[Jonghyun’s PoV]

“Jonghyun, calm down,” called Minhyun, his ghost like form floating back and forwards in the air as he watched me closely as I paced, I had an odd feeling in my gut and it made me worry for Minki.

“Minki is alright,” stated my deceased father in hopes of calming me, in hopes of reassuring me about the prince’s safety, “He’s still alive, he’s just in danger since your grandfather has his hands on him.”

I nodded in understanding, biting my lip as I furrowed my eyebrows. I knew my father was trying hard to ignore the pull he was feeling, the pull of my uncle – his brother – calling for him; I could see it in his eyes. I could see that my uncle was taking control over him as his eyes changed from their regular brown color to a glowing sliver-ish color.

“He’s coming,” whispered my father before the brown in his eyes completely faded, being completely consumed by the sliver color.

A chill ran down my spine as I stared at my father, the man who I never met until recently and even now, he wasn’t alive…he was dead. He shouldn’t be able to contact me and yet, he was here and as was Minhyun – both of whom were consumed by the dark realm themselves and thus were doomed to live there for eternity after they passed away in the light realm.

“Now?” I muttered, “He’s coming now?”

My father nodded one last time before falling completely under my uncle’s control again.

“Already?” I muttered in shock, “Minhyun, I don’t have the power yet…I’m not ready yet.”

“You’ll be fine,” responded Minhyun, his transparent form looking at me sadly, “Trust me.”

“Minhyun, he’s stronger than me, he has more experience…What do I do?”

“Trust me Jonghyun when I say the power will come to you when you need it,” stated Minhyun, “That is just how they work, alright?”

I hummed, but was still very, very nervous about it.

“You are going to lose, Jonghyun…Minhyun has no idea what he’s up against,” muttered my father.

“Ignore him, he’s trying to play with your mind,” stated Minhyun, “he’s trying to make you doubt yourself. Do not listen to him JR, we can win this especially if you can control the one thing we talked about before.”

I looked at him, understanding that my uncle was probably listening in and Minhyun knew it, “You can do it and you’ll only know that when it’s all over. You can control it, trust me, it’ll come to your aid when you need it the most.”

“But…”

“Stop thinking,” stated Minhyun, resting a hand on my shoulder, “Trust me when I say that.”

I nodded, looking at my brother out of slight paranoia, he knew his brother had been consumed by the dark realm and thus was doomed to live in it, but he had a difficult time believing that this was actually his brother and that his uncle had no control over him.

“Stop worrying,” whispered Minhyun, his gaze shifting from me to something behind me.

I spun on my heel and looked at the pulsing black crystal in shock, having not seen before hand – not noticing it until now.

“W-What is that?”

“That is the heart of the dark realm and the source of the tear – the thing that is keeping the tear open,” stated Minhyun, “This is the thing you must destroy after you take down uncle.”

I nodded in understanding before looking at him, “Why are you showing me this?”

“Because,” cut in a voice that had chills yet again running down my spine, an all too familiar voice that sounded gleeful and excited, “I wanted you to see it before you were consumed by the void as well – consumed by my powers over the darkness. I wanted you to see just how close you were to ending this once and for all.”

Spun to look at him, only to freeze as I saw two guardians of the void carrying a crystallized Minki, he looked like those we had seen in the castle. I stared at him in shock and tensed my legs slightly, ready to run after him, only to stop when a wall of purple fire rose between me and his frozen form.

“Ah, ah, Jonghyun,” tsked my uncle as he looked at me, “This battle is strictly between you and I.”

“B-but…”

“I’ll give you the head start in this battle,” stated the man, “Considering that even with it you won’t be walking out of here alive – nor will the prince.”

I glared at the man, “People like you in our family are the reason that the protectors of the two realms despise our family.”

He smirked, “We are the reason this is happening, this beautiful, beautiful transition in the world is happening because of us!”

I looked at him, “Not us, you – those like you.”

He chuckled darkly, “The same blood runs through my veins that run through yours…you and I are one in the same. Your blood is like my own, ‘soiled’ by the darkness from our ancestor who first opened this tear…the one that created that beautiful heart you stand before.”

“The heart that will shatter in the end of this,” I rebutted, only for him to respond by laughing darkly – he sounded clearly amused.

“We’ll see Jonghyun, we’ll see,” stated the man, “We will see which one prevails, light or darkness.”

I looked at him, trying hard to look confident in my abilities – trying hard not to let him to let him see my doubt, to let him see my worries, trying hard not to let him see just how my gaze kept drifting to the crystallized form behind him.

“Ah, you are worried about the prince, aren’t you?” questioned my uncle, a smirk playing across his lips as he looked at me, “Don’t worry, he’s very much alive, but I’ll only wake him up to see your demise, to see that the hope he placed in you was foolish.”

“Don’t you get tired of throwing people away?” I questioned, “Aren’t you tired of being alone? Don’t you value life? If you go through with this, you do realize you are going to be alone in this world with people who are miserable – people who just want to rest in peace in the afterlife, not spend eternity with you – that is until you too die.”

“I will not die,” called the man confidentially, looking at me, his eyes showing just how much the power had corrupted him.

“You are not immortal,” I called out, knowing that it was breaking him down, “You never were and you never will be!”

He glared at me hissing out, “You are wrong, boy. I am immortal…I will live years after my plan goes through, I will live to see this world end myself.”

I mustered up a little more courage as I shouted, “At this rate, I will live to see its end as well!”

The man’s eyebrow twitched and he scowled towards me, looking at me in pure hatred as he muttered, “You will die before the end and just for your insolent comments I’ve decided to let the prince watch as I strike his ‘hero’ down to the ground and paint my sword with your blood. I will let him sit want watch as I cut into you, I will make him watch and listen as you beg and plead for your life as little by little I break you.”

“You will try to cut me down, but you will not succeed,” I growled in response, trying hard to act like my courage and confidence was growing, though it hadn’t changed at all.

“We will see who succeeds and who fails,” responded the man, my uncle, smirking as he peered at me, walking backwards until he got to Minki’s frozen form.

I watched in shock as the crystal suddenly crept away from Minki’s face and vanished from his body, however, only his hands stayed bound together in crystal. I ignored my uncle’s smirk and his laughter as I stared at Minki’s chest, looking for the faintest of movements – any signs that he was still alive and breathing. Relief flooded through me as I watched his chest rise after a long minute of complete stillness, upon seeing the rise of his chest I released a breath I hadn’t even realized that I was holding.

“Get away from him,” I growled, glaring at the man, “This is between you and I from here on out.”

“I will cut you down just like I did with your father,” stated the man, a creepy smile playing on his lips as he watched me back away from him out of caution, “and the best part of it all will be that Minki will be conscious to watch as I do so…he will suffer just like I did at his age – being the only one who was not gifted with the honors of protecting an elemental book…”

I looked at the man and growled, “I will not be cut down like some simple tree. I’m not as weak as I used to be uncle.”

He smirked, rolling his eyes in disbelief, “I’m sure.”

I growled as I drew out my sword and he chuckled, pulling out his own as well and stated, “I will cut you down, but keep you alive until the prince awakens…I will draw out your death and make it long, torturous…I’m going to make you wish I would’ve just killed you that night years ago, with your parents and this land’s people alike!”

I scoffed at his words and permitted my eyes to land on the prone form behind him, relief filling me even more as I saw Ren stirring – slowly regaining consciousness. However, the relief didn’t last too long – well, I didn’t get to bask in it for too long as adrenaline began pumping as I raised my sword to block a powerful attack from my uncle, who had finally drawn his own sword. With a deep breath, I met him halfway during his next swing towards me, biting my lip as a pain surged up my arm suddenly and it felt like fire was surging through my veins.

As our swords clashed yet again, he smirked, leaning closer to me and whispering, “I see the darkness’s seed has finally hatched within you.”

Listening to his words, I looked down, gasping as I saw the purple tendrils under my skin, wrapping around my wrist – much like it had done to Minhyun all those days ago, though they felt as though they were years ago now. Panic arose within me as I saw the tendrils growing far faster than they had done within Minhyun.

“Let’s see if you can beat me prior to the darkness consuming you like it did your father and your brother, like the rest of our family– like it will to you precious little lover, Prince Minki,” cooed my uncle, chilling laughter echoing through the void as he looked towards me, his hand raised.

Just as he was about to send some sort of elemental attack my way, our attention was turned back to Ren’s prone form. I watched as the younger male stirred, his long eyelashes finally fluttering apart and his eyes opened, automatically looking at me in a mixture of shock and confusion, his mouth opened in a silent scream as I felt a searing pain appear in my shoulder. Casting my attention away from Ren, I looked at my uncle as he smiled even wider upon seeing the blood rising from the surface of my pale skin.

Before I had a chance to counter, I was knocked back on my back, my sword kicked far away from my hand, far out of my reach all because I lost focus for a second. I had let myself become too distracted by the relief of seeing Ren waking up, perfectly alright, despite spending an hour-or-so alone with my psychotic uncle. Looking up, I found my uncle distracted, the point of his sword drifting far away from my neck as he addressed Minki. With a smirk, I took a deep breath and grasped the edge of the blade, ignoring the pain of the edge cutting into the palm of my hand. As I held onto it tightly and focused all my power onto it, I thought, please let this work.

[Ren’s PoV]

As I groggily opened my heavy eyelids once and for all, I was greeted by the horrifying sight of Jonghyun lying weaponless on the ground, his uncle’s sword pointed at his neck. Despite their position, both set of eyes were on me, Jonghyun looked at me in relief while his uncle looked at me with a devilish smirk.

“It’s nice of you to join us young prince,” stated Jonghyun’s uncle, a smirk playing on his lips as he looked at me, completely oblivious to Jonghyun as he suddenly grabbed a hold of the man’s sword, “You’ve joined us just in time…just in time for you to see your beloved mage being put out of his misery.”

I looked at him in shock, feigning the look after making eye contact with Jonghyun – who had silently told me to keep acting like nothing was going on, like Jonghyun really was going to be killed. The look he gave me told me to act like he wasn’t strong at all and that he had already been knocked down by his insane uncle.

I watched in shock as a black mist shot up the sword and into the evil mage’s hand, vanishing into his palm. I tried to cover my ears as the man let out a pain filled scream but discovered my hands bound by some sort of dark crystal. The scream soon turned in to one of anger as he spun on the balls of his feet, kicking Jonghyun out of anger as he spun. I heard a pain filled grunt slip from between Jonghyun’s lips as his uncle’s foot made contact with his side wound, a wound that had me worrying for him as I finally took note of just how deep it was.

“You will pay for this you blasted fool!” growled the man, spinning on his heel again and facing me, without another word, a wall of black flames headed my way.

Closing my eyes tightly, I curled up and braced myself for the impact of the wall – knowing that the searing, white hot pain would come soon. However, I was shocked to find that it hadn’t come as I had expected it too. Blinking my eyes open, I looked at the hunkered over Jonghyun, who had his hand outstretched towards his uncle, seemingly absorbing the shadows that were sent our way – consuming the power that his uncle sent towards him specifically.

“Jonghyun,” I gasped in shock, looking at my hands, trying to figure out when they had become free, trying to figure out when Jonghyun made his way too me and how he did so, so quickly.

“I’m fine,” gasped Jonghyun, not even sparing me a glance as he kept his focus solely on his uncle, the biggest threat we had at the moment. Despite his words, I knew that he wasn’t feeling well at all – that he wasn’t fine. I could see his energy seemingly draining from him even as he absorbed his uncle’s powers that were sent his way.

“Don’t lie to me,” I muttered.

Jonghyun scoffed, “Now is not the time Ren…”

I watched in shock as his legs suddenly buckled underneath of him, I saw the third wall heading our way and without thinking, I dove over him – not caring about what would happen to me as I did so. I was only concerned for Jonghyun.

“Jonghyun,” I muttered in pain as yet again my vision faded into a mist of red and black dots before fading completely.

“Don’t worry Prince Minki, this is not your end…it is just your time to leave…to get out of there for unbeknownst to both the mages, the heart of the realms are already shattering – the two realms are already separating.”

“H-how?”

“This fight…as it continues, it’s breaking apart the realms, undoing the chain of events caused by the mage’s ancestors because rather than working together like they did in the past, they are fighting each other the holder of light and the holder of darkness are clashing and so are the realms.”

[Jonghyun’s PoV]

I felt anger surge up within me as I stared at Minki’s prone form that lay above me, his skin abnormally pale, unhealthily pale. His breathing was deep and sounded pained and that sent a surge of power through me. I gently set Minki’s prone form to the side and stood up, the pain I had been feeling earlier had vanished and the exhaustion had faded.

I felt the power pulsating through my veins as I stepped forward, glaring at my uncle – something had awoken within me, something that I had never felt before.

“This is the power of the darkness,” whispered a voice I had never heard before, “Don’t worry for who I am as of now, holder of the light. Just this once, I will grant you power over the darkness…see to it that this ends once and for all…”

I felt the power growing even more, bubbling up within me until I was unable to withhold it anymore – until it finally just burst out of me in the form of various different walls and balls of purple flame, all directed towards my uncle – with the exception of a few bursts. The purple mixed with the flashes of yellow fire, both the light and darkness were flowing out of me, leaving me as an empty shell as the surge of power started to fade. The powers left me in excruciating pain as they flew all over the place, as I lost control over it as my strength slowly faded again, as I yet again fell to my knees beside Minki’s  prone form.

I hissed in pain as I looked towards my uncle, who stood in a whirlwind of light and darkness, of purple and yellow, letting out a bone chilling scream of pain.  

“Look behind you young mage.”

With much difficulty, my head turned – my body didn’t seem to want to listen to my brain or the voice I was hearing. My eyes fell on the get black crystal that sat behind me, the heart of the tear. I stared at the crystal in shock as I saw the light and darkness cracking its shell as well, slowly shattering its very fragile casing and core. I watched as the first part of the crystal just suddenly collapsed, turning into ash as it did so.

I smiled, trembling from the mere exertion of holding myself up, “Father…I did it…”

“Jonghyun,” gasped out a voice that was hardly audible and my attention was pulled towards Minki, who had somehow woken up despite his serious injuries.

I watched as Minki winced, peering at me sadly, “Jonghyun…”

“This is where you must part,” growled the voice I had heard prior to entering the tear.

“Minki,” I whispered, crawling over to him with much difficulty as a powerful tremor shook the land, nearly sending me flat onto my face, however, with some difficulty, I finally managed to crawl over to him, to lean over him and caress his pale cheeks with a trembling hand.

“Jonghyun,” responded Minki, calling out my name again as tears slowly gathered in his eyes, “I-I…”

“Save your breath,” I gasped out, cupping the younger male’s cheeks, smiling at him as pain continued to surge through my veins from the over exertion of power and shadow’s tendrils that were slowly consuming me, “Y-You’re not out of this yet…you’re not into safe hands yet…”

“Jonghyun…”

“I know,” I muttered, knowing what he wanted to say, “I know, M-Minki-ah…go now.”

“B-but…”

“I came into this place knowing that I wouldn’t be returning, so go now…Miro needs you...” I stated, “They will need a ruler once all this comes to an end…they’ll need someone to pick up the pieces of the ruined country…They’ll need you, their rightful leader.”

Minki opened his mouth to speak, but I silenced him with a chaste kiss to his lips before pulling away and staring into his shocked eyes.

“They need you,” I whispered, “So, go, before the heart shatters completely and the void is sealed with both you and I within it…trust me to end this here. Trust me to come back to you…”

Minki nodded, but stared at me sadly, “You better come back…”

I smiled stiffly and watched as he suddenly started to glow, being consumed by some sort of light that hurt for me to touch. I slowly backed away from the light the best I could, holding back the tears that threatened to fall as I parted with Minki.

My attention was suddenly turned elsewhere as I heard my uncle screech out to me, “If I’m going down this way, so will you!”

I let out a hoarse scream as my uncle grabbed ahold of my shoulder and one of my wrists, sending all of his power straight into me, making me feeling the white-hot pain along with the excruciating pain of over exertion.

[Ren’s PoV]

I watched as Jonghyun backed away from my fading figure, I watched in horror – wanting to scream out but being unable to – as the evil mage, Jonghyun’s uncle approached him so suddenly and grabbed ahold of his wrist and his injured shoulder.

I felt tears spilling over as I heard the hoarse, bone chilling scream that came from Jonghyun. I wanted to run to the man and push him away from Jonghyun, but it was already too late – I wasn’t in the void anymore, I wasn’t in the tear or either of the realms anymore, I was between them all.

“Jonghyun!” I cried out as my vision faded to black as I watched Jonghyun and his uncle stare at the crystal heart crumble once and for all, screaming his name over and over again as I watched both him and his uncle get swallowed up by the yellow and purple wave that the collapsed crystal sent out as it finally collapsed in on itself.

“He’s gone now young prince,” muttered a voice that was not Chaos, “He knew going into this fight that he would not be coming back out…as you knew yourself. He – like you – was aware of his fate when he started the fight against his uncle. He sacrificed himself to fix the mistake his ancestors made and yet again, he’s regained our trust and restored the two realms – cutting the connection between the two once and for all…”

I tried hard not to listen to the words, however, they were the only thing that I could hear as my consciousness faded and I became all too aware of all the pain my body was in.

Now time for the epilogue...(this chapter is pretty bad, isn't it?)

If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments below!