The heat was suffocating. Every breath he took scorched his lungs. The screams grew louder as he got closer to the castle.
He wasn't fast enough.
Flames kissed his arm—just a brush, sending a pang of pain to his nerves as he moved.
He screamed, clutching it, but kept running. The path was closing. Fire spread faster than he could move.
Move. MOVE. He needed to move.
He dove through the castle entrance just as flames consumed the doorway behind him.
Elias collapsed inside, gasping. His lungs burned. His arm throbbed—he looked down and saw blistered red skin.
"Jesus Christ—"
The screaming had stopped.
The silence was worse.
He forced himself up, cradling his burned arm. The silver path was still visible—leading deeper into the castle, up a spiral staircase.
He needed to reach the rose chamber. He didn't know what he was supposed to do when he got there.
But staying here meant burning alive.
He climbed.
The castle was coming apart around him as fire ate the stone. Wood splintered and stones crackled as it was all coming apart by the flame. But Elias sensed something more.
Elias's legs screamed in protest. His lungs were ragged. But he kept moving until he got to the door at the top of the stairs
He pushed it open to reveal a circular chamber with something at the center. A small rose under a glass dome.
He knew this tale well. It was the enchanted rose.
Elias had seen Beauty and the Beast as a kid. Remembered the rose—the symbol of the Beast's curse, the timer counting down to his doom. And according to the Archive, he knew more to the story than any movie had told him.
This rose was dying.
"Oh God..."
It all made sense now. The corruption that the floating texts spoke of. It was visible. It spread through the rose like poison through its veins.
In that moment, a guttural roar echoed through the chamber.
Elias spun to see the Beast coming from the shadows. He looked nothing like the books described him.
This thing was a nightmare.
The Beast lunged without warning.
Elias threw himself sideways, barely avoiding a clawed limb that shattered the stone floor where he'd been standing.
"WAIT—I'M NOT—I'M TRYING TO HELP!"
"DIE. LET ME DIE. LET IT ALL DIE."
The Beast attacked again—faster than something that size should move. Elias scrambled behind the rose pedestal, using it as cover.
His Reader's Eye activated, highlighting its pattern. If he knew the books, he could see what the Beast would do.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
ENEMY ANALYSIS
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ENTITY: CORRUPTED BEAST
THREAT LEVEL: LETHAL
CORRUPTION CORE: CHEST (VULNERABLE)
WEAKNESS: REFLECTIVE SURFACES
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Reflective surfaces?
Elias's eyes darted around the room. Shattered glass from the dome. Broken mirrors on the walls—of course, Beauty and the Beast, mirrors everywhere.
The Beast circled the pedestal, growling.
Elias grabbed a shard of broken mirror from the floor. It cut his palm—he barely felt it over the burn on his arm.
The Beast lunged over the pedestal.
Elias didn't think. Just moved.
He flashed the mirror right in the face of the beast, causing him to come to an abrupt halt.
In the story, the beast had destroyed every reflective surface because he was ashamed of his appearance. In this one, it had to be the same.
The beast stopped, mouth agape as he took in his even more grotesque form.
Elias slowly handed the mirror to the beast as he gently moved away from him.
The corruption pulsed inside the beast's core. He had to take care of it somehow while this thing was still distracted.
The scene surrounding them was something out of a nightmare. He slowly reached for the chest, attempting to example it when it suddenly happened:
The temperature dropped.
Elias stumbled back, breath misting in the sudden cold. The fire had gone out and he hadn't noticed.
The figure tilted its head as if it was curious. It was observing his next move.
Then it smiled. An eerie smile that was not really a smile. Just the impression of a one in the darkness of its face.
And it raised one hand.
Tendrils of something erupted from the group, trapping Elias in place. He struggled as it wrapped around his legs, atms and was moving up his chest.
The corruption tightened, squeezing him further.
Pain exploded through his ribs, feeling something crack.
"Stop—please—"
The figure leaned closer. Its voice was a whisper. A thousand whispers. All saying the same thing:
"I am Endless! This story is MINE!!."
The shadows pulled at him in that moment, dashing him to scream.
He opened his eyes to find he was hurtling through the darkness once again. The view of the burning castle was fading out of sight. He could still hear and feel that thing as it invaded his darkest thoughts.
Just when he thought he it would go on forever, he hit solid ground hard.
The thud was felt all over his body. Pain everywhere.
The Archive came into view, as he rolled around, putting out fire that was on his pants.
Elias rolled onto his side, coughing. His ribs screamed—definitely cracked. His arm was a mess of burns and blisters.
Before he could settle, a notification appeared in his vision.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
QUEST FAILED
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
STORY: "BEAUTY AND THE BEAST"
RESULT: CONSUMED
CORRUPTION: 89% → 100%
STORY SHARD: NOT OBTAINED
ARCHIVE INTEGRITY: 93% → 91%
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"No..."
Elias stared at it, shaking. He didn't understand. Didn't care.
Everything hurt.
He just wanted to go home.
Then, something fell from his pocket. A single rose petal—scorched black, edges still glowing with dying embers.
This was proof that it was real.
Elias pressed his forehead to the cold floor and tried not to scream.
He needed to get out of here. He dashed for the door, and this time it let him leave. His vision was blurring as he made for the entrance of the Archive.
He was going out of it.