"Hey, Henry! Have you been good!?"

BWOOOHH!!

A loud bellow echoed through the room, and Lana laughed and pointed at one of the large bags!

"This one’s yours! Rita made it really nice today!"

The tentacle moved to grab the bag before it slowly sank back into the darkness of the abyss!

BWOOHH!

Henry let out another loud bellow in thanks, and Lana waved at him as her tail swung back and forth happily!

"We’ll go ahead, Lana. Come back up when you’re done."

Percy began guiding Viva out of the room, and Viva was far too stunned by what she had just seen to even resist. The tentacle that just appeared from the abyss was unlike anything Viva could have ever imagined! Just the width alone was already larger than Viva’s entire body, so Viva could only imagine how large the rest of that monster would be! What in the world was that creature?

Percy led Viva all the way to the elevator, and it wasn’t until they were heading up again that Viva gained back enough of herself to ask:

"Why do you have something like that in the library?"

"Something like what? You mean Henry? He’s our pet."

"Your pet? That thing isn’t a pet! Dogs and cats are pets! That thing is a natural disaster waiting to happen! How long has something like that just been hiding under the library? How come the authorities don’t know about it!? How are you even keeping it here!? If it escapes, we’ll all die!"

"The headmaster knows about it, and he says it’s fine to keep it. You don’t need to worry."

Percy’s tone was still as nonchalant as ever, and Viva felt a little annoyed by the fact that Percy couldn’t see just how dangerous this ’pet’ of his was! If that thing ever managed to get out of here and come up to the surface, then there was no way anyone in this academy would survive! It would kill them all!

The elevator finally stopped, and Viva’s frown deepened as she realised they weren’t in the library yet. They were in front of a long hallway with a massive door at the end of it, and Viva immediately asked Percy where they were.

"I need to get something from my research lab."

Percy stepped out into the hallway after he said this, and he headed for the door. Viva knew better than to stray far from Percy, and she held her documents against her chest as she followed behind him while looking around for any sign of danger. Percy put his hand on the door, and it read his magic before it opened to reveal one of the largest rooms Viva had ever seen in her life!

The room was a massive cube that was about half a kilometer on every side! There were shelves lining every single wall, and the shelves were filled with books, artefacts, and potions that glowed with different colours. At the center of the room was a massive table and chair that had papers scattered on it, and Viva looked at some of the papers curiously.

’Runes.’

Viva realised that the papers were filled with complicated runes that she had never seen before. Rita had also graduated from Verati Academy, so she was more than capable of drawing a few low-level runes, and she could even decipher and understand some high-level runes. But no matter how hard she tried, it was impossible for her to figure out what these runes were meant to do!

"This is your lab?"

Viva spoke in an awed tone, and Percy hummed from a far distance away. Percy was floating in the air while looking through some vials of potions on his wall, and Viva felt her eyes widen in surprise! Flying was one of the most advanced wind spells in existence, and there were barely a thousand people in the entire kingdom capable of flying! How was the librarian doing that!? Was he using some sort of artefact?

"Ah, there it is."

Percy finally seemed to find what he was looking for, and he grabbed two vials off the wall and floated back down to Viva. Percy held out a bottle to her and said:

"Drink this."

"Eh?"

Viva took a step back at the strange command! There was no way she was going to drink some unknown potion given to her by someone she didn’t fully trust!

"I don’t have time to waste. Just take it."

Percy spoke up with a small frown, but Viva reached out hesitantly and took the potion. The liquid was green and thick, like some sort of vegetable juice, and Viva stared at it for a few seconds before she asked.

"What is it meant to do?"

"If you keep asking so many questions, I’ll leave you to handle the rest of this investigation yourself. Drink it right now."

Viva scowled at Percy in slight annoyance before she decided that she would just drink it. From everything Viva had seen, she was sure that Percy wasn’t an evil person, so there was no way he would try to kill her.

Viva threw the potion back and drank it all in one gulp, and she let out a disgusted sound when she tasted the bitter liquid!

"Ugh, that was horrible! What’s in this – huh?"

Viva put her hand to her heart as she felt it slowing down! Her entire body began to grow cold as a sleepiness came over her, and she slowly went down to one knee as she felt her strength failing her. What was going on? Why was her heart beating so slowly? Why did she feel like this?

’I’m dying.’

That thought suddenly flashed through Viva’s mind, and Viva let out a loud gasp as she felt her heart stop beating, and in the next moment, she fell to the ground and died! [A/N: don’t drink potions from strangers, kids.]

A white mist flowed out from Viva’s body, and it gathered together beside her before revealing Viva once again. But this time, Viva’s body was translucent, and she was floating off the ground! She had become a ghost!

"KYAHHHHH!!"

Viva screamed as she looked down at her dead body in shock! How could she have been so stupid!? She actually drank some random potion from someone she just met yesterday, and now she was dead! Viva screamed again, and this time a voice spoke from beside her calmly.

"Oh shut up. You’re being dramatic."

Viva turned in shock to see Percy floating beside her, and she immediately lashed out and grabbed him by the collar!

"You bastard! What did I ever do to you!? Do you know how much I wanted to achieve in my life!? I had so much to live for! Why did you kill me like this!? Waaaaahhhh~!"

Tears streamed down Viva’s face as she cried heavily, and Percy did his best not to laugh at her as he spoke.

"Viva, stop. Do you really think I’d kill you for no reason? There’s someone we need to talk to, and we can only do it in this form. Besides, I also drank the potion."

Viva’s tears slowed down as she listened to Percy’s words, and Viva looked to the side, and she saw that Percy’s real body was sitting in a chair without moving. There was an empty bottle of the potion beside him, and Viva seemed to finally realise that she was holding a ghost. Percy killed himself as well!

Viva scowled for a moment as she considered this. The fact that Percy killed himself as well meant that there had to be some way for them to come back to life! And since Percy was acting so calm, Viva was sure that this was something he did regularly, so he knew what he was doing. Viva took in a deep breath, and she let out a long sigh as she let go of Percy’s shirt and cleaned the tears from her eyes! Viva turned to glance at her dead body once more, and she let out another tired sigh as she decided to go along with this madness for now.

’This has to be some sort of nightmare. Once I get back into my body, I’m never coming back here again!’