SHAMAN PROTOCOL-Chapter 107: No exits

[Trial Initialized: The Cursed Labyrinth]

[External access locked. No rescues permitted.]

Mikel stared at Doom’s screen with wide eyes.

What does that mean? He wondered, and then he heard Mister Nocty speak.

"This shouldn’t be happening," Mister Nocty breathed out, looking up and around their surroundings. "How?"

Mikel turned to his homeroom teacher, immediately catching the strange look on his face.

"Mr. Nocty, what’s going on?" he asked.

Mister Nocty pressed his lips into a hard line as he glanced at Mikel. "The Labyrinth is activated."

"What does that mean?"

"It means..." The teacher’s face darkened before his sharp eyes shifted toward the building. "...we’re inside it now."

Inside it?

A strange thing to say when they were silk standing outside it. Although everything around them looked the same, the air felt different. It felt thicker and heavier.

Suddenly, Doom’s screen popped up in front of him. Unlike its usual blue, the screen glowed with a mix of red and black.

[You are inside an Anima, Master.]

An Anima? How?

[Animas are not only cast by shamans or cursed beings, but could also be activated under a set of rules.]

Just as Doom’s message began to explain, Mister Nocty spoke again.

"It means the labyrinth, which was once contained within the building, has expanded," he explained, casting Mikel a sharp look. "Now, its curse isn’t just bound to the building... but probably the entire school."

A heavy silence fell on them.

Mister Nocty’s brows were furrowed. His jaw tightened, heart thudding, and his mind racing.

There was another reason the building was abandoned, beyond its ever-changing structure. A darker reason. And it all began after a tragedy that had nearly claimed the lives of all the students that year, one caused by a cursed student unleashing a powerful curse within the building.

"But the headmaster already restrained the curse that lived there..." Mister Nocty muttered to himself, his adrenaline pumping. "There’s no way this could happen unless..."

Mikel raised a brow, studying his teacher and then glancing at Doom’s system analysis.

[Cursed Labyrinth]

Description: A spatial construct bound by an ancient shamanic curse. Origin Unknown.

[Status Plane Detected: Cursed Zone Activated — no longer bound to its original blueprint.]

[Cursed Zone Side Effects for prolonged exposure:]

– Memory distortion

– Hallucination

– Uneven time and spatial direction

[System Notice: This Cursed Zone devours those within it after a period of time.]

[Master, this isn’t a trap made of malice. It traps because that was what it was made to do. You need to get out of here.]

That last part alarmed Mikel.

A cursed zone that devours souls over time? Hell no.

Then, Mister Nocty muttered again.

"...unless someone unsealed the curse," he said, resuming his train of thought. "Who would do such a thing?"

Or rather, who could do such a thing? The headmaster suppressed the curse that lived within the walls of this old building. There was no way one could unseal it unless they were stronger than the headmaster or that one used a special tool to undo the seal.

Mikel’s brows knitted, and Mister Nocty turned to him.

"This is bad. I need to get into the building."

Without delay, Mister Nocty began jogging toward the structure. Mikel watched him for a second, then followed.

Doom, suggestions on how to get out of here?

[System Suggestion: Unleash Haleth for temporary assistance or overpower the Cursed Zone’s Anima.]

Figured, he thought. One of Haleth’s passive abilities gave him slight immunity in cursed zones.

Wait—

Mikel’s steps came to a halt a few paces behind his teacher.

Is that why I couldn’t get in? Because of Haleth’s passive skills?

He had been rejected when entering cursed zones before, but with Haleth, he’d been somewhat immune to stronger cursed energy. It acted as a warning of the danger level. It hadn’t happened until now, but this made sense.

[Yes.]

Mikel clenched his teeth, but before he could think further, Doom added:

[However, this Anima was not activated by you, Master. Someone else triggered it.]

Who?!

"I can’t get in," Mister Nocty suddenly said, staring at the open entrance.

He had managed to push the door open... but he couldn’t step through it.

"No," he whispered, stepping back. Panic slowly gripped his chest, filling it with fear. "This never happened before..."

Normally, Mister Nocty and the faculty could enter and exit freely. Even though the building was cursed, the headmaster had sealed its full potential long ago, making it safe to use as a controlled trial zone for students.

A trial to help them adapt to cursed zones. Hence, the faculty staff could easily get in and out of it.

"This can’t be..." he breathed, taking several steps back. He scanned his surroundings as his hands moved closer together.

Taking a deep breath, he said, "Zone."

Clap!

A harsh gust of wind erupted from Mister Nocty, enough for Mikel and Doom to glimpse the spiritual data radiating from their teacher.

But even then, the effect only caused ripples in the invisible barrier, which Mikel hadn’t seen earlier until now.

Mikel turned his head and caught the sky ripple.

"It’s just as he said," he whispered. "It’s stretched over the entire campus."

"Mister Nocty!" Mikel called, snapping the teacher out of his daze as his spiritual zone barely nudged the barrier. "I’ll go to the headmaster!"

Without waiting for a response, Mikel took off in a sprint toward the other building.

Mister Nocty reached out. "Mikel, wait!" he shouted, but Mikel was already gone.

"It’s no... use."

Mister Nocty panted, watching Mikel vanish from view. Even if the barrier covered the entire campus, that didn’t mean the cursed zone’s law remained stable. If anything, the curse zone still followed the same law and logic.

Meaning, just like how the building’s structure changed—so too would the entire campus.

In other words, some might take five steps and end up hours ahead. Others might feel like they’ve spent days, only to return minutes later. The entire campus might still look the same, but one step and they could step into a different room or worse, different dimension.

By that logic, Mikel heading to the headmaster was pointless.

"Ghost Blanket!!!!"

Mister Nocty turned, raising his brows at the shout. From the side, Mikel reappeared, sprinting full speed.

"Ghost Blanket—" Mikel almost bit his tongue when he saw his teacher still standing in the exact same spot. "What...?"

His brows rose in disbelief. He had taken a detour yet somehow ended up exactly where he began, standing beside the building.

[I told you, Master. There is no need to confirm it.]

After all, he’d only used the headmaster’s excuse to investigate the cursed zone’s structure. To his surprise, he was back where he started.

He hadn’t even noticed the shift until he saw Mister Nocty. Up until Mikel stopped, he was running in a hallway.

Mikel and Mister Nocty stared at each other, wide-eyed.

Then—

"AHHHH!"

The silence shattered as a piercing scream echoed from inside the building.

Both instinctively turned their heads, just in time to see a top-floor window shatter. A student was thrown out and was now free-falling.

Mister Nocty’s breath hitched. "No—!"

Without thinking, he dashed forward. But then, another window shattered. What came out was a dark shadow, like a tentacle, surged out.

It wrapped around the student’s ankle mid-fall and yanked her back. Her body slammed hard against the wall.

Blood splattered across Mister Nocty’s forehead, his complexion paling.

For a second, he stood frozen, watching one of his students bleed against the wall... before her limp body was pulled back inside by the massive shadow.

"No..." he whispered again. "How—"

"Mister Nocty!"

Just as Mikel’s voice reached his ears, another window shattered. This time, from the ground floor.

He turned and saw the same shadow shooting toward him. Mister Nocty didn’t freeze out of fear. He froze because the ground held him still.

His pupils constricted, his breath suspended as a crushing pressure pinned him down. All he could do was watch what was coming at him.

The shadow was coming fast, sharp, and hungry.

BAM!

Just as it was about to strike him, Mikel jumped in and tackled his teacher away. The shadow slammed into the ground, carving a crater where Mister Nocty had stood.

"Ugh..." Mister Nocty grunted, lying on the ground. He propped himself up on one elbow, his eyes snapping to Mikel, who had rolled a few feet away.

Mikel punched the ground, then turned his head with sharp, glinting eyes that almost looked like a glare.

"Mister Nocty, are you alright?" Mikel asked. "Mister Nocty!"

The second shout seemed to jolt him like a bucket of ice water.

"Uh—" Mister Nocty cleared his throat. "Yes. Thank you."

They turned their eyes toward the building.

The shadow had retreated, slithering back inside like something was pulling it.

"What the hell is that?" Mikel muttered, letting Doom analyze it.

"That’s the curse," Mister Nocty replied, his voice low. He stared at the building, his expression twisting. His fingers dug into the grass.

"...It’s taken form."

The moment those words left his mouth—

CRASH.

Every window in the building shattered, and what followed were the screams from the students inside. Some were calling for help, and a few... didn’t sound human anymore.

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