She forgot to breathe.

She didn't blink.

Her mind, somehow, still worked.

Lars was going to be captured if she didn't act now.

She clenched her fists. "Don't get captured! I'll heal Alan. Just cover me!"

Before she could lose her nerve, she ran for the syringe.

The Cursed Spirit's three heads turned, following her every motion.

She grabbed the syringe, but the moment her fingers touched it, danger surged through her senses.

She tried to chant a Mana Wall.

'It'll work this time. I can save them—'

But the spell failed.

A deep gash opened from her shoulder to her waist, and she was thrown across the room.

Pain filled her mind.

She couldn't scream properly, only gasp.

Another attack came.

She barely managed to roll aside.

The syringe was still in her hand, gripped so tight her knuckles turned white.

"Where are you looking at!" Lars shouted.

He grabbed the Cursed Spirit he was seeing and pushed back with all his strength.

The Cursed Spirit's focus shifted. Its attack missed Calliope by inches.

"Go!" Lars yelled.

Tears blurred her vision, but she forced herself to move.

Her body trembled, but she still ran toward Alan.

An invisible strike hit her legs.

She fell, sliding forward, but didn't stop.

She stabbed the syringe into Alan's chest and pressed down on the top with her thumb, and used her heal spell.

'Work. Please work.'

She braced for another hit, but nothing came.

When she opened her eyes, a faint light glowed beside her. A portal.

"Cough! Cough! How long was I out?" Alan's voice came weak but steady as he sat up.

"Alan, you're awake—"

Her words cut off when she saw Lars collapse. He wasn't moving.

"It's—cough—alright," Alan said.

He moved his hand, opening several portals and pulling both her and Lars behind him with Telekinesis.

The Cursed Spirit attacked again, but Alan blocked the strikes using his portals.

This time, before the Cursed Spirit could pull back, he closed them.

Two of its countless arms were cut off, and they hit the floor with a wet thud.

Calliope couldn't see the Cursed Spirit Alan had attacked, but she saw the blood spreading across the tiles.

"Alan!" she shouted. "Your heart, last time you—"

"It's fine. The syringe you used will keep my heart beating for thirty minutes," he said, coughing and wiping the blood from his mouth with his sleeves.

That syringe was meant to be a poison.

It made the heart burst by making it pump too fast.

But if used on someone whose heart had already stopped, it forced it to beat again, no matter the damage it caused.

Alan wiped the blood from his mouth and pushed himself up.

His body trembled slightly, but he stayed standing.

For the next thirty minutes, as long as he didn't use too much mana, his heart wouldn't stop.

Small backlashes wouldn't kill him.

The long-term damage would happen. But that was fine.

Better to live with scars than die now.

Besides, he could heal the damage with his alchemy potions.

"Can you heal Lars?" Alan asked, blood dripping from his nose as he opened and closed portals to block the Cursed Spirit's attacks.

Each time he cut its arm, the Cursed Spirit regenerated instantly, but he didn't stop.

He couldn't let it move forward.

Calliope's face went pale when she saw Lars.

Six ribs broken. One lung punctured. Torn muscles. Internal bleeding.

Her heart sank.

'He must've gotten these while I was hesitating to save Alan,' she thought.

She bit her lip hard, guilt filling her chest, but her hands didn't stop moving.

She tore Lars's shirt open and saw the tattoos on his skin.

They belonged to warriors of Asgardians.

She ignored the tattoos, and pressed on the wounded areas to examine him.

'He's critical,' she thought, feeling his shallow breathing.

There wasn't time to think. She made her choice.

She would melt her mana core.

Mages above Rank 2 could melt their core to strengthen a basic spell to its extreme.

Wind mages could summon hurricanes. Fire mages could create infernos.

But it came with a cost.

The mana core would take six to nine months to recover, and nothing could shorten that time.

Until then, the mage could not use a single spell.

Even so, Calliope didn't hesitate.

"I can heal him. But I need time," she said quickly.

"How much?" Alan asked.

"That…" She hesitated. "Fifteen— no, just give me ten minutes."

Alan didn't answer right away.

His breathing was uneven.

Then as if he had made a decision, he said, "Alright. Wait for three minutes, then run with Lars. Heal him in a safer place. I'll hold this thing here."

"No," Calliope said, her voice firm. "We'll help you. Just get me a few minutes. Besides, if we split up, the Cursed Spirit will teleport to Mira's group."

"I'll cut its teleportation. But I need some time. After that, you can run," Alan said, focusing his mana.

She wanted to argue, but before she could, the Cursed Spirit vanished.

They waited for it to use a sneak attack.

But nothing happened.

Alan's expression darkened.

"…It teleported to Mira's group."

He didn't chase it.

He couldn't.

He didn't even know where they were.

Running now would just drag everyone into more danger.

"Why did it go to Mira's group?"

…

Mira's POV

The door opened into a massive lab.

Mira froze.

Dozens—no, hundreds—of 'something' floated inside glass tubes.

Her eyes darted from one to another until she found familiar faces.

Zephan. Denny. Ellyn.

She ran to them, her heartbeat echoing in her ears.

Zephan and Denny weren't moving.

She unlocked their tubes and caught their limp bodies as the liquid drained away.

They weren't breathing, but their vitals were steady.

She turned to Ellyn's tube and opened it too.

"Ellyn," she said softly.

Ellyn stirred at her voice.

She wasn't awake, but it seemed she could regain her consciousness soon. Denny and Zephan should be able to too.

Mira tried to other tubes, but they didn't budge.

Then, she saw the people from the missing person cases.

"As expected, they are here—"

Mira could not open their tubes.

Just when she was wondering what was different about her team's tubes that allowed her to open them, the air around her twisted.

The Cursed Spirit appeared.

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