“The bowl is getting full again, my love,” she said, her voice little more than a whisper.
“No. Please. I can’t bear it! Don’t take it away! Don’t leave me!”
“I’m sorry, love. If I don’t go now, the bowl will spill, and the pain will be greater than anything you’ve ever known.”
“No, please,” he begged her, but she was already gone. Rushing as quickly as she dared, eager to empty the bowl before…
She heard the evil hiss a fraction of a second before his screams burst forth from the cave behind her. The earth shook as he writhed in pain. She dropped the bowl, and the cruel poison splashed over her hand. She was more accustomed to pain than he was, however, and so she merely grunted in discomfort as she picked up the empty bowl and rushed back to his side.
“What took you so long,” he asked, through his tears of pain.
“I was only gone for a moment,” she said. She held the bowl over his head. Above them, the snake hissed again, and a single drop of venom fell into the bowl.
Time had little meaning inside the cave. The venom dripped into the bowl. When the bowl was full, she rushed to empty it. She never made it back in time. Always, as she emptied the bowl, she would hear the hiss followed by his screams. The earth would shake violently, and she would return to his side.
And then, one day, the pattern shifted, as it always does in the tales of gods. A small mouse scurrying across the floor of the cave caught her attention, and her mind wandered for just a few seconds. It was enough. She spilled the bowl of venom over his body. He screamed and thrashed more violently than ever before.
And the venom found its way to the chains that bound him.
Burning through the chains as easily as it burned through his flesh, the venom set him free.
Exterminis, the Lord of Chaos and Destruction, was free.