“Are you sure what you found out was right, Kwanghee?” Sunhwa asks looking at the tall man dressed in white with doubtful eyes.

He’s sitting on her right side with a hand pressed to his forehead as his elbow rests firmly on the large wooden circle table. His face is scrunched up in deep thought until he removes the hand to look at her.

“Yes, I am very sure what my contact informed me was correct. The ancient elders are up to something, it was proven when my contact led us to the cave where the boys found young brother Sunggyu,” Kwanghee replies and turns to look at Uee who is sitting across from him.

The 39th generation leaders (Sunhwa, Kwanghee, Uee, Siwan, Yongguk, and Himchan) are all convened at a secret emergency meeting currently. They decided to hold this meeting after Yongguk and Himchan teleported back with the boys. They needed to get a grasp on what's going on in their world to protect everyone else. Currently, none of the regular citizens know of what their future generation was going through and they need to keep it that way to avoid mass panic.

Earlier that day, Kwanghee had rushed into one of the black tents across town by the beast cages to inform the first person he saw -thankfully Himchan who could teleport- that they needed to find the boys quickly.

There was a commotion at one of the conference buildings. Sunggyu had gone missing in the process and Sungyeol had miraculously woken up to lead the rest of the boys somewhere they were unsure of.

Apparently Woohyun had found Zelo and brought him back to town for interrogation which was the cause of all of this. The grey uniformed boys who worked for the ancient elders tried to hold the boys back from finding Sunggyu but from what his contact told him, they broke free.

Kwanghee found out that Zelo’s appearance was an omen because his contact informed him, just moments before he heard of the commotion, that the boy Zelo must never meet with the winner.

His contact then told him where he could find the boys but didn’t tell him much other than that, which was frustrating because he didn’t know what the woman was playing at.

Was the woman on their side or the ancient elders?

And that's when Kwangee had rushed to the East end of the Middle Border by the Kuro Clan's gates to find Himchan so that he could get to the boys in time. Kwanghee couldn't go with Himchan and Yongguk to avoid suspicion from the elders catching on that they knew of something that they might not have permission to know about. 

Unfortunately they didn't get there in time and now they're holding this long overdue planned meeting to figure out this mess. 

“Have you found anything in the ancient books about the ritual?” Kwanghee asks Uee.

When Himchan and Yongguk arrived back with the boys, the boys were distraught spewing nonsense about how Sunggyu’s element was missing from his core and Sungyeol had this weird dream that led them to the cave.

Himchan and Uee confirmed the fact that Sunggyu’s element was indeed taken from his body when they performed a full body review.

Everyone was shocked because it made no sense.

The only thing they could do after that was wait for Sungyeol to explain to them what the dream was because it was the key factor in helping them solve this mystery.

After leaving Woohyun, Myungsoo, Dongwoo, Hoya, and Sungjong to get tended to for their psychological shock, Kwanghee then had asked Uee to look in the books quickly. He wanted to see if they could find anything more in the history books about the ritual because everything that had taken place after the ritual was suspicious. The only thing linking all of these things were the ritual sacrifices, the boys.

Uee sighs and shakes her head,

“Nothing so far but what we already know. Do you think young brother Sunggyu will be okay?” Uee shoots a quick glance to Yongguk who looks silently furious at the situation at hand.

He’s standing by the window to to look at where the white tents are. He was keeping an eye on the boys who were currently residing in there. He doesn't want them to go missing or have to suffer through this alone anymore.

Uee turns to look at everyone else,

“How are we going to move forward from here?” She continues, “How could taking someone’s element even possibly happen?”

Himchan sighs and crosses his arms trying to think of what to do. At this point, they need Sungyeol to tell them what he knows. Maybe that will help them piece the puzzle together and help them move forward from the rut they are in.

After the ritual, Sunhwa was the first to notice that the elders had started to move suspiciously. She tried earnestly to get the ancient elders to answer her questions but they threatened her to not seek for more. That just showed her that they definietly knew something that they didn't want everyone else to know. After a brief secret meeting with the other 39th generation elders, they have been observing the ancient elders silently.

Kwanghee even recruited someone from inside the ancient elder’s circle to give him more information, but they were still tight lipped. No one knew that the 39th generation elders were actually suspicious of the previous eleders, the ancient elders. Not even Sunggyu who was so frantic in finding out the answers to why Sungyeol was almost a permanent sacrifice.

“We should tell them what we know and work with them,” Siwan suggests and everyone turns to look at the man slightly surprised.

"Tell them the real story behind our ritual?" Yongguk speaks up and grunts when Siwan nods.

“What if they don’t take it well?” Himchan asks, "We haven't even had time to initiate our young brothers into their positions yet,"

Siwan shrugs.

“Then we’ll be there to help them if they don't take it well. When we all first found out about our dark history, we were fine, "Siwan says. His eyes meets Kwanghee and Sunhwa who quirks an eyebrow at the statement.

"Okay well our youngest lady didn't take it well but the rest of us did. We need to do something about this. This is unheard of,” Siwan concludes and Sunhwa nods her head.

“I agree with brother Siwan. We must work together to figure this mystery out and to save our young brother Sunggyu. We have to let them know eventually,” Sunhwa speaks as she looks around the room to see a consensus of agreement.

She waves over one of the grey uniformed boys with a black sash and asks him to gather the boys to the room. The boy then bows heeding the order and leaves the room.

------------------------------

At the care tent, Sungyeol and Sunggyu are still passed out. The Shiro clan grey uniform workers with a white sashhealed all external wounds that Sunggyu had but couldn’t do anything to trace his element. This had never happened before.

They also took a very brief psychological exam on all of the boys, they seemed to be okay. This is something that they’ve never encountered before but they are trained to deal with any situation.

Sungyeol stirs awake when he hears talking from his dream like state.

“Why is this happening to only us?”

Sungyeol shoots his eyes open hearing the weak voice and sits up in his bed abruptly. He feels his body tingle from regaining consciousness and turns to look at everyone’s backs sitting around Sunggyu’s bed. He slowly remembers the events that happened so quickly after he had woken fr