The children. Their laughter. The way they ran without a care, without any understanding of how cruel the world beyond that small fence truly was. My memories of them surfaced in fragments—small hands tugging at my clothes, innocent smiles untouched by fear.
The image of those small, helpless bodies made my breath hitch instantly, as if an invisible hand had wrapped itself around my throat and begun to squeeze.
My breathing grew heavier, shorter. My chest rose and fell unevenly. A cold, dense anger slowly welled up from the depths of my chest, replacing the fear that had dominated me just moments before, hardening into something far more dangerous.
Damn it.
Just imagining it was enough to make my jaw tighten, my teeth grinding against each other without my realizing it, producing a faint sound that was swallowed by the noises of the night forest.
I forced my body to stand fully upright, even as a sharp wave of pain shot from my legs up into my spine.
It felt as though red-hot nails were being driven one by one into the joints of my legs, then twisted mercilessly. My muscles trembled violently, tensing and then weakening, as if loudly protesting the foolish decision I had made.
The side effects of using a Binding Vow for the first time were still painfully clear. The output of Cursed Energy I had forced out earlier was not something that could be paid for cheaply.
It felt as if I had wrung my own body dry, forcing something out before it was ready, and now what remained was demanding repayment with cruel interest.
My chest felt both hollow and heavy at the same time, like a vast cavity filled with soaked stones. Every breath I took felt half a second too late. I had to think of something now. I had to.
Come on. Think. Quickly.
What… what could I do?
My mind felt sluggish, every thought moving as if submerged in thick fog. The logic that was usually sharp felt dull, worn down by pain, exhaustion, and the lingering tension that had yet to fade.
Then a single word surfaced—crude, slightly embarrassing, but honest.
"Run."
There was no complex strategy. No heroic resolve. There was only bare, desperate survival instinct—the most primitive decision a living creature could make when cornered.
First of all… I had to escape.
I spun around and ran deeper into the forest, with no clear direction, following nothing but the instinct to get away. Tree branches clawed at my arms, leaving stinging scratches and burning lines across my skin.
Wet leaves and twigs lashed against my face. The damp, slippery ground made my footing unstable; my feet nearly slipped several times, but I didn't dare slow down even a little.
Behind me, the sound of heavy footsteps and strange scraping against the ground continued to follow, its rhythm chaotic yet fast. The noise was too close. Far too clear. Every second felt like hot breath against the back of my neck.
The dog-like Cursed Spirit hadn't stopped.
It was chasing me.
I kept running, forcing my legs to move even as every breath felt like knives stabbing into my lungs from the inside. Cold air rushed in harshly, making my chest burn as if it were filled with fire. The muscles throughout my body screamed in agony, like ropes stretched to the brink of snapping, but I refused to stop.
My stomach churned violently, nausea rising in waves. Cold sweat mixed with the night air, sending chills across my skin. I was fairly certain that if I pushed myself any longer, I would vomit right there—or worse, collapse and never get back up again.
In the middle of that panicked sprint, I glanced back—and froze for a split second.
That thing… was it injured?
Yes. The Cursed Spirit was clearly injured. The movements of the dog-shaped creature looked wrong, unbalanced. One side of its body dragged against the ground, each step slightly uneven, as if the weight there was too much to bear. The structure of its flesh and bones looked unstable, as though something inside had cracked and been forced back together in a crude, unnatural way.
There were black, pulsating fissures across its body, trembling faintly with every movement—wounds that had yet to fully recover, like injuries forced to move before they had a chance to heal. From those gaps, Cursed Energy leaked in thin streams, sharp and piercing, palpable even from this distance.
Wait a second. Last night's explosion.
The loud sound I had heard from afar—the one I had briefly dismissed as nothing more than a hallucination brought on by exhaustion and tension. That blast had been too real, too heavy to be the product of my imagination alone.
Was it really an explosion? A battle between this Cursed Spirit and a Jujutsu Sorcerer? The thought made my heart pound faster, not out of hope, but from a new anxiety taking root inside me.
If that's the case… where is that Jujutsu Sorcerer now?
Why would they leave this thing here? In the middle of the forest, just like that? Half-dead, yet still strong enough to kill an ordinary person like me. Those questions spun endlessly in my head without answers, adding more weight to the pressure already crushing my chest.
Damn it!
I cursed silently as I kept running, forcing my legs to carry me farther, deeper, as far away from the city as possible. Every step felt like a gamble—between surviving and collapsing for good right there on the spot.
...
...
...
I don't know how long I've been running.
Time had lost all meaning. Seconds and minutes blurred together, indistinguishable, melting into one another. There was only one step, then the next, and then another, repeated endlessly, like a broken machine being forced to keep working.
All I knew was that my body was already at its limit. My legs trembled violently, barely willing to obey my brain's commands. Every time my foot touched the ground, it felt as if the earth beneath it might give way at any moment.
My vision wavered slightly, black creeping in at the edges whenever I drew in my breath too fast, as though the world were slowly closing in around me.
My breathing was ragged, harsh and heavy in my own ears, like the panting of a stranger running just behind me. I could barely recognize the rhythm of my own breath anymore.
My stomach burned as if on fire, nausea mixing with a sharp, gnawing pain. My chest felt as though it were being struck over and over by iron fists, each heartbeat leaving behind a dull, lingering ache.
My head spun, and every step grew slower, heavier, as if I were walking through thick water that dragged at my entire body.
I glanced back once more.
Gone? No!
My reflexes moved faster than my thoughts. My body reacted before fear could lock up my joints. I leapt to the side—half a second too late.
A searing pain tore through my right hand. It felt like being struck by cold fire that bit straight down to the bone. I stifled a scream as my body staggered, nearly losing its balance, my foot dragging against the ground before I managed to steady myself again.
Blood flowed—warm and sticky—from the wound left by the dog-shaped Cursed Spirit's slash. It dripped onto the ground, leaving dark stains among the wet leaves. The wound didn't look large, just a long, rough gash, yet the pain was absurd, far exceeding what its size should have caused.
"Arrgh! Damn it!"
The pain was unbearable. It wasn't just a physical injury. There was a strange sensation digging deeper, spreading from skin to muscle, to bone. As if the remnants of Cursed Energy were trying to destroy me from the inside, gnawing away, leaving traces that were invisible yet lethal. With every passing second, the pain became clearer, sharper, more vividly alive.
My breathing turned frantic. I clutched my bleeding hand with my left, pressing down on the wound as hard as I could even though the agony made me want to scream again, forcing myself to stay upright. My knees were on the verge of giving out, shaking violently, nearly folding under the weight of my own body.
I have to do something—right now.
My gaze caught something ahead. A large boulder, tall and solid, covered in thick moss and small roots crawling along its sides. It looked like the only solid, reliable object in the middle of the dark forest that felt openly hostile to my existence.
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