Beyond the Door

On a spring morning, the clouds hung low, like a veil of gray-white gauze draped across the sky, filtering the sunlight into a soft, diffused glow.

A cold wind blew as Ivette stepped over the thin ice, not yet fully melted, and made her way through the dense forest of evergreen trees to the foot of Mount Ish. The cold, damp air entered her lungs with each breath, dispelling some of the grogginess from waking up early.

Behind her, Rosaline, already seventeen, wore a fitted trench coat that made her look exceptionally tall, her figure becoming increasingly voluptuous, a stark contrast to someone still in their adolescent phase.

Ivette could only offer a silent prayer of thanks for this. From last year to now, Rosaline's growth spurt had largely stalled, keeping her at a height of about 1.7 meters. Otherwise, she genuinely worried that one day, when talking to her student, she'd have to look up, pat her head while standing on tiptoe—either scenario sounded utterly pathetic.

Thinking of this, Ivette couldn't help but lower her head and quickly glance at her flat shoes.

Maybe I should get some height-increasing boots later… she thought silently, but then worried she wouldn't get used to them. After all, in her previous life, she had a perfect height of 1.82 meters, standing tall and proud, never having even considered the need for height-increasing shoes. Now, transformed into a beautiful girl with silver hair and red eyes, she had gained much, but also lost much. When she thought about it carefully, it was quite poignant.

"The summit, that's where Teacher woke up?" Rosaline asked as she walked, tilting her head up curiously, gazing at the cloud-shrouded peak.

Ivette gave a soft hum. At this point, aside from the matter of transmigration, there was no need to hide anything else from her student. Besides, she herself didn't know her own origins, so perhaps letting her student know might spark some inspiration for her.

Then, with a gentle breeze, Rosaline skipped ahead, humming an unknown foreign tune, appearing very cheerful.

As if infected by her student's mood, Ivette's eyes softened slightly. She herself occasionally hummed songs when happy, but as her memories grew fainter, she had forgotten most of the good songs from her past life.

Sometimes she wondered, if she could enter the dreamscape again, could she seize the opportunity to record all the songs she remembered? Then, in the dream, she could be a copycat from the Origin Civilization, dominating the entertainment industry with Earth's cultural resources. She'd probably earn a lot of credit points and buy plenty of high-end goods.

Well, of course, that was just a passing thought. As a powerful mage, the image of her suddenly going off to sing and dance was embarrassing just to imagine.

An hour later, they reached the end of the mountain path, where no further progress was possible. The two took out their magic-guided skateboards and flew directly to the edge of the crater lake, looking down.

At this moment, just as when Ivette first escaped her prison decades ago, the dark lake that met her gaze remained a deep blue and still, silent as an abyss. In the center of the lake, the small metal platform was still there, like a forgotten country house, still waiting for someone's return.

Three minutes later, after casually absorbing a few Aberrations that had sought their own demise, Ivette stepped back onto the metal platform. Pulling open a small door beside it, she cast an Illumination Spell, and with her student looking around curiously, they descended.

"The first level is the quarantine layer, containing a lot of elite military-grade weapons and equipment. Back then, I saw it as the only place with sunlight, so I brought most of the collected items, including usable books, to this level…" Ivette explained as they walked, her calm voice echoing in the empty corridor.

Rosaline's expression turned solemn, like a pilgrim's, and she began to examine the area. She saw many draft papers written with Magic Light Vine sap as ink, which she had encountered when studying runes, and the remains of many magic-guided equipment disassembled into parts.

Though it was only a fleeting glimpse, she could almost picture countless years ago, her teacher diligently studying here, disassembling, researching, meditating, and cultivating.

Those moments repeated day after day, monotonous, like a faulty film projector, recording the entire process of a Witch's birth.

Continuing downward, Ivette introduced the function and location of each level, detailing the specifics of her exploration. Rosaline followed, reconstructing the past landscape of this vast underground ruin through her teacher's narration.

Finally, after traversing ten underground levels, they arrived before a sealed alloy door.

However, unlike their helplessness back then, this time they could attempt it with the extremely powerful cutting effect of their Alloy Combat Blades. If that didn't work, Ivette could consider prying open an elevator shaft or restoring power to this level to find other possibilities.

Activating the Alloy Combat Blade and combining it with the enhancement from Muscle Unlimit, Rosaline swung it forcefully without her teacher needing to act. The effect was significant—a deep indentation appeared on the alloy door.

Seeing the noticeable effect, Ivette also drew her own blade to assist. Immediately, with the combined efforts of teacher and student, a crack large enough for one person to pass through was finally cut into the door leading to the next level. The air that met them was not unpleasant—it was normal, as the ventilation system's redundant design was based on air pressure. As long as the wind from the crater lake continued to blow, the air would circulate continuously, eventually being expelled from an exit on the mountainside.

Even on this level, there were traces of the pervasive Magic Light Vine, but their brightness was limited, so the two still used magic for illumination.

"Teacher, what level is this?" Rosaline asked, looking at a sign next to them. She had learned a little Black Tide Language in her dreams, but she had been communicating with her teacher in the common language of the Radiant Continent for so long that she had almost forgotten it.

"It should be the living quarters of the management level," Ivette guessed, carefully identifying the blurry characters on the sign.

Compared to the floors above, the floor here was much wider, and they could find rooms for living and entertainment. The two were not in a hurry to proceed further and opened the doors one by one to inspect them.

"It seems these people couldn't escape the fate of mutation…" Rosaline said with mixed feelings, looking at the strangely shaped withered bones in many rooms, and even a relatively intact mutated desiccated corpse.

Clearly, she felt a conflict, wanting to sympathize with those who had died tragically in the apocalypse, yet also feeling that these people must have trapped others outside to save themselves.

"Perhaps," Ivette nodded slightly and began searching through the miscellaneous items. The paper materials here were also mostly rotten, but as expected from an executive living area, there were many well-preserved hardcover books. Although they were all in the fields of runes and medicine, they were still quite valuable.

"Teacher, look at this!" After a while, Rosaline suddenly exclaimed, having found something.

Ivette walked over and saw a luxurious, uncorrupted notebook. It contained some information recorded in Black Tide Language, but with Rosaline's semi-literate writing skills, she couldn't understand it at all.

Picking up the notebook, Ivette glanced at the text, her pupils contracting slightly.

"I am Aetherine Omega, CEO of the Ish City branch of Black Tower Pharmaceuticals, and the biological granddaughter of Vincent Omega. This is my will."

"If those who come after can enter this place and see this letter, it means the world has not yet ended, and I must clarify one thing for you here."

"I swear by the honor of the Omega family, the 'Divine Molt' in the Abyss Base is still preserved in the Abyss of Divine Erosion and has not leaked. We are not the sinners of the world."

"And the true root of the anomaly lies in the sea!"