Black, tangled hair crawled through the hospital like untrimmed veins creeping along the walls of an abandoned home. Inside, piercing screams echoed — loud enough to make Mikel's ears bleed.
"Ahhh!!"
Mikel winced at the shriek, pushing himself off the ground until he was sitting. The sound went on, shrill and wet, like a pig being slaughtered with no clean end.
"Holy…" he breathed, panting heavily as he watched the monstrous being collapse to its side.
The beaded chain, just big enough to fit around Mikel's wrist, twisted itself around the creature's body. It moved slowly, but he could see it tightening, constricting with each passing second.
"Crowd control," he muttered with a short, nervous laugh. "Is it gonna kill it? Or do I need to finish the job?"
His brow twitched as Doom displayed another block of text:
[Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven…]
The Lord's Prayer scrolled across his vision.
"Trying to be funny?" he hissed, snapping his attention back to the creature.
He didn't have to wonder much longer.
The beaded chain began to tear through the monster's body. It glowed blood-red as the creature writhed in agony, thick black smoke pouring from its torn flesh.
"AHHH!" it screamed louder, forcing Mikel to cover his ears again.
Then, the monster turned to him and glared. Its eyes dripped with blood as it slowly bulged out of its sockets.
"Shaman! It is not over yet! We will keep coming at you—burn you to the depths of hell!" Its voice echoed with layers, like multiple entities speaking at once.
Mikel scoffed. "Come for me. But I'm not the one burning today."
He raised a hand. "Blood Chain. Shut the damn thing."
The chain flared with heat, pulsing brighter — and then it snapped tight. A second later, the creature's body exploded like a balloon. Flesh, limbs, and dark fluid splattered across the hospital chapel.
Mikel squeezed his eyes shut, wiping the sticky gore from his face. When he opened them, the scattered mess was already disintegrating into black smoke, drifting up like incense from an altar.
He blinked and saw that the smoke wasn't just coming from the corpse.
It was rising from his own skin.
"…Doom, what's going on?"
[Threat neutralized.]
[Spirits, especially malevolent ones, gain strength from their goals. Once they are dealt with, they disappear.]
[First Objective: Success!]
Mikel took a breath. Then another. His legs trembled as he stood, the last of the adrenaline wearing off.
"So... this wasn't some regrouping for a second phase? No last-minute boss evolution?"
[No.]
Clang…
His ears twitched at the soft ring of metal. He looked down and spotted the Blood Chain — now just a plain bracelet — lying on the floor.
He let out a weak chuckle. "You really came through, huh?"
He staggered over, picked it up, and turned it in his palm. His stomach churned—only now did he notice the blood under his nails. The chain glowed faintly, pulsing once before dimming.
"Saved me out there. Rest well, Chain."
He slid it back onto his wrist, then paused when something glinted in the corner of his eye.
Squinting, he stepped closer and crouched down. A tiny shard rested on the floor. Its perfect kite shape shimmered faintly, almost hypnotic.
[Scanning…]
[Shard of the Mourning Eye detected.]
Mikel's brow furrowed. "This was in her hair? I knew it. Finding it is gonna be like hunting needles in hell's haystack."
[...]
Doom's ellipsis hovered, as if to say I wouldn't bet on that. Mikel ignored it.
"What do I do with it? Break it?"
[Master, breaking it would leave it for other spirits to find and use. You may embed it into the Blood Chain.]
"Embed it?" He raised his wrist. "How—?"
He pressed the shard gently to one of the chain's beads. To his surprise, the surface softened. Carefully, he pushed it in until it vanished, absorbed completely.
"Whoa…" His eyes widened. "You can do that? What else can this bracelet — OW!"
The chain glowed and singed him lightly.
"What the hell—"
[Blood Chain can be a little sensitive, Master. Please don't refer to it as a bracelet. It takes pride as one of the Thirteen Crimson Relics of the Ancient Cursed Order.]
[Master, with enough fragments, the Blood Chain may unlock its dormant techniques.]
Mikel grumbled. "Alright, alright. Chill."
He looked around. The flesh and blood were gone, dissolved to ash. But the wreckage of the chapel remained. Cracks in the walls. Burned-out lights. The scent of smoke.
"So now what?" he muttered. "The monster's gone. How do I wake up?"
He shouldn't have asked.
RUMBLE.
The ground shook violently beneath him.
"Wait—no no no—"
But the floor had already collapsed.
"Shi—!"
He fell, free-falling into blackness, eyes wide as the air whooshed past his ears—and then…like a petty DJ from hell, Doom cues up a song.
[We… are the champions, my friend…]
[And we'll keep on fighting 'til the end…]
"…Seriously?" Mikel's voice cracked.
I just survived my first ghost boss fight, and you're giving me Queen?
[No time for losers—]
['Cause we are the champions…]
CRASH!
---
GASP!
Mikel jolted awake, snapping back to reality. He bolted upright, gasping like he'd surfaced from drowning—just in time for fingers to close around his throat. The song still echoed faintly until he slammed back into the bed and choked.
A figure was on top of him. Straddling his chest. Hands at his neck.
"No—!"
I thought it was over!
He thrashed, his thoughts racing as he grabbed the attacker's arms.
Why are we back at the beginning!?
Doom was silent.
This time, the spirit nurse's hair didn't move. No snakes. Just pure, vengeful rage.
"You—!" Mikel drew back a fist, but before he could strike, something shot through the air.
Thunk.
A dagger embedded itself in the spirit's temple with a talisman paper still burning along the hilt.
"ACK—"
The nurse jerked. Her grip loosened. Flames erupted from the talisman, searing her face—and then she vanished. Gone. Just like that.
Mikel gasped, sucking in air as the smoldering paper fluttered down and crumbled into ash on the bedsheet.
"I'm sorry it took us some time to find that thing." A calm voice broke the silence.
Mikel blinked and turned.
A man in a black coat walked in. His coat was spotless, his white gloves clean, but his boots were stained with something dark. Old blood? Ink? Mikel couldn't tell. The man just looked out of place—too clean, too calm, like someone who belonged in a boardroom, not a haunted ward.
The man scanned the room like he'd seen this a hundred times. Like none of it surprised him.
"That spirit had been clinging to vulnerable sick children," the man continued, his silver eyes cold like a blanket of frost in the coldest time of winter. "Jumping from one to the next. Made it hard to track."
He picked up the dagger on the bed, tucked it in his coat, then held out a black card between two fingers. "I'm Stefan. Zone Zero. SPECTR Division. Paranormal clean-up crew… more or less," he said as if it were another Tuesday night.
Mikel slowly took the card. His fingers trembled.
"If you're interested," Stefan said, "this might be the right place for you. They're recruiting students with potential. Ones who can handle the other side."
"Huh?" Mikel stared at the card. "Wait—what is this place?"
But Stefan was already walking away.
"Hey! What is this? Where are you going?!"
Stefan paused, glanced over his shoulder. "See for yourself."
And then he was gone.
Mikel looked down.
The card shimmered faintly.
[Refined Arts Academy]
For the gifted.
Then, Mikel tipped the card, and the words right next to [For the gifted] appeared.
"Refined Arts Academy," he whispered in the silence that followed. "For the gifted… for the haunted."
Deep lines appeared between his brows as he stared at the card in a daze, and faintly — just very faintly — somewhere in his head, the music resumed playing again as if Doom was smugly taking a bow.