Before the words had fully left his mouth, he shot off like an arrow from a bow, sprinting desperately toward the academy boundary.
"What happened?"
Enid and Wednesday spoke almost simultaneously. They exchanged a glance and, without a moment's hesitation, immediately gave chase.
Mavis, Johnny, and the addams and Sinclair couples, who had sensed something was wrong, also quickly followed.
As Victor ran with all his might, he shouted an explanation to the crowd chasing behind him. His words, carried by the wind, were fragmented yet clearly audible:
"When I was a kid... escaping the lab... playing that survival game... a Plague Doctor called 062 ambushed me... blasted through my heart... Venom made me a fake heart using lab materials... It usually keeps it beating by providing power intermittently..."
"Venom can accelerate the healing of my injuries, but it can't just generate a heart out of thin air."
"Stop fucking talking! Conserve your energy! Full speed!"
Venom roared from his shoulder, its voice hoarse.
"Less than two minutes left! That damn heart is about to stop!"
"If we can't merge before it stops, you're really dead!"
Two minutes. A race against death.
The joy of victory was instantly replaced by overwhelming panic. Everyone's hearts leapt into their throats as they followed that sprinting figure toward an unknown hope of survival.
Victor felt his lungs were on fire. The cold air scraped his throat like shards of glass.
That heart, cobbled together from lab scraps and Symbiote tissue, emitted a grating, rusty-gear-like friction sound in his chest, beating slower and weaker with each thump.
Dark spots at the edges of his vision spread like ink dropped into clear water, rapidly blurring, threatening to swallow his entire sight.
A profound exhaustion and coldness, bone-deep, spread through his limbs, as if his blood were freezing solid.
"Faster! Just a little faster! It's right ahead!"
Venom twisted anxiously on his shoulder, its huge white eyes fixed on the faint, shimmering energy barrier marking the academy boundary. Its voice was sharp and distorted by extreme terror.
"Thirty seconds left! No! Twenty-five!"
Twenty-five seconds.
The distance between life and death was compressed into such a fleeting moment.
Behind him were Enid's tearful cries and Wednesday's cold yet urgent footsteps, along with more chaotic, worried sounds of pursuit.
But Victor could barely hear them anymore. His entire will was focused on that boundary line, so close yet seemingly impossibly far.
Twenty seconds.
His steps began to falter. His body tilted forward uncontrollably, almost pitching him to the ground.
"No! Victor! Get up! Run!" Venom let out a desperate shriek.
Fifteen seconds.
Victor bit the tip of his tongue sharply. The sharp pain and the metallic taste of blood flooding his mouth granted his muddled mind a brief moment of clarity.
Using his forward momentum, he mustered the last shred of strength and lunged forward, scrambling on all fours like a tattered ragdoll!
Ten seconds.
His fingertips finally brushed against a cool, wave-like energy barrier—the boundary of Nevermore Academy.
Five seconds.
"Get through it!" Venom roared.
Victor pressed his forehead against the invisible barrier. His legs felt like lead, unable to take another step.
His heartbeat... had almost stopped.
That dull thud, which had sustained his life for over a decade, was now as faint as a candle flame in the wind.
Three seconds.
Darkness completely swallowed his vision. The world fell silent around him.
"No—!" This was the last shrill, resentful wail Venom emitted before Victor's consciousness plunged into oblivion.
Victor's body went limp and collapsed, falling just inside the boundary line—a single step away from freedom and life.
"Victor!"
"Victor!"
Enid and Wednesday practically threw themselves at his side simultaneously. They hauled Victor up, with Mavis pushing from behind, shoving Victor across the boundary.
"Move! Everyone, get back!"
Freed from the anti-intrusion field, Venom writhed frantically, trying once more to merge with Victor's body.
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