Everyone is frozen in their places.

Not uttering a single word or taking a single step.

Sungyeol’s body is laying face up, eyes shut. His body still.

Dongwoo takes a sharp breath in for a quick second and suddenly in the next second, Sungyeol’s eyes shoot open and he sits up quickly.

Myungsoo gasps in relief when he sees Sungyeol sit up, eyes wide in the warm familiar brown. He knows that it's Sungyeol in front of him now - on instinct he runs over to Sungyeol and hugs the boy tightly.

Sungyeol is shocked when he realizes that he’s sitting on the ground. Myungsoo is clinging onto him so tightly that he can barely breathe. He pats Myungsoo’s back trying to calm him. Myungsoo doesn’t let go but eases his grip.

Sungyeol can feel Myungsoo’s heart beat pounding against his chest and he can sense the worry emitting from Myungsoo’s frazzled embrace.

“What just happened?” Hoya asks again to the room. Uee falls weakly to her seat unsteady.

“The voice took over my body,” Sungyeol replies unusually calm. Everyone blankly stares at him waiting for more answers but they don't recieve it.

“What?” Woohyun frowns as he rubs his face, endlessly tired.

“It was the voice in my dream, the first sacrifice,” Sungyeol says as he tries to get up but Myungsoo is relentless and doesn’t let go.

The leaders exchange unsure looks to each other in the room now and then turn to look at Sungyeol once more.

“The first sacrifice of the ritual?” Sunhwa asks uneasy and Sungyeol nods in reply. She stares at him as she slowly sits down in her seat muddled.

“He asked me if it was okay to rely you all a message through me, and I said yes. I’m not sure how this works though,” Sungyeol informs calmly.

Himchan nods his head, arms crossed in front of his chest as he stands frowning trying to make sense of it. Yongguk grunts confused beside him.

“I mean, you were the first sacrifice for this ritual after all, so maybe that’s where your connection lies?” Siwan asks the room and the others don’t reply because they really didn’t know the answer to this pending question.

Myungsoo finally lets go of Sungyeol to look at Sungyeol’s face directly. He’s straddling Sungyeol and only leans away to cup Sungyeol’s face with his two hands while forgetting that he’s in a room with other people. He sighs inwardly as he makes sure that it's really Sungyeol in front of him and that the other man is okay.

Sungyeol looks at Myungsoo directly in the eyes and shows a small smile.

“This is not good,” Uee says. She’s rubbing her temples and sighs as well. Myungsoo and Sungyeol manage to get up, everyone in the room returns to sitting in their chairs unceremoniously.

“We need to know what’s going on,” Woohyun interjects, eyes focused on getting answers. Dongwoo nods adding in determination,

“What are you hiding from us? You need to let us know,”

Sunghwa looks at the eager boy’s eyes and taps her finger on the table.

“Kwanghee, please start us off,”

Kwanghee looks at each of the boys and shoots a quick glance to Yongguk, who gets up in reply and walks out of the room.

“Where is older brother Yongguk going?” Hoya asks as he turns his head to follow the sight of Yongguk leaving.

“He’ll be watching the door for us,” Sunhwa interjects and Hoya looks at Sunhwa questioningly perturbed.

“Uh, okay,” Hoya pauses shortly. Kwanghee leans back into his chair once Yongguk is out of the room and puts his hands together to rest on his lap.

“What I am about to tell you all must not leave this room. It is considered treason and goes against everything that we have worked so hard to build for our world,” Kwanghee starts and Sungjong shudders in his seat.

“I’m not liking where this is heading,” Sungjong whispers to himself and Myungsoo nods beside him. Kwanghee continues,

“Sunggyu was not the only one trying to find answers. We were also conducting our own private and very discrete investigate on the ancient elders,”

“What? But you guys seemed like you didn’t care,” Woohyun says remembering back to all the countless meetings they had about Sungyeol that all resulted in no answers because the leaders didn’t mention anything at all.

“We’re good at what we do,” Siwan states and nods for Kwanghee to continue,

“I have a contact that works alongside with the ancient elders and they informed me that Zelo was an omen to you boys. We didn’t expect the boy to kidnap Sunggyu though. The ancient elders were moving suspiciously and planning without consulting with Sunhwa. Aside from the kidnapping, we are almost certain that they might have been the ones giving Zelo the order and could have possibly been part of taking away Sunggyu’s core,”

Woohyun frowns angrily and slams his fist onto the table,

“If the ancient elders are corrupt, just overrule them! You all are the current leaders! Why is this happening to specifically us!?” Woohyun shouts.

Dongwoo looks at Woohyun and pats his arm to signal for him to calm down.

“If Sungyeol is right and this is all due to how our ritual is cursed, can someone explain why our ritual is cursed? Is it because of the elders?” Dongwoo asks and all the leaders in the room fall silent.

“The ritual is getting weak. There’s something wrong with the cuff-links that protect us during the ritual. When this happens, the ancient elders do something to fix it but its at a cost.” Sungyeol speaks trying to make sense of all of the information but he pauses and sighs continuing,

“I’m so confused. Dongwoo hyung is right. How does it even get weak in the first place? Why do we even need to keep fighting? There are other ways to elect new rulers into office,”  

Another silence falls in the room and Myungsoo speaks up for the first time,

“Why haven’t we ever met the ancient elders?”

Everyone turns to look at him surprised at the question. It’s true, they haven’t met the ancient elders at all.

“The reason you do not meet with them is because we are your mentors,” Siwan states continuing,

“And also the fact that they like to be kept in the shadows. Once the former generation initiates the next generation, it oversees that generation until that generation can sustain their own workload. After that, the former generation gets initiated to join the ancient elders. People just seem to fade into the background and work quietly with the ancient elders when that happens,” Siwan finishes and Dongwoo looks at Sunhwa concerned if she’ll leave them eventually.

The more Dongwoo thinks about it, the more he realizes that Sunhwa and the other 39th generation leaders never talk about their mentors anymore. They used to a lot when they started off ruling but it just gradually faded away. Will th