Bizarre Flesh Buds

Solana woke up on a night two days later.

The moment Celia realized this, her first instinct was coldness, followed immediately by a wave of emotions that even she found somewhat inexplicable.

Sadness, nostalgia, and guilt surged like waves, dragging her into a strange emotional whirlpool that she couldn't snap out of for a long time.

Under the constant clash between her clone's consciousness and her own, Celia could feel the boundary between the two being washed away again and again...

Gradually, Celia began to lose track of whether she was the Saintess of the Church or Solana, the witch who had defected from the High Tower...

Raindrops fell from somewhere, making a crisp clattering sound as they hit a clay pot.

Amidst the noise, Solana opened her eyes, feeling somewhat dazed.

In front of her was an oak table leaning against the wall, its legs crooked. On it sat some coarse clay dishes, half a loaf of rye bread, a clay oil lamp, and several bottles of strange black potion.

The adjacent wall was made of earth and stone, its surface somewhat mottled. Hanging on it was a knight's longsword that looked completely out of place in this crude environment.

A few more raindrops fell.

Looking up at the low ceiling, rainwater was dripping along a crack, landing drop by drop into a clay pot in the corner.

The sleeping rat inside seemed to have been startled awake.

It quickly scrambled out, scurried across the floor, and vanished into the shadows of the corner in the blink of an eye, leaving behind only a faint, rustling sound.

To the right of the clay pot was a small bed covered in straw, emitting the scent of rotting wood.

Someone seemed to be lying on it, but the light was too dim for Solana to see clearly.

But she had no desire to look closer, for at this moment, she was being swept away by a massive torrent of emotion.

The farewell and flight in the Northern Territory, the brief respite in the Zandalar Wastelands, the forced advancement in Leytin City... fragments of memory seemed to be awakened by that familiar chill, flooding into her mind one after another, accompanied by all kinds of negative emotions.

Solana endured the continuous emotional onslaught, trying to search for more details of her past.

But no matter how hard she tried to remember, she could never piece them together into a complete picture. Her past memories remained as hazy and indistinct as a fog.

Soon, it all faded away once more.

Only a strange book became clearer and more vivid in her mind...

Imprinted on the book were two large, blood-red characters:

“Destiny...”

In the end, even this image shattered, vanishing completely into the darkness.

“You're awake.”

At that moment, a figure wearing a mask and a black robe approached Solana. Her voice was warm and carried a hint of playfulness, sounding quite young.

Solana was dazed for a moment before snapping back to reality, letting out a soft hum of agreement.

“What's your name? Whose child are you?” the black-robed woman asked, squatting down.

“Solana Venn...” Solana said weakly.

“Oh, I see...” The black-robed woman rested her chin on her hand, tilting her head slightly as if in deep thought.

However, she didn't recall anyone with the surname Venn living in the slums. She had met many people in Leytin City, and none of them seemed to have a similar name. Still, the girl was quite good-looking. Could she be a fallen noble lady who had ended up here?

The black-robed woman kept sizing her up, seemingly unaware of her own rudeness.

Seeing the other party staring at her like this, Solana quickly lowered her eyes timidly.

Perhaps Solana's awkwardness was too obvious, because the black-robed woman finally realized her mistake. She stood up sheepishly and awkwardly looked away.

The room quickly fell into silence, with only the occasional rustling of rats breaking the quiet.

The two of them remained in this stalemate for two minutes.

Suddenly, Solana's stomach rumbled, sounding exceptionally loud in the silence and causing her face to turn slightly red.

The black-robed woman let out a chuckle, turned her head, and said:

“Hungry? There isn't much food here right now. I'll go to the market to buy some. You stay here and be good, okay?”

After saying that, she added:

“Remember, don't touch anything here, especially those potions on the table. Keep that in mind!”

Solana nodded in agreement.

Seeing how obedient and sensible the girl was, the black-robed woman felt relieved. She first picked up a bottle of black liquid from the table, carefully fed it to the person on the bed, and then gathered her things, preparing to head out.

“By the way, though I don't know whose child you are, make sure you don't go swimming in the river again. The water in that river is very dangerous!”

“The last person who went swimming there accidentally drank some of the water. Now he's bedridden from the poison, and strange flesh buds and scales have sprouted on his body.”

“Besides, the current is very swift. If you lose your footing, you could be swept away to who knows where!”

As she spoke, the black-robed woman couldn't help but complain, “I went to a lot of trouble to fish you out of that river!”

Swimming?

Hearing this word, Solana was slightly taken aback. She looked down at her small, youthful body, and her expression became strange.

The sound of the wooden door closing rang out, and the room plunged into a dead silence once more.

This silence gave her more time, allowing her the leisure to rein in her emotions.

After an unknown amount of time, she tucked her various emotions into a corner of her mind and slowly stood up, supporting herself against the wall.

Having composed herself, she knew she had to continue investigating the Abyssal Order.

She steadied herself and prepared to walk toward the wooden door, but at that moment, she was suddenly drawn to the bottles of black potion on the table.

A strange sense of familiarity welled up in her heart.

Those black potions... she seemed to have seen them somewhere before.

Where was it...

Thinking, she picked up a bottle from the table and held it in her hand, staring at it without blinking. Gradually, she seemed to sense something unusual about it.

This potion... seemed capable of suppressing something inside her body? What exactly was it...

And why did that woman collect this? She even seemed to have fed it to the person lying on the bed...

Could there be some connection here?

At this thought, she suddenly turned to look toward the bed, slowly drawing closer. The figure of that person gradually became clear.

It was a young man, looking to be just barely an adult. He wore a faded linen chemise, resembling some fallen noble.

However, on the man's face grew many strange, dark-patterned scales.

Scales, cheekbones, and even at his temples and forehead, tiny black flesh buds constantly sprouted. As if they were alive, they wriggled gently with the man's shallow breathing.

Seeing this, Solana unconsciously tightened her grip on the potion bottle.

Right then, as if the flesh buds had spotted Solana, they began to wriggle and grow frantically on the man's face. They even detached from his skin, crawling toward Solana like a swarm of insects!

Just as the black-robed woman was about to enter, she heard the sound of glass shattering.

She immediately pushed open the door and rushed in, only to see Solana frozen in place. At her feet lay a scatter of glass shards, soaked in a strange black liquid.

There was nothing else out of the ordinary.