Chunji sat in the chairs that were there for the royal family, he sat beside his mother and on the other side sat Minwoo, who was watching the fight going on between the King and L.Joe, who was once the weakest fighter, but now one of the strongest mortals, he had changed with in just two days with Chunji’s help and surpassed Chunji in strength.

Suddenly Chunji’s heart began to race, and a weird feeling came over him, his vision was fading and his head was throbbing, he took in a shaky breath, alerting those around him that something was wrong.

“Chunji?” called his mother, who looked at him in worry.

“Somet-things wrong…” whispered Chunji, he groaned out in pain, as his body began to feel weighed down.

“What do you mean by that?” asked Minwoo, knowing that whenever Chunji said that it was true.

“The d-devil’s return to the world of light…we don’t have time to spread out the trials...” Whispered Chunji, he looked extremely pale and he looked like he was in great pain, “T-They found another way to h-h-he-heal him…”

Leeteuk looked at his son worriedly, as if he could sense his wife’s worry, the King looked at him and his son, knowing that something was horribly wrong, while he was distracted, L.Joe kicked his wounded side on accident, making the man collapse to his knees, but still look at him son in worry.

“L.Joe has passed the first trial,” Said Leeteuk, seeing that his husband wasn’t going to get up.

L.Joe looked up at Chunji and froze, seeing the unconscious boy, his smile fell and worry was etched all over his face.

“You did well, you twerp…” said the Devil, looking at the feminine male who laid pale and weak in his lover’s arms, “They don’t need you, so don’t think that they’ll come and save you.”

The devil then shut the door to the room the two lovers were locked in and walked to his throne room, gazing into his pit of fire and seeing the King and Queen sitting worriedly on their unconscious son’s bed, the man smiled showing his razor sharp white teeth, his eye glowing crimson like the raging fire. His laugh echoed through the hall.

“You can feel it, can’t you brat?” hissed the man, “You can feel my powers pulsing through the land, can’t you? You can feel the pressure building up, just waiting to erupt, CAN’T YOU?”

The hysterical laughter of the insane man made the other residents of the castle fall silent, all lost in thought, knowing that their time above ground was just days away, they knew their time of dominance was coming. They knew the light would fall and vanish, in just three days’ time…

“My lord, there is something you need to know,” Said Xin, the most loyal of the Devil’s underlings.

“What is it?”

“The guardian trials are still going on, the second and third trial dates were pushed up, they are going to have new guardians before we make it to the surface, or even close to the castle…” said Xin.

“Damn it…” hissed the Demon, “However; it doesn’t matter, because the only one who can take me down for good is being severely affected by my power’s full revival. He can feel the darkness seeping through the cracks of the Earth and to the surface, he knows I’m back, he can feel that I’m back. He’s in pain because I’m back.”

“So, what are you saying?”

“I’ll have my sword before he’s well again, and we’ll be right under his nose by the time he’s well.”

“So in other words, you are confident we’ll be in the capitol by the time he’s functioning?” said the Angel of Death, looking at his master.

The Demon nodded, “That is exactly what I’m saying. Anyways, Xin, begin to gather forces, we’ll start our invasion of the surface tomorrow at dawn, so have them waiting for me just outside the gates, alright?”

“Yes, master.” Said Xin, vanishing.

“Why is Chunji like this?” asked Leeteuk, looking at the five gods, who stood around his unconscious son’s bed. The youngest of the gods looked at the poor pale boy.

“I don’t know…” whispered Jaejoong, “None of us sense anything off balance, but apparently he did, so there has to be something bad that is about to happen, and one thing we do know is that it involves those who rest beyond the gates of hell…”

“I sense something,” Said the youngest of the five gods, “Something really is off.”

“What?” asked Yunho, looking at the boy, “What do you sense?”

“I sense darkness pulsing through the ground.” Said the youngest, he looked at Yoochun, “Can you feel it?”

“I can feel that it’s off, but I can’t really say that it’s darkness, because it’s been so long since I’ve felt it…” whispered Yoochun, holding his lover closer.

“It’s as we feared…Chunji was right, the Devil is returning in the surface and judging from how bad it’s effecting him, his return is near…too near for my liking…” said Jaejoong, looking out the window of the prince’s bedroom and frowning. He looked at the volcanoes that surrounded the gates of hell and saw just how active they were.

“How near is their return?” asked the King, his pained son’s hand lovingly.

“Tomorrow,” Said Jaejoong, not looking at the other who all stared at him in shock.

[L.Joe’s PoV]

We just finished up the second trail only thirty of us were left, tomorrow was going to be the final trial and the ceremony where we were going to become guardians, however, no one was thinking about the last trial. Why? Well, if you saw the prince suddenly pass out and look so weak and so fragile, you’d understand why we all were worried; after all if we passed these trials, it would be our job to protect him. The eleven of us walked to the inn in silence, Cecile was acting weird, which made those of us who were still newer to this land curious as to what was wrong.

“Unnie?” said Minji, looking at the older girl.

“Minji, go back to the orphanage ok? Go straight back there ok?” said Cecile.

Minji looked at her in what seemed to be understanding and nodded, she then looked at us and bowed, “I’ll be taking my leave, unnie, I’ll wait for you in our room ok, and you’ll have to explain what’s wrong there, ok?”

Cecile nodded and the younger girl left.

I looked at Cecile who looked worriedly towards the castle, “What’s wrong?”

“I’ll tell you later, but now is really not the time.”

She looked at me and I was shocked to see that one of her golden eyes was blood red. Woohyun, CAP, L, Donghyun, Hyunseong, and Dongwoo looked at her in shock too. Meanwhile, Minwoo and Ricky looked at her in understanding.

“I must go to the castle…excuse me…” whispered Cecile running off uphill, heading towards the castle.

I looked at Minwoo and Ricky, curious as to where the other guardians were now, after all they all had been in the arena during the second trial, but after the trial ended, they all seemed to vanish, and by all of them, I mean all of them, both old and young.

I looked at the two with curiosity, “What is going on?”

“Like Cecile said, now is not the time to explain…” said Ricky, you all really need to go to the inn and stay there, ok? If you want to go to the orphanage and wait with Minji, but please, just don’t stay outside, ok?”

We looked at him, but nodded anyways, we all then watched the sight of their retreating backs as they too ran towards the castle.

“Something is wrong…” said Woohyun, “And whatever it is, it’s involving those volcanoes.”

“How do you know that?” asked Donghyun.

Woohyun pointed at them, “Look they are too active for this to be normal… Look at the cloud of ash, covering everything…”

“It’s quite literally covering everything…” said CAP.

“Should we go to the castle?” asked Dongwoo, looking at me.

I shook my head, “We should go to the inn like they said, from how scared they looked, I’d say we should trust them on this and go back to the inn and wait for them there…”

The others sighed, but nodded, we all were curious as to what was going on, but we were going to play it safe and go to the inn. However, on our way to the inn, we noticed the once lively streets were empty, all the windows that had been opened were now closed with the blinds covering them up, we knew something was horribly wrong and I had a feeling whatever it was, was connected to the sword that Chunji sealed in the door to the realm we came from, and I had a feeling that this was connected to this “great” war I had overheard Sungjong, Sungyeol, and Sunggyu talking about. 

The next chapter is where the story in my opinion begins to feel rushed...So, don't be expecting too much.