I looked at Serena and shouted, "Get away from him! Professor Marshall wants to turn us into monsters! His wife has already become a Matriarch. Without a new Matriarch, she can't detach. He brought us here to replace her!"
Professor Marshall's eyes flashed with murder. "Chloe, what are you talking about?"
"What are you on about?" Serena frowned at me. "Chloe, has the cold addled your brain?"
"The professor and I found the 'cure' on the way. We've already killed two monsters!"
"Besides, the professor's wife died ages ago. What Matriarch? Have you lost your mind?"
I was frantic, and this idiot was still defending him!
"Marcus and Kevin are both dead!! Don't you get it? Are you actually waiting to become a monster? Professor Marshall dragged us down here — didn't you think something was off?!"
Serena's mouth opened slightly, then closed.
She cast a suspicious glance at Professor Marshall. His attitude was strange enough that even she was starting to notice.
"Heh..."
Right then, Professor Marshall suddenly laughed.
"Chloe, you ungrateful brat. Your professor dragged his old bones down here to help you find material for your theses so you could graduate, and this is what you come up with?"
"My wife disappeared twenty years ago. How could she be in Antarctica, let alone be some kind of monster?"
"Or..." His eyes narrowed, and he lowered his voice. "Did you find something incredible down there and want to keep it all for yourself?"
"Marcus and Kevin — you killed them, didn't you?"
"Now you're trying to separate me and Serena to pick us off one by one. Isn't that right?"
Serena immediately turned to me with suspicion. I saw her grip tightening on her ice axe.
"You've always been the most ambitious one. Chloe, your greed is unbelievable! I never imagined you'd kill your own classmates just to claim a discovery for yourself!" Professor Marshall shook his head in mock sorrow.
Bastard!
This old snake was turning the tables on me!
I looked at Serena. "You and I have never gotten along, but you know what kind of person I am."
I pulled out the photo of Professor Marshall and Sylvia and handed it to her. "Look for yourself. Professor Marshall's wife was on Expedition Ship 1740! They've all become monsters!"
Professor Marshall's hands clenched at his sides.
Serena took the photo with half-belief, but just then, everything went sideways!
A White One burst from the side tunnel, lunging straight at Serena!
Serena screamed and lurched backward on instinct.
Professor Marshall seized her hand. "Run!"
Before I could react, he was dragging Serena away at full speed!
Soon the White One chased them into the darkness.
The photograph fluttered to the ground, untouched.
"...Damn it! What the hell is wrong with everything?!"
Serena, you absolute idiot. No wonder you still hadn't finished your thesis!
I kicked the ice in frustration, grabbed the vial, and ran after them.
Serena and Professor Marshall were fast — they were booking it!
When we worked together she'd always acted so helpless, couldn't even open a bottle. But seeing the force of the ice axe block she'd just pulled off, she could probably handle a water cooler jug!
The ice tunnels were full of forks. It wasn't long before I lost them entirely.
I leaned against a wall, panting. Ahead were three nearly identical tunnels. Who knew which one they'd taken!
Serena, you dumbass. Biting the hand that's trying to save you!
I waited for a long time in that spot. No sounds came.
They were gone.
After thinking it over, I decided to go back and wait by the source.
You can run but you can't hide!
Sylvia was there. Professor Marshall wouldn't be far behind. He'd have to go down eventually. I'd go back and deal with his wife first!
I dug out the remaining half of my compressed biscuits, washed it down with nearly frozen water from the thermos, and headed back the way I came.
Maybe because I was carrying the "cure," no White Ones attacked me this time. I made my way back to the path Kevin had pointed out without incident.
After walking for who knows how long, the familiar white glow appeared before me.
The Matriarch's chamber.
Professor Marshall's wife was here.
Honestly, I found it hard to connect Sylvia with the Matriarch.
That woman with the large birthmark on her face and a smile that blazed like fire — she'd been the only female member of the expedition team.
Her slender waist had held a tenacity and courage that was obvious. To have been a female expedition member in that era, her brilliance went without saying.
But now, that beautiful, radiant woman had been reduced to a mass of putrid flesh beneath the ice.
And the sole purpose of this flesh was to create White Ones.
If Sylvia still had any consciousness, what agony would she endure? Would she want to live like this?
Or would she choose death?
I didn't know. And I wouldn't give her the choice.
Just as Kevin had said, this mistake had gone on long enough. Someone had to end it.
I walked into the Matriarch's chamber, expressionless.
The moment I entered, I spotted Professor Marshall standing in the center of the arena, facing the flesh mountain. The cigarette in his hand had burned down to nothing, ash scattered on the ground.
Damn it — despite hurrying, I was too late!
Professor Marshall clearly knew this place well. He must have taken a shortcut.
But where was Serena?
She wasn't beside him.
He would need Serena alive for the conversion, so he wouldn't kill her. Had she not escaped? Had she been dragged off by a White One?
I scanned the room and spotted Serena beside the Conversion Pool.
She lay there motionless, eyes closed. I couldn't tell if she was alive or dead.
My stomach dropped. Had Serena already begun transforming?
Professor Marshall heard my footsteps but didn't turn around.
He stared, transfixed, at the writhing flesh mountain, like a fly fixed on rotten meat.
He didn't seem the least bit repulsed. He stepped forward and stroked the tumor-covered folds with tenderness. "Sylvia, I've come for you."
"We don't have to freeze anymore."
A chill ran through me. Professor Marshall had sacrificed so many people to save his wife.
You could say he was devoted. He truly loved Sylvia — searching everywhere for her for all these years, never giving up.
He knew that if the authorities found out, Sylvia would likely be sliced up for research, so he kept this secret for over a decade, plotting alone in the dark, all to rescue her.
After Sylvia disappeared, he never remarried, never had children. For twenty years, he lived alone with this secret.
He had essentially devoted his entire life to saving Sylvia.
It had become his faith, sustaining him through all those solitary years.
But you could also say he was utterly heartless.
We students had followed him for two or three years, treating him with respect. Every holiday, worried he'd be lonely, we took turns staying with him.
One year, Marcus even skipped going home for New Year's Eve just to eat dumplings with him.
But to Professor Marshall, our devotion was laughable — the pathetic clinginess of tools.
From the very beginning, we were just instruments to save Sylvia. Why would he feel anything for tools?
But then I looked at the writhing white flesh mountain.
Was this thing really still Sylvia?
Could it even be called human anymore?
Even if, by some miracle, a trace of Sylvia's consciousness survived, how could a hundred-meter monstrosity be transported out of here?
Professor Marshall was living in a fantasy.
I knew reasoning with him was pointless now. I pulled out the vial and charged toward the Conversion Pool.
I was going to destroy this monster with my own hands. I wanted Professor Marshall to feel the agony of watching his loved one die in front of him!
Professor Marshall's expression changed when he saw the vial in my hand. He bellowed, "What are you doing?!"
He raised his ice axe and charged at me.
In that instant, he was no longer the professor who'd corrected our papers and worried about our graduation.
Every line on his face twisted with hysteria, like a wild beast defending its territory.
I felt my own eyes burning red. I gripped my ice axe tight.
Neither of us said a word, but we fought like mortal enemies locked in a blood feud.
Professor Marshall had abandoned every shred of humanity to save his wife. In his eyes, I was the would-be murderer.
And he — he had killed Marcus indirectly.