Cum Digestion (Soft), Cum TF, Hemipenises, Male Oviposition, Hypnosis / Mind Control, Anal, Oral, Autofellatio, Mild NC, Dom/Sub, Orgasm Denial and Social Commentary on War, Peace, Truth, Justice, Cultural Relativity and the Human Condition.

An epic tale of how love and war united two very different peoples.

This story was a gift written for (and with the generous assistance of) the very talented Amethystine! (http://amethystine.sofurry.com/)

"What is that, traveler? You say you find our land and our people most curious? I dare say we would say the same of you! Heh, no, you are quite right. We are a strange folk, it is true. Quite the story behind it, wouldn't you know... Oh? You want to hear it? Well, I suppose I have time. The regulars won't be here for another two hours or so; pull a stool up to the bar. You like that beer? It's a local brew, a little dark for most but I like it as well. Here, have some crackers and cheese, on the house. We're out of pretzels 'till the supplies get in, I'm 'fraid. You like the crackers better? Oh, good! Now... the story! I suppose it all began about six years ago..."

**** Sir Kerick's Story ****

It was a beautiful midsummer's night. The time of the evening had just come when the heat of the set sun still lingered on, yet the cold of the night had not yet settled on the land. The two were in perfect, harmonious equilibrium. Above, the heavens were dark enough now that stars were beginning to glow through the haze of sky, winking sparkles of light that contrasted well with the duller but steady glow of the moon. Fireflies flew through the air in great clouds, their flight desultory but beautiful nonetheless. Rich and earthy smells from the fertile fields nearby hung heavy in the warm air, stirred up from the day's harvesting. Life was flourishing. The future seemed to promise many more such lazy, lingering, lovely nights to come.

If not for the war, everything would have been perfect.

The serpent-people had invaded these rich but disputed lands four years ago, after being driven nearly to the brink of extinction by starvation and cold weather. The huge, vibrant valley that now made up the heart of the kingdom of Medlarch had been theirs in ages past and had been hotly contested for millennia before that. The land was boxed in by swift rivers and jagged, snow-capped peaks to the north and south. To the west lay disease-ridden swamplands and inhospitable jungles; to the east lay a vast and lifeless desert. But where these geographic barriers met- the great valley- all was in balanced, almost holy harmony. Countless empires had grown and thrived inside it, the Medlarch line only being the latest. It was not hard to see why the pitiable serpent-peoples envied the land, why they fought fang and claw for it.

Sir Zeryer Lanson Kerick rested his blood-coated greatsword on a nearby length of wooden fencing as he caught his breath, looking upon the peaceful, pastoral scene with tremendous, forlorn longing. It was a rather stunning contrast to the scorched and cratered earth of the battlefield he had just marched from. The land there was only watered by the fresh blood of men and serpents, only tilled by ballista arrows and magical explosions. Sir Kerick was a pragmatic and unsentimental man, but even he found himself affected by the naked cruelty of the juxtaposition. He was not comfortable with his feelings. They were another variable out of his hands, another random element in the war that his keen intellect couldn't decipher fully. Zeryer Kerick resented anything he couldn't quantify.

One of his retinue addressed him, "Sir Kerick? Are you alright?"

"Fine. Resting," he replied back. Sir Zeryer Kerick didn't mind looking tired if the alternative was looking mawkish in front of his men.

"Are you sure you don't want a horse, sir?" the young knight asked, eager to help his commander. "We could..."

"No," Sir Kerick interrupted, forcefully, "the wounded need the ride more than I. One minute's rest, then we continue."

"That is very kind of you, sir." The young man's face lit up with a strange sort of pride, the same look that Sir Kerick often saw on many of those under his command. "You heard the commander! One minute!"

Zeryer Kerick didn't understand why his men liked him so much. All he ever did was take the most reasonable course of action, the one that would secure victory with a minimum of friendly causalities and effort. It was a simple matter of calculating risk and reward, possibilities for success or failure and then taking the best available option. Why so many other knight-commanders before him had a fetishistic love for reckless charges and 'glorious' last stands baffled him. In this case, the calculations were simple. Primary benefit: improved morale for his men. Secondary benefit: rest for a wounded man, quickening his eventual recovery and return to the front lines. Tertiary benefits: extra exercise, reduced exposure in the event of an ambush, less fatigue on the horse...

"Sir? Should I run ahead with your messages?" Sir Kerick's page asked, interrupting his thoughts. He shook his head brusquely. There was no use in risking the man's life just to tell the inbred moron on the throne information he couldn't really understand. The king was the type of man who still thought battles were won by mass cavalry charges or two commanding generals duking it out on the front lines- sheer fantasy. Medlarch XIV had probably never shed blood in his life, were one to discount paper cuts and nosebleeds.

War was all about numbers. Force strength times force size, modified by myraid functions. These functions included logistics, magical power, morale, allied support, leadership, terrain conditions and weather, to name but a few. In the conflict between the human kingdom of Medlarch and the serpent peoples, the numbers were far from equivocal about the eventual outcome. Medlarch had more natural resources and more troops, better equipment and better siege weapons. Once the winter months rolled around and the cold blood of the snake-people began to slow in their veins, these strengths would become decisive. All Zeryer Kerick had to do was wait until the first frost arrived. Well, wait and keep Medlarch XIV from doing something extraordinarily stupid.

A muffled thump in the forest off the road suddenly caught his attention. Reflexively, Sir Kerick readied his sword and adopted a defensive posture, silently signaling for his men to do the same. They were far from the front lines and the odds of a serpent attack were very low, but Zeryer Kerick was not a man to make assumptions. The serpent people possessed far more cunning than King Medlarch or his lieutenants gave them credit for. Their defeat was probable, but it would not come soon nor was it inevitable...

Once again, Sir Kerick found that caution had saved his life.

The serpent-men ambush came from all sides of the road, their chainmail-clad forms slithering in with surprising speed. Sir Kerick brought his sword up in a flashing motion and went about his work with grim determination, two of his bodyguards falling into perfect formation at his flanks. One, two, three quick stokes of his enchanted sword, and three serpents had fallen lifeless before him.

The knight-commander's greatsword was an ancient weapon, passed down through the ranks of the greatest knight-commanders since before King Medlarch himself rose to power. The handle and guard resembled a black, stylized dragon, the blade a rising column of fire from the beast's open maw. The magic steel could cut clean through other blades with ease, let alone flesh, scale and bone. The serpent-soldiers attacking were quite skilled, but the same voluminous body shape that made them strong and dexterous prevented them from wearing heavy armor.

Arrows sliced through the ranks of the human force until countersniping forced the serpent marksman to keep their heads down. Four of his knights staged a counter-attack into the main body of the serpent force, driving them back into the woods. Sir Kerick's personal guard included some of the best trained and drilled forces in the entire army, better than the king's own praetorian guard. They worked as a single, beautifully coordinated force, adapting and responding to attacks with the precision and power of a dragon. Unfortunately for them, the serpent force that had trapped them was five times their size. They gave better than they got, but this battle had been lost before it began.

Before they moved in on Sir Kerick himself, the serpents abruptly broke off their attack. They pulled back their wounded and encircled his position, but they didn't move in for the kill. Sir Kerick noted with rueful distain that he was down to three guards and his page. As they finished surrounding him, he made a mental note to double his road patrols in the unlikely event that he made it out alive. He made another mental note to change his ciphers and look for a traitor within his command staff. There was no way that the serpents compromised his location- on the move, to boot- without some sort of inside information...

The massed ranks of the serpent-soldiers in front of him parted. Out of the gap, a massive snake slithered forth. The mighty reptile was nearly thirty feet of powerful, coiled muscle covered in thick jungle-green scales. His underbelly was a creamy shade of pale blue that looked quite distinct from the sharper yellow and red patterns that most of his soldiers bore. The coiled half-humanoid wore a blue-gold breastplate and a greatcloak that trailed far down his winding tail, and he was flanked by a retinue of robe-clad snake priests.

Mera-sun.

There was no doubt in Zeryer Kerick's mind; the regal looking snake in front of him was Mera-sun, the supreme religious and political leader of the serpent people. Mera-sun, the conqueror. Mera-sun, the scaled scourge. His name was a spat curse in human lands; he was the leering visage on the army recruiting posters and the boogeyman used to frighten recalcitrant children. He was the scion of the snake-race, their greatest warrior and warlord. To them he was a living god, the physical embodiment of their people.

To Sir Kerick, he was more than that: he was a worthy rival.

Sir Kerick looked upon Mera-sun and saw vast sums of risk and reward dancing in front of him, almost tauntingly. The mighty snake could easily kill him... but if he died then the war would be won in days. His own life would almost certainly be forfeit but perhaps ultimate victory was worth it. If only he could find an opening in his guard! It would be worth hearing what poisoned words the reptilian emperor had to say, if only to buy enough time to find one...

"Sssir Zeryer Kerick, I presssume?" Mera-sun spoke. His voice was that of a true sovereign, one utterly certain of their own power and authority. Even when his human words slurred with the sibilant accent of the serpent-peoples, Sir Kerick felt awed. Despite this, he also felt a spark of hope in his heart. Great confidence meant great pride, and pride was a weakness that could be exploited as surely as a weak flank or an unguarded bridge.

"Yes. A pleasure to finally meet you in person, Mera-sun," Sir Kerick said flatly, trying to affect the confident and nonchalant demeanor he was known for. "I would offer you tea, but it appears your soldiers have wounded my cook most grievously."

The serpent king favored the wounded cook with a quick glance, as if noting a dead crow. "He'll live."

Sir Kerick threw up an insincere smile. Few cooks in the military knew how to prepare a truffle soup; it would be nigh-impossible to replace the man. "I hope so. But I take it you didn't stage this rather impressive ambush just to deprive me of my dinner, did you?"

"No. I came to parley with you," Mera-sun said, slowly slithering his way closer to the human.

"Is that so? Did that necessitate incapacitating my entire retinue?"

Mera-sun smiled, fangs ever-so slightly bared. "I like to parley from a position of strength."

Sir Kerick frowned. "Very well, here I am. Allow me to begin: I think you should leave our land."

"*Your* land? Your land!? Hah!" the great serpent spat back, laughing. His coils shook as he laughed, each chuckle sending ripples down his tremendous length like echoes. The other snakes joined him with as much enthusiasm as they could muster. "What do you mean by that, human? Are you really that ignorant of your own history? Two thousand years ago this land belonged to us..."

Kerick laughed back dryly; Mera-sun had taken the bait. "Twenty thousand years ago, the saurial races built the first settlements here. Sixteen thousand years ago, the elves drove them south and took their place. Eleven thousand years ago it was a human mageocracy, and then a fundamentalist state. Four thousand years or so the dragons burned them to ash, and a succession of small powers took over the region until your people did, serpent. And then, our ancestors took it from you. You take this land from us by force of arms, not right. Who is to even say that the saurial races truly deserved this land? Did they not clear the forest to make room for their temples and warrens?"

Mera-sun said nothing. His expression was impossible to read.

"Truthfully, I think this land is a curse," Sir Kerick scoffed, laughing bitterly. "Temperate climate. No natural disasters. Rich soil, plentiful ore deposits. Perfect natural harbors, auspicious leylines, healthy and diverse animal life. It's too perfect, you see? Everybody who looks upon this beautiful, wonderful land lusts for it. They fall in love with it. They would *kill* for it. Many have. Our ancestors did, and so did yours..."

The serpentine warlord hissed, betrayed a hint of perturbation. The rest of his body remained perfectly still, coiled like a spring.

"My king would rather exterminate every last one of your people- from the oldest and strongest serpents to your unhatched eggs- than cede an inch of this land to you. If you defeat us and seize the land, would you act any differently in its defense?"

"We do what we must to sssurvive. Now stop." It was a flatly-spoken command, with dangerous edge to it.

"Stop or what? You'll kill me? We're far past the time when the threat alone means anything. Go ahead and take this land from us, if you can. Take it and enjoy it, raise your hatchlings and build your cities. Enjoy it until another looks upon your wealth and glory with envious eyes, and begins to raise an army..."

Mera-sun sprang forward, his coiled strength loosed. He grabbed Sir Kerick by his neck with one hand, choking off the knight's words. The knight's greatsword clattered uselessly to the side, but he had already drawn a dagger from the small of his back. Sir Kerick drove it into the snake-king's belly with all of the force he could muster before being thrown backwards. With grace and dexterity that belied his age, Sir Kerick retrieved his greatsword and shifted into an offensive stance. A phalanx of spear-carrying soldiers advanced forward, forcing him and his men back farther. There was another brief skirmish, and Sir Kerick's forces were reduced to him and the page.

Mera-sun plucked the dagger from his blue-scuted midsection as if it was a safety pin, tossing it aside contemptuously. Sir Kerick mentally noted that the serpent warlord had likely enchanted his scales.

"If you think you are worth the title of 'Sun', Mera-sun, you should fight me yourself!" Kerick roared, readying his sword. "Come! Kill me, if you can!"

This was not the sort of plan Sir Kerick liked to work with, but his other options seemed even less pleasant at the moment. When ignoble death and heroism were your only choices, it was easy to be a hero. And yet despite all his measured provocation, Mera-sun smiled at him. His bloodthirst was legendary, and yet he was holding off on his attack yet again! Why? Sir Kerick's mind raced, trying to think of a possibility yet unaccounted for.

"Ssssir Kerick. You are so clever!" Mera-sun said, chuckling gleefully. His unit of priests began chanting, gathering magical energy sparking along their clawtips. "No, I do not plan anything as wasteful as death for you. You are going to ssserve me, and in doing so ssseal the fate of your kingdom and the salvation of our people."

'This does not bode well.' Sir Kerick thought to himself. He was boxed in by serpent infantry on all sides; a breakout would not be possible. Annoyingly, his page was cowering next to him, impeding his movement even further.

"You and I both know that you are the crux of your war effort, and yet I find that I cannot hate you, human. You are as cunning and strong as any of the cold-blooded race..."

The chanting of the priests grew louder. Powerful, thrumming energy was beginning to coalesce in the clawtips of the head priest, his slitted pupils glowing as arcane power surged underneath his scales. Sir Kerick had once heard that magic was like electricity; you could only see it with the naked eye when it was dangerously strong.

"Join us. Surrender to the ssspell. Embrace it, and lead usss to victory," Mera-sun said, softly encouraging, his eyes gleaming with glee. The chanting of the priests was fast rising to a grand crescendo...

Sir Zeryer Kerick did not like the sound of that one bit. He had no intention of surrendering his will to anybody or anything.

A green-black sphere of magical energy began to arc its way toward him from the high priest's claws, surging forward with terribly swift speed...

Magic is a very strange and unpredictable force; not even the greatest spellcasters have complete control over their own powers. To use magic is like trying to paint on the fabric of reality with a rusty knife: push too hard or in the wrong place and very bad things can happen. The more power you try to channel, the less predictable it becomes. Magical energy flows like water, always seeking the quickest and easiest way to disperse. Even a spell specifically targeted against one individual must have a clear conduit through which to function.

Sir Kerick- being quite erudite for a knight- knew this, which is why he grabbed his page at the last second, and thrust the young man in front of the spell's path. The young man was too stunned to even think of resisting.

There was a tremendous, deafening explosion of misdirected energy, blinding everyone within a quarter-mile as if a small polychromatic sun had suddenly bloomed. Reality bled like a fresh gash in the aftermath, the transformative magic finding whatever outlets it could. The dissipating spell melted trees like hot butter and made leaves freeze midair, made nearby sounds turn into smells and turned the cobblestones of the road a deep shade of purple.

Long before the smoke dissipated and the fires died down, Sir Kerick was gone.

**** Ben's Story ****

Ben Thoma was a page. He had held onto the ignoble job and title far past the time when his friends had become squires, marksmen or infantry so that he could continue to serve under his hero, Sir Kerick. The knight-commander was fond of him in his peculiar way, happy to have a loyal and smart assistant (especially one who knew how to use ciphers and codewords properly). Ben worshipped the knight-commander; he had often fantasized about gallantly leaping forward to defend him from a dastardly serpent attack, or pointing out some hidden flaw in the enemy lines that no one else could see. While that had never happened and Sir Kerick never paid him too much attention, he always treated him with respect and paid him well- which was far more than anyone else had ever done for Ben Thoma. Ben would have given his life for his liege; such was his adoration of him.

Ben had, however, never imagined that his hero might use him as a human shield. For some reason, the thought of giving his life was infinitely more palatable than being used like that. Ben tried to rectify this paradoxical feeling inside him, but found that he could not. Why was that? Did the answer matter? It was much easier simply sleeping, drifting unconsciously as someone carried him.

It took Ben took a long time to wake up. His skin burned and his bones hurt, magical energy still arced between his joints like residual jolts of electricity. His eyes hurt and his hearing was shot; his brain was sluggish and fuzzy and he couldn't even feel his legs. All he could tell for sure was that he was somewhere warm and humid, surrounded by slithering snakes. Slowly, the gravity and horror of his situation began to dawn on him.

Underneath him, the bed shifted a little.

It was around this time that Ben noticed that he wasn't resting on a bed. For one thing, beds were not made of slick, warm scales. For another, they didn't have heartbeats. Lastly, beds did not have thick, powerful arms that held you tightly against them...

"Can't you just... pull usss apart?" A deep and sibilant voice spoke from directly behind Ben. It was Mera-sun, the serpent lord! His voice made Ben's blood run cold.

"No, my lord. There is too much overlap between your bodiesss at the moment; we must think of something elsssse. Please, be patient!" A second serpent spoke, sounding submissive and suppliant.

Ben mustered his courage, and opened his eyes. Sure enough, his worst fears were confirmed. Not only was he deep inside a sprawling, underground serpent city, but the magical backfire had somehow melded his body to the most feared and reviled creature in the known world! His upper body was completely intact- including his shirt- but everything below his waist was gone, merged into the snake-man's torso. Mera-sun was easily a meter thick around his midsection; Ben's slim body barely seemed to inconvenience him. The words 'rude awakening' did not even begin to approximate how Ben Thoma felt at this very moment.

"Great. The human isss awake, Sorim-vis. Can you remove it now?" Mera-sun asked, shaking his coils as if he was trying to scare off a fly. Ben had to hold onto the creamy blue scutes in front of him to stop the jostling.

"My lord, I would gladly do as you command, but I must recommend against it most strongly. Asss I told you, if we separate you two without care you both may ssssuffer irreparable organ damage, maybe even death. At the very least, you would lose your, uh, hemipenisesss for good."

"Well... let'sss not do that then." Mera-sun grunted.

"What... happened?" Ben croaked. A potent combination of fear and pain were thudding in his head like ill-tempered elephants, but staying silent didn't seem like a wise course of action.

"It can talk!" the serpent-priest in front of him exclaimed, startled. He was clad in the traditional green and white robe of the priest caste, which blended well with his light green scales and pale scutes. Strangely, Ben found the pattering on his scales to be more... noticable than usual. Ben could usually only tell the different between the serpent-peoples by their size and clothing, but something felt different about them at the moment.

The priest prodded Ben in the forehead with one sharp claw.

"Ouch!"

"Hmm," the snake-priest said, slithering close to Ben, "can you underssstand me, human? My name is Sorim-visss, and I am the high priest of the serpentfolk. Do not worry; you are a prisoner. You will not be harmed."

Ben didn't believe that for one second; he had heard all of the dark rumors about what snakes did to their prisoners, which circulated throughout the knight's ranks like a contagion. He tried to look inconspicuous, but when your torso is growing out of a gigantic snake-lord, your options are very much limited in that respect. "Don't you... torture and eat your prisoners?"

"Hahaha!" Mera-sun laughed, shaking Ben. Ben felt a strange urge to laugh as well, though he certainly didn't think anything was funny about the question. "Why doesss this always come up with you humans? Our ancessstors *used* to ritually consssume the leader of the enemy forcesss at the end of a war, to commemorate the victory. But we ssstopped doing it hundreds of yearsss ago! Furthermore, we never torture anyone. Torture isss counterproductive when it comesss to gathering information; people tell you what you want to hear, not the truth. Magical coercion isss far more effective."

"Uh... that's great. Where... where am I?" Ben asked, stunned by the impromptu lesson on serpent military conventions.

"You are in the bedchambers of the great Mera Tassadan Ilys Sardek, my massster... and now yours." Ben recognized the second serpent, finally. Sorim-vis was nearly as infamous as his emperor; the high priest of the scaled folk was very much a force to reckoned with. His words seemed true, though; Ben noticed that he and Mera-sun were resting inside a great, bedlike recession in the floor of the snake-king's vaulted chambers. The bed was silky soft and ovoid in shape, clearly designed for a serpent to coil up comfortably inside it. Ben was admiring the stunning quality of the strange sleeping structure when the snake-priest poked him in the forehead again.

"Ouch." Ben repeated, annoyed.

"Ow!" said a surprised Mera-sun, a half-second after Ben. "Sorim-vis... why did I feel that?" Mera-sun asked, fixing his high priest with a gaze that was both threatening and worried at the same time.

"Err... my lord, we might have a sssmall problem."

"Define 'small problem', pleassse," Mera-sun demanded. He went to fold his arms against his chest, but stopped halfway through the motion when they ran into Ben's body.

"The magical energiesss... they have not fully dissipated. The boy is sssuffused with them..."

"Hmpf," Mera-sun grunted with annoyance.

"What!?" Ben cried out, alarmed. His entire body was tingling, the magical energy dormant in it slowly awakening, a low vibrating buzz that made his bones throb. "What is happening?"

"The ssspell is merging you both, trying to reshape your bodiesss into a compatible synthesisss. I am terribly sorry my lord, but nothing can be done."

"This *human* is going to be stuck to me!?" Mera-sun angrily spat.

"I'm going to be part of a *monster*!?" Ben gasped out, utterly horrified.

"Ssso you think of us as monsters, hmm?" the snake-priest asked, bemused. "If there is any 'monster' to blame for your condition, it is commander Kerick. He was the one who threw you in the path of a ssspell meant for him! Transformative magic is, by itsss very nature, unpredictable... mutable. You are lucky to be alive and ssstill have your own mind."

"W-what!? How dare you! What were you trying to do to Knight-Commander Kerick!?" Ben said indignantly, trying not to think of how his hero had used him as a human shield.

The snake-priest reached out and rubbed Ben's hands as he spoke. "It was a spell of physical and mental transformation. It would have made Sssir Kerick a complaisant and loyal serpent-man, one more than willing to divulge all your plansss and war strategy. It was a very powerful and very difficult spell to..."

"Ssstop! Why are you sharing classssified military intelligence with the human!?" Mera-sun demanded angrily.

"My lord, he issss attached to your body. Who isss he going to tell? "Besides, once he changes I doubt many humans would lisssten to his words, anyway," the priest said, examining Ben's upper arms. They were slowly but visibly shrinking... and looking greener than usual.

Mera-sun frowned. Sorim-vis was the only person in the world who spoke with him candidly; everyone else either feared or admired him too much. "Point taken."

"What do you mean, changesss..?" Ben asked, his words trailing off into hissing. Mid-sentence, His tongue had grown long and forked, like a serpent's tongue. It flicked out of his mouth as it changed, almost reflexively. Ben could taste things he never knew of before, taste each unique flavor of the other snakes that hung in the air...

Wait. *Other* snakes? Why was he suddenly thinking of himself as a serpent!? Why was his skin looking green and leathery? What was happening to his body!? Ben felt his face begin to push out from his head, slowly but with irresistible force. Judging by the stiffness in his skin and the weakness creeping into his arms, he wasn't going to remain human for much longer...

"Pleassse, please stop this! I'll do anything for you!" Ben pleaded, panicking. He had prepared himself for death (or so he thought) when he joined the military, but this was something else entirely. He had never imaged that he might be transformed, turned into one of the reviled serpent-folk. But it was worse than that, wasn't it? He wouldn't even have his own body...

"We can't ssstop it. I don't even know what is happening, exactly," the high priest admitted, giving Ben a look that was quite sympathetic for a serpent.

A fierce, quivering spasm made Ben double over, and his insides began to change. His bones were giving strange, popping cracks as magical forces slowly began to reshape them; the feeling was horribly strange but not quite painful. No... actually, it felt quite good. Did the magic suppress the pain, or was the feeling itself inherently good? Why would it feel so good to be changed? To have one's humanity twisted and torn from them?

"Thisss feels weird," Mera-sun said, shifting his coils around so that Ben was resting against his bare chest. The blue-hued scutes there felt surprisingly good on Ben's hardening flesh. The former page felt his body slink backward flexibly section by section as Mera-sun leaned back, as if his spine was no longer quite as stiff. It felt more powerful, more flexible... but far less human. Strange, gurgling sounds emanated from Ben's body as internal organs began dissolving inside him one by one, the serpent-lord's powerful vital parts taking over where they left off.

"And how do you think I feel?" Ben panted, feeling lightheaded. His face had pushed out far enough that the tip of his growing snout was obscuring his field of vision. He reached one of his weakening hands up and felt the growing muzzle, whimpering slightly as the full gravity of the transformation began to weigh heavily on him. He was going to be nothing more than an appendage for the vile snake-lord!

"This isss quite fascinating to watch, actually..." Sorim-vis remarked, blithely ignoring the boy's protests. He continued to poke and prod Ben as he changed, the transforming human's belly turning a lighter blue color as the rest of his body turned green. Distressingly, his developing scale patterns looked very much the same as those of Mera-sun. The snake-priest pulled up a flat, wooden writing tablet, and began to take notes in a terse, compact shorthand.

Ben's flesh finished hardening into full scales, his hair falling out in great clumps from his head. The boy's abdomen finished morphing into serpentine coils, no longer resembling anything human. He only began to really panic when he lost feeling in his arms. They went numb and shrank further and further until they disappeared under his shirtsleeves. He felt their mass join the rest of his lengthening body, becoming more lithe but powerful reptilian musculature. He felt his connection with the immense strength of Mera-sun grow stronger and stronger; sensed feelings that began to creep in from the mighty serpent-man's body. It was a truly bizarre experience; becoming a snake while merging further with one. When Ben's snout finished growing out all the way, the link seemed to solidify with an unnerving sense of finality. Two hard, sharp, retractable fangs finished his newly-grown muzzle; his jaw felt powerful enough to crush bones.

Ben saw a large mirror in the corner of the room, next to the emperor's wood dresser. His shirt still hung loosely off his armless body. The emperor reached down and plucked it off him, revealing the rest of his flowing length. He looked like a fully grown nonmorphic snake, except with the glimmer of intelligence in his slitted eyes. Ben stared at the reptilian image in the mirror, almost not believing it was actually him. It was impossible to deny it though; when he moved, the serpent's muzzle moved. When his forked tongue shot out to taste the air, the reflection in the mirror did the same. It took every bit of self-control he possessed not to panic or cry.

"Well... that wassss... unexpected." Mera-sun said simply, momentarily dumbfounded. "At leassst he doesn't look like a human anymore."

"I hate you," Ben said. He was glad that he could still speak, albeit with the addition of sibilant hissing.

"This wasss not my plan, you stupid boy!" Mera-sun snapped. His pride was fast recovering after the astonishing sensations he had just experienced during their melding.

"I do have sssome good news, my lord. If my mathemagical calculations are correct, the transformative energies in... uh..." He looked at Ben's now-reptilian countenance, questioningly.

"Ben. My name isss Ben." Ben said, unhappily.

"The energies inside B-e-n," Sorim-vis said, intentionally drawing out his name, "are only quiescent, not gone. He is a... a living font of transformative power."

"What? Ssspeak plainly, Sorim-vis," Mera-sun said, gently petting the new snake. It felt strangely good for both of them. For the first time since the accident occurred, the emperor could feel a faint stirring coming from where his hemipenes used to be.

"The ssspell we tried to place on Zeryer Kerick lives on, inside him! He can be used to transssform other humans, if my calculations are correct!" the high priest exclaimed excitedly. What he theorized had not been thought possible by modern magic, but the mathemagic was unambiguous.

"What!? You are a murderous, brutal, genocidal maniac! If you think I'll ssserve you, you can add 'crazy' to that lissst!" Ben said as he twisted around to face his 'master', still shocked by the revelation.

"You will not addressss me in that fashion!" Mera-sun shouted at Ben. He struck the snake stemming from his vent dead-on the snout with a powerful backhand; the sound of the blow echoed throughout the room.

For a brief second, the two of them stared at each other in utter silence. Then, suddenly, Mera-sun fell back onto his bed, clutching Ben and crying out in paroxysms of pain. Ben felt like his entire world had suddenly exploded; every part of his body hurt.

"Uh, my lord... he is a part of you in every way. Physical dissscipline might be... unwise."

"Y-your... recommendation... is n-noted." The warlord sputtered, massaging Ben's head. Ben hissed back appreciatively as his tender headscales were rubbed.

Mera-sun continued rubbing his head, the two of them enjoying the warm and pleasurable feelings of the touch. It was a horribly strange feeling for Ben; he could feel his scales stiffen and tingle with arousal that shot through the whole of his body. When the serpentine warlord gently scratched under Ben's elongated muzzle with his sharp claws, the pleasure was almost unbearable. In fact... something strange was indeed happening to him. Something was flowing up into his throat, from deep inside his body...

Ben tasted the inside of his mouth with his sensitive, forked tongue. The liquid was warm, slick and salty... and instead of wanting to swallow it, Ben felt an almost irresistible urge to open his mouth and let it flow down his muzzle. He did so, letting the precum run from his half-open maw like drool. It felt so good, so right to let it out, to spread it over his scaled lips...

He turned his flexible head around and looked at Mera-sun. The emperor was giving him an odd but aroused look as he rubbed Ben's head. Was he feeling all of this, too? Was he his... penis?

Ben looked down, into the tight, pink slit from which his snaky body emerged. At the end of his coils, he noticed that the scales there tapered off into leathery flesh and then transitioned into silken skin deep within Mera-sun's slit, the blue and green fading into the same pinkish-red of the vent's interior. On his underside, a thick tube-shaped bulge that was oddly familiar from his time spent playing with his 'trouser snake', pressed out from his altered innards.

"Continue your research, Sorim-vis. I expect a full report tomorrow morning," the snake sovereign said quickly, unable to conceal his rising lust. "Now please, I must ressst. Leave, and ensure my privacy is ressspected."

Sorim-vis suppressed the urge to cock an eyeridge at his master. "As you command, Mera-sun."

When the high priest departed, Mera-sun quickly slithered over the door to his bedchambers and checked to make sure the door was securely locked. When he was satisfied with his privacy, he darted back to his huge, egg-shaped bed. The serpent king spread his coils evenly inside the recessed sleeping nook, his upper body jutting out of the middle like a figurine in a fountain. He took Ben in one of his powerful, scaled hands, stroking slowly up and down the length of the living snake-cock, coaxing more spurts of precum from Ben's fanged muzzle.

"That feelssshh goood... don't ssschtop," Ben gurgled out, his voice impeded by the precum leaking from him as well as his newly forked tongue. Heavy pleasure made his slitted eyes fog with lust, made his mind feel fuzzy and distant.

"Don't worry my pet; I'm going to take very good care of you. Yessss, yes I will..." Mera-sun hissed, smiling at the back of his gently-swaying new friend's head.

Mera-sun continued to stroke Ben's cockshaft-body, his pace quickening until their scales were hot with slick pre and friction. It wasn't quite enough for him, though. Mera-sun paused for a second, staring at the living member writhing in his arms lustily. He slowly pulled Ben closer and closer to his muzzle, the former human letting his new master turn him so that they were facing each other. Ben let more of his lengthy body stretch forth from its home, while Mera-sun leant his own flexible neck farther forward. When their muzzles were almost touching, Mera-sun's powerful forked tongue shot out and licked Ben's sensitive snout. The long, hard lick made both serpent-forms shudder with pleasure.

"You are a going to be a very good sssnake, aren't you Ben? You are going to ssserve your emperor very well..." the emperor said, licking the pythonic penis on the side of his head.

The serpent emperor began to suck on the tip of Ben's muzzle, tasting the precum-smeared scales with his whole maw. All the transformed, merged ex-human could do was shake and gush salty sexual fluids, his whole body a living instrument of pleasure. He couldn't even think; his mind was too focused on the feeling of absolute freedom and release that came with being a part of his sexy, powerful master. The serpent king was an absolute terror on the battlefield, but he could be surprisingly affectionate to those he loved. It seemed to be an irreconcilable paradox.

Mera-sun started to suck down on more of Ben's sensitive snout, slowly pulling more and more of it into his maw. Ben didn't resist; he let his lengthy body slip deep into the mighty serpent's open mouth, sliding gently past his sharp fangs. Finally, Mera-sun opened his maw wide and sucked down hard on Ben, almost swallowing the snake-cock's head whole. The feeling of the tight, powerful throat squeezing on his serpentine cock-head made Ben hiss out in pleasure as he continue to spit copious bursts of salty preseed down his master's throat. The pleasure was too much to bear; something big was beginning to flow up his body with incredible force...

Ben felt his whole body spasm as he climaxed, the hot cum surging its way through his winding body like an undammed river. His maw opened wide and he spat great, sticky blasts of snake-seed directly down Mera-sun's throat. The climax resonated in both of their bodies, making them both moan and hiss in pleasure as the orgasm continued. Every fresh blast of cum from Ben was eagerly sucked down by his master, the two of them feeling every bit of pleasure from both sides of the full-body deepthroat. He got to taste every ounce of sticky-sweet cum as it flowed from him, got to feel every hard contraction of the muscular throat around him as Mera-sun drank his essence.

When it was over the great serpent relaxed his powerful throat, pulling Ben's cum-slickened body out of it. Both snakes were dazed from the sheer force of the climax; Ben could hardly hold his softening body upright. The emperor cradled his freshly used member in his arms affectionately, pausing every few seconds to lick drying seed off of him.

"Sleep well. Tomorrow will be a very busy day for us, my pet," Mera-sun said, tucking Ben gently but firmly into his genital slit. Ben panicked for a second as he was pushed into the orifice, before realizing that he no longer needed to breathe for himself.

The human-turned-serpent fit snugly inside the cavernous orifice. Ben wanted to protest, but he was so exhausted and disoriented from the bizarre experience that he was having trouble finding energy to even form words. Besides, the slit was so very warm and dark and slimy and safe. He retreated deeper into it, letting himself rest inside his master's powerful body. He could feel the soft and slick insides pulse gently with every beat of the snake emperor's heart. Like a lullaby or a lover's caress, it made him feel protected and sleepy.

It didn't take long for him to drift off into deep, dreamless slumber.

**** Mera-sun's Story ****

Mera Tassadan Ilys Sardek was the eighty-first 'Sun' of the serpent peoples. Eighty-one was a very auspicious number to the serpent peoples, a byproduct of their base-nine number system. Nine times nine was a number that symbolized greatness and good fortune, and Mera-sun fully expected to live up to this omen. He had taken power in a time of great crisis; mass starvation and unnaturally long winters, bitter infighting between the clans and human economic exploitation. Unlike the self-indulgent, weak-willed emperor who had preceded him, he led his people with a harsh but just strictness. It was Mera-sun who had secretly readied them for war.

The invasion of Medlarch had been his ultimate plan from the day he took the throne. His people suffered because the lands they had been driven to in ages past were cold and harsh, barely enough to sustain even warm-blooded life. Serpent-people could only live in them thanks to an extensive system of carefully prepared and heated caverns that wound their way through the snow-capped peaks. They were able to bear the worst of the weather inside them, but growing food and raising livestock in the confined tunnels was next to impossible. They humans sold them the food and supplies they needed to survive at exorbitant cost; trading for what ores the serpentfolk managed to mine. No one else even bothered to trade with the serpent-folk because the cost of sending caravans past the mountains made the endeavor prohibitively expensive.

Mera-sun held a deep and abiding love for his people and an equally deep and abiding hated for those who would not help them in their time of need. He went to war not only to bring them a better life, but to restore their long-dead pride as a race. He did not fear war, did not shy from the bloodshed and carnage that came with it. The suffering of his people hurt him more than any battle-scar ever could. But slowly he had begun to obsess more and more over retribution and less and less over the eventual fortunes of his subjects.

Still, despite his thirst for enemy blood, he knew that the weapon his priests had given him was far more powerful than any simple implement of death. Killing the enemy meant that they lost power; transforming them not only reduced their power, it increased his own. When he awoke the day after the fortuitous accident, Mera-sun took a bath, ate a quick breakfast, and then immediately went to work putting his new weapon to good use.

Ben was feeling a bit more at ease that day, slowly getting used to being a part of his master's body. When they bathed, Mera-sun had taken the time and care to scrub his whole snaky shaft-body for him, and when they ate he even shared some of his meal with Ben. Eating felt strange for the new snake-cock; he felt something inside him digest the food, but it certainly didn't feel anything like his old stomach. The feeling of eating satiated his hunger... but inflamed him and his master with arousal. Mera-sun had wisely chosen to take his breakfast in his bedchambers, affording the newly transformed pair the necessary time to calm (and, in Ben's case, soften) before exiting to face the rest of his subjects.

After breakfast, the conjoined serpents slithered down into one of the deepest caverns in the mountain, escorted by a phalanx of elite guards. Mera-sun did not want his 'condition' to become public knowledge quite yet; Ben found himself stuck behind a thick leather codpiece as they slithered toward their destination. He fought against it, bulging the protective garment out lewdly and arousing both himself and the emperor tremendously as his scales rubbed against the garment's soft inner lining, but couldn't escape from it. Mera-sun dismissed the guards right outside of the prison, but a few priests and his personal guard were allowed in with him. All of those present had been at the ambush yesterday; they already knew of their emperor's accident. Sorim-vis directed them with curt precision as they went about gathering the human prisoners from their cells.

Mera-sun finally removed his codpiece and let Ben slither out of his slit, stroking the snake-cock affectionately. "Are you ready, my pet? It issss time we put your powers to good ussse..."

The serpent-king snapped his clawed fingers together and three ragged-looking human prisoners were brought forth. They had been bound, blindfolded and gagged; they had no idea what was in store for them.

"I don't want to..." Ben responded, trying to resist the warm feelings of excitement that had been building up in his body all morning. "You can't make me betray my friendssss, my comrades!"

"Don't you understand, Ben? You're one of usss now, whether you like it or not. They would kill you as surely assss they would kill me..."

"Maybe they would be right to," Ben mumbled quietly.

"Hmph. Do not ssspeak so soon; you are too young to fear death, but you should," Mera-sun said, almost fatherly. "Haven't you seen war, boy? Seen men die? You should know that this fate is comparatively... 'humane'."

"Yeah, but..."

The powerful, dexterous claws of Mera-sun began to scratch against Ben's neck and headscales, roughly but pleasantly. "Hush... just let my handssss guide you, pet."

The serpent warlord's rough, scaled hand rubbed the bottom of Ben's muzzle and the bridge of his snout with firm, insistent strokes, stokes that made his body shiver with delight and made his maw salivate precum. It is impossibly hard to suppress arousal when your entire body is an erogenous zone. The stroking made his scales feel stiff and hot, made his insides churn. His forked tongue hung lazily out of his mouth, prefluid dripping from it in a strong and steady flow. Mara-Sun hissed softly in time with his massaging, enjoying every bit of hot, tingling pleasure that came from his member, feeling better than his hemipenes ever had. It felt unnatural to only have one penis, but it was as if the usual double stream of sensations he had always experienced had been unified into one pure package of powerful pleasure. If Ben had taken the place of his twin hemipenes, he felt like much more than the sum of his parts.

Ben couldn't stop the hot and burning tickle in the back of his throat as their climax approached. Mera-sun let out a low, hissing moan as they both came, as he felt his male essence surge up into their shared urethra. Ben's maw was forced wide open as his whole serpentine body shuddered in orgasm, huge blasts of snake-seed spraying forth from it like a firehose. The three human soldiers in his path struggled against their bonds to avoid it, but to no effect. The hot, sticky cum covered their naked bodies from head to toe, each volley of fluid splattering from the targeted man to his neighbors. The young soldier on Ben's left was left sputtering, having accidently breathed in some of the musky cum.

"I'm sssho sorry! Pleasssh forgive me!" Ben cried, hot fluids still dribbling out of his scaled lips onto the floor below him. His whole shaft-body was gleaming with spent fluids, still quivering from the force of his orgasm. Mera-sun was in a daze from the over-whelming climax as well, absentmindedly rubbing the back of Ben's head with one sticky hand as he caught his breath. He coiled himself up on the floor, pulling Ben's limp body onto his chest as he waited to see the results of his magically modified member's semen on the soaked humans.

It didn't take long for the cum's power to take have an effect on their bodies. The men's feet and legs merged together and lengthened, accompanied by the grinding sounds of their realigning spinal columns. Before long, the three were lying on the floor, hissing and sporting scale-covered serpentine tails. The scales advanced inexorably up their lower bodies and across their stomachs and chests, over their arms and up their necks. Their hair fell to the ground and their faces pushed out into fanged, reptilian muzzles. The whole process had taken less than two minutes from start to finish. An astonished guard slid over to the transformed prisoners and removed their bonds; they looked remarkably docile. Slowly, they slithered closer to the emperor on their new scutes, tasting the air around them with their now-forked tongues. Their scales still gleamed with gobs of warm, drying serpentine seminal fluids.

"Don't worry; their mindsss are still intact. They just have a little something extra in there... a compulsion to obey my wordssss," Mera-sun said, whispering to Ben conspiratorially. Ben could recognize the changed men's faces; they still bore some resemblance to the humans they once were.

"How good of you to join us, my new sssoldiers!" Mera-sun continued, grinning devilishly. He gave them a one-handed gesture of blessing, and then motioned them toward the prison's exit. "There isss an army commander waiting jussst outside; you will join your new unit and ssserve me proudly within it. Dissssmissed!"

The transformed humans bowed low to him or offered him salutes with their clawed hands, and let themselves be directed away by a serpent priest. Ben felt a sick and horrible feeling of being used hit him like a wave of nausea. Manipulating bodies was one thing, but manipulating minds? It was a crime against everything he knew!

"Bring out another prisoner!" Mera-sun shouted, gleefully.

It was a solider from Sir Kerick's captured unit, one Ben didn't know personally. The young man had dark brown hair and tanned skin; despite his lean build his body was well-built and rugged. He had to have been a knight, or at the very least a senior squire. Unlike the previous trio, he was naked and gagged but not bound by ropes. Mera-sun wrapped his coils around the prisoner, drawing him in close and constricting his arms and legs tightly enough to immobilize him. Ben could feel the man's fruitless struggling, but it was barely noticeable against the power of the snake-lord's body.

Mera-sun held Ben level with his unblinking gaze, the emperor's strong hand forcing the sentient sex organ to look straight at him. "Eat him," he ordered Ben.

"What!?" Ben sputtered with alarm.

"Do it. I want to sssse how he changes."

"No!"

"Do it or I'll eat him. And I won't be gentle about it..." Mera-sun said, flashing his razor sharp teeth to Ben. The scared looking human's eyes met Ben's, anxiously trying to communicate his displeasure with the second option.

"I thought you sssaid you didn't eat people!" Ben protested.

"Well, I've never done it before. But I suppose I could give it a try..." The emperor said, constricting the prisoner further. The gagged man grunted in pain and shook his head, eyes wide with alarm as Mera-sun grappled with him. Ben could taste the fear on the mammal's sweat-soaked body.

The emperor took the human's hands and held them tightly together, pressing them invitingly against Ben's lips. A tiny bead of wet cum started to roll down the oddly appetizing forearm, as one of the man's fingers entered his mouth ever-so slightly...

"O-okay..." Ben reluctantly agreed, something inside him gurgling powerfully with ravenous hunger and need. He could feel precum start to dribble out of his muzzle as he pressed down on the man's hands, making them slick enough to easily slide down his snout.

"I'm ssso sorry; I'll try and make this gentle," Ben whispered to his meal before he began. The man gave him a rueful but sympathetic look.

Ben began to suck down the arms extended before him, the limbs easily accommodated inside his throat. Helpfully, His body didn't seem to have many bones left in it besides his spine and skull. All it took was a little effort to open his maw as wide as it needed to be. The taste of warm flesh made a small river of slick precum flow from Ben's mouth, drizzling into the man's hair and down the rest of his naked body by the time his snout reached the end of the bare arms and pressed against his nose.

Mera-sun shifted slightly, shivering with ineffable pleasure. He was having trouble focusing on holding the soldier in his coils, but knew that soon enough Ben wouldn't need any more help...

The poor prisoner stared up at the strange creature devouring him, a look of resigned fear in his eyes. But there was something else in his eyes, too; something curiously eager. The slick warmth and tightness of the snaky shaft slowly covering him must have felt quite good. Ben's forked tongue shot out as soon as he was close enough to the soldier's face, licking until it was coated with slimy juices. While at first the man thrashed around trying to avoid the serpent's kiss, as the human's ears and lips were tickled and painted with preseed, his fear faded into lust.

With one great swallow, Ben engulfed the top of the young knight's head down to his nose. His forked tongue could taste the front of the man's throat, hot with fear and sweat. Despite this, the arousal surging through the snake-cock was overwhelmingly strong. Mera-sun could do little but rest back against his winding coils, mouth agape and tongue hissing as unspeakable pleasure radiated from his throbbing member. It made Ben hunger for the main course. Mera-sun could feel it too, their shared testicle pulsing with sexual hunger. He used his powerful hands and coils to compact the soldier's shoulders, giving his body partner free access to continue their meal.

Ben's maw stretched as slid down past the man's shoulders, following the gentle contours of the arms already inside him. Every inch of living, breathing, struggling meat that he swallowed gave him a curious but pleasant feeling of fullness, of total domination. Ben tried to fight the unnatural physical pleasure, tried to force himself not to enjoy the act of eating another living thing, but could not. All he wanted to do was feast, feed himself and his master with virile man-flesh. The snake-cock pushed himself down further, engulfing most of the man's upper body and then his waist. When Ben's maw made its way down to the knight's lower body, his forked tongue rubbed against the man's hard penis as it slipped into his throat, teasing it. A spurt of human precum joined the musky juices in Ben's mouth, and his struggling seemed to come to a stop. He wasn't suffocating inside the warm, squeezing reptilian urethra that had swallowed most him; he was enjoying the feelings of the hot, pulsing throat massaging his whole body too much to fight back.

Ben carefully bit down on the soldier's legs to steady him, then raised up his body and let gravity and his slick urethra-throat finish the job. The man suddenly seemed to come to his senses and resumed his struggling, trying in vain to hold himself up. It was a wasted effort; he couldn't get a grip on any part of the slimy insides of the snake-cock consuming him. The helpless knight began to slip lower and lower inside Ben's shaft-body, Mera-sun aiding the process by firmly pushing on his feet. Finally, when his toetips disappeared past Ben's fangs, Ben let himself swallow the man down entirely. The tremendous bulge travelled through the rest of his stiff length, bulging out the sides of the slender snake-cock as it sank down into it. Ben felt the living meal come to rest inside one of his enormous, shared testicle, visibly stretching the normally hidden portion of their reproductive system. Hot, burning pleasure came from the now-filled chamber as the transformative cum inside it went to work on the captured human. Mera-sun and Ben felt the man's frantic fighting inside them, but every pounding fist or kick against their testicular walls felt good, rather than painful. Every so often, the pubic scutes near where the two serpents met bulged with the impression of a hand or foot.

Mera-sun distractedly began to pet Ben's head again, reveling in the tight and full feelings coming from their churning, musky chamber. The internal orb were beginning to swell heavily with seed made from their meal. The former human was too dazed, too busy with the process of quasi-magical digestion to do anything but enjoy the gentle touch, but his scales were still taut and turgid. He needed to cum very badly and very soon.

"You are a very good pet, you know? You are going to help ussss win this war, Ben," the snake emperor said, smiling predatorily. "Now, let'sss see what you did to him..."

Mera-sun began to stoke Ben harder and faster, his scaled claws rubbing the sensitive scales of the cock-snake from the bottom of the slit where they were conjoined to the tip of his snout. Already aroused from eating the poor knight, Ben and Mera-sun felt the orgasm quickly begin to build inside them. They felt their testicle churning as they pumped Ben full of cum, the thick serpent-seed beginning to flow past his sensitive lips. Just as before, the two felt every aspect of the orgasm from start to finish through their shared nervous system. Ben went cross-eyed as his cock-body climaxed, his maw forced wide open to release the reptilian cum flooding his mouth. But there was something very odd about this load; it was thick and cohesive, as if the sticky liquid mass was one semi-solid object...

Indeed, the spooge was so thick and heavy it didn't even spurt out. Instead, it splattered onto the ground in great, plopping globs of linked goop. The puddle of sticky liquid was a dark, emerald green color, which quickly began to cohere and grow as more and more of its mass dripped out of Ben's mouth. Eventually, when Ben felt the last bit of processed human drip from his lips, the blob of green goo began to pulse and shake with life. Slowly, a vague, globule-shaped head rose out of the middle of the ooze-like cum-puddle!

It coalesced into a serpentine shape as it rose, growing a gooey muzzle and a pair of shiny emerald eyes. The feral, serpentine shape looked down at itself with shock and alarm; the former knight looked grateful to still be alive but horrified by his transformation. When it hissed, its goopy tongue dripped bits of living cum back into the puddle it had grown from.

"Hello again," Mera-sun said, feeling quite pleased with himself. "Remember me? I am your master, little snake..."

The cum-serpent's head looked toward the emperor, instinctively knowing that his words were to be obeyed without question. The apprehension on it's morphic muzzle abruptly disappeared into near-fawning complaisance.

"Do you like your new body? Doesss it feel good?" Mera-sun purred inquisitively.

The snake-form bobbed its head 'yes', vigorously. Mera-sun smiled at it and patted its warm, semi-solid head with his tailtip.

Ben was appalled; what had once been a proud and strong knight was a docile, living snake made of cum. Its wet, slobbering, forked tongue licked Mera-sun's claws like a dog when the emperor offered his hand to it.

"Bring out another prisoner. Bind and gag him," Mera-sun said to a priest, who obeyed quickly and silently.

The man they brought out was slightly older and stronger than the previous prisoners, but he couldn't have been older than thirty. He nearly leveled one of the serpent-soldiers dragging him out with a headbutt; his spirited resistance actually made Mera-sun laugh with amusement. The defiant man glared at the emperor, hate and spite in his brown eyes.

"Do you see the soldier there, my pet?" Mera-sun asked, whispering to the liquid snake. "Why don't you go over there and make yourself a friend..."

The amorphous serpent gave a gleeful hiss and then slithered towards the man, leaving a slimy trail of juices behind it. Before the new prisoner could even begin to understand what was going on, it had already began to crawl up his bare foot. The cumserpent flowed up and around his former comrade, teasing him with broad, wet licks with its liquid tongue. The bound man struggled, but the hot, living liquid didn't cease for a second.

Ben was still trying to recover from his limp, exhausted state; the strain of eating, digesting and cumming out the knight had been immensely pleasurable but arduous. Clearly, not all of the man had been transformed into a living liquid; some of his old body was still gurgling away into cum and mass for the aberrant anaconda-boy. Still, even he could notice that each flickering lick that the cum-serpent placed on his struggling comrade was making the human's flesh become less solid...

The cum-serpent slid up the leg of the man's pants, staining them green wherever it rubbed against them. Not long after, the clothing then began to dissolve, leaving the knight's lower body completely exposed. The human was getting aroused from the liquid snake's erotic ministrations, but sensed that something was terribly wrong with his own body. Bits of his skin were turning a light green color and growing looser and more stretchy by the second. The gooey serpent of spunk coiled itself around the prisoner's thigh, some of his amorphous mass flowing over and around the man's already firm penis, completely enveloping it. Abruptly, the fighter's defiance melted into lustful moaning as his manhood was given a fluid blowjob. Around his backside, the naughty serpent's tailtip slowly rubbed over the human's rear end, wandering around his cheeks and spreading its smearable self about as the prisoner groaned loudly, thanks to the amazing sensation of having a luscious living liquid lick and suck upon his sex. Sufficiently distracted, the mammal never noticed when the massaging mass of male essence moved to the middle of his backside and sank between his cheeks to coat his anus with ample amounts of dark green goo, teasing and prodding at his pucker and even partially poking a tiny piece of its tailtip inside.

Suddenly, the cumserpent's gooey body morphed, it's head and tailtip switching places. The snaky shape's tailtip curled into a liquid loop and wrapped around the enthralled knight's erection, giving it flowing strokes while its ooze-like head dove between his asscheeks with a wet, squishing sound. A liquid tongue lapped inside the human's clenching anus with a slurping sound, just enough to begin leaking inside. The amorphous anaconda shoved itself against the tight opening, surging through it in a more fluid state before reforming on the other side of the orifice.

The snake's tail wiggled back and forth on the knight's penis as it drove itself in deeper, the man's precum flowing into its form in small spurts. Wherever the dripping appendage touched flesh, it left swaths of green-tinted, softening skin while the man whimpered in an intractable combination of sexual pleasure and perverse wonder. Strangely, while the rest of him was softening, his naked member steadily grew harder and harder. His arousal continued to mount as his prostate was forcefully massaged by the squishy serpent writhing around inside his ass, until the snake's tail left his throbbing member and joined the rest of its body inside his anal passage with a quick sloshing slither. By the time the last of the semi-solid serpent's tail had finished slapping against his now-rubbery cheeks and disappeared into him, he had reached his climax.

The knight cried out as he came, the force of the orgasm making him fall to his knees with a sound that was closer to a splash than a thud. His throbbing penis shot out huge and thick loads of white cum, but as his climax continued it slowly turned a light shade of green. Even more alarmingly, his orgasm never quite stopped. If anything, it only seemed to build in intensity with each passing moment. The human visibly shrank as more and more of his body was turned into thick serpent-seed, his body flopping helplessly to one side as he sank further into a puddle of his former mass. The only parts of his body that still seemed fully solid were his ejaculating erection and his moaning mouth; all the rest of him was becoming green goo. But eventually, all that was left of him was a pile of quivering, light-green cum.

The first cumserpent's dark green head shot out of the viscous mass, searching the area inquisitively with its forked tongue. There was a vague, proud smile on its half-solid muzzle. Suddenly, the puddle of light-green cum began to reform itself, a second cumserpent coalescing around the first. The two of them then crashed into each other with a lewd, wet, messy splash, each trying to pin the other down in their gooey coils.

"Hmmm... that wassss quite fun. Are you ssssure that the transformative magic becomes inert too quick to use them virally?" Mera-sun asked Sorim-vis.

"Yessss, my liege. Before their bodies even cool, it shall have dissipated completely."

"A pity," Mera-sun said, fantasizing about Medlarch's soliders dissolving into goopy, sex-obsessed serpents. He waved one of his priests over. "Get them into a tank or ssssomething before they stain the floor permanently."

When the priests scooped them both up, the two cum-serpents hardly noticed. They were too busy swapping body mass in great, sloppy kisses. Droplets of cum in varying shades of green splashed all over the priest's pristine robes, much to their dismay. The whole room was fogged with musky, virile scents and made Mera-sun's tongue feel sticky.

"Hmmm... this has gone better than I could possssibly have expected! But I can ssssense you are getting tired; we better do the last group of prisonerssss all at once."

"No more. Pleassse," Ben hissed back, exhausted both physically and mentally. Some of the mass from his meal had gone straight into his body; he could feel the tingle of growing pains near the veiny flesh that joined him with Mera-sun. His protests continued even as the humans were lined up before him. Like the previous prisoners, they had no idea what sort of fate the serpent-king had in store for them, save for the strong aroma of snake musk in the air.

"How much longer are you going to cling to the notion that you have a choice?" the reptilian lord asked, beginning to rub his member's snout. Once again, Ben felt his body stiffen and pulse as Mera-sun's dexterous claws teased the length of his body.

"It'ssss... not right," Ben responded. He shook his head, trying to dodge the petting strokes that made his arousal return to him.

Mera-sun was far stronger and faster than him, however. He held Ben's coils firmly in one hand, and began rubbing his head harshly with the other.

"Do it! Erupt upon them my pet, as you are meant to! You know you crave the releassse!" Mera-sun growled, stroking Ben faster and faster. "Change them, and we shall be done for the day."

Ben nearly came; he was just barely able to swallow down the onrushing orgasm before it began. The resistance only made Mera-sun massage him harder and faster, as if it was a perverse competition between them. Twice more Ben was brought to the very brink of release- he even felt spurts of cum begin to flow from their testicle into his throat- and twice more he held them back. The snake-emperor pulled Ben's muzzle up to his own and kissed his sensitive snout, tickling it with his forked tongue as their slitted, lidless eyes stared into each other's with primal lust..

And yet, despite the physical stimulation making him nearly blind with pleasure, Ben held on. Hot cum churned inside him, desperate for a climax that was only a moment's lapse in control away. It was nearly unbearable for the poor snake-cock. Finally, he bit down on his own tongue to stop himself from cumming. His fangs didn't draw blood, but the painful bite was enough to suppress his baser urges for the time being. Mera-sun gasped out in pain, relinquishing his grip soon afterward.

The prisoners looked upon the bizarre scene with incomprehensible but palpable relief. It was quite a sight to see the mighty snake-lord brought low by his own member.

"Very well," Mera-sun said to Ben, a smile of resentment mixed with respect on his muzzle. "We'll see how long you can deny your purpose."

Ben was too tired to think of a rejoinder, let alone say it aloud. His lower body still burned with cum that wanted badly to flow past his muzzle; it felt like his human life had ended ages ago, not yesterday. Slowly, he sank his bigger bulk back into his master's soft, safe, but somewhat snugger vent and fell asleep again as they slithered back up toward the bedchambers.

****Thanas-ves's Story****

Thanas Aloym Alys Sardek was a young serpent soldier from a small and relatively unimportant clan. He had lost many brothers and sisters to famine and disease, cold snaps and human brigands. His childhood was harsh and unforgiving from the day he was hatched. Like many others of his generation, he knew little of material comfort. When Mera-sun rose to power and promised the serpent-people glory, respect, food and land, he joined the army the very next day. Serving Mera-sun and fighting for the future of his downtrodden people became his highest aspiration in life, one he pursued with single-minded dedication. When word came down that the emperor was seeking a dedicated solider willing to serve directly under him on a special mission, Thanas-ves volunteered without a second's hesitation.

If he had known all the details, he would have been much less enthusiastic.

"My lord, are you sssure you wish to go through with this? You are asking quite a lot of your troopsss already..." Sorim-vis said, trying to reason with his emperor. "Don't you think that it'sss enough to have one living, sentient penis?"

"But only having one feelssss so... unnatural! Without hemipenes, I am hardly a male, let alone the leader of my people. Besides, Ben is being recalcitrant. I need a more loyal member to keep him in line."

"I hate you sssso much," Ben muttered. "I'm going to find something poisonous to eat sssomeday and kill us both..."

"Sssee what I mean?" Mera-sun said. "It is becoming depresssssing. Send in the sssoldier you chose."

The high priest departed, and when he returned Thanas-ves was accompanying him.

"Thanas Aloym Alys Sardek, soldier of the 'Ves' caste!" Thanas-ves said, his strong, up-curled body holding him stiffly at attention. "Reporting as ordered, my emperor!"

Thanas-ves was much shorter than his mighty emperor, perhaps eighteen feet from snout to tailtip. His scales were a mix of red, orange and yellow that formed a series of concentric rings down his body, the scale-pattern of a low caste.

Mera-sun smiled. "Good! It warmsss my scales to see such ardent devotion from my solidersss. Now, take off your armor and ssslide into my bed."

"Er... my lord, I know that I am but a simple solider unworthy even to address your greatness, but this seems... odd," Thanas-ves said, a bit of fear in his voice.

It was then that the lowly 'Ves'-caste noticed something odd resting in the corner of his sovereign's room. It was a large glass tank that resembled an aquarium, but inside it was a strange, amorphous mass of living liquid. It looked like two wrestling, watery snakes, but every so often they would merge into one solid, twin headed mass of green goo, or cohere into a bigger single snake, then shift about before falling back down into an ooze-like puddle, sloshing around at the bottom of the tank like crashing waves. Bits of sticky fluid dripped from the tank's transparent sides, before slowly rejoining their mass. By the time Thanas-ves stopped watching their hypnotic movements, the two serpents were happily slurping each other up by the tail, each one absorbing and being absorbed by their partner until they seemed to blend together.

Mera-sun smiled. "Yes. It is going to be quite odd for you at first, but I'm sure you'll grow to like it."

Before the young solider could register another protest, the high priest had cast his spell. It was a less powerful version of the mis-cast spell he had attempted to use on Zeryer Kerick, one designed to change the body but leave the mind intact. Thanas-ves felt unsteady as the magical energies dug their way through his scales; his tail felt strange and... smaller?

Like the great predator that he was, the serpent emperor wound around his changing soldier, holding him tight in his coils. Mera-sun stripped off his subject's armor and clothing piece by piece, throwing it to the side. Thanas-ves was too confused by what was happening and too subservient to protest. Then, he pulled on the young snake's tailtip with his powerful arms, pulling it close to his vent...

"My lord... what are you doing to me? Why do I feel... ssso... strange?" Thanas-ves asked, as his tailtip was inexorably drawn closer to the mighty serpent-lord's genital slit. When it slipped inside, he felt like the bottom of his body was stuck inside it!

"Shhh, do not worry... just let the magic dance upon your sssscales..." Mera-sun hissed to him, soothingly. He held Thanas-ves tightly as the magic went to work, siphoning away his subject's substance. He visibly lengthened by a few feet, his coils rippling with growth.

Thanas-ves's strong, muscled warrior's body grew skinnier and weaker by the second; he knew that his days on the battlefield were over. He couldn't do much of anything to stop the magical forces overwhelming his body though; he didn't even understand *what* they were doing. There was something else inside his emperor's opening, something wiggling against his tailtip. Thanas-ves looked down, and saw a serpentine head poking out of the opening he was being pulled down into.

"You ssssee that snake down there? It is no ordinary animal; it was once a human. Now, it sssserves as my maleness. You are going to join him in that role, my sssservant." Mera-sun said, an excited smile on his muzzle. "You undersssstand, don't you, Thanas-ves? An emperor needssss both halves of his malenessss, to preserve his proper authority and virility."

The animalistic member seemed to be growing as well, swelling with strength as more of it spilled from Mera-sun's thickening torso. It seemed to Thanas that he and the strange being appeared destined to be the same size before long.

"Pleassse my lord, stop this!" The shrinking soldier pleaded. He tried to look towards the high priest for some support, but the robed figure just averted his gaze.

"It will be alright. I'm ssssorry..." The phallic, feral snake said to Senas-ves. The former human was the only creature who would show him sympathy? Senas-ves would have felt more disgust for his so-called compatriots, but he felt dizzy and unfocused as his changes accelerated.

The serpent solider was already quite reptilian before the transformation and merging began; so it was not nearly as drawn out or as dramatic as Ben's. His coils and body shrank in girth if not length as his internal organs and bones reshaped themselves into the phallic, snake-like shape that his master desired. His strong arms wasted away to nothingness, their mass pouring into Mera-sun's body. Thanas-ves tried to crawl away, tried to stop his body from betraying him but all to no avail. His tailbase merged with the fleshy interior of Mera-sun's vent, and his autumnal scales changed into the same green and blue color as his emperor's armored skin, though their patterning remained the same. In minutes, he had become another snake-cock growing out from the emperor's genital slit. He took up the left half of the vent, while Ben filled the right, their lengths merging with each other and Mera-sun at the same thick, veiny, junction.

"Yes!" Mera-sun shouted triumphantly, as the might ruler regained his hemipenes. Sorim-vis tried not to think about the fact that his liege had just taken one of his servant's independence and body from him just to satiate his own needs.

Ben gave his new companion a mournful, sympathetic look as the emperor slithered down to the prisons, proudly displaying his matching members along the way.

"I'm Ben Thoma, by the way," Ben told Thanas-ves, quietly. But Thanas-ves was too stunned to do or say anything as he was paraded about; all he could do was pray with all his heart that no one from his unit would recognize him now.

It was only when their master slithered before a fresh group of humans and his body-his entire body!- was brought to a thunderous climax that the transformed snake soldier came out of his dissociative trance. He watched with utter, unmitigated horror as the hostile humans he had sprayed with his hot cum turned into docile serpent-men right before his eyes. This was how the emperor was making new soldiers? And, out of *humans*!? His mind reeled, nearly as stunned by the revelation as it had been by his change.

"Good, good... you are sssso much better than the former human!" The emperor said, praising his new snake-cock's voluminous load. "Of course, he was only a lowly page-boy, not a proud warrior. Now, to try you both at once!"

Two prisoners had avoided being struck by the magic-infused cum that had changed their friends; they struggled mightily as they were dragged before Mera-sun's writhing members.

"The priestsss tell me that if you can both cooperate, ssssomething interesting might happen. Eat them."

Ben and Thanas-ves didn't want to obey the bizarre order, but the emperor proved quite... insistent. Besides, the thought of having a live meal made both hemi-serpents salivate precum; every instinct their changed bodies possessed worked against what resistance they could muster. Thanas-ves could feel power surging into his muscled coils and his scales stiffening, a potent combination of sexual arousal and hunger filling him. Both he and his new 'partner' wrapped their way around the struggling knights, giving in to their relentless, alien hunger.

Their cavernous cockslit-maws opened wide and they began to go to work on their meals. Ben was more experienced; he used his expanded form to lift his knight up into the air, using a couple of coils to point the mammalian meal directly towards his wide open snout. All the length he could spare was lined up straight behind his cock-head to make his dining that much easier. A lightning-quick strike and a powerful gulp later and the man's head was enveloped in easily stretching skin; his prey barely had time to register surprise before several more suckling swallows subsumed his sentient substance. Ben's coils bulged as the man sank deep into him, eventually coming to rest inside his cum-filled testicle-stomach. It began to gurgle and slosh with the knight's struggling, the transformative magic swiftly beginning to go to work on him.

Thanas-ves watched this display with a mix of shock and horror, until he realized that the tingling pleasure of absorption was radiating into his own body... He finally gave in to the will of his emperor and the voracious hunger from deep in his body, and began to go to work on his own meal. Slowly, he moved his muzzle towards his prey's feet, licking them with his slimy tongue until they were dripping with slick fluids. He took a tentative taste of the tender toes, his tongue's tines slipping between the odd, knobby extremities before slurping up the whole foot. But with one of the awkward feet-things in his mouth, he came to the abrupt realization that he was going to need to somehow get the other one in. This was more complicated than it looked.

The human he was consuming had begun to fight back, driven nearly mad with fear after seeing his comrade consumed. Hard kicks struck Thanas-ves on the snout painfully, almost dislodging him from the foot in his mouth. Behind them, Mera-sun seemed detached from the activity, most of his strength loaned out to his humongous hemipenes. His body shook with joy as he reveled in the eating experience, but all he could do was watch his members work through pleasure-fogged eyes. But he seemed to flinch with each harsh kick that hit Thanas-ves, feeling much of the pain himself. The emperor was not going to be happy with him if this continued...

Suddenly, something stopped the human's foot from flailing, and pulled it in line with Thanas-ves's snout. Seizing his chance, the serpent snatched the offered appendage, cramming it past his lips and into his throat. He looked over, half-expecting to see the emperor giving him a cold stare while guiding the human's leg with a large hand?... but instead he saw Ben's snout. Ben had wrapped his dexterous length around the human's arms and legs, pulling the struggling knight into a perfectly straight alignment. The... the human had helped him?

Their eyes met, a strange look of solidarity passing between them.

The knight continued his struggling, but his fate had been sealed. The strong second snake had wrapped him up too tightly to do any more than shake uselessly. Thanas-ves worked his way up his body, from the man's legs to his waist, sucking down his hands and forearms along the way. As he did so, Ben uncoiled himself, freeing more fresh flesh for the new shaft-snake to feast upon.

His coils freed, Ben slinked his way up towards the face of his former countryman. He felt sympathetic, saddened and more than a little guilty, as he whispered into his ear: "I'm sssssorry, but don't worry. You'll live on ssssome new form. You might assss well try to enjoy this."

Ben leaned over and coughed up a spurt of precum on the man's face and slathered it all over with his forked tongue. The intoxicating, musky precum combined with his soothing words made the knight's eyes grow heavy with lust, and his resistance visibly slacken. Thanas-ves seized the opportunity and finished what he had started, swallowing up the rest man's body until his throat's muscular peristalsis dragged it into the same testicular chamber the first man had fallen into. It began to gurgle even more powerfully, as gallons of transformative cum filled it up and soaked into the two hapless knights, their naked bodies pressed tightly against each one another as they began to change...

Thanas-ves, Ben, and Mera-sun were all exhausted from the strain, but their living meals had been delicious and arousing beyond words. Thanas-ves could do little but gently sway back and forth in front of his master, precum dripping from his slack mouth.

"Good work, my petssss..." Mera-sun said, rubbing his exhausted and slime-covered members gently as he came out of his daze. The three merged snake-forms rested as their testicle-stomach processed the men inside it until their struggling ceased. Thanas-ves felt their weight inside him, weighing him down like a boulder. It was a small wonder that two knights could have fit inside even the emperor's slimy sphere of snakeseed; there was probably no way it could have been done without magic.

Thanas-ves's ruminations were abruptly halted when the weight began to shift unsteadily inside him. Something enormous was coming back up his shaft-body; it was slick with precum but huge and hard. Thanas-ves felt the strange object stretch him wide until it reached the end of his muzzle, before he suddenly and powerfully climaxed. Next to him, Ben did the same thing. But in addition to the hot, sticky cum that shot out of his open maw, Thanas-ves felt a large and leathery-shelled egg plop onto the seed-soaked ground in front of him. It was massive; big enough to hold both the men the snake-cocks had devoured...

The egg quivered slightly on the ground, shaking a few stray strands of cum from its topside. It was as if someone or something was attempting to break out of it...

"Haha! Yessss! Excellent! Take it up to be incubated; I want the best brood-maidens in the city looking after it!" Mera-sun said, cackling with glee. He seemed strangely unperturbed by the challange to his masculinity that came from laying an egg.

The snake scion gathered both his sentient, serpentine hemipenes in his arms and pulled them close to his muzzle. He whispered to them as he cleaned them with his long, forked tongue, "When they mature, they are going to be a merged serpent-form like ussss. One will function as the body, the other the maleness... ready to devour and change otherssss, or sssspray them with sweet, transformative juices. All of them, completely loyal to my will! Our armiesss will be unstoppable!"

"My lord, we haven't yet ssssucceeded in reproducing the magical forces inside your body quite yet," Sorim-vis added, sheepishly.

"But you will. I have faith in you, Sssorim-vis!" Mera-sun replied smugly.

The serpent-lord grabbed his now-clean hemipenes and stuffed them back into his slit. Neither of them had enough energy to resist or protest as they were placed inside their warm, living home. It was a very tight fit indeed for the twin malenesses; when their master slid against a hard surface, they were squeezed firmly together. They spent most of the day drifting in and out of unconsciousness, having been drained of energy and fluids from their experiences inside the prison. Mera-sun let them come out during his evening repast, feeding them table scraps as he discussed war plans with a group of mortified advisors. It wasn't until later that night, when he finally coiled up and drifted off to sleep that they gradually began to speak to one another.

"I... can't believe what we did today..." Thanas-ves whispered to Ben, shell-shocked. "The emperor... what manner of perverssse magic is this!?"

"I know. And he ussssed us to do it," Ben replied, regret in his voice. "I wassss an accident of magic... but it seems that your emperor now prefers new body partssss to loyal subjects."

"Why would he do this... after all that he promised us? After everything I did for him, for my people..?"

Ben hissed in rapport.

"It'sss not the transformation... that didn't sssseem so bad. It's their mindssss! To break someone's will with magical power... it is a crime againsssst nature!"

"I know," Ben agreed.

"I thought that the emperor was going to lead ussss to victory; secure our future... I don't know what to think anymore." Thanas-ves looked like his spirit had been shattered.

Ben thought the poor snake was about to cry, until he remembered that the serpent-people could not. He wanted to hug the poor snake, but he didn't have arms. His entire body was one limbless, erogenous organ; there was only one thing he could do to comfort his disconsolate friend. Slowly, Ben moved his body towards his fellow phallus, and gently rubbed his snout against Thanas-ves's.

Thanas-ves returned the gesture almost reflexively; the vent was so tight that night. Ben smiled at him as he did so, and then planted a flickering kiss along the front of his muzzle. Thanas-ves started at the cock-serpent who had kissed him, his body feeling hot from the unexpected but wholly welcome gesture.

"T-thank you," he mumbled, indistinctly. "That felt good."

"You can kissss me back, you know," Ben said, smiling at him. Their muzzles were already touching ever-so slightly inside the warm, slimy, compact slit.

Thanas-ves paused for a second's thought, and then did just that. The two snake-cocks kissed each other, forked tongues flicking back and forth between each other's scaled lips and into their maws. It didn't take long before the familiar, stiff feeling of arousal began to wash over their scales. Their faces were as sensitive as the head of a real phallus; both of them quickly began gushing precum into the intimacy of the vent. It flowed freely between them; the taste of Thanas-ves's preseed was slightly saltier and more viscous than the former human's thicker, heartier juices. Above them, Mera-sun stirred in his slumber as the kissing, squirming snake-cocks grew more passionate, but the warlord seemed content to drift unconsciously through the experience like a very, very wet dream.

The tight slit grew hotter as they continued, filling up with musky juices and lewd, sloshing sounds. They wrapped tightly around each other in an erotic dance of throbbing coils, rubbing the entire length of their bodies together. When the pleasure flowing through them finally came to a glorious crescendo, both hemicocks began cumming at the exact same time. They held each other's maws tightly, their kiss never breaking despite the veritable rivers of cum shooting though them, gushing out around their sensitive, linked lips. All around them, the emperor's body shook as he felt the orgasm in his sleep, his body unconsciously convulsing with pleasure. Cum flooded the emperor's cock-stuffed genital slit, spurting out of the opening and down the length of his up-turned frontside like a burbling brook of seed. Ben and Thanas-ves snickered to each other between naughty gulps of their mixed cum; Mera-sun was going to be displeased with the mess in the morning, but it was worth it.

"Hey... I don't know what's going to happen to ussss... but I promise to help you however I can," Ben said, licking his fellow cockserpent tenderly. "Maybe we can find a sssolution to this predicament together. Esssscape."

Thanas-ves smiled at his new friend and nodded in agreement, feeling hope for the first time since his traumatic transformation. "Whatever happenssss, we can face it together?"

"Yessss," Ben replied.

The two strange snake-creatures coiled up around each other inside the pool of warm cum, falling contentedly asleep within minutes.

**** Ben & Thanas-ves' Story ****

For nearly a week, the two snake-cocks were used on a nearly constant basis to transform more humans. Not only that, Mera-sun was quick to show off his virile, unique hemipenes, using Ben and Thanas-ves to double-penetrate more than one overwhelmed serpent maiden. The emperor sometimes opted to rut both of his shafts into the females' tautly stretched slits, or would occasionally direct one of the two twin members to invade their mouth while the other was occupied with the feminine folds. He rarely took a bath or meeting without a pair of servants- male or female, it mattered little to him- pleasuring his penile pythons. Both of them resented the role they had been forced into despite the undeniable physical pleasure, but they only shared their loathing of Mera-sun when they were snugly sequestered inside his slit. They stayed strong throughout the humiliating ordeal, thanks largely to each other's company and compassion. Whenever their master slept deeply enough, they made their unique brand of love to each other with every inch of their phallic bodies.

Ben had never been well educated, nor was he the bookish sort. Until he joined the army, he had been a simple, aimless dreamer. Politics and history had bored him in school. When Thanas-ves told him of the mean and bleak existence the serpent-peoples had been forced to eke out inside their tiny patch of land, he began to understand the war from their perspective for the first time. Ben's family was not rich, but he had never gone without food or winter clothing before. The suffering, the economic hardship, the wounded pride that Thanas-ves described made him feel a terrible and dark guilt for his homeland's actions.

Thanas-ves was equally surprised to find that Ben was an adventuresome, mild-tempered man at heart; he had been told all his life that humans were ruthless and thuggish killers. Ben listened to his stories and fears with genuine concern and empathy, not the vindictive ire he had expected. The hate for humans that the serpent solider had clung to throughout his life began to slowly fade away, replaced by a world view still forming but far more nuanced. He too felt the sting of guilt; the serpent invasion of Medlarch lost the false luster of glory that it once held in his mind. He remembered when his old unit slithered through the border town that had been preemptively struck, bathing in the warm glow of burning houses and bleeding warm-bloods. Back then he had been proud. Now, just thinking about it made him feel sick.

Neither male had been much of a socialite; Ben by his iterant nature, Thanas-ves because of his weak clan. But it when one shared a bond as intimate as they did- even thought it was not by choice- it was impossible to not develop a strange sort of camaraderie. Friendship. Maybe even love.

Thanas-ves taught Ben about serpent culture and religion, about the caste system and about their history. They both swapped their stories from the war; Thanas-ves was astonished to hear first-hand accounts of the infamous Sir Kerick's exploits. Ben taught the serpent solider as much as he could remember about life in the bustling city that surrounded Castle Medlarch where he had grown up. Everything about human culture and luxury fascinated the serpent solider; he had lived a subsistence lifestyle before he had joined the army. Many of the things he heard about seemed fantastical, such as electric lighting and alcohol.

"...so it is a drink that makes you feel ssstupid, tastes awful and doesn't even quench your thirssst? By the gods, who would enjoy such a thing?" Thanas-ves asked, puzzled.

"Well... it sssounds bad when you put it like that, but it really isn't like that. It'sss something you drink for fun, usually with your friendsss," Ben responded

"It soundsss like a poison!"

"Well... it sssort of is. You are sssupposed to drink it when you want to let yourself loose, when you feel comfortable enough to let go of your inhibitionssss. There are entire buildings dedicated to drinking it in the city called 'barssss'..."

"What!? Surely you are toying with me! Isss he lying? Do people really consume this... ssstuff, Mera-sun?"

"Yes; it is actually quite good," Mera-sun interjected. "Sssome sherry or port goes excellent with a good meal, or a nice glassss of scotch to end a night. It is merely an acquired taste."

"Sssee? The emperor agrees with me!" Ben said, smirking. Thanas-ves glared at him playfully.

They usually didn't speak in the view of the emperor, though. He- understandably- disliked arguing with his own members, especially in front of his advisors or consorts, preferring for them to be silent instruments of his sexuality. Ben and Thanas-ves heard every word of the meetings, though they pretended not to. They heard the dark plans the emperor was laying; they knew of his plot to enslave the will of the entire region. When he talked of using the magic on any serpent-folk who didn't want to go along with his plans, the last bit of patriotic fervor that Thanas-ves felt for his emperor crumbled. Silently, carefully, he and Ben began to conspire against the serpent sovereign. Mera-sun never knew that his most dangerous enemies hatched their plans inside his own body...

One day, they saw their chance come.

Mera-sun was having a meeting in his private bedchambers; only he and his priests were present. The emperor and a cadre of the more fanatical snake-priests had been arguing with Sorim-vis and his less extreme followers over what to do with their burgeoning magical power. Three of the junior priests- their green-white robes shorter and far less ornate than Sorim-vis's garment- seemed to be pushing the most dangerous idea.

"What issss this, my lord?" Sorim-vis queried, incredulous. "What are you thinking of doing..?"

"Hm? Oh, I had some of your disciplesss take another look at your original ssspell, Sorim-vis. These bright young servants of our people ssseem to think that it could be adapted into a wide-scale ritual!"

"Yes, my lord!" one of the young priests began, "If we gather all of our magesss into one great circle, if we could channel the spell power through the mosssst powerful leyline nexus we can find..."

"...We could try and cassst it over the entire region. Engulf all of Medlarch! Enssslave them all to your will!" The second added.

"You only need give usss the word, emperor. Give the word, and we shall begin preparationssss immediately!" The third finished.

Mera-sun's eyes gleamed and his muzzle curled into a fanged smile. Terrible, long-overdue vengeance was within his grasp. He spoke but one word to the priests.

"Yes!"

"Wait, my lord! Let me see those calculationssss!" Sorim-vis said, snatching a piece of heavy parchment from the claws of one of the priests. His unblinking eyes scanned over the document with astounding speed. "This is... you made so many assssumptions... so much missing information... this is utter madness! You can't possibly think that thisss will work!"

"Uh... forgive us ecclesiarch; we did the best we could," one of the young priests said sheepishly.

"Well, your theories are impressssive. But that is all they are: theories! You ssspeak of channeling magical forces that would give dragons pause! If it were to destabilize or begin to fray the strands of reality, do you have any idea of the consssequences?"

The trio answered in quick succession:

"...no?"

"Something bad?"

"Something not good?"

"Mera-sun, do not go through with this! The risssk is too great, even to end the war!"

"I will take your advice under consideration, Sorim-vis, but thisss war must end, now and forever! The humansss are too strong, too cruel to defeat if we only transform them one by one. If we have a weapon that can win the war, we shall use it immediately!"

"But my lord, to channel that much magical energy isss to play with the foundations of reality itssself!"

"So what? I have promisssed out people victory at any price, and I will not let them down. They have sssuffered too much already. If we lose this war, the human's vengeance will be terrible beyond wordsss..."

"Yes, yes my lord; what you say is true. I know exactly how much our people have suffered; I know you only want to do what is best for them! But this ritual... it could destroy everything we have! Even if it were to work, we would be committing a crime worse than anything the humanssss have ever done!"

One of Mera-sun's snake-cocks rubbed affectionately against Sorim-vis. The high priest gave it a half-conscious pet as he continued to argue with his emperor. It was just another reminder of his king's growing obsession with personal power. Ben and Thanas-ves exchanged a meaningful look, but their reptilian eyes didn't betray a hint of emotion. No one seemed to remember they were intelligent, mostly independent creatures.

"I don't even know if we would be justified in trying the sssspell, even if there was no chance of error! To warp the mindssss of all those innocent civilians, even if they are humansss. It is wrong, my lord. Terribly, terribly wrong..."

"I don't care, stated the emperor, bluntly. There isss no right or wrong in the affairs of nations; there is only power and weaknesss," he gave his priest a pointed, vicious look, and then dismissed him silently.

Sorim-vis felt a heavy and terrible weight in his heart as he left the king's bedchamber. He was more than partially culpable for the emperor's descent into madness.

He stopped mid-slither as he reached his own bedchambers. There was something resting in the folds of his robe, near where the snake-cock had rubbed against him. What was this? Some sort of awkwardly scrawled note?

It looked like a series of military code-words, along with very specific instructions on how to use them...

****Sorim-vis's Story****

Sorim Vissus Vol Sardek was a member of the 'Vis', the caste of spellweavers and priests that served the serpent peoples. Mera-sun was his clanmate and childhood friend; he had appointed Sorim-vis to the position of high priest not long after his own ascension. The high priest of the 'Vis' caste was second only to the 'Sun' himself, a fact he was quick to remind others of. It was very helpful to refresh their memory of this fact when he wanted to go about his business without unnecessary harrying or bothersome questions about his itinerary.

An unseasonable storm front had appeared a few hours hense. Heavy rains and winds were battering the land for miles and miles around, accompanied by sporadic bursts of thunder and lightning. It did not take an archmage to guess that the tremendous magical energies being channeled into the land probably had something to do with the unnatural weather. It had made all of the roads into quagmires; Sorim-vis did not like travelling on muddy ground. Even though the muck washed off his scales quite easily, it took forever to clean from his robes and it felt unseemly to have to slither through mud like a worm.

Still, he felt grateful for the unnatural storm raging overhead. It provided excellent cover for his meeting with Sir Kerick.

Sorim-vis loved his friend and clanmate dearly, but Mera-sun was inviting damnation upon them all. He had to be stopped before he brought utter ruin to their people, before the magical forces he was summoning unshackled themselves. No one else dared to speak out against the serpent-king; few even thought him capable of error. Sorim-vis was the only true friend that Mera-sun had, even if the king did not realize it. He had to stop him- not in spite of their friendship, but because of it. Only a true friend could do something harsh but necessary to someone they loved, especially when it meant conspiring with the most powerful enemy that serpentkind had...

The two met in a ruined guardtower, located far from the fighting but inside serpent territory. It was clear of patrols, but the violent weather impeded vision and hearing so badly that they could have met outside a barracks and been confident of secrecy. Sir Kerick came alone, as he had promised; Sorim-vis was mildly surprised that the man had made good on his word. He wore a heavy black hooded robe over his armor and carried his sheathed sword on his back; the eyepatch over his left eye only accentuated the look of concealed strength that seemed to define the knight. Sorim-vis found himself wondering if the injury was real- perhaps from the ambush?- or yet another of the human's ploys.

Sorim-vis cleared his throat and spoke: "Sssir Kerick. Thank you for coming."

"The pleasure is all mine," Sir Kerick said, giving him a darkly warm smile. The human offered his hand to the serpent-priest so quickly and invitingly that Sorim-vis found himself reaching out to shake it before he even realized he was doing it. The human had the same aura of authority and self-confidence about him that Mera-sun did, but his was very subtle.

"Who told you how to reach me, anyway?" Sir Kerick asked. He looked relaxed, but Sorim-vis could feel the tension rippling just below the surface of his skin. The human's body radiated heat like a bonfire in the middle of the cold, wet night; it held violent potential not unlike that of a coiled serpent.

"Your page, actually."

"Oh?" The knight-commander cocked an eyebrow, genuinely surprised. "Ben survived that spell?"

Sorim-vis averted his gaze, and decided that it would be best not to divulge all of the details of the boy's transformation. "Yesss. He still lives... in a way."

"Good. He always was a clever boy, if a little zealous." Sir Kerick scratched his head briefly, affecting nonchalance. "Tell him I'm sorry about what happened. Had to be done."

The high priest looked at the human closely. His eyes and face betrayed nothing, but his pulse had quickened ever-so slightly and his taste had the unmistakable flavor of guilt on it.

"But we have no time for idle chatter; what do you wish to discuss?" Sir Kerick asked, adjusting his hood.

"The emperor, Mera-sun... he has gone mad. He and the othersss are preparing to cast a transformative spell over the whole land; they wish to remake it and your people in their image."

"Hm. That sounds dangerous."

"It isss. They meddle with forcesss they cannot possibly underssstand, let alone control. If they are allowed to complete their ritual, I cannot say what will happen," Sorim-vis said, slithering anxiously back and forth. Half-consciously, Sir Kerick ghosted him by nervously pacing around the small stone room.

"I'm afraid that King Medlarch is not being reasonable either. He did not take the news of your king's transformative powers well. He spent a day screaming at me about 'corruption' and 'purification' and a few less-pleasant concepts. The archmages are at work in the castle on some sort of doomsday spell at this very moment... something horrific. Just being near them made my skin crawl."

Sorim-vis flicked his tongue out, staring at the human with his unblinking eyes. He could taste the acrid burn of lingering death-magic on the man, enough to sting his mouth. "Did you hear what ssspell they spoke of?"

"I caught a word or two. Something about 'the black wind' and 'culling'." Sir Kerick said, trying to recall the exact words they had used. "Something about tempests..?"

The serpent-priest abruptly stopped his movements, maw agape. "Tempestas Nex!? No... no! You ssspeak of insanity, knight! Are you certain you heard them correctly?"

"Yes, that sounds right. How bad is it?"

"Very, very bad. I have only heard rumorsss, rumors whispered in hushed and horrified awe," Sorim-vis breathed, sounding very much hushed and horrified himself. "It is ancient death magic. In ssseconds, it makes flesh and scales putrefy and slough off like hot jelly. Tendons snap and bones crumble into dusst; all blood is violently purged from the body, ssspraying out from every available orifice. Trees wither and die. Birds fall from the sky, but disssintegrate before they even hit the ground. The soil is poisoned for a thousssand years. The dead rissse from their graves, to seek out and consssume the living..."

"That is, uh, quite enough," Sir Kerick said, cutting him off. He was no stranger to warfare, but what the serpent-priest spoke of was an atrocity. "What will the damage be? Give me numbers."

"Depends. Where isss the ritual targeted!?"

"They are trying to make it seek out and destroy all serpent-kind, I think."

"What!?" Sorim-vis said, grabbing the human by his shoulders, the color draining from his scales. "If my king isss attempting to turn all humans into serpents, and your king is trying to kill all ssserpents..."

Sir Kerick threw off his false eyepatch, mouth agape with horrified comprehension, grabbing Sorim-vis as he did so. "By the gods..."

The two of them stared at each other. Words did not seem powerful enough to describe the cataclysm about to take place.

"I hate magic," Sir Kerick said sourly, for once unable to control his own emotions. "I hate kings. I hate war! This whole war is bloody absurd! It is stupid, inefficient, wasteful, and... by the abyss, I don't know! Sorim-vis, what is wrong with our people? They would rather risk total annihilation than share this damned land!"

"I do not know. People fear the unknown. They fear that which they do not understand, they fear..."

"They should fear death, not... not vague feelings of unease!" Zeryer Kerick shouted, angrily punching the side of the crumbling tower with his plate-clad fist. The structure shuddered ominously from the forceful blow.

The thought of being buried under a moldering guard-tower helped the knight regain his self-control. He took a deep, sighing breath and sank to the floor. Sorim-vis moved silently over to where he was resting, and leaned the upper portion of his winding length against the wall next to him.

Cautiously, the serpent-priest put an arm on the man's shoulder in a gesture of sympathy. "I have an idea, but I'm going to need sssome help."

"By all means, let's hear it," Sir Kerick said. He looked at the scaled arm on his shoulder uncomfortably, but did not attempt to remove it.

"Are you familiar with electricity? When like and unlike chargesss meet, and they produce neutrality. If we can find a way to connect both rituals-perhaps through some specially prepared linking amulets- they should cancel the worst of each other out. Life-magic and death-magic... it just might work. It should work!"

"Should?" Sir Kerick repeated, skeptically.

"There is a chance it might not work at all. There is also a sssmall chance that it will produce a cataclysmic explosssion, tear the fabric of reality asunder and unleash eldritch abominationsss from beyond time and space."

"I don't like the sound of that. What if we just kill the casters before they finish? All of the mages focusing on the ritual?"

The snake-priest winced. "Then the energy would dissssipate from their bodies in a pure, uncontrolled magical detonation. If you are familiar with the principle of mass-magic-energy equivalence, you might have some idea of the dangersss inherent in that approach. Maybe... maybe we could channel the magical energiesss, try to destroy the disputed land. If we turn it into a barren wasteland, there will be no reassson to fight over it."

"And maybe we could have some peace..." Sir Kerick finished, rubbing his temples as he tried to plan. "But all of that land! To lose it forever would be an unforgivable tragedy! Almost all of the arable land and good aquifers within a hundred miles lie in the disputed territories. Both our peoples would be condemned to eeking out what life they could in the desolation."

"It may be worth it, to ssstop the war. Ssssurvival should be our priority, not comfort."

"Maybe. But let's try to think of something better before we go ahead with our treachery," Sir Zeryer Kerick remarked, standing back up in a flash. Thinking and planning, strategizing and plotting were things he was good at; he felt back in his element. He had never had to think his way out of a situation this dire or difficult before, but giving up never even occurred to him.

He reached out a hand to Sorim-vis, pulling the serpent priest up from the ground. "Tell me everything you know about ritual magic."

For three hours, the two of them conspired inside the ruined guardtower. Despite the water leaking into it and the chill wind blowing through its patchy stone walls, they were utterly focused. Countless contingency plans and bold plots were made and modified, discussed and discarded. Sir Kerick and Sorim-vis never stumbled upon a perfect solution, but by the time dawn came they had something close enough... or so they hoped.

Time- and luck- would tell.

**** End Game ****

Somehow, Sir Kerick had clung to the notion that King Medlarch might be convinced to see reason. His judgement was that it was quite unlikely, and once again his judgement did not fail him. When he confronted the monarch inside castle Medlarch, the cold burn of death magic was already beginning to build up from the adjoining chamber of the archmages. It made the rain above the castle freeze before it hit the parapets; the tinkling sound of shattering icicles echoed throughout the castle walls. Other than the sound of King Medlarch's heavy, strained breathing it was the only thing Sir Kerick could hear inside the tense atmosphere of the throne room.

"This land must be purified of the scaled-kind. Purified! Pur-i-fied!" King Medlarch said, marking each syllable by slamming his throne with the royal scepter. They corrupt our blood, they corrupt our minds; they are abominations! They must be purged, once and for all!"

Sir Kerick turned his greatsword on its side and gave it a swift flick, clearing the blood from it. The eyes of the dragon on the hilt were gleaming like ruby-red stars, and waves of fierce heat radiated up and down the enchanted blade. Two of the king's men had made the grievous mistake of trying to restrain him by force when he entered the throne room.

"Don't be so melodramatic, my liege," Zeryer Kerick scoffed. "We were winning the war through conventional means, and we could still win yet. But no one is going to survive the night if we continue with these apocalyptic spell rituals..."

The king gave him a hateful sneer. "Yes, well, I have re-defined the conditions of victory. You delivered the reports to me yourself, Sir Kerick! What the serpents have done to our men is abominable! Whatever the cost may be, they must be eradiacted!"

Sir Kerick smiled diffidently. "My liege, you know that I have served tirelessly in your name, defending your land, your people and your honor. I always have. For eleven years I have! But I'm afraid that you and I don't quite agree on the snake question. Exterminating the serpent-people is not the answer; it never was. They have a right to live as much as we do..."

"Of course! They had that right up until the point where they invaded our lands and killed our people! After that, their lives were forfeit!" the king yelled, his clenched fist shaking. His mouth was practically frothing with impassioned rage.

"Quite an unfortunate event, but entirely predictable given their predicament," Sir Kerick said, frowning. "The numbers do not lie. There is enough room in this land for the two of us. Why is it so hard to share it?"

"Because it is ours! It has been for over a thousand years! You don't understand, Sir Kerick. You never had to fight for our very survival, like my father or grandfather did! The serpent-folk are not human; they cannot be reasoned with or placated. If you let them, they will kill or consume everything and everyone in their way."

"I would assume they say the same thing about us," Sir Kerick sighed. He would never understand how thinking beings could be so unreasonable, so animalistic when it came to certain matters. The only difference between the King Medlarch, Mera-sun and a pack of wild jackals was that the jackals left the ground beneath them intact after they fought. "We need to think about the future, my liege. If we fight magic with magic, atrocity with atrocity, what will be left of these lands? What will be left to fight for?"

"Commander, I believe you have gone soft. What happened to you, Zeryer? You were such a good leader, such a capable man! Why are you turning your back on your people now, at the very moment of ultimate victory!?"

"My goals have never once changed, my liege," spat Sir Kerick, through gritted teeth. He did not suffer insults to his competence very well. "I simply see things as they really are, not as a deluded fanatic might. I serve this land and this people, and I will not see either destroyed just to indulge your fantasies of racial purity!"

They king and Sir Kerick stared at each other. The royal guard had been joined by nearly a full company of other knights who had been stationed in the castle; the throne room was packed with tense, heavily armed and armored soldiers.

"Zeryer L-lanson Kerick... I am stripping you of your title and your command," the king ordered, hot tears of rage pouring from his eyes as he spoke. "And... f-for the crime of high treason during wartime, I hereby order your execution."

Sir Kerick's response was swift and certain. "Belay that order. Alexander Medlarch, as the knight-commander of the armed forces and as the servant of the people, I declare you unfit for the throne by way of insanity. Until a rightful heir is appointed in your stead, I am appointing the prime minister as sovereign. Furthermore, I am ordering that this maledict ritual be halted!"

The assembled knights and guardsmen in the room looked uneasily towards their hero, and then their king. Doubt ran through their ranks like a palpable force. Some of them shifted nervously from one armored foot to the other and readied their weapons, but did not know what to do with them. Nearby, the chanting of the archmage circle continued ominously. If they realized what was happening from their casting trances, they betrayed no sign of it.

A moth flew too close to the edge of the ritual circle, disintegrating with a dry pop in the ambient necromantic energy.

"I am the king by right of birth; my word is law!" King Medlarch thundered, eyeing his men with panic and fear. His voice was hoarse and his sweating face was eerily bathed in the vile glow of the ritual. "Now, arrest. That. Man!"

Sir Kerick gestured toward the building cataract of void-black death magic with his sword. "Men, is this how I taught you to fight? Is this what Medlarch's knights stand for? We never fought a war of extermination; we fought to secure our future! Is this the legacy we wish to leave our children? A land of dust and ash, purged of life?"

Sir Zeryer Kerick did not have children, but in the heat of the moment it felt like the right thing to say. It certainly played well with the men. Soldiers started lining up behind him, some of them with shamed tears in their eyes.

"You always were so damned persuasive," King Medlarch muttered grimly. His praetorian guard stood firmly beside him and readied their weapons.

The knight-commander brought his sword to the ready, preparing to lead the charge. He checked his side pocket to make sure the Sorim-vis' link amulet was still there, and sincerely hoped that Sorim-vis was having an easier time of things with his master.

**** Endgame, Continued ****

As fate would have it, Sorim-vis was not. He had returned to the casting circle intent on taking it over and redirecting the gathering magical energies, but one of his young acolytes had betrayed him to Mera-sun. The life-magic gathering in the leyline nexus deep inside the serpentfolk caverns wasn't like any he had ever seen before. It wasn't vibrant or warming; it was a maledict, cataclysmic storm. Great, powerful waves of corrupting, migraine-inducing energy radiated from it.

He had already been restrained by a cadre of burly guards; his link amulet was twirling uselessly in Mera-sun's claws.

"Why... Sorim-vis, why would you do thisss to me?" Mera-sun demanded, crestfallen. The high priest had been the only person in the world who he had trusted.

"The ssspell is wrong. This whole war is wrong! There hasss to be a better way! My emperor, we can't go through with thisss!" Sorim-vis pleaded.

"Humansss are not reasonable. They mussst be changed by force; there is no other option! Their minds, their willssss... they will be mine!" Mera-sun hissed, a fanatical gleam in his vicious eyes.

Sorim-vis mourned for his friend. He was intoxicated by power and didn't even know it.

"Don't you ssssee, Sorim-vis? Don't you understand? They will be our ssslaves; we will live like kings upon their broken backs! All thossse years of suffering and ignominy for our people can be repaid to them a thousssand-fold!"

"We would be a thousssand times worse for it, my emperor..." The high priest responded, sadly. "Please, do not do thisss! We can end the war on better termsss, find some way to share this land; we have to do sssomething, anything besides this!"

"Naive, Pollyanna fantasssies! War has no room for sssuch sentimentality! This ritual will continue!" Mera-sun thundered. His countenance was lit by the sickly glow of the gathering magical power, making his scales look like those of someone on the verge of death.

"But Mera-sun... Kerick promised to stop his king's ritual! We cannot continue with ours like this!"

"He has lied to you, Sorim-vis. You are blind to the treachery of humanssss. But even if they do as you ssssay, all that does is afford us the perfect opportunity to complete our own magic," the emperor said, turning away from his friend in a gesture of finality. He waved his claw to a nearby guard. "Have this traitor executed when the ritual issss complete."

"Wait! No!" Sorim-vis shouted, more scared for the fate of the land than his own life. The priest's mind raced as he tried to think of some gambit, some plan that might still work...

But he didn't need to. Before Sorim-vis could speak another word, Ben had shot out of Mera-sun's slit like a ballista bolt, seizing the link amulet in his teeth. Mera-sun reached out with one of his powerful arms to stop him, but Thanas-ves had already begun to constrict his limbs and body, holding him in such a way that any movement on the emperor's part would strain his shaft in an excruciating manner. The cock-snakes fought mightily with their master as he tried to restrain them, but he was sorely disadvantaged. He couldn't bring his full strength to bear because every bit of pain the hemipenes felt radiated into his own body with equal potency. Ben had grown far more comfortable with his snaky coils in the days since his transformation; he was able to wind and slip and dodge his way out of the emperor's reach, his serpentine length darting towards the magical vortex as Thanas-ves held the emperor immobile...

Ben's entire body hurt to even approach the gathering storm. In fact, it hurt quite a lot. Ben was no archmage; he did not know much about magic. But even he was fairly certain that putting his head inside the magical conflux would be a very dangerous and very fatal endeavor.

"Wait, Ben!" Mera-sun shouted over the storm of arcane energy approaching apogee. "Ssstop! We can rule thissss land, together!"

For a few agonizingly long seconds, he considered letting Mera-sun continue with his plan. He was going to die if he went through with this, he had no doubt. Wouldn't it be better to serve the ultimate master of the region- maybe even the world someday?- than throw away his very existence? He would benefit immeasurably from his master's success; live and eat well for the rest of his days...

But he couldn't. He saw that future and knew that it was wrong. To bend all those minds to one's every whim... it was evil.

It was evil that he could stop.

Ben Thoma dearly wished he still had eyelids to close as he dove towards the vortex of life-magic. The second the amulet in his mouth touched the edge of the growing tear in reality, he felt his mind explode into a thousand disconnected pieces. The life-magic and the death-magic annihilated one another as they connected through the disparate amulets, producing pure magical energy. It flowed into Ben's helpless body as if he were a fish trying to drink all of the oceans at once.

It was beyond overwhelming; cosmic power was never meant to be housed in the frail body of a mortal. His corporeal form disintegrated within nanoseconds.

A surge of power shot out from the broken vortex, consuming everything in its path like an exploding star. Sound fled from the world. Then light. Then feeling. And then, even thought. Soon, all that was left was a total and utter void; a vast and formless emptiness in which every living being in the region now found themselves trapped. For the first time in eons, the land was quiet.

**** ???'s Story ****

It was impossible to tell how long it took or what exactly happened because no sentient creature was conscious to observe it, but slowly the magical forces that infused Ben began awaken. The power was utterly beyond mortal reckoning; even the most ancient of dragons would have found it impossible to control.

No one knew that all of that magical power- when focused into such a small space and time- reached a strange sort of critical mass. It became more than just a primal force; it became self-aware.

To say that it had a mind or purpose would have been far from the truth of the matter, but no mortal concept could really describe the reality of the situation. The best metaphor may well be that it was a god. Certainly not an omnipotent or omniscient one, but to a mortal the difference was one of degree and not nature.

It waited for its orders. For an eternity of relative time, the living force of creation waited.

It was amazingly easy to be patient, when you have no concept of what time is.

Eventually, it realized that its master was broken. Well, that was easily remedied. Using an infinitesimal fragment of its power, the force repaired Ben's mind and body. His memories were strange but rich; they told quite the tale. The proto-god read it with rapturous pleasure.

It loved its master so; he was such a nice sentient. He had gone to a great length to help his fellow sentients; sacrificing himself in a most noble fashion. It felt proud of its master. If a living force of magic could be said to smile with satisfaction, it certainly did just then.

It knew what to do. It knew how to make his master happy, to make him and his fellow sentients right once more. Better than right, maybe. This piece of the world had suffered too much recently.

The magical force gathered its strength and put it to work, using every last bit of its self-energy to fuel the effort. Slowly, its consciousness left it, as its power flowed back into the world from which it was tapped.

Pure creation flowed into each human and serpent-person within the realm. It queried their unconscious minds ever-so gently and ever-so pleasantly, teased out their deepest desires and needs. It found them suitable- but different- forms. Perhaps they wouldn't fight so much if they weren't so hung up on the notion of race and species, it thought.

It felt a little sad as it dispersed. It liked living quite a bit, but life was finite for every living thing- itself included. It would have been wrong to keep the stolen life-energy that made it up; the sentients didn't seem very happy without it. Well, they didn't seem to be much of *anything* without it. Every bit of life that flowed from the proto-god into them made them feel better, made their emptiness and pain fade a little more. It took every last bit of energy the creation-force had to rekindle and restructure their lives, but it was well worth it.

The last thought of the proto-god was one of contentment. It was strange how nice it was to make others feel good.

Epilogue

Slowly, the former humans and serpent-folk awoke from the deep, catatonic slumber of near-lifelessness that had struck them. Though none of them knew it, mere seconds had passed since Ben Thoma's death and resurrection. They awoke to find their bodies changed; where before there were only humans and serpent-folk, now the realm was populated by a staggering panoply of humanoid life. Scaly reptiles and furry mammals, water breathing amphibians and flying, feathered folk.

There was a brief time in which the newly-transformed populace fragmented into disparate and fearful communities, but after a while an extraordinary new group appeared in the region. They promoted the ideal of universal cooperation and peace between the changed peoples, drawing their membership from every occupation, species and caste without prejudice or bias. They were led by a black-feathered raven man who wielded a dragon-hafted sword and a pteranodon-folk spellcaster. Thanks largely to their work, a unified nation rose from the ashes of the war and the spellstorm.

Both Castle Medlarch and the largest of the serpent-caves had been annihilated by their proximity to the magical cataclysm, though there were astoundingly few casualties and no deaths from their destruction. Ben and Thanas-ves had emerged from the ruined leyline nexus unharmed, marveling at their new and independent bodies- Ben a full serpent-man and Thanas-ves a lizardman. They had joined a steady stream of dazed refugees who had gone to work building a new city amid the old battlefield of the rich valley, settling in there and helping with the harvesting and construction.

Ironically, Ben had found that he liked the shape of a serpent quite well. It was much nicer to be a snake when he could slither about on his own scutes. Thanas looked much the same as he did before his transformation, except that he had two digitgrade legs ending in clawed feet and a lizard's tail instead of lengthy, winding coils for a lower body. Even his former coloration had been restored to him, now a mark of pride to the clanless reptile. Walking was an extraordinary novelty to the new lizard, but he picked it up with remarkable speed. Currently, he was working on jumping.

Ben missed his old legs, but there were things that a flexible, winding serpent could do that a humanoid simply could not. For example, a male serpent and a male lizard could entwine their bodies together such that both of their anal passages were filled with the other's thick cocks while simultaneously holding each other close in their arms, rubbing their chestscales together, and kissing deeply...

Although truthfully, it wasn't that difficult a feat given Ben's unique equipment.

"Come on out," Ben growled, rubbing the outside of his slit, "my boyfriend needssss a nice, hot load of cum underneath his tail..."

Reluctantly, Mera began to poke his way out of his master's genital slit. The mighty warlord had been transformed by the spell-ritual into a far smaller but still serpentine shape: a snake-cock. Ben wasn't sure if cosmic karma had its say in Mera's transformation, or if his new shape was truly what he most desired. Perhaps it was some of both.

"Yessss Ben," he hissed obediently to his 'host', stretching out his coils until he found his way to the lizard's backside. The former lord of all serpent-kind had taken poorly to his new form and role at first, but found the feeling of being part of another curiously liberating as time went on.

Ben and Thanas both moaned aloud as Ben's snake-cock began to paint long, wet licks along the underside of the lizard's tailbase, coating his scaly ass with his precum-saliva. As Mera-sun continued to lubricate Thanas-ves's tail-hole, the reptiles pulling each other into a deep kiss. Thanas grabbed onto the length of Ben's coils beneath them where his anal vent rested, and began to work his own members in a little deeper. He had just managed to fit both his hot, fat hemipenises into Ben's tight opening when he felt the snake-cock working his backside over flick its forked tongue inside his anal passage...

Thanas lifted his strong, prehensile tail up invitingly, giving clear access to the serpentine member lapping at his taut, wet tailhole. While the snake-cock wasn't under his control, Ben could feel every bit of sensation from its sensitive scales as the living member buried deeper into his mate's tight ass. The feelings were bizarre and difficult to get used to, but there was no denying that it comprised a sexual firestorm of pleasure. Mera-sun's forked tongue spread slick preseed all around the anal passage and rubbed against the lizard's hard prostate; it wiggled its way in and out around the clenching hole, slamming it with its entire body mass. As more and more of the powerful, slimy, phallic snake penetrated the slick depths of his lover, Ben found himself moaning and hissing with unabashed pleasure... and Thanas- was doing much the same. Having every inch of your ass filled with a live precum-spitting cock-snake was a feeling that words couldn't do justice to.

Ben felt the cum pour from his shared internal testicles into his cock-snake before his orgasm even began. He felt Mera-sun's body shake and quiver as it filled up with his hot spunk, the living member's maw opening wide to fill the up lizard's rump. Sticky-sweet blasts of thick cum filled up the anal passage with such force that Thanas-ves immediately came himself. His anal rings to clamped down hard on Ben's cocksnake and his hemipenises both climaxed and spurted their lizard-cum into Ben's tightly-filled anal vent. The entwined reptiles moaned and hissed and shook as their sexual fluids filled each other up, the three of them sharing their orgasms like one being. Even when Ben felt the last of his seed leave him, he could still feel his snake-cock's expert tongue playing with the warm, sweet spunk he had deposited inside his boyfriend's ass, pushing it further in with lewd sloshing sounds. It took a lot time for them to come down from the sexual high, and longer still to lick each other's slickened scales clean. Their entire bed smelled strongly of musky cum, new and old.

"By the gods, you are one skilled snake," Thanas said, giving Mera a quick peck on his flat snout.

"Why thank you," Mera said, kissing his former subject back far more passionately.

"Yeah. Don't worry; we'll find you another form someday," Ben laughed, petting his snake-cock's wet length affectionately. "Ssssomeday everyone will forgive and forget. And we'll find something to do with ourselves."

"No need to rush..." Mera replied, lazily sinking back into Ben's vent, seemingly as happy and content as he could possibly be.

"I don't know; I could go for a little more naked sunbathing in the meantime..." Thanas said with a lewd smile. "But you're right; we should start thinking about the future."

"What do you want to do, my lovely lizard? Go ssslay a dragon? Sssave a princess from an evil wizard? Sssee how many times we can make love in one day?" Ben said, topping each question with a long lick from his forked tongue. His mate tasted like love. Salty-sweet, deep, warm love, to use the inexact and poor vocabulary that non-snakes have to describe tastes with. Thanas was slowly teaching him the beautiful, sibilant and nuanced words that the serpent-folk had created.

"I think I've had enough of adventure for one lifetime." The former serpent said, following his lover's tongue as it slipped back into its muzzle to kiss him again. "What do you think about opening one of those 'bar' things you told me about..?"

**** ****

"...and that's the story of our land! Like I said traveler, it's a strange tale indeed. Still, 'tis mighty hard to take issue with peace and prosperity, y'know? Hmm? How did I hear all of this? Oh, everyone 'round here knows it! Actually, my husband might have a few details I've forgotten. He should be slithering in here sometime soon with fresh food and ales. You should stay a little longer and say hello! I'm sure he'd be delighted to meet you..."

THE END