I looked around at everyone. "Let's get ready. We have one and a half minutes before the Cursed Spirit might return. If it doesn't come, good. But let's assume it will."

The group started to move.

Mira gathered the children close, whispering softly to calm them down.

The kids clung to her coat.

They were still sniffling but no longer crying.

Lars rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck.

"Ready when you are," he said, giving me a short nod.

Calliope stood a few steps behind us, holding her staff tightly.

She looked pale, but her eyes had a stubborn light in them.

"Don't force yourself. Just focus on keeping us alive," I said quietly.

She nodded without speaking.

The air around us was still. Too still.

The silence pressed down like a heavy fog.

Mira kept glancing toward the end of the corridor, checking the clock in her hand again and again.

Her brow furrowed deeper each time.

"It should appear in thirty seconds if the time limit is five minutes," she muttered, glaring at the second hand.

"Calliope, take this." I pulled out a small vial of Heart-Burst Poison from my Inventory rune and tossed it to her.

She caught it awkwardly. "What is this?"

"Medicine," I said. "If someone dies, stab it into their heart. It'll restart it, but only if you do it within ten minutes."

"Hey, don't say stuff like that!" Mira snapped. "No medicine can bring back the dead anyway."

I shrugged and didn't reply.

Mira glanced at the clock again.

Her lips moved as she counted down. "Ten, nine, eight, seven…"

We all tensed.

Six.

Five.

Four.

Three.

Two—

A heavy presence appeared behind me.

The Cursed Spirit lunged forward.

"I knew this clock broke when we fought earlier!" Mira shouted.

"Go!" I yelled, opening a portal and stepping through just as its claws sliced through where I had been.

Mira grabbed the children's hands and ran down the hall.

A second portal opened near Lars, pulling him straight in front of the monster.

He came out swinging, lightning flickering faintly around his arm as his punch connected with the Spirit's chest.

The monster retaliated immediately.

Its blow was fast, but Lars caught its arm, twisted his body, and redirected the force downward.

The floor cracked like glass beneath them.

I opened portals beside Lars to block incoming strikes and fired bullets through the others to force the monster to shift its attacks.

Lars moved in sync with the chaos.

Every time the Cursed Spirit swung, I tried to redirect or slow it with portals, but the creature was too fast.

A claw barely grazed Lars's arm, and his skin tore open instantly.

Even a small scratch was enough to bleed.

He kept moving, his focus sharp, but something felt wrong.

'Wait…'

It looked like Lars was dodging more attacks than I could see.

An uneasy feeling hit me, and I shouted, "Lars! How many arms does the Cursed Spirit have?"

…

Lars's POV

The monster in front of him towered nearly eight feet tall.

Its body looked like it was made from crawling maggots pressed together, constantly shifting and writhing.

It had four arms and two legs.

Every movement left the air heavy with a rotten stench.

"Lars! How many arms does the Cursed Spirit have?" Alan's voice came through.

"Four!" Lars shouted as he ducked under a swing.

"Shit! I can only see two!"

"I guessed as much!"

Six portals appeared around the monster.

Four aligned with the creature's arms.

Only two attacks went into the portals.

The other two passed right through them, as if the portals weren't there.

'Alan can't see those arms. He can't block what he can't perceive,' Lars realized grimly.

His expression hardened.

Blue lightning sparked around his arms as he weaved through the monster's strikes, dodging with precise steps.

'Keep its focus on me,' he thought.

Pain shot through his back as one of the invisible arms grazed him, tearing open a deep wound.

He bit back a shout, gritting his teeth.

He needed healing, but—

He glanced at Calliope.

She hadn't moved at all.

She stood frozen, eyes wide and empty, her hands trembling on her staff.

Lars understood.

They were all seeing something different.

Whatever she saw must have been worse than what he faced.

'But if she doesn't move soon…'

He didn't finish the thought.

A blow slammed into his side, sending him flying.

His back hit the wall with a crack.

The impact stole his breath.

Blood ran down his arm, warm and heavy. His vision blurred.

Even with Alan's portals helping him, the Cursed Spirit was overpowering them.

The thing stepped forward, its maggot-filled form twisting into a grin.

…

Calliope's POV

Fifteen seconds ago.

She couldn't move.

The fear was so strong that it locked her body in place.

Her heart pounded painfully, but even that felt distant.

She didn't know what she was seeing.

Her mind screamed just trying to make sense of it.

It had three faces stacked sideways, each looking in a different direction — no, in a different time.

The top one cried smoke that drifted upward.

The middle one hummed in a color too heavy to hear.

The lowest face chewed on light, swallowing it into tiny pieces of darkness.

Its body looked like gas shaped into the outline of a cathedral.

Every breath it took twisted the world around it.

The glass-like trees nearby changed shape — from trees to circles, then back again — with each inhale and exhale.

Its skin shimmered like clear emotion.

It was fear made visible, smooth and reflective, but it only reflected what wasn't looking at it.

It stood on three legs but walked on four.

The extra one appeared whenever it forgot how to balance.

Each step it took left behind small holes filled with something like memories.

When Calliope accidentally looked into one, flashes of futures that never happened ran through her head.

It didn't have a mouth, yet she heard it speak.

The sound came from the way its own body shifted and broke apart.

The noise was so sharp it made her want to tear her ears off.

Its voice wasn't human.

Every syllable was like metal scraping against her thoughts.

The words echoed in her head, repeating themselves again and again until she wanted to scream.

Its heart wasn't a heart at all, it was a door that opened inward forever.

Sometimes she saw faces trying to crawl out, and sometimes light tried to crawl in. Neither succeeded.

When it laughed, the air around her bent and turned square.

It dragged its own shadow in front of it, like a dog on a leash.

The shadow barked at nothing, and nothing barked back.

Black mist rolled around it.

The sight alone was enough to make her want to throw up.

She couldn't move, and couldn't breathe properly.

Tears ran down her cheeks without her noticing.

She wanted to heal Lars.

She wanted to help.

But she couldn't.

The mist around her was watching her.

She could feel its eyes, even though it didn't have any.

The moment she moved, it would kill her.

Her chest tightened. Her hands shook.

Then Lars was hit.

He was slammed into the wall so hard that dust exploded around him.

She flinched, but her legs refused to move.

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