Dark Currents on the Other Side

Cool moonlight shone down, and the woods outside the window swayed with the gentle breeze, casting ghostly shadows on the ground.

In the silence outside the Ancient Potion Club room, a bewitching figure suddenly appeared.

Anna.

She seemed to be in a great hurry. She didn’t even have time to take out her key, but simply, and brutally, crashed open the classroom door with her slender body.

She staggered into the room, fumbled along the wall, and finally, in a spot near the back, she pressed on a loose stone brick.

The sound of a mechanism activating echoed, and the wall moved, revealing a small, hidden compartment.

Inside, various potions were stored.

Her gaze quickly swept over them, and she took out a bottle of green potion and a bottle of blue potion from the back.

She tore open the sleeve of her dress, which had been slashed by the High Priest’s blade, revealing her left arm.

But the arm that was revealed was not the pale, delicate arm of a young maiden. Instead, it was something that would make one’s heart turn cold with a single glance.

Because it was covered in scales.

Fine, overlapping, pitch-black scales.

Snake scales.

Looking at the scales, a deep-seated disgust and hatred appeared in Anna’s eyes.

She took a deep breath, as if preparing herself mentally.

Finally, she made up her mind.

She picked up the green potion, opened the cap, and fiercely, she poured the liquid onto her left arm.

Sizzle!

In an instant.

Like a strong acid being poured.

The black scales, which could even withstand a blade, were quickly corroded, hissing and emitting a white smoke.

“Hiss—”

At the same time, a heart-piercing pain instantly made Anna’s beautiful face turn pale, and a cold sweat broke out all over her body. She gritted her silver teeth, her ample chest heaving, and in a moment of unconsciousness, she crushed the potion bottle in her right hand.

“Why… why has it suddenly gotten so much worse?”

“Don’t tell me…”

Anna slammed her fist on the table and looked up.

The bright moonlight shone down, but it brought with it an endless, dead silence and a biting cold.

It wasn’t over yet.

With a trembling hand, she took out a sharp dagger.

Slowly, she placed it above the scales on her left arm.

She paused.

Then, with a fierce motion, she scraped the scales from her arm.

Blood dripped down.

The scales were scraped off along with the skin, and the sight was gruesome.

But Anna was still very careful, as if she had done this countless times before. Bit by bit, she scraped every single scale from her arm.

Only when there was not a single scale left on her arm did she quickly pour the blue potion onto it.

The wound began to heal at a visible rate, and pale, new skin grew back.

In a short while, her left arm was no different from an ordinary girl’s, and was even more delicate and pale than before.

Only then did she let out a long sigh of relief.

Not only because the intense pain had subsided, but also because a certain desire that had been growing with the scales in her heart and was almost unbearable, had finally receded.

The desire to eat something.

She leaned against the wall and slowly slumped down, as if all her strength had been drained.

Her unfocused eyes held a strange, dazed look.

“No, I have to hurry. I must…”

In the empty Ancient Potion Club room, Anna muttered to herself.

…

…

The Great Bell Tower.

Thirteenth basement floor.

The Well of Quicksilver.

“Wow, so this is the core of Saint Mariaca Academy?”

The man with a fierce scar on his face looked at the solemn and vast mechanisms around him and couldn’t help but exclaim in amazement, like a country bumpkin in the big city.

“Tsk, tsk, all these things seem to be made of rare metals. These enormous objects, they must be weighed in tons, right? Can I take some home? I feel like if I just scraped a little off the corner, I wouldn’t have to worry for the rest of my life.”

“Shut up!”

The withered figure in the black robe in front of the scarred man hissed. “And don’t touch anything, if you don’t want to be crushed into a pulp by the security system here.”

“Alright, alright, I won’t touch anything.” The scarred man shrugged, looking very innocent. “I’m not some bratty cousin from a relative’s house. Why are you so nervous?”

“…”

The withered figure walked in silence, a dilapidated lantern in his hand swaying, emitting a pale blue light that enveloped the two of them. The pale blue light was full of a deathly silence, but after being enveloped by it, the security of the countless precision mechanisms around them seemed to lose its effect, ignoring the two intruders.

The long passage was incredibly quiet.

Perhaps feeling that the journey was too boring and the things around them were not very interesting, the scarred man once again approached the withered figure and asked, “Speaking of which, are your companions alright? One has to lure away the teachers and professors, and the other has to hold off the imperial princess. It sounds like very dangerous work.”

“They’re fine. They have their own plans to get away,” the withered figure sneered. “Instead of worrying about them, you should be worrying about yourself.”

“Worry about myself?” The scarred man was stunned. “Why? With everyone lured away, shouldn’t this be the safest place?”

“It’s safe to get in, but isn’t the most dangerous part escaping? After all, what we’re about to do is… that.”

“What… ‘that’?” the scarred man was stunned again.

“…”

The withered figure was silent for a moment.

“You don’t know?”

“Know what?”

“You don’t know why you’re here?!”

The withered figure was shocked.

“The High Priest only told me to come,” the scarred man said, scratching his head innocently.

“He told you to come and you didn’t ask him what you were supposed to do?”

“Well… as a good subordinate, shouldn’t asking fewer questions and doing more work be an essential quality?”

“…”

The withered figure suddenly didn’t feel like talking anymore.

He began to regret asking these lunatics to send someone to help him. Although they were indeed short-staffed, he had a feeling that bringing this guy in was a mistake.

But forget it.

It was too late now. Even if this guy couldn’t be of much help, he could still be thrown out as a decoy at a critical moment.

“If you don’t know, then don’t ask,” the withered figure said, turning back. “Time is short. If you don’t want to die, then keep up.”

“Oh, okay.”

The scarred man nodded repeatedly and hurried to catch up.

But as he walked, as if he had just remembered something, he once again approached the withered figure and asked with a serious expression, “Speaking of which, since it’s so dangerous, you must have an escape plan, right? Like, at a critical moment, reinforcements will suddenly blow up the ceiling and descend from the heavens to pick us up.”

“…”

“If you don’t have plan A, I think plan B is also fine. Like, after we’re done, we take out a teleportation magic scroll and it sends us away. Although I get motion sickness from teleporting and I always throw up afterwards, I think it’s not a bad idea at a critical moment.”

“…”

“If you don’t have plan B, then plan C should be fine!” The scarred man’s tone was a little anxious. “Like, you call down your big boss, that… whatever-moon, to wreak havoc. That should work, right!”

“…”

“No, you can’t do things without a plan! If plan C doesn’t work, then plan…”

“Shut the hell up!”

The withered figure, who could no longer stand his rambling, shouted in a breakdown. “The moonlight’s protection is limited! If you talk so loudly, what if someone hears you?”