Too much was happening in that particular second for anyone to really have intercepted the event from occurring. An immense amount of stragglers were competing with all of the butlers on the kingdom grounds. This kept those who were trained to handle all of the problems to be extremely preoccupied and distracted. Even the members of Teams Alpha, Beta, and Gamma could battle against a handful of stragglers and assassins at once, yet there were still too many to fully destroy the entire bunch. Exhaustion was starting to take its toll on all of the fierce humans. None, however, were going to give up so easily. They all would much rather die in battle then to die without trying.

The BEASTs were scattered all over the hills, putting their abilities and skills to the test. There was a reason that they survived battles against at least a thousand vampires kidnapped from the jails of the Headquarters. And those vampires were the worst of their bunch, who had done the most despicable and disgusting acts anyone could imagine. Stragglers and assassins couldn't even get close in inflicting any major damage to any of the members. This made all of them feel like they were worth something. It definitely brought a different light to their dark pasts in the laboratory. They could finally say that their lives weren't a waste. The experimentation done by the Professor had certainly gone to their advantage in that moment. But was disappearing for years worth being able to fight for a good cause?

The Woo brothers were all running to meet up with Sophia the moment she started hastily approaching Damien. All of them were at different areas, yet hurriedly rushed to her. They wanted to hold her in an effort to truly know that she was alright. Woohyun was right behind Sophia, keeping his eyes open for any enemy that was going to get too close. What he and Sophia had shared in the maze was definitely special. And he had felt so much more at peace and in harmony with himself now that he had professed his true feelings for her.

The light rain that poured upon everyone added to the melancholic environment. A thin fog began to force itself into the palace, surrounding ever crack and inch it could with its mysterious threads. One knew that something bad was going to happen, but wasn't quite sure what was going to. And that's what scared them all in the back of their minds.

Who else was going to die?

In the moment that Damien took his eyes off of his adversary, the enemy took full advantage of his obvious weakness. This hunter was the best of the best and it took a lot to really distract him enough. But that's the thing about falling in love. That is everyone's true point of ultimate weakness. The wellbeing of the one you love will always come first, no matter how black hearted or uncaring you may seem.

Sophia had only run about twenty feet from the maze opening, with Woohyun behind her by about five feet, when she ultimately stopped her tracks. The tone that escaped was ear piercingly damaging. Her scream sent shockwaves to the BEASTs and to the Woo brothers, who finished off their enemies quickly before turning to see what caused her to react that way. She tried to run even faster when Woohyun caught up to her and wrapped his arms around her waist. His torso pressed against her back as she struggled to break free from his tight hold. The moment his biceps tightened around her waist, there was no escaping and nothing could have possibly worked. Keeping her eyes locked on her old friend in the distance, she certainly could identify which of the trails along her face were her tears and what was from the sky.

What caused her to let out such an attention grabbing call?

The moment that Damien saw her approaching him, he took his eyes off of his enemy. With his head turned in a whole different direction and lowered weapon, the enemy took full advantage of that second. This assassin pounced on him, like a lion in the savannah stalking a prey, and bit him as hard as he possibly could. Damien had kept his eyes focused on the girl he loved. He heard her scream but didn't really quite know why. An immense amount of pain was inflicted along his throat, where the venom began to seep into each and every drop of blood in his system. It invaded all of the living cells with no remorse. As everything began to blur and darken, Damien questioned one final time: What had caused Sophia to look so afraid?

Sophia took one final breath before calling out for him. "Damien!!"

He tried to reach out for her, raising his hand as his fingers began to loosen his grip around his weapon. Why was Sophia so close, yet so far from him?

"So...Soph?" he managed to ask aloud before crashing against the cold, wet ground.

The assassin that bit him immediately threw his ragged body on the grass. He menacingly wiped his lips along the backside of his hand, cleaning up the final drops of Damien's blood. His tongue enjoyed the taste of blood too much, especially the warm, fresh kind from humans.

"Damien!!" Sophia yelled once more, feeling the pain strike her heart much harder than anyone had anticipated. This was an ending that she had never wished for anyone—especially not him.

An ear damaging tone began to ring in the assassin's mind. He fell forward, right beside Damien, trying to combat the agonizing hurt being inflicted to him. Roots began to protrude from the ground and took a hold of his limbs as they held him against the grass tightly. His vision began to blur and hurriedly change. A flood of dark and twisted images began to flash through his eyes, and even as he tried to escape it by closing his eyes, nothing worked. At his feet, his shadow started to separate from his body and thicken into a living being. It stood from the ground, a perfect illustration of his silhouette, that grabbed a hold of Damien's fallen weapon. The shadow him along his arm. Another attack against his torso. One more along his leg.

Myungsoo and Dongwoo were the first to reach the fallen enemy and Damien. The redheaded brother pressed his hand against one of the assassin's wounds. He imagined a burning flame escaping his body. The heat that traveled from his touch to the enemy's blood system was too much to handle. His body began to burn while his blood literally started to boil. Myungsoo reached over to Damien, pulling him as far away from the enemy as possible.

"Let me go Woohyun! Let me go!" Sophia called out.

"I can't Soph," his tone expressed nothing short of sadness. This brother knew that letting her go anywhere near that assassin may result in her getting hurt also. They had to execute the enemy before he'd even loosen his grip on her. "I can't. Not yet."

"Woohyun Woo! I have to go to him right now!"

Dongwoo turned to look up at his younger sibling, who had just separated the injured hunter from his attacker, and nodded his head. This gave him the permission to do what needed to be done. In that instant, Myungsoo reached into the assassin's body as he pierced through his skin and bones and pulled out the assassin's heart in raging fury. With that final strike, all of the remnants of those Woo brother's abilities began to disappear. The body of the enemy grew pale as the blood stopped pumping through his system, and his veins darkened and protruded from his skin.

He was dead. But the deed had been done. For he left his mark on the best vampire hunter in the entire world.

Damien turned and twisted as the burning pain expanded from the side of his throat. He was starting hallucinate, not as much as he would be in later hours. For now, it was only the excruciating damage that was being done to his body that he would really experience. But, it was bound to get worse. Woohyun let go of his hold on Sophia, knowing that he couldn't keep her from him any longer. Her relationship with Damien was something he could not recreate or try to ruin in any possible way. Sophia hurriedly rushed to Damien's side. Her heart was racing faster than she could imagine and her legs were just about to give up on her. But the tears; they were something that she was incapable of holding back in any possible way.

Sliding across the grass, she lifted Damien's head into her lap and held onto him tightly.  The Princess wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pulled his head close to her. His faint heartbeat was starting to scare her even more.

"Damien," she shook him a bit. "...Damien, please."

He opened his eyes a bit, staring out at the girl holding him. "...Hey..."

"We're going to fix you right up, okay," Sophia whimpered a bit.

"I'm not stupid, Soph," he showed her his infamous grin. Trying his best to tolerate the pain, this hunter pushed it aside as best he could. "I know what happens after you've been bitten."

All of the Woo brothers kept their distance from the two of them, but surrounded the pair in an enclosed circle. They weren't going to let the vulnerable best friends be put in any more danger. With each of them being full fledged vampires, they could battle from the distance and help out their acquaintances out in the field. But, each was close enough to hear what was being said. And none of them needed to see the situation to know what sort of toll it was leaving on Sophia's heart.

"Maybe one of the guys can take the venom out..." She turned to look up at the backs of the Woo brothers. Sunggyu had turned his head, simply nodding out that it was impossible, before returning his focus out on the battle.

"Don't waste your effort."

"It's not a waste if it will save you, idiot."

Damien felt her tear drops fall softly on his eyes. The rain that surrounded them began to harden once more. It was as if the sky was crying alongside the Princess. It struck them all with such fury that it added to the fuel in their hearts.

"It is a waste since it won't work, idiot," he playfully mimicked. A light chuckle escaped his throat, but the burning feeling from the wound made it extremely uncomfortable.

"I'll find a solution. I'll heal you like I used to when we were younger."

"That was when I got a little cut or... or when I'd trip at school... Vampire venom is a whole different sort of virus."

"I'm going to find a cure... I've... I've got to do something Damien."

"Then stay with me in my final moments," Damien lifted his hand to graze by her warm cheeks. The light pink colour was something he'd certainly miss.

"You've got quite a while left, Damien," she whispered to him as she nuzzled his palm.

"No, I don't."

And in that instant, he revealed a gaping wound along his torso. He had been injured at least four times alongside his stomach area, including his weaker arm, but kept on fighting as if nothing had happened. He was trained to continually focus on the battle itself, yet this hunter knew what his ultimate weakness was. Failing was not an option for him. The blood was rushing out faster than anyone had anticipated.

Each of the Woo brothers that surrounded them twitched slightly. They knew what that meant. Damien knew what that meant. But Sophia didn't.

"Wh... I'll go find some bandages and some medicine to wipe your—" The Princess was panicking. She didn't know what to do. She didn't know how to help. She didn't know that his end was creeping up faster than she thought.

Damien held onto her arm with his other hand. He tugged her not to move and to continue holding onto him. "I just want you to stay with me, alright?"

Sophia stared at her best friend. His hazel eyes were starting to lose their colour. "...Okay..."

The hunter began to take mental notes of Sophia's features. How brown her hair looked. How soft they always felt. How her skin never had a single blemish, yet always had this light pink undertone especially around her cheeks. How her eyes always gave her true emotions away—no matter how much she tried to smile and convince those who loved her otherwise. How she had welcoming chocolate coloured eyes that invited everyone in. How petite she looked. How beautifully shaped and wonderfully coloured her lips were. Everything.

Every feature she held was so perfect to him.

"See," he smiled, "I told you I'd prove to you that I loved you."

She couldn't help but smile a bit. But the pain was obviously overpowering her curved lips. "I never thought that meant you'd die for me."

"If it's the only way to show you that I do, then it had to be done."

"Idiot..." Sophia's throat started to close in on her.

"And technically," his smile faded a bit, "I didn't take that hit for you."

"I shouldn't have distracted you. I should have kept my distance. Then you'd be alright and..."

"Then my wounds would have definitely taken their toll on my body," Damien insisted. "And even if you hadn't started to approach me, I would have still been distracted by you..."

He pressed his hand against the largest wound on his torso. The pain had travelled from his throat to around his chest cavity, beside his heart. He understood that it was only a matter of time before it passed his waist and reached the last crevices of his living body. His wounds weren't helping either. For the more blood that was escaping his body meant that there was less blood for the venom to infiltrate with its virus.

His transformation into a straggler was scheduled to be quicker than normal.

"Do you believe me now?" he simply asked her.

Since he was going to part from her soon, he wanted to get all of his questions answered. It was either he'd die from his wounds, or he'd become a straggler. Either way, he wouldn't be around anymore. He wouldn't be there to protect her. He wouldn't be there to see her smile. He wouldn't be her best friend.

"Believe what?"

"That I love you. That I really... really genuinely am in love with you," he whispered to her.

"You're still trying to prove yourself to me? Heh, Damien..."

"I told you," the hunter turned his head slightly so he could see the village from the distance, "that I'd prove to you that I love you, remember?"

She recalled the fight they had in her room not too long ago. Had she known that this was his determined end, Sophia would have taken a different approach to the situation. Had she simply known.

"Then I'll prove to you that I really do love you. I will. I know that you may not believe me now, but in the future you will see just how much affection I hold for you. I know we've been through this so many times before. I know that I've turned my back on my promises each and every time. And you're right. My hate is merely a hoax that I've fabricated to make myself feel better. I should focus on my duty and leave once I feel uncomfortable... I just don't want to lose you... Do what you have to do. Do what you think is best. Just know that I'll support you every step of the way. Even if that means crushing my own heart."

Those were the final words exchanged between them until now. And the regret in Sophia's heart began to build more and more over the passing time.

"I'm sorry," she lowered her head to cry silently. "I am so sorry. I shouldn't have been that harsh with you. I shouldn't have been so hardheaded. I'm... I'm so sorry..."

"For your personality?" he couldn't help but grin a bit. "Why would you do that? That's a reason why you're you, and why I had fallen for you in the first place."

This time the pain traveled down past his stomach. He felt burning sensations from time to time, but the rest was just numb. There was nothing he could do now. The best he was capable of doing now was the part this world with a smile and a happy memory.

"Remember when we were little," he reminisced, "and how I'd always fight Yoseob when it came to pretending to be your husband?"

She didn't quite understand why he was saying something like that. "Yeah, I do."

"I guess that's when I started really liking you. But the quality that hooked my heart was your wonderful personality and large heart."

"Why are you telling me this Damien? After seventeen years of knowing each other, here you are professing this to me."

"I had come up... with this whole brilliant plan to tell you romantically..." he reached into his pocket and grabbed a hold of something that was cold to the touch. "Didn't think I'd forget, did you?"

"Forget what?"

Then he slowly revealed a beautiful shining ring. It was a simply diamond in the middle with two pearls on both sides. The binding was original and well made. "Your birthday."

"It's not my birthday Damien."

"I'm a day early, so sue me," Damien felt around for one of her hands to place the gift in her palm. "When I heard you were... going to go off on vacation with the Princes for a while... I thought you'd disappear after your birthday... but you had planned to leave right with the morning tide..."

Sophia's eyes enlarged at his true facts. She'd been so excited for her birthday for the longest time. It was the moment she'd become eighteen years old. How could she have overlooked such a momentous event? Easy. There was just too much going on in her life for her to have remembered without someone else mentioning it. Normally, the Princess would be telling every person she saw. She never even uttered a word about it to the Princes.

Yet, Damien remembered.

"I... I didn't even..."

"And I had come up with this elaborate plan to... to whisk you away from the palace for an hour and... bring you to our favorite park... stare at the stars like we used to when they were at their brightest... I'd pluck the biggest and most vibrant one from the sky and give you that ring..."

This was what truly crushed her heart. No matter how poorly she may have treated him, he still loved her.

"I'll wear it always," she slipped it onto her forefinger along her right hand.

"Good," he smiled his final grin. "...Good..."

The venom had finally reached the last few inches of his body. This was the defining moment. To die or to transform. He felt his eyes become heavier. All of the images that he was seeing started to warp immensely. The hallucinations were taking their toll on his mentality. A stronger, sharper pain echoed from the bite wound on his neck.

"Damien?"

No response.

"Damien?!"

Fear began to overtake Sophia's body. She was going to lose the only other person in the world who had taken care of her from the start. Lightly shaking his body, the Princess tried to wake him up back to reality. But nothing worked.

"Damien? Damien please. Don't leave me."

He could still hear her voice though. He wanted to call out to her. He wanted to tell her that it would be alright. He wanted her to know that it wasn't her fault. And that he'd be watching over her as best he could. He wanted her to know that he'd really like it for her to become a full fledged vampire.

Yeah, weird, huh?

He had accepted the fact that she was a special person. She was a halfie. And she was destined to be a full fledged vampire at some point. This hunter had known that for a while. But he just avoided it as best he could. It would go against his entire life teachings if he were to support a choice like that. If it meant that she had a higher chance of living and that she'd be extremely safe with the Princes, then by all means she had to become a full fledged vampire. She had to be safe. She had to be happy. She had to continue living.

Holding him close to her chest, the Princess could barely feel his heartbeat pulsing. He was going to die. "...No please. I can't lose anyone else... I can't... I can't Damien..."

(All of the words in italicized are Damien's responses to her pleads. Sophia, however, is unaware of what he is saying. But since he can still hear her but is unable to respond, this is what he is feeling.)

It's alright Sophia. I'll never stop supporting you. Just think of me, whenever you look at that ring.

"Don't leave me... please... please, don't go."

It's my time to leave you. It's my time to join my parents.

"You're the only one I've known for all my life that I have left... I lost my parents... I lost the kids..."

Then I'll tell them your sweetest blessings when I see them, okay? I know that you feel sorry. I know. But it's not your fault. It really isn't. For some reason, I feel like they're in the sky right now, staring down at us. Their tears are the sky's rain. They must be crying hard. Is it because I'm dying? Never knew people cared that much.

"...Damien..."

I love you, Soph. I really do. I'm sorry for having caused you so much pain. I'm sorry for departing from you like this. I'm sorry for everything. Forgive me. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am telling you all right now, this is ending in a cliffhanger. kk. Do you like it? Damien based this time! I won't reveal too much. I really wanted it to be an emotional chapter. What did you guys think? Too much? Too little? Too sappy? Too sad? too corny?

Love what I did there with her birthday? I had mentioned quite some time ago in a chatper, man if only I remembered which one, that her birthday was coming up. I never really incorporated just when it was until now. I thought it would add to the painful heartbreak of this story to mold it into this chapter. 

Tell me what you think below yeah? I really want ot hear your thoughts. This chapter is vital, important, and definitely one of my favorites! <3 The lack of commenting is worrying me a bit. Am I making it too boring? I want it to be a thrill to read for you guys! 

Don't forget to drop by my new fic and read/subscribe! You won't regret it if you love this fic :D

http://www.asianfanfics.com/story/view/126468/my-soul-to-keep-angst-fantasy-romance-tragedy-mynameband-seyong-insoo

@Animeakume~ :3 I don't want to say anything since this ends in a cliffhanger. but you may be pleasantly surprised. :D

@sarangheyyy~ hehe~ I thought people wouldn't remember the locations that well, but a lot of people got a bunch of them right! I was so surprised! Awe, I'm glad I made him sound like himself, if that makes sense lol. Thanks! i won't reveal anything so wait for the next chapter! (: