They ran.

  Through the winding corridors of the ancient ruins, back the way they had come, lungs burning, boots pounding against cold stone. Their torches cast erratic shadows against the crumbling walls as they pushed forward, driven by the single goal of reaching extraction.

  But the ruins had not been kind on the way in—and they weren’t kind now.

  “Watch your step!” Erin called, narrowly avoiding a jagged fissure in the floor. The once-stable ground had begun to shift and crack under the pressure of Kaos energy. Small vibrations trembled through the stone as if the dungeon itself was coming apart.

  They skidded past the corridor where they’d disabled the magic trap earlier, Sage barely yanking Milo out of the way before he could step on a pressure plate they’d missed before. Jasper, leading the charge, stopped just in time before a slab of rock slid down from above, blocking off a path.

  “What’s happening?” Otter panted.

  “Kaos,” Sage replied. “It’s changing the simulation.”

  “Keep moving,” Jasper ordered.

  They wove through the debris and half-collapsed archways desperate to reach their starting point.

  Finally, the familiar cavern came into view. The extraction zone.

  And it was… empty. No shimmering portal. No Overseers waiting to pull them out.

  They came to a staggering halt. Otter pulled his wrisplay up and checked the screen. His stomach twisted at what he saw.

  The objective was still active. Rescue your fellow students from the Kaosborn.

  They weren’t done.

  Jasper whirled on Torrin. “Have you seen anyone else down here?”

  Torrin, still catching his breath, wiped blood off his forehead and nodded. “Yeah—before we ran into the Rift-Hounds. We cut through a different tunnel. There were others ahead of us—we saw them, but then we had to run. We don’t know what happened to them.”

  Erin looked around. “Where are the Overseers?” she asked. “They should be pulling people out.”

  No one had an answer.

  Jasper clenched his jaw. “That’s it, then. We’re going back.”

  Torrin’s head snapped up. “Are you insane?”

  “Those are other students. Level 1s. Up against Kaosborn. We’re not leaving them here to die. If we fight together, we stand a chance of surviving until the Overseers figure out what’s wrong and fix it.”

  Otter stared at Jasper. He hadn't seen this side of the fighter before. It was noble. Heroic even. He just hoped it didn't get them all killed.

  “We’re not leaving anyone behind,” Sage said firmly.

  Torrin ran a hand through his hair, looking like he wanted to argue. His team—those still conscious—were in no shape to go anywhere. One boy sat against the wall, barely able to hold himself upright.

  “Fine,” Torrin muttered. “You wanna play heroes? Be my guest.”

  “Stay here,” Erin told him. “Keep your heads down. When help comes, tell them where we are.”

  But as they turned back toward the depths of the ruins, Otter wasn't certain that help would come.

  They moved fast.

  Back through the dim corridors, past broken pillars and fractured stone, to the cavern where they had fought the Rift-Hounds. The battle site was a mess. Deep claw marks gouged the floor, blood stains marred the ground. The scent of burnt ozone still clung to the air from Milo’s Light Show spell.

  Jasper barely spared the wreckage a glance. “Find the trail.”

  Erin crouched near Lyle’s body. Her sharp eyes flicked over scattered footprints, deep scrapes along the ground, and signs of struggle. She moved toward the tunnel exiting the room and reached out, running her fingers over a jagged groove carved into the stone.

  “Rift-Hound tracks,” she confirmed. “A lot of them.”

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  The team fell silent.

  Erin moved ahead, tracking with precision, the group following at her heels. She led them through a jagged tunnel, past more signs of battle—scorch marks on the walls, broken arrows snapped in half. Otter’s stomach twisted.

  There were more of those things around. They could be in another fight for their lives at any moment.

  Then, abruptly, Erin stopped.

  “…I lost them.”

  Everyone halted.

  “What?” Jasper asked sharply.

  Erin’s eyes darted across the floor. The Rift-Hound tracks continued forward, gouging deep into the stone—but the human footprints had vanished.

  “There were signs of people earlier,” she muttered, stepping in a slow circle, scanning for anything out of place. “They should be here. The Rift-Hounds didn’t just… stop chasing them.”

  Otter frowned. “Maybe they—”

  “Shh.” Erin lifted a hand, her expression tightening. “Give me a second.”

  They hadn’t passed any other tunnels branching off. So either Erin was wrong, or…

  She doubled back, moving carefully, scanning every inch of the tunnel. Sage ran a hand along the walls, looking for any indication of where the missing students might have veered off. Milo flicked a finger, muttering a spell, his eyes glowing faintly as he searched for latent traces of magic.

  Nothing.

  They had disappeared.

  Jasper looked back the way they had come, his grip tightening on his sword. “Where the hell did they go?”

  Otter stilled. Something in the back of his mind shifted. Not words, exactly. Not a voice, per se. Just…a whisper.

  Luck’s Whisper: Active

  He turned his head, his eyes drifting over the dark stone walls. Something was here. Something hidden. His fingers itched with the same familiar sensation that had led him to the Lost Paths book.

  He took a step toward the wall.

  “What is it?” Sage asked.

  Otter lifted a hand and pressed his palm against the stone.

  At first, nothing happened. Then he heard a faint sound. Barely audible. Something shifted behind the wall.

  Otter’s pulse kicked up. “There’s something back here.”

  Jasper was already at his side, gripping the hilt of his blade. “A secret passage?”

  Otter ran his fingers along the surface, feeling for seams. Sage joined him, pressing lightly against different sections of the wall.

  Then Milo snapped his fingers. “Look.”

  Near the base of the wall, dust had been disturbed—like someone had passed through recently. Otter pushed against the stone again, testing different areas, until—

  Click.

  A section of the wall lurched outward. A hidden door.

  As it slid open, revealing a darkened alcove, several wide-eyed faces stared back at them. Four students huddled in the small chamber, breathing heavily, covered in dirt and bruises.

  Otter exhaled. “Found them.”

  “Thank the gods,” said Erin.

  One of the students, a wiry boy with short black hair, blinked at them. “You’re not Kaosborn.”

  Jasper snorted. “You don’t say.”

  Sage knelt down, scanning them for injuries. “Any wounds? Anything serious?”

  A tall girl with braided hair shook her head. “No. We heard them coming and ran. We found this little alcove before and, well…” She gestured at the small space. “Figured hiding was our best bet.”

  Otter nodded. “Good thinking.” If they’d tried to fight, they might have ended up like Lyle.

  Milo glanced over his shoulder, ears strained for any sound of movement. “We need to get moving. The Rift-Hounds might still be out there.”

  Jasper rolled his shoulders. “Then let’s move.”

  They gathered quickly, ushering the rescued students into formation before retracing their steps back to the extraction point.

  The journey back was tense.

  Every footstep echoed against the stone, every shadow seemed to stretch a little too long. They passed the remnants of the battle—the broken construct, the bloodstains from Lyle’s fight. No one spoke.

  When they finally arrived at the extraction point, Torrin and his remaining teammates stood waiting. The moment they saw them, relief flooded their faces.

  “You actually found them,” Torrin muttered. He sounded surprised.

  Jasper shot him a glare. “Of course.”

  “Any word from the Overseers?” asked Sage.

  Heads shook all around.

  “What’s taking them so long?” Erin huffed.

  “We’ve seen signs that the simulation is being corrupted by Kaos. If that is the case, it is likely that many of the controls and safeguards have also been corrupted. Unless and until the source of the corruption is found and removed, there may be nothing that can be done. We’ll just have to wait.”

  Otter felt a sinking sensation. They were stuck and on their own. Rift-Hounds were on the loose. Yeah, his Luck was performing spectacularly at the moment.

  He didn’t have long to dwell on it, however, because at that moment, his wrisplay started buzzing again.

  New Objective: Defeat the Kaosborn.

  Then, the ground shook. A deep, guttural roar echoed through the cavern. Every head snapped up.

  From the far tunnel—a shadow moved. Something massive. Something wrong.

  It stepped forward into the glow of their torches and Otter’s blood froze. The approaching monster was no Rift-Hound. This thing was bigger.

  Towering over them, its form twisted and warped, jagged bone protruding from its shoulders, eyes glowing with sickly violet light. Its skin rippled, constantly shifting, like reality itself was struggling to contain it.

  Milo choked. “That’s—that’s not level two. That’s a level 6 Kaosborn.”

  “Anything else?” Otter asked sharply.

  “No. It just says Level 6 Kaosheart. I think it may be what’s causing all the problems. I think we have to kill it.

  “Oh fu—” Otter’s words were drowned out by the next roar as the monstrosity lumbered them.