The shadow twisted, as if considering her question. Then, a voice, deep and resonant, but not like the spirit that had spoken through Lucas-it was older, darker, like something from the depths of the hellish earth-echoed through the room.
"I am Ago...
The silence in the cavern stretched long after the golden spirits disappeared. Mrs. Marques, Lucas, and Calamansi stood in stunned quiet, the weight of what they had just experienced pressing down on them like an invisible force. The truth was staggering-their history, the stories they thought they knew, had always been incomplete. The forgotten souls, erased from memory, had spoken their truth.
Mrs. Marques wiped her face with a trembling hand. "We need to find the others," she said, her voice still unsteady. "We're not done here. The others... they need to know."
Lucas, pale but resolute, nodded. "Right. But where do we even start? The forest above is crawling with those spirits."
Before anyone could respond, a distant voice echoed through the cavern. It was faint, but growing louder. "Help! Is anyone down there?"
Mrs. Marques froze, recognizing the voice. "Chad?" she called out.
"Yeah, it's me! I'm up here! Hold on!" Chad's voice was strained, and then suddenly, there was a rumbling sound above them. Rocks tumbled from the ceiling, dislodged by whatever movement Chad was making.
With a sharp crack, a section of the ceiling collapsed, and Chad's body came tumbling down in a cloud of dust. He landed with a hard thud but quickly scrambled to his feet, coughing and waving away the dust cloud.
"You alright?" Calamansi asked, her eyes wide with surprise.
Chad, normally cocky and brash, looked shaken but unhurt. "Yeah, yeah. I was trying to find you guys. The woods are a nightmare! Fatima and Gabriel are out there somewhere too. We got split up when those things started chasing us. I thought I'd find a way back to the school, but I ended up falling in this pit."
Mrs. Marques sighed in relief, but concern lingered in her eyes. "We need to get out of here-find the others and make sure everyone's safe. But this place... it's no ordinary cavern."
"No kidding," Chad muttered, kicking a loose stone. "This place is cursed."
As if on cue, the strange symbols on the walls began to glow once again, but this time the light was not golden or comforting. The symbols pulsed with a deep crimson light, casting eerie shadows on the cavern walls. The ground beneath them trembled, and from the fissure in the floor, more spirits began to rise, but these were different-darker, more malevolent than before. They moved faster, their forms more solid, and their faces twisted with anger.
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"Get back!" Lucas yelled, pulling Calamansi and Mrs. Marques behind a cluster of large rocks.
The spirits surged forward, their ghastly shapes rippling through the air with unnatural speed. Chad tried to swing a broken branch at them, but it passed through the nearest spirit's body like smoke.
Suddenly, a figure appeared at the far end of the cavern-a man dressed in a long, tattered cloak, his face obscured by shadows. His presence commanded an eerie stillness, as though the air itself hesitated to move around him. His eyes glinted red, like embers in the dark.
