The gang was growing rather quickly, though the number of ‘true’ Lyrheans was still only three. Due to that, Lyrhea’s Quest hadn’t updated in a few days, and this was turning into nothing more than an exercise in gaining more cannon fodder.

Though, to be fair, this wasn’t entirely useless, either. While the number of martial-type Lesser Lyrheans had grown, so too had the more ‘backline support’ type ones as well.

They say an army marches on its stomach, but an army can’t march well if it lacks clothes, weapons, and other forms of support and maintenance, too. In the militaries of Old Earth, there was the old idea of ‘Tooth to Tail Ratio’, which referred to the amount of support personnel compared to active combat personnel, and at this point, the Tooth to Tail ratio of Lyrhea’s growing horde of snake people was around 7-1, in the favor of the more combat-oriented types.

The number of support personnel had rapidly increased after a certain point during their ‘recruiting’ sessions, and now that one singular guy who had to desperately struggle to clothe and arm everyone had a few more hands to help with his job. Still, though, despite all of that, a fact remained which gave Lyrhea, at least, no shortage of headaches.

There still were only three True Lyrheans, and she hadn’t found a person getting eaten alive by a massive snake nor been able to orchestrate the events that would lead to the creation of such a situation transpiring. All the low-ranking grunts in the world wouldn’t help much if and when that monster of a Ranger came after her again, and she could almost feel that bitch’s presence around her, almost as if she was there and just cautiously evaluating the force arrayed against her from out of sight, smell, and hearing range.

Or maybe she was just being paranoid, but still, a healthy dose of paranoia in this new, crazy, super dangerous world that everyone was stuck in was, as stated earlier, rather healthy. Everyone and everything had essentially reverted back to the way things were at the dawn of mankind, where every noise could signal a threat lurking in the shadows, waiting to pounce.

And so, with all of that said, was it any question why our favorite Superhuman Snake-Person was wracking her brain to try and figure out what to do next?

“Damn it, damn it, damn it…” she growled as the menagerie of serpentine humanoids settled in for the night. She was far enough away from the others that they couldn’t hear her fussing over such things, but it was not as though they had a solution to her problem anyway.

Luxnilae eventually approached her and sat down on the half-mangled metal bench that was once a part of a city park but was now stuck halfway between a section of that park and the side of a brick house that was angled about 98 degrees towards its backside.

“Mother,” she started. “I can feel your frustration from the other side of the camp. What’s going on?”

Lyrhea looked off and to her side where Luxnilae’s face was. She caught herself mid-scowl and shifted her face back to a more neutral expression with visibly conscious force. She couldn’t hold herself back from sighing, though.

“We have so many ‘Lesser’ Lyrheans,” Lyrhea rumbled, putting emphasis on the word ‘Lesser’ in an effort to show how she despised calling them such. “But we lack any more ‘True’ Lyrheans. I’m starting to think I’ll never be able to end this dumbass section of my Tutorial Quest…”

“Oh, don’t worry,” Luxnilae said with a dismissive tone and a wave of her hand. “I have this old Quest that I still haven’t fini-..” she paused, realized something, then continued. “wait, you are still stuck on the Tutorial Quest?!”

Her shout caught everyone’s attention, all despite Lyrhea making the universal sign of ‘do not talk so loud, you fool’. As more of her subordinates got up to see what was the matter, this only dropped Lyrhea’s mood further down the shitter.

Soon enough, voices of concern filled the once quiet air, and as they did they drowned out the noise that they should have heard approaching them. If the approaching entity was the Ranger Bitch, then this would have been the perfect moment for her to deal a crippling, if not mortal blow to the fledgling force of non-humans.

It was not such a being that was coming closer, though. Instead, a far more dubiously welcome source of interaction was approaching. It was only once that being was far too close for comfort that the olfactory sensors of the reptile people picked up the intruder.

Instantly, and without any pause to think about what they had sensed, the martial members among the group sprung into action and grappled the incoming being to the ground, pinning him there and holding no fewer than three blades of various types to different parts of his body.

“Who are you and what do you want?” Lyrhea asked with contempt. While she was glad that the attention had been diverted from her issues, but also quite angered that someone had gotten so close without being detected or stopped before just now.

The person who had been forced to the ground looked up, and Lyrhea, though she could barely see his face, felt like she had seen this kid before. She almost wanted to just let him go, as he wasn't even armed or armored and apparently was a bit malnourished and dehydrated based on appearance alone.

But the look on his face… It was not the look of a foe or a vengeful warrior. No, the look on his face was that of a religious fanatic who had just come into contact with their messiah, be that person an actual messiah or not. Ash that gaze met her’s, she felt a chill and a bit of unease run down her spine, and apparently, she had shivered a bit as the boy asked if he needed to ‘give her his clothes to help her warm up’.

And no, she could tell that wasn’t an attempt to make a lewd comment. The kid was just that crazy.

“I asked what you wanted, boy, as well as who you were. Answer quickly before we toss you out and let you fend for yourself.” Lyrhea said bluntly, trying to put up the facade of stability and control in a situation that was rapidly unsettling her for reasons she could not place.

“Oh, great and sovereign Chosen of the Great Serpent,” the kid half-moaned in obvious religious ecstasy. “we, the faithful, were cast out from our homes where we worshiped the Primordial One. We have journeyed far to find you and serve the ones destined to rule the world!”

Lyrhea felt her stomach drop. God fucking dammit, it was more fanatics. As if she didn’t have enough of those crazies among the members of her own kind, and the fact that the two other True Lyrheans were already converted to that burgeoning faith was all the more reason for her to feel awful about all of this!

She sighed. It wasn’t like this would just go away on its own, and given the growing proclivity of the others of her race towards religion, she assumed that they would be more of the mind to allow these humans, however many of them there were, to join them.

“Ah, at last.” one of the Lesser Lyrheans said in a tone of smug condescension. “Finally, you filthy mammals know your place.” the gathering then looked to Lyrhea with gazes seeking approval. Well, it wasn’t like she wanted to die due to having her juniors replace her…

“Yes, yes. You lot can join, so long as you do what you are supposed to.” Lyrhea replied, hoping that these vague words would achieve something better than her worst expectations.

“Yes!” the lunatic yelled in a very excited voice. “We will serve as all must serve, as your subjects, all beneath the rule of the Superior beings!”

No slaves, hopefully, or so Lyrhea thought. Well, they would at least be treated well, right?