God Magnus

Beep!

The notification appeared on his forearm, and Oliver walked toward the bush where he thought the herb would be. It didn't take much to spot another identical example of that damn mint with a peppery taste, and he picked it.

"I need to give it a name. Maybe... Embermint. Shit! I've never been good at naming stuff, but I like this one."

It had been a few hours since he'd ventured into the forest, and this was the only herb he'd found. The fatigue from the earlier fight still lingered, and the image of Miguel's lifeless eyes haunted his mind.

Shoving the memories to the back of his head, he continued heading south. He checked the timer to try and figure out how much time had passed.

[134:55:42]

"Four or five in the afternoon? Hard to be sure."

The sun's rays were still visible, but much weaker and orange-colored. Clearly, it was far from midday and in all this time, he hadn't seen a single other student.

"What is that? Blood!"

The wind carried the strong stench, and his pace quickened toward what he feared would be his friends' grave.

Just a few seconds passed before the terrain started sloping downward, and he saw it a sort of riverbed with rocks. What had probably once been clear water was now murky and deep red.

"What the hell happened here?!"

Stepping between the jagged stones, Oliver followed the river upstream, where the color deepened. Minutes of breathing that unmistakable stench of blood made him want to throw up, but he held the bile down and drew his blades.

"The Angel... Please don't let it be my team."

He didn't realize he had finally used the word he'd been avoiding. Things only got worse when he looked to the sides and saw the limp body of a snake. The farther he walked, the more corpses appeared.

"Over twenty... no wonder the river changed color. Hundreds of liters of blood must be flowing from the bodies."

Oliver tightened his grip on the improvised handles of his blades. Then he finally saw where the river flowed into a small waterfall ahead. There, it formed a small lake surrounded by stones, with the treetops above not fully closed.

At last, he saw the sun again, and it was nearly setting. The light bathed the lake, creating what could've been a breathtaking landscape, if not for the grotesque scene in front of him.

Corpses. Not just the scattered half-dozen every hundred meters.

Around the entire lake, countless serpent bodies formed a true serpent graveyard. Dozens upon dozens of scaly remains with every kind of wound imaginable.

The bile rose to his throat again, and this time, he couldn't hold it. He vomited up the snake meat from breakfast and collapsed to his knees in the red water.

It took many minutes to recover and begin analyzing the area. Still at the top of the waterfall, his eyes spotted the bodies of three classmates. All missing pieces, all showing clear signs of poisoning.

He had to fight with everything he had not to throw up again.

"How? Or better... Why? A battle like this makes no damn sense!"

He began climbing down the waterfall via the rocks on the side. He had to check if anyone had survived, and if they had, where they went.

His steps left prints in the blood-soaked soil along the lake's edge. As he got closer to the bodies, he realized they belonged to both Nikki's and Samuel's teams.

"Both teams? Are they really this strong?"

He had already noticed their bodies were "evolving," but still. Some of these snakes were over twelve meters long, and all dead. That was just a rough count, who knew how many were inside the lake itself.

His senses searched for tracks amidst the massacre, and it wasn't hard to spot bolts scattered everywhere.

"How the hell did Luísa get all this ammo?"

The bronze weapons were nowhere to be seen, which meant someone had survived and taken them. Or the lake hid more than he dared to uncover.

Beep!

"The Scanner?"

He'd gotten into the habit of using it every few meters, but finding a herb in this place made him frown and glance at the message with caution.

[Herb rank – 1]

[?????????: Mutation... Healing...]

"What the hell! Even with limited info, it's obvious this mutation came from the snakes' blood."

He spent a long time searching through the bodies. The sun was nearly gone, and honestly, he didn't want to be here after dark. Just as he was about to give up, he saw it farther ahead near the waterfall, a red glow.

A small dark red flower with long roots rested gently on top of a rock.

"Finally found you!"

Using his blades, he carefully removed the herb from the rock. He wasn't stupid enough to touch something mutated by snake blood with bare hands.

"Hmm... I'll call it Blood Rose." Oliver tore a piece of his ruined shirt and wrapped the Blood Rose inside.

"Alright, let's get the hell out of here! This place is freaking me out!"

Sssssssssssss!

Every hair on his body stood up, and his heart skipped a few beats in pure panic. He turned slowly and saw the crimson waterfall parting down the middle. Deep red eyes scanned the entire lake, and white scales shimmered along its massive length.

It was as thick as a tree that had grown too large, and its full size was hidden inside what looked like a cave behind the waterfall.

Its eyes finally found him. No matter how much he'd overcome his fear of snakes, no mortal could avoid panicking when stared down by this albino demon.

SSSSSSSSSSS!

Its hiss revealed fangs the size of swords, and fear gripped his soul.

"I hate snakes!" Oliver screamed out loud.