Eunjung bit her bottom lip and shifted from one leg to the other. She was standing just outside of the Admissions Office staring directly at the Shadow that had walked past her just a few minutes ago outside of the school. From the windows she could clearly see the woman talking to the receptionist sitting behind the desk in the middle of the room. Thus far this Shadow seemed harmless, but her dark magic was so strong that Eunjung could sense it even from the bottom of the stairs outside the school.

The Guardians knew that Shadows lived amongst humans and since everyone one of them possessed a little bit of dark magic within them; they were able to be detected. Most of them were harmless, preferring to defer from any activity that had to do with dark magic and just lived out their lives like any normal human. Others had a stronger magic presence. They studied the magic and used it for their benefit but still lived normal lives.

Others, like the ones who had been attacking the city, definitely had a more twisted dark magic to them. The Guardians could sense the evil in their magic, and their magic was the strongest she and others had sensed until now. But this Shadow in particular, her dark magic blew every one of those Shadows away, yet there seemed to be no evil radiating her. This was the one thing Eunjung found strange because a Shadow this powerful should be one of the Shadows behind those attacking the city.

Finally taking her eyes off the woman for a few seconds, Eunjung checked her phone and noticed that fifteen minutes had passed since she had last talked to Hyomin. She really hoped Hyomin wouldn’t take much longer to arrive with the documents she needed.





Kyuhyun had been diligently working on Eunjung’s documents while Hyomin paced around behind him. Printing out a birth certificate and social security card had been easy, but creating an identification card was harder. Everything was absolutely false, but it still had to look real.

A sound of heavy breathing and panting distracted Hyomin from her pace. She looked up in the direction of the noise and saw the gray fur coat of Boram’s pet running towards her. The wolf, named Sasha, was Boram’s favorite pet. She had traveled all the way to Russia just to tame the massive beast that was taller than Boram while standing on all four legs. Sasha was absolutely fierce in battle; she could withstand hits and dish out attacks that ripped her opponents apart. But when it came to being around the Guardians, she was playful and friendly.

The wolf stopped in front of Hyomin and quickly sniffed her legs and then one of Hyomin’s hands. The warrior smiled at the wolf and petted the animal’s head. Boram walked up behind her wolf and petted her as well.

“When did you go get her? I thought you were letting her run free in the wilderness for a while.” Hyomin asked the hunter as she kneeled in front of the wolf to pet her some more.

“I went a few days ago, but had left her in the mountains near the warehouses. Since we’re going to be watching the city later tonight, I thought I would bring her along.” Boram responded while feeding Sasha one of the special pet treats she had in her satchel.

Sasha quickly chewed and swallowed her treat. Her ears moved around and she moved her head in an upwards motion sniffing the air. Suddenly, it seemed as if a smile adorned her face and she quickly turned to her left to run towards her favorite person in the room, who was not Boram. Qri was making her way towards Hyomin and Kyuhyun when she spotted the gray wolf. Her eyes widened in surprise. She tried to blink away but Sasha jumped on her before she could cast the spell.

“Boram get your stupid pet off me! Gross! Stop me!” Qri whined as she tried to push the wolf away. Sasha happily Qri’s face now that she had her laying on the ground after jumping on her. A look of annoyance and disgust marked the mage’s face.

Hyomin and Boram both chuckled in amusement before walking over to help Qri. Boram called out for Sasha, telling her to get off the mage. The wolf quickly obliged and took a seat next to her master. Hyomin offered Qri a hand to help her up.

“Gross.” Qri wiped some of the animal’s saliva off her face and then stormed off towards the nearest bathroom to clean up. Kyuhyun, who had been chuckling about the entire scene, finally got up from his desk and walked over to Hyomin and handed her Eunjung’s documents.

“Everything is ready to go boss. No one should be able to tell that these are fake.” He smiled proudly as he handed the warrior the papers.

“Thank you Kyuhyun. I’ll head over to take these to Eunjung. And thank you Sasha for distracting Qri.” Hyomin tucked the papers into one of the pockets on her jacket and lightly petted Sasha’s head. She saluted Kyuhyun and Boram then headed out of the warehouse towards her car.





Half an hour later, Hyomin pulled up her car in front of the main gates of the university. She stepped out of the car and quickly headed inside the gates, her eyes scanning for Eunjung but she was no where to be found. The one thing Hyomin could sense though was the presence of very powerful dark magic. Instead of calling, she decided to text Eunjung in hopes of possibly not giving away the Guardian’s presence if she was near whoever possessed this magic.

Eunjung had not moved from her spot since she had been watching the woman inside the Admission’s Office. By this time, the woman was sitting on one of the chairs filling out different forms that were given to her by the receptionist. The sound of her phone finally broke Eunjung’s trance. She grabbed the phone from her pocket and checked the text message she had received.

She did not want to leave her spot but as long as the Shadow was distracted by the papers in front of her, Eunjung could step outside for a moment. She headed towards the doors and called out for Hyomin once she was outside. Hyomin quickly headed up the steps while pulling out the documents for Eunjung from the pocket she had placed them in previously.

“This is everything you will need.” She handed Eunjung the papers and then leaned in a bit closer. “Do you know who that dark magic is coming from? It feels stronger here.”

“There is one of them inside the Admission’s Office right now. I’ve been keeping an eye on her all this time.” Eunjung responded turning to look at the doors behind her.

“She’s stronger than any of the ones we faced recently.” She turned back to look at her second in command. A slight frown appeared on Hyomin’s face. She could not sense anything evil about this presence like she did with previous ones.

A slight crackle in the air suddenly distracted both Guardians from their conversation. In an instant, a figure started materializing in the spot next to the two of them. The scowl in Qri’s face showed how angry she was, particularly at Hyomin.

“How could you leave without me?!” She yelled and pointed at the taller girl. But just as fast as she had appeared and yelled at Hyomin, her scowl turned into a simple frown. She turned to look towards the doors of the school and her eyes went wide.

Stepping out of the doors was the Shadow that had Eunjung had been watching all this time. She started walking towards them and simply smiled at the three of them and continued down the steps. Hyomin and Eunjung watched her head down the steps but Qri had another idea in mind. Fire suddenly surrounded her right hand and started shaping into the form of a ball.

“A Shadow!” She shouted at the woman and launched the fireball in her hand towards the Shadow. Hyomin and Eunjung quickly grabbed Qri to stop her from unleashing anymore spells. They really did not need her starting a fight in front of the school.

In their distraction to stop Qri, they all missed at the way Jaehee simply turned around and caught the fireball; freezing it upon contact. She dropped it on the ground, the frozen ball shattering into little pieces, and continued down the steps and out of the main gates.

“Qri what the hell was that?! Are you trying to give us away?! And I left you behind for a reason! Why did you teleport out here where someone could have seen you?!” Hyomin angrily yelled at the mage who crossed her arms and stomped her foot.

“She was a Shadow! It’s our duty to get rid of them! And I told you I wanted to see Eunjung!” Qri yelled back at Hyomin.

“Stop it! Both of you get out of here right now!” It was Eunjung’s turn to yell at the two of them for causing a scene. They both turned to look at their leader and bowed at her out of respect. She looked at the two of them for a second and then turned around to head back inside the school.

Goddamn it Qri! I’m giving you the worst shift now. Hyomin was fuming as she made her way back to her car.

Have fun trying to get back to headquarters Hyomin! Qri was going to make sure Hyomin paid for leaving her behind. She blinked her way towards the taller girl’s car and froze the tires in place much to Hyomin’s horror who ran towards the mage.

Qri blinked her way to the other side of the street and laughed at Hyomin before running off into a nearby ally to teleport herself away. Hyomin cursed as she kicked one of her tires and punched the air in frustration. She had no way of defrosting her tires so she was stuck waiting for them to thaw out with just the heat from the sun.





Seunghyun and Jiyong had made their way to the army’s training grounds after they had left Jaehee’s apartment earlier that morning. Hundreds of warriors were lined up in front of the Commander at the moment. They were separated into the three different categories of warriors. Those dual wielding a weapon in each hand were the Fury Warriors of the army. They were agile and highly skilled in dealing damage with both weapons. The warriors with the heavy two handed weapons were the Arms Warriors. They moved much slower but their attacks were devastating; dealing high amount of damage to their opponents.

The last group of warriors were the Protection Warriors. With a strong and sturdy shield in one arm and a one handed weapon in the other, these warriors stood in the front of the battle. They took on the heaviest of damage and protected the other classes from being attacked. This is what Seunghyun specialized in and these were the group of warriors he trained.

Being a warrior required very little use of dark magic or if any, which meant that the warriors were the smallest class in numbers. But they were the ones who trained the hardest in order to keep up with the magic casters. Warlocks and Shadow Priests were the most abundant classes, followed by rogues. Though rogues didn’t use magic like the warriors, the class was something Shadows could easily attune to due to their stealth and deception.

Seunghyun, who was now clad in heavy plate armor, raised his hammer in the air to signal the start of training. Alongside him were the trainers who trained the Arms and Fury classes. The groups of warriors started off by practicing basic movements and then moved on to the more difficult combos. As Seunghyun walked around the warriors training, watching their movements and correcting those who messed up, one of the priestess from the temple rushed her way through the crowd of warriors to find him.

“Commander! I have urgent news.” She panted heavily as she stopped in front of the warrior. Seunghyun turned around to look at the priestess who carried a look of desperation on her face.

“Hyori, what’s the matter? Why are you so alert?” He asked her as he placed an arm on the priestess shoulder.

“Two of the King’s men have arrived at the temple.” Seunghyun’s eyes went wide with the news. No one who had left with the King for his expedition had been heard of or returned until now. Finally! News of the King’s whereabouts.

Seunghyun ordered the warriors to continue training and ran off with Hyori towards the temple that was located in the mountains that surrounded the training grounds.

“Have they mentioned the King?” He asked Hyori.

“No. They were in bad shape when they arrived. They asked to see you.”

It didn’t take them long to arrive at the temple, and once there, Hyori led Seunghyun towards the rest chambers. When they neared the room, they heard a high pitch scream from one of the priestess. The look of shock and horror marked their faces when they entered the room. Both priests that Hyori had left to attend to the men lay in a pool of their own blood.

Blood had splattered onto the armor and faces of the two men, whose faces had a sick and demented smile plastered on them. Their eyes glowed with an unnatural orange hue, neither of them had orange irises. They both looked towards Seunghyun and Hyori, their physical appearance bared their true forms, and the sick and demented smiles turned into evil cackles.

The one who had slain the first priestess launched himself towards Hyori, but Seunghyun moved in front of her to block his attack with his shield. He pushed him back after deflecting the attack and then swung his hammer to nail the Shadow on the side of his head. The man fell hard on the floor; his body was cold and stiff even before it landed.

A spirit rose from his body and moved towards the second man. It flew right into the man’s mouth and he finally spoke. “Death! Death will come to all those of you who do not stand by us! The time of the Shadows is upon the world once more!”

The man cackled once more and then both spirits inside him exited his body and dissipated into the air. The man fell to the ground just like the other one. His body was cold and stiff too. Seunghyun and Hyori looked at each other and moved towards the bodies.

“They were dead before they even got here. Someone was only using them to give us that message.” Hyori mentioned as she examined one of the bodies.

“Who ever did this is very powerful. They seek to instill fear even to our own people.” Seunghyun stood over Hyori and the man she was inspecting. He looked at the dead bodies of the priests who were just innocent victims of this demented villain. If they could do this to the King’s men, he could only imagine what they have or could do to the King himself.

“It has to be the work of a very powerful Death Knight. They are the only ones who can raise the dead like this.” Hyori shed a tear over the loss of the two priests. She closed her eyes and prayed to the dark energies to guide their spirits into the nether world.

It’s true that they can raise the dead, but not in this way. There is much more to this than a Death Knight. I need to find Jaehee. Seunghyun looked over at Hyori and offered his own prayers to the dark energies as well.





After receiving her class schedule thanks to the documents Hyomin had brought her, Eunjung found herself being led around the school by one of the staff aides. The young man had been showing her the different buildings and shortcuts she could take to get to all her classes. She had honestly been trying to pay attention to him, but she was distracted by the thought of finding Jiyeon once more.

By the time they had reached the admission’s office once again, all the students had finally come out of their classes. It was past midday and many of them were headed to grab something to eat. She thanked the guy for giving her a tour and headed out of the office to find Jiyeon. She stepped outside of the office to find herself amongst a crowd of students headed for the main doors.

Her eyes scanned the entire hallway hoping that Jiyeon would be amongst all the students. Near the main doors she spotted a brown haired girl laughing at whatever the girl next to her was saying. She looked too familiar even from the angle Eunjung saw her which made the Guardian rush through the crowd to catch up to the girl.

“Jiyeon!” Eunjung shouted at her and waved her right arm in the air. Hearing her name being called, Jiyeon turned around to see Eunjung running towards the top of the stairs outside of the main doors.

“Eunjung you’re still here?” She asked Eunjung as she approached her.

“Stalker.” Jieun whispered.

“I’m starting school here tomorrow. I just finished my tour of the school and decided to find you to give you the good news.” Eunjung explained.

Jieun studied Eunjung’s face and noticed how there was no smile or excitement about her good news. She raised an eyebrow and looked at Jiyeon who seemed surprised by the news.

“Oh wow. Cool.” Jiyeon replied and smiled at the older girl.

“Jiyeon and I are headed to lunch. Would you like to come with us?” Jieun asked Eunjung with a sweet smile on her face that Jiyeon did not fail to notice. She knew her best friend was up to something.

“I would love to.” Eunjung answered and Jieun eyed her skeptically. What the heck is wrong with this girl? She should be like super excited about this.

Eunjung followed closely behind the two girls as they walked towards the main gates. Once outside the school, Eunjung abruptly stopped at the site of Hyomin yelling loudly on her phone. She looked over at the blue Nissan GT-R and noticed the small icicles on the tires.

“Soyeon you better make sure Qri doesn’t freaking leave because I’m going to kill her!”

“No! I don’t care what Eunjung says.”

“I’m gonna jab my sword right through her-”

“Hyomin! HYOMIN!” Eunjung yelled at her second in command causing the girl to stop yelling at the phone in her hand.

Hyomin turned around to face Eunjung and hung up the phone. Jieun and Jiyeon stood next to Eunjung and just looked at Hyomin like she was crazy.

The shorter girl leaned into her friend and whispered, “Another crazy lesbian.”

Jiyeon smacked Jieun’s shoulder and the short girl giggled even harder than she already was. “Don’t insinuate what you don’t know.”

Jieun shrugged at Jiyeon while still trying to hold back her laughter. Meanwhile, Eunjung was asking Hyomin what had happened between her and Qri.

Hyomin sighed in frustration and slammed her hands on the hood of the car. “Qri is out of control! She doesn’t listen and her ‘it’s all about me’ attitude has me up to here!” She made a line motion across her forehead.

“I’ll talk to her. Calm down for now and come with us to get lunch. You should be able to get back after that.” Eunjung motioned towards the two girls behind her.

She turned to look at the two girls, “This is my friend Hyomin. Hyomin, this is Jiyeon and I don’t think I got your name.”

“Jieun. My friend’s name is Jieun and it’s nice to meet you Hyomin.” Jiyeon smiled and offered her right hand to Hyomin. She shook Jiyeon’s hand and felt a slight jolt of serene energy flow through her body. Her frustration seemed to lessen.

“Nice to meet you Hyo~ and you too Eunjung-ah. So Hyo, is Qri your girlfriend? She sounds like she’s highly narcissistic. Kinda like Gyuri right Jiyeon?” Jieun’s bluntness as she shook Hyomin’s hand made Jiyeon simply gape at her friend. Hyomin on the other hand squeezed the shorter girl’s hand tighter.

“Hell no!”

“Jieun what the heck?!”

Jieun quickly pulled her hand away from Hyomin’s and then started laughing once again. “You guys are too serious! Come on Eunjung~ let’s lead the way to my favorite place to eat.”

She hooked her arm with Eunjung’s and abruptly pulled the girl away towards the direction of the restaurant. Eunjung turned to look behind her at Jiyeon who was now walking alongside Hyomin. She wished it was Jiyeon’s arm that was hooked to hers instead. Hyomin noticed the slight expression of desire on Eunjung’s face and looked at Jiyeon as well. She’s already powerful enough to give Eunjung emotions. I can only imagine what she’ll do once she unleashes her powers.





When night time finally arrived in Istanbul, Kyurhee found her way quickly moving through the dark shadows sprawled out through the city’s buildings. She was clad in entirely in black, the gear hugged tightly to her figure and the hood over her head covered everything except her eyes. The daggers on the side of her waist were the simplest she had design wise, but they were extremely sharp.

As she made her way to the club where the Russian man was, she felt like she was being followed. It was an uneasy feeling, but she could not sense any kind of magic around her. She briefly exited the shadows and went into stealth mode to scan her surroundings. If she was being followed, the perpetrators would come out of hiding to attack her.

The invisibility of stealth mode allowed her to scan the area but nothing happened. No one appeared and the feeling of being followed seemed to ease a bit. I must be imagining things. She shook her head and moved out of her stealth mode to continue moving through the shadows.

She slowed her movements when she arrived at the back alley of the club. There wasn’t much light in this alley, something that gave her a huge advantage. The limousine parked near the exit door of the club was running and bits of smoke rose up from the exhaust pipe. A smiled graced Kyurhee’s lips at the site of the vehicle because if it was running it meant that her victim would be leaving soon; and that meant her job would be done faster than she expected.

Minutes later, the sound of the door squeaking open and slamming into the wall next to it alerted the rogue that the time to do her job had arrived. Three scantily clad women exited the building, each holding a drink in their hand and laughing along to whatever ridiculous thing the sleazy Russian man was saying to them.

Kyurhee slowly moved through the shadow of the buildings towards the man who was now standing outside of the limo holding the door open for the women. He stood in front of it, a drink in his hand, and a jumble of Russian words escaping his lips while the women called for him to get inside. From his own shadow Kyurhee rose up behind him. Her eyes glowed brightly, and a grin was hidden behind her mask.

The man had absolutely no opportunity to realize there was someone behind him. Kyurhee rammed her daggers right through his back; the left one stabbing through his heart and right one through one of the lungs. She pulled them out as fast as she stabbed him and moved them to his neck where she slit his throat without mercy. His eyes could only widen in horror, realization striking. Death came to him as fast as the dark blood gushed from his wounds. If none of the stabs or cuts killed him first, then the deadly poison on Kyurhee’s daggers did.

Kyurhee used her vanish ability and quickly disappeared, running away from the scene using her invisibility first and then moving through the shadows. She could hear the screams of shock and fear from the women in the limousine which brought great humor to her. In her amused state she failed to register the Shadows moving alongside her.

She was completely caught off guard when one of the rogues pulled her out of the shadows and punched her into the nearest wall. The second rogue that appeared from the shadows swung his sword towards her which Kyurhee was barely able to dodge. She stepped away from the wall and kicked the second rogue into the wall. The first rogue launched himself towards her, daggers aiming right for her chest.

Her evasion abilities increased with the adrenaline that was running through her now. She effortlessly dodged the attack and quickly moved towards the first rogue, daggers already drawn, and struck him with a series of sinister strikes and finished him off by eviscerating him. She wasted no time and ran towards the second rogue, but a third one appeared behind her and knocked her down with a kidney shot.

The second rogue struck her with his sword, cutting a shallow cut on her arm and upper chest. Kyurhee let out a muffled scream and backed away from the two rogues to gain her composure. Her movement seemed to rapidly slow down and her head was throbbing. The shadow priest behind her has cast his mind flay spell which weakened her and made her move slower.

She saw the two rogues move towards her to finish her off, so as a last resort she called out her Cloak of Shadows spell. A dark colored cloak covered her body completely effectively cancelling the priest’s attack and making her able to resist any other magical attack he tried to use against her.

The rogues jumped in the air to land their attacks on her back but Kyurhee was ready for them now that she was free of the priest’s spell. She opened one of the little bags she had attached to her belt and grabbed a fist full of blinding powder with her right hand. The powder flew up into the air after being launched. It blinded the two rogues upon contact; disorienting them from their attacks and making them rub their eyes after falling on the ground.

Kyurhee’s eyes shined a bright purple and adrenaline flowed through her body. She held both daggers tightly in her hands and used one of her strongest attacks. She quickly moved through the shadows and attacked all three enemies with both of her daggers. Her movements were so fast that none of the rogues or priest could do anything to counter her attacks. She continued attacking until the three fell on the ground, dead from the simultaneous cuts and stabs on their bodies.

Kyurhee finally emerged from the shadows breathing hard and eyes still glowing with intensity. She looked down at the dead bodies around her scanning for any particular item that would give away whoever sent them. She decided to inspect their bodies for anything but found nothing.

“Who the hell sent you guys?” She shouted in frustration and hit the priest on his chest. The feeling that it had been her sister who sent these guys had crossed her mind, but she knew better than that. She now knew that she should have listened to Jaehee the day before. Whoever is sending Shadows to find the Chosen One is also sending them after us too? But why? Why attack their own? And why could I not sense them?