The heavy stench of mold and dust slowly dragged Silvia back to reality from her deep unconsciousness.
Her consciousness was like fragments submerged at the bottom of icy water, slowly floating upward bit by bit.
She forced her heavy eyelids open with difficulty.
At first, her field of vision was a swaying blur of double images and spots of light, only gradually coming into focus after several seconds.
What caught her eye was a wooden ceiling covered in stains and cobwebs.
A few rough wooden beams lay exposed, their surfaces caked with thick, grayish-black mold.
A beam of moonlight cut slantwise through a wide crack in the side wall, casting a pale ribbon of light across the dust-covered floor and illuminating countless specks of dust floating slowly in the air.
This was a dilapidated shack.
It was definitely not any building belonging to the academy.
Where... was this?
"You're awake."
A voice, so calm it bordered on indifferent, drifted out from the shadows on the other side of the room, beyond the reach of the moonlight.
Silvia whipped her head around, following the voice.
Professor Audrey Hope sat in the shadows on a crooked, broken wooden chair.
She still wore her dark professor's robe, but it was now covered in dust and bits of grass, and her hair was somewhat disheveled.
There was no expression on her face—neither madness nor guilt, only a bone-deep exhaustion and the numbness of having discarded all emotion after reaching a resolution.
"Professor... Audrey..."
Silvia's voice trembled uncontrollably. "Where... is this? Why... why did you bring me here? What do you... want to do to me?"
Faced with this barrage of questions, Audrey merely fluttered her eyelids slightly.
She slowly rose from her chair and stepped into the boundary between moonlight and shadow, allowing the pale light to illuminate half of her face.
Her eyes remained hollow.
"This place... is a long-forgotten woodcutter's cabin."
Audrey recounted in a flat, monotone voice,
"As for why I brought you here... I'm sorry, Student Silvia. I... need to perform a ritual on you."
Silvia's eyes widened, her pink eyes filled with confusion and deepening terror. "What ritual...? Why? I'm just an ordinary student! I..."
"No, you are not."
Audrey interrupted her. A faint ripple finally appeared in her voice—a complex emotion blending awe, jealousy, and a twisted longing.
"The Light magic you used during the exam... its purity, its intensity... I know better than anyone what that means. You are the Chosen One. A vessel favored by the Goddess of Light."
She stepped forward, the moonlight fully revealing her face.
Silvia saw that within those eyes, usually so rigid and stern, now burned a fire that bordered on obsessive madness.
"I had no choice either, Student Silvia."
Audrey's voice suddenly pitched higher, cracking under the strain as the fire in her eyes flickered violently.
"The academy? The Church? How could those high and mighty figures ever understand the heart of a mother?! How could they ever be willing to pay any price for a child deemed useless?! That is why I can only do as they said and sacrifice you."
She abruptly pulled several small vials and a dark stone tablet etched with complex patterns from beneath her robe, her movements trembling with excitement.
"The ritual... the ritual will be ready shortly. You will help me, Student Silvia. This is... your destiny."
Watching Audrey sink completely into madness and listening to those chilling words, Silvia's heart sank into an abyss.
Despair washed over her like an icy tide, drowning her very last ray of hope.
Tears welled uncontrollably in her eyes, blurring her vision.
She struggled desperately, but the ropes did not budge in the slightest.
She wanted to cry out for help, but she knew that in this abandoned shack in the middle of nowhere, no one could possibly hear her.
Just as despair was on the verge of swallowing her whole—
With a sharp crack, dust and wood shavings rained down from above like a sudden deluge!
"What?!" Audrey looked up in shock.
Silvia instinctively looked toward the source of the noise as well.
A corner of the shack's already dilapidated roof, along with several decayed beams, suddenly collapsed inward with a roar!
Rubble poured down like a waterfall, leaving a frightful hole amidst the pale moonlight and billowing dust.
A chilly night wind instantly surged through the hole, dispersing the swirling dust.
The dust slowly settled.
A tall, slender figure stood quietly atop the heap of broken wood and rubble, framed against the cool moonlight pouring down through the opening.
His head was bowed slightly, shoulder-length blonde hair blowing gently in the night wind, its tips touched with the silver sheen of moonlight.
Though dust clung to his face and clothes, giving him a somewhat disheveled appearance, his flawlessly handsome countenance and slightly furrowed brow cast an ethereal, almost unearthly spell against the surreal backdrop of moonlight and dust.
Greg shook off the wood shavings clinging to his hands. In the dim light, his amber eyes were as sharp as blades. He swept a glance across the terrified Audrey first, then brought his gaze to rest on Silvia, who was tied to a pillar with tear-filled eyes.
"Looks like... I arrived just in the nick of time?"
Rate on N.U.
