Chapter 338: Borrowing a Skin
Serpent stepped forward with an elegant stride. Her movements were as swift and silent as a wraith.
Her high-heeled feet landed on the carpet without making the slightest sound.
Before Pandora could even fully react, Serpent had already pressed herself against Pandora’s body with lightning speed. They were close enough to feel each other’s body heat. Close enough to see the faint quiver of each other’s lashes.
Pandora let out a muffled grunt.
A flicker of surprise and pain crossed her face. The expression came naturally. Her lips pressed together lightly, as if caught off guard by a sudden attack.
Serpent’s smile grew even more smug.
She raised her hand slightly, revealing an exquisitely crafted dagger clutched in her grip. A tiny emerald adorned the hilt. The blade was slender and thin, so small it almost resembled a fruit knife meant for the dining table.
But no one could underestimate its lethality.
Because the blade, glowing with a phosphorescent green sheen, was coated in her signature toxin. That green glow was no mere reflection. It was the toxin itself emitting light. Like phosphorescent fungi sprouting from rotting wood, like the most brilliantly colored frogs deep in the mountain forests, its luster was beautiful and deadly.
A single drop was enough to paralyze the hearts of hundreds.
Unless she willingly provided the antidote, no one could save the victim.
And now, that blade had already sunk into Pandora’s arm.
“Don’t move.”
Serpent’s voice turned cold and rasping, carrying a commanding edge of absolute superiority. She no longer sounded warm and amiable, as she had in the garden moments before. Now, a chill crept into her tone. The cold-blooded iciness of a reptile.
“From now on, you listen to me.”
She watched the black threads rapidly spreading from the wound on Pandora’s arm. The blackness crept outward like a spiderweb. It followed the pathways of veins, branching in every direction.
It meant the toxin was invading the victim’s body at terrifying speed.
This heart-paralyzing toxin, beyond being lethal within minutes, also inflicted hellish, searing agony upon its victim. Every blood vessel the toxin invaded would feel as though molten lava had been poured into it.
The pain would be so excruciating that even unconsciousness would become a luxury!
This ensured she had ample time, before the victim died, to thoroughly break them. A genius brought to their knees in torment was far more valuable than a corpse.
Serpent had already planned out everything that would follow. First, control her with the toxin. Then, use the antidote as leverage. Force her to hand over the formula and process for the Rejuvenation Secret Spring. After that, slowly, methodically, turn her into a possession. An obedient, genius human plaything, belonging only to her.
At this thought, the corners of Serpent’s mouth stretched wider.
And yet...
“Oh? Is that so?”
Pandora’s voice suddenly returned to calm.
The expressions of shock and pain vanished completely. As if that muffled grunt, that agony, had all been nothing more than a clumsy performance.
Her tone even carried a trace of genuine amusement.
“Then what will you do if I move?”
At that moment, Pandora revealed her true face as well.
She smiled, slowly raising her hand. The movement was unhurried, almost leisurely. But the shadow behind her seemed to come alive.
It twisted and stretched in silence, rising from the floor like tendrils of pitch-black darkness. Under the lamplight, it gleamed with an eerie luster that did not belong to this world. The shadowy tendrils coiled and wrapped around her hand. They encased that slender, pale palm in a shroud of concentrated darkness.
Before Serpent could even understand what was unfolding before her eyes—
That twisted hand, sheathed in shadows, had already crossed the distance of space.
Forcefully, it seized her smooth, fragile neck.
Serpent’s face drained of color!
She tried to struggle.
Immense power surged within her body. The power of an Anomaly, far surpassing human strength. Her human skin wrinkled and warped from the explosive force, distorting grotesquely like a mask peeling away. Her once-delicate features twisted out of place. Her eye sockets deformed by the power roiling from within. The split at the corners of her mouth tore further open, revealing rows of teeth never meant for a human mouth.
But it was useless.
The shadow was an indestructible solid. Yet also an invasive liquid. It not only gripped her neck but engulfed her entirely, from the crown of her head to the tips of her toes. Like a layer of black cocoon suppressing every ounce of her resistance. The strength she had once prided herself on was as feeble as a serpent trying to strangle a mountain before that shadow.
And the arm of Pandora’s that had been covered in darkness... was now exposed once more.
The wound—healed.
The gash carved by the dagger had long since closed. Not even a scar remained. The blackness of the spreading toxin had returned to normal. Every trace had been erased. The pale skin showed no sign that it had ever been injured.
In truth, neither Butterfly’s scale poison nor Serpent’s blade toxin had much effect on her. She hadn’t even needed to use an antidote potion. The sheer vitality of her Witch bloodline was more than enough to purge these foreign contaminants from her bloodstream.
“It seems you’ve run out of tricks.”
“Now then... it’s my turn.”
Pandora tilted her head, mimicking the tone Serpent had used moments ago, and said with a soft laugh:
“Don’t move.”
Those three words, spoken from her lips, carried an entirely different weight.
Then, her smile dimmed slightly. Her gaze settled on Serpent’s twisted, deformed face.
“Allow me to borrow your skin.”
In a flash, the shadow covering Serpent’s body erupted into seething motion. From every crevice, from the folds of her human skin, from the orifices of her features, from every single pore—
It stabbed deep, piercing inward!
A scream of agony rang out. The sound was so inhuman, so shrill, it was less a scream and more the shriek of something being flayed alive. A wail that transcended any language. But the rest lounge’s excellent soundproofing, combined with the shadow now blanketing the entire room, locked that sound away completely within these walls.
Outside the door, the banquet carried on.
Music played. Glasses clinked.
No one knew what was happening behind this door.
………………
A short while later, the banquet hall remained resplendent, its dazzling brilliance undiminished.
The light of crystal chandeliers refracted off the jeweled accessories of the guests. It danced across every carefully groomed face. Serpent reappeared among the crowd. Her posture was as elegant as ever, her stride as steady. The hem of her gown swayed gently as she walked. As if that private encounter had never taken place.
Her subordinate, a sharp-eyed man in a tailcoat, immediately approached. He bowed slightly and asked in a low, reverent voice:
“Madam, how did the conversation with the Doctor go?”
A perfectly measured smile curled at the corner of Serpent’s lips. It carried a hint of arrogance and a trace of unspoken understanding. Her voice, cold and elegant, was identical to before. It betrayed nothing out of the ordinary.
“Is there even a need to ask?”
“Naturally... she has been secured!”