Silence hung in the room for a moment.

Then Lars smiled faintly.

"Thank you for healing me."

He stood up, his arms still trembling a little, but the bleeding had stopped.

I watched him with interest.

'Who is this guy?'

'He's got good instincts, can stay calm under pressure, and has some real leadership skills.'

'He is Rank 2 at his age, and he survived two direct hits from a Cursed Spirit whose narrative should be that it's here to catch us, so it's bound to be stronger than us no matter our strength.'

Someone like him could've become famous in the future.

But I had never heard of him.

Not just him. Even Calliope was Rank 3. Someone like her would've had a name somewhere in the records.

'Logically thinking, both of them must've died here.'

I sighed and spoke loudly. "Alright, everyone, listen to me."

They turned to face me.

"Five minutes, or seven minutes and thirty seconds, or fifteen minutes. That's how much time we have before the Cursed Spirit comes again," I said.

"…How did you figure that out?" Mira asked.

"Selene disappeared. Zephan and Denny are missing too. Let's assume they were attacked by the Cursed Spirit unlike Selene.

"It attacked us fifteen minutes after we arrived here.

"If we look at the pattern, it seems to attack every five minutes after it captures a subject," I explained.

"That's a weak guess," Mira said. "You couldn't detect Zephan and Denny in the beginning. Let's say the Cursed Spirit got to them within a minute of our entry.

"If it's taking one Subject back every five minutes, why did it take Zephan and Denny together and within a minute of our arrival?

"It should've waited for five minutes before taking Zephan, then five more minutes for Denny.

"And if they weren't taken away together, you should've been able to detect at least one of them," Mira countered.

The reason we believed the Cursed Spirit attacked at specific time interval was simple.

It had the narrative that 'it was here to catch the escaped experiment subject'—This could be deduced by the announcement we heard upon our arrival.

In narratives where a Cursed Spirit is chasing someone or trying to capture them, it is stronger than the target most of the times.

That meant, the Cursed Spirit could've taken all of us out in one go if it wanted.

Yet, it was not doing that.

Whenever something like this happened, it meant that the Cursed Spirit attacked after waiting for some period of time.

Why?

The reason differed for each Cursed Spirit.

Why it was happening here was something we could not understand yet, but we could deduce that it was attacking after specific time intervals.

"M-Maybe one of them fell into their personal world, and the other was attacked by the Cursed Spirit?" Calliope spoke softly.

"That would make it seven minutes and thirty seconds between attacks," I said.

"In that case, Alan should've been able to detect the person who was taken after seven minutes and thirty seconds of our arrival. But he couldn't sense them.

"Besides, I don't think the Cursed Spirit attacked Zephan or Denny.

"Think about what just happened.

"When the Cursed Spirit attacked us, it appeared here, in this room. That's because four people were here. Do you realize what that means?" Mira asked.

"Greater numbers," I muttered. "It targets the largest group it can detect. That's why it teleported to us instead of staying in the corridor with you. We had more people."

"Yes, and if that's true, then the Cursed Spirit didn't do anything to Zephan and Denny. The Cursed Spirit should've gone after Ellyn, and the kids who were in group of three.

"But that didn't happen. So the first time the Cursed Spirit attacked was the attack that just happened.

"So, we probably have fifteen minutes before it attacks again," Mira announced.

"Still, let's act like it'll attack in five minutes or seven and a half," I said.

"Why? We just figured out it won't attack that soon," she said.

"That's only true if it didn't attack Zephan or Denny. What if they triggered an unknown condition that made the Cursed Spirit target them instantly, ignoring the time limit?"

Mira paused, then nodded.

"You're right. We should keep that in mind."

In domains like this, two rules kept you alive.

First, always use your head, and figure out the domain's narrative and the rules that govern it.

Second, have an open mind, and accept that those rules can break due to an unknown rule you didn't know about.

Since I had been speaking in Danish, Lars understood part of our discussion.

"I don't think we should split up," he said suddenly.

Mira turned to him. "What do you mean?"

I repeated her question in Danish.

Lars spoke slowly, thinking through his words. "The Cursed Spirit targets bigger groups. So, it might seem safer if we split up to look for clues.

"It will increase our search range while decreasing the chances of being targeted.

"And with Calliope's mutation and Alan's portals, we can keep a tab on each other."

Mira nodded.

That had been her plan.

"But…"

He glanced at the children.

"If we do that, who protects them?"

Mira's jaw tightened.

He continued. "We can't leave them alone. And if we take them with us, that group becomes the biggest target.

"The Cursed Spirit will go after them first.

"So, we might as well stay together. At least then, we can fight back as one."

Mira frowned. "Your plan won't work. The Cursed Spirit is too strong. Even if we work together, we can't beat it. We should split up and find clues to escape this domain instead."

The children started crying harder.

They weren't stupid.

They understood that we were talking about leaving them behind.

"Don't cry. Moving alone would be better for you too," Mira said helplessly.

Separating would reduce our odds of being targeted to one by seven.

It was the logical choice.

But the kids only cried louder.

Mira bit her lip.

She didn't like it either.

Moving as a group made us easier to target, but moving alone was impossible for the children.

We were torn between two wrong choices.

One minute had already passed.

The Cursed Spirit could appear at any moment, so we had to decide quickly.

"I'll do it. I'll bait the Cursed Spirit and hold it down while the rest of you find the clues," Lars said suddenly.

"Won't work," Mira said, shaking her head. "It can crush you like a mosquito. You'll be defeated instantly. And even if you survive somehow, it will just teleport to us since we're the bigger group."

I translated her words for Lars.

He grinned, and pointed at himself.

"Don't worry. I can hold it back. Last time, I was just taken by surprise.

"As for groups, we move in three groups of two.

"Two groups will find the clues. The last group will stop the Cursed Spirit. I'll be in that group, with…"

He looked around for someone to pair with.

His eyes stopped on Calliope.

She was out of the question.

Calliope couldn't face the Cursed Spirit.

She could barely look up right now.

That left me and Mira.

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