“You shut up!”
Unable to bear the incessant nagging of the Skinny Shadow, he exploded with a shout:
“The protection of the moonlight has its limits. If your voice is so loud, what if someone hears us?!”
The enormous roar echoed through the quiet corridor.
For a moment, it caused the flickering lantern light to tremble, as if it might fly off and shatter at any moment.
Creaking and rattling, their shadows also became disordered, resembling mocking demons.
So, both fell silent and exchanged glances.
After a while, it was the Scar-faced Man who broke the silence, lowering his voice with a look of indignation:
“Clearly, your voice is louder! If you want to die, fine, but don’t drag me down with you, okay?”
“…You motherfucker…”
The Skinny Shadow suddenly felt a breath lodged in his chest, neither rising nor falling, making him want to strangle the Scar-faced Man in front of him.
But he couldn’t; the mission was paramount.
A cold glint flickered across his skin-and-bone, sunken-eyed face, but it was quickly concealed.
“Stop wasting time, let’s go!”
“Oh, where are we going?”
“Of course, to the deepest part of the Mercury Well…”
The Skinny Shadow suddenly froze.
Because although this voice that had appeared out of nowhere was also insufferable, it seemed a bit different from the Scar-faced Man’s?
He turned his head, only to find the Scar-faced Man tightly shutting his mouth, shaking his head frantically.
Could it be…
The Skinny Shadow’s pupils constricted sharply; he no longer cared about concealing his form and shouted at the surroundings:
“Who? Come out, you hiding thing!”
“Hiding? That’s an interesting thing to say. Clearly, it’s you who are sneaking around in someone else’s home like a mouse.”
Accompanied by a lazy chuckle, out of the shadow in the corridor stepped… a Pink Bear.
A Pink Bear?
The Skinny Shadow was momentarily dazed.
What the hell is this, trying to be funny?
“Who are you?”
“Hoh, judging by your looks, your intelligence seems a bit outdated.”
The Pink Bear walked closer step by step, its footsteps making a bizarre squishing sound on the floor.
“Don’t you know? I, Pink Bear, am currently the acting dean of this academy.”
“Dean?”
The Skinny Shadow was shocked, his gaze constantly scanning up and down the Pink Bear, but no matter how he looked at it, he felt this guy was just a silly character out to be cute.
But the Skinny Shadow quickly calmed down.
Even if the intelligence didn’t include any mention of the Pink Bear, only hinting at Dean Heatherwei’s sudden absence, the fact that he could appear in such a core position meant he was not simple.
“Such a pity; I had wanted to use some peaceful means.”
The Skinny Shadow sneered: “Isn’t it better to pretend not to see?”
“Pretending not to see is certainly good.”
The Pink Bear sighed: “I don’t want to get mixed up in trouble either. Being able to hide in the office, smoking a cigar while looking through provocative picture books, is truly the second-best day in the world. By the way, the best day is watching big white legs of beautiful girls on the beach.
However, having spent the academy’s money, I must do something for the academy. If Professor Plon lets out another roar or simply goes above to impeach me, cutting off my financial source, that would be a loss.”
“It sounds like I’ve interrupted your good times?”
“Of course! You evil cultists, can’t you wait until my duties as acting dean are perfectly finished before causing trouble? You’ll vex me.”
“And when I’m vexed…”
The Pink Bear suddenly opened his cavernous mouth and reached inside, pulling out a massive spiked club.
His tone was no longer lazy but filled with chilling malice.
“—I just want to kill.”
In an instant, a strong, pungent smell of blood filled the air.
The nauseating stench made one feel as if they were amidst a fierce battlefield piled with corpses and flowing blood.
But there was clearly not a trace of blood around; where did this smell come from?
Trickling.
The sound of flowing water rang out.
At that moment, the Skinny Shadow realized that blood was continuously flowing from the Pink Bear’s comical eyes, ears, and the clearly decorative nostrils.
The blood was warm, revealing an indescribable terror.
“You… what the hell are you?”
The Skinny Shadow’s tone carried a trace of tremor.
At this moment, even after completely abandoning his living flesh to embrace the stillness of death, looking at the Pink Bear, who had suddenly transformed from a silly character into a terrifying figure, he felt a trace of… fear?
“Go ask about it in hell; perhaps many know.”
The Pink Bear slowly raised his spiked club, and at that instant, the Skinny Shadow felt his vision turn red, his breath freezing suddenly, as if drowning in a surging river of blood.
No, that’s not right.
This was just an illusion.
The Skinny Shadow suddenly awakened and raised the lantern in his hand once more.
The dim blue light flickered, causing his shadow to sway, like a beast stirring in the darkness.
The shadow spread, and the Pink Bear seemed to sense something, abruptly stopping, hesitating to step forward.
“Ha—ha, do you see? I am a child of the moon; how could someone like you, a lowly mortal, compare to me?”
Seeing the Pink Bear halt, the Skinny Shadow laughed maniacally, oblivious to the fact that as the blue light in his hand grew stronger, his already skin-and-bone body became even more emaciated.
As if an invisible entity was gradually sucking away the last remnants of vitality.
“Are you really such a foolish thing, tricked by an evil god to the point of not even recognizing your own mother?”
A hint of mockery dripped from the Pink Bear’s tone.
He scratched his head, feeling it was not a good idea to drag this out any longer, so he decided to use the power of the evil god to kill this idiot in front of him first.
Though it would come at a cost, that cost was not unacceptable.
But just as he prepared to strike—
Puh!
The sound of a sharp weapon piercing through flesh rang out abruptly.
The Skinny Shadow’s manic laughter was abruptly silenced.
Even the Pink Bear showed a trace of shock on his comical bear face.
What the hell happened?
“Why?”
The Skinny Shadow slowly looked down at the large sword piercing his chest.
In his deep-set eyes was a look of confusion.
“Weren’t we… partners? Aren’t we all… followers of the great divine being?”
Why did you stab me in the back?
“How dare you say that!”
Behind the Skinny Shadow, the Scar-faced Man wore a face of indignation.
“What I hate most in my life is someone like you who has no plans, no way out, and can’t even defeat the useless guy across from you!”
Saying this, he kicked the Skinny Shadow aside, then threw the bloodied large knife, presenting a flattering smile to the Pink Bear:
“Um… this big brother, oh no, this big boss, I’m now switching sides; I wonder if there’s still time?”
