The hallway where the entity vanished felt emptier than before. As if its presence hadn't left but had been yanked back to a place that didn't yet have a name. Adara was still holding Ares by the shoulder, making sure he didn't collapse again. Her fingers were cold, but her grip was firm.
"Ares… are you sure you can still walk?" Her voice was soft, afraid to break the silence that suddenly felt sacred.
Ares rose slowly. Still unsteady. But his eyes… were different. Not hollow. Not confused. More like someone who just saw the door to an answer yet knew something ruinous waited behind it.
"I can," he said. "We need to get out of here."
Adara nodded, though clearly not convinced. "Where? If that 'origin point' isn't the campus… what are we even supposed to look for first?"
Ares glanced back at the hallway, as though hoping the entity would return with a bonus clue. But nothing came.
"System," he muttered inwardly. "Provide any coordinates based on prior synchronization."
The System responded sluggishly, as if thinking:
> [Mapping: 34%]
[Route access: limited]
[Recommendation: return to the original data source]
Ares frowned. "Original data source…?"
Adara eyed him. "Why do you look like you just hit a plot twist?"
Ares turned to her. "The System says we need to go back to where the first set of that 'data' was stored."
Adara squinted. "Stored where? The campus server? A lab? An archive room?"
Ares shook his head. "Not here. Not in this building. Not in this university."
Adara's expression tightened. Her gaze uneasy.
"Then… where?"
Ares swallowed. A strange sensation crawled up the back of his neck the same feeling he had when the entity touched him.
"My foster home," he finally said. "The place I lived before the university offered me a scholarship."
Adara blinked. "You… think all of this is tied to your childhood?"
Ares didn't answer right away. Because truthfully… he didn't know.
All he knew was one thing: the memory that hit him earlier had a visual too specific to ignore.
A small door. Painted pale blue. Paint peeling at the lower right corner.
He had seen that door before. Long ago. At his foster home.
And he had never thought it mattered.
Until now.
Ares headed toward the building's exit. Adara followed close behind.
"Ares, what if this is a trap? What if that place makes things even worse for you?"
Ares halted. Looked straight at her.
"If I don't go… we'll never figure out what that entity was looking for."
His breath steadied. "Or why it latched onto me."
Adara turned her face away for a moment not to avoid him, but to steady the fear rising inside her.
"I'm coming," she said at last. "No matter what."
Ares gave a faint smile a more human smile than anything he'd shown in the previous chapter. "I know."
They stepped outside. Night had fallen completely, but the air felt strange, like the world itself was holding its breath.
As they crossed the campus courtyard, the System pulsed again:
> [Entity movement: undetected]
[New anomaly: 2 patterns approaching]
[Warning: they are from different pathways]
Ares stopped dead.
Adara bumped into him. "Hey what now?"
"Two other entities… heading toward us," Ares said tightly. "Different types. Different sources."
A subtle chill skimmed across the grass. Not wind. Not natural.
Footsteps… without bodies.
Adara instinctively grabbed his hand, gripping hard. "Ares… are we safe?"
"That depends," he inhaled sharply. "If they're also searching for the origin point… then we're not the only ones being targeted."
Adara stared at him. "And if they're not searching?"
Ares gazed into the dark campus field that suddenly felt far too open.
"Then they're coming to stop us."
In the distance, two faint distortions drifted closer not light, not shadow. More like the air itself bending in two different spots.
Adara stepped back. "Ares… please tell me we can run."
Ares seized her hand, pulling her with him. "We can. But we have to go now."
And they ran. Leaving the campus. Leaving the space that had just become a gateway to something that never should've existed.
Behind them, the two entities stopped at the exact place the first one vanished.
One quivered, sending out a faint fractured whisper:
"…origin… must be secured…"
The other spoke louder, more forceful:
"…the subject must not reach the blue door…"
But Ares and Adara were already gone, swallowed by the darkness beyond the campus gate.
Unaware…
they had just triggered a chase that wouldn't end until one side found the Origin Point
or was destroyed trying.